End of year parties and vaccinations

Both the play school and play group had end of year parties this past week or so. The school spent the morning at Long Lake. The kids played hard and enjoyed the gifts of sand toys.





The playgroup again met at one of the participants homes to enjoy her wonderful grounds. Ethan really enjoyed the sand box and wagon. Evelyn loved the swings, slides and elevated clubhouse.

Later, the kids went on a ride in a little trailer pulled by a quad. Ethan really loved that!







The day before the party, Evelyn had her vaccinations. Wow. That went...not as well as I expected!

I told her about the upcoming appointment a few hours before. I wanted her to be warned, but not have time to really get worked up. When we arrived, there was a Doctor Play set that had a 'needle'. We practiced with that and she seemed okay with the 'pinch' she would be recieving. She played contentedly during the appt while the nurse asked all the development questions. She happily sat on my lap when needle time came. I had her arm held firmly in my hand and was trying to distract her with a new pack of 'littlest pet shop' trading cards. I thought it was going very well.

Then, she got poked.

She SCREAMED and flailed her body, arched her back, kicked her legs and arms and became a banshee. The needle came out and scraped her arm, she continued to scream and flail.

It was very dramatic. And very unexpected.

I eventually got her restrained in my arms again and we manageed to get the second shot into the same arm. After about 5 min, she calmed down to merely sniffing and wimpering.

Yikes!

She ended up with a pretty inflamed injection site, and battled headaches and fever for 2 days. We missed her soccer practice, but she was determined to go to the playgroup party the next day. She did well at the party, but wanted some cuddles from her teacher Sylvia.

The following day, her kind and loving little brother punched her in her arm when we were out shopping. Ouch! She managed to get under control fairly quickly. Now, she's back to normal.

I really hope she forgets this experience before she is due for any other shots. I think she has a few years before we have to do this again!

Last Saturday, we helped one of Ryan's co-workers move from Lac la Biche to Boyle. They took us all out for lunch after and Ethan occupied himself by decorating himself with stickers while we waited. He was a real 'cutie pie'.

On the evening following Evelyn's ill-fated vaccinations, I went to a staff party while Ryan stayed home with the kids. It was fun to socialize with the staff. We were at one of the Doctors homes which he leases. It is on a lake and reminded me of Saltspring Island. We saw many different kinds of water birds, and a yearling black bear came to visit us as well! The bear sniffed around the perimeter, climbed a tree, and scampered off. As we left, I saw my first live skunk sniffing around the garage. Up unitl then, I had only seen the roadkill version of this mal-odourous animal. It had two stripes down it's back - apparently that makes it an american skunk. I guess canadian skunks only have one stripe (like 'pepe la peu' from the looney tune cartoons- he must have been french canadian) .