Off to see the Wizard...

Psssstttt.....

Hey...it's me. I know, I know...I haven't had anything to say for quite a while. To be honest, Dave does a really good job of speaking for both of us. Plus, he's far more entertaining than I am! ;P

Today, I was off to see the Wizard, aka, Dr. K, my neurologist. It was time for another check-up. I told him that I was experiencing more numbness back in April, and that it felt as though things were getting worse again. Now, these sensations have seemed to have levelled out, and have backed off a bit. He said that he would still considered this "setback" to have occurred within the postpartum period, but basically, anything that happens now re:numbness, weakness, etc., counts. SO, I still don't know if it was "simple" Guillain-Barre Syndrome (although my case was never simple), or if I'm headed down a chronic path of CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy). I am scheduled for another nerve conduction study next Monday (the electric shock therapy test), and that will be the true definer as to how I'm really coming along.

I have to give Dr. K kudos...I almost NEVER have to wait on him. I was about 20 minutes early for my appointment and got in immediately. He's always very personable, to the point, and never pulls any punches, and if I needed to get in to see him, I would never have a long wait - 2 days at the most!

I'm not sure how I feel about the possibility of this being a chronic condition, but the one thing (of many!) that I've learned is to not put the cart before the horse.

After this, I headed to Shopper's Drug Mart to mail off my first two tu-tu creations! I am so excited about this and am really enjoying making these foofy creations for lucky little girls. I can't believe how expensive it is to ship something. The tutu and packaging weighed .090 kg. It cost me approximately $11 to ship this to Golden Prairie. Say What?!?? But get this! It cost me approximately $9 to ship it to Edmonton, which is further away and in a different province! I asked the post-mistress why the cost was different and she said that it costs more to send things to a rural community. Huh. Who knew?

Next stop was to pick up a triple barrel curling iron that I purchased for super cheap off of Kijiji. I love Kijiji.

Then, home, to rescue Dave from the monsters. We ate lunch, and then, as Dave mentioned, it was off to the Market Mall for some fun and adventure. I needed to stop at Fabricland, so there was lots of warnings and reminders about good behaviour and such. Of course, that lasts for all of 3 minutes, and then the naughtiness and misbehaving starts to kick in. At one point, while we were standing in line, an elderly lady came to stand in line behind us. She asked me how I had time to sew when I had three little ones. I replied that I did this while they were in bed! To be honest, I find making these tutus rather relaxing. Freakshow!

We then headed to "PlayLand". The girls had so much fun, so it was worth it. I was sitting near the back of the play area, and I can hear Jorja bossing Ginny around from where I was sitting. "Ginn....Ginn....no, no..don't go up there, you have to go up the red stairs first....Ginn....Ginn..." What a bossy little thing, not to mention a loud talker! Ginny still does Jorja's bidding, but it will be interesting when she starts to exert her personality more. It won't be long before Ginny's wearing the pants in this sisterhood. It will be interesting to see what CeCe's personality brings to the mix. CeCe had a nice snooze in the car seat, and then woke up and was content to sit and stand.

Then, it was homeward bound. I must admit, I was feeling thoroughly thrashed after surviving this little outing. I still notice that my stamina isn't what it used to be before this "issue" struck, but hopefully it will continue to return. Screw you, Guillain-Barre! I WILL win! Hah.

Anyhow, I hope that you're all having a great evening. Don't be shy...feel free to post a comment and say hello! We are always curious to see who is reading this thing!

TTYL

~Jewels

Cleaning

Things have been a bit quiet on the writing front here for a few days now. I think I blame the weather. It is getting seriously depressing. I think we're all starting to go a bit stir crazy. Hopefully things turn around tomorrow.

We used to have a university student come in and clean the house every two weeks when we were both working. However, with Julie on disability and me on parental leave, we decided that that would be one of the things we had to cut. Boy, do we miss her. It is so hard to get things done with the kids in the house. One wants this, one wants to help, then the first wants what the other has. Soon, there's screaming and someones having a meltdown. And sometimes it's one of the kids.

Anyway, we decided that in order to get a handle on things today, Julie would take the kids out for a couple of hours, and I would clean. I worked like a dog, but I think I still got the easier deal. The three of them are definitely a challenge. Julie took them to Market Mall, and let them play in the little play centre there, and things seemed to go fairly well. She came home with all of them anyway. They even made some new friends. Ginny would go up to another little girl, get in her face, and say, "What's your name?" "Ava." "Oh." And then she would carry on her way. She's got tact.

Does the laundry ever end?

