And this is 1 of the reasons why I'm still a Canadian...

You Failed the US Citizenship Test

Oops, you only got 2 out of 10 right!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Croup

We had a really tough night with Sophie last night, it was really scary. I had noticed in the evening that her voice was a bit raspy, and she coughed once or twice, but that's it. Well at around 11pm last night, we heard this barking sound coming from her room, seriously one of the most scariest sounds I've heard. Sophie was gasping for breath and I felt so helpless just holding her. Called the 24 hr nurse line and they said it sounded like croup, so we did the hot air, cold air treatments a couple times during the night. Let's just say, how scary that it was, there was a moment when Jeremy and I were just laughing. After we had her in a steam room for 20 minutes, we were supposed to bundle her up and take her outside so she'd got cold air. So we bundle her up, put her touque on (that's Canadian for knit ski hat), and walked around our neighborhood. It was at 2am! I just started laughing b/c if anyone would have looked out their windows and saw us, they'd probably think we were these crazy people. And meanwhile, as we are walking, Sophie does her lion "raar", but b/c she's so raspy, it came out all funny. I was amazed at how good of spirits she was in despite all this.

So all 3 of us are going on NO sleep. Sophie is down for a nap right now, I am home (it's my teaching day) after going into work at 6am to get things ready for a sub. Jeremy is at work, barely functioning (I think he got less sleep than I did!) Our happy little family:) We did take Sophie to the dr. and they gave us this steroid medication we have to give to her...the side effects? Extreme, extreme hyperness, and very upset stomach, causing vomitting.....at least it's the weekend, right?

But in this whole situation, when I was watching Sophie gasp for breath, I just realized how fragile life it. Here I was complaining yesterday about Sophie's horrid naps. Well, you know, I'd take a lifetime of horrid naps, if it means having my Sophie healthy and safe here. She is so precious to me, and it's amazing how my heart is so attached to hers...I've always been SUCH an independent person, but now, I would give and do anything for her. Get better little Fee-fee.

I won't nap for Mommy! (but I will for the baby-sitter)

The title says it all...as some of you know, my little squirt, Sophie, has suddenly become very unpredictable in her naps! This is a child who has been SUCH a good napper for months and months now. Well, starting about a week ago, as soon as I'd put her down for a nap, she'd suddenly start crawling around, thumping her legs, talking and laughing, shrieking loudly...this is right after she's been yawning, and calmly snuggling in my arms. This goes on for about, oh, I don't know, it's usually at least 35 minutes!! Well, if you know me at all, you will know that I have control issues....I like to have everything set and in order and you can say I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. Yah, all that basically flew out the window when I had Sophie.

So yesterday I decided that, you know, maybe Sophie wasn't tired enough when I put her down, so I'll keep her up a bit later. So I do that. And wonder of all wonders she goes down SO easily, so squawking or playing or anything. So I leave her room, thinking I should get "Mom of the Year Award" or something for figuring out my daughter...until I hear her talking and laughing at 45 minutes...what????? She did this for both naps yesterday and then was the biggest crab the rest of the night.

Fast forward till this morning, where I'm dropping her off at the baby-sitters. Now, I warn her that Sophie has been napping horribly for me, so beware. Well, I get there today to pick her up, and here's the report:

Sophie had a 2.5 hr nap this morning (went down right away), and had an hour nap this afternoon (which I had to wake her up from when I picked her up)....little stinker....

Phobic

Okay, so I got this from my friend, Katt, and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd be in the 80-90% range!

You Are 60% Phobic

You have a few more phobias than the average person. And you're sometimes developing new ones.Try to chill out and conquer some of your phobias. Facing your fears is the only way to get rid of them.

How'>http://www.blogthings.com/howphobicareyouquiz/">How Phobic Are You?

Go Canucks, go!

Okay, so I feel a little silly posting this, as I haven't posted in a week and a half, and then my first post is about hockey, but I just had to share:)

I've been a Vancouver Canucks fan (that's NHL hockey for all you out there) since forever! I have watched as they've been horrible, and then when they went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1994 (and lost). This year has been a pretty decent season, so when they went to game 7 in the 1st playoff series, I was beginning to lose hope.

But they won last night, yay!:)

Just had to share:)

Sophie the Chatterbox

I think we're in for it with Sophie...she is SUCH a chatterbox! She DOESN'T ever stop talking or at this point "babbling". Pretty much whenever she is awake, she is "talking". I love it, it's so cute. She has REALLY started to communicate with us and is saying more words. She has said mama, dada, uh oh, more, all done for awhile now, but today when she was saying "more" (and doing the sign language for it) she kept saying what sounded like "peash". She keep saying it and I think she's saying Please?? It's so cute.

My favorite things that Sophie "says" is her animal impersonations. We'll say "Sophie, what does a lion say?" and she'll go "Raaaa" with a gravely voice. When we say "Sophie, what does a doggy say?" she goes "Woo woo". And her newest one is when we ask her "Sophie, what does a snake say", and she says "sss sss". It's so precious and she is so proud of herself.

I know I say this about EVERY stage, but I think this is my favorite stage:)

Snotty and clingy

I think the title says it all!! My poor little baby is sick:( She has been more "sensitive" the past few days so I just attributed it to teething b/c she was a drooly mess. Well, lets say that last night, I got about 2.5 hours sleep! You don't know how glad I am that today is not my day to teach.

