Christine & Steve's website

First a quick update from my last blog entry... Ryan is still doing well on the weight gain side of things. We had a follow-up appointment with the pediatrician and he'd gained another 10 ounces. So, he's right back up there on the growth charts and the pediatrician is very pleased. We have another appointment in early May, and hopefully that will be the last for a while!

So, back to the tooth thing... This afternoon while visiting Steve at the hospital, I did my usual absent-minded "here's a finger to chew on" thing with Ryan. It's a bit of a habit as I keep checking to see if he's sprung any teeth yet... and low and behold, indeed he has. One little sharp tooth in his lower gum!! Yippee! Now I guess I have to stop giving him my finger, eh?

Now over to Steve. As most of you know, Steve has been in the hospital since Monday.  Yes, it was planned.  His diverticulitis has been getting worse in the last little while, and a few months ago, he developed a fistula on top of that.  So the specialist decided the best course of action was for Steve to have a bowel resection.  What's that you ask?  Well, basically they removed the diseased lower third of his colon, and stitched up the hole between his colon and bladder (the fistula).  So now hopefully all the diverticulitis is gone, and he'll be able to eat normally again instead of worrying about whether things are fully cooked/have seeds or nuts in them.  He's been in hospital recovering for the last five days, and they removed the IV, etc today, so hopefully he will be home tomorrow.

He'll be home for the next 5 weeks or so.  Right now the doctor figures he'll be okay to go back to work 1 June.  He has to take at least a month to recover.  Right now, he can't lift more than 10 lbs.  So, as well, I'll have to stick close to home.  Hopefully I'll be able to take my cell phone with me to the swimming pool during Ryan's naps and he can just call if Ryan wakes up early and I can come home right away.  Ahh, the joy!

We're also going to be on a very tight budget :(  Steve doesn't get paid while he's away sick, except that he's eligible for EI payments.  Hopefully we get the ROEs from his workplace soon so we can complete the application.  It does take some time to process (up to a month), then there's the 2 week waiting period, so we might not get any benefits... so we are essentially down to just my mat leave EI payments.  That'll cover our mortgage, food and most of the bills.  Just no beer in the near future for Steve and I may have to remove Setanta from the cable offerings :)  Not that he's allowed the beer anyway!  And he'll survive with just basic cable :)  Yeah, I'm a bit stressed about it all, but I'm a worry-wart by nature, so I'm sure I'm overreacting, and things will be fine!!

Anyway, that's about it for this evening!

Christine

Well, we just got back from Ryan's pediatrician appointment this morning and I am overjoyed!  They were talking about having Ryan get blood tests and things as he wasn't gaining appropriate amounts of weight, but happily, he gained some really good weight in the last 10 days, so no blood tests necessary.  We still have to go back in about 2 - 3 weeks to make sure he keeps gaining properly, but it looks good!  He's a whopping 15 lbs now... okay not really whopping, but hey, he does weigh down my arms quite a bit now!

So anyway, I also started a webpage here listing all the foods that Ryan is eating now.  Can't seem to get a proper paper baby book started so I'm storing thoughts and memories here so I can catch up at some later date ;-)

And that's about it for now... going to go do a happy dance around the house now :-)

Christine

P.S.  Here's a photo of Ryan in his exersaucer looking much happier than he did a month or so ago. He figured out that it's a load of fun and now spins around whacking, grabbing and generally going nuts!

Yup, another year come and gone.  Good year though!  Yesterday was nice and relaxing... and it was actually quite nice out... especially compared with today's weather.  I got up and had a couple of lovely cards from Ryan and Steve waiting for me downstairs, along with a rose (thank-you Ryan, my darling... and of course thank-you to your daddy since he's the one that picked it up and addressed it from you ;-) ).

