Sesame Street LIVE!

I can officially say that Em and I are hereby fans of the Sesame Street LIVE show. We all went (even Keith!) and had a great time! We had awesome seats in the front row and Emmy high-fived Bert, hugged Big Bird, got to shake Ernie's hand, and so much more. It was so worth the money as my girl danced, sang, and followed along to the entire program. She even scored the Elmo balloon ($10!!!!!)
After the show, when it was time to go, Em cried, "See Grover, want to stay with Grover!" It was so cute (in the my-kid-is-screaming-kind-of-way)

Please find a ton of pics and videos will follow in seperate posts.

Visit to the PGX! Prince George Exhibition)

As a child, growing up in Surrey, we looked forward to the opening of the PNE each year. Then, I moved up north. Don't get me wrong, Prince George has been good to me but the PGX is no PNE. It is an agricultural fair with a travelling midway for rides. Nevertheless, it's worth the admission price to walk around and see the animals. This year was Em's first visit which was sadly marred by low temps and some annoying rain. So due to the weather, we cut it short, but Em did have her first taste of cotton candy.

Here are some pics...
Looking at weaner pigs


Looking at an active beehive

Looking at roosters

Meeting the 'love bug'

BC Day in the park

It was BC Day today, so we took Em to the park celebrations. It was possibly the hottest day of the year, and it didn't start till 12 (Em normally naps at 1) so we squished a lot of activity into a short period.

They were giving away free books as part of a literacy initiative, so Em is the proud owner of two new books.

Em also got her very first taste of a sno-cone, which I would say, she enjoyed immensely.

I wanted her to have her face painted, but it was a long line, and again, we were on a time limit. As the pictures show, she played in the playground for awhile, much to her delight. Not shown is her dancing to the bandstand music, or fighting her Dad for popcorn.

All in all, it was a good day, and we even got Em home by 1:30.

My little helper bee

Tonight, I was cleaning the living room. As I was cleaning, I was throwing Em's dirty laundry into a laundry basket on the other side of the gate that leads to the kitchen. Em helped by throwing a pair of her pants into the basket.

About an hour later, I was in the kitchen, burning dinner as usual, and Em (who had been playing in the area below the kitchen - soon to be a dining room) came into the kitchen and said, "Wash" and then left the kitchen again. I had no clue what she was talking about, so went back to my task of scorching perogies beyond recognition.

About 1/2 an hour later, dinner was ready, so I called Em and Keith to the kitchen to give them their plates. Em came in from the laundry room. Curious, I go in there to see what she was doing.

She had dragged that full laundry basket from the entryway to the kitchen, down 3 stairs, across the carpeted dining room floor, and into the laundry room without dropping a single piece of clothing on the floor. She had then 'loaded' the washer (which is the dryer, she can't reach the washer) and somewhat closed the door. My 29 month old was trying to do laundry!!

How freaking cute is that???

Ring Around the Rosy

Ring around the rosy

Another video :-)

And yes, I am aware I can't sing well. Good news? Em couldn't care less as long as there is singing.
I love being a Mom.

R.I.P. Sweet Henry...

One of the ladies from my baby board tragically lost her son on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at the age of 2 1/2. She and her family are in my thoughts and prayers. Nothing can prepare you for the loss of a child. Nothing. My heart aches for them.


Here are some links to stories in the news:

here
here


Please keep them in your prayers.

The EEG

Emmy had her EEG done this past Wednesday. It actually went pretty smoothly overall (compared to last time when it couldn't be done at all LOL). I was told to keep her up longer than normal so she would be tired by her appointment time at 1:30 pm. Since that is Emmy's nap time anyhow, it worked well, and she was asleep about 5 minutes after the sedation was given.

The results should be in this week, so please keep your fingers crossed.

The difference of one week...

One week ago - Emmy was laying in a hospital bed, not talking, or showing any recognition for Keith or I, let alone any reaction to the activity surrounding her in the ER. Not a peep. Not a cry. Not a complaint/grunt/groan when the nurses stuck her with needles. The only reaction she had was her facial expression.

One week ago....I was so scared I was going to lose my baby girl as we drove to the hospital with her seizing on my lap.

I took this video tonight of Keith and Em playing.

I'd say she's feeling better, wouldn't you?


Publish Post

Em's hospital stay - part 3

Emmy had a barrage of tests in the 3 days she was in the hospital. Makes me pretty thankful for our health-care system as when we were discharged, the only paper I got was Emmy's discharge instructions. I think we take our Universal Health Care system for granted at times as many are not as fortunate. I constantly felt every nurse and doctor treated Emmy as if she was their own. She had blood & urine tests x2, tox screens to check for any ingested causes of the seizure, chest xray,the afore-mentioned spinal tap, an ekg, an attempted eeg (wasn't able to be completed as Emmy refused to sleep- but will be attempted again). All tests came back normal. The eeg will tell us if this seizure was, in fact, caused by the fever rather than epilepsy or a brain lesion. Obviously, I am hoping for the cause to be the fever, and that does seem the most likely at this point.

