This is the joy he brings to our house every day...
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
"Alone Time"
Somebody asked how we have "alone time" if we are cosleeping. I was trying to write a short reply, but this was the shortest I could make it so I decided to just put it in a post (so that anybody else who wonders the same thing can have their curiosity satisfied).
So, how do we have "alone time"??
-We have 6 bedrooms (all of which contain beds, only 2 of which contain children), 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a laundry room... should I go on? :)
-We don't have to go to sleep at the same time as our children (and we rarely do) just because we sleep in the same bed as them.
-In our entire marriage we have gone to bed at the same time as each other maybe 5 times, so "alone time" has never been dependent on going to bed at the same time in the same bed.
-Because I am such a bad sleeper (insomniac central over here) and my husband is such a loud sleeper, even before factoring in cosleeping we have spent more nights in separate beds than we have in the same bed. And trust me, our marriage was very happy while sleeping in separate beds or rooms, because he wasn't waking me up or keeping me awake at night (which makes me insanely angry).
-We spend all of our time together right up until the time that I go to sleep (I'm always the first one in bed). To me, this is more valuable and intimate than the couples I know who hang out on their own, often in different rooms, doing different things all evening and then end up sleeping beside each other at some point that evening. We spend our conscious time together... the unconscious time isn't nearly as important.
Now, all of that being said, at this point I am still going to bed within 45 minutes of my kids being asleep, so admittedly there is not a whole lot of "alone time" going on. But that's just the stage of life we're in, and it's because I need to spend about 11 hours in bed to scrape together 5 or 6 hours of sleep. It has absolutely nothing to do with cosleeping.
Does that answer any lingering questions?? :)
Thursday, January 24, 2013
A Cosleeping Family
I have always been very pro cosleeping. Even back in high school I knew I wanted to cosleep with my babies. I think it's the healthiest way for babies to sleep, and it's biologically normal. Then I became the world's worst sleeper, had a baby (who became a super loud grunter), and became an even worse sleeper. Despite attempting to cosleep with Noah, he was moved into his own room at a couple of weeks old. I'm not going to tell the entire history of Noah's sleep here, though.
When I was pregnant with Isaiah I knew I wanted to try cosleeping again. But then he was an even louder grunter than Noah, so at less than a week old he was moved into his own room. Gradually the grunting subsided (like it did with Noah), but he was sleeping so well on his own that there was really no reason to move him into a room with me. Why mess with a good thing, right?
Except, like with Noah, that "good thing" was very temporary, and I was back to jolting out of bed and stumbling through the dark into his room to nurse him 2, 3, or 4 times a night.
When Noah was sick over Christmas, Justin started sleeping with him. They both really enjoyed it, so it continued after he got better (it's been a month now). This was more than fine with me, because I spent way too much time lying awake listening to Justin breathe loudly or snore. We played musical beds to give them my new queen bed to sleep in, and moved the gloriously huge and comfortable king back into the master bedroom (we HAD been sleeping in two queen beds pushed together because I'm such a bad sleeper) with Noah's former crib side-car'd up against it.
I was hesitant to try cosleeping again, since I had never been successful at it. But Isaiah's sleep was already kind of crappy, so I decided to try it.
Halfway through the first night I moved him back to his room, thinking he might sleep better in there. He didn't.
The second night I was very iffy about trying it again, but I decided to power through anyway since I have never felt fully comfortable having my kids in different rooms than me. That night was great. Having my baby on a separate sleep surface but directly beside me and on my level with no barriers between us what just what we needed. I felt so much less stressed laying next to him instead of having him in a different room. Every time he woke up, I was already awake anyway, and nursing him was so much less disruptive.
We've slept together 2 more nights since then, but without the "iffy"ness. Instead, I look forward to it! I have slept decently, and I love having Isaiah next to me. I thought I would sleep on the opposite side of the king bed from where the crib is, but I'm actually more comfortable sleeping directly next to him.
So, that's that. We cosleep now, and we're all pretty darn happy about it. My dream scenario would be to have all 4 of us in the same room in one giant bed. We have the beds to do it (we own 3 queens, 1 king, a double, a single, and 2 cribs... we could sleep a lot of people in our house!), but I don't know if it will ever happen.
When I was pregnant with Isaiah I knew I wanted to try cosleeping again. But then he was an even louder grunter than Noah, so at less than a week old he was moved into his own room. Gradually the grunting subsided (like it did with Noah), but he was sleeping so well on his own that there was really no reason to move him into a room with me. Why mess with a good thing, right?
Except, like with Noah, that "good thing" was very temporary, and I was back to jolting out of bed and stumbling through the dark into his room to nurse him 2, 3, or 4 times a night.
When Noah was sick over Christmas, Justin started sleeping with him. They both really enjoyed it, so it continued after he got better (it's been a month now). This was more than fine with me, because I spent way too much time lying awake listening to Justin breathe loudly or snore. We played musical beds to give them my new queen bed to sleep in, and moved the gloriously huge and comfortable king back into the master bedroom (we HAD been sleeping in two queen beds pushed together because I'm such a bad sleeper) with Noah's former crib side-car'd up against it.
I was hesitant to try cosleeping again, since I had never been successful at it. But Isaiah's sleep was already kind of crappy, so I decided to try it.
Halfway through the first night I moved him back to his room, thinking he might sleep better in there. He didn't.
The second night I was very iffy about trying it again, but I decided to power through anyway since I have never felt fully comfortable having my kids in different rooms than me. That night was great. Having my baby on a separate sleep surface but directly beside me and on my level with no barriers between us what just what we needed. I felt so much less stressed laying next to him instead of having him in a different room. Every time he woke up, I was already awake anyway, and nursing him was so much less disruptive.
We've slept together 2 more nights since then, but without the "iffy"ness. Instead, I look forward to it! I have slept decently, and I love having Isaiah next to me. I thought I would sleep on the opposite side of the king bed from where the crib is, but I'm actually more comfortable sleeping directly next to him.
