It's been a while I think but life has been going FULL throttle the last three weeks! Nick and I are exhausted! Slight reprieve this week and then onto Christmas celebrations and clean up. Ugg ~ where IS that live in nanny/housekeeper when you need her???
Had a visit from my mother in law! She made chocolates with Ruby and they coloured and 'scissored.' She played cars with Elias and watched Ruby's swim lesson! But I was sad that we sent her home and she not only had her car break down but then got sick! SORRY Nana!
Also had a visit from Nick's Dad, Step Mum and Sister! They brought pressie's and danced with the kiddies. Granny made awesome 'pirate' hats out of gold toule. Ruby has enjoyed her play dough set emmensely! Thank you!
Nick went in for the big snippy snippy the last week of November. And was a TOTAL baby about it for days afterward!!! I of course in classic Kate style had ZERO sympathy. :) ... Yes that's right, zero, zilch, nada, niet. NOTHING, I pushed two water melons out a garden hose honey, so I'm not caring about your frank and beans one bit. Moving on...
As soon as he came home from the doctor's office he got sick with strep throat and Elias had an ear infection, so I took him to the doctor's office. Doctor confirmed the ears were red and then chatted with me about my options. He said, and I quote, "I'm not for or against treatment with antibiotics. Statistically speaking treatment WITH antibiotics lessens discomfort by about 12 hours, but that is all."
Ok, thinking in my head about the week Eli was born and Ruby was so fevered she couldn't sit up, her eyes were spinning in opposite directions (kid you not), she was speaking in tongues and vomiting bile. SCARIEST 'exorcist' shit I've ever encountered! NO exaggeration.
Elias was NOTHING like what Ruby had been through, so I opted not to use antibiotics and just wait it out. He had a small perforation in the ear drum which had allowed it to drain so he wasn't in a lot of discomfort. Thursday he was pretty much himself, Friday he napped with me for 2 hours. Then went down for another two hour nap...when he woke up he had green pus coming out of his ear!!! YUCK. PANIC! Emergency room! Second trip and he's not even a year and a half old. :S
Amoxicillin and fluids. Saturday night, he was still screeching and the sheer amount of drainage was frightening. Plus his nose wouldn't stop bleeding. Emergency Room Trip #3... Luckily we saw the same doc. Ear was 50% drained and the nose was bleeding because the skin had started to deteriortate inside his nose. Ya, treatment ~ try shoving vaseline up a 15 month old's nose 3 times a day!
But everybody eventually mended. House remained a dive bomb, and I was beginning to STRESS until I made arrangements for Ru to go to a friend's house after preschool. She was so CUTE! At first she didn't want to go. And when I pressed her as to why, she said, "I don't know.... do they have a bathroom?" SPLIT a gut! (Internally of course) I try very hard not to laugh at her most sincere insecurities! UBER cute though!
Was able to accomplish quite a bit with her out from under foot and was excited to see my folks who were coming up to celebrate!
Ruby's birthday was the 7th. I took the kids on a 'field trip' with our local toddler group, we went and toured the new grocery store. We looked at all the different fruit and the fish monger took out a crab and lobster to look at. Then we went in the back and Ruby was SUPER excited to see the cardboard get squished in the compactor! We were given a Gluten Free Ginger cookie and then we dashed over to the local golf course to see the gingerbread house display! 'Twas FUN! Ruby did a 'scavenger hunt' and had to find the 5 pictured items in the sea of gingerbread houses. She had a blast!
Quick trip to Costco for party food ~ Elias fell asleep in the buggy, I'll post a pic. Home to get started on the cake! ...My mother in law had borrowed from her sister a stand up teddy bear cake. I researched decorating ideas on the net and found a great snowman.... I rolled out the fondant for a black top hat. Carefully read all the instructions on using the pan, made cake, then made MORE cake because I didn't have enough to fill the pan. Let it cool, and took off the mold, only to have the cake inside the 'head' part not be cooked and so the whole bloody thing fell apart! ... And then I fell apart. ... My parents arrived a bit late to a DISASTER! I had used every pot, pan, spatula in the kitchen. I'd exploded a bag of icing sugar all down the fridge, I dropped just about everything I touched all because I was stressed and tired.
Finances are tight, with 4 birthdays and Christmas this month. The truck needing fixed and the bill being OVER the quote by a whole trucking lot! Sheesh!
Plan 'B' .. I used the snowman cupcake tin and then iced the damned things at like 11 pm. They turned out great! The party was AWESOME! She had SO much fun! Thank you to everyone who came!
Nick and I went out for dinner that night as his birthday is the 10th. He took me out for Vietnamese 'Pho' which is basically a soup, spicy if you like. He ordered the 'hot and sour' which I liked better than mine although mine was equally tasty in a simple broth with rice noodles, thinly sliced beef, scallions, sprouts and some fresh basil and lime. Then he bought me an ice cream from McDonald's and we went on a quick wine tasting at the new beer and wine store along the dyke. We ended up getting home before Ruby went to bed because we were both just SO exhausted ~ but it was nice to get out all the same!
Sunday Mum and Dad went home. But they had brought up a desk for me to paint on ~ which I am THRILLED about! Ruby missed them as soon as they left :(
A 'new' concept I'm supporting right now is the 'no presents necessary' theme.... The last few birthday parties Ruby's been invited to have stated 'no presents necessary, just come celebrate with us!' on the invitation. I made sure a wrote the same on Ruby's invitations. We still got a few presents for which I am thankful for but in all honesty it truly wasn't necessary. I feel like we live in this world of extreme excess and unnecessarily so. Why add to it? Ruby doesn't need anything and most of her friends are much the same ~ arent' we lucky and blessed to be able to say that? What better way to teach our children about the value of friendship, good company and the awesomeness of 'wholesome' parties, than to just dress up nice, play with the mountains of toys we already have, eat copious amounts of cake and give out a goodie bag too? In essence, "It is better to give; than to receive." I like this new 'theme.' I'm going to stick with it!
And the rhinoceros you ask? Well I was scrubbing the bathtub like I do every week and that includes scrubbing the bath toys.. nothing more rank than scuzzy bath toys in the tub that your children chew on.... We have very limited amounts of bath toys because I dislike them. Well I dislike stepping on them, tidying them, scrubbing them ~ you get the drift. But whatever makes it there I clean and alas there was the rhinoceros. I couldn't help but catch the oddness of the moment as I'm scrubbing this toy rhino's arse I thought to myself, "I wonder how many people in this world can actually say they've scrubbed a rhinoceros' arse?" Anybody?.... LOL! Let me know! I'd LOVE to hear that story!
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