Youtube fun

The kids and I were exploring Youtube last night for something to do, and I found this video that I saw at a friend's house recently. Some guy (or maybe girl, I dunno) decided to make "dance" videos to some popular songs. Check it out. If you've seen the real video for this song, then you know how accurate it is! Pretty talented, as strange as it is.



Check out the other videos he does. There's a couple of Michael Jackson ones, and a Highschool musical one. This just totally cracks me up!

(And hopefully the words in spanish (or Portuguese?) don't say something totally crude! LOL)

A night out!

Again, I'm slacking. I know I keep saying that, but things have been a little bit crazy here. I am even finding a hard time finding time to run, and I ALWAYS find time to run, no matter what!

So things are good, just busy.

Last night Mark and I went to our neighbour's house for a little mini concert. Yup, a concert....in a house! Earlier this year my neighbour was in British Columbia and met a musician by the name of Andrew Allen. He really enjoyed his music, and his performance and instantly became his biggest fan.

Andrew was touring across Canada so my neighbour wanted to help him out and began trying to get him into some of the bars and clubs in town, but wasn't having any luck. Andrew mentioned he was open to doing a "living room session" so that's exactly what he did. My neighbour cleared out his entire main floor of his house, rented some little bar tables and stools, invited about 50 people, charged $10 per person to support the band, and it was a blast!

Fast forward to last night where he hosted Andrew Allen and his band in his house again. It's too bad it was on a Thursday so people couldn't totally let loose, but it was still equally as fun. He is such a great artist, AND a great performer. Seriously, he is totally hilarious!!! He's got such a nice sound...very Jason Mraz sounding.

One of the songs he sang last night was The Lion Sleeps Tonight. I LOVED this song when I was a kid. I still do! His band normally sits out for this song, and Andrew sings it on his own. He has some fancy foot petal thing that records his voice as he sings, and then he can play it back whenever he wants. Technology is so cool! Here's a clip from Youtube of him perfoming this song (recorded at some other event he did) so you can see/hear what I'm talking about.



He's currently getting some airplay on one of our local radio stations (it's the song playing on the front page of his website) and I'm sure he will get more and more famous as time goes on. Check out some of his songs, and if you find he is coming to your area, go see him play...you won't regret it!

Reading

For the last half of school last year, Kaia's class (she was in Jr. Kindergarten at the time) were beginning to learn a bunch of sight words. If you're not familiar with sight words, they are high-frequency words found in books that generally aren't able to be sounded out phonectically. Kids learn to read these words by sight, which is pretty much memorization.

Anyways, I was quite surprised that Kaia knew all of the words that the class had learned. And even though I rarely went over them with her throughout the summer, she still managed to remember almost all of them.

Now that she is in Sr. Kindergarten, she gets simple reading books sent home to her from school. I'm not sure what the rest of the class is getting, but her books are mostly sight word books. And quite honestly, I'm not too impressed with what she has been getting, so I started looking for books for her to read at home. I bought a set of sight word books from Scholastic, and I just received them on Tuesday. The books are simple enough for her to be able to read, but have other words that she can figure out by looking at the illustration. Interpreting words based on what the picture shows is a big part of early reading. I totally didn't know that! This set also have words that she can work on sounding out, but I'm not sure she understands sounding out words just yet. We'll see how she does when we get to those ones.

I tried to take a video of her reading a couple of the books, and I somewhat succeeded. I don't know if it's hard to hear her because of the other 2 monkeys screaming in the background, but hopefully you can hear some of it. I also don't know how understandable her speech is to others. I find her fairly clear most of the time, but I'm used to listening to her. To others it may sound like she's speaking Greek or something, I really don't know. And Ialso know the camera is moving around everywhere, but it was hard to help her turn the pages, hold the camera, AND keep her from trying to read the book by looking at the camera instead of the book. Hopefully I don't make you too motion sick. The first book she reads is the 2nd time she has read it. Some of the words are sight words that she knows (including the colours), and some of the words (like the names of the animals) she knows just by looking at the picture. And the 2nd book she reads is the first time she has read it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I am so very excited that she is actually reading! I never really thought she'd be able to read, but as usual she is proving me wrong. I still wonder if she will ever grasp the whole sounding out unfamiliar words thing, but only time will tell in that department. For now, I'm thrilled with how she is doing, and I think she is equally thrilled! She loves to be able to pick up a book and read it herself!

