Sorry for the lack of posting. It hasn't been due to the lack of content (as you're about to see) but because I’ve been busy and the internet has been down. Also, I haven’t taken a picture in (almost) a week. Thankfully, Poppa took tons (all the pictures on this post are his, or me taking them with his camera).
Poppa arrived on Wednesday.
You know the saying; buy a child a toy, throw out the toy and let them play with the box. We’ve done one better; buy yourself a toy, keep said toy and let them play with the box. For Poppa's entire visit, the kids played with the box from his new 46" plasma flat screen tv.
On Thursday, I was scheduled to give blood as part of my In Alexander's Honour post. My appointment was for 1:50pm so I arrived 15 minutes early (I could have sworn that they told me to arrive early…). First mistake (read: virgin blood donor). While I was signing in (I had an appointment), people who had appointments at 1:10pm were just arriving. They gave me a "First Time Donor" sticker to wear (read: who knew that giving blood was so confusing) and had me sit at the "I'm here too early and there's nowhere to put me" table and offered me food and drink (I read a book that I brought). When it was my turn, I went to the next stage. The woman there entered me into the system and took some blood (a pin prick) to ensure that I was not anemic (my reading was 146, it needed to be 125 or higher). She gave me a questionnaire and booklet and told me to go to the "polling booth" (okay, not really but it looked exactly like one) and complete my paperwork. The next step required me to meet with a nurse. At this stage, she took my blood pressure. My reading was 95/52. For those of you who don't know, that’s really low (which is normal for me). It needs to be 90/50 so she asked me a ton of questions; Had I eaten two meals, Drank a lot? She insisted that I go back to the recuperation table for a snack and drink before donating but not before we reviewed the "standard" questionnaire. One of the questions was “Have you been outside of Canada or the US for less than 6 months in the past year. To which I answered "Yes". As you all know, we returned from Mexico at the end of March after a 3.5 month stay. Then, as she’s flipping through her handy, dandy flip chart, she asked me "exactly" where we’d been. Had I been to "Chiapa de Corzo"? Well, I'd driven “through” this city as it is 30 minutes from San Cristobal de las Casas (it’s at the bottom of the mountain right beside Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the State of Chiapas). However, I answered "No, that's not where I've been". She then informed me that I was ineligible to donate due to risk of Malaria. What? There isn’t any malaria in SCLC (World Malaria Risk Chart. Trust me, if there was, the Travel Clinic that we go to would have notified us, we would have taken pills, not have taken the kids, or not have gone at all... I was disappointed (to say the least). Now, I must contact Red Cross and convince them that I am not at risk of Malaria.
In the evening, Poppa and I managed to plant the garden (before the mosquitos counted as an unofficial blood donation). We planted; beets, radishes, lettuce, spinach, green beans, peppers and cucumbers. I’m so excited.
On Friday, Artemis got her first molar (“B”). “N” and “Q” are almost in. That makes nine teeth for her. It kind of makes sense because she’s had a few "situations" this week. One (okay it’s happened more than once) of those "situations" involves the use of said teeth. Yes, she's been biting Max and I... daily. Whenever either of us does something she doesn’t like, she bites. She hasn’t really sunk her teeth into me (I'm watching for it) but poor Max... I'll need to research our plan of action but I would appreciate any thoughts.
On Sunday, Max’s teeth ("N", "Q" and molar "C") all popped through the skin. Poor kid. We knew that it was coming as he’s been chewing on his hand for a few days. Considering he’s had three teeth coming in at once, he’s been in great spirits.
In the evening, Poppa babysat the kids and Ed and I went to Finnerty’s. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay but had fun “tearing up the streets of Kemptville”. Okay, not really but I can’t admit that we were home by 7:30pm…
On Saturday, Poppa babysat the kids (are you sensing a trend?) and Ed and I went out to a Cooper auction. The auctioneer didn’t have any helpers so Ed offered to hold up items. We bought a ton of junk (for $6) but had a great time.
