Back to school - virtual school

 2021! Today it's back to school! Mama is on her second coffee!

DH also works from home so one of us always runs out first thing in the morning to grab a coffee. 

We are continuing this new year with all 4 of us home. It's been all 4 of us home since March 2020. We are so grateful to have the options that we do.  The kids really enjoy virtual learning and we have a great schedule that works for our family. 

I wrote this other post in 2020 click here. 

Some tips on what works for us. . 

1. Keep breakfast simple. Cereal and milk, Oatmeal, Fruit and yogurt, Toast with butter or straight up simple waffle. Keeping it simple allows for breakfast to be quick and less clean up for mom and dad. 

2. Sit in a bright space. Lots of lighting is important! We work in our kitchen because it’s the best lighting with all the windows. 

3. Print out each childs schedule and have it visible. Even though everyday is the same, it’s just easy for mama to glance and get reminded, or hold it up to the kids when they ask haha!

4. Use a phone timer or if you have google home we just yell out the timers as we need. Hey google put a timer for back to class at 11:30!

5. Keep the house quiet. No background noise. No TV or Radios on. School day is the school day. (No iPads or video games allowed on break times either)

6. Provide earphones if you they have them or if they can work independently. My kids have them off and on throughout the day. 

7. I make easy lunches too. I usually make lunch on their first nutrition break which is around 11am. That way their second break is playtime where they head outside or to the basement to release some energy. That's usually my time to tidy up a bit. 

8. I work when they work. I work for myself so this I know is much harder for working parents and their scheduled meetings. When DH is on his meetings I usually play referee making sure there's no noise around him haa.

9. Try not to stress it. They are kids and had to adapt soo much in 2020! Give them a break too. I have a sticker reward system and they get stars for all the great things they did. Even as simple as getting to class on time, listening to instruction, sitting through the lesson. All of this deserves praise. 

10. Close the computers at the end of each day! Our teachers give us independent work blocks to finish homework. So by 3pm they are done. We close their laptop and school is over. The evening is their time to do what they want!  (My kids are SK and grade 4, so this may look different depending their age)

Every family has their own challenges, these are some tips that works best for us as we navigated virtual learning in September 2020. The main thing is to be gentle with the process. It does not need to be perfect. It's new for everyone, our kids, parents and teachers, so let’s be kind to everyone including ourselves. 

- Tania 

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

New Kitty in town

Last year around Christmas time we got our first Bengal Cat! Petey! When we picked him up, my kids wanted his sister too! We weren't ready for 2 cats at the time. 

We kept in touch with the breeder and sure enough, Petey's sister had a litter. Our hearts just melted when we saw the pictures of Petey's nephew. The only boy in the litter. 

Meet Gravy! He is the new little addition to our family.  If you follow me on IG you already got your dose of Gravy hhaha!

Petey was not impressed at first. We slowly introduced them.  We keep them seperated most the day, and especially at night.  They can only be together supervised.  Every day they get better and learning to share the house. 

Bengal cats are very social and vocal cats! These 2 bengal cats will definitely keep us entertained.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t and @peteythebengalcat

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Part 3 - My Boys

Let’s talk and DH and Mr M

These 2 boys holding it down! 

DH working full time from home with little M by his side. Keeping M happy and fed and dressed ha! DH finding his clothes had to be the best part though.

Mr M directed daddy on how mommy does things around here. How I cook, clean, and put him to bed. These stories were the cutest to hear.

Mr M told daddy to blow the bubbles when the pasta was boiling haha and was soo excited to help daddy cook. 

They both did their part cleaning up and made sure to tell me they did haha 

Daddy made sure the Elf knew that we were away but still showed up to play with Mr M.

He even brought crafts 

He even tried his first burger with daddy haha 

They played! 


They made dance videos! 

Mr M missed us but had a blast with daddy.

While DH was in meetings Mr M knew to quietly play. He owned being a big boy! He’s just 5! I’m so proud of how grown up he handled this whole situation! 

DH worked all day then drove to drop off M at my sisters then would gather items I needed (this was fun getting him in my drawers to pick my clothes ha) 

Mr M had a blast with his cousins and even slept over one night! He wouldn’t stop talking about it!

Mr M has the sweetest soul. He was soo happy to hear that we were coming home. He reminds me to give K is medicine and makes sure to tell me if K is touching his belly button haha. He is so concerned for his brother. 

