Hair Cut

So I asked Shane to take Ry for a "trim", his bangs were in his eyes and his hair just needed to be cleaned up........

I guess a bunch of his friends have decided to go with shorter hair for the summer and he wanted to do the same, it was his decision but had I been there I think I would have talked him out of it...lol I loved his longer hair, Shane did not!

He likes it so I guess that is all that matters! it will grow back.

Funny...

Rylan was packing a bag to take with him camping this weekend, I asked him what he put in there, he looked at me and said "oh just some chopsticks and stuff", what the heck....what do you need chopsticks for?....."in case my lips get dry" and he pulled out some chapstick!

Thursday May 14th 2009

Sinead's birthday was yesterday, she turned 30!! She is with Radu on a cruise and they are having a great time. Sinead usually does not enjoy her birthday....I think this may have changed yesterday:)

Mom and dad left for Barcelona today, I stopped by there last night to wish them a great trip and it was great to see them so excited!!

This weekend is the long weekend, Jaden has a dance competition in Guelph on Saturday and Sunday. Shane is taking the boys to Kincardine camping on Friday and Saturday........they will be up visiting Dave, Lisa and their kids. I personally think he is nuts!! lol they are going to freeze their butts off in a tent on the weekend.

Shane is picking them up early from school tomorrow, I plan on picking Jade up from school grab something to eat and then head to see 17 Again (Shane and the boys saw it a couple of weeks ago). Then we will head to Guelph on Saturday, she has two routines on Saturday and four on Sunday, Brenda might make it on Sunday morning to watch her solo.

Have a fun long weekend.....whatever you are doing...

What to say......

This sweet looking little person is now 10!! She now loves going to Pearson, actually last week we got a form home asking if she plans on returning in September as they need to know their numbers, I asked her what she wanted to do and she gave me a look and said "of course I am going back"! I am still trying to figure out how everything operates at that school, I hate being so far away and not knowing the teachers etc although we have made a point of dropping in to "chat" with her teachers from time to time, just to make sure we are not missing anything.....which really means that Jaden has such a lazy streak to her it drives me NUTS!! she forgets sheets, books and binders at school. She has been struggling with multiplication in math class, to the point that math homework often ends in tears. Mrs Case has told us that it takes longer for some kids to "get" math......she is one of those kids. It comes down to the fact that she just need to memorize multiplication tables.......and just when I think she has gotten it....she has not! We have flash cards that we plan on using all Summer long.....hopefully her brain will have figured it out by the start of grade 5!

The majority of the time Jaden is an easy going girl. She loves her friends and seems to have figured out the ones that are "real " friends and the ones that are every body's friends. She does not really talk about boys too much although I did hear her mention the other day that there is an end of the year dance at school and some boys and girls are asking each other to the dance! The ratio of boys to girls at Pearson is not a good one, so I foresee issues with that in the future.

Jaden has a temper!! and a nasty one at that! it is extremely difficult if not impossible to reason with her when she is in one of her moods. The only solution is to send her to her room and let her "sulk" it out by herself. It can take anywhere from a half hour to an hour for her to calm down. Only then can you talk to her. I have talked to her about the need to remedy this.....we are hitting the tween years which also means hormones are flying.....I am the moody one in this house, if there are two of us...well lets just say it won't be pretty!

She is still dancing and still loving it. At the beginning of this competition season I sat her down and let her know that she is now dancing in a higher age group so not to expect to win tons of awards this year etc she really had no issue with it. The first competition she won first overall soloist! great so much for that, however the second competition she did not place so well. She danced fantastically but not first place, she was great with it. If you ask Jade what her marks were at the last competition she would not be able to tell you......I LOVE that! it is a good lesson for her to learn, you don't always come in first....and guess what that is ok. There are some kids that sit and cry if they don't place well.......it is all they think about, and they also want to see how everybody else does, there is one girl on Jaden's team that literally falls over herself and others trying to see what other dancers marks are.....drives me nuts!