Mystery fever

So last week, Nolan had this mystery fever. I say mystery because that is the only symptom he had. He would be completely fine, running around like a mad man, then out of the blue he would spike a fever of 104. Advil would wipe it out no problem, and he would be fine until bed time when he would spike another one.

It originally started on Sunday. I figured it was either a side effect of the H1N1 vaccine he got the day before, or maybe he was coming down with whatever it was that I had. I kept him home from school on Monday and he was completely symptom-free, with the exception of the darn fever that would pop up unexpectedly. He stayed home on Tuesday and on Wednesday I took him back to school. He seemed fine, had no fever, but then 2 hours later the school called for me to come get him because he wasn't feeling well. Thursday he stayed home again, and Friday I finally took him to the doctor. They had no clue what was causing the fever. He had no aches and pains, no headaches, no sore throat, vomiting or diarhea. Not even a runny nose! I felt kinda dumb even bringing him in because he looked and acted completely normal, but after 6 days of fever I figured we needed to get him checked out.

On a whim, the doctor did a strep swab. He said his throat looked fine, but he may as well rule it out. Whaddya know, the doc calls today confirming the strep test came back positive!

I wish he would have had something else going on that would have maybe prompted me to bring him in sooner. A week of having strep in the house pretty much guarantees the rest of us will get it. I personally think I deserve a break in the sick department so it better not hit me!! I've got a sinus infection going on right now and I feel like someone is stabbing my brain with a screwdriver, I don't need to deal with strep on top of that! I'm sick of being sick.

Butt-kicking

That's what this virus (or whatever the heck it is I've got) is doing....it's kicking my butt!

I'm feeling a lot better than I was last weekend, but I am still feeling pretty crappy. It seems this "thing" has now moved into my sinuses. I've got such a wicked sinus headache and my face and my teeth hurt. I am soooo tired of being sick! *sigh*

Ok, enough complaining.

Thanks for all of the well-wishes for my mom. She is doing alot better. She is still in the hospital though, and no word on for how much longer. Her speech sounds really good, hardly any slurring, and her strength is picking up. She is now up and about walking around with a walker, just not on her own quite yet. I'm not sure what the hold-up is in releasing her, maybe she needs to be able to walk on her own? No one really knows.

So, totally unrelated, it is now November 15 and I'm feeling the Christmas pressure already! I know it's still early, but I feel like it's creeping up quickly and I'm going to be totally unprepared. I would really like to get everything done early this year as I'm tired of being out shopping the day or two before Christmas. I know no matter how prepared I am though, I'll still be out picking up last minute things that get sprung on me. I just realized today that I've got to try and get a decent picture of the kids for my Christmas cards. I already know how well THAT will go!

I just need to kick this cold/flu/sinus infection so I can get back on track!

Sick

Not sure what I have, but I'm pretty sure it's the flu. Let me tell you, if this is the H1N1 flu, it is NOT a nice flu. Not at all.

I started feeling a tightness in my chest on late Friday and I think overnight I may have had a fever. I remember feeling so cold and shivery all night. Saturday morning I woke up feeling fine. My chest still felt tight, but no fever. Mark, the kids and I went and got our H1N1 shot and then just hung out at home. I started feeling kinda blah later that night and a little bit feverish, and that's when it all started going downhill. I had a high fever for 2 days, and tylenol/advil really did nothing to bring it down. I had horrible body aches and the most excrutiating headaches I've ever had in my life. My fever has finally broken and I'm feeling somewhat close to normal again, but still very weak. Now the cough has started and it hurts. I'm thinking I may go to the doctor tomorrow if I'm not feeling any better because I don't want this to turn into pneumonia. (or maybe it is already...I dunno). I find myself getting out of breath just going upstairs. I don't know if that is a normal flu thing, or something I should be concerned about. I've been running 6km 3 times a week without problem and now I can't walk up the stairs without getting winded.

