Whirlwinds, raindrops and spooky kids.

It's Hallowe'en. The end of October. That means tomorrow is November. And then 30 days until December. Are you kidding me?! Where the heck has the time gone, because as far as I know I was just pregnant a few weeks ago.

Not having any of this having a 3 month old and a 2 year old crap. It's first thing in the morning and I'm listening to R2D2 reading his homereading that he needed to finish up and with his words and the occasional stumble, Tink is playing with some little talking toy that I had picked up for R2D2 years and years ago. I find it amazing how well children read. Or it could just be him. He's got a knack for the written word so it makes me wonder what's going to come from him the older he gets.

Is he going to be academically inclined and surpassing me in any hopes of trying to be smarter than my children? Is he going to be artistic and follow the path of music that he's already dabbling his toes into? He's been in piano now for the last 2 years and I couldn't be more proud of my little man. He's really shown a knack for those black and ivory keys. Where I used to be able to read sheet music, I only remember things because of some little school rhyme I was taught way back when in possibly the 3rd grade.

E-G-B-D-F are the names of the lines of the Treble clef. F-A-C-E the spaces are easy!
But for right now, he's going to be a PowerRanger.

It's raining today. I hope it stops in time for the little ghouls and goblins that get to come out and play this evening. I love Hallowe'en. I wish, in some small way, we decorated the house for holidays. But let's be realistic.

I hate cleaning.

I hate it.

I hate it so much sometimes (okay, all the time) I wish it would just piss off. Yet here I am, day after day, slogging away. I'm a slave to the housework. Sometimes. I could do better I suppose. Husby put me to shame the other day and it kind of made me feel really bad. There he was doing all the things that I should have been doing, yet I was pinned down by a constantly nursing/feeding infant. It's exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting...I need to whip this house into shape. Badly. And I have 3 days to do it. I have 3 days to get all the laundry completely done (washed, dried, folded and put away), all the bedding washed, kitchen, living room... floors... bathrooms done. Not to mention packing.

Packing? Why do you ask? Husby called the Peds office yesterday like we were told to do. She said she would call us back when she talked to the Ped. A couple hours later and she calls me to inform me that she's pretty sure we're going down to Vancouver for our Neuro consult for 2:30. November 5th.

As in next freaking week. So we planned to leave first thing Tuesday morning.

And then Genetics called and we talked for a few minutes about when we were going to be down there and so she would call me back in hopes she could get us in to see their team around the same time.

We had the choice of the day before or the same day, pretty much at the exact same time as our Neuro appointment ended. So we chose to have our Genetics consult on Tuesday. So goodbye leaving Tuesday morning and hello leaving Monday. First. Freaking. Thing. A rush of so many things to do in really not that long of a time to do it.

After waiting for so long the start of it all happens next week. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I am so thankful that my mum will come in and watch the kids so that we don't have to bring them with us. It's a weight off my shoulders knowing that we can focus solely on what the doctors have to say and not needing to worry about what the other two kids are doing.

However. This will be the farthest away we have ever been without Tink. Both parents gone for possibly up to a week? Oh man. Gives me a small sense of panic to leave her. I just can't stand the thought of it.

Quick Tink Update. She's now making pig, horse, cat, dog and cow sounds. She says thank-you, say thank-you, hi and now she says woooooooooooooooow. She knows where her nose is and her tummy. Not much but hey, we're getting there! I swear she's only quiet because if she were to start talking, she'd give away all kinds of devious plots she's dreaming up. Or the plans of toddler terror she makes up on the fly. Let me tell you. Tink is all kinds of trouble.

Quick Dinky Update: Last night there was pretty good progress in regards to tummy time! After a good feed I swaddled him and laid him up on my shoulder to burp. Not only did he do so, he also lifted his head up for close to 10 seconds a few times to look around. He also was grabbing his blanket and rubbing it up against his face...rubbing his eyes. I held my hand out for him and he grabbed onto my finger and kept trying to suck on it but always managed to get his own fist in his mouth. Fine by me! Progress there as well!

Both of our laptops are out of commission. I'm going to have to update via my cellphone. But I WILL update while we are down there.

Twonagers, pirates and pumpkin guts... Oh my.

