Darcy Update

We got Darcy's second term report card last week and she's doing really well. We arranged an interview with her teacher for Friday morning. We didn't have any concerns, we just wanted to keep in touch and I also had some questions about how next year is going to work. Her teacher is also very pleased with Darcy's progress especially in French. She is really getting a good French vocabulary and is using the French words correctly.

My question was whether or not we'd have a say about whether Darcy would be kept in the afternoon class or moved to the morning next year. I went into the interview wanting her to stay in the afternoon but we're feeling differently now. Mademoiselle said she had wanted to talk to us about that. Apparently the school is hoping to keep kids who are in JK this year with their same classmates and teacher for next year. In Darcy's case, however, her teacher wants to recommend that she change from the afternoon class to the morning class. I guess her two classes are like night and day. The morning class is very hard-working and gets a lot accomplished each day where most the afternoon class struggles (a lot of them don't speak either English or French at home so they're struggling with the French Immersion). She thinks that with Darcy's personality and with how well she's doing so far that she will do much better in the morning class. Her best friend this year is in SK so we already knew that she wouldn't be in Darcy's class next year. The bus driving the morning kids home is the same one that picks up the afternoon kids, so Darcy has gotten to know some of the kids on the bus ride.

At first, she was very hestitant to make the change, but the more we've talked about it, she's getting excited about it. I think it will be better for the whole family's schedule so it looks like we're going to make the change. My only concern is that we're going to need to get her out of bed at 5:00 in the morning so she will be done her breakfast on time to get the bus. She is such a slow eater, especially at breakfast. We're really going to need to work on that this summer. It could cause some stressful situations for us. In the long run too, it will be good preparation for when she starts grade one and is going to school all day.

Again, we're very pleased with Darcy's teacher and her interest in Darcy's success. Darcy really loves her and we know that's part of the reason why she's doing so well. We're really pleased that she will be Darcy's teacher again next year.

Darcy and her best friend, Sam have also been talking all year about getting together outside of school time for a play date. I've finally worked this out with Sam's dad and Sam will be coming over here on Saturday morning to play and have lunch with us. They are both so excited about that. Should be fun!

Interesting

Thanks to my sister for this interesting link. If this is true, then Wesley should turn out to be some sort of genius. With what we're seeing from him so far, then I think he will be an evil genius...

Not Much to Post

It's been a while since my last post but there hasn't really been a lot to write about. We've just been keeping busy and trying to keep everyone healthy.

We had a wonderful Easter with Nick's parents and sister visiting from Montreal. You can see some of the pictures here. Our time together always goes too quickly but we enjoyed every minute of it. Darcy was OK when we said goodbye on Monday morning but for some reason it really hit her hard on Tuesday morning. She cried all through breakfast (like it doesn't take her long enough to eat her cereal normally!) but eventually the thought of going back to school after 4 days off settled her down. Also, I told her that we're going to Cambridge soon for Mother's Day and to celebrate Lucas's birthday so that helped too. A potential visit with her cousins is sure to cure any sadness!We're learning that Wesley loves being outside. He's tried to sneak out the front door a few times (we had to get a new latch for the door that locked to prevent this from happening) and will often stand by the back door, pleading with eyes for us to take him outside. The last two days the weather has been great around here so we've been outside as much as we can. We also got a bike helmet for him today so he went for his first ever bike ride on the back of Nick's bike. They were out for about 45 minutes. Nick tried to end the ride a couple of times but Wesley made it clear he wasn't done. When Nick finally decided the ride was over at the end of the 45 minutes, Wesley had a good little temper tantrum. I had to pick him up, kicking and screaming, out of the bike seat and carry him with me to the bus stop to get Darcy to get him to calm down. The next two days are supposed to be beautiful so I think we'll be outside a lot again.

They're both in swimming lessons right now, Wesley in a parent and tot class and Darcy in her "big kid" class. We were fortunate to get both levels running at the same time this session so I can get them both there whether Nick is working or not. Of course, some of the city workers are currently on strike and others (like the lifeguards) will likely be going on strike on Saturday so I don't know how many more lessons we'll get to have. Hopefully the strike won't last long.

So that's my update for now. Hopefully there'll be more to say in the coming days!

Rough Week

Man, it has been another interesting week around here. Darcy was sick at the end of last week but by the time my parents came for a quick visit last Saturday everyone was in great shape. We had a wonderful visit with Grandma and Pa.

However, by Sunday evening, whatever had been bothering Darcy had clearly hit Wesley. He wasn't throwing up or anything but he had a high fever. When he woke up Monday morning he seemed better. Around supper time though it seemed to hit again. I checked his temperature and it was 103.7. I've never measured anything higher than 102 on either of our kids before. I was terrified. I was pretty sure it was the virus Darcy had but her temperature had never been anywhere near that high. Also, Wesley had just had surgery a few days before so we wondered if there was a connection between the fever and the surgery. Possibly an infection?

When we were having his surgery done the doctor had told us that if we had any problems after the surgery that we should call his office or go to the hospital. He was very clear that we weren't to go to a walk-in clinic. Well, his office was closed for the day and with a fever that high I didn't want to wait so it was off to the emergency room for me and Wesley. By the time we got there and got checked in it was 7:15. We were called in to see a doctor at 9:30 (I will not go into the horrors I saw as we waited) and then saw a doctor at 10:30. After all that, there was no connection to the surgery, his ears looked perfect, there was no site infection. That was a relief. Of course the doctor was still concerned about the extremely high temperature and gave me instructions of what to do to prevent him from having a fever-related seizure. Wonderful. We got home around 11:15.

The next day, Wesley was completely miserable all day. He still had a fever, although not as high. He screamed all day and seemed to be uncomfortable no matter what I did to help him. He barely napped. I was counting down the minutes for Nick's arrival home from work so he could give me a break from the 8 hours of constant screaming. At 4:30 the phone rang. Nick was involved in a situation at work and he couldn't leave until it was all taken care of. He had no idea how long that would be. He was supposed to be home at 6:00 (after leaving for work at 6:00 am). He got home at 12:50 the next morning. It was brutal.

Wesley's fever seemed to have subsided by Wednesday evening and sure enough he woke up Thursday morning at a healthy temperature but then he was covered in a rash. It's called roseola. It's pretty harmless and not contagious (Nick took him to a clinic again) but it looks so sad. It's just the virus working it's way out of the body.

We're hoping things are on the upswing now. Darcy has been healthy for a week and aside from the rash, Wesley seems to be mostly good too. Of course he has gotten used to being held all day long and it's going to take some work to break him of that habit again. Tonight is the first night of swimming lessons for both of them. Wesley is in a parent and baby class and Darcy's level meets at the same time. I haven't been able to sign Wesley up for his class because I never knew what to do with Darcy on the weeks Nick was working. Having both classes at the same time is perfect so hopefully we'll have fun. I could use it!