Our Palm Springs Vacation

We were so blessed this year to be able to go on a warm vacation.  When Dean and I made the decision for me to stay at home with the kids we knew we would have to give up many things..... vacations were on that list.  The last few winters my parents have started going away to a warm location and renting a house for a month.  This year they allowed us to stay with them in Palm Springs for 10 days.  Since they graciously pay for the accommodations and we were able to use Airmiles for our rental car, all we had to pay for were the flights..... and T can still fly for free!  We were so excited to be able to get away.  We did not think we would be going on any big family holidays until I went back to work after the kids were in school.  But, we were very happy to find ourselves in sunny Palm Springs this year :)

The weather was amazing!  Sunny and warm every single day.  We didn't see a drop of rain the entire time we were there.  Staying in the house made the vacation very doable with two little kids.  They had their own room!  They did a great job of sharing a room together and it was really nice for Dean and I to have a room to ourselves.  The house had its own pool which L really enjoyed.  She jumped in the first day and then she was a fish for the rest of the week.  Now that she is older and pretty confident in the water she is happy to swim by herself (with water wings) and I don't always have to be in the pool.  Plus, the pool had a great shallow end where she could walk around with water only to her waist.  Then there was the hut tub.  The pool was a hit but the hot tub won gold ;)  Both kids loved the warm water, especially cause Grandma was always willing to go in with them.  Grandma is not really a cold water person.... which is putting it pretty mild. lol.

We usually spent the mornings sightseeing or shopping (more on that in future posts) and the afternoon was spent by the pool while T had a nice long nap.  Then........ wait for it........ my mom cooked us supper every night.  Sigh.  I was more than happy to clean up the kitchen after she cooked.  After eight years of cooking and cleaning up every meal, there was nothing I appreciated more than my mom's cooking for an entire week.  I know I may be sounding a bit dramatic, but you have no idea how much I enjoy my mom's cooking :)  The second best thing to a week of her cooking was that in the evenings my mom would put the kids to bed and Dean and I could go out...... by ourselves...... in the evening!  That doesn't happen very often these days.  Dean and I took advantage of that and went to the evening street fair, the Cheesecake Factory, or sat outside in the hot tub with a bowl of popcorn and glass of wine.  Yep, best vacation ever.

The Best Purchase of Our Holiday

We didn't do much shopping while we were on our vacation last week since neither my mom nor I are big shoppers but we did get to a few stores.  One place I was determined to get to was Target.  They have a line of kids clothes there called Circo and it's made by Carter's especially for Target stores.  I love it because it's really cute and because it is dirt cheap.  I bought both the kids shirts and shorts and I never payed over $5 for any item.  Love.  My best find, however, was two movies.  Usually I do not buy movies but I was so excited when I found some Strawberry Shortcake ones.  The old Strawberry Shortcake movies.  I loved Strawberry Shortcake as a kid and I was so excited when L started getting into it too.  The dolls and figurines smell soooooo yummy.  I don't know what they do to make them smell so good (probably some crazy cancer causing ingredient) but both L and I could sit and sniff those things for a long time.  Yes, I realise that is strange.  Anyway, moving on, I have watched a couple of episodes of the new Strawberry Shortcake show with L and I have been pretty disappointed.  While there is nothing really wrong with the content of the show I feel like the characters act a little too grown up.  Call me old fashioned if you like but I don't like the attitudes of those little (let strangely large headed) girls.  They act a bit like "teeny boppers".  L is only three and I don't need her starting to develop an attitude any time soon.  I found this very disappointing and I don't really want her to watch the show, at least not yet.  A few months ago my sister passed on an old Strawberry Shortcake movie to us and L and I both really enjoyed it.  It has a fun educational storyline and the little girls act like little girls.  After I watched it with L I went online to see if I could find any to buy.  Well, being as cheap as I am, I wasn't willing to pay what they were asking for the movies to L just had to be content with the toys and colouring books we had.  But then, at the Target in Palm Springs I found a few old Strawberry Shortcake movies for $5.  People around me probably thought I overreacted a bit but I was so excited to find them!  L is loving her new movies especially because one is about baking and the other is about dressing us which happen to be two of L's favourite things.  I may be overreacting about the new Strawberry Shortcake show but I take my job as L's mom very seriously.  It's my job to teach her love, responsibility and respect for others.  I don't need a cute little TV show muddying the waters.