We missed this little cutie soooo much and we are soo happy to be back cuddling him!!!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

Part 2 - our experience w/Perforated Appendix

The night after the surgery K slept a lot and we were all so relieved and even thought the worst was over and by the end of the week we would be home.... 

DH came the day after Mr K's surgery. With the Covid situation and in hospitals there are many restrictions. No 2 parents can be there at the same time for more than an hour and no siblings were allowed to visit. This made it soo hard, especially for me because I couldn't leave his side even going to the bathroom I would rush no more than 1 min away. I had no way of getting any food for myself either. When DH came that night he brought me lots of snacks my clothes and My Sister packed me a great care package.  A friend of mine even  had her doctor cousin that works on another floor deliver me a coffee one morning !!! Truly soo blessed. 

Gotta throw  in a Tim’s coffee pic

Mr K was showing progress the next day by taking some walks down the hall... even though still in pain he would get out of bed and push himself.

He got some gifts to open and was feeling better and recovering even called some of his friends and cousins. 

Sick kids even had a virtual call with some one the maple leafs. The hospital really goes above and beyond to make kids feel better. One of our doctors told K to request a Xbox system ha! But K was in no mood to play. 

The nurses kept pushing us to walk a lot and log the amount  of walks and for how long. This helps get everything back to normal after surgery. 

K had no food in his system because he was vomiting and didn't have a bowel movement yet. Basically had no food since the night before we even got to the hospital. 

One night after our walk, K looked soo pale, I knew something was wrong. I called my husband and told him K was sleeping at around 7pm and looked sicker. 

That night his fever spiked.  

His pain increased, his heart went into Tachycardia (rapid heart beat) He was screaming in pain and vomiting stomach acid. The Nurses were running in and out trying to calm him down. Giving him more fluids, more pain killers. K was soo sick that night, scariest night of my life.  I texted my husband at 2am crying and I felt like every minute was hours long waiting for him to calm down.. 

The doctor came in around 2 am and asked to put a tube down K's nose to his stomach to help with his continuous vomiting of stomach acid. They also said it could be the reason he hasn't has a bowel movement and they suspect some complications. 

K was in such trauma at this point, EVERYTHING INSIDE ME SCREAMED NO WAY! I made the decision based on my own gut and said NO. Not that night at least.  I asked to wait until the morning and to wait and see how the day goes and that I would really need to prepare him mentally for that... 

I Prayed soo hard for him to turn the corner. 

This pic was snapped when I was about to go on my Instagram and give an update that morning. 

But  I couldn't even say a word without bursting into tears. 

I prayed so hard to God and our guardian angels that night. 

Every night I played white noise for him, The sound of the rain,  to help soothe him. We did this at home most nights at bedtime so it comforted him. 

The next morning K had his first bowel movement at 7am and THAT was needed for the Doctors to put a pause on the tube down  his nose.  I prepped K that morning that, that could be a possibility.  He was not happy about it. Thankfully he didn’t need to have that done. 

The doctors came in and decided to give him stronger antibiotics.  They were concerned about some complications and sent him for another ultrasound and since it was over 5 days of not eating and barely drinking they decided to put him on the Nutrition IV.  

This would give him some energy but also was hard on his veins.  They had to change his IV to 3 different veins in  the coming days. 

All of our nurses were sooo amazing! They got to know K and his low patience when asking him the same questions over and over ha! We laughed sometimes when he rolled his eyes at us asking him over and over how he was feeling. 

With the stronger antibiotics and stopping the strong pain killers, his vomiting subsided. After a full day of no vomitting. We were able to try eating. 

K's choice for foods was peas and carrots and mashed potatoes.  Our goal was to keep food down! Go to the bathroom regularly and get strength by going for walks!

K slept a lot every night once the meds kicked in. Only waking to use the bathroom.  I finally moved from sleeping with one eye open on a chair to the cot bed in the room getting in a few hours at a time. 

I had to measure and log everything, from food in to food out. Ha Grade 4 fractions came in handy, although I did text my friends for help haha. 

Him feeling better gave me quick windows to run and grab a coffee and a gift card to the cafe that delivers to the floor. Honestly it’s so hard for parents when you can’t leave your child’s side. Not that I wanted food but obviously needed to keep myself healthy and on my own feet! Even finally taking a shower there as well. 

We created a group chat with the 4 of us and this was the best. Everyday DH and M would call and we would have our daily laughs. 

Mr M was having fun with his cousins too when DH came down to the hospital and even had his first sleep over! I was so relieved that he was having fun. He is such a big boy!

