...

Exam tomorrow!

Wish me luck!

Second Friday: The testing issue

I am taking a distance course from a University in Sweden and on Monday I have my first proper exam. It's a bit of a hassle since I had to find a place to write it and then file a request with my school to be allowed to write it there. The more I study for this test and the more I look at old exams it just strikes me as odd how the testing system works. I understand why they have to do tests but for the life of me I can't think of any time where I will actually have to know all the causes for the beginning and end of the Cold War without being allowed to look it up.
I understand that certain thing you just have to know like the grammatical rules for a language, or how to install things if you're an electrician or something, but exact dates for wars... I don't think so.
Now testing throughout school is necessary but the importance we put on the test should be much less. I read this thing on Babble this week about a woman who's child had done well on pre-k exams and how her friend who's child didn't do so well had to scramble to find a preschool because the test scores were not high enough. To me the idea of testing 4 year olds to get the "gifted" or "brightest" ones to attend a certain school just seems plain wrong.
I personally believe in evaluating someones ability to find information as well as analyze it. That's what should be tested, not my ability to memorize dates and causes just so I can forget them as soon as the test is done.

Please feel free to share your opinion on the topic, or any other topic you think I should bring up for discussion!
I know this post isn't as long as it should be but I do have a test on Monday and not enough time left to cram all those dates into my head!

Dandelions

It's been kind of hectic around here lately. I just got approved for writing my exam here at the Swedish consulate on Monday. I applied in early April but apparently they just had to wait until the last minute to make a decision. So I've been studying hard lately so this won't be a long post. I still have to write tomorrows Friday issue post.

Anyway, my mother-in-law came back to Montreal on Monday and she left again today to go to Paris for a week. Whenever she's around things just tend to get a little stressed since she's never here for very long. This time we had to fit in some birthday shopping for W since his second birthday is coming up in 3 weeks. He got a Woody and a Buzz doll from the movie Toy Story and he's in love. More about that at another time.
Today he was sitting watching a movie and I asked him for a kiss and he gave me one without struggle then he reached for me and said KRAM (hug in Swedish). Too cute.

W's discovered the joy of blowing the puffy dandelions.

6 years!

It started as any Sunday back in 2003. I woke up with a severe hangover and forced my roommate E out of bed and made us both a nice cocktail. Then we made some phone calls and met up with some other friends, C, A and B if I remember correctly, at Tottenham Court Road tube station and set off towards Kings Cross. At Kings Cross we followed to large flow of people migrating towards the big warehouse where The Church was held. We got in line, bought our drink tickets and after about 45 minutes made it inside. It was now about noon.

The floors were covered in saw dust and there were people everywhere. We got our three drinks each in our bags and found a nice spot to consume them and watch the entertainment consisting of some guy with a guitar and some strippers. After and hour or so we had finished all of our drinks and were not yet drunk enough but very much broke so we decided to try to score some free drinks off the groups of guys around us. The first 2 groups were failures. The third and last group was a failure too when it came to drinks but you were there so it didn't matter. Who would have thought that 6 years from that drunken Sunday at the church we would be here. Married for 4 and a half years, with the most perfect and beautiful baby boy almost 2 years old. Living in Montreal which I hadn't heard of before 2002.
Some people talk about fate and how it was meant to be and stuff. Most of the time I honestly think it's just random but sometimes, like in our case, it just seems meant to be. Cause what are the odds of a Swede and a French-Canadian meeting in London at a place he only went to once and I went twice? I don't know.
Anyway, 6 years and many memories later I still love you J.

This photo was snapped by J's friend D at the Church that fateful day!

Boy Behaving Badly 1 (continued)

Here are, as promised, the photos of the little Boy behaving very badly.

 

Notice the cranky face even though the car was awesome and made all the right sounds and had flashing lights.

 

No Pappa! I don't want to hold the hose!

 

Can I push all the buttons? What do you mean "NO"?

 

No Mamma! I don't want to hold the cool pole and slide down it like a fireman!

 

Get this hat off me now and I don't want to be close to the very nice man giving us an awesome tour!

Nature Center in Laval

We had a great day today!

First Friday: The circumcision issue.

