Earlier this month, the girls went to the dentist (Rachel for the first time!) for a check up. Laura had xrays done, and was found to have not one, but eight cavities in between her molars. I had been having a rough time with Rachel because she needed to pee while we were there, but has developed a debilitating fear of public toilets after an auto-flusher flushed while she was still sitting on it. Anyway, I was trying to recover from the screaming of murderous proportions from inside the thin walled washroom, while they delivered the news, with no regard for the socked-in-the-gut feeling they had created for me. She is five years old - how is it even possible that she has that many cavities?! They said the combination of our city water not being fluoridated and her teeth being closely spaced was the losing combination, and they see it fairly frequently. The dentist began spouting about anesthesia and hospital facilities, which is really where he lost me. On our way out, we booked a consultation with him to discuss options, aka buy ourselves some time to explore other options.
I then followed up with our (beloved) naturopath, and discussed with her my extreme aversion to having Laura put under. She referred us to a holistic dentist for a second opinion, and also prescribed some mineralizing salts for Laura to take, to at very least help her adult teeth come in a little stronger.
After our visit to the second dentist, I felt much better. We had had the xrays sent to her, and she said only one tooth was really bad enough to need a filling currently. The others we would have to watch, and they will probably need fillings later, but she made some suggestions for changes in diet, and seconded the suggestion of mineralizing salts.
So, today, Laura went back for her first filling. They didn't freeze her or anything, and she just sat there like a champ and let them work. So, I am not at all proud to say that my five year old has cavities, but, she sure did make me proud with how well she did in the dentist chair today!
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
Camping Weekend
One of my good friends sent out an email, probably in about February, inviting us to join in for a camping weekend in June to celebrate her 30th birthday. I have been dying to go camping for several years now, but Josh's answer has always been, "Maybe when everyone is out of diapers." And although Rachel is still technically in diapers at night, we agreed it was close enough.
So we had been planning this camping trip for several months, but the week leading up to it, it was calling for rain for the whole weekend except the first night. We couldn't cancel because we had already paid back in February, so we forged ahead, despite only have a tent to sleep in. When we arrived, my friend informed us that they had changed the forecast, and it wasn't supposed to rain until Saturday night! Hooray! After six hours of driving, we arrived at about 7:00 and set up camp. We also still needed to make dinner, so we were slightly grumpy about all that, but made the best of it. The girls helped assemble the tent poles and then played in the leaf litter that was all around our site while we finished everything up. The girls didn't end up getting to bed until 10:45 on Friday night. Josh and I tried to wander over to our friends' site across the way, but they were having trouble getting their toddler to sleep and couldn't hang out. So Josh and I just sat at our site, had some drinks, and he played guitar while I listened. :)
So we had been planning this camping trip for several months, but the week leading up to it, it was calling for rain for the whole weekend except the first night. We couldn't cancel because we had already paid back in February, so we forged ahead, despite only have a tent to sleep in. When we arrived, my friend informed us that they had changed the forecast, and it wasn't supposed to rain until Saturday night! Hooray! After six hours of driving, we arrived at about 7:00 and set up camp. We also still needed to make dinner, so we were slightly grumpy about all that, but made the best of it. The girls helped assemble the tent poles and then played in the leaf litter that was all around our site while we finished everything up. The girls didn't end up getting to bed until 10:45 on Friday night. Josh and I tried to wander over to our friends' site across the way, but they were having trouble getting their toddler to sleep and couldn't hang out. So Josh and I just sat at our site, had some drinks, and he played guitar while I listened. :)
Saturday morning the girls woke up bright and early with the sun. I think it was around... 6:45? Josh and I hadn't slept very well since we were all sleeping together on a full sized blow up mattress, and we weren't used to sleeping with the girls. Josh also said that as he was falling asleep, he heard a sizable animal snuffling and snorting around outside our tent, and had convinced himself it was a bear. So he had trouble sleeping after that, haha. We got up and started a fire to cook breakfast. I had made these breakfast burritos ahead of time and we heated them in the coals. I had made some mods to the recipe (including using GF corn tortillas, which did not end up holding together well), but they were all right. We headed out in search of coffee and then around 10:00 made it to the dunes beach and did the short hiking trail there. The girls were tired and a bit whiny, but once we finished the hike and they were allowed to climb the huge dune and check out the beach they enjoyed themselves. It was pretty cool.
