biodome

Me and Wilhelm went to the Biodome today. The Biodome is a nature museum which has 4 different ecosystems with real animals roaming the different parts. There is the Tropical forest with the big parrots, the ibis birds and all the other kinds I can't remember and the cool fishes and bats and the cute tiny monkeys they have three kinds black & white, black and golden ones.
Laurentian Forrest with otters (they were both out and playing today and they were super cute), a beaver, porcupines and birds.
St Lawrence Marine has two different sections
- The huge aquarium with huge fish and swimming birds and a shark and stuff.
- The top of the aquarium with the birds and the starfish and the giant 8 kg lobster.
The Arctic with the puffin birds and other birds.
The Antarctic with the penguins.

I could spend all day looking at the penguins and the big aquarium and Wilh really used to like it but not today. He ran around like a mad person and refused to sit still and enjoy the animals. I think his favorite part today was the big green parrots in the tropic and the two cute otters in the Laurentians.

All in all a good outing though.
Tomorrow is mine and hubby's 4th wedding anniversary so I'll be posting some photos.

Are there any other places around that I should check out that I don't know about. I have a lot of time to do interesting things with Wilh these days.

holiday shopping

Since I'm not working right now and the prospects of job finding in my field for the hours I'm available are slim this holiday season might turn out a little less extravagant than previous years. In a way I think it's good. It will force us to find special, unique and tailored presents for everyone instead of going for quantity. So in the last couple of days I've been doing a bit of research on what would be the perfect gift for our nieces and nephew, 8,5 and 3 respectively.

Hubby found the perfect gift for the 3 year old boy and is pretty clear on what he wants to give the 8 year old since she's his favorite and Godchild. That leaves the 5 year old. I just read this post on Babble and unfortunately it sums her up quite well. Not by intention of course her parents do an awesome job at making sure she's got everything she wants and needs and she lacks nothing. The problem with her is more that she's so easy going and sweet and funny and great that she likes everything you give her and nothing stands out like a perfect gift. She's just happy to be the recipient of presents in a way. On her birthday a couple of months ago we went shopping for her gift the whole family together and she got this play cottage thing with lots of extras and she was just amazed that all those things were for her. Actually come to think of it he case is not very similar to the Babble article after all. She's just difficult to shop for.

For the oldest girl it's easy she's so mature and she knows what she likes, I'm planning on getting her to read the Famous Five series cause I think she'll like it: She enjoys reading and practicing her piano and playing her video games and snowboarding of course. The younger girl doesn't have any real hobbies yet and even though she likes snowboarding too she's more into pretend play and she has this fantastic mind that can just think up the most amazing scenarios. This is a fantastic thing to have since it rarely leaves her bored and she can play anywhere with ease but it's hard to buy something that will... help her with this or make it better or...

I don't know what we'll end up getting her but I think I'll throw at least one Dr. Seuss book in there that she can read by herself cause if there's anything that can trigger your imagination it's a Dr. Seuss book.

As for Wilhelm I just don't know, but I'm sure I'll find the perfect gift for my perfect little man.

the leg warmer hug

There's this ad on TV that I've seen a couple of times. I can't remember what it's for or what I'm supposed to want to buy, so it's probably not a very effective ad. Anyway in the ad they show all these different hugs that different people will give you once they've opened their presents this holiday season. One of those hugs is the leg warmer where two kids hug their dad's legs while he tries to walk around. Today I was the recipient of a very extended and whiny leg warmer hug.

We had an appointment at the pediatrician this morning since Wilh was hospitalized last weekend. the appointment was at 11.45 so we had to leave home by 11ish to get there on time. I was planning on making Wilh nap between 9.30 and 11 so he would be nice and rested and pleasant at the doctors office, unfortunately Wilh is no longer a blob that just does what I want him to, he now has his own ideas. Today those ideas were, amongst others, to wake up at 5 a.m. and scream for 45 minutes and then go back to sleep until 8, refuse to nap in the morning, fall asleep in the car 5 minutes from the pediatricians office, refuse to nap in the afternoon, falling asleep in the stroller while I was running errands for 20 minutes, waking up cranky and refusing to be anywhere but in my arms.

