I heard it “tick”

Well, I think that FINALLY…..after almost 11 months, ‘Siah has his first tooth.

I don’t have a picture for you of his adorable toothy grin….but I’m hoping soon.

I actually can’t even see a tooth yet. So, can I really count that he has his first tooth. I think I can.

See, he’s been working on this tooth for a while now, and he’s been UNBELIEVABLY MISERABLE the past week. Up in the middle of the night crying and crying and crying and it’s not a mad “pick me up I’m so angry” cry. It’s been more of a I’m hurting cry.

Today when he woke up, we noticed that it looked like he had a nasty blister on his bottom gums, and sure enough, if you felt right there – he would flip out and cry.

I wondered when it might finally cut through, and tonight when I was feeding him some food with a metal spoon, I heard a “clink” or a “tick” as the metal hit the tooth. I wondered if if was just my imagination, but it happened again and again, and I highly doubt that he’s got a cricket loose in his belly that just happenes to be chirpping at the same time that I tap on his lower front gums.

I’m so excited. His first tooth….

It seems so silly to be so excited over something so insignificant, but still I’ve been waiting a long time for some of these “firsts” to happen, and I’m so thrilled to be able to say that this one is finally here.

Happy Birthday, Mum!

It’s my Mother-In-Law’s Birthday today. She has been blessed with 60 years.

I think that’s amazing.

She has an amazing story to tell of the past 60 years and the ups and downs of life and travelling all over the world and raising her own boys and helping so many throughout the years.

She is a wonderful person and I’m grateful and thankful to have her for my Mum.

We are headed in to spend the day with them, and I’m sure I’ll have some pics to add to this post.

But, I just wanted to say…….

“I love you, Mum; and I hope that today is a great day and that this year will be the best year that you’ve ever had. That it will be full of love and laughter and blessing.“

The Wisdom of Children and another funny-ism…

As I’m about to cheat and bite into a piece of a chocolate brownie, Xandra turns to me and says,

“Are you a FOOL?”

Apparently, I am or I was or whatever…..

And then the other night we had a form come home because the Grade 5’s were going to have the “Puberty” talk.

We”ve talked with all out kids about things…we are pretty open in our house, but we’ve not gone through an actual “TALK” from the start of the life cycle all the way through….it was a bit of a shock to have only one days notice, but it was all good.

The next day, we were eating dinner and Jon asked if Xani had heard what we were talking about….about sex and stuff and she nodded her head. So he asked what she thought about it (meaning sex) and she answered,

“I think it’s good.”

Yah, try to not laugh at that one. She’s so sensitive that if we laugh, she gets hurt, but these were just too cute to not share.

It’s In You To Give!

I don’t remember why I started giving blood.

As I laid on the chair yesterday, I tried to remember when I first started giving blood and why.

It was kind of a special day yesterday….see, it was my brother’s birthday. The same brother that almost died just over a year ago and has been able to use other people’s blood to help give him life.

I joked with him that I was donating in his name (seeing as it was his birthday), but unfortunately, I wasn’t giving forward, I was just paying back what he’d already used up.

I really can’t rememeber when I made the decision to start giving blood, and I wish I could. What was my motivation? If I look on my card, the first recorded time on this card was May 2004 and that was the last time before I had all my losses that I gave blood, and it says on the top of the card that I gave 3 times before that, so I’m guessing that it was sometime in the fall/winter of 2003.

What happened then? Did I just want to give back? Did it have something to do with 9 11? Although, that was a pretty slow response on my part if it was? Ahhhhh, I just googled “Wars in 2003” and that’s when the war in Iraq was happenning….I wonder if that was part of my reasoning…Hmmmm.

Regardless of my reasoning, I’m happy that I can do this….happy that I have done this, and happy enough to continue to do it…

It takes less that an hour, once every 56 days – no side effects, aside from a bit of a sore arm (for me), AND….you get free juice and cookies. What could be better than that.

If you’ve ever thought about giving blood and you just haven’t, may I encourage you to give it a shot….ha ha ha…give it a shot….but seriously, grab a friend or even just venture out yourself, and donate.

If you’re in Canada, you can check out the Canadian Blood Services website at www.bloodservices.ca to find answers to any questions that you might have or call 1-888-2 donate.

It is a way to give back or to give forward or just to give.

But it’s something so simple and easy and requires so little effort….mostly just time – and a little blood.

Now, I now that not everyone can give blood and I’m not meaing, IN ANY WAY, to make anyone uncomfortable or guilty – just to encourage you to think about giving.

Do you give blood? Do you have a special reason as to when and why you started giving?

Snap Happy!

It was the perfect picture taking day on Saturday morning. The sky was grey and bright with high cloud cover and it was perfect.

