Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MONKEY!

It is hard to believe she is 3. We have been through so much the last few years with her, it is a true blessing she is here.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for her involving all of her little friends, all 12 of them! She had so much fun! This morning when I said happy birthday to her, she instantly said, "I go to my class?!" (she calls gymnastics her class) I thought it was cute.

Tonight ,we are taking the girls to C-H-U-C-K-Y C-H-E-E-S-E. It is sure to be a blast!

Actually

I was on the phone with my new boss today going over a detail aid for pharmacists. After I read my detail to her, she commented I say the word, "actually" a lot. My comment to her was, "Actually, it is my replacement word for um or like". Then it dawned on me that I actually do say it a lot. Look I just did it again. No wonder Pooky bear says, "actually" a lot as well.

I thought it sounded more professional than saying, "um, or like" when you are trying to place your thoughts into words. I am actually... "DOH!" I did it again! I am scheduled for another conference call tomorrow morning to go over the detail aid one more time before Montreal. Here's hoping I can get my thought process quick enough to stop saying actually.

Here's hoping!

Feeling accomplished

Tonight I:

* did the girl's entire bedtime routine; which is changing the girls into pj's, brushing their teeth, reading one of the world's longest bedtime stories, prayers, water change, care bear stare, and then finally leaving them to fall asleep.

* washed, dried, folded and put away 3 loads of laundry

* washed two loads of dishes

* made 2 dozen muffins using a recipe I created from scratch

* watched Corner Gas and Little Mosque on the Prairie and other various shows

* mended, I mean preformed surgery, Pooky Bear's bunny.

* visited facebook several times through out the night.

* blogged.

I can't wait for Pooky bear to wake up to realize her Bunny's surgery went well and Little monkey's reaction to having muffins for breakfast. I love being a mom!

Pooky bear's concert.

Here is a clip from pooky bear's Christmas concert. My flaw video taping is I like to not look through the camera to see what is happening, not realizing my hand slips and I end up recording the wrong spot. Thankfully it was only for 10 seconds.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

This year it has been a challenge to get into the Christmas spirit. Financial constraints and health obstacles have made it diffcult to even think about Christmas. My husband and I procrastinated in putting up the Christmas tree as a result of this. We ended up putting it up on Sunday, and it started to look like Christmas. However, it still did not feel like Christmas. It was not until tonight that it felt like Christmas.

I was at Superstore taking advantage of my husband being sick at home and being able to go to Superstore, which is now open 24 hours. I walked into the store, grabbed a basket, and leisurely shopped. Ever so often, I would check the cashier line ups. There were two cashiers working which had line ups leading into the isles. When I saw how long the line up was, I decided to "shop" in another department I had not been to yet.

When it was just after 11:00pm, I decided to check the line ups again. That time it was not looking too bad. There was one line up which was still rather long, however most of the people in the line had only a few items each to purchase. The other line only consisted of one mother and her daughter. Her cart was very full and was just starting to unload her cart. I took a chance on the mother and daughter.

While I was watching her unload her cart, I noticed her shopping trip was not a leisure one, like mine was. Her shopping trip was an entire grocery shop which, I would assume, would last at least 2 weeks. The mom looked tired, and worn out. Her daughter appeared happy to sit and play with the chain on the cart. She didn't even seem to notice it was late and probably way past her bed time.

When the mom finished paying for her groceries, it was my turn. I quickly paid for my items, bagged them and noticed the mom still working on bagging her groceries. Looking down at my groceries and realizing she still has half of her groceries to pack, I quickly set my groceries down out of the way and offered to help the mom bag her groceries. After offering, the mom looked at me, pondered if it would be a good idea, then agreed to receive my help. I quickly went to work.

After we were done, she quickly said thank you to me. I told her I understand what it is like to be by yourself shopping with a toddler. I wished her a Merry Christmas, which had caught her by surprise. She paused for a moment, then wished me a Merry Christmas also. With how she responded to my wishes, I felt as though no one has said Merry Christmas to her this year and I was the first one to. That could be why she acted surprised when I said it to her.

