Photobooks to the Rescue!

I take a lot of pictures. We're talkin' 1000 + per month thanks to my DSLR camera... I can't stop! I used to print them. That's right, all of them, and put them into albums because I think it's nice to have hard copies of pictures. That's what I grew up with!

After months and months of literally thousands of pictures piled a mile high on my desk, waiting to get into albums, I decided that I needed to take a different route to preserve these pictures and memories.

I decided to create photobooks for my girls from Shutterfly. I make one each for every year (birthday to birthday) leaving 2 pages for every month and a few extra at the back for their birthday celebrations. It's perfect for recording what happened in their lives each month and I've even made a page at the back for milestones.


I go big. 12x12, hardcover... with a lot of pages. I usually wait until Shutterfly has a 30-50% off sale and buy them then (about $55 USD). It takes me a full year to make them, so what's a couple of more months of waiting to actually hold the book?!


Here are a few that I have created so far. I did one for each pregnancy with pictures of my belly and every ultrasound. I don't trust that thermal paper to keep their ultrasound pictures forever, so this way they've been scanned in and printed in a book.
I'm about 3 months behind in my book making right now, but I've made sure the record what we've been up to so hopefully playing catch up won't be too challenging.

Damn Technology

I'm hooked. Anyone that knows me, knows that my phone is always within a 3cm radius. No exceptions, not even while sleeping. I text a lot... probably more than your average teenager. Just so you have an idea, I have sent 2298 messages and received 2273 in 20 days. I justify this ridiculous amount of texts by my lack of actually using my phone as a phone. I NEVER make outgoing calls unless completely necessary and have only used 21 minutes of air time during the same time period. I'm pretty sure 15 of those minutes are from me calling for a cab for over an hour on Saturday night too. Anyway, now that you get how hooked (or how much time is wasted) on my phone, you can appreciate the devastation I went through after 2 wee little hands let go of it while standing over tile floor... I picked it up, turned it over and saw this

My heart broke. I called Tony (take note, outgoing call!) to vent my frustration and hoped that he would be able to find a way to get it fixed. In about 10 minutes I had the name and number of my latest hero. A man that can replace iPhone 4 screens for a small fee (I keep telling myself it's small) of $180 in a matter of minutes, if he had any in stock. Thankfully my phone still works although horribly disfigured. The new screens come in Wednesday or Thursday, conveniently the 2 days I'm working from 8am - 8pm. I will have to survive with my iPhone 4G (G for ghetto in this case) until Friday morning. Wish me luck!

7 more days of drops!

Tatum had her tear duct "probing" done at Children's on Friday. It went really well and the staff there are incredible! I don't have a single complaint! Our day started with a delicious spread of 5 different flavours of Jello and apple juice... talk about gourmet! It was quite exciting for the girls because it's actually the first time we've made Jello in our house intended for children. I have to admit it's actually the first time I can remember eating Jello without it being infused with vodka... don't judge! :)

The day went rather smoothly (thankfully!) right from finding a close parking spot (that cost $10.50) to barely waiting as we moved through the various waiting rooms and stages of pre & post surgery.

Tatum was so good. It was a really nice treat to be able to spend one on one time with her, just Tony and I. So I guess that's two on one? Anyway, she has quite the little personality when she isn't being controlled by her big, bossy sister.

Children's Day Surgery unit has the best play/waiting room ever! There was everything there! Wii, Fuse Ball, Air Hockey... oh and stuff for little kids too ;) After meeting with the nurse to discuss Tatum's health background Tatum was put in a little yellow gown and we went off to play. We played with babies, made "dinner" in the play kitchen and read lots of stories until it was our turn to go in. Only one parent was allowed into the OR so I volunteered, more like bullied, my way in. I carried Tatum in and put her on the bed. This is where it gets ugly... Tatum was screaming and crying, yelling "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" while they put a mask with anesthetic gas over her face. I was asked to keep her hands away from the mask so that she didn't pull it off and she would fall asleep faster. Faster my ass... that was the longest 30 seconds of my life. I felt like I was just standing there while they tortured my baby. Around the 30 second mark, the crying stopped, and her arms went limp in my hands. At this very moment, I thought I was either going to go limp, or puke all over the OR. It was by far the worst feeling I have ever felt. I kissed her lifeless little hands (her face was completely covered by as mask) and was escorted out of the OR with a hand full of sopping wet Kleenex. Tony was waiting for me in the hallway and we were told to come back in 1/2 an hour and she would be done. Dora was allowed to stay in the OR with her