We tried to get ready in a hurry, but for whatever reason….all 8 thousand of them…we didn’t leave the house until after 1pm.

And by that time it was sunny. Was I ever upset to see the sun. Can you believe that I even typed that down let alone thought it? I know, it’s horrifying after all the bad weather that we’ve had, and we are exactly 5 days away from summer…not cool…not cool at all.

So, we made it to City Hall and everyone piled out of the van and as I scouted out the best location and flicked my camera on…..I realized that I had left the battery…………in the charger…………at home!

So, we had to pile everyoneback into the van and drive back home, but fortunately, City Hall is only about 5 minutes or less away from our house – so not the end of the world….just slighty frustrating.

We made it back to City Hall and once again everyone piled out of the van and took off across the grass.

We got the kids and Daddy “Happy Father’s Day” special shot as evidenced below….

The kids were pretty good, well except Jeremy decided that today wasnot a day for just normal smiling, and so that made things a bit difficult as evidenced below…..

Apparently, I’m liking the phrase “as evidenced below” today…it’s a good one. Try it out, let the words rooooollllllll off your tongue. I’ll try to see if I can fit it in a few more times in this post…..special like, just for you.

If you click on the first picture, it’ll take you to the pics that I didn’t delete because I considered them okay….I could probably mess with them in photoshop for some of them, but you’ll get the general idea. I was LOVE the pictures of Geli. She’s been known to take some REALLY bad photos in her day, but on Saturday – that prize went to Jeremy.

If you click on the picture of him, it’ll take to you the other pics that I didn’t delete, but only because they were so funny. There were almost no good pictures of him, but oh so many really good, bad pictures.

Which ones are your favorite?

On Being Unconventional……

I read this comment on this website the “Happy Foody” everytime I check over there and it always gets me thinking.

“I don’t understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.” – Dean Ornish, MD

and then while I was already thinking about that quote again for the umpteeth time, I floated over to “Owlhaven” and read this post on “What do we owe our children?” It stems from her recently sharing about her family of 9 and sharing some ideas on being frugal and being able to eat well for less.

She talks about how some have just recently critized her and have insinutated “…..that in keeping our food costs low, I might be somehow depriving my children or feeding them subpar food.” She goes on to say, “…I only have to look at a plate of food at an average dinner to know that our diet is varied, healthy, and delicious.”

I think that some of what is said and even not said between the first quote and the second situation summs up a bit of how I end up feeling in regards to our whole way of eating.

I’m not planning of becoming vegetarian, but I will admit that I’ve been looking into some well balanced vegetarian meal ideas. I’ve thought about doing a vegetarian meal 2 or 3 times a week. As long as it’s balanced, I’d be interested in giving it a try. Not to mention, that it would cut the grocery costs a little bit, and every little bit helps, right?

I’m not talking about a meal of just lettuce, but of taking into consideration protein, carbs, veggies, oil and finding a good and delicious balance.

See, we’ve already cut most processed things out of our diet. We mainly eat veggies and fruit with grains and then some lean meats. I don’t buy too much of anything that is boxed or packaged besides things like Almond or Soy milk, and some Brown Rice Pasta from time to time. I don’t buy cookies or snacks for the kids….I make granola bars or popcorn or once in a while I will bake something with honey or brown rice syrup or maple syrup as the sweetner instead of sugar.

Compared to “normal” North American diets….we eat so bizarre. But going back to that quote from the beginning and just recognizing that TO ME it’s bizarre to think that a diet filled with chemicals and additives and processed food and gallons of sugar and all the other crap that is out there is considered normal. That it’s normal to be on drugs to fix or maintain issues created (in a large part) by our diets….that it’s normal to eat chemically created food so that you can lose weight on a lowfat diet…that it’s normal to eat food that is just not normal ……I can recognize that some would say that we (in our family) eat strangely, but I think that most “normal” choices are strange.

I know that our choices are unconventional, but to me it makes so much sense.

I’m not trying to deprive my kids from the “wonders” of life….as in sugar cereal and sugar snacks and pop and everything else out there. I do try to come up with healthy alternatives….Frozen Fruit Juice or Fruit Smoothy Popsicles or Homemade Granola and Granola Bars or Popcorn flavored with spices or Homemade Crackers or Cookies made with ingredients in fairly close to their natural state. You can make Chips and Popcorn balls with honey and nuts…..the possibilities are endless, and the food is healthy for you. I have a HUGE fruit basket and a TON of veggies in the fridge and the kids are allowed to eat whenever they are actually hungry (as long as it’s not in the hour before a meal).

I would however love to deprive them of a life of obesity and diabetes and heart problems, and thyroid problems and fertility issues and any other of the various problems and issues that can be traced back to our diets.

