It hasn't happened before in thirty years or something, but there was both an extreme cold and winter storm warning today. That meant SNOW and COLD, which is a strange combination. It wasn't cold enough to deter the kids.

There's a snowman competition going until Family day, so even though it is really really cold outside Elizabeth and Matthew worked hard to make a pretty cute snowman beside the igloo. It snowed so much that the igloo is actually looking pretty decent.

We did discover a problem though. Apparently Mr Bunny (look closely at photo of sidewalk) has decided to use the igloo as a toilet.

Yukiko's away in Japan looking after her aunt for a month, so we invited Chris and the girls over for Sunday dinner (lasagna).

I was just coming to sit down at my spot after doing something in the kitchen and somehow managed to catch my right baby toe on the side of the buffet. Yes, I kicked the cupboard. Hard. I knew immediately that whatever had just happened was bad.

My foot went completely numb but there was some pretty excruciating pain radiating up my leg at the same time. Elizabeth giggled "You look like a kangaroo" as I hopped to my place, hoping that I didn't pass out on the way there. An ice pack didn't help - I just felt like I was adding frostbite to my woes.

I surreptitiously checked my sock. No blood seeping through, so the chance of needing surgery seemed low. I decided to eat supper and get Erika to practice her first aid skills after. She looked a bit worried when I told her this.

Just then Janice walked in the door from her latest skate patrol shift on the canal. "I could use some first aid, I think" I told her. She took one look and confirmed that my toe was not attached at its customary angle. It was shorter, too.

In an effort to keep my mind off the incredible pain (less than my most recent root canal, more than most recent C-section) I posted a photo on social media. It's very interesting how many of my friends have broken toes, or known someone who has broken a toe. In any case, the ER was extremely quiet and I was sent to xray almost immediately. I think we spent less than ten minutes out in the hall before getting a room to ourselves. It was obviously where they sent the broken bones as it was covered in dried plaster bits.

The doctor injected the toe with lidocaine and then yanked on it hard until it made the right noises. There was popping and grinding. The lidocaine helped a bit, but YEOWCH! At least the toe was back where it belonged. It's been taped to his neighbour for support and I'm under orders to wear supportive shoes for the next couple of weeks. I don't really like wearing shoes, so that was terrible news. Also not excited by the realization that I can't wear a boot on that foot until it's healed.

Worse was the news that I can't skate for four to six weeks. No snowshoeing. Stay off my feet as much as possible for the first little while. Repeat x-ray to check healing in four weeks. Don't kick anything else. It's rare, but not unknown for the toe to need reducing a second time. I really don't want to do that part again.

Basically I've just torpedoed my entire Winterlude. At least I can still drive, but I'm pretty upset about the whole thing.

Ottawa is setting records for cold. "Yay! We can do cold weather science" say my winter-loving kids. I was proud.

So we blew bubbles and made snow. Elizabeth wanted to try throwing the kettle water and got hot water on her mittens and was unimpressed.

Matthew had some technical challenges with his bubble mix freezing before he could blow bubbles, but they did like seeing the frozen bubble bits in the air.

We tried to do a new experiment "magic balloon" to demonstrate how air in a balloon shrinks in the cold and expands in the heat, but clearly the air inside the balloon wasn't hot enough and/or the deep freeze outside wasn't cold enough because it basically didn't change size.

It was too cold to stay out terribly long, so after we did our science the kids came inside and built forts.

Michael has now had his first popsicle (well, tail end of one, because he's still a baby and that's a lot of sugar). He liked it.

I was too depressed to mention this before, but our replacement pediatrician apparently moved to Toronto in the summer. So once again we are without a doctor. Sadly Dr Lynn does not seem to be coming back, which was Elizabeth's suggestion when I told her.

In any case, Michael had a well baby checkup this morning and was supposed to get his shots, but he's had a low grade fever on and off and has not been eating much of anything for the last two weeks. We figure he's teething and he has a miserable cold so this isn't terribly surprising, and while the doctor agreed that could be the problem apparently not eating and low fever can also be a symptom of a UTI. Since Michael has mild hydronephrosis, UTIs are something everyone gets excited about and we found ourselves headed to CHEO for a urine sample.

"Can't a clinic do a urine sample?" I wondered. Apparently not since she wanted results that day. There is a silver lining though, because our wonderful neighbour who is herself a pediatrician heard my tale of woe and may have found us a family doctor.

Anyway, Amelia has been under the weather for a little while, and her cough has been getting somewhat spectactular. I was hoping that she could be seen at the same time as Michael, but the well baby doctor not only refused to listen to her lungs but since it was "appointments only" we had to go halfway across the city with her and wait an hour to be seen. Unhelpful well baby doctor did pronounce it her opinion that Amelia should be seen today. So we did that before going to CHEO. Just as well, because doctor number two listened to her lungs and immediately prescribed Biaxin, a puffer AND a chest xray.

After a quick lunch consisting mainly of popcorn, we picked Daddy up from home and I took Michael to emerg and Daddy took Amelia to the xray department to see if she had pneumonia.  It didn't take too long to determine that Michael did not have a UTI. I declined to waste anymore ER time and headed home without seeing the doctor in time to get the kids from the bus and take them to their evening activities. I'm assuming Amelia doesn't have pneumonia either but we haven't actually heard.