Bits and Pieces

It really has been awhile since I posted, and I'm not really sure where to start. Aidan has been accepted into the dayhome that he tried yesterday, and that's really great. The only downsides to that is that it is clear across town (this majorly cuts into my sleep time, but considering the fact that I'm tired all the time regardless of how much sleep I have I guess it's not a big deal) and the lady doesn't strike me as a disciplinarian type. Not that Aidan needs a dayhome with a dictator, but I think he does well within clearly laid out boundaries. She said she asks the kids if they need a nap - have you ever heard anything so ridiculous? I said that Aidan needed a nap, but she didn't give him one and man did I have a growly kid when I picked him up. I'm going to have to make it very clear to her that he absolutely needs a nap, because I want to hang out with him a little bit before he goes to bed, I don't want to just put him to bed after I come home from work! I am thinking of keeping him in this dayhome for a couple months and then looking for another one closer to our house, hopefully this won't mess him up anymore. He's had quite a lot of change in caregivers over the years and I think that doesn't help. He has an appointment with a therapist at the Mental Health Department on October 16th and I'm hoping that maybe we can gain some insight into his character through that. The most frustrating thing about disciplining him is that we can threaten til we're blue in the face and he doesn't care. I took every single thing out of his room except his mattress and even then, he didn't like it, but it wasn't the end of the world like I was hoping it would be. Anyways, every day he gets a little older and a little smarter and it's a little easier to communicate with him.

My job is still going well and things are changing around here as well. Thyra, the annoying one, is now not only annoying the rest of us in the office downstairs, but also the big boss upstairs. Would it be bad for me to hope that she gets fired soon? Tammy says she bets Thyra will be fired in a week if she keeps acting the way she is (which is normal for her). I'm not sure if that would be better, or just more stressful for everyone as her responsibilities get distributed to everyone before a replacement is found. I have been taught how to do the Quality Control Binders that get shipped out with every vessel that we build. They're getting easier for me to do, but still are a little tricky. Martin is in charge of Quality Control and isn't here today and I'm stalled on 2 binders and then that's the end of that particular series of binders and I'm not sure what he wanted me to do next. So...I decided to blog. I hate posting invoices, I think they grow exponentially on my desk! Originally I had hoped that I would be able to do a bit more bookkeeping at this job, but it looks like I'll be splitting my time between helping with bookkeeping and helping with Quality Control. I don't know if this actually gets me ahead, but it's pretty good work and I enjoy it.

I told Aidan that if he was good for 3 days at his daycare, that he could have his birthday party back. Yesterday was the last day, and he was good, so his party is now officially on. He was very worried about not being able to have a cake on his birthday. His actual birthday is Oct. 2, but Michael is on shift, so we're going to wait until Oct. 7 to have his party. I called around and invited some of his little buddies and so now I have to actually plan this party. I wanted to do something outside since our house is so small, so I thought a Pirate hunt for treasure would be fun, and then we could have a wiener and marshmallow roast with our fire pit afterwards. I looked up party planning on the internet and one site suggested that for little guys, instead of writing out clues, you could take a polaroid picture. I'm not sure how much detail I'm going to go into with little Pirate costumes, but I think at least eyepatches, bandanas and cardboard swords covered in aluminum foil. I could even get out the mascara and paint on some gotees and moustaches, but I'm not sure how well that would go over with the kids. I found this cake recipe that looks pretty cool. It's a big rectangle cake and you cut it in half, place the two halves on top of each other and then cut a wedge out of the front and stuff in a bunch of candy coins, rolos etc. so it looks like a treasure chest. I'm thinking of the cake being the big treasure that they find at the end of the hunt.

Okay, well now I think I'm just rambling on about nothing in particular, so I'm just going to post this. Don't forget to check back in a couple weeks for Pirate Party pictures!

Is this the face of a delinquent pre-schooler?

Seriously though, doesn't he look happy here? I've discovered the trick to getting him to smile like this is to turn the light off. Then he grins like a little goofus. Apparently the huge flash doesn't bother him...

I was able to find him a train table second hand from some people that were downsizing. We got this train table, plus an Ikea wooden train set (minus the train) for a pretty good price.

