Getting there!

Neil finished painting at around 1am on Friday night/Saturday morning and now there is a good chance we will get everything in decent shape before Grandma and Grandpa come on Tuesday, especially since we had competent help on Saturday. Finn and Lily are already arguing over who will set where (Grandma beside Lily? Grandpa beside Finn AND Lily?) at the new table. ☺

The place is still a mess, but as long as the kids can find some toys everything is well.

And while Lenny needs to inspect everything ...

... Blue prefers to hang out where the potential for a dropped morsel of food is the highest - close to Ina.

"Somebody get that crazy lady with the camera outta here!"

Speaking of outside. It's supposed to stay sunny and warm, up to 21°C during the Easter week! Spring is so nice, with everything coming back to life.

For Grandpa: the "kind of like a" Saskatoon berry bush looks like this right now:

Finn loves to swing, and once he figured out how to do it there was no stopping him.

Our next door neighbours finally have their swing set up, too, with a swing for two kids - how convenient! ☺

8:30pm on Saturday. With all the kids asleep, the next building project is tackled. Step 1: sort everything.

Some time past 11pm: Step 17. Why the heck won't the drawers fit? Oh, look! There was a 50% chance of getting Step 3 wrong if you didn't exactly know what the finished thing is supposed to look like. We give up and go to bed around midnight.

5:45am: Ina is up. 6:30am: Neil manages to get her back to sleep (she does that for him WAY more easily than for me) and crawls back in bed. 6:45am: I get up with Lily. 7:15: Finn is up. I buy myself some peace and quiet (and time to play on my laptop ☺) with "Horton hears a Who".

Tomorrow I will take Finn to the doctor's to give blood for his allergy tests. We really hope an allergen can be found, but other than maybe the (bourbon?) vanilla we have no idea what it could be. And he has never reacted to vanilla before. If his reaction was due to a cross allergy (a combination of things that are harmless by themselves) we might never know what caused it.

I have since learned a few things that I never thought I would need to know. Finn had the kind of anaphylactic shock where the blood pressure dips so low that it can lead to a life threatening situation - hence the loss of vision, no feeling in his hands, blood draining from his face, near unconsciousness etc. (The other kind would be that you go into respiratory distress to the point where you can't breathe.) Then he also had the gastro-intestinal symptoms (cramps, nausea, diarrhea) and skin involvement that are typical. I also learned that asthmatic kids are more prone to severe allergic reactions than others, as if the asthma wasn't bad enough.

Keep your fingers crossed for us that the blood drawing won't be as horrible as I am afraid it will be. Finn is deathly afraid of needles, and I will have to lug all three kids to the doctor's.

Expect the Unexpected

Well. We didn't really think we would be eating our supper (take-out pizza at that) on the patio yesterday, with half our furniture outside to keep us company. But, things didn't go quite as planned, and while Neil worked hard all day we still have lots to do when it comes to painting.

I had planned the day out so nicely. Plan was:

• Everybody wakes up at around 7am, we're all well rested as Ina slept through the night.


• 8:15am: Ina is picked up by her dad for their twice weekly visit.


• 8:30am: Finn and Lily arrive at their Kindergarten (preschool) just in time for morning circle.


• 8:35am: Claudia back from preschool, with joint forces (Neil took a day off) the painting begins and is mostly finished by the time all the kids come home.

Reality went like this:

• We all wake up, but not all that rested. Finn crawled in bed with me around 2am, Lily joined me after she woke up to wet sheets, Neil left our bed at one point to help a fussing Ina go back to sleep. I later find him fast asleep in Lily's bed, lights on, and a half stripped damp sheet in his hand. Sleep deprivation, anyone? ☺


• 7:30-8:00 breakfast. Finn eats plain yogurt mixed with vanilla yogurt (first time he tries the vanilla yogurt, and he likes it).


• 8:15: Ina is picked up by her daddy.


• 8:30: Finn and Lily arrive at preschool, Finn complains of a tummy ache. I tell him it is probably because he ate nothing but that yogurt and suggest he eats his sandwich soon. I leave when the class is getting ready for morning circle.


• 8:40: Finn, a child with no known allergies (and who was extensively tested for them because of his asthma) goes into anaphylactic shock during morning circle.

