Sick Girl

Darcy's at home sick today. Nick doesn't go in to work until 4:00 so he's got her for most of the day, I've just got to leave early to take over for him to go to work later. She's not throwing up this time, just a lot of what we call "runny tummy" (translation - diarrhea). It's been pretty messy and gross.

She seemed great last night before bed. We were doing crafts at her new little table and we were having a ball. She even wrote me a little song. I had made up a song for her about how much I love being her Mommy. Then she made up a song for me that went something like this:

I love Mommy,
She's my best friend.
I love her every day.

She somehow made that go to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".

Needless to say, it was the sweetest song I've ever heard!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

It keeps on giving me a headache!

When we were shopping for Darcy's stocking gifts we found these CD"s at Zellers that were 2/$5. They had all kinds of kids' music, so we picked two up.

What we didn't anticipate is how much she'd LOVE these CD's, or exactly how unbearable they'd become to us in a matter of minutes.

The CD's feature a variety of popular kids' songs, like "Do You Know the Muffin Man?", "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" among other choice favourites. They've got split tracks on the CD's, so all of the songs play through once, then they go through them all again so you can use the split track feature for sing-alongs. We don't do that, but it does make it seem like you're listening to the same songs over and over and over and over...

When you try to put on the news or another type of music for even a few minutes you get bombarded with, "Can I listen to my music please?"

I won't be in a hurry to buy her any more CD's!

What Are You Thinking?

I just popped over to the local mall for some lunch. While I was there, I saw something that terrified me greatly, and so here I am.

As the parent of a toddler, I feel I can safely write this. Seeing as how the parents of the toddler I will refer to have no idea who I am, I feel even safer in writing this.

There was a girl there, approximately Darcy's age who was there with what seemed to be her mother, grandmother and younger sister. The baby was only a few months old and spent most of the time in the stroller or in her mother's arms. The toddler, however, was running around all over the place. She would get 20 or so metres away from her mother and nothing would be said. In fact, the mother had her back turned to the little girl most of the time. The grandmother was facing in the direction where the girl was running, but she wasn't saying anything.

This sort of thing just scares me so much. I've been fascinated over the past couple of weeks watching the story of those two boys in Missouri who were abducted, but miraculously found and returned to their families. It makes me want to hold Darcy so closely to me. She's the kind of kid who would approach any stranger anywhere and strike up a conversation and it scares me to no end. If I didn't keep an eye on her while we're out, she could easily walk away with someone. I saw a lot of those characteristics in this little girl. She had personality coming out her ears. She was as cute as can be. She was talking to people walking past her.

I just find watching something like this to be so upsetting. It's a dangerous world out there. Please, keep your kids close by.

Weekend Update

Well, Darcy was clearly not feeling better. She threw up a few times again through the night on Friday and again on Saturday afternoon. She seems a lot better since then, so we're really hoping it's all over.

My streak of not throwing up while pregnant officially ended last night. I don't know if I caught a bit of what Darcy had, or if it's just a coincidence. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm completely exhausted. Hard to say.

I had to go to London and back on Saturday for a meeting. It was a great, productive meeting, but still an exhausting way for me to spend the day.

This morning I had to be up at 6:00 to do a radio interview about a parenting seminar we're running here at the church. I was so paranoid about sleeping through the interview that I barely slept all night. I'm a mess. It's good promotion though, so I had to do it.

I'm off to the doctor shortly. I think it's too early to hear a heartbeat, but I'm still kind of hoping I can. That would be really cool. A friend was telling me over the weekend about her brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are expecting their first baby this summer. They went to the doctor last week and the doctor said, "Here's one heartbeat, and here's another heartbeat." Her brother-in-law fainted in the doctor's office. The thing is, the doctor was only joking. There was only one heartbeat. I bet he felt like a real jerk after that.

If I hear anything, I'll let you know. In the meantime, I'm just trying to stop gagging and also trying to actually eat some food. It's not easy.

Update: It is apparently too early to hear a heartbeat without an ultra sound (got that booked for Feb. 19). I've also lost 6 pounds in the last three weeks, which isn't cool. I've been given some medicine to deal with the nausea so hopefully I'll be able to eat now.

Rough Afternoon

We were planning a nice evening at home tonight. We were going to have some friends over for supper tonight for the first time. That all changed when I got to the babysitters and saw that Darcy wasn't wearing the clothes we sent her in this morning. In fact, she wasn't wearing her own clothes at all.

