a hippie with a minivan

Ten!

Wow… I am really late on this post.
On July 16th my first born, my oldest son, turned ten. TEN! I have a kid in the double digits now!

Ten years ago I was a brand new mom, just getting used to breastfeeding and having this little baby to take care of.

(Here he is at 20 hours old… wow! feels like a lifetime ago)

He loves video games, bounce parties on the trampoline, swimming, biking and being a big brother.

Like every year, we went out for his birthday and he chose his gifts. We had a last-minute change of plans because the hospital had scheduled an ultra-sound and check-up for Wilhelmina so we had to head to Montreal bright and early. While I was at the hospital with Willa (we got good news and everything is looking great), the boys and Simon went out for breakfast and then met up with us after. Xavier had already gotten a new watch and a book and then chose two Halo Mega Blocks sets as his gifts and then we went out for a late lunch and headed back home and had cake.
His choice this year was my White (Butter Cookie) Cake with Vanilla bean buttercream frosting and strawberries on top.

Happy Birthday Xavier… You are growing up into an amazing little man…

It's July!

And it is 6 days into it at that!

If you know me, you know that slow down my writing int the summer… so I thought I should write a catch up post to just share what has been happening. The boys started summer camp two weeks ago. It is the second year that they go but the first time that Khéna has gone. It is a century old summer camp that is about 7 minutes drive from our house and the kids are in the basic program which is 3 days a week from 9-3 and the counsellors are great. It think that the hardest thing is getting lunches ready everyday. I have to say, it is not something that I enjoy all that much. Though I do love surprising them with treats…

Sandwich, juice, carrot sticks, a pear, fishes and marshmallows.

I got these amazing lunch boxes last year and they have held up so well. They are from Goodbyn and they come with fun stickers to personalize. I love that there is no hassle, nothing can get lost and there is nothing to throw out. The kids love them too…

Because of their ages, they are all in different groups. I think they find it strange to be apart but good at the same time and they love to see each other when they finish the day. Colin and Khéna may be the younger of the two, but they have no problem jumping in and talking to everyone and being part of all the activities. Xavier though is the guy who needs to observe and stay back without being pushed, and then will jump in when he is ready. The counsellors are very respectful of the kids and from what I observed he was able to be himself and observe and then participate just as much as he was comfortable with, and then yesterday he finally jumped in.

They look so tired at the end of the day which is great! And looking at this picture, I need to give the middle one a haircut and isn’t amazing how big Xavier is now! He will be 10 in just 10 days!

While they are at camp, Wilhelmina and I hang around together, go in the pool, go to the park and just do stuff around the house. I have to say that having one kid is sometimes much more challenging than having four. When the boys are here, she is always with them but When we are alone, she is looking for things to do and she gets into so much mischief. The boys were energetic and loud when they were little but wow, she is into everything. Did I just forget what about what having a toddler is like? I do know one thing, the boys never changed their clothes every few minutes in the day.

See this dress? It is one of her favourites. I had never shared it, though I had meant to. I made the pattern and sewed it around Easter with the matching doll dress…

On the days that the boys are home we hang out in the yard and pool, drink many smoothies and just relax in the heat…

What is summer without drinking from the sprinkler?

or doing handstand on the lawn…

How is your summer? If you blog… so you have a normal slowing down period too?

Beach, Fireworks and Stars…

It was the long weekend here and we spent the day at the Cabin again…

My uncle has owned his property in Sainte-Emelie-de-L’Énergie for nearly 40 years and when I was a child I spent many summers there. It is a place where everyone knows each other and is a place that many come to hang out while camping. The beach in the town used to be run by the city but now it is up to the people to take care of it and watch out for their own.

The kids have a blast when we go there and are exploring more and more..

