The big day is here for the kids and the big VACCINE!

So today is Halloween, my kids are jumping off the wall as I type this, being excited is an understatement. My daughter is going as a fairy (or something else, I will explain below) and my son as a cat-Ella's costume from last year ;) I have a funny story to tell about Ella's first choice of Halloween costume (notice I say first choice as the fairy choice is her second).


Ella by chance had seen a few flyers come in the mail with Halloween costumes and she took it upon herself to 'read' them and request quite loudly to both my wife and myself that she wanted to buy each costume she saw. My wife seized the opportunity to let her know that to buy these costumes she needed money and that money needed to be earned, at this point she directed us to use one of our cards to pay for it. My daughter Ella is four so she doesn't understand a lot of the concept but we tried to explain to her that those days when we are not home, we are at work actually 'working' to earn money. We went on with the spiel that I am sure parents have repeated ad nauseam decades before us that money doesn't grow on trees and it has to be earned not given to us. At this moment I think more than ever I truly felt like a parent (and I sounded a bit like my own parents back in the day).


The funny part of this long winded story was that my wife told Ella what she did for Halloween and how she created her costumes when she was a kid. Back in the day ;) kids actually made their Halloween costume with things they found around the house or their parents sewed a costume for them. My wife was in the first lot, she made her costumes with what she found around the house. So my wife went on to tell Ella that one year she was a garbage bag, how she came up with and designed her garbage bag costume. So Ella took it upon herself to let everyone and anyone know who mentioned Halloween that she would be a garbage bag just like her mom. The look on peoples' faces when Ella told them she was going to be a garbage bag like her mom was quite funny to see as most probably expected her to say a princess, Dora, or the like, but instead my cute little girl says "garbage bag!"


So Ella had it in her mind she was going to be a garbage bag, even come earlier this week when her JK class had a Halloween party she was still saying she wanted to be a garbage bag. My wife and I decided it might not be such a great idea sending her to school in a garbage bag so my wife got her pretend ballerina tutu, some play wings and a headband with feathers on it and somehow convinced her that for school she should be a fairy. Thankfully Ella loved the idea and she was a fairy earlier this week , BUT tonight we will be contending with stuffing a garbage bag (if she really persists that she wants to be one).


So we got the H1N1 vaccine yesterday and I must say the shot itself was nothing (hey I give shots all day so I should be able to take one once in a while). We are in Whitby so we had to stand outside and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait. Four and a half hours of waiting with two children under the age of four is enough to exhaust any human being, you get my drift. I am really just appalled by the wait times for this vaccination, it is unbelievable they can make people wait with young children, older population and pregnant women outside for FOUR + hours. Let's say our family was exhausted last night and today we are pretty tired too though I am thinking it may be a side effect of the vaccine rather than standing up in line for four hours. So we are all vaccinated now, my kids have to go back in three weeks to have the second dose which should be joyful for all involved (and I say this sarcastically!). I am not sure why the health departments can't get it together like my wife's hometown Sault Ste. Marie, see this article from earlier this week in the Globe and Mail,

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/h1n1-swine-flu/the-town-that-lineups-forgot-a-success-story-in-the-soo/article1343117/.

Now I know the town is smaller and they are not dealing with the huge population like we are in southern Ontario but come on, something has to be better than people waiting in brisk fall weather outside for four and an half hours!!!

Please have a safe and happy Halloween!


Nathan