Allowance, boys and swimming

I'm typing on our old desktop computer tonight.  It's old and slow and pretty much just used by the kids playing computer games.  I forgot how slow it was.  Our laptop died on Sunday.  It has been giving us a warning for a while.  It told us to back everything up because hard drive failure was imminent.  That didn't sound good.  But we got almost four months before the imminent failure happened.  I turned it on Sunday afternoon and it told me the hard drive did not exist.  I'm not as expert, but I'm pretty sure that's not good.  So now we're looking for a laptop.  Fun, fun.

Jorja has been helping out a lot around the house lately.  She is super keen to clean the table off after meals and even cleans the litter box once in a while.  We decided that since she was starting to show some responsibility that we would give her an allowance.  So we started at the beginning of April - $5/week.  To her credit, she knows what she wants and can save till she gets it.  She's had her eye on some clay charm-making craft book/kit at Indigo for some time now.  It was $23.99.  She had a bit of money from before the allowance started, so she saved every week, and when she had enough, she asked if she could go and buy it.  So we did.  She brought her own wallet along with all her money.  I thought her chest might explode when she was up at the till paying for her stuff with her money by herself.  It was pretty awesome to see.  We had a chat before we started this about how saving is important, but that giving is also important.  I asked her if she had $10, what would be a good amount to give away, and she said a dollar.  Sounds like 10% to me.  So she's been taking a loonie every other Sunday to church.  She's a pretty awesome kid and we're pretty proud of her.

Of course Ginny sees the allowance thing and it didn't really hit home until Jorja bought her own thing.  Ginny was pretty upset that day.  So we had a chat with her too, and if she helps out and does her part, she could have an allowance too.  Not as much as Jorja, but a start.  The first couple days after the chat was a bit much.  Dad, what can I do now?  Mom, what do you need done now?  Should I dust?  Should I clean up?  Should I make my bed?  If only the enthusiasm would last.  She's pretty good about doing her part too though.

Ginny and CeCe both seem to be better friends with boys than girls.  Maybe it's just that there have been more boys than girls their ages at daycare.  I'm not sure, but Ginny is best friends with a boy from daycare who is also in her preschool class.  They play well together and have a great time.  The boy, I'll call him C, came to Ginny's birthday party.  As Julie was curling Ginny's hair that day, Ginny said, "I bet C has never seen me with curled hair before."  As it turns out, she is not the only one concerned with her appearance.  We had C over one weekend for a play date and he got his Mom to do his hair for the occasion too.  It was all gelled up and spiky.  Pretty cute.  They were playing for a while and then C seemed to be quite taken with our piano.  He really enjoyed playing it.  So he was plunking away for a while and Ginny was sitting on the steps not very impressed.  I guess when you have a piano in your house and take lessons, some of the thrill wears off.  After a while he looked up and saw the look on Ginny's face.  He said, "All right Ginny, I can see that I'm annoying you.  What would you like me to do now?"  The boy's learning young.

CeCe has a little friend in Sunday school.  I'll call him Z.  We're friends with one of the volunteers in their class, so we get some behind the scenes info that we normally wouldn't.  One morning we walked in, and Z yelled from across the room, "Hi CeCe!"  I guess he had been asking before we showed up if CeCe would be there.  Our friend figured that we must be friends with Z and hang out outside Sunday school, but that is not the case.  He only gets an hour a week, but he likes to make the most of it.  Last week, the two of them were sitting side by side and he looked over and said, "You've got pretty flowers on your dress CeCe."  CeCe didn't miss a beat and replied, "I know!"  That's all she had to say about that.

The older girls finished up their skating lessons and both made huge improvements.  Jorja went from just walking on the ice to actually gliding and almost doing cross overs.  Ginny went from not being able to stand up to going with now walker and moving up a level in her class. 

Now we're into swimming lessons.  All three of them this time though.  They all love it, but CeCe talks about it all the time.  "I'm going swimming?"  Not today, Friday.  "I'm going swimming on Friday?"  The lessons themselves worked out awesome.  All three girls in different lessons in the same half hour time slot.  We'll probably never be so lucky again.  They all look like they are having a blast when they're out there.

Hopefully my next post will be sooner coming than this one was.  Later.

Ginny turns five

Ginny turned 5 on March 7th.  She is a pretty amazing kid.  She is smart, funny, sensitive and independent.  She has a wicked sense of humor and one of the most infectious laughs you will ever hear.  She definitely marches to her own beat.  Her fashion sense is in a word - monochromatic.  Her top has to match the bottom.  She loves to play with Jorja, but is also starting to enjoy her little sister's company as well.  The three of them all play fairly well together most days.

