April 28, 2008 - Today's the day

that Liam can make it across the monkey bars on his own!

Hilary left me a message just before I was leaving work to say that they were going to the park and I could either meet them there or head straight home. I opted to head home and do some house work. They got home about 15 minutes after me and Liam was just bursting!

"Get your coat Mama we HAVE to to go back to the park I have a surprise to show you!"

So we poured some tea in travel mugs and off we went. He was bubbling the whole way there! He wouldn't tell me what it was, just that he had to practice and he finally was able to do it!

He was great! Able to go from one end to the other, and even learned how to flip around so that his legs went through the bars and he could pull himself up to sit on the very top. As if I don't have enough gray hair!!

And in the rush to get there, Mama forgot to grab her camera. I guess we will just have to go back again.

April 24, 2008 - Today's the day

that we wish "J" a very Happy First Birthday!

"J" is Liam's half sister, being raised by their Mom "K" who is also raising Liam's half brother "C".

Hopefully one day we can celebrate birthdays all together!

April 21, 2008 - Today's the day

That I get my last vitamin B12 shot. Originally the Dr. said she was going to do 3 shots a week for 3 weeks, but on the first appointment she changed it to one shot a week for 3 weeks. I'm also taking 1000mg supplement every day. I will go have my blood re-tested in a month to see if my levels have gone up.

It's hard to say if I have noticed any improvement since getting the shots, since I've been sick with a cold since the day after the first one! I'm not even really sure what changes I should notice.

I have noticed a huge improvement since being on the Pantaloc! In the 6 weeks that I've been taking it, I've only had one or two minor moments of discomfort after a meal. Not like the daily shooting pains that had me wanting to curl up in a little ball and cry. So the next step is to go off the Pantaloc for a month to see if it is really the drug making the difference, of if whatever was causing the problem has gone away. I will finish the last 2 weeks of this prescription and then give it a go.

April 20, 2008 - Today's the day

that I can finally hang clothes out to dry on the line! Living on the East Coast means that we have a very short summer season, and that spring and fall are both very foggy and damp. Not today though!! The sun is out, there's a great breeze and it's about 10C.

A perfect day to have air dried sheets!

April 10, 2008 - Today's the day

that I get asked if I'm a boy or a girl.



WTF!

I was feeling like crap at work so I decided to cut out early. It's pouring rain, so I splurged and took a cab. When I'm of sound mine, I usually request a cab for "Hilary" just to avoid this problem. Today, I obviously wasn't thinking.

The cab pulled up, I ran out in the rain, opened the back door and asked "for Andy?" while I was climbing in. The cabbie looked me up and down and said "Yup, but you sure don't look like an Andy, is that even your name?"

I'm really not in a happy place to debate gender neutral names with this twit. I was pretty snarky in my reply of "yeah! it's my name" with my "what are going to do about it face" glaring at him. He kinda shrugged, and as he was backing up the car and looking over his shoulder he eyed me up and down again. And then the whopper:

"So are you a boy or a girl?"

And my bitchy answer back?

"With breasts this size what do you think?"

And then I had a quiet ride home.

April 6, 2008 - Today's the day

That we use the new bread maker.... twice!! Hilary got a bread maker for her birthday from her Mum. We've never really been sure if we wanted one, as I make bread from scratch. But life these days seems way too busy to find the time to make bread, and we do miss having fresh warm bread around.

The first thing we made was a sweet dough for Cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning! I was worried as the dough didn't seem to rise as much as I thought it should, but they turned out great!!

Please note: we only made 1/2 a pan, we did not eat 1/2 a pan!

Then we made a honey-cornmeal loaf for dinner to go with our baked beans. It turned out really well too.

Now if we could just find somewhere to keep it!! We need way more counter space for all of our toys!

April 2, 2008 - Today's the Day

that I MUST do up and send out the minutes from the parent committee meeting..... that was 2 weeks ago! How does this stuff get away from me????

March 30, 2008 - Today's the day

that I have WAY too much excitement before my first sip of coffee!

While I was taking my MIL her tea, I heard a bang. Nothing major, no crying, no breaking glass (that I could hear) so I didn't think much of it. When you live with a 5 year old you learn to tune out these minor disturbances!

But as I was pouring coffee for Hilary and I, Hilary came limping down the stairs and asked me to help her. I got her to the bathroom, sitting on the toilet. A metal picture frame had fallend off of the dresser and scratched her leg. Actually, it was more of "cut" her leg. It was about 3 inches long, but not very deep. So I got a gauze pad and tape out to cover it. Hilary mentioned that she was feeling a bit light headed. The next thing I know, she had gone all stiff, her eyes are glazed over, she's making a strange gutteral moaning noise and she falls off of the toilet into my arms! She has passed out. I'm able to ease her to the floor without her getting hurt. Now the problem is that our bathroom is quite small, and Hilary and I aren't. The door was shut, with her legs up against it, with me behind her, with my back up against the tub. I couldn't get her to wake up instantly, so I shouted for MIL to come help. I was able to get Hilary's legs out of the way enough for MIL to open the door and look in, but not to get into the bathroom to be of any help. I was able to grab a facecloth and wet it down and by putting that on Hilary's face and back of her neck I was able to get her to come to.

