I'm contributing.

It feels great to be a contributing. member of my family. Today Vanessa and I took the bus to and from playgroup without a stroller. The stroller and holding her hand is hard on my shoulder so I put Vanessa's harness on. We had a great morning. Vanessa giggled and played and did a craft. During story time she was happy go lucky albeit a little loud. On her walk home I saw her fade and ask to be picked up but we made it to the stop by Tagging all of the street signs and telephone poles.

We came home to one of her favorite lunches. Grilled cheese sandwiches with carrots and dip. Mmm.... of course she wined and protested about going for a nap but once she was in her room she napped for almost 3 hours. Hooray! Guess what I did? I napped too which does help to contribute to me being functioning.

I planned for a weeks worth of slow cooking recipes and that didn't go as planned for many reasons but we still ate some nice meals at home. The meals were modified for pressure cooker, bbq and oven. This suits me just fine as long as it's home made and I used the ingredients that I have. It's nice to have all sorts of different cookbooks since I'm horrible at improvising. I can adapt a recipe but nothing from scratch.

As for my shoulder, after two physio sessions, some exercises and one acupuncture and some tape I spent the day relatively pain free until now. This is very promising. I've got a long way to go but I think that my flight solo with Vanessa is now manageable.

Improvement?

I went to physio on Monday and acupuncture last night. The physiotherapist confirmed the pinched nerve in my neck and that the muscles and ligaments in my shoulder were all twisted. It was nice to hear it wasn't all in my head. I told the therapist that I was hoping to get some relief by the time I flew to Florida by myself with Vanessa. She said it will be manageable by the time I leave but it does mean lots of appointments from now to then. Vanessa's getting to spend time with all sorts of people since I can't take her. Christine, Kieran, Grandma Jo-Anne and Daddy.

Eric is still biking to work off and on. He biked today and it's almost December. The weather has been cooperating. I don't think I've ever seen it so warm day after day in November.

Looks like we have all we need for our trip to see Grandma and Grandpa on the boat. We have a notarized letter giving me permission to take Vanessa, some new t-shirts for my ever growing toddler and a life jacket that Grandma and Grandpa bought. Vanessa told me that they were getting a new boat because the last one's broke. I just need to find things to entertain Vanessa on our flight and lots of great snacks.

It's all about me

Last Friday I got up to a sore neck. Not a big deal. It will go away in a couple of days... By the end of the day I realized that this was no usual muscle stiffness. The pain was in my shoulder and radiated down to my elbow. I took some Tylenol to see if that helped. No such luck.

Saturday was my birthday. We had big plans to spend the day out. We went downtown to Cafe Universel for brunch which was fabulous. The best food we've had in a very long time. It was near the bead store where we were going to make my birthday necklace. I've been wanting to make something fun and sparkly for a while. It turned out pretty nice. The employees at the store were really helpful. I empressed myself. Eric busied himself by making Vanessa a necklace with her name on it. It's got a metal line with a magnet clasp so she can put it on and take it off herself and it's indestructible. We were suppose to go out for dinner but I couldn't bare the pain anymore and just wanted to lie down so we went home and ordered pizza. We enjoyed it with Pamela and Vanessa.

Sunday Chris, Tim, Kieran and Jo-Anne came over for a very nice dinner that Eric cooked. I planned out the meal and he made it. It was an easy chicken slow cooker recipe that was adored by all. We had salad and he made fresh buns with dough from the bread machine. Yummy! Chris made a chocolate apple bunt cake. Also Yummy. Chris and Tim got me a new cookbook. Make it fast and cook it slow. It's written by an adventurous mom who cooked a years worth of slow cooker recipes and compiled this book by trial and error. It's a fun easy going cookbook. I find slow cooking the best while pregnant. It means that I make dinner when I have the most energy and the family is fed even if I'm exhausted. It also usually makes extra and usually reheats and freezes well.

I had to cancel my swimming this week due to my neck pain which by now I know it's a pinched nerve in my neck. The timing was good because my ride called to cancel for the same reason. What are the odds of that?

By Tuesday I had tried everything. Rest, exercise, Tylenol, heat and nothing worked. I rented a car just to be able to escape the house. I invited myself over to MJ and Ron's for dinner and plopped myself on the couch while Vanessa played. Dinner was a very good lasagna which Vanessa loved and had seconds. I feel bad that's all I could handle but that's what family is for. Right?

I went to a masseuse on Wednesday which was really nice but she did nothing for me since they work on muscles and aren't trained for pinched nerves. Vanessa, however, had a fantastic time with Chris and Kieran. They played with toys and went to the park and had lunch. Vanessa didn't eat much since it was way more fun to feed Kieran. She's going to be a great big sister.