 

Leading up to her birthday, there was a lot of discussion about what she wanted for a gift.  When we looked in stores, it pretty much boiled down to she wanted everything.  Obviously, this wasn't going to happen.  After doing some Internet research, she decided she would like some Lego.  That works for me - I love Lego.  We got her a couple of sets, and nine days later, she is still playing with it.  That's a good sign.  Today, she built something with no instructions.  Awesome!  That's what Lego is supposed to be about.  Sets are nice, but we got most of our enjoyment just building stuff ourselves.  Here she is with some of her stuff.

Her birthday fell on a Thursday, so we didn't do much that day.  We asked what she wanted for her birthday supper and she said Montana's.  That sounded good, so we headed there after work.  We asked her beforehand if she wanted the waiters and waitresses to sing to her and she said yes, but she didn't wan to wear 'the hat'.  For those of you not familiar with Montana's, they have a big Moose antler hat they make the 'lucky' person wear.  Personally, it grosses me out.  How do I know the sanitary state of the scalp that was in there before mine.  So I was glad she didn't want the hat.  We conveyed this wish to our hostess, but the message got lost along the way.  When the group of servers came out to sing, they had the hat with them.  Ginny went into ugly cry.  "I don't want to wear the hat!"  They apologized of course, but to say the moment wasn't the same after that would be a bit of an understatement.  She did manage to quiet her sobs while they chanted out their version of happy birthday, but the sparkler in her ice cream had long gone out.  The video is not exactly happy.

Fast forward to the Sunday after her actual birthday to her party.  She invited 7 friends from preschool to a gymnastics party.  They all had a blast and we had some tired, sweaty girls when we were done.

Parachutes, relay races, and trampolines filled the better part of two hours.  I took a lot of pictures, but realized that all I had were a lot of blurry kids.  I guess the iPhone doesn't capture the action trampoline shots that well.  The relay race was quite amusing.  When they finally got the hang of passing the baton, they waited till the competition was back before the next person would go.  Whatever lead one team had was gone as they waited politely for their competitor to come back.
Then came cake and presents.

It was a Barbie theme and Julie did an awesome job on the cake.

Everyone was really thirsty by the time we headed home.

Another great party in the books (and not in our house).  Later.

Parent of the year

I had one of those 'parent of the year' moments today.  We were outside in the backyard for a good portion of the afternoon.  It started with me on the roof shovelling some snow off, then doing some snowblowing and shovelling off the trampoline (which we didn't get taken down before the snow fell last fall.  When I was on the roof I realised how much snow was on it and figured that probably wasn't good).  Julie was doing some chipping and trying to find the driveway under layers of packed snow and ice.  Eventually we were all outside and the kids were playing. 

I'm not sure if anyone has seen the show 'Idiot Abroad', but Julie and I have been watching it lately.  The basic premise is that Ricky Gervais sends his friend (the idiot) around the world to see magnificent sights.  There are some bumps in the road along the way to make for some more entertaining TV.  One show, Carl (the idiot) was going to Alaska to watch whales.  Part of the experience meant visiting an Inuit village and going on a pleasure hike with a guide through waist-high snow all day.  He was not impressed.  Anyway, as Jorja was leading Ginny through the mountains of snow in our backyard today, I couldn't help but think of this show.  We have an area for RV parking (which loosely translates to weed-growth area) between the garage and the neighbour's yard.  They went exploring back there and they were both up to their waists in snow.  It was rather slow going.  I was supervising CeCe on the play center and watching them. 

It was fairly mild today, so I thought I would see if a snowman was in the cards.  I picked up and handful and it wasn't quite warm enough.  I'm not sure what the Inuit word for this type of snow is, but I think it would translate as 'not quite soft enough to make a snowman, but if you pack it hard enough, you can make a snowball.'  So I made a snowball, which was packed pretty hard.  I looked over at the two explorers by the garage and thought I would lob the snowball in their general direction.  I thought maybe they would look up and get a kick out of it or wonder where it came from.  That's how I had things played out in my head.  What actually happened was a little different.

I lobbed the snowball toward them, Jorja looked up and it hit her square in the face.  She went down like she had been shot and started howling.  I ran over to her through the really deep snow, filled my boots, but kept on.  I got to her and wiped the snow from her poor shocked and wounded face.  She was still crying pretty good and said it hurt to open her eye.  I got her into the house and calmed down and explained myself to Julie who wondered what all the commotion was about.  It was quite the ordeal.  But this evening, she had no lasting damage and had forgiven me for my error in judgement.  Sheesh.  Who is the idiot now?  Later.

