The Hudson Happenings...: December 2008

Plane Trains and Automobiles - we have arrived in England.

Well we have now been in England for a few days and are enjoying our time here. It should come as no surprise that we had a few bumps along the way. Where shall I begin........... hmmm lets start with Christmas Eve and the party that almost never happened. As always Mike goes shopping on Christmas Eve (and takes the kids) so I can get ready for the party. This includes, cleaning, baking, and sitting on my own drinking a cup of coffee (with Bailey's) right to the bottom. I thought I would start with brownies, head to clean the bathroom then I'd be in my grove. Brownies were in the oven and just starting to cook when, the lights go out. Literally! It seems that in one split second nearly half of Halifax lost it's power. This power outage effected everyone and everything from my brownies to Mike who was unable to get any shopping done. Can you imagine the horrendous traffic on his way home, all those Christmas Eve shoppers leaving the mall at the same time and treating every light as a 4 way stop. I am sure 'Merry Christmas' was not the most commonly used phrase on the roads that day. I however fared quite well as suddenly I could no longer make any of my dishes I was about to prepare and had no water to clean with or power to fire up a vacuum. So I relaxed with neighbours and waited for my family to arrive safely. Although Mike didn't get his Christmas shopping completed he did bring me home a coffee which I added Bailey's too and all was Merry again. In the end we got our power back just before 6pm, which allowed us just enough time to shower and greet our guests. Our party was again a hit, and Santa came by right on cue. Charlotte enjoyed having everyone in the house as well as seeing Santa, who left her an early present of a Tinkerbell pillow. Robbie did okay, but something seemed to be bothering him, and I could not put my finger on it. I was just hoping it wasn't going to be serious what ever was.

Christmas morning arrived right on time, and the kids despite being up super late were still up at 6:30am. The gifts were well received and as always there seems like so much preparation for a few moments of chaotic gift opening. Santa brought Charlotte a doll house and Robbie a train set - both were hits. Once the gifts were open we needed to focus on packing and getting ready to head across the Atlantic. This is were the adventure begins....

The start of our adventure across the Atlantic went smoothly. We checked in and the clerk was laughing at us, simply because we were the couple that we are, and Mike and I were 'discussing' the size of stroller that we were taking. She allowed our stroller through and told me that I was right. That is all I needed to know.

Got the kids and the carseats and our huge stroller all on the plane and were settled on board. Then came the news that we did not want to hear... 'Mechanical Troubles'. If I can give a bit of history, for days we attempted to contact Air Canada because we felt that our connection of 40 minutes was too tight. But because of the nightmare weather that stranded passengers all over the country we could not even reach Air Canada by phone. This is why were were stuck on a plane in Halifax sweating bullets. After a half hour of work on the plane and many passengers asking about their connections we had 'good' news and would be on our way. Mike had made it clear that we would rather stay in Halifax than get stranded in Montreal. Well you can see where this is going. They decided to take off and the pilot said he would do his best to make up lost time. Looking at our watches and the plane tickets the photo in my head goes like this... Flight coming in late from Halifax, Air Canada had a pile of stand by passengers that wanted and would pay big bucks for our seats so they sold the 20 plus seats, boarded the plane early and closed the gates as the 20-some passengers, includeing Mike with two kids in tow ran like a mad down the halls of the airport. We missed the plane by less than 10 minutes. Again 'Merry Christmas' was not being thrown around as much as perhaps other phrases were.

Now lets begin the luggage hunt, and hotel adventure. I was sent on luggage duty with Charlotte and Mike took Robbie in his arms because somehow our stroller did not get up to the gate as it supposed to. Charlotte, the poor little dear, was exhausted and hungry and I was trying to find our suitcases. This is not an easy feat since we landed domestic and our bags were tagged for international. I eventually gave her jube-jubes for supper and strapped her in her carseat, loaded it onto a luggage cart and pushed her around. This was the same time that Mike came down stairs with Robbie fast asleep. He said 'Look', and to my shock Robbie was breaking out in what I could only determine were Chicken Pox. Well that would explain why he was so irritable, but why now while we are stranded on Christmas Day in Montreal, with no luggage? Finally they located all but one of our bags, including the other car seat and stroller. That was the same time that Mike got through the line and got us a hotel room, at the Hilton, at least we'll know the bedding is clean. So time to hop onto the shuttle, this is when we realize that the bag which was lost, was the bag with our winter clothing. At this point it was almost too funny. I flashed back to just as we were checking our bags, and I stuffed all the coats and hats in the suitcase for this reason... wait for it.... Just in case we had to run to make our connection. Why does it seem like these things only happen to us?