I had a friend over that I haven't seen in a month and a half or so and we were baking lussekatter (don't know what it is, then look it up) I'll tell you that it's very hard baking with a baby in your arms and when said baby refuses to play with Julie then it's even harder and the few moments I needed both my hands and had to put him on the floor he wrapped his little arms around my leg and held on tight. I don't know what got into him, he usually likes Julie, he even played with her for a little bit alone before he fell asleep while I was out moving the car. Eventually he calmed down enough to play a bit with us while the dough was resting and then he helped shaping lussekatterna.

Well back to the health update. Wilh still has stuff in his lungs and was given more medicine and we have to take him back in 2 weeks.

Question: Wilhelm doesn't like milk, how do I get him to drink it? I've tried regular milk and soy milk and he just won't have any of it. Any tricks I should know about? Also when will he stop saying "no" to everything?

I love Dr. Seuss...

...and so does Wilhelm. We read Seuss books every day. Right now my favorite is "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" but it changes from week to week.
He likes "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" too and when we get to the page with "here are some who likes to run
they run for fun in the hot hot sun

oh me, oh my
oh me, oh my
what a lot of funny things go by"

He takes his pacifier out and says meomy meomy and laughs, it's great.

Speaking of the pacifier (or napp like we call it) we've been slowly weening him off it for the last couple of months and right now he only uses it for naps and nighttime. This has been rather easy so far, I ask him for the napp and he gives it to me and we put it on the shelf and wave bye bye every time he wakes up. But now since he's been sick things have been a bit different around here. He now asks for the napp during the day and has full on meltdowns when he can't have it.

Luckily his attachment to the napp is not as strong as the attachment to the blanket. He has a little giraffe blanket I bought for him when he was little and I realized that the big "Linus-blanket" I bought for him was not convenient to carry around everywhere. It used to have dotted velvet on the back but that is long gone now and even thinking of washing it is a no go. He will not go anywhere without it and if you try to put it down so he can eat or something he will cry cry cry until he gets it back. He doesn't have the blanket all the time but he doesn't like it being put away in a bag or in the bed or in the stroller, every time I try to pack it he will promptly unpack it again and if it doesn't come loose when he tugs on it he will cry until it's given to him. It's a real love affair he's got going with that blanket.

Wilhelm loves the blanket, the napp, Dr. Seuss, mamma, papa, mormor, grand-maman, grand-papan, matante and his cousins above all other things.

a long and scary night

I know it's been a while since I wrote anything here. I'd like to say I've been busy but I don't know if that's really true. Anyways. I guess I haven't had anything important to say.

Yesterday my baby was diagnosed with pneumonia and got started on antibiotics. Later in the afternoon he started breathing super fast. Like he's just been out running laps and his fever went up to 39.4°c so I took him to St Justine children's hospital. There we got to go straight to the triage and then got moved instantly to observation. We spent 4 and a half hour in observation while Wilhelm was given 5 rounds of asthma inhaler treatment as well as cortisone. He also had to do more x-rays. Then the doctor sat with us for 10 minutes just watching Wilh breath, since his breathing was still very fast we got admitted to the respiratory bloc in the hospital and then the night from hell began.

We got to our room just before 10 p.m. Wilh usually goes to bed at 7 p.m. so he was already exhausted. I finally managed to speak to my hubby and told him to get his ass to the hospital asap cause the nurses were bugging me to go downstairs to do the admission and leave Wilh alone upstairs with an orderly. I was not going to leave my 16 month old, sick baby with some stranger for anything, he already have issues with me leaving him even if he's with his dad. I rocked Wilh to sleep and refused to put him down in the prison style crib provided just in case they'd force me to do the admission if he was sleeping. An hour later or so my hubby showed up and did the admission and got the update of what had happened up until that point. Then the first of what felt like a million interruptions of Wilh's sleep came.

