Archive for Kids
First winter storm blankets Nova Scotia
Posted by: | CommentsI’m home one day from San Francisco’s warmth and sunshine and what happens? We get hammered with a winter storm. Not just any first of the year winter storm, this was a dandy.
Nicole and Michael came out to help shovel the side deck, which helped out a lot. Actually, Nicole did most of the work and seemed to have a good time doing it.
Twiggy had a blast. She has a habit of jumping in front of you when shoveling snow getting a face — and mouth — full of snow every time you try to clear the walk.
I hate snow. I hate winter.
Oh, the drama of it all
Posted by: | CommentsSometimes no matter what you do, it’s just wrong. That’s what happened to Monique and I on Sunday when friends of ours and their kids came up to the cottage for the day.
Nicole and Michael were lobbying for their friends to stay overnight at the cottage even before we left for vacation. We said that we would think about it and let them know the day they came up.
Dave and Brenda showed up and we sat around talking and had a few drinks. Later in the day we had a few burgers on the grill. The whole time Nicole and Lindsey were hinting about the sleepover.
It didn’t matter to us if the kids stayed or not, but Dave and Brenda couldn’t come back on Monday and pick them up. They decided to just take the kids home and we could arrange for a sleepover some other time at home.
Michael and his friend Andrew were disappointed, but accepted the news. Nicole and Lindsey on the other hand started crying and wailing like two year olds.
It was so bad, it was actually funny at first, but then it got old really quick. They wouldn’t stop and it was one of those stupid crying fits that you knew was planned if the news didn’t go their way.
Monique and I have never allowed ourselves to fall victim to such antics, so Nicole should have known a temper tantrum was not the way to win us over. Instead, acting like that only strengthens our resolve.
To make matters worse for Nicole, she will be punished for her actions. I’m not sure what yet, but I believe that she has to learn that there are consequences for her actions, good or bad.
Well, that news didn’t go over well with her, but I’m her parent, which means I’m not always her friend. That also means that I do what I think is right. If she thinks she can get her way by pulling stunts like this now, she may pull stupid stuff like this again.
Not on my watch!
Paddleboats and a swimming dog
Posted by: | CommentsThe first couple of days of vacation were pretty busy, but today we all laid around and relaxed. Michael went out in the paddleboat by himself and later with Monique, but nobody seems to be enjoying things as much as Twiggy.
Michael really enjoys the paddleboat that is at the cottage. He travels up and down the shore picking up rocks and other treasures he finds along the way. We stay out there and watch him, but he’s a good swimmer, so we don’t worry too much — he’s not far from shore anyway.
Monique and Michael went around the entire lake in the paddleboat today — believe me, that’s quite a distance. Monique was tired and sore when she got back, but I’m sure Michael could have gone again. Oh to have the energy of a kid again.
Twiggy is just insane about the water. She just runs of the end of the wharf and jumps into the water whether you throw the stick or not. She seems to be enjoying the water more than the kids at this point. You can certainly tell at night because she is beat.
We haven’t done a lot so far, but that’s okay, it is vacation. The kids are reading a lot of books and I’m playing guitar and putting together some tracks, so all is well.
A busy first day of vacation
Posted by: | CommentsI should have known it was going to happen. My first day of vacation was the busiest day of work I had all week — figures. At the last minute I did up a feature story on building a Widget to go along with the release of the Macworld Dashboard Widget.
By the time you read this, my vacation will be over; I’ll be back home again; and the Macworld Widget will already be available for download. That’s because I have no Internet access at the cottage we rented this week. I’m always fearful of not having Internet access, but I’m kind of looking forward to having the time off.
We managed to make it up here about mid-afternoon and get everything out of the truck. Then we had to go into town and pick up some groceries for the week, which included a good helping of Heineken for me.
Michael went in swimming for a bit with Twiggy while the rest of us just kind of laid around and rested. Twiggy has no fear at all of the water — she just dives in.
By 7:00 pm I was beat. I was yawning and looking for a quiet spot to lie down, but I didn’t want to go to bed too early. I don’t sleep that well most times — I’m often up until 3:00 am or later and get up several hours later — so I was happy to see I was so tired.
After the kids went to bed, Monique and I watched a couple episodes of Alias on DVD. We just started watching the show a few weeks ago and are on season 2 now.
Sadly, after being so tired for so long, I couldn’t get to sleep. I laid there for hours trying and finally dozed off. We have to go back into town tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll be rested enough.
I’m cool. No, I’m really cool!
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t take my word for it, just ask my daughter. I found out recently that I am the coolest father in the whole town! That led to me taking Nicole and two of her friends to a concert last night.
Nicole’s favorite band, Hedley, is led by one of the Canadian Idol contestants from last season. A few weeks ago there was a segment on the local news that Hedley was coming to town, so Monique went online and stayed there until she came away with four tickets in the second row.
The plan was this: Monique would take Nicole and her two friends to the concert and I would stay home with Michael. Worked for me.
The plan was fine until this week. Nicole decided this week that I was so cool that she needed me to take her to the show. I felt bad for Monique because Nicole fights with her a lot, but I have to say that it’s been a long time since I’ve been called cool or anything even resembling cool.
So, off I went with three pre-teen girls following behind — okay, actually I was following behind, but I was really out of place. Luckily, I wasn’t the only parent at the concert that was totally out of place.
