For the first year in ages, work had money in the budget for Continuing Education. Exciting stuff. This meant I got to go to Miami for a conference, and bring my family along with me.

We left on May 29th, at an insanely early hour. I didn't tell Alex where we were going (airplane) because she would have freaked out. When we went to get on the plane, she didn't realize we were boarding until about 5 feet from actually stepping onto it... then she turned around and ran away screaming. Of course we were the last people on, and seated at the rear, so we had to drag her screaming past all the other passengers and got these looks... just great. She settled down though, and eventually began to enjoy the experience. She has a vivid memory of the flight attendant bringing her some apple juice. Apparently that helped.

I'll have to post about the entire flight, because it has turned into such an event that Alex constantly requests me to tell it to her as a bedtime story. I'll have to post the story that I tell her, another time.

We ended up renting a car because we didn't want to deal with the whole carseat issue (we were able to just rent carseats from the rental agency). I'm pretty sure we won't be doing that again... while we budgeted correctly for the car rental itself, as well as the cost of keeping the car at the hotel ($28/day), we didn't appreciate that it was valet parking, meaning we'd have to tip everytime we got or returned our car. We didn't appreciate that parking ANYWHERE in Miami, at any time, was insanely expensive (a couple of hours was easily $10-$20. Finally, we didn't anticipate the crazy amounts of tax added on to everything. And I thought WE were badly taxed! Needless to say, we'll probably rethink the whole car rental deal.

We got there late on Friday (May 29th) and didn't do anything that day.

Saturday, we just hung out at the hotel, and took full advantage of the swimming pool. The kids really liked the hotel room since it had floor to ceiling windows. Stephen especially appreciated that he could sit by the window and look out/down. All that swimming exhausted the kidlets, and they slept extremely well.

Sunday morning, we went down to the Bayside Marketplace. Good experience, if insanely hot and humid. Should have brought more water for the kids, and chalked that up to lesson learned for the rest of the week. Bought some new bras at Victoria's Secret, which I've been dying to check out since there isn't one here. I have to say I'm disappointed and I don't think it's all they're cracked up to be. The rest of my afternoon was spent at the conference.

Monday was all day conference for me. Jason took the kids to the zoo.

Tuesday was all day conference for me. Jason took the kids to Parrot Island.

Wednesday was conference for the morning, and in the afternoon we took the kids to the Seaquarium. We managed to see most of the shows, and that was also a good time.

The whole work conference was a great experience... I picked up a lot of fantastic ideas and learned a lot. I really think they got their money's worth in sending us. I'll have to make a separate post just about that.

We left early Thursday morning, and the travel went well, except that Jason's travel agent had told him that children under 2 don't need tickets (since they sit in laps), but apparently they do need tickets when they're flying internationally. So we couldn't do our fast check-in, we had to stand in line and buy Stephen a ticket, which turned out to cost us nothing (apparently it's usually a small percentage of the adult fare... like 10%?). Thank God we were early... we could easily have missed our flights.

We got back late Thursday evening, picked up supper and then washed and repacked for Friday morning, where we drove to Edmonton for stuporstar's wedding. I figured I'd post the pics after the bride has approved them, so we're just waiting on her now ;)

I got to meet my longtime friend phaedie, her boyfriend Dan, and missioncontrol - someone I'd heard about but to whom I had never been introduced. Seriously a fantastic experience. The wedding was lovely, the bride was radiant, and everything was the way it was supposed to be :)

I feel a little bit awesome and evil at the same time that internet friends were the only ones who managed to make Marissa cry that day (in happiness of course!) >:)

That about sums up my Miami and Edmonton vacation... more posts to come!

Summing up the trip to Miami, from a note sent to friends:

Hi guys, we're in Miami! So the trip went extremely well. Alex was positively cherubic, and was so excited about the whole experience she fell asleep at 7pm our time! (that has NEVER happened before!) She was very excited about seeing all the airplanes, the moving sidewalk, the train between terminals/gates in Denver, the clouds, the turbulence, the luggage sliding down a slide and rotating around the carousel, and our hotel room with floor to ceiling windows. Stephen mostly just hung out, and was pissed off he couldn't lie down for his nap on the plane. Now that we're here, it's mostly rainy, which is unfortunate. Jason thought he heard something on the news about tornadoes, so that could be interesting. Especially with floor to ceiling windows. There seems to be quite a bit we can do here though, despite the weather. Did you guys know that the largest zoo in North America was in Miami? I had no idea!

Stephen is speaking so much!

His first word was "Kitty", followed closely by "Mama" and "Dada". This weekend he's started saying "there", "more", and "thank you"! The "thank you" is so cute!

Jason and my mother are also pretty convinced he's said "grandma" a couple of times too, but I haven't heard that one yet :P

Still can't keep any food in me. Stayed home from work today. At least this bodes well for Saturday morning weigh-in haha.

I realize it's been ages since I've posted, so I'm posting and backdating to keep everything straight in my mind. Be forewarned of many posts to come!

Stephen's bottom left lateral incisor broke through last night!

