done

It's been resolved. 

Now to return to my life.

baffling

I pride myself on being a good eBayer... I always pay straight away and I try to be as easy to deal with as possible. Unfortunately I have run into the rudest piece of junk on eBay. I bought something on buy now and when I went to pay I couldn't. Ebay was broken and kept giving me an error message and it took me a day and a bit to finally figure it out and pay for the item manually with the help of PayPal support. I think I talked about this earlier...

Anyways all that done I send off an e-mail to the seller telling them what's up and that I completed the payment. I get no response. 3 days later I get an invoice for the item asking me to pay now. I send off an e-mail telling them I already paid and asking them to confirm that the money got there safely since I had trouble with eBay and PayPal. I get no response. 

When looking closer at the invoice I notice that the shipping and handling cost is magically higher then first stated. I do some poking around and find the lower shipping and handling price clearly stated in the original listing, I save this for future records. Not wanting to argue over $4 USD I send off the difference in another payment with PayPal. I send off another e-mail telling them this and asking again for confirmation that the money has been received. I get no response. 4 days later I get a Please Pay Now e-mail from the seller. I send another e-mail back asking if they haven't received my payments or e-mails I send the same message through the original listing on eBay. I get no response. 

I'm getting pissed off so I open a dispute in PayPal. I write down the whole turn of events asking for my item to be shipped NOW or my money to be refunded ASAP. I get no response. 

It's now been almost 3 days and tomorrow I am escalating my dispute to a claim and let PayPal deal with this crap. 

I think the least you can f*ing do is check your e-mail and answer when answer is due. I am about to give my first negative feedback. This has been going on way to long and I have tried everything to make it easy and pleasant and I get nothing back.

I'm unlucky with eBay recently. I am still waiting for an item to arrive and I bought that over a month ago. I think it's probably Canada Post messing about, they like doing that. But still. I could really use a break now.

He speaks!

The bus is now speaking! He is a true little Swedish boy!  His first word was "titta" which means look in Swedish. He can also say mamma, pappa and daddy. He only says daddy to his daddy which is really cute. He says mamma when he's sad mainly. He says titta and he points to things.   

He's all grown up now. 

my life

Mr. Brown can MOO!

Can you?

Oh, the wonderful sounds 

Mr. Brown can do!

He can sound like a cow.

he can go MOO MOO

He can sound like a bee.

Mr. Brown can BUZZ

How about you?

can you go BUZZ BUZZ

He can sound like a cork...

POP POP POP POP

He can sound like horse feet...

KLOPP KLOPP KLOPP

He can sound 

like a roster...

COCK A DOODLE DOO

He can sound 

like an owl...

HOO HOO HOO HOO

Mr.Brown can do it.

How about you?

He can sound 

like the rain

DIBBLE DIBBLE 

DIBBLE DOPP

DIBBLE DIBBLE 

DIBBLE DIBBLE

DOPP DOPP DOPP

He can sound like a clock.

He can TICK

He can TOCK

He can sound 

like a hand 

on a door

KNOCK KNOCK

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Mr. Brown is a wonder.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Mr. Brown makes thunder!

He makes lightning

SPLATT SPLATT SPLATT

And it's very, very hard

to make a noise like that!

Mr. Brown can 

whisper whisper

...very soft 

very high...

like the soft, 

soft whisper

of a butterfly

Maybe YOU can, too 

I think you ought to try.

Oh, the wonderful sounds 

Mr. Brown can do.

Why don't you try

to do them, too?

Turn the page

and let's review.

MOO MOO

BUZZ BUZZ

POP POP

KLOPP

COCK A DOODLE DOO 

HOO HOO

DIBBLE DIBBLE DOPP

TICK TOCK

KNOCK KNOCK

BOOM BOOM

SPLATT

Last a

whisper whisper

and that is that!

Dr. Seuss's (which is pronounced like it rimes with voice apparently) "Mr. Brown can MOO! Can you?"

The bus's favourite book and, I hope at least, the first of a life long love affair with books.

So my life right now is reading about Mr. Brown and how you must not "Hop on Pop", crusty clothes and lots of love.

Oh and we went sliding with hubby's godchild and niece yesterday and we are now a nice shade of bluegreenyellow.

Not enough time

Don't have time to write anything lenghty, if you want to read something lenghty I suggest reading a paper or a magazine, such as Nylon

enjoy

don't want to think about it.

Just got off the phone with my sister-in-law, her friends child, who's not even 3 years old, just got diagnosed with leukemia. The horror. I don't even want to think about what that must feel like. I have issues with bus having the sniffles. I don't think me and hubby could handle him being like really sick. Especially not hubby. Every time bus gets sick and we need to go to the doctor me and hubby fight cause hubby is gonna take bus and hold him close and feel like it's bus and him against the world (including me) and that he's gonna take him to the doctor and make him better. He will physically shove me out of the way and act like me caring for the bus is madness and that the bus clearly needs his dad to protect him from everyone including the mommy. Then imagine the bus being really sick and that would kill the daddy I think.

