8.26.2007

caterpillar itch?? - 08/26

Ever heard of it? I hadn't, before this morning.
Yesterday we were outside playing in the back yard. After a bit, Ruthie started complaining about her hands being really itchy. We looked at them, saw nothing. But she had been playing with caterpillars, holding them and carrying them around, so we figured it was hair from them or something. We washed her hands with the hose. That helped for a little while, but they started itching again.
This morning she was still complaining about them being itchy and I saw little bumps along the backs of her thumbs. Later, I found a red bumpy rash on the backs of her hands and on her lower arms.
Josh got online and started searching and found "caterpillar itch". Basically it's a rash, similar to poison oak or poison ivy, as a reaction to poisonous caterpillars.
New rule for outside? Look but do NOT touch the caterpillars!

8.25.2007

another week gone - 08/25

We're almost to the end of our summer vacation. It has been a great summer, though, so we can't complain. Well, Josh can, I suppose, since he's the one who has to go back to work! I'm sad to see summer over, especially since it's all ready fall weather here and that scares me for winter! But I'm also excited to see fall come. I love to see the kids having fun and keeping busy, and can't wait to watch them in their dance classes! That is assuming that I am able to get them both in... I'm not too worried, but always a little!
I'm feeling much better now. Finished my antibiotics yesterday, and no thrush for Isaac or me! He seems to be very prone to thrush, so we've been watchful and giving him yogurt every day to help ward it off. So far, so good!
Speaking of Isaac, he's still working on a couple teeth. He now has the 4 front ones, both right side molars, and the top left molar. He's working on the top right eye tooth, top left eye tooth and molar. He's not too too fussy, though, just drooling tons (and getting a bit of a rash on his chin) and chewing things. But nothing too bad.
We bought him a new car seat the other day. He is still fitting in his infant carrier, but JUST barely. He has just one inch of plastic above his head, so technically he does still fit, but we'll just move him up to a convertible seat and not have to worry or watch him for growing! He's VERY happy about his new seat - we think he thinks it's a big kid seat? Not completely sure, but he definitely likes it and likes sitting in it. Yesterday he sat, buckled in, in it and watched TV and played with cars, right in the living room!
What's kinda funny to me is that he's the size, now, that Zech was at just 12 months, and that Ruthie was at 24 months! He should be right between them, sizewise, when they're grown.
Ruthie and Zech are getting more and more antsy. I was hoping things would settle down after being home a bit, but they just seem to be getting worse. Now I'm hoping that once fall comes, and they're busy with swimming and dancing, MOTS, preschool and church that they'll calm down some. I don't know if they'll have time left to be bad!
And I think that's it for now.
Oh, no wait, it's not!
When Myles was staying at the kennel (while we were visiting home) apparently he picked up some fleas. We hadn't seen them when we first came home, and bathed him before he even came in the house, but I think probably they laid eggs on him. (ICK!) Now those are hatching, and thus, we have fleas. :o/ I am NOT pleased. So far the only one being bothered by them is Myles, though Isaac had one on his head the other day. I haven't seen any bites on the kids, though. We bought some more 'flea and tick' drop stuff and treated the dog this week, I remember it took a couple days to really get through his system to get the ticks, so I imagine it will be similar for the fleas. I think we'll be getting some powder stuff to put on the carpets, and some flea collars to put in my vacuum bags! Hopefully that will take care of them.
AND, as if fleas weren't enough, because it's getting cooler all ready, we've got lovely mice friends coming to visit!!! Again, I am NOT pleased!! Last night we were sitting in the living room, and I saw a mouse out of the corner of my eye. The darn thing ran in from the kitchen, right along the register and behind the TV. I freaked out, but couldn't scream because the kids were all ready in bed. Josh got a trap and put it by the TV stand. He went downstairs to check all the traps down there (found one dead mouse under the bathroom sink and one under the stairs) and while he was down there the darn mouse came out and started licking the peanut butter off the trap! But he wouldn't get on it to set it off! Josh came back up and I told him what the thing was doing (meanwhile I'm in a ball on the couch, trying HARD not to scream). He got his pellet gun and ended up shooting the thing, right in the living room! Unfortunately, his first shot didn't kill the bugger, but it went behind the TV again. While Josh was off setting more traps, the thing came out from behind the TV and went under the couch! Josh came up, found it, and killed it. ICK! YUCK! GROSS!
I HATE things like this. HATE them.
And, of course, the cat wasn't even in the house then. We tried calling him, but he must have been too far away to hear us. And the dog is USELESS with mice.
This morning Josh found 2 mice in ONE trap, behind my washing machine!
This had better be it. We've surely hit our household quota on mice???

8.18.2007

just a quick update! - 08/18

I'm feeling MUCH better today. I was feeling nearly human again yesterday, but even more so today.
The kids are still fighting lots... hoping that will improve, if not before, once we get back into more of a routine in the fall.
Isaac is grumpy and whiny the past couple days, but he's cutting a bunch of teeth, so he's allowed, I suppose!
And that's it for now. I did put a few more pictures online last night... and the new dropshots site isn't as bad as I thought... I was looking at it a bit backwards, so it wasn't making sense!