CeCe turns three

It's been a while again, and I still haven't written about our baby's birthday.  Yes, CeCe turned three on February seventh.  It's hard to believe.  Three years!  Where did they go?  This whole blog was started shortly after she was born.  It seems like so long ago.  How she has changed?  She definitely is our girl with the most attitude and will power.  Sometimes that's a great thing and other times it makes me want to pull what little hair I have left out.  But we love her dearly and her independent, slightly defiant personality should serve her well in future years.

 

She loves to be in the middle of things with her two older sisters, who sometimes don't like to include her as much as they should.  But she makes her presence know, whether it's firmly (and loudly) stating her case, or stealing a key piece to the game being played and running off with it. 

 

She loves to pretend and is usually a different princess every day.  "Daddy, I'm Tiana.  You prince Naveen."  "Daddy, I'm Cinderella, you prince charming."  "Daddy, I'm Fioana, you Shrek."  You get the picture.  She's the princess and I'm the corresponding prince or ogre.  (Perhaps this is because I'm the only male in the house.)

 

Like her sisters, she loves music and loves to sing along in the car.  She is still my Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac fan, and more recently, she has taken a liking to Mumford and Sons.  It's awesome to listen to her sing along.

 

Julie made her a ballerina bear cake for her birthday, which she loved.  She was all smiles when that came out.  She also loved to sing happy birthday to herself.  When she was talking to her grandparents after the cake, she described it as 'the demon bear Mordue'.  That's a Brave reference in case you're not familiar with that movie. 

 

Maybe it's just me, but the bear doesn't look too vicious.

It sure tasted good though.  Next was present time.  She definitely know what to do with presents now.

 



 

Her favorite present had to be the dress-up Merida costume from the movie Brave.  She can surely be as fiery as her new wig is.

We didn't have a party for her.  We felt kind of bad because the other two both had parties when they turned three.  But they both asked for parties and we had more friends with kids their ages.  CeCe never asked and we're not really friends with any parents with kids her age.  So we decided to have an overnight stay in a hotel in town here and just have some family time swimming and hanging out.  There's nothing like swimming three times (twice the day of check-in and once in the morning before check-out) to wear some kids (and parents) out.  They all had a blast, both in the pool and hanging out in the hotel room.  Hmmm, popcorn twists in bed watching Treehouse.  Don't get to do that at home.  Here they are all tucked in cross-wise in the bed. 

There's probably not many more years of being able to do that. 

Anyway, happy belated birthday CeCe.  We love you!  Later.

 

Books, bare butts, bruises and bran

I just finished getting the girls all tucked into bed, and now I can just sit for a minute.  It seems like it's go go go everyday from the time I get home till they're in bed.  Supper, bath, story, bed.  There's not much time for catching one's breath.  CeCe didn't nap today, so she was the first out.  (She's last on days she naps)  Ginny followed and Jorja is still reading. 

She's reading the 'Cupcake Diaries' series right now.  We got her a set of four for Christmas and she's on the last one.  She reads so much and fast that sometimes I wonder how much she absorbs.  I shouldn't wonder.  I made the mistake of asking what her books were about.  She went into an eleven minute synopsis of the first three books.  'Katie was sad that no one would sit with her on the bus so she sat with a new girl, Mia and they became friends and started the cupcake club and then there was a dance and they made cupcakes for that and they won a prize and then everyone wanted some and then there is Emma, who is quite the fashion girl so when Alexis suggested that they all wear their 'Park Street Middle School' ('cause that's where they go to school) sweatshirts for a uniform, Emma was like I don't think so but then her Mom said remember when you were 5 and you made something unfashionable fashionable so she made her sweatshirt into a bag and then one of them (I forget the name now) didn't have much money but wanted a $220 dress so she got a job walking dogs and then the other girls helped her so she could have the perfect dress to be a junior bridesmaid and someones Mom was going to get remarried because she was like, you know, divorced to Eddie, who was nice, but strict.'  *breath* Why did I ask again?

Last night Julie took Jorja to piano lessons, so I was putting Ginny to bed when they were gone.  CeCe had napped, so she was staying up for a bit yet.  She came along to tuck Ginny in though and say our night time prayers.  We always make them say something that they are thankful for.  CeCe said, "I'm thankful to God that I got to go to Cindy's house."  That's good, I said, anything else?  With no hesitation at all, she said, "Tigers."  All right then.

On Sunday afternoon, the girls wanted to keep their dresses on from church, but took their tights off, so they were running around with bare legs.  CeCe wanted to get in on this too, so she took her tights off as well.  She was running around for I don't know how long when she wiped out and hurt her leg.  She was crying, so I went to pick her up.  Imagine my surprise to find out that when I did, I discovered that she had no diaper on.  Nothing.  She had been running around free and clear under her dress for quite some time.  We never did find a puddle anywhere, so I think we're okay.

