I have been writing these down in my book, but not getting to post them on the blog so there's a lot of them this time!
I knew I was raising boys, but being the only woman in a house full of xy chromosomes has its ... repugnant moments: Sitting at breakfast one morning Seamus started screaming. Derek was sitting beside him and gently and quietly assessed the situation, put his finger on one of Seamus's nostrils and said, "Blow". Seamus promptly blew a cheerio out of his open nostril, picked it up, and ate it.
(sliding off the tall bed without help and talking to nobody in particular) I wasn't very scared, it's good to try new things. -S
I'm not practicing, I just like playing piano! -L
You shouldn't put almonds in your nose. -me
If you have working paper, you can make pirate ships! (construction paper) -L
Thanks for getting that booger off me. -S
Crapulation....seriously?! -L
No, crapul-ENCE. -D
For real, it's in the dictionary! -D
Gwammy and Gwampa are my best friends. -S
I climbed on the most gripful rocks. -L
Chipewayans are like dinosaurs and they have guns. -S
No, they have bows and arrows. -L
Right. Chipewayans have bones and arrows. -S
(while reading Two Against the North)
You're sad now that I'm big. -S
The quarter is magneting to here! -:L
My birdhouse is gonna catch an eagle. -S
I'm the rotten egg!!!! (grinning and shouting) -S
The boys took off running and Seamus shouted, "I'm fast!" Luke quickly pulled ahead and Seamus shouted just as joyfully, "I'm slow!"
My penis is a tall building. -S
What kind of building? -me
A business. -S
(eyebrows raised) It's his BIZ-ness. -Grampa
My wound is like the one Westley got from the Rodent: both on our left arms. Only his was from a rodent and mine was from the road. -L
Yours is a ROAD-DENT -D
Did you dent the road, or did the road dent you? -me
(we got a lot of mileage out of this one...pun intended)
Happy Easter egg hunt Mom! -S
I already went poop, Mom -S
When? -me
Sixteen pounds ago. -S
Easter is all about candy...and Jesus. -L
Barenaked Ladies and London Bridge are my favorite songs. -S
Why do Stanley and Luke get to sit by their chuthers? -S
I have most of my gummi bears 'cuz I suck. -L
I'm on my balance Mom! -S
(after lunch) Can you hose me up, Auntie Lissa Bergen? -S
(after spinning) The house feels turning. -S
I cut my shirt with scissors so we should hammer some tape on it. -S
There's a Charlotte's Web interview! (preview) -L
Can I go tank-topping? -S
Seamus! Don't cut Mommy's head off! Just zing or cut her. -L
Mom! Pretend that I'm your son and that water is fire. -L
Benjamin's poop is yellow because he was out in the sun too long. -S
Showing posts with label auntie lissa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auntie lissa. Show all posts
Monday, June 9, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Dear Benjamin,
I am sorry I keep calling you Seamus. But you can be glad I am not mistakenly calling you Linus, at least. That was the mistake I made with Seamus.
In just a few hours you will be three weeks old. Three weeks! Three weeks seemed like ages when I was pregnant and waiting for you to be born. And since you've been here...three weeks seems like ages when you never sleep longer than an hour and a half at a stretch! Please won't you sleep a bit longer, little one?
I think perhaps today you began a growth spurt. You've been inconsolable unless you're at my breast, and frankly my boy, you've drained me dry. You're in the crib in my bedroom crying as I type this. You fell asleep nursing my empty breast and the moment I laid you down you started sqwuaking again. You've been fairly easy to please up until now, so I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt and not colic.
Yesterday I looked at you and thought you looked bigger. Since the day you were born I have thought you look smaller than your brothers. You certainly don't weigh less (you were 9lb 8oz at your appointment on Wednesday), or measure smaller, but your head is a different shape. Your Grandma says you don't have the Thiessen head, like the other boys. Do you have a Bergen head? I've never thought those heads were particularly small, though. Either way, your head seems a different shape than your brothers, and I think you look distinctly You.