Half an hour came and went rather quickly, surprisingly. We were walking down the hall to the waiting room (after going to the wrong waiting room first) and were met by the Post Anesthetic Care Unit staff telling us that Tatum was done and really, really wanting her mommy. Once we got to her she was still miserable, and freaking out. I don't think she believed that we really weren't going to put her through that again. Once we were able to get her to calm down a bit and have a look at her, she had a bloody nose, and bloody eyes, it was gross. I am never grossed out by blood, puke yes, blood no... but when it's on someone you know and love, it's a different feeling all together.

You aren't able to leave the Post Anesthetic Care Unit until you've waited the mandatory hour, vitals are stable and your child drinks something. We didn't have any issues with these, Tatum downed 2 sippy cups of AJ in record time. We don't like to stick around hospitals at all so when they told us we could go, we went! We got a list of post-op care (I have no recollection of what the surgeon told us right after I got Tatum back in my arms) and a prescription for what will hopefully be the last 7 days of eye drops, ever!

So far, everything is going smoothly at home, but trying to get an 18 month old to "take it easy" isn't easy. I also had a bit of anxiety when Tatum sneezed and blood shot out of her eyes... disgusting I know.
Today Tatum is acting 100% normal. Her eyes are a little puffy, but she ate breakfast like a champ, watched Bieber videos and is now playing with Dora. 19 more drops per eye and we're done! Let's hope this procedure worked!

Bye-bye Green Goop!

Tatum has had blocked tear ducts since birth. What does that mean? It means she constantly has a big, gross blob of green goop sitting in the corner of her eyes. Obviously that's the full medical term. :)
We were told that if they didn't correct themselves by the time she was one, she would need a procedure done to unblock them.

12 months, came and went and Tatum was still sporting her signature green-goop look. We have been putting antibiotic drops in her eyes everyday, 3 times a day for the past 1.5 years, with no change. I'm sure we were doing it correctly. I mean how hard could it possibly be to put a drop in the corner of each eye, have her hold her eye shut for 1 minute while we massaged the tear duct opening? Seriously, those were our instructions for a baby/toddler.

So, this Friday, Tatum will finally be going under to open up her tear ducts.
I'm super nervous about her being sedated... but I think I am more nervous about how things are going to be for the 14 hours before surgery. I'm supposed to not feed her from midnight the day before, until 2 o'clock in the AFTERNOON!

All this kid does is eat. It's going to be disastrous! We can feed her jello, apple juice, water and clear broth. That should fill up the girl that normally can destroy 4 eggs, a piece of toast and some Cheerios for breakfast. No big deal.

After her procedure is done she goes into recovery for 45 minutes to an hour, and then into post-op for another 45 minutes to an hour. My poor little chicken will be starving!

Bieber Fever!

We've been infected. Even wee T-Tot has the fever. Every time someone even glances at a computer, she starts shouting, "Bieber! Bieber!" Here she is singing and dancing to the one and only!



Now if only there was a way to get her to wear earphones!

Rylan's Room Re-do

For about a year and a half now, since Rylan could string a sentence together, she has wanted a purple bedroom.

We went to Home Depot a long time ago and picked out a few purple samples. Once we got home we taped them all up on the wall and let Rylan decide. (Truth: I cut all of the absolute "no's" off of the sample and taped the yeses and maybes to the wall. Shhhh... don't tell Rylan!)

Rylan's choice was a nice light grey-lavender (Behr's Purple Veil) and I was quite pleased with her selection.


