In Sickness....

This was a scene I witnessed more than once when Sarah was fighting her Birthday Virus, and Liam seemed under the weather too.
The little wrists, the chubby belly....Sarah's bare toes peeking out behind Liam. It breaks my heart when they're not well, but seeing these two snuggle up together turns me to goo. Basically, I'm a mess.

Say Cheese!

I found these "test" pictures on the camera the other day, and couldn't bring myself to delete them. Matt enlisted the kids' help to try out the remote for the camera. Sarah's face looks like this in nearly all of the group shots:

Kind of reminds me of Ziggy.
And then they each got a turn with the new gadget. I think Liam has figured it out....


But I'm pretty sure Sarah thinks she's locking the car....

Blue Monday?

They say today is the most depressing day of the year. Some highly scientific equation accounting for Christmas debt, lack of long weekends and dreary weather pegs this as a very gloomy day, indeed. For our little family? Well, yes and no....
We woke up extra early this morning....but not quite as early as we did on this day two years ago: the day that Sarah made her big debut. (And I really do mean "big"!) How can anything be wrong with a day to celebrate your sweet, pig-tailed ray of sunshine?

Well, a couple of things:
1) Sarah's little body has been waging war on an unidentified virus that is resulting in raging fevers and vomiting. Although that seems to have passed for now. Knock on wood.
2) Matt left for China this morning.

So this wasn't gearing up to be a stellar day. But a series of little wonderfuls left me scoffing at "Blue Monday."

In chronological order...
1) Even if she wasn't really feeling it this morning, I made pancakes for breakfast in the birthday girls' honor. Liam's sing-song exclamation of "I smell paaaaancaaaaaakes!" as he rushed down the stairs in his footie pyjamas started the morning off with a smile.
2) We set a "target time" to be out of the house this morning. We beat it by one minute. That does not happen very often!
3) I don't do well with airport farewells, but held it together better than usual in light of this being a relatively short trip. Matt had a "Man to Man" with Liam before he left and bestowed a bag of Skittles to him as advanced reward for good behavior. You may remember Matt's last China trip matched up with some less-than-lovely behavior out of Liam. But skittles are serious stuff. Liam understands this. The Skittles bribe is successfully keeping some of those 3-year-old- boy crazies in check. And really, how cute are these guys?...


4) Matt got upgraded to Business Class! Very happy he'll be able to catch some zzz's before beginning his whirlwind Chinese New Year Party Tour.

5) The kids (and I) were excited to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa for a quick lunch. When Sarah started to relapse into fever territory they marched to the nearest store, bought and installed a car seat and took Liam with them for the rest of the day (and returned him right to our house at bedtime) so I could focus on getting Sarah back to health. That was above and beyond and completely awesome.
6) On more than one occasion we have been "those parents" that take their very sick child to the emergency room only to have that child perk right up and flash a killer smile at the nurses as soon we approach the admitting desk. But as we waited at the clinic to see a doctor this afternoon Sarah got more and more lethargic and was burning up by the minute. Just before the doctor entered the room her body erupted in heat rash and it was very clear she was a sick little thing. He recorded her temperature at 40+ and started investigating Scarlet Fever. (Big Bonus: It's not!)
Not that I want her to be sick...but if I'm going to spend an afternoon in a germ-infested doctor's office, I don't need an MD to give me the "fluids and rest" bit. Sarah gave up as much fight as she could muster, but she got a pretty thorough once-over and we left with some real advice. Take that, Blue Monday.
7) Next up: a stop at the drug store to pick up some new fever fighters. Who do we run into there? Nana and Papa! The first time we have just "bumped into" our new neighbors, and at such a good time. So nice to know that they're close by and always willing to help us out. More awesomeness in the universe.
8) Sarah has an aversion to liquid medicine. Always has. If you can somehow manage to wrestle it into her (and by that I do mean pin her down and pry her mouth open) she is likely to gag it right back up. Now that she is two years old she is ready for the "child" formulations, which include chewables. Just in time! I had my doubts and so I also bought some suppositories in case the chewables went the way I expected them to. And guess what? She thought the chewables were candy! I don't have to shove anything up her butt, and that is good news for absolutely everyone!
9) Liam had a fantastic time with Grandma and Grandpa today, and I got some uninterrupted cuddles and cartoon time with my more-cuddly-than-usual "baby". It's too bad she was sick on her birthday. But I think we both enjoyed the snuggles. And the balloons. :)


10) It's all about the little things....like a turned down bed and chocolate on the pillow. Nice touch, Babe. You're the best. :)
So. Blue Monday? A little. But at the end of the day, we have a bright little girl who's two and who is sleeping peacefully right now with an under-control-fever. We have a tired and content little boy who is snoozing in the next room, surrounded by his "baby" (bear cub), his puppy and an assortment of plastic dinosaurs. We have amazing family who love those kids as much as we do, and are always willing to help. Now, Matt: go get that party started and then get back home! We miss you!

