Hospitals

What is it about hospitals that suck your day away? My doctor was really insistent that I get this rhogam shot the EXACT day I was 28 weeks, so that meant at some point today I had to go in and get it done. I seem to remember when I had it with Aidan that my own doctor did it in her office and it was done around a certain week rather than on the specific day - but maybe things have changed or whatever, I'm not going to question my doctor. I will grumble about having to go to outpatients at the hospital though!

This morning I had the bright idea that maybe I could go in early and get it done before I went to work, missing little or no work at all. Aidan and I were out the door shortly after 7:30 and drove to the hospital to sit and wait. We waited in Outpatients registration and then got to go across the hall to sit and wait some more. Things weren't taking too long, by now it was 8 and since it was just a little shot, I figured I would be called right away (after the people who were ahead of me). An hour later I was seriously thinking of going up to the nurses desk and asking whether I should come back later when they finally called my name. We walked in, the nurse stuck the needle in and literally 2 minutes later we were walking out. Why, why did I have to wait so long? There were like 10 people that came in to the waiting room after we did that got called before me. Soooo not fair! The nurse said that they usually ask people to wait for an hour after the shot, I pointed out I had already been waiting an hour and she said since I had had it before (with Aidan) that I could probably go. Yeah. Smart decision. Like I'm going to sit there with my kid for another hour - that would be so much fun!

On the way there I told Aidan I had to have a needle and asked him if he was going to come and hold my hand and he said he would. When we got into the little room, I lifted him up on to the examining bed beside me. He held my hand and watched the needle go into my arm very closely and asked 'That hurt you Mommy?' So cute!

On a completely unrelated topic - Aidan is so independent, anything he can do for himself - ANYTHING - he gets really annoyed if someone else does it instead of him. I keep telling him just because he can do it doesn't mean he's going to get to do it every time! A prime example of this is doing up any sort of zipper. Sometimes he has a really hard time with them but will not allow me to help. I hate watching him struggle with it - especially in the morning when we're trying to get out the door! So this morning he had told me what shirt and pants he wanted to wear and I grabbed some socks (the Dora socks he was going to wear yesterday - he seemed excited about finding the second one yesterday so I thought I was making a smart choice) and sat down to help him get dressed. He was very upset about the socks but finally let me put them on him. Later on at the hospital I discovered exactly why he was so upset about the socks. Apparently when he wears these socks to Darlene's house, Brooklynn says that he's a girl because he's wearing girl socks and this is very upsetting for him. Poor little guy, I had no idea! They actually are girl socks - they have thick blue and white stripes and on each side of each sock is a picture of Boots and of Dora - he really wanted something with Dora on it (this is before the huge Diego craze hit) and I wasn't buying him any sort of girly shirt, I thought the socks looked the most neutral. I told him he had an extra pair of Spiderman socks at Darlene's he could change into if he needed to...and to tell Brooklynn that boys can like Dora too!

Playing Outside

Today was such a beautiful day! Michael and Aidan had been out and when they got home Aidan asked to play outside so we went and got his helmet and pads and he tried out his scooter. He had a great time and actually figured out how it worked!

At the Disney store in Vancouver I got this super cute Tigger outfit for Aidan. It's not quite warm enough for shorts, but he wanted to wear it so I let him put it on inside the other day.

This is me at 6 months pregnant. Next time I'll have to ask Michael to include my head in the picture :) He did take another picture of my new haircut but I don't look so hot so I'm not going to put it on here. I went to get a trim and thought I would just get 1/2 an inch or so cut off, but I hadn't had a haircut in so long and I guess my hair was really unhealthy or something, she had to take off about 2 1/2 inches! It's a lot shorter than I wanted but I like it, it's a good length.

SNOW

Aidan and I went out this morning to drive to Darlene's house and work and there was enough snow on the car that I had to get out the brush to clear it off. That is so disgusting! It's April 20th and we have snow!?! Fortunately we were still early enough that I was able to make it to work in time to get an extra 1/2 hour in. So far I've put in 4 1/2 hours of overtime in since Wednesday and my goal is another 1 1/2 tonight and maybe 1 1/2 or 2 hours on Saturday and then my paycheck will be a little closer to where I want it to be - and I will be thoroughly sick and tired of highlighting, organizing and writing down pipe heat numbers!

