happy holidays

First, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and the most happy, healthy, exciting new year!!

I wish, boy do I wish, that I could have been on here keeping up to date over the holidays but unfortunately sickness prevailed. Big time! 5 full days of some nasty stomach flu. About 4 wasted days of not getting a thing done. And the worst part was Nicholas picking it up as well, thankfully only for the one day and was right back to normal. Ugh. But I'm happy, oh so happy, to say that I am feeling better now and thank you everyone that sent me wonderful birthday messages, left great bday voicemails, all of it. Vicki, my birthday would not be the same without you singing to me like you do each and every year!

So, let's go back a week...

Sydney flew into Toronto last Monday and boy was she thrilled to fly up to a winter wonderland! Snow everywhere and she was more than impressed. As we all know though, that soon went from beautiful, scenic powdery white to an ugly, dirty mess with the rain that came. I'm still crosssing my fingers that we will get some fresh snow so we can get her out tobogganing before she leaves next weekend.

Nicholas was so pumped all week waiting for the big guy! So much fun having these little munchkins running around just so full of excitement. Unfortunately, the boys missed seeing Santa this year with Mommy being sick. Syd and I did take them on Christmas Eve to see Santa but he wasn't at the mall that day! I know, we were a little stunned too but I guess he was busy getting ready for his big night.

Mom and Dad arrived Christmas Eve. I was able to make it out from my second dwelling (washroom) every once in a while to spend a little time with them but not much. Being my birthday (28th, right Bon? hehee), I tried...I did but was in bed very early hoping that my wish would come true and I would wake up healthy. A wish that didn't quite come true.

Christmas morning, Nicholas woke up running into our room with Merry Christmas wishes and hugs and waiting very patiently for the others to wake. Quite impressive for a 4 year old. We came down, his eyes wide as saucers and giddy with excitement to see that Santa brought him exactly what he had hoped for. He actually said he wasn't sure he would because of his behaviour lately. He doesn't miss a beat, that one!! Then we sent him up to wake up Poppa and Goki and continued opening the rest of the wonderful gifts. The biggest hit was when Nicholas opened his race track we bought him....it was priceless! I think he was actually squealing. Perfect.

We were very excited to share with Syd about our upcoming trip to Mexico and that she would be coming with us. We have had it planned for quite some time and nobody spoke a word to her about it so we could surprise her. Well, that is, until Christmas Eve when apparently Mom and Dad made some comments about going to Mexico to Syd. They are coming along as well.

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas day.....dinner (just want to mention that Syd made a delicious cheesecake for dessert)....evening. A day full of typical Linton humour and carrying on.....of which I think Syd is still getting used to!!

Boxing Day was glorious....for me anyway. I felt healthy. Yay. And my brothers gang was over for a visit. We also had a poker game that night and a big victory for Mom!

So, here we are....the 28th. Sunday. Work looming on Tuesday. All those sales out there waiting...so I think we may just have to go out and get in on those bargains. Maybe even take a step into the 2000's and buy a new tv.!!

christmas concert/vp dinner

Must be this busy time of year for my lack of updating. And the thing is too....I am off and have been since Monday night. But I'm here now and I want to first write about the awards dinner last Saturday night. As most of you know, Johnathon was invited to this recognition dinner by the Vice President of Pickering A. We had no idea what to expect but he gladly accepted.

The 'do' was at the Lake House at the Pickering Marina. Very nice. Cocktails and hors d'ouevres were flowing when we arrived and everyone was mingling about or schmoozing (I'm the mingler, J is the schmoozer...haha). Some photos were taken and then we were seated for dinner. We lucked out and had a great table - lots of good conversation and lots of laughs. After dinner was the awards ceremony where each award recipient was individually brought up and the Director would give a little speech about them and their contributions. It was really quite good...and often quite funny. I was...and am VERY proud of my hubby. Such wonderful things said about him. You rock baby!

Last week was also Nicholas' very first Christmas concert at school. He actually woke up singing in the morning and it just made me smile. What a perfect way to wake up. So, off to school he went and then Johnathon and I met there for the show later in the afternoon. How cute is it watching these JK/SK students singing away and grooving a little too. But, like I said on my facebook, Nicholas went all 'Mommy' on us and turned out to be quite shy about the whole performance. He sang some though and there were parts where we could even hear him. But all in all, a wonderful show and so, so adorable.

very exciting news

So, an update to my last post.....

My little Shane-man was having yogurt this morning and as I was giving him another bite, he reached up and touched my face and said MaMom....Mama!!! Music to my ears :0) And after I gave him a gazillion smooches, he just smiled at me so proudly. Yes, I am on cloud nine!

It's also a big day around here with Nicholas' Christmas concert this afternoon. He woke up singing, he is so excited about it. We'll be there extra early hoping to score good seats..

picking up the slack

(.....i wrote this Monday night and didn't post until now as i waiting to add pics...will post a current entry as well...)

