Roin in the U.S.A., Double Stroller, Stomach Flu, and Gymnastics

Last week we made our first trip to the U.S.A. with Ronin. We were a little concerned about crossing the border since we technically didn't have any official birth papers for him. We had a form from the hospital that didn't state his name and his temporary health card that I actually filled out. Anyways, we got to the border and got through seamlessly. Our primary purpose for making the trip was to get the double stroller from Wal-Mart. We ordered it online and went to pick it up. It seems that double stroller's aren't easy to get in Canada, or probably more accurately, they have a better selection south of the border.

We arrived at Wal-mart and picked up the stroller and I proceeded to put it together in the back of the store. It wasn't as easy as it could have been but on the other hand it could have been far worse. We got it together and it fit into our trunk, which was another concern. After that we headed to the outlets to grab a few things and then headed back across the border. Quinn was with her grand parents in Brampton and we didn't want to be away from her longer than we had to. Here is a picture of the finished product of the stroller and the kids riding along....

On our way back both Brenda and I noted that we didn't feel so great. As we got closer to Brampton, Brenda's condition worsened and needless to say the fun began. It hit her full on at about 7pm and made it's appearance to me at about 1am. We are still not sure if it was the stomach flu or something we ate. The more we think about it the more we think it was something we ate. Quinn didn't get sick and our stomachs were wonky for the next couple days, not a typical run and gun stomach flu. I thought these things were bad before having small children but after this episode it was miserable. Poor Quinn just wanted to play and we could hardly move. Brenda really took it like a champ and sucked it up and was super mom over the next few days. Knowing how I felt and how she was feeling, it was amazing how she got things done with both Ronin and Quinn.

Ronin has been getting bigger and bigger everyday. It is amazing how he is turning into a little man. He is still not sleeping the greatest. He will sleep up to 3hours at a time. Too bad that this usually happens between 1pm and 8pm during the day. In the night he is up every 2 hours and after 4am is pretty much up to go till about 7am or 8am. Not the easiest ride for Brenda. Hopefully he will get everything sorted out so that we can get a schedule down. We did both notice that he gets his full quota of crying in everyday. We are not saying he is colic, but he sure could fool a few people!!!

2 Weeks ago Quinn started Gymnastics. We weren't sure how it would all go and in the first week she unfortunately responded how we were hoping she wouldn't. She didn't want to do much and was not impressed with anyone there. The second week there was a totally different story. She absolutely loved it. She did the balance beam about 20 times (all 3 of them), she did the trampoline, she went on the tire swing and even held on to the uneven bars. It was amazing what a difference a week makes!! It will be interesting to see what happens next week!

Today we took Quinn and Ronin to Woodbine Mall to the Fantasy Fair. We thought it would be a great Family Day activity! Well it seems that about a thousand other family's had the same idea. It was packed! I have never seen it that busy ever. The line ups were all over the place. Quinn did enjoy watching all the rides and we did get her on the riding horse, a mini Ferris wheel, and she met an old friend. We will definitely take her back when it isn't so crazy.

One Week Old and One Sick Toddler

Today Ronin turned 1 week and thankfully he is back up to his birth weight which is definitely something we are very glad that we don't have to worry about. He has been a good little guy thus far but that is from the father's position... I am not the one that gets up to feed all night.. so I am sure Brenda will have a different point of view. It is quite the different experience having a little boy. The things you talk about and the way you interpret his gestures is totally different. The picture below would make us feel sorry if it was Quinn but with Ronin we think he looks like a little gangster!!

This week has been tough trying to get used to having 2 kids on the go. There were several times that we looked at each other and asked us what have we gotten ourselves into!! Never was this more apparent than last night when we were getting the garbage ready. Does this look like a 2 children family or what??? As a game you can figure out which ones are Quinn's and which are Ronin's...

Quinn has been sick this week. She wasn't herself when she went to bed on Tuesday night and when we went in to get her in the morning we found she had thrown up in the night and was sleeping in it. I was traumatized by it... Needless to say we gave her a bath. I apologized to her repeatedly for not realizing what happened. All Tuesday she just wanted to be held and didn't want to do anything. I had to go out and get some stuff done and when I came home I was once again reminded that we are a two child family. I think Brenda's face says it all. She is a champ for being able to soothe both the children. Quinn needed her mommy and Ronin doesn't really know much else.