The weather wasn't the warmest, but we were just happy it wasn't raining. We had our picnic lunch in the car and headed over to the sandbanks beach because it was the icon of the park and I wanted to see it! The girls enjoyed playing around in the sand and the water for about an hour, and then we headed back to the camp site. Rachel had a nap in the tent and Laura, Josh, and I made some smores (with apples instead of graham crackers) and the rest of our hotdogs on the fire. It was really nice. <3
Around four we tried to wake Rachel up, as that was the scheduled start time of our friends birthday get-together. Poor Rache was so tired, we couldn't wake her! And when we did, we out her in the car, and she fell back asleep! It started raining around then, and we spent the entirety of the gathering under the pavillion shelter. It was a nice time, still, and we grilled up some steak and foil packets of veggies I had pre-prepared at home for dinner. Rachel eventually ventured out under the run off of the roof and had a "shower" in her clothes. When we came back to the site, around 7:00, it had been raining heavily and steadily for three hours. Though we had rigged a tarp over our tent, and had tried to find the highest spot to pitch it, we still found water in the tent. We had to decide then if it would be worth trying to sleep the night in a leaky tent. But since it was supposed to rain alllll night, and still on Sunday, we decided there wasn't much worth sticking around for. We had planned to go to Josh's parents on Sunday anyway, so we tore down the tent and headed there 12 hours early to sleep in dry beds. The girls wanted to go see Grandma and Grandpa, and there wasn't really anything to gain from sleeping in the rain for the night. Josh felt kind of like we were wussing out, but ended up agreeing it was the right decision.
Around four we tried to wake Rachel up, as that was the scheduled start time of our friends birthday get-together. Poor Rache was so tired, we couldn't wake her! And when we did, we out her in the car, and she fell back asleep! It started raining around then, and we spent the entirety of the gathering under the pavillion shelter. It was a nice time, still, and we grilled up some steak and foil packets of veggies I had pre-prepared at home for dinner. Rachel eventually ventured out under the run off of the roof and had a "shower" in her clothes. When we came back to the site, around 7:00, it had been raining heavily and steadily for three hours. Though we had rigged a tarp over our tent, and had tried to find the highest spot to pitch it, we still found water in the tent. We had to decide then if it would be worth trying to sleep the night in a leaky tent. But since it was supposed to rain alllll night, and still on Sunday, we decided there wasn't much worth sticking around for. We had planned to go to Josh's parents on Sunday anyway, so we tore down the tent and headed there 12 hours early to sleep in dry beds. The girls wanted to go see Grandma and Grandpa, and there wasn't really anything to gain from sleeping in the rain for the night. Josh felt kind of like we were wussing out, but ended up agreeing it was the right decision.
Sleeping in a dry bed, and having the grandparents get up with the kids on Sunday morning was glorious. We even went out for breakfast just the two of us, to a restaurant we used to go to whenever I would visit him in the summers when we were dating. We spent the day laying low, and went to the small local theatre for a matinee of Jurassic World, which we had been wanting to see for a while. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend away. I was so happy, mostly, that Josh enjoyed himself camping and that he is excited to do it again.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Dinner M
Lots to choose from for M!
It was a toss up between mini meatballs or mini muffins, but muffins won out because I realized we could do mozzarella-stuffed meatballs instead. Laura was excited about the muffins and suggested putting marshmallows in them. She ended up putting a lot of marshmallows in them, which turned into a big MESS! haha
Our dinner consisted of:
mesclun mix
minced mushrooms
matchstick carrots
maple balsamic
marinated mozzarella meatballs
marinara macaroni
mocha milkshakes
mini muffins with:
molasses
maple syrup
medjool dates
maraschino cherries
marshmallows
and marzipan on top!
mango & melon medley
 |
| We ended up saving our M dessert for the next day at our picnic because we were so full from our dinner! |
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Dinner L
L has a decent amount of foods to choose from for dinner. This is what we decided on:
lemonade
salad of:
leaf lettuce
lentils
legumes (various beans/ peas)
lemongrass
lemon poppyseed dressing
lasagna with:
lobster
lox
leek
Lindors (had wanted to try lychee or loquats, but couldn't find any. Chocolate is an adequate substitute, right?)