My kids eat. They eat well and they eat a pretty balanced and varied diet.

Would they like to eat sugar cereal day in and day out or eat countless boxes of candy and pizza and McDonalds? They probably think they would, but considering that because we don’t eat like that, on the odd occasion when we do cheat, they end up feeling gross and they are starting putting two and two together that the gross feelings are actually tied into the crap food.

I’m trying to make the best choices for my family and I’m trying to teach my kids to make good healthy choices. It’s a process and one that keeps evolving as we go along and learn new things. I’m surprised at how far we’ve come over the past almost 2 years, and I expect that I’ll be even more surprised at where I’m at in another 2 years…..

So, Do you eat “healthy”? What is your standard of “healthy” eating? Why are you making the choices that you are making? What prompted you to evaluate your diet? Or have you not really thought about it?

I’d love to hear what your choices are and why you are making them, and what you think about all this.

Snotfest June 2008

Yah! Alright! PAR-TAY!

No seriously, it’s a freakin’ party around these parts. Jeremy came home 2 maybe 3 days ago coughing….one of those nasty barky kinda coughs. Like when you feel lie you have a film of sticky gooey flem coating the entire back of your throat and lungs and you can’t quite catch a proper breath because the flem keeps sticking and choking you up.

It was AWESOME!

So, I did my little “stay away from the baby, Jer! I’m serious! JEREMY! I’M SERIOUS…..GET AWAY FROM JOSIAH RIGHT NOW…NO NO NO! DON’T…DON’T….don’t cough all over his face. :mumblingundermybreath: of course you had to cough right into his face didn’t you” freak out to absolutely no avail.

And on Tuesday night when I put Siah to bed he was wheezing and crackling a little with each breath. I really hoped and prayed that it was just a little extra mucus floating around…everyone has a llittle extra mucus from time to time, don’t you? No such luck.

Siah was up just about every hour coughing and wheezing and crying and to say that it was a fun night….well, that would definately be a lie. A COMPLETE AND UTTER LIE!

Yesterday he was coughing a bit during the day, but it really wasn’t anything too bad, but by evening, I knew that we were in for another night of fun filled pleasure and delight.

He had a harder time than usual going down to bed, and it was all because he was SO PLUGGED UP. It’s so sad that you can’t suck and breathe at the same time. So, we popped on and off a million bazillion times, until I finally gave up and then Jon rocked him and he went straight to sleep.

He woke up at 2am, and had a wicked fever. I don’t like to give Tylenol unless it’s totally ncessary, because I figure that the fever is the bodys way of fighting off the infection but this was hot…like HOT HOT!

He was able to nurse back to sleep and when he woke up again at 4am the tylenol was doing it’s job – no fever! YAH!

He’s been the snot monster all day today, and i have more snot on me than has made it into a kleenex. The long strings that are sneezed all the way onto the floor where he is sitting playing with his toys….those are my favorite. in fact, I just tried to tak e apicture of a GIANT snot bubble that he sneezed and stuck between his nose and his shirt….it was equal parts awesome and gross all at the same time. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how badly you wanted to look at it) he was uncooperative when I got the camera out and then promptly smeared it all over my leg – and let my tell you THAT was awesome.

He’s got a bit of a fever right now, but seeing as he’s eating (food) and nursing (after I use the snot sucker – man he hates that thing) and is playing (albeit a bit crankily) I’d say we’re all good and just running though a virus.

I’m hoping that we’re all done with it soon though, cause it sucks….on so many levels.

Holes in Everything

Jeremy was using a little medicine cup this morning for his syrup so that he could dip his pancakes.

The bottom of the little cup has a stand up rim on it, and he was using it to cut holes in his pancakes – like a cookie cutter. Then he started talking about holes….he had holes in his eyes, and holes in his nose, and holes in his pancakes, and he was a whole Jeremy and he was cutting his whole pancake into little holes…..

This went on for a few minutes until Xandra – who was at the table making her lunch right beisde where Jeremy was sitting eating – pipes up and says, “…and you have a hole in your butt.”

That’s my classy little girl, for ya.

Thanks for pointing that out, and taking the conversation to a whole ‘nuther level.

Randomness……with Photos!

Well, It’s Monday morning….how’s it treating you?

It’s raining here and Siah is sleeping and I’m still in my jammies and I need to clean, clean, CLEAN my house.

This has got to be one of the grossest things EVER! And yet the girls scarf this down like it’s candy. BLECH!

Here it is…..a Peanut Butter, Honey and Egg Salad Sandwich….doesn’t that sound delicious?

And…..I figure that with the Internet being a place filled with beauty, that I should do my part to balance that beauty out, and so here is me trying to do my part to balance the world out….’cause everyone loves to look at bad pictures of other people….it just makes you feel so darn good about your own self, doesn’t it.