We had a special nurse come every 2 hours to give Wilh his asthma inhaler.The asthma inhaler is a torture device in Wilh's eyes and he will do anything to get away from it. He was given 4 doses every 2 hours and it was horrible, he's scream and cry and kick and hit every time. I had a couple of the poor nurses be very surprised by how strong he is even with a high fever, breathing difficulties and after being rudely awoken.

About half an hour after the inhaler came the general well being and temperature check. Every 2 hours or so all night.

Then the resident showed up and she was very nice. She evaluated him and decided to put an IV on him and to give his antibiotics intravenous. She also told us that Wilh's symptoms were that of an asthma crises and that they would treat him for both pneumonia and asthma crises. Hubby got into a discussion on the topic of which causes which bronchilitus causing asthma or asthma causing bronchilitus...

After she left the team came to put the IV in and I have never felt so helpless in my entire life. They held him down and it took forever and his poor little hand was bleeding and they put this cardboard thing under his wrist and hand and taped his hand and wrist to his so he couldn't move it at all. Then they wrapped the whole thing in a towel which they also taped to his hand. It looked like he broke his hand and was wearing a cast. It was so sad to see him try to do things with just one hand. Poor lilla bus bus.

Me and hubby go no sleep, maybe 3 hours all together and Wilh didn't get much more, poor baby. He was so tired and feverish when the morning came. He didn't eat anything. Then there were more checks and treatments and then the head of paediatrics came by and did an evaluation of Wilh and told us he didn't think bus had pneumonia at all and that he would speak to the radiologist to get an expert opinion. The radiologist agreed with the paediatrician that Wilh did not in fact have pneumonia but rather a partially collapsed lung caused by a viral infection and an asthma crisis. Apparently this is good news. Wilh got taken off the antibiotics and got prescribed and anti inflammatory liquid for his airways and lungs and we got sent home.

We got back here at 3.30 p.m. 23 hours after we left for the hospital. Very tired. Wilh fell asleep at 6.30 and I think we'll follow him shortly.

Pictures from the hospital will follow later.

"Now it's time to go to sleep
so we will sleep with our pet zeep
Today was good today is gone
tomorrow is another one
Every day from here to there
funny things are everywhere"
-Dr. Seuss

I am a lion hear me roar

I have a boy, bus, he's almost fifteen months old and lovely. He did all of his firsts quite early so far. He was turning by four months, sitting by six and standing up holding onto things at 7 months. He started talking saying mamma and daddy and titta (Swedish for look) and dedans (French for inside) all in that order. Then he learned to roar like a lion.

Bus, like most other kids, love animals. He could spend a whole day just looking through his books with pictures of animals. He loves books too especially if there are animals inside. He can do most of the animal sounds, like meow like a cat, woof like a dog, neigh like a horse and all other common animal sounds, but that's not all. No that's not all. He can also roar like a lion, sound like an elephant, like a fish, like a bunny and like a gorilla. It's quite impressive, even though some less enthusiastic and child loving people may say the sounds are all very similar, but there is a downside. Ever since the animal sounds started really take off my lovely son has stopped the talking. He no longer says titta or dedans or any of the other things he used to say. He still occasionally say mamma or mat (food in Swedish) or daddy but nothing else.

Maybe it's just the age he's at right now but I think he actually enjoy me saying no to him. He likes it when I shake my head, he thinks it's funny, so he does things that he knows I will say no to just so I'll shake my head. He even shakes his head too and laugh and when he laughs you can't be angry with him. How do I get him to understand no and not think it's funny?

He started spending his mornings with his daddy this week since I had to start working again. I think it's good for both of them, so my hubby will have a more active role in the everyday care taking of bus and so that bus will get to know his daddy and to learn some more French. I miss him though. I miss both of them. Not only do I have to work so I can't hang out with bus all day but my hubby works when I'm not working so I don't get to see him very much. It's a big change and I'm not sure I like it.