We were originally going to be discharged on Monday, but that was delayed as Emmy would not stand on her own without complaining of pain. She would stand, hunched over, like a 90 year old. As she had the spinal tap, this caused some more concern with the Pediatrician. She showed no further signs of seizure activity, which was great, but now there was the concern about her back. Overall, Emmy's mood was good, a little whinier than normal, and she was far more lethargic than normal.

Tuesday morning, it was like someone flipped a switch with Emmy. She was 110% her old self. She ran from activity to activity in the playroom, ran down the hall to her 'fishies' (a fish tank on the Ped unit) and would comment if she heard a baby cry down the hall, 'baby cry' she would say matter-of-factly) They found that she grew Strep G on her throat swab, which can grow normally in infants, but the Pediatrician felt that was the cause of her fever. Again, it sounds to me like this was a febrile seizure rather than a more serious cause, but we won't be able to officially say that until after the eeg.

We came home Tuesday, and boy it has been nice to be home with Emmy. I was off this week anyhow, so I have had the chance to be over-protective and ensure my daughter was fine. I bought two (yes two) thermometers, and I have taken Em's temp probably 20 times in the past 3 days. Am I a freak? Probably, but I guarantee you would do the same (or at least have the urge to). Emmy has been herself, and is fully taking advantage of my happiness of having her home by asking for 'nummy treats' often.

A little side note. Emmy would say prior to this episode, 'tummy hurts' and would ask for a nummy treat. She would say her tummy hurt in the hospital, but I could not say for sure if her tummy actually hurt or whether she was looking for a treat. lol

Emmy's Hospital Stay -spinal tap

Emmy was given a spinal tap somewhere between 1-2 am on Sunday. I was planning to be in the room as they did the procedure, but Keith was having a breakdown of his own at that point, so I went to support him. Emmy was not conscious for the procedure and it went well by all accounts. It was probably better I wasn't in the room - I know how nervous I get when people watch me, and these people were sticking a needle into my baby's back. Best not to distract them.

Once done, the Pediatrician indicated that she was happy with the spinal fluid - as it was clear. I watched as 4 vials were sent down to the lab. Emmy was still sedated. A nurse came in to ask us 4 pages of questions about Emmy, and our family medical history. The most insane question? Are you staying the night? Where the hell else would I be? My 28 month old child has just had a seizure and is unconscious after a spinal tap...I am not only spending the night, you will be positively sick of me! Of course I just meekly said yes. I sat in the chair beside the crib, and just watched Emmy sleep. Keith crawled into bed (there was a queen sized bed in the room) and tried to get some sleep.

After the 4 am vitals check, I went to try to get some sleep. I couldn't shut off my mind, so no sleep was had by me at that time. I went back to the chair beside the crib and just listened to Keith snore and Emmy breathe.

At 6 am, the nurses returned for a vitals check. Emmy woke up this time and immediately called out for both Keith and I. That was the sweetest thing I have every heard as she had not said a word since the seizure and had not shown recognition for either of us. I quickly sat up so she could see me, and she smiled. Then, she went to work on trying to get out of her crib and pulling the cords off her body. She especially did not enjoy her IV, hence why her hand is so taped up in the picture on the previous post. Anything to keep it in.

Emmy put up such a fuss about the crib, they ended up bringing in a hospital bed for her to sleep in. That appeased her. Satisfied my baby was stable, Keith stayed with her as I got 2 hours sleep. Although she was still running a fever, it was under control, Emmy was talking, and acting somewhat normal. This was the first in a serious of good steps to her recovery.

The one where Emmy went to the hospital

It's not likely I will forget the incidents of July 5th, 2008 anytime soon.

It started as a normal, but busy Saturday morning. I had a dentist appointment at 7 am, and I returned with some breakfast for Keith and Emmy. Emmy ate normally, and all seemed well. Keith went off to work.

Em and I hung out. I was really tired from my early morning appointment and Emmy seemed drained as well. She napped twice, both longer than usual, and was whiny when awake. Very unlike her. I put it down to her coming down with something as she felt warm. I tried dosing her with some Motrin and she refused. I didn't push it as she was drinking well.

Keith came home around 5:30 and I shared my concerns with him. She was still warm, so I asked him to try to give her the Motrin. Again, she refused. I tried again, and she just spit it out. All very unlike her. Emmy laid on the couch, eating freezies and watching Dora. I was telling Keith my concerns and thought we should take her to the walk-in clinic at least as my 'Mommy radar' was telling me something wasn't right. He didn't think it was necessary, which caused a bit of bickering between us. I went to the kitchen to cook some pasta, and Keith sat on the floor beside Em, and interacted with her.