Background:
I am currently co-sleeping with my son, Stephen, in my bed (due to him waking frequently in the night), and my husband is currently co-sleeping with our daughter, Alex, due to lack of room in our bed.

4am - I am awoken by the sound of Alex screaming. It seems she has puked. Jason is taking care of this (seeing as how he was puked on), so I go back to sleep.

5am - Alex puking again.

6am - Alex puking again.

10am - Alex puking again.

I'm meeting a friend for brunch, so I get to escape the insanity.

12pm - I get a call from Jason. It seemed that Alex has somehow armed our security system which was a part of our house when we bought it (which we never use) and alarms are going off, and do I know where we may have put the manual? Of course I don't. That would require a level of organization in my house, that just doesn't exist. Yet :)

12:30pm - I get a call from Jason tell me that he's ripped wires out of the walls in efforts to get it to stop, but was unsuccessful, and that he doesn't know where the baby has wandered off to, and that somehow Alex has sprinkled pancake mix everywhere upstairs. I suggest that maybe he should find the baby, and try calling the alarm system people.

1:30pm - I get home. There is chaos. Alarms are going off. Children are running wild. There is the faint odor of puke and poop permeating through-out the house. First thing's first... I get the baby to sleep and Jason continues to fuck with the alarm (Jason had ripped the wailing siren wire out of the wall, however we still had all the door alarms going off). Next thing is to get Alex to bed. We side-step the pile of pancake mix on the rug, because frankly, that does not even register on my priority list at the moment.

2pm - Alex falls asleep. Jason gives up, and lets me try to deal with it. I call the security company. Of course it's Sunday and they're closed, but there's the 24-hour monitoring number. I call and get directed to an after-hours residencial number. The nice gentleman on the phone calmly explains how to remove the back-up battery, and specifically which wire needs to be ripped out in order to shut the system down.

The whole thing takes about 10 minutes. Jason's been struggling with this for 2 hours.

I really don't understand why he didn't just call the security company and ask for help.

I really think his problem solving skills need a bit of work.

In other news the phantom pisser has struck again.

Next on my list - clean up the pancake mix once Alex wakes up; see if I can't remove the puke/poop/cat-piss smell; and take a nap myself.

It's hard to believe the day is really only half done!

In this hospital I work in, they moved the Department of Family Medicine across the city, due to lack of space.

So.

I'm sick, working in a hospital, but yet there is not a single doctor I can go to see.

Ok, so this week hasn't sucked. I actually really like my job; I forgot just how much I like it. I also like getting a break from the kids. I don't like being away from them quite as much as I am though.

My ideal situation, would be as follows:
Work 3 days a week.
On one of the other days, take the kids to daycare late, have the day to myself to get things done/do errands/have "me" time, and pick them up from daycare early.
On the other day, keep the kids home with me, and schedule one fun outing with me and the kids.

That would be my ideal situation. Hands down.

To accomplish this, I need the University to give me a 25-50% raise.

I can dream, can't I?

Jason and I were sick all week. The kids were vastly improved. Today was my last day as tomorrow is an EDO. We pick up Stephen from daycare and he's got a fever. He's pretty much been crying non-stop since we got home, except for the nap. It's 10:45 and I just found Alex in her room in the dark putting on her summer sandles and playing on the floor. I'm so pissed that she won't just go to sleep. She's making my life a living hell in the mornings... will not get up, but she will not fall asleep at night.

I'm completely exhausted. I'm sick of hearing screaming. I hate that it seems we're starting another round of sick, and that my day off tomorrow is apparently going to be to parent a sick child, rather than get some much needed things done around the house.

And for those of you that pray, pray for my friend. She was 15 weeks pregnant and just found out the baby died. I believe this will be her fourth loss in 2-3 years.

Surprisingly, it's not Stephen who's having a tough time with me going back to work... it's Alex. She's acting up unbelievably. Very surprising since she's been attending daycare part-time almost my entire mat leave... I haven't been back to work long enough for her to notice a difference in terms of time.

The only thing that is different though, is the sense of urgency in the morning. It used to be much more relaxed... we got up when we got up. Now it's more like, "Ok, you've got to get up now!"

I suspect that may be what she's reacting to.

And now I'm sick too :(

I'm sure it will be full-blown by the time I'm supposed to go back to work on Monday :/

I go back to work March 09. My heart is breaking.

The last two days I have been taking Stephen to daycare and sitting there with him so he can get to know the daycare lady without freaking out.

I don't see how this is going to work out positively. I'm praying it will, but I just don't see how it will.

Last week he started crying "Mama" when he wanted me, or when something was wrong (which meant he wanted me).

I posted an urgent call for breastfeeding help (for my friend)here: http://community.livejournal.com/breastfeeding/7984107.html

If you can help with advice/info/links, please answer either here or there.

Irritation is doing a Windows update, not wanting to restart your computer, and getting non-stop 15 minute reminders to ask you if you want to restart your computer.

Does anyone know how to make that shit stop?

I'm in a pissy mood.