Aidan thinks this is the coolest thing he's ever gotten - which means it was money well spent. We'll just say it's an early birthday present. Can you believe he'll be three this coming Monday? I sure can't!
Sorry, I should amend that previous statement...THIS is the coolest thing he's ever gotten. Uncle Pat went to California and came back with this huge lollipop for Aidan. When he got it, his eyes got about as big as the lollipop, and he was over the moon when he got to sit down with Uncle John and have a go at eating it. He's a cruncher, so he tried to bite it, but didn't get too far. We kept the wipes pretty close because I don't think John was counting on having a toddler sit on his lap waving a huge sticky lollipop around when he came over to watch the football game.

Well, Michael and I are going to finish watching a show and then I think it's time to pack it in. Maybe I'll try to blog about what's been going on recently from work tomorrow. Hopefully this doesn't wreck anything, but things are looking up and that's encouraging.

Aidan the Terrible

I haven't posted recently because we've been kind of busy with Aidan. He has been acting up, acting out and generally just being a horrible horrible child. We have to find him a new dayhome to go to because Jolene and I both decided that he wasn't suited to her house. Hopefully I've found one - he did a trial day at a different one and wasn't allowed back because of the tantrums. Very frustrating to say the least. Fortunately this is Michael's week off, so he's been able to pick Aidan up early if he's being bad and deal with him while I stay at work. I hope I don't jinx anything by saying that he's been doing a little bit better lately.
I took every single thing out of his room except for his mattress, a pillow, a sheet and a blanket and he didn't like that. I've also told him his birthday party is on hold until he can be a good boy and he was pretty upset about that as well, but hopefully something gets through to him sooner than later. He is currently on a waiting list to see a therapist at the Mental Health Department and that will take 2-3 weeks for him to get in there, but we would also appreciate your prayers right now as well. Both that we would be able to parent him properly and that he would respond and be the happy little boy he used to be.

Talk to you all soon.

P.S. the snow left pretty much right after it fell, but I did have ice on my car this morning. I guess I better get ready for winter - although I would much sooner have snow instead of this stupid mud everywhere!!

Snow!

That's right! We woke up this morning to snow on the lawn! It was wet and slushy, but still, it was white and covering the lawn. This picture is really dark and you can't really see anything in it so I shouldn't really be posting it...but I will anyways.
It snowed all day, but it was too warm for it to stick and so now we're into the wet muddy season of the year. My least favourite time.
Aidan's birthday is coming up and I was planning on doing a Pirate theme with a treasure hunt...we'll see how the weather goes, hopefully it will still be warm-ish in early October.

Have a great weekend everyone!

$20!!!!!

I just wanted to say that I have finally mastered the art of going to the grocery store and not leaving my life savings. Today I actually went in there and spent less than $50! My total bill was $27.02 and then I handed over my Save On More card and it went down to $20.92 - I couldn't believe it but I was pretty happy. Anyways, I've been pretty disgusted with how much money I'm able to drop in a grocery store so maybe things are turning around.

Aidan's word of the day:
English - Football
Aidanese - Uh-ah (with hard h sounds)
Dialogue:
"Aidan, say football"
"Uh-ah"
"Aidan, say foot"
"Hut"
"Say ball"
"Baw-oh"
"Aidan, say football"
"Uh-ah"

Hockey

Aren't these the cutest little hockey skates? I was able to find Aidan a pair of skates for $15 at the used hockey equipment sale. The toes of the skates were worn through, so we went down to Ernie's and bought this tiny little tin of black paint goop that you paint on the toes of skates to protect them.

Aidan was so excited about getting his very own skates! I wasn't sure whether to look at any of the other hockey equipment, but he's so small and he won't actually be playing hockey...so there's not much point.

On our way out the door this morning we had a rather upsetting experience. I was down the stairs and by the car quicker than Aidan, and right by the car lay this dead rabbit. A small dead bloody rabbit half eaten - how disgusting! I was standing there staring at it and Aidan was on the other side of the car and by the time I started yelling at him to stop, he came around and saw it and screamed. So then we had to go inside and get his teddy and I gave him a little treat to help him take his mind off the rabbit, and we got in the car from the other side. When we got home again it had been dragged a little farther, so I threw it in the grass with a shovel, but even though he couldn't see it Aidan talked about it all day. I guess it's to be expected, it's not something you see every day and he hasn't ever really dealt with death before.

