tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74427574972742917572023-11-16T07:04:34.438-05:00Engineered Chaos: A Journey in ParentingSharing some of the crazy stories and interesting things I've learned over the years from my two kids. I'm a crunchy mom of a preemie and a toddler and these are our family adventures!Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-76567288555996551952013-02-10T10:04:00.000-05:002013-02-10T10:11:26.701-05:00Standard EquipmentHere are some things that for micropreemies or other kids with compromised lungs, are 'standard equipment'. Miss Adeleine is no exception. Thankfully, they have just become a part of life and are generally no big deal. But, I'll bet the average household doesn't know what a PiggOStat is. I didn't, until I had to shove my little kid in one.<br />
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1. We use this daily during the winter colds. It becomes a friend and it has its own name. This is PuffPuff.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPQp9hPKR8Ix36hWIS1B0BQWPEVfwzzQGrKralMH2uaxAFoyMqjAJG5VjfiPp4QqtAVgfFalSGYft24PRxEQIy66-85aY1RB93Qm7EmRGaxlK2etzGl0TzwQcrCkG1E3A8ZiamuCrczap/s1600/DSC_0057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFPQp9hPKR8Ix36hWIS1B0BQWPEVfwzzQGrKralMH2uaxAFoyMqjAJG5VjfiPp4QqtAVgfFalSGYft24PRxEQIy66-85aY1RB93Qm7EmRGaxlK2etzGl0TzwQcrCkG1E3A8ZiamuCrczap/s320/DSC_0057.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PuffPuff AeroChamber</td></tr>
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PuffPuff is the way we get the asthma medication (ventolin, steroids, etc) in children who have no idea what 'inhale quickly and hold' means. You discharge the medication into the chamber and hold the mask over their face while they breathe normally. Or scream because they don't want to. That actually works better (deeper longer breaths in between screams) but is not very fun for anyone so we try to avoid the screaming fits by making it a happy thing and then counting breaths or singing a song. Most importantly we have lots of positive feedback for a good session on PuffPuff. PuffPuff makes everyone feel better. Adeleine is now two and sometimes asks for it when she knows she needs it: "I wa mo PuffPuff". <br />
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2. We have a hospital grade Stethoscope in our house: for listening for the gurgle, rattle, wheeze and squeak of bad lungs during cold season. Alternatively, the primitive but very effective "ear to the chest" or the "ear to the back" works just as well, especially if your kid is afraid of stethoscopes, like mine. <br />
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3. We hate this thing, but are grateful for it afterwards. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: http://images.dotmed.com/images/listingpics/663449.jpg</td></tr>
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This is a PiggOStat machine. It is for taking an xray image of your kids lungs. You put their feet in the two holes in the plywood table, and raise their arms above their head and then clamp the sides of the clear plastic tube together with that brown leather strap. I was told by a fellow preemie mom that it was like 'stuffing your kid in a pickle jar'. Yup. Nobody likes this thing. Ever. But it only takes 5 minutes and it is very necessary. Luckily Adeleine's only been in it once (cross fingers, tap wood, etc).<br />
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We have been very fortunate, since Adeleine was discharged from the NICU that she's never again been admitted to hospital (keep knocking..). With the exception of an afternoon in the ER for wheezing when she was 18 months, we have been able to manage her breathing issues at home, with the help of PuffPuff and an ear to her back. But year round, you'll always see PuffPuff at the ready, in our diaper bag, just in case. <br />
<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-65431239669991492222013-02-09T18:44:00.000-05:002013-02-10T10:14:38.995-05:00Winter Fun<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Enjoying the SNOW!!!!</div>
Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-11505980614268020862013-01-27T15:23:00.000-05:002013-02-10T10:14:38.992-05:00Farm Update<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daddy giving a lesson on mushrooms in the forest. This was the "Poof" gesture. </td></tr>
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Sooooo...what's happening with the farm? Well, everything and nothing at the same time.<br />
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We are still in our 'cozy' 2 bedroom apartment. Which, of course, has its challenges with such young children, who like to be loud and jump and kick and no backyard or space of their own to do such things. I'm hoping when we move into our house I'll stop having to say "Stop doing that, you'll wake the neighbours" and "Too loud" and "Stop jumping" every day.<br />
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The kids have settled in nicely. They like their room together, they like the indoor pool swimming in the evenings. They enjoy the elevator rides everyday and each has their own button to press. That makes them very happy! They have their job and they know it. However, if you press Adeleine's button you will hear "No MY BUTT. Ada's BUTT! MY BUTT!" followed by screaming. If you press Liam's button he will just crumple to the floor and cry loudly and you'll have to carry him all the way to the parking garage because his legs have turned to jello from the trauma. So don't press their buttons. Ever. I know the neighbours love us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kids like sharing a bed. They are not really looking forward to their own rooms. That my be a gradual process.</td></tr>
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Andrew has been working hard on the drawings with a friend and building expert all through the fall months and is finishing them up today. Yay! Next, they get stamped, we apply for permits and then we are OK to start. First we have to pull the utilities to the site, create a road and dig our septic and geothermal beds. Then we can start digging for the foundation. Sooo...still far off from getting to the actual 'building' part.<br />
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We like to drive by the property whenever we have the chance. Today we did our classic weekend day: woke up late, went for dim sum then went for a drive to the property just to take a look. Andrew and Liam went for a walk. Adeleine and I stayed in the car staying warm (we forgot to bring appropriate clothing for a walk in the snowy woods). In the summer this would normally be followed by a trip to the ice cream shack. But seeing as how it is January, it is closed. So we are curling up on the couch watching cartoons instead. Junk for the mind. :)<br />
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We can't wait for our house! Its getting closer! One step at a time.<br />
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In the meantime, I'm reading up on my "<a href="http://www.grit.com/" target="_blank">Grit</a>" and "<a href="http://www.motherearthnews.com/" target="_blank">Mother Earth News</a>" magazines getting excited for our chickens and canning and having a kitchen big enough to bake in.<br />
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If anyone has any advice about farm-life I'd love to hear it! Also tips on choosing the right chicken breed and guard/farm dog would be much appreciated! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJmf1dZpgH0a0W8OgfFlYeCvWsMEAlX0JyQ-hjOGLx0WIdAAe_o9KuxdmZL31QGlD8NdJd_nIWrKAI0Th1A-_1ntu9I8UW2pPbRtbPAcb64jBm_2VBzX9MZHI3eqrXzZ_k0vAwGpOQq2S/s1600/DSC_0131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyJmf1dZpgH0a0W8OgfFlYeCvWsMEAlX0JyQ-hjOGLx0WIdAAe_o9KuxdmZL31QGlD8NdJd_nIWrKAI0Th1A-_1ntu9I8UW2pPbRtbPAcb64jBm_2VBzX9MZHI3eqrXzZ_k0vAwGpOQq2S/s320/DSC_0131.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kids and I walking through the goldenrod. This will be our backyard one day. Can we borrow your goat? </td></tr>
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Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-51146175677024758882013-01-26T17:45:00.000-05:002013-02-10T10:12:08.609-05:00Poop. So much poop.This post could also be called "Duh, Mommy."
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Let me start off this Potty story by sharing Liam's experience. Liam was a bit of a challenge to train. I shared some of his story in this <a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.ca/2011/02/look-mommy-i-made-snail.html#more">post</a>. The end to that was, while perfectly capable of going to the toilet, at the age of 4 he still just didn't care and if he was too busy playing, he would pee his pants and keep on playing. Accidents once a day, three times a week was his normal. He's 4 and a half now and only in the last month have I not had any bags of clothes come home from school - Yay! I think it comes with maturity and also a sister that is potty training too (a little competition never hurts). I came to realize that perhaps I had started Liam potty training too early (at 2 and a half) and maybe should have waited longer. So I thought, for Adeleine, I won't push it, be over excited about it, I'll wait until she's truly ready before we start. I was expecting anytime after 2 and a half I would begin to look for signs.
Then the poop began.<br />
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November 2012. Adeleine is 2 years and 3 months old (her adjusted/developmental age is exactly 2 years old). She begins to do crazy shit. Literally.<br />
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She removes her full poopy diaper in the living room, smearing it down her legs. Gross. I catch this and immediately throw her in to the tub. See this <a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.ca/2011/08/cleanliness-is-next-to-craziness.html" target="_blank">post</a> about my reaction to "Poop mess".<br />
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Then another time she removed her full poopy diaper in the bathroom (good), smearing it down her legs and walks away leaving it there, only to wander around the house with poop all over her (not so good).<br />
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There's more!<br />
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*The time she stepped in it after taking it off and left poop-prints on the carpet.<br />
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The time she greeted me with a big smile in the kitchen first thing in the morning and hugged my legs only for me to smell the scent of death and look down to see a naked bum and two little brown legs.<br />
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*The time she took her diaper off before pooping and squatted next to it on the carpet and left a log/blob.<br />
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*The time she pooped in the tub and Liam sounded the alarm (because after this many incidents, it warrants an alarm: Liam screaming "Mom! poop! Adeleine pooped! Poop! There's Poop!"). Both kids and all the toys had to evacuate and I had to throw the kids in the shower, disinfect all the tub toys and try and nudge poop remnants down the tub drain with my finger before disinfecting the tub. And my hands.<br />
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*The time she did not poop in the tub, but 30 seconds after she was dried off after her bath she ran into the living room and pooped on the carpet.<br />
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*The time she reached into the back of her diaper, got poop on her hands, said "Sticky."<br />
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*The time she took her poopy hand and wiped it on the ottoman, the couch and the carpet then continued to play with her toys until someone noticed the stink.<br />
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The time she pooped on the carpet, Liam sounded the poop alarm and I ran over, picked her up and ran towards the bathroom. On the way, more poop fell off her and landed on my foot and I kicked it across the room.<br />
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<i>*Note the points above that have a star* indicate that these particular situations happened MULTIPLE TIMES. </i><br />
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Sometimes we would have three poop alarms in one day. I remember one Saturday there was one bathroom and two living room poop incidents. I thought I was going to LOSE MY MIND. After each one I get so frazzled. You don't know what to clean first, the kid, the floor, the furniture and you simultaneously have to ensure that no one puts their hands in their mouths (difficult apparently) and sufficiently disinfect everything so no one dies of eColi. I would be frazzled ALL DAY after just one poop incident.<br />
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And poor Adeleine had no idea what the problem was. Didn't phase her a bit. She would look at me like "What? What? Did something happen?".