So, that's that. We cosleep now, and we're all pretty darn happy about it. My dream scenario would be to have all 4 of us in the same room in one giant bed. We have the beds to do it (we own 3 queens, 1 king, a double, a single, and 2 cribs... we could sleep a lot of people in our house!), but I don't know if it will ever happen.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Isaiah is 4 Months Old!
My blogging has gone to poop, but gosh darnit I'm going to try my hardest to post this on Isaiah's ACTUAL 4 month birthday (January 22)!
-Isaiah weighs 16.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 4 month birthday).
-He is 25.5 inches tall and mostly in 6 month clothing (Carter's brand... in some other brands he's in 9 month or 6-12 month).
-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.
-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.
-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.
-Last month I was rejoicing over how he was a super sleeper at night time, with a record of 11 hours and 15 minutes straight, and almost always getting a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night. He was only getting up to nurse once a night, twice a night if you counted when I was already awake in the morning. Well, no longer. He usually sleeps 12.5 - 13 hours each night but, but he is up 3 or 4 times a night to nurse. One of those is usually around 7am after I am already awake. We recently played musical beds, so the king bed is back in the master bedroom, and Noah's old crib is side-car'd between it and the wall. Last night Isaiah spent half the night in there, half the night in his crib in his room. I'm not exactly sure where I'll be going with this. There are reasons I want to cosleep and reasons I'm not sure I want to start it up again now, after 4 months of not cosleeping. I will say, though, that I completely expected this regression to happen, so I'm not feeling all distressed like I did when Noah did this.
-He is 25.5 inches tall and mostly in 6 month clothing (Carter's brand... in some other brands he's in 9 month or 6-12 month).
-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.
-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.
-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.
-Last month I was rejoicing over how he was a super sleeper at night time, with a record of 11 hours and 15 minutes straight, and almost always getting a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night. He was only getting up to nurse once a night, twice a night if you counted when I was already awake in the morning. Well, no longer. He usually sleeps 12.5 - 13 hours each night but, but he is up 3 or 4 times a night to nurse. One of those is usually around 7am after I am already awake. We recently played musical beds, so the king bed is back in the master bedroom, and Noah's old crib is side-car'd between it and the wall. Last night Isaiah spent half the night in there, half the night in his crib in his room. I'm not exactly sure where I'll be going with this. There are reasons I want to cosleep and reasons I'm not sure I want to start it up again now, after 4 months of not cosleeping. I will say, though, that I completely expected this regression to happen, so I'm not feeling all distressed like I did when Noah did this.
-Isaiah only ever naps 30-40 minutes at a time, whether he's in his crib or we're babywearing.
-He is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy. Not every time, but I don't expect him to.
-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy. I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).
-He continues to be a super happy baby, like he was at 3 months.
-He is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy. Not every time, but I don't expect him to.
-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy. I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).
-He continues to be a super happy baby, like he was at 3 months.
-He's shrieking with delight, giggling, and still has the HUGEST smiles!
-He brings his hands together all the time, eats his fingers, and is starting to grab things.
-He rolled over for the first time when he was 15 weeks old... hasn't really done it since, though!
-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him, but he doesn't want anyone but me to hold him. He could be perfectly happy laying on the floor, smiling and cooing away, but if someone besides me (or sometimes Daddy) picks him up, within a few minutes he will start crying.
-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).
-He loves to watch Noah play, and really enjoys when Noah rolls around with him. He gets a giant smile!
-We still babywear all the time, which makes us all happy, and our carrier stash continues to grow. I believe we're at 18 right now. 4 Wrap Conversion Mei Tais, 7 woven wraps, 2 stretchy wraps, a ring sling, a pouch sling, and 3 buckle carriers. This is a much more expensive addiction than cloth diapers!
-Evenings aren't really that fussy any more. I can eat a lot of my dinners sitting down because he's usually sleeping in the carrier, or he recently woke up from a nap and is happy to sit in the bouncy chair on the table and watch us eat. He gets bored of that after 5-10 minutes, usually, and then he's happy to sit in my lap and watch Daddy and Noah eat.
-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.
-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him, but he doesn't want anyone but me to hold him. He could be perfectly happy laying on the floor, smiling and cooing away, but if someone besides me (or sometimes Daddy) picks him up, within a few minutes he will start crying.
-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).
-He loves to watch Noah play, and really enjoys when Noah rolls around with him. He gets a giant smile!
-We still babywear all the time, which makes us all happy, and our carrier stash continues to grow. I believe we're at 18 right now. 4 Wrap Conversion Mei Tais, 7 woven wraps, 2 stretchy wraps, a ring sling, a pouch sling, and 3 buckle carriers. This is a much more expensive addiction than cloth diapers!
-Evenings aren't really that fussy any more. I can eat a lot of my dinners sitting down because he's usually sleeping in the carrier, or he recently woke up from a nap and is happy to sit in the bouncy chair on the table and watch us eat. He gets bored of that after 5-10 minutes, usually, and then he's happy to sit in my lap and watch Daddy and Noah eat.
-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.
Now, pictures...
Drying off on the counter after bath time in the sink:
Watching Noah play on the iPad:
He thinks being tossed around is hilarious!:
I just want to SQUISH them!:
Yahoo, I did it! I actually started and finished a post on the same day, AND it's on time!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Life in Bullets
I've been a bad blogger the past month or so. I blame it on the holidays, my laptop breaking and having to buy a new one, having verrry sick kids, and trying to adjust to Isaiah's sleep regression. Which I think is semi-permanent... is it still considered a sleep regression then? So here's life in bullets lately:
-Isaiah is still sick, but I expected this. Noah took over 2 weeks before he seemed to not be sick anymore (although he still has a bit of a cough). Tomorrow it'll be 2 weeks for Isaiah.