A note re: the lobster. I am not a fan of the idea of cooking a lobster alive; and there was definitely no way I was going to do it at home, myself. I researched it before we went to the store today and found some ideas to get around this. Apparently its done because the lobsters release a toxin once they are dead but uncooked. My first choice was to just buy frozen lobster (which, granted, was probably still cooked alive, but at least I didn't have to do it.) However, Laura has been interested in the live lobsters in the tank at the store since she was a baby, so after double checking they would cook them there for you, I agreed to let her choose a lobster from the tank. She also got to carry it home in the box after it was cooked, which she was pretty excited about. The lasagna turned out super yummy, though a little soupy. It thickened up as it cooled, so maybe I just needed to let it rest a little longer.
lemonadesalad of:
leaf lettuce
lentils
legumes (various beans/ peas)
lemongrass
lemon poppyseed dressing
lasagna with:
lobster
lox
leek
lemon meringue pie
Lindors (had wanted to try lychee or loquats, but couldn't find any. Chocolate is an adequate substitute, right?)
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
That Awkward Moment
I started giving blood when I became eligible in high school. I can't completely remember why I stopped, but I think I had a couple of bad experiences, one where I very nearly lost consciousness, so that may have been the reason.
However, after receiving a large donation from the blood bank for my incident, I purposed to start donating again. They say if you donate more than twice a year, you should be on an iron supplement, which I am not particularly interested in, so I try to keep my donations to the babies' due month (June), and the month we lost them (December).
Anyway, so I remembered yesterday that I should be keeping my eye out for a blood clinic in June, and when I went to the website, I found that there was one today. So I talked to Josh and said we should both go this time. I wanted to set a good example and have the girls watch us.
When we got there after dinner there weren't a lot of people waiting, which was nice because I knew the kids would not wait patiently for long. Josh and I took turns so one of us could stay with the kids while the other went in to answer the questions with the nurse. Then he went first to get his blood drawn. I sat with the girls and waited until he was finished to make sure he would be okay to watch them for my turn. The girls were quite interested, and the nurses set them up with a little chair beside him so they could watch. After a couple minutes I noticed he was starting to look pale and I could tell he didn't really want the kids all up in his face. He started taking some deep breaths, which alerted his nurse, and she reclined his chair. Apparently he had to stop his donation then, before he had donated the full unit. He sat in the chair for a few minutes and then felt better. Then it was my turn. My nurse preemptively reclined my chair, and I felt fine the whole time I was donating. I got up after and joined Josh and the girls at the refreshment area and had some juice. Then I started to feel a little hot. I asked Josh to get me one of the cold cloths they use on your forehead. A nurse came over and told me to put my head on the table while they went a got a stretcher for me to lie on. I started feeling nauseated, and happily took them up on their offer of the stretcher. Josh took the kids over to the park next door at this point because I didn't want to traumatize them. After a few minutes of fanning and some cold cloths I felt like I could sit up again. As soon as I sat up, though, I was not okay. It was unfortunate because we had walked there, and although it wasn't far to walk home, there was no way I would make it back. Josh came back and I asked him if he could go get the car to drive me home, but he said he didn't think he could lift the kids into their carseats (the nurse had somewhat butchered his arm), and he didn't feel confident to drive, either. So, we tried a few more times to sit me up, but my postural blood pressure was only about 90/60 or something. The clinic was over by this point, and I had been lying down for over half an hour. I'm sure the nurses just wanted to go home, so they decided I should go to the hospital for an IV. It seemed unnecessary and was fairly embarrassing, but I didn't want to hold them up. :/
So Josh took the kids home and put them to bed, and I got to go on a very boring vacation to the hospital, where I wasn't seen for over an hour, and by then I felt fine, so I just walked home. Ridiculous.
That awkward moment when you try to teach your kids to do a good thing and then you end up going to the hospital and in the morning they get up and say, "I didn't think you would be here. I thought you would still be at the hospital." UGH (She still remembers the incident.) :(
However, after receiving a large donation from the blood bank for my incident, I purposed to start donating again. They say if you donate more than twice a year, you should be on an iron supplement, which I am not particularly interested in, so I try to keep my donations to the babies' due month (June), and the month we lost them (December).
Anyway, so I remembered yesterday that I should be keeping my eye out for a blood clinic in June, and when I went to the website, I found that there was one today. So I talked to Josh and said we should both go this time. I wanted to set a good example and have the girls watch us.
