Delayed Pressure Urticaria and Angioedema AKA Goodbye to my High Heels

What the what you say? Yeah me too! In any case I will explain. After a trip to the doctor in Montana he determined that I *may* have Delay Pressure Urticaria and Angioedema. Whew that is a mouthful! But what does it mean? Well while I wait a YEAR to see an allergist in Calgary I have google to help me out.

My lovely heels

Slow Motion Video Fun | Ruff Ruminations

I'm going to start a new meme since I have now figured out how easy sharing videos can be so welcome to:
Motion Mondays!


Auntie Amanda's new point and shoot camera has a cool slow-motion video function so we had some fun with it:

Chenille Baby Blanket | Ruff Ruminations

I'm sharing a Chenille Baby Blanket again :D

This baby blanket is for my new nephew due any time soon! I wanted to try a few different things with this blanket mostly because I don't like doing the same project over and over :D

Calgary Aerospace Museum | Ruff Ruminations

First things first, did you notice the change in your browser? Take a look (I'll wait...) Yup I am now officially   http://www.ruffruminations.com I am going to attempt a move to wordpress as well but that may take a while!

While I was away at BlogWest in Edmonton learning all things bloggy and connecting with some great ladies and reconnecting with myself beyond motherhood Brian was left at home with Grady for a whole weekend! This is the first time since Grady was born that I have had more than one night away on my own and the first time that Brian has had Grady all by himself. Since I was carpooling with some great ladies and Brian couldn't take the day off, Grady stayed in Airdrie for Thursday night and during the day Friday. Brian planned a trip to the Calgary Aerospace Museum because I had a groupon and he knew he would want something to do to keep Grady busy!

The groupon included 2 adults and up to 2 kids so Grandpa went along also. I can't really tell you how great the museum was seeing as I didn't go :D But I can tell you Grady enjoyed himself and talked about it a lot once I was home.

That is the face of a happy boy! I am told there was lots of planes at the Calgary Aerospace Museum to look at and many that you could also climb into so what more could a 3.5 yr old boy want?

Why not pretend to be an astronaut? Funny to think that there isn't much call for astronaut these days with no more people taking trips to the moon! I wonder how long before we can all hop on that Virgin airlines tour to the moon?

I think what made the trip to the Calgary Aerospace Museum a huge highlight for Grady was the robotics display that was being featured. And this guy Wall-e! So fun that someone built their own Wall-e and since this is currently Grady's favorite movie (we watch it up to 3x a day!) I know he was happy to meet Wall-e.

Pretty cute! I hear that this Wall-e was fully remote control and you could also put on a pair of goggles to see what Wall-e was seeing.

A jet pilot in the making?

Maybe?

Yup looking like a serious pilot there Grady...

hmmm maybe not :D

Looks like there was so much to check out.

And then Brian took Grady to watch the airplanes landing before heading off to lunch. It looks like they had a beautiful day for it!

Special Helper Day | Ruff Ruminations

The other week was my day to be parent volunteer at Grady's preschool. I was looking forward to it for two reasons. 1)I missed my turn in the last cycle due to a scheduling mix up and 2) I was volunteering on Show and Tell day and I was excited to see how that went as so far I had only been on a gym day and I was also glad to not have to carry that giant bag of balls up the stairs again!

Grady playing in the sand table.

It is transportation theme this month and here is a great pic of some team work to build a garage out of the big wooden blocks.

And circle time. I got to see the kids using some Hippo Hug Weighted Animals. It was great to see what a difference they can make even for typical kids! So much easy to calm your body with some weight in the lap.

Being special helper means you get to sit in the special chair next to the teacher and answer all the important questions.

Grady was all business about this part of the day!

Here is a little video of circle time and Show and Tell:

It was amazing to see the difference since the last time I volunteered in November!

Banff Park Museum National Historic Site and Banff | Ruff Ruminations

Auntie Amanda and Uncle Ed were recently in Banff, Alberta to enjoy some skiing on their anniversary. Brian joined them one day for skiing at Sunshine and then Grady and I drove out to Banff on the Monday to spend the day with them and check out the Banff Park Museum. It was lots of fun to drive out and answer all of Grady's questions along the way. Although I made the mistake of letting him play with the camera in the car which drained the battery of course so we had to depend on Auntie Amanda for pictures. Lucky for us she is a photographer so her camera(s) are always ready to go. I included ALL the photos because I can :D

We got to Banff just in time for lunch. We went to the Rose and Crown. It was very quiet and the food was really good.