-Like I said, sleep regression central over here. I was kind of expecting this. Like Noah, Isaiah became a pro sleeper all on his own around 2 or 2.5 months. Then at 3-3.5 months they both got sick, and sleep went to crap. This blended with the 4 month sleep regression and with Noah it didn't go away until we let him CIO at 7 months. I'm hoping to avoid that this time, and Isaiah is a different kid, so hopefully I can. I might have to figure out how to sleep in the same room with him if this getting up every 3 hours all night long thing continues (oh how I wish I could cosleep!!). I feel like a zombie in the middle of the night.
-(Okay, I've been writing this stupid post for 3 days and since then the sleeping has improved. He;s even had an 8 hour stretch! It's still all over the map, though, because he's also had stretches as short as 45 minutes)
-Last week I went to my husband's high school to visit the parenting class with Isaiah (my father in law babysat Noah). I was the "parenting expert". I think I gave them a completely different picture of parenting than they're used to. Home water-birthing, babywearing, cloth diapering, breastfeeding (it did come up that Noah still nurses), wishful cosleeping, no bottles, etc. etc. My husband is the teacher that all the girls are in love with, though, so they took me pretty seriously (haha). I didn't really want to do it, but it ended up being fun! They loved my rainbow wrap, by the way :)
-Again, I've been writing this post for several days, so now I know that my "parenting practices" have sparked much discussion in that parenting class. Apparently the girls thought that even though they'd never considered a lot of the things I do, the way I talked about it made it all make sense and seem so totally normal (which really, it should be since I try to keep things as close to the "natural" state as possible). I'm happy to have exposed them to some of the things I was exposed to as a teenager that totally helped shape the kind of parent I wanted to be.
-In the past week I have made about $250 selling stuff we don't use. 14 cloth diapers, a big desk, 2 end tables, a pack of disposable diapers still from when Noah was a baby, a bottle warmer/cooler that has never been used because my kids don't have bottles, paper towel holder, candy dishes, and a bunch of other stuff. I also sent a huge bin of university books to our local library to be donated... they would only take one bin per week, so another one is going this week. I am SO HAPPY to be getting rid of more stuff. I had to take the last 4 months off of purging because I have been busy with a new baby, so it feels good to get back into it.
-I decided my goal in 2013 is to get rid of 2013 things, either through selling, donating, or throwing away (regular garbage does not count!). I'm at about 300 right now with more things up for sale that are being picked up this week not included in that total. 2013 sounded very easy to me, but I have gotten rid of sooooo many things in the past year, it'll be interesting to see if I can actually make it to 2013.
-I haven't seen my parents since Christmas day because we've all been sick. It's been 3 weeks! I miss them!
I have to post this now... it shouldn't take 3 days to write a post!
-Isaiah is still sick, but I expected this. Noah took over 2 weeks before he seemed to not be sick anymore (although he still has a bit of a cough). Tomorrow it'll be 2 weeks for Isaiah.
-Like I said, sleep regression central over here. I was kind of expecting this. Like Noah, Isaiah became a pro sleeper all on his own around 2 or 2.5 months. Then at 3-3.5 months they both got sick, and sleep went to crap. This blended with the 4 month sleep regression and with Noah it didn't go away until we let him CIO at 7 months. I'm hoping to avoid that this time, and Isaiah is a different kid, so hopefully I can. I might have to figure out how to sleep in the same room with him if this getting up every 3 hours all night long thing continues (oh how I wish I could cosleep!!). I feel like a zombie in the middle of the night.
-(Okay, I've been writing this stupid post for 3 days and since then the sleeping has improved. He;s even had an 8 hour stretch! It's still all over the map, though, because he's also had stretches as short as 45 minutes)
-Last week I went to my husband's high school to visit the parenting class with Isaiah (my father in law babysat Noah). I was the "parenting expert". I think I gave them a completely different picture of parenting than they're used to. Home water-birthing, babywearing, cloth diapering, breastfeeding (it did come up that Noah still nurses), wishful cosleeping, no bottles, etc. etc. My husband is the teacher that all the girls are in love with, though, so they took me pretty seriously (haha). I didn't really want to do it, but it ended up being fun! They loved my rainbow wrap, by the way :)
-Again, I've been writing this post for several days, so now I know that my "parenting practices" have sparked much discussion in that parenting class. Apparently the girls thought that even though they'd never considered a lot of the things I do, the way I talked about it made it all make sense and seem so totally normal (which really, it should be since I try to keep things as close to the "natural" state as possible). I'm happy to have exposed them to some of the things I was exposed to as a teenager that totally helped shape the kind of parent I wanted to be.
-In the past week I have made about $250 selling stuff we don't use. 14 cloth diapers, a big desk, 2 end tables, a pack of disposable diapers still from when Noah was a baby, a bottle warmer/cooler that has never been used because my kids don't have bottles, paper towel holder, candy dishes, and a bunch of other stuff. I also sent a huge bin of university books to our local library to be donated... they would only take one bin per week, so another one is going this week. I am SO HAPPY to be getting rid of more stuff. I had to take the last 4 months off of purging because I have been busy with a new baby, so it feels good to get back into it.
-I decided my goal in 2013 is to get rid of 2013 things, either through selling, donating, or throwing away (regular garbage does not count!). I'm at about 300 right now with more things up for sale that are being picked up this week not included in that total. 2013 sounded very easy to me, but I have gotten rid of sooooo many things in the past year, it'll be interesting to see if I can actually make it to 2013.
-I haven't seen my parents since Christmas day because we've all been sick. It's been 3 weeks! I miss them!
I have to post this now... it shouldn't take 3 days to write a post!
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
What Is Wrong With This World
Bad things have been happening in the small city where I live since the new year started. Bad things. My mind has been very preoccupied since January 1.
On Tuesday January 1, in the late afternoon, my Facebook newsfeed was all a-chatter about this girl I was friends with in high school, Noelle. She was missing. She had last been seen at 2:30am when she had a big fight with her boyfriend and left a NYE party, walking home on her own. She called her parents and told them she was on her way home (she didn't live with them anymore, so I'm unclear on whether she was referring to her home, or her parents' home).
