Snoooorrre

There really is a reason why we are not supposed to eat lunch at 3:00 in the afternoon. Actually, there are several reasons and I've become closely acquianted with all of them this week.

The last week of the month is always our busiest - I write up an activity report at the beginning of every month where we forecast our projects and outline what we expect to accomplish. Usually by the last week, I notice that most of what I had hoped to complete is NOT even close to complete so it's a mad dash at month end to get as much done as possible. This week has been exceptionally choc-full-o-stress with huge projects demanding completion and deadlines around every corner. And when I get on a work roll, I hate stopping so it seems that the only time I've only come up for air this week has been around 3:00pm.

By then, I'm starving to the point where even the hair on my head is hungry. I eat far too fast and then feel like crap for the rest of the afternoon. Plus, it seems that within 2 minutes after finishing my 'lunch', I'm completely exhausted and long for a nap. It's just too long to go without fuel and then too late to try to combust it properly. And then I'm not hungry for dinner when I get home so I only eat a couple of bites. I've got to get back on track.

Good news - I managed to shave the Halifax trip off my itinerary which is fabulous. I'm leaving AFTER trick or treating on the 31st on a 9:30pm flight to Toronto so Simon (who is dressing up as a fireman this year) will not be without me and his peanut butter cups will remain mine.

He has done much better in preschool since his first week. He doesn't seem to nap any more while he's there but almost none of the kids do. He's zonked by dinner time though so we just have shorter nights and get him in bed with lights out before 8:00pm. He can ALMOST write his name now although he often writes it backwards with the letters backwards as well. Of course, I was shouting 'dyslexia' in my head but I've spoken to other parents with older children about it and they've all said that their kids did the same when they were starting out.

Rich's mom had surgery on her foot a week after it was initially scheduled. She was bumped six times from the OR queue. I spoke with her orthopaedic surgeon who was one of my former residents (my how they grow up fast) and he said that the surgery was successful but her bones are extremely frail. It should heal well. She is in a rehab facility for six weeks that is not far from Simon's daycare so he and Rich pop in several times a week to visit on their way home.

No more late lunches for me.

Mamma's on the Road

Every day something new seems to be added to my Fall meeting/travel schedule. I'm trying to get some of these knocked off but here's how things look so far:

October 17-18 - Halifax
October 31-November 2 - Toronto
November 7-8 - Quebec City
December 2-3 - convention in Montreal but working from 5:30am - 10:30pm every day, I might as well be considered 'out of town'
December 4-6 - Ottawa

I can smell the divorce papers from here.

Ooof

Even though Simon is over four now, I still have those "Sweet Lord, I'm a Mom" moments every now and then. 7:15am this morning, I'm running up the street (still in pre-shower morning-scag mode) in my tattered robe and flip-flops to bring my son his forgotten cereal bar to eat in the car. So it's not homemade oatmeal with brown sugar but it's still a good Mom moment.

He started his pre-K class last Tuesday which they call the "Adventurer" class. It is still at the same daycare centre he's been in for the past two years but follows the same curriculum that other pre-K classes do in the public system. We thought it would be best to keep him in the same centre for one more year where he is already familiar with the teachers, kids, routine.

He's never transitioned well from one class to another. Simon does not like change and resists it at all costs. I didn't think this year's transition would be as much of an issue - he knows the Adventurer classroom well (drop off and pick up are in the Adventurer room for all of the kids), he's already had his two teachers as educators when he was in the 2-year-old group, and half of the kids have been his classmates for at least a year now. We talked to him a lot about the
change and new class for a month beforehand and he seemed excited for it to happen. Well..

Tuesday (first day): Simon gets into trouble for playing 'bad guys' with his friend Justin. He hits Justin with a plastic rake and gets sent to the office. He doesn't listen during circle time and chooses to take out toys and play even though he is told it is not free play time. He throws a tantrum when he's asked to put the toys away. He doesn't listen when they go for a walk and has to sit for a time out when they return. Punishment at home: a lecture and no TV.

Wednesday: Simon again doesn't listen during circle time and wants to play with toys rather than listen to a story. Throws a tantrum and gets sent to the office. Again. Punishment at home: another lecture, no TV, no toys, no bedtime stories. Mamma is pissed.

Thursday: Simon chooses to play during snack time and then asks for a snack ten minutes too late. When told no, he missed his chance - he whines and bickers but doesn't throw a tantrum. I didn't get too upset at this one. I still maintain a 'kids are kids' philosophy and think it's near impossible to have 24 four-year-olds eat, sleep, poop, listen and play the same thing at the same time without incident. My concerns lie more with how he reacts to being told no. Full on tantrums and being sent to the office are unacceptable. A little whining doesn't sink my boat. No punishment Thursday. I'm zonked by this point.

Friday and Monday this week seem to have gone better. He has his eye on this ghost lamp at Ikea so his aim is to be good enough to earn the lamp.

To make our week a little more intense, Richard's mom fell at home on Tuesday night and severely broke her ankle. This was exactly what everyone had feared would happen. Luckily, she was able to crawl to a phone and Rich drove over there as fast as he could. He called an ambulace because he didn't think he could get her down the stairs and into his car by himself. The 911 dispatcher told him that because she was concious, not bleeding and no bones were protruding out of the skin, that he'd have to bring her himself. They would not dispach an ambulance - this was not considered an emergency. If he was unable to get her to the hospital himself, then he'd have to call back and wait 2 hours for an ambulance to arrive. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you the Canadian health care system.

He managed to get her into the car with the aid of her upstairs tenant and found out that the ankle is so damaged by the fall, she'll require surgery to repair it. The hospital wanted to run tests before scheduling her surgery to ensure that her cancer had not spread to the bone and wanted to run some neuro tests to see why she lost her balance so easily. Everything came back negative so they scheduled her surgery for last Friday. It then got postponed until Sunday. Then Monday. Now Tuesday. Meanwhile, she's been on a liquid diet since Friday and receving harsh antiseptic baths every day because she's in queue for the procedure. Working in orthopaedics for this long, I know too well that a minor ankle surgery on an elderly patient will be the first bumped off the roster when other cases need the OR. This woman's strength amazes me. She's been through so much in the past 2 years. We're having a family meeting this weekend to figure out what to do next. I'll keep you all posted. In the meantime, please send your prayers and good vibes her way and don't hit anyone with a plastic rake.