This went on for over a month.<br />
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O. M. G.<br />
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So many poops.<br />
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Such a long time.<br />
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Then I had a conversation with her Montessori teacher. She said that they had noticed she was doing well with going on the potty and wanted to know what was going on at home. WELL. I had a story or ten for her about that. The teacher said she thought that likely this was an indication that she didn't like poo in her diaper and she was ready to potty train. BINGO!!! At the same time I was incredibly proud of my little girl wanting to train so young I felt incredibly silly that I didn't think of this as a real possibility A MONTH BEFORE!!!!<br />
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Of course the teacher was totally right, Adeleine loved her underwear, peed and pooed on the potty like a champ the first week. After two weeks she was down to one accident a day. Dear lord. Liam took 2 years to do that. And the poop-tastrophes came to a screeching halt.<br />
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So, moral of the story is, if your kid does weird stuff with their poopy diapers, they might be ready to potty train.<br />
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The other moral is, no matter what happens with your first kid, your second kid is totally different and you will feel like you haven't learned anything at all.<br />
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Darn. <br />
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Here is a photo of Adeleine a few minutes after I asked her to put her underwear on. She did.</td></tr>
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<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-56844207380378532912012-12-28T22:14:00.001-05:002012-12-28T22:15:04.201-05:00New Years ResolutionsIt is approaching the new year and I haven't blogged in 6 months. So, I have some resolutions....the first being to try and blog at least once a week. If only to update on how boring/insane my life is. The second is to try and fit into pants again. More on this later. The third is...well, I don't know what the third is because the first two seem pretty daunting so lets not get crazy here with the promises only to be spiraling into the depths of shame in February for having publicly resolved to do stuff and failed. <br />
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Resolution #1: A few updates...<br />
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Kids: Liam, 4.5 years old. Super kid. High energy. Likes to test limits. Spirited. Obsessed with the limited amount of TV and candy he is allowed. Busy. Skeptical of Santa. Talks your ear off. Enjoys a good truck. I'd also like to mention again that he is high energy, spirited and busy. He runs at top speed from the time he wakes up until his eyelids just cannot take it anymore and after a valiant fight, they finally give up and drop. It is both exhausting and exhilarating to be around this amazing child. He also still lets me give him kisses that squish his perfectly soft cheeks. This makes me very happy. <br />
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Adeleine, 28 months, 25 corrected. Increasingly chatty and spirited in her own right. Eats me out of house and home. Obsessed with playing with people's hair. Recently weaned herself and decided she was done with diapers (there's a story all on its own). Independent woman. Rocked her 2 year developmental follow up appointment. Sings constantly. Working on growing more hair of her own. Also has squishy baby cheeks that are delightful. <br />
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Between the two of them, everyday is an adventure and I love it. <br />
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Resolution #2: Pants<br />
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I mentioned that Adeleine recently weaned herself. It was amazing. Liam was more of a 'forced' weaning. It was getting frustrating, at 19 months he was getting weird and demanding and I was tired of waking up three times a night so I began the weaning process which involved Andrew rocking him while he screamed for hours for me while I cried in the next room. I'm sure that's what nature intended right? Um, no. Now I know that it was a phase and had I just let it progress naturally, he probably would have weaned himself happily, like Adeleine did. Live and learn. But I digress. <br />
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Back to the most recent weaning. She finally and voluntarily had her last 'boo' sometime in mid-October. She was 26 months (Yay for breastfeeding toddlers!). I knew that breastfeeding used up / burned calories. I did not realize how much I guess. 8 to 9 lbs of belly fat later at the end of November I could not wear pants. Could. Not. Wear. Pants......ANY pants. Ok, I could still fit into my Lulu's. But I could not wear Lulu's to work. So for the past two months I have only been able to wear skirts to work. I refused to go out and buy more work pants because, one, they are expensive, and two, I did not have this problem a few months ago and so it must be temporary, like maybe my body just needs to balance itself out and will go back to normal on its own. I am so delusional. <br />
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I really have no plan on how exactly I'm going to fit into pants again. My first attempt, which was to stop eating the leftovers from both of my kids plates, seemed reasonable, and yet, when I scraped the food into the garbage I thought "But I could EAT THAT! Its perfectly good food!". So I'm trying to convince myself that the food could be contaminated with whatever cold virus they are harbouring this week and that makes it less desirable. Less. Not completely undesirable. Which is why I still can't wear pants. <br />
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Hubby suggests something to the effect of sit ups and exercise and I proceed to bite his head off mercilessly. I use every waking minute of my life to make sure this family survives another day and sit ups seem like the stuff of luxurious lives, like something I would do if my house was totally clean, all the laundry was done, the kids were snugly in bed and I had read every book on my shelf and completed every one of my Pinterest pins. THEN I might have time for a sit up. <br />
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One. <br />
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But probably not.<br />
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He has stopped suggesting. Smart man. <br />
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So, my resolution is to fit into my pants again. Not sure how that's going to happen. I'm sending positive vibes to my gut. That'll do it. <br />
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<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-48650704435251529382012-07-11T13:07:00.001-04:002012-07-11T14:13:45.681-04:00Dream Farm is a Reality!So much has happened in the past two months! Our little family has started a BIG adventure! A while back I mentioned that our dream was to have a farm in the "<a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.ca/2011/01/evolution-of-our-lifestyle.html" target="_blank">Evolution of our Lifestyle</a>" post. When I went back to work in December we really started looking at land. We soon found that there were only a few small acreages available<a name='more'></a>in our area since everyone wants a small plot of land to call their own and as a result, they were all very very very expensive. So, we started expanding our search further out and looked at larger plots of land in order to find something and still be remotely affordable. Finally, last April we found our dream. Open fields, pasture, forest and a stream on a quiet gravel road in a rural area. Paradise. 100 acres. Can you believe it? That's HUGE! It's totally ridiculous we know, but it was so perfect we couldn't pass it up and more land is better than not enough? Whatever, who cares, ITS OURS! Yaaaaaay! Finally. Over a decade of dreaming of having our own farm and we finally did it. It feels like we are starting a great journey.<br />
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Little catch. There is no house on it. Which is fine, that's what we wanted, to build our own farmhouse. But we had to sell our house when we bought the land and it takes a year to develop plans and build a house, so because we didn't want to live in a tent all winter, our little family has moved into a 2 bedroom apartment. In two months we went from living in our house to buying the land, selling our house and moving to an apartment. Big upheaval for sure! I'm sure Liam doesn't know what to expect next! Adeleine would be happy living in a box so she's fine.<br />
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So what are the next steps? Finishing the house sketches Andrew has literally been working on for half of his life. Getting a small builder to work with us to finish the design and build the new place. We will need to start with the basics of running power half a kilometer to the site, digging a well and putting in septic. Skipping ahead to once the house is built and we are all moved in (maybe the end of next summer???) our plans are<br />
1. Open the back door and let the kids run wild. <br />
2. Get a dog <br />
3. Plant a giant vegetable garden in the spring<br />
4. Get a few ridiculous looking chickens like <a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=UJM&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1416&bih=686&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnse&tbnid=ItXkj5vUcvIufM:&imgrefurl=http://pattypenny.blogspot.com/2012/01/tuesday.html&docid=dXTZhr-zc8hhiM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQovlU07eLqaEL6_BW1sG7tYzbApb7rJyKf718WSD1y_W90cJQXnubu6kQOqrV6G39LEyqxNEKA2X7eFVjukHc_k3GkSHXmvbGjVqUeZQdi5Isynsd1xkNnWqNPiRY3yNlhbK0b8MuOQE/s1600/Buff-laced-Polish-chickens.jpg&w=640&h=428&ei=gbP9T73LEMe70AH47ZX0Bg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=510&sig=112878203817531469387&page=2&tbnh=141&tbnw=193&start=22&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:22,i:256&tx=119&ty=86" target="_blank">these</a> or OMG <a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=UJM&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1416&bih=686&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnse&tbnid=ocTFd2HwRh1CXM:&imgrefurl=http://simplychicks.blogspot.com/2011/01/which-breed-of-chicken-are-you.html&docid=ixWHsFigRPER9M&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC-pYhC-BrChXIwo_Go_kOr615A6lXccxopGgeqFfOVocFZkaVfJzUwzvg0CIB0UKyStK4uENMgVqENFHERKJNE2T2dRVAi6bDemU3dmUnb3P78Wlj3Kefx2ZZRUlt2RKxZuXelWdWaKM/s320/14Polish-BeardedBuff.jpg&w=300&h=300&ei=gbP9T73LEMe70AH47ZX0Bg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=990&vpy=149&dur=529&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=112&ty=112&sig=112878203817531469387&page=3&tbnh=158&tbnw=135&start=49&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:49,i:342" target="_blank">this</a> one or <a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=YvL&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1416&bih=686&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnse&tbnid=RBGtXs2dIywG_M:&imgrefurl=http://www.thefeaturedcreature.com/2010/10/do-funky-chicken-9-weird-breeds-of.html&docid=CnoVdB3xV2lUlM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCp7vKFzfDKz1suoaIKXVTL6jPcX7bekP7D6Xv0IKm0_RCrLv52wxUC4mltUjwkxtZdQKfWV8CxscgbEa7h-48BYFWROTwND1agxFOTJJC7VFHryWL_00rYZbTWooPjzvlcTlcKZUZw_Gn/s1600/david-bowie.jpg&w=400&h=271&ei=ta39T_28GoHj0QGy4fHpBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1106&vpy=77&dur=56215&hovh=185&hovw=273&tx=52&ty=202&sig=112878203817531469387&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=186&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0,i:131" target="_blank">THIS</a> one! (Seriously, we'll be getting some regular egg laying hens but at least one of our chickens will be ridiculous looking purely for entertainment purposes. I just want to wake up every morning to Tina Turner and David Bowie Chicken and laugh my ass off.)<br />
5. Find some animals to love the pasture again (either ours or a neighbours)<br />
6. Run some natural walking trails through the land (probably just follow the existing animal trails)<br />
7. Follow pretty much all the principles of <a href="http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/classroom/" target="_blank">permaculture</a> including <a href="http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/about_gardening" target="_blank">forest gardens</a>. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvhh9vg51dOsL6UAI3Wg0GW-4otMOOxerDsFD1SXigDH7FoqighXYwY4NOmg_Fax5jw9UU9AbkRO-nn2amAAZi0uFYjOPbsAs3odB5ScUnGoZVtJQUWOS9jTairnIB_92p0iPPPOhWQ9s/s1600/IMG_2687.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVvhh9vg51dOsL6UAI3Wg0GW-4otMOOxerDsFD1SXigDH7FoqighXYwY4NOmg_Fax5jw9UU9AbkRO-nn2amAAZi0uFYjOPbsAs3odB5ScUnGoZVtJQUWOS9jTairnIB_92p0iPPPOhWQ9s/s320/IMG_2687.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SOLD!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FA19mpLeVMHrgLVui1DjpRKKUVnBKb_47Ty0sGcCZ9ukPHTRFR3jG4mK9a3xsPrdiKDRdhcInQgmAgtTvB8w2qe6ntHKG6Dk5BbimqEMzlftZDynhU3RptvdK86_iDA6EwcSxMBAaODa/s1600/IMG_2593.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FA19mpLeVMHrgLVui1DjpRKKUVnBKb_47Ty0sGcCZ9ukPHTRFR3jG4mK9a3xsPrdiKDRdhcInQgmAgtTvB8w2qe6ntHKG6Dk5BbimqEMzlftZDynhU3RptvdK86_iDA6EwcSxMBAaODa/s320/IMG_2593.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy face on the new land!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We are so very very excited for this new family adventure! We'll keep you posted each step of the way to our dream farm!Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-31222815913832233902012-04-15T08:09:00.000-04:002013-02-10T10:14:56.702-05:00I'm losing it.In the past three months I have lost my wallet, my credit card and my engagement ring.<br />
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The wallet was lost for only a day. I frantically ripped apart my house and car and checked at both kids schools. I found it in my desk at work the next day.<br />
<br />
The credit card was gone for two weeks. I kept checking to see if there were any weird charges, but no, it was not stolen, thank goodness. After two weeks of having absolutely no clue as to where it had gone, I found it by accident in the trunk of my car.<br />
<br />
The engagement ring was lost first. About 7pm after a full day (which was technically a sick day, but as I've mentioned <a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.ca/2011/11/no-sick-days-but-benefits-are-good.html" target="_blank">before</a> if you have kids, you don't actually get to be properly sick on sick days) I suddenly noticed it was gone. Hand felt naked. Awful feeling in my tummy. It's probably in the last place I was, so I checked the kitchen. Nope. Okaaaaay, maybe it was in the bathroom where I bathed the kids. Nope. Okaaaay, maybe it's on the floor somewhere between the bathroom and the kitchen and the place where I discovered it was gone. Nope. I wrote down everything I did that day, it was a long list and my travels included virtually every room in the house plus my car and Liam's school. This "maybe it's here" thought process went on for the next few hours, days, weeks, months. Finally after ripping apart my house, car, desk at work, asking both of the kids schools to look (again), I just had NO idea where it was. <br />
<br />
<u>Places I looked for my ring: </u><br />
Kitchen (counters, cupboards, drawers, floors)<br />
3 Bathrooms<br />
Every other room in the house<br />
Every Bed / sheets<br />
All Dresser drawers<br />
Every pocket of my clothes & coats<br />
Couch & chair crevices<br />
Washer & dryer<br />
Compost Bin (ew)<br />
Several garbage bags (ew, ew, ew)<br />
Desk, floors and parking lot at work<br />
Kids' Schools including parking lots<br />
Ground around the community mailbox<br />
Driveway<br />
Garage<br />
Vacuum bags<br />
Sink traps<br />
<br />
Two months went by. <br />
<br />
It was really gone. I was so sad. Others I asked to look were sad FOR me! It made me more sad to answer the "Did you find your ring?" question with No.<br />
<br />
There was one place left to look. The last resort was the tub drain trap. To open it up Andrew had to pull back the basement ceiling tiles, saw the pipe (the previous home owners did not have the foresight to make it accessible) and then replace the whole trap with a new (adjustable) one. So, good husband that he is, opened everything up and the ring...WAS.......not there.<br />
<br />
Then I was really really sad. That was my last good idea. Defeated we went upstairs, Andrew ran to the grocery store and then we started to make dinner. We got some new onions so I took the old ones out of the bowl in the fridge (we keep them in there so the skins don't go all over the place) and was about to put the new ones in when I noticed something shiny at the bottom of the bowl. MY RING!!! It was in a bowl of onions in the fridge for two months.<br />
<br />
It is a horrible feeling to have something you treasure just disappear into thin air (or a bowl of onions, however it may be). I was so relieved I started to cry, which freaked out Liam so I had to explain that I was just really happy. Andrew and I had a laugh (hee hee?) that the ring was found just an hour and a half after he sawed apart the tub drain pipe. Oopsie?<br />
<br />
So here it is, two weeks later and I've managed to lose other minor things in the meantime. Sometimes I spend entire days just being frazzled. Utterly clueless as to where my belongings have gone. I clearly need to slow down and pay attention before I misplace one of my kids! Good thing they are loud. At least Liam is. Adeleine, well, I'll have to put a bell on her.Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-15274846732049889162012-02-25T16:03:00.001-05:002012-02-26T12:51:19.473-05:00Going Back to WorkI have managed to survive my first two months back at work after being
away on maternity leave for 15 months. After I remembered what exactly
it is that I did at work I realized that there are many advantages to
being back:<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<ul>
<li>I get to use grown up words! 10 dollar words like timeline, strategy,
performance, indicators and deployment! It's all coming back to me...a
little slowly, but it is coming back. </li>
<li>I get 8 hours of 'me time'. Oh yes, I consider work 'me time'. Any time
where I am alone, in a quiet place, is considered 'me time'. I don't
care if I'm required to work, it is still solitary quiet. Aaaaaahhhhh. </li>
<li>My level of productivity has increased considerably! I can get more
accomplished in 2 hours of work than in an entire day at home with two
kids. My first day back I got so much done, I looked at the clock
thinking surely it was the end of the day and it was only 10:30am. At
home with two little peanuts running around, if I can get food in their
bellies and they survive until Andrew gets home at 5, I'm successful. If
I get a shower that is a total bonus. It is very hard to get <i>anything</i> done. I try not to have high expectations for what I can accomplish at home during the day. But at work - that's a different story. I can do 15 different things before lunch. Ha! </li>