Airplane Adventures

Today when I walked in the door of my house I have never felt so excited to be home.  We had a wonderful vacation with my parents in Palm Springs (more on that another time) but we did not have much luck with airplane travel.  On the way down to Palm Springs we did catch both our planes on time and our baggage all arrived with us.  We had to connect through Denver to get to our final destination.  Our flight to Denver went quite well.  L was a fantastic traveller!  She sat quietly and colored, read books, ate snacks and watched a few shows on my iphone.  T was a different story.  On our first flight he didn't cry or fuss but he also did not want to sit still, no matter how many new toys and snacks we gave him.  Oh well, we made it to Denver without much trouble.  Our flight from Denver to Palm Springs was later in the evening and T was tired.  He didn't know what to do with himself.  Finally he just started crying.  He screamed for about 5 minutes when I heard (actually the whole plane heard) a man two rows behind us scream, "Shut your f*****g baby up!"  I was ready to give that guy a piece of my mind.  Did he really think that if I could make T stop crying I would just choose to let him scream?!  After looking back and realizing how big that man was, I decided it was better for me to just keep my mouth shut.  Dean grabbed T and walked up to the front of the plane.  Luckily there were some nice grandpas sitting at the front and they played with T until he finally fell asleep quietly.  I was a little shaken up but then a whole bunch of people around us took turns telling us that they understood and it was no big deal, especially cause it was only 5 minutes.  God bless those people cause they sure helped this mother feel better :)  Once T was sleeping we had a nice quiet ride until landing.  The plane landed in 50mile an hour wind.  I have flown quite a lot but I have never had a landing like that.  Scary.  When the plane finally stopped applause broke out.  My parents met us at the airport and all feelings of that not so good plane ride disapeared and our wonderful vacation began.  Oh, and we found out later from the flight attendant that the man who yelled at me was drunk and on his way to rehab.  Sheesh.

As we all know, all good things must come to an end.  After spending the morning shopping and part of the afternoon sitting by the pool, we headed back to the airport 10 days after we had arrived.  We knew our flight was delayed but United was not telling how long the delay was.  It turned out that the delay was almost two hours.  We figured we would not be making our connection in Denver so I spoke to the United agents in Palm Springs and they booked us on a flight for the next day out of Denver in case we did not make our plane that evening.  Well, since everyone on board was connecting in Denver that plane flew fast.  Really fast.  I didn't know they could do that but they managed to shave almost a half hour off the length of the plane ride.  When we arrived in Denver we ran (I mean ran!) accross the airport just in time to watch our plane leave the gate.  Sigh.  The poor guy running with us was trying to make his connection because his wife was in labour.  Needless to say, he missed the birth of this son and he was mad.  Poor guy :(  It sucked missing that flight but I figured that we had another one reserved the next morning so it wasn't the end of the world.  When I arrived at customer service we discovered that the United agent in Palm Springs booked us on a flight two days later!  That's when I almost cried.  All the flights to Winnipeg the next day were booked solid.  So I tried getting connections from any airport.  Over an hour later (and kids melting down) we finally got tickets to Chicago in the morning and then we would connect to Winnipeg from there.  We then waited 20 minutes for the shuttle to our hotel to arrive (thankfully the airline covered that) and then took a half hour ride to the hotel.  We arrived at the hotel around 11:00 at night and the kids were loosing thier minds.  Once we were in our room L just passed out cold on the bed but T screamed and screamed and screamed.  That's when I finally cried.  I was supposed to be in my bed at home with my kids snuggled in their own rooms.  Instead I was in a hotel room with a screaming baby and no idea how to get him to sleep.  Finally Dean strapped on the Snuggly and took him for a walk.  Thankfully that worked.  I cried on the bed and finally fell asleep.