I read a lot of blogs that really touches me like this one for example, and they inspire me to write these long and awesome posts about things like the perfectness of W's wrists or the way his hair falls. But I also read a lot about other things like circumcision or natural birth advocates and the whole breast vs. formula debate, which inspires me to write about these issues. Unfortunately it turns out I am not only inspired but also lazy so all these posts I write in my head tend to stay in my head and never see the light of day.
In order to better myself and be less lazy and more motivated and proactive I have now decided to do at least one proper post a week, every Friday about something inspiring with the appropriate links to the person who inspired me of course.

Today's topic will be circumcision.

I read a few days or weeks ago (who keeps track of time anyway) about this doctor in the USA who is specialized in circumcisions and who has taken it as his personal quest to ensure that all little boys in the US gets circumcised. He points to all these benefits of circumcision as better hygiene, reduced risk of STD:s, reduced risk of penile cancer and so on and so forth. I have read about these benefits before and maybe it's true but I think that the marginal difference it makes is redundant in comparison to the fact that you are in fact surgically removing a fully functional piece of your son's body. (Now you know where I stand) I understand the benefits of circumcision if you live somewhere where there is no access to condoms or clean water to clean yourself, but on the other hand if you have no clean water to clean yourself with then you probably won't have any better hygiene down there than an uncut fella.
Circumcision is still somewhat the norm for little boys in the US which is strange since it's the only place in the world who uses the procedure for non-religious reasons. In Europe where I'm from the norm is the opposite, and in all honesty I don't think that European men are stinky, disease ridden people just because they still possess their foreskin.
When my son was born we did not even have a conversation about it because it was never an option for us. I think my reasons and opinions are stronger and more emotional than J's but he never considered it either. For me the thought of cutting a piece of my newborns penis off just seemed barbaric. And besides who am I to chose for him weather he keeps his foreskin or not. At least like this he can chose to cut if off himself in the future, the other way around is way harder.
I watched this thing on TLC a while back about a boy who was turned into a girl after a doctor botched his circumcision and subsequently burned most of his penis off. It didn't turn out great and he eventually reassigned himself back into a boy and later in 2004 killed himself. Watching that reinforced my belief that we should not cut fully functional pieces off our bodies because you just never know if there are going to be complications. The fact that circumcision for the longest time took place without any anaesthetic, mind you that still happens today, is just scary. Did you know that before the 1970's surgery was performed on infants without anaesthetic because it was believed that they could feel no pain. Crazy!

Well that's all for me on this subject, feel free to post your own beliefs on the subject.

Boy Behaving Badly (Part 1)

W is finally better. I ended up taking him to Ste Justine Hospital on Thursday after his lips turned blue and stuff. After about 6 hours of waiting we got a great doctor (Dr Cohen I think) who very thoroughly checked W and took urine samples and blood samples. The urine sample was a bit of a mess cause they attempted to put a catheter with me holding him down and that didn't work very well. I couldn't stand watching him cry like that so I told them I'd just follow him around with a cup until he peed. They then figured out that they have these bags that go over the wee wee to collect the pee pee so he got one of them. The butchered catheter attempt hurt him though so for the rest of the evening he cried when he peed and told us that he had a boo boo like Iron Giant.
The doctor was so great that she called us last night and asked how W was doing just to follow up and make sure he didn't get worse cause she couldn't figure out what was causing his fever. She also spent at least half an hour with us on Thursday just asking questions and examining him. I wish she was his full-time paediatrician.

Today we went to The Montreal Fire Station Museum. We thought W would really like it since he loves the fire trucks but he was on such terrible behavior that I was embarrassed. He whined and kicked and grabbed and wouldn't listen to the nice guy giving us a guided tour. He didn't want to sit in the fire truck or do anything. He was awful.

I've been waiting to post this because I wanted to upload the photos before posting but since it seems I'm not about to do that right now I might as well post this and note that there are photos to come!

short one

It'll be a short post today cause W is sick. He was strangely tired yesterday afternoon and after dinner I realized he was a bit warm so I took his temperature and he had a fever of 38.6°C (101.5°F). I gave him Tylenol to break the fever and put him to bed. Before I went to bed a checked his temperature again and it was still high so I gave him more Tylenol. He then woke up at around 1 am and was all talking and awake and superwarm so I put him in our bed and took his temperature again, it was up at around 39°C (102.2°F) so I gave him Motrin. He finally fell asleep next to me after I spent a good half hour singing to him. He may be small my little man but he takes up a lot of space. I slept on the edge of the bed all night and woke up with a sore back and a superwarm baby next to me. His fever was up to 39.3°C (102.7°F) I gave him Advil, his temperature went up to 39.6°C (103.3°F). I went to the pharmacy and asked for advice, I was told to give him Children's Motrin rather than Infant's Motrin. By the time I was allowed to give it to him his temperature was up to 39.8°C (103.6°F) but luckily this time the medicine worked.

