Parenting Without a License

Looking for some sappy

I have been on a reading binge lately. I get like this -- especially when Doug is working a lot. I am far from a TV snob -- but there is little on TV I like for whatever reason (although Project Runway Canada starts again tonight -- yay!).  So I read. And I read really fast. Since Christmas I have read nine novels.  

It seems like I go for a particular genre at a time. I think I've mentioned that I am a paperback, pulp fiction fan. I immediately gravitate to the best sellers section of the bookstore. And it seems like everything I've read lately have been in the mystery/thriller/action genres. Lots of dark covers, lots of intrigue. I did read one Nora Roberts in there -- but it was about demons so even it wasn't exactly sweet.

I am in the mood for something romantic and sappy. But not heaving busom and throbbing manhood kind of romantic. Something lovely dovey. A Jane Austen for 2009. Has anyone read anything like this recently, and if so -- could you make a suggestion? 

Time will tell

I celebrated another birthday this week. It was a low key event as Doug has been working like a madman and was only able to slip away from the office to grab a quick dinner. It was one of my great friend's 40th the previous weekend and so a whole gaggle of us travelled into the big city and went to the spa, out for dinner and dancing and stayed at a nice hotel -- that was the real celebrating!

I went to send my mom a pic of me and the kids and I accidently picked up the previous year's photo. And I realized I have basically the same photo taken since Sam was one -- when we first got a digital camera. Kind of funny to look back at. I look at the pictures and, once I get over the "wow how they've grown" moment, the pathetic thing is that the first thing I notice is my weight, then my hair, and then the fact that I we have lived in five houses during this time and that have issues closing my curtains correctly. So I thought I'd share. Please note that the post mullet-izing hair is growing out -- I no longer look like an 80s throwback. But man it was long last year!  Plus -- I figured out how to use a flat iron -- makes styling WAY easier!

   

 

  

p.s. Tess's tooth is a very light grey -- but it doesn't seem to be hurting her anymore and it isn't getting any darker. If you zoom in really tightly on the top photo you can see it and the broken tooth to the right. But you hardly notice it so I REALLY hope it stays that way! We'll find out on the 12th if she can keep the tooth.

p.p.s Apparently concrete and my family do not get along this week. First Sam, then Tess and now my mom. The folks are in Florida for a few months and my mom was heading up a ramp in her power wheelchair and went off on an angle at full power. She ended up up tipping over backward and being powerless to do anything other than hit the conrete full on with the back of her head. She split it open and had to havemany staples to close it up -- but a CT showed no other damage thank God!  My mom is the least klutzy person in my whole family -- I barely remember her with a bandaid, so seriously, I am staying away from concrete! 

p.p.s Someone mentioned a GI for Sam -- we got a referral -- and an apt. for nine months from now!  You gotta love our health care system. BUt he does seem to be doing much, much better this week.

The gap

We haven't had good luck at skating arenas this past week. We've had not one, but two incidents. Last Friday Doug took Sam to a hockey game. Sam was very generously given tickets by one of his teachers as a reward for doing so well with his obsessiveness/perfectionism at school. We had come up with a serious of exercises/stickers etc. to get him to just chill out and he's done better than I could ever expect. 

Anyway -- he enjoyed the game tremendously. During the second intermission, however, they went to get hot dogs and when they were descending the concrete stairs to their seats, somehow Sam went ass over teakettle down the whole row of concrete steps. Minor damage though -- lots of bruises from his should to his knees -- but he ddn't cut anything.

Then yesterday Tess was with me watching Sam's skating lessons at the local arena. A bunch of kids were running around on the ground level while the parents watched from the bleachers. They weren't running on the stairs -- they were on the main level. Well, sure enough Tess tripped and fell into one of the concrete steps, with her mouth open. I scooped her up and brought her to the bathroom and we cleaned up the blood and I saw she had a cut in her gum. I didn't think too much of it because I am embarrassed to say how many bloody lips/gums this child has managed to get. But once she had calmed down we went back to watch Sam and I could tell not all was right. Every now and again she would let out this high pitch wail -- very un-Tess like. She wouldn't talk by closing her mouth at all.

As we were leaving I looked and saw her mouth was still bleeding and the tooth next to her front toothe was badly chipped -- it looked like a shard. So on the way home we stopped into the dentist (it was on the way) and they were still open and got us in. It turns out she did break the root on her front tooth. So what does this mean? Well, it'll likely turn grey, black or yellow. That's the best case. We go back for more x-rays in two weeks and if it is decaying at the root she'll have to have it yanked. If the shard tooth is cutting her tongue, we'll have to file it or yank it.