I'm so happy it's Friday afternoon. I've got 1 hour and 10 minutes left before I can leave, but this afternoon is dragging by sooo slowly. I want to get home, race through my 1 1/2 hours of overtime and then either lie on the couch or go to bed early so I can get up early and clean up the house. Aidan and I still have not unpacked from our holidays - though Michael has unpacked his bag and has been busy doing laundry, putting it away and trying to keep on top of dishes, keeping the kitchen clean and cooking dinner. I've been so spoiled, I haven't had to cook dinner once this week - it's been sooo nice!

Have a good weekend everybody!

Aidan Makes Me Laugh

Aren't kids great? Aidan is always making me laugh with silly little things he says and does.

While we were on holidays, I think it was on Saturday, I was explaining that we were going to go to the Comedy Night that night, then on the ferry and see Mama and Auntie Amber and Uncle Jordan on Sunday and finish driving back on Monday and then be back at Darlene's house on Tuesday. He looks at me and says 'Darlene house? But I will miss you!' When it actually came time to go to Darlene's house he was pretty excited to see his friends again.

Monday evening we were all sitting around not doing much, tired from our trip and Pat from work and Aidan hauled out his hockey net and little caddy of hockey sticks. He's got about 8 little sticks and always has to pick just the right one for the lucky person chosen to play hockey with him. This time it was Pat, and after looking through his sticks he pulls one out and before he hands it to Pat he says 'You need be careful, this very 'pecial, my mommy buy for me'. So funny. Especially since the stick he pulled out was the one with the Clarica logo on it that he had gotten from some other lady at a Storm game here in town. But also nice to know he thinks what I buy him is 'pecial'.

Yesterday morning we were having breakfast and the baby was doing her little aerobics thing and I got Aidan to come and feel her moving around. He had this big grin on his face and I asked him if he thought it was cool and he said yeah. Then he said 'I hear God' which was kind of strange, so I said 'what?' and he repeated it. I wanted to know what God had said, but Aidan said he didn't know. I wasn't sure whether he got confused because I had told him that God was making the baby in my tummy and he thought the two of them were in there together, but either way it was pretty funny!

I think he's having a little trouble settling back into routine here. He had an accident at Darlene's house, had a fit when I picked him up and then had another accident last night. Poor little guy. Oh, and we had burgers and potato salad last night and he threw up while I was feeding him. He does that every once in awhile - I think it was the potato salad this time. I'm not sure why, I don't think I was feeding him too fast, but that's never fun.

I'm so excited for the weekend to come. It's been really hard just jumping back into work - getting up early and packing lunch and scrambling to figure out what to have for dinner - plus I figured out how much my paycheck was possibly going to be so I've been trying to take home a little work to make it just a little bigger. I went to the doctor on Tuesday and she wants me to get a rhogam shot, a glucose load blood test, another ultrasound and another appointment in 3 weeks. It's hard to juggle all those appointments as well - get everything done when it needs to be while trying to miss as little work as possible. My goal is to work full time until June 29th which is only 43 more work-days and then I can stay home and 'relax' :)

Chocolate Bunnies

This makes me laugh so much. I'm not sure where the original came from, but the bunny on the right was Michael's idea and makes it so much funnier.

Trip Pictures

First off here are a couple of shots I took when Aidan and I walked down to the beach on Saturday. It was raining a little bit, but stopped shortly after we had set out. We were both wearing shorts and sandals but it was still a little chilly. We were down there for a very short time because after I had persuaded Aidan to come walk close to where the water was lapping up on the shore a larger wave came and took my sandal and I had to chase after it and then Aidan was sure the same thing would happen to him.

We weren't able to find too many shells, but we did find a few cool ones. Aidan liked the little baby shells the best.

You can tell by the look on his face here that he is so unimpressed with me making him stand there for a picture. I had wanted him to go down closer to the water but he wouldn't loosen the death grip he had on his hand and kept asking to go home. The best I could do was just to get him to turn around and not close his eyes for the picture.
He was much more excited once I said we could go back to where we were staying. That house in the corner of the picture is the place that we stayed from Thursday night until Sunday morning. It was very nice of Jack and Linda to let us stay there!!I'll admit, I helped him climb up on the rock and told him to put his hands up and say 'I won!' but it's still pretty cute!
While we were still down in the park by the beach we tried to take a couple pictures.
These didn't turn out super well, but they sure beat the ones where we didn't even make it into the picture!!