There are many parents that complain about the exams that the dancers have to take, Jaden did one ballet exam in December and just did another one last month, she is doing two more in June one in tap and one in jazz. I honestly don't mind the exams, I think it is good for her, at the last ballet exam she had to walk into a room with an examiner from China and be tested for 45 minutes, my thought is that it will give her confidence for the future, school presentations, interviews etc After one exam I asked Jaden how she thought she did, she thought for a minute and looked at me and said, " I think I may have made two mistakes, so I will probably only get 98%"!!! I LOVE that, she was not being a smart ass, she was dead serious, and I love that she had that much confidence in herself.

Jaden is a beautiful, kind, loving, smart, naive, happy girl! One thing I wish for her is the ability to express herself better.....she often lets things build up in her mind and then everything explodes ...usually with a lot of tears and shouting. She is a good friend and has a couple of very close friends. She still enjoys reading and right now has started reading Twilight. Family is very important to Jaden, she misses her Nead a lot.....even though it is just Peterborough as Jade says "it is just not the same"....and I get that. She loves being able to hold and help with Ronin.

She will always and forever be my little girl even though her legs are now longer than mine!!

Pictures from competition season 2009

Some pics from competition season 2009

Loved his heart better :)

It started with a doctors visit and Dr Luke noticing a heart murmur. She made us an appointment to have it checked out, no cause for alarm and I was aware that lots of people have heart murmurs. Rylan was a sickly baby, lots of respiratory issues, they even tested him for CF they just did not seem to know what was up with him.

I am trying to remember how old he was, I know Jackson was not born yet so I am guessing Ry was just over a year old? He laid on the tle and I remember he watched Teletubbies on the tv, I have no idea why I remember that stupid detail. The tech did all his measurements etc and then called in the Cardiologist, a cute little Chinese man named Dr Mock Doc Lee......a sweet man.

He and the tech were talking quietly, I did not think anything of it until he started to say that there seemed to be something unusual about Ry's heart! He explained that the muscle around his heart was abnormally thick and showed me the pictures then gave me the term Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. He said we would have to come back in 6 months and we would see how fast the thickening was happening and talk more.....I asked if there was some medication that would help and I remember how he looked at me and said that there was no cure for the condition.....a heart transplant would be the only thing to help!!!!!!! From there it is kind of blurry....he went on to tell me that usually the first sign of this condition is death!! and we were fortunate to be aware of what was possibly going on.

We set up an appointment to come back in 6 months, Ry was under no restrictions but I hated not knowing what was going on inside of him! During that 6 months Jackson was born and I remember that because they had a team of people there to take him and make sure that he had no signs of heart issues.....he was fine:)

I was so nervous for that appointment, Ry was not as cooperative as the first time, he did not like all the things they were sticking on him...lol The tech did his thing and went to get Dr Lee. Dr Lee came in and started using the ultrasound himself checking measurements again etc then looked at me and said he could not understand it. He said that Rylan's heart muscle was decreasing, it was thinner than 6 months previous and had he not seen the first set of ultrasound results himself he would have said it had been technician error!

He said he had no explanation, maybe he had had an infection in his heart muscle .....I said it was more like a miracle and he smiled.

We had to go back 6 months later, then a year later when Dr Lee told us he was fine, his heart muscle was back in the "normal" measurements and we did not need to come back....ever!!

The reason for this post is that Q97.5 fm is having their radiothon for Sickkids hospital today, one of the first stories that they had on was a little boy diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.....he had a heart transplant at a very young age and has had a very hard life so far, having many close calls, they actually said he died 15 times but they were able to revive him each time!! he is a fighter! Hearing the pain in his moms voice as she talked about their journey was horrible, both Shane and I were listening to the story and honestly I could not help but cry, the tears just came. The kids were eating breakfast and were listening to the story too, we explained why it hit home.

I told Rylan we consider him our miracle boy and he is going to do great things.....he thinks we loved his heart better!!!

Thank you for the miracle, hearing the pain in the voices of all the parents on that radiothon today just tore my heart. It is so true what they say, once you have children, you forever wear your heart on your sleeve. I am so thankful for healthy children, today Rylan does not even use an inhaler!

Rylan.