So minus something tempatures, piles of snow and what seems to be close to midnight we take our kids outside and wait for a shuttle. Good thing it was right there. We checked in to the Ghost Hotel Hilton on Christmas Night. I stayed in the room with the kids, while Mike went in search of food, our Christmas Dinner to be exact. Robbie was giddy and happy with his crackers but suddenly his diarreha started to get worse and so did his spots. I continued to tell myself that it must just be a reaction to his vaccine and not the real thing. In the end I was right and it never developed into Chicken Pox but what ever it was, kept me hopping and Robbie feeling yucky. At one point his diaper didn't hold it all and we had a bit of a leak onto one of the beds, which I did my best to clean and cover up. So much for clean bedding. Then Mike came home with a gourmea meal of Chicken Fingers and Fries, at least it was poultry. The sleeping arrangements were Charlotte, me and Robbie sideways in one bed and Mike in the pooped on bed. As you can imagine it wasn't the most restful sleep especially when Charlotte (really of no fault of her own) wet the bed. We then played musical sheets and beds and Mike pouted when he had to crawl into the bed that had been peed on. Finally some humour when I said 'Up to now you've been sleeping in poo'. Ahhh, you have to laugh, otherwise you'd cry.

Oh how I wish I could say this was the end of our trip but it wasn't. However my fingers are getting tired so I'll try to speed up a bit. We now had to spend a cold boxing day in Montreal with no hats, mitts or coats. So as much as I wanted to make the best of a situation and head downtown we couldn't. We layered in fleece and took a shuttle to a mall on boxing day to buy hats, thinking we may feel like doing something more adventurous later in the day as it got warmer. Now if I may just say that Boxing Day shoppers have to be the most foolish people I've ever seen. We arrived at the mall with crowds waiting outside at 10:45, but the mall didn't open until 11. Thankfully the driver of the shuttle waited with us so we could stay warm. At 11, only the mall opened, but not the stores. We then proceeded to walk around the mall with hundreds of other people lining up outside particular stores for another 2 hours. Finally the stores opened and we did a small amount of shopping. That was until I nearly got arrested for shoplifting (no I do not make this stuff up). In my defense it was completely by accident, I absent mindedly walked out of a store with a kids winter coat hung on the handle bar of the stroller. The staff realized straight away but, I was 'hiding' in another store and they couldn't find me. It didn't take long until I realized my mistake and returned to the store on my own, needless to say completely flustered and paniced. Could you imagine if I got arrested in Montreal on Boxing Day when I should have been in England. I think that would have done me in.

After seeing a side of human kind (the boxing day shopper) that Mike and I could have done without we retreated to the hotel to sit in the lounge, watch french cartoons and eat chips and chocolate for supper. Charlotte and Robbie loved it! Finally we headed to the airport and waited for our flight at 7:40pm, a whole 24 hours later. It was then, that I saw what was to bring me to tears. We had 3 seats on a full plane in 3 different rows. The woman at the desk was about to start boarding passengers and was horribly rude to us. So I told her as politely as I could that there was no way in hell my 2 year old is sitting on her own, and the flight would be delayed until they could sort it out. And that is exactly what happened. We waited until ALL passengers were on board then we walked onto the plane and I explained everything (tearfully) to the flight attendant and they were very accommodating getting us all to sit together. But true to my word, all this kerfuffle caused the plane to be delayed. Ahhh, if there had only been a Cordele on the plane the day before we would have made our connection.

