Being Sick SUCKS

Holy man, let me tell you guys, being sick SUCKS. It's hard to get a good night's sleep, difficult to get up in the morning with your perfectly wide-awake child, and the worst part is keeping yourself up and motivated to do things you know need to be done. Even washing the dishes feels nearly impossible when sick.

And it's all thanks to this little thing here:

I have never been sick so much in my life since Isabelle started going to daycare and now she happily brings home every bit of germs and sickness that she can and spews it everywhere either by coughing all over things, or in my face, or by putting her mouth all over the stuff that we touch all the time. On the bright side... I SHOULD (in theory) become a healthier person with her strengthening my immune system. On the other hand, I still have this cough that I haven't been able to get rid of since... I don't really remember anymore, it's been more months than I can think of. I just can't seem to stop coughing ALL THE TIME. Now there's probably something to do with "Kyle needs to drink more healthy liquid water with no sugar in it..." Or.... Uhh..... No, that's probably something to do with it. IT'S A WORK IN PROGRESS!

If that wasn't bad enough, in all the kerfuffle my wife got sick as well. Now, Carley getting sick is something that happens from time to time and I'm quite used to taking care of her including the additional requests when she's not feeling well, but something about this sickness was a little bit different than usual. I just couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew something wasn't quite right... is it true that she's really just that cranky and annoyed with everyone only because she's sick?

As it turns out we were hit with the unexpected inconvenience of Carley's doctor being away during the time when she needed to go in to renew her prescription for Concerta. If you don't know what Concerta is, it's a slow-release medication for ADHD which really helps her focus and not hate everybody. So because the doctor was away, we couldn't get her prescription renewed which meant she had to do without her medication for a week. Something we didn't expect which never occurred to use as a possibility is that she went through some withdrawal. As it turns out, taking Concerta daily doesn't make you think much about it other than notice how much it helps with day-to-day life, but quitting it cold-turkey actually causes a withdrawal period which would be similar (though likely not as bad) as quitting something like heroin so suddenly. Insane, right?

So needless to say, dear little Isabelle was happy as a clam the past week or so, Carley got sick and went through withdrawal which made her tired and want to stay in bed but also get out of the house because she couldn't stand anybody (while also needing to go out for a walk due to excessive energy levels), and I just held on to sanity while being sick and having to cater to the demands of two ladies who were so very in need... oh, and of course the dogs still needed to go out and in and out and in and out and in and out and in all day long again. No rest for the weary as they say.

Anywhos, now that I'm pretty sure I'm over the majority of being so very sick, and now that I've finished watching the Netflix show "Strong," I'm feeling much like I should start getting back into producing blog posts and new content to keep you all entertained. I have so much in my brain brain BRAIN, that I want to get out there and share with you all!

Keep an eye out for more stuff coming up very soon! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

The Child Grows

Each and every day I see the child grows more and more and it absolutely fascinates me seeing it all happen.

Now for those of you who don't know, I'm a first-time parents and so if any of you already have children of your own or don't have children at all, then you may not know what I'm talking about. For everybody else out there reading this, as my dear Isabelle gets ever closer to being two years old, she's learning so much so quickly it's absolutely amazing to see.

Just yesterday I very clearly heard her saying the words "brush teeth" together even though she wouldn't say it upon request in front of Carley, BUT I KNOW SHE DID! Currently she is able to repeat almost anything said as the last word in a sentence and I think she's JUST starting reeeeeally put two words together as she says more and more words on her own without any prompting. She's got a few opposites such as up and down confused sometimes, but other than that her language seems to be right on the edge of starting to say whole phrases at one time. Just a few days ago I got her saying "Oh man". (She's really good at that one.)

I imagine life is a bit difficult for her at this time with trying to learn so many things all at one time. She's been constantly learning new language skills as well as learning to climb and colour and trying to learn to use the potty. We've also started using a consistent timeout method with her which seems to have her all rattled now that mom and dad are both on the same page with not letting her get away with things... even if mom doesn't like it so much.

