Jennifer's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 9/21/04 -------------------- 8/8/04 7/8/04 6/2/04 5/13/04 5/9/04 3/1/04 2/18/04 1/6/04 12/16/03 11/17/03 10/22/03 10/21/03 10/7/03 9/18/03 8/27/03 8/20/03 9/18/01 9/8/01 1/1/01 -------------------- Jennifer's Introduction

Introduction

Hey Everyone,

OK – sorry about the long time between posts. I feel like I’ve lost part of my life as of late. I was sick, sick, sick. Basically my kid got an ear infection. It was a doozy – he wouldn’t even get out of his crib one day. So I brought him to the clinic for some antibiotics. Well, there were signs all over the clinic about it being an infectious zone due to the incredible flu outbreak in Calgary this year. I basically ignored them as to my knowledge I have never had the flu. Ever.

Well, I got it. It hit like a tonne of bricks – I was perfectly fine one minute – in agony an hour later. I felt like someone was hammering my head with a sledgehammer, with smaller hammers targeting all of my joints, all the while I was being dipped in ice water. The fact that I was so cold was a very strange sensation since I was perspiring like a marathon runner. I had no appetite and didn’t want to move. Apparently this is the flu. I always thought it was a stomach thing, but apparently there is no such thing as a “stomach flu,” that’s a total misnomer. Anyway, just when I thought I was better it got much worse and I couldn’t breathe and had a temp at 104 that wouldn’t go down. I went back to the clinic, they sent me immediately to the ER where I was diagnosed with significant pneumonia in both lungs. Apparently with this flu that’s going around the pneumonia is a common and unpleasant side effect. So after missing two weeks of work, and basically neglecting life, I am better now despite a very pervasive lack of energy.

Luckily Sam and Doug were fine. Doug had the flu shot. Sam and I did not. Now I am asking myself, “why?” I strongly believe in immunization, not in the least because of the public health implications. Why would I not get a shot that could prevent me, my child and the community at large from getting something that is a pain in the ass to me but can kill others? This foolish flu has caused me to do a lot of soul searching on something as simple as the flu shot. I thought because I have never had it before – I didn’t need it. But I exposed my child, my husband and everyone at the clinic and hospital to this needlessly. And the arguments NOT to get it are pretty bogus. The number one argument I get is that it is just the “best guess” as to the flu strain and that this year’s flu isn’t in the shot. Well, DH didn’t get it, and the health profession is screaming that it does provide some protection from any flu. The other argument I hear, especially in relation to children, is that they want them to build up their immune system “naturally.” I know this irritates health professionals to no end. All I’ve gained from actually having the flu is the antibodies that a flu shot gives. The antibodies only last one flu season. You are not doing yourself or your kids any favors by letting them get the antibodies by getting very sick. Then there’s the fact that people fear getting the flu from the shot. But it’s a dead virus in the shot – it is impossible to get the flu from the shot. And when I thought of it this way, I have to admit I felt pretty foolish! So we got Sam a flu shot even though he didn’t catch it from me – primarily since he is in a daycare environment. He didn’t even notice the needle, let alone react to it. In Canada we luckily have not run short of the shot like in the U.S. But trust me – you don’t want your kid to get this. Nor do you want it yourself!!

Well, that’s enough of a rant on flu shotsJ

So now I am SO behind on the whole Christmas thing. I LOVE Christmas. It is my favorite time of year bar none. But I lost out on two of the key shopping/decorating/baking weeks. So I am playing catch up now. Baking in one my favorite things to do. I make dozens of different types of cookies over the holidays. Reason number 54335 while I will never be thin! I have some special cookie recipes that I save for Christmas so they are a treat. This Friday I am having all of my mom friends and their kids over for Christmas treats and cheer. Should be fun, even with sixteen kids!

We finally got around to getting our tree decorated. Holy smokes are trees expensive this year! I HAVE to have a Nova Scotia balsam fir. IMHO -- they smell the best, have the prettiest shape and last the longest. Even though I now live on the other side of the country – I still want a tree from my home! So we found a beautiful, perfect tree. They were in short supply this year after the hurricane that hit Nova Scotia this summer. Well, it looked a tad big outside, but when I got it inside, um, it is HUGE. It takes up a third of our family room. We had to rearrange our furniture. Luckily we have 20 foot ceilings in our family room so it doesn’t look too weird, but this puppy is a monster!

