The Darkness

This time of year is often difficult for me.  I do not do well with the days becoming shorter and nighttime feeling endless.  Darkness at dinner time and darkness at breakfast.  I often joke about wanting to live in a glass box because I love the sunshine so much.  The darkness was never my friend but I really began to notice it when L was born.  She was born early October and she was very colicky.  She would cry all day and all night.  I would pace in her nursery holding her all night long and cry my eyes out.  During the day I could handle it but as soon as the sun started to go down I would get a strong sense of dread that would come over me and I would begin to shake, feel like I was going to vomit, and, of course, start to cry.  That was probably one of the most difficult times of my life.  When baby #3 was born at the beginning of September this year I began to feel that feeling all over again.  T2 has been a very good baby since he was born but when you are tired and you have no idea what your night is going to look like and you have two other kids who are going to wake up bright and early the next morning, you can't help but feel a little fearful.  Thankfully this time that dreadful feeling passing by the time T2 was only about three weeks old.  I don't know if it was just because I was able to fall into motherhood easier since it was the third time or if it was just a result of a lot of prayer but I am SOOO thankful that feeling is a thing of the past.  So, this year I have decided to embrace the darkness and look for some positives in it.  This is what I have come up with so far.

10 Reasons to Enjoy Short Winter Days
1. The kids no longer wake up at 5:00AM with the summer sunshine.
2. You can trick the kids into going to bed early.  This will probably only work a little while longer since I'm sure L is going to be able to tell time very soon.
3. Sitting by the fire is much cosier with the flames glow in the darkness.
4. Oh, Christmas Tree.  Nothing like the twinkle of a Christmas tree in the darkness.
5. Along those same lines, the outdoors look so incredibly beautiful when all the Christmas lights are up on the houses.  We are fortunate to live on a street where lots of people put up Christmas lights on their houses and outdoor trees :)
6. Romantic cuddles.  Come on now, cuddles on the couch with the hubby do seem a little more romantic when the lights are dimmed. *wink, wink*
7. Snow falling.  There are few things more beautiful than watching the snow fall under a streetlight.  I will admit that the beauty is lost if it is still happening in April.
8. Cosy sweaters.  A warm winter sweater seems so much more comfy when worn on a cool, dark winter evening.... plus it will cover that left over baby belly still hanging around ;)
9. Skating.  Ooooooh, I LOVE ice skating on a winter evening.  The twinkling snow and the strange muted silence that the snow brings.  Perhaps I am a little biased to ice skating since that is how my hubby proposed 10 years ago :)
10. Snow.  If you don't live in a place with snow then you might not know what it is like to walk outside on a winter night when the moon is shining and it feels almost as light as day as its light reflects off of the snow.  It is at that moment that it truly feels like a winter wonderland.

So, on these ever increasingly shorter days be encouraged that there are reasons to enjoy the darkness.

Shaking the Cabin Fever

Well, winter has finally arrived.  I was really hoping that we would keep our lovely mild winter but alas, this is Manitoba and it is January.  The hubster has been out of town most of this week for work so I've been alone with the kids and since it has been so cold, we have stayed indoors.  I have noticed over the last few weeks that the lack of fresh air and running may be having an effect on the kid's sleeping.  At the beginning of every summer I am always amazed at how well they sleep.  Between the fresh air, walks to the park, and playing in the backyard kiddie pool, by bedtime they are so exhausted that they sleep deeply until the next morning.  Then winter comes.  Last year at this exact time we started encountering sleeping problems with L.  Being cooped up indoors just doesn't exhaust her enough and she starts waking up during the night and early morning.  So today I decided to get a bit creative. 

My monthly addition of Thriving Family came in the mail today.  Inside they had an article called, "7 Cabin Fever Rescues".  I immediately opened it up and started to read.  Although most of the activities were for school aged kids (which was a little disappointing since it's those of us with kids under five that are stuck at home all day during winter) there were a few good ideas that I could use.  One of the ideas was to have a pool party.  The idea is to set up a kiddie pool in the middle of your kitchen and let the kids play.  My neat-freak side immediately perked up and said "no way" but then my practical side said "it's just water".  I am proud to say that my practical side won.  We don't have an inflatable pool so I just got a big bucket, some bubble bath, kitchen utensils, a few toys, and lots of towels.  I sent L to her room to change into her bathing suit while I set it up.  She did not know what was going on but she was ecstatic when she arrived in the kitchen to find that I was letting her play with water.  I should note that my kid LOVES water.  Whether it is in a cup, a sink, a bathtub, pool, or garden hose, if there is water, she will be entertained for hours.  This activity did end with water all over my kitchen floor, but it was worth it to see her have so much fun.  The best part was, when T woke up from his nap he was content to sit in his highchair and watch her. 

All in all, it was a fun afternoon trying something new.  I'm sure she will be asking for more tomorrow :)

Winter Sniffles

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything here.  That is clearly a reflection of our lives over the past month or so.  L is in preschool, T has become very mobile, I've taken up a few new things like being on L's preschool board, and my hubby is still working six days a week with one night a week being out of town.  Then we got some crazy illness in our house.  A few weeks ago I was getting the kids ready to get out the door for preschool.  It was a perfectly normal morning.  The last thing I did before running out the door was get L our of her pj's and into her clothes.  As soon as I took her shirt off I knew something was wrong.  There were little spots all over her entire upper body.  Then I saw her legs.  There were so many spots that they were all merging into one big swollen lump all over her legs.  I tried very hard not to react.  I simply told Lillian that we were just going to leave her pjs on for a little while longer.  I immediately got on the phone with Health Links.  After going through an endless list of symptoms the nurse finally concluded that it was probably just a rash linked to a cold virus and I should keep her away from people for three days or until the rash went away, whichever was longer.  Throughout the day I started to notice that L was getting sicker and sicker.  She started getting warm, her nose started running and then she took a three hour nap.  The nap was the real kicker since she hasn't napped for over a year now.  She was pretty calm about it all until she saw those spots.  Oh goodness.  When she saw them she would freak out.  I ended up putting a diaper on her because the spots freaked her out so much that she refused to take her pants off to go to the bathroom.  Poor little thing.  The good news is that by the next day she seemed almost back to normal and the spots were receding nicely.  By day three she was all better and her skin was all cleared up. 

That should have been the end of the story but then I got that cold virus.  I didn't get the rash with it but, let me tell you, that was the mother of all colds.  I am still trying to kick it two weeks later.  It's like it keeps starting all over again every five days or so.  And then, last week poor T got it too.  His came on super rapidly.  Dean was out of town for the night and T woke up with a fever, coughing and vomiting.  Every time he breathed in it sounded horrible!  The next day I took him to the doctor who agreed with me that this was a BAD cold.  She wanted to keep an eye on him for a chest infection.  By the next morning he seemed to be getting much better.  I thought everything was fine and then yesterday afternoon it came back again with a fever and cough.  And then today he seems almost back to his happy normal self.  Sheesh.  I'm looking on the bright side that at least this isn't happening over Christmas and I'm hoping that now we have built our immunity and we won't get sick for the rest of the winter.  Yes, I realise that that is kind of stupid, but I'm still rolling with it ;)