The Simple Life: May 2024

This last month has tested me/us. There have been more health concerns requiring treatment in this house in the last month than there have been in the last 7 years! Nothing is serious, and all is well. It just has me wiped!

I left off the last post after Emilia's 6th birthday party. Since then...

Tons of art and crafting with Emilia's birthday gifts!

How is this 5:20am?! So beautiful

This little missy woke up last Tuesday overnight crying about her eye. We noticed quickly that it was very swollen. Straight to the pharmacy after school drop off in the morning. Bacterial pink eye seemed to be the culprit which meant we had to do eye drops twice a day for 7 days (in both eyes because it of course spread). This girl is... spirited, and STRONG. She did not like the drops and it was like pinning down a crocodile and prying the eyes open. Poor girl. We did it though.. and somehow managed to keep everyone else in the house from getting it! She got a fever of 103 the second night which was rough too. Poor thing. It's so uncomfortable and she was so scared about her eyes being swollen/glued shut.

After we were done at the pharmacy I zipped over to Lifelabs to get my 24 hour holter to monitor my heart. This was just a precautionary test after my stroke and what not last month. I don't think anyone is/was actually concerned about my heart. It was the night I had this on that Eva was up most of the night though and just wanting to cuddle. Not the most comfortable experience of my life haha.

Tuesday evening had Emilia's horseback riding of course. That week she was on Jewel. Jewel is a tricky horse who doesn't like new people for grooming and tacking, but Emilia was brave and they got along great for riding. Emilia was just excited to use her new gloves and crop from her birthday!

Wednesday after work/school we went to Mom & Dad's for a visit with Uncle Reynold and to be close to Dom's swimming lessons.

Dom in a nutshell

Poor Eva still running a fever and feeling like crap at that point.

Thursday was Emilia's actual birthday! It also happened to coincide with "fancy day" at school, so of course she wore a beautiful dress and a tiara :). We had intentions of making pretty cupcakes for her class, but life got in the way so she brought Timbits. She also had made some paper bracelets months ago to give out on her birthday and she handed out some rainbow stickers. She was so proud to give everyone the bracelets (scrapbook paper folded and stapled together <3).

Oh Wheels.

I happened to pop into her class right as they were about to sing happy birthday to her at the end of the day. Happy little surprise!

Aunty Lasagna came over for dinner and to do some crafts and have cake with us and the kids. Emilia was very excited she came. I think it was just what she needed to make her birthday feel special and not just like any other day!

Friday I joined Emilia's class on their Stride Fundraiser walk. It was much longer and hotter than I anticipated. I'm very glad I brought the stroller for Eva. That would have been a disaster.

Halfway through the walk Dom's group caught up to us!

Friday after school, Emilia and I made these little flower crafts for Mother's Day.

Saturday was another full day for our house. We woke Eva early from her nap so we could all go watch Dom's last hockey! Mom & Dad came too and couldn't believe how far he's come. He looks so natural out there and is one of the top stick-handlers for sure in his group. I couldn't get over how grown up he looked afterwards in the dressing room. Sweat dripping out of his ears, rosy cheeks, wet hair, proud little smirk on his face. He looked so handsome.

After hockey, my parents took the girls home. We dropped Dom at a birthday party and they picked him up and kept the kids overnight. We were off to the Hope International Fundraiser at the Vancouver Convention Centre. It was only the warmest and most beautiful day of the year so far. No big deal. We got dressed up, car pooled with Brent & Amy down there, ate some delicious food, had some delicious wine, and I accidentally "won" (bought) two silent auction items... I had an amount in mind I was planning to donate that evening and figured I'd put it on a silent auction item at the beginning of the night. Maybe a couple since I'll be outbid for sure. Alas. I was not outbid, and I spent a bunch of money and got 7 bottles of wine haha! Oops...

Had to get boob tape for this dress.

I followed a tutorial for the easiest little updo ever. It took me 2 minutes to do!

Beet salad. Very pretty!

Steph! You made the blog! Haha

Our table group was awesome! We had tons of fun and laughed a lot

The gents

And their better halves

My accidental wine haul...

Sunday morning we slept in a little and then went to Mom & Dad's for pancakes, to get the kids, and to wish Mom a happy Mother's Day!

When we got home it was my turn to get a mother's day treat!

Emilia in a nutshell <3

Thank you for taking pictures, Dave! I hardly ever get pictures of me with the kids that aren't selfies :)

It was hot and beautiful again, so we spent the afternoon outside. I sunbathed, the kids played, and then we got takeout for dinner with a gift card. We watched the Canucks beat the Oilers in the evening in game 3. Doesn't get much better than that for Mother's Day does it? Haha!

Evidence of fun play outside

This is what Spring evenings are all about! Relaxing on the back patio, watching the sunset, with a good glass of Mother's Day rose, while Dave is in classic "drone stance" haha.