Poor little Benjamin. Your face broke out in baby acne yesterday and it looks so uncomfortable. After your bath today it looked a little better, but you've been so upset off and on all day that your face is red and sweaty anyway...you're just a pitiful thing when your chin quivers and you're all worked up and red in the face.
The night before you were born, December 26th, I wasn't feeling too good. I hadn't slept well for weeks-months, really. Since Steven died. At first it was grief. Then nausea. Then the call of nature. Anyway, I thought the exhaustion was finally getting to me. I'd been having contractions for two weeks, and nearly every evening for two weeks I thought, "Wow! These are strong and close together! This could be it!" And then I'd go to bed...and wake up the next morning still pregnant.
But my Mom said the night before you were born she could tell something was different. I hardly touched my dinner. I escaped to the basement couch for a little while after dinner and just lay down. My Mom came and visited for a bit. The house was pretty loud and crazy with five extra adults. Every one of your extended family came to meet you! Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie Lissa, Auntie Sarah and Stephen, all came from California for Christmas, and your birth! Your arrival was ordained cause for celebration.
I wanted to go for a bit of a walk in the evening. I just didn't have it in me to sit still for very long. When people started volunteering to walk with me I insisted I would go on my own. I wasn't really planning on walking so much as shuffling. I went down the street and around Barracuda Bay and home again. Very. Slowly. Contractions weren't regular, but I had several on my walk that were strong enough to make me pause.
I went to bed while everyone else watched an episode of Big Bang Theory. I fell right to sleep and woke up at 4am when I felt some liquid gush out. It was blood, so I called the hospital and they said I should come right in to have it checked out. While we got some snacks together and Derek got dressed my contractions were about three minutes apart. I woke my Mom and she gathered up her stuff to come along as the special guest for what I hoped would be your birth!
When we got to the hospital at 4:45am I was three cm dilated....only one cm more than a week previous, and not enough for them to keep me in the hospital. They would have sent me home except I was still bleeding and they wanted to keep an eye on that. By the end of my nurse's shift at 7am, the contractions had gotten so that I couldn't talk through them, and I was 5 1/2cm dilated.
I showered, and when the doctor came in to check me at 8am I was 6cm dilated. I asked if he would break my water because I could feel it bulging and I remembered that once they broke my water with Seamus everything sped right up. Dr. Basson agreed and broke my water on the next contraction. I immediately got dizzy and vomited several times and nearly passed out. I just barely stayed conscious to hear the doctor say I had gone from 6cm to 8 1/2cm when they broke my water. If I hadn't been so woozy I would have jumped with joy.
You felt so funny in my belly after the doctor broke my water. I could feel your little arms and legs just under my skin, like you were crashing around inside a collapsed tent - trying to find the exit. The next half hour went by in slow motion. I breathed nitrous oxide during contractions and your Grammy and Daddy stood on either side of me, just touching me and saying encouraging words. I knew that now I was just waiting for the desire to push. The doctor decided to go change into scrubs.
I began to get terrible charlie horse cramps in my butt, so I switched positions and got on my hands and knees. Within moments I felt the need to push, but the nurse wanted to check me and couldn't while I was on my hands and knees. I refused to go on my back, because that's when the cramps were the worst, but I was really in no position to argue. I had already pushed through one contraction on my hands and knees and the nurse was getting worried. I flipped around and the nurse pushed a little lip of the cervix back while I pushed through one more contraction. I had just asked the nurse if she'd ever caught a baby when the doctor swooped in and I pushed for the third time. Your head came out, and for one awful second I knew something wasn't right - the rest of your body wasn't coming out like it should. I'd done this before, I knew that once your head was out the rest should be easy. But I was still pushing!