I've kept myself locked up in Nolan's room for the last 2-3 days to try and keep anyone else from getting sick. So far so good (knock on wood), although Nolan keeps spiking a fever out of the blue for the last 2 days. No other symptoms so I'm not sure what's going on with him. I've kept him home from school yesterday and today, just in case though. I am so seriously hoping he does not get what I got because I'm pretty sure it would hit him hard.

It's going to be a loooooonnnnngggg winter.

Stuff

So this week has been a little bit, ummmm, interesting. I can't beleive it's already Friday!

First off, a little bit of bad news. My mom had a stroke on Monday morning. Thankfully it was a mild stroke, but it was still kind of shocking. Her and my dad were at the mall having coffee like they usually do when my mom felt a pins and needles type feeling on one side of her face. When she tried to talk she couldn't get the words out and what she did say made no sense. So my dad took her to the ER in town. The only real side-effect she has is her speech, and her balance. No paralysis or loss of cognitive function which is great. So I've been to the hospital a couple of times this week, which is about an hour from me, to visit and hang out. At this point we're not sure how long she will be there. Originally they said 2-3 days, but I think it will be alot longer than that.

I have to say that being in a hospital right now can really turn someone into a major germaphobe. I was never a germaphobe before, but with the H1N1 going rampant lately I've been more conscious about things. Now after visiting a hospital, especially the ER where my mom was at for a good chunk of time, I literally come home and hose myself down! The amount of people in the waiting rooms with masks, and almost coughing up a lung really grossed me out.

I have pretty much decided that we will be getting the H1N1 vaccine. I have thought long and hard over this, and for us I decided on the lesser of 2 evils. The risks of the flu, especially for my boys who have asthma are far too great. My doctor's office is having their first vaccination clinic tomorrow for their high-risk patients, and my boys qualify for it, so we will be there. I'm not sure if Kaia qualifies as high-risk or not, I've heard conflicting opinions on that. Some doctors say yes because most people with Down syndrome have compromised immune systems, and they have higher incidence of respitory issues, so I don't know. Kaia is very very healthy and rarely gets sick. I can't remember the last time she had a cold or anything. She will be with us when we go tomorrow so we will find out then I guess.

Today is a P.A. Day for the kids, so all of them are home. I'm not sure if we will head up to the hospital or not. I'm not sure I want to bring them there and I'm not sure if they are even allowed to be there visiting. I'll figure out my options and decide from there.

And the time change still seems to be an issue here. This is what Kaia does while I'm making dinner. Too bad she's not so zonked like this at 4 am! Don't you wish you could just drop down and sleep anywhere??

It's only an hour

This darn, pesky time change thing. Seriously what's the point, other than supposedly saving a few bucks on electricity?

I don't know about anyone else, but for us (mostly me) the time change in the fall is NOT fun. For some odd reason, Kaia has such a hard time adjusting to it. It will take her a month or more to adjust to it. I would hate to see what would happen if we travelled somewhere with a much bigger time difference....she'd be messed up for life I'm sure!

So this morning she was up bright and early at 4:15! Yes, she normally wakes up anywhere between 5:00 and 6:00, so now with the new time it will be between 4:00 and 5:00. Fun times I tell ya!

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So this post is going to be all over the place, I've got lots of random things to say.

I guess I need to back-track a few days.

Thursday and Friday we gutted and carved our pumpkins. Every year we get 3, one for each kid. Their most favorite part is to pull all the guts out. Alot of people don't like doing it, they think it's gross. We all think it's fun! Pierce even loved it so much that when he was done he would take all of the stuff in the bowl and put it back IN the pumpkin so he could do it all over again!









The kids were trying to see who could pull out a larger chunk of stuff.




And the finished pumpkins. From left to right, Nolan's is the ghost, Kaia's is the snake-y face, and Pierce's is, well, obvious. He said he wanted a triangle happy face. The other two were done with patterns that the kids picked.



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Saturday was a bit of a hectic day. We had a Halloween party to go to during the day, then we came home and got ready to go out trick or treating. After the kids came home we left to go to another Halloween party about an hour away. We were all exhausted to say the least. Sunday we relaxed at our friends' place, then headed home.

The kids wore costumes that they've worn in the past. We were really lazy this year. Nolan was a red Power Ranger, Kaia was a spider, and Pierce (who didn't want his picture taken) was Thomas the Train.




I got a picture of him earlier though. That's him on the left....but I think that's obvious. The other kids are friends from the party we were at during the day.


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Yesterday I completely stressed myself out trying to find Pierce's birth certificate. I need to get his passport renewed for a fairly last minute trip we decided to take, and I tore the house apart trying to find it. I had everyone else's birth certificate, except for his. I couldn't figure out why only his would be missing, I haven't needed it for anything in a long time. I ended up going online to start the process of ordering a new one, but the fastest I could get it would be 5 business days. That was fast enough, but they asked a million questions to make sure they have the right records, and I couldn't for the life of me remember how much he weighed at birth, nor could I remember the name of the doctor who delivered him. I'm such a horrible mom. I remember every little detail about Kaia and Nolan's birth, but barely anything about Pierce. And I couldn't find anything in his file to help me. Such is the life of the 3rd child right?! Anyways, if my answers didn't match their records, they couldn't guarantee the speedy delivery.

So I put aside the application for a bit, and after stressing about it, and searching everywhere for it, Mark tells me to maybe check my wallet. I did, although reluctantly because there was absolutely no reason for it to be there, and oddly enough it was there. Not sure why, but it was. So I can breathe easier now knowing that I don't have to try and figure out how to get his birth certificate in time for me to get his passport done. Now I just gotta get their pictures, the guarantor signature, and get to the passport office.

That's about it for now. I'll try and post some more pictures soon.

The pumpkin patch

The kids and I went to the pumpkin patch this past weekend to pick out our pumpkins. I actually wouldn't really call this a pumpkin patch because the farm just lines up all the pumpkins on the grass, but I guess it technically is one because they do grow them there.

I didn't get very many pictures because there wasn't a whole lot to take a picture of. I did try for the group shot, but didn't try very hard. Just wasn't feeling it I guess.

I did realize though how weird our weather is at this time of year. Sometimes it's warm, sometimes not so much. We go to this pumpkin patch the same weekend every year, and look at the difference in weather.

See for yourself.

2006 - Coooooolllllddddd!!! Winter jackets and hats! Pierce is missing because he was only about 6 months old and I was carrying him in a snuglie. Look how little Nolan and Kaia are!


2007 - warm enough for shorts and t-shirts


2008 - typical mild fall day I guess, just long sleeves or a light sweater


2009 - back to heavy jackets, and if I was a good mom I would have put hats and mitts on them too!


I have nothing for 2005, but I found 2004 when we were living in Ohio. just outside of Dayton. The weather there is pretty much the same as it is here, and that year it was fairly mild. Oh how I miss those curls of Nolan's! He wants his hair short, so no curls anymore.


Halloween is going to be a busy day for us. It's nice to have it on the weekend so we can do a bunch of fun things. We are going to go to a farm that is all decked out for Halloween and hang out there for a couple hours, then head over to some friends' house and have some snacks and let the kids play. Then it's home to get ready for trick or treating and then afterwards we are heading to another friend's house for another Halloween celebration. Good thing we'll have lots of candy to keep us pumped up!

I think i'll have to dig up some old Halloween pictures too.

Beautiful Fall Day

This is one of the trees in my backyard. I wish the picture really showed how bright yellow it's leaves are. It's really pretty especially on a really sunny day. (I really need to learn how to take good pictures, not to mention how to edit them nicely).