I hope to God and all other good sources or forces in this world that the bus never gets sick like that.

In other less horrifying news. I tried to pay for something on eBay yesterday and today but kept getting an error message and after trying the e-mail support to both eBay and Pay Pal and getting no response I dug out the phone number to Pay Pal and called customer support who first hung up on me. Second time I called I got an agent who told me that there was a security issue with my funding and that I should just try later. I freaked out telling him I have already tried later and what f*ing security issue can my funds have? Did you idiots steal all my money?? He told me he had no more information and that a supervisor would give me the same answer. I asked him who knew the answer then and to put me through to that person right now or at least give me a number to call. He said he couldn't but offered to put me through to a supervisor. I accepted and was put on hold for 15-20 minutes during which I paced so much the bus actually fell asleep in my arms even though it's lunch time not nap time. When I finally got the supervisor he guided me through paying another way which worked fine and told me that there were no security issue with my funds but an actual issue with eBay check-out. Thank you very much mister Pay Pal call center agent for freaking me out and thinking you stole my money. Next time I shall ask for the supervisor straight away. Now lets just hope that I get sent my new purchase.

Now to wait for the bus to wake up again so we can eat.

A picture of the bus wearing a silly hat to lighten the mood.

9 months

Today it's 9 months since the bus was born. This means that he has been out as long as he was in. This is a big milestone. I can't believe I was pregnant as long as we have had the bus. That seems insane. The bus is so big now. He mastered the crawling completely and he's now working on the talking, he brumms like a car and he says titta (look in Swedish) and dada and mamma. He also likes reading. 

We went downtown today and bought some more board books for him cause he really likes Dr. Seuss. He likes turning the pages.

I also picked up presents for Natalia and Maria's unborn baby. Then we went to my hubby's work and I got to meet his manager and see his offices and he got to show off me and bus bus.

Now I need to run after bus bus.

cabin fever

Winter needs to end now so me and bus can go outside without putting on 14 layers of clothes and struggle through 30 cm of snow with the stroller or almost killing ourselves while slipping on icy sidewalks. 

I have had enough and I am seriously getting cabin fever. 

On Monday bus will be 9 months old. I can't remember being pregnant as long as we have had the bus. It seems unreal. It feels like bus has always been here with us and I can't remember life before him.

Have nothing more to say, except, WE WANT SPRING NOW!

theory

Everyone is having babies these days. Well maybe not everyone but a lot of people are having babies. Maybe it's just me being in the prime baby-age and all my friends feeling their biological clocks ticking. Maybe there's something in the water? Or maybe it's because the world is coming to an end?

I read somewhere (I would link to it if only I could remember where I read it) that the world is coming to an end the 20 December 2012 cause that's when the Mayan Long count calendar runs out. Then after that on December 21 2012 a new world will begin. So now you're probably thinking what does the world coming to an end have to do with having babies?

Well the article I was reading went on to say that we humans have a collective conscience, which means that we all know what everyone else in the world knows cause we can tap into the collective conscience. Like if I learn something everyone else can know it to. It' quite complicated but it has some science backing it, monkeys. The same species of monkeys lived on two different continent. On one of the continents the monkeys learned to use sticks to get food out of termite homes. A little while later the monkeys on the other continent were doing the same thing. The monkeys did not meet nor did anyone teach the monkeys to do this. The theory being that the knowledge of how to get the food were added to the collective conscience of the monkeys so that the other monkeys on the other continent could tap into this knowledge too.

So now to explain how this is connected to babies and the end of the world. Some people knows for sure that the world is coming to an end so this knowledge have entered the collective conscience so sub consciously we all know that the world is coming to an end. So what do we do with this knowledge? We have babies. Why? Because having babies is the most fulfilling experience any human can have. It's our purpose here in this world. So every person in the world is suddenly feeling the need to have babies. 

I told this to my sister-in-law, she thinks I'm being a bit bleak with the whole end of the world business. Maybe. Maybe we're all having babies because the economy is doing alright, or just because, as I said earlier, all the people I know are in their prime babie-making age.

Who knows eh?

shit day

The one thing that makes it all worth while î

So today didn't turn out as planned. It turned out shit. We still couldn't get the car to move and ended up calling a tow truck that came and helped us out. We spent most of the day bickering and both of us being generally unhappy. It turned out thought that it was probably the car that was making us testy cause once it was sorted out we both felt better and stopped bickering.

Tomorrow is paediatrician with the bus in the morning then we're going to the mall. 

torture

Some people seem to think that I'm faking the snow on my car. Well I wish. The darn car is stuck in the snow. 