I definitely now feel it is Christmas. I think it was actually a blessing, I ended up in line just behind the mom. I think we helped each other. She reminded me to be a servant of Christ and I reminded her of Christmas.

10 comandments for parents

This was written when I was in grade nine in a family studies class. I stumbled across it while looking for old Christmas cards. I was surprised to see I actually follow most of the comandments. I am pretty sure I have broken the "thou shalt not say do this or do that" comandment. However, I am comforted to know that if I do ask my girls to, "do this or do that"; I am polite when asking them for help. So, I think I am on the right track for the ideals I set as a teenager for what a parent should be. I just hope my children are happy with it.

I'm it!

Jill tagged me, so here I go:

I need to list 5 unusual things about me

1. I have a gag reflex at the sight or even mention of saliva. How I survived my 2 daughters, only God knows!

2. I display O.C.D. tendencies when it comes to things needing to be closed. This can be cupboards, books, or even decorative zippers on a sweater. I can not rest until what ever needs to be closed is shut.

3. I sometimes pronounce "don't" as "doe-ant" when I am quickly attempting to stop my husband's joking nature.

4. I think I am one of the few people who does NOT like cherries. My dislike for them started when I was a child. I was prescribed cherry medicine for all my ear infections, which were many.

5. I detest pickles on my hamburgers. I am not a fan of pickles to begin with, but having a pickle on my hamburger, ruins the flavour of the hamburger for me.

OK, so there is my top five list, which I realize I could have probably counted ten of them. Oh well!
Now time to tag:

Maryanne

David

reverse psychology

Tonight at story time, Little Monkey kept standing on our couch. After repeatedly asking her to sit down, I resorted to telling her she had until the count of three to make a better choice to sit down. She glared at me and demanded I stop counting. After counting to three, I took her off the couch. It was then, I fully realize I am parenting a near three year old!

Little Monkey screamed at the top of her lungs, in a pitch only opera singers can sing, to which had Pooky bear covering her ears. It was hard not to laugh, because even though she was very upset, she still had a song in her voice which is not demanding at all, it is her facial expressions which clearly indicate she is unhappy with the consequences.

After her scream, she quickly ran out of the room. Not wanting her to go to her room, I told her to "GO TO YOUR ROOM!" She quickly replied, "NO!" I also didn't want her in the hall way, so I told her to "STAY IN THE HALL WAY!" She, yet again, replied, "NO!" Then, she went quiet for a moment, realized she was in the hall way and did not want to go to her room, so she came back to the living room.

Parenting is great!

chicken pox diary - Day 3

Since the last entry I have:

- Taken pooky bear to the hospital Sat night to discover that it was a good thing we did. The erythromycin was not working effectively due to the nauseating side effects. This resulted in the sores expanding in size. A pediatrician prescribed new antibiotics including a stronger antibiotic ointment. The Dr left us his number and advised us to call if there were any changes we were concerned about. We were very fortunate to avoid IV antibiotics.

Note - Biaxin is a part of the erythromycin family. However, it has been developed to be easier on the stomach, specifically for children. It is a pricy drug, however worth every penny. Some plans cover it (like my husband's), however, the Saskatchewan provincial government will only cover it after submitting a claim for it. You must pay the $80.00 then reimbursed for it later.

- Made approximately 10 snowflakes for the E.R. while waiting to see the pediatrician. My husband and I kept "one-up'ing" each other with our snowflake making abilities. Pooky bear thought it was great. I was so happy I brought scissors, and books to occupy us.

- Discovered that Micheal Martchenko, the illustrator for Robert Munsch books, likes to put taradactol dactyls in every book. The taradactol is hiding and is not found on every page. We are thinking that the older Robert Munsch he has mice hiding in the pages, and in the newer Robert Munsch books, they are taradactols. My suggestion is to read "More Pies" and you will see what I mean.

