Three Kids….and Me

Today in my city’s paper I read a story about a family and the school that their children attend coming to an agreement for their children not to have any homework assigned to them because it interferes in their lives. I couldn’t believe that I was actually reading this. No homework assigned. If that happened to my children what would they do with all those hours before bedtime? I mean really, our typical day is getting home at about 5:30pm, me making dinner and them watching TV. We eat dinner at about 6 and then they go watch TV and I bath the baby and get her to bed at 7pm. Once the baby is in bed we do homework. Most night’s Tyler doesn’t have homework because he completes all his work at school. His teacher only assigns homework if you don’t complete something in class that day or if you have to finish a report or project or if you have a test coming up some studying if you want. Kennedy has homework every night. She has a spelling duotoang that she has about 5 sheets of paper a week that have to be completed for Friday, and she has Problem of the Week, again 5 sheets a week that are due on Fridays and reading that you keep track of in a duotoange that they have for their “Around the World” reading thing. It takes us about an hour to do Kennedy’s homework. That is not every night. That is about a half hour on Mondays, Tuesdays she has off because of cubs, Wednesday and Thursday are the hour, Friday and Saturday and Sunday she may read. We don’t read every night. We should, but we don’t. I don’t sweat it. She reads during homework anyways, so its not like she can’t read. Last year she was struggling with reading, so we read almost every night. This year is a better year though, so I let it slide a bit.

My point? I get homework done, and most of the month its just me and the kids. No one to help me except the dog, two hamster, and a bird, oh and that baby. Thank goodness none of them have any homework Anyways, homework isn’t such a bad thing, its just part of life. I had to do homework during all my years in school, including univiersity, it teaches organization and time management.

Im not going to be one of the parents that want preferential treatment for my kids. I don’t get it in real life, so why should they?

Warren has been home since Monday.  he had been gone for two and half weeks this time.  The time he was gone went by really quick.  Maybe because I had three sick kids, I’m not really sure why though.  It always feels funny when he comes home.  Being by yourself you get into a certain routine.  You get up at a certain time and get the kids out of bed at a certain time and drop them off at the sitters and then go to work and then after work you rush through traffic to pick them up so that you can go home and make dinner as quickly as possible because otherwise the baby is into the cheerios and the older kids are scarfing down granola bars as if it was their last meal.  When hubby is home though, all things change.  :)  I get up later, I have a longer much more relaxed shower.  I get dressed slower, I don’t have to worry about changing a diaper and getting kids out of bed.  It’s nice.  I leave the house later too, giving me a bit more time for cuddles and hugs and conversation with the kids.  I drive straight to work without stopping.  After work, I am not rushing like a mad woman trying to pick up kids and get home for dinner.  I can take my time because I know that dinner will be ready when I get there, and if I am a bit late, they will start without me and that is ok with me.

Even after dinner is different.  Warren gets Anya in the bath and ready for bed, I tell the kids to get ready.  He helps with homework, and cleaning up too.  I used to have a problem asking him to do something around the house, but not now.  If the floor needs doing, I just ask him.  He says ok and does it.  Then after the kids go to bed, I have someone to hang out with on the couch and watch tv.  Its hard to just hang out when you’re on the phone.  You feel you have to have some sort of conversation otherwise there is just silence.  When you watch a show together though, side by side, its much different.  You can make comments to each other during the show.  It’s much nicer.  Unfortunatly he leaves again next Thursday morning, and then I am thrown into my crazy life where I am the mad woman driving down the road at 4:30 thinking of what I can make three hungry kids in less than 30 minutes.  That’s ok though, because I know he will be back home in 2 quick weeks. 