She didn't make it, and no one could get ahold of her. So there was this FB event called "Noelle is Missing". I was hoping she was off hooking up with some guy with her phone off or something. This would be extremely embarrassing for her, as almost the entire city knew she was missing at this point and she was a kindergarten teacher at a Catholic elementary school. But this is what I hoped for.
Hundreds of people were out looking for her that night. She wasn't found. There were a ton of rumors and speculation going around, like her cell phone was found dead on the ground, someone saw tire tracks on the side of a rural road and footsteps going through the snow into the woods, etc. etc. No one knew what to believe, and there were a lot of heated words flying for the "rumor spreaders".
The next morning, Wednesday, the police organized a huge search party starting at 8:30 a.m. At 10:30 a.m. it was announced that Noelle had been located.
My first reaction was relief. For about 3 seconds. Then I realized that they weren't announcing that she was found alive, that she was home safe... nothing like that. Just that she was located.
I knew it in my bones right away. Things were not okay with Noelle. My hope at this point was just that she had gotten randomly hit by a drunk driver, and that driver drove away, afraid, perhaps hid her body somewhere. You can imagine what my real fears were if that was my hope.
About an hour after the police announced that they located Noelle, it was announced that the police had found an adult female body in a woodlot. They didn't say it was Noelle, but I knew it was. Within a couple of hours of this announcement, my newsfeed was filled with mourning statuses from Noelle's good friends. It had not been announced to the public that Noelle was dead, but the people close to her had been informed that she was.
On Thursday morning the police announced what many of us already knew - that the adult female body found was that of Noelle. I was still hoping it was a random accident, but knew it wasn't.
On Thursday evening it was announced that two people, a 31 year old nurse and mother of 3, and a 19 year old male (their names were also released, but I'm not putting them here; they were also residents of our small city), were charged with the first degree murder of Noelle. First degree murder. That means it was purposeful, not a "last minute decision". Also, police don't lay first degree murder charges unless they are 100% sure and have an airtight case.
I knew Noelle did not know either these people. There was no way she would. My worst fears started creeping up again, but I couldn't even speak them out loud to my husband. My hopes became that either they were high on some crazy drug and it made them do something insane like kill a random person, or they were just sick people who would get a "high" off killing.
A couple of days later it was uncovered that these two individuals were members of an online "community" called Fetlife. They shared an obsession with various forms of rape and torture. There were pictures of them together, her beaten, bloodied, tied up, and gagged. Him standing beside her. They talked about each other as "partner in crime". They talked about the violence and rape they inflicted on each other.
Bottom feeders.
These weren't the only disgusting online sites they were members of. There were more.
While no details have been released, we can all imagine.
My uncle is pretty high up in the provincial police, and he's been working this case. While he can't tell us ANYTHING, including how they caught these two so quickly, he did tell us:
1. These two did it - there is no shred of doubt.
2. This is the second worst case he's ever worked, second only to Victoria Stafford, an 8 year old girl who was abducted by a male/female pair, violently raped, beaten with an inconceivable brutality - all her ribs broken and skull shattered by a hammer - and killed. She lived about an hour from here. (The link takes you to a very benign description of the case on Wikipedia).
If this case is second only the Tori Stafford case... I can't even put into words how I feel. Saying that I am completely and utterly horrified is such an understatement. What Noelle's last hours must have been like... You know, we hear about cases like this, watch them played out on crime shows... it's always awful to imagine. I don't even want to say what I wish would happen to the perpetrators of these crimes. But when you KNOW the victim, were friends with her at one time... it really brings the horror home. I haven't stopped thinking about Noelle for the past 8 days. My dreams are haunted.
Seriously, what is this world coming to?
On Tuesday January 1, in the late afternoon, my Facebook newsfeed was all a-chatter about this girl I was friends with in high school, Noelle. She was missing. She had last been seen at 2:30am when she had a big fight with her boyfriend and left a NYE party, walking home on her own. She called her parents and told them she was on her way home (she didn't live with them anymore, so I'm unclear on whether she was referring to her home, or her parents' home).
She didn't make it, and no one could get ahold of her. So there was this FB event called "Noelle is Missing". I was hoping she was off hooking up with some guy with her phone off or something. This would be extremely embarrassing for her, as almost the entire city knew she was missing at this point and she was a kindergarten teacher at a Catholic elementary school. But this is what I hoped for.
Hundreds of people were out looking for her that night. She wasn't found. There were a ton of rumors and speculation going around, like her cell phone was found dead on the ground, someone saw tire tracks on the side of a rural road and footsteps going through the snow into the woods, etc. etc. No one knew what to believe, and there were a lot of heated words flying for the "rumor spreaders".
The next morning, Wednesday, the police organized a huge search party starting at 8:30 a.m. At 10:30 a.m. it was announced that Noelle had been located.
My first reaction was relief. For about 3 seconds. Then I realized that they weren't announcing that she was found alive, that she was home safe... nothing like that. Just that she was located.
I knew it in my bones right away. Things were not okay with Noelle. My hope at this point was just that she had gotten randomly hit by a drunk driver, and that driver drove away, afraid, perhaps hid her body somewhere. You can imagine what my real fears were if that was my hope.
About an hour after the police announced that they located Noelle, it was announced that the police had found an adult female body in a woodlot. They didn't say it was Noelle, but I knew it was. Within a couple of hours of this announcement, my newsfeed was filled with mourning statuses from Noelle's good friends. It had not been announced to the public that Noelle was dead, but the people close to her had been informed that she was.
On Thursday morning the police announced what many of us already knew - that the adult female body found was that of Noelle. I was still hoping it was a random accident, but knew it wasn't.
On Thursday evening it was announced that two people, a 31 year old nurse and mother of 3, and a 19 year old male (their names were also released, but I'm not putting them here; they were also residents of our small city), were charged with the first degree murder of Noelle. First degree murder. That means it was purposeful, not a "last minute decision". Also, police don't lay first degree murder charges unless they are 100% sure and have an airtight case.