I had a couple of presents too - one from Steve's parents - not a huge surprise since I picked it out when we were in the UK and brought it back.  But lovely nonetheless - a cashmere cardigan and scarf in a beautiful coral pink colour.  Steve's sister and her family also sent back gifts with us... a couple of bath bombs from Lush, and a package with a bath mitt, etc in it.  I don't get a lot of chances to take a bath, usually it is just a quick shower, but I guess this is a good excuse to actually take one!

I'm still waiting for a couple of cards - from my mom, my grandma, and Steve's parents... gotta love Canada Post ;-)

So, what did Steve get me?  Well, he knew I wanted a digital photo frame but wasn't sure what brand to get.  So yesterday we went to the mall, and I picked it out myself.  So now I have a wonderful digital photo display for when I go back to work.  I can have Ryan and Stephen flashing by me all day :)

So all in all a good day, a trip to the mall, lunch at the mall, vietnamese dinner ordered in and a lovely slice of chocolate cake for dessert... and Ryan did his part as well, by going to sleep nicely and not waking up until 8:30 am (well, 7:30 if you take the time change into account).

Cheers,

Christine

So it's been busy here at home since we got back... at least for me.  First Ryan came down with some stomach bug and was throwing up, etc.  I'll spare you the details, but poor little guy... While he didn't seem extremely uncomfortable, he just wasn't his normal smiley little self and was quite fussy.  Just when Ryan got over the bug (Saturday), Steve came down with it (Sunday).  So then I had to switch gears and take care of Steve... well, at least make sure he had a full cup of tea... and (gasp) cook dinner!!  All that going up and down the stairs (yeah, he was really sick... he was in bed, not downstairs watching TV) was pretty hard on my knees, so I've been downing the Advil to counter that.  But of course, because I'm breastfeeding still, I keep that to one a day.  So I've been busy!

Ryan is definitely over the bug and back to his happy self (Steve, not yet, he's still suffering, yuck).  In the last few weeks, Ryan's started to babble... you know, the shrieking/talking to themselves thing that babies do.  It's quite funny... he wakes up from his nap, then talks to himself for a few minutes before making his "yo mum... get me outta here and let me play" yell.  He is also quite fascinated with his hands lately.  He turns them back and forth slowly and stares at them in wonder.  Again, quite cute.

Barb and Emily came over yesterday, and I got to go for a swim!  It sure is nice to be able to have a bit of exercise and a few moments to myself.  They've said they should be able to come over once a week during the day for the next little while, so I'm looking forward to that.  And once Emily gets more comfortable with Ryan, we'll be able to have her babysit while we go out with Barb and Pete!  Again, really looking forward to that.

Hmmm, what else?  Well, I'm busy searching for child care... day home, nanny, whatever... So far, I haven't found any day homes in the Dalhousie area that are accepting children under 2, but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find one somewhere along my route to work.  Barb mentioned an agency that inspects/recommends day homes to parents, so I gave them a call, and in May, I'll be registering with them and I'll get a list of approved day homes to check out. 

That's about it for now!

Christine

PS  Here's one of my fave photos of Ryan...

Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. That's disturbing.
Instructions:

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' beside those you have read.
2) Tally your total at the bottom.

X 1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
X 2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
X 3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
X 4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (only little bits - not enough to warrant an X)
X 7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
X 8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell --
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
X 10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
X 11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
X 12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
X 13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
X 16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
X 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
X 19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
X 20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
X 21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
X 25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
X 29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol
X 30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
X 32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
X 33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
X 36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Um this is technically part of #33)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
X 39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
X 40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
X 41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
X 42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
X 46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
X 48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
X 49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
X 51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
X 52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
X 54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
X 57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
X 58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
X 59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
X 61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
X 62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tart
X 64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
X 68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
X 70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville--
X 71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
X 72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
X 73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
X 77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
X 80 Possession - AS Byatt
X 81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
X 87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
X 89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
X 92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
X 94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
X 98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
X 99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I've read 51 / 100 - is that a pass? ;-)

For my bookclub friends... maybe we should select some of these for our next few books - some ones I've always wanted to read, but haven't got around to on here?

Christine