Parenting Without a License

Happy Halloween

The kids are still trick or treating with Doug and I'm killing time between doorbell rings, so I thought "d upload some photos from tonight. It is freakishly warm out for these parts. It is 15 at 7:30 at night (60 for my US buddies). Considering in the past few years we've had about a foot of snow and as low as -20 on Halloween, this is so nice. We didn't even put jackets under their costumes, which is unheard of.

Tess is still easy to dress up -- a pink poodle costme and she's happy as a clam. Sam still has unusual requests. Like last year's volcano, he likes to be, well, Sam. He asked to be his favourite galaxy, M101, but I vetoed that. Instead he went as the solar system.  He insisted on adding in the dwarf planets and making the stars actual constellations -- so I gave him that. It was a simple enough costume to make -- a cheapo sweatsuit, some styrofoam, glow in the dark puffy paint and glue and we were done. But I still think it turned out pretty cool.

He was apparently a big hit at school, but all the trick or treaters are fans of his Pikachu pumpkin. I couldn't find any stencils for this online so I printed out a colouring page and dres it bigger. I am feeling crafty today, folks.

 

p.s. Tess is still a mega sleeper and I haven't made a drs. apt. yet. I just think in my heart of hearts that she is fine. She is happy, healthy and a bundle of energy when she's awake. We've decided to see what the time shift this weekend brings, and revisit the issue next week. 

How much is too much?

Tess was a terrific sleeper from day one. She slept a good 8 hours between night nursings by two months of age, and she slept 15 hours a night (she woke for a nursing around 6 every morning and instantly crashed for anoth four or five hours) when she was three months old. Plus naps! It was weird. She always seemed to be sleeping, and she was one of those babies who fell asleep on her own. A mythical creature in the sleep department let me tell you.

But by the time she was around 15 or 16 months she got in the pattern of sleeping 11-12 hours a night plus a one hour nap. And she's been like that ever since. And I'd say it was more like 11 hours of sleep a night.

Until 6 weeks ago.

Now? She sleeps basically all we will let her sleep. She sleeps 13 hours a night (And we wake her after 13 hours) and naps two hours a day (again, I wake her after two hours). No real troubles getting her to sleep at night and she begs for her nap every day.

At first I thought -- growth spurt? But 6 weeks? She's still happy and spry (when she's not being a PITA three year old) -- she still eats and drinks normally. Would you worry?  Doug is thoroughly freaked out about it, but I am not so much because she seems normal otherwise.

My cousin told me to enjoy the peace while it lasts:) But I wouldn't be, well, me if I didn't worry at least a bit!

 

 

The Babysitter Dilemma

First of all -- Happy Thanksgiving (a day late) to all of my Canadian friends. I am STILL stuffed and I had my feast 20 hours ago. Seriously. We were all a bit sad as my parents were supposed to come out and my mom got hit with another bout of pneumonia (she's doing well now) -- but it was disapointing that they couldn't come. But one of my dearest friends and her family came and we only have a zillion tonnes of leftovers now.

Second of all -- Election Day!  Again my Canadian friends -- please vote. Our election is, in my opinion, not necessary and nowhere near as interesting as that of our neighbours to the South (although it's also nowhere near as annoying), and all we are likely to get is the status quo -- but still, I encourage you all to have your say.

And finally, I completely forgot to ask a question my friend asked my to pose on my blog. She has a two year old and a 6 month old. She has lots of family in town so she has always had family for babysitters. But her family is beginning to balk so she's wondering -- when did you start hiring babyitters? And how did you find them?

Now I imagine this is different in the U.S. again since you have to go back to work so quickly, and so for working parents outside care is necessary at an early age. Here we have the year of mat leave, so odds are you don't need daytime care when they are babies. I had to go back and read my blog to figure out when we hired our first outside babysitters!  For Sam, he was 9 months old and Tess was 8 months old. But we only had sittters for Tess twice until she was over a year -- I am not sure why, but that's what happened.  We have no family whatsoever in town, but when Sam was little my dad was still flying and anytime he had a layover we'd use him for babysitting duty!

With Sam we hired a 19 year old -- thinking older is better. But after 6 years of experience hiring sitter I would say that 14 year olds are my absolute favorite age. Sure it depends on the kid -- but that age works so well for me. They are thrilled to have responsibility, they are able to be responsible, and they still aren't too cool to play. Any younger and I worry about decision making capabilities and any older and all they want are boys and part time jobs. Again, it depends on the kid, but that's been my experience.

We have had a few sitters -- the ones in the past were recommended by friends. The ones we've had the past year or so are twins who live right across the street!! And they were so, so, so good. But they just both got part time jobs (they are now 15) so I can't seem to get them anymore. So off to find a new sitter -- gah!

I also wanted to ask a question -- what do you pay a sitter? I pay $8 an hour, and a $20 minimum. Nobody's ever complained, but is that still the going rate (for a 15 year old).

Cough and cold season...

I came upon this this story in my morning reading and I wanted to get your thoughts. Go ahead, read and please come back...

OK done?

Now -- when Sam was a baby/toddler he had non-stop ear infections. When Tess was a toddler she started to get a couple of ear infections and the ped told us that a lot of people in his profession recommend using a peds decongestant at the first sign of a cold, to keep fluid from gathering in the ears and causing ear infections in kids who are prone to them. We decided to give it a go and she's never had an ear infection since. And she's had a zillion colds. More like a gazillion.

Now, we never go off-label. I never mix drugs. So I wonder if these peds and drug companies are practicing cover-your-ass-medicine or are they truly questioning efficacy in cold medications in kids? Because I can tell you that they work in my kids.

I can get the cough thing. Sam's never had a cough to speak of but Tess gets them. I've only ever given her cough meds at night if it's keeping her up as I subscribe to the "you should get that gunk out of you" camp rather than the supression camp. But it's different at night when they can't sleep. But I honestly can't say if it's the cough medication or the sedating effect that allows her to sleep. But again -- we've never gone off the directions and never mixed, and never had a problem.

I can't take any cold meds -- I get that racy heart and nauseous thing going on. When I get a bad cold (which almost never happens) I would KILL to take something to make me feel better. Sorry -- hot tea just so does not cut it. So I am not against using drugs. But if they don't even work, what's the point?

What are your thoughts on this subject?