At this point, with her birthday being only a little over a week away, I'm looking forward to seeing all the possible new changes that are coming over the next year to see where things go from here... hopefully with more cuddles in the future as well.


~ Kyle Welykholowa

What Happened Last Month

I find myself sitting here, wondering to myself... what happened last month? I'm really not going to go into the entire detail of what caused what and who did this and that. I think there's much more important lessons to learn from the events that transpired over the past month.

For anybody who doesn't know, my wife moved out for about one month and is now back home where she belongs. There are underlying issues which I believe this has brought forth and from this point things can go one of two ways: either we learn from this and become a stronger couple who work together, or we learn absolutely nothing at all except that perhaps we just don't work out as a couple. I like to think we have taken the first path of learning to be better together where rather than avoiding each other we take the time to talk and work through our issues.

My personal learning from this event has brought me to the conclusion that staying up all night long isn't the way to go, because it only makes me tired the next day and unable to function properly. As it turns out, sleeping at night definitely makes me more motivated and able to do things during the day. I suppose the fact that I start work most days by 7:00 am helps me be tired by the time it starts getting late at night... it also helps that I'm pretty much forced to get up at 6:30 or earlier every day (including days off) either because of the dogs going mental at stupid times of the night / morning, or because our DEAR SWEET baby girl now wakes up most days no later than 6:30 in the morning because she often goes to daycare before I start work... which also means I have to be up even earlier than usual.

I suppose I've also learned that I need to pay more attention to both Carley's an my own needs and emotions and we need to work at talking together instead of brushing things off and hoping that's the end of it; emotions are important and valid, even when they seem stupid. Though someone else's problems may not make sense and may seem insignificant to you, those problems may be much more meaningful to them.

On that note, I've learned things about myself as well; such as that I am important, and I can do things for myself as well as others. I still don't like going out of the house very much, but I am feeling much better about myself. The most troubling thing I'm currently dealing with is finding the motivation to get things done while I'm not on working time or taking care of Isabelle... instead of sleeping. I seriously hate sleep; I wish I never had to sleep ever again... but it feels soooooooooooooo goooooooooooooooooood to sleep and / or nap.

I do have a lot of plans on the go right now though: Dates with Carley, playing with and teaching Isabelle, cleaning and organizing the house so that we can actually find things and not feel like it (the basement) is cluttered, making blog posts and videos, and somehow finding all the time to do all of this and keep going without running out of energy! ........ Oh... I also want to get into a regular habit of taking the dogs for a walk, and playing games with friends (most importantly my wife), and drawing / doodling, maybe taking the time to colour, read some books, get into biking once the weather clears up... there's so much I want to do and so little time to do it all.

Every day is a learning experience, but we'll get there... together.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

Would You Like A Teddy Bear? =25=

I never imagined I would ever be asked the question "Would you like a teddy bear?" while walking down the street.

We had just dropped off the car at Kal Tire so they could check if there was anything wrong with one of the tires which I found was quite low on pressure. On the way back home Carley decided she wanted some Taco Time, so we made a detour to make our way past the restaurant for some lunch. As it turns out, the Moose Jaw Fire Department was just finishing up their lunch at Taco Time as we were coming down the street.

I thought it was pretty cool to see the firemen out and about. They drove towards us after getting into the firetruck and really surprised us when one of them came hanging out the passenger side and offered us a stuffed moose while asking "Would you like a teddy bear?" This totally made our day and now Isabelle owns a stuffed moose!

I've heard of awesome things happening to people on the street all the time, but I think this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I'm so grateful for that happening and feel amazing that even though it was so hot and felt kinda lame to be walking so much in the heat, we were in the right place at the right time.

If you ever get the chance, you should do things like this to other people. It'll make you feel great! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

I Survived Camping With Friends =17=

I have great news, I survived camping with friends! Surprisingly, I had a fantastic time out in the "wild" with our friends. I managed to stay off of my phone nearly the entire time except for a short time while boating when I was hanging out and watching the fishing going on; Carley caught her first fish by the way. :D It's a bit of a personal accomplishment for me to be able to spend nearly a whole four days without being all over my phone the entire time, so I have to say I'm quite proud of myself.