I can't get it out and neither can hubby. We've both been out digging it out and trying to get it out of that snowbank it's parked in. Not the same as the photo since I had to move it. Four wheel drive or two wheel drive doesn't make any difference, the car is not moving. I think it may be frozen to the ground. It's very cold today -14°C. Anyways after trying to get the stupid car out of the snowbank we gave up and are now hoping for some sun on it and some warmer temperatures so it will melt enough for us to get it loose. If not and if the orange signs comes up I guess we'll just have to suck it up and pay for the towing, but at least they'll get the car out. We don't need the car today or tomorrow anyways. 

We do need it on Wednesday morning when we're going to the paediatrician. I'm gonna write a list of all medication that's been given to the bus and then I'm gonna write a list of all the questions we have for the paediatrician. I am also gonna ask her why the bus never sleeps. Personally I think he's trying to kill us by torture and sleep deprivation. Hubby on the other hand thinks we're bad parents and we're creating bad habits. Whoever is right doesn't really matter, what matters is that the bus needs to start sleeping. He doesn't sleep much during the day so he should be nice and tired at night, which he is but then he wakes up every 2-3 hours and cries. He also still eats at least 3 times a night which is a lot for a baby his age. I just don't know what to do. I can't not feed him cause then he'll just cry until I give in and feed him and that just means we'll all be awake much longer than necessary. I can't remember what it is like sleeping like 6 hours straight without interruption. I hear of all these babies that belong to my friends that sleeps like 9 hours or 11 hours without waking up every night. It seems unfair and my hubby thinks they're lying. 

I love my bus but I do wish he would sleep more, at night. I don't care about the days as long as he sleeps at night. 

enough with the snow already

A picture says more than a thousand words.

Do I need to tell you that that is my car?

I know I know

I know I know I said I would post every day but yesterday was busy. Bus is sick again. I think I told you all that he had yellow stuff coming out of his ear. Well it turns out he's eardrum has burst and he is now on the third round of antibiotics since beginning of February, he also got some ear drops. We went to the doctor first thing in the morning yesterday and we didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes and the doctor was very nice, I don't think bus agrees on that one, he screamed so loudly when the doctor looked in his ear. I felt like a traitor cause I had to hold him really hard to stop him from wriggling away. We now have to go back and see a doctor in a month again to make sure the eardrum healed as it should. We're going to the paediatrician on Wednesday to follow up on buses bronchiolitis so we'll tell her then about the ear so she'll probably make sure we get to see her in a month to check on the ear. His paediatrician is great but she's very hard getting an appointment with unless she asks for one. It's been a hard while now for the bus and all in his first year. I feel so bad for him having to be sick all the time and I'm really hoping this is not something that's gonna happen every year.

Then yesterday we went grocery shopping and got charged $74 for two cans of crushed tomato. Hubby is going back there today to see if we can get some money back. I thought it was a bit expensive when I paid for it. 

Today I've been searching the web for a good car seat and stroller for when we go to Sweden. My mamma is buying us a car seat to have in Sweden so we don't have to bring ours and risk the airline breaking it every time. I'm buying the stroller myself, my mamma bought one for us the last time we were home but it was so big, old and hard to use, plus it was missing important pieces of harness so it's totally unsafe so I have to get a new one. Found one I want, now I just need my mamma to go get it for us.

Hubby is off today which is great cause that means I don't have to do the evening by myself, I don't have to do the bath for example. I don't mind doing the bath cause bus is a little fish and he loves the bath and he's splashing around like a pro in there, but it gets less fun if you have to do it every night and I kind of miss those 25 minutes to myself. Hubby is working evenings again next week so I'll get to enjoy plenty of bath times. 

Happy birthday Marie!

done and done

So we booked our tickets today. We're leaving on the 18th and coming back on the 28th of April. We've never been away from hubby longer than 3 nights before and the bus has never been away from daddy so it'll be hard. Plus I have to do the flight by myself which can be difficult. It was hell the last time we flew and it was all three of us then. This time it's me and a 10 month old bus. I think I can forget about sleeping and be prepared to spend the whole flight walking up and down the isle and talk to people. We're flying the highly recommended KLM this time, we've never done that before but our experience with British Airways last time was less than great. Well I'll have plenty of time to worry about that later. 

For now I need to worry about the yellow stuff that's coming out of buses ear and the fact that we need to go to the doctor with him again tomorrow. I thought we were done with all this sickness business.

I received my new shoes today. I'm very happy about that. I can't wait for the snow to go away so I can use them. Unfortunately spring seems far away. We had our 8th snowstorm this winter a couple of days ago and there is another one heading our way on Saturday. I think it's time to stop the snow. I've had enough.

