Thankful

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body.
~Elizabeth Stone~

Today is the second anniversary of Nicholas' heart surgery. He was only three days old. We had no idea when he was born that he had a heart defect, and we were extremely lucky that there were a long list of doctors and nurses who were involved with diagnosing and treating him soon after he was born. Never in my life had I felt so absolutely helpless as I did that first week of my wee baby's life.

Ken and I were so fortunate that we had so much help, love and understanding from family and friends who stepped in at a moment's notice and would have moved the earth and then some if we asked. My mom came and stayed at the house so that Ken and I could go to and from the hospital a few times a day. Poor Ethan had no idea what was going on, but having his grandparents around to help out lessened the stress considerably. My mother-in-law made sure that I ate, and prepared meals for us to take on the way to the hospital.

The emotional support from friends was amazing - one friend in particular who had lost her own child a couple of years earlier and was a wealth of information and support - she was one of the only ones who would truly know what we were going through.

We were fortunate that our wee man's surgery went really well. To look at him today one would never guess that his little ticker isn't 100%. Often when I see him playing outside I forget - he is more active than Ethan ever was, and some days he just doesn't stop. It still floors me that only two years ago I was anxiously awaiting to hear how the surgery went on his little wee heart the size of a walnut and the consistancy of wet tissue paper.

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Sigh...it has been ages since I have blogged. I honestly thought I could easily keep this up daily, but it isn't turning out that way. I have been so tired lately - work is CRAZY (but I really like my job) and even though I technically only work part-time, it feels like I am working full time. It is great it is so busy, but by the end of the day I am ready to just crash in front of the tube.

I have also taken up running. A long long long time ago I used to be a competitive swimmer. Not that I was ever a serious threat in the pool...I once swam against Victor Davis (a Canadian champ from way back) in an fun race at a swim meet and he KICKED MY ASS. It was all downhill from there. Lots of swimming and coaching over the years has given me a serious case of chlorine burn out, so I have decided to train to run - starting with a 10K race to be held here in Vancouver at the end of April. I am quite impressed with myself - about 2 months ago I could barely run 30 seconds without passing out, and last night I ran 30 minutes. The only thing that has been frustrating as hell is that I haven't lost any weight. I guess I am gaining muscle, but still, I want that scale to scream "skinny" when I step on it.

I also had my first photography gig on the weekend. A friend's wedding in Downtown Vancouver. It went ok, on a scale of 1-10 I give myself about a 7 for the pics. I would love to post some now, but since the bride and groom haven't even seen them yet, I should wait....I'll get them up once they are edited (have I mentioned that I LOVE PHOTOSHOP?).

Those eyelashes

I have no idea where they got them from....but man what I wouldn't give for these...

Proud Mama...

Ethan has been a royal pain in the backside today, grumpy as all hell. I have no idea why, but wow - whoever said two was terrible has not run smack into my three year old. I must admit, for the most part he is pretty good, but it is on days like today that if Ken was to suggest that we try for kiddo number three I'd tell him that I would rather poke myself in the eye with rusty scissors.

Having said all that, Ethan has made me pretty proud this week. First off, we managed after WEEKS of trying to finally get him to blow is nose. This is a huge deal around here. Mind you, it is a very dainty blow, but air is coming out his nose rather than him sniffing, so at this point I'll take what I can get.

Next, I was surfing the Robeez web page and came across this:



Honestly, I thought this picture had wound up on the cutting room floor, so it was a nice surprise to see it on the web page.

But by far the best is the surprise that Ethan gave me last week. We were at the preschool open house and he was pretty busy drawing. Now Ethan never sits still for more than five seconds, so when I wandered over to see what he was doing I was shocked.



This is a picture of our family....needless to say I have framed it because I just love it so much. The funny thing is that Ethan drew his head the roundest of all of us, which is quite ironic seeing as how he had to wear a helmet when he was a baby to round out his noggin!

Two things I said in the last week I totally regret...

Oh it has been a couple of weeks from HELL. Hence the lack of posts.

Last week, one of the moms at preschool said that her son had been throwing up constantly all day. I told her "wow, that must be awful. I haven't ever had to deal with that" (things I said regret #1)

Fast forward a few days and Nicholas is a barfing machine. My poor mom was looking after him, and while I got puked on first thing on my way to work, she had to clean up the rest of it for most of the day. He kept nothing down, not even water. I hate it when they are sick, makes me want to just take it away from them and have it myself so they don't have to go through the misery (things I said regret #2)

So I came home from work early to take him to the doctor (I was concerned he would become dehydrated). We walk into the clinic, and my beautiful, angelic son proceeds to barf over everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. The counter, the floor, my hair, my clothes, all over himself....I am still gobsmacked at the amount of puke that came out of his little wee body. Great timing though I must admit, we got into see the doctor right away.

Turns out he must have had a 24 hour bug, because he is fine now. I on the other hand felt like I had been hit by a truck yesterday, I could hardly get out of bed, and when I did it was to run to the bathroom. OMG it was awful. I haven't been that sick in years, not even when I was pregnant. On the plus side I lost 7 pounds, but I don't recommend the method!