Early the next morning we woke the kids up and headed back to the airport.  We went through security and straight to the United customer service desk to see if there was any way we could get on the direct flight home.  By some miracle they found two seats available on the direct flight.  We took them.  I would rather take one flight with the kids by myself then have to deal with two more flights and a layover in Chicago.  The kids and I said goodbye to Dean (who was still going the route through Chicago) and headed for our gate since our plane was boarding soon.  I was almost at our gate when I realized that I had Dean's passport.  I turned around and ran with the kids through the airport swearing under my breath.  I found Dean (thankfully I knew his gate number) gave him his passport and then ran back through the airport to my gate.  I arrived sweating and out of breath with tired crying children, but I was on time.  As we were boarding the plane I just kept praying that God would help the last little bit of this journey to go well.  Thankfully, God knows when we cannot handle anymore.  L was an angel on the airplane and T played nicely with some plastic cups and the lovely lady accross the aisle and then fell quietly to sleep.  Somehow my iphone battery that was almost dead played a movie for L and lasted way longer than I ever thought it could.  We had a nice smooth landing in Winnipeg and then a lovely grandma on the plane stayed behind to help me get off the plane with the kids by carrying all my bags for me.  Then a nice man helped me unfold our stroller at the gate while another kind women held my baby for me.  We breezed through customs and my brother-in-law and niece picked us up at the airport in a van they borrowed from some other great friends who had car seats since ours were on route with Dean.  I have never felt so much relief walking into my house.  The kids and I had a nice afternoon walking to the store (it was over 20 degrees when we got home!) to buy milk and bread and then playing in the backyard with our favourite neighbours :)  My brother-in-law picked up Dean for me later in the day and one of our bags actually made it home with him!  After all the re-routing we were not expecting any of them to make it.  The airline borrowed us some carseats until they find ours.  Hopefully the carseats and our last piece of luggage make it home soon but at this point I don't care.  I'm just happy to be home to beautiful sunny Winnipeg with no more airplane rides in the forseeable future :)

The Story of My Birthday Boy

I am having a lot of difficulty comprehending where the last year has gone.  One year ago today Dean and I were blessed with our little baby boy and today we have a busy, energetic, happy one year old.  Even though he has already been with us an entire year he still seems new to me.  Perhaps that is because every day he is learning new things and surprising me with what he can now climb on to.  Or, perhaps it is because I am having trouble letting my baby turn into a toddler.  I have absolutely loved having a baby around our house this past year. 

Since today is all about our little T, I thought I would share the story about the day he was born.  My kids seem to feel the need to enter the world with a little drama ;)  Last year, on March 1, I waited all morning for a phone call from the hospital.  I was supposed to get induced..... finally.  I waited all morning and then finally ran out of patience early in the afternoon.  I called the hospital myself and was told that there was no room for me today and I would have to wait until tomorrow.  Grrrrr.  But then, around 5:00pm the hospital called back.  After confirming that it was me on the phone the lady on the other end said, "Would you like to have your baby tonight?" I hung up (after saying yes, of course) and immediately called Dean at work to get him to hightail it home.  After kissing L goodbye and sending her off with my mom, Dean and I finally arrived at the hospital at 7:00pm.  By 7:30ish they induced me with, what has become know in our house as "the gel".  This gel is supposed to help things move along naturally.  Typically, after administering "the gel" you stay in the hospital for about an hour to be monitored and then you get sent home and told to come back when you go into labour naturally (usually within a few hours).  I was super hungry at this point so Dean and I decided that when they sent us home we were going to go out and get something to eat.  Well,  I was 42 weeks pregnant and starving, so right after getting "the gel" I sent Dean to find a food court and bring me back some food.  He was gone for about 10 minutes when I realized that we were not going to be sent home.  I was having rather uncomfortable contractions every 3 or 4 minutes.  They got worse quite rapidly so I started texting Dean and telling him to get back to me.  The nurse came in, looked at my chart and said, "We will observe you a little longer and then you can go home".  I started at her in utter amazement...... how could a nurse, who worked on the labour and delivery floor not recognise a woman in labour.  By the time Dean got back I was sweating up a storm and had decided that I was too tired to have a baby today and that we should just come back tomorrow.  When he realized that contractions were coming every 2 minutes he very sweetly broke the news to me that going home was no longer an option.  Yes, I already knew that, but with every contraction that hit I was reminded of my labour with L that, to this day, I can only describe as horrific.  Even though I knew I was in pretty serious labour, we could not convince the nurse.  Finally another nurse came by, took one look at me and got things rolling to get me officially admitted.  About two hours after they put on "the gel" I finally got into a very nice private room.  I immediately met the nurse that was going to be with me during labour and she asked if I was thinking about having any pain relievers.  I told her that I wanted an epidural, NOW.  She gave me a look that said, "Ok there, you wuss".  I kidd you not, she really did.  Well, that looked was wiped right off her face after she hooked me up to the monitors and realized that my contractions were less than 30 seconds apart.  The anaesthesiologist was there withing five minutes and about 10 minutes later I happily realized that an epidural was going to work this time.  Hooray!!  This was the point where I became perfectly calm..... cause I couldn't feel a thing.