All together she was only out for maybe 10-25 seconds, which of course seemed MUCH longer! With MIL's help we got her to her feet and on to the couch. She had some grapes and started to feel better.

She's always said that the sight of her own blood can cause her to pass out, but this is the first time in 15 years that I've seen it happen!

I promptly sat down and had several cups of coffee!

March 28, 2008 - Today's the day

that we begin our toy moratorium! Liam has more toys then he could possibly need and as a result has a bad case of the "gimmes" with frequent bouts of the "I-gotta-have's". My grandmother sent him $20 for Easter, so he got to spend it today. After that there are NO NEW TOYS for at least one month!!

The problem is that he gets an allowance for various jobs he does around the house. He gets $5 a week. Most of the things that he wants to buy however are more then $5, but he can't bring himself to save up. That pretty blue paper burns a hole in his wallet faster then a cat in a blender.

So for one month we will "help" him save up his $$. He's on board with the idea, because he recognizes that he can't save up on his own. But the rule is no whining, crying or pitching a fit for a new toy during this time ~ actually that's the rule ALL the time, we're just really re-inforcing it for this period!

Wish me luck!!

March 27, 2008 - Today's the day

that I wait on hold for 45 minutes, all the while clicking refresh on my computer just so that I can get through to our city's Recreation department and sign Liam up for 3 weeks of summer camp!


I got through on the computer after 20 minutes but got kicked out again just as I added the 2nd week to my basket. The second time I got on I was able to get all three weeks in the basket and processed!


These are very popular programs, espcecially for working parents. Full day camp (8:00-16:30) Mon-Friday for less then $100! Liam will only be going for 3 weeks, every other week, as we don't need it for child care, but just for him to have some fun!

March 26, 2008 - Today's the day

that I start to brush up on my French! Inspired by some on line friends who are also learning/practicing their French, I'm going to make an effort to read at least one thing a day in French. I'm on the look out for an intersting French blog to subscribe to, or I may just find a French newspaper.

What I really need to practice is my spoken French! My tongue is so out of shape that I feel like I've got a mouth full of cotton when I try to speak it. So maybe once I find something to read I will also read it out loud.

I'm also going to make more of an effort to speak to Liam in French and to read/sing to him in French.

Allons-y!

March 25th, 2008 - Today's the day

that I celebrate Hilary's 37th birthday with her! This is the 15th birthday that I have had the pleasure of sharing with Hilary.

We met in the summer of 1993. Hilary was the night manager at a restaurant where my roommate Lisa got a job a a waitress. I used to go and drink coffee and pick Lisa up. Back then I was pretty frightening! Shaved head, Ox Blood Red Dr. Martins, jeans and white t-shirt, and a smoke behind one ear. Yup, I was a Dyke!! I think Hilary saw through the rough exterior pretty instantly. We got to know Hilary and through several bizarre chains of events, Lisa and I ended up moving into her apartment with her.

However, Hilary and I did not start going out until December of that year, when we were no longer living together and after we had survived what we now refer to as "that summer".

You may have heard some of my stories from "that summer"... the dead hooker, the good drug dealers with the good guns, that I decided to date sleep with men..... it really is a wonder we survived!!

To give you an idea of what "that summer" entailed, here is a list of things that occurred either directly to us or to our group of friends. And no, I won't tell you which ones happened to us!!

• Getting arrested
• Drugs, drugs and more drugs
• homelessness
• destitution
• hustling pool for smokes and $$
• abortion
• pregnancy scares
• murder
• baby dying of SIDS
• rape
• stealing to survive
• suicide attempt

But we made it through to other side. Life wasn't instantly perfect, but it did get infinitely better. Jobs were found, Hilary got an apartment in a not so scary area and we realized that this was not the life we wanted to be living at the wise old age of 23.

And so in true Lesbian fashion, I moved in with her a day or two after our first official "date". And we have never looked back!

Since then we have found careers, moved across the country together, bought our first (and now second) house and adopted a baby together. Hilary is my love, my friend and my light! She makes me happy in a way I never knew possible and I love her with every fiber of my being.

Happy Birthday Hilary!

March 24, 2008 - Today's the day

that I get to visit and catch up with my in-laws! Hilary's Mum and Stepdad arrived late last night and are here for a week! They live on the opposite coast to us, so we only see them once or twice a year, and often we only see them for a couple of days at a time as they stop in on their way to other destinations.

This trip is solely to visit with us! Liam was beside himself with excitment yesterday. He started asking around 11:00 AM if it was night time yet as he knew they were arriving after he would be asleep. We managed to keep him quiet till about 8:00 this morning to give them a chance to fight of some jet lag.