-Realized the only way to get Pooky bear to have the antibiotic ointment on her is to have her hold my hand and squeeze. Let me tell you, she has a strong grip! She thinks it is actually funny to have me react as though she is hurting me. She completely forgets about the cream.

- Witnessed her daughter not crying for missing a Christmas party today. I was sure she was going to be upset, so my husband and I did our best to make her understand why she could not go and her little sister could. Our efforts paid off, and she was thrilled to have her little sister come home and give her a gift.


After all of this. I am happy my youngest has had the chicken pox vaccination. I am a little frustrated with the Sask health for not covering the cost of the vaccination when it first came out when Pooky was a baby. I do remember when the vaccination first became available for a cost, there were many Dr's, including ours, who did not agree with the vaccination. This, also could have been prevented with the proper material eduating the Dr's on the risk of chicken pox. From my understanding, it was the pediatrician's of Saskatchewan that helped the chicken pox vaccination become covered by Sask health. If only they would have been helping to educate G.P's about the risks as well.

Oh well, what's done is done. I feel very blessed that Pooky is on the road to recovery, finally. God was definately watching over our pooky bear, and that makes me VERY thankful! Our prayers are answered.

chicken pox diary - hour 48

Since the last diary entry, Pooky bear has been through a lot. Her first night (hours 8-18) was rough on her. She woke up repeatedly because she was in so much pain and itched at the same time. Her pox were scratched so much the night we didn't know she had them, that she had huge scabs where the pox were. By hour 18, the sores were red, very large and irritated. She still had normal chicken pox, but also had these sores (about 10 of them).

Being concerned about the chicken pox, I had plans to take Pooky with me to my Dr's app't. By our 19, I slept in and nearly missed my appointment. Pooky quickly reminded me that she was to come with me to my appointment. We both quickly got dressed and headed out the door. At the appointment, the Dr. explained that the sores were actually chicken pox which became infected. What actually happened was the first night Pooky bear became itchy on her neck, she scratched so hard it became a big infected scab. Then when the chicken pox spreaded, she would scratch her neck, then other chicken pox, therefore infecting them as well.

I felt so bad for Pooky bear and wished there was something I could have done. I did tell the Dr. I had been putting polysporin on all of the scabs. The Dr commented that is why her infection did not spread to flesh eating disease. This made me feel a lot better, knowing that my instinct to put polysporin on the sores helped Pooky.

Putting on the polysporin has not been the easiest task. She finds it very painful because of the sores. My husband and I had to both put on the polysporin on her at the same time to speed up the process. (Note - It definately helps to give acetometaphen 1 hour before hand to help with the pain) Once the polysporin was on the pain was gone and the itchiness.

She is now on antibiotics for the infection, benadryl for the inflamation and irritation, acetometaphen for the pain and polysporin. So far, this winning combination is helping combat the chicken pox and infection. She is feeling much better. Her and little monkey have been playing and getting ready to put up the Christmas tree. She is not out of the woods yet, but is 80% better than even last night.

Lessons learnt in the last 48 hours:

- teach pooky bear to call us even if she does not feel it is neccessary

- excess scratching leads to infection, which if not treated quickly can lead to flesh eating disease

- difference between reactine and benadryl: reactine - great for prevention
benadryl - great for treatment

- combination of reactine once a day and benadryl every 6 hours helps with further break out and treatment of the chicken pox. (note- I understand that chicken pox is not an allergy, but the medications used to treat allergies also help in the treatment of chicken pox. This does not mean the reactine and benadryl can prevent chicken pox, but help once chicken pox has appeared)

- erythromycin is hard on the stomach, so giving her the acetometaphen and benadryl and food 1 hour before ensures all medication will remain in her stomach and not be lost in a possible upset stomach loosing all contents. It is still important to take the medication with food as well.
My routine 1 hour before antibiotics: administer benadryl, 1/2 hour before antibiotics: administer acetometaphen. This has helped huge with pooky bear. It is important to note we did not discover this technique until hour 36.

chicken pox diary - hour 5

Pooky bear is doing surprisingly well right now. I failed to mention in the previous post that I gave her 24 hour relief children's Reactine, to help bring down the swelling and itchiness, which has proven to help. I also have been using polysporin on the spots with scabs to help speed the healing process and scaring. Acetaminophen has also come in handy to reduce fever, because the chicken pox has the tendency to appear in warmer places on the body, so reducing fever is a good thing.