We've been having some rather major issues with Aidan's behaviour at his new dayhome. At first he was really good there - he would listen and obey and had lots of fun - but now I don't know what's happened. It's been going on for about 2 weeks now and is getting pretty stressful. When he doesn't want to do a time out he screams, when he doesn't want to help pick up toys he says NO!, when he doesn't like what someone else does to him he kicks, bites, hits and pinches. It seems so out of character for him. We've been working on his behaviour so we've now eliminated hitting, kicking and biting which is good. Next up is listening, pinching and screaming. I'm really hoping we can resolve this soon because this dayhome is really great - she's close, she's affordable, he's got 2 little buddies his own age to play with, there's a fenced yard with lots of toys, Jolene seems to have a good approach to looking after them with lots of activities and outings and all that. But if this keeps up then I may need to start looking for a new dayhome - partly because it's not fair to her to have a child who refuses to obey the rules there and also partly because maybe he's too much for her to handle.

Well, that's it for now. Please pray for this dayhome situation and that Aidan can remember to listen properly.

The Amazing Aidan

I always get distracted by all those 'newly updated blogs' and click on at least 3 or 4 before I sign in to update my blog...and then my time for blogging is cut down considerably. I was going to blog about a number of things but now I just have time for one.

This just seems very strange to me. I'm not sure how many of you know this about me, but at age 13 I still couldn't swallow a tylenol or any other pill properly. I was still either chewing quickly, grimacing, swallowing juice quickly and then shuddering because it tasted so bad - or, grinding it up and sitcking it in a banana or something. So imagine my surprise when I gave Aidan a pill on Wednesday and he tells me that he swallowed it with juice and no chewing. My son is approximately 10 years ahead of me on that one. Granted, it was a very tiny pill and today when I gave him another one he chewed it instead of swallowing it. I told him he could chew or swallow and today he chewed. And before you ask, they are Lactaid pills. Jolene and I think that Aidan is lactose intolerant so we have been trying to eliminate milk and milk stuff from his diet. I talked to a nurse from the health unit and she said to make an appointment with our doctor (I made one - October 6th!!! The doctor situation up here is just stupid) and that I could use Lactaid on him.

Right now we are off to a used hockey equipment sale at the Coke Center. They like to say 'experienced' equipment, but it's used just the same. Last weekend we went to try on skates to determine what size he was so now I'm going to try to get them at a decent price at this sale.

Talk to you all later!

I'd Have Enough Time for a Pottery Class!

On the weekend I taped a show called 'The Notorious C.H.O.' It was a taping of a performance by Margaret Cho who is a comedian. I had to fast forward through parts of it, but near the end she made a very good point. She said all her life she had struggled with eating and being accepted even though she wasn't skinny. Her father would pay attention to her when she was skinny, but if she gained, he would make her watch beauty pageants and ignore her, which contributed to her being anorexic and bulemic and then because of that, she almost died. She was making fun of our society's obsession with dieting and how we pretend to not eat anything in public and then go home and consume the entire contents of the fridge. Then she said 'I wonder how much time I would save if every time I walked past a window or glass I wouldn't stop and suck my gut in. I wonder how much time I would save if I would stop taking that extra second when I look in the mirror to think I need to lose weight. I wonder how much time I would save if I just stopped criticizing myself all the time? You know what? I saved 97 minutes a week. I can take a pottery class!'

I thought that was a very good point to make, especially in our society. Not to be complacent, but also not to be obsessive. There is a middle ground there, we just need to find it.

Why Can't My Kitchen Always Look Like This?

Tada! This is my clean kitchen! I cleaned it on Saturday morning for like 3 hours, then I cleaned it again on Sunday, and just finished cleaning it again Monday evening - I don't think I want to know how many hours I spend in there cleaning up! It actually looks quite nice when it's all cleaned up...It sure would be nice if it looked like this all the time.