These are the little onesies we got for Hagatha. Aidan thought they were pretty cool and I think he was asking if he could wear them until the baby came, but I told him they were much too small for him!

I had laid them out on the bed to take a picture so Aidan ran to get the little toy camera and was trying to copy me and take pictures too.


He also took some pictures of Michael and told him to say cheese first - so cute!


I didn't get many pictures of the comedy night - this one is actually a picture of the rehearsal but what's special about it is that you'll notice that Michael is wearing an EDMONTON ESKIMOS jersey!! I had to get a picture because for sure that is never happening again!!

I don't have a program here where I can lighten the picture, but if you look closely, on the right hand side, with 82 on his jersey (BC Lions this time) is Michael and right down beside him is Aidan with his arms up in the air trying to do YMCA with everyone else.

The marching was a little easier for him to do - he was so excited to be up on stage with Daddy!

On the way back Michael came and walked around with us and took Aidan outside because I was too cold/lazy to go out there with him. I came out and took a couple pictures of them.

It was very very windy out there and Aidan's face is just priceless here.

Then Michael took a picture of me and Aidan. We're both in pajamas - Aidan's are much cooler Spiderman ones though.

Here you can see how windy it is. There's another picture where you can see more of us but combining the wind and my hoodie over my belly it is just really really not cool so I'm not going to put it up.

Michael posing next to a life preserver. He said he doesn't have many pictures of just himself which is true - he isn't in many pictures that I take so I'm glad he came up and let me take pictures of him and Aidan and also him by himself.

Little Spiderman asleep on the way home.

Don't kids look sooo cute when they're sleeping?!

In Kamloops on the way back I bought Aidan a little slushie - which greatly improved his spirits

He's sitting back there watching Diego's Dino Adventure with some cool foldable headphones Michael bought for him.

The only unfortunate result of this slushie was an emergency stop about an hour down the road to pee. Fortunately he told us right after we had passed a gas station, so we turned around and hightailed it back in time.
Showing off his cool blue Polarberry tongue.
We stopped to see my mom in Abbotsford on Sunday and she brought along some stuff for Aidan, the baby and me.

She had found this little Winnie the Pooh golf shirt and also these cool pants, so Aidan wore them today and was very excited about them - especially his 'Nee-Pooh' shirt.

Well, we got back last night at 6pm and I am happy to be home! There's a huge mess in the kitchen from lugging all our stuff in, I'm sure there will be like 8 loads of wash to do and I'm actually going to have to cook on a weeknight again, but we made it to daycare on time and I even made it to work almost half an hour early! I've got a doctor's appointment this afternoon and plans for this weekend - nothing like jumping in again with both feet!

The Big Night

Tonight is the night! Kevin's church is having a comedy night fundraiser and it's happening tonight it's happening. Everyone has been practising and decorating and planning and getting stuff ready. I think it's going to be a great success, the tickets are all sold out and the guys that came from Edmonton are hilarious - not to mention Michael and Kevin who are both also very funny.

On Thursday Kevin, Chaundra, Benj, Aaron, Joy, Michael and I all went down to Nanaimo. Party because it was Chaundra's birthday and also to pick up Kevin's sisters and Terri from the ferry. We did a little shopping, Michael and I saw a movie (Shooter - okay, but not so wonderful) and went out for dinner at Kelsey's.

While Joy and Chaundra were getting their nails done and the guys were shopping I found this little store with a whole bunch of baby onesies with the most hilarious appliques. Fortunately they were having a 2 for 1 sale so I got a little pink one with a Transformers logo (I think Michael said it was Decepticon) and then a little black one with pink headphones. Michael and I looked through the binder at all the options and were giggling, some of them were so funny. There were a couple that I really wanted to get, but then I'd have to be careful about where she wore it and who was around, so we stuck with the ones we got, just to be safe.

Like I said, our movie was okay, but there were some issues with the sound at first and then 3 times throughout the movie the picture went completely black which was really frustrating. After it was over we went to talk to the manager and got a pass, so now we can go see a movie in Grande Prairie for free :) Well, besides the cost of a babysitter.