Considering how Carley likes to plan things ahead of time and I like to make lists... you'd think we'd be more prepared for things. As it turns out... we didn't bring our pillows for the second camping time. I'm hoping to be much more prepared the next time we go camping. I'm pretty sure we had everything we needed for Isabelle, which is great and all... but we totally forgot to be prepared for ourselves. We forgot to bring our own bug spray!

Unfortunately during the second day we were out there the zipper on our tent split so we weren't able to close our tent. For the most part this wasn't an issue, but eventually it got a little more wet out and the mosquitoes started coming out in large numbers. This wasn't too much of an issue while we had bug spray... though eventually we ran out on the last day and that's when things got really bad. Thankfully we were able to buy a tarp at the store which we were able to bungee to the front of the tent with the help of our fantastic friends.

The great news is that Isabelle had a great time (I think). She played a bunch with Ella and complained a ton that we wouldn't let her go near the fire pit, but she seemed to enjoy being outside a ton; she wouldn't go to bed when she was supposed to. I think the only night she went to bed on time was the last night only because she was so tired from the day before that she couldn't keep herself awake. Canada day in particular she only got about half an hour of sleep before getting up to go see the fireworks at 10:00 pm... which she enjoyed so much with Carley's hands over her ears that she started to fall asleep while watching them.

All in all, camping was great. Super tiring to get up so early and do so many things throughout the day including long hikes with the baby on my chest, but totally worth it. I'm confident we'll be camping again soonish.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Group Camping Trip =16=

Alright, get this... I'm going on a group camping trip; yeah, I know, that's insane. There's something weird that I think you all should know about me... I like being outside and enjoying the peace and quiet of nature.

Now I know what you're all thinking... "What kind of nerd are you to like going outside?" I know something must be wrong with me, but I'm not quite sure what. I mean, how can a person like me who enjoys sitting in a dark hole writing on a blog and making videos enjoy being OUTSIDE? This has unfortunately come up before due to our trips to Lake Diefenbaker where during our most recent trip up there we camped on the beach for a night.

Now not only Carley, but also some great friends of ours are dragging me out for a camping weekend with the children. I'm a little excited to get outside and chill for a few days without having to worry about keeping the house cleaning and feeding everybody food and everything else that comes with trying to get things done around the house. At the same time I'm a little scared to be spending so much time outside and away from the house. I know I can easily keep myself busy and find things to do away from home, but I do worry about people thinking that I'm no fun or weird in the out-of-doors.

The best part about it is that I know Carley will have an awesome time. She's been wanting to go camping pretty much ever since I met her and we just haven't had the chance to go out anywhere on our own due to me usually being busy (and totally not knowing anything about camping whatsoever). There has also been a bit of an issue

I expect Isabelle will also have a great time being outside and with other people; she seems to enjoy getting out of the house and being a social baby so she may just end up being a total gem the whole time we're out there.

Wish me luck everyone! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Tick Tac Toe ===

     Okay, so about a week ago I woke up in the morning and realized with jump that tick season is... already here. Winter lasted so long this year that I didn't really consider how close the ticks could possibly be. As it turns out, when you wake up with a tick crawling up your jaw, you suddenly see that the ticks are already here. So far we've only found one other tick in the house. The other one was found in our bed as well crawling on Carley as she was trying to have a nap. That freaked her out, but thankfully we haven't found any others. I conveniently gave both Autumn and Furgle tick treatments only a short time before these two events, and considering our backyard isn't growing much grass at this time, I'm not expecting too many more ticks any time soon.

     It's times like these that make me think back on past events and remember that only a year ago we were trying to get a tick off of Isabelle's face while she laid there as if she didn't even know there was anything there. Both Carley and I were totally freaked out and stressed, but we did manage to get the tick off without any injuries or blood or anything too crazy. If I remember correctly, we pulled something like 10 or 20 ticks off of Furgle last year... ugh... that was awful. He took it really well (and he did have long fur at that time which didn't help I'm sure). I wasn't able to do a tick treatment on him last year either because it was too late by the time I had thought about it.

