Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Dr. P Says "All Clear"...

Weren't we just here? In fact, we were, just last week, when the boys came down with bad colds. This time around, it was an official booked checkup, and with the boys in pristine health, it was over with in minutes, with Dr. P giving them each a clean bill of health. The boys' weights have stabilized--they're still about 25 pounds each--and all cold symptoms have vanished. We'll do it all again in two months...



Monday, April 25, 2011

Easter Weekend: Get Crackin'

Some of the boys' inventive designs from their first-ever attempt at Easter Egg decorating...


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter Weekend: Carter In Motion



Easter Weekend: Breakfast At Mickey D's

I know people who are mortified when I tell them that my boys--barely more than two years of age--have eaten at McDonald's...it's the fashionable thing, of course, to shield their impressionable eyes from such corporate evils as long as possible. Considering there's a franchise on about every other street corner in our neighbourhood, what are we going to do? Might as well accept its presence and encourage a little restraint and willpower along the way. The boys hadn't been to McD's since the last time Grandma and Grandpa visited (early Feb) so I'm confident we've got nothing to worry about. On the way back, Carter decided to keep a vigil for his friend and neighbour Alexander, who was nowhere to be found...







Easter Weekend: More Visitors

Saturday turned out to be a much better day than forecast, prompting a visit from aunt Wendy and cousin Stepheny, who wanted to hit Queen Street West's trendy dives for some shopping. Wendy gave the boys two new snazzy shirts--including a Beatles number Carter couldn't wait to model--and enjoyed a low-key day before catching the GO Train back home later in the evening...








Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter Is Here!






In the words of one of Carter's favorite songwriters (Pop's, too) "it's been a long, cold, lonely winter". One of the latest Easter holidays on records came not a moment too soon, just as a miserable, dank, damp April was about to end. With it came a much-awaited visit from Grandma and Grandpa, who arrived bright and early on Good Friday and got the weekend rolling along merrily with some new clothes and toys...






A Rare View...



...of me, of course, with the boys. With more than four cameras in the house, how come I only appear in less than a dozen photos?

Easter Weekend: "Backpack, backpack!"

The association with Dora, The Explorer is a bit regrettable, but one of the hot items delivered by Grandma and Grandpa was a snazzy Toy Story backpack, which both Carter and Nathaniel were inspired to model immediately. Looks like we'll have to shell out for another one...


Thursday, April 21, 2011

Back To Surrey








After three hearing tests at Surrey Place that had the audiologist expressing some concern about fluid in Nathaniel's ears, it was time to bring in a specialist: today, Nathaniel and I took yet another medical road trip back to Surrey to meet Dr. Smitherman-Gale, a very nice doctor who seemed to have stepped right out of a BBC-1 police procedural. After another hearing test with the always-patient and very nice Jill, Nathaniel's little ears were inspected by Dr. Smitherman-Gale and she concluded that it would be in his best interest to get tubes inserted to drain the fluid and open up the passages, resulting in better hearing, as well as improved speech and balance. A ten-minute operation...the tubes would fall out on their own in 12-18 months. Of course, we want nothing but the best for our little trooper, so we're on board for a late June procedure. With Nathaniel making so much progress on a weekly basis, he'll surely skyrocket after this...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Paging Dr. P!!!


Just when we'd been congratulating ourselves on how we managed to make it through a too-long winter with the boys barely getting sick (only one episode each for Carter and Nathaniel)--this morning, we had to make an unannounced visit to Dr. P's clinic with both boys have succumbed to fevers and restless nights (and confirmed, with Carter's early rise, that The Imagination Movers are now on at 7am).







While the boys' conditions improved immensely once we got there (Carter entertained several visitors to the floor with his Beatles renditions, and Nathaniel enjoyed the National Geographic Kids magazine), Dr. P gave them a look-see and found that Carter was in the early stages of an ear infection, and Nathaniel required his usual steroid dose to ease his croup.



It didn't exactly help that the building's pharmacy was still closed at 9:20 am (it was supposed to be open at 8:30) on the one day we needed our prescriptions filled pronto, I picked up the medications at lunch (Amoxicillin for Carter, Dexamethasone for Nathaniel--viva benefit plans!) and by the time I got home for dinner, they were on the mend.


I brought them home some of their favorite crackers and two new books. They'd earned lazy night upstairs in front of "the big TV", and should be back in fine form for the visitors this weekend!

And here's Carter's latest: he's almost memorized 1965's "We Can Work It Out" (one of Dad's favorites!)...