We are now proud owners of a twonager. ...can I even call myself the owner of my own child? Is that even politically correct? Do I even care? I am the owner of a twonager. A phrase I saw a fellow mum friend use when her daughter turned two. On the exact same day that Tink did! Go figure. We met on an online birth group for October 2012. And that group morphed into one. And then things happened and it morphed into a different one...and then an even different one after that. Why?

Even online, we women are still a handful when we chose to be. Which seems to be quite often if I am going to be perfectly honest. Things happened and I am no longer part of those groups. As sad as it is I don't find myself feeling the need to actually be there and partake in everything. Nor do I feel the need to justify actions, I as an adult, partake in if it's not rightfully hurting anyone. But that being said I have built wonderful, amazing, loving friendships with a few women from that group (and all the various spinoffs that came from it).

And in particular, I found myself really jiving with a fellow mum that has almost the same parenting style as me (...and that style is totally awesome with a bit of new-age old-school flybytheseatofmypants). Insert a zillion awesome and amazingly fantastic things about this lady that I cannot possibly rave enough about here. But I remember one day looking around on Etsy (curse you, you soul-sucking website full of amazing things I want!) and I found these amazing pirate pictures for Dinky's room. So I showed her the link (and let's face it, I show her a lot of links!) and she said she'd paint them.

Seriously.

She'd paint them. For Dinky.

And she did! And they're AMAZING!!!!! I honestly don't know what I'd do without her sometimes. She's always there when I need to vent, rant or just share things with. Friendship to the max!

Tink had a pretty awesome birthday party. Even though it was just both sets of grandparents here! She's two. How'd that happen?! Though now that she went a year older her energy level seems to have gone through the roof even more. Busy to the maaaaaax! R2D2 had his first Parent-Teacher-Interview today. He's excelling academically but still has some work to do with the whole can't touch other peoples things and keep still ... listen .... focu --- squirrel!

Dinky has hit a milestone this week. Two actually! First is... He graduated into size 1 diapers! And the second is... DOUBLE digits! He's now up to a whopping 10 pounds!

Took him to see the pedi today. Back to calling his office to see what's going on. Ugh. Things I really don't want to do. Honestly. It's been a month since the paperwork was sent away. A month. And still nothing.

Hopefully we get some kind of news tomorrow.

But until then, I shall laugh over the whole carving of pumpkins that happened tonight. R2D2 was pretty much in tears and gagging. Needless to say...

Next year he's painting a squash!!!


 

Tragedy and kitchens.

Today. Today. Wednesday. Today. I'm still in a state of disbelief as to what happened this morning in Ottawa. You always see it happening to other countries but never think it can or will happen to you. What a shock to listen to and watch the events unfold from the shooting this morning. I feel so sad that we as a nation have to deal with this. Yet together we stand, united and strong. We are Canadian Strong.

Tinks birthday is a mere 2 days away. I've got her modeling chocolate made up, as well as the raspberry filling (still have to do the vanilla) and Smarties sorted out by colour into cups. Tomorrow is cake baking and Friday shall be the day I assemble -- and possibly even the day of the party. Who knows as Husby is away from home for a few days thanks to work so I'm trying to juggle everything so that he will be home for her party this year. Last year he missed it. It was sad that he missed her first birthday.


So long as I have all the components ready putting together the cake won't be a problem. Shouldn't take very long at all. Edit: I've tried working with this modeling chocolate. It's so sticky and dry. I've tried kneading it and rolling it out in hopes it will come together. I've added in some more corn syrup. Just a bit and that seems to have maybe done the trick. It's sitting in the fridge right now chilling so that I can work it some more once the bigger kids are in bed. Pretty sure Dinky is going to stay up and keep me company as per normal. If this stuff doesn't work I'm going to be pissed. I don't have anymore white chocolate chips. Ugh.


R2D2 came home together with his school photos. They look fantastic! I'm so happy we decided to go with magnets this year and not the standard photos. I shall put them into Christmas cards (I should probably get started on those so that I can actually send them out this year), as well as a school photo from last year. What can I say. Last year was busy..

Dinky had his weight check yesterday!

