The other day while out for a walk, Jesson and I stopped by the local bulk food store to pick up some spices. Jesson was quick to pick up on all of the bins of candy he could almost reach. I had thought about getting him a cone with a little bit of ice cream in the bottom, but figured that would make quite a bit of mess and opted for some candy instead. Here's the result of that decision....should have gone with the ice cream. Oh well, his shirt and his face are washable and he had a blast slobbering the candies to death until they fell off of the string.
 

We spent quite a while outside today because the weather was gorgeous. Jesson wandered from one side of the yard, through the trees and back again. Over and over until I dragged him kicking and screaming back into the house for supper. 

Best Buds

Jesson enjoys picking on Sam just as much as the cats, but Sam doesn't sit still often enough for him to bug her. When she does, he's all over her. 

Dodge Driving Man

Once Daddy opens the truck door, he makes room for Jesson who starts making truck noises right away and takes his place at the wheel. What a boy! 

Jesson really enjoys riding in Daddy's truck. Before Scott got out of the truck, Jesson stood ready to hop in. 

Once he got a taste, he chose to spit them out and share them with me. 

Our little man spent some time tasting shrivelled berries in the backyard this afternoon. 

Grandma Nicholetts often refers fondly to a favourite episode of Andy Griffith in which Gomer Pile is sitting with bucket on his head when along comes Andy. He asks Gomer what he's doing and he replies "I's just sitting here thinkin' and thinkin' ". I guess that's what Jesson needed too. Here he sits with a waste paper basket on his head, I guess deep in thought. 

Jesson chose to practice his Halloween scary faces while covered in beet juice at supper time. Scaaary! 

Fibrocystic Breast Disease

On September 9th I had my first mammogram in Saskatoon. A couple of days ago I saw the doctor for the results and was told they found several “calcifications” on both breasts. I have yet to figure out exactly what that means, but they aren’t fluid-filled cysts. They are solid masses of some sort that will require biopsy to be fully diagnosed. According to my GP, they will probably perform a wire biopsy, which involves guiding a wire to a calcification for the surgeon to follow in and remove it. I’m hoping to document the whole process for all concerned, maybe we can learn something from of all of this.

Fibrocystic Breast Disease sounds like a really nasty thing, but it’s not really a disease. Whoever named it should have called it something else, my doctor refers to it as Fibrocystic Breast “Changes”. Either way, this is apparently what I have. My Mother has it too, and she has been under regular surveillance for years. She has had several “lumps” removed for biopsy and fluid filled cysts drained, luckily none of them have been malignant. For more information visit the title link above. Some of you may have received my email with the funny mammogram poem in it. I thought that was really funny after having had a mammogram recently. Although I made a joke of it then, I urge all women now more than ever to have a routine exam done. It was not as awful for me as I heard it was going to be so don't let that be your reason not to go.

My doctor told me the other day that self-exams rarely turn up anything significant and that having you yearly “poke and prod” exam and regular mammo’s are the only fool-proof methods of detection. Especially with this fibrocystic thing when all you feel in there is a whole bunch of little lumpy things. There was a poster on the wall where I got my mammogram done which showed how big the average breast mass is by the time a person can usually detect it through self-exam. It was about ¾ of an inch across, I was shocked! That's the size of a grape! I thought we’d be able to find something smaller than that in there, didn’t you?

I guess I was expecting to have some trouble with the girls in the coming years due to family history, but I hadn’t imagined it would start quite this soon. I’ll try to keep you posted on my progress, and let you know what they find in there. The tour won’t take long, they aren’t that big! ;-)

Last weekend Jesson enjoyed his snack in his portable chair while watching Daddy wash the truck from the kitchen window. When Daddy would look up and wave, Jesson would wave back and laugh. I guess that's the next best thing to actually "helping" Daddy. 

Most mornings Jesson wakes up with normal looking hair so this hairdo came as a surprise. He must have slept standing on his head. When we showed him in the mirror, he found it funny too. 