8.16.2007

hi all - 08/16

Well, it sure has been an interesting week! The kids are slowly... very slowly... getting back into the swing of things here, without Nana and Papa to (spoil!) give them lots of love! The worst of it has been that Ruth and Zech are fighting much more than they ever did before. But I think that will improve as we get back into doing things next month and get seeing other kids more often.
We are sort of starting potty training with Zech. It's going slow, but we're also not pushing it much. We're just using pull ups for now, as they seem to be working for him, and encouraging him (with jelly beans) to keep the pull up dry. He still hasn't pooped in the toilet... something to do with pooping and fireworks and falling in the water??? But we're hoping to be able to kinda catch him and get him doing that. In the meantime, pull ups make cleaning that up much easier.
Isaac's working on a bunch of teeth. He's got 2 nearly all the way cut through on the top right, one on the top left, and his bottom molars are right there starting to come through too. Poor kid!He's fairly happy, though, just chewing and drooling up a storm!
I got the kids registered for fall swimming lessons again!! I'm very excited to see them go again, because of how much they enjoyed it last spring. I can't wait! We'll be going on Saturday again, because Zech still needs someone in the water with him, though next session he should be starting all by himself. I'm pretty sure (though I need to double check) that dance registration is at the end of this month. I'm really hoping to be able to get both Ruth and Zech into class, separately, which I think would have to be Monday or Tuesdays. I'm hoping it'll work because I know Ruthie definitely wants to go again, and I know Zech would love to be able to dance, too.
And, I've been sick with mastitis for... well, basically this whole week so far. :o/ Monday I had pain, but hoped that it was nothing. Tuesday I woke up in a lot of pain and feeling very sick. We went to the walk-in in town (our family Dr was on at walk-in! Lucky for me!), got a script for antibiotics. By the time I'd seen the Dr, I was done. I laid in the van while Josh got the meds and we headed for home. I think I slept most of the way home. Slept most of the rest of the day, was up for an hour or so in the evening, back to bed for the night. I had to take 2 advil every 4 hours that day, and yesterday as well. Yesterday I was still tired and sore, but was able to get up late in the morning and sit on the couch. Still couldn't really walk around or do anything, but I was at least out in the living room with everyone. This morning I'm up, feeling much better, haven't even taken any advil yet! Hopefully I'm over the worst of it.
And that's about it for us for now!

8.09.2007

He's back! - 08/09

Jack Cat came back this afternoon! Zech was outside playing and ran inside with Jack, happy as anything to see his cat. :o) We are happy, everyone is home, safe and sound!

pictures! - 08/09

I got the pictures uploaded last night, all done and captioned, ready to share!
I just realized, how silly of us, that we didn't take any videos while we were home! What were we thinking??! Oh well, there are TONS of pictures... TONS! Enjoy!
Just a brief overview of the visit home, since I was too tired the other day...
We drove to Winnipeg on the 18th and stayed overnight in a motel. Not in a great part of town, but it was cheaper than most, and it actually had a great waterslide and pool area! We got to the airport fine, with lots of time to spare, the next morning and finally boarded the plane. From Winnipeg to Toronto, Zech watched a movie and played with his cars, Ruthie played her Leapster game and Isaac just sat and played and talked with me. We had NO time to spare in Toronto, so we had to rush off the plane, to the right gate, and onto the next plane! From there to Halifax, Ruthie did stickers, Zech watched a movie and played the Leapster a bit, and Isaac slept! The excitement got a bit too much for them about 5 minutes before we landed and there were meltdowns, but only for a few minutes and then we were there!
We stayed at Mom and Dad's house Friday, just getting adjusted a bit. On Saturday we packed up and headed for the lake. Sunday, family all came out and we had a BBQ with everyone. That was nice! We stayed at the lake all that week, just playing and swimming.
The following Sunday we drove to (near) Digby and stayed a couple nights at the Mountain Gap Inn. Mom's boss's wife owns the Inn and he gave us the rooms as a gift! (Thanks again, Dr. Peter!!!) We went to Upper Clement's Park on Monday and had a great time there, too! The kids had fun on the rides (there's lots of pictures of that on the site)!!
We went back to Mom and Dad's on Tuesday, then out to the lake again on Wednesday and pretty much stayed there until Sunday evening. On our way to Mom and Dad's we stopped at Christine's for a visit. She fed us supper (yum) and gave the kids all a ride on Katelyn's horse! They really loved that!!! We made a stop at the Oaklawn Farm Zoo after that for a little bit, the kid's favorite was the monkies, I think.
The next day we got up and ready to fly back to MB. The kids were okay on the way back - Ruthie was sad the whole way to Montreal, but Zech played and Isaac played with the diaper bag. We actually had a bit of time in Montreal, and (thankfully!) we arrived only a couple gates over from our next flight. We got to the next gate and had a snack before we had to get on to the plane. From Montreal to Winnipeg, Ruthie played the Leapster, Zech watched a couple shows and then slept, and Isaac slept pretty much the entire way! Very nice break for us!!!
We stayed in Winnipeg that night, picked up the van the next morning and, after a bit of shopping, we came home. The van, by the by, is all fixed with a new tire, and we didn't have to pay the deductible.
We picked up Myles on the way home - he had a good time at the "kennel" (really a farm, and besides, he stayed in the house with their family the whole time!), but I think he was happy to see us, too. We haven't seen Jack since we got home, but the guy that came to feed the cat said he's seen Jack around, and saw him at the house last time he came over. So, he's around town somewhere.
...
Zech was on his way to the garage and just popped the door open to yell "Mom! I just saw Jack! He came back!!" So, I guess he's definitely around. :o) I'm not surprised if he's found another "home", but I think he'll come back to see Myles, if nothing else! If he doesn't come back for good, though, we'll probably have to grab another kitten from the farm, to take care of the mice around here.
That's it for now! I'll be back more as usual now.

8.07.2007

we're home! - 08/07

We are home in MB, safe and sound. We flew in yesterday and drove home today.
Everything was good on both flights, the kids were much better than we expected! Our van is fixed and all is well there. And the time at home was awesome! I always love seeing the kids with their grandparents, it's amazing to see how different they are with the different interactions.
And right now I'm really tired out, so that's about it for me. I'm going to try to get more pictures uploaded tomorrow, though no promises (we need to go into town for groceries), but definitely by the end of the week.