So today we spent the day relaxing, watching movies napping together and worrying about his fever. We even missed his swimming lesson this morning. W being sick really sucks.

to every question...

...there is an answer... and it's always NO!
At least if you ask W. You could pretty much ask him is he wants chocolate cake dipped in ice-cream and he'd say NO!

We were out walking the other day and this clown on the street handing out balloons asked W if he wanted one. He thought about it for a moment then shook his head and said NO! The clown looked a bit taken aback but he gave W a smile anyway and told him that of course if he doesn't want one... W was then unhappy for about 30 minutes crying and asking for the balloon he turned down.

It's hard being a toddler. He'll be 2 in a month or so and he has already started the terrible twos. Or terribly two. Or like my aunt says (I thought I'd just mention she has no kids) the age when the parent become so hard to deal with setting limits and saying no and stuff.

I have to admit I am not dealing great with this new found independence, but as poorly as I deal with it, hubby is worse. I have tried giving him thoughtful advice such as don't ask W a question he can answer no to. Simply tell him you're going to change his diaper or ask him if he wants the red or the blue crayon.

We had a tantrum free day last week and that was the first tantrum free day in months. It was very nice. Me and W went to the biôdome and looked at the animals and then we attracted the crazies on the metro, not once but twice. It's amazing how cute kids like mine attracts the crazies. Well more about that another day. Now I have to figure out what to make us for dinner.

The first flower he ever picked.
today at the Park LaFontaine

Happy Mother's Day

Today is mother's day here in North America. In Sweden mother's day is on the last Sunday of May and in the UK it falls on one Sunday in March I can't remember which.

Funny story about the UK mother's day. As you may or may not know I lived for some years in the UK. I spent about a year and a half in Brighton first studying for six months, then bartending and living in a hostel for about a year. It was fun. Then London for six months and then Sweden for six months and then back to London for a year and a bit before moving here.
I have never been good at remembering such occasions as mother's day or father's day so I usually went by the advertisements for flowers that tend to show up a couple of weeks before the event. So my first year in England I did just that. It's early March and everywhere signs for mother's day are showing up in flower shop windows so I promptly buy a card for my mom write something sweet in it and send it off thinking I've been good and have done my duty as a good daughter. A couple of days later I get a phone call from mom asking me why I'm sending her mother's day cards in March when mother's day isn't until May. Well I told her I like to be early so I'm just making sure she'll have her card on time. I ended up having to send her another one in May anyway.

Because mother's day here in Canada and in Sweden both fall in May just on different Sundays I have been told I will not get to celebrate both since my hubby is clearly too cheep and too lazy to do special treats for me twice in one month. Father's day is another thing though. Father's day here in Canada is in June. I know this because W was born on Father's day thereby saving me the hassle of having to buy something for hubby since I had already given him the ultimate present. About four months later we went to Sweden to show off our new baby and have him baptised. It was November and we scheduled the baptism for the 10Th which was a Saturday since the church had decided to do baptisms on Saturdays rather than Sundays. We get there and what do you know father's day in Sweden is in November. The 11Th of November that particular year so apparently we have to celebrate both. Now how is this fair. W is born in June so both Canadian and Swedish (and UK's for that matter) mother's day are gone but hubby gets 2 father's days!

Well today is my second mother's day. Last year I got a flowerbed with a flower and this year I got a beautiful homemade card from W.






So to all mother's and grand-mother's Happy Mother's Day! May you be pampered and loved all day (and everyday).

funeral songs...

so all this thinking of death got me thinking about funerals and what song I would like to have played at my funeral and I have a couple of ideas.

Jeff Buckley - Halleluja
Green Day - Time of your life
Israel Kamakawiwo Ole' - Somewhere over the rainbow
and lastly
Antony and the Johnsons - Another World.

What music do you want for your funeral?

sad

Someone I love very much tried to commit suicide yesterday. She almost succeeded. She's been sick for quite a while now and all she wants to do is die. She's in a deep depression. She's now awake in the hospital and is being kept at the psychiatric ward on suicide watch. I am very sad.

bad day

today is a bad day. I don't know if I have the strength to write about it. today is a very bad day.