Yesterday was a really nice, mild fall day. The leaves were really starting to pile up again in the yard so the kids and I headed out and played in them, and then raked them up. I have already filled 5 bags with leaves, added another 2 yesterday and the tree barely looks like it's lost any. Fall is pretty, but it's also a pain in the butt!

This is the other tree in our backyard. Anyone wanna come help me rake leaves in a couple weeks??


The kids had a blast jumping around in the leaves as well as throwing them everywhere. Good thing they also enjoyed raking them up because I was getting tired of it!!


This is one of the leaves that Nolan found in our large pile. All of the colours of fall in one leaf. He said it looks like fire, and I agree.


It's sad that these nice fall days won't be around much longer. Winter is looming, and I'm soooooo not impressed about it!

That dreaded time of year

Yup...it's time to be wearing winter jackets and hats! Today was coooolllld!!!

But at least she can look cute while trying to keep warm!

There have actually been a couple of winter-jacket-worthy days already, but Kaia's last year's jacket is too small, and I wasn't on the ball to have figured that out sooner. I went everywhere trying to find her a decent snowsuit, and I have to say, I think they increase in price majorly every year! The prices I saw on some of them were shocking. Seriously, who spends that kinda money on something a kid will just grow out of?? She's been able to get 2 seasons out of her last 2 snowsuits, so I guess I can't really complain. She should get 2 seasons out of this one as well, unless she has some supersonic growth spurt or something.

I'm also on the hunt for new mittens for her. Mittens are made in such one-size-fits-most size that they're either too small, or way too big. She's just not one of the "most" who will fit them. And I have the same issue with hats. She's got a small head, and a short head....if that makes any sense. Toddler hats are too small, but the hats for her her age group are massive on her.

Nolan is ok wearing his last year's winter stuff, but Pierce may be iffy. His jacket and snowpants fit him now, but it fits him exact, and I'm not sure it fit for the entire winter season. Because, you know, our winters last like 14 months up here! At least it seems like 14 months! And you know my luck is that he will all of a sudden out-grow it when there is no winter stuff to be found anywhere! I had that issue with Nolan and his boots last year. In February his boot got a massive hole in it. Poor kid's feet were frozen, and soaked, every day after school. I searched all over the city for new boots for him, and found nothing! If I wanted flip flops....hey, no problem...just couldn't find a snowboot to save my life!

Anyways, I can't believe it's time to be dressing for winter weather already. Let's hope the summer creeps up on us just as quickly as this fall has.

To vaccinate, or not

I know this is a common topic right now, and maybe many are sick of hearing about it, but this is something I am so completely confused and torn over.

Nolan has asthma, and I beleive Pierce does too, although he has not been "officially" diagnosed. That puts them in a high-risk category and first in line to recieve the H1N1 vaccine.

Since all the buzz started about the vaccine I have been in the "no way" mind-set. The vaccine is too new, I don't want my kids to be guinea pigs with a vaccine we really know nothing about. But the more I read about H1N1 and asthma, the more it freaks me out. It could most likely result in a hospital stay. My boys getting the virus scares the crap out of me, but the vaccine also scares the crap out of me. I'm not sure which one scares me more.

The last couple of times that I've been at the doctor I've asked her about what she knows, and at that time they really had no info. I'm due to bring Kaia in for a follow-up, but sickness is running rampant everywhere here and I'd rather not bring her to a germ-infested doctor's office when she is not sick! So I think I'm going to call the office and see if I can get some info from them.

What I would really like is an unbiased opinion, but I'm not sure I can get that anywhere. Anything I've read online (that has been referred to from my doctor's office website) is all pro-vaccine. But they're all vaccination websites, of course they're going to promote it.

I hate these kinds of decisions.

She's got an opinion

Almost gone are the days where I get to choose Kaia's clothes, or make the decision as to what to do with her hair. Apparently now Kaia has an opinion, and she's not afraid to express it.