Thursday I took it easy while Eric took Vanessa to playgroup. For the first time Eric stayed home from work because I couldn't function with Vanessa and she was suffering. Way too much tv and no napping makes both of us irritable to say the least.

Friday I gave up hope that this was going to get better on it's own and went to the doctor. I made a brave move and brought Vanessa with me. She played happily with the toys there for an hour. She got a little restless so we had a snack and then she watched a TV show on my iPod. The only problem was that she kept talking really loudly about the TV show because she had her headphones on. I lifted one of the headphones away from her ear to tell her to talk quietly. That didn't work. She just lifted the earpiece to shout about me. I hope everyone else in the waiting room thought it was as cute as I did.

The doctor checked me out and agreed that I had a pinched nerve and since I'm pregnant there wasn't anything that she wanted to prescribe me. She did however send me to a physiotherapist and an acupuncturist. I have an appointment on Monday afternoon. I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do for me. Ohhh and what do I do with Vanessa in the meantime? Any volunteers? Too bad she's too old to sit in her stroller and nap and too young to entertain herself. It will get all sorted out eventually.

Demolition

In April, there was a fire in the building beside ours. Since 3 insurance companies, are involved it hadn't been touched until Friday. They finally finished demolishing it on Saturday. Here are some pictures.

General Update.

Vanessa's growing up so fast. She's becoming more independent day by day. The other day we went for a walk around our block and she was walking on the curb carefully. She kept saying,"Look Mommy. I'm doing it all by myself." She was so proud. She loves to help me in the kitchen. I think making dough is her favorite. We've been making pizzas and yesterday she got pretty excited about rolling dough into buns. Oh my were they tasty. She loves to make toast although spreading peanut butter is still beyond her.

Vanessa however is getting more and more stubborn by the day. She hates to move from one activity to another so getting dressed and out the door becomes a battle of the wills and often results in tears. Once we're out, she's content. Like potty training she won't attempt anything until she's sure to succeed. She's very brave and outgoing when she's confident which is most of the time.

Potty training is moving along. We still have accidents but she's working on it. I try and reward her with joy and praise but I don't think she thinks peeing in the potty is a big deal but the Halloween candy she choses sure is. Saturday out with Pamela was a disaster with respects to potty mistakes because she was having so much fun but we'll all get there. Hopefully we'll be confident before we fly to Florida in December. It would be nice to avoid diaper rash and be able to go into the water without worrying about her diaper getting soaking wet.

The other day Mary-Jane and Vanessa were talking about day to day things and Vanessa says,"You've got to be kidding me!" That sure got our attentions.

She is also cluing into the new baby coming. Tim and Christine came over and brought us all sorts of baby items. Chris told Vanessa it was for the baby and Vanessa said,"the baby in Mommy's tummy." I'm glad to hear it's relocated from Daddy's tummy to mine. Vanessa's starting to use "stister" in her imaginative play which is fun to watch.

We've discovered Vanessa's limit. She can easily go two days with out a nap but you better make sure to include one in her third day. OH my! temper tantrums and disobedience becomes all that she knows. Sunday was like that and Vanessa didn't want to have anything to do with going for a nap. She rarely naps on week-ends since so much is going on and Daddy's home but she napped for two solid hours yesterday. I'm so glad she gave in for everyone's sake.

Oh a happy note she loves playing with her cousin. It was a lot of fun to watch them chase each other giggling yesterday. I saw the age gap get smaller right before my eyes. In a few years, a year and a half apart will be very small and they'll be scheming together against their parents.

Words to live by.

A couple of weeks ago I put Vanessa's pull ups on backwards and she reminded me regularly of my mistake. The other night Eric was putting her to bed and started putting them on backwards.

Me: See Daddy puts them on backwards too.

Eric: Noooo It's just Mommy that does that.

Vanessa: Don't talk about my mommy!!!

I laughed so hard that I couldn't stop coughing.

Today Vanessa was climbing the stairs naked grabbing her bum.

Me: Why are you grabbing your bum.

Vanessa: So it won't fall off.

How logical of her.

We're finally on our way!!

warning this may be a little too much information.

I mean Vanessa is finally on her way to being potty trained. Yesterday she decided it was the day since I was under the weather and wasn't going out it was timed perfectly. We've been here before so I didn't have my hopes up. She took off her pull up and watched a little tv. She walked over to play with some toys and started peeing on the floor so I asked her to stop and sit on the potty two feet away which she did. That's promising! She then asked for chocolate. I figured she tried so she earned it. I had kept her Halloween candy just for these moments. It's funny that it's not so much about the candy but about the fact that she can choose.