She had just thrown up all over herself. Out of the blue, no warning, just big "throw ups". I got her in the car and off we went home. She seemed great, and asked for a drink so I gave her some water. Big mistake. Halfway home she threw up again. I called Nick so he could cancel our dinner guests (with half an hour's notice and the chicken already cooked).

We got her home and cleaned her up (with much gagging on my part) and she's seemed to be fine ever since. She ate some plain bread for supper and has had small bits of water to drink. She also got a Pedialyte freezie. We'll see how she does through the night.

While she was eating her bread at supper time, she reached out and took my hand. She looked into my eyes and said, "You're the best Mommy." Very sweet. She let go, then took my hand again and said, "This is the best Christmas ever!"

I hope that means she's feeling better.

Amazing Race All-Stars

I found this article this morning about the upcoming Amazing Race All Star edition which will begin on February 18th. I must admit, I'm a little surprised at some of the teams that are picked.

There are a few teams from seasons 1, 2 and 3 which I didn't watch. I really came into it in season 4. So I don't really know much about them. I'm actually watching season 3 in reruns on OLN so I'm starting to figure those teams out.

I can't believe Rob and Amber are on this show! I hated watching those guys, but I guess they make for good television. I think it's cool that Eric and Danielle who started dating after season 9 are competing together even thought they competed against each other previously.

My biggest disappointment is the fact that BJ & Tyler aren't there. These were two of the best racers the show ever had. Very disappointing.

So, only one month left until the return of the Amazing Race. After a disappointing season last time, I think this will be a great way for them to get back on track.

Noodles and Meatballs

I tried a new recipe last night for beef stroganoff. This has always been one of my favourite dishes, but Nick's not a big fan so I've never made it before. I got this recipe emailed to me so I figured I'd give it a try. Nick is being sensitive to my quick gag-reflex and is willing to eat whatever I feel like eating, so he wasn't totally opposed to me trying it.

It was so easy to make and I thought it was delicious. I ate mine before Darcy and Nick ate theirs because I had to leave to go to work. As I was eating mine, Darcy walked over and said "Ooh, noodles and meatballs." I offered her a taste and she said, "No, I don't like that." She didn't even try it.

When I got home from work I asked her if she ate her supper. She said she ate the noodles but not the meatballs. She didn't like the meatballs. I said I was disappointed because I really liked the supper. She looked me right in the eye and said, "We didn't!" Nick confirmed that he hadn't liked it either.

So much for a great new recipe. Don't let their reviews scare you, though. If you like beef stroganoff, this is a tasty and fairly easy way to make it!

Train Wreck

We had a quiet evening at home last night and there wasn't much on TV. We ended up watching the train wreck that is "American Idol". I don't watch the show when they get down to the actual competition, but there's something about the audition round that fascinates me.

What makes these people audition? Is there no one in their life who has told them they're a terrible singer? I guess it's good that their friends and family believe in them, but can no one hear how terrible they are?

You know there are some people who know they're terrible and they try to play it up in hopes of becoming the next William Hung. Yet there are so many who truly believe they're the next American Idol. And they're awful! Truly awful.

Now, I love singing. If you ever put a microphone in my car you'd be treated to quite a concert. However, I know enough to know that I should never, ever, sing in front of people. It's just a fact. We're not all meant to be rock stars.

There was one girl last night who had already auditioned in Pasadena and didn't make it. Her boss believed in her so much that he flew her out to Minnesota to audition again. Guess what? She didn't make it again because she was still terrible. What a surprise!

I'm also interested in the songs people choose for these auditions. What makes someone choose "Under Pressure" by Queen & David Bowie? Great song to listen to, but it's not really going to showcase your vocal talents. I also loved when the terrible girl who sang this song said, "But I've got a degree in vocal performance!" Guest judge Jewel calmly replied, "They took your money."

10,000 people showed up for the audition, 17 made the cut to Hollywood.

Here You Go

Thanks for all your good wishes everyone! We really appreciate it.

Why said she wanted to hear some morning sickness stories. Early last week I was thinking to myself "Gee, I haven't had any morning sickness. Aside from being completely exhausted all the time, I don't even feel pregnant."

A prime example of "Be careful what you wish for".

When I was pregnant with Darcy, and it seems to be the case again this time, I never got morning sickness that made me throw up. In fact, through my pregnancy with Darcy the first time I threw up was when I was in labour. However, I gag all the time. I gag when I'm driving in my car, when I'm reading a book to Darcy, when I'm trying to talk on the phone, when we're walking through the grocery store. Really, it's quite lovely. The best was last night when I was laying on the couch watching TV. Nick was sitting at the computer desk and belched. I gagged so badly we both thought I was going to throw up all over the family room. I guess he learned his lesson about belching. We had another great experience this morning when Darcy was on the potty. She had done her "business" and we were still finishing her book. I had trouble getting to the end. Not pretty. Then she kept wanting to hug me to help "feel me better", even though she was still perched on that toxic potty!

