Category Archives: Children

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 3 (Tuesday)

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The weather was beautiful again on Tuesday. I’m not sure what it got up to, but it must have gotten up to 22-25° C. We swam in the morning and then headed off to Downtown Disney Marketplace.

We were there for around 3 hours. It is a beautiful place. The sun was shining, there were lots of people around, and the stores are great. We started off in the main Disney store so we could try to find some princess things for Christine.

We were originally looking for some gloves or a tiara. We saw both, but Christine chose an Aurora toy instead. We couldn’t believe how many girls were going through the Bibbity Bobbity  Boutique. What a money maker for Disney!

Another main destination was the LEGO store. Unfortunately, the existing store was under renovation, so they had a temporary location setup. They had lots of sets to buy, but that was about it. They only had one “life-size” character to get a picture of, and there was no place outside where the kids could build things. It was disappointing, but the boys still managed to make a list of a half dozen sets they wanted.

We went in a bunch of other stores, and then headed back home for lunch and some quiet time. The kids aren’t able to fall asleep at their normal time, and get up earlier than normal in the morning, and after a few days, they were getting particularly annoyed with one another. Andrew also wasn’t feeling that great. By mid-afternoon they had gotten up and we went swimming again.

We had an early dinner and then dropped off Grandma and Grandpa at the outlet mall that Lisa and I were at earlier in the week. The rest of us headed back to Downtown Disney.

We went by the T-Rex Cafe and the kids dug for dinosaur bones.

We also went into a couple of other stores that we had already gone in to earlier in the day. My camera battery had died, so I needed to take some more pictures.

We had a great day, and I’m sure we’ll end up back at Downtown Disney a few more times before we go.

On Wednesday we are going to Busch Gardens…

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 2 (Monday)

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This morning the boys and I got up early and swam for around an hour before breakfast. We then got ready and left for SeaWorld.

We made it around the whole park, but spent most of our time in the kids section (Shamu’s Happy Harbor). We went on several rides and played on the big rope climbing play park.

We also saw the shark exhibit, the penguin encounter, the sting rays, and more. The passes we got let us into all 3 parks for 2 weeks, so we’ll definitely be going back.

After SeaWorld, we went swimming while Grandma and Grandpa went to get groceries.

We had a quiet evening. The kids went to bed and Lisa and I went to one of the outlet malls. We saw lots we liked, but since it is still early in the trip, we are going to wait till later to spend the big bucks. The only thing we bought was a couple of pairs of shorts for me ($7 each).

Baby Fraley

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So, Julia and Ron are going to have their first baby this year and it was suggested that we all guess when he/she will come, whether it will be a he or she, and how much he/she will weigh (feel free to also include the length). Here are some details to help you with your guesses:

  • The due date is June 15
  • Julia is from a family of  2 boys and 4 girls
  • Ron is from a family of 2 boys
  • Julia’s side of the family has 4 nieces and 3 nephews
  • Ron’s side of the family has 2 nieces

Guesses so far (in order they were received):

  1. Andrea – June 17 – boy – 7 lbs
  2. Lisa – June 12 – boy – 8 lbs 2 oz – 20.5″
  3. Alisa – June 17 – girl – 8 lbs 4 oz
  4. Mom Wing – June 14 – girl – 7 lb 6 oz
  5. Brianna – June 16 – boy – 8 lbs 9 oz
  6. Jason – June 21 (summer solstice) – girl – 7 lbs 11 oz
  7. David (Julia’s uncle) – June 21 – girl – 7 lbs 2 oz
  8. Ron – May 30 – boy – 6 lbs 8 oz – 19″
  9. Graham – June 15 – boy – 7 lbs 8 oz – 20″
  10. Lillie – June 18 – girl –  6 lbs 9 oz – 17 1/2″
  11. Andrew – on time (means on the due date) – girl – medium size and weight (he held his hands apart like he was measuring a fish)
  12. Matthew – on time – boy – same size as Christine (8 lb 15 oz)
  13. Christine – on time – girl
  14. Jean Guthrie (Ron’s Mom) – girl – between 6/7 lbs
  15. Evy – June 14 – girl – 8 lbs 8 oz – 19″
  16. Norine Fraley (Ron’s Step-Mom) – June 20 – girl – 7 lbs 1 oz – 19.5″
  17. Bill Guthrie (Ron’s Step-Dad) – according to Julia he is mean and thinks they are having twins that will weigh in at 9 lbs together 🙂
  18. Dad Wing – June 22 – girl – 3600 g (7 lbs 15 oz) – 53 cm (20.87″)
  19. Noel (Julia’s cousin) – June 1 – girl – 8 lbs 4 oz
  20. Joey (Ron’s brother) – June 14 – girl – 8 lbs 2 oz