Ed got the kids a little convertible complete with horn and useable trunk. It runs on “ped-power” (like the Flintstones). It is only intended for ONE person. Try to tell them that.
Poppa read to them every night (as well as during the day, they love books).
Poppa left today after the kids went down for their morning nap (this week they added a short afternoon nap, probably because they’re teething). The kids loved having him here (evidenced by the fact that when we came back from the auction sale yesterday, they didn’t even notice that we were there) and Ed and I really appreciate all his help (he even found time to walk the dogs!).
In the afternoon, The Sheriff and Ed dismantled an internet tower (the owners gave it to us for free) and reassembled it at our place. I didn’t get any pictures of our two neighbours helping stand it up (because I couldn’t find the camera). Hopefully, our internet provider will be over tomorrow to re-set our antennae. We’ve barely had phone service since a week this past Friday. We had Eric over for dinner.
The kids have been eating two flats of fruit a day (in addition to their morning banana and afternoon orange). Thankfully, we haven’t had any “poo problems” (because I’m sure that you were wondering).
Today, the kids decided that they wanted to go outside (once in the morning and once in the afternoon). They asked for their hats (read: pointed at the bookcase and grunted), put them on and then waited at the front door. Too cute.
Tonight, the kids had their first taste of ice cream, including a cone (I know, they’re so impoverished) and I couldn’t find the camera (note that I have since found it). They haven’t really figured out how to “lick” yet so it was pretty funny to watch (and thankfully not too dirty).
Update on Reina. Reina’s knee is doing great, better than expected. We are having a hard time keeping her from acting like a normal dog. We have to separate her and Phoenix because all they want to do is play. We also have to leash Reina because she wants to run. She is scheduled to have her staples taken out on Thursday. Hopefully after that, she can go about life as usual.
Update on Haiku contest. Ed has reviewed all the (one) submissions and Amy has won the prize. Seriously, she is going to receive a prize and all my other followers (Hi Mom and Dad) have missed out on said prize.
Poppa arrived on Wednesday.
You know the saying; buy a child a toy, throw out the toy and let them play with the box. We’ve done one better; buy yourself a toy, keep said toy and let them play with the box. For Poppa's entire visit, the kids played with the box from his new 46" plasma flat screen tv.
On Thursday, I was scheduled to give blood as part of my In Alexander's Honour post. My appointment was for 1:50pm so I arrived 15 minutes early (I could have sworn that they told me to arrive early…). First mistake (read: virgin blood donor). While I was signing in (I had an appointment), people who had appointments at 1:10pm were just arriving. They gave me a "First Time Donor" sticker to wear (read: who knew that giving blood was so confusing) and had me sit at the "I'm here too early and there's nowhere to put me" table and offered me food and drink (I read a book that I brought). When it was my turn, I went to the next stage. The woman there entered me into the system and took some blood (a pin prick) to ensure that I was not anemic (my reading was 146, it needed to be 125 or higher). She gave me a questionnaire and booklet and told me to go to the "polling booth" (okay, not really but it looked exactly like one) and complete my paperwork. The next step required me to meet with a nurse. At this stage, she took my blood pressure. My reading was 95/52. For those of you who don't know, that’s really low (which is normal for me). It needs to be 90/50 so she asked me a ton of questions; Had I eaten two meals, Drank a lot? She insisted that I go back to the recuperation table for a snack and drink before donating but not before we reviewed the "standard" questionnaire. One of the questions was “Have you been outside of Canada or the US for less than 6 months in the past year. To which I answered "Yes". As you all know, we returned from Mexico at the end of March after a 3.5 month stay. Then, as she’s flipping through her handy, dandy flip chart, she asked me "exactly" where we’d been. Had I been to "Chiapa de Corzo"? Well, I'd driven “through” this city as it is 30 minutes from San Cristobal de las Casas (it’s at the bottom of the mountain right beside Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of the State of Chiapas). However, I answered "No, that's not where I've been". She then informed me that I was ineligible to donate due to risk of Malaria. What? There isn’t any malaria in SCLC (World Malaria Risk Chart. Trust me, if there was, the Travel Clinic that we go to would have notified us, we would have taken pills, not have taken the kids, or not have gone at all... I was disappointed (to say the least). Now, I must contact Red Cross and convince them that I am not at risk of Malaria.
