Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The Flood

Early Sunday morning, 2:15am to be exact, we woke up to an odd noise. At first we thought it was our cat, Parker, getting in to something. We both took turns yelling at him from our dopey, half-asleep state. Finally, when the noise wasn't stopping, Jon got up to explore...

Water was splashed all over our kitchen floor. Our ceiling was leaking! We were woken up by the sound of the water hitting our laminate flooring! We were not the dumbasses to put laminate in the kitchen. The whole ceiling in our ensuite was soaked and part of our kitchen.

It turns out that the brilliant guy upstairs knew his bathroom sink was plugged, but decided to use it anyway. Because he was drunk, he left the house with it running! Who does that?! It is so automatic to just turn the tap off! So, we have since faced three nights with our mattress in the living room because a very loud dehumidifier was running in our ensuite. We are finally back in our bedroom tonight but we are still looking at work getting done. Our ensuite ceiling has been replaced and much of the wall patched up. Our kitchen has been patched already too. There is more patching, sanding and painting to be done yet.

I'm trying to look at the positive of this situation though. It was kind of fun and romantic to have a sleep over in the living room. Plus, our kitchen and ensuite are getting facelifts with out us having to do any work. I can choose updated colors and they are going to change the light fixture in the bathroom that has been sitting there waiting to be changed for over a year! With us listing our place soon, this can't hurt!

Friday, March 12, 2010

My Little Performer

Livi is flourishing. She is coming out with more and more words and sentences everyday. It is so exciting to listen to her! I was feeding her the other day and she says to me "by myself mommy." I laughed and let her do it by herself... even though she made a huge mess. She has begun singing too! The Clean Up song. Not quite in key but real singing!

She had her 18 month vaccinations and she did great of course. She is officially 27lbs, and 85.5cm tall. I think that puts her in the 97th percentile for height and around the 83rd percentile for weight. Not entirely sure it that percentile thing is correct though. She is healthy and growing steadily, so I'm happy :)

I realized today that we are in trouble and may have a little preformer on our hands. I took her to an interactive story time at the library today. I think the performers were called the Trollson's. Livi sat herself down up front with all the big kids. I'm sure she was among the younger viewers, if not the youngest. They gave a warning at the beginning of the show that it might scare some younger kids, since it was geared towards five year olds more. I figured I'd see how she did and we'd leave if we had too.

So, since it was an interactive story time, I ended up getting picked to be one of the actors. I was a little nervous and out of my comfort zone at first, especially when they made me sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in front of the 70 people there, but I got in to it by the end. The kids thought I was a good actor :) Livi was very fascinated that I was up front, on the stage. Auntie Sessa came with us so she was with her, but Livi did end up joining me on stage. What a little performer! She loved it! Too much! She was getting in to the actions and wasn't at all scared of the troll, who had at least four of the kids crying. She even wanted him to pick her up! It was SO FREAKING ADORABLE! I am proud that different looks don't phase her. She is accepting of whatever malformations people may have... even big scary trolls... But, I'm also a little nervous because she will go and trust anyone!

I should update my lifestyle change too... I haven't done an official weigh in and measurement because I had to miss my last two group meetings where we do that, due to me having a terrible cold one week and Jon having to work late the next. Unofficially though I've lost another 4 pounds! That puts me at 14lbs gone in 9weeks! It seems like it is going slowly but I am right on target :)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Homestudy #1

We had our first meeting with our social worker, (aka, Rebecca - The Woman Who Decides If Livi Gets A Sister) on Tuesday. It went really well. She used to do what Jon does now at CLBC, so we had something in common. I think I really like her, although I am slightly intimidated by her power over my life. She seems really laid back and gives us lots of feed back. I'd been told some horror stories of SW's just asking questions blankly and writing your answers down, not participating in any conversation. I was scared this would be our experience.

We answered all the questions really honestly, of course, and I think we came across clearly. She seemed really impressed with our thoughtfulness and knowledge of parenting a child with special needs. She even wrote down, word for word, one of Jon's answers about our philosophy for living in community.

We have a ton of paper work to complete before our next meeting. I haven't really looked too much at it yet. I think I'm feeling a little over whelmed with it all. We'll get it done though.

We already had a brief second meeting to come to our home and check everything over. I don't think my house has ever been so clean. She even asked me if it is always this clean... I was honest :) I said it is usually this organized but not this clean. The horrible part of the meeting was near the end the fire alarm went off in our building! Seriously! Could it have happened at a worse time!? I wasn't worried because everytime we get work done on the building the alarm goes off. Did I react fast enough for her? Argh! Oh well. I don't have any control over the stupid alarm.