Danielle's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 1/21/03 -------------------- 1/16/03 1/3/03 12/26/02 12/17/02 12/7/02 11/28/02 11/19/02 11/9/02 11/4/02 10/27/02 10/20/02 10/16/02 -------------------- Danielle's Introduction

January 3, 2003

****Tuesday December 24, Christmas Eve Dinner

Considering the stress of the last two months and the fact that our shopping list this year was shorter than in the past, I really needed to focus on something festive to get myself into the Christmas spirit. After close to three years of neglect, 2002 was the year we started using our dining room again and to celebrate this event we bought ourselves a new dining room table. Preparing a special table would surely get me going. Since the dining room is what we call our blue room I opted for a matching blue tablecloth. I found silver mesh placemats and white chiffon napkins covered in silver snowflakes. Silver candles wrapped in wreaths were the telltale sign that we were celebrating Christmas but all the sparkle was like winter snow on a sunny day.

The children’s outfits were the next focal point. A couple of months ago my MIL made what I call a beautiful New England Tartan Christmas dress which made Olivia look like a porcelain doll. My MIL has trouble gauging my tastes and was not sure I’d like the dress. Hence, saying she was tickled pink to see Olivia all decked out in her little creation would be an understatement. As for Victor, I found a dapper little outfit: brown corduroy pants, a plaid shirt and a navy blue vest. He looked like he was taking off for private school.

Eric had planned to sit everyone including the kids at the dining room table but when he informed me that dinner would not be served before 6:30pm I argued that they’d never make it! Sure enough, a few chips later they were completely stuffed. Rule #1: with kids around, don’t serve chips, serve raw vegetables. Since we would now be eating without the kids, we decided to open the gifts before dinner. That was fun. It was the first Christmas Victor actually got interested in his gifts. He got many books, a monster truck, a Toy Story Memory Game and a Little Tykes workbench. Olivia got a Sesame Street camper and books. Eric forwent the traditional Xmas dinner because we would be entertaining the whole clan on the 27th and opted for an appetizer of shrimp and a beef grillade. Dinner was truly amazing although he infuriated me with his choice. Why couldn’t he create a menu for which the confection would revolve around the appliances we already own? Who goes out and buys a grill two days before Xmas when you could probably find it 30% off the week after!!! After dinner we went downstairs to give Victor his last gift: the workbench. The two kiddos helped us build it and we let them play with it for a while. That was our Christmas Eve: Quiet and quaint.

****Wednesday December 25 – Quebec City Festivities

We didn’t go to bed too late because we had to get up early on Christmas morning to drive out to Quebec City, a 2.5 hour drive from Montreal. My paternal grandparents now live in a group home and rented a room for the entire family. The kids collected a few more toys, got to run around like crazy and had a ball. Seeing Victor this joyful made me feel so content. This is what living is supposed to be all about… for kids anyway!!! I was dreading the drive back home but it ended being a charm. The kids were so incredibly exhausted that they slept throught the entire drive from 4pm to 6:30pm. Eric was dead tired and asked me to drive the whole way. If you want to be sure to get a white Xmas, Quebec City is the place to go and I can’t remember a Xmas without a snowstorm. I was thankful it didn’t snow on our drive back this year.

****Thursday December 26 – Our godchild’s B-Day

Back home on Thursday, first thing in the morning, the kids asked me to let them play downstairs in their playroom. The box from the workbench was still there. When I saw how much they were enjoying the box, I cut out a door and a window. Olivia had fun using the workbench flashlight in there. Every time she’d be about to enter the cardboard house, she’d wave and say bye bye. Victor would throw stuff in through the window and it would fly out as fast as it went in! A real woman: the boss of the house. Man, am I ever happy I didn’t spend much on gifts this year because that’s the only thing they played with the entire morning. In the afternoon, we were invited to our godchild’s B-Day. Gabrielle, my brother’s daughter, is a Boxing Day Baby, and just turned two. She’s very much into food these days so we got her a Little Tykes grocery check-out counter. It’s equipped with a cash register, food, a scanner, money and a credit card. It was an instant hit. She’s a real cutie, apparently when her mom went out to the store the following day she said: “Wait, wait Mommy, here, take my credit card.”

We were just about to go out the front door when Victor started to heave. We thought it was due to a cough although I was a little suspicious because he was not all that congested. He tends to swallow so much mucous that he ends up vomiting once in a while. I went to the party with Olivia leaving the men behind. An hour later Eric called to say that Victor seemed to have settled so he would be coming over. Gabrielle is at a very possessive stage. ALL of her possessions are off limit to others. It was quite funny because instead of playing with her new toys she’d be watching them like a hawk and since she got so many she couldn’t keep track of them all. My brother gave Olivia a doll so she would not be attracted to her cousin’s toys but Olivia went straight for Gabrielle’s doll stroller, grabbed her doll and threw it out in order to place her own in it. Gabrielle squealed! She ran to pick up her doll and as she went to put it back into the stroller, Olivia was already walking away with it! Gabrielle ran up to her and tried to grab it from her. Olivia pushed her away repeating Non! Non! Non! This is from a little girl who used to sit passively and just look pretty... what a change!!! Victor played very well but I noticed his cheeks were starting to blush, a sign that a fever was taking over. He refused his supper but ate chips and cake. At one in the morning Victor threw it all up. The lack of mucous determined that it was a bug. He slept the rest of the night and never threw up again, this kept our hopes up... he had to get better, the parties weren’t over yet!

****Friday December 27 - Christmas with my family and the in-laws

During the day, he held up quite fine until around 4pm. He started burning up just as the guests were showing up. My MIL and I spent the evening holding Victor in our arms. When his temperature rose above 104, I sponged him off until he threw up. That became the perfect excuse to execute the dreaded lukewarm bath. The bath and the vomiting lowered the temperature and he finally managed to doze off. I guess the evening turned out OK in general but for me it’s like I was in a haze.