So, so far we are surviving. She is happy playing on the computer, watching TV and visiting with friends. I am tempted to think that she is actually going to enjoy having the chicken pox, minus the fact she is upset she will miss ballet lessons.

chicken pox diary - hour 1

Pooky bear finaly has the chicken pox. I first discovered it when she was changing for school. She was complaining her tummy was itchy, my first instinct was her eczema, but the little red dots all over her belly proved me wrong. She was not a happy camper to find out she would miss school today, but was quickly calmed with the idea of lots of oatmeal baths and computer time.

I have been hoping she would get them soon, I was beginning to wonder if she had immunity given she had been exposed at least two times to chicken pox. But now that she has them, I know her days will be filled with what ever makes her: A. happy and B. not itch.

My mom quickly helped me out with the traditional home remedies, which so far has proven to not work. She first recomended calmine lotion (unsure of spelling), this in the first 30 minutes of discovering she has chicken pox, did not help. She then advised me to make a paste of baking soda and water, I tried this after the calamine lotion. The baking soda and water made her cry. So, I did what I know works on itchy, irritated, eczema: oatmeal bath.

She right now is lying in the water, which in the first 45 minutes of discovering the chicken pox, is helping. Now I just need to figure out a way to stop the itch while out of the tub. Hmm, oatmeal paste??? Messy, but maybe worth a try.

back to the gind

Well I am back at work and am doing OK. I am still sore, but was excited to work with my new boss today. My boss and I have children the same age, so we had lots to talk about. It is funny how having children the same age can be an instant conversation starter. We filled our driving time by comparing the differences in our 5 year old's schooling. Since she lives in Ontario, her 5 year old is in sr kindergarden 2 full days of the week, where my pooky bear is in school 1/2 days all week. Whether one is better than the other, who knows. I do know I think I scared her when she came with me to pick up my 5 year old from school. The idea of 8 busses is a little intimidating to even me, let alone some one who is not used to it. Oh well.

All in all, it was a good day and look forward to working tomorrow. Not before 1:00 p.m. though. (Little monkey has gymnastics in the morning) No rest for mommy!

Simplicity

What time is it? 6:49pm

What are you doing? blogging and waiting for the girls to finish playing in the tub

What are you eating? currently nothing, but just finished eating an entire bowl of Chad's Chicken Fried Rice...Yumm!

What are you planning? putting the kids to bed, facebook, maybe watch "You've go Mail", go to bed early

What is happening tomorrow? making phone calls for work, more lab testing, cleaning house, talking on the phone with friends and my mom, sleeping, facebooking periodically through out the day, more sleeping. I think that sums it up!

What are you craving? hmm, back bacon on a bun sandwich from the st laurent's market in Toronto.

What are you praying for? for me to start feeling better, to buy a house in the spring, for Chad to have a easy transition back to work, for the girls to be healthy, happy and safe, and many other things.

By the power of oatmeal

For the last 3 years, for those who don't know, I have been having a battle with Pooky bear's eczema. In the summer it is bad when it is really hot and in the winter it flares up when it is dry. This winter I have vowed not to be reliant on steroid cream for relief for the eczema. I am winning this battle with the powers of oatmeal.

I have been grinding the oatmeal up in my coffee grinder (about 2 cups full) and adding it to Kira's bath. I have been bathing her nearly every day with it. (side note - if you do try this, make sure the hair stays dry during the soak and use fresh water to wash hair). After her tub, I have been using either Aveeno baby 24 hour moisturizer (comes with a navy blue lid) or a lotion I have for sensitive skin which does not have any paraben or fragrance in it. With those two powers combined (oatmeal bath and lotion) Kira has not needed steroid cream for 10 days. This is a huge victory for us. Especially when we do eventually need the steroid cream, it is only needed once and then we get back on the routine. I have noticed she flares up when we stop her routine. Lesson learnt and I am anxious to see how long we can go with out steroid cream now.