9 lbs 10.8 oz!
He's getting so big! I cannot believe that he will be 3 months old on Friday. There is exactly 21 months between Tink and Dinky. It's kind of funny. R2D2 is on the 22nd. Husby and I are on the 23rd. Tink and Dinky are on the 24th. Would have been nice if Dinky was born on the 21st or the 25th just to keep things going in a nice pattern, but hey. I guess we can't have everything we want.


I'm excited for bed time. It's been a long day. Still no word on when we're going to Children's. I've given up worrying about it. We'll get the call when we get it. I can no longer allow that to dominate everything.

Yesterday I was asked by someone if I was "having depression" with everything that's been going on. It's funny because I'm not. I'm not at all depressed by anything that has happened in the last 3 months. Sometimes I'm sad we don't know what's going on with and then I realize I'm never given any more than I can handle and that's that. It is what it is and there's nothing I can do about it. Worrying over what-ifs and could-bes is not going to do anything but get me worried sick. So. That's that!

Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust...with a lot of Pumpkin cupcakes.

We are working on the second week since we saw our ped, and still no paperwork. I don't know what to think or feel about that. I feel thisgiant daunting task hanging over my head with no instructions as to how to dismantle said bundle of doom. Well, not doom really I'm just antsy as to what's happening and when. Edit: Called Peds office again. She said she will call me back with what the wait list is like and all that. Told me that she doesn't send out paperwork until we get confirmation of dates. Which isn't what she said 2 weeks ago. Hopefully I hear something soon. I'm getting flustered with this.  

Dinky's assessment went well yesterday. It took much longer than I had anticipated, so now referrals for PT have been sent as well as OT to see if there's anything we can do in regards to the leaking he does after a feed every so often.

It's getting colder. I love fall. I love winter even more so it's nice knowing that it's just around the corner. There's nothing better than watching the falling snow as it blankets everything in a pristine white. Not to mention all of the baking. The fattening foods. The family. The food. Ohh the food. I love food, which explains why I still have bits that jiggle.

Bits...?!

More like the whole everything jiggles. The only thing that doesn't jiggle would be the skin on my hands and feet. Sad. A sad, sad day. But then again I shall be 30 next year. And I've had 3 kids. I have to accept the fact that there's going to be a bit of jiggle.

Tink turns 2 in 8 days. Now's that even happen? It just dawned on me this morning that her birthday is just over a week away. Not fair at all. I need to get things planned out for that. I also need to figure out the cake idea and what we're going to be serving for food at her party. Not that there's really that much of a party happening. My parents. Husby's parents and then us. That's it. So really, it's nothing that will be over the top in any way.

I need to settle on a cake idea. Such a hassle. But worth it. I love cake. T'is the season for baking and I love it. Bring on more jiggling bits! There's always next year to work on things. No more Jell-O belly. Next year that is.

I have a mountain of laundry to fold. Someone help me now...

Cupcake wars and Sugar scones

The long weekend. I love and loathe long weekends. While it gives us more time with R2D2 it also tends to bring in a lot of melt downs because R2D2 and Tink get each other so riled up that Tink sometimes just explodes because she wants to do exactly everything that her big brother is doing.

Little Miss Independent. She's such a treat (sometimes not the good kind!). Like right now, she's having a fit because I won't let her drink my coffee and finish off my sweet scone. A good thing. 2 year olds don't need any help in the energizing department. Ever.

I decided to make sweet scones yesterday (the second time in a week, what can I say, they don't last long!) and now I'm regretting not making a double batch. There's only one left. Out of 18. Between 4 people. There's a problem, and that problem is, they're so good! These little treats are simple to make and well worth the 20(ish) minutes they take to bake. Eat them hot. Eat them cold. With butter or with jam. Any way you eat them...it's like a happy little party in the mouth.

I've started watching Cupcake Wars on Netflix. What a bad idea for someone that loves baking but hardly has the time for anything more complex then a quick batch of cookies. I miss baking. I miss baking so much that I've decided I'm making pumpkin cupcakes with a cinnamon cream cheese butter cream. With a dusting of graham crumbs (tribute to the graham crust) and a chocolate fan. Why the chocolate? Because I said so. And I hate pumpkin so there has to be something I like on these cupcakes. Thank you cupcake wars. You're a horrible, terrible show.

Still no paperwork. I'm getting flustered with this.

