Poor baby

Be thankful you aren’t Lucas this week. Poor guy, not even eleven months old, is having a hell of a week. One week ago, last Tuesday, I brought him into a walk-in clinic because he had a fever and had been sleeping poorly. Diagnosed with an ear infection, and his first dose of amoxicillin.

Saturday night, he got the stomach flu I’d been dealing with since the day before. In one twenty minute span I had to change him into three separate sleepers, and change my own pyjamas twice. Good times.

This morning, the rash that had been on the back of his hips for a couple of days had spread to his entire body, looking alarmingly like measles. I figured it for a reaction to the amoxicillin, but we’d finished the full course of that on Sunday, so I called the ped to be sure. He called us in for an appointment, and said it’s possible that it’s a late reaction to the antibiotics (Beloved is deathly allergic to penicillin) but looked more like a viral rash to him. He also said Lucas has a lot of redness in his throat and some serious mucus building up, further supporting the viral theory. Here comes the head cold.

Sheesh, no wonder we haven’t been getting any sleep lately!

The good news is, the stomach flu made it to the fourth member of the family around midnight last night, so we’re four down with one to go on that count. And I feel like myself for the first time in five days. Here’s hoping for more restful nights ahead!

I promise, blogging of topics other than bodily fluids will resume shortly…

A post in need of an editor, if there ever was one

The problem with extended absences from the blog is all the posts I want to write that get tangled up in my head, so when I actually do get a couple of minutes to string together, I’m bloggily constipated. Too much to say, not sure where to begin!

It’s been a rough couple of days week, roughly surmized by Lucas’s first ear infection, followed by a 72-hour stomach virus on my part, which I politely shared in a milder version with Beloved and Lucas. Babies and stomach viruses are not a pretty pair, and that’s all I’ll say about that. And that baby of mine who slept through the night starting around (bless his little heart) around two months old is making up for it now, waking in the neighbourhood of six to eight times a night. Let’s just say that stomach viruses and sleep deprivation are another couple nobody wants to see together anymore.

Because I can’t get my mind to gel on any of the eight or nine other blog posts that I’ve been gestating between trips down the hall to sooth Lucas back to sleep, I’ll just take a minute to say this: where exactly did my baby go? It’s hard to believe it’s only been two weeks since school let out for Christmas break, because Lucas is simply not the same baby he was back then. He learned to crawl last month, and now cruises the furniture with ease. He’s got this bright-eyed awareness and curiousity about everything that’s nothing short of delicious. He’s relentless in the pursuit of what he wants, and adorable in his frustration when vexed. He wants nothing more than to get into whatever trouble his big brothers are in to, which is in equal measures charming and terrifying. And speaking of terrifying, he’d been crawling less than a month the first time he crawled all the way — with supervision, of course — to the very top of the stairs. Lord help us. He shows no interest whatsover in baby TV like Baby Einstein and the like, but loves to stand up and poke at the TV while the rest of the family plays Big Brain Academy on the Wii. And his very favourite thing right now is books, bless his little heart.

And even though Beloved is doing an admirable job of trying to distract him, in the time I’ve written this much I’ve had him climbing up my leg to “help” me blog at least three times, so I think it’s time to cut this short.

Just a quick second to squeeze in a couple of milestone acknowledgements, though. Happy 40th birthday to my dear friend Yvonne, the first of many of our crew who will hit this historic milestone this year. May the next 40 be twice as much fun!

And congratulations to Jojo and Jaimie, who welcomed their baby son Max into the world yesterday. I know Amelia would have preferred a girl for a sibling, but I can tell you from experience, Amelia, that brothers are truly a miracle. Kisses to all of you, to be redeemed in person when I’m sure I’m germ-free!

Finally, for family far away and anybody else who wants to peek, I put up some pictures from Christmas on Flickr.

2008: a meme of review

It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to do this end-of-year meme. It’s not as lovely in narrative flow as last year’s seemed to be, but then again, this was a kind of disjointed year, from a bloggy perspective. A lovely, full, hectic, but ultimately wonderful year. It’s hard to imagine that this time last year, we were still a family of four, waiting (im)patiently for the Player to be Named Later to make his big entrance. So, for the sake of tradition, here it is: the first line of the first post of every month in 2008.