Your shoulder was hung up a little, so the doctor repositioned me, flattened the bed and got your shoulder out. Finally! Three contractions and you were out. December 27th, 8:45am, baby boy Thiessen #3 arrives. A little purple, but a 9 on the Apgar scale. 8lb, 8oz. A tiny, naked, frog-legged boy laying on my stomach. You looked so different from your brothers! We all said so. Grammy noticed a birthmark on the back of your neck when they put the ointment on your eyes. And later I noticed your ears look a little elvish, and lay flat against your head unlike your brothers'. You lay with me and nursed right away. You latched on and just made yourself right at home for the first 35 minutes of your life outside the womb. I think your Dad cut the umbilical cord, but those details are a bit fuzzy.
I was thrilled to meet you, and just so thrilled not to be pregnant anymore. Don't get me wrong, Benjamin. I was so happy to know you were growing inside me. And so happy to have a third baby boy. But pregnancy was exhausting. All the vomiting, the lack of sleep, the discomfort. You will never know, because you're a man. And even if you were a woman, not all women have it as bad as me. But pregnancy is just no fun for me. There were about two weeks in the middle when I felt comfortable and beautiful and healthy. And then the rest all just blurs together in one long uncomfortable fog. After you were born I am sure I said something like, "HELLO little boy!!" and then, "Hey everyone!! I'm NOT pregnant anymore!!" I was just that happy.
You didn't have a name at first, and that drove your Grandma crazy. I was just happy to have you in my arms. Your Dad and I got lots of suggestions for names that day as we introduced you to everyone. Your brothers came to meet you first. They both wanted to hold you. Luke had asked Santa that you be born on Christmas, but you didn't cooperate. You can imagine that waiting two whole days after Christmas just about made Luke blow a gasket. Seamus couldn't stop saying delightful things like, "We just love the baby!" and, "The baby is so smart!"
Next we were visited by Grandpa Stan, the Aunties and Stephen, Kelvin and Jonathan Dyck (who said he'd never seen a baby so new before and was surprised that you didn't look "weird"), your Grandma and Papa, and Auntie Jaime. The top two names on our list were Cedric and Theodore. But since we couldn't agree between the two of us, and neither of the names really seemed to suit you, we threw both those names out the window and started from scratch.
The next morning, over Tim Horton's bagels, your Dad and I debated between Andrew and Benjamin. Your middle name was arranged beforehand. We looked at you. We asked you. You were Benjamin Harvey. We filled your name in on the hospital paperwork just moments before sticking you in the car seat and heading home for the first time. The day you were born it was so warm that everything was melty. The day we took you home, we took you home in a blizzard!
Welcome to the world Benjamin Harvey. Welcome to Manitoba in the middle of winter! We will not be celebrating your birthday with pool parties. But maybe we will make snowmen, or snow angels, or a snow fort or go winter camping or build snow lanterns! You get to share December birthdays with your cousin Roehn, and your Grandma Helene! And we will never forget that your first winter in Manitoba was also Grammy and Grandpa's first Manitoba winter experience (and boy did they experience the deep freeze!).
In just a few hours you will be three weeks old. Three weeks! Three weeks seemed like ages when I was pregnant and waiting for you to be born. And since you've been here...three weeks seems like ages when you never sleep longer than an hour and a half at a stretch! Please won't you sleep a bit longer, little one?
I think perhaps today you began a growth spurt. You've been inconsolable unless you're at my breast, and frankly my boy, you've drained me dry. You're in the crib in my bedroom crying as I type this. You fell asleep nursing my empty breast and the moment I laid you down you started sqwuaking again. You've been fairly easy to please up until now, so I'm hoping it's just a growth spurt and not colic.
Yesterday I looked at you and thought you looked bigger. Since the day you were born I have thought you look smaller than your brothers. You certainly don't weigh less (you were 9lb 8oz at your appointment on Wednesday), or measure smaller, but your head is a different shape. Your Grandma says you don't have the Thiessen head, like the other boys. Do you have a Bergen head? I've never thought those heads were particularly small, though. Either way, your head seems a different shape than your brothers, and I think you look distinctly You.
