Saturday, April 30, 2005

A Fabulous Date!

Yes, a fabulous date we had Thursday night! Imagine this... a dinner without anyone screaming or crying, no mess to clean up, no cutting up food into bite size pieces, no nursing or holding a baby... just a relaxing dinner with good conversation, wine (yea for wine!), and some awesome sushi!
We tried the stylish, hip and swanky sushi bar, Kenichi downtown. (And did I mention pricey too?!)
It was worth it! Yummy yummy sushi! And wine. Can you tell I was excited to drink a little bit? Two glasses was all for me. I was already tipsy after that. Ok, I haven't drank in like 10 months- so yes, I'm a light-weight now!

And we also didn't have to pay for a babysitter. Our nice friends Lauren and Natalie came over to watch the kiddos. Lauren brought her weiner dog, Oscar, that Sophie LOVED!! She had so much fun with him. The next day she woke up and told daddy she wanted to see Oscar downstairs. "No sweetie, Oscar went home." "No daddy, Oscar downstairs. Lauren and Nabalee downstairs too." "Sorry Sophie, they had to go home." She didn't believe him till she came downstairs and saw for herself.
Hopefully Lauren, "Nabalee", and Oscar will come back to babysit soon!

Thursday, April 28, 2005

hanging out


hanging out
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
This is my nonchalant pose.

smiles


smiles
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
And here I am playing sweet and cute.

the swing is fun!


the swing is fun!
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Yea, my sister's sleeping and I can swing in peace!

I'm a swingin fool


I'm a swingin fool
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Wee, this is fun!

bad Sophie, bad Mommy


bad Sophie, bad Mommy
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Mommy wasn't paying attention very well while Sophie was coloring with the pen. oops! Look what happens when you leave your toddler alone for just a minute! Mom has been trying all sorts of concoctions to get the ink stains out of the cute Canadian Roots shirt. (Grandpa and Lori- if you ever come across another one of these I promise we'll take better care of it!!)

Monday, April 25, 2005

Walks and Swings

I have been trying to exercise almost everyday by walking my neighborhood. It's no easy stroll as our street is full of hills, but it makes for a very good workout! So now I've tried both ways: pushing the kids in the new double stroller (it's actually a new used stroller), and the other way of strapping Holden in the Baby Bjorn and pushing Sophie in the stroller. The results: they're both equally tiring! If I push them both I don't have to worry about sweating all over Holden. But if I carry Holden, he'll sleep. Maybe I'll switch back and forth depending on my mood.

And in other news, we got out the baby swing yesterday. Holden seemed to like it and actually stayed in it for longer than 10 minutes (that's about his max time in the bouncy seat or laying down by himself). It was looking very promising...until the swing crapped out and stopped working! Ugh!
Well I went out later to get a new swing. God Bless the inventors of the baby swing!!
He stayed in the swing 2 different times today and actually gave me a break from holding him all day!
It works out pretty well except that Sophie wants to push him in the swing-"Weeee!" she says as he flys up to the sky.
And she wants to push all the buttons on the swing too. Oy! I keep telling her to stop and try to distract her with something else, but it's apparently really fun for her to do this and irritate her mom.
Why doesn't she understand that Holden's actually happy, he's not crying, and he doesn't want whiplash from his big sister pushing him!
Oh we'll continue to work on this one...

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Eating my words

Once upon a time... Dw, Sophie, and I would be shopping at the mall. I would see parents pushing their kids in double strollers and I would LAUGH! Hahaha! "Dwayne I NEVER want to have to push a double stroller! Let's space our kids apart so we don't ever have to have one of those!"
ha ha- the joke's on me. I am now one of those parents who pushes a double stroller. I broke down and bought one today. But it seems to be a whole lot easier then strapping Holden onto me and pushing Sophie. We'll take our first test drive today...

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

pretty pink toes


pretty pink toes
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Look at our pretty pink toes!
Sophie got a pedicure from Grammy when she was here. Mommy went out and got a real one last week.
Sophie looks at her toes and says "Grammy painted Sophie's toes pink!"
She looked at Mommy's toes and said "Grammy painted Mama's toes too!"

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Maple Leafs fan


Maple Leafs fan
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
A Leafs fan, just like his Daddy.

kids in jammies


kids in jammies
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Happy Saturday morning!

Friday, April 15, 2005

A little bragging

My daughter ceases to amaze us everyday! Sometimes it's amazingly brilliant things she says or does, other times it's something cute and funny, and sometimes it's naughty little things she's discovered how to do or say.

Here are some of the brilliant things she can do right now:
she can count to ten,
she knows most of her colors
she talks up a storm,
she reads lots of books,
and she goes pee pee on the potty!

A few funnies & naughties:
She likes to announce when someone has "farted" or "tooted."
Mostly it's Sophie, Holden, or Daddy tooting, NEVER Mommy (*snicker, snicker*).
The other night Mommy did let one slip and Sophie says "I hear thunder!" Nooooo, that was just Mommy tooting!

Sophie is digging through her little purse that is filled with toys and stuff. She looks at Daddy and says "Too much crap in here!" Hmmmm, I don't know where she got that from?

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Now that's what I'm talkin about

Woo hoo!! I got my new car!! Got to drive it home last night with no kids and the stereo blasting!
I got the Volvo XC90 SUV. Take a look if you want.
Mine is charcoal gray with the graphite (a fancier name for charcoal gray) leather interior. We got the V8 version that came fully loaded with every package option except the navigation system. Fancy shmancy! And who needs a navigation system anyway? I figure if I get lost I can call Dwayne and watch movies in the back on my DVD player till we're found!
What I'm really excited about it that the cars seats will be separated in the back! No more worrying about Sophie poking her brother or taking his pacifier or blankie. It's so much easier to put the carseats in and we have the optional 3rd row seating too. The other awesome part was that we got a $5K discount due to hail damage. We had a hail storm a couple weeks back and they discounted all the cars. The cars were fixed and you can't even tell there was any damage. Score for us!

Now that's what I'm talkin about!

Monday, April 11, 2005

We're home!!

Holden was released from the hospital today after all his tests came back negative and he was able to get off the oxygen. Yea!!! We are so happy to be home now. We'll take him back to the dr tomorrow for a check up. It will be a week or two before he's over this, but he's on the right track now.
Thanks for all the well wishes and kind words!

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Hospital

I'm on a quick break from the hospital so I'm filling in what's been going on.

*Thursday afternoon I took Holden back to the dr because he was having labored breathing. His pulse/ox was low and the dr was concerned about his breathing. He received some nebulizer breathing treatments and we waited, but he wasn't getting any better. Dr said we'd have to take him to the hospital. Mom started crying then. I had called Dw and he met us at the dr's office. We all went to the hospital Thursday evening.

*Most of the days and times are a blur after that... Holden received more breathing treatments which didn't help a lot. He was really having a hard time breathing. They did a viral scan on him. That came back positive for RSV. RSV is a respiratory virus very common in babies and young children. It presents itself like a cold but with a lingering cough (exactly what Sophie had). It is more seroius for babies beause they're so little and their little lungs can't handle it well when they get congested. It's supposed to last about 2 weeks and it peaks somewhere between 3-6 days.

*Sometime friday Holden spiked a fever. The dr's had said if he spikes a fever they'd have to run a whole battery of tests to rule out meningitis or other infections. This was an AWFUL day!! Poor guy had to have a spinal tap, a cathader to get a urine (which didn't work the first time so he had that done twice), blood drawn- (they had to try about 4 differnt veins before they could get blood and then another one to get enough blood, and an IV for medicine. They got an IV on the 4th or 5th try but then later it didn't work or came loose so we had to do that all over again. This was so hard for Holden!- he cried nonstop for the hour and a half that it took to do all this. It was really hard for Mom to watch all of this! Of course I was crying too.
Holden was also put on oxygen to help him breathe.