Kaia likes to choose which clothes she's going to wear each day, and while she's really good at matching outfits, she's isn't always selecting weather appropriate things. For instance, it's about 6 degrees here during the day (that's celcius....you'll have to figure out what that is in Farenheit on your own cuz I'm too lazy), and she'll come out of her room in a tank top and skirt. Nice job dressing yourself sweetie, but try looking on the other side of your closet and choose something a little bit warmer. When I try and help her pick something, it's usually "no Mommy, not THAT!", complete with a disgusted look and attitude and everything. What happened to my little girl who would say "oooohhh...so pretty. Thank you Mommy!, and then give me a big hug?

The other day I went out and bought her a new snowsuit while she was at school. When I took it out of the bag to show her she made a sour face and said "no Mommy, no like it.". I tried to make a big deal about how pretty it was as I was trying the jacket on her, and still, "no Mommy, no like it....too big". *sigh* Fine then. It was too big anyways, so I took it back. I went to another store on Friday, and I took her with me this time so she could help choose. Well, apparently none of the 50 different styles of snowsuits were good enough for her. There was one or two that she liked, but they were $150.00, and that just wasn't going to happen. This girl has expensive taste. I did manage to pick one out that I'm sure she's going to love...eventually. I've been to a million and one stores, and I'm not looking anymore!

As for her hair, she's got quite the opinion on that too. I'm am not allowed, under any circumstances to french braid her hair like this anymore.


While I'm really not a big fan of all of her hair pulled completely off her face, I do find this an easy style to keep her hair out of her face, especially for school. And I think it looks cute. But now when I try to do her hair like this, she is all full of drama about how she does not want her hair like that and she wants it "like this", and she grabs a handful of hair to show me how I need to do it. If I do end up doing her hair a certain way she does not want it, it's a guarantee that when I pick her up from school her hair will no longer be done that way.

I guess it's a good thing she has an opinion, and her likes and dislikes, but can't it agree with mine?

I've just got nothing to say

I realize it's been almost a week since I posted. Sorry, but I really have nothing to say. And let's not mention that there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day lately to get anything accomplished, including a blog post.

Thanksgiving was this past weekend, and we did have a fairly relaxing weekend. I had had all of my family over, as well as Mark's mom, Jerome (his brother) and Jaylynn (his neice). It was nice to catch up with everyone, especially my brother and his family. I hadn't seen them since Father's Day weekend I think. I tried to take pictures, but between getting dinner ready, eating dinner, and cleaning up from dinner, I didn't get much of a chance for picture taking.


I did manage to get a really nice one of my neice Hannah. She's growing up way too fast.


Her and Nolan share a birthday, except a year apart. It's too bad we didn't live closer because they have always got along so well and they really enjoy hanging out with each other.



And this is Nolan and Jaylynn (Mark's niece). They see alot of each other, but don't always get along quite as nicely.


And I had to post this, it totally cracks me up. This is my brother. Doesn't look like the most friendly guy here does he! LOL. He was just being a goof-ball, but holy crap is that a mean lookin' face or what!


And a few of Kaia....she was being such a poser when I was taking her picture. She just loves to have her picture taken.

That's it for now....gotta run Pierce to school and Kaia and I to a Down syndrome program thing.

Thanksgiving and other things

It's Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada)....already! I don't know about you, but that snuck up on me really rather quickly. Not too much longer and Christmas will be upon us. The weather has already become bitter cold, and somewhat depressing. It's rained so much these last couple of weeks, and the sky seems to always be dreary looking. Such is life here in the land of four seasons I guess.

This Thanksgiving is looking to be pretty tame for once. Usually we end up having to drive all over the place and have two, sometimes 3 turkey dinners (blech), but this year it's just one! You know how overstuffed and gross you feel after Thanksgiving? Imagine that feeling times 3, for 3 days in a row! I'm hosting my family and Mark's family at our house, which is a ton easier for us, and that means we don't have to drive anywhere! The kids will be in their own environment, with their own toys and things, and I don't have to worry about what they might be breaking, or getting into.

So Happy Thanksgiving. Hope it's great! Maybe I'll have new pictures soon, maybe I won't.