  1. Those of you who know me well know I don’t usually bother with resolutions.
  2. Okay, I admit it: it’s been fun dragging y’all along on this crazy ride with us.
  3. The boys laughed uproariously when we watched a preview of Mr Bean’s Holiday at the theatre, so Beloved thought it would be a good Sunday-afternoon family movie to rent.
  4. Lucas and Tristan have had a lot in common.
  5. We’ve talked about circumcision and strollers, breast and bottle, slings and baby carriers.
  6. Sorry about the downtime.
  7. It was one of the hottest days I can remember, the steamy tropically oppressive kind of heat that reminds me of my childhood summers in Southern Ontario.
  8. It seems mildly ridiculous to me that I have three strollers and yet am shopping for another.
  9. You know how when you don’t have kids, and especially if you go through a period when you’re not sure that it will ever happen, you have these images in your head of what life with your kids will be like?
  10. Not a day goes by that I am not amazed by the simple fact of their love for each other.
  11. With Halloween barely put to bed (with a sore belly from all that candy, no doubt) we’ve nary the time for a breath of air before the season of Santa Claus parades is upon us.
  12. Uh oh. Cue REM’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it.”

Happy New Year to all of you who have taken a moment to read, to eavesdrop, and especially to contribute to the chatter around here. I wish all of you a new year filled with joy, laughter, and wishes fulfilled!

In which I got exactly what I wanted this Christmas – twice!

I’ve been trying to get to the computer to write this post for a few days, but we’re having a very social and very sleepless holiday over here. It’s an, um, interesting combination!

This Christmas, there were only a few things I asked for. One was one of those organizational calendars with separate spaces for the whole family. (Thanks, Mom!) One was the Twilight series of books by Stephanie Meyer. (Thanks, Beloved!) (Ahem, and yet another reason the blogging has been sporadic. Review pending, but damn, I’m seriously hooked!) And one was an inexpensive little point-and-shoot digital camera that I could comfortably tuck into my pocket or bag to carry around with me. You know I adore my Nikon D40, and it takes glorious photos. But it’s pretty bulky, and when my arms are often already juggling a baby and who knows what else, it’s sometimes a bit of a pain to lug around with me. Plus, I wanted something I could take to the beach or the park, or out in less than favourable weather, without having to worry about protecting it.

Anyway, colour me spoiled, I know, but I got exactly what I asked for. Beloved got me a lovely little Canon PowerShot A470, and he even got me a Canon photo printer in matching pink. Does he rock or what?

I loved it, it was perfect and exactly what I asked for, but yesterday I took it back to the store. How’s this for ironic? On Christmas Eve morning, at about 10:30, I checked my e-mail and found a note from Kate, of the blog My Name is Kate. (Great Canadian social media and marketing blog, if you haven’t been over there. One of my favourites!) Kate had been running a contest to win aFuji Finepix S2000HD, a fancy-assed high-end point-and-shoot with HD still and video capability. To enter the draw, she had commenters leave a note with their favourite Christmas song. She said for 10 chances to win, upload a video somewhere on the interwebs of you singing that song. Well, it seems unfair to subject anyone to me singing anything anywhere for any reason, so I decided to exploit my children instead, and uploaded this tiny clip of the three of them singing a bit of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I won!

Who would have guessed that winning a free, way-cool digital camera could make me feel so uncomfortable? I had an idea that Beloved had got the camera for me, as he can’t keep a secret to save his life (smooch) but he wouldn’t confirm or deny until I opened the box Christmas Eve. I waffled for a while, sentimentalist that I am, but in the end we decided to take back the Canon mostly because it doesn’t have the video capability that the Fuji does (and if you peek at the video I uploaded of the boys singing, you can see that my little flash camcorder doesn’t do much of a job on that, either.)