Darcy still seems to have some questions about the whole thing. For example "Is the baby a boy or a girl?" I told her we don't know that yet. "Well can't you open up your belly and look?" Then later she asked if she could see the baby. I said that wasn't possible yet. "But I want to talk to her!" Again she wanted to open up my belly so she could talk to the baby. So, I told her my belly button is a microphone for her to talk to the baby. Sure enough she walked right over to my belly and yelled into my belly button, "Hello! I'm your big sister, Darcy! I love you." So sweet.

Be Careful Little Mouth What You Say

We've learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Don't try to keep a secret if a two-year old knows the secret.

We went to our friends' house this afternoon for their daughter's second birthday. A lot of our friends from church were there. Darcy walked right in and made herself at home with all of the toys. She picked up a doll, rocked her in her arms and said, "I'm going to be a big sister." Not everyone heard her, but a few people did. At first they just laughed and then they thought about it a little bit and asked us if it was true. I hemmed and hawed for a couple of minutes before I figured I'd might as well just 'fess up.

Yes, it's true. Darcy is going to be a big sister. She's pretty excited about it and so are we. My doctor didn't have his due date predicting tool with him the last time I saw him, but from I've calculated, the due date is September 1st. It seems like forever away right now, but I know it will fly by. I'm hoping for an end of August delivery. In the last week of August we've got Stef's birthday, my cousin Tracy's birthday, and our wedding anniversary, which also falls on my Aunt Grace's birthday.

We haven't decided yet if we're going to find out the sex or not. We didn't with Darcy, which was pretty cool. We were both determined to not find out back then. Now we're not as sold on the idea. We'll see how we feel closer to ultra sound time.

We're also already completely divided on names. Apparently Scarlett is off the table. Whatever.

So, over the coming months, this blog may document a lot of my pregnancy. I'll try to post a few pictures of the expanding belly. Obviously, there's nothing to post in that department yet. I can see a change already, and there are a couple of pairs of pants I've already had to sideline, but it wouldn't be obvious to anyone else.

My next doctor's appointment is on January 22nd. The only down side is that I had just bought two amazing skirts at Jacob at an after-Christmas sale. I'm going to try to wear them as much as I can over the next month or so and then they'll become post-baby motivation to start running again!

What We've Been Reduced To

I read an article a couple of months ago that had a lot of good tips for getting toddlers to do what you want them to do. Darcy gets so caught up in what she's thinking about that she couldn't care less about what we're asking her to do.

One suggestion was to make a game of things. If you want her to go to the bathroom and she wants to keep playing, then get her to bounce like a kangaroo to the bathroom, so she thinks she's still playing, so she'll go along with you. It's worked pretty well for me.

Well, our lives right now are all about Dora the Explorer. Darcy loves Dora. She got two new DVD's for Christmas and she'd spend all day watching them if we let her. If you're lucky enough to have never seen an episode, I'll summarize for you. This little girl goes on adventures all around the world with her friend Boots. He's a monkey. Dora has a map that leads her through all these adventures and he always gives her three places she needs to go to reach her goal. These three places are drummed into kids at the beginning of each episode. "Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain. Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain. Bridge, tunnel, snowy mountain."

We've discovered that Darcy responds well to this three-step approach to life, so our lives have become a series of the next three steps we have to follow (Pee pee, bath, time for bed. Pee pee, bath, time for bed). I can't believe we're operating on Dora's terms!

On a complete different note, I bought some fresh fruit this morning at the grocery store to take to work. It had a dipping sauce in the middle which said "Yogurt dip". I was expecting strawberry yogurt. But when I opened it I found chocolate. I don't know whose idea that was, but they're a genius.

Around the Neighbourhood

Wednesdays are my day to work at home. It's a great concession my boss made after I went back to work from my maternity leave. I run a program every Wednesday night, so I work from home during the day so I don't have to be away from Darcy all day. It's a pretty sweet deal.

Darcy's pretty good at entertaining herself for most of the day while I get my work done. I usually only aim to get 5 1/2 - 6 hours done, depending on my workload for the week. With Nick on afternoons this week I thought this would be a great day to get a lot accomplished because he's at home to take care of Darcy.

I didn't realize this is the day our cranky old next door neighbour would choose to work on the alarm system for his RV. He's out there with the hood open and the alarm has been going off periodically for the last half an hour or so. Then it went off for about 10 minutes solid. Not cool.