Poor little Benjamin. Your face broke out in baby acne yesterday and it looks so uncomfortable. After your bath today it looked a little better, but you've been so upset off and on all day that your face is red and sweaty anyway...you're just a pitiful thing when your chin quivers and you're all worked up and red in the face.
The night before you were born, December 26th, I wasn't feeling too good. I hadn't slept well for weeks-months, really. Since Steven died. At first it was grief. Then nausea. Then the call of nature. Anyway, I thought the exhaustion was finally getting to me. I'd been having contractions for two weeks, and nearly every evening for two weeks I thought, "Wow! These are strong and close together! This could be it!" And then I'd go to bed...and wake up the next morning still pregnant.
But my Mom said the night before you were born she could tell something was different. I hardly touched my dinner. I escaped to the basement couch for a little while after dinner and just lay down. My Mom came and visited for a bit. The house was pretty loud and crazy with five extra adults. Every one of your extended family came to meet you! Grammy, Grandpa, Auntie Lissa, Auntie Sarah and Stephen, all came from California for Christmas, and your birth! Your arrival was ordained cause for celebration.
I wanted to go for a bit of a walk in the evening. I just didn't have it in me to sit still for very long. When people started volunteering to walk with me I insisted I would go on my own. I wasn't really planning on walking so much as shuffling. I went down the street and around Barracuda Bay and home again. Very. Slowly. Contractions weren't regular, but I had several on my walk that were strong enough to make me pause.
I went to bed while everyone else watched an episode of Big Bang Theory. I fell right to sleep and woke up at 4am when I felt some liquid gush out. It was blood, so I called the hospital and they said I should come right in to have it checked out. While we got some snacks together and Derek got dressed my contractions were about three minutes apart. I woke my Mom and she gathered up her stuff to come along as the special guest for what I hoped would be your birth!
When we got to the hospital at 4:45am I was three cm dilated....only one cm more than a week previous, and not enough for them to keep me in the hospital. They would have sent me home except I was still bleeding and they wanted to keep an eye on that. By the end of my nurse's shift at 7am, the contractions had gotten so that I couldn't talk through them, and I was 5 1/2cm dilated.
I showered, and when the doctor came in to check me at 8am I was 6cm dilated. I asked if he would break my water because I could feel it bulging and I remembered that once they broke my water with Seamus everything sped right up. Dr. Basson agreed and broke my water on the next contraction. I immediately got dizzy and vomited several times and nearly passed out. I just barely stayed conscious to hear the doctor say I had gone from 6cm to 8 1/2cm when they broke my water. If I hadn't been so woozy I would have jumped with joy.
You felt so funny in my belly after the doctor broke my water. I could feel your little arms and legs just under my skin, like you were crashing around inside a collapsed tent - trying to find the exit. The next half hour went by in slow motion. I breathed nitrous oxide during contractions and your Grammy and Daddy stood on either side of me, just touching me and saying encouraging words. I knew that now I was just waiting for the desire to push. The doctor decided to go change into scrubs.
I began to get terrible charlie horse cramps in my butt, so I switched positions and got on my hands and knees. Within moments I felt the need to push, but the nurse wanted to check me and couldn't while I was on my hands and knees. I refused to go on my back, because that's when the cramps were the worst, but I was really in no position to argue. I had already pushed through one contraction on my hands and knees and the nurse was getting worried. I flipped around and the nurse pushed a little lip of the cervix back while I pushed through one more contraction. I had just asked the nurse if she'd ever caught a baby when the doctor swooped in and I pushed for the third time. Your head came out, and for one awful second I knew something wasn't right - the rest of your body wasn't coming out like it should. I'd done this before, I knew that once your head was out the rest should be easy. But I was still pushing!