So I haven’t posted in a bit due to illness…specifically suspected H1N1.  Its been fun.  We all got it except for Warren, whose up north.  I came down with it first, a cough then a slight fever and chills.  The next day I felt fine.  That same day I had three kids come down with a cough, one with a headache and two with a fever.  My middle is immuno-suppressed, and my youngest is 15 months old.  So we went to the walk in clinic on Wednesday morning.  Anya’s fever went away, and Kennedy’s was 38.5 and controled with tylenol.  Dr said its a virus go home, stay home till Monday.  I said ok.  We went home.  The next morning Kennedy’s fever spiked to 39.8.  I was terrified, so I called the ex (her father) and told him to come pick her up and take her to the hospital, which he promptly did.  I then called my mom and met them there.  That dr said H1N1.  I got some Tamiflu for her and was sent home and told to bring Anya in for Tamiflu as well.  So I too Kennedy home and picked Anya up and went back to the hospital and get her Tamiflu.  Kennedy’s fever broke the next day. 

Its funny because we didn’t all suffer the same symptoms.  We all had the cough, but that was all Tyler had.  He cough is gone now.  I had a mild fever and chills for a few hours at the beginning and then a cough and was tired.  Kennedy had everything except diarrhea.  Anya had it all but on different days.  I’m just glad no one had to be admitted to the hospital.

It has been a tough 7 days though, espeacially the last 3 days.  Every one is feeling fine but we are still contagious till tomorrow, so we didn’t go trick or treating and we haven’t gone out in public.  We all have cabin fever.  I think we’ll go out for a drive today.  Just to get out of the house.  Maybe we’ll drive down to canmore and then turn around and come back.  I don’t know.  All I know is I can’t be in the house anymore. 

One more day.  Then tomorrow the kids go to school and resume normal activities.  It will be nice.  Unfortunately work won’t let me come back for another week.  I’m not too sure why because I have doctors note, but oh well, I guess I get an extra vacation week 

I meant to write about this on Wednesday or Thursday but I was so tired that I went to sleep.  On Wednesday my two children, Tyler and Kennedy, participated in the Dreams Take Flight adventure to Disney Land.  How totally exciting!  For those of you that don’t know what it is, it is a charity organization that raises money to take disadvantaged kids, whether is is financially, socially, physically, or medically, and takes them to Disney Land for a day. 

So my kids were lucky and got to go because of their really wonderful pediatrician.  This pediatrician has been in our lives since Kennedy was 2 months old and has helped us through many medical dilemmas, has sent us to see many speacialists, and has always been available to her on a moments notice when she comes down with something.  He’s the best doctor that I have had the pleasure of having.

So the trip…the day of it we had to get up at 3:30am.  So I crawled sleepily into Kennedy’s bed to wake her up and I said to her, “Do you want to go to Disney Land?”  her eyes opeend a bit and she said “Yes”.  So I got up and got her clothes for her and then went downstairs to wake up Tyler.  To my surprise he was already up and half dressed.  So I went back upstairs to check on Kennedy.  When I got to her room she was sleeping again.  So I shook her arm again and said, “Disney Land”,  she opened her eyes and said, “You know what happened?  I bumped my head and passed out.  Its good you woke me up”  :)  So we got dressed, got breakfast and left the house just before 4:30 as we had to be at the airport by 5.  When we got to the airport there were already a lot of kids and their families there waiting to go.  So we had to wait in line for a bit to check in and were entertained by a couple of clowns :)  The kids loved it.  After we checked in it was complete chaos, so many people.  I had to go between two groups as my kids were in two different groups.  They got cowboy hats and jerseys.  Then they boarded the lane group by group and I went home and then to work.

This is what I heard happened at Disney Land:  They went on all the rides, Splash Mountain was a big hit with Tyler, and all the rides were a hit with Kennedy.  They had lunch with all the characters, Goofy tried to eat Kennedy’s head, and she kissed Donald Duck :)  Then they went on more rides and then they went shopping :)  Dreams take flight gave them 50.00 each to buy whatever they wanted.  Kennedy got a big Goofy hat, and Tyler got Star Wars stuff, Mickey dressed as Anakin and Goofy as Darth Vader, and Tyler bought Anya a little balloon.

So I picked them up at midnight.  They were exhausted and they had so many bags.  They both got back packs, blankets, plate sets, album boxes, baseball caps, tons of pins, tooth brushes, stickers, crocks, and a track suit.  I also got a pendant :)  which was really nice.