Now I need to go to the bus he's waking up.

late

Bus went pee pee on the potty today for the first time. Now you might think I'm crazy to put my 8 month old on the potty but since we bought it, and he peed on his daddy twice last week I decided to try it. I put him on there for a couple of minutes while running his bath and I give him a magazine to read and we sing and have fun so potty isn't a horrible and boring thing. He's never actually peed in the potty before today so it was quite a big deal. 

I do believe he's getting lovelier by the day, my bus. Unfortunately he's also getting more vocal and mobile. He now tells us very loudly when he's not happy or when he wants something or when you take something he wants away from him. He likes magazines and daddy's comics but he doesn't want to read them he wants to rip them to shreds. I let him loose on one of the free Montreal magazines and he had a field day, there is not much left of that magazine. He likes books too, but again not for reading, he likes eating them so most of his board books are slowly dissolving to pulp. I try reading to him at least one story a day so we can have some quiet story time with cuddles, it works sometimes, if I catch him right after sleeping when he's still drowsy or when he's very tired.

So I know I didn't post anything yesterday even though I'm supposed to at least post some links if I can't write a full post, but I was very busy. Yesterday was first play date, we had a lot of fun and good food, then a friend of mine came over and we had dinner and drank some wine and talked. We ate couscous from my favourite restaurant where the owner knows us and he's lovely. I used my best French on him and I brought the baby to see him so he was very pleased and gave us a surprise in our take out bag. The food was lovely as usual and the surprise was baklava's. I found a wine earlier that day called Willm so of course I had to buy it. It was quite tasty. It was fun seeing my friend I haven't seen her in a while and adult conversation is always appreciated.

Decided to go to Sweden for 10 days in April, will book our tickets tomorrow probably got the phone number to a great travel agent that's coming highly recommended so I'm hoping he will get us some cheap tickets. My mormor took a turn for the worse a couple of days ago so I really feel like we need to go home to see her and cheer her up. The bus is great at cheering people up. The week I wanna go also coincides with my step-dads birthday the buses godmothers birthday and the buses future wife's 1st birthday, so we are hoping for many cakes.

One last thing. I'm very disappointed in all of you readers for not answering my question about eyelids. It was a real question and you should give me answers.

Freezing rain

I'm the only one awake in my home right now... or maybe not, I haven't checked to see if Brody and Pico are sleeping.  Let me rephrase that. I'm the only person awake in my home right now. The bus just fell asleep for his first nap of the day and hubby hasn't really gotten out of bed yet. He kind of got out of bed but only to go from our bed to the guest bed this morning when me and the bus was making too much noise. So now you may wonder how come I'm letting the lazy bugger sleep at 10 in the morning when the bus has already been awake for 2 hours and played and had breakfast and all of that plus he was awake at 5 when his diaper leaked and I had to change him and he didn't want to go back to sleep. Well hubby is working evenings this week. He leaves for work at 6.30 tonight and wont be back until like 4 am. Poor bugger. It's actually not as bad as it sounds. We both quite like him working nights. It gives him plenty of time to spend with us here during the day and we can get all sorts of things done during the days that we can't do when he's away all day. We have found that we as a family are happiest when he works from 7-3 no matter if it's am or pm. The most awful shift he has is 10.45-6.45 or 11.30-7.30 those shifts are useless we just don't see him at all and we don't get to eat with him at all either.

Me and bus has all sorts of things planned for this week, we have friends visiting and awesome bubble baths to do.

Outside looks miserable today. There was some freezing rain this morning and for you lucky people outside of Canada that has never experienced freezing rain, it's when it rains and then as soon as it hits the ground it freezes leaving everything covered in a thick layer of ice. This can get really bad if it rains a lot cause then tree branches and electricity poles can't hold the weight of the ice and they come crumbling down crushing people and cars and leaving us without electricity. This I hear was especially bad in 1998, the year of the great Ice-storm. I've never seen it that bad but I have seen ice-storms in my 3 years here. And I have also attempted to get into my car while it was covered in ice, not fun. Today is not too bad and I do believe we'll see quite high temperatures today of like +6°C so maybe the ice will melt again. Let's all hope so.

Tomorrow me and the bus have a play date to go to. That'll be fun. We haven't seen the other babies and mommies in over a month thanks to Will being sick for a month. Thank goodness February is over. Soon it will be spring and we can finally leave the house without dressing up in 14 layers of clothes.

Yesterday was beautiful though and I dug out my snow pants and me and bus sat in the snow. We also bought a twister slide so next nice day me and bus are going sliding. The photo below is of me and bus outside our house and below bus is wearing daddy's toque.

busy day

Been out playing in the snow today. Put the bus down in the snow for the first time, he seemed to like it. Now he's making out with himself  in the mirror. Will post pictures later.

For now you guys should learn more about babies.

My heart outside of my body!

Honestly have you guys seen anything cuter?

Check out my toy!

This is Shay not my hubby btw.

I'm a big kid now.