A few months later, we finally got around to painting it. What a difference! Her room feels so bright and airy now... who knew beige was so dark!?

I'm still working on finding new bedding, but we did manage to get a bookshelf and mirror set up in place of a dresser. The girls spend a lot of time in there "reading" and putting Dora and Diego down for naps. Next up Tatum's room. I've got some big ideas for her tiny little space.

Click to enlarge... and ignore the flood curtains in Rylan's old room. I had good intentions of adding something to the bottom of them... and never did!

The soothers are GONE!!

I was really looking forward to Christmas this year. Not only was I looking forward to it because my kids are getting old enough to understand and actually open gifts on their own, but mostly because when Santa left our house on December 24th, he was taking something very important with him.
Soothers. Every last one of them! This picture is from last Christmas and it was the only way I could get them both on Santa's lap. I'll admit it, I used the soother to it's full potential. It worked wonders on getting kids to nap, go to bed, eat (somewhat) quietly at a restaurant, manage long car rides, you name it, it did it.

The soother was a real life saver early on in my parenting career. Rylan had this never ending urge to suck, and for anyone new to breastfeeding, you know what can happen if you don't give in and use a soother.

Rylan became quite dependent on the old "night-night" as it was referred to in our house. When we started the weening process, we would only let her have it when it was time to nap or go to bed. She came up with the name on her own and we ran with it.

We tried taking it away when she turned 2. We said that the Night-Night Fairy came and took her soother and in return brought her a gift. The gift was exciting until about 1:30 when nap time rolled around. She refused to nap. She was in her room, laying on her back on the floor kicking the door for an hour straight yelling, "I want my night-night!!!". It was horrible. I decided against a nap that day and thought it would be easier that night with the added support of Tony being home from work. Round 2, bed time. Rylan assumed the same position on the floor behind the door again and followed the same procedure as nap time. After an undetermined length of time, she fell asleep on the floor behind her door. Success? Sort of? We felt pretty crappy, kind of like the worst parents in the world actually.

That night we decided to call the Night-Night Fairy and have her return the night-night and we'd try a new technique.

My cousin had great success getting her daughter off the soother by poking holes in it. We tried it, nothing. I even went as far as cutting pieces out of it. I would cut a little more each day until it got to the point that every time Rylan went to say anything, the soother would fall right out. We thought this would be a perfect plan. She will get so annoyed with it always falling out that she'll just give it up. That didn't happen.

A few weeks later she was back to a regular full sized soother (I can't even remember how this happened) and we were back to square one. We gave up trying to get rid of it for a long time. Tatum was just a baby so there were a lot of other things going on in the house that kept us from pursuing the great soother heist.

October 2010: We started telling Rylan that when she turns 3 (December), she will be too big for a soother. This happened every time she asked for it, looked at it, touched it, pointed at it or even just thought about it. She was warned.

November 2010: We came up with the best plan ever! What if Santa came here, took both kids' soothers and left a whole whack of presents? How can they hate a man that brings them all sorts of gifts? We started telling Rylan all about Santa and how when he comes, he's taking the soothers back to the North Pole for other kids that need them. Sanitary, no. Brilliant, yes!
We asked Rylan if there was a special gift Santa could bring her since he was going to be taking her soother and she said she wanted a Diego doll. Wouldn't you know it, Diego dolls are hard to find! I found one that came with Dora (perfect! Tatum gets Dora, Rylan gets Diego) on Ebay. We had a massive snow storm right before Christmas that stopped mail delivery for 3 days. I was panicked! Thankfully Dora and Diego showed up with a couple of days to spare.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve. We left Santa homemade cookies, a carrot for Rudolph, and 2 precious soothers on a plate. A few tears were shed before bed time, but the excitement of Christmas definitely worked in our favour. Both kids were in bed, without soothers!!! It was a Christmas miracle!

Christmas Day: Deigo and Dora were opened, soothers forgotten, and we are now living sootherless ever after!

The End!