Les Jambons

Liam has been on an anti-photo streak, so when he put an empty case of Coke on his head and said "take my picture, Mom!" I had to oblige.


Our little copycat here needed in on the photo shoot, but was without props. So she improvised with a funny face, some grunting, and grabbing of the stomach. With all that pink, I think she might be rehearsing for a Pepto Bismol commercial.

Cold, Crisp and Cranky!

I'm not yet entirely sure if it was worth the effort, but we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go snowshoeing yesterday. The blue skies were gorgeous, it was cold but not too cold, and the snow was perfect. But the kids were CRABBY. They whined and acted up pretty much all day. Sarah fell asleep for about 20 minutes only to wake and discover our little adventure was not just a bad dream...so she screamed in my right ear the rest of the way. It got to the point that I abandoned my snowshoes with Matt and Liam, and sped ahead along the shortcut back to the car so I could get her out of the pack and off my back! Once we were on our way an extreme traffic jam turned a 35 minute trip into an hour and 15...which felt just about as long as our summer roadtrip to Calgary. Liam cried injustice for at least half an hour because Sarah ate the last banana. Later in the evening, something reminded him of this after he finished all his dinner and he cried about it some more.
As far as outdoor adventures go, this one will be memorable....but maybe not for the right reasons!
A few of the quieter moments of the day were caught on camera. Just don't be misled. :)

New Year, New Experience!

We kicked off 2011 by taking Liam to his very first movie on New Year's Day! Sarah is definitely not ready to be quiet and/or still for such a long time, so she had a visit with Grandma and Grandpa while Matt and I took Liam to watch "Tangled."
I think we appreciated the milestone more than Liam did, but he still seemed to enjoy the experience!
I will remember....
* how little he looked marching up to the podium to show his ticket.
* how mesmerized he was by the arcade games in the lobby. (Such a boy!)
* how his seat kept flipping up unless he sat on the very edge of the chair. Little kids have amazing posture!
* how he giggled at the chameleon sidekick's antics.
* how he asked lots of questions, but his little voice wasn't even loud enough to be a nuissance to anyone.
* how he munched on his little bag of home popped (gluten/dairy free) popcorn with cinnamon (his favorite flavor in the world) sprinkled on top.
* how he leaned over to ask me in all seriousness: "Is it okay if I toot really loud in here?"

Happy Birthday to Mojo!

I almost forgot! On Christmas Eve we celebrated Mojo's eleventh birthday! The best gift for our furry companion? A big bowl full of his favorite stinky wet dog food....scarfed down while we all sat on the kitchen floor serenading him with "Happy Birthday." A happy dog, indeed.

Merrymaking

Did Christmas really happen? The boxes are put away, the new toys are jumbled in with the old as if they have always been there....the tree has been hauled outside where it lies under a dusting of snow. I guess it's done!
Santa was very good to us this year. The kids were a bit shellshocked with the whole process. Liam's face when he first saw the presents stacked under the tree was priceless, but after that he had a very serious approach to the whole thing. Just like last year, he wanted to play with each item as it was opened. But this year he was way more efficient with the unwrapping! Sarah was a bit confused by the events of the day, but did her part to unwrap each gift one fingernail-sized piece of paper at a time!
The kids are not quite ready to let go. Liam asks for Christmas music every time we get in the car. Sarah pulls a new toy out of the toybox and says "Santa!" regardless of who it came from. We are all looking forward to finding another tree as perfect as this year's (it'll be tough)!
Until then...a few pictures!

Sarah's gift for Liam was a Fireman set, complete with Bullhorn. Hooray!


Sarah likes it too....


Liam spent over an hour at Zellers agonizing over his gift for Sarah. He settled on this doll that makes kissy sounds when you squeeze her. Kind of like Sarah. :)


Both kids found a baby bear in their stockings. They squeak and snore and are generally adorable when the kids cuddle up with them and try to spoon feed them snacks. Or a "nack" as Sarah would say!


Stinky the Garbage Truck makes his (loud) debut...


That's a big box!

Sarah trying to sit on one of the itty bitty chairs from her new doll house...


Sarah discovers the dollhouse "potty." We all hope she doesn't try to sit on that one, too!


Liam's big request from Santa was a fishing rod. Lo and behold....here it is! (Note: it is now in the garage awaiting repair. Not sure which kid it was, but someone managed to break it in 2 places within 10 minutes.)


A kitty keyboard! Santa was sure on a noisy-toy streak this year!


A very small sampling of the candy ingested over a 24 hour period....


Sarah rocks yet another party dress...