No Happy Happy Joy Joy

Anyone watch Ren and Stimpy in the olden days?

Anyone remember the episode when all Ren's teeth fall out, leaving his nerve endings exposed and waving in the air? That's gotta hurt. 

And Stimpy tells Ren that in every tooth, there is a tooth beaver, who bites on your nerve endings, causing the pain of a toothache.

That image has been stuck in my head for the past 5 days. 

I got a temporary crown done at the dentist last Tuesday. It takes 2 weeks to make the permanent crown, then I get it put in. Man, if anyone wants to rob me, take my teeth, as they collectively cost more than anything I own. 

Part of the temp came off the next day. 2 days later, my tooth was soooooooooo sensitive, that I felt like the tooth beaver was paying me a visit (hence my Ren and Stimpy nostalgia, although there is no "Happy Happy Joy Joy" this time). It hurt so bad that I couldn't sleep until 4am (then up for good at 730 am, of course). Although my day was already over-booked, I knew something HAD to be done, so I called my dentist's emergency line first thing in the morning (since the office isn't open on Saturdays for some reason). She is also a personal acquaintance, who thankfully came in on her day off to try and fix it. 

It seemed to work at the time, so I got ready for a baby shower I was attending. I was almost out the door when Colin comes in from the garage, quite calmly says, "Oh shoot", and goes into the kitchen. I look into the kitchen and there is blood all over the sink. He almost cut his finger off with a chainsaw. 

Hmm. Another change of plans. So I take him to the doctor to get stitches. They wouldn't stitch it because of the location of the gash, but it is dressed up and ready to be taken back out to the garage to continue where he left off. Playing with a chainsaw.

Luckily I was still able to attend the baby shower, even though I was very late. By the time I left, my tooth was hurting so badly that I couldn't talk, eat or drink anything for most of the day. It took over an hour to force a plate of cold spaghetti down that night...one noodle at a time. 

I had another near-sleepless night, as I wake up every 3 hours to take another T3, and wait an hour for it to kick in (sounds like a newborn. Wake up every 3 hours and feed for an hour). Today has been another painful day. My cheek is even red and swollen. I have new-found respect for my poor little boy who is going through this almost daily. 

Tomorrow I am going to the dentist and camping out there until I can get it fixed.

Wow, what a dry post. At least complaining to you gave me something to do while I'm waiting for the T3 to kick in. 

Cool Dude

Nate spent all day outside with his shades on, and didn't try to take them off even once. He must have known how cool he looked!

Yo yo, whazzup?

Belcarra Adventure

Today we took Nathan to Belcarra Park.

He LOVES being outside! We were looking at a seagull a few feet away. It started to caw (or whatever seagulls do) and Nathan laughed at it! Then it slipped off its perch and opened its wings to balance, and Nathan laughed again! It was hilarious!

Then we found a group of Canada geese and chased them. One honked very loud and flapped its wings, and again, Nathan broke out into hysterics! SOOO CUTE!!

We went for a little hike, and we stopped to give Nate a bottle beside the ocean. He was quite distracted by everything new there was to see.

What a fun adventure!

Nathan's Haiku

Yesterday was such a rough day. I wrote this post yesterday but had such a bad day, I didn't feel like publishing it. Parenting is not all happy times! The little bundle doesn't ALWAYS bring you joy! But at the end of the day you somehow want to sneak into their room to see them sleeping, and are rejuvenated the next day to do it all again.

So, here was yesterday's post. 

********

Nathan has been composing a Haiku poem all day. I'd like to share with you the final outcome.

Waahh wahh waaah wahhh wwahh

Waaaaah wwahhh wah wah wahhh waaah wahhhhh

Waahh waaah wahh wwahh wwaaahhhhh 

I'll translate for those who don't speak "Nathan":

My teeth hurt real bad

Won't eat, can't poop and won't sleep

I just want to cry

Nathan is a poser. I got out the camera to take a photo of him being fussy and as soon as I aimed the camera at his face, he did this:

Silly little man. Exactly 36 seconds after this photo, he did show his true colours:

SCARY! Good thing all days aren't like this! 

*******

Ok, he's happy as a clown today so on to happier things! He's six months old now! Here are some recent pics:

Silly monkey!

Looks mischievous!

He's eating real food, and likes EVERYTHING he tries. So much, that he decided to wean himself. YAAY! No complaints here.

He's also learned how to play cards:

He's usually so much fun now, as he's really able to interact with us and play with his toys. He's developing a personality. It makes the bad days worth it!

Presentation Challenge

Colin reminded me last night that I hadn't blogged about our latest timeshare presentation!