So there.

My friend, hexkitten, is in running for the Lj Idol competition.

The poll for voting is here: http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=1345081

While she has not requested voting recruits, I have taken it upon myself to suggest that she has excellent skills and her entry is fabulous.

The list of participants as well as their entries are listed in the poll above.

If you think she deserves it, vote hexkitten!

And add her because she's full of teh awesome <3


ETA - And she's posting Nudes if she wins!

Well... it didn't exactly go how I imagined it. I figured she'd either be totally into it, or totally not. It turned out she was sort of into it, but felt really antsy in her chair.

We went and saw Bolt. It was a great movie, by the way... I completely recommend it. The first 10-15 minutes had her captivated, and that was good. (Fast-paced action), but then when it slowed down, she wasn't so interested anymore, and she wanted to get up. When she realized she wasn't going to be allowed to get up and move around, she decided to ask for a sure-fire winner.

"Mommy, I have to pee."

Keep in mind my toddler is not toilet-trained, nor has she EVER used a big-people's potty in her life. I knew it was an escape from the theatre tactic... but what could I do? Say pee in your diaper? Not bloody likely. So we went.

We got there, and she surprised me by sitting quite well on the big potty. She farted and then was "all done". Still though, I was impressed she'd been willing to try the big potty... previous requests on my part had always resulted in screaming refusals. We washed our hands and got back to our seat.

15 minutes later she had to go again. I had a glimpse of the future for the rest of the movie. We went again, and this time she surprised me by peeing a tiny amount. Then she was "all done". We washed up and went back to our seat. Her diaper was still dry, and I was thrilled.

5 minutes later, she had to go again. We got there, and this time I knew better. We stayed quite a while until I was pretty sure she had voided her entire bladder, then we washed up and went back to the seat. By now, we'd missed an awful lot of the movie.

15 minutes later, she had to go again. I wasn't really sure at this point if she really had to go, or if she was just thrilled with the new discovery of being able to pee on the potty, or if she was still seeing it as an excuse to escape from having to sit in one place for very long. Maybe all three? Anyway, this time we got back to the potty, and nothing came out. We washed up and got back to our seats.

By that time, she'd drank all of her water and wanted more... so I went and got her a refill. She stayed there and watched while I got the drink. When I got back, she told me she had to go use the potty again, but I suggested that we wait until we got home.

Fortunately, that was the point at which the movie's climax had begun, and the action captivated her. She was happy to watch the rest of the movie.

Was it a success? The outing was a success... I don't think she saw much of the movie. The potty-training was a fantastic success. I'm glad I took her... it wasn't horrible. I don't think she's really ready to go the movies yet though. Maybe give it another 6 months or so. It wasn't a failure, but I think it would be better to wait longer.

What I learned: I think my toddler likes action movies :)

This afternoon, I'm taking my spirited little toddler to her first big screen movie.

This could either go very very well, or very very badly... stay tuned!

Yesterday morning, Alex was eating her cereal downstairs with Jason, while Stephen and I were upstairs. Jason forgot something upstairs, so he left the Alex and briefly came upstairs. While he was momentarily gone, Tigger jumped up on the table (something she knows she isn't supposed to do, and very rarely does it), pushed Alex out of the way, and started drinking the milk from her cereal. Alex started calling for help, because Tigger was eating her breakfast.

The family heirarchy in our minds:
Adults
Children
Cats

The family heirarchy in Tigger's mind:
Adults
Tigger
Kitty
Ziggy
Children

Interestingly enough, if Tigger is on the stairs, she won't let Alex go up or down.

The same day of Alex's incident with the Peneten cream, she went "tinkle, tinkle" in the potty. It's the only way we can get her on the potty, is the excitement of possibly hearing the "tinkle tinkle". She was very proud of herself, and I started to have hope that she won't go through life in diapers.

So a few days ago, I went and purchased a four-pack of "big girl" panties. Several of my friends have not had success at potty-training until they went straight into regular underwear, so I thought it might be worth a try. Today after nap, we gave it a shot.

She woke up at 3:30 and we put on the panties. She was very pleased. I kept asking her if she had to go "tinkle tinkle" but she kept saying no.

5:00 - I was downstairs getting dinner ready, and I heard a thump, pitter-patter, pitter-patter... THUMP, pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Knowing something was up, I went upstairs to find her on her hands and knees, frantically rubbing the carpet with a kleenex. "Hi Mommy, it's all wet." Concealing a smile, I explained that when we don't pee on the potty, the new panties, and our pants, and the carpet get all wet. She seemed to get it. We changed into a new set of panties, and new pants.

6:00 - She was downstairs and came running upstairs... "I all wet again Mommy." I went through the explanation again, was careful not to smile, and we changed into the third pair of panties.

6:30 - We were sitting at the dinner table eating, when she cheerfully announced that she'd just pooped. We're now in the last pair of panties.

Please, please, PLEASE let her have one success tonight in her new panties!

***ETA: Nope. 7:40 - jumped up from the potty to run behind the cat tree and pee.