Here are some random observations of a four year old:

• I like ketchup, but I don't like tomatoes. Isn't that weird?
• I like honey cheerios and honey ham, but I don't like honey. Isn't that weird?
• I like peanut butter, but I don't like peanuts. Isn't that weird?

Here's hoping we can get outside tomorrow. Later.

Piano recital

Jorja had her piano recital today. I'm pretty proud of her. At the start of the year, they were just learning where middle C is. Now she's playing with both hands.

Later.

Pretty coat

So I was watching hockey this evening, and Don Cherry comes on. Jorja asks, "Does he always wear such a pretty coat?" It's amazing what passes for pretty when you're four. Jorja has such an amazing memory. We watched Don Cherry once before and she was asking about him, so I was telling her. Today she says, "He was married to a girl named Rose, and now she died, and he always wears a rose to remember her." Pretty amazing. Later.

Toilet training

We are starting to think more seriously about toilet-training Ginny. We had some Pull-ups left from Jorja, so we started using those. We also bought some more today, as well as some panties. The new pull-ups have the newest Disney princess, Tiana, on them, and I think Jorja was a little put out by this. Anyway, we tried making her sit there a few times today to no avail. We told her to tell us when she had to go, and so far today, she told us three times after the fact that she was stinky. Oh well, it was only the first day.

Shortly before supper today, the girls were playing ring around the rosey in the living room (on the hardwood). When it came time to fall down, Jorja did a face plant. She said it was the floor, but I think it may have been Ginny's knee. In any case, the poor kid's nose is quite swelled up. It didn't bleed, and you can apply pressure so I don't think it's broken, but it looks nasty. She may get a bit of a shiner out of it yet. I'm not sure what that would do to the little princess. Just in time for her piano recital on Sunday. Fun and games. Later.

Nice hair

This morning I went to work for a little visit/coffee/sanity break under the guise that I had to drop something off there. It was great to catch up with everyone. So this evening, Jorja asks me how my visit was with my friends today. Good, I say. "Did you ask them what kind of apples are their favourite?" she asks. Hmmm, no that totally slipped my mind.

This evening, after her bath, I was getting Ginny dressed. Sometimes after her diaper is on, and her bottoms are started, I get her to stand up on my knees while I pull them up. I always tell her to hold on to my head. Today, she looked at the top of my head, kind of stroked the side, and said, "You have such beautiful hair." I haven't heard that since the '80's. Later

Preschool graduation

Today was Jorja's preschool graduation/year end party. The day was spent on a field trip to Market Mall. What better place to have a preschool trip than to a mall filled with old people. It was a great time though.

Jorja woke this morning almost beside herself with excitement. Julie did her hair all fancy, and she was thrilled. So she and I set off for the school this morning (the day started at 9:00). We all boarded two school buses (I forgot how much I dislike school buses) and headed for the mall. First on the agenda was mini-golf. I was a bit worried about this - I didn't know if she would enjoy it. But she had a blast. She has never held a golf club before, so it was interesting. I helped her with her first shot to show her how, and then she did most of it herself. Mind you, most of the holes she played resembled more of a poor example of stick handling than golf. As far as mini-golf courses go, this one was fairly tough, complete with sand traps and water hazards. A few holes had downhill slopes with water at the end, so I told her to just lightly tap it, and it would be all right. After that, she kept asking me on her first shot if she should shoot it light or hard. Like it made a difference. If she thought the ball was heading for trouble, she ran after it and stopped it. It was pretty cute. At one point, she told me I could call her Miss Shooter.

After the golf, we killed some time in the mall, and then Julie, Ginny and CeCe met us for lunch. There was enough fundraising that every preschooler, one sibling, and two parents got a free meal. The meal consisted of 2 chicken fingers and fries for adults, and 1 chicken finger and fries for kids.

After lunch, it was off to the children's' museum for the program and some craft/play time. Jorja sang her heart out during the program, and was thrilled to get her 'diploma'. After that, there was a craft, some structured play time, and lots of free time. They had a whole outdoor scene with a canoe, tent, logs and red ribbon for a fire. The girls enjoyed the canoe, and managed not to hit anyone with the oars. It looked scary at first. There was also a stage with a bunch of dress up clothes and musical instruments, so we got treated to quite a few rock stars.

When it was all over, Julie rode the bus back and I drove the other two girls home. I though for sure Ginny would fall asleep, but she stayed awake.


I'm not sure what it was about the day, but both Julie and I felt exhausted when we got home. The girls were well behaved, they played well, CeCe was good. It was a pretty easy day for us, but it welt draining.

Anyway, time for bed. Later.