You can leave a comment below or email me directly. I’ll then update the posting with the guesses.

I guess the guessing boy/girl only counts before the ultrasound as they are hoping to find out what it is.

Poppy’s genealogy

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After Graham’s devastating news, I felt the need to post something upbeat. Jason was trying to describe how our family was organized, so he ended up drawing Poppy a chart. Note the most important thing that Poppy remembered (“Ron drives a plane, Daddy!”)

‘All About Me’

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Poppy is really enjoying daycare, or ‘school’ as we call it. March is ‘all about me’ month and each day a child does a small presentation about themselves and Teacher Suzie writes down what they say. Poppy did hers yesterday. As you can see, Poppy is as cheeky as ever.

AllAboutPoppy

Matthew the Archaeologist

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For Christmas, Nanna and Poppa (Mom & Dad) got Matthew a gift that would let Matthew “dig” for dinosaur bones. It was a block of sand of some kind, and there was a toy dinosaur inside in pieces. It would have taken Matthew a few years to chissel out the pieces as they were in there pretty good. Even Lisa wasn’t able to help much. The set came with “tools”, but I even had to get out a real hammer and chissel to get the “bones” out. Regardless, Matthew had a great time, and we made a huge mess (you can see stuff all over the table and floor). Here are some pictures.

Matthew “digging”:

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You can see lines from Matthew’s goggles:

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Here is the raptor that we put together with the bones we dug out:

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Matthew’s trip to the hospital

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Last Tuesday night, I was in the bathroom with the boys when they were getting ready for bed. Matthew went pee, and I happened to notice it wasn’t the right colour. It was very dark. By the time I had called Lisa and she came in, it had diluted so it was hard to tell. We were concerned, but waited until he went to the bathroom again. He was up shortly after going to bed, and we agreed that the pee had blood in it. Lisa took him to the hospital.

Matthew hadn’t been complaining about anything really (other than his normal whining), so we didn’t know what the problem was. At the hospital, they checked him out and said things looked fine. They did a urine test, and he had a blood level (whatever they measure, I’m not sure) of 50. This is high. The pediatrician wanted to keep him in over night to do some tests in the morning. By about 1 am Lisa called me to bring some stuff up to the hospital. I called Dad/Poppa, and he came and looked after Andrew and Christine while I went up to the hospital. Within 15 minutes or so of getting there, they took Matthew up to a room in the pediatric wing. It was a private room with a cot in it for a parent to stay. We decided it would be best if I stayed and that way Lisa could deal with things in the morning at the house. By the time Lisa was gone and Matthew and I were settled, it was pushing 3 am.

At about 7:30 Wednesday morning they told me to get Matthew up so he could get an ultrasound done of his abdomen. He didn’t like how cold the gel was, but other than that, he did fine. The technician was super nice.

Lisa made it up to the hospital shortly after 9 am and we waited for about 2 hours for the results. Matthew had his hospital breakfast (he ate almost all of it) and then we went into the playroom. The pediatrician found us there, and said they couldn’t see anything wrong. The blood count in his most recent urine was down to 3. The ultrasound didn’t show anything. They wondered if he had been hit or kicked at all while playing, but Matthew said now.

So, the end result was nothing. Overall, Matthew was very good. He didn’t like the needle he got that they used to take blood in the Emergency Room. He loved the food (he recognized the Corn Pops as the same thing you feed the bears at Marineland). And he certainly entertained the various nurses.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my cell phone camera: