Snow Days

We had two storms in three days this past week. Two "snow days"- schools closed, events cancelled, and everything else that comes with lots of snow... like digging out!

Here's my husband who is still outside in -14 degrees, blowing the snow so we can get our oldest daughter to her basketball game in a couple of hours.

Here's the view from our family room (I'm not going out there unless I have to!) of our neighbour's driveway. That is a Honda CR-V parked there, and, yes, the snow on their lawn is higher than the top of it.

We have had significant snowfall since December. That's a bit early for us. The upshot of this has been that we've been digging out not only the front of the house, but also the backyard. Or, I should say, *I* have been shovelling the backyard, since my husband does the front.

"Why shovel the backyard?" you may be wondering. Well, we have 3 dogs, and our yard looks like this:

To the left of our shed, you'll see bits our fence. Yep, the snow is pretty much level with the top of most of the fence now, and the dogs can march right over it! As you can see, I've lost the battle with two storms this week so close together. Last year, I was able to hold out until mid-February when I finally had to admit defeat. So, the dogs have to resign themselves to getting tied on to the deck. And I will resign myself to spending 20 minutes letting one out at a time, several times a day. At least when its this cold, they don't want to be out there for long.

One last pic, from upstairs in the house:

Looks like the chain link fence across the back of the yard has finally collapsed once and for all on one end. I guess we'll be looking at putting up a new one this summer. Maybe something 10 feet high...

Shake it to the left...

Baby got a new groove, and so does Mama... DX in preschool, and me back at work.

He LOVES it!! After a bit of a rough start, he has adjusted amazingly quickly- this is only the beginning of his second full week. Today, he look concerned as I left, but then went on in his room with his teacher, and waved bye. Unbelievable to me- the parent of a child (now 8) who cried every day at preschool... and kept on doing so until the middle of Kindergarten!

The preschool teachers think he's the cat's meow. He's just a friendly, happy little dude, and acts as if he's been there forever. (We are so lucky to have this kid in our lives!!)

Well, right now he's throwing blocks across the living room, so I better go. Hey, I never said he was perfect!

Newsweek Article

Interesting read... "Faces of the Abandoned" by Noelle Chun.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/77710/page/1

"I'm sorry, there's nobody here by that name..."

This has not been the best of weeks.

I started back to work, and once DX was over a case of the croup, he went to preschool. Not too happily, either, I might add.

I am also really feeling so sad for the irl friends and bloggy friends who have just had some major confirmation that they will be waiting for their little girl from China for another year, or two... or three. It's such a downer.

I kept DX awake a little bit later than usual last night, in the hopes that he'd sleep in an extra few minutes this morning. Well, that worked out well. Not.

So, I got up with him early and was generally in a cranky mood all morning. I finally decided I needed to snap myself out of it, so I told dh that I was going to take a shower. He had the con.

Five minutes of solitude was about all I managed. First, my 8 year-old had some burning questions to shout through the bathroom door. That tipped off 3 year-old DX to where I was. So, for the next 10 minutes I listened to a little fist pounding on the door, calling "Mom. Mom. Mom." No tears or stress or anything like that. Just the incessant "Mom".

"I'm sorry, there's nobody here by that name."

At one point his father clued in and tried to remove him. Unsuccessfully.

When I finally emerged, you'd think he hadn't seen me in days! "MOM!!" ... how can you really stay mad at that? You can't. He's too cute. But still, Mom needs a little space sometimes, too, buddy... (yes, transitions are hard for everyone...)

Did I mention his new favorite word? Next to "Mom", that is:

"NO!!!"

(sigh)

One more project done

This is the Harry Potter 'Gryffindor' scarf that I started back in July, when all the hype about the 7th book was happening. (Yes, we pre-ordered our copy and I took the girls to Chapters at midnight to pick it up!) I sewed on the tassels this morning. My 10 year-old is wearing it around the house. Of course, it goes with no winter jacket or coat she owns, so how much she'll actually wear it is doubtful! But its kinda cute, don't you think?

Hmm... is 39 too old to wear a Harry Potter scarf? ;)

Now, all I have left to finish up is a pair of knitted socks and a sweater for my 3-year old neice. The socks were started for my other daughter about 2 years ago, and the sweater was begun with my now 7 year-old neice in mind. What can I say? I'm slow... but things eventually do get done. My knitting and sewing projects seem to have their own time scale... not quite 'geologic', but maybe close!

Another one down...

We're just back in from the hospital. DX had a mastoidectomy on his left ear this morning, and the ear tube replaced in his other ear. While I knew that the mastoidectomy would involve an incision behind his ear, I wasn't prepared for the extent of it. It pretty much starts right under his earlobe and travels around to the top of his ear. Poor baby.

The good news is that what appeared to be a soft tissue growth in the CT scan seems to be "just" inflamed and old scarred tissue, likely caused by numerous untreated ear infections (babies with cleft issues are very prone to these). The finally pathology report will take a week or two to come in, but the ENT doesn't seem too concerned that it is anything more than that. He does believe, though, that DX's eustachian tube in that ear is probably permanently damaged from scarring, so he may need ear tubes on that side indefinitely.

DX was a little more upset this time when it was time to go to the OR. I suppose the memory of his palate surgery - only 6 weeks ago- is still fresh. He almost didn't get to go in at all! During the preliminary questions, I told the nurse that he went to his first day of preschool yesterday, and that there were 2 confirmed cases of chicken pox there. Well, they quarantined us immediately until I could get the preschool on the phone (at 7:45 am!) to get more details. Luckily, the 2 children who got them were NOT in his room, so they let us out of quarantine and into the waiting room! Understandable, but a tad frustrating.

Well, I hope this surgery puts an end to them for a good while. He's such a little trooper, but I'm sure he's had enough. So has Mom!

Here' s to 2008!!

The last day of 2007 has been great so far!

I got my grocery shopping done early, ran the necessary errands, cleaned out the hall closet, and put away the kid's laundry. We have everything we need to cook the family dinner tomorrow (for 6 adults and 6 kids), and the house is reasonably in order. I had a surprise visit from a friend who spent Christmas in sunny Florida and then a nice chat with my dear friend who lives in Nova Scotia. And, I even had some time this evening to quilt- whoo hoo! What a way to spend New Year's Eve! (We're getting bad weather, so our typical New Year's Eve tradition of taking the kids to the fireworks is not on the agenda this year).

2007 has been a remarkable year for our family. We finally have our son and brother! We had a fantastic trip to China. We made new friends with the families we travelled with. We really have been blessed beyond belief. And we know it, and are grateful.

I wish for all of you the best in 2008. May your blessings be abundant and your worries few!

Two minutes 'til midnight here... we're the first province in Canada to celebrate the New Year. Have a great one, everyone.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.... Happy New Year!!