This picture looks really weird! I dyed my hair last night (Sunday) and half the time I look at myself in the mirror, I can't really tell that I dyed it. I tried this new brand (for me) called Loreal Paris Natural Match and I really like it. It's got no ammonia and is supposed to look really natural - and it does. I tried to pick something close to my own hair color, I picked a dark blonde color, but it looks more like a medium brown. Anyways, I like it, and it's not too drastic. I've been wanting to try brown for awhile now, but haven't dyed my hair ever since I did it twice in 2 weeks and wrecked it. I think that was a year and a half ago - wow! That's a long time for me to go without coloring my hair. Isn't it weird how my eyebrows seem to match both colors of hair even though I didn't dye them? I thought about it later, and hoped it wouldn't look too silly, but my eyebrows are dark to start with so it looks fine.
Yesterday afternoon I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was alright, really long, but Johnny Depp was hilarious as usual. I love the way he plays Captain Jack Sparrow. I was grossed out by all those fish pirates - the ones on Davy Jones' boat - half shark or sea urchin or whatever and half human. The other thing that irritated me was how dirty it was. Michael said (sarcastically) that there might have been a specific look they were going for with all the dirt and grime and filth - of course, but it's still gross. I don't think I'm a germaphobe but really...literally everything was covered with an inch of dirt or sea goop or something dark and icky looking. And the yellowed rotten teeth - yeah, I was pretty distracted the whole movie noting how dirty everything and everyone was. Not that I expect everything to be all spick and span and stainless steel, but really, isn't there a middle ground?

There was this kid behind me that would either laugh really loudly at stupid stuff or cough - like every 5 seconds. I kept huffing and moving around in my chair or glancing behind me or saying 'SHHHH!' really loudly but it didn't seem to make any difference. I should have gotten up and moved or something. People don't seem to grasp the concept that they need to shut up in movie theaters! And turn off their phones! My goodness! I guess I'm still having a little trouble adapting to seeing movies with the 'general public' as Michael likes to say. It's been a little over a year since Michael started work at Precision and quit the Theater.

The other thing that I noticed while at the theater was the slogan or whatever for the movie Barnyard that was on my popcorn bag. It said 'Whatever happens in the barn yard, stays in the barn yard'. Someone should really trademark the original phrase and stop everyone from using it. I think it started out 'Whatever happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas' (please feel free to correct me if I am wrong) and you see ripoffs everywhere, i.e. Barnyard. The phrase is really starting to annoy me! Not that it really matters...

Today I worked out on the treadmill. Literally this is the first time I've been on that thing in a month and a half. Every day I'm terrified that I've gained like 5 or more pounds from the last time I weighed myself but it's funny because I'm not terrified enough to stop eating stupid stuff *smiles* Anyways, so I was going to start working out Sept 1st, but that was right in the middle of Michael's week off, so I decided to start Sept 6th which is Michael's first day back on shift, and in the end I started today. I think I'll just start out with 30 minutes 3 times a week and work my way up to 5 times a week. I don't know how much good it did today though, I made this really great, not so Weight Watcher-ish dinner and then I had half a bag of M&M's for dessert. Maybe next week I'll actually start counting points again. I'll just keep saying that ('maybe next week') and then hopefully one of these weeks it will actually happen!

Okay - now it's 10:30 and I was hoping to get to bed by 10. I guess this post will just be all about me. I'll post about Aidan next time. Long weekends are so great, and I love them, but the only bad thing is that I start going to bed and then getting up later - my whole day shifts about an hour - and then the Tuesday afterwards is even more of a shock. Reason 1 for always having an extra energy drink lying around the house. I think we have a Red Bull somewhere, but it's not Sugar Free and it really irks me to drink/eat something with sugar when I could have the same thing with the same taste without sugar and save myself the calories. I guess I might just have to break down and have some of Martin's coffee at work tomorrow!

Have a good week everyone!

PS - hey, if anyone hears if Jade had her baby, leave me a comment! Brandi left a comment on her blog saying something like she had heard from Jade's brother that Jade went into the hospital...so exciting!!!