When we got there after dinner there weren't a lot of people waiting, which was nice because I knew the kids would not wait patiently for long. Josh and I took turns so one of us could stay with the kids while the other went in to answer the questions with the nurse. Then he went first to get his blood drawn. I sat with the girls and waited until he was finished to make sure he would be okay to watch them for my turn. The girls were quite interested, and the nurses set them up with a little chair beside him so they could watch. After a couple minutes I noticed he was starting to look pale and I could tell he didn't really want the kids all up in his face. He started taking some deep breaths, which alerted his nurse, and she reclined his chair. Apparently he had to stop his donation then, before he had donated the full unit. He sat in the chair for a few minutes and then felt better. Then it was my turn. My nurse preemptively reclined my chair, and I felt fine the whole time I was donating. I got up after and joined Josh and the girls at the refreshment area and had some juice. Then I started to feel a little hot. I asked Josh to get me one of the cold cloths they use on your forehead. A nurse came over and told me to put my head on the table while they went a got a stretcher for me to lie on. I started feeling nauseated, and happily took them up on their offer of the stretcher. Josh took the kids over to the park next door at this point because I didn't want to traumatize them. After a few minutes of fanning and some cold cloths I felt like I could sit up again. As soon as I sat up, though, I was not okay. It was unfortunate because we had walked there, and although it wasn't far to walk home, there was no way I would make it back. Josh came back and I asked him if he could go get the car to drive me home, but he said he didn't think he could lift the kids into their carseats (the nurse had somewhat butchered his arm), and he didn't feel confident to drive, either. So, we tried a few more times to sit me up, but my postural blood pressure was only about 90/60 or something. The clinic was over by this point, and I had been lying down for over half an hour. I'm sure the nurses just wanted to go home, so they decided I should go to the hospital for an IV. It seemed unnecessary and was fairly embarrassing, but I didn't want to hold them up. :/
So Josh took the kids home and put them to bed, and I got to go on a very boring vacation to the hospital, where I wasn't seen for over an hour, and by then I felt fine, so I just walked home. Ridiculous.
That awkward moment when you try to teach your kids to do a good thing and then you end up going to the hospital and in the morning they get up and say, "I didn't think you would be here. I thought you would still be at the hospital." UGH (She still remembers the incident.) :(
Thursday, June 4, 2015
An Interview
Without any prompting, ask your child these questions and write down exactly what they say. It is a great way to find out what they really think. Laura's answers at age five:
1. What is something mom always says to you?
mmm umm I have no idea. Well, you always say, "I love you."
2. What makes mom happy?
Me, singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
3. What makes mom sad?
When he daddy says he doesn't want to have babies. That makes you sad.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Make silly faces
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Uh what? Happy?
6. How old is your mom?
16?
7. How tall is your mom?
I don't know if you're not standing up
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Having fun with me
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
look on your computer
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
I dont know
11. What is your mom really good at?
Exercising
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Well.... you're good at everything. So lets just skip that one.
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Well, making costumes for Halloween?
14.What is your mom's favorite food?
I don't know. Pizza?
15.What makes you proud of your mom?
You're super good at exercising!
16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?
The Mad Queen, I think. (The Queen of Hearts)
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Read
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both like soup.
19. How are you and your mom different?
We are a different size and we have different hair. Well, different colour of hair.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
You hug me so much. I don't know how you love me, I just know that you do.
1. What is something mom always says to you?
mmm umm I have no idea. Well, you always say, "I love you."
2. What makes mom happy?
Me, singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"
3. What makes mom sad?
When he daddy says he doesn't want to have babies. That makes you sad.
4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Make silly faces
5. What was your mom like as a child?
Uh what? Happy?
6. How old is your mom?
16?
7. How tall is your mom?
I don't know if you're not standing up
8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Having fun with me
9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
look on your computer
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
I dont know
11. What is your mom really good at?
Exercising
12. What is your mom not very good at?
Well.... you're good at everything. So lets just skip that one.
13. What does your mom do for a job?
Well, making costumes for Halloween?
14.What is your mom's favorite food?
I don't know. Pizza?
15.What makes you proud of your mom?
You're super good at exercising!
16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?
The Mad Queen, I think. (The Queen of Hearts)
17. What do you and your mom do together?
Read
18. How are you and your mom the same?
We both like soup.
19. How are you and your mom different?
We are a different size and we have different hair. Well, different colour of hair.
20. How do you know your mom loves you?
You hug me so much. I don't know how you love me, I just know that you do.
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