Happy Birthday Lorna!

My dear 'sister' in Finland- I hope you have a wonderful day!

When James and I were walking home from the daycare, he said he also wanted to be a 'mamma' and then we could be 'twins'. He said we could cook dinner together. How sweet.

One week ago, there was a murder in Kingston. It happened in the house beside where my buddy Alison lived. (Alison moved a number of months ago, luckily) Alison and I are buddies because she and I were due with our babies on the same day. It was last Tuesday that I biked past the house on York street and saw the police tape and the cruisers. Since that day there are always at least 2 police cruisers there- one in front of the house and one beside the house. They are doing an excellent job of guarding an empty house. I guess they must be protecting the evidence from contamination. Still it's odd to see such diligence! The house where the murder occured was evidently a 'crack' house. An odd way to have the neighbourhood cleaned up really. There are better ways!

Snow

James was very excited yesterday morning to be able to see his breathe in the air. His eyes were so big as he watched it before I put him on the bike to take him to daycare.

When I picked him up from daycare he excitedly told me that we would be getting snow. He was right. All the forecasts last night said the snow would start at midnight and we would get 20 cm. Well, at 7pm James saw the snow coming down. When it started that early I was worried we'd be snowed in by morning. However, it did stop and we only got about 5cms overnight. It's snowing heaps now. Before I took him to daycare we had to shovel!

Thomas' Christmas DVD

To get James in the spirit of the season, I bought him a Thomas Christmas DVD. Hopefully, this will make up for the fact that I have no plans to buy him any Christmas presents. What? He got the DVD, didn't he?

The DVD came with a free Thomas music CD, which he also loves. Really, anything having to do with Thomas, he's happy with. At least he's easy to buy for! (and likely I will get around to buying something...)

I'm really quite tired- the sleep deprivation from marking the exams is catching up with me.

The weather here was windy and cold but I could still bike. Hopefully, I can still bike tomorrow as I have an early morning class. Thursday is supposed to be bad, but luckily that is my day at home!

Haircut

James got a haircut today.
When he saw himself in the mirror after he claimed he was a 'different boy'

The exams are done!

Yes, indeedy the 250 looong boooring exams are done. It has been 42 long hours of marking since Wednesday, but they are done and ready to be shipped back first thing tomorrow morning. Now I have to get my life back!

I started last night. I finished the marking at 9pm and then cleaned my house for 2 hours (while watching CSI Miami, so it wasn't that intense of a cleaning!)
Today we went to Church in the morning. James had a blast, as usual. Tara took a little fall, and me being so used to falls, didn't take much notice of it, but she bawled and bawled, so I realized that I have become immune to falls that do not include huge blood loss or a concussion!
The topic today was Introduction to Community (Luke 10: 25-37; 14:12-24) and we were looking at the questions:How can we be this place of common courtesy, hospitality, and protection? In other words, who is our neighbour, and is s/he invited to our Banquet?
Myron read an interesting piece to start the service about 2 people who were friends and one of them let the other down and then didn't want to go back and see his friend again, but when they finally met up again the friend just loved him, and we were reminded that we may fail God, but is his loyalty to us that maintains the friendship.
Jonnie also read a story called 'Harry the Dirty Dog', which James particularly enjoyed. It was about a dog who didn't like baths so he went and hid the scrubbing brush and then went and got as dirty as he could. James especially liked when Harry went to the train station to get dirty in the coal chute! But eventually Harry gets hungry and goes home, but he is sooo dirty the family don't recognize him. So he goes and digs up the scrubbing brush and happily has a bath and his family take him back.
(our service is one where people bring something, not planned, other than the topic. It's neat when they work out to fit together well)
That was all I caught of the service though, as James and I were pretty busy for the rest!

So, for the rest of today I have heaps of dishes to do. If I get through that, I'll do some baking. We are having soup and bread for dinner, so that will be easy!

James on 'What I want for Christamas'
Myron was talking to his mom on the phone and asked James what he wanted for Christmas. Without skipping a beat he replied 'Engines'
Today he added some clarification. He said he wanted the Brendam Docks for Christmas. This was easy for me to agree to as he got the Brendam Docks for his birthday. So he said for Christmas he wanted 'Engines and the Brendam Docks. Then I'll have 2 Brendam Docks'. HEY, that WASN'T what I was agreeing to! He's pretty smart that boy...

Rain after the birthday

Well, I had a busy weekend, so no blogging! And tomorrow I get a huge stack of exams, so there'll be no real blogging for a week. I return to the land of the living on the 23rd.
The prayer meeting Sat. AM went well. The cheesecake baking was amazing. They turned out really well. Sat. PM we went and saw the movie Derailed, which was very violent, but had an interesting twist in the end. I liked it. Myron didn't seem so keen.
My birthday went well- they announced it in Church and James was SO PROUD of me. He kept clinging to my arm like that of a celebrity and saying 'Happy Birthday Mamma!'
My cheesecake went over well at our meeting on Sun. night. Everyone wanted some, even though I was only supposed to provide 1/2 the dessert. The apple pie never had a chance!
Today was a rainy and windy bike ride in. It is taking hours to dry off!
My boss was to go to Ottawa today but the weather is colder there, so it was freezing rain. He called up to one of the places he was to go and they said 'Don't come!' So he didn't.
I upgraded our database today from 2.0 to 8.0 on my own- I was terribly proud of myself as it has taken me a few months of preparation to get to this day. And noone else really cares. Oh, well:)

