Worst blog month in a while . . .

Sorry, loyal readers, about the recent lack of submissions. This has been an interesting month so far, sprinkled with sicknesses and a good dose of getting back into a social schedule of sorts. A week after Max's strep episode, Holly came down with a vicious flu that left her not really remembering much of a Saturday and pretty achy and spent throughout the Sunday. This meant trial by fire for me as I had to manage both kids, including feedings, for about a day and a half (aside from night feedings for Leo, which Holly was thankfully still able to do). Things went really well and a friend of ours pitched in, inviting me and the boys over to her place for an hour or so before dinner. I was really glad that Leo was good to go with the bottle, otherwise that would have been a lot worse!

The BIG advantage of Leo taking the bottle has been that Holly could finally feel free to go out and be social for more than 90 minutes at a time on evenings or weekends. So far, Holly has enjoyed dinners with friends, some tubing, movies and a play. Now that the good weather is upon us (15 and snow-free!), we're hoping to spend more time outside of the house in general so I guess things are about to get busy for everybody.

Since our last post, there has been a lot going on, including Max's last gym class for a while, Leo's first outdoor stroller ride, Leo's first ride in a vehicle outside of his bucket seat (his Britax seat is just like Max's, but charcoal instead of denim), multiple family dinners and (FINALLY!) Leo's first tooth breaking through. That makes for quite a month and we're only halfway through.

There's also a bit of news that quite a few of you are aware of that I wanted to share with the rest, that I'll be taking an extended leave of absence from work starting at the very end of May to raise Max and Leo at home. Despite the fact that it will likely break Max's heart (and ours, frankly) to separate him from his daycare provider, this is definitely something I've been thinking about doing for a while and I'm really looking forward to it. This seems to be a window of opportunity here while Max is not quite school-aged to be closely involved in the boys' day-to-day lives. I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of things that happen at daycare of which I'm blissfully ignorant and I'll have to deal with them in good time, but I think it will be pretty cool to expose the kids to all sorts of things around Ottawa and allow them to bond together. We've also decided to enroll Max in preschool starting in September, to give him an activity that's a little more structured. We're really excited about the program (click here to check out their website) and when we went to the open house, Max refused to leave, putting on a really sweet tantrum for the other parents. Dude REALLY wanted to stay.

In any case, it's still just sinking in that I have 10 weeks to go at work and then I'll be at home for a year with the boys. I have to extend a big thank you to my colleagues and the work environment in general at Stats Can for being so supportive. It's really no wonder that they keep winning those Employer of the Year awards. I've been afforded a lot of flexibilities over the past couple of years in order to be there for my family and it's much appreciated.

That about all I have for now. I should leave you with a video or something, although there's no guarantee that you'll actually be able to watch it. Oh well. Here is a brief glimpse of Max going bonkers on the parachute during his last gym class. And Leo loving himself some mango pit (Thanks to Auntie Melody for this suggestion from her experience in Bangladesh!).

Ugh / happy two-thirds Leo!

Yes, this is a fusion post. Remember what I said a while back about "If it's been while since we've posted, something's up"? Well, this past weekend was a doozy.

First of all, our friend Jenn from the T-dot came down to visit on Thursday and we were thrilled. Well, three of us were. Max, it seems, has a penchant for getting sick roughly half the times Jenn visits. And I don't mean the sniffles, I mean fever-sick. If I remember, Max was well the last time she came down. Which means...sure enough. Thursday evening we went to a book sale before heading home (yeah, like we need more kids' books) and then Max got shmoopy. He started muttering something about his mouth hurting and was pointing to his teeth. Nothing looked wrong...

Max didn't sleep so well and then in the morning was quite warm and cried a lot over his mouth. Then he "coughed up" all over me and my pajamas, miraculously missing the couch or anything else. Eventually, there were enough weird things going on that we figured we should take him to the doctor. Verdict: strep throat. The doctor missed it the first time around and then I mentioned the complaints about the mouth. He checked again and then showed me the nastiness in Max's throat (BLECH! Not quite as gross as Leo's poo, but in the same ballpark). The next three days featured lots of crying, congested nights that woke Max up every 45 minutes or so, fights over getting antibiotics and Advil into him, and pretty much no food intake whatsoever given the pain in his throat.

I can't imagine how little would have been accomplished in general if it wasn't for Jenn - what an angel! Thanks to her, we got enough sleep to stay in the game, cooked some good meals and Holly even got to go tubing with some friends. We even got a few Scrabble games in! A real lifesaver.

Max didn't seem to be getting any better by Monday so we went back in to the doctor (one of our favourite doctors in Ottawa, Dr. O!). We were told to be patient and aim for a big improvement by Wednesday. On the way out, Dr. O gave Max two tongue depressors that were supposed to be friends for Thomas the Tank Engine (who was on Max's shirt). Max called them Boy and Doctor and has been playing with them ever since.

Over the next couple of days, Max graduated to no Advil, then a bit of food, then sleeping through large parts of the night again and then finally, he was back at daycare today. It was pretty hard to see Max in real pain for the first time. He seemed so confused and particularly frustrated that he couldn't eat. Monday night, we were bushed and ordered pizza. Max was so excited when it arrived that he buckled himself into his high chair and virtually pounded the table with his cutlery. Then, he took a single bite and started crying about the pain in his mouth. It broke our hearts and we're definitely glad he's on the mend.

As for the other Stardom boy, Leo hit the big 8-month mark today. Still no teeth or crawling, but he has turned into an amazing sitter. He loves sitting up next to one of his toy baskets and rummaging around until he finds something he likes. Then he'll gnaw on it for a while and then rummage some more. Given that he isn't nearly as fond of the Jumparoo as Max was, it's neat to see that he's essentially replaced it with something else.

I also found out over the phone today that Leo went for his first swim today! Unlike his big brother, Leo apparently loved being in the water. He especially liked watching all of the other people in and around the pool. We've been talking for a while now about getting Leo into the water, but sicknesses, weather and other things have conspired against us. I'm definitely looking forward to our first family swim.

Another thing that I'm REALLY looking forward to is spring strolling with the boys. Leo hasn't spent much time in strollers to date, but I think that with all of the things spring offers to look at, he'll be completely mesmerized. Plus, spring means that park and wading pool time isn't far off in the distance. . . :)

Here are a couple pictures of our younger cutie pie.

Olympic hangover

I don't know about the rest of you but we are experiencing some serious Olympic withdrawal around here. Yesterday was OK because they were still showing highlights of Sid the Kid and the closing ceremonies but today is just a wasteland. Nothing. Nada. No chants of "Lu! Lu! Lu!" No platinum medals for Evgeny. No shots of crying parents, girlfriends, brothers, etc. No Norwegian curling pants or Russian Ice Dance outfits to mock. No short-track dust-ups. No "O Canada" playing all the time. What a Games it was though! We had a blast watching them and I am so very, very proud of our athletes. They were AMAZING. They may not have owned the podium on all three tiers but they were golden more times that any other group of athletes in Winter Olympic history and that is something to sing about.

At least we have these two cuties to tide us over until London 2012:




p.s. A note to Max and Leo if you are reading this in the future: Please forgive Mummy for dressing you in matching outfits. I know that it is cruel and unfair but I couldn't resist! Hopefully you will forgive me given that it was the Olympics and they were here in your own country. I can't promise that it won't happen again but I will try to keep it to a minimum.