The Emma Report

December is a notoriously busy month, what with Christmas and Big Sister’s birthday. Add in a couple of holiday parties, a school Christmas concert or two, a couple of quick trips to the doctor, swimming lessons, gymnastic classes, a busy few weeks at work, a frantic search for a new caregiver (’cause our nanny abruptly quit last week!!) and we’ve had a pretty crazy month so far!

In spite of the hectic days, we’ve also tried to have some family fun.

Emma and Big Sister helped to bake some Christmas cookies:

Adding sparkly sugar is serious business:

but the results are pretty yummy!:

Emma was especially helpful when it came to decorating the Christmas tree

We also continued our annual tradition of decorating a gingerbread house:

Our visit to see Santa Claus did not go so well….

(hopefully Emma hasn’t been traumatised for life, but I have to admit that the picture still makes me giggle)

at least we got a good picture of Big Sister with the Big Guy:

and Emma was much happier to pose for pictures once we got back home:

well, at least for a little while:

(Emma has got the “Pouting-Two-year-old-Look” perfected)

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a warm and wonderful Holiday Season, with our best wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

As hard as it is to believe, our first baby is 5 years old today!

Happy, happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Sorry, no time for a proper update. A party with sixteen five-year old girls = very tired Mommy & Daddy. More to come soon…

Miss Emma, finally sitting still long enough to enjoy some birthday cake

Sorry, I haven’t had enough time to properly update things around here lately, so how ’bout a few pics for those of you who still check in regularly….

Big Sister wanted to get out her finger paints the other day. Emma was very interested in the process, so we decided she should share the experience too.

She wasn’t sure it was a good idea at first (she still has some sensory issues and doesn’t really like having her hands messy), but she soon got into the spirit of things

and started expressing her creative side:

of course all great artists get their hands a little dirty…

and the girls enjoyed a long bath with extra bubbles that night

We’re finally seeing Emma’s smiling face again this week

Apart from the typical two-year-old meltdowns, she is back to her happy, giggly self.

We were back at her pediatrician’s office for a follow-up appointment yesterday and it appears as though Emma may have had roseola (she broke out in a rash on Sunday afternoon). She still has to have more blood tests done in a couple of weeks, but she’s now feeling *MUCH* better.

so much better, that she joined Daddy and Big Sister in a little impromptu concert this evening:

it’s good to see her smiling again….

Two years ago today, Emma finally came home from the hospital (after spending 15 weeks in the NICU).

Unfortunately, we were back at the hospital again today.

On Tuesday Emma started coughing and was a bit congested. We had a follow-up appointment with her Respirologist that day and her lungs, ears, and throat were all clear. The doc felt that she likely had a simple cold. That night, though, Emma developed a fever.

Despite regular use of Motrin, her fever has persisted. She’s been miserable and just not her usual happy self. She’s lethargic, hasn’t been sleeping well, and has barely eaten at all. This morning she seemed even more irritable and was pointing to her ears and saying “Ow!” We were able to get an appointment with her pediatrician this afternoon. Surprisingly, she does not have an ear infection, but the doctor was concerned about her lungs (given her history of BPD) and the possibility of pneumonia, and sent us off to CHEO for further tests and a chest x-ray.

The blood tests came back with slightly abnormal results, suggesting that Emma has a viral infection. While there is no evidence of pneumonia, her lungs are congested… She’ll need to go back for more blood work to rule out any other problems, but for now we’re just watching her closely.

We really hope to see Emma’s smiling face again soon…

P.S. no further developments on the flood reconstruction – the restoration crew is scheduled to return next week to begin replacing the flooring….

I usually find the sound of running water soothing, and I’ve been known to intentionally leave the water level in my aquarium a bit low to create a soothing ambiance in my office. But there is something so totally un-soothing about hearing that sound immediately upon opening the front door, especially when you know nobody else is home.

When I arrived home on Thursday night the first thing to cross my mind was that somebody, somehow, must have left the water running in the kitchen. Or perhaps one of the cats learned a new trick. Of course that would have been way too easy. Instead, as it turns out, the plastic hose to the water filter under the kitchen sink separated from the brass compression thing in an apparent attempt to wash the kitchen floor the hard way. About four years ago we completely renovated our kitchen and most of the flooring on the main floor. I guess four years is enough time for dirt to accumulate on (and under) the relatively new hardwood floor in the dining room, because it apparently needed a good rinse too.