<li>I get to eat lunch when it is hot! And I can eat it s.l.o.w.l.y. Mmmmmm...food appreciation. </li>
<li>I only have to change two or three diapers a day now - the daycare does the rest!</li>
<li>Having a paycheck relieves the stress of having no income coming in from me. It was
starting to get a little tight there being off for so long! It is really nice
to have a paycheck coming in again. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Things I miss about being at home with my munchkins:<br />
<ul>
<li>Waking up without an alarm. I miss Adeleine waking me up by climbing on
me . I miss
Liam wandering into our bedroom wearing only his night time diaper and
yelling "Mommy! Its morning time! Can I watch Lightning Nequeen?" This
stuff only happens on the weekends now. (Lightning Nequeen is really
Lightning McQueen from the movie Cars)</li>
<li>Being able to do the laundry during the day. </li>
<li>Relaxing in the basement with the kids playing </li>
<li>Our adventure days at the museum, the park, outside, going for walks </li>
<li>Driving Liam around at 130 every day just so he would nap "I don't want to go for a drive! I don't want to drive around! I hate going for a dr... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". </li>
<li>Knowing every thing my kids did throughout the day, every smile, every cute word. </li>
</ul>
<br />
Things I have learned in my first few months back: <br />
<ul>
<li>Check that your shirt is on frontwards before you leave the house and
get to work and start meeting with coworkers. Yes, this happened. </li>
<li>Check that you have finished doing your makeup and have not left some stuck to your lip, creating a gross grey
film, before you get to work and start meeting with your coworkers. Yes,
this happened. </li>
<li>Check that you do not have baby boogers/goo on your shoulder before you get to....well, you know. </li>
<li>Other kids in the daycare love nylons and will come up to you and rub your legs. Every. Time. I find it hilarious. </li>
<li>Bribing your kids with food to get them to put their boots on faster works (sometimes). </li>
<li>Do as much as you possibly can the night before. Before you fall asleep at 8:30. </li>
<li>Two kids going to daycare/school and you going to work creates a LOT of baggage (see photo below). I had no idea that I would be packing from 5 to 9 different bags and loading them in the car (and unloading them) every morning. </li>
<li>Don't forget the diapers, the wipes, your purse, your kid's shoes, their mittens, their snow pants, your lunch. All of these items have been left at home at least once. I can never remember absolutely everything each week, but I try. </li>
</ul>
<br />
The best part:<br />
I get a little bit of me back. The me that put on makeup, dressed in nice clothes and went to work and had a career. The kids love their daycare/school and they are learning new things everyday and gaining a bit of independence. They are happy, I'm happy. It works for us. <br />
<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiONyGtWZvGA3gsyyE6ZIPOpnaLL3ncBfDKesU7F2Eg1bOdvLMeasah0PkPTYfmashr7IquqMULODSXAbWwci4bRFKYMzRv4TjPauIHvwzcoA5CGfpIOJuiTUHaPrnVA3z26G4tXcFbczK7/s1600/IMG_2400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiONyGtWZvGA3gsyyE6ZIPOpnaLL3ncBfDKesU7F2Eg1bOdvLMeasah0PkPTYfmashr7IquqMULODSXAbWwci4bRFKYMzRv4TjPauIHvwzcoA5CGfpIOJuiTUHaPrnVA3z26G4tXcFbczK7/s320/IMG_2400.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9 bags on Monday mornings</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-83269990728817814602012-02-25T14:40:00.000-05:002012-03-02T14:43:10.583-05:00Stokke High Chair ReviewThis post goes in the "Baby Gear We Love" category. I won't post about the baby gear we find useless unless someone asks me about something in particular. Or unless I get ticked off while<a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.com/2011/02/marketing-crap-childrens-toys.html" target="_blank"> shopping</a>. I like talking about stuff that is AWESOME!! <br />
<br />
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I mentioned before in this <a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.com/2011/01/newborn-equipment-list.html" target="_blank">post</a> about some of our favourite newborn and toddler gear. Here is a more indepth look at our high chair(s) and why we love it(them).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Stokke High Chair - Trip Trapp</b></span><br />
<br />
High chairs hold kids while they eat. That's pretty much it. So, I only had one basic criteria when I was high chair shopping: <b>It must be beautiful.</b> It is a large piece of equipment that can dominate a room and shout "I'm obnoxiously ugly! Look at me! I match nothing in this room!" It will be in our house a looooong time. We had better love it. To me, beauty was NOT a giant squishy plastic chair covered in brown plaid (the equivalent of the tan Minivan of high chairs). We love Scandinavian design. We spent time in Sweden & Belgium and were inspired by their homes and decor. Every time I go to IKEA I flip out and have to restrain myself from buying everything (sometimes this works, sometimes not). So, when thinking of our home, beauty to me includes simple, natural colours and a lot of wood. I was drawn to the traditional wooden high chair.<br />
<br />
If IKEA made a wooden high chair I would have bought it, but, they don't (they make perfectly good plastic ones though- I almost bought one and I've heard they are awesome). I found many traditional wooden chairs with fancy legs and blue plaid fluffy covers that looked like the kids that would be in them would wear bonnets. I considered refinishing an old high chair, but that seemed like too much work and chemicals for a pregnant lady.<br />
<br />
And then I found Stokke. OMG. It was perfect. Simple. Wood. Chair. It has a safety harness for infants, it is ergonomically correct, it grows with your child, it allows them to eat at the table WITH the family (not off to the side), it comes in many colours (we chose white to match our kitchen table) and it is BEAUTIFUL! Also, because it doesn't have that squishy plastic seat, crumbs get wiped right off instead of getting stuck in the cracks of the plastic to grow old and mold, so it is always (or can be) perfectly clean. It is quite comfortable and doesn't need a squishy seat anyway, but if you are thinking of comfort for your new baby's bum remember that your kid is already wearing a diaper (Do they really need more padding? I think not.). They can use this chair until they are ADULTS!<br />
<br />
Liam was 6 months when we got the chair and he still uses it now (he's three and a half) and loves it. I removed the harness when he got too big for it was going to put it back on when Adeleine was ready for a high chair. I thought we could just get a booster seat for Liam and she could have the Stokke. But, Liam loved his chair so much he didn't want to give it up, it was growing with him, always fitting perfectly and he could climb into it on his own (yay for independence!). So, I went and bought Adeleine her very own Stokke. Yes, now we have two. The kids have chairs they love, for life. And I love them too - so beautiful! Yay!<br />
<br />
Here they are, last Family Day making cookies at the table in their Stokke high chairs. Love it!
<br /><a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fengineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F02%2Fstokke-high-chair-review.html&media=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-afzY81r33FQ%2FT0k3iXXj4II%2FAAAAAAAAAFY%2FDyyZ0zri8HE%2Fs1600%2FIMG_2402.JPG&description=Kids%20using%20Stokke%20high%20chairs" class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal">Pin It</a>
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<br />
Here is a link to the <a href="http://www.stokke.com/en-ca/highchair/tripp-trapp-product-concept/grow.aspx" target="_blank">Stokke</a> website where the features are explained in more detail. The Price Point on the Stokke is around $300 CDN, but keep in mind you will never have to buy a booster seat, which runs in the neighbourhood of $40-75. Since I have purchased the kids' chairs, I've come across other brands of beautiful Stokke-like chairs at or slightly below the same price point. <br />
<br />
One thing my hubby says could be improved is the release for the harness, he finds the buttons a bit small, he wishes they were bigger. Ah well. Maybe they'll improve that one day. <br />
<br />
Coming soon: Tiny Diner & Snack Trap review<br />
<br />
You may also enjoy:<a href="http://engineeredchaosajourneyinparenting.blogspot.com/2011/01/uppababy-stroller-review.html" target="_blank"> Uppababy Stroller Review</a><br />
<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-11147663336659963822012-02-20T14:29:00.001-05:002012-02-25T16:04:48.908-05:00Finding Real FoodI last went on a rant about hidden ingredients in food last June - remember the<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7442757497274291757#editor/target=post;postID=1177890653102032474" target="_blank"> sugar in salt</a>? Since then I have found a few more foods that I just assumed contained what was in their name.<br />
<br />
<b>Peanut Butter </b>- contains sugar and hydogenated vegetable oil (This list is for Kraft. Jiffy and Skippy contain more ridiculous ingredients like malodextrin, mono and diglycerides and about 6 things other than peanuts). <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b>Cream Cheese</b> - contains Xanthan and/or Carob Bean and/or Guar Gums as 'stabilizers' to make it more dense, uniform and smooth. I'm pretty sure I'd be ok with kinda lumpy cream cheese.<br />
<br />
<b>Fruit Yogurt</b> - contains food colouring, carrageenan, guar gum, carob gum. The last three are stabilizers. Again, I'd be ok with lumpy yogurt - I'd just stir it. And the fruit should add the colour. <br />
<br />
<b>Whipped (and other types of) Cream</b> - contains carageenan again as well as mono and diglycerides as emulsifiers. Don't care why, this is gross. <br />
<br />
<b>Sour Cream</b> -contains modified food starch, sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, guar gum, locust bean gum, carageenan, calcium sulface, potassium sorbate. I don't know what the heck these are used for and I don't want them in my food. <br />
<br />
<b> Icing Sugar</b> - contains corn starch. I assume this is because no one wants to sift it to get out the lumps anymore and the corn starch makes it 'flow' better. <br />
<br />
<b>Garlic Powder</b> - partially hydrogenated vegetable/soy/cottonseed oil. Seriously? <br />
<br />
With each of these seemingly simple foods you would think that they would just contain the main ingredient. Nope. I'm so sad. <br />
<br />
But...<br />
<br />
These foods DO exist in their pure form! <br />
<br />
I managed to find a few!<br />
<br />
<b>PC Organics Peanut Butter - </b>We have used <a href="http://www.presidentschoice.ca/LCLOnline/products.jsp?type=details&catIds=cat40002&catIds=106&brandId=1&productId=17011" target="_blank">this peanut butter</a> for years, because it is organic. Keep it in the fridge after opening it and you won't have to stir it (The grandparents are having a hard time with this one, but bless them they are trying it!). Ingredients: freshly roasted organic peanuts. Natural awesomeness. <br />
<br />
<b>Organic Meadow Yogurt</b> - we like <a href="http://organicmeadow.com/our_products/organic_yogurt/organic_3_8_plain_yogurt" target="_blank">this plain natural yogurt</a>. Sunday nights I pour half into a bowl, add some homemade vanilla sugar and frozen blueberries, stir and pour into tiny containers for my Liam to take to school all week. My friend Julie makes her own yogurt and I'm very tempted to try this. <br />
<br />
<b>Organic Meadow Cream <a href="http://organicmeadow.com/our_products/organic_cream_cheese" target="_blank">Cheese</a> , <a href="http://organicmeadow.com/our_products/organic_cream" target="_blank">Creams</a></b> and <b><a href="http://organicmeadow.com/our_products/organic_sour_cream/organic_14_regular_sour_cream" target="_blank">Sour Cream</a>-</b> haven't tried these yet, but the ingredients lists are amazing. <br />
<br />
<b>Icing Sugar</b> - Well, I don't much care for the fact that corn starch is in there and if I really wanted to, I'd grind my own fine sugar in the coffee grinder. But since I use it for grinding spices all my sugar would likely taste like cinnamon...which wouldn't be so bad really. <br />
<br />
<b>Garlic Powder</b> - if there are no ingredients listed on the spice jar I don't trust it. I look for 'granulated garlic' instead of 'garlic powder' and one ingredient: garlic. Or, even better, I just use fresh garlic whenever possible. So many health benefits to<a href="http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?dbid=60&tname=foodspice" target="_blank"> garlic! </a> <br />
<br />
Our family continues to search for REAL FOOD!<br />
I'd love to hear about how you and your family find the food. Any surprises? Leave me a comment!<br />
<br />
You may also enjoy reading <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7442757497274291757#editor/target=post;postID=1177890653102032474" target="_blank">"Are you there Food? It's me, Carrie." </a>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-79988971474188163372012-01-04T15:43:00.000-05:002012-01-19T19:05:56.208-05:00Daycare / Cesspool of GermsWe survived our first 'month' of daycare! It was really two weeks and then two weeks of holidays, but the germs she picked up lasted the whole month! Yay! OMG so many germs.<br />
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Liam's first daycare experience, 2.5 years ago, was pretty much the same, hmmm, maybe worse even. He lasted from Monday until Thursday before he came down with a two day fever and broke out in a rash. Roseola. He was off for the entire next week. I just started my new job so I freaked out and called in the reinforcements. Mother, Mother in law, Meme (great-grandmother), Aunt, Great Aunt and his Great-Great-Aunt all drove two hours over to our place to take care of him while I went to work. So hard. Poor bean. Over the next 6 months he had countless colds, 3 ear infections and a bout of diarrhea that lasted two months (salmonella - awesome). But then, once he had <i>everything</i>, or so it seemed, the colds didn't run into each other quite as much. Sometimes we would get two or three weeks in between! Now that he's three and a half, he gets sick about once a month, but handles the colds much much better and is a professional puker: that kid can hit a bucket or a toilet with ease. I'm so lucky! No, I'm serious about that. Cleaning up puke sucks ass. <br />
<br />
This year, Adeleine made it through the first two weeks of daycare with just a runny nose. Good girl! They had warned me some viruses were going around the daycare and to keep an eye out for them - well, she got those and more! The first day of the holiday she woke up with TWO super weird butt rashes that I'm now sure was Impetigo and yeast. Followed by a snotty nose and hacking cough. Then a few days later, suddenly her hands broke out in a rash, the next day it was on her feet and this new weirdness turned out to be Hand, Foot & Mouth virus. Disgusting sounding, but really just a harmless rash. A few days after that, she had a fever for two nights in a row, with progressively more snot and a NEW disgusting cough. Then, a trip to the doctor revealed, Surprise! a double ear infection. Poor bean. Poor, poor bean. It was a good thing I had taken those two weeks off, because I likely would have had to take them off anyway, or called in the reinforcements to make the trek from my hometown. But here is where we're super lucky: she's handling the colds and snotty nose just fine. Being a preemie, with compromised lungs, we were concerned about how she would handle common colds. Many of her preemie friends have been hospitalized with infections, pneumonia and RSV. Last year, we spent the flu season in isolation, to give her lungs a chance to heal, so this year, being out visiting during flu season and, of course, being in daycare, is a big deal for her (and a lot of worry for me). I've had her breathing checked by her doctor several times this fall already and each time I'm concerned, she is just fine. Whew! Way to go Adeleine! Way to clear your snot! I think she's on her way to becoming a professional cough-er. Oh, my kids are so talented! The things they pick up in daycare!Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-42229676049962811292011-11-27T15:03:00.001-05:002012-01-19T18:56:41.183-05:00Montessori at Home<b>So what the heck is Montessori anyway? </b><br />
It is super hard to
describe all that Montessori is! Liam's toddler room teacher said that
the best way to describe it, is to see it in action, visit a Montessori
classroom. From my experience, it will be transforming. But here is my
best definition: <br />
<a name='more'></a>Montessori is an educational formula, or suggestions of
ways to help a child develop based on Maria Montessori's observations
of children (that have been validated by many recent research studies.
PS My next book to devour is <a href="http://www.montessori-science.org/montessori_science_genius.htm" target="_blank">Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius</a>). A
Montessori school embodies her key concepts or principles. Here is an article that offers a <a href="http://www.education.com/reference/article/principles-montessori-method/" target="_blank">quick summary</a> of the 5 basic principles of Montessori.<br />
<br />
<b>Our experience with Montessori</b><br />
<br />
We were first introduced to the world of Montessori by my lovely (and newly married!) cousin Therese, who was at the time, going to school to become an accredited Montessori teacher. She would talk about all the neat 'toys' they had for the kids and the theories about development and she kept telling me how much Liam (and I) would love it. She was also pointing out how some of the things that I was doing with Liam were already very Montessori-like. I had no idea what she was talking about, since I was just raising him how I was raised. Letting him (safely) explore the cupboards, pulling everything out to examine it. Letting him help out with anything and everything I was doing, from laundry to dishes. Knowing that making a 'mess' was actually part of a child's development and that it was ok. I was just letting him do the things he liked to do and giving him the opportunity to play with the things that he seemed drawn to. I was just doing what I thought was normal parenting, what my mom did with us (thanks Mom!). Turns out, my mom, like me and many other moms out there, without knowing it, used a few of Montessori's key principles. Why? Well, most of Montessori's principles are based on common sense and simple observation of children. My mom once said that her goal was to raise well rounded <i>independent </i>children and I think that is the a very important aspect of Montessori. Encouraging independence. Sometimes it is easier than others. Liam and I (and most other kids) demanded independence. My mom likes to say my favourite phrase when I was young was "No! I do it MYSELF!", now I smile whenever one of my kids says that. <br />
<br />
<i>Any child who is self-sufficient, who can tie his shoes, dress or undress
himself, reflects in his joy and sense of achievement the image of human
dignity, which is derived from a sense of independence.