December 21, 2008

Call it a wish come true, or a small prayer answered... but it is cold and there is snow in the forcast. Friday it was so cold that I had to scrape my window before I could go out and run my last Christmas errands. It started with a stop at the blood donor clinic, then off to push my body (now 1 pint shorter of liquid) to the limit running from store to store. And strange enough as I'm dodgeing shopping carts and cars as I run across the parking lots I can't help by smile because the wind was wipping, and my face was freezing. After a marathon of hitting store after store I decided that our artificial tree was just going to have to do this year as we were running out of time and I could not see us getting one on this day either. Up went our crooked, pathetic looking artificial tree and Charlotte was so thrilled with it. She did a great job at decorating and only needed to be told once that each ornament should have its own branch. Robbie was pretty good as well, he got a hold of a jingle bell, and jingle and jangled all over the living room. Mike did have to take Robbie down stairs at one point, but I don't know which one of them was getting in the way more.

The rest of our weekend has been spent rushing in and out of the house over to Billie's for fresh baked bread and strong Ceasars (at least it was noon), and over to Donalda's for cookies and tea. You really need to know our street to fully understand how the holidays take over. For the next 7 days there will be food, drinks, dancing and music at someone's house, either formally or unformally. Since we aren't blessed with family here, James Street has become very special to us. Tonight we are supposed to get a storm (with a pile of snow), then if it stays cold and no rain falls we should have a lovely White Christmas. I have been singing I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas all week, so someone must be hearing me. I've also made Robbie his own Christmas carol... it is called All I want for Christmas are 2 Black Eyes, sung to the tune of All I want for Christmas are my 2 Front Teeth. Not because I want him to have 2 black eyes, but beacuse he narrowly escaped from giving himself 2 lovely shiners. After crashing into the edge of my foot ottoman (which happens to be padded but as he was falling, pushed the padded lid with his hand exposing the hard edge of the box) and SLAM went his forehead right into the ledge. He has a huge goose egg right above his nose, between his eyebrows, with a bruise running right through the middle. That boy.

I also can't forget Charlotte, she is such a little girl these days that I'm actually lost for words. I want her to grow and yet stay the same. Lately the biggest rave are her Ruby Red Slippers. Oh yes, and we must call them Ruby Red Slippers everytime, not red shoes or some other dull name. They were a gift from her aunt Carol and as much as Charlotte hates to wear dresses, she will get into a dress if she can wear these shoes. When we are in England we are going to go to a stage show of The Wizard of Oz and I can't wait to see her face when she sees that Dorthy has Ruby Red Slippers as well. I've been singing her some of the songs from The Wizard of Oz and the other day she was sitting in my spaghetti pot, with her legs sticking out singing to herself her made up song went something like "Lions and Tigers and Elephants and Giraffes and Hippos Oh My, Lions and Tigers and Elephants and Zebras and Dogs Oh My". If I only had my camera!

December 17, 2008

For some reason my Christmas Spirit seems to be lacking. I am excited about Christmas, I am nearly prepared for Christmas with only a few things left to do. One is get my tree up, but I never planned to put up a tree until a couple days prior to Christmas anyway. Something to do with the 1 year old and 2 year old that run in circles around my house and the fact that we really do spend most of our days in the house... that seemed like a recipe for disaster, so we will only have the tree up for a few days. My decision was reinforced this weekend when Robbie managed to fall face first into our friends Christmas tree, and Charlotte promptly rearranged all of the glass and some antique ornaments. Other than that I must say the kids really were well behaved and Charlotte is definitely her mother's child, as she did not stray far from the snack table. What I found most funny were her comments later about how good the dip was (she is so like me sometimes it scares me).

Back to my Christmas Spirit lacking, I really can't put my finger on it, we've made it to a few parties, we've seen Santa, we've toured the city's Christmas Lights, our lights are up, we've decorated cookies, made ginger bread houses... all the typical Christmas things. Everything is right on track. Of course this time of year is difficult, I make small decisions like where to put James's last Santa photo, and seeing 3 stockings hung by the chimney while hearing two sets of feet running around, we also attend a special Candle Lighting in his memory. Of course all of this does add a little sadness to the holidays, but it is our life and something we deal with everyday not just at Christmas time.