I knew Noelle did not know either these people. There was no way she would. My worst fears started creeping up again, but I couldn't even speak them out loud to my husband. My hopes became that either they were high on some crazy drug and it made them do something insane like kill a random person, or they were just sick people who would get a "high" off killing.
A couple of days later it was uncovered that these two individuals were members of an online "community" called Fetlife. They shared an obsession with various forms of rape and torture. There were pictures of them together, her beaten, bloodied, tied up, and gagged. Him standing beside her. They talked about each other as "partner in crime". They talked about the violence and rape they inflicted on each other.
Bottom feeders.
These weren't the only disgusting online sites they were members of. There were more.
While no details have been released, we can all imagine.
My uncle is pretty high up in the provincial police, and he's been working this case. While he can't tell us ANYTHING, including how they caught these two so quickly, he did tell us:
1. These two did it - there is no shred of doubt.
2. This is the second worst case he's ever worked, second only to Victoria Stafford, an 8 year old girl who was abducted by a male/female pair, violently raped, beaten with an inconceivable brutality - all her ribs broken and skull shattered by a hammer - and killed. She lived about an hour from here. (The link takes you to a very benign description of the case on Wikipedia).
If this case is second only the Tori Stafford case... I can't even put into words how I feel. Saying that I am completely and utterly horrified is such an understatement. What Noelle's last hours must have been like... You know, we hear about cases like this, watch them played out on crime shows... it's always awful to imagine. I don't even want to say what I wish would happen to the perpetrators of these crimes. But when you KNOW the victim, were friends with her at one time... it really brings the horror home. I haven't stopped thinking about Noelle for the past 8 days. My dreams are haunted.
Seriously, what is this world coming to?
Friday, January 4, 2013
A Sick 3 Month Old is a Sad Thing
We did everything we could to prevent this, but Isaiah got sick. Amazingly, it took a week of Noah being sick and hacking all over our household before Isaiah got came down with a fever. That was on Wednesday. He spent the entire day whining/moaning, even while sleeping. In the early afternoon I noticed he was getting hot, and by the time I took his temp it was 101.8.
Things quickly deteriorated. He was coughing and congested, and I couldn't get him to go to sleep. He vomited explosively 3 times (and was really freaked out by it). That night I didn't sleep a wink, as I had him laying on top of me all night and he was sleeping extremely restlessly. He was basically crying or fussing every half hour.
Last night he slept with me again, but beside me instead of on top of me. He slept better than the night before (I don't think he liked being stuck in one position when he was sleeping on top of me), but I only got 2 broken hours of sleep, and I'm not expecting to get much more tonight.
So, symptom tally: his fever comes and goes (not as bad as Noah's), he's congested, sneezing, coughing, and his eyes are running and gunky. His voice is all hoarse, and I'm quite sure he has a sore throat.
My poor baby :(
Monday, December 31, 2012
Christmas 2012
It's 8:10pm on December 31, 2012. I really want to get a Christmas post in before 2013 comes, so here it is!
Christmas 2012 was supposed to be pretty busy. We purposefully skipped a few Christmas parties for various reasons, like the fact that Isaiah is hysterical on car rides, and that certain ones (read: work parties) were just going to be awkward instead of enjoyable.
The plans boiled down to this:
-My immediate family Christmas on December 23
-My MIL's side on December 24
-My brother Matt, his wife Lynsey, sister Giliane, and my Mom on December 25, followed by a couple of hours with my FIL's side on December 25
-Brunch at my inlaw's with their friends on December 26.
The first two days went as planned. Christmas at my parents house with my siblings was great. It was a little hairy with naps for Isaiah, since he just recently became less able to nap in a room full of people, even while babywearing, but I didn't stress about it and just went with the flow. Noah had fun, although he doesn't always enjoy playing with his cousins because they just aren't as nice and gentle as he is.
Noah's present from my parents was a floor mat for cars, the first Cars movie, and 3 cars from the Cars movie. He really really liked it! After his cousins realized what he got, they went over and were crawling all over his mat playing with his cars. Noah said to Josiah in a frustrated voice, "Go somewhere else!!" So I said to Noah, "Noah, please be nice," and Noah said, in an equally frustrated voice, "Please go somewhere else!!!" Hahaha.
Christmas Eve was at my inlaws and included the Nonna on that side, and my MIL's sister Mary, her husband Skip, and their son Josh. This was huge, as they had a huge falling out before Noah was born and the two families never get together for anything anymore. Justin and I get together with Skip and Mary a few times a year, but never with my inlaws. It went well. Again, I wore Isaiah all day so he was happy... except when I let Mary hold him and she started walking around with him facing out into the noisy room. As soon as she turned him that way he started SCREAMING, and even though both my MIL and me told her to turn him back around because it's not comfortable, it's way too stimulating, and he had nowhere to hide from the stimulation in that position, she ignored us. He stopped screaming for a couple of minutes and then started wailing again so I just took him back. Poor little guy.
I should mention, the drives to and from my parents' house and my inlaws house were awful. I sit in the back with Isaiah and Noah, but Isaiah still gets hysterical. It frays my nerves. I usually end up taking him out of the carseat and nursing him. I know it's unsafe but I just can't let him scream for 25 minutes!
By Christmas Day I was NOT wanting to do any more driving because of all the crying. I had kind of decided that Isaiah and I would be skipping the rest of the Christmas festivities, but told Justin he could take Noah for a couple of hours. Keep this fact in mind.
Christmas morning we woke up and stayed home from church (because of the crying).
We opened presents as a family. Well, Isaiah just watched:
Isaiah got a book and a whole bunch of BabyLegs, the boys got matching handmade hats (not handmade by me, I don't have those skills):
And Noah got a Duplo gas station set and 5 different wooden Thomas trains.
We purposefully kept it lower key this year and just stuck with things we knew he would love (and he did). I didn't want to bring a bunch of useless plastic crap into the house like we did last Christmas.