<br /> - Maria Montessori </i><br />
<br />
Allowing and guiding your child to be independent is very difficult.
Letting go, letting them do it themselves, trying and failing and trying again, waiting for them to put on their shoes, it is very hard to do. Parents just want to DO things for their kids. They dress them, they
carry them, they undress them, and then they plop them down infront of a toy to play. But I've learned that children
are not dolls, they are not incapable, they do not just want to be entertained, they are human beings who want to learn and grow up. If you do
everything for them, when they have the ability to do it themselves, they
miss out on the opportunity to be independent.
Yes, yes, eventually they will learn to tie their own shoes, but if they
are 6 years old before they can put ON their own shoes they have missed
at least three and a half years of being able to do it themselves (that's also why god invented velcro). <br />
<br />
<i>If teaching is to be effective with young children, it must assist them
to advance on the way to independence. It must initiate them into those
kinds of activities which they can perform themselves and which keep them
from being a burden to others because of their inabilities. We must help
them to learn how to walk without assistance, to run, to go up and down
the stairs, to pick up fallen objects, to dress and undress, to wash themselves,
to express their needs in a way that is clearly understood, and to attempt
to satisfy their desires through their own efforts. All this is part of
an education for independence."
</i><br />
<i>- The Discovery of the Child, Maria Montessori </i>
<br />
<br />
While I was pregnant with Adeleine, Therese gave me a book called <a href="http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-books/montessori-from-the-start/" target="_blank">"Montessori from the Start: The child at home, from birth to age three"</a> and I began to devour it. There were so many common sense ideas in there that were simple to implement and we started to use them immediately. The concepts influenced the design of our nursery and Liam's new room. That book was a quick education on child development as well as a guide to making our home more child-friendly (note that this is very different from child-proof). It encourages parents to change the way they view
their children and their play (work). It gives practical suggestions on how to change
their environment to encourage growth and development. Amazing amazing book. Flipping through it today makes me want to read it again because I'm sure there are a ton of things we could still do. So much MORE!<br />
<br />
<i><b style="font-weight: normal;">The environment must be rich in motives which lend interest to activity and invite the child to conduct his own experiences.</b></i><br />
<i><b style="font-weight: normal;"> - Maria Montessori </b></i><br />
<br />
Some of the things we were able to implement immediately after reading this book were:<br />
<br />
<u>Child friendly cupboards and drawers.</u> We went beyond making our kitchen and bathrooms safe (taking out all medications and potentially poisonous items), we made sure that any cupboard or drawer accessible at the child level was <i>theirs</i> to explore. We put all sharp or otherwise dangerous objects in ONE cupboard and put a lock on it. All other cupboards and drawers and all the objects in it are free for exploring. It is encouraged and often used. Liam once (ok several times) took out all my canned goods and made a train all the way across the kitchen floor. He often used the lettuce strainer as a push toy when learning to walk. Adeleine delights in taking out the contents of drawers. If you look at these activities as a child being 'bad', misusing objects or making a mess, you have missed the point. Exploring their environment and all the objects in it (not just toys) is a very important part of learning about the world and at the same time encourages development of motor skills. <br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Low hooks and shelves.</u><b> </b>We installed very low shelving in Liam's room. Like, really low shelves. Shelves so low a 2 year old can reach them in order to pick out his own books. We also have a set of hooks about 3 feet off the ground so that Liam can get and hang up his own coat. There are lots of low shelves with toys in baskets in the basement. Anything that is his, we put at his level so he doesn't have to ask us to get it, he can just do it himself.<br />
<br />
<u>Child sized cleaning tools.</u> Liam has his own little mop, broom and tiny dustpan. When I mop, he helps. He can also help clean up floor crumbs with his sweeper and dustpan. Does he use these things everyday? Nope. But when he does, he's developing motor skills and a sense of self-sufficiency and purpose. <br />
<br />
<u>Using breakable things. </u>When the kids are old enough not to play the "Uh oh!" game, where they purposely drop things on the floor (Adeleine LOVES this game right now), we give them real place settings. Not plastic. Real glass cups, real breakable plates, real metal forks - all small of course. They are at a grown up table (both kids use the <a href="http://www.stokke.com/highchair/tripp-trapp-product-concept.aspx" target="_blank">Stokke</a> chairs so they can eat with us) eating grown up food, using grown up place settings. It teaches them how to use these things properly and they learn very quickly what breakable means and to watch your elbows when your glass is near the edge of the table. You would think we lose a glass or a dish every night - not so. We have lost maybe 2 little plates and 3 glasses in the last 2 years. But, we can go to a restaurant and Liam (at the age of three) can confidently use everything at the table. I've seen six year olds whose parents bring plastic glasses to restaurants because they can't trust their child not to break something. It is because those children have simply not been given the opportunity to learn how to use breakable things.<br />
<br />
<u>Child friendly bathrooms.</u> Step stool high enough to reach the taps. Toothbrush, toothpaste, towel, soap all within a child's reach. Liam can go to the toilet, then wash and dry his hands all on his own. He doesn't need adult help. He does however still need a reminder to use the soap. <br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Nursery and child room design.</u> Neutral colours that won't distract from the contents of the room. Beautiful things on the walls (Liam has a Redwood tree, a map of the world and a tree design). A place to sit and work (he has a little table with two chairs). A place for books with low shelves (as mentioned above). Accessible clothing drawers. We also have a plant for him to care for (we have a GIANT plant. It is ridiculous. I would not recommend a giant plant since it takes up so much space, a small one is fine) and he trims of the dead leaves and waters it (Liam learned to use scissors when he was just three - don't gasp, he's fine with them). <br />
<br />
<i>Sometimes very small children in a proper environment develop a skill
and exactness in their work that can only surprise us. </i><br />
<i> - Maria Montessori </i><br />
<br />
I could go on and on, but most of the stuff is common sense stuff really - make your home accessible and child-friendly and your kid will be able to safely explore and do things for themselves. There are so many ways of preparing the environment and these are just a few of the things we have implemented. There are tons of articles on how to create a Montessori environment at home, but here is one <a href="http://www.ourmontessorihome.com/2011/07/the-prepared-environment-kitchen-bathroom/" target="_blank">I'm inspired by</a>. <br />
<br />
After we went through Liam's pre-school room experience at daycare we switched him to a Montessori school. AWESOME!!! I'll post more about that later. Now, I'm off to re-read Montessori From The Start. <br />
<br />
One last personal example of using Montessori principles without knowing about Montessori: At a very young age, Andrew's grandma used to let him play with the spices. Not just smell them and put them back, but touch, feel, mix and use them in cooking. He would choose the spices. He would make a mess. He would make terrible tasting food that was thrown out instead of eaten. But eventually he learned what spices tasted like in certain foods and what ones went together well. As an adult, just by tasting, Andrew can identify spices used in restaurants and recreate that exact taste at home. He can flavour food like no one I have ever met. He has an incredible natural skill. He was simply given the opportunity to work with spices. Neat eh? <br />
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<i><br /></i>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-16108660108784720582011-11-22T12:17:00.001-05:002012-01-04T15:57:44.523-05:00Beginnings and EndingsWhen you go back to work after a maternity leave and need to put your little one in some sort of care you do a lot of research. There are a lot of choices out there for childcare. Family, home care, childcare centre, nursery school, Montessori, etc. Our choices were kind of limited since we had no family in the area, there were no licensed home cares in our town and Liam was too young for nursery schools or Montessori, so I looked into daycares. I researched and toured 5 daycare centres before I chose one.<br />
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My mother in law used to run a chain of daycares and so when I was doing
my research I asked her what I should look for and her advice was as
simple as it was true: Listen to your heart and choose the one that you are
most comfortable with. Leaving your child is incredibly difficult, so you want a place where you can feel confident knowing he is safe and loved. See the environment. Speak with the teachers. Get a feel for the the place. She was right on. Touring the different daycares I saw a wide variety of environments, but some included miserable teachers, crying kids, locked outside doors left open, vacant stares and horrible menus. My gut told me to get the hell out of there, never mind leave my kid with them.<br />
<br />
I finally found a wonderful centre and Liam was enrolled into the infant program when he was 12 months and stayed in that room until he was 15 months when they moved him up to the toddler room. He (and I) loved both the infant room and the toddler room. The teachers were lovely, the kids were cute and hilarious and kind. They all loved our Liam, he was a star (all daycares should make you feel like your kid is a star!). They didn't bat an eyelash when I said we were cloth diaperers. They had a healthy multicultural menu that reflected their population. They sent home ADORABLE crafts. They helped Liam make a gift for my hubby's birthday. So caring! They greeted him with hugs every morning! He would run to them and then to the toys and not even look back to see if I was still there. I would yell "Bye Liam! Bye Liam! BYE!....LIAM! Over here! BYE!" He had little girlfriends. So cute! We loved that daycare for over a year. Until they moved him up to the preschool room. That was a disaster.<br />
<br />
The preschool room was for kids aged 3-6. Liam was not even 2 and a half when they thought he was ready to be moved up. We were flattered that they thought our little peanut was so advanced he could play with the big kids! He does have very good language skills, but he was just over 2 years old and he was (and still is) TINY for his age. Super duper tiny. He was maybe 24lbs at the time and moved to a class where there were giant 6 year olds with (I discovered later) behavioural issues. Also, the student to teacher ratio changes from 1 teacher for every 5 kids in the toddler room to 1 teacher for every 8 kids in the preschool room. So now, there were more kids, they were bigger and there were less eyes watching them. I didn't tour or research the pre-school room. I really should have. Turns out it would not have passed my 'comfort' test.<br />
<br />
The result of his visit to the pre-school room on Day 1 was a bite to the forehead. Who the hell bites a forehead? I brushed it off as first day roughhousing, my Liam is no angel and perhaps he had pissed someone off. There were bruises and bumps, likely from the giant play equipment, but a bite on the back of the shoulder the following week was concerning. I mentioned it to the teacher and since they said they hadn't seen it happen they couldn't do anything about it. Uh, ok. The teachers encouraged us to begin potty training since Liam was in the big boy room now. We were excited about it! We brought in big boy underpants and changes of clothes. He would have good days and bad, but overall was making progress. One day there were some shoes in a bag in his cubby so I brought them home assuming they were muddy and threw them in our laundry room. The next day a teacher informed me that yesterday morning they were asking Liam if he was farting because he smelled stinky and discovered at lunchtime that he had poop on the bottom of his shoes. So, first, the shoes in my laundry room are full of shit? Someone could have mentioned that yesterday? Second, he walked around with shitty shoes in the classroom for an entire morning? Who's shit was it? Dog shit? Other kids shit? His own shit? Did he touch it? Why did it take you ALL morning to figure this out? I've previously mentioned my tolerance for poop mess. I was pissed. After just three weeks in this room we began looking at enrolling Liam into another school.<br />
<br />
At this same time our daughter was still hospitalized in the NICU so my stress level was through the roof. If I could get through a day without crying it was a good day. I just needed someone to take good care of my son so I could go to the hospital and sit next to my very sick daughter. What happened to the school I knew and loved? We were in a very different classroom now and I wanted to take the teachers from the toddler room and transplant them to the preschool room.<br />
<br />
The last day turned out to be a Thursday. When I dropped him off in the morning we were walking across the classroom together and a big kid ran by and shoved Liam to the ground making him cry. The teacher, not getting up from the couch, merely said "Awwww don't do that...". If this was how this kid and this teacher behaved when I was standing RIGHT NEXT to my child, what did they do when I wasn't around? I did not want to leave him that day, but I had to since I needed to get to Adeleine at the hospital (we were attempting to breastfeed for the first time that morning). When I picked Liam up in the afternoon the kids were all outside. Right away the teacher ran up to me and said that Liam had peed his pants. I looked across the lawn and saw that he was running around on a chilly October day with wet pants. So, she had time to walk over to me and inform me that my son was running around in pee pants, but no time at all to change him into dry ones? Again, I was pissed. I went over to the sign-out book and found that there was an "incident report" that stated he had received some scratches. I asked his teacher about it and she said that Liam told her a big kid had scratched him, but her tone of voice implied that Liam was lying about it, because again, she didn't see it happen. I ran over to Liam and saw two bloody scratches across his cheeks, and to this day, a year later, he still has a line of broken blood vessels across his cheek to show for it. I scooped him up, brought him inside, changed his pants, cleaned out his cubby and informed the daycare manager that we would not be returning because of all the incidents outlined above and the fact that this was just not a safe environment for him to be in. And by 'informed' I mean I cried and blubbered and yelled. I totally lost it. I stormed out. Friday Liam stayed home with Mommy. Monday he started in a new school. A Montessori school. I am happy to say, that putting him in Montessori was a wonderful conclusion to what began as a horrible preschool experience.<br />
<br />
When I visited the Montessori school that Thursday night, I asked a lot of questions about how they handled incidents like bites, scratches, pushing, hitting, fighting, etc. They looked at me wide eyed and said that type of behaviour simply doesn't happen here. When conflicts arise, the teachers address it right away, the children are accountable for their actions and they would work it out together at the peace table. The PEACE TABLE! It was amazing. Liam was put back in a toddler room (kids 18m to 3years old) with 5 teachers for 20 kids. Wonderful ratio. There were zero incidents in 8 months in the toddler room. He thrived. He was happy. He was safe. That's all I wanted. But with Montessori we got so much more. I'll write all about the differences between a regular daycare and a Montessori school later.<br />
<br />
Adeleine is a year now. I'm going back to work again. She's too young for Montessori right now, so until then, she'll be in a lovely daycare. I'm nervous. I'm excited. I'm scared. She'll love it, I know. A room full of new toys everyday and new little friends. Another ending and new beginning. Here we go!Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-66646979022872130152011-11-21T15:18:00.001-05:002012-04-17T03:37:12.364-04:00No sick days, but the benefits are good.Fair warning: This is a pity party post. You don't want to join my party, skip it. <br />