A few moments later, Keith said, "Jan, we need to go, NOW." I came out from the kitchen and Emmy was standing by the sofa with glassy eyes and was not 'there'. She was unresponsive and you could tell something was seriously wrong. I grabbed her, and we went quickly to the car to go to the ER.

Once on the way, Emmy started having a seizure. She was foaming at the mouth, and gasping/choking. It was horrible to watch and I was as scared as I have ever been. I attempted to make sure she didn't choke on her tongue, but other than that, there was nothing at I could do but watch. (We have now learned proper seizure first aid - so if you are yelling at the monitor, we won't be repeating those mistakes again - we were motivated by fear) I was absolutely fearful that I was going to lose my child. We shaved a good 5 minutes off a 10 minute trip, but it still felt like far too long as my child fought to breathe. We got to the hospital, Keith grabbed Emmy, who now was limply laying in my arms, and took her in to the ER. I parked the car, although I still don't know how I managed to plug the meter as my hands were shaking.

I ran into the ER and the nurse asked if I was the mother. I indicated yes, and gave her Em's care card. (They had asked Keith for it and he indicated I was following with it) She asked me to describe the events of the evening, and I just looked at her as all I could think about was my daughter and what was going on. I gave her a brief run down, and they lead me into the room where a team of doctors/nurses were working on my child.

My first thought when I walking into the room was how small was on that big bed. Keith and I stood off to the back, but the nurse told me I could come up and hold her hand if I wanted. Like she needed to ask that. I stood beside Emmy, who had her eyes closed, but she gripped my hand like no tomorrow. The pediatrician on-call was paged, and everyone was asking questions about our day. Did she vomit? What did she eat today? Did she eat/get into anything she should not have? Are there any drugs in the house? Any alcohol? Do either of you smoke? When did you notice something was wrong? When did she start seizing? How long did it take you to drive here?

It was scary and frantic. The doctor stated that her working diagnosis was that Emmy had a febrile seizure and they were timing her recovery time. With febrile seizures, a child should be drowsy but alert 20 minutes from onset. Emmy was not. Once she did open her eyes, she also would not turn her head to the left. She also showed no recognition for either Keith nor I. She would look through you. It was a horrible, horrible feeling.

The Pediatrician arrived and we were moved to the Pediatric ward as there was a trauma coming into the ER. I signed a release to do a spinal tap as they needed to rule out Meningitis and Encephalitis.

Emmy was given sedative (she just fricken woke up, people!) so they could complete the spinal tap and was put into a crib, with all sorts of wires and monitors on her. The nurses came in with every little blip and did vitals every 2 hours. At this point - all we had to go on was that it it was *possibly* a febrile seizure, but they were doing further testing to rule out other diseases. My baby - although under serious supervision - was stable. Although not a perfect scenario, was better than just a few hours prior.

Next post - more about her hospital stay...

Visit to the park

As today was my EDO from work (meaning Earned Day Off), Em and I went to the park this afternoon. Although I think I will be crossing this park off our frequently visited list due to the lack of small kids activities & the sheer amount of cigarette butts in the sand. Although, one could say that was an activity in itself as Emmy spent at least 30 minutes digging them out, even to my protests and attempts to distract her.

She did have fun on the swings, but she may be traumatized by the slide experience. I had been picking her up and putting her 1/2 way down the slide when Monkey Emmy decided she wanted to go to the top of the slide and slide down. She climbed up fine, sat down to slide, and got scared. She stood up, and attempted to get down, but couldn't figure it out, so she did the next best thing, she started wailing.

I climbed up to attempt to rectify the situation. Two things were quickly apparent, 1. The slide was far higher than I remember them being, and 2. There was no way my fat ass was making it around those turns.

After concluding my only option was to carry Emmy down myself, I did just that, silently praying the whole way down. It went smoothly, with no fumbles or falls.

Here are the pictures and even a video...

"Yucky, Poopie!"

said Emmy this morning when she walked in on Daddy. peeing. She looked at him, pointed at his man-part and stated that. I am still giggling about that and it has provoked a few jokes this morning as well.

Ahhh....kids.

Paaaarrrrty!

Today, Emmy and I attended our very first birthday party for Emmy's friend from daycare. I met her friend's mom and Emmy and I had a fun time. It was a 'Dora, Diego and Dinosaur' Adventure party, and although Emmy was a bit young to truly grasp the concept of the adventure part of it (we went through various 'lands' set up in the back yard) she still had fun. Each child had a handmade backpack just like Dora's, with all the necessary tools to complete the adventure (bubbles, binoculars, whistle, a map, and some other stuff that is now strewn across my living room. Dora, Diego and Swiper also made an appearance which made Emmy pretty darn excited.