So I’ve got a quick question for y’all: do you have one of those dedicated photo printers, and do you find it’s worthwhile? Beloved and I are debating whether to keep or return the printer (it was part of a package with the Canon) and whether it’s more cost-effective to just print the photos at Loblaws for 20 cents each or if it’s still cheaper to do it at home, once you factor in the cost of paper and ink. And any thoughts on quality would also be appreciated!

CanadaHelps gift card winner!

Congratulations to Holly of Humpty Dumpty House, the big winner of the $25 gift certificate from CanadaHelps.org. Sometimes it pays to be number two!

(And this time, I double checked to make sure I had the right commenter. Twice!)

Thanks to CanadaHelps.org for sponsoring this contest, and thanks to all of you who shared comments of people who made a difference in your day, or in your life. Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to turn around someone’s day with a simple act of kindness?

Don’t even ask where I ran the cord from

The boys are engaged in an ongoing battle of one-upmanship. Whatever one can do, the other can do better.

A snippet of conversation from today:

Tristan: “Yeah, well, I know more Pokémon characters than you do!”

Simon: “No you don’t!”

Tristan: “Yes I do!”

**fast forward through six rounds of “No you don’t!”/”Yes I do!”**

Simon: “I’ve been watching Pokémon longer than you!”

Tristan: “No you haven’t. I’m older, I’ve been watching Pokémon longer than you!”

Simon: “No you haven’t. I’ve been watching Pokémon since I was in mommy’s belly!”

Beloved, after the laughter of grownups subsides: “Sheesh, you didn’t tell me you had cable in there. No wonder they were all so reluctant to come out!”

A gift to make the world a better place

I’ve got a couple of posts to share with you, neither of which is quite ready for public consumption. But I got an email last night about another great giveaway for me to share with you, and I wanted to post about it right away.

Let me tell you about CanadaHelps.org, a registered Canadian charity that helps other Canadian charities by acting as a portal website, fostering giving by making it easy for donors to find Canadian charities and make a donation online.

They are the first and only registered charity that makes giving to your favourite charities easy with secure tools for donating via credit card, gift card or even stocks and mutual funds. With CanadaHelps, it’s easy to find a cause you’re passionate about by searching the 83,000 Canadian charities. Here’s some information from their website:

For donors, CanadaHelps.org simplifies the donating process, making it easy, quick and secure. On any pages where you share personal information or perform financial transactions, CanadaHelps.org encrypts your data using Secure Socket Layers (SSL), allowing you to send and receive information without the worry of having it intercepted. Put simply, donors go online, select as many charities as they wish, make their donation and receive a tax receipt for each donation immediately.

For charities, CanadaHelps.org provides a cost effective alternative to setting up their own online donations facilities: there is no set up fee, no annual charges and charities receive immediate notification when a donation is received. Charities are only charged when a donation is actually made, thereby ensuring a charity is not paying for a service that is not being used.

Recognizing the benefits of online giving to both donors and charities, CanadaHelps launched its first website in 2000. Today, more than five years later, CanadaHelps facilitates over $10 million in donations to Canadian charities annually.

I wish I’d known about this before Christmas. This year, instead of teacher gifts we donated a backpack full of school supplies to a Canadian child in need in the name of each of the boys’ teachers through WorldVision. A gift card from CanadaHelps would have been another excellent way to share the gift of giving.

And now, thanks to CanadaHelps.org, I have a $25 charitable gift card to share with you. Leave me a comment telling me about a time someone made a difference in your life — big or small — and I’ll enter your name in a random draw for the $25 gift card. You’ll be able to use the gift card on the CanadaHelps.org site to make a donation to a Canadian charity of your choice. They were kind enough to offer a CanadaHelps gift card for me, too. Isn’t that great? They give to us, I give to you, and we each give to our favourite charities through CanadaHelps.org. Contest closes end of day on Monday, December 29. FYI, the deadline for making a donation that will be deductible on your 2008 income tax return is December 31 of this year. You can get more information about donations and tax deductions on the Canada Revenue Agency website.

Note: If you win, I’ll need your full name and e-mail address, which will be given to CanadaHelps.org solely for the purposes of sending you the gift card.