As I ran downstairs to the main water shut-off, I was visually and audibly reminded that the desk in my home office is directly under the kitchen counter. Since the renovations four years ago, I have known it was close, but I can now confirm that the hole the electrical wiring passes on the way to the dishwasher is directly above the leftmost part of my desk. The other hole is quite close to the wall, and the fact that my desk doesn’t touch the wall in the corner is likely the only reason the stuff on that part of my desk got a light shower instead of a bath. I also learned that there are a few holes through the floor directly above the large round table in my office, you know, the one in a convenient place to lay photographic prints and albums-in-progress.

The insurance company had a crew over that night, and they were back on Friday to pack the entire contents of my office (at least the dry contents), tear out some wet drywall and insulation, remove some underpadding, etc. An electronics company came by to pick up the not-so dry electronic gear (which fortunately did not include either of the PCs that were under my desk). About when I thought the worst was over, I noticed a bit of an odour and found that the floor drain into which they had the dehumidifier hose draining was, well, not draining. To be more precise, it was “draining” in reverse, and I don’t mean clear water. So I called in the roto rooter folks, who cleared the clog (which appears to have been baby-wipe related) and since the disaster folks were already here, it didn’t take them long to remove some more drywall. Two of the lads were kind enough to very carefully haul my shopvac outside where I could hose it out. The crew was done by around 4pm, and the smell is almost gone now, although some of it got into the carpet. It’s an odd feeling, watching people don gloves to handle your vacuum and carpet…

I’m told they’ll be back in about three days to pick up the fans, dehumidifiers, and large suction thing they have on the hardwood floor in an attempt to extract the moisture. I thought “wolf pack” was a weird thing for them to call a suction device with hoses and three large clear plastic pads over the hardwood. The crew was mostly francophone, and I just figured that I had misunderstood something. Once they turned it on I understood “wolf pack”. Just think “howl”…

There’s nothing to do now but wait, and it didn’t make sense for Laurie to cancel her long-awaited MGW weekend away with friends, so Emma, Big Sister, and I are spending a lot of time out of the house this weekend. Emma is fortunately used to a white noise generator in her room at night, and the additional noise didn’t seem to bother her or Big Sister at all. In fact, she had a marathon sleep-in, waking up around 8am instead of her usual 6:30. I guess she figured out that I needed a break, and rather than her usual crying upon awakening, this morning she started calling for mom and dad in English.

A normal conversation is considered around 60db. With the equipment in the kitchen running, the sound pressure at the kitchen door is 84db, or roughly 300 times as loud. To put it in perspective, a diesel train moving at 45mph 100 feet away is reported as 83db, and occupational heath and safety limits for an 8-hour workday generally fall within the 85 to 90db range. Shutting off the fan helps, but not enough to make the kitchen even temporarily suitable for dining. The “wolf pack” is hopefully sucking moisture out of the hardwood floor, and I’m hesitant to shut it off and allow the moisture to sink back in. Fortunately a 90-degree corner and the doors to our TV room attenuate it down to below 60db, so as big sister and I watch a movie it’s more of a nagging, whining irritation than a loud noise. I think we’ll be heading out to the Museum of Science and Technology after Emma finishes her nap. A few kids shouting over there should be refreshingly quiet. Maybe then we’ll head over to Home Depot and pick up a new filter for my shopvac so it’s ready for the next emergency.

Emma, of course, is her usual jovial self and she found the large fan in the kitchen amusing…at least for a few minutes.

(We had internet connectivity problems today, so I wasn’t able to get these up earlier…)

Big Sister decided she’d like to be a Princess for Halloween — no big surprise there

while Emma was a beautiful butterfly:

She wasn’t sure about it at first (and found some of our neighbour’s animated decorations a bit scary), but she soon got the hang of this Trick or Treating business…

She also had her first ever Smartie:

and let’s just say that the crash after the sugar rush was not pretty

…when they stop moving for a few minutes.

We’ve been enjoying some wonderfully sunny, warm autumn weather here lately, and we took advantage of a particularly lovely recent afternoon to head out to a local orchard.

We missed the pick-your-own-apples by several weeks, but we were able to enjoy the Spooky Wagon ride through the not-so-scary (in the middle of the day) forest:

The girls had a great time running around the farm and playing in the Hallowe’en displays:

and we came home with a basket of apples, an armful of pumpkins, and a camera full of memories in the making: