This morning was the IATSE (theatrical stage hands union) Christmas party. They do a party every year that is just for the kids of the members and the grandkids of the members. It's the rockingest kids Christmas party in town. Even better, it starts at 9 am on a Sunday, a time when no stage hands are working, and is done before the matinee call. Santa was there, and Adara tickled his nose with her cows tail (at her dad's suggestion, as Santa was vaguely familiar).
Here's Adara in front of the massive blow up train. The classic moment of the party was when all of the IATSE parents were desperately trying to hold up the train by sheer strength as it collapsed with kids in it. A kid had opened the end and let all of the air out, resulting in the collapse. Clearly, it was the non IATSE half of the families there that were trying to hold it up. Of course, I'd do the same thing in that situation "ARgh! I shall hold this train up and protect my child by sheer will, argh!"


Here's the overall scene of the IATSE breakfast at nine am. A three piece band, massive blow up train, puppeteer/stilt walker/balloon animal maker, face painting, slides, and a lotta theatrical lighting.


Adara and her dada.

A Few of my Favourite Things

I've had a couple of pretty hard weeks. On weeks like these, it soothes me to take a moment and think about some of my favourite people. Thanks to all of the family and friends for your help this last few weeks; we couldn't do it without you.

Sick It Up!

So, for those who have been missing my scintillating facebook updates, we're all sick.
On Monday, Adara got sent home from daycare with a fever. Len took her to the hospital and she was diagnosed with H1N1. Adara has already had one half of the flu shot for this, but isn't eligible for the 2nd half for another half week. So, I'm doing my biggest fundraiser of the year (raised $40,000 bucks in one night), while Len is home with Adara with H1N1.
Tuesday: We all stay home as Len and I have sore throats and don't want to infect others if we have it. We try to give Adara the tamiflu that she was supposed to have but she throws it up. She's pretty seriously sick with the highest fever we've ever seen. We just hang out, take care of her and watch tv.

Wednesday: Len and I wake up with ridiculously, excrutiatingly painful sore throats and some sniffles. No fever. Adara wakes up with s small fever, but eats. We all stay home again as it's still not clear what the heck is going on. Adara is stupid cranky and mean, but little fever, a bit of sore tummy and it seems like the half dose of anti-virus has done it's job. We stop the tamiflu as it seems to be the only thing making her worse.

Thursday: I hardly sleep all night my throat is so sore and I don't speak unless I have to all day. Adara has no fever but is really tired, Len clearly has a nasty assed cold. I go to the hospital and am diagnosed with..... Strep Throat. What?! So, Len, Adara and I have been managing to be in the same house with H1N1, strep throat and a cold and not passing it to each other. Wicked weird! They give me antibiotics, but I have to grab some codeine because the pain is too bad to eat and I can't take the antibiotics on an empty tummy. We are all advised to still stay home in case we have Adara's H1N1.

Friday: I'm still stupid sick. We've called in the troops and sent Adara home with mom and dad as we're all a little worried that she'll get the strep too. I have slept for the most part, my throat is still killing me and eating turns my tummy.

So, the good thing about being sick is that you're free to watch as much tv and read as many crappy magazines as you want. The bad thing about being sick with a two year old is that you're free to watch as much treehouse tv as you want and be poked, kicked and whined at while you try to read your magazine.
Tonight, with Adara safely home with mom and dad, I'm watching Ellen while blogging and all hopped up on codeine. Woo HOO!
Tomorrow morning I will sleep in for as long as I want with no guilt for the first time in seventeen months(when Len took Adara out west).
So, that's it from the Stannard-Fry house. Pity us, love us, but don't hug us, at least until our contagious period passes, which is tomorrow morning according to public health.

Goin' On a Lion Hunt

This is how Adara dresses up when she's "Goin' huntin' for bears!!! Growl!!!"

I not Seepin'!

This is Adara, "not tired and not seepin'". Len and I were running around the house doing housework and cooking one sunday morning and suddenly looked up to find her asleep on the futon. This has never happened before; she simply doesn't fall asleep unless put in her bed or the carseat. I think that she must have just had the wonderful comfy warm feeling of activity around her and just gave in.

Tricks

The other day Adara asked me to call "Yiam" which is what she calls her cousin Liam. So, I went and got the phone, put it on speaker and started dialing. As I dialed I heard the upstairs extension ringing. I figured that I must have miss pressed something and ran upstairs to see what had happened and turn it off. Then, ran back down, turned the phone that I was using on and off, back on speaker phone and started dialing. Immediately, the upstairs phone started ringing again. Thinking "man I'm dumb,how did I do that twice" I ran back up. The upstairs phone stopped ringing, I came back down and started the dialing sequence again. The third time that this happened I came running back downstairs to see Adara, standing at the base of the phone, pushing the page other phone button and smiling like an angel.
Devil Child.

I love my Doctor

I really do,he's an awesome man,and his staff rock too. We went out yesterday and got Adara's H1N1 shot. It was one hour, in and out, no problems, no long waits. But more importantly, in the midst of all of this chaos of fear mongering and worry over H1N1 they were cheerful, joking and human. In discussing last week at Adara's checkup if I should get her the shot, my Doctor started the conversation with "Look, I'm suspicious of "the man" too, but I think that we gotta stop being paranoid and just do it this time". I love that summing up of all of my fears.
I think that we all spend a lot of time putting down our healthcare system and bitching about the people who work in it. I just wanted to give a quick shout out to some truly fantastic people in the lives of my family.

Halloween- First trick or Treat

For Adara's first time trick or treating we were joined by Griffin (in the cowboy Woody outfit) and Diego who was a bumblebee. It was a wild afternoon in our house of babies and families (6 adults, 3 babies, one more on the way) and eating and drinking and food making. But, miraculously we all sat down to dinner at one table at 5:30pm,had a somewhat calm dinner and made it out trick or treating for 6:30pm. Adara loved trotting right up to neighbours houses and saying hello. However, as always, she refused to eat chocolate, so she had three suckers from her candy,and that was about it.

A week of opposites

Good 1) I got to negotiate a contract with a major producer here in Toronto that I've always wanted to work with, and I did a good job
Bad : I wasn't very excited by it and didn't have the energy, time or babysitter to celebrate

Good 2) We're getting to know our neighbours finally after five years here. They speak to us on the street, people are friendly and kind and I'm looking forward to Halloween
Bad: I got pushed down three stairs by an angry woman on the subway who was determined to reach her train. Stupid Toronto, stupidity.

Good 3) Adara is full of out of nowhere statements that "she loves us"

Bad: This morning she walked towards me with her hand raised and said "I'm going to hit you" and then did. And then over the course of the next twenty minutes of being kept in time out in her room, did it four more times. Just because she can.

What a strange week of ups and downs.

The Box Series

I think that every kid has one of these, a favourite box that gets used in a variety of ways. Adara's best loved box activity is to sit in it naked except for her new pink/camoflauge winter boots.