Did I mention that his RV is parked right outside the closest window to our computer?

Halfway into the 10-minute run I started to get worried. He and his wife are getting up there in in years and they live alone. I began to wonder if it was their car alarm or their house alarm. I wondered if I should be calling 911. I took a quick peek outside and saw him fiddling with the RV, so I knew I was OK.

It seems to be over now. I guess I should try to get some work done while there's silence!

Mind Your Manners

We're having a hard time convincing Darcy that it's a good idea to eat with a fork and spoon. No matter what we do, she tries to get the food in her mouth using her fingers. As a result, we're constantly watching her and whenever her hands go to her plate we automatically say, "Darcy, use your fork and spoon please."

So last night we made a yummy supper of ribs. As we were eating them, I used my hand to move a bone off to the side of my plate (have you ever tried spearing a bone with a fork? It doesn't work) when a little voice beside me said, "Mommy, fork and spoon."

I tried explaining to her that some food like hamburgers and sandwiches can be eaten with your hands and that some people ate ribs with their hands (again, for the record, I wasn't eating them with my hands I was just moving a bone). She just looked at me and said "Fork and spoon!"

Very well then.

The Beginning of the End???

I know some of you who read this and are also the parents of toddlers have not always enjoyed reading my summaries of Darcy's seamless transition to her "big girl bed". Well, this post is for you.

I think Darcy is starting to figure out that she has options other than lying down in her bed. Yesterday afternoon when I put her down for her nap I heard a lot of talking going on in her room. After a while I went in to check on her and she was standing up at the head of the bed and she had her animals spread out on the bed in front of her. It looked like she was teaching a class or something.

Then this morning when I went in to get her she was again standing in her bed. She has a big wooden headboard on her bed and she was looking over it like she was standing on a bridge. Not cool.

With all that being said, she still hasn't gotten out of bed, she just walks around on top of it. I'm sure it won't be long before she takes a spill at this rate. Also, if she walks around on top of the bed it won't be long before she figures out that she can get down too.

So, our normal habit of putting her in bed and her falling asleep seems to be on it's way out.

Another Public Service Announcement

If you are a man driving a City of Windsor parking enforcement car, it is probably advisable that you don't park in the pink spots that are designated for pregnant women or caregivers with young children.

Maybe you put on a few extra pounds over the holidays, but I'm pretty sure people are going to be able to figure out that you're not pregnant. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Is there such a thing as a citizen's parking ticket, along the lines of a citizen's arrest?

10 Years, Part 2

I was having trouble posting all the pictures I wanted from the Africa trip in my last post, so I thought I'd try a new post to put the rest of them up.

This is one of the first pictures ever taken of Nick and I together. There wasn't really a danger of snakes behind us, or else I wouldn't have been sitting there. The sign was just put there to deter kids from climbing in the rocks. We found that out when Nick and our friend Mefford were climbing in the rocks. We weren't even a "couple" then, we were just goofing around for the picture. However, I think the adoring look in his eyes is clear.

Here's Lynette and I getting our picture taken with Nelson Mandela, or at least as close as we could get. Check out my sweet farmer's tan!

And here's one of my all-time favourite pictures, Lynette eating spaghetti for breakfast! Yummy!

10 Years

It was 10 years ago today that I left on the trip of a lifetime, a trip that changed my life in more ways than I can count. 10 years ago today I met up with a group of people in Toronto's Pearson airport to head off to Cape Town, South Africa.

It was on that trip that I met my husband. I also renewed an old friendship with Karen and began an amazing friendship with Lynette. There were so many great people on that trip and I loved every minute of it.

Some of the things I saw while I was in South Africa have changed the way I look at the world. Sadly, it's far too easy to settled back into Western life once you're here. You say that you'll always be more aware of world poverty and issues in the developing world, but once you're back into your own routine, it's so easy to forget about those things.

The church our group worked at in Eldorado Park, just outside of Johannesburg had a playground right beside it. The playground also served as the garbage dump. Every day it made me sick to see children playing in the midst of all that garbage. I remember asking our pastor about the possibility of cleaning it up for them. He told me I could, but that by nighttime it would just look the same again. I can't imagine what kinds of diseases those kids were getting from playing there.



As I said earlier, I really met a lot of incredible people on that trip. The fact that I married one of them serves to remind me daily of what a great trip that was. Lynette and I have talked about how great it would be to have a reunion of everyone who went to see what has happened in our lives since that time and how much that trip shaped who we became. So, if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you!