It has been way too long since I have posted. Way too long and I now I am left with having to update the past couple of weeks in one sitting. Ah! The boys, of course, come first and they are doing well. Yes, they are still battling these damn ear infections and Nicholas is being referred to a specialist with all likelihood, he will need tubes. Fine with me….anything to finally rid him of this. He is still struggling with hearing at times but thankfully, he never complains of any pain. Shane, as well, still has his infection but hopefully, it will be cleared up with this latest round of antibiotics otherwise I will see to it that he is looked at by the specialist as well.

Both boys seems to have picked up colds again…..or did they really ever get rid of the last one?? Through it all though, they really do not complain much at all….even with Shanes new raging diaper rash brought on by the medicine.

From our last visit with Dr Ross, Nicholas was put on a stronger antibiotic and he really trooped through the first couple of days but the third morning, he was sitting in our bed before getting ready for school and I brought him up the medicine mixed into some juice (we were warned that it tasted nasty) and he just let it sit on my night table and looked at me with the biggest, saddest eyes with big croc tears welling and streaming down his face and proceeded to tell me that he would rather not have any presents from Santa this year than take this medicine. He said maybe next year.

Oh, my aching heart….who could ask any 4 year old to swallow this disgusting medicine with all that going on (and believe me, it was NASTY….I tasted it myself…NAS-TEEEE!!!)??? Not I….and even though Daddy says he knows how to pull at my heartstrings (of which he is right), even he would not make him take the medicine. So, I called into the docs office to either have his specialist appt expedited if possible or change his prescription which they did and he is now on yet another round of antibiotics.

Okay, enough about all the sickness that continues to plague us at the Hash House. Ugh!! On to some good stuff….

Nicholas has his first Christmas concert on Wednesday. He has been singing away the Christmas carols they will be singing…..and he is quite good! Even the teacher told us today at our parent/teacher interview that he is quite the participant at practice and is really doing very well with the singing and the preparation for the concert in general. I simply cannot wait!!! We will be there with bells on…and strapped with both camera and video cam. (okay, okay, I still have not figured out how to transfer the video off this particular memory card but I will get it down in the next week and share his concert footage!!). This is my goal.

Our interview with Ms Edwards, Nicholas’ JK teacher, went really well. She seems quite delighted with our munchkin. A couple of times, she mentioned that he is grasping things ahead of even the SK’s….and although that may sound pretentious, we already knew his progress is excellent. He truly is a very bright boy and still daily, continues to amaze us with what comes out of his mouth. His vocabulary is out of this world! Nicholas is in a JK/SK split class being one of only 5 (I think or 4 possibly) JK’s. Although I feared a little at the beginning about that, I think now that it is only an advantage for him. The only disadvantage that I worry about is that sometimes I don’t think the older kids always include him in play activities. And to top it off, his best little buddy at school, Chase, is going away for at least a month, possibly two. His teacher let us know and she too is a little concerned that Nicholas may find that difficult. Apparently, they ‘hang’ together all the time so we did talk to him about it tonight and he doesn’t seem too phased but we will see how things go.

Shane is doing wonderfully….his new thing (well not so new really, he started this a couple of weeks ago) is climbing up on to the sofas or our big comfy chair in our room. At first, it froze me with fear but I guess after having one boy already, I quickly got over it and now, I watch with a careful eye but he seems to have perfected this feat and always guides himself down perfectly fine. Little monkey!

Every day, I try to get him to say Mama, Mommy, even the sound of an M….but NOOOOO, that is all reserved for Daddy!! I remember one day in the past couple of weeks, he said Daddy so clearly, Johnathon and I looked at each other….like did you hear that?? Because really, he is still a mumbler and he regularly will make out Dada sounds but nothing with this clarity. It was pretty neat.

The house is almost, ALMOST ready for Christmas. I had big plans of getting lots of lights put up outside but that is looking more and more like a dream. But inside, the decorations are mostly up and the tree looks very pretty in the front room. Nicholas had so much fun putting the ornaments on and I suggested we get him a small tree for his bedroom. He was quite pleased about that so we kept some ornaments aside and hopefully, tomorrow, I can get that picked up for him.

We had a holiday dinner party on Saturday night with Kevin, Anne, Stewart and Laura. Lots of fun!! It always is. Great food, conversation and even better company….with a little dancing thrown in!

Next weekend is Johnathon’s leadership recognition dinner with the VP. No idea what to expect and though I am very proud and happy for my hubby with this invite, I’m a little nervous but I know in the end, we will have a great evening. We have made it an even better evening with Cheryl agreeing to stay with the boys overnight and Johnathon and I will spend the night away at a hotel.

And you may ask yourself, what did I decide on for an outfit?? (ok, it hasn’t crossed your mind at all but it certainly has mine). And I will tell you…..that I have no idea whatsoever! Anyone want to go shopping?