Meltdown after daycare

Today when I picked James up from the daycare, James was perfectly happy. Nick had brought a level crossing with lights and sounds to share and Polly said James had a great day with it, apparently.
When we got home he was fine for a bit but after being home for only a few minutes, he got grumpy and asked for some 'alone time', which I gladly gave him! I went to the computer to see if my friend Lorna was online (even if it was 2am her time- you never know when she will turn insomniac! Hi Lorna!). I didn't even get a chance to check when he came into the room and was bossy and said he wanted the computer (he has this new thing he likes to do on the computer- type the alphabet in order on Notepad- pretty funny when he's at it), but he didn't ask nicely and his attitude was poor so I went to talk to him and he started flailing around and hitting, so I sent him to a time out. He was very upset and crying. I told him he could not cross the line of his room, otherwise some of his trains would go up. He tested the boundary and the trains went up, making him even more upset! He didn't cross the boundary line again though! When he finally calmed down, I went in and had to talk to him for a long time, explaining what he did wrong, and explaining proper behavior to him. This took about 1/2 hour and then he was fine again.
It's a few hours since the episode and he's still fine even was o.k. with Myron shouting at him as they had a disagreement builiding with blocks!
I hope this isn't the start of some terrible 3's or something and was just a blip in the radar screen. He hasn't behaved so badly in such a long time.
I've been up since 3am so am ready for bed now. Maybe James will be so worn out by the episode he'll go to bed early?

Eating chicken pox

Yesterday James said 'I got spots because I ate the chicken pox'. I wonder if he'll still eat chicken after all this?
He is all nicely scabbed over and I think we are free from quarantine now!
I am working on our copycheck site this morning and at 11am head in for my class- aim to be out by 4pm to pick up the wee man from the daycare.
The weekend will be full, full full.
Sat 8am I am leading a prayer meeting at the Church.
Then I have to bake a cheesecake or 2 for Sunday evening.
Saturday evening Myron and I are going out for dinner for my birthday- babysitter Karen
Sunday is my birthday!
We have Church in the morning.
Than a meeting at the Church where I am providing some of the dessert- babysitter Joanna
We'll see how James does with all the busyness and all the babysitters.
He'll probably be on top of the world with the babysitters as he loves attention!

Coat #2

This morning I got a second and final coat of paint on our doors and doorways:)

I told James about what I overheard him sleeptalking about after the incident (see 2 posts down) and last night he started giggling and said 'More cereal please. More cereal please. Thank you'. He's a funny guy.

Yesterday, when I went to pick up James, I arrived in about 1 minute before an ambulance. A little boy had tripped and falled and had stopped breathing momentarily. They were worried he might have a concussion. Quite a lot of excitement for the little daycare. James saw the fall, but couldn't really tell me much about it. They were doing a great job at the daycare keeping the rest of the kids calm, under the circumstances.

I'm no baby!

James overheard me speaking with our babysitter about babysitting and took great offense to this. 'I'm not a baby- I'm big'. o.k. then. I asked him if he was o.k. with the term 'bigsat' then. And he was, so he shall no longer be babysat, but bigsat. Though, he does claim he can sit on his own.

Sleep talking

I gave James the Benalyn to help him sleep with the itches again last night and he slept so well. I'm thinking he should have Benalyn every night- maybe me too. Hello drug addiction :)
The funny thing was I think he had a dream and he was actually sleep talking. He said "More cereal please. More cereal please. Thank you" and then he went back to sleep. My boy is so polite in his dreams!
His itching is much better today, but his whole body is covered with either spots or scabs. Poor wee mite.
I didn't take him grocery shopping today, because he might still be infectious. It's hard to tell. I think he's pretty clear of it now.
It's getting overcast now, but it was nice and sunny this morning and I had a lovely bike ride down to the grocery store.

Painting

Yesterday morning I had off and I painted all the doors and doorjams. I had a great time and they looked fabulous. But they needed 16 hours drying time. I had only about 6 before my wee one came home. So they now don't look quite as good as when I had finished them as clothing brushing by them and little hands have made some changes, but overall I'm pretty pleased.

I got a couple of extra contracts at Queen's. On of our TAs has flown back to Iran as her father is quite sick, so I am replacing her. Also, on November 16th I'll get a massive pile of exams that will decomission me for about 10 days. How exciting! Hopefully, I'll get a second coat of paint on before that!

James' memory

A number of months ago (July or August) James and I met a lady on the bus. She thought James was cute and said if she hadn't already given away her son's clothes she would have given them to me. (she was kind of grandmotherly, so she may have been talking about her grandsons clothes, I wasn't too sure) So pretty nondescript conversation and she was talking to me, I didn't even know James was paying attention. (I think he was actually hiding, being shy)
Yesterday, we biked to Shoppers Drug Mart to buy Childrens Benadryl to help James sleep at night with all the itching (and it does work wonders!) and we took a new route and this same woman was outside of her house. She called out to us (I don't think she recognized us from a few months before) and said what a cute baby. I waved back at her and thanked her. Then James said "That's the lady from the bus"
I was floored, not only did James remember the lady, but remembered the location he met her. Little kids are amazing.

A pox at our house

James has chicken pox and is itchy and annoyed! Poor wee mite.