This has been an amazing year for Rylan. There was a time when he hated going to school, that is no longer a battle, his last report card was fantastic! He has come so far academically and socially. He played hockey this Winter and was good at it but did not love it and it was often a battle to get him and Jackson to the arena. Shane signed him up to play flag football and while he has only had two practices so far, he seems to be loving it. Practices are two hours long and there is a lot of running involved and so far no complaints.

He also loves to play basketball, he will literally spend hours outside shooting hoops.
His hair is still longer and it drives Shane crazy, I think it is cute. He is such a sweetheart but also has a temper although he does not loose his temper very often. If he is upset he needs his space and then when he has calmed down he is able to come to you and talk to you about what happened....I LOVE this!!! he will explain his point of view and he will listen to me, does not mean he will agree with me but we can always work out the issue together.

He is an amazing boy!

Jackson!

This child drives me crazy! I am not sure what has been going on the past week or two but he is stuck to me like glue!! Yes I love his snuggles and the way he grabs my face and tells me that he just loves me SO much...but he is such a little monkey.

He is such a smart boy, loves math and to read and most of all to play video games! he is a gamer! and he can kick butt playing, Rylan does not like to play games with him because Jax is bosy and wins everything....lol he is addicted to MarioKart, I have to set a timer for him or he could play it for hours.

He is a popular boy with a lot of friends most importantly he is a very loving,caring little boy. Something that scares me is his lack of fear, he will try anything and talk to anybody and I mean anybody! I always talk about "stranger danger" but I don't think he really gets it.

He almost always has a smile on his face, but he can whine like a two year old. He hates to brush his teeth, and does not think that boys need to brush their hair. He played hockey during the Winter and was very good but does not love it and does not want to play next year.

I can't believe he will be turning 7 in a couple of months, he has been planning this birthday forever...lol

Quinn is two!!!

Holy time flies!!! Quinn is getting so big! She is such a cutie and our little drooly monster....gets it from her mom. She is an incredible little girl!

New addition!

I have not introduced the newest addition to our "family"!! Brenda and Milan now have a beautiful little boy! Ronin was born on January 15th..he is such a sweet heart.

Still alive....

Aisling has mentioned to me this weekend that I have not been on this blog since January!
Life just seems busy......I have good intentions then time just seems to get away from me.

Last weekend Jaden had her first dance competition in Hamilton. The girls did very well winning a couple of overalls, Jade ended up winning overall 9 year old soloist for the competition so she was thrilled with that.

On Thursday we went to Toronto to be with Sinead, Radu and his family to celebrate the life of his grandmother. The kids came to the funeral with us, I had informed them that it would be an open casket but that they did not have to go and see her. After we were there for a little while Jackson asked me to take him up to see grandma, so we walked up there and he looked at her then proceeded to ask me why there was only half of her there and what had happened to her legs? were they already gone to heaven ? I quickly explained that they only opened up half of the coffin and he was relieved.

Easter weekend consisted of a very large gathering. Radu's mom and dad and his aunt and uncle came to dinner on Saturday. Altogether there were 14 adults and 5 children (Anna, Paul and their girls had gone to the Sault for Easter). Then Sunday Shane and Rylan went golfing with Radu and Jay and Sinead and Aisling came and hung out over here for a while.
I cooked a turkey dinner(which turned out great;) and mom, dad and Sinead came over and ate with us.

The kids have more chocolate than they need.....waiting for one of them to throw up, although we found evidence that Bear might have had his fair share of chocolate while he was here for a visit earlier .....he may regret that later, or rather Aisling and Jay will when they have to clean up after him!

Shane is back to work tomorrow but I took the day off as the kids have no school. Jaden has some extra dance classes and a mock exam for her ballet exam that she will have on the 23rd of this month. Other than that we are just getting caught up on homework/projects that need to be done. I work all day Tuesday and Wednesday, lunch on Thursday and then we (Jaden and I) heading to Mississauga as we have an early start to a full day on competition on Friday. Jaden has a grade 4 sharing night on Wednesday, I am working but Shane and the boys will go and hopefully tape it for me.

I have taken tonnes of pictures in the last little while although I still don't know how to use my camera....surprise, surprise I have not yet signed up for a class! I just need to download the pictures and I will share some and hopefully that will help with some updates;)