Adios February!!

For such a short month, February has thoroughly kicked the crap out of me.

In just 28 short days I have:

- attended a weekend Beaver camp
- travelled to Vancouver for 5 days with 2 kids
- dealt with Nicholas getting sick not once but TWICE and Lillian once
- sprained my freaking ankle, which now looks like it's been painted with blue ink
- missed out on more hours of sleep than is healthy (thank you Lily and Fingers)
- taken part in the regular day-to-day parenting of two kids and running of our house

So, February, go away. Let March come in and be kind to me. Somehow, the Magic of March will sweep into my house at midnight tonight and the dishes will be washed, the floors will be vacuumed, and the laundry will be washed, folded, and put away.

Ugh-ugh-ugh

So, this is what it's like to have two sick kids at once, hey?

Nick started to come down with a cold on Saturday and Lillian followed suit last night. I was in bed at 6:30 this morning with a hacking boy on one side and a snuffy girl on the other. What is it with babies that they can't figure out to breathe out of their noses??

As much as I didn't envy Liam having to head out in the cold this morning, there was a definite part of me that wanted to say "Hey, I'll go to work today and you can stay home with the kids. If only he could lactate. Damn him.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part. Lily apparantly has a built-in defence mechanism against Mommies putting things in her nose. I squirted some saline solution in her nose in an effort to clear out some of the goo. She started to choke so I piked her up and she puked a huge blob of milk and goo all over me. Yum. "If you're gonna squirt stuff up my nose and slime you, woman!! Bwahaha!!"

Home again home again

(My apologies to my dear Helen in taking so long to post my Vancouver entry. I'd started it Wednesday morning before the famous stair incident. Now that I'm unable to do anything useful, I'll finish it.)

After spending five days in Vancouver here are my broad generalizations of the city and it's residents:
- Everyone drinks coffee, talks on cell phones, and walks their little dogs around the streets. Often these things happen at the same time.
- There are definite gaps between the "Have's" and the "Have-not's". People either walk around with fashionable clothes and expensive accessories or else they push shopping carts and dig through dumpsters.
- The drivers are insane. Sudden starts and stops combined with random non-signaled turns made for some very tense moments on the roads.
- Vancouverites freak out when the temperature dips near freezing in February. This is Canada, people, get over it! You've got green frickin grass and flowers in February. I'm not even sure if they can be considered Canadians with winters like that.

On the topic of Trevor and Mina's wedding, it was simply beautiful. They were married O.L.P.H church (the Vancouver version, not the Sherwood Park version I was married in) in a beautiful ceremony. Their two readings were the "my love is a gazelle" and "love is patient, love is kind" ones, both of which Liam and I had chosen for our weddings. I read the first one which is the one Trevor read for us so there were some really nice memories there for me.

Mina was absolutely gorgeous. She wore a dress that had a sleeveless bodice on top and a poofy bottom with a bit of a train. There were white fabric roses on the skirt part and she had pretty white gloves as well. Her hair was pulled up and she wore a tiara as well as a veil. I wasn't alone in thinking she looked like a princess. During her walk down the aisle, she was so nervous that she was shaking and didn't look up at all. I teased her later that if I hadn't known her I would have thought she was unhappy to be getting married since she looked so serious! She relaxed a bit during the ceremony, though, and was soon teasing Trevor once more.

We had a lunch reception in a beautiful building (the name of which I can't remember) on the UBC campus. It was a cozy and intimate set-up as there were about 55 people present. I spent much of that time in other parts of the building feeding and rocking Lily as well as playing with Nicholas who had had enough of all this boring stuff before the ceremony had even finished. I had many many moments of wishing Liam were there since I felt overwhelmed with being mostly alone with two kids and even whined to Karen once "I want my husband!".

After speeches, a short dance, and some outdoor photos of the shivering bride (she was sleeveless in near-freezing temperatures!) we packed up and headed out to Mina's parents' apartment building where they had rented an area where the cake-cutting took place and various Korean foods were served. Trevor and Mina had changed into Korean clothing for this portion and Mina looked like a beautiful doll.

After a bit, Jo and Graeme drove the kidlets and I back to the hotel since we were all tired and needed to go to bed. Within 45 minutes of getting back to the hotel room, I had both kids asleep and I had polished off a cooler. I can't remember the last time alcohol has been a better friend to me. I even wrote some alcohol-induced mushy stuff about Liam in my journal. Yeesh.