A few minutes later my doctor and her intern arrived in the room.  My nurse showed her the printout of my monitors and all three of them sat and stared for about five minutes.  This was the point when Dean and I knew everything was not alright.  The doctor calmly explained that since my body was reacting so aggressively to "the gel" which caused my labour to come on so fast and furious the baby wasn't having enough time during contractions to recover.  They broke my water trying to rinse out "the gel" but my body did not slow down the contractions.  Then they gave me angina medication to attempt to slow things down.  This also did not work.  So, my doctor told me that they were going to move me over to high risk so that I would be closer to the operating room, just in case.  Well, as soon as they wheeled my bed around the corner into high risk I saw my doctor in scrubs and a surgical cap.  At that point, I knew.  Then, instead of putting me in a high risk room, they put me right into the operating room with at least 15 other medical professionals.  It felt like chaos.  They continued to give me angina medication but it continued to do nothing but make me feel loopy.  Then they started to take blood samples from the baby's scalp (yes, he was still in me) to check his blood oxygen levels.  Then, in one last ditch effort, my doctor tried using a suction and had me push.  I was only 8cm but I pushed like there was no tomorrow.  I wanted that baby to come out.  The last few moments I remember involved my doctor throwing the suction on the floor and saying "We're done", I remember hearing someone telling Dean that he had to leave, and I remember someone telling me that they were going to take good care of me.  I remember feeling surprised (I really thought I was going to push that little sucker out) and confused.  Then....... I realized that I was feeling very very sleepy.  I looked up at the nurse next to me and said, "Are you putting me under??" Then, nothing. 

According to Dean, about 60 seconds later he heard our baby cry.  But, I wasn't there for that moment.  I was somewhere else for the next hour and a half.  I woke up in a big room with two nurses talking quietly at a desk nearby.  I could feel that I no longer had a baby in my belly, but I had no memory of it coming out.  I called the nurse and in a haze asked if I had my baby.  She told me that I did, indeed have a baby.  "Is he OK?" was my next question and all I really cared about.  Once she told me that my baby was fine then I found the nerve to ask, "Was it a boy or a girl?" She replied, "It was a boy." I remember hearing those words but not understanding.  I asked three more times and each time she responded, "Yes, he is a boy".  I was still not comprehending.  I was supposed to have a girl.  No one ever told me that but I was sure of it nonetheless.  I was going to put sweet little matching dresses on her an L and she was going to wear all those adorable little outfits that L had grown out of so quickly.  Where was my little girl?  I was sure the nurse had made a mistake.  Shortly after that, and after some drug induced conversation I had with the nurse regarding how it was a good thing I bought a one piece bathing suit last summer, Dean came into the room.  He was beaming from ear to ear.  I asked him several times what our baby was, and he assured me that he was a boy.... Dean had seen his "boy parts".  I was still not sure what to make of the situation but the sheer and utter joy on Dean's face gave me some reassurance.  Then, they brought me that baby.  They brought me a baby that I did not remember delivering.  A baby that I thought was a girl, but was indeed a boy.  A baby that had been in the world for almost two hours but had never met his mother.  I held him with shaky arms knowing that I loved him, but not sure how I was feeling.  I only held him for another few minutes before my shaky arms could no longer hold him steady.  Shortly after they brought me and my baby upstairs to a room and left us there, alone.  Dean could not stop beaming and I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that I was not present when my baby was born.  Beside my bed was a sweet little boy that I should have already been holding for hours but instead, I only just met him.  It was strange..... it was different.  It was so so different with L.  I heard her first cry, I held her moments after she was born, I smelled her, I felt her.

Fast forward a year.  Today there is a little boy sleeping in his bed.  Tomorrow morning he will wake up and he will be one year old.  I may not have heard his first cry, but I sure have heard many more throughout this past year.  I may not have held him right at birth, but I have rocked him to sleep, held him in the middle of the night while he was sick, cuddled his owies away, and smothered his cheeks in kisses.  I have spent days and minutes and hours holding him and smelling his freshly washed little head of hair.  I have felt him grab onto my legs signalling to me that he wanted to be in my arms.  I may have missed those few first hours, and yes I would like to have them back, but this past year I have been his mother.  HIS mother.  I love having a little boy.

Photo by Tammy Engel

Photo by Tammy Engel

"Look what I found my the recyling bin!!"