It's all a hurry up and wait kind of thing. The very thing I'm not good at.

The many adventures of hurry up and wait and a giant (well to me) milestone

Something I'm not all that good at. Hurry up and wait. Hurry up and do all this stuff, make appointments, go to appointments and get told to wait for paperwork to start the journey down to Children's hospital. Yet a week later and still none of the promised paperwork.

So call said office and talk to receptionist. Who's pretty sure all the paperwork has been done but she needs to check Dinky's file and if there's a problem she will call me. Talk about a royal headache. I just want the damn paperwork that will give us any kind of information in regards to what the next damn step is in order to get Dinky down to Children's.

I'm not good with waiting. I never have been. Not that I want instant gratification either but, when I'm expecting something it would be nice to know that it's in the process of coming to me and will be here sometime before the end of the year. Even an estimated arrival date of paperwork would be nice! I do so much online shopping that I'm constantly needing to track orders to see what is where and write down the Estimated delivery day so I know when to expect something.

How hard is that with this bloody paperwork?! I don't understand why it's so hard. I'd just go get it myself, except you know, I don't drive. And the peds office is the next town over. I just want this blasted paperwork! Why is that so hard. It shouldn't be.

So, a recap. STILL no sign of that much needed paperwork. Personally I think that's totally unacceptable. But hey, what do I know. I'm just the parent of the child that needs to get some testing done to see if they can find the root cause as to why Dinky is so hypotonic.

Now for the milestones.

We brought Dinky in for his weekly weight check yesterday at our health clinic. Something that's been going on for the last 10 weeks (and will be happening every week until we feel like stopping I suppose). And he FINALLY over 9 pounds! In fact Dinky is now...

9 lbs 2 oz!

GIANT victory in my books! It's really only a 4oz weight gain since last week but we are now out of the 8s and into the 9s! When our public health nurse told us that, she was so excited! "Holy! Are you ready for this?! NINE pounds TWO ounces!" Seriously. I almost busted out in a dorky as heck touchdown dance.

I did. Mentally. I broke down and busted a white girl groove. In my head. Nobody needs to see that. Ugh, what a relief. Dinky is on his own little curve in life. And it drives everyone nuts that he's not gaining x-amount of weight to be in the higher percentile on their nifty little charts. But guess what. He's growing. At his own pace. At his own rate. At whatever per ounces weekly that he wants to. I am content with that.

Pulled back his carseat cover yesterday to adjust him a bit and the size difference between this week and 10 weeks ago is HUGE! I should pull out his hospital slip that was in his bassinet and check to see what his birth stats were. Just so I know exactly how much he's grown.

Also, I've been sitting him up a lot more and not bracing his head nearly so much. I've still got my fingers there to catch and rapid snap forward or backwards, but my fingers aren't right there to catch him. He's slowly starting to get more head control! Another victory in my books!

Keep plodding along Dinky. Slow and steady wins the race!

Tink is turning 2 in a few weeks. in fact she turns 2 in 2 weeks and 1 day. We are going to have a 2 year old. Time has done nothing but zip by so fast.

R2D2 has finally accepted that mum means business. And that if he wants to do fun things he needs to do his chores first. Poor kid. On a brighter note, he's excelling in reading. To be honest, I expected nothing less from him. He's such a smart boy! He's also excelling in math. He loves math. I don't understand why. Math, in my opinion, is the devil. The only math I need to know is the math for recipes. The end. His piano is coming along very, very well. I enjoy listening to him practice.

When I'm not telling him 50000 times to actually focus and do his lessons. Though he has songs this week he enjoys so that helps!

Fall days and butterscotch ripples

A rainy gloomy day out today. Yet it was still pretty fantastic. R2D2 hardly got into any kind of trouble today. Bonus! He also managed to keep his shower under 10 minutes! Victory! Managed to be slightly productive around the house.

Not much but a bit at least.

Tink didn't have a nap. Which was fine, until dinner. And then her evil twin comes out. We shall call that one the evil one. She growls, throws tantrums, runs around and just is a whole barrel of ha-has.

BUT.

Dinky has had a great day! Lots of head lifting when he's on my chest and smiles! Ooooh boy the smiles I got out of him today! And the little coos!