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Apparently I run this house like a JIT (just in time) operation. When I get sick and the laundry doesn't get done, suddenly no one has any underwear or pants. I don't know how that happens since we have plenty of both, but after just two days, I'm sending Liam to school in sweatpants and I'm wearing my fancy panties. Not to mention that I can't see the kitchen coutertops anymore because every darn dish has decided to dirty itself and go sunning on the counter. It is a finely tuned machine this household and when the only thing I can do is lie around on the couch creating piles of used tissues, the machine stops. Hubby is a big help, no doubt, but when he gets home I dump the kids with him so I can have a break.<br />
No one tells you this story when you have kids. No one warns you that you will never be allowed to be sick again. Like really wallow in your sickness until you get better. I remember the days when I would get a nasty cold, take a few days off work, hang out on the couch by myself, curl up in the the fetal position, wallow in my snot, moan to myself how much this sucked, drink my tea and rest. Glorious rest in a quiet house. And then I would feel better and go back to work. OMG that was awesome. But, those days are over. OVER. Mommies can't take a few days off work. Heck, we can't even take an hour off work. Mommies are 24-7-365 with no sick days.<br />
This week I had a bug. The second in so many months, since Liam is so generous with his viruses (thanks honey bunny!). I was coughing so hard I puked snot kinda sick. Lovely. I still had to get up early, feed and dress two kids, drive Liam to school, come home, feed and entertain Miss Adeleine all day, go pick up Liam and then start the evening routine. I got about 15 minutes to myself in the evening before Adeleine decided she needed to scream until I came back to get her from daddy. (Why? Daddy is awesome! Stay with daddy for a few more minutes. Please? Please? No?)<br />
The next day was no better but with the added task of taking the car in to get a new battery because it finally decided that TODAY would be the perfect day to die forever in the school parking lot. I actually did that thing in the movies where people put their forehead on their steering wheel and moan "uuuuuggggghhh". I won't lie. It felt good to do that. That morning I sooooo just wanted to be home on my couch by myself drinking tea and not hacking up a lung at the car dealership "Um...can I get you a glass of water?" Yeah, do you also have a pillow and some blankets? Here, take my cute wiggling hungry kid for an hour while I nap right here in the back of this new Highlander.<br />
<br />
Being sick sucks. Being sick while being a mom sucks more.<br />
<br />
Pity party over.<br />
<br />
The end.Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-33549358468168665202011-10-02T21:59:00.000-04:002013-12-02T12:21:03.048-05:00Too Many ToysLast year we asked our families to kindly cut down on the number of gifts given to our kids. It was very difficult having these conversations. In some cases I wrote emails in addition to multiple face to face and telephone conversations. Hardest thing ever. To tell the people you love, and who love your kids, to please please stop buying presents for them. But we had to. Liam was only two and <br />
<a name='more'></a>getting presents every time he saw his loving aunts, uncles, grandparents, parent's cousins, great aunts/uncles, great grandparents, extended family, friends...everyone. We have a large family. We love our family so much and we know they love our kids and think of them when they go on vacation, or when a holiday is approaching, or when there is a sale, or because they saw something cute, so, they buy them a gift. Or six (that is not an exaggeration). Our house was becoming full of toys, the grandparents houses were becoming full of toys and Liam was overwhelmed.<br />
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We are not alone! Most parents I've talked to have this same issue. They do one of two things 1) Keep the toys and resent the fact that they live in a toy store. 2) Accept the toys and then secretly give them away to charity. We did not like either of these options. We knew we could not keep getting the large volume of gifts, it was increasing and would likely double when we had our second child. And, we did not want our families spending thier hard earned money on toys we were secretly giving away. So we did something else. We asked them to please stop buying our kids gifts. I won't lie and say it went over well. It did not. For some people it was like asking them to cut off their own arm. I was told that I was "taking away the joy of being a (insert relation here)". There were tears. I have been called ridiculous, selfish, irrational, ungrateful and controlling (each in different conversations and some together, just for good measure). If we didn't have a good relationship with our family to start out with this could really have been bad. But, as bad as it was at first, eventually, they began to understand us. I think. Maybe. Perhaps they are just appeasing us thinking it is a phase that will pass. Another one of those kooky things we do, like using cloth diapers and eating organic food. Bonkers we are!! (PS For those of you that don't know, we have been faithful cloth diaperers for both our kids and buy a heck of a lot of organic food.)<br />
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The following are the things that we have learned about too many gifts/toys, from observing our own kids and a little research. We discussed these reasons with our families with the hopes that they would see where we were coming from and understand why we were asking them to stop buying things for the kids. <br />
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<b>1) Regular receipt of gifts can create the expectation that gifts will always be provided. </b>This was by far the most important reason. We did not want our kids to equate relatives visits with gifts. Or worse, equate gifts with love. I think I would pass out from humiliation if my kid were ever to yell "Where's my present??" when someone arrived. And yet, this is where we were leading. There was RARELY a time when a relative or friend arrived empty handed. We visited with people at least bi-weekly. There was always <i>something</i>. Maybe it was little, maybe it was on sale, maybe it was just something they picked up, but it was <i>something</i> for the kids. Or several things. Every time. From everyone. It was not long before Liam would be smart enough to realize this and we were horrified. Not only might he learn to always expect things, but on the rare occasion that he didn't get a gift, he may think "What did I do wrong that I didn't get a gift?". So then NOT getting gifts would be a problem. Oh my. Gifts do not equal love. Family (or friends!) equals love, period. Show up at our house empty handed. PLEASE! We want your company, not your things. <br />
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<b>2) Large volumes of toys are overwhelming to young children.</b> Too many choices of things to play with leads to quickly picking the closest toy, playing with it for just a minute, tossing it aside and picking the next shiny one, and then the next and the next. Pretty soon, all the toys are everywhere and the kid is in the middle with his head spinning, unable to find anything to play with. This is over stimulation. Fewer toys, organized neatly on shelves still let kids have a choice, but do not overwhelm them. This applies to books as well. Ever ask a two year old to pick a book from a shelf filled with books? You'll be there for an hour and all the books will be on the floor and he will not have picked one yet. Compare that with asking them to pick one out of three books. Much easier for them. Our kids are at increased risk for ADD and in my research I found that fewer toys, neatly organized in a consistent way (same place each time) are less stressful for kids and allows them to focus better. The child's environment has a huge affect on behaviour. Um, who's kids are not freaked out by a trip to toys r us? They are practically beside themselves by the end. Too much stuff, too much colour, too many choices, too much everything. Imagine if your house was like that AND your kid had trouble concentrating? You'd be peeling that kid off the walls every day. <br />
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<b>3) We are teaching our kids NOT to be consumers.</b> Consume, consume, consume. Buy, buy, buy then throw away. This is the world in which we live. This type of behaviour is not sustainable. The earth (and us) cannot continue to live if we continue to buy and dispose of frivolous things at the current rate. If we don't need it, we don't buy it. And then, we don't want it gifted to us. We try and minimize the things that come into our house and the things that go out (recycle, trash). Things for the kids are not an exception. I'm so glad Liam is learning in school about being kind to the earth.We try and live our lives with minimal impact to the environment and this is a very important way to do that. <br />
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<b>So, what happened? </b>Did we say no gifts at all? No. We said please save all your gift-giving urges for birthdays and Christmas. And then, please, please, please only buy <i>one </i>gift. Did that work? No. Not at first. We kindly reminded people over and over about not giving gifts, we asked people to please take their no-reason-at-all gift back and give it at Christmas instead, and we actually sent a huge bag of superfluous gifts back at Christmas (OMG was that a drama disaster). It was freaking hard. People just like to give. We know that. We have a wonderfully generous circle of friends and family. It was hard for them. It is probably hard for them every time they shop. But over the past year...they did it. They tried to understand. They tried to not buy things. They greatly reduced the number of gifts. And for that, we are truly truly thankful. (See, we are not ungrateful people!)<br />
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We don't want gifts for our kids, so what DO we want? We want our family and friends to spend time with our kids. Come over for a visit - stay a few days even! Spend money on a trip to the zoo, not a stuffed animal. Take them to go get ice cream. Play in the yard with them, not with the toys downstairs.<b> </b>Or just be with them.<b> Our family and friends' presence in our kids' lives, spending time with them, is the best gift they can give them and one that they will always treasure. </b><br />
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<b>Living the Dream...</b><br />
For Liam's 3rd birthday we had a big party, 50 people. We didn't have the big party as a gift-grab, we had it because it was his birthday and we were super excited and wanted to share the day with everyone!! So we said "please no gifts" on the invitation and that actually went over quite well! Only one person told me that I was "totally ridiculous". Ha! Anyhoo, Liam loves animals, especially lions, so I found a charity in Africa that rehabilitated and reintroduced lions to the wild. Our family and friends were very generous and we collected their pocket change at the party and donated it to the charity. Liam was thrilled that he helped the lions. I think we will do something similar every year. He still got birthday gifts from us as well as both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc., so don't go thinking I'm a birthday party-pooper ok? Geez. But he would have had 25 MORE gifts had we not done this...what three year old can even get through opening that many?? Liam almost passed out at Christmas!<br />
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Speaking of Christmas...it's coming. We would love to see you and spend time with you! And we will thank you to not buy us anything! THANK YOU!!! Just say, Merry Christmas, here's a hug. Perfect gift!<br />
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UPDATE: Things are still going very well!<br />
We have continued with our tradition and in the past three years for each of our kids birthday parties we have said "no gifts" on the invitation and donated to charities instead. The charities are ones that are meaningful to the kids (Liam picked his own charities for his 4th and 5th birthday parties) and the family (we donated to the NICU for Adeleine's 2nd and 3rd birthday). The kids are growing up knowing that on their birthdays they get to make a difference in the world. And that is a special gift that all our friends and family have given to our kids and we are so grateful! <br />
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<br />Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-19357598075686601352011-09-10T16:10:00.000-04:002011-09-11T21:46:09.470-04:00You say tomato...<span style="font-size: large;">The harvest has begun! </span><br />
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The September harvest I mean. Some things we have been harvesting all summer like <b>Mixed Greens, New Zealand Spinach, Mint, Sage, Basi</b>l and <b>Oregano</b>. For some reason the oregano bush began attracting very large black flying bugs. I have no idea what they are or if they bite but they are HUGE and will let you know in no uncertain terms that you are too close to <i>their</i> oregano bush flowers. As a result, I am currently afraid to pick oregano. <br />
<a name='more'></a>I do plan on drying the herbs for use during the winter (as long as someone else - ie the hubby - cuts the oregano) and my friend Julie was kind enough to dehydrate the mint for us so we now have our own mint tea! <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmeatZaSVhnd9e5ieKuchWkkWNrK9pauIiflHMd6kWCeUmn-p9_pyzRKfePfnxG-NV-gUBq3t8eKGzfxS_vpfGvaKApahDb1D8jz0ogvGlZsFWswcJjPZnx9pAXpisW-valHVrB-LP5eGS/s1600/IMG_1856.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmeatZaSVhnd9e5ieKuchWkkWNrK9pauIiflHMd6kWCeUmn-p9_pyzRKfePfnxG-NV-gUBq3t8eKGzfxS_vpfGvaKApahDb1D8jz0ogvGlZsFWswcJjPZnx9pAXpisW-valHVrB-LP5eGS/s320/IMG_1856.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cherry Tomato bounty</td></tr>
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The new harvest is tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes. We have hundreds of <b>Cherry Tomatoes</b>. I collect about 30-40 every two-three days. We also have larger tomatoes ready to go as well as <b>Brocolli, <a href="http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Produce-638/tomatillos.aspx">Tomatillos</a></b>, a few<b> Raspberries</b> and various <b>Squash</b>. There are lots of mystery melon/squash/zucchini? flowers out there so we are expecting a bounty of something or other in October. Surprise! But right now, the harvesting focus is squarely on the tomatoes. We try to eat as many as we can, but geez, that's a lot of tomatoes. I have given bags of tomatoes to relatives, friends and neighbour's kids "Hey, kid! You like tomatoes?". I have dried at least 150 in the oven and have plans to cook and freeze more for sauce.<br />
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Drying the Cherry Tomatoes is super easy. Cut in half, place on pan facing up, sprinkle with salt and put it in the oven on 225 for 4-5 hours (sometimes more depending on how many you have). Then pop them in your mouth!! They are AMAZING. They taste like CANDY!! If you have any left over, store them in a sterilized sealed jar covered in olive oil in the fridge for up to 6 months. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAtPQvltbnGc2XGQEUngtZDb3hWiheNHE4NbRtRc47nNwM68oZxFMXayZrLZ0a0U8ZWHnlfub1woTYVgV1morgm6aDmzWrrX1B_C23jnhihI8zzTQOLyD8os4UyuM1xvxoA9roKMaThlC/s1600/IMG_1858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAAtPQvltbnGc2XGQEUngtZDb3hWiheNHE4NbRtRc47nNwM68oZxFMXayZrLZ0a0U8ZWHnlfub1woTYVgV1morgm6aDmzWrrX1B_C23jnhihI8zzTQOLyD8os4UyuM1xvxoA9roKMaThlC/s320/IMG_1858.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sliced on a baking sheet </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevf6zLJmwXT_ONPXho8ulHYW7-nGvdTSyNR5GWeUHU_UHMS45_yJvhRxJRwAP_B8-9k5wIvYverkslbVp36hB5KYwCf8E_tknGWndQG0drYzqTBOuGONPf6sSLT3rjNRqVnzDhkjvErbh/s1600/IMG_1867.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevf6zLJmwXT_ONPXho8ulHYW7-nGvdTSyNR5GWeUHU_UHMS45_yJvhRxJRwAP_B8-9k5wIvYverkslbVp36hB5KYwCf8E_tknGWndQG0drYzqTBOuGONPf6sSLT3rjNRqVnzDhkjvErbh/s320/IMG_1867.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Done! Delicious!</td></tr>
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If I could get Liam to try one I'm sure he'd be addicted. Liam is currently in his 'plain food' phase, where sauces, spices and condiments are "YUCKY!!!!", so trying a dried tomato is like asking him to try to eat a bug. Not gonna happen, unless by accident. I don't know what happened to this kid's taste buds. He used to eat curries with me! We used to go for Ethiopian food together! He loved flavours! His current list of favourite foods includes crackers, breads, pastas, crackers and...crackers. How he grows on that I have no idea, but he grew an inch this summer. I'm sure it's just a phase. Maybe his taste buds are growing? So, in the meantime, more candy tomatoes for me! And you! If you want me to make you some, please let me know! They are so amazing on their own or in salads, sauces and anywhere else you'd use a sundried tomato. <br />
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If you visit us in the next few weeks you WILL receive a bag of tomatoes to take home! If you would prefer them dried, please let me know the day before and I'd be sooooo happy to do it for you! <br />
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I'm seriously considering investing in a food dehydrator after this harvest season! My oven is always on!Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-53323890359835672632011-08-30T23:06:00.001-04:002011-08-30T23:10:27.145-04:00Cleanliness is next to CrazinessI'm messy. My hubby is messy. The kids are messy. The cat is messy. We all live together in a messy house. And we are quite happy being little messy people!<br />