Only, we didn't know right away what it was. They do their morning circle standing, and suddenly Finn cried that he could only "see blue". The teachers sat him down immediately, his face went a ghostly mask of green and white, his hands went numb and he broke out in a cold sweat. They placed him on a bed as he was beginning to faint and tried to keep him "with them". The teacher phoned me and I went right back over. He had mostly regained his vision when I came, but I was SHOCKED by the way his face looked (and they said he already looked better!). Purple circles around his eyes, the rest of his face just gray. He told me he had a bad tummy ache and I managed to put him on the toilet before he had a huge bout of diarrhea. I was thinking tummy bug but was worried that it came on so quickly and by his loss of vision and feeling in his hands, the cold sticky sweat etc. I carried Finn home, he was still hurting (tummy) and his ears, which were beginning to turn red, were bothering him. I phoned the doctor and was told to come in. Neil noticed some yogurt on Finn's face, wiped it off and remarked that the skin underneath was red. That remark stayed with me, and in the car I began putting two and two together. The yogurt! Finn seemed very groggy and like he wanted to go to sleep, but he managed to stay awake for the 8 min drive.

Our pediatrician is not in on Thursdays, but the general practicioner who works there too, is. She knows Finn and saw to him right away. When she lifted his shirt we could see that the skin from his belly down to his thighs was red and covered with hives and some white welts. His ears were bright red and itchy by now, and he was still in pain. His blood pressure was low. They administered a cortisone suppository and anti allergy medicine, and Finn recovered after a while. We went home after they were sure he was okay, emergency meds in hand. At night he complained of a headache and a tummy ache, but this morning he was fine, just his eyes were a bit swollen.

So, that's why we didn't get as much done as we had planned on. But, we are SO SO grateful that Finn is all right!

Neil hard at work yesterday:

The kiddos this morning:

I took Ina to the pediatrician this morning because she has a cough that is getting worse and refuses to take cough syrup. She has spastic bronchitis, something I seem to "specialize in", as the pedi put it. So now she HAS to take medicine, plus do some inhaling. Oh joy. The pedi already knew about Finn and we talked about the issue for quite a while today. On Monday Finn will have blood drawn to check for allergies again. It is baffling, because the only addititives in that organic yogurt are starch, sugar, bourbon vanilla and natural vanilla flavor. Other than that he had nothing but a few sips of milk yesterday morning. For now I got some emergency meds to take to preschool for him, and I will carry the same set in my purse. The pedi is not taking this lightly, as the next anaphylactic shock could even be worse and lead to heart failure as a worst case scenario. Ugh - I can't even think about this.

So, I'm off to preschool with my little bag. Finn sure scared the living daylights out of his teachers yesterday. Not to speak of us. Please pray that this won't happen again!

Oh, and I didn't even remember to ask Neil about his foot until late at night. Well, it still hurts, but Neil just dealt with it and cancelled his appointment. Maybe he can get around to taking care of himself when Norma and Kurt are here. Heck, maybe he even gets to SLEEP! Wouldn't that be something. :)

This week's challenge is called ...

...

"Renovate your dining/living room in 5 days with a 5-year-old, 3-year-old and a 1-year-old under foot! And to make it not quite so easy, throw in a husband who is limping around on crutches!"

After 5 years our downstairs is more than ripe for a fresh coat of paint, plus, a new dining table and chairs were badly needed. I phoned around a bit and found a caritative organization that was happy to come get our old furniture. So, I did a lot of cleaning out the last few days (the sideboard and hutch) and everything was picked up this morning.

And while they were at it I let them have the couches too, and removed the rug. I was happy to see the couches go, for various reasons (I won't bore you with details). The pick-up guys fell in love with my couch table, so I had to make sure they didn't take that one, too! (Because then, where would Lenny hide? ☺)

And where is the new stuff, you may ask? Well, the dining room furniture resides in a dozen boxes in the basement. These are some of the boxes in my laundry room. Yep, we will have to build everything because I didn't want to spend a crazy amount of money and wait for 2 months for the really good stuff that already comes built. Still, this should be much better than what we had. Maybe the table will even not wobble! And I DARE any kid to put a fork into my new oak table!