We got to see Trevor and Mina for a bit on Sunday and I kept poking Mina's belly. The chick is 17 weeks pregnant and she's just starting to get a little bump! Too cute. I made them promise to send me belly pictures throughout the rest of the pregnancy.

Oh, and the honeymoon. They've headed off to Korea for a week then they'll hit Thailand for two weeks. I'm not jealous. Really. Not at all. Uh-huh.

The remainder of the trip was spent mostly in Stanley Park. We visited the more public areas at first but the 4-hour hike in the woods was much more satisfying. Nicholas found the Haunted Tree's Great-great-great-great-great-great Grandpa. Anyone who is confused about the Haunted Tree needs to tell Liam to post about it.

And that was my trip. Here are some of the professional photos that were taken. Each guest received a cd with these pictures.

Fall down go boom

Here's a Wednesday afternoon math lesson for my blog-readers:

Kim + Snow + Stairs + Sandals = Krista's couch + Advil + Baggie of snow


Yup. I pulled a Liam and sprained my ankle. I was taking Nicholas out to the bus and fell down the cement stairs leading down to the road. I was wearing slip-on sandals and now I feel really really dumb. Ugh.

I called Nick's school and they're going to bring him out to the parking lot so I don't have to get out of the car. Krista's going to come by and carry Lily down to the car for me in a little while.

Somebody tell me that this is the only way in which Liam is rubbing off on me. If I start going bald next I'm filing for a divorce. (Sorry Liam.)

Alive on the West coast

Well, we made it! After all the mad-dash packing and wrangling the kids into various vehicles, we're in Vancouver and I'm at my brother's place. We've been ditched for an hour or so while Trevor, Mina, and my parents go get an ultrasound of Baby MacPherson. I'm just a little bit jealous.

I'll keep this short and sweet since Nicholas is waiting for a turn at the computer. He has the difficult decision on whether he should play games off of the CBC Kids site or the Crayola Kids site. Life is full of dilemnas when you're 5 years old.

We've got us a fancy-schmancy hotel room. The bedroom has a door that separates it from the sitting room. OooOOOh! And the sitting room has a fridge, microwave, TV, and teenie tiny coffee maker.

Liam, if you read this before checking you e-mail, GO CHECK YOUR E-MAIL!

I'm done.

It's been a slice

Well, Edmontonians, I'm outta here.

Until next Tuesday anyhow. Tomorrow afternoon the kids and I hop on a plane for Vancouver and we leave behind my poor abandoned husband. My brother is going to marry this stunning lady:





Here's a couple more shots of them. They did their wedding pictures in advance and these are some photos their friend snapped while the professional was doing his thing. The first one is them wearing their formal attire and the second is in traditional Korean clothing. I believe they're doing the ceremony in the Western garb and the reception in the Korean.

Camp Haikus

I was inspired this morning and so here is my report of camp in the form of multiple Haikus in chronological order. Enjoy.

"I forgot my shirt"
Turn around and go back home.
Lily starts to scream.

Sunshine on the lake.
Megaboggan pulled by Steve.
Praying for strong ice.

Steep and muddy slope.
Why did I take the short cut?
Try not to squash Lil.

Co-ordinator?
Some instructions would be good.
Spring camp? Likely not.

Asparagus soup.
Salmon sauce and moist pork loin.
Coffee dark and full.

These children are mine.
I know how to parent them.
Back off crazy broad.

Sleeping baby girl.
In bed, arms, and cuddly wrap.
Who needs a play pen?

Go home little kids.
Where in the hell is Wally?
Camp might never end.

Grumpy babe and boy.
Screams in the car and at home.
Sleep will fix it all.

Rolling rolling rolling...

I would like to take a moment to officially announce to the world that Lillian rolled over from her back to her stomach this morning for the first time. About 30 seconds later, she rolled from her stomach to her back and landed on her big brother.

She's been close to rolling for a week, but that darned right shoulder always got in the way. For some reason it clicked for her today. I personally think it's because she was naked and there was less interference to deal with.

Oh, and here's the latest Nicholas quote for his fans: "Africa is a really really poor country because one time there was a flood and it washed all the money out of the country. I think it went into the sewers."

Goal update

Here's where things stand as of today:
Total weight lost: 15 lbs
Weight left to lose before April 1: 10 lbs
Total weight remaining to goal: 40 lbs

I'm chipping away at the pounds and it looks like I'll make it to my mini-goal. Woohoo!! On Sunday I wore a skirt that I haven't fit into since early in my pregnancy when Lily made my belly start to bulge.

