- Mark is off to England tomorrow for a week; a combination of business for his company (how convenient), and visiting his family. I hate him. I want to go. My mother is coming to stay the whole weekend to give me some parental relief. And I’m sure we’ll go shopping.

- I’m not blogging very much because I’m spending too much time on facebook. With so little to say, I’d rather sneak a peek at what everyone else I ever knew in my life, since grade school, is doing.

- We wanted to book a week’s holiday at the end of August and I was collecting ideas of where to go at that time from my colleagues. What a good reason NOT to leave Europe – it would have been vastly easier to find a vacation destination if we had still been in the UK. We were limited in going south due to hurricane season and how hot it would be, and I didn’t want to take a very long flight. We almost booked an apartment on a Florida gulf coast island, but in the end, we’re going to an all inclusive resort in Muskoka for a week. Yes, cottage country, an hour up the highway. Oh well. The best bit is that they have up to 6 hours of activities for Oliver to do a day. That’s right, my holiday now is about getting rid of him for a while. What a nice person I am.

Oliver, singing with me after eating his happiness soup and yogurt dinner, smeared on his face, along with some face painting from daycare. Very scruffy, but cute.

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So I thought it was teething. He’s had only 8 teeth for so long, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom, and now suddenly everything else in his mouth seems to be emerging at the same time. On Saturday he was fine (had photos taken at a chain studio – rip off! – played with everyone, went out for greek dinner – my mother was over). Saturday night I brushed his teeth and his gums were bleeding and he was very unhappy. So I thought when the screaming started it was due to his teeth.

Saturday night was done in 1 hour shifts, alternating between sleeping and screaming, alternating between infant ibuprofen and infant tylenol. Sunday he was inconsolable and sleeping also when not screaming. So Sunday afternoon we took him to the doctor and lo and behold it’s another ear infection. Like the fourth or fifth one in 3 months.

Thankfully last night around 7pm, he sort of returned to being a normal child for an hour (I let him stay up as he’d slept most of the day) and talked and played and got into trouble like normal. But Mark is at home with him today as I think he needs more antibiotic before returning to daycare.

I managed to take a few photos before the screaming crying child appeared:

Practising already for ‘why the bleep are you taking my photo, mum’ – similar to my own facial expression, I believe.

Thankfully there was no vodka in this cup before he drowned himself in it.

Chillin’ on his rocking chair (was his dad’s). Also no vodka in that cup either.

There’s something really wrong with me. I came online for the sole purpose of finding out who Dannielynn’s daddy was. Please help me. (Birkhead! He was right all along!!)

I’m neglecting this blog again, much like I am sure I am neglecting my son. What’s new with Oliver? Well, I have no photos of him lately other than this one taken on the computer’s camera as we’ve managed to lose our proper camera somewhere. Which is a problem really when everyone asks for photos. Other than that, he’s kept his clingyness from when he was sick, which is nice as he actually gives squeezy hugs now, but it’s a bit odd sometimes how much he asks to be picked up. He’s babbling more and more and more, has like full conversations in some unknown Chinese dialect, and more and more sounds actually sound like words (like dog, cat, dada, ee eye ee eye ooh, grapes – he’d kill you for grapes). He’s got a runny nose again, which I’m sure means he’s sick AGAIN. So many germs at that daycare. His appetite has returned full force – he impressed the hell out of Tami on Friday at lunch, conquering Mandarin Chinese buffet. I think he ate as much as I did.

Oh goody, Mark just found the camera. But Oliver’s in bed so maybe next weekend I will do a giant photo shoot.

I had a ME day today, never get those anymore. Started with guiltily dropping Oliver off at daycare (though not till 9:30), then moved on to a haircut and highlights. Got rid of nasty broken ends, have needed a haircut for months now. Then had a physical at my new doctor’s (not quite so fun), grabbed some lunch at Harvey’s and started shopping. And just kept shopping. Spent small amounts of money at many stores, thus creating a large Visa bill. Got myself a new outfit, loads of stuff for Oliver and some stuff for the house. Then picked Oliver up at 4:30 and bought some hangers and a baking sheet at Walmart while he flirted with other customers. Then came home and played with Photo Booth on the computer. And made a baked camembert with baguette for Mark and I. Yummmm. I could really get used to 4 day weekends. Alas it won’t happen again for a long time!

It’s been rather hellish around here for the last couple of weeks. 2 weeks ago, Oliver was really sick with pinkeye and a nasty cold and became clingy and completely unlike himself, while Mark got a chest infection. Last week, Mark went away on business for 4 days, Oliver’s cough got worse and worse (last Monday night, he coughed from 10:30pm to 3:30am), and I started vomiting everywhere. Even the dog vomited at one point. We’ve both had a load of time off of work, which is fine for Mark but is so not okay with me – I am only on contract and I’ve only worked there for 2 months and I’ve already had 8 days off ill and I’m not entitled to any of them. And it doesn’t really bode well for going permanent if I am so unreliable! My boss is incredibly understanding; my co workers couldn’t be more supportive. But I still feel like garbage about it.

Anyway, I am hoping that this week, this short week, will go okay and we’ll have a nice long weekend to continue to rest and get the house in order. I was desperate to go on holiday for Easter – when would I not take advantage of a 4 day weekend? We were always away at Easter when we lived in England. We almost went to Pennsylvania. We could have made other plans within Canada. But I think it’s a good idea for us to just stay at home, continue to recover from illness, and continue to set up house. And I’m going to spoil myself a bit on Easter Monday as Oliver’s daycare is open – so I’m going to get my hair done and go shopping and stuff.