Your shoulder was hung up a little, so the doctor repositioned me, flattened the bed and got your shoulder out. Finally! Three contractions and you were out. December 27th, 8:45am, baby boy Thiessen #3 arrives. A little purple, but a 9 on the Apgar scale. 8lb, 8oz. A tiny, naked, frog-legged boy laying on my stomach. You looked so different from your brothers! We all said so. Grammy noticed a birthmark on the back of your neck when they put the ointment on your eyes. And later I noticed your ears look a little elvish, and lay flat against your head unlike your brothers'. You lay with me and nursed right away. You latched on and just made yourself right at home for the first 35 minutes of your life outside the womb. I think your Dad cut the umbilical cord, but those details are a bit fuzzy.
I was thrilled to meet you, and just so thrilled not to be pregnant anymore. Don't get me wrong, Benjamin. I was so happy to know you were growing inside me. And so happy to have a third baby boy. But pregnancy was exhausting. All the vomiting, the lack of sleep, the discomfort. You will never know, because you're a man. And even if you were a woman, not all women have it as bad as me. But pregnancy is just no fun for me. There were about two weeks in the middle when I felt comfortable and beautiful and healthy. And then the rest all just blurs together in one long uncomfortable fog. After you were born I am sure I said something like, "HELLO little boy!!" and then, "Hey everyone!! I'm NOT pregnant anymore!!" I was just that happy.
You didn't have a name at first, and that drove your Grandma crazy. I was just happy to have you in my arms. Your Dad and I got lots of suggestions for names that day as we introduced you to everyone. Your brothers came to meet you first. They both wanted to hold you. Luke had asked Santa that you be born on Christmas, but you didn't cooperate. You can imagine that waiting two whole days after Christmas just about made Luke blow a gasket. Seamus couldn't stop saying delightful things like, "We just love the baby!" and, "The baby is so smart!"
Next we were visited by Grandpa Stan, the Aunties and Stephen, Kelvin and Jonathan Dyck (who said he'd never seen a baby so new before and was surprised that you didn't look "weird"), your Grandma and Papa, and Auntie Jaime. The top two names on our list were Cedric and Theodore. But since we couldn't agree between the two of us, and neither of the names really seemed to suit you, we threw both those names out the window and started from scratch.
The next morning, over Tim Horton's bagels, your Dad and I debated between Andrew and Benjamin. Your middle name was arranged beforehand. We looked at you. We asked you. You were Benjamin Harvey. We filled your name in on the hospital paperwork just moments before sticking you in the car seat and heading home for the first time. The day you were born it was so warm that everything was melty. The day we took you home, we took you home in a blizzard!
Welcome to the world Benjamin Harvey. Welcome to Manitoba in the middle of winter! We will not be celebrating your birthday with pool parties. But maybe we will make snowmen, or snow angels, or a snow fort or go winter camping or build snow lanterns! You get to share December birthdays with your cousin Roehn, and your Grandma Helene! And we will never forget that your first winter in Manitoba was also Grammy and Grandpa's first Manitoba winter experience (and boy did they experience the deep freeze!).
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
2,000 miles from here
We started homeschooling yesterday and though the photos look idyllic, it was a crazy day that, if I'm honest with you, ended with most of us in tears. I know a large part of the frustration was due to how much I had worked up "the first day", to make it an extra-fun-packed-wonderful-day. And a large part is due to the fact that I had to assert my authority as "the teacher" for the first time...which didn't go over well with "the student".
Anyway, today was a little better, and included Luke's first day of piano lessons which he says he enjoyed (rather unusual for him to admit on the first try!). And to really ice the cake, this afternoon I got to sit and edit photos. Oh boy, there is such a backlog of photos! And the ones I really really wanted to share with you are the ones that made me smile so big, like remembering something that happened ages ago...but which are really from 9 days ago. 9 days ago we were in California celebrating my sister's marriage to Stephen. Here are a few highlights of that trip.