Blurry picture of me and my boys, but I have to add it... look how happy Isaiah is!:
Noah fell asleep in the downstairs spare bedroom around 10:15, which was weird.
Then my family started arriving around noon, and he acted very unhappy to see them. This was weird too. I gave Isaiah to Justin to hold and brought Noah to him room to ask him what was going on, and when I picked him up he was burning hot. He had a pretty high fever. I gave him Advil to bring it down, which it did. At this point I told Justin that none of us would be going to his family's Christmas that night, as there were two other kids who would be there and I wasn't about to be the family bringing the sick kids into other people's houses. Justin seemed like he thought I was overreacting, but he agreed.
By the end of the day it was pretty clear Noah was quite sick. He was burning up again and was very lethargic. Justin slept in his room with him that night. At around 5am he brought him into my room because he had been asking for me. At first I was annoyed, because I'd been lying awake since 12:30am, but as soon as Noah got in my lap I realized he was even sicker. He was limp like a rag doll and sooooo hot. We gave him more Advil, I nursed him, and the two of them went back to sleep in Noah's room.
The next morning we skipped Boxing Day brunch because of Noah being sick. During the course of the day he developed a bad cough and still had a really high fever. That night Justin brought him to me again at 2am. I think the next night the same thing happened, but since then it hasn't.
Basically, Noah has never been so sick in his life (and he's been sick at least 20 times). High fever, sore throat, headache, body ache, horrible congestion, horrible cough, major lethargy, spending all day on the couch, choosing to nap for hours even though he stopped napping in August... He even stopped eating for a few days, during which I was so thankful he was still nursing and that I have so much milk. It's been rough, and right now I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait until he's healthy again... I know it's only been a week, but it's been so brutal that I'm starting to forget what normal, happy, healthy Noah is like.
Magically, Isaiah hasn't gotten sick, which is amazing since it's been 7 full days of Noah being like this. I'm a little sick, but nothing like Noah. Justin is the one who brought this into the house, but he was never sick like Noah is. It has really been awful to watch, but I'm so thankful it's happened during Justin's Christmas vacation. I don't know how I would have taken care of both kids by myself. Plus, Justin has slept in Noah's room every night for the past week, which has really saved me from many sleepless nights. He's such a good dad!
Incidentally, this illness (and Justin sleeping with Noah) has been the catalyst for Noah sleeping in a big boy bed. We realized about a month ago that Noah would finally do really well in a big boy bed (as in, not leaving his room when he's not supposed to), but he was perfectly happy to stay in his crib, so we left things that way. However, with Justin in there over the past week, the sleeping arrangement slowly evolved so that Noah is no longer sleeping in a crib, and he is doing great. I'm thinking we'll leave it this way after he's well. Actually, Justin is wanting to continue cosleeping with him after vacation is over, because they both enjoy it so much. Noah keeps telling me to sleep in there with them too. He can't seem to accept my explanation that I am a terrible sleeper who doesn't sleep well with people in the same room as me, much less two other people in the same BED as me. As much as I would love to have my entire family sleeping in one giant bed (and since our master bedroom has two queen beds pushed up against each other, this would be totally feasible), I suck at sleeping too much for this to happen.
Okay, it's 9:00, which means it's past my bedtime. Goodnight all, have a Happy New Year!
Christmas 2012 was supposed to be pretty busy. We purposefully skipped a few Christmas parties for various reasons, like the fact that Isaiah is hysterical on car rides, and that certain ones (read: work parties) were just going to be awkward instead of enjoyable.
The plans boiled down to this:
-My immediate family Christmas on December 23
-My MIL's side on December 24
-My brother Matt, his wife Lynsey, sister Giliane, and my Mom on December 25, followed by a couple of hours with my FIL's side on December 25
-Brunch at my inlaw's with their friends on December 26.
The first two days went as planned. Christmas at my parents house with my siblings was great. It was a little hairy with naps for Isaiah, since he just recently became less able to nap in a room full of people, even while babywearing, but I didn't stress about it and just went with the flow. Noah had fun, although he doesn't always enjoy playing with his cousins because they just aren't as nice and gentle as he is.
Noah's present from my parents was a floor mat for cars, the first Cars movie, and 3 cars from the Cars movie. He really really liked it! After his cousins realized what he got, they went over and were crawling all over his mat playing with his cars. Noah said to Josiah in a frustrated voice, "Go somewhere else!!" So I said to Noah, "Noah, please be nice," and Noah said, in an equally frustrated voice, "Please go somewhere else!!!" Hahaha.
Christmas Eve was at my inlaws and included the Nonna on that side, and my MIL's sister Mary, her husband Skip, and their son Josh. This was huge, as they had a huge falling out before Noah was born and the two families never get together for anything anymore. Justin and I get together with Skip and Mary a few times a year, but never with my inlaws. It went well. Again, I wore Isaiah all day so he was happy... except when I let Mary hold him and she started walking around with him facing out into the noisy room. As soon as she turned him that way he started SCREAMING, and even though both my MIL and me told her to turn him back around because it's not comfortable, it's way too stimulating, and he had nowhere to hide from the stimulation in that position, she ignored us. He stopped screaming for a couple of minutes and then started wailing again so I just took him back. Poor little guy.
I should mention, the drives to and from my parents' house and my inlaws house were awful. I sit in the back with Isaiah and Noah, but Isaiah still gets hysterical. It frays my nerves. I usually end up taking him out of the carseat and nursing him. I know it's unsafe but I just can't let him scream for 25 minutes!
By Christmas Day I was NOT wanting to do any more driving because of all the crying. I had kind of decided that Isaiah and I would be skipping the rest of the Christmas festivities, but told Justin he could take Noah for a couple of hours. Keep this fact in mind.
Christmas morning we woke up and stayed home from church (because of the crying).
Isaiah got a book and a whole bunch of BabyLegs, the boys got matching handmade hats (not handmade by me, I don't have those skills):
And Noah got a Duplo gas station set and 5 different wooden Thomas trains.