No accidents for the rest of the day and told me when she needed to pee. I put her in a pull up for nap time and it was wet and some small constipated poo. (she's going to love this post when she's older) That evening she kept trying to go poo and told me that it hurt so I figured she'd just wait until I put her to bed in she pull up where she's comfortable. She surprised me and tried a different potty where she had her feet more solidly on the floor and pooped! We were both excited and relieved.

This morning when she woke up I went into her room and she had taken off her DRY pull up and wanted to go pee downstairs. Ohh downstairs since it's close to the candy.

This is very promising so we're just going to keep with it. Tomorrow we go out and brave the diaper free world. Wish us luck!

Two videos in one day.

This was a fun day. Vanessa got to play outside in the leaves in the warm weather and I then got to go downtown for some time away from everything.

Halloween! (sorry if you`re getting this for the millionth time)

Vanessa totally got it this year. She put on her very adorable monkey costume and went to the playgroup party. What a riot. The games and songs were right up her alley.There was a bouncy room which she LOVED. She had to come out periodically to catch her breath since she still had a cough. My photos aren't great but this video is fun.

On the 31st she was pretty psyched about going trick or treating. She went out with her daddy while I stayed home to give out candy. The weather was pretty nice albeit quite breezy so I puther windbreaker and long underwear on. She came home toasty with bright red cheeks and a bag full of treats.

Gastro... YUK!

Vanessa was "healthy" for 2 days when she came home from swimming with puke everywhere. Sunday was messy and she had a fever. Monday she only had a fever but nothing to worry about. She's big enough to find something to throw up in which makes it a little easier for both of us. She's been quite the trooper. We've known for months that she can't take juice. In one end and out the other in record time so she's been drinking milk and water but now with the flu I'm having troubles getting her to drink. She's getting fed up of water but she's liking the PEDIALYTE frozen pops.

Yesterday we thought she was out of the woods. Two days since any symptoms so we went out. While we were at my parents and I was taking a nap, Vanessa threw up. My mom said she got some on the carpet and then removed her African Violet and pot out of the bowl and puked the rest there. Sometimes it's the little things that make you proud...

One of the reasons we were out was to get our H1N1 vaccine. We had gone in the morning without Vanessa to get a time to go back. I'm so glad they got their act together but there's still room for improvement. Vanessa in the last two weeks had seen one of her favorite shows talk about vaccination so when we went to get our shots I reminded her of the show. By the time we got there she was excited to get her vaccination. We were in and out in 75 minutes. Not bad at all and Vanessa sat in her stroller content with relaxing and eating her apple. I was prepared for the worst like waiting outside for a few hours and didn't have to pull out any tricks.

Vanessa has to go back for her booster and Eric will be eligible for his then. I'll be able to send them on their own.

Out of the mouths of babes

Vanessa has come up with some real gems. For a while now here sentence structure and vocabulary have been quite good but now she's more able to recall and tell stories. Here are a few worth noting and sharing.

The other day we got a ride home with one of Vanessa's friends from playgroup. It was very generous of her and much appreciated. The little boy got into the car with Vanessa and said,"Watch your penis!". I giggled and then they explained that while clipping him into the car seat they caught his very sensitive area. I can totally understand why he was concerned. Since this is not a word in Vanessa's vocab she replied, "Mary-Jane and Ronald have peanuts." I roared! she repeated it several times while I explained that her aunt and uncle feed the blue jays shelled peanuts and we all laughed.

We've been trying to explain to Vanessa that I'm pregnant. She does understand that something's going on and Mommy doesn't have the same energy as before but she's a little fussy on the details...One night she gave me a kiss and then kissed my tummy and said, "That's for you to feel better." She then heard Daddy's stomach gurgle and went up to it and kissed it,"That's for the baby." By the time the baby is due she'll have it sorted out. :-)

Vanessa has a tough time napping on the week-end since there's so much going on and Daddy's home so Eric went up to read her a book and settle her down so she would have the energy to go trick-or-treating.

Vanessa: Daddy, can I ask you a question?

Eric: Yes... Vanessa.

Vanessa: Daddy, can I ask you a question?

Eric: Yes, Vanessa. I'm listening.

Vanessa: Do you like your kids?

Eric: Of course, I love my kids.

We have no idea where that came from but I'm pretty sure it wasn't about her and her imagination's getting the best of her.

And today... Eric and my dad were at the loft working on the roof, among other things. Vanessa and I were at Grandma's and we were trying to get her ready to go. Like most preschooler's transitioning from one activity is cause for a tantrum. She tried to get my mom to come to the loft with us and insisted she put on her coat. We explained that Grandma was busy and Grandpa didn't need her help. She finally pleaded,"but Grandpa loves you!" WOW that one through us the furthest.

Soon I'll post about Halloween and H1N1 Vaccine. Ohhh and I mustn't forget the gastroenteritis.