I shall be kind and start with today’s adventure… The long awaited and much talked about GENETIC TEST appointment. Thankfully NOT at the crack of dawn so not nearly the rush Echo’s cardiology session was, as well as not as long of an appointment of itself. 

We got off in good time and headed to the city. The parking wasn’t too difficult but certainly NOT cheap and we did get a little lost walking to the correct building. After all this is all part and parcel of the university so there are lots of buildings and some construction going on. We even got a little misdirected by someone who was confused as to where we were trying to get to. BUT we made it right at 11:30. 

The office was TINY but the wait non existent. They basically took our info and in the time it took to change Echo we were shown into the examination room. There we talked with the nurse, and she took Echo and myself to weigh and measure. I don’t have the numbers but Echo did rather well with it all and didn’t try too hard to dive off of the scale.

We returned to our little room, gave permission for the intern to come in with the doctor and there they were! Talk about quick! There was lots of talking, sharing history of ourselves, family and kids… tracking how many siblings my mom has… where the cleft lip and palate came from… all old hat for us. The geneticist was an older gentleman who had 4 kids himself and the intern a lovely young lady who Echo allowed total access to! She lay quite still through it all and even gave her a little smile. They measured her feet to compare the two… her arm length… and it all came back – fine. As we have been told all along she is in perfect proportion… for a MUCH younger baby! 

They had nothing to add to the blood work the doctor gave us as a last set and have only added one procedure – a bone growth x-ray. What they do is x-ray the bones in the hand and check where they are growth wise. Apparently (and I need to do more research on this) your skeleton can be younger than your actual age. His answer to things if this is something that has occurred – puberty… so…. 

Basically she is a petite child. Apparently the geneticist is able to find out the why on petite children a whopping 5% of the time! Though he did figure that once Echo’s PDA is dealt with we should see some growth increasing but again the cardiologist said do not expect massive change. Basically we are back to what we said when we started – she is JUST PETITE!!!!! BAH!

So, Sunday… Well we kept ourselves busy in the heat to be sure! It all started with a pancake breakfast. And then all 5 kids dressed in their Sunday best (as pictured YESTERDAY), the boys with matching shirts (thanks to Nana). This was our first service at what is to become our new home church.

Service was a lovely hour long, though we decided NOT to risk corralling the herd and going up for communion this time round. We did meet the minister before service started… a lovely older man. And after service we met the lady who was in charge of snacks for VBS who remember the boys fondly AND the secretary for the church office who is going to contact our old church (Trinity Lutheran… I know I know) for membership change. It is time to put down some permanent roots in our new community. After all, Sunday School starts on the 11th of September! Where has the time gone? Another lovely thing about our new church – well, apparently there are other homeschooling families AND the family we met in passing who had a boy/girl set of twins (older) were very receptive when they asked our boys where they went to school and were told by Zander that the boys DON’T, they HOMESCHOOL. How proud was mom that they knew the right answer to share! And so proudly he said it!

After some time at home and Karyn taking me out with her on her errands (we took advantage of the Michaels’ buy one get one for 1 cent sale on card stock) it was time to pack up and head out to the splash rock and fire pits that are a lovely park here in the city.

On the menu… hotdogs (no brainer), fruit, carrots, and SMORES! But first we had to head over to the splash… rock… and well… splash. For some reason though the weather was absolutely HOT the water was FREEZING. Echo did NOT approve, actually neither did Mommy. It was fun to watch the big kids make new friends and splash away. 

Aunty Karyn spent some time splashing it up with Trinity while Kristen and I found some shade.

And shade we found, on the hill. There WAS a bench free, but for GOOD reason – ANTS. Echo enjoyed the shade on the hill and Aunty Karyn’s keychain. 

After getting our fill of splashing and rocks we moved back over to where Fydo had held down the fort and kept the fire burning.

The smores were quite impressive… Kristen had biscuits with chocolate already on them and then you add MORE chocolate… makes my mouth water even now.

After sitting around while the kids played until Echo was done in we all headed to our respective homes… what a great way to spend a VERY sunny Sunday afternoon. We hope to go again in September. 

Oh I didn’t mention the kicker for today – we pulled out my stroller for Echo only to find out that the wheel had melted or warped enough to make it bounce funny. I think the heat shining through the back window of the van while it was pressed against it did it or something like that. BUT it did last over 5 years and through 3 kids… so back onto Kijiji to find another. I have message TWO ads today and have high hopes that something will come through. 40.00 is my limit as I don’t want to dip too far into funds set aside for other items. 

We stopped in at H&W to pick up some much needed (and amazingly priced) produce… the best deal? Bananas at 29 cents a lb. I bought over 11 lbs of bananas for 3.25! And a stop off at Bulk Barn for a few spices and snacks. We have to head back to the city for Alexander den Otter’s birthday beginning of September so I plan on making GOOD lists for those two stores so we are able to take advantage of being there. 

Two days in a row that definitely wore out the kids. One with fun the other with travel and excessive amounts of having to sit and be quiet (which they didn’t do very well though other people were tricked into thinking they WERE – thus they ALL got stickers). A stop at the grocery store to get sandwich fixings and then fruit when we got home and at least their tummies were content. 

We have started having a small potty success – Trinity has been peeing before bedtime ON THE POTTY! Of course not OTHER times but with how busy we have been, all the go go go… I am pleased! One step closer to her Hello Kitty undies! 

Tonight is set to be quiet, and the last night before I begin the preparations to get to the wedding in one relatively busy and somewhat content piece. I have cleaning I want to have done, laundry ALL put away… the kids need to clean the backyard. Any volunteers to help out?