Blurry picture of me and my boys, but I have to add it... look how happy Isaiah is!:
Noah fell asleep in the downstairs spare bedroom around 10:15, which was weird.
Then my family started arriving around noon, and he acted very unhappy to see them. This was weird too. I gave Isaiah to Justin to hold and brought Noah to him room to ask him what was going on, and when I picked him up he was burning hot. He had a pretty high fever. I gave him Advil to bring it down, which it did. At this point I told Justin that none of us would be going to his family's Christmas that night, as there were two other kids who would be there and I wasn't about to be the family bringing the sick kids into other people's houses. Justin seemed like he thought I was overreacting, but he agreed.
By the end of the day it was pretty clear Noah was quite sick. He was burning up again and was very lethargic. Justin slept in his room with him that night. At around 5am he brought him into my room because he had been asking for me. At first I was annoyed, because I'd been lying awake since 12:30am, but as soon as Noah got in my lap I realized he was even sicker. He was limp like a rag doll and sooooo hot. We gave him more Advil, I nursed him, and the two of them went back to sleep in Noah's room.
The next morning we skipped Boxing Day brunch because of Noah being sick. During the course of the day he developed a bad cough and still had a really high fever. That night Justin brought him to me again at 2am. I think the next night the same thing happened, but since then it hasn't.
Basically, Noah has never been so sick in his life (and he's been sick at least 20 times). High fever, sore throat, headache, body ache, horrible congestion, horrible cough, major lethargy, spending all day on the couch, choosing to nap for hours even though he stopped napping in August... He even stopped eating for a few days, during which I was so thankful he was still nursing and that I have so much milk. It's been rough, and right now I'm not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. I can't wait until he's healthy again... I know it's only been a week, but it's been so brutal that I'm starting to forget what normal, happy, healthy Noah is like.
Magically, Isaiah hasn't gotten sick, which is amazing since it's been 7 full days of Noah being like this. I'm a little sick, but nothing like Noah. Justin is the one who brought this into the house, but he was never sick like Noah is. It has really been awful to watch, but I'm so thankful it's happened during Justin's Christmas vacation. I don't know how I would have taken care of both kids by myself. Plus, Justin has slept in Noah's room every night for the past week, which has really saved me from many sleepless nights. He's such a good dad!
Incidentally, this illness (and Justin sleeping with Noah) has been the catalyst for Noah sleeping in a big boy bed. We realized about a month ago that Noah would finally do really well in a big boy bed (as in, not leaving his room when he's not supposed to), but he was perfectly happy to stay in his crib, so we left things that way. However, with Justin in there over the past week, the sleeping arrangement slowly evolved so that Noah is no longer sleeping in a crib, and he is doing great. I'm thinking we'll leave it this way after he's well. Actually, Justin is wanting to continue cosleeping with him after vacation is over, because they both enjoy it so much. Noah keeps telling me to sleep in there with them too. He can't seem to accept my explanation that I am a terrible sleeper who doesn't sleep well with people in the same room as me, much less two other people in the same BED as me. As much as I would love to have my entire family sleeping in one giant bed (and since our master bedroom has two queen beds pushed up against each other, this would be totally feasible), I suck at sleeping too much for this to happen.
Okay, it's 9:00, which means it's past my bedtime. Goodnight all, have a Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Isaiah is 3 Months Old
Hi people! I haven't been blogging or even reading any blogs because my laptop busted and Noah has been sick with the darn plague for the past week, but I had to make some time to write a 3 month post before 2013 gets here!
Isaiah was 3 months old on December 22. (Incidentally, I need to have my kids earlier in the month so that I have more time to get the appropriate post up in the actual month that it occurred.) Here's the quick low down:
-Isaiah weighs 15.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 3 month birthday).
-I believe he's around 25 inches but I'm not sure I can't remember when I last measured him. He's in 6 month clothing, some of which is too small because of his cloth diapers. If we used disposables they would all fit fine (although a few things are getting too short). He's tall, but not as tall as Noah was at this age. However, he does weigh more than Noah did.
-He is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in. This means I never have to stuff diapers, which I HATE HATE HATE doing. I may as well get rid of all my pocket diapers. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.
-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.
-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.
-He is a super sleeper at night time! His record is 11 hours and 15 minutes straight. He's also done 10 hours and 45 minutes. Those were his two longest stretches. Generally I get a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night, which is amazing. He's only getting up to nurse once most nights, which is wonderful to me. Noah was up nursing once a night until he was 18 months old, so I'm happy with this and I won't be looking to night wean Isaiah until he's a toddler, probably. I do expect some regressions in this area, though.
-Right before he turned 3 months I started putting him down for some naps in his crib because he doesn't nap on me as well as he used to. If he's sleeping on me and I have to talk, he wakes up. However, he also only cat naps in his crib. Or rather, he did only cat nap in his crib. In the past few days I've gotten a couple of long naps out of him (over an hour). The napping situation is very fluid. Noah was a terrible napper and I vowed not to stress myself out over the napping thing. I'm just happy that Isaiah finally nurses to sleep (he didn't do that until sometime in the past few weeks).
-Isaiah is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy. Not every time, but I don't expect him to.
-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy. I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).
-He is a super happy baby most of the time now. He's very very smiley, starting to laugh, and is still very "talkative". I just love when he talks, it's the cutest thing.
-He is quick to smile back at people when they're talking and smiling at him, but he definitely prefers him Mommy over everyone else. Other people always want to hold him, but it never lasts long as he makes his preference for me very clear pretty quickly.
-He's not rolling yet, but he can push himself right up off his tummy when he's laying on his front.
-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).
-He loves to watch Noah, and that makes my heart melt.
-We still babywear a lot, which we both love.
-Evenings aren't nearly as fussy as they used to be, and I can eat dinner sitting down more often now, either with Isaiah in the bouncy chair or sitting on my lap (he prefers to be on my lap, obviously).