On the way down we stopped in this place called Cathedral Grove with huge trees, some 800 years old, but most 300 years old. The trees were sooo tall and beautiful. We took a group picture there on Joy's camera but I got this one picture of Michael and me on ours.

Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day too. Aidan's very excited about riding on the ferry and seeing Mama and Auntie Amber and staying in a hotel. I'm very excited about going to Old Navy at Metrotown! We're going to split the trip into 2 days this time even though Aidan did so much better than I had thought he would - it's going to be a late night tonight and Michael doesn't wants to make sure he's well rested.

Well, we still haven't actually made it to the beach so that's the plan right now. Hopefully it's within walking distance or I can get a ride with someone. The other day when I was backing out of Kevin and Chaundra's driveway to give a couple people a ride to the church, I backed into a tree and ripped off the drivers side mirror so I've been staying out of the drivers seat!

Spiderman Travels to Vancouver Island

I think these would rank up there as some of the funniest pictures I've taken of Aidan to date. On Monday we were in Value Village (because I missed the ONE day the library was open on Easter weekend and was desperate for some books to bring along on our trip) and I thought we'd just take a cruise down the kids clothes to check for anything Hot Wheels when Aidan yells 'Spiderman!!!' It was so cute and even came with a little hat, so we had to buy it and then he decided that he wanted to travel in it, so he wore it (including the hat) all the way down to the Island.

Speaking of traveling, it went pretty good. Sunday night Michael was up and about which made it difficult for me to sleep and then the baby started kicking, so I got up at 4:30 Monday morning. I spent the whole day cleaning the house, rushing around trying to get everything packed and ready and finally at 6pm it was. I think this is the first time in the history of Michael and I being together that he has been packed before I was. Usually I make a list about a week before the trip and have everything washed and packed and organized 2-3 days before the trip. Not this time! There's so much stuff to remember and you always end up taking more than you need. Aidan was so excited to leave and kept wanting to get in the car while we loaded it up with our bags. I had wanted to leave in the afternoon, around 3 or 4 and Michael wanted to leave at 8pm so we compromised on 7pm and actually pulled out of the driveway at 8:30pm. In the end it was better we left later. Aidan fell asleep on his own at precisely 9pm which was nice of him. I was just getting ready to give him a gravol or 2 when I turned around and he was already asleep. When we went to get the gravol, it was behind the counter, so I had to ask for it and they wrote my name and number down - well, put it in the computer - and the pharmacist said it was because there was so much abuse of it going on. Hopefully they don't count using it to put your kid to sleep on a long trip abuse!! He woke up a couple times before we got to Abbotsford - twice he said he saw a face looking in at him at the window, so we had to put a pillow up so 'the guy' couldn't see in - once he listened to his music for about an hour but he slept most of the 12 hours to Abbotsford which was awesome.

We got to Abbotsford at about 6:00 BC time and were planning on going to IHOP for breakfast only to discover that it was closed for renovations! The only other place that was close and open right away was White Spot so we went there instead. Right as we were finishing up a group of people walked past us and I noticed my Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Art, so we went over to say hi to them and Aidan gave some hugs and kisses. It was pretty cool to run into them and nice to see them again. They even took care of our breakfast which was very generous of them.

The plan was to go to Metrotown and hit an Old Navy maternity store and then take the ferry over to the Island, but by this time it was only about 8am so we decided that instead of waiting around for the mall to open we'd just go straight to the ferry since we'd probably have to wait there anyways. Michael slept through the wait in line and also while the ferry crossed because he was getting a little tired. I was pretty exhausted myself since I had gotten very little sleep, but I preferred to let him sleep and take Aidan around the ferry rather than drive! Aidan thought the ferry was very cool. We walked around outside and looked over the edge at the waves and went up on the sundeck and looked over the edge again. There was a little play area with a slide and a few other things and we spent some time in there for Aidan to burn off some steam - then he noticed the arcade, so we had to go try out those games for a good 20 minutes (at this point he's perfectly happy just sitting there and pressing the buttons, turning the wheels and pulling on the levers without me spending any money and hopefully it stays that way for awhile!). By the time we got ourselves a drink and some skittles from the vending machine and sat down by a window, it was time to go back down to the car.