I just don't know, it seems ridiculous but the thing that I keep coming back to is that there is never snow in Nova Scotia at Christmas. Everytime it snows I start singing Christmas carols, and get all giddy. Then anywhere from a few hours to a few days the rain starts and all the snow melts away, and so does my child-like behaviour. I guess growing up out west we always had snow and yes some bitterly cold days, and something inside me associates it with Christmas. So to all of you freezing in the prairies right now, you may curse what I am about to say... but I miss it. 51 weeks of the year I am fine without the sound of scrapping windows, and having your breath actually freeze your eyelids shut (for those of you not familiar with -40 it does happen). But the week (or weeks) leading up to Christmas I wish were White... Christmas lights just seem to sparkle that much more against a snowy backdrop. So once again I am vowing to bring my crew home one year so they can experience what is magical to me about Christmas time. On the note about travelling home, I've not written that we will be going home to England this year. I managed to pull out some savings before they performed a magic trick of their own and turned to dust, and we decided to go back to England. Some where along the way we also decided that we would leave on Christmas Day. Yes that is right somehow on Christmas Day we will...

Open Presents
Clean up Presents
Clean up any remaining mess from our party the night before
Have our Traditional Big Breakfast
Take down the tree that I just put up
Take down all my other decorations (which at least have been up all month)
Pack for a family of 4 to go to England
Coax 2 hyper / over tired kids into a nap
Load up the car
Stop in at the Phillips as will be missing supper with them this year
Check in and fly to Montreal with two kids who did not nap
Have Christmas dinner somewhere between airline terminals
Fly to London (ooh now it will be Boxing Day)
Collect all of our bags
Rent a car Squeeze the carseats, luggage, and passengers into tiny car
Drive 3 hours north
And start visiting...

Seriously I'm not even exaggerating, that is going to be our Christmas Day! that is unless we get snowed in (Ha Ha, wouldn't that be hilarious). We are excited to go to England, come on who would volunteer for that if they didn't actually want to arrive at their destination. Once we get settled it will be a really great visit. Just a bit of a journey, and I do worry about the sleep we will all be loosing, no one in our house is known for their chipper moods when sleep deprived. Also in true Hudson fashion I'm sure there will be a few bumps along our way that will be shared in lengthy blog posts.

Now here are a few photos of recent events. No I'm not a scrooge we certainly are doing plenty that is festive, I'm just missing a bounce to my step that is all...

Charlotte making a tree for the window

Making a gingerbread house

Wanting to eat the gingerbread house

Decorating cookies

Santa Robbie

Admiring a Christmas Tree

Mr. Murphy stuck in a stocking

And two Melt-Your-Heart photos... Charlotte knows most of this book by heart and 'reads' it to her brother.

Finally, just a quick note as I keep forgetting to put up Robbie's wieght and length from his 1 year appointment. He is 25 pounds (75%) and 32 inches (90%). Also he still only has 4 teeth but I see a few more pushing on the gums, maybe he'll get a couple for Christmas.

Frustration - December 13, 2008

Before I begin my vent, this post happens to not be about the kids. No I'm not frustrated with them. In fact the kids aren't even mentioned. So if you are looking to hear about them, check back in a few days... by then I should be finished feeling sorry for myself. So if you don't mind, I need to vent a little as I am actually on the verge of tears as I am getting very frustrated with my healthy lately. I don't know what I am fighting, but it seems to have returned.

Waayyyy back in June I came down with a summer cold, no biggie. Well that summer cold turned into bronchitis which I happened to ignore thinking that it would clear its self out. Parents are so funny, at the first sign of a sniffle for our kids we haul out the humidfiers, tylenol, and put our doctors on alert. But for ourselves, at least for me, I think if I ignore the symptoms long enough then I can convince myself that I'm actually not sick. Well in the summer once this bronchitis got bad enough where I struggled to get off the couch and would virtually hack up a lung climbing the stairs I went to the doctor. By this point my hobbie of going for the odd jog had obviously come to an abrupt stop, but really that would have happened anyway since Mike is gone for major chunks of the summer.

Finally in the autumn when Mike's schedule slowed to a point where I could return to running, I tried (despite still having my cough) and failed! Urgh I must have really fallen out of shape. I kept trying, and trying and the runs just were not getting easier. Now I am not a pro-runner, however I have travelled the road back to fitness a number of times. Anyone who has had a baby and is runner, knows that road back to enjoying running is a tough one. And in my mind I knew that it shouldn't be this rough. I was starting to get really hard on myself, "C'mon You ran the Cabot Trail 8 weeks after having Charlotte", "You've ran a half marathon in 34 degree temperatures". Surely I should be able to run for 20 minutes!!! But my coughing after less than 5 minutes would be so bad that I would often become physically ill on the side of the road (which by the way is highly embarassing when not pregnant). And you should have heard me coughing in the morning, I sounded like an old man who'd smoked his entire life.