A Christmas Traditions Meme

I was stuck in traffic recently (please let this ridiculous transit strike end soon!) and this meme presented itself to me. Most of it was originally scribbled on the back of a coupon for dog food, braced on the steering wheel of the car while Lucas snoozed in the car seat behind me. Feel free to filch it for your own blog, or play along in the comment box!

There are so many ways to celebrate the season, and once a family gets locked into a certain set of traditions nothing can break the spell. How do you handle these ones in your family?

1. Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?

Since I was a kid, we opened all our presents on Christmas Eve. Santa brought one present and stuffed our stockings for Christmas morning, and even as grown children living away from home, my brother and I insisted on a Christmas morning Santa present!

2. Donner or Donder?

Ahem. As most of you know, I have a personal stake in this one. Let’s just say it was a proud moment this year when we watched Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer on CBS, and Simon spent the whole hour hollering “Donder!! Not Donner!!” at the TV whenever Donner was on screen.

3. Turkey or ham?

I was going to include goose in here, but does anybody really eat a Christmas goose anymore? I know, there are probably lots of people who have Christmas lasagnes and Christmas meatloaf and whatnot, but it seems to fall generally into ham and turkey camps. We are firmly turkey people. (**Waves and blow kisses to mother**)

4. Gifts opened all at once, or one at a time?

The first time I ever spent Christmas away from home with my ex’s family, I was openmouthed with wonder (and a hint of dismay) at the frenzy of gift opening. Everybody got their pile of presents, and everybody just tore in like a bunch of present-piranhas, wrap flying everywhere. I’m firmly in the camp of savouring the gifts one at a time and enjoying watching everyone open their gifts.

5. Christmas tree: live or artificial?

I’ve never had a live tree before, and I toyed with the idea this year. Beloved mocked me. I do love our artificial tree, though. It’s seven feet tall and still full and fresh looking even though it’s more than 15 years old. And it looks better and better each year as the handmade ornaments from the kids slowly replace the store-bought ones!

6. Cards: boxed cards, family photo cards, or e-cards?

I’m a fan of the boxed card. In a perfect world, I’d love to do handmade, but… yeah. One year, we put a fridge magnet made out of Tristan’s first Santa picture in every card, and I always wanted to do that again.

7. Christmas lights: incandescent or LED?

I’ve switched over to LED, but I’m not a huge fan. I think the incandescent have a brighter, warmer glow, but I’m doing my part to save the polar bears.

8. Re-gift or not?

Am a shameless re-gifter, but rarely have the opportunity… the people who give me gifts have impeccable taste, for the most part!

9. Gift wrap or gift bags?

I lean to gift wrap on this one, mostly because I think kids like tearing through paper more than they like lifting out tissue paper. The environmental aspect makes me cringe, but we do try to recycle it all.

10. Best Christmas song?

David Bowie and Bing Crosby’s Little Drummer Boy

11. Best Christmas movie?

A Christmas Story. I simply cannot believe I do not own this movie — I even have a “Fra-gee-lee” ornament on my tree!! — after years and years of dropping hints. It never goes on sale after Christmas, and I now refuse to pick it up for myself, so each year I have to comb the TV listings to make sure we catch it when it comes to broadcast cable. We don’t even have a PVR to record it. It’s one of the great travesties of the season, I tell you!

12. Favourite family tradition?

All of them. Traditions are the cathedral of life to a creature of habit like me!

Okay, your turn. Do play along!!

iTunes winner!

Hooray! We have a winner for the iTunes gift card!

Congratulations to the tenth commenter on the original post, Madeleine!!! (Bonus points for her 80s reference, and for the cost-saving tip that you can buy gift cards at Costco for less than their face value. I had no idea!!)

Thanks to iTunes Canada and their PR agency for the freebie, and special thanks to all of you for your music suggestions. I’ll spend far more than the value of my own gift card loading my iPod with cool new tunes!

Edited to add: because I am so pathetic that I could not properly count to 10, I have decided to give away both gift cards, one to Madeleine, who was in fact #9, and one to Andrea. Oops!