So I must give a big Thank You to all the volunteers who perticipated, and to my pediatrician, whose a pretty amazing guy to think of my two kids. 

If you want to see more here are some links:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Gallery+Dreams+Take+Flights/2129792/story.html

http://www.citytv.com/calgary/article/61283–dreams-take-flight-video#
 

Babies and dogs are funny.  If you think about it they are kind of the same, except a baby cries.  But you have to feed them both, clean up their poops, clean up their messes, and they follow you everywhere you go (if babies can crawl that is).  It’s kind of funny.  Eventually though the baby grows up and  you don’t have to clean up it’s poop anymore 

Anya is completely in love with the dog.  We have a rottweiler and she’s bigger than her.  Anya follows her around, and goes up to her numerous times throughout the day and gives her hugs.  It’s really cute to watch.  The dog totally doesn’t mind.  She (dog) has been poked in the eyes, had little fingers in her mouth and in her nose, and been “petted” (which really is smacked by little hands), has had her fur pulled, and has been sat and crawled on.  She never seems to mind.  Of course I stop the abusive behaviour when it happens, it not fair to the dog and Anya needs to learn to be nice.  Last week for instance the dog was lieing at the bottom of the stairs and Anya wanted to go up the stairs, so she just crawled over Arkita’s head.  It was pretty funny. 

We also have two hamsters, and Anya loves those guys too.  I was cleaning cages yesterday and so I had to take the hamsters out of their cages, and Anya saw that I put the hamster in his little holder so he wouldn’t escape and without thinking I put it on the floor.  So Anya crawled over to it and opened it and took him out.  Poor little hamster, I took him away from her and she had a tempertantrum.  She lay down on the ground and cried.  It was like watching a two year old having a tempertantrum, but she’s only 15 months.  So once I was done, I took the hamster and we played with him for a bit.  She “hugs” the hamster by putting her cheek to his back and she “pets” him by grabbing his fur, which he really hates.  I’m trying to teach her to use one finger to pet him, but she hasn’t caught on yet.  When I put him away she cried, so I got the other hamster and them both to my husband.  They played find the hamster around the stroller in the foyer.  Again a really cute game.

So its interesting to watch a baby develop a love of animals and relationship with the ones that live in your home.  It seems to me that pets and kids go hand in hand, because they’re so alike.

  Anya and Arkita hanging out.

Its Thanksgiving weekend :)  I like this weekend because usually its filled with family and lots of food and I love food  :)  Warren is not coming home till Monday, his plane gets in at 8pm, so I’m not sure what to do about Thanksgiving supper.  I am having dinner at my moms on Sunday with all three kids and some other people she invited, but that’s it.  I was hoping Warren would get in at 4 o-clock like last time, but no such luck.  I phoned his sister and grandma and they are having dinner on Sunday, but his sister said she could pop by on Monday.  Now Im not so sure her coming in on Monday would work because he won’t get home till almost 9pm.  Perhaps I’ll just save him some turkey and other trimmings from Sunday night.  It’s funny how Warren’s dad and step-mom haven’t called.  They’re probably in BC for the weekend.  That’s what they did last year and missed Anya’s 1st Thanksgiving.  We had dinner two weeks after Thanksgiving…which was silly…but that’s what they did.  Oh well, they are not very involved.  Its ok, my parents are either…my mom sees the kids once maybe twice a month and we live in the same city, I don’t speak to my father so he sees the kids once a year on Tyler’s birthday only, which is completely ridiculous, but I’ve come to accept it and that’s all, and that’s all the family I have, so it’s me, Warren, and the kids.  That’s ok though I love our little family and am happy…and I know when I am older and I have grandchildren I will be very involved and will see them much more than once a year, or once or twice every month, unless my kids move to different cities, but then I’ll just have to follow them 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone  

Yesterday in the paper there was a story about a mom of three who raises chickens in her backyard in Calgary.  :)  I laughed at first, without really reading it, because it seems completely absurd to raise chickens in a city.  Then I read the aritcle.  I don’t know how many chickens she has but she does make a good point about having them to help feed her family.  She uses the chickens for eggs, which now I think is actually a great idea.  Unfortunatley its against a by-law in our city that you can’t raise farm animals.  This by-law is only a couple years old if I remember correctly, because someone had a pony in their backyard and the neighbors didn’t like it.  I say if you have the room for a chicken coop, or a stable, or a goat, or a sheep, or a cow, then why not produce your own milk or eggs or wool or pony rides for the neighborhood kids?  Eggs are expensive, everone knows that.  Milk isn’t cheap either, so why not get a goat and milk it?  Goats milk is very good for you, and it won’t be processed like the stuff at the store.  Fresh milk is yummy too, I know, because I have drank it.  So I’m seriously thinking of getting some chickens, just two though, we don’t eat a ton of eggs.  I should talk to my hubby about it first though because I’m sure if he comes home to chickens running around the backyard this Monday he won’t be too pleased, plus its cold out so I don’t want frozen chickens  :) 

Anyway’s I’ll keep you posted on my chicken idea.  I’ll have to see if it flies. 

My 8 year old daughter has shingles.  She has an immune deficiency, and back in 2005 she caught chicken pox.  Back then her immunologist told me that she will probably get shingles.  And she has them now.  We went to the children’s hospital in Calgary on Tuesday night.  It was crazy busy.  One mom I talked to briefly had been waiting for over 3 hours to get a bed for her son who was in a wheel chair and had been brought by ambulance.  It was actually pretty quick for us to get to triage because of Kennedy’s suppressed immune system.  Then I was given the option of taking her home and seeing her pediatrician in the morning or waiting for hours and hours to get a room and exposing her to who knows what.  I opted for taking her home.  The next morning I called her pediatrician’s office and got an appointment for 11:45.  So we went in and I said I went to the hospital the night before and her doctor stopped me and said, “Oh you did go, what happened?”  So I explained.  I should have stayed was the conclusion.  Going home should not have been discussed at all.  I feel horrible for letting my child down like that.  I should have known better but I was so concerned with exposing her to anything else.  So then, our doctor said she would probably have to be admitted to the hospital for anti-viral drugs.  So I said ok and then he went off to page a few doctors and we sat waiting.  He came back a while later and said he couldn’t get a hold of anyone, so he called the emergency room.  There were no beds available.  They were going to try to find her a bed at another hospital.  This is what our health care has become.  A brand new hospital for kids has no beds.  I’m sure its not because there were not enough beds but probably because there were not enough nurses.  Its appalling.  It makes me angry.  There should always be beds at any hospital, espeacially at a children’s hospital.  I am angry that there will be more bed closures.  I am angry there will be more cuts.  I am angry about the state of our education.  I am angry that they are cutting out an important written part of grade 12 exams to save a few bucks.  Can you imagine doing that in your family.  “We have to save money kids, no new shoes for you this winter.”  Its basically saying the same thing.  What has this government come too?  I just can’t believe.  You bet I won’t be voting for this government the next election.  Change has to happen.  Education and Health need to come first again.  I have suggestion for our premier, cut your own salary and take that money and put it into health and education.

Just to note, my daughter is ok.  She didn’t end up having to be admitted and is now on oral anti-viral medication and comfortable at home.  :)  Although I do feel bad for the mom that was in the emergency waiting room all night long.