     After a while you get used to having so many bugs and things around. I used to get super freaked out over ticks and other bugs, but now for the most part I don't mind having them around. I would absolutely prefer NOT to have to deal with them, but they're not as bad now as they used to be for me. I can hold most bugs in my bare hands now without freaking out ever since I spent a day killing and cleaning up mosquitoes in our old apartment. Now with my trusty tweezers by my side, I don't have any issues with ticks either.

Have a fantastic day everybody. Hopefully you aren't all feeling as creepy and crawly as me! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Getting Laid ===

     A few weeks ago, I found myself getting laid... off from my job. While that's certainly something you don't expect to see coming, I wasn't totally surprised due to some other people getting laid off previously as well. At this point I'm still looking for a new job, but strangely I think we're doing better now than we were doing before. We finally have all of our bills paid including our credit card and we still have some money to spare for groceries and gas and whatnot.

     This is a situation we didn't actively plan for, but now that we find ourselves in this position, we surprisingly aren't as worried as we had expected we would be. The craziest thing for me right now is that I'm having so much more time to see my sweet Isabelle than before. I'm learning new things about her that I didn't know before and watching her grow and start to do things that she wasn't able to before either. It's amazing to be able to watching all of this happening from the comfort of my own home... rather than for only half an hour every morning and an hour each evening.

     I've become a stay-at-home dad at this point. Honestly, I didn't really think it would be so difficult to keep up with all the daily housework and things that have to get done. On one hand, I'm exhausted and worn out and I don't want to keep doing anything, but on the other hand, I'm getting things done and getting the house slowly organized and it feels great! I think I might be a little bit sad that I'm going to have to go back to work at some point (preferably sooner rather than later).

     One thing I would like so say is that I have no hard feelings towards Boardwalk at all. That's unfortunately just a part of business sometimes. I would still work for them if a favourable opportunity presented itself, but I will admit that I am enjoying a bit of time off where I can do some other things for a bit including paying a bit more attention to this here blog. I have big plans you guys, big plans. Much to do, much to do. Everything will come together in no time and soon enough you'll be reading about me almost every day! (Or maybe not, who knows? :P )

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== The Quiet Amount Of Trouble ===

     Everything was going so well. This weekend I've been looking after Isabelle while Carley has been working and last night I experienced the quiet amount of trouble. The day had gone pretty well with minimal whining and crying from my little girl. I figured it would be a fine time to let her crawl around and take a little bit of time to relax to myself. So she crawled around and played with some toys on her own for a bit until she decided to crawl away into her room on her own.

     How could that sweet little face possibly cause any trouble? I think to myself as I hear some rummaging around coming from her room. I can tell this rummaging is the sound of her playing with her toys in her cardboard toy box. I also periodically hear the sound of her touching a plastic bag as well, but other than that, not much noise. After some time of relaxing on the couch and playing a game I figured I should go and check on her. I come to her room right as she's leaving her room and I notice her hands are quite a bit more white than they normally are. In face, they're pasty white... with some kind of paste on them. I looked up from her to see her toy chest covered in white paste as well on the top and the side... and an open container which is also covered in white inside and out. Not only that, but there was paste on the toy box, on her singing book, on various other toys, in the carpet... you name it. And all the while she was VERY upset that she had to be cleaned off from this. If she had her way, her hands would have stayed that way for the rest of the night.

     This is what she managed to get into; a container of Penaten. She was super quiet and didn't make a noise while doing so. For those of you who don't know what this stuff is, it's used to treat and prevent diaper rash. This stuff is a lot harder to clean off than I would have thought; especially when coming off of various inanimate objects. This just goes to show that a baby suddenly going quiet either means they're keeping themselves entertained with something good... or they're entertained because they're getting into something. I think I've learned my lesson this time.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== Bumps And Bruises ===

     I don't often post about my baby, but lately there have been a lot of bumps and bruises around the house. Isabelle has started pulling herself up on things to a stand. For the most part, this is very cute as she stands there and reaches for things and then gets to a point where she's not really sure what she wants to do. Then she has to think about it and figure out how to get down without hurting herself. This is great that she's learning to do things! Unfortunately this also means she has to go through the process of figuring out how to get down properly which has resulted in a few tears from collisions.