It was 3 months ago, and Nathan was only 3 months old. I was upset at Colin for booking it because we couldn't take Nathan, and he was not eating bottles yet. I could only be away from him for up to 3 hours, and we'd probably be gone for 3 hours.

But the free Vegas trip was calling Colin's name, so off we went.

I need to explain a little about myself before going on. My friends know that I am a talker. I'm generally confident in conversations. But with strangers, this is different. I am very uncomfortable talking to people I don't know, so I don't usually do it. Colin takes the reins on that one.

At the last presentation, Colin was the only one talking. The salesperson was talking to him the entire time. THIS time, I said in the car on the way to Burnaby that I wanted to do the talking. 

We got there early, and so we sat in the car for a few minutes. We saw this sketchy looking guy just walking around the parking lot, sort of looking at all the cars. So when it was time to go in, we told the security guard at the building and went in to start our adventure.

It was laid out like the other presentation we went to. There are lots of small tables...perfect for a couple and a salesperson... all in the same room. We were ushered to one of these tables by our saleswoman after I grabbed a free coffee. Lets call her Helga.

Colin opens up the conversation by saying something like "We're here for the free trip to Vegas".

Not 2 minutes into the 90 minute presentation, a salesman (lets call him Larry) walked across the room clinking champagne glasses VERY LOUDLY, and holding a bottle of champagne. This it what they do to "celebrate" a timeshare purchase. It's like, "Congratulations on giving us $12,500! Here's a glass of $9 champagne". I think he did this so all the potential suckers in the room would think "Ooh, I want some! Let's buy a timeshare so we can sip champagne too". 

When the glasses were clinking, all eyes in the room were fixed on Larry. All except mine. I was looking at Helga, who WINKED at Larry, lifted one eyebrow and nodded with a smirk on her face! What?!? 

"OK game on", I thought. "I am not a sucker and by the end of this presentation you are going to KNOW I am not a sucker".

So here's a screenplay version of the presentation from that point on:

***

Helga: "So, what do you love to do on vacations?"

Nancy: "We LOVE to camp! We even went camping when I was 8 months pregnant!"

Helga: "Oh. well where do you like to go?"

Nancy: "We love to explore BC. We live in such a beautiful place!"

Helga: "I see. Do you ever do anything other than camping?"

Nancy: "Yes. We have quite a few friends with cabins that we go on vacations to."

Helga: "Well...have you EVER been to a resort before?"

Nancy: "Yes, we went to a wilderness resort in the BC Cariboo where we rode ATV's and horses. We also went to Mexico for our honeymoon."

(Helga's ears perk up)

Helga: "OH! Would you go there again?"

Nancy: "I guess so. But not until our baby is old enough to enjoy it"

(Helga's getting frustrated)

Helga: "Do you have a dream vacation?"

Colin: "I'd go to Vegas if it were free"

Nancy: "I want to take Nathan on a cross Canada trip sometime"

(Helga realizes she's getting NOWHERE and decides to take a different approach)

Helga: "Well lets look at the numbers"

(Helga shows us the ridiculous up front and month to month payments)

Nancy: "There's NO WAY we can afford that!! I'm on maternity leave!!"

(Helga has steam coming out her ears and she's all red)

Helga: "Please excuse me, I need a glass of water"

(Exit Helga)

(Colin and Nancy try not to laugh)

(Enter Helga)

Helga: "Well, I can see I'm getting nowhere, and you are not going to buy this timeshare. I know that you're only 15 minutes into the presentation, but there's a room full of prospective buyers, and I am on commission, so I'll give you your free Vegas trip and you can be on your way."

***

So she was true to her word. Vegas voucher in hand, we left 15 minutes after we arrived! 

From this story branches another story.

When we were at the presentation, we were asked to put friends names and numbers down on a paper for referrals to the program. I thought all my friends & family would shoot me if I put their names down, but Colin put down a name of a friend (lets call him Fred) who likes to talk to telemarketers. 

So one day a few weeks later, Fred got a call from WorldMark.

WM: "Hi, you were referred by "C Rowtay".

Fred: "What? Who?"

WM: "C Rowtay"

Fred: "C Rowtay? oh.....C ROTH???"

WM: "Yes!"

They invited Fred down for a presentation. But Fred doesn't have a spouse. So he was told he wasn't allowed to come. He covered the phone with his hand and asked his friend Bob if he wanted to go to Vegas. Bob says sure. So Fred says to WM "Can I bring my partner?"

WM: "Sure, what is her name?"

Fred: "HIS name is Bob!"

So Fred and Bob went to the presentation and after being mocked, got their free trip to Vegas.

If anyone wants me to give their name at these presentations, let me know. Seriously people... a trip to Vegas for 15 minutes of your time?? Sounds good to me.