Today Quinn had an appointment so it was the first day that we travelled out as a family. It went off pretty well and we remembered how frantic we were when we used to leave the house when Quinn was first born. Quinn and Ronin played nice in the back seat of the car but as you can see the real estate is pretty tight. We really need to pull the trigger on a SUV. It is on the list...

Ronin and Quinn

Today is Ronin's 5th day and he is somewhat regular. This is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending how you look at it. He likes to feed every 2-3 hours which means little sleep for mom. Between feeds he seems to pretty much sleep with random moments of eyes open. We have had a few wet sleepers from the misdirection of a certain bodily part along with a diaper that wasn't fully airtight... It is a new world with a boy. We will cut him a break as he is figuring things out like we are.

Quinn seems OK with Ronin. However we have definitely noticed specific changes with her. She now started the biting thing again and we have the teeth marks to prove it. She also decided she wants to go head first off the ottoman. This has resulted in a few pile drivers. To her credit, she cries a little then gets right back to giving it a try. She definitely embodies the phrase "Practice makes perfect". Two nights ago Quinn and Ronin's relationship hit a milestone as Quinn actually kissed him goodnight. It was the sweetest thing ever. She will now come over to look at him and when he cries she looks at him then at us with a face that says "Shouldn't you be doing something?" She will figure it out. We are so lucky she is independant and can occupy herself without us having to watch her. It definitely helps out. That being said, she has started crying when she is being dropped at daycare again. It is heartbreaking but we are sure she will get through it.

Today Ronin has his first doctor appointment. We will see how everything goes. Hopefully his weight is ok and everything else is on track.

Ronin Bedford Maharaj

On January 15th 2009 at 7:13 am, Ronin Bedford Maharaj came into this world. He came in weighing 7lbs and 12 ounces and a full 8 days early. Ronin is doing well and Brenda is also doing OK considering she just pushed a baby out of her!!! She still has some heartburn but nothing like she had while Ronin was on the inside!

The whole process this time was somewhat surreal considering the experience with Quinn. From the time we went to the hospital to the time he was born was only about 6 hours. Very different from the process with Quinn.

It is going to be interesting how we now manage having two children. We both said it is going to be like we are both single parents as we take the divide and conquer route!! Quinn seems to not care much about Ronin and doesn't seem to upset with the fact that he is so close to Brenda. Time will tell if this will wear out!

Halloween, Climbing the stairs, Blood Tests and Daycare take their toll! Also 3D Ultrasound

Quinn had a busy last couple weeks and it finally caught up with her. The blood tests were a lot to absorb, then mastering the climbing of the stairs, then the excitement of Halloween, and then finally the first week of Daycare. She started being a little off on the Sunday before Daycare but we just thought she was tired. Needless to say by Wednesday she was not herself at all.

Thursday she had a fever of 102 and was pretty much shutdown from doing anything. We took her to the doctor and she has tonsillitis. It is about 6 months since she had Strep throat. Because of the difficulty swallowing solid food she has been on a pudding and yogurt diet for about 3 days. She was really worn on on Friday and would spontaneously lay down and rest. The picture below shows how she just in mid crawl lay down for a break. Sometimes even fall asleep. At daycare they told us they were all practicing for a concert and she was laying down in the middle of everything sleeping.

It has been a tough couple of days and some quality time with her momma on Friday went a long way to making her feel better. Today was the first day we can see the old Quinn come back. In fact she climbed the ottoman for the first time. Yesterday she was really giving it a try and we showed her the mechanics to make it happen and then today she got it. Now it is her thing to do and we love it. Again she hasn't fully figured out the getting down backward. Here is a picture of her after she conquered the ottoman!

This morning we had some Baby Brelan v2.0 time (yes that is the name we are going with until they are here). We had the 3D ultrasound. It is amazing how we see so much of Quinn in the new baby. Here is one picture and the rest are posted on http://www.brelan.ca/ (the website was rearranged to accommodate v2.0)

Quinn's Second Halloween - Our little Turtle!

2008 Halloween pictures posted on www.brelan.ca

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!