In the evening, Poppa and I managed to plant the garden (before the mosquitos counted as an unofficial blood donation). We planted; beets, radishes, lettuce, spinach, green beans, peppers and cucumbers. I’m so excited.
On Friday, Artemis got her first molar (“B”). “N” and “Q” are almost in. That makes nine teeth for her. It kind of makes sense because she’s had a few "situations" this week. One (okay it’s happened more than once) of those "situations" involves the use of said teeth. Yes, she's been biting Max and I... daily. Whenever either of us does something she doesn’t like, she bites. She hasn’t really sunk her teeth into me (I'm watching for it) but poor Max... I'll need to research our plan of action but I would appreciate any thoughts.
On Sunday, Max’s teeth ("N", "Q" and molar "C") all popped through the skin. Poor kid. We knew that it was coming as he’s been chewing on his hand for a few days. Considering he’s had three teeth coming in at once, he’s been in great spirits.
In the evening, Poppa babysat the kids and Ed and I went to Finnerty’s. Unfortunately, we didn’t stay but had fun “tearing up the streets of Kemptville”. Okay, not really but I can’t admit that we were home by 7:30pm…
On Saturday, Poppa babysat the kids (are you sensing a trend?) and Ed and I went out to a Cooper auction. The auctioneer didn’t have any helpers so Ed offered to hold up items. We bought a ton of junk (for $6) but had a great time.
Ed got the kids a little convertible complete with horn and useable trunk. It runs on “ped-power” (like the Flintstones). It is only intended for ONE person. Try to tell them that.
Poppa read to them every night (as well as during the day, they love books).
Poppa left today after the kids went down for their morning nap (this week they added a short afternoon nap, probably because they’re teething). The kids loved having him here (evidenced by the fact that when we came back from the auction sale yesterday, they didn’t even notice that we were there) and Ed and I really appreciate all his help (he even found time to walk the dogs!).
In the afternoon, The Sheriff and Ed dismantled an internet tower (the owners gave it to us for free) and reassembled it at our place. I didn’t get any pictures of our two neighbours helping stand it up (because I couldn’t find the camera). Hopefully, our internet provider will be over tomorrow to re-set our antennae. We’ve barely had phone service since a week this past Friday. We had Eric over for dinner.
The kids have been eating two flats of fruit a day (in addition to their morning banana and afternoon orange). Thankfully, we haven’t had any “poo problems” (because I’m sure that you were wondering).
Today, the kids decided that they wanted to go outside (once in the morning and once in the afternoon). They asked for their hats (read: pointed at the bookcase and grunted), put them on and then waited at the front door. Too cute.
Tonight, the kids had their first taste of ice cream, including a cone (I know, they’re so impoverished) and I couldn’t find the camera (note that I have since found it). They haven’t really figured out how to “lick” yet so it was pretty funny to watch (and thankfully not too dirty).
Update on Reina. Reina’s knee is doing great, better than expected. We are having a hard time keeping her from acting like a normal dog. We have to separate her and Phoenix because all they want to do is play. We also have to leash Reina because she wants to run. She is scheduled to have her staples taken out on Thursday. Hopefully after that, she can go about life as usual.
Update on Haiku contest. Ed has reviewed all the (one) submissions and Amy has won the prize. Seriously, she is going to receive a prize and all my other followers (Hi Mom and Dad) have missed out on said prize.
Besos, The Zoo
Awesome! And to think, all this time in order to win a prize I just needed to find a tiny, obscure blog that nobody but family read! =)
ReplyDeleteKahlua was the same as Reina, it was hard to keep her from running and jumping on her leg after the surgery. We had to take her for super short walks (to the end of the block and back) because other wise she'd start running. We think she ended up reinjuring it (though not to the same extent), but we did the best we could!