Pooky bear does not like the steroid cream at all. It burns her when it goes on, and although it relieves the irritation, it still uncomfortable for her. This summer, I got smart in using the steroid cream. I started putting polysporin underneath the steroid cream to act as a barrier for her skin. It also served for healing her skin from the cracks and scratches which occur with eczema. She now asks for the polysporin when she needs the steroid cream. (I highly recommend the polysprin for kids with acetaminophen to help relieve pain as well, however, the private label polysporin works just as well)

I have been feeling these last few months have been helpful in teaching me how to better take care of my daughter and husband's condition. I now find myself reading all I can about managing eczema. I have discovered I have to be careful in what is recommended. I have tried several creams, soaps and lotions which were recommended, but they were, for the most part, unsuccessful. I am so happy I found a routine which is working right now and not reliant steroids to relieve it.

I still read all I can about eczema to better understand what my daughter and husband are going through. Today, I actually read a wonderful article in my dr's office about eczema. It described eczema how eczema is genetic in most cases, and that on average, only 10 percent of children will have their eczema into adulthood (given my husband had it as a child and continues to, I am pretty sure Pooky will fall in the 10 percent category). The article also went onto explain how eczema can flare up in the summer and the winter. How the author put it was, think of the person with eczema as having skin which is unable to seal in the spots where the eczema is. (I thought of it like puzzle pieces not able to totally come together but leaving cracks). In the spots where the skin can not seal, is where bacteria and even sweat can get into the cracks and irritate the skin. It is almost like they are allergic to there own sweat, but the sweat is just irritating the open skin. This made total sense to me. It completely explains why Pooky has horrible flare ups with eczema on hot days in the summer.

Now, the winter flare ups make sense too, because if the areas with the "weak skin" (for lack of a better term) have the cracks and the air is too dry it would irritate it worse than normal. This is why using lots of oatmeal (which is a natural moisturizer) and lotion help prevent and treat the skin. The article's basic summary was to moisturize the skin as much as possible, bath frequently to illuminate bacteria on the skin which could cause irritation (also to illuminate sweat from the skin) NOTE: it is important to know that the article cautioned on bathing frequently using soaps and lotions which would dry out the skin and not moisturize it.

I found it interesting that I would read the article after I have already found a routine which helps Pooky, but it really helped me understand why the routine we have for her works. This winter I think will be fine for her eczema. The battle will be this summer, keeping her skin clean, cool, and moisturized. I think we can handle it though. Maybe I should by oatmeal in bulk form to help.

I am an addict

I think today is the first night in a long time where I have not been horribly addicted to facebook. Although facebook is a great place to connect with people I would not otherwise, it also seams to have this control on me which gives me the urge to check my home page every chance I get. Even right now I am wondering if anyone wrote on my wall, commented on the group I manage, or posted new pictures. I am so bad, I even check Chad's facebook page. Of course, he asks me to....most of the time.

I have realized that facebook, although important for maintaining contacts, lacks in my selfish need to express my thoughts and feelings. Posting status updates just not cutting it anymore. That being said, status is such a brief way to express your current thoughts. What if my current I don't have just one current thought, but multiple ones? This is where my blog will hopefully serve my purpose.

One can hope.

Beauty in Regina

I like finding spots in Regina which remind me how pretty it is here.

I took this while I was working. Did I ever mention I love my job! It is funny how when I tell people from Ontario that I live in Saskatchewan, they automatically assume it is completely flat. I end up in conversations with my co-workers defending Saskatchewan and it's beauty. This is why I am now taking several pictures for them to see, through my eyes, what Saskatchewan is about.

new and improved hair

My day in reverse.

Today was Pooky Bear's first t-ball game for the year. She did very well especially for it being so cold!