I'm really glad that he has this week to spend with them and to bond. Long-distance family relationships are hard on kids, as these grown-ups almost seem like strangers if you only see them once a year. We try to keep the relationships real to him through pictures and phone calls, but nothing beats having Grandpa sitting on the floor playing KidKinnex with you!

March 21, 2008 - Today's the Day

that Liam and I build "car world"!

We haven't done this in eons. He had a snow day (or a "the teachers need an extra long long weekend day, since it wasn't even snowing, or raining (they had called for freezing rain to happen during the night) by the time we woke up this morning.) In fact, it's been 10 degrees here all day. It has been raining... but it is the East coast. That happens a lot here.





Anyhoo....





We gathered up all the Hot Wheels track, some boxes for tunnels, a couple of containers for the water realm and put it all together! The hope was that this would keep Liam entertained so that I could work from home. It did... for a while!

But he was great at finding other ways to entertain himself and didn't bother me at all! I love working from home!!!

March 18, 2008 - Today's the day

That I run a parent support committee meeting at Liam's school.



I am always that sucker of a person that when you ask for a volunteer, if no one comes forward, all you have to do is look at me and I cave. And that is how I became the chair of the parent committee last fall!



Overall the duties are pretty lite. The committee meets about once a month and is responsible for 7 activities throughout the year. This include book fairs, Halloween and Valentine's day lunches, Teacher and staff appreciation week, organizing the art cards and the end of the year picnic. As the chair, I send out meeting invites, take notes and send out minutes. Pretty easy.



The problem is that I haven't been to a meeting since November! Between bad weather, health problems and the holidays, it just hasn't happened.

So I will take baked goods as an offering, and see how the evening goes!

March 17, 2008 - Today's the day

that we see the pediatrician to determine our next steps. We are looking into having Liam evaluated for things like auditory processing disorder or possibly ADD, if he isn't too young. We have seen some improvements, both at home and at school, but I think a lot of that is because we have all been using techniques to help Liam work through things. Like getting right in his face to talk to him, having him repeat things back to us, having him do jumping jacks to get the "wiggles" out, having him close his eyes and count to 10 with deep breathing to trying and center himself when he seems "wired".

What we are hoping for today is to find out if we are going down the right path, what steps we should take next and how to ensure that we (and his teachers) are using the best tools and techniques to help him succeed. He has 3 months of pre-school left, off for 12 weeks of summer vacation and then he will be going into the kindergarten programme. We are so glad that we made the decision to not put him in kindergarten this year. I think he would have been too frustrated to be able to give it his "best work".

We just want to make sure that he does the best he can and that we do whatever me need to to help him.

March 14, 2008 - Today's the day

that I get to clean up some other kid's poo! It's been a long time since I've had to clean up Liam's poo, so I was a wee bit out of practice. Now if it had been nicely contained in a diaper, I'm sure my old skills would have come back quickly. But since it was in the underpants a of 5 year old, who was jumping about and trying to "help" I didn't really have any skills to call upon.

Liam has a friend over for a play date today. Being that they are both 5 year old boys, there is a lot of talk about pooping and farting and a lot of pretending to make strange bodily noises. So when Liam first came to me and said "L pooped his pants" I assumed that this was more grossology talk. Till L came waddling at me looking like he had dropped a load in his pants!!

Well, I got him cleaned up, found him some clothes (he's about 5 inches and 10 pounds bigger then Liam, luckily we buy ahead when stuff is on sale) and I threw on a load of wash.

Ahhhh the joys!!

March 12, 2008 - Today's the day

That I [achoo!] go to be early to try to beat this [achoo!] dang cold!

March 11, 2008 - Today's the day

that I convince Liam that he has to stop sleeping in his tent!

Liam got a small tent for his birthday last year from his Granny and Grandpa. Given where we live, the window of opportunity for sleeping outside is pretty small, so to maximize the fun of owning a tent we will sometimes let him set it up in his room. It's been up now for over a week. I would gladly leave it up longer, since he has so much fun in it, except for 2 problems:

1) His room is not that big, so the tent is right up against his bed. He has a mate's bed (the kind with drawers under it) and this is his only clothing storage area in his room. So we have a week's worth of laundry to put away, but we can't get to the drawers.

2) He has a friend coming over for the day tomorrow (It's March break here, so no school). Since his room is not that big, so the tent is right up against the open door. You kind of have to climb over one corner of the tent to get into his room. It also doesn't leave much floor space for playing.

I think the incentive of tomorrow's play date will help me to convince him that this is a good idea. He cannot wait to be able to sleep outside in his tent again! I'm hoping that since he will be 6 this summer, that we can convince him to sleep by himself, or with a friend in the tent, and NOT with Mama! These old bones did not appreciate waking up in the dew last year!!

March 10, 2008 – Today’s the day

That I try to beat Heather at Scrabbulous! I’m not sure what my exact number of losses is to her, but it has to stop!!