We only had tears once, when the older boys were running around roaring like dinosaur's and scared her a bit when they did it close to her. She growls all the time, but I guess it's different. She also was about the only kid who didn't attempt to pillage a gift, or take back the one they brought the Birthday girl, which was my big fear.

Funny thing happened later on in the evening, I had left to run to the store and Keith was home with Emmy. Apparently, she stuck her hand out and said, "Pleased to meet you," to Keith, no doubt copying me from earlier in the day at the party. Isn't it funny what they pick up?

Some photos:

Emmy blowing her 'whistle' which thankfully disappeared somewhere between the party and home. She couldn't quite get it to blow at full sound, but I knew it was just a matter of time.


Emmy being a 'big girl' and successfully drinking out of a lid-less plastic cup with no spills! I cannot believe how quickly they change from being babies to being children.


Emmy playing in the play castle in the backyard


Being extremely cute. (Okay, I am biased)


Emmy, watching Dora, and demanded her backpack from the party. Could my kid get any closer to the screen???

More pictures...

Redneck baby

1. She is wearing a baseball hat, backwards, which doesn't really make her a redneck baby, however the fact it is a DUDE BEER hat kinda does! LOL Good thing she is cute...LOL

Happy Father's Day :-)

It was a good run

Of being puke-free, that is. 2 years, 3 months, and 19 days to be exact.

Emmy woke up this morning, seemingly normal in spirits. I could tell she had a poopy diaper, so I went to change that. I quickly realized that this was no ordinary diaper change. This was they worst diaper change I have faced. I chose to spray my child down and then bathe her it was so nasty. Emmy started telling me in the bath that her "tummy hurts" (which was the first time she ever indicated that), but I figured she was just hungry as she hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

30 minutes and a yogurt later, she was still telling me that her tummy hurt. I got her some applesauce and some juice and tried to lay down with her, but she was having no part of that. She played pretty normally for the most part.

It became obvious a while later when she had the second nasty diaper that she was having some tummy issues today. A brilliant mom may have picked up on that when her child tells her that her tummy hurts, but I am heavily in the first-time-mom role here. We had an uneventful morning after that, and I finally got her to nap around 2 (late for her).

Not even 15 minutes into her nap, she begun coughing. She was napping on the couch, so I looked over at her and I saw her sit up in her sleep, and then puke all over her hands. She looked at me with this amazed and scared look, having no clue what just happened. She puked twice more, and then I took her upstairs for her second bath of the day.

She seems to be in good spirits, but hasn't slept since. She followed me around as I cleaned up the puke and did laundry. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

For the record, Keith has been at work all day and has missed every exciting adventure. Baby's first puke, I am sure he will be devastated. :-)

Random Emmy Pictures

And we are back...

Due to a nasty broken arm (me) and the inability to type effectively one-handed, I haven't updated the blog since...well, too long.

So quick recap for you...
One afternoon, about 2 1/2 weeks ago, I came home with Emmy after work and proceeded to go into the house. Well I tried, Em choose to run down the driveway and into our road. I chased, I tripped, I fell and I broke. Yet again.

I went to work the next day and then went to the ER to get it X-rayed. I waited in hopes the pain and inability to straighten my arm really were good things. Turned out they weren't. Who knew.

So for the next two weeks, I wore an obnoxious neon pink cast on my left arm. It was casted in a way that my left hand was utterly useless for typing, but I could hit the shift key with my pointer finger. Have you ever tried to hit control-alt-delete with one hand? It is quite difficult and my first hurdle to logging onto my computer at work. That one task took me a few minutes every morning, let alone putting my headset on with one hand. My coworkers chuckled profusely at that one.

But I did it. Two weeks of hunt-and-pecking (as I was typing one handed) and I still managed to answer my fair share of calls. However, On Thursday, when the cast came off, I was happier than I was the last time. LOL

My arm is still sore, but I can type again and I am getting all healed.

Spring! FINALLY!

Bubbles!

Now, we have poop!

I cannot say that I have been so excited about poop before! Emmy went poopie on the potty without any prompting from Keith or I. In fact, I was at my computer and Keith was in the kitchen when the poopie-in-the-potty occurred. Emmy started yelling about poopie and when I got to her, she was pointing in her potty. Sure enough, there was some poop in there. That's one less yucky diaper we had to change!
Emmy seems to be getting the hang of this despite my absolute fear and pessimistic view that I could be successful in potty training Emmy.

Who am I kidding, our daycare lady is to thank for this more than us. LOL She's the pro!

We have pee-pee on the potty!

After 3 weekends of half-hearted potty training, we have actual progress! Emmy went pee on the potty today for the first time! She had pulled her own pants off and was sitting on the potty in her diaper. We removed the diaper and a few minutes later, we had progress! Yay Emmy!