Colin and Xavier even crossed the river a few times… (can you see them?) It might look scary but the water is shallow and though they swam they could have walked across 🙂

(here is Colin on the other side)

Khéna can swim even underwater now so he was having fun showing off his new skills in the River…

Wilhelmina kept Simon on his feet running back and forth to the playground and played happily on the edge of the water in the sand…

Since it was the long weekend and “La Fête Nationale” which is the provincial equivalent to Canada Day (or the 4th of July) and celebrated as intently, there was of course a big party, live music and fireworks…

and the new moon disappeared as darkness set in leaving the sky aglow with stars…

The cabin at night…

The Big Dipper

I could spend hours looking at the stars…

a little update…

Willa’s fever is gone and has been since last night! yay!!!

Her urologist sent an order for a urine sample to the local hospital and I brought in a sample in the afternoon. The results will be sent directly to him, so if it was an infection we will know one way or another.

Today was good though, it felt so good to see her be in a good mood and getting into her normal mischief, even though her normal mischief completely drives me crazy!

ahh… little ones… pieces of our heart are truly walking around in each of our children. We are so vulnerable when it comes to them.

what a sigh of relief…

Fever and fears…

In just a few days it will be a year since our whole ordeal with Wilhelmina began and six months since it ended. If you are new to reading my blog, here is a bit of the summary. In June of last year we went camping in New Brunswick and PEI and in our last few days in PEI, Wilhelmina started a fever and was vomiting. She then got better, then got worse, then better and worse. She stopped eating, she stopped drinking everything but from the breast, she was lethargic, she lost more than 3lbs and trips to the ER, and pediatrician were not finding anything. For more than three weeks I had a feverish and very sick little girl and she was only getting worse. Finally, the pediatrician demanded that she be hospitalized and the ER finally did different tests and finally found the problem.

She had a Kidney infection. But not just a kidney infection, her kidney was blocked and was filled with puss and was basically mimicking an abscess. She had pyonephrosis and hydroureter/hydronephrosis due to a congenital malformation of her right ureter. After a week of IV antibiotics, she was not getting better, the kidney was blocked off. She had surgery and had a nephrostomy tube inserted through her back, into her kidney and all that came out was puss. Within hours of surgery she started eating again, after a month of being able to eat a bite. You can read the whole ordeal in detail here. We stayed for another week in the hospital and then went home with the tube for three months while we waited for tests to make sure that her kidney was still functioning.

Then on October 4th, we headed to the hospital early in the morning for surgery. She was taken away from my arms at 7:55am and was wheeled into recovery at 4:30pm. The obstructed (malformed) segment was a lot longer than her Urologist would have thought (5 cm long)and he had to cut out much more than he thought he would have to. That made the remaining ureter too short, so he had to lift the bladder up and attach it to the muscle higher up so that so that it would fit. He also had to taper the ureter which was still 5cm in diameter, so that it could be reimplanted into the bladder and to make things harder, if all of that was not enough, the infection left scar tissue and damage all over. It was the longest day of our lives. .

Two very intense weeks in the hospital (you can read all about the surgery and stay here) and then we were home again. A few more tests and then finally in January a last test confirmed that everything was working well and we had a healthy little girl. It was over, but not forgotten.

A few days ago, Simon remarked that it being the same time of year and almost a year to the day, that it was bringing back bad memories and she better not get sick anytime soon because it would make him sick with worry. I was feeling the same way. Then during the night from Saturday to Sunday I felt she was hot. I got flashbacks of the feverish nights of last year. Her fever was on and off all day yesterday and then she started vomiting also, more flashbacks, more worry. I am not scared of fever, if it was one of the boys I would not even bat an eyelash, but I am scared of her having a fever that mimics her fever of last year, especially since she has not had a fever since her hospital stay in October. Yesterday I was panicking inside, knowing full well that even if it is an infection, it will not result in what happened last year…But, the head and the heart do not always meet.

During the night, she was feverish, vomiting and kept on going to the bathroom but nothing would come out and then this morning her urine was darker and a bit smelly. I called her urologist this morning and got a prescription for a urinalysis faxed over to the local hospital. Even if I had a horrible experience in the past, the results will go straight to her urologist, so I am less worried of using the local services with that knowledge. If something needs to be done, I have complete trust in him for this.

I hate feeling so afraid of such a simple and harmless thing such as a fever and hopefully we will be through it soon.

What a coincidence for it to happen now though…