Trauma for your Mama

We took Quinn today for her first observed morning at daycare. Brenda and I sat and watched everything they did. There sure are some crazy kids out there! Quinn just did her own thing and didn't pay much attention to anything else going on. She made some appearances to puppet time and story time and observed all else from a far. She also decided she was going leverage her method of climbing the stairs to everything she could touch! We hear that it is common for kids to play independently when they start daycare, but I don't think they understand what a truly "on her own" kid Quinn is. There is some silly municipal or provincial rule that says that all children at daycare must go outside.... I hear that the limit is minus 20 degrees. How crazy is that? Needless to say they get the kids out there and get them back in as quickly as possible and it is usually the adults that are freezing. At creative time they made some art to take home for Halloween. As you can see Quinn decided to combine this activity with her first meal at daycare!! (check the bottom right corner)
After those 2 hours we had to make an appearance back at the hospital to get more blood taken from Quinn! I guess the 10 viles previously weren't enough. Actually a couple samples showed some abnormalities that often can be attributed by the state of the child when the blood was taken. They asked us if we had to hold her down. I said that sometimes we have to hold her mom down to take her blood so what do you think? We can't bribe Quinn with bread and cheese! So you would think this time would be a walk in the park... oh no.. it can't be that easy. This time was actually more traumatic for little Quinn. It was probably a combination of the daycare in the morning, it was around her lunch time and she didn't sleep great last night. Needless to say I carried her out after it was done because she was so traumatized and had a hard time settling herself back down.

For us, the blood wasn't the most traumatic thing. It was getting the urine sample. You would think that this is such an easy thing. They put a bag on and you get the urine collected. Well after about 7 bags and 3 nurses trying (4 if you count Brenda), and we had less than 5ml to show for it. So, like the last time, they gave us all the gear to take home to give it a try. We waited around the hospital for almost 2 hours and Quinn peed quite a bit, too bad none of it made it into the bag. We will see how it goes for us tonight. We are armed with tape as well!

Sometimes with all this stuff the three of us are going through you just have to laugh. For example, today I had to attend a very important conference call from the hospital. So I am on the phone at the hospital, talking to one of the banks board of directors, while I am waiting for my daughter to pee in a bag. It has been an interesting ride thus far.

The icing on the cake for today was that we had to rush out of the hospital for us to make an appointment for Quinn's little brother/sister. We were a little late and could only think how Quinn is stealing this baby's thunder before they are even here!!!

The picture below is of Quinn halfway up the stairs. She always stops there to have a look back to ensure people are witnessing her triumph!

Expanding Quinn's Social Circle

Lots of stuff going on in the last week or so. Quinn will be making her appearance at daycare in the first week of November. That will be quite the adjustment for all of us. We think that we will be more impacted than her.

This week she had to get some blood taken for some tests. Yeah, more tests, more hospitals, more doctors. Poor kid isn't getting the easiest ride. However, this time the blood had to be taken from Credit Valley Hospital where she hasn't had blood taken before. All the nurses to this point have had a terrible time finding a vein on Quinn and most times it takes 3-5 blown veins before they get it. Needless to say we were very anxious to get her blood taken. Once we got the requisitions we realized that she needed 10 viles of blood taken. 10 VILES!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!???!!!! The nurses in the lab even commented that the doctor is crazy ordering that much blood from a kid under 2.

So I sat down with Quinn on my lap and her mom holding her head. I had a bear hug on her and to the credit of the lab staff they hit her vein on the first shot. The blood was flowing until Quinn got the idea she really wanted to get the heck outta there and wiggled the needle free. Blood splattered around... which really brought back eerie memories of the day she was born. Anyways, I had to lock down my hold even more and they went after the other arm. They hit it on the first try again... man these nurses are good. I guess this is there thing so they get good at it! Quinn screamed for pretty much all of it and I broke a sweat trying to keep her still. Both nurses couldn't believe how strong she was.... I had the beads of sweat to prove it!! Once the blood was taken we got outta there and Quinn wasn't the worse for wear. She is really good at bouncing back.

Yesterday she made her way up the whole staircase by herself. She also took the time on her ascent to stop and wave to us below. Then when she got to the top she was so proud of herself. But not half as proud as we are of her. She had always made us take her up the stairs to see the upstairs and I guess we weren't cutting it so she decided to take it on herself to make the trek. The next step is to get her to figure out how to get down. She is trying the crawling head first method and it isn't the safest way, but might be the quickest!! Most kids usually go down on their bum but knowing Quinn we might have more success showing her the proper way to come down from an ergonomic standpoint.

This morning, in preparation of going to daycare, we decided to both go to the gym and drop Quinn off at their child area. We both rationalized that these types of places must have some sort of regulation and were worried that Quinn would be allowed to roam anywhere and we might see her doing some squats on the Smith machine... because she does have extremely strong quads!!! As you can see from the picture below Quinn didn't have any reservation of going, not only that, she wanted to prove to us that she was independent and decided she didn't need her father's hand to take in the views of the kitchen. As you can see in the picture she was quited geared up for her gym adventure.

Once we got to the gym it became glaringly obvious that these places are in fact not regulated. There were about 15 kids and one poor girl trying to lay down the law. After we dropped her off we realized that today the monitors that show the child care area were not working... figures. Anyways we bolted through our workout and took the time between muscle groups to look in on her. She was happy as a clam and you would think she was in her living room playing. Not one tear. Not one look that she wasn't totally comfortable. When we picked her up she was happy to see us and we headed out. Mission Accomplished!

Our Pumpkin in the Pumpkin Patch!!

We made the trek out to Downey's market today just north of Brampton. It was crazy busy there but it is now our 2nd Annual visit. Last year we took Quinn and so we decided to take her again this year. As you can see it was just a crazy scene with their own OPP officer.

We sampled the fresh pumkin donuts and looked over some of the great pies, breads and other baked goods that they offer. This year Quinn was a lot more aware of the stuff around her and was not as amused with being among the pumpkins. It is a drastic difference from just one year ago. She was not having being around those things, much less touching them for more than 2 seconds! You can see from the two pictures how she has changed in just 12 months.... both in her physical appearance and her personality!! The first picture is 2007 and the second is today!

Weddings and Thanksgiving

Both Sinead and Aisling are now married. They were two great weddings that we were all happy to be a part of. Both were great nights and Quinn worked the room at both ceremonies. The first picture is from Aislings and the second is from Sineads. In the picture from Sinead and Radu's wedding you can see her sensible shoes make an appearance... We think it works well with the outfit!!

This past Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to take part in 2 turkey dinners. One in London and one in Brampton. What this means is that we probably over ate twice and we also had Quinn in 2 separate super cute outfits. The first picture is from London Thanksgiving and the second is from Brampton.

In parting I would like to just update the status of how the Wii Fit is going. So I (Milan) have used it quite a bit and the exercises are both fun and challenging. The last time I actually used it I had to change into almost full out work out clothes. They did a great job building something that was appealing to both experienced work out people as well as novices. Some of the exercises I have ranked at the top (Bodybuilder or Cardio Incinerator), while others I have not had such a glowing title (unbalanced or amateur). The one thing that they didn't really advertise for the Wii Fit is the fun that everyone can have watching other people do silly exercises. YouTube has taken this role but I think there is a marketing campaign in there somewhere!!!