Anyway, today was a little better, and included Luke's first day of piano lessons which he says he enjoyed (rather unusual for him to admit on the first try!). And to really ice the cake, this afternoon I got to sit and edit photos. Oh boy, there is such a backlog of photos! And the ones I really really wanted to share with you are the ones that made me smile so big, like remembering something that happened ages ago...but which are really from 9 days ago. 9 days ago we were in California celebrating my sister's marriage to Stephen. Here are a few highlights of that trip.
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| According to some (short) people, the whole reason for our trip was to see this "Sweet Ginger-Peachy" girl. |
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| Everyone pitched in to help set up. |
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| And people who work hard, play hard. |
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| This is pretty much all anyone saw of Seamus all night: a wet blur, and a squirt in the face. He ran around shooting complete strangers with his water gun, laughing and giggling to burst. Thankfully it was hot and nobody really minded getting wet. |
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| The beautiful Sabrina lights. Can you believe my parents live here?! Like, every day. They wake up and this is where they live. Man, some days I am so jealous. |
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| Even Grandpa Walter got out on the dance floor! |
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| The bride didn't sit out a single dance. It was an unforgettable party. |
Thursday, November 1, 2012
A Little More Sunshine
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| Luke and Ally go way back, so even though Ally is uncomfortable with most children, she puts up with Luke's hugs and sweet, "I love you Ally"s. |
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| Who doesn't love working with a pickax that's bigger than yourself? |
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| Considering sprinkler problems in Auntie Sarah's backyard. |
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| Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors!! Grammy's fondest wish. |
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| Picnic in the Reedley Park. |
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| Trying to catch minnows. This boy was undressed as soon as he saw water. |
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| Everybody loves you John-Mark, you can stop being so adorable. |
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| To wade or not to wade, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous name calling (lily-white legs!!) or bare legs against a river of troubles, and by opposing, end them. |
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| She's got it, she knows it, yeah yeah yeah. |
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| We all thought we were rolling up our pant legs so they wouldn't get wet. We didn't take into consideration the splashing four-year old who, every few minutes, came running up to us through (his) hip-deep water. |
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| We later figured out that the poles went inside the tent...what kind of ridiculous tent-designer designed a tent you have to be inside of to erect?! |
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| Seamus's turn on the family heirloom rocking horse. |
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| Luke says, "I wanna show you my skateboard tricks, Plain 'Ol Grammy!" |
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| *LOVED* |
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| VERY bold. |
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| For sure it was warm enough to slip and slide in California, while in Manitoba there was confectioners sugar scattered all around...it was sugar, right? |
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
California So Far...
We are one week into our California trip and I have just had four rolls of film developed! This trip is totally digital-camera-free. It is somehow freeing to know film is all I've got, I do my best, I catch the moments I can, and I let the rest of the moments live on simply in memory.
My cousin's wedding (the excuse for the trip), was the first wedding I've attended in a long time where I wasn't working, so I took what I considered a bit of a risk and brought only the Pentax K1000. What fun I had! And the anticipation of getting film developed only increased my delight when I discovered I had done a pretty great job even without the reassurance of an instant-view LCD screen. So fun.
We're having a good time, although Seamus is having some trouble adjusting to the time difference (especially since we keep waking him up and hauling him off to do fun stuff!). And in our remaining week, we have plenty more fun stuff, so perhaps by the time he gets adjusted to the time change it'll be time to go home again. Poor kid.
So far on this trip we've gotten to see Aunt Carol and Uncle Phil (Seamus and Aunt Carol share a birthday among other things like their appreciation for dark chocolate), we've attended a wedding, visited Plain Ol' Grammy, seen tons of family, made the wedding programs, went to Bravo Farms, Simonian Farms, played in the water in Grammy and Grandpa's backyard, finished shingling the roof of the shop, listened to a thunderstorm and rain on the patio's tin roof, played with innumerable dogs (each of whom Luke claims to love the best in the world), and eaten lots of great food. I'm not sure what could be better than eating great food with people you love...except maybe having ALL the people you love in one place at one time.
We miss you Derek!
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