Both my boys grew up soo much from this experience.  

When the ultrasound results came back they told us that Another abscess was formed and it needed to be drained. 

8 days after the first surgery. K had to go in for this second procedure to drain the abscess.  :(  this was done by injected a syringe to drain it. 

That morning we were both up early.  K was sooo brave and ready for this to be over.  He asked questions, took some deep breathes and was ready. The amazing nurses talked him through it all., They had to sedate him and the procedure was just an hour and he was out and feeling great. Whew!!!! The abscess was small and they were confident that he was healing and will only feel better from then on. 

That day he ate soo much. The doctor said as long as we had a full day of checking off our goals then by the weekend we could go home!!!

Bring on the mashed potatoes!!!!! haha. 

On the 10th night, the doctors came in and saw how well K was eating and his strength walking. They took him off the nutrition IV and started him on oral antibiotics. They said as long as he keeps meds down that Friday, day 11 we could go home!!! K and I were sooo excited!!!!

K even had happy tears! We cried that night on our last walk in the halls.  We had soo many ups and downs. I was soo emotional. He was soo strong and went through soo much! 

Friday morning! We were both up early! One doctor walked in at 6:30am and saw us packed and ready to leave. Ha! I asked all my questions and he looked over the last few days and said we were good to go! 

We had to get his antibiotics so I left K on FaceTime with DH and ran to the shoppers downstairs to fill the prescription. I also dropped off our bags to the my car in the parking lot. Ran upstairs to get K and we slowly walked out of the hospital and drove home. It was soooo sunny outside. We opened the windows for fresh air and it was the best feeling ! We had happy tears driving home. Thanking God for every single thing! 

We can’t thank Sick Kids Toronto enough , Dr Langer and his staff and all the nurses at Sick kids  for their utmost attention and best care. I’m truly grateful. They took such good care of us.

When we got home DH had welcome home balloons and flowers for us.

Family came by with welcome home posters and delivered dinner to our door. 

We had phone calls and messages and soo much love sent our way.  

I missed this cutie sooo much!!! 

Sometimes life throws you some curve balls when you least expect it. Faith and Love got us through. Bringing our family even closer than ever before. Thank you for all your support through this difficult time. We are home and K is recovering perfectly. 


Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

More links here linktr.ee/MamaT

Part 1- Perforated Appendix- WHAT!

Hi! 

If you’re new around here I’ll give you a little breakdown. Firstly, I write like a talk, so if you know me, you’ll definitely hear my voice in your head ha! Also, so you follow along, DH- means dear husband, K or Mr K is my 9 year old and M or Mr M is my 5 year old. 

Welcome to today’s story time, it’ll have to be broken up into 2 blog posts because it’s 2 weeks of info here! 

Ok, so you know when you feel a pain in your lower right pelvic area and you immediately think it’s your appendix and google what the symptoms would be, like sharp pain, fever, vomitting and in most cases it’s just gas or something. Well, for one, google doesn’t have all the answers. Heck neither did our doctor. We were all shocked. 

The last week of November my older son K complained about his tummy hurting. It was an on and off pain and we thought maybe it was gas pains or anxiousness since there were no other symptoms. It also was sporadic like one day pain, one day no pain. A few days later on a Sunday we went to the park. I noticed he looked pale but he was playing like normal with no complaint. I even told my sister, that maybe he’s coming down with something. We both thought maybe he looked tired from late nights?

The next day, Monday, he woke up and had pain urinating. I got on the phone and we had a virtual doctors appointment. We told our doc that  he’s had on and off tummy pain and just recently looked pale with loss of appetite the last few days and also pain that morning in the bathroom. Our doctor told us to head over to the office and see another doctor in person and get an ultrasound. 

This pic was taken on our way to the doctor not thinking much of it other than maybe a regular virus or something. Ugh! 

That afternoon we saw another doctor in our pediatric doctors office. She tested his urine for a bladder infection. Felt where his pain was, made him jump(one of the appendix tests I guess) . He looked sick but nothing stood out to her. She said keep an eye out for fever etc but he was fine.  I asked her for the ultrasound requisition and I got on the phone and booked the ultrasound for the earliest they had which was that Wednesday. 

That night, in the middle of the night K woke up screaming in pain. I was worried and was ready to take him to the ER but he fell back asleep and said it went away. 