-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me, but he has totally outgrown it. It's very squishy in there.
I'm trying to think of other things, but I'm feeling very rushed to get this posted before Isaiah wakes up. So here are some cute pictures from the past few weeks!
He makes me so happy :)
Isaiah was 3 months old on December 22. (Incidentally, I need to have my kids earlier in the month so that I have more time to get the appropriate post up in the actual month that it occurred.) Here's the quick low down:
-Isaiah weighs 15.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 3 month birthday).
-I believe he's around 25 inches but I'm not sure I can't remember when I last measured him. He's in 6 month clothing, some of which is too small because of his cloth diapers. If we used disposables they would all fit fine (although a few things are getting too short). He's tall, but not as tall as Noah was at this age. However, he does weigh more than Noah did.
-He is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in. This means I never have to stuff diapers, which I HATE HATE HATE doing. I may as well get rid of all my pocket diapers. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.
-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.
-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.
-He is a super sleeper at night time! His record is 11 hours and 15 minutes straight. He's also done 10 hours and 45 minutes. Those were his two longest stretches. Generally I get a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night, which is amazing. He's only getting up to nurse once most nights, which is wonderful to me. Noah was up nursing once a night until he was 18 months old, so I'm happy with this and I won't be looking to night wean Isaiah until he's a toddler, probably. I do expect some regressions in this area, though.
-Right before he turned 3 months I started putting him down for some naps in his crib because he doesn't nap on me as well as he used to. If he's sleeping on me and I have to talk, he wakes up. However, he also only cat naps in his crib. Or rather, he did only cat nap in his crib. In the past few days I've gotten a couple of long naps out of him (over an hour). The napping situation is very fluid. Noah was a terrible napper and I vowed not to stress myself out over the napping thing. I'm just happy that Isaiah finally nurses to sleep (he didn't do that until sometime in the past few weeks).
-Isaiah is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy. Not every time, but I don't expect him to.
-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy. I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).
-He is a super happy baby most of the time now. He's very very smiley, starting to laugh, and is still very "talkative". I just love when he talks, it's the cutest thing.
-He is quick to smile back at people when they're talking and smiling at him, but he definitely prefers him Mommy over everyone else. Other people always want to hold him, but it never lasts long as he makes his preference for me very clear pretty quickly.
-He's not rolling yet, but he can push himself right up off his tummy when he's laying on his front.
-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).
-He loves to watch Noah, and that makes my heart melt.
-We still babywear a lot, which we both love.
-Evenings aren't nearly as fussy as they used to be, and I can eat dinner sitting down more often now, either with Isaiah in the bouncy chair or sitting on my lap (he prefers to be on my lap, obviously).
-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me, but he has totally outgrown it. It's very squishy in there.
I'm trying to think of other things, but I'm feeling very rushed to get this posted before Isaiah wakes up. So here are some cute pictures from the past few weeks!
He makes me so happy :)
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Work to Rule
Since March I have posted several times about how the government is going all Hitler-ish and attempting to dictate teacher's contracts instead of allowing the lawful collective bargaining process to take place. They even passed a bill (Bill 115) to make it legal for them to impose a contract on the teachers and for it to be illegal for the teachers to strike. And the Minister of Education is denying all reasonable contracts that have been negotiated with individual boards unless it is EXACTLY WHAT SHE WANTS. If it's keeping within the budget she really should just allow it, but she only wants contracts that are completely identical to what the government has created. Yeah, things are pretty tense.
The bright side of this is that as of December 10, the high school teachers are on a work to rule, which means NO COACHING!!!! Wahoo!!! Justin started his basketball season, but it only lasted about a month and only four games were played. Now that's all done.
You know what that means? I am happy. My marriage has no tension. My husband is home every night after work. I am sane.
This is supposed to last until teachers are again free to collectively bargain without the restrictions of Bill 115. So I'm all "Keep Bill 115 alive so my husband never coaches again!" That sounds bad, I know. But that's really how I feel.
The Conservative party leader is saying he's going to legislate the teachers back to extra-curricular activities... yeah good luck with that, buddy. A) The Liberals are in power right now, not the Conservatives, and B) how do you think you're going to force teachers to do extra curricular activities? They're voluntary, and probably only half of a high school staff, or less, does them. You can't force half of the staff to do them and not the other half. But you can't make the other half volunteer to coach or do drama club or band if they have absolutely no experience in these areas. Obviously this guy has no clue what he's talking about.
Anyway, the point is, my life rocks when Justin comes home after work everyday. I'm a nicer mother and a nicer wife. And he gets a homemade dinner everyday. And the kids get to bed on time, which means I get to bed on time.
And last night Isaiah slept 8 hours straight, so he obviously approves.
The bright side of this is that as of December 10, the high school teachers are on a work to rule, which means NO COACHING!!!! Wahoo!!! Justin started his basketball season, but it only lasted about a month and only four games were played. Now that's all done.
You know what that means? I am happy. My marriage has no tension. My husband is home every night after work. I am sane.
This is supposed to last until teachers are again free to collectively bargain without the restrictions of Bill 115. So I'm all "Keep Bill 115 alive so my husband never coaches again!" That sounds bad, I know. But that's really how I feel.
The Conservative party leader is saying he's going to legislate the teachers back to extra-curricular activities... yeah good luck with that, buddy. A) The Liberals are in power right now, not the Conservatives, and B) how do you think you're going to force teachers to do extra curricular activities? They're voluntary, and probably only half of a high school staff, or less, does them. You can't force half of the staff to do them and not the other half. But you can't make the other half volunteer to coach or do drama club or band if they have absolutely no experience in these areas. Obviously this guy has no clue what he's talking about.
Anyway, the point is, my life rocks when Justin comes home after work everyday. I'm a nicer mother and a nicer wife. And he gets a homemade dinner everyday. And the kids get to bed on time, which means I get to bed on time.
And last night Isaiah slept 8 hours straight, so he obviously approves.
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