*So Friday seemed to be Holden's worst day. He was still working hard at having to breathe and the drs were concerned. He continued to get breathing treatments and oxygen along with antibiotics in case the bacterial infections came back positive. You have to wait 48 hours to watch and see if bacteria grows on the cultures, so we knew we'd be at the hospital for another two days atleast.

*I haven't left Holden since we've been there. They gave me a bed in his room and they bring meals for me since I'm nursing him. He has been in my arms or his dad's the whole time. It is SO HARD to watch your little baby in so much distress and hooked up to all kinds of machines!!!

*Grammy flew down Friday evening to help out this weekend. That has been a great relief for us! It's good for Sophie too, to be on a somewhat normal routine and not get carted back and forth to the hospital all day with Dad.

*The good news is that he's getting better! He's still not great but he's on the right track. His heartrate's down, they've lowered his oxygen level, he's eating well, and his cultures have all come back negative so far. Hopefully we'll get to come home Monday or Tuesday!

*I pumped a bottle for Holden and he's at the hospital with dad for a little while. I came home to refresh myself and get out of that tiny hospital room for a few hours.

So that's the news. Thanks to everyone for your calls of wanting to help and your well wishes. I'll post again when we get back.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

more sick kids

Sophie seems to be getting better from her cold. Lovely she passed it on to me. As if I didn't already feel tired and lousy. But the worst is that Holden has caught it too! It is absolutely horrible to listen to your newborn coughing so hard he turns red and pukes. And the poor guy can't breathe at night either. It's just awful!! Then he started getting this gooey yellow stuff in his eye. At one point in the night his eye was sealed close from all the goo drying. Took him to the dr yesterday and it turns out it's a blocked tear duct that had now become infected. He got some eye drops and it's already looking better. The dr also showed us how to massage his tear duct glands to prevent this again.
Hallelujah Daddy has been home most of this week to help out. I guess if the kids and I are gonna get sick, this was the best week to do it.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

pretty girl


pretty girl
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Notice the similarities between Sophie and the pic of her grandpa.

Grandpa Lum


Grandpa Lum
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
It's a little blurry, but here's the famous "granpalum" picture Sophie likes.

Grandpa and kids


Grandpa and kids
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.
Grandpa and his sweet grandkids
(couldn't get Sophie to smile)

Saturday, April 02, 2005

sick kid, no sleep

Our Sophie has a nasty cold right now. Lots of coughing, whining, very clingy and sleepy- but doesn't want to sleep by herself, only on mom or dad. This is SO much fun right now! As if we aren't missing enough sleep!! Now we have to deal with a cranky sick toddler. I actually feel really bad for her, she's also cutting a tooth right now. She just wants to be held. It's just hard when you've got another baby to take care of too.
Thank goodness Grandpa is here to help! Sophie has had fun playing with him (when she's doped up on Motrin and not whining). Although it's probably not the best of a visit for him. Sophie's usually a lot more fun! Hopefully she'll be better soon. Please!

And off on a tangent here...
How do other moms of 2 (or even 3) do it!!??!! Some of them make it look so damn easy too! And how about the ones that are actually well dressed, have their hair fixed and make-up on AND have babies & toddlers, that are also put together well?!? Those people piss me off, really only because I'm jealous. I have to tell myself they MUST have nannies at home. Right? Yes, that's it.
I mean I have to schedule my two showers for the week. And my teeth are not always brushed. Forget the hair being fixed. I usually mange to get some makeup on- but it might only be some smeared mascara that I only got on one eye and some lipstick. Oh one day I'll have time to look pretty again...

I'm an Aunt Again!

My sister popped and had her baby girl on March 31! A little thing of only 6 lbs, 12 oz. Poor thing got to the hospital too late and couldn't get her epidural. But I'm so excited for her!!