Dec. 30/04

It was a very tough Christmas. On Dec. 13, I learned that a lump on my breast was probably cancer and subsequently had 2 surgeries. One was an excisional biopsy and the other a lumpectomy with lymph node dissection. I spent Christmas in the hospital recovering. The support from family and friends has been phenomenal - truly! I appreciate every visit, phone call and word of encouragement.

John has been very good through all of this, surprisingly. We didn't bring him to the hospital during all of this due to his fear of hospitals from his own surgery. He enjoyed opening his presents slowly. We gave him a couple of new things each day and on Christmas day, he opened his Santa toys with Daddy.(Note from Dad: We baught him a Fisher-Price Geotrax train set. Since I didn't get all four bridge abutments, I couldn't utilize the bridge or use all the track. I set up the track in a oval. Christmas morning, I went over to get John to bring him home. I took off his coat, hat, mitts, and boots and had him wait for a minute as I forgot to turn on the tree lights. I then called him over to the living room. He was a little hesitant at first, but he eventually entered the living room. When he saw the trainset, his eyes lit right up! He was so excited! He plopped himself inside the oval and played with the little train for over an hour until it was time to go to uncle Wades. He wasn't too concerned with any other gifts that Santa brought - his eyes never left the tain.)

Needless to say, it didnt' feel very Christmasy this year. I'm working at staying very positive! I'll beat this thing! We're waiting pathology results on the nodes and will travel to Thunder Bay soon to meet with oncologists. It's been just a really rough go of it lately. I want so badly to do what I'm used to doing with John but daddy and grandma pick up the responsibilities really well. I love them both so much!

(from Dad: Jan 20th, the Dryden Weather office is being shut down by NavCan, so my main job is gone. Although I will be working more at my other jobs, those jobs do not pay as much, and I get much less hours. So no new cameras for me for a while!)

John continues to stun me with his knowledge. He says "Ya" now to everything! He can count to at least 50, or 10 in french. He knows his primary colours and secondary colours. He also knows a lot of those colours in french. Some of his videos that he constantly watches has songs in them, and he has started to sing along with the video. Not bad for being just over 2 years old.

Nov. 27/04

Happy birthday to daddy tomorrow! John and I made his cake today. Chocolate cake with lots of candles (12 thanks to John). He still says that daddy is "two".

Last night we went to the Santa Claus Parade and John was so excited by it all. He loved the fire trucks and Santa. He later informed me he was going to get reindeer for Christmas from Santa. It was so thrilling to see Christmas through his eyes. I haven't had that Christmas feeling since I was a kid myself. It's so very true that Christmas is for kids!

He's finally off the BOTTLE! I started off my refusing to give him it during the day. Only a bottle of water at bedtime and then cut that out too. He drinks just fine from a regular glass or a sippy cup. He's very congested right now and is cutting his two year molars. He's been a little irritable (well a whole lot irritable too!). I hate this teething for two years thing!

He continues to learn new words and has taken to hiding a lot lately...under blankets etc. He also is really enjoying playing with his large leggo blocks. He continues with his turtle obsession. I bought him a couple of software programs for toddlers. He loves it if there's a "turt" on there.

It was funny the other night when we were snuggling, he says to me "Mommy...Lhea...DON'T JOHN." I said..."Why would she say 'Don't John!'". He says, "Push Lhea." Well, he fessed up to his guilt anyhow.

November 5/04

Halloween fun is all finished now! We had a fun Halloween overall. I took John to the family dance at the school last Friday night. He had a really fun time once he got over his fear of the scary costumes. At first, he wouldn't even stand on the floor - wanted up. I then got some kids in my class to find somebody in the gym who had a turtle costume on. They came out with little Christian Maltais who was dressed as a Ninja Turtle. John took one look at him and said "Sea turt" and spent the rest of the night stalking the 3 little ninja turtles in the gym. He ran around like a maniac and basically had a ball.

We carved our pumpkin on Saturday and on Sunday he went trick or treating. He let me dress him up as a sea turtle I think because we practised lots of times during the week. He would put on his costume and I'd give him a little treat. He wanted to stay at each house, however and cried when we left great-grandma's. We went to Great-grandma's, Grandma Jane's, Judy's and then to Wade's. We stopped at Grandma's house to hand out candy and John later decided to go out again. He wanted to stay at Angela (his babysitter)'s house as well. All in all it was a good experience.

He's really doing well at the babysitter's now. As soon as I say it's Angela's house, he says shoes and socks. He wants to go that very minute. He runs down the driveway when we get there. He's playing much gentler with the children as well. He doesn't talk about bopping Luke very often.

We got his last diptheria/tetanus/pertussis/polio etc. vaccine this week at the health unit. I tried to distract him with the fish in the aquarium (he loves Nemo), but he knew something was up right away. He kept saying, "No!" "Bye, bye" and screamed like crazy when she stuck him. He ended up with a local reaction from the shot (red, swollen arm) and I think he was slightly allergic to the bandaid they put on him (foamy type). No more needles hopefully until he's school age!

He's waiting for snow! I'm not! It can stay away for a long time yet!

October 9/04

John had his birthday party last weekend. Lhea, Jacob and Gabrielle were the guests, and you could pretty much say that John hated most of the party. He didn't like the sea turtle cake (cried), wouldn't blow out his candle (Lhea did), and kept saying "buh bye" to the kids before they were ready to go! Oh the trials of being two. He can tell you he is "two" by the way. He did like the grilled cheese sandwiches and ate two peanut butter cups (his favourite treat). He'd eat them all day long if you'd let him!

Things are going well at the babysitters. He didn't cry this week when I took him. He said bye bye mom right away when we got through the door. Luke wasn't there this week, so I think John got more attention. Things might be different this week when Luke is back!

John still is obsessed with sea turtle, reef fish and dolphin. I got him a turtle costume for Halloween, but I'm really not sure he'll even let me put it on him. Anyhow, he slept with the costume last night!

He can spell a lot of words now: boat, car, truck, train, dad, mom, dog, cat, bus, jeep..a few more too I'm sure, but I just can't come up with them right now. His language is really blooming. He's using more phrases now and can repeat most words.

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