Enough whining and back to the issue at hand, my son turning into a lion. Hubby had this theory about the lack of words and the amount of animal sounds. He recons it's because we're raising bus tri-lingual, Swedish, French and English, so the only things that are the same no matter what language is the animal sounds. So by bus using animal sounds everyone understands him and everyone speaks the same. It's an interesting theory, but I'm not sure I believe it. bus is surely not the first kid to be raised tri-lingual so if others have managed before I'm sure he will too, he's a clever boy.

A couple of weeks ago we did this study at the UQAM (Université de Québec á Montréal) where bus had to listen to Russian to see how he responded to the language and if he could pick up on certain structures in the language after only hearing it for ten minutes. It was interesting even though bus wasn't too cooperative, I had to wrestle with him to keep him in the chair he was supposed to sit in. We're going to get a copy of the results of the study in a year or so.

Soon it's Halloween, guess what bus will be dressed up as!
I am a lion, hear me roar!

my little helper

Today we made blueberry muffins me and bus. I pulled a small stepladder up to the counter so he could reach. He loved it he was playing with the measuring cups and all the little pots. Then he got to lick the spoon and he was very happy.

a month in pictures

Bestest friends!


Awsome in sailor suit!


Packing


Makeshift toy at hotel during our 24 hour delay


Napping with daddy once we finally arrived


First time in the ocean


With daddy up north


With granddad second grandma and uncles


With favourite Annelen


Picking berries at grandma's

sporadic

I know my posting has been sporadic to say the least but here is an update on what's been going on since June 26Th.

a lot of panic and stress and travelling. 

We went to Sweden again for what was supposed to be a two week relaxing holiday. It didn't turn out as relaxing as we hoped.

It all started the day we were leaving. My mother-in-law showed up with hubby's niece in the morning to drive us to the airport. As we were getting the last couple of things ready she decided to go pick up her bike that she had left not too far from our place. She left the niece with us. Half an hour later she's still not back and I am freaking out more than earlier.  hubby calls her and she tells him she's just been hit by a van so we need to pick her up. We pack the car and start looking for her. We find her and make our way to the airport. 

When you fly from Montreal to the U.S. you go through U.S. customs in Canada at the airport before flying. I have previously been denied entry into the U.S. for the simple reason I didn't want to go to the U.S. I wanted to go back in to Canada to pick up my student visa. The rejection makes travelling to the U.S. a bit more difficult cause they have to check that what I tell them happened is what happened. This takes about 2 minutes, that is if they take the time to do it. It was relatively quick at the border in Canada so we were through security and at our gate early and spent the time trying to entertain the bus. We boarded the plane as scheduled and it left the gate and was on the tarmac when the pilot comes on the speaker telling us that New York has closed it's air to any more planes cause there are too many in the air already. He tells us they are trying to get an exception so we can go now since we're already on the tarmac. 10 minutes later he tells us we did not get the exception so now they are deciding weather or not to have us wait in the plane or make us go back up to the gate. 

20 minutes later they decide we are going back to the gate. The plane we're on is like a flying bus, it's tiny and they took all big hand luggage away from us so we had no food for the bus and they stole our magazines from the bag. Our connecting flight in Newark is at 17.25 and it's closing in on 15.30 already. Then they let us back on the plane and we leave Montreal. When we're closing in on Newark the pilot tells us we have to zig zag a bit until we get an OK for landing. We land at 17.00.

As we leave the plane there is a man waiting for us and he tells us that we have missed our connecting flight but has been re-booked on a flight to Copenhagen that is leaving in 40 minutes so run run run!!! We make our way as fast as we can to the other terminal and just as we're about to go through yet another security check another man is waiting for us. He tells us that the Copenhagen flight pushed off early so we missed that one too. He tells us we have to go up to the service desk and speak to Al. We rush upstairs and find Al, he tells us we've missed all flights that day but we've been re-booked on a flight tomorrow night, he had also booked a hotel room for us and he gave us money for dinner and breakfast. Unfortunately we could not get our bags so we were given overnight kits from SAS. 