Now there are two things in my life you don't mess with, the first is my family the other is my running. Over the last few months, I trecked off to the doctor again and again and again. And I continued to get worse. I've been for chest x-rays, have squirted this and that up my nose, I've had a couple different puffers and a few different antibiotics. About 3 weeks ago I FINALLY got some relief. I'd taken a strong antibiotic for over 2 weeks and things cleared up, and the best part was that I could run again. I finally could run!! And I was enjoying it which made it all that much better. Yippee!

That was until 2 nights ago, a familiar feeling came. And sure enough I've started coughing again. This morning I was back to where I was a month ago. Like I said I feel like crying. The only blessing that I can see is that I did not cancell my appointment with the allergist that I've been waiting for since early November. That appointment is Tuesday and by then I should be hacking and coughing all the way to his office. Let's hope he finds something so we can just get to work and deal with it... I've never wanted an allergy so bad in my life.

Oh Robbie!! - December 10,2008

"Oh Robbie" seems to be the most commonly used phrase around here. That boy is into everything, and now if he does something to Charlotte, like hit her with a toy, steal her coloring book, or knock over her entire tea set... tables, and chairs included you can find Charlotte saying (or yelling) "Oh ROBBIE". She certainly picked that phase up from me, because Robbie just has me completely speechless lately with his antics. However for me the cake was two nights ago. Robbie woke up around 10 and I was able to settle him back, but then he woke up again, and again and finally around midnight he was UP. Yes wide awake! We tried everything, we tried to let him cry, Mike and I took turns rocking him, we even tried pushing the stroller around the basement, I tried a bottle, and if it weren't for horrible roads we would of put him in the car. At one point I thought I had him asleep as he was finally still. It was pitch black in the room and I wasn't sure if he was sleeping so continued to rock and rock hoping to lull him into a deep sleep when out of the blue he gave me the slobberiest kiss and giggled. Well that was it, I burst out laughing, it was certainly a moment where if I didn't laugh I was about to cry, after all it was pushing 2am. Of course the laughing just encouraged the playful behaviour and we were toast. Eventually Mike was able to get him off to sleep but that was after Robbie had been awake for nearly 4 hours. Well the bright side was he would probably sleep in till what 9am, right! Nope our Robbie slept in until 7am, only 30minutes past his usual wake up time. Oh Robbie!!!

Other news was that we went to see Santa yesterday. I didn't get a digital photo, but I can recap the events for you. Both Charlotte and Robbie were completely thrilled about Santa's little fantasy land. We showed up a few minutes early and were the first ones there. They watched the reindeer riding bikes and the raccoons in the bubble bath, they had a short stint in a cave/tree trunk with fancy lights flashing along the roof and then Santa showed up on the upper level of the mall. I pointed him out has he Ho-Ho-Ho-ed all the way down the escalator. At this point Charlotte froze, which was exactly what we expected. Santa was very nice stopping to talk to all the kids on his way to his chair and looked at Charlotte and said "She's not too sure of me, is she?" I nodded. Santa's photo helper explained that the best thing to do is just throw her up there with no intro's or big hullabaloo. So that is what we did. Well we have the most priceless Santa photo. Robbie is eating crayons, Santa is staring up at Mike with a questioning look and Charlotte is frozen in mid SCREAM with her hair in a complete mess from all her work to break free. Well that was our one and only chance as I was not going to put her through anymore. We did manage to get a nice photo of Robbie and Santa as he was perfectly fine snacking on crayons. Oh Robbie!!

Waiting to get inside.

Charlotte reading with the talking book.

Robbie with one of the reindeer.

Rosie cheeked and ready to go in after some time out in our winter wonderland. You gotta get out when you can, as the snow doesn't stay in the maritimes long and it is now all gone.

Charlotte was helping her daddy shovel and kept saying. This is hard work.

Well that is all from here, as it is clear to me that Robbie is not going to take his nap. He had a whole 45minutes while in the stroller this morning, so that should do him until the moon and stars are out. Oh Robbie!!

