A Surgery, A Merry Christmas in Calgary, and A Happy New Year... WHEW!

Yowsers... apparently I have some updating to do!

December 19th, 2013: Leah has a Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy
We put this surgery off for as long as possible (Ethan had this done when he was 3 and the passage of time has done little to fade the memory of how brutal the recovery was).  Long story short, Leah hasn't slept through the night since she was born.  She's had regular night terrors and nightmares, and has been unable to settle herself without someone going in to her for quite some time.  It finally got to the point where we had to admit her sleep issues weren't going to resolve themselves and we needed help (believe me when I say we first tried every suggestion every book, friend and website suggested).  Our family doctor referred us to the ENT who had performed Ethan's surgery 6 years ago.  Dr. Mia still remembered Ethan as having "the largest adenoids in a 3 year old he'd ever seen" and was very quick to recommend the same surgery for Leah based on symptoms and family history alone.  It wasn't an easy decision to make and we debated pulling her from the wait list many times.  When we were called with her surgery date, we finally decided to go ahead with it.  The big day came and Leah was very brave.  They let me put on scrubs and accompany her into the operating room where I was allowed to hold her hand until she was put under.  A short 45 minutes later, Dr. Mia was back to tell us that all had gone well and her adenoids had indeed been "larger than expected".  Once the anesthetic started to wear off, they came to get us and invited us both into recovery to be with her when she woke up.  Leah made her Dad so proud when she woke up mad as a hornet and proved she was not one to obediently take orders that she disagrees with.  She was very upset about the IV in her hand and was yelling for someone to take it out.  The nurse and I calmly explained that she needed to drink some water before it could be removed.  Our sneaky stinker agreed in the midst of her fit that she would drink, and then waited until the nurse and I were distracted as we got her set up with a cup of water, in order to rip the IV right out of her arm herself.  There was blood everywhere and a flurry of activity while nurses ran to clean her (and me) up.  And in the middle of it all was a calm Miss Leah, with no intent whatsoever of having a drink, snuggled into her Mamma's arms with the slightest hint of a smile on her face.  A proud Pappa looked on.  Some pictures from the hospital:

A big thumbs up for cousin Patrick to show how brave she was as she was waiting to go into surgery.

Finally calm now that the IV is out!  The picture 1 minute earlier would have been drastically different!

Still in the recovery room.  Little did I know at the time, this was how she would sleep best during her entire 2 week recovery!  Can't say I minded that much though...

Agreeing to eat some ice cream in order to be allowed to go home, but clearly not impressed with the whole situation!

All in all the recovery has gone well.  It was long, and some days were much harder than others, but we knew what to expect this time and that made it a little easier.  I'm not shouting from the rooftops just yet, but we've had 2 nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep (for the first time in as long as we can remember) and that is giving us hope that we made the right decision in the end.

December 23 - 30: A Very Merry Christmas in Calgary
Our plan before we knew Leah's surgery date was to head to Calgary for Christmas.  Once we were a couple of days into the recovery and knew everything was aok, we decided to stick with our original plan.  We left shortly after lunch on December 23rd with the Beast loaded to capacity with ski equipment, presents and everything we could think of that Leah would need, including a puke bucket.  Little did we know how important the latter would be a mere 100 kms down the road!!  We were just approaching Rosetown when Ethan politely asked me to pass him the bucket.  With no warning whatsoever, the kid tossed his cookies.  We pulled over and assessed the situation.  He said he felt better so we chalked it up to motion sickness and kept on trucking.  By Kindersley, we knew it wasn't motion sickness.  At that point we were 200 kms into our trip and knew that if we made the decision to turn around, there was very little chance we'd attempt the trip again the next day.  We knew there was a very quick bug going around the school that only seemed to affect kids (or so we hoped!) and let Ethan make the final decision.  He was adamant we keep going, and whether it was mind over matter or indeed a quick bug, was back to his old self for the rest of the trip.  Josh did succumb to something similar the night of the 25th, but it was equally short-lived.  Fortunately no one else caught it.

We had a fantastic stay in Calgary.  Arlene and Aldo generously gave us their room to make it easier with Leah's recovery.  Mike, Shelley, Benjamin and Alex were also in town so it was fun to have the whole family together.  The favourite activity by far was the numerous trips to the awesome tobogganing hill Zia knew about.  We even bundled Leah up one day and gave her some rides both down and up the hill. 

Alex, Zia, Leah and Josh

Nonno and Benjamin

A Pete, Benjamin and Alex pile ready to tackle the hill!

 The Longo Christmas Eve fondue tradition is one we all look forward to every year and this year definitely did not disappoint!  Nonnie and Nonno outdid themselves with an awesome feast, which we washed down with a "few" bottles of Nonno's wine!

Nonnie with her grandkids on Christmas Eve.

The feast underway!

Josh was in heaven with Zia and Uncle Mike serving him all night.

Christmas morning is always a blast when there's a house full of kids.  It was just our family along with Arlene, Aldo and Sue Christmas morning, and then Mike, Shelley, Benjamin and Alex joined us for round two after lunch.

Ethan checking out the loot and Josh discovering his ultra stocking!

Josh trying on his new Scottish hat from Zia.

Ethan impressed with his new Habs shirt!

Hamish having a guess at what his present is before he unwraps it.

A very excited Leah discovering her very own treasure box!

Nonnie and Nonno getting their first glimpse of Pirate Josh's school picture.

A selfie with Nessie and Hamish.

Boxing Day brought some gorgeous +10 degree temperatures.  Pete and Ethan decided to try out Ethan's new ski pass and went to check out Nakiska Mountain.  They had so much fun that Josh and I joined them for a return visit on December 28th. 

Pete, Ethan and Josh on December 28th (it was colder and overcast but we still had an awesome day).

Josh and me

Ethan and me (I have to really push it to keep up with this speed demon now!)

December 27th was Sue's birthday and we all met up for some morning bowling birthday fun.

Leah with the birthday girl

Our evening entertainment each night was commandeered by Ethan who invented some "Christmas games".  They involved a number of different seek and find games with ever-changing rules and teammates.  On Sue's birthday, he took it to a whole new level and had each team perform an act before we were allowed to begin our respective quests.  Sue and Josh did an X-men skit.  Pete, Leah and I did some Gangnam Style.  Aldo and Arlene knocked our socks off.  Enough said.  Watch this video and enjoy:



If that doesn't sum up our Christmas in Calgary, I don't know what does! 

Happy New Year!
We came home on December 30th.  The whole way home the kids kept saying that maybe, JUST MAYBE, James Princess Bob had left some presents under our tree before he flew back to the North Pole.  We kept telling them that they shouldn't get their hopes up because Santa had obviously delivered all the presents to Calgary.  Little did we know that Santa's got nothing on those Malins!!  Sure enough there were presents for each of us under the tree, breakfast for us the next morning and snacks to get us through the rest of the day.  Is it any wonder we're having so much trouble figuring out if we should move or not??

SEE??!  We told you there might be presents!!!

Needless to say, New Years Eve was spent with the Malins at their place.  The Toshs also joined us and we had a great night ringing in the new year with great friends.  Unfortunately the spinach dip I had purchased at Sobey's a couple of hours earlier wasn't in as festive a mood. Pete, Melissa and I (the only ones who'd eaten any) are now on day 4 of food poisoning hell but are finally starting to feel normal again.  On the bright side, the 3 of us are going to look smashing on the beaches of Hawaii next week thanks to our New Years "cleanse".  Oh yes, a kidless Hawaiian adventure coming at ya... stay tuned!!