It's been a good day all around. Tomorrow though, I need to catch up on the rest of the housework.

Not much of a blog post. My brain is tired.

On the downside, butterscotch ripple ice cream does NOT go well with chocolate sauce.

And so it begins.

Waiting. I hate waiting. I hate waiting. It has to literally be the most boring thing out there to do. Besides folding socks. Because that sucks as well. But nothing sucks so much as waiting. Wait, wait, wait. Hurry up and wait.

Called Dinky's peds office like I was supposed to this morning and I could hear said ped in the background yelling at someone on the phone. HIs receptionist is amazing and she told me that Dr. M is having one hell of a time trying to get a hold of anyone in regards to getting Dinky down to Childrens and start getting a clue as to why he's hypotonic.

So I was told to watch the mail this weekend or early next week, depending on when someone gets back to Dr. M. We'll have all the information needed on the paperwork she's going to be sending for us. Fingers crossed that it gives us a clue as to what's happening and when!

Waiting, waiting, waiting. Hurry up mail. Deliver to us the paperwork that will tell us what to do.

Before Christmas would be amazing. So that we could finish the Christmas shopping we need to do while we are down South. Not that there's much left to do. I've been the good wife and have a bunch of stuff bought and paid for already. Gifts are starting to make a nice pile in Dinky's closet. The best thing about early shopping is I have the time to sit back and look around for deals. What will give me the best deal where?

So far, I think the tally is just shy of $450. That includes Tink's birthday gifts, Christmas gifts for R2D2, Dinky and Tink, husby, my mum and his parents. Let me tell you. There's a lot of stuff floating around the house for that money. Okay, maybe not floating around the house because I don't have all of it yet, but lots of it is in various stages of shipped. Next up on the list is stocking stuffers. Thank yoooooooooooooou dollar stores for providing us with the best place to find neat things for a decent price!

And with that I should probably think about possibly getting ready to get serious about tidying up the house. After a cup of coffee that is.

Snot and a limp noodle.

Teething. Why does is have to go hand in hand with snot? And sickness? Tink is working on some tooth that just doesn't want to come through. Thus a giant snot bucket. And misery. She's nothing but a grump filled, snarly-highpitchedwailing-tantrumthrowing brat. She's also approaching the terrible twos. What a joyful time.

Snot. Buckets and buckets of snot. It's like I'm just a walking Kleenex for her. It's like she seems me and thinks: Hi mommy, let me give you a hug.... slime trail on my pants. Or my neck. Or my arm. Or my mouth. Why, why, WHY is it they want to give you the most kisses when there is slime smeared all over their faces? Gross!! I'm a homing pigeon for snot.

And the really sad thing is? I wouldn't change it. I love my children. The giant monster mess makers, tantrum throwing, whining, screaming, crying, pouting, But Whhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyy? asking, chore fighting beasts that they are. I love them to itty bitty bits and back. Even the snot. I have to love that as well I suppose.

It was also picture day today for R2D2. He's in second grade. How that happened is beyond me. But last night he informed me that it was in fact picture day (thanks, but I spent ages agonizing over whether or not to get his name and grade printed on his pictures), and that he didn't want to wear a nice shirt. He wanted to wear his zombie shirt. Because he's in second grade and he can make these kinds of important decisions himself. I have to give it to the kid, he's got his own logic to him. But in the end, this momma won. And he did in fact wear a nice(er) shirt.

Our peds appointment went as I sort of expected. We have growth in head and body as well as a good increaseof weight in the last 5 days since we've done a check. Tomorrow we get the ball rolling to get him down to Childrens to start figuring out why he's such a limp noodle. Our peds words, not mine.

Dinky is, for now, hypotonic. Why? We don't know. And what does that mean? We don't know. So what's being done about it? ...that's what we're working on. Finding out tomorrow what's happening and when. Hopefully everything will happen sooner rather than later. But for now there's hot coffee in my cup and no time to worry about what-ifs.

We'll save that for the awake in the middle of the night can't sleep mind racing worst case scenario moments that happen.

But for right now? I'm going to celebrate the fact that Dinky lifted his head off his mat today during tummy time. And the fact he's reaching for things with open hands. And he's starting to smile more. It's the little things in life now that are the hugest moments.