I hate Monday’s.  I hate getting up and getting the kids up and fighting them to get dressed, well the big ones not the baby.  She’s easy to get ready :)  Kennedy is horrible to get out of bed.  She pulls the covers over her head, she hates the morning.  I get her clothes out every morning to make life a little bit easier, and then I give them to her and head downstairs to the kitchen to feed Anya and get lunches made.  It takes her half an hour to get dressed, brush her teeth and brush her hair.  Then she has to take her medication and then eat breakfast.  Tyler is easy, except for the tv problem that he has :)  what kid doesn’t right?  Well Tyler gets up at 6am and turns on the tv.  When I walk downstairs to let the dog out just after, I can hear it downstairs in the basement, so I call down to him to get dressed.  I’m always always always answered by a “Pardon Me???”  (at least he has manners)  I always yell a bit louder “Get Dressed!  Turn off the TV!”  That’s how my morning goes wth him.  “Turn off the tv!!”  “Come upstairs!!”  “Turn off the TV!!”  “GO BRUSH YOUR TEETH!!!!”  It drives me crazy.  On the occassional mornings that go really smoothly, everyone does what they are supposed to and I am completely shocked that we are in the car on time…I praise them for their cooperation.  On the other mornings when we are 15 minutes late because someone forgot his/her backpack, I lecture all the way to the dayhome.  You would think that they would hate the lecture soooo much that they would just cooperate everyday….well unfortunately its hit and miss.  Then after I drop Anya off at her sitters, yes I have two because the school the kids go to has to be for our area, then I go to work till 4:30 pm.  I am a programmer so I get to think all day, woohoo.  :)  So after work I have to fight traffic to get my kids.  I get home at just before 5:30pm, and then its dinner time and then after dinner I get the baby to bed and then its homework time.  Homework can take anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half depending on the mood Kennedy is in.  Some days she’s really focused and other’s not so much and this becomes a fight.  Sometimes its hard to keep my patience, that’s when we take a break.  So then the kids are in bed by nine and I get a bit of time to myself, but really to clean the house, before going to bed at 10.  That is my week starting on Mondays, for two weeks straight.  I love it when hubby is home cause he gets the kids to school and I just get ready for work and go  :)  Dinner is ready in the evening, and homework is done.  I just have to clean the kitchen, which is totally fine by me :)  He comes home on Wednesday afternoon, and I am ecstatic!  Its been a long two weeks.

So I was lieing in bed and thinking about the blog I read about pregnant women smoking.  And I was thinking about this so much that I thought I would put my two cents in  :)  I am a smoker.  There, I admit it to the world.  I started at the tender age of 13.  I used to steal them from my mother; she would get a carton, so I would take a couple of packs and she never noticed, I don’t know how or why, but she didn’t.  I got caught by my father when I was 16.  He made me promise to stop.  I promised, but still smoked.  My mother caught me at 17.  I promised I would quit.  I didn’t. 

As an adult I have tried quiting probably about 10 times.  The longest I quit for was 2 months.  When I was pregnant with my three kids, I smoked, although I cut back substantially.  I was smoking half a pack a day before pregnant, and during pregnancy I cut back to 1 or 2 a day, and some days I had none.  Yay me.  While pregnant with my last baby I asked the doctor about nicorette to help me quit.  He told me don’t bother, its not the stuff you inhale that is bad for the baby, the problem is the nicotine, it constricts blood vessels in the placenta which contributes to low birth weights.  I had big babies.  8 lbs 8oz, 7 lbs 10 oz, and 8 lbs 1 oz.  Of course I ate like a horse, so maybe that’s why  :)   Anyways, I thought I would show people what its like to be a smoker in these times, and maybe put a little bit of humour into it.

To be a smoker now, you have to have a thick hide and a blind eyes, cause everyone that walks past you gives you an evil eye.  I figure this thick hide allows me to get through traffic everyday without wincing, and also you don’t take things personally when someone gets mad at you.  I see it as a positive. 

I figure by constanly buying cigarettes I am contributing to the economy.  I can’t contribute by buying furniture or a car so I buy a pack of cigarettes every three days.  And because cigarettes are so highly taxed, I am putting money in the governments pockets to be used for social programs, like EI. 

As a smoker, I am for sure going to die young.  Therefore I will not deplete the environment as much as someone who will live to be 100.  My environmental footprint will be smaller 

As a smoker I have to make time to go outside for that cigarette, therefore this puts my organizational skills to the test.  At work I have to make sure to fit in that cigarette in between important phone calls, tasks that need to be done, and meetings.  At home, I have to make sure the kids are fed and homework is done until I can have a cigarette.  Its about organizing your time. 

So there are some positive things about smoking.  Its not all cancer and heart disease. 

Note:  I am not promoting smoking I just like to view this controversial subject in a lighter manner.