We made our way to our hotel in New Jersey, which was overlooking a high way, and tried to get some sleep. The food at the hotel restaurant was very American and very disgusting. It was greasy and tasteless and nothing for bus bus to eat. Luckily I had over packed the hand luggage with food and clothes for the bus so he was quite well off. The only things we were missing were toiletries and bath toys. Bus bus had a bath with a hairbrush a couple of cups and some other things we found around the room. Then he spent most of the evening screaming and refusing to sleep.

The next morning we had some disgusting breakfast and decided against having lunch at the hotel so we left for the airport at noon. We ate good food at chili's and checked in with Al and mainly just waited around, buying and reading magazines and chasing bus around (did I mention he's walking really well now).

That evening we finally left the U.S. Al was nice enough to bump us up to economy extra and we had a good flight. The same could not be said for the family next to us who were on the receiving end of a grumpy old lady demanding they pay for her ticket cause their baby ruined her flight.

In Sweden we travelled around a lot and met lots of family and went swimming in the ocean, two lakes and a bath bucket. We missed out on meeting a couple of our friends including bus bus godmother which is a bit sad but with clashing schedules and no time we're just gonna have to meet up next time unless you guys come here and visit!

We also bought lots of pretty clothes for bus and finally found a pair of shoes that fits his wide, high and big feet (I have looked everywhere for shoes for him and I've made him try on like a million different ones or so) we picked up some clothes for ourselves too of course and walked around Skansen with bus bus future wife and her mommy! We also med cute Julia with her mommy (too bad we couldn't spend more time with you guys!)

We were truly cursed with public transport while away. We took a train from my grandma's to my mom's and we booked the X2000 (Sweden's high speed luxury trains) and ended up in the broken carriage with no a.c. the thing was rocking like a boat and everyone was sick. I was dying we had already spent 5 hours in a car before boarding the train and I spent half my youth puking from being carsick and hubby was not much better.

On the way home when we went to check in at the airport we had to deal with SAS idiots. You would think that SAS would be good at the Scandinavian airports being their base airports and stuff but no. SAS are horrible at Arlanda airport. I had called in advance (like a month early) and requested seats together, a bassinet and a baby meal on the flight. On the flight to Sweden we got seats together but that was it, on the way back we got baby food and we had to actually mess about with supervisors to get seats together. The seats we got were on a row of 4 seats and since bus doesn't get his own seat it was me and hubby and two other people on the same row. This is not great. Anyone who has ever travelled with a baby knows that it's difficult getting your kid not to touch the person next to you or his or her things. When we got the seats I knew it would be a rough ride on that row so I asked a couple of guys to swap seats with us, which they did. I just don't understand how difficult it can be to seat people travelling together, together? and how hard is it giving decent seats to people with kids? Last time we flew SAS (before the bus was thought of) it was the same thing, we didn't get seats together and had to move around, but only on the way from Sweden, never on the way to.

When we got to the U.S. they decided to make me go wait in the border and customs office to have a closer look at my passport. When I walked in there were about 4 people before me. After me there were about 10 more people coming in and they were all seen before me. When I asked the guy how long it would be cause I was about to miss my connecting flight home to Canada, he told me that they process the people in the order they come in BULLSHIT! It took 2 hours for them to look at my passport and send me on my way, unbelievable! So we didn't have time to eat at the airport like we had planned so very hungry we went about picking up our luggage and dropping it at the connecting flight drop off and going through a million different security checks and our freezer pack being taken from us even though it had made it through the first time around. We ate some Starbucks at the gate and got on the last flight home. 

Back in Montreal we got a lift from this nice guy on a little car from the gate to the customs and made it through fine. Went down to the baggage pick up and waited... and waited... and waited... and no bags. They lost our bags. We could not believe it. It was like the cherry on top. The perfect end to a horrible travelling experience. So doing all the paperwork and stuff and then leaving for home without toiletry again it was still quite nice to be home.

Oh and the bus was a star through all of this hardly crying at all and sleeping a lot on the flights and being a charming, lovely, perfect and wonderful bus in Sweden.