This is me feeding ‘Siah on a Saturday morning about 2 weeks ago, and Xandra got a little picture happy. I’ll admit….this is the better of the bad ones…yes, there were worse ones….I know that’s hard to believe, but alas….it’s true.

Beauty Shots

and yes…that’s a giant fake cigarette in ‘Siah’s hand, because we’re teaching him the finer things in life….and we’re starting early.

This next picture was Jeremy and Xandra’s attempt at an ART ATTACK. Click on that link…you know you want to…it’s AWESOME!!!!

Actually, it is an unbelievable place to get craft ideas to do. The guy makes these GIANT art attacks where he uses all sorts of other items to create a HUGE picture on the ground and then you can see it from WAY UP HIGH and it looks so cool.

Art Attack

Anyway, the kids used a bunch of plants from our yard and other flowers that they stole from other people’s yards and for which they got in serious trouble and then laid this out. It’s picture of a garden made out of plants….cute, eh? I was going to take a picture from the second level of our house, but never got around to it, and then I found this picture on the camera. Again, with Xandra going a little picture happy….not like I needed 40 pictures of this particular creation….

She also took this shot of the crochetted quilt that I’m working on….I’m getting closer and closer to finishing it.

Crochet Quilt

It’s going to look a little different than it looks in that picture but for my first granny square quilt….it’ll be okay. It’ll work, and at this point, that’s all I care about.

I was going to take a video of the rain that was pouring down right now, but then figured that would be stupid and so I’d just tell you that it’s POURING RAIN over here….and I wonder how my teensy, tiny little veggies in the garden are doing. They’ve just started growing and I can’t wait to make a delicious salad or even a green smoothie out of my homegrown veggies.

So, I was going to take a stupid video of the stupid rain, and that reminded reminded me of one day last week when I was up with ‘Siah at 4am, and I almost took a video of the darkness out in my back yard.

We have a greenspace behind our house, and even though it was barely light out, the birds were going to town. It was so amazing sounding, and they were SO LOUD. But, I was WAY TOO TIRED and hoping desperately that ‘Siah would settle down and actually drift off to sleep instead of just singing and cooing himself half asleep.

When he finally went to sleep, I crawled back in bed and put the pillows over my head and CRASH….I was gone.

When I woke it, it was all gone too. Oh well! I’m sure there will be another early, early morning sometime soon….not fun!

Alright, post is finished, baby is still sleeping, Jon’s trainee has just arrived and I need to go and get dressed and tidy the house ASAP!

Second Chances

Siah’s sleeping and I’ve showered and I think I have a few moments to blather on and on and on.

I love the feeling of being connected through my laptop, and at the same time I hate it.

I’m trying to find balance in my life and sometimes it seems so difficult. I’m at home – by choice – and as much as I can handle being “alone” for longer periods than some others can; I still need contact, and sometimes it comes in the form of this website and sometimes it comes in the form of on-line friendships that I started 4 years ago and sometimes it comes from “in person” friendships and sometimes it comes through family. There are different ways to connect and different levels to connect on, and again, I try to find balance.

Balance, balance, balance, schmalance!

I’ve been just “playing” with Siah. Building block towers for the sole purpose of him being able to knock them over. I barely get one made and it’s demolished. I have made literally hundreds of these towers over the past little while; and while I build, I have time to think.

I didn’t do as much “playing” with the other three kids. I was younger and more naive and maybe a bit lazy and definately tired and I was just trying to survive. Once Xandra came along and I was forced to stay at home more and “do” less things, I often regretted not just enjoying the one on one time that I had with Geli. I took it for granted and I would never get that time back.

I’ve been given a second chance (of sorts). The 3 older kids are all in school and I have a full day at home to just enjoy and appreciate the time that I have with my baby. I could clean the house. I could craft. I could go shopping. I could go out with friends. I could blog. I could just waste time on the Internet. I could do so many things, and I do……BUT, I am enjoying my baby. I am just sitting with him and reading him books. I am rocking him in his room and nursing him without multi-tasking. I nap when he goes down for a nap – from time to time.

I’m trying to really enjoy this second chance. This chance to just enjoy and live without letting life pass me by so fast.

It also makes me think about the whole rest of my life and trying to enjoy and grab every last bit out of everything that I do. Really think about what things are important…..really think about what things are going to stick with me in the long run and which things just really don’t matter, short term and long term….I want to be there for my kids – right now. This is a one time deal….I don’t get this time back again. I’m trying to make the most of what’s in front of me right now.

Balance…it all comes back to balance.

I’m so grateful for second chances.

and just because… here’s a video of Siah laughing hysterically.