     Silly me, I had thought for a moment that we were past the hitting of heads on inanimate objects, but apparently I was TOTALLY wrong about that; it has only gotten worse than before. Thankfully she takes these things quite well most times. She seems like a pretty tough kid, though I suppose we won't know for sure until she gets a bit older and can communicate better. If there's one thing that will always make her laugh even when she's absolutely bawling... it's tossing her in the air; she LOVES being tossed in the air. I'm confident she's going to be a thrill-rider when she gets older.

     In other family news, Carley has managed to find a way to get back to the gym again during my working days even with the cold weather killing the use of her car. She's so excited about going to the gym that's she'll be going again today even though she's woken up sore this morning. I think it's great for her to get out of the house and spend time doing other things. It's kind of nice having some time around the house alone. Well.... obviously the child will be here as well, but seriously, Carley needs to get more fresh air outside the house. I worry about her when she's cooped up for so long. Everybody needs to get outside every once in a while... even this nerd here.

     As for myself... not much interesting going on other than a renewed vigor for making blog posts and doing productive things. I almost wiped out and had some bruises of my own, but thankfully I started wearing my ice cleats after the freezing rain this us this past week. As uncomfortable as they are to wear with them not staying sitting right on my shoe.... they really help with grip on ice so much more than you realize. The only think I don't like about them is taking them off and putting them on again all the time. If you don't take them off, then you basically have no grip when it comes to tile and things like that. I suppose safety is more important than convenience though.

Anyways, that's all for today! Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

5 Days Until Moving Day!

     For anybody who hasn't heard, Carley and I are moving out of our apartment which is currently falling apart. We take possession of our new house on the 25th at 11:00am. How exciting it is that we'll actually have a nice space of our own that we won't have to be embarrassed about inviting our family over to. Once we get some unpacking done, we have plans to invite some friends over for table top game nights, and we have plans to invite family over to visit and have supper.

     Maybe it sounds a little bit silly, but one of the things I'm most excited about is that we'll finally have access to fiber optics, so we won't be stuck on the awfully slow internet speed we're on currently. I'll finally be able to spend some time gaming with my friends without lagging out of everything. I'll be able to upload videos during the day so I won't have to waste so much power by leaving my computer on over night and while I'm gone to work. Also, if I can find the time to, I'll be able to live-stream once again!

     Now that I'm done my spiel on how excited I am for technological reasons... I think Carley and I are going to be super happy having a place of our own which isn't falling apart. We'll finally be able to have everything nice and organized just how we'd like it. There'll be a play room in the basement, a room for us and a room for Isabelle, an office space for us, and a nice backyard that we can actually use including a garden (if I can ever figure out how to grow a plant without killing it).

     I'm quite happy to be moving soon, and I think Carley is too, but she's also a little overwhelmed; she really doesn't like moving. Thankfully, this place will finally be a long-term place. We're already pretty much packed up; just have to pack dishes, the washroom, and food on the last day. Obviously we'll have to take apart the desks as well, but there's not much else to do besides that. We just have a ton of boxes filling our living room at the moment.

     Besides the excitement of moving, I've been at my new job for a little over a month now and I'm absolutely loving it. Working a salary is WAY better than working hourly; especially since my coordinator is so freaking awesome. I feel like I'm getting the hang of things quickly and she thinks so too.

     I still wish I could make a little more money on the side somehow, but I'm not really sure how I would go about that besides my long-term plan to maybe one day make a bit of money off my videos on YouTube and Twitch. I guess I'll just have to keep on making videos for now and we'll see where things go in the future. In any case, it's super fun for me to do and I hope others enjoy what I do as well.

-- Please check out my YouTube at www.YouTube.com/user/TheDaemonVirus
-- Please check out my Twitch at www.Twitch.tv/DaemonVirus1
-- Please follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/KyleWelykholowa

     Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

(Written Sunday, November 20th, 2016)