And Grady got a chance to get some giggles out before heading off the the museum!

I`m sure I have been there before but I don`t really remember. It is a very cool place to visit. Even the glass is antique and they ask you to be very gentle with it. It is amazing the amount of species they have on display!

Checking things out from the top floor

Posing for Auntie when he wasn't...

refusing to have his photo taken! :D

Wow don`t I look engrossed in whatever I am looking at!

Grady really enjoyed all the animals but had lots of questions about why they aren't alive. The lady working the museum was amused to see how I would keep dodging the tough questions! I finally came up with an answer that satisfied Grady without having to answer anymore questions about dead animals.

Grady "Why are the animals not alive anymore?"

Me "because if they were alive this would be a zoo but its not, its a museum"

Grady *silence*

Museum Lady "good answer!"

It is a CHEAP to visit and so cool!

Auntie Amanda says this guy is giving us the stink eye!

Then in one of the back rooms they have things you can touch and play with.

Uncle Ed and Grady build a puzzle of the map of Banff National Park together.

They have furs to touch including Badger, Beaver, Muskrat etc.

Hear Grady is showing that Muskrat make for great ear warmers!

Not often you get to see my true horned nature ;D

An chance to get an up close look at bones

And touch bones

Or pretend you are a (drunk?) Rhino!

And this photo is just pure Awesomeness!

You can also take a nap?

Or do some light reading on the History of Banff, Canada or Alberta.

A very cool place to go and visit. I highly recommend although you do have to leave the building and walk across a parking lot to use the bathrooms so maybe make sure little ones go potty before hand.

Then we had some snowball adventures...

Before a stop at the candy store. But I don't think we will be back to the candy store. Customer service was extremely poor.

A great trip to Banff for sure. I will have to make sure to not wait 4 years before going back again since it IS right on our doorstep!

Flipping at Home? | Ruff Ruminations

Can you do a video for Wordless Wednesday? Well I am...

so the "embed function doesn't seem to be working so you'll have to do some link clicking:

http://youtu.be/MIBsEcPDoV0

(sorry)

If La-Z-Boy is watching we volunteer to become furniture testers for you!

Family Day in Edmonton and the Silver Skate Festival | Ruff Ruminations

Everyone from my side of the family met up in Edmonton for family day. (I know another post from FOREVER ago but still...) Meeting in Edmonton mean Isabel and Grady want to do a sleep over.

And sometimes that means they need to get cleaned up!

And this time I seemed to have forgotten to pack any pjs for Grady! Lucky Isabel had an extra pair...

They weren't THAT bad, a bit small though!

The two cousins are getting pretty good at brushing their teeth. I think it helps for them to see that the other has to do it too!

Since we are sometimes an indecisive blob as a group of 10 we have been making a big effort to do more than sit around saying "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" *repeat until the day wastes away :D So Edmonton seems to have lots going on for Family Day but we chose to check out the Silver Skate Festival. Because it is free and it looked like there would be lots to do. We didn't count on the wind making it quite so cold though. But oh well~

Grady didn't mind, they had a crane on display so he was happy.

There was a dog sledding demonstration at some point in the day, but they also had several dog teams on display that you could go and pet and ask questions about.

Auntie Amanda got in on the action too!

And we brought the sled because we weren't sure how easy or hard it was going to be to get around. And the sled made for some FUN for Grady!

Funny I know, I'm not laughing in the video about Grady falling off (well maybe a little) but mostly it was just about how much fun he was having! It was infectious.

They had lots of fabulous snow and ice sculptures on display. This is a sculpture of a sculpturist making a sculpture :D

Grady trying to cheer Isabel up by taking her for a sled ride!

Warming up in one of the tents

My prince on his throne!

Grady tries his hand at snow sculptures.

This was by far the best part of the day! A 20 foot ice slide. Grady did it more times that we care to count. Next year we may have to build one off the deck?

See how much fun it is?

Then we ended a great day out with a trip to Soda Jerks. If you haven't been there yet you should go! It is A-Mazing! They have a ridiculous amount of choice for burgers and milkshakes

Grady missed out though! He fell asleep in the car on the way there and slept right up until the bill came, so we had to stop for some fast food on the way out!

Everyone anxiously waiting for their burgers!

Brian's creation! Well worth the wait.

My creation, I think I wouldn't get sourdough next time. I was expecting a sourdough bun rather than bread slices. But it was still yummy!

A great family day weekend had by the Thornton/Babiak/Brooks/McMurdo family :D