McMaster Children's Hospital

On Sunday we attended a fundraiser in Ridgeway for McMaster Children's Hospital. The fundraiser was held in Alivia's name with all profits going to the Children's Cancer Center to purchase a vital signs machine. It was a fantastic day with live bands, great food and drinks and games for the kids. It was made even better when Alivia was able to come. She has been home for a couple of days recovering and preparing to start round five of chemo. Chantal (Liv's mom) did not think she would be able to make it to the fundraiser as Liv was up all night vomiting and in the process of all of this her feeding tube came out. Chantal called their doctor and he said that she can wait until Monday morning to come back as long as Liv drank the required amount of water....no easy task for Chantal. We were all very happy to see that she did it. Some photos from our day.

Fishing game.



The girls together again


Dancing


As usual Cooper was the hit of the party...especially with Chantal's dad.

Funny or maybe scary?

Simon is funny. There is no way around it, he is just plain old funny. He loves to make people laugh. On the weekend at Nee Nee's house he found this mask. He was wearing it around the house saying "don't worry, it's just me Simon."

Memere

On the weekend we were able to spend a little bit of time with Memere. We love to see her with the kids. We are so lucky to have two sets of great-grandparents in our children's lives.

Multi-tasking

As I am sure you can imagine life with three children is busy, busy, busy. Life is especially busy in our family because I am often on my own with all three of them, Jason works full time teaching and on top of those demands he is very busy coaching volleyball. He coaches Georgian College, the Provincial Beach Team, High Performance Athlete Development, School of Beach, the Canada Games Team and does his own private coaching on the side in the summer months on our beach court.

When we began to tell people that were expecting baby number three responses varied greatly. Some said that we wouldn't even notice a difference, others said that the third will change everything completely. Those people that told us that a third child changes nothing lied....big time:) My good friend Sharon (who is super mom with four fantastic children) had the best analogy we have heard, she said you are going from playing one on one to zone defense...boy was she right. Multi-tasking is a must. In attempt to bring the laundry down from upstairs and hold Cooper (he is a mama's boy), I resorted to carrying him around in the laundry basket. He loved it in there, I was able to change over the loads, fold the laundry and even put some away....and look how cute he looks.

He certainly isn't starving...

I had Cooper at the doctor's today for his well baby appointment and to get his first needles. Last month he weighed 9 lb, 9 oz and was 23 inches long, this month he is 12 lbs, 10 oz and is 23 3/4 inches long. 3 lbs 1 oz gain in 4 weeks!!!! I guess I have a reason for feeling like a walking zombie all the time, I am constantly feeding.

Random

Some random shots of Riley and Cooper from the last couple of days...

Riley getting married. When I asked her to open her eyes she told me that she can't because you have to have your eyes closed to get married. Hmmm...
If you look closely in the background you can see our new office space with our new computer. We are so happy to be done with our old, slow, virus infested computer.


Mr. Happy.



Our sweet little boy after his bath.

Conversations....

Some funny conversations have recently happened that we found amusing. Here's how the conversations went...

Nee Nee: Riley are you smart?
Riley: No, but I'm much smarter than my Mama.

And one from Simon talking to our photographer...

Natalie: Wow look how big you are.
Simon: I'm getting stronger and my penis is getting bigger.

End of conversation.

A beautiful ending...

March break certainly did not work out as planned but last night there was a beautiful ending......


My four favourite people snuggling and reading together.

2 Months

Our little man is already 2 months old. He is such a good boy...full of smiles and coos. He is able to grasp things now and loves to hold onto my necklace and hair.

Snuggles with dad.


Happy boy.

March Break: Day Six and Seven

Part of Riley's birthday present was tickets to go see Disney On Ice Presents Worlds of Fantasy so the five of us headed to Toronto for a night at the Delta Chelsea hotel and to see the show. Once we got into the hotel it was a rough start, Riley is not 100% after her illness, Simon had not napped and was complaining of a headache and travelling with three young children is a lot harder logistically. We rested in the hotel, had a picnic lunch on the beds and played in the playroom. Simon had a complete meltdown because of exhaustion, it was horrible, so bad that Jason was going to stay at the hotel with him while Riley, Cooper and I went to the show. Thankfully, he pulled it together in time to go. We took the subway to the Rogers Center and had a great time. Simon ended up falling asleep about half way through the show.
Relaxing at the hotel and Simon's picnic lunch.



Our princess ready to watch the show


We thought it would be a nice treat to get the kids cotton candy which came with these foam hats. $24.00!!!!!! Yikes!!!!!!



In the morning we went to the playroom and swimming in the hotel. Nee Nee and Papa also came up in the morning to spend some time with the kids.




Our afternoon was spent shopping, riding the escalators with Simon and having a nice lunch. Miss Riley was spoiled once again by Nee Nee...those two sure know how to shop. Riley was so thrilled about this outfit from the Gap that she wore it out of the store. Thank you again Nee Nee!!!!



We arrived back at our house at 6:00p.m. with two tired out kids, early to bed tonight.

March Break: Day Five

Riley is almost back to normal, YAY!!!!!! No fever, no rash but still a little cough. We spent the morning doing errands then we took Riley to her afternoon art camp. Simon, Cooper, Jason and I spent the afternoon strolling the downtown, going in and out of shops and having lunch. It was a wonderful afternoon. Riley loved her art camp and is looking forward to her Sunday afternoon art classes. Here she is with her creations.