After Sarah's Birthday supper the "kids" played a dress-up racing game. The teams were uneven so Aunt DeAnn volunteered to play too. They made so much noise Jesson didn't know which way to turn. The pants were a little tough for DeAnn to put on, but that only made the girls giggle and squeal even louder. Atta girl DeAnn, what a sport! 

On September 10th, Sarah Graham (Scott's niece) turned 9 years old. THe party was a lot of fun. It was really great to get together with everyone. As always, Della did an awesome job off all of the food. Uncle Pat & Aunt DeAnn were down from Edmonton, and Grandma & Grandpa McNally came from Rosetown so we got to see all of them too. Happy 9th Birthday Sarah! 

If there's one thing cuter than a baby covered in spaghetti, it has to be a baby covered in spaghetti AND birthday cake, right? I think Jesson enjoyed as much of my 30th cake as I did. It was really good stuff. Thanks Daddy! 

And so, due to the intense cloud of plaster dust in what once was our bathroom, Jesson gets to bath in a bucket in the kitchen. He doesn't seem to mind because I've told him he can stand up in his new tub. Last night he stood looking over the edge of all four sides, watching as water dripped onto the floor from up at his level. He thought this was quite funny. He ended up clean anyway, so the bucket is effective. 

What Have I Done? I should have given my head a shake before tackling this project I think! As Scott said (although I haven't admitted it for fear of the big "I told you so") a little tub surround project quickly becomes a new garage! I first thought I'd peal off the old tub surround, change the tap handles and spout and glue up a new surround...HAHAHAHA! Upon pulling off the tub surround I found wet, moldy plaster, and rusty expanded metal that had to come off. It turns out that the tap handles I was going to replace can't be easily changed because they are too old and replacements aren't available anymore (so that means the "P" word…$$). THEN, while I was brushing away some of the debris, I noticed a huge chip in the side of the tub. I guess I whacked it with the hammer while I was ripping apart the wall, oops now we need a new tub too. I had planned to do that some day, just not this soon. So, all things considered so far, Scott is right, as usual. I should have left well enough alone. BUT....when I'm done, the north half of the bathroom will be lovely?!? That's all worth it, right?? 

Life's Little Lessons

Today, Jesson learned what happens when you get too friendly with a sucking vaccuum cleaner hose.

Up until today he has been much more excited to vaccuum than I have ever been. So much so that when I even mentioned that we were going to vaccuum, he took off down the hall and started banging on the closet door where the vaccuum cleaner lives. And if I'd been busily cleaning for too long without letting him have a turn, he made sure he let me know by screaming and yanking on my pant leg until I gave him a try.

Today that all changed somewhat. As I was momentarily "busy" at the end of the hall, Jesson was busy moving the vaccuum cleaner head back and forth while he waited for me to come back. He must have noticed that the job was easier than before, and crawled to the handle end of the vacuum head to find that the hose had been disconnected. I guess this tweeked his interest and he thought he might try putting it back together again. He picked up the end of the central vac hose, which was still sucking, and headed for the handle on the vaccuum cleaner head. You can picture what happened next, can't you? You bet, he turned the sucking hose towards his face and looked into it, closely enough that it pulled his lips in.

He was probably only innocently trying to size up how the vaccuum pieces should go back together when this mishap occurred, but it has left him with a new appreciation for the "hissing" vaccuum hose.

How did he react, you're wondering? He took a couple of steps backward, then giggled, then whined a bit, not completely sure what he should make of the experience. I watched the entire episode play out from the end of the hall. When it was all over I joined him on the floor and repeatedly sucked my lips into the vaccuum cleaner in an attempt to cure his new appliance fear. It was all for not. I may only have managed to burn a new freaky image into his impressionable little mind. If he wakes up with nightmares tonight, I'll know why.

Jesson enjoyed his first corn on the cob recently for supper. He was thrilled to handle it all by himself and was able to munch most of the kernels off cleanly. I think it took him about 15 minutes to finish it but he had lots of fun. Thanks for the corn Grandma McNally!