New Year's Eve

So what do you do on a warmish slightly snowy new year's eve with an almost two year old?  I'll tell you.  You spend some time in the backyard eating snow, then you go on a drive, then you go to the park.  Then you come home thinking that the almost two year old will go to sleep so you and your husband can watch a movie but sadly the kid doesn't fall asleep until practically midnight so you go watch some ball drop and then you drop because you're pregnant and tired and it's too late to watch a movie.

I suppose that sounds very cranky... I was bummed that Kate stayed up so late but as far as New Years go, it was fun!

Visiting

So it's bad that Dad's still in the ICU, very bad.  It's getting ridiculous.  But there are good things too.  It's amazing to see Mom be so strong.  It's amazing to see neighbours come to Mom's aid - and friends and family.  There have been many blessings along the way.  One of the biggest blessings is seeing how calm Dad is - most of the time anyway.  He really is peaceful and patient most of the time. 

Another blessing is seeing family.  Who knows when I would have seen Jon.  Suzanne and Matthew weren't going to come up this Christmas but here they are.  Suzanne has gone to the hospital every day which has allowed Mom to have some relief.  As well Matthew organized a dumpster to be delivered to the house so he and Ken could get rid of some of the big junk in the house and Suzanne and I could go through some of the other things.  Mom is slowly preparing to move, the house just isn't practical any more. 

I love it when Kate gets time to spend with her cousins.  They all have fun together.  Here are some of the pictures I took while the Bates Crew were in town.

Anniversary Number 8

For anniversary number 8 Ken and I went on our third date since Kate.  It sounds ridiculous but it's true.  When I went back to work when Kate was one I didn't want to be away from her any more than I had to be.  That's part one.  Part two is, we don't have an evening babysitter.  I haven't put any effort into finding one - yet.

Date number 1 was supposed to be a trip to the temple but the timing of the sessions wasn't right.  Mom and Dad came to our house and watched Kate - I think it was sometime in September and we went to dinner in Alliston.

Date number 2 was a trip to the temple.  We met Mom at the temple and she took sleeping Kate back to her house.  This was I believe sometime in October - although it might have been September.

For date number 3 we actually went to a movie and then to dinner - wahoo!  Suzanne, Matthew and company are in town to see Dad and Suzanne graciously offered to watch Kate so we could have a date.  We saw the new Harry Potter movie - which came out in November and went to Japanese for dinner.  It was lovely. 

I love my sweet Ken more and more every day.  I can't think about how much I love him without getting weepy.  He is such a wonderful father and husband. 

Christmas 2010

With which to start - happy or sad?  I will start with sad.  Dad's breathing tube came out on the 22nd - YAY!  He was doing well.  He passed his swallow test on the Thursday and by Friday - Christmas Eve they were feeding him thickened apple juice by mouth and they moved him to the 4th floor - the rehab floor.  Mom and Nancy - Dad's cousin were there getting Dad settled.  They gave Mom some thickened apple juice to feed to Dad.  As he was eating the thickened apple juice he stopped breathing - Code Blue #2.  After resuscitating him they moved him back to ICU and of course he was re-intubated.  Obviously this will not be a happy Christmas Eve to remember - especially not for poor Mom!

Needless to say Mom was fragile on Christmas.  She spent part of the day in the ICU with Dad.  We went to her place mid-afternoon and Ken finished making Christmas dinner.  We had a nice quiet Christmas dinner.  Poor Andrew couldn't even make it due to the fever and cough that kept him in bed.

Thankfully Christmas morning we had fun.  It was so much fun watching Kate open her presents.  We didn't really introduce Santa this year - he's still just the guy to have your picture with in the mall.  We weren't even going to do a stocking for Kate, but we did - yay dollar store!  It was quiet - just our little family but it was so nice.

Our beautiful tree with all of the presents and Kate's stocking.  I think this was technically Christmas morning but I'll call it Christmas Eve because it's dark!

Kate inspecting the Nativity Set - totally disinterested in the presents.

After some convincing she started opening the Christmas presents.

Checking out the stocking.

Carrying the stocking to me so we could open it.

 Hugging the Christmas tree, something Kate would do frequently.

After breakfast we took her downstairs for her present from Mom and Dad.  A train table!!

She was so excited.  It was so fun!  YAY!

The gluten free cheesecake Ken made for Mom.

Our Fisher-Price nativity set.   I love it and so does Kate!

It looks we're starving Kate.  This is at Mom's house and sadly I only have the one picture of our Christmas dinner - LAME!  I vow to do better next year.  I better for baby 2s sake!

Kate and Santa

McCartney Family Christmas and Sarah's baptism

This year the McCartney Family Christmas was a two day affair.  Sarah Peck (Lisa's second youngest) turned eight on the 18th and was baptized on the same day.  So truly the 18th was Sarah's baptism and birthday - not Christmas.  But since we were all together it was decided that it would make sense to have Christmas the next day, and so we did.