Tuesday morning he crouched in pain. I called the ultrasound clinic near our home and begged them to take us in at 9am... they did. The technician kept asking questions like how long he had the pain, if the doctor  requested blood work and why they took soo long to send him for an ultrasound. So at this point I was panicking. I asked him if I should go to the ER, he said he couldn’t tell me, but there is something there and to call my doctor ASAP and he will send the report ASAP. 

I just knew deep down that this was way more serious than I ever expected. K looked sick. He was pale and weak and could barely walk at this point. Like how could I have not seen this coming. I felt sick to my stomach..but mama bear powers kicked in. 

I called my husband and told him I was driving straight to Sick Kids Toronto. We live about an hour or so from this hospital. On my way down I kept trying to get in contact with our doctor with no luck. Right about the time I was exiting the highway to get to sick kids, I got through. They told me to get to the ER ASAP that his appendix already ruptured. I told them I was way ahead of them and getting there right then! 

Our guardian Angels got me a parking spot right beside the elevators, thankfully there was a wheelchair right at the entrance too because K could barely walk. I sat him down and wheeled him in. 

Thankfully it wasn’t busy. They took us in immediately and I showed them the report the doctor had emailed me just then stating the perforated appendix and abscess that had already formed.

They had to take him in for their own ultrasound and at this point they weren’t sure if operating was a good idea because of how the infection spread in the abdomen.  Sick Kids has a team of doctors. We spent a few hours in the ER talking to multiple doctors as they decided what the best option would be. They started him with antibiotics as we waited. K was soo sick and soo scared, getting the IV AND covid test on a scared sick child was the worst!!!! My heart was breaking in a million pieces! Trying to calm my son down while keeping my own emotions at bay. 

They then wheeled us to a room and we spoke to all the doctors again. Their first option was to try and clear most the infection with antibiotics and then come back to take out his appendix (not sure how that would have worked out) but they explained that if it didn’t rupture it would have been an easy surgery of removing the appendix and basically in and out no complications. This wasn’t the case. Finally Wednesday they decided to operate.

 

K couldn’t have anything to eat because the surgery was the next day, I couldn’t leave his side, I was soo worried. I had 1 water bottle in my purse that we shared and I had a granola bar in my purse to hold me over. That night I sat in a chair all night and didn’t sleep. I kept checking him to make sure he was ok. I prayed soo hard over him, we were all soo worried. 

M was home with DH, DH kept M busy so he wouldn’t worry. He was missing us so much. Sending us pictures of the family he drew. 

M directed DH on how to make his favorite pasta too! 




(The pic above was when I was in the waiting room, when I thought after surgery it would all be over....)

Finally Wednesday surgery day. It was so hard seeing my son so scared and in pain. He couldn’t understand it. He was worried himself and didn’t think he was going to be ok. He was soo brave as they wheeled him in. We told him that he will wake up and not even know anything happened. He was wheeled in around 2pm and I ran to get something to eat. I was shakey and nervous and overcome with worry. I couldn’t think. I just ordered a grilled cheese and tea from Starbucks.  Texting family and friends helped me through. All the prayers and messages kept me occupied while I waited. The room was full of moms waiting. All of us in tears worried sick about our kids. I met another mom waiting 10 hours for her son in surgery. We all sat there giving each other sympathetic gestures, all of us praying. K’s surgery took longer than expected which worried me more. I paced the room as it got empty and I was one of the last ones in the room. The tv that had the names of the kids in surgery even turned off and the secretaries left for the day. 

Finally the doctor came out, he told me his appendix was so badly perforated it took longer to clear  but they cleared out the infection and took out his appendix. They told me we had a tough kid considering how long he went with his pain. 

They explained why the pain was off and on, that by the appendix rupturing it relieves the pain/pressure but leaks the toxins into the abdomen. Yikes! I was soo confused. The doctor said they got him on antibiotics and operated just in time. A huge sigh of relief hearing the doctor feel confident about the surgery.

His surgery was around 2pm and I finally got to see him around 7pm. I was soo foggy too that when the nurse asked me a question about K’s puffers, “when was the last time he had his puffer”  I thought she said hot peppers. We all had a good chuckle. 

After surgery K slept and just woke a few times to use the bathroom.  I was soo relieved and thought after surgery we would be in the clear. I had no idea what the next few days and 9 more days in the hospital was to come. 

We are so grateful for all the prayers and messages that helped us through this. God and our guardian Angels. 

I’ll continue in part 2 tomorrow! This was pretty long! If you read till now thanks for reading! 

Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t 

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