Sam is completely enamored with the tree and the Christmas decorations in general. The first thing he says when he comes downstairs is “Christmas tree” with a massive grin on his face! He calls the decorations “bubbles.” He’ll be lying around playing and all of a sudden look up and say, “turn the lights on mommy.” He wants the lights on even in the day. Then he’ll comment on the “pretty tree.”

Sam is sort of getting this whole Christmas thing. We gave him the Baby Santa DVD (part of the Baby Einstein series) and he asks for Baby Santa a zillion times a day. We got him the Fisher Price nativity to teach him the Christmas Story. He even gets a little multi cultural holiday teaching as he goes to a Jewish daycare. So there he learns about Hanukah. We actually have a Hanukah party there on Thursday – so it’ll be educational for us as well. Half the kids at the daycare are not Jewish, so hopefully we won’t look too lost!

I took Sam to see Santa expecting a scream-fest. As you all know, Sam is SO shy. But he was really good in terms of not crying. But he refused, flat out refused, to look at Santa. For the photo I shoved him on Santa’s lap and they snapped a quick photo before he bolted. It’s hard to say who looks more stunned – Sam or Santa. You can see my hand in the photo – but it just looks like Santa has a nicely manicured hand! Oh, and for that added bit of realism, Sam has a mouth full of granola bar and a big ol’ crumb on his face. But hey, I got the picture!

Sam’s language skills are getting so strong lately. He impresses us every day. We were in Edmonton this past weekend and he was doing circus tricks as his aunt would draw shapes and he would identify them for whoever was around. It’s funny, he pronounces triangle, rectangle and octagon clear as a bell. But easy words like oval are pronounced obal, and square is pronounced scare. Who knows how their mind works? He is saying more and more phrases and he can count to 14. He can actually say 16-17-18, but he gets the order mixed up. I read that 18-24 months is the time for a language explosion – and they were right.

Unfortunately he has a few new bad habits. The most irritating one is that he won’t eat supper. At all. At daycare he won’t even eat lunch. This is my kid that liked everything, who now will eat spaghetti, peanut butter, crackers, yogurt, instant oatmeal packs and applesauce. This is the complete repertoire. I am a little freaked out that he’s not eating any real fruit or veggies. The only fruit is in the yogurt and applesauce. I started giving him ½ a Flintstone’s vitamin with iron every other day. PLEASE let this just be a phase.

Although he’s finally going down well for naps and at night, last week he started waking up early. Usually around 5:45 am. BLECH! I don’t know what to do about it. That’s almost a full hour less sleep than usual. I have tried putting him down earlier and later, but he’s up and chatting away in his crib at the crack of dawn. And our house is so NOT soundproof so even though I leave him in his room until 6:15 when I get up, I can hear him clear as a bell. This is another habit that can stop any time in my opinion!

OK – I know this is long, but I doubt I’ll update before Christmas so bear with me.

My parents are flying out for two weeks for Christmas. They are also bringing their dog. She has never been on a plane before, so that should be interesting. She is used to our dogs as we take them to Ottawa for long holidays. Sam will be in seventh heaven. He adores Nanny and Poppy. Plus the free babysitting is a bonus! Doug and I will have to get all of our nights out in while they are here. My parents are also Christmas freaks – so it should be a lot of fun. I am SO excited to see Sam’s reaction on Christmas Day with his presents under the tree. Better get the video camera charged!

Oh yeah – TTC. Well, last month was my last cycle on Clomid. However due to the fact that I was bedridden around the middle of the month – let’s just say there was no TTCing going on. I HATE missing a month, missing an opportunity. So I was really anxious for AF to arrive so I could get on with things. And because of that she decided to be a week late. It could have been all of the meds I was on for the pneumonia I guess. So I am going back to my herbal concoction. If there are any hard core, long time readers out there, you would know I took this concoction when I got pregnant with Sam. So we’ll just have to hope it works that well this time!!

I know I have more to say, but I am no doubt boring you all to death at this point. So we’ll leave it at this – I wish all of you a fabulous Christmas, an excellent holiday season and a prosperous New Year!

All the best,
Jenn and Sam