Oh, no I can't go yet, I do have to share this video. One day Robbie came flying down the hallway with a bucket on his head. He thought it was hilarious, like really, really hilarious. Of course he couldn't' see a thing and would crash into the wall and fall, which made it that much more funny (for him, not me). I did grab my camera and took a short little video just so I could record this Robbie-ism. However it was a short video and after he crashed into the stove (not on video) I took the bucket away. Oh Robbie!!

The End of an Era... December 2, 2008

Yes, it seems that we are going to have to say good-bye to a 'member' of the Hudson household. Our well known gold station wagon may have finally had it! Yes that piece of garbage, which has actually travelled across N. America, and up and down too many highways to count always loaded with soccer balls and perhaps one or two canine members of our family. However last week, she started to cough, smoke and sputter down the highway. Given the $$$$$ we've already pumped into this money pit, we very well may be putting the car (and ourselves) out of misery. We will have to see what Dr. Mechanic has to say later in the week.

Of course the car breaking down happened at one of the most inconvenient times... perhaps that is her last kick up the ying-yang to us. Anyway, with Mike having one of his busiest weekends of the year, me trying to get ready for Robbie's birthday party, and Charlotte falling under the weather it was logistically a bit tough. But we managed and now as long as we survive this week on one car, we should be fine for the time being. Now I certainly must get a job if a new car is in the future... oh and there goes my dream of a new fridge that I've been waiting for for 5 years!

Another era, has also come to an end. It seems that over night Robbie has changed from a baby into a screaming, fit throwing, near toddler. Wow, I don't know what has come over him these last 2 days but he is certainly voicing his opinion when Charlotte takes his toy, or mommy (god forbid) decides to cook. Not only are he and Charlotte constantly fighting, which actually kills me inside to see them mad at each other, but he is climbing more than ever. I knew he was going to be a climber, but today he scared me terribly. I was stirring a pot of spaghetti, and thank goodness I followed the safety advice and was using the back burner, because Robbie in two quick movements had his hand up on the front burner!! He had placed his foot up on the oven drawer and pulled with one hand on the oven handle, he reached with the other hand and slammed it down right next to me on top of the burner. I don't even want to think what would have happened had I had the pot of boiling water on that burner! Most toddlers are a handful and you can't ever turn your back on them, but never have I seen one move that fast.

Onto happier news... Robbie's birthday was a really fun time. At first I was scared no one was going to show up due to illnesses and other commitments but then I realized that I invited a ridiculous amount of people and we still had a full house. One year old birthdays are strange events, the kids don't play together, and the parents are usually too busy chasing after their own babes to actually visit, but still I thoroughly enjoy the chaos. Robbie covered himself in cupcake as is a necessity at any first birthday party. He also actually enjoyed opening all his presents. Funny thing happened before the party. A friend dropped by early with a gift, without thinking I left it within Robbie's reach and turned my back (there is my mistake again). I came back into the room and Robbie was completely red. He'd been sucking on a piece of red tissue paper and his hands and face were dyed red, not pink, but bright, glow in the dark red. I scrubbed and managed to get most of it off, but just laughed as that is typical Robbie. One of Robbie's presents was a baseball set, which includes a toddler sized baseball bat. This has not been a good thing, Robbie has now turned into BAM-BAM and whacks at everything, including Charlotte (just to recap my previous mention of the fighting). The good thing is that Robbie also got a pile of trucks and there are few things he likes more than trucks, cars, trains... he now pours, and dumps, and pushes them all over the house. These activities usually allow me time to confiscate the baseball bat.

It may sound like I'm being a tad negative, and please don't think I am. I adore every minute with Robbie and Charlotte, it is just a period of adjustment that we'll have to get used to. Charlotte is actually developing a lot of patience with Robbie and is learning to put things away in her room if there is a conflict. And every now and then I can't help but chuckle inside like today when she accidentally hit him in the head with a pillow and fell back on his behind stunned pointing to his head. But I must stifle those laughs because if Charlotte thinks anything is remotely funny or silly she will do it over and over.... although a pillow would be much better than a baseball bat now wouldn't it.

Here are some photo's...

- you can sort of see the reminisce of Robbie's red hands and face. What a guy!