We got off the ferry in Nanaimo and pulled into one of the malls parking lots and I turned around to tell Aidan we were going to get out and he was asleep! We picked up some Subway for lunch and decided to take advantage of his nap and head out right away rather than walking through one of the malls first. Ucluelet is clear across the Island from where the ferries dock, it's very close to Tofino. The map says that the drive should take about 2 hours and 40 minutes but the map does not tell you that the road is the curviest windiest bumpiest road EVER! I was so nauseous by the end it was awful. It also didn't help that Michael is a little speed freak and took these bends at the highest speed possible. Fortunately he wasn't able to go super fast because of how windy it was but I was soooo glad when we were finally in Ucluelet on a straight road. We were talking to Kevin later and apparently the road was plotted out by loggers just going from one good tree to another good tree - which explains a lot. We're going into Nanaimo on Thursday for Chaundra's birthday and then again when we leave on Sunday so I've got 3 more trips to look forward to!

Aidan slept pretty much the whole way to Ucluelet and was very happy to get out and run around and play at Kevin and Chaundra's. They have a beautiful big house right by the beach that they rent, and they also have a little bed and breakfast suite that their landlord rents out and they take care of. So we're staying there for right now and it's really nice. Actually any place that had a bed and a shower would have been totally fine with me. Usually that front seat is fine, I'm not sure if it was the length of the trip or because I'm pregnant but I just could not get comfortable the whole time.

Chaundra has promised Aidan that we will go down to the beach today and look for some shells so that should be fun. It's not really warm here, but I packed shorts for Aidan and me just in case - hopefully we can use them!

Right now Aidan's watching Dora the Explorer with the headphones on and every once in awhile he pipes up with some mangled spanish word or Map! or something that Dora wants him to say or some song they're singing. It's pretty funny, especially since I can't hear the show.

Not My Type of Guy

I just had 2 guys come in here looking for Al (my boss) who was (conveniently for him) out at the moment. He had actually just driven off like 2 minutes before they walked in which seemed to be somewhat problematic for these guys. They stood in front of my desk and made small talk for a couple minutes and left me their card and then said they would be back later. Now maybe I'm grumpy today or maybe I should really look for something that's not in customer service next time, but here are my problems with them:

• The first guy walks in and says 'Hi!' really chipper, like I should be excited to see him. I'm not. My desk has tons of stuff on it and I'm clearly busy. I don't have time for interruptions.
• Same guy whips out his little business card case and hands me a card - again, like I should care. 'Oh, thanks! I'll put it with my business card collection!' I don't want your card, and I'm pretty sure Al doesn't either, because he's as excited as I am when I hand it to him.
• While they're standing there I can smell the bottle of cologne they've doused themselves in. So gross...I'm trying not to wrinkle my nose and as soon as the door closes behind them I make a beeline for the bathroom and febreze the whole front office.
• They called me 'sweetie'. That just makes my fake perky grin just a little more fake.
• First guy again starts talking about the weather. 'So are you the one that's responsible for this weather? Are you tired of it yet?' No I don't control the weather and yes, like everyone else, I do not think it's cool that we still have new snow on the ground on April 4th!! That weather comment always makes me wonder. Like in the summer when people say 'Hot enough for you?' or 'Cold enough for you?' in the winter - as if there's a little thermostat that you're controlling the weather with.

I can blame this on pregnancy hormones, right?

Fish Place

Aidan is very excited today because he gets to go to the Fish Place. His very favourite restaurant (even more than McDonalds!!) is Joey's Only aka Fish Place. A couple months ago I took him there on a Tuesday night before bedtime stories at the Library and ever since then he always asks to go back. Tuesday's are all you can eat and the kids meal is $4 which is very affordable. Every so often we'll go and Aidan has a great time eating his fish, dipping it in the tartar sauce, being awed at the big fish on the walls with the super pointy noses and just being silly. I think his favourite part is the dirt and worms at the end. He roots around and digs out all the worms first and then gets me to help him eat his pudding. Last Wednesday we went to McDonalds for dinner and Aidan was upset because he 'had' to go to McDonalds and couldn't go to the Fish Place, so Michael told him that they could go today. I reminded him at breakfast that today was the day - 'Are you excited to go the Fish Place with Daddy?' He looked up from his cheerios and said 'Now?' with a hopeful look on his face. It's going to be a guys night tonight because I have an appointment at Clarica to set up an RESP for Aidan and also for little Hagatha. Or at least make plans to do that in the near future. Hopefully they have a plan that will work for us!