It is so hard to see Sophie so congested and struggling to breathe. Through it all, though, she has been such a trooper. She was up from 9:45-11:45 last night, slept for 1 hour, up at 12:45 screaming. I finally went in there and sat in the recliner and she slept on my for 2 hours...oh how reminiscent of the newborn days. Of course I didn't sleep at all so at 2:30 I came back in the room, and Sophie was up a bit before 6....

I guess this is motherhood:) And you know what? As hard as it is to see your little one so sick, and being so tired b/c of not being able to breathe well (her AND me), it is something special when she just lays her head on my shoulder or chest and holds onto me for dear life. For one moment she is not off exploring and getting into mischief, but just needing her Momma...I'll take that moment.

De-cluttering

Okay, so after nearly 1 year of looking at my mound of boxes of teaching stuff in the garage, I finally decided today to start going through it all. Now you have to understand something about me...I NEVER throw things away. I always think I will have a use for it someday, so meanwhile this means our junk pile grows higher and higher. I don't know what finally made me decide to go through it and get rid of a bunch of stuff...maybe it's b/c we've been talking finances so whatever I can sell and can get us a few dollars is great. Or maybe, in reality, I'm doing it b/c I'm realizing teaching isn't everything to me anymore, like it used to be. But really, I think it's because I'm tired of looking at the stacks of boxes in the garage.

You know, when I first went to college, I was soooo excited to be pursuing a teaching degree....that was what I wanted to do since I was 5 years old, when I would set up a play classroom with my stuffed animals, and my then 1 year old sister, and "teach them". I mean, I even taught my little sister how to read! I enjoyed college, LOVED doing my class experience and was soooo excited to get my first job, 5 years ago, teaching 1st grade. SUCH a learning experienc for me. I loved the challenge and seeing the "light bulb" go off. Now, 5 years later, and a Masters degree later, i think somewhere along the line, I've been growing very tired of what I am doing. I still love "teaching", but I've discovered that being a teacher is not really too much about "teaching" at all.

This year, I am teaching 3rd grade, I have ALWAYS wanted to teach 3rd and I really am enjoying it. I have a great job-share partner and I love working part-time. So what's the problem? I think I'm becoming jaded. Each year, the kids in my class have gotten tougher and tougher, and while I've jumped up to the challenge many times, I think the burden of it is wearing on me more and more. I learned "classroom management" in college, but did that prepare me for dealing with children who have severe behavior issues or mental health issues? Yes, mental health issues. I have 3 8-year olds in my class who meet with the mental health consultant and counselor regulary. I don't know if I'm cut out for this much longer.

So that is why I am finally able to throw stuff out...because you know, I don't know if I see myself doing it for the rest of my life, like I always imagined I would.

Weight loss (or lack there-of)

You know, I was soooo happy when I lost about 25 of my 40 pregnancy pounds right away after I had Sophie. I loved when people commented about how I looked and I thought, "Wow, this was EASY!" I lost a few more pounds and I was 5 pounds away from my pre-preggo weight when something happened...I stopped losing weight! I thought, Okay, no big deal. Well, wrong. I started eating like crap, no self-control, and low and behold I gained back 15 pounds. Yuck. So, I have made MANY strides in trying to lose that weight, including exercising (walking or something) and trying to eat healthy. I've lost a few pounds here and there and then ended up gaining it all back. I have always struggled with trying to keep my weight at-bay. Well, 1 month ago I just got so fed up with my back and forth, "lose a few, gain them back" that I decided to come up with a "plan". So I did.

I wrote out in DETAILED form what I would and would not eat, how much, etc. I needed to do that as I have absolutely no self-discipline when it comes to food. It's been working! The first week, I lost 3 pounds! 2nd week, I lost 2 pounds, 3rd week, I lost 1 pound (do you see a pattern here?) I weighed myself yesterday, exactly 1 week later and....I lost 0 pounds. Bummer!! I hadn't done anything differently, in fact was even being MORE careful with eating and portions and hadn't even had sweets all week. Now I know why I always "stop" whatever "diet" I do at 4 weeks, b/c that's when it seems to taper off with the weight loss.

I can blame it on the fact that I'm still breast-feeding so need to be careful about my calorie intake, or on the fact that I was on the pill which made my appetite increase 100 fold...or I can just blame it on nothing and keep going with this "plan" and hope that on my next weigh-in date, I will actually have lost weight. My goal was to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight by Sophie's 1st birthday....that is in exactly 5 weeks...can I lose 12 pounds in 5 weeks??? I hope so! But even if I don't, if I can get even a bit closer to that, I'll feel happy.

Funny thing is, even though there was no weight loss in poundage this week, I tried on a pair of my "skinnier pants" that I haven't worn since I was 5 months pregnant (I didn't wear maternity clothes until 6 1/2 months pregnant)...and, I can actually get them over my thighs! I can't do up the button, but you know what? It feels good to at least put them on. So I'm wearing them today...with a long shirt of course:)

I have entered the land of "blog"

Okay, so I know it's taken me awhile to "get with it" and enter the blog world, but you know, I guess that is me...it takes me awhile to do things. You know, when CD's came out, I refused to buy them, wanted to keep my cassettes. When DVD players came out, I refused to use them, liked the handy old VHS. When digital cameras came out, I said NO WAY...I want to be able to have "surprise" when I pick up my pic. And internet? Yah, we just got rid of dial-up. So anyways, here I am, actually telling the world (or my 1 or 2 readers) the random thoughts of my life...I know you are all excited! Hope I can figure this all out.