On Monday I walked the dog while Eva napped. I kept Dom home that day as he was in desperate need of a down day too. My walk turned into a nature walk when I saw a garter snake attempting to swallow a small BIRD! I didn't realize they ate such big things. Granted it didn't look like they were going to be all that successful.

A few meters later I heard some rustling in the bushes and looked over to a coyote staring directly at Sherlock and I. The coyote and Sherlock had a long staredown and they watched us as we continued to walk, before deciding we were far enough and started digging and pouncing in some bushes.

Monday afternoon I was on swimming lesson duty. Boy did this guy ever have fun! He is finally comfortable putting his whole head under the water and just wanted to talk to me and show off his whole lesson. He's made significant strides. Just one more lesson. I wish I knew if he was passing or not as I go to register for outdoor lessons early next week...

On Tuesday during the day I took Eva for a little nature walk around the complex. We picked some flowers and talked about the difference between honeybees and wasps.

Aunty Lasagna joined us at horseback riding. I got Emilia some brushes for free from a very kind person in the neighbourhood and she was excited to try them out! I was happy she got put on French Toast on Tuesday because he's a lovely little guy. Great size for her and good temperament. He just kept licking us and trying to eat our things.

She hasn't ridden a little guy like him in a while. I felt like she was much more confident. She also sits a little taller and smiles more when people come to watch her ride, but despite Toast's... spunky personality we'll say, she was doing her best to show him who's boss. Sometimes when she's on a bigger horse and they decide to do their own thing she feels like she just has to go with it because they're so much bigger than her. Good to see her being assertive!

While we were at horseback riding Dave texted to say Eva fell while playing outside and didn't want to walk at all because her knees were hurting. That's not so irregular, but when we got home, she couldn't even walk across the room to me and her right knee was quite bruised and swollen. We put her to bed as usual and then just as I was crawling into bed at 9:30, she woke up crying. That's not out of the ordinary, but she wouldn't settle and was complaining about her knees. Normally if it's just a scraped knee she's totally fine. She wouldn't let us touch them, couldn't bear any weight on the one, and was crying about them. Poor girl.

I called 811 to speak to a nurse to see if we should wait until morning to see how she's doing or if we needed to go get checked out. I got through almost immediately which was a very nice surprise. I was expecting a wait. They said given the situation, it's probably best if we take her for x-rays right away. Soooooo 10pm and we're off to SMH Pediatric ER. Not exactly what I had in mind considering I was planning to spin the next morning and be up at 5am!

We waited in emerg for a long time which I expected, but it was a longer wait than usual because it was a busy night and they only had 1 doctor until 130am. Lots of kids were dozing or resting in the ER, but Eva was not. She was as awake as could be. She did great considering we were just sitting there for so long. Pain meds had kicked in so she was content as long as we weren't talking about, looking at, using, or touching her knees.

Of course we had to do an x-ray. I prepped her to the best of my ability (I was also going in pretty blind), and apparently it wasn't enough. She fought that x-ray like nothing I've ever seen. Not true... it was very reminiscent to the pink eye drops but worse because she was on a table, it was midnight, there were two techs who also felt helpless, and I knew there was a lineup of people waiting for the x-ray room. Eventually we got her still enough to take two poor images of her legs. She refused to straighten her leg to get her knees, which was kind of the main point. The techs warned me that we may have to try again if the Dr. can't see the images well enough. After hearing that and leaving the room, Eva said to me, "If I have to go in again, I will be brave. I will straighten my leg. I won't cry." Deal.

An hour or so later we got called up again and as we expected, had to do another x-ray room trip. As promised, Eva was an absolute champ. The techs couldn't believe she was the same child from earlier. She listened to direction, smiled, gave high-fives, and reveled in the "I'm so proud of you!" "You're so brave!" words from the techs. Later on she asked me, "Where are the picture girls?" She got two stickers for being so good, so they were her new best friends. She still talks about the "picture girls".

At about 2am we were brought out of the ER waiting area to another hallway to sit, but at least they had a TV there. Eva finally snuggled into me and relaxed. Still not a wink of sleep, but she relaxed. At 2:30 or so, the ER doc called us in. Eva went into prime fight or fight mode (no typo there). You'd never know she was hurting as she kicked and flailed and lifted her body off the bed. If she wasn't yelling, "Owwwwwww!!! Don't touch me!!!! It hurts!" while she was flailing anyway. The doc commented, "Ah... she's spirited eh... I like that."

He agreed her knees were swollen and she was obviously uncomfortable and wouldn't walk on the one. He couldn't see anything on the x-ray which is good, but would have the radiologist review it on their big screens. He said for now to keep up with Advil and Tylenol and encourage rest and o take it easy. We got home and back to bed around 3:30am. She slept til 10:30. I was up by 8 due to some construction or something happening outside. (I am not looking forward to all the skytrain construction the next few years).

Yesterday Eva still wouldn't bear weight on her legs and was very uncomfortable, but as the day wore on she started being able to walk. Today she is feeling much better and is able to walk and do stairs. She's so proud, "I can stand!! Look! I can stand!" Cute.