Today I finally did a workout video like I've been meaning to for a few months. The video was aptly named Shaping Up For Dummies and goes through twelve exercises with two sets of twelve for each. Lillian played on the floor and behaved fabulously. A dirty diaper necessitated a quick bum change between exercises 7 and 8. My doing push-ups over top of her proved to be too much of a temptation and she required a quick snack before I could move on to the next exercise. All in all, it worked out quite well so hopefully this will inspire me to do videos on a regular basis.

Well ok then Miss Screechy-Pants

Life with children is so predictably unpredictable.

Thursday morning, I received a phone call from my friend cancelling our get-together which had been slotted for that afternoon because her friend had had her baby. Fine then baby, just mess up a play-date over your arrival into the world. Don't worry about the fact that I haven't seen said friend in over a month and multiple plans were changed in order to make that afternoon work for us.

In the evening, Nicholas' cold (which had been bothering him since the previous Friday) kicked into high gear. Out with my plans to attend the LLL meeting and in with the new plans of cuddling a beet-red boy who couldn't stop hacking.

I actually did make it to the chapter meeting on Friday night, but there were only Lily, myself, and one other adult present as opposed to the 10 or so ladies and 6 or 7 babies who were present last month.

Tonight, though, was the real kicker. I'd originally planned to go to both a movie and dinner with the girls to celebrate Krista creeping closer to becoming an old woman...I mean, to celebrate Krista gracefully aging another year.

Anyhow, I decided this afternoon to cancel the movie part of the evening since Nicholas kept us all up for most of the night last night. It started with him screaming and yelling in his sleep for 5-10 minutes at a time. Fun. Next, he showed up in our room at 2 am refusing to sleep anywhere but in our bed since he was too scared for anything else. After much arguing, Lillian and I shuffled over and Liam took a blanket a pillow downstairs to the couch.

So, back to tonight. I decided to meet up with everyone at the restaurant at 6:30. Things went really well for the first, um, 30 seconds? I took Lily out of her snowsuit then Krista picked her up and passed her to Helen. That is when Lily decided that this night out was for the birds and she began to scream.

These, by the way, were not normal cries or sobs but rather full-body ear-piercing screams that threatened to shatter every glass in the building. I have three ladies and most of a restaurant who can verify that fact.

I tried to calm my seemingly-posessed baby first in the washroom then outside before deciding that something was wrong and I should get home and figure it out. By the time I left Helen and I were pretty certain it must have been an ear infection that was causing all the trouble.

As soon as I got Lillian strapped in the carseat, she started to calm down. By the time we arrived home a few minutes later she had only made a few small complaining noises. When we got in the house, I immediately took her up to bed for some serious snuggling and she proceeded to nurse, babble, and coo.

Now, before we come to the conclusion that the Lil simply decided that Opium was for the decidedly un-cool, I will point out that she did have another short episode of screaming about 15 minutes later. I popped some Tylenol and teething tablets in her and she cheered up soon after.

The next 2 1/2 hours were filled with a happy playful baby who fell asleep within 5 minutes of lying down in bed with me and she's now been asleep for about 40 minutes.

While I'm grateful that tonight ended on such a tranquil note, I sometimes wonder if it's worth making plans when my kids are young. Maybe I should just stay home, cuddle with my kids, and read some good books.

Yoga mom

A true mom video clip. If you're offended by boobage flashing or a nursing kid, don't click!

Nursing on the go

Warning: Whining ahead

Ugh. I was up until 12:30 last night with Lillian and Nicholas was awake and hacking in my ear at 6 am. Exactly how many cups of coffee am I now entitled to?

I'm seriously considering ducking out of grocery shopping this afternoon so the Lil and I can sneak in a nap before my appointment at the bank at 2.

You've gotta love kids. Not only do they give you stretch marks and mess up your house, they also keep you on the edge of lunacy through lack of sleep.

Speaking of messing up the house, does anyone else think that the Mommy Goddess got things really screwed up in the mess and time department? If you have no kids, you have lots of time and very little mess. If you've got kids you end up with lots of mess and very little time. I've also noticed that it just seems to get worse when the children multiply.

Update: Yes, the fun continues. Shortly after writing this I went downstairs and saw that Fingers had knocked over a glass of milk on the kitchen table. Suddenly my idea of storing my scrapbooking things in the new shelving unit on the table seemed quite stupid since the box for my photos has been trashed. The chair and carpet are also soaked in milk. Yum.

While I was downstairs cleaning this up Jack snuck into my room (the door to which I was certain I'd closed) and woke Lillian up. Many profanities have since been muttered.