Having an almost two year old and trying to take pictures is a challenge.  Especially because Kate thinks that the camera is her toy and so the minute she sees it she wants to play with it.  I am very disappointed that I didn't get a photo of Sarah and her Dad in their whites, I just need to remember to steal one off of Lisa's postings.  After the baptism we went back to Lisa and Ken's house for dinner and visiting - oh and for yummy birthday cake that Lisa made. 

This is Rachael and Kate.  Rachael is baby number four for Lisa and Ken and grandchild number thirteen for Ken and Chris. 

Rachael Elizabeth Peck sure is a litle cutie!!

 After not really liking any of the family photos we took last week we thought perhaps having a photographer would help us capture a smiling Kate.  Sadly photographer/tripod didn't matter - Kate wouldn't smile! 

Saturday night the three of us stayed in a hotel in Burlington with a pool.  However, we didn't get to use the pool.  Happily we enjoyed the evening chatting with family but by the time we left and subsequently got to the hotel it was just too late to go swimming. 

On Sunday we went to church in Burlington with Laura, William, Joaquin, Ken, Chris, Meagan, and Braden.  It was Christmas Sunday and they had two speakers who spoke in Sacrament and then they did something I'd never seen before but I thought was so great.  The Sunday School did the Christmas program during Sunday School.  It was so lovely! 

After the Christmas program Ken, Kate and I went back to Laura's apartment with William and Joaquin.  Kate was put down to sleep and we enjoyed some visiting and food preparation.  Sadly we had to wake Kate up early as we didn't want to miss anything at Maureen's... this proved to be a bad choice. 

The Christmas feast was delicious as per usual.  We all fit and we had enough chairs.  After the feasting it was time to open presents.  I can't remember exactly when Kate lost it but it was during the present opening.  Poor little muffin was robbed of her good naps two days in a row.

Here's the tree with all of the presents - before the chaos!

Joaquin and Laura.  You'd think that the smile on Joaquin's face was because of Laura, but it wasn't, he had just discovered a new love - Grape Fanta.  

Kate wanted so badly to go play outside with the dog and the kids and the snow.  Sadly we didn't bring her boots or snow suit. 













This is the last picture that I took.  Kate is the blur.  This was taken between dinner and present opening.  Kate's downward spiral got worse and worse until we just decided to leave.  I'm so glad that we'd enjoyed so much visiting time the night before.

I think the next time we'll all be together again will be for baby 2s blessing, or perhaps Konrad's baptism... or maybe neither.  Getting everyone together is difficult!  I feel so blessed to have two such wonderful families!

Dad and Jon

Dad was doing great.  Everything was progressing as it should.  He was scheduled to go home on Tuesday, December 7th.  Mom went to go get him.  She was helping him to get dressed but Dad couldn't move and was in lots of pain.  They sent him for x-rays and discovered that he had a break in his femur.  This would mean another surgery to repair the bone and re-do the prothesis. 

He under went surgery number two the day of my second winter concert on Thursday, December 9th.  I spoke to him briefly on the phone that night and he sounded terrible.  He was in lots of pain and couldn't really talk.  We went to see him on the Saturday and by this point he was already deteriorating.  He had fluid in his stomach so he wasn't allowed to eat and they were draining his stomach through a tube in his nose - very unpleasant. 

Sunday night things went from bad to worse.  Mom got a call at 2 a.m. saying that he'd lost vital signs, had been resusitated and was now in the ICU.  She went outside at 5 a.m. to clean off the car and go to the hospital and met our next door neighbour - a nurse who when learning about what was going on accompanied Mom to the hospital.  Dad was intubated, hooked up to all sorts of monitors, had IVs and was very sedated.

Mom called me that morning (Monday the 13th) while I was driving to work.  She had no idea what was going on with Dad and we were both very afraid for him.  I went to school and got things organized and left.  I took that day and the next two off work to sit with Mom and Dad in the ICU.  After sitting with Dad and seeing that he was very much still there I felt much better. 

I went back to work Thursday because Jon had come into town to be with Mom and Dad.  We hardly had chance to visit with Jon at all but Mom was comforted to have him with her and Dad was so happy to see Jon. 

We did spend a bit of time with Jon on Saturday morning - before we left for the McCartney Family Christmas.  This was the second time that Kate was meeting Jon - the first time being when she was 7 mos. old and we went to Utah.  I tried to get some pictures... but Kate is just so not into posing for pictures right now... the stinker!

Even though Kate's eyes are closed I like this one because Kate is playing with the bear that Jon slept with as a kid.  I told him he should take it home with him but he disagreed.

Kate trying to get away and Jon smiling away trying to get that perfect shot.

Jon trying a different tactic to get Kate to smile.

Wanting a brother and sister with kid photo.  It isn't too bad, unless you really look at the expression on my face - over smiling, kind of scary like.

Dad is still intubated but hopefully that will all be done soon and he'll be back to recovering from the hip surgery.

The Photos that WON'T be Sent in the Christmas Card

I'm thinking that next year we hire a photographer and get some real family photos... the tripod might just have to wait in the closet for a few years...