I should start by saying that Eric is the cook in our home and he’s the one who prepares everything. Seven years ago, as proud owners of our 1st home, we decided to host our very 1st Christmas dinner at our place. On the day we were receiving, my mom called around 4pm to confirm their arrival. The turkey had yet to be put in the oven, Eric was taking his own sweet time and I was freaking out. I made the fatal mistake of sharing this piece of information with her. With all those Christmas receptions under her belt, why would I ask advice on turkey cooking from anyone else? She stayed calm or so I thought. Well, the turkey was ready on time. The trick: cook it in a bag. My brothers were bursting at the seams. I made all their favourite desserts and they didn’t seem to have much appetite until Dave, my younger brother let me in on their little secret. When my mom spread the news, they went and gorged themselves on Pizza Pockets. This time around Eric had it all figured out; the turkey was to go in at 3:30pm. He went out to run his errands and returned to a frozen turkey. Surprise! How could he have not checked the bird prior to his shopping expedition. He finally got the bird in by 4pm but seeing it was stuffed and somewhat frozen surely it would not be ready on time. You could see the smoke coming out my ears but I did my best to zip it. In the meantime, he got a bright idea. He whipped out his user’s manual and transferred his turkey into the convection oven and it ended up being ready on time. Now that he’s managed to pull two rabbits out of the hat, I can’t wait how he’ll pull the 3rd one!!!

****Saturday December 28 to January 2nd - Dog Days

I don’t want to dwell on this part because it’s been kind of pathetic. Although the fever receded, Victor didn’t bounce back. We took him to the doctor’s who confirmed another ear infection. Our doctor wasn’t in so we’ve scheduled an appointment with our own doctor to talk about tubes. Olivia came out with the same thing as Victor, high fever included. Eric felt so terrible himself that he went to a walk-in clinic and waited something like 3 hours to be told that it was not and ear infection YET. I felt the sniffles coming and just couldn’t seem to shake a bad migraine on New Year’s Eve.

When things get this boring or when I feel trapped I must absolutely devote my time to some project in order to feel productive. During my university years I caught scarlet fever in the middle of a summer heat wave. I was stuck in bed for over a week with a fever that would hover around 103-104. A couple of days before I got ill, I had bought a few cans of paint for my humungous apartment hallway. Nothing was going to stop me, not even a fever so every time my fever would break I’d get up and do a part of the wall! Some things will never change... Eric’s whiskey collection has slowly been taking over our buffet and to solve this problem we’ve been talking of buying a liquor cabinet. The way our dining room was set up, there was no way we could fit an extra piece of furniture in there. I moved everything around and now the corner is ready for the cabinet. Of course Eric had to move the ceiling lamp and when I told him of my plans his gut reaction was to resist. I asked him if he thought his booze was taking over the buffet. He agreed. I asked him if he thought we needed a liquor cabinet. He agreed. I asked him where he planned on putting it. “But the table is perfectly centered with the bay window!” was the response. I replied: “But you can’t have your cake and it too!” He finally caved in, realizing that the only way we could get the curio in is by moving the table.

Another project I started working on while the kids were napping is Olivia’s duvet cover. We’ll soon be replacing her crib with a bed and she’ll be in need of a duvet and new sheets. I love her room the way it is and I really didn’t feel like redoing it so my intention was to get a quilt that would match with the present decor. While shopping one day, I noticed that they were selling the material to match the border/theme in her room. It didn’t take me long to calculate how much I would need and get it cut. On the bottom of my project list, I finished painting the wall in the basement. Actually, I had painted it off-white a couple of months ago but it was a test. Since our basement is very dark I thought white would brighten it up. It did indeed but it also made it look lifeless. The color I chose does make the room darker but it really warms it up.

A little light at the end of the tunnel… On the 2nd, I went out to dinner with my two good friends P. and B to Casa Tapas. We shared a few laughs, a few drinks and genuinely had a blast. Every time we get together we always realize how much we are birds of a feather. On another high note, a friend of mine called me on the 1st to wish me Happy New Year and to invite us over to her place in a couple of weeks. I had nearly given up on her. I was always the one calling and this time I promised I would not call, I’d let her fingers do the dialing, to see just how serious she was about our friendship. It so happens that because she got a promotion and because her husband found a new job, they’ll be moving closer to their work which means 5 minutes away from my place. Both the distance and our busy schedules have been keeping us apart so this was a piece of good news.

****January 3rd – Back to work

I got home from the restaurant around 1am. I didn’t care if I’d be spending my day yawning, the fun I had was well worth it. Anyway, I had planned to spend Friday cleaning out my office and one does not need too many brain cells for that!.

****Discipline

Because we’ve all been sick, all my plans have been put on hold. As soon as Victor gets sick, the routine totally breaks down and we fall into terrible patterns.

****Speech

Olivia has been amazing me with new words in the last few weeks:

Non! Non! Non!: No
Hat
Mommy
BidaPooh: Winnie the Pooh
Ayou: Caillou
Bee-bur: Big Bird
Elbo: Elmo
Ta-too: Thank You
Tictor: Victor
Bye bye

Today she signed for milk. We weren’t sure that’s what she was doing because we never showed it to her. She must have picked it up from Victor. When Eric gave it to her she said Ta-Too. My jaw fell to the floor. I’ve never shown her how to say thank you either but I tend to always say it when the kids give me something whether I asked for it or not and she probably picked that up from me also. When we reprimand Victor she interjects with her Non!Non!Non! When she's looking for Victor, she’ll call out for him: “VIIIIIIIIICtooooooooor!”

****New Year’s resolutions?

I’ll keep it for my next post!

Danielle