Nicole had a lot of fun. She managed to get up on stage with the band and danced around for most of the last song. After the concert was over, I stood in line with the girls for over an hour so they could get an autograph and a picture.
It all worked out pretty good. The girls had fun and I’m apparently still cool!
Michael is back on the bike
Posted by: | CommentsAfter knocking out his teeth a few weeks ago and spending more than his share of time in the doctor’s office, Michael is doing so much better. In fact, tonight he went for a ride on his bike for the first time since he went down.
It seems that Michael’s face took the full force of the impact in his accident. The bike is fine except for twisted handle bars and from what I can tell he didn’t damage the road at all.
He was hesitant to get back on the bike — and I don’t blame him — but he strapped on the helmet and started up the street. He decided to walk the bike down the hill (next to the one he fell on) and ride on the straight stretches. That was fine with me — it was just good to see him riding again.
Besides a car that almost backed over him, the ride was a complete success. He said he felt a lot better about riding and I feel better getting that first one out of the way too.
Scooby-Doo and Michael too
Posted by: | CommentsMichael, Monique and Nicole sat down tonight and watched Scooby-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed. I was going to watch too, but I had some work to do, so I got that done instead.
Sometimes listening to Michael watch a movie is better than watching the movie itself. He’s one of these genuine laughers that belly laughs — when he gets going it’s contagious.
All through the movie Michael was laughing so hard, it brought a smile to my face.
Sometimes it’s the small things in life that make me happy. Well that and lots of money would make me really happy.
Nicole got her braces today
Posted by: | CommentsAs if Michael’s teeth problems weren’t enough this past week, Nicole went in today to get braces on her teeth. She was actually looking forward to having braces — Monique and I both had them and neither of us looked forward to having them.
The braces were planned for quite a while now, but it just adds to the drama as we prepare to take Michael in for the first of his five root canals on Thursday. I think they’ll take a week or so to complete them.
Nicole didn’t think the braces would hurt, but after only an hour or so she said the bottom teeth are starting to hurt. From experience I told her they will hurt a lot more in the next few days.
Deja vu all over again
Posted by: | CommentsI talked to my parents last night and told them all about Michael’s accident. Then we talked about how freaky my accident was compared to what Michael went through yesterday — the similarities are kind of incredible.
When I was 11 or 12, I had a similar accident to Michael. Most people don’t know, but I have a false tooth in the front — it came out through my lip when I crashed. For many years I had a mustache, which hid the scar, but over the past few years the scar has almost disappeared.
Here are a few of the similarities:
Jim: Riding down a hill a few hours before my soccer game and lost control of my bike.
Michael: Riding down a hill a few hours before his soccer game and lost control of his bike.
Jim: Went over my handlebars and knocked out my front tooth.
Michael: Went over (or sideways, we don’t really know) his handlebars and knocked out the same front tooth.
Jim: Two strangers (a young man and woman) stopped and took me home.
Michael: Two strangers (a young man and woman) stopped and took him home.
Jim: When I got home, my father said I just stood in the driveway bleeding. When I approached him, I stuck my finger through my lip where the tooth came out. I don’t remember most of that.
Michael: He got out of the car and just stared at us bleeding, not really knowing what to do.
Jim: My parents got the tooth (I’m not sure if they went back or if the people that brought me home picked it up).
Michael: I went back to the accident scene and picked up the tooth off the road.
Jim: My parents took me to see Dr. Christie to have my tooth put back in my mouth. We then went to the hospital.
Michael: We took Michael to see Dr. Christie (yep same guy) and he sent us to the hospital.
The next day, Michael and I both looked about the same. I feel so bad for him.
Michael had a serious accident today
Posted by: | CommentsI seriously thought my heart was going to break as I watched my 10-year-old son lying in the hospital, covered in blood. earlier today Michael was driving down a steep hill on his bike and lost control. Besides the fact he lost nine teeth, we know very little about what happened.
Mike left the house with his friend to spend the afternoon bike riding — the last thing Monique said was “don’t race down the hills.” A few minutes later she walked into the family room and said “I hope he listens to me about going down the hills too fast — I would hate for him to crash and knock out some teeth.”
She turned around, walked to the front door as a strange car drove up and stopped in front of our driveway. The passenger’s door opened and a young woman got out with Michael, completely covered in blood. Monique screamed and I ran to the door.
After we made sure he had no broken bones, I hopped in the truck and went to the accident scene to recover the missing tooth. It was still in the middle of the road where it landed. I grabbed it drove home, picked everyone up and went to our dentists office. He quickly told us to go to the IWK Childrens Hospital.
They took care of us pretty quickly at the hospital. First they had a doctor check him out, both physically and mentally — until then Michael had no idea where he was or what happened to him. He checked out okay, although they were a bit concerned about him.
When the dental sergeon came, he didn’t have good news. He said they could not put in the front tooth that got knocked out. In addition to that, they had to pull three other teeth because they were so loose. To make matters worse five other teeth had to be wired in place or he would lose those too.
Even though those teeth are now wired in place, Michael will have to go through five root canals in order to save them. The doctor said those teeth are already dead.
Michael spent two or three hours in surgery this afternoon. We left for the hospital at 1:30 pm and arrived home at 8:30 pm.
At least he is alive and has all his limbs, eyes and was wearing a helmet or it could have been much worse.
