I’m at home sick today, though not actually sick, just tired. Really tired. Being up all the time with Oliver sick, and not seeming to have any spare time to just rest left me unable to make it out of bed this morning. He woke me up at 3, and I couldn’t get back to sleep, despite being so tired. I felt like death this morning, but after more sleep, a shower and some sunshine, I am feeling better. But it’s times like this I wish we had stayed in the UK, where my sick leave policy was so generous – I’m technically not even allowed to be off today, I’m just lucky I have a very understanding boss who for some reason hasn’t fired me yet.

So today I have discovered that the dog is being tortured all day. She’s inside while we’re at work, but she can clearly see everything outside – including the antics of a grey squirrel and 2 Canada geese. She just wants to go out all the time. So I decided to accompany her once the sun came out and the storm had passed by (thunder this morning), and took some house photos. I’ve only done the kitchen for inside shots because frankly the rest of the place is just an eyesore. I should be unpacking. Or should I be watching General Hospital?

Hurrah! Found the camera lead. From Jaden’s first birthday party last Saturday:

I’ve been vomited on 3 times this week, which is never pleasant. (By Oliver, by the way – not by some random strangers or something!) But I couldn’t help thinking on the way home today, it’s like we’re finally waking up from some deep dark cold sleep.

Double digit temperatures. Sun shining. Clear blue sky. Windows down. Sun roof open. Sunglasses on. Franz Ferdinand and new Kaiser Cheifs blaring. I didn’t even mind all the extra bonus Friday evening traffic.

Oliver is sick. Sick like he’s never been. And I deserve to be shot, because I took him and his germs to Jaden’s first birthday party on Saturday. I actually didn’t even realise how sick he was until we got to the party.

On Friday, he had a runny nose that was turning green, so we took him to the doctor’s in the evening for a quick check up (bad throat) and antibiotics. So I assumed this was just a cold that was going to clear up. He didn’t eat much dinner but I wasn’t worried.

On Saturday, he slept the whole car journey down to the party, and woke with up some nice eye discharge. Not only did he have his runny nose (but no longer green), he also was not acting at all like himself. Normally a gathering of that many adults and children would have him squealing with glee. He was mopey and wouldn’t really eat or drink much.

Sunday I realised we probably had conjunctivitis on our hands and wasn’t I a good person who had just exposed how many kids to pink eye? Today Mark is at home, also sick, and they are going back to the doctor for more antibiotics as there is just green snot coming from almost every orifice of that child.

And it’s like he’s been body snatched. He’s clingey. He reaches out for hugs and to be picked up. He’s lost his appetite. Who is this child?! He’s sleep like twice as much as normal – but at least he’s able to sleep through all that snot.

I’m a little worried about new daycare. First of all, we booked him in there out of complete desperation as we could literally find nothing else with space available anywhere near our new house or commute. I felt okay about it when we visited, but it’s really really not as good as the home daycare he was just in. He comes home vaguely smelly, a bit crusty with food, and yesterday had scratches on his own (could have been self- or other-inflicted) and today had a mark on his mouth that I thought was a scrape but turned out to be food or something.

He is happy, however. And they keep going on about how great he is, and what a good day he’s had. I’m not entirely sold though. I think we need to go on a waiting list somewhere else, and also do another scan of any possibly home daycare (NONE in this area last I checked).

Other than that, he’s rediscovered the dog and the cat to his great joy. Because they stayed in the basement at my parents’ house, he didn’t really see them that much, maybe once a day. Now it’s something almost like ‘doggy’ and giggles whenever Piper is around, and lots of chasing of the cat.

And because we’re unpacking, he’s also rediscovering loads of toys he hasn’t seen in ages. Turns out that what was considered baby toys are a lot more fun when you are older. He actually picked up a toy phone tonight, put it to his ear, and said something like ‘hello’!!

But he’s also having to spend a lot of time in his travel cot/play pen. AKA the cage. Unpacking and new house = danger all around. We’ve got to get more baby gates, along with 50 million other items, and then one day he’ll have a playroom.

It’s true. You turn it on and it works right out of the box. No installation issues, immediately connected to the internet. And it’s quite attractive. Today, March 14th 2007, I have become a Mac user. I literally just sat down so I have lots of exploring to do, and a whole new operating system to get used to (but without any time to do it in the near future), but I am looking forward to getting to know our Mac.

Maybe when we manage to find the camera lead, I can post some photos on here too. Might be next year though, the way unpacking is going.

Ignoring the fact that I almost didn’t find any socks to wear today, and that because we changed our clocks and sprung ahead this weekend I had to get up and get ready in the dark, life is pretty sweet. A much shorter commute, so far nothing broken in the move, and a house that is beginning to get organized. I think we are going to be living with a million cardboard boxes for a while though.

Oliver is going to visit his daycare today with Mark, because I thought dropping him off cold turkey at a strange place for 9 hours was kind of mean, so he’ll start there like normal tomorrow. And they have to visit a public health lab to get our well water tested today as the test done during house buying negotiating was sort of inconclusive (we haven’t been drinking the water just in case).

My parents got us a massive gorgeous plant, and our (very nice) realtor came over bearing a gift certificate for a local gastropub and a one year subscription to Canadian House and Home! We are feeling spoiled.

I am sooooo tired though. I wish I could have taken time off of work to sort the house out. It’s going to take ages with us both working, and with Oliver running around.

I’ve become a train sleeper. I could never sleep on public transportation before, but I’m just too exhausted not to in recent weeks. I hate it though. I hate that my head falls quickly into my chest and wakes me up, that I think that I’ve made funny noises in front of other passengers when having odd little dreams, and I hate the feeling of panic worried that I’ve missed my station. But luckily I never have.

And the consolation for train sleeping (like on the way home today) and having to get up at 5:30 this morning – it’s only for 3 more days! Wahoo!!!!!!!!!!

Going to be a bit of a stressful weekend trying to get everything and everyone over there, but I am really looking forward to it. It’s going to be really exciting to be reunited with all our stuff from the UK, in storage for 4 months, and all my stuff that I left in Canada when I moved there, in storage in my parents’ basement and garage for 4.5 years.

I just discovered I have crusty food in my hair. Thanks Oliver. I have to go clean up now.

Take one giant crappy storm, and add one major CN derailment on my line home, and you get 3.5 hours of commuting home last night. Subtract the derailment, and just drive through the heavy snow, and Mark took over 5 hours to get home last night.

We were just lucky that the wedding shower my mum was going to attend after work was cancelled and she was able to pick Oliver up from daycare or he might as well have spent the night there.

The derailment looked really bad closeup last night, but this morning all the cars were off the track. It looks like they are now working to replace all the damaged track, there didn’t end up being a toxic spill, and no one was hurt apparently.

I think I am going to take some work home and go home early tonight; it’s just a fluke that I got here almost on time this morning as I ended up taking the 6:12 train to Union Station as it left Oshawa at 6:42 and I was there at that time to take the 6:52.

It was a free GO train ride though as the whole section of Oshawa where the train station is has no power, I’m assuming due to the freezing rain this morning, so I couldn’t cancel my ticket in the machine. The drive to the station was treacherous, but I felt had to come in. It’s a mess out there, sloppy and slippery. Can I move back to England now?