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While you may not always be able to eat off our floor (unless you are a dog, in which case I'd like to invite you over after dinner every night) the house is as clean as it is gonna get with two young kiddies running around. And that's just fine. <br />
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It has been suggested that we hire 'help'. This makes me cringe for several reasons. First of all the term 'help' means that we are (or, really, lets face it, I am) incapable of taking care of ourselves. That we require assistance <i>in everyday living</i>. I'm sorry, I think that if I can't keep my house relatively clean, do the laundry and take care of my own kids, I don't need help, I need a smaller house and kids that have learned how to fold tea towels. <br />
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Oh, but it is just 'outsourcing' the 'non value-added tasks'. I know the value of my time and I certainly don't want to be spending every waking minute of my life cleaning toilets and washing floors. I also don't want to work away from my home and kids just to employ other people to do the things that I (we) are perfectly capable of doing ourselves. Either we do it, or we go to work in order to pay someone else to do it. If we had any disposable income (and is there anyone with kids these days that does?) we could think of a hundred things we needed before spending it on 'help'. <br />
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We had maids come in once. I asked for it for my birthday present two years ago, thinking people were right, I needed a little treat. Well it was outrageously expensive and I had to wash the floors again after they left because they didn't do it properly. Total waste of a birthday present. Should have asked for a spa day. <br />
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Cleaning the house is a life skill, I learned it from my Mom and she learned it from hers. I intend on teaching my kids how to take care of themselves. I grew up with Saturday morning cleaning, each kid took a task: clean bathrooms, dust entire house including mirrors, vacuuming, wash kitchen floor (that was usually my mom). When the house was clean and passed mom's inspection ("You call that clean? That's not clean! Look at this dirt! Well, do it again.") we could go out and play. If we were quick we were out the door by 10am, if we were lazy about it, or did a half-ass job, it took all day. We learned what 'clean' was, how to clean and how often things needed to be done. It wasn't torture, it was just Saturday. When the kids are old enough to do serious cleaning they will learn about this too. Right now they are far too little to be scrubbing tubs. One day...when they grow up a little...THEN I'll have my <i>help</i>!<br />
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There's messy and then there's dirty. We are just messy. We DO need to pick up after ourselves a bit more. I'm the worst - I like a good pile. Piles here, piles there, things are organized in little piles all over, but I do know where everything is! (Except my keys. My keys are always lost.) We've been doing a little better lately. I was in someone's neat house and thought "OMG, it looks like grown-ups live here.We still live like we're in university!" We (I) do need to grow up a bit and not leave things to be put away 'later' because later is <i>never</i> and then the piles grow. So I've been trying to be a neater grown-up. <br />
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Kids are just messy. It's a fact. When I see Liam covered head to toe in dirt I smile. Look at this kid! What a day! I know the dirtier he is, the more fun he just had. Sometimes his teachers apologize for his dirty pants or shoes or paint stains on his shirt - who cares! Toss them in the wash and do it all again tomorrow! He's a kid. If he's not messy, he's not having enough fun. And if he's not having fun, he's not learning anything. Its just dirt, (or paint, or food, or water, or whatever) it washes out... maybe. If not, oh well. A new rag! <br />
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The only time I get freaked out over messiness is if there is some risk to the kids' health. Like poop mess. Especially animal poop mess. Poop mess brings out the crazy cleanliness lady. Stop! Remove all clothing immediately! Quarantine clothing and shoes! Transfer child immediately to tub! Rinse thoroughly and then wash again! Wash and sanitize any surfaces child/poop has come into contact with as well as clothing/shoes. Monitor child's health for a week. Thank goodness poop mess is rare. Wait, wait, did I say rare? Liam diarrhea-ed himself twice today due to a virus. And we have a fresh raccoon turd on our deck. And some mystery cat shits out hairballs regularly on our front lawn. So poop mess is less rare than I'd like it to be. Dammit. <br />
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So, we are kinda messy. Yup. And that's ok with us. Overall, I think it just comes down to lowering your standards a bit when you have young kids, not giving a shit when things aren't always perfectly tidy and just smiling when your messy self curls up next to your messy kid at night and falls asleep instead of staying up till midnight to pick up. I could choose to stress about the mess, I could choose to run myself ragged trying to keep everything tidy and clean, I could choose to use our hard-earned money to pay for a maid. Or, I could go to sleep. I choose sleep. <br />
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Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-71688649711979659522011-08-23T23:47:00.006-04:002011-10-15T22:35:54.799-04:00When I'm big, I want to be a ....Liam, at three years old, has a long list of things he has decided he wants to be when he grows up, here are some of those dreams:<br />
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Snow Plow Driver<br />
Salt Truck Driver<br />
Dump Truck Driver<br />
School Bus Driver<br />
City Bus Driver<br />
Ambulance Driver<br />
Fireman<br />
Policeman<br />
Excavator Operator<br />
Back Hoe Operator<br />
Front End Loader Operator<br />
Crane Operator<br />
Construction Worker<br />
Baker <br />
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A robot<br />
A spaceman<br />
A superhero (SuperLiam)<br />
A lion<br />
A tiger<br />
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But mostly he just wants to be tall enough to touch the ceiling like Daddy.Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-53790309874579109112011-08-10T22:37:00.004-04:002011-08-10T22:41:46.924-04:00Baby AddictionWe had planned on having three kids. More actually, but settled on three as a nice number, since the hubby and I both came from families of 3 kids and thought it was pretty fun. But after the experience with Adeleine (15 weeks in the NICU is a little rough on people) we thought we'd had enough. I hesitated to make a full decision on this until Adeleine was older and the NICU experience was behind us a bit. I said we'd wait at least a year to decide if we were going to have a third child. A year is quickly approaching and<a name='more'></a>...well...I still don't want to say for sure...but it doesn't look promising for a third.<br />
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One of the reasons I don't want to say "no more kids" is that I'll suddenly think of Adeleine as my last: last time I kiss baby cheeks, last time I bath baby rolls, last time I put on tiny clothes, last time I smell baby hair, last time I get bit on the nose by baby gums, last time I breastfeed..last everything. This makes me incredibly sad. Mostly because I LOVE BABIES. I love babies sooooooo much. I love taking care of them, nursing them, watching them grow, every stage is amazing and my favourite! My friend who is also struggling to come to terms with this said that she loved the "squishy fresh ones", OMG me too! And the thought of not having a squishy fresh one of my own again is incredibly sad.<br />
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Do I think a third will cure the addiction to squishy fresh babies? Nope. It will feed it for awhile and delay these feelings a few more years until I have to admit that there's no more coming. The novelty will not wear off! I will never, ever get sick of the idea of having a new baby around. I love them too much! No amount of puke, poop or snot could ever deter me. They are just too cute and adorable to let a little yucky get in the way of enjoying them. Maybe this is another reason why people have 6-13 kids (ok besides lack of birth control)? Baby addiction. <br />
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But most importantly, will a third baby be good for our family? Hmmm. We're struggling to take care of the two peanuts we have already! But I think a third would be fun, add a little <i>more</i> chaos to the mix, tilting the scales in favour of the peanuts: More kids than hands! More kids than parents! Ok, maybe it won't always be fun, but it will always be exciting! Is more chaos good for us? Ah, we can handle it. <br />
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There are lots of other (not fun) things to think about: Can we afford a third one? Will my body be able to handle a third pregnancy? Will it be premature again? Will it survive? Do we want to tempt fate again? These are the questions that scare me most (obviously). The chances of me having a prefect pregnancy and a perfectly healthy baby are not what they used to be. This is reality. This is not my dreamy world of natural birth with midwives, perfect cutesy babies and breastfeeding them in a field of clover. My reality is doctors, countless ultrasounds, oxytocin and risk of death. If we both came out of it unscathed it would be a miracle (again). <br />
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So, like I said, it doesn't look promising for a third. But, I won't say this is our last one...not just yet. <br />
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Don't make me say it yet. <br />
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Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-8220277589639092832011-07-14T23:45:00.003-04:002011-07-18T08:29:46.683-04:00Terrible Parenting: Lessons learnedRaising kids, you have to learn as you go. I have no previous experience raising a three year old. It is all new to me. Every phase, every lesson, every food preference is a surprise. It is almost as if Liam is teaching me how to parent at each new stage. I wish I was more prepared, but mostly I'm just flying by the seat of my pants here. <a name='more'></a>But I sure am learning a lot! <br />
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I thought you might enjoy reading a few of my more memorable lessons learned over the past three years. Lessons that, perhaps, someone with previous child-rearing experience could have avoided, or through an unfortunately similar experience, already knew about. <br />
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<b>1) Two year olds don't wait for you. </b><br />
We have a steep back yard. It could be described as a ravine, with a lawn trail winding down the middle of it. There is a small plateau area near our deck before the drop off leads down down down to the bottom of our yard. Liam brought his tricycle in the back yard one day while Andrew and I were pulling weeds out of the lawn. Andrew was at the bottom of the yard and I was at the top in the plateau area. Liam was happily peddling around near me and then said he wanted to go down the hill so I said I'd take him and told him to "wait for Mommy" and I turned around to lean my dandelion puller tool against the deck. No sooner had I turned my back then he started to head for the edge of the hill and down he went. I turned around and he was already too far and going too fast to grab and I started to scream and yelled "Andrew! Andrew! Andrew!" and he looked up from his weed pulling and saw Liam on his tricycle streaming down the hill towards him at a frightening speed, legs spread out while the pedals span faster and faster all on their own. Andrew immediately ran towards him, but the trike was going too fast. From my vantage point at the top of the hill looking at the back of Liam's head I saw his bangs standing straight up from the incredible speed and then the tricycle hit a bush and Liam flipped over the handlebars, trike went flying and suddenly he was upside down, facing me again and then spun back around and hit the ground with a thud. Andrew was at his side in a second and Liam had a face full of dirt and was screaming and crying but miraculously he was OK. I ran down the hill to hug him and the first words out of Andrew's frightened mouth to me were "What the f*@k were you THINKING???!!!" Um, I told him to wait, was all I could say. I told him to wait for me. As the words came out they sounded so stupid! Apparently little boys are not good at waiting. Lesson learned. And a new house rule: The tricycle is not allowed in the back yard. <br />
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<b>2) Beware of loopholes in your instructions. </b><br />
Liam likes to run through the aisles of the grocery store. He's fast. Most of the time I have to keep an eye on where he goes and then wait until he tires out a bit before I can catch him (I have Adeleine in a sling so he knows I'm slow). Every time we go to the store we have a little chat about not running. This will keep him near me for the first 10 minutes and he is a little angel helping me pick out fruits and veggies. By the time we get to the first aisle, he's bored and the running begins. After yelling Stop! and Freeze! and doing the 1-2-3 counting business I feel like the entire store knows my kid doesn't give a shit what I say, he's just going to run. So, one time I catch him and say "Liam we talked about not running in the store. NO RUNNING." and he looks at me with his big brown eyes and says quite honestly and innocently "I wasn't running. I was skipping." He found a loophole. Lesson learned. PS If anyone has any idea on how to keep a kid from running down the aisles let me know. I think he just finds them irresistible. Like puddles.<br />
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<b>3) Don't leave three year old unattended with (safety) scissors. </b><br />
Caring for plants is one of the things Liam does at home, which includes watering and taking out the dead leaves. He is also excellent at using safety (ie not pointy) scissors, having perfected this skill at Montessori school and home craft days. This week he was trimming the dead leaves off of a large plant in the living room and was quite into this task. He had on his 'concentrating face', a certain look he gets when he is super focused: eyes soft, tongue half out of his mouth, drool falling from his chin. I'm not gonna lie. It's not a pretty look. BUT, it means he's focused and occupied. After popping Adeleine in the excersaucer (aka circle of neglect) I took this opportunity to jump in the shower real quick (it was after noon so, hey, gotta get ready for the day). I was in the shower (in the next room, within earshot) no more than two minutes (thinking about what a stupid idea it was for me to be in there) when Liam banged on the shower door and said something quietly. I gathered it was fairly important, so I quickly finished up and opened the door and he said proudly "I cut Adeleine's hair". Lesson learned. <br />
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With every crazy thing my kids do and every stupid thing I do, I learn something. Which may mean, when my kids are grown, I'll be the smartest person in the world.Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-55180102270210512522011-07-13T01:44:00.002-04:002011-07-13T13:55:29.179-04:00Adeleine at 8 months (corrected)So, what's new with our little peanut? She's a BIG peanut! Adeleine weighs 18lbs now and I'm loving all the little rolls and squishy cheeks. So much so that we had a photographer come to the house to record her adorableness for posterity<a name='more'></a> (all photos on this page were taken by Meagan Tutti-Peters photographer extraordinaire). Even at 18lbs she's in the 50th percentile for weight for her corrected age, so she's perfectly average. I like to say that she's earned those rolls!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_yjcehCMdD5Xp38FFW93JGGN_tjAPpuwx24_-jhWX3Z-4hiKkxV6GOoGLXFuKVmIAKPiNZ_MayT_idTzhYDuQuMqjNC-c5oGLci4mMu0parMK7CCOWUXcQYvkz-sldBoTlCS539PQMa5/s1600/Adeleine+and+Lium-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_yjcehCMdD5Xp38FFW93JGGN_tjAPpuwx24_-jhWX3Z-4hiKkxV6GOoGLXFuKVmIAKPiNZ_MayT_idTzhYDuQuMqjNC-c5oGLci4mMu0parMK7CCOWUXcQYvkz-sldBoTlCS539PQMa5/s320/Adeleine+and+Lium-9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
She recently had her 8 month developmental follow up appointment at the hospital. At these appointments a physiotherapist plays with her on the floor and checks to see that she is doing all of the appropriate baby things for her corrected age, like reaching, sitting up, grabbing, etc. After showing off all her talents Adeleine came out with an overall development score that ranked her in the 50th percentile - again, perfectly average. Yay! This is super duper important for all the mothers of micro preemies out there reading this. Things can turn out ok. Really.<br />