Ina didn't care today that she had to eat her lunch like this. As long as there is food she is happy, table or no table. Once Neil comes home we will move the patio table inside, I think. If he can let go of his crutches long enough, that is. He somehow hurt his foot so his day off tomorrow that we want to spend painting will probably be partly spent in a doctor's office. Oh well.

And why do we need to be done in 5 days? Because that is when we will pick Grandma and Grandpa up from the airport! (Grandma, we are using really good paint that is suitable for people with allergies, hardly any smell.) We will move the blue couch from the guest bedroom to the living room until the new couch comes, which should be in 2-3 weeks. So don't worry, we will have somewhere to sit. ☺

And pack clothes for all kinds of weather. It is definitely April here. We went from THIS on Sunday to 2°C/35F and cloudy with a strong wind this morning.

Well, time's up. I better get some things done around here while Ina is napping!

This weekend

This weekend, some of us practiced a new skill.

Lily made the switch from balance bike to pedal bike effortlessly, no training wheels needed.

Go Lily!

This weekend, some of us fought the evil knight Cato.

(Finn maybe watched "Mio, my Mio" once too often.)

This weekend, some of us drove here from their home in Switzerland.

This weekend, some of us got to ride in Ulli's fancy car.

And after watching her brother go first ...

... Lily insisted on wearing her helmet. ☺

But she is a natural at that royal wave, reminds me of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

This weekend, some of us raked leaves, and some of us helped spread the leaf piles.

This weekend, some of us couldn't get enough of the swing.

This weekend, some of us ran their first race ever, and some of us joined in the fun.

Congrats, Ulli for being under an hour at the 10k mark! Next year we will tackle that half marathon together.

Neil took this picture of Ulli, me, my friend Tiff and her partner Kai. Neil: "Hey, you are good at faking it!" Kai: "I am NOT faking it." ☺)

This weekend, some of us heated up the barbecue for the first time this year (hint: it wasn't Ulli).

And this weekend, some of us had a sleepover.

It is safe to say that this weekend, all of us had a great time!

Summer in April

Eat your heart out, Saskatchewani..., Saskatchewon..., Saskatchian... - PEOPLE OF SASKATCHEWAN (and other inhabitants of the northern hemisphere)! ☺ .

You could literally watch the bushes turn green here today, with a high of a sunny 24°C. Shorts, t-shirts, flip-flops - on April 3rd, mind you! Ina was picked up by her dad this afternoon (she gets to visit with her family two afternoons per week), so we had a few hours to do something special with Finn and Lily. First we went for a 4 mile (6.4km) run/bike ride (Finn biked, Lily rode in the kiddie seat on Neil's bike, and I ran), then we relaxed with coffee and cake on our patio ...

... and then we went to a nature reserve a 10min drive from our house. Grandpa will remember throwing pebbles in this little lake with Finn. And see what I mean about summer in April?

We didn't bring swimsuits, though. Just nets, a pail, a towel, and no change of clothes (I will get to this.)

No fish to be seen, but lots of other treasures found: rocks, green slime, an old bottle, water plants and an assortment of surprised bugs.

And those kids swimming in the lake were brave, the water was cold (of course). It didn't faze Finn ...

... but proved to be quite the shock to Lily's system. Ahem.

And since I didn't think to bring spare clothes, but had some diapers for Ina in my bag, this is what Lily looked like until we got home. She couldn't have cared less.

And you can say what you want about those rubber shoes laden with chemicals, but the kids love them. They are good water shoes ...

... make great boats that you can try to sink by throwing rocks at them ...

... and if they are THIS color they are easy to find. (P.S. In the picture above you can see why I WILL bring spare pants next time. Finn managed to sit in the water.)

The way back to the car was long, so walking sticks were needed. Finn finally saw reason when Neil told him the stick wouldn't fit in the trunk. Actually, he seemed relieved to be able to leave it behind.

We made it home in time for supper and a half hour before Ina was brought back. Finn and Lily were happy to see her, I really can't praise my sweet kids enough. ♥ Now they are all asleep and actually we should be too. Who knows how many times we will be up tonight. Ina is a light sleeper. So, good night!