Plus it really hurts -- she cut the whole gumline around the tooth. Everything that touches it sends her into tears. The dentist said it will be like that for a few days. I feel badly for her. She has a beautiful smile -- it lights up her face. She has these huge font teeth that, while they will likely be an orthondontic nightmare in a few years, they looks so pretty now. She woke up this morning and one is already turning black.  I know it's superficial, but I hate that!  But it's better than a missing tooth. So I am willing that tooth to stay in place. We have a 50-50 chance.

p.s. Sam update -- he's..... better. He's still not all better but he hasn't thrown up in 10 days. But he's still a bit spacy (even for Sam) and his appetite isn't back at all. He also complains of a stomach ache many times when eating, but it stays down. Although he turns white as a sheet everytime he gets full. I am hoping he's well on the road to recovery, but we're still keeping a food journal just in case. No red flags yet. Oh and I asked about tonsils -- the Dr. said he would snore if they were a problem and Sam sleeps so quietly that you can't even hear him breathe. So we'll just hope that he had a weird bug that is slowly making its way out of his sytem.

Everything old is new again

When I was a kid I used to spend a week or two in the summers visiting with my aunt and uncle in Cape Breton. I used to love those visits. It was really the only time I saw those cousins -- and we always had fun. They had a pool in their backyard which was the coolest thing ever in my youth. And my aunt and uncle were WAY more permissive than my parents. We stayed up late, we ate potato chips and junk food whenever we wanted and my uncle even pierced my ears (he's a doctor). This was a huge issue for me as I was only 10 and my mom said I had to wait until I was 13. He told me he asked my mom when he never did -- ooh my mom was mad. So, folks, as you can see sibling rivalry continues into adulthood!

One of the things my aunt would do each year was take me to the salon for French Braids. My mom didn't know how and I think my aunt liked the fact that they would put them in and she'd leave them in for several days. The other day when Tess was getting her hair trimmed I aske dthem to do French braids. Although I can do a single French braid in my own hair I haven't the foggiest how to transfer that onto another person, and the double braiding skill has always remained elusive (hell I can't get Tess's hair into a ponytail -- I am a useless stylist).

She looked so cute!  Here's a pic I took at the salon with my camera:

 

Of course I also fogot that when you take out your braids -- your hair goes CRAZY!  Tess didn't want to wash her hair ever again. The girl loved her "curls."

 

The Sam Update

So here's the scoop on Sam's little health issue.  Basically he had a cold in December, as did Doug and Tess. No big deal -- just a cold. But by the 17th it had progressed into a bacterial thing -- all three of them were on antibiotics for tonsilitis and sinus infections. They were all on different meds so it was a bit of a gong show. As an aside -- I didn't even get a hint of it. My doc thinks I am "superimmune" to cold viruses -- which can eventually lead to bacterial infections if gunk builds up. I almost never get them -- and with everyone in my house ill you'd think I would. I get every gastro known to man, but not cold stuff.

Anyway -- that same day Sam puked his guts out for 24 hours. We assumed it was just the antibiotic or a little gastro at the same time. Then he was fine for a week.  Then another day of puking intensely followed by a four hour nap -- and then he was perfectly fine again. Three days later the same cycle started. I checked his tonsils and they were huge, so Doug brought him into the doctor. They said his tonsils are huge, but don't look infected, and they wanted to run blood work. That night (Sam is fine again at this point), I get this call from his doctor at midnight. She said she just got his test results and his white blood cell count is well over 30,000 which is appparently really high.  She said we needed to get him to the Children's hospital right away as he needed to be on IV antibiotics and see where the source of this was. She said it could either be a) a severe blood infection b) acute appendicitis or c)leukemia.

Sooooo -- that got us going. We woke him up and Doug brought him to Children's. After they put in the IV (which he did NOT like -- especially at 2 am) they drew blood to test it and they came back -- oops -- there must have been some mistake because it was perfectly, 100% normal!  Now of course I am thrilled about this, but how do they make such a mistake?

So since he's been home it happened again three days later, and again Wednesday. Basically the same cycle -- he wakes up white as a ghost -- says his throat hurts and then throws up all morning, sleeps all afternoon and is fine. We were back at the doctor again Wednesday -- tested his urine -- fine. So we are at a loss. My doc is consulting with a pediatric gastro to see what this could be -- but it is unlikely it's a virus as none of us have it.

Any ideas? Any Dr. Googlers out there who have had the same thing? I honestly think he's fine -- that it may be a weird bug.  It's just that he's not a puker so that part is weird. It would be nice to have an answer.

Pictures to buy me some time

OK, I know, I know -- this is a long time between posts, even for me. But we've been waging a baffling health battle with Sam (I know -- I assumed it would be Tess, and as it turns out she's just anemic!) for the past 2+ weeks. I'll write about that next, but we are still in the trenches. It's been stressful -- an assumed virus that won't go away, a frantic midnight call by his doctor sending us to the hospital in the middle of the night with Sam and scary words like "leukemia" bandied about. Only to find out that it was a lab mix up (thank freaking God!). But we still don't know what's wrong with him and we're into week three of vomiting, lethargy and fevers for the poor kid. OK that's more than I intended to write, but I'll give the whole story later.

In the meantime, here are pictures from the holidays. Sam (and Doug and Tess, who both had tonsilitis and sinus infections) were all healthy on the days that counted, so it was a fabulous Christmas. Be back soon.