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When I was searching the internet at 3am in the first few weeks after Adeleine was born (at 26 weeks and 6 days gestation) all I was coming across was bad news, so I never ever thought it would be possible to have a child turn out ok (so optimistic, I know, but the micro preemie moms reading this in the basement in the dark typing quietly get it). Anyhoo, a few weeks ago some of the preemie moms from the NICU got together at the park with our little ones. They all had a tough journey to get home from the NICU, some more so than others, and one mom asked as we all held our miracles in our arms "Did you ever think you would get to this point?", as in, did we ever think we'd be holding our perfectly gorgeous, developmentally on track, 6 month old (corrected age) babies in our arms on a lovely summer day in the park? We all said no. At some point, all of us never thought that day would come.<br />
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So for all the micro preemie moms out there, searching for some hope I tell you this: First, stop looking things up online in medical journals, you will make yourself crazy. Really, stop. Second, stats are just numbers, they are not a diagnosis. I know it seems like your baby is a lightning rod for rare terrible things, but just because there is a chance of something bad happening does not automatically mean that it will. Try to just focus on your baby and how she/he is doing right now, not the statistics (I know this is hard). Third, and most importantly, know that things CAN turn out alright. They can. It IS possible to sit in the park 9 months from now with the mom who's baby is currently fighting for his life in the cot next to you and marvel at how strong they are and how far they have come and how wonderful their beautiful lives will be. I never found much hope in my searches (not many people post an "Everything is turning out ok!" report), so I'm hoping you find this page. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy14eKcnBmGO2KrAuyueQBMf312OSdlWd2IbTL_wAk0BVPqeoshusG8bJeEZ2kLp6Eg7Xfr6TY1nvI4Ug6j1X7EWbxaqXe6-NrkchiLvZzjMDSxNhGz-CsljLoex8NPgKN14JdV2RWdFQg/s1600/Adeleine+and+Lium-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy14eKcnBmGO2KrAuyueQBMf312OSdlWd2IbTL_wAk0BVPqeoshusG8bJeEZ2kLp6Eg7Xfr6TY1nvI4Ug6j1X7EWbxaqXe6-NrkchiLvZzjMDSxNhGz-CsljLoex8NPgKN14JdV2RWdFQg/s320/Adeleine+and+Lium-17.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<b>Here is where she started:</b><br />
Adeleine was born at 26 weeks and 6 days gestation due to an abruption of the placenta and infection (funicitis). She spent 11 hours on a vent, 9 weeks on oxygen (CPAP/nasal prongs), she had an infection at 3 weeks old that damaged her lungs, she experienced the typical A's & B's of prematurity, Stage 1-2 ROP, she had difficulty learning to eat, lots of reflux and choking and went home after 15 weeks in hospital (two weeks after her due date) on an NG tube.<br />
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<b>Here is how she did:</b> <br />
Her ROP resolved. Her NG tube came out after a week at home. At 1 month corrected age she began exclusively breastfeeding and her reflux subsided. She wheezes a little when she gets excited but other than that, she has no issues with her lungs/breathing. She is not on any medications as of 8 months corrected age. She is doing all the wonderful things a term 8 month old baby should be doing at this point: Sitting up, reaching, grabbing, pulling people's hair, crawling backwards, spinning herself around, rolling, almost crawling forwards (next week maybe!!), babbling (Andrew likes the "da-da-da-da-da" sounds best). She is even working on her pincer grasp, feeding herself solids while sitting in her high chair. She is bright and happy and wonderful and perfectly average developmentally. She's right where she should be. She is OK. Her primary nurse (we still keep in touch) says "You'd never guess she was a preemie" and every time she says it I couldn't be more proud of my amazing girl. <br />
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So that's where we are at today! She has her next developmental follow up appointment when she is 1 year corrected age, so I'll give you an update on that in four months, and anything else exciting in between!<br />
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All photos by Meagan Tutti-Peters<br />
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***Please note that this post is not medical advice, it is simply our story.****Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-11778906531020324742011-06-19T23:16:00.004-04:002011-06-19T23:40:35.068-04:00Are you there, Food? It's me, Carrie.I started <i>really</i> thinking about what I ate and put on my body four years ago when I became pregnant with Liam. Suddenly I was acutely aware that whatever I ate or absorbed not only affected me, but another person, my tiny baby. Not wanting to expose him to unnecessary chemicals, I converted our cleaning products, makeup/hair products and all creams/lotions/potions over to a safer version. There has been no reason to stop this practice since. We are getting along quite well with our 'different' products, organic food and healthy eating habits. But sometimes, I'm still surprised.<br />
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After 4 years of rigorous label reading, we generally know what is in our food and as a result of this awareness we avoid most processed foods (with a few purposely indulgent irrational exceptions - Kraft Dinner I mean you). You would think that after this long I would get used to the fact that companies put total unnecessary garbage ingredients into commercial processed food products yet I'm still amazed (disappointed) each time I read an ingredients list. The shocker of all shockers though was what I found in the salt. I had heard that salt contained sugar and so the next time I went shopping for salt I actually looked at the ingredients on several packages. I didn't consider salt to be a 'processed food', or at the very least I thought it was a minimally processed food (get salt, put in box). What did I think was in salt? SALT. And possibly iodine so we all don't get scurvy or the plague or something (I'm sure there is a reason - oh wait, I just looked it up, it's goiter. Yeah, better have that in there). I was prepared for the ingredients list to be two ingredients maximum. Here are the ingredients I found in the "Table Salt": Salt, Calcium silicate, Invert sugar, Potassium iodide. If you buy the "Household Salt" it contains dextrose instead of sugar, but dextrose is a sugar, so...there is sugar in the salt. Supposedly it is to keep the potassium iodide from evaporating over time, which could occur if the salt was left out fully exposed to the air for months (I know my salt is just lying in a pile on the counter under a breezy window, where do you keep yours? Oh, enclosed in a salt shaker? What a great idea!). Calcium silicate is an 'anti-caking agent', which is also commonly used in insulation. Hmmmmm. I'm not concerned about my 'sugar intake' at all, that's not why I'm shocked at the ingredients list. I'm not even shocked because one of the ingredients is used to fireproof homes. I'm shocked because something I considered to be straightforward, salt, has extra ingredients added. Seriously? "Big Food Producers" have messed with salt? Maybe I'm just tired at always having to look at ingredients lists and being disappointed.<br />
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<b>What happened to food? Just food.</b> Where salt was salt and peanut butter was peanuts and raisins were raisins (well they were grapes, but you get my point). Have you looked at the ingredients in your commercial peanut butter lately? Hydrogenated oils. Dr. Andrew Weil would smack you for eating that. There are added (bad) oils to some packages of raisins. These are foods that I had considered to be straightforward and (dare I say) pure. So, I'm simply disappointed to realize that nothing is pure anymore. If it is in a package, somebody somewhere has added some shit to it to make it do something nature did not intend (last longer, not stick together, stick together, flow better, look shiny, etc). Bah! Food! Where did you go? Who did this to you? Why did we let them? I'm sorry. I'll try and find you whenever I can. Fooooooood!<br />
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I made a cake last month. I made the cake they way I have made cakes my entire life, using a processed mix. I automatically bought a cake mix off the shelf, without even considering to look at the ingredients - this is simply how one make cakes. It was your typical commercial brand name cake mix. Since I would be serving said cake to someone with allergies before I poured it in the bowl I read the ingredients carefully: <i>"Sugar, Enriched Flour, Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Monoand Diglycerides), Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate), Wheat Starch, Dextrose, Salt, Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Cellulose Gum, Artificial Flavors, Maltodextrin, Xanthan Gum, Modified Cornstarch, Colors."</i> If you count all the ingredients (including what was listed in the enriched flour) there are 26 ingredients (there are more since some things are just listed as plural - eg flavors). Wow. And this is before you add the oil and eggs and milk to the mix. So now we are at 29 ingredients. For a cake. Um, isn't cake just a sugary fluffier version of bread, which is basically flour, water, eggs and something to make it rise? I was so disgusted with the thought of all these crazy things being added to a cake mix, the next time I decided to try and make a cake from scratch. If it turned out ok we would be done with cake mixes forever. The first recipe I came across I tried out. It was for a white cake. Here are the ingredients: "Sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking powder, milk". 7 ingredients. If I made the store bought cake mix I'd be adding three ingredients to the mix myself (oil, eggs, milk) so the difference in the effort between making a cake from a mix vs making it from scratch was that I had to add in the remaining 4 ingredients instead of opening a package. Well, shit, I can do that. 4 ingredients vs a package that contains 26 ingredients. So let me get this straight, cake mixes were invented to save people from the effort of having to mix together sugar, flour, baking powder and a flavour (in this case vanilla)? Really? People had such a hard time doing that? Women in the 60's were falling down from exhaustion of this effort and needed to be saved from the grueling task of portioning out a cup of flour? Come on. Honestly it was super easy to make my 7 ingredient cake and by all accounts (alright, just three people ate it, including me) it was the best damn cake I'd ever made. It was freakin perfect. Fluffy, moist, flavourful and if I do say so myself, pure. It was food. Good food I can feel completely confident to serve my precious family. I will never make a boxed cake again. (PS I highly recommend the <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-white-cake/detail.aspx">recipe</a>)<br />
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I've said this before, but what is more important that what goes in your body? I strongly believe "What you eat matters". It matters to your health, it matters to your family, it matters to the environment, it matters to everyone and everything we share the earth with. In this day and age, it is so difficult to find just food. Not frankenfood or processed food but pure food. Why is that so hard to find? Why do they keep sneaking things in? I think it is worth the effort to find the food. I think my family is worth the effort. So, we continue to read our ingredients lists and eliminate the garbage and replace it with actual food. It is an ongoing process, but when we do find it, we are rarely disappointed because really, real food is delicious. Why mess with it?Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-41313017203025923972011-05-29T20:32:00.002-04:002011-06-19T23:41:49.456-04:00The Thrills of Home OwnershipThis is our first house. We used to live in a one bedroom apartment. 670 square feet for 7 and a half years. It suited us just fine until Liam came along and began to roll into the furniture. So we moved closer to our family and bought a lovely house. But as with any house (especially one that is 30 years old) there has been some<a name='more'></a> required renovations and some unexpected repairs. We feel like we have fixed pretty much everything at this point. Like the previous owners left us a house of cards that looked beautiful on the outside but once we stepped in it everything fell apart. I won't go through the list of repairs and renos, but lets just say Andrew could have hosted an entire season of This Old House by now. Andrew is really good at fixing things, thank goodness, and he's had quite a lot of experience with renovations just in the past three years. But yesterday, I witnessed a moment of home repair that I shall never forget for the rest of my life. A sight so amazing, selfless and completely disgusting all at the same time it is burned into my brain (unfortunately).<br />
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Our kitchen sink was clogged. We bought a small drain snake that didn't do the trick so I borrowed the gigantic drain snake from our neighbours across the street. I should mention that we are on a septic system, so in my head, drainage issues are usually met with the thought of shit backing up into our house. This has never happened of course, but worst case scenarios tend to get me mentally prepared for things. Totally off topic, but I was chatting with another mom last week and she said something amazing, with regards to moms worrying: "There is a fine line between being crazy and being prepared.", I think I sometimes cross the line into crazytown, but one day people, one day, someone is going to thank me for packing a weeks worth of clothing and food in a diaper bag for an hour long trip. Anyhoo, back to the sink. Turns out the clog was far, far, far down the pipe, farther than even the giant snake could reach. So Andrew followed the pipe through the ceiling tiles in our basement and determined the best spot to cut the pipe and put the snake in. Me the, helpful sidekick as I am, simply freaked out silently and took Liam across the street to the neighbours to play for a few minutes. 10 minutes later the neighbour comes into the backyard and says "Your husband was just at the door. He says you need to go home. There is shit on the floor. He seems pretty calm about it, so it's probably not that bad." So I proceed to RUN across the street with Adeleine bouncing wildly in the sling, go down to the basement to find Andrew, fuming, but no shit. Just some dirty carpet. I was never so glad to see wet dirty carpet in my whole life. Apparently, he had cut the pipe and drained the water into a bucket, but the bucket fell on the ground and he needed some help to clean it up. Great! I'm happy to help clean up dirty water! It's NOT SHIT!!! YAAAAAAY! So we get a few rags and sop up the water and he continues on with trying to find the clog with the snake. After a few minutes he says he found it and pulls out the snake and some black water starts to pour out. Then, some black gunk the width of the pipe (likely solidified grease and decomposed kitchen sink scraps) starts to fall out, slowly, slowly, it falls out and I comment "It looks like the pipe is taking a shit!" but just as I say that it starts to rush out, a giant never-ending black wet 'poop', and Andrew is holding the bucket on the ladder but it is too far down so he tries to direct the flow with his hand into the bucket and the black 'shit' is pouring down his arm and on his head and in his face and splashing on the walls and the carpet and then he does something so amazing, so selfless: instead of running away (I had been inching back into the laundry room away from the horrid black gunk flying and splashing out of the pipe) he gets CLOSER to the gunk, he gets right in there and lifts the 5 gallon bucket above his head closer to the pipe and the black water is still streaming down his arms and in his eyes and I'm horrified at the sight of it but I yell "YOU ARE DOING SUCH A GOOD JOB!" and his arms are shaking under the weight of the rushing water filling the bucket and then "I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!". Seriously. I mean what else could I say? That is likely the worst, most disgusting thing I've seen and he was taking one for the team. I frankly still can't believe that when the black poop-like clog started to come out (and touched him - ew, ew, ew) he didn't just scream and run away. I so would have done that. So then the flow stopped and he started spitting the water off of his lips (OMG gross) and I finally became unfrozen (I tend to freeze in bad situations - I'm really not the greatest sidekick) and ran to get every last rag in the house to mop up the water while Andrew ran right in the shower. So, the clog was finally gone, the pipe was fixed promptly, the carpet shampooer was rented, and the carpets and rags and clothes and people were washed.<br />
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This was our Saturday.<br />
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Holy shit.Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-21288119158365928662011-05-18T11:07:00.001-04:002011-06-19T23:40:35.068-04:00What's newSo spring is here! We've got quite a few little projects going on around here.<br />
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Spring Renos<br />
Andrew tore out the giant Z-shaped bar in our basement and replaced the resulting Z-shaped hole in the carpet. We sold the 8 bar stools that went with it to an over-excited 20-something guy and his friends. On 'big garbage day', also known as 'trade your garbage with your neighbors day', we gave away the mold-filled bar fridge (not to our neighbours, but to a professional garbage picker). The Z-bar is no more. Yippie! It's like we now have a whole other room in our basement! The space that sucker took up was enormous. Liam (who helped with the bar demolition) is thrilled he can ride his toys all over the place at ridiculous speeds now. More room for kids to play - yay! <br />