Tonight I will be packing our suitcases so we can leave early tomorrow morning to go to Toronto for our night in a hotel and to see Disney On Ice.

March Break: Day Four

YAY!!!! Riley has been 24 hours fever free!!!!! Her rash is getting much better too. She woke this morning feeling well and ready to go. It was a beautiful day today so we took advantage of it and went to Wasaga Beach.

We walked and ran along the beach.




Riley tired quickly so she and Simon had daddy running sand hills.




Cooper enjoyed having his nap in the baby bjorn.



After a great morning on the beach we went out to lunch and then home for nap time. After naps we had a little St. Patty's Day celebration complete with green apple juice.



After our dinner the boys went shopping....50 inches....yikes. Riley, Cooper and I went around the block, Riley rode her bike. It was a fantastic day. Hopefully Riley has a great night tonight and is feeling great tomorrow...we may just get to go to one of her art classes.

First Smiles

Cooper has been smiling at us for a couple of weeks now but I could never catch a smile with the camera. I was sort of successful today.

March Break: Day Three

Original plan for today: Lunch and play date with our friends Drew, Christine, Lilly, Katie and Adam.

Our Reality: Many tears when I told Riley that we couldn't play with her friends anymore, fever of 100, cough and the horrible rash. We went to our family doctor today and he said the it was viral....her ears and chest are clear. We are to continue on the antibiotic that was given at the hospital because it wont hurt anything. I have been talking to my friend Tonja who is a doctor multiple times a day about Riley's symptoms and she too has always said it sounds viral. We had more tears when I told her that she could no longer do art camp on Tuesday and Wednesday. The highlights of our day was going to the farm to buy homemade brownies and playing on the swings for a short time. I am now racking my brains to find an activity that will be fun for Riley and Simon but not include any other children.

I tried to take a photo of some of her rash...the flash causes it to not look as red. Our poor little bean:(

8 weeks

Our little man is 8 weeks old today. I tried again to get a picture of him smiling but every time I pull out the camera he stops, gets this puzzled look on his face and then has a little conversation with the camera.

March Break: Day Two

Our Plan: Spring skiing with the kids.

Reality: Fever...only 101.7 today, terrible, horrible rash, coughing and no joint pain. We are taking Riley back to see our family Dr. on Monday (if we can get in) and hopefully get some answers. We did manage to get outside to play and for a wagon ride to the store for popsicles. Cabin fever is setting in...BIG TIME!!!!!

Our Little Artist

11 hours waiting in a hospital allows for a lot of drawing time. We continue to be impressed with Riley's artistic abilities. We are hoping she is feeling better by Tuesday as we have her signed up for art classes at an art school here in Barrie and she is so excited to go.
Here are some of her newest drawings.

Flowers


Monsters

March Break: Day One

Our plan: relaxing morning, go register the kids for soccer, spend the day in The Village Of The Blue Mountains sipping Starbucks, going in and out shops and enjoying our children.

Reality: Up at 4:10a.m., Riley with a fever of 103.5, sore joints, red rash all over her body, bad cough, 10 hours of waiting to see a doctor at the hospital, after all that waiting told that they don't know what it is and Cooper and I registering the kids for soccer.

Hopefully things go up from here.

Thank you Paula

Hey Paula, what do you think?



I made this dessert pizza tonight for our beginning of March Break celebration. Thank you Paula for your guidance it was so yummy. I have a couple of functions to go to this next week and guess what I will be bringing????

Start of March Break

This is how Jason planned to start off March Break....



But poor Riley had other plans.

She had a low grade fever all day today so we stayed at home and relaxed all day. At dinner time I took her temperature again and it was at 103.5.... YIKES! She started to complain of knee and hip pain and wouldn't walk. We gave Tylenol but her fever didn't seem to come down so Jason had a tepid bath with her while I got on the phone with Telehealth. They suggested that we go to the hospital if it gets any worse through the night and if we make it through the night to go to the doctor in the morning.

It never fails, someone in our family always gets sick over our holidays. Hopefully in a day or two she will be feeling better as we have activities planned for everyday of the break. Play dates, art class for Riley, skiing, night in a hotel in Toronto, Disney On Ice etc... Let's hope our little bean has a good night tonight.

Our Boys

A little bit of before bed snuggle time for the boys. I was randomly snapping pictures as it was dark in the room, after I noticed that I caught the end of one of Cooper's smiles. I am still on a mission to get a photo of his big open mouth smile.

Ants On A Log...

I made the kids ants on log for snack...it brought me back to my childhood, we had peanut butter or Cheese Whiz, I gave Riley and Simon cream cheese. It was a hit!

Seven Weeks

Cooper is seven weeks old already. Look at our strong little man.

Last Dance

Today was Riley's last dance class for this session so parents were allowed in to watch. I pulled out my camera to take pictures and no memory card....it was still in my computer. Oops!!! I am happy that I went picture crazy a few weeks ago when I was able to watch her dance. I did manage to get a picture of her at home with her certificate.


We are done dance classes for the spring and we are back on with swimming and soccer:)

Raptors

Today Riley, Cooper and I went to Riley's friend Laurel's house for a play date. Jason, Simon and Grandpa headed down to the Raptors game.

They took the subway.


Saw some sights.


Played some hockey.....this is what Simon says was the best part of the day.




Watched the game.






And even went out onto the court to throw a free throw.