Stained Glass, Etc.

Well, today is not going to be about Theo - at least not much yet. Last night Jamie and Theo came to pick me up from the airport. It was so great to see them. And Theo was a really good boy, despite how late it was. He must have been so tired, but he wanted to pick mommy up from the airport. Too bad that it was dark already! He couldn't see the airplanes. But once he realized that the lights in the sky were airplanes taking off or landing he was excited anyways! :)

Anyway, Theo is at daycare right now. But I might add more later if anything interesting happens... :)

The meeting in Toronto went well. The flight back (Porter airlines) was great also. I'm not used to being treated like a human on a flight anymore. They don't exactly give you dinner, but on the way to Toronto they gave us a breakfast box (a muffin, cereal, a nutribar) and whatever you want to drink. On the way back they gave us snacks and again, whatever you want to drink. But I was totally surprized about the waiting area/lounge at Island airport! They had comfortable seats, access to computers, there was a kitchen area with a number of cold drinks, coffee, cappuchino, and snacks that you could help yourself to for free! Given that I was there for 2.5 hours, that was nice. Overall it was a pleasure to travel with Porter to and from Toronto!

A couple of days ago I finished another of my stained glass pieces. It turned out quite lovely! It's a pearl coloured nautilus with blue/purple glass around it. It's a gift for my director who is moving on to another job at Health Canada. I hope she likes the nautilus. I certainly do! Have a look below at a picture of the nautilus that I took on my new/old camera (wooohoo! it works great!) at home before I wrapped it.



Oh, and for those of you that want to look at pictures of the other pieces that I have made so far, just have a look at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28881&l=f574f&id=752205338

What else happened today? After work Theo and I went to take Loup (our dog) for a walk in the dog park. It's not really a dog park. It's the park at the community centre that after 6:30 pm is open to dogs off leash. And in the community centre there is a gym where everyone plays basket ball in the evenings, and a hockey rink where the kids play on their various teams. Cheryl's son D. was playing hockey tonight. So we went to visit with them while watching D. practice. Loup was waiting outside. It was great! Theo was mesmerized. And he had loads of fun hanging out with Cheryl, Chris and their sons! We also ran into Robin, Marva and their two sons there! It seems THE place to be in the evenings! :)

We ran into my brother Yousif (whom Theo calls 'Uncle Usseff' - Theo just LOVES his Uncle Usseff!!!) on our way out and then continued on to the park with Yousif so that Loup would get to have some fun and then on to the playground where Theo got to have some fun. After that we went home for dinner! Jamie made an amazing Pickerel dish!!! Hmmmmm! And it was nice to have a visit with Yousif and then have him over for dinner! We really should do this more often!

Speaking of our critters - we have an 11 year old dog by the name of Loup (he turns 12 on Dec. 4th) and a 5 year old cat by the name of Chloe. I've added a picture of each of them for you to see Theo. Chances are that Loup won't be around when you're bigger, but I think that Chloe will be. Anyway, here are pictures of them the way they look today! :)


(Loup)


(Chloe)

Today I also looked into the issue of colour blindness in boys and this is what I have found. As it turns out Theo may very well only be confused between colours and shapes. Have a look below at what I found on the website of Children, Youth and Women's Health Service - Parenting and Child Health (http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=304&id=1860).

When children know colours
All of the cells and nerve pathways in the eye and the brain are present from birth, and very young children can see the difference between colours if they are not colour blind. They do not see colours very well at first but soon begin to like colours, especially bright colours.

However children under about 4 years may not understand that the 'green' of a ball, for example, is the same colour as the 'green' of grass.

The child needs more understanding of things like colours, shapes and sizes to 'see' that different things can be the same colour.

Younger children may be able to say that the ball is green, but not able to say that grass is also green (they know that it doesn't look anything like the ball, and are confused when we want them to say the same describing word!). Many children are able to recognise and name colours by the time they are 4.

What is colour blindness?
In the retina at the back of the eye (the part of the eye that picks up light coming in) there are two types of cells, 'rod cells' and 'cone cells', and these react differently to light.

Rod cells are very sensitive to light, and they can react to even very faint light such as light from a star in a hazy night sky, but they do not 'see' different colours. Using rod cells we can see things around us at night, but only in shades of black, grey and white.

Cone cells react to brighter light, and they help us to see the detail in objects. They also pick up colours. There are three types of cone cells, ones that pick up red light, others green and others blue.

By combining the messages from each set of cone cells, we get the wide range of colours that we can normally see. Someone who is colour blind lacks one or more of these types of cone cells.

Who is colour-blind?
Red-green colour blindness is usually inherited, and occurs in about 8% of males and only about 0.4% of females. This is because of the way the genes for the different cone cells are carried on the chromosomes. The genes that lead to red-green colour blindness are on the X chromosome [males have only one of these and females have two].

If a mother 'carries' the gene for red-green colour blindness (one normal and one altered gene) she will not have a colour vision problem. About 50% of the sons of women who are carriers will be colour blind (in any family it may not be 50% because the distribution of the genes is random).

A daughter will not normally be red-green colour blind unless her mother is a carrier and her father is colour-blind, but about 50% of daughters of women who are carriers will also carry the gene.

Only 5% of people who are colour-blind have blue colour blindness, and this is equal in males and females, because the genes for it are on a different chromosome (chromosome 7).

Colour blindness can be due to a change in the chromosome during development. It is not always inherited.

As stated before, all of the above can be found at: http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=304&id=1860

That's it for today! I'll write more again tomorrow.