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Spring Plantings<br />
The seeds arrived in March and some were started the last week of April under the grow lights. Soon these seedlings will be planted in the gardens that we have been de-weeding, turning and adding our compost to for the past three weeks. Other seeds have just been planted outside and we are hoping to see them sprout soon! Next step is to buy some more seedlings and add those into the garden over the next few weeks. As usual, we will plant more than we can keep up with. We have already harvested super tall asparagus, which is also super delicious. I love our gardens! <br />
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Soccer<br />
Liam started playing soccer once a week with other three year olds. This is incredibly adorable. 20 little munchkins running around chasing 30 tiny soccer balls. Hilarious. Liam was covered in sweat from running around kicking the ball prior to the session even starting. He is super excited to be playing soccer. <br />
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Spring Colds<br />
The family has just come down with our first simultaneous cold. Friday through Sunday we were all down for the count (except Adeleine, thank goodness, she just got a sniffly nose). Hoping the sun comes out and dries up all our snot. <br />
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Birthday Party Planning<br />
Liam's birthday is coming up and we are planning an Animal-themed party. I am so freaking excited! Guests will come dressed as their favourite animal. This is going to be incredible! Liam's favourite animal is a lion (RRRROWR!!!) so that is what he will be and if you ask him what you should be he'll say a lion too. Perhaps I should have just made this a lion party. Ah well. It is a no-gift party (Really, this three year old has lots of stuff already, he doesn't actually need anything so gifts simply aren't necessary. And since there will be at least 40 people there it would be totally overwhelming to him to have that many gifts - put it this way, Christmas was overwhelming to him and we didn't have anywhere near 40 people giving him gifts. We just want people to BE there to celebrate. That is a gift.), so in lieu of gifts we are providing guests an opportunity to donate their pocket change to an African animal refuge where they care for, rehabilitate and release (if possible) wild animals (Lions too!). We will make the donation in Liam's name, which he thinks is pretty cool. I'm in party planning mode! RRROWR!<br />
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So that's what is new around here! <br />
:)Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7442757497274291757.post-60034361233298894842011-05-14T15:49:00.002-04:002011-05-18T11:04:26.394-04:00BoobThis is a post about breastfeeding, so guys, fair warning given.<br />
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I have had very different breastfeeding experiences for each child, both were a struggle at first, but then we 'got it' and amazingness followed and it was all worth it.<br />
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*Please note that this post is not medical advice, I am simply sharing my experience. Should you have any issues with breastfeeding please speak with a lactation consultant or contact your local <a href="http://www.lllc.ca/">La Leche League</a>.*<br />
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I'm not going to lie. Breastfeeding is hard. It is this thing that is supposed to be all 'natural' and 'easy', but it is not (at least not for me and every other mom I've spoken to). But that doesn't mean it isn't the most wonderful thing in the world, it is. It is just something that, quite unexpectedly for me, you have to really really work on and want to do. And even then, sometimes it just doesn't work out. And that's ok. As moms we try so hard to provide the very very best for our children and sometimes, for a host of different reasons, that means not breastfeeding. We just do our best. Here is our story. <br />
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<b>My experience with Liam</b><br />
Liam was born three weeks early, and while this is still considered term, I never thought it could have factored into the initial difficulty we had with breastfeeding until I had a real preemie! It took Liam and I over 6 weeks to fall into the rhythm of breastfeeding, so when he and I finally 'got it' he was almost a month past his due date. We consulted with lactation experts, who gave us some excellent advice on how to hold him and insist on a good latch. Liam would often not open his mouth wide enough, so we would spend quite a bit of time latching and unlatching and getting it right. Then he would suck properly and promptly fall asleep. It would take 30-40 minutes every 2 hours at the beginning. But we kept at it, and after about 6 weeks he was an expert - on and off in 10 minutes, totally on demand (not scheduled!). But nobody told me we would have to work so hard at it and it could take 6 weeks! That was like an eternity! He then nursed like a champ until we weaned him at 19 months. Yes, 19 months. Liam loved his boob. And I loved nursing him. It was great! No bottles (he had a bit of an oral adversion, he never even let me put a spoon in his mouth) to clean, no milk to warm up, just pop, boob, eat, done. Easiest thing EVER!<br />
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But in those 19 months I had many MANY blocked ducts. This is when milk get clogged in one of the ducts and results in a hard lump in your boob. Feels like a big marble is in there. I consulted with a nurse and baby expert who gave me some great advice "Heat, massage and feed on that side every two hours until it is gone". This means, get myself a hot pack, warm up the marble in my boob, massage firmly yet gently towards the nipple using olive oil (it is edible, massage oil is not) and get my kid to feed from that boob every two hours. If he's not hungry or the other boob is full, get out my breast pump. This could sometimes take up my whole day or night. The fastest I ever got rid of a lump was after about 6 hours, but usually it would take at least 12. If I found a marble in there, my day/night was now dedicated to getting rid of it - cancel all plans, I've got a blocked duct! The goal here is to unblock the duct before it gets infected and causes mastitis. I never had one case of mastitis in the 19 months I nursed Liam. But I had lots of blocked ducts. I stopped counting them after I got to 15. They became less and less frequent as time went on for several reasons I think: I got better at making sure he fully drained a breast, I stopped sleeping on my boobs (I'm a stomach sleeper so this was very difficult) and I bought good nursing bras (no wires). So, even with all this pain-in-the-boob business, was breastfeeding worth it? Hell yes! Small, small, small sacrifice for me so that Liam could have the best nourishment in the world. Plus I hated cleaning bottles.<br />
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<b>My experience with Adeleine</b><br />
Breastfeeding a preemie was a whole other adventure. Adeleine was 13 weeks early and at 2lbs, 2oz she could barely breathe on her own, let alone eat. I began pumping about 4 hours after her birth. The nurse woke me up at 5 in the morning with a industrial strength (hospital grade) breast pump and handed me my kit. I was to pump every 2 hours - starting...NOW! Apparently, just because your kid is in the NICU doesn't mean you get to sleep in. So it began. The NICU nurses would ask me if I got anything yet every time I went to see her because they described the first colostrum as 'liquid gold'. I would get just a ml or two in a teeny tiny syringe and bring it to the NICU like it was this big deal and they would get SO excited about it! It made me feel really good. Like even though I couldn't hold her, or comfort her and I was feeling this immense guilt of not keeping her in long enough, I could still do something for her. I could still give her my milk. I could still be her mom and provide the best I possibly could for her. That milk meant a lot. To both of us.<br />
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I was very ill after I had Adeleine. I had an infection in the placenta which after the birth resulted in an infection in the lining of the uterus (Endometritis - not to be confused with Endometri<b>osis</b>, which I didn't have thank goodness). Anyhoo, by the time I left the hospital I had been on 3 or 4 different types of antibiotics and another two more were added when I got home. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, even the good, and tend to result in bad bacteria taking over. This combined with the fact that I was sweating so much at night I would change my shirts three times (creating a very damp dark environment, perfect for bacteria), all the stress, getting up in the night to pump, not sleeping anyway because I was so worried, and finally the fact that pumping is just not the most efficient way to drain a breast (babies are), caused me to get mastitis. One Saturday I didn't pump on my regular schedule, I was late for a few pumpings and then I chose to hold Adeleine for a few hours instead. Apparently not sticking to my pumping schedule was a big mistake. I had no lump to warn me, just suddenly a red infected boob and feeling totally like shit. I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!! Back to the clinic for more antibiotics. Wait, didn't they contribute to this mess in the first place? Yes. But that's the treatment. OK then. Moving on.<br />
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The lactation consultant was worried that given my previous experience with blocked ducts and the fact that Liam was little, that I would not have enough milk. The goal was to pump 1000ml a day to keep up with Adeleine's demand when she got home. I recorded every drop of milk pumped in a little booklet each day, gauging my 'work day' by how close I got to 1000ml. I was a 750-800ml girl, on a good day I'd occasionally hit 900. I don't think I ever got to a litre. While my volume surprised the lactation consultant, I was constantly disappointed by not getting to that magic number. Let's just add that to the pile of stress ok? Good.<br />
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A week later I got a stabby pain in my boob. Like several knives all at once. It hurt to pump, it hurt to move. What the hell is this now? I spoke with the lactation consultant who diagnosed me with 'intraductal yeast'. So the wet nightshirts, heavy doses of antibiotics, stress and no sleep had all resulted in the perfect storm for yeast bacteria to take over my breast ducts. What the hell??? Again I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!! So, I get on some crazy medication to treat the yeast, which at this point had me suddenly yelping in pain as I walk down the street. People think I'm nuts. I look like shit, I feel like shit, I cry at the drop of the hat, I scream "OW!" for no apparent reason - anyone that didn't know why this was all happening would have had me committed. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the medication turns your nipples purple. PURPLE!!! As if I don't have enough going on now I have to deal with purple nipples that can permanently stain anything they come in contact with, not to mention look ridiculous on someone who already admittedly looks like shit, so self-image at this point was at an all time low. Liam looked at me when I came out of the shower one day and screamed "Mommy! Why are your nipples BLACK????". Purple Liam. They are purple. Ugh.<br />
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Ok body, lets just get through this and get better shall we? Moving on? Please? For about two weeks, yes. Then mastitis again. No warning again, just woke up with a rock for a boob, a red streak down the side and could hardly move. Bam! I was down again for another week, back on antibiotics and worst of all, couldn't go see my baby in the NICU. At this point my mother had enough and was pretty frustrated with me and yelled "Well I would have quit a long time ago!" Translation: You are doing this to yourself. Stop pumping. Love, your mother. The lactation consultant waggled her finger at me and said "Tut,tut,tut. One more time and you are done lady". Translation: You have had just about enough and you have my support to stop if you want. This was very freeing for me. To know that it was my choice to quit and that I would be supported and it would be OK. But how could I quit? My milk was providing antibodies to a baby with NO immune system. A baby that should still be inside me, protected. There was no way in hell I was going to be the one to quit. If she could fight through every day in the NICU, I could at least do this. Adeleine was going to be the one to tell me to stop, and so far, she was loving every last drop of my milk and it was keeping her healthy. It was the only thing I could really do for her. So I kept pumping.<br />
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Two weeks later I was diagnosed with intraductal yeast again. Apparently the purple stuff had not got it all (Should have had Sunny D! ...sorry, couldn't resist), so I went on the purple stuff again along with some ridiculously strong antifungal medication for two weeks (no fungus will ever live on me for the rest of my life I'm sure). This seemed to do the trick. Wait? Did it? Not really. I got mastitis AGAIN. So why didn't I quit then? Lord knows I had nobody left who still thought it was a good idea (except my wonderfully supportive husband). At this point most people just rolled their eyes at me. I kept going because we hadn't even given breastfeeding a REAL try. We hadn't even started yet! She was still in the hospital, they would let me try and breastfeed her once a day if I was lucky and she wasn't tired out. I was going to stop when Adeleine told me to stop. In my mind, we hadn't even really TRIED yet. My job was to give her the opportunity to breastfeed and I couldn't take it away before she was ready to start. So I kept pumping.<br />
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If you have lost count I had mastitis three times and was treated for intraductal yeast twice. In 15 weeks. The longest I went without being sick was something like 3 and a half weeks. Was it worth it? Hell yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I would do it again for her in a second (not that I'd enjoy it obviously, but I'd do it). Totally worth it. It took a month after her due date (two weeks after she came home), but Adeleine finally had the strength and the coordination to breastfeed exclusively. And with such enthusiasm! She much preferred breastfeeding over bottles. She loved her boob. She just needed me to wait for her to be ready for it. I already knew with Liam it took several weeks, but if she had been my first child, I probably would have quit, not having the confidence or patience to believe we would ever get there. Breastfeeding a term baby is hard enough, breastfeeding a preemie is super difficult. Early on when we started to try (at 35 weeks gestation) she struggled with having enough energy to eat, reflux, choking, getting the whole 'suck, swallow, breathe' coordination down and taking in enough to keep the dietitians happy. It appeared pretty hopeless for a long time. She was just so little and tired. So I waited for her to be ready (ng tube out and getting her doctor's ok) and we gave it a good try - no bottles and 'real' on-demand feeding for a full day - and she took off and never looked back. (We tried 'on-demand' feeding once when she was in the NICU and I have to say, that they have a strange definition of on-demand. The NICU's version of on-demand was waiting for the child to cue, but if it was more than three hours in between feeds the nurse would freak out and tube feed them. How is that on-demand? Seems like the regular 'every three hours' schedule to me - but whatever.) Since I stopped pumping and Adeleine started feeding, I have had no breastfeeding issues. Not a blocked duct, not a hint of anything wrong. (Knock on wood!!!!!) Adeleine is about 16 lbs now, a great weight for 5 months (corrected age). I plan on breastfeeding her for as long as possible. As long as SHE wants to. We struggled to get to this point together and we are both enjoying it so much - it does us both a lot of good. <br />
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So, breastfeeding was hard at first. With Adeleine the 17 week struggle just to get to breastfeeding was harder. BUT then it is so very easy. And awesome. And you forget about the struggle and just enjoy every moment with your beautiful child. I got through the hard times with the help of lactation consultants, the support of my husband who knows the value of breastmilk to a child, my own pure stubborn-ass-ness and the incredible inspiration of my teeny tiny baby girl. <br />
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<b>Resources/Links</b><br />
Here are a few resources that I used:<br />
Hospital lactation consultants<br />
Community lactation consultants<br />
Other breastfeeding moms <br />
<a href="http://drjacknewman.com/">Dr. Newman's Website </a><br />
<a href="http://www.lllc.ca/">La Leche League</a><br />
<a href="http://kellymom.com/">KellyMom </a>Carriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12690515718047895662noreply@blogger.com0