Last Wednesday was -42 with the wind and the last thing I felt like doing was taking the girls to skating.  I even tried to bribe them to miss, but they wanted to go, so we did.  I'm glad we did, because they are really making improvements.  Jorja is finally starting to look like she's not just walking on the ice (she says her striding it awesome - I say it's slightly visible).  And Ginny went the entire lesson with no walker.  There were times when I wished they would have just given her one.  But they kept encouraging her and helping her and occasionally holding her hand.  Still, there were times I could barely watch.  She looked so helpless and sometimes defeated.  And my knees winced every time she fell.  She cried once for a bit, but kept at it and was smiling again by the end.  She has some pretty good bruises, but she didn't give up and she wants to go back.  The coaches they have really are amazing for this age level.  The one boy coach who is only a teenager came off the ice and chased Ginny down after the lesson to tell her how awesome she did and that she didn't need a walker and to bend her knees and keep having fun.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Last weekend, CeCe was pretty backed up (by that I mean constipated) so I decided to break out the secret weapon - my Mom's bran muffins.  I'm not sure what it is about these muffins, because I don't like bran and I don't like raisins, but I love these muffins.  It's a recipe where you make up the batter and then leave the pail in the fridge.  Most times when we go to my parents' (and always at Christmas), Mom has some muffin mix in the fridge and everyone loves it.  So I got the recipe from Mom and headed off to Superstore to get the ingredients.  I needed All-bran, natural bran and bran flakes.  I didn't know there were so many options when it came to bran.  My instructions from Mom said that all bran was like little worms and natural bran was like powder.  Bran flakes were wide open - could be plain, have dried berries or raisins in them.  Sure enough, all bran did look like little worm and natural bran was powdery.  But then there was oat bran and wheat bran.  So many choices.  Who knew?  I didn't know what to do, so I settled on oat bran and the All bran cereal that looked like worms.  I went with plain PC bran flakes and I was done.  It was kind of stressful though.  I had a lot riding on these muffins and I didn't want to screw them up.  As it is, they look a lot lighter in color than my Mom's but they taste good and they did the trick, if you know what I mean.  That was definitely the longest time I've spent in the bran aisle though.

Did I mention we got another kitten?  We thought Maggie should have a friend, so we adopted Layla as well.  It was a rough first few days, but they are getting along now and the girls adore them both.  The kittens are both very patient with the girls mauling, so that's good too. 

Jora had her mid-year piano recital a few weeks ago.  Her teacher decided to have it in January this year instead of December, so that was nice.  Jorja had her songs memorized, but we took her book along anyway.  When it was her turn, she wanted to take her book.  Julie held onto it and wouldn't let her.  There was a bit of a tug-o-war, but Julie won and Jorja went up empty handed.  She did great though - no need for the book.  At her lesson the next day, her teacher said she witnessed the book 'discussion' from the front of the church and had a good chuckle over it.  Back to the recital though.  CeCe was being herself and not exactly sitting still.  One piano being played by itself in a big church leaves a bit of room to hear other things.  Like CeCe farting.  After she let one go and started giggling, Julie asked her what she should say now.  There was no whispering involved when she blurted out, "I fawted!"  I'm pretty sure 'excuse me' was the answer Julie was looking for.  Oh well, no one turned around anyway.

Later.

Skating, geography and kittens

I guess I'm not doing very well with my resolution.  January is half over already.  The month is going well though.  The girls are settled into their new daycare and enjoying it.  Ginny made the transition to the morning preschool like a rock star.  She has some new friends and even had a duel play date (there is a family with two girls - one in Jorja's grade and one in Ginny's).  Every day when I pick the up, CeCe runs up to me and yells, "I go to Cindy's house!"  That's good, cause that's where I'm picking you up.

Skating started last week and I'll be honest - it was a little shaky.  For Ginny's age group, they take all the kids out on the ice and sit them down on the blue line.  Then they shake their legs, touch their toes, and a bunch of other stuff.  Lastly, they get the kids to get up.  Well, try as she might, my little Bambi couldn't do it.  She started to cry.  She was looking at me over by the boards and crying.  Poor thing.  But the instructor came over and gave her a walker and she got up.  I was a little worried, but she pulled herself together and had a fun lesson.  Jorja did alright too.  She seems to be one of the weaker ones in her class, but she's trying and having fun.

Ginny waiting to get out there

Jorja rounding the pylon

Ginny up and having fun

Tonight, Ginny was able to get up all by herself with no help from the instructor or her walker.  It was awesome!  I was so proud of her. 

The one thing about skating is that the rink is across town, so it takes about 20 minutes to get there.  Our first trip was so long that it led into a geography lesson led by Jorja.  Ginny was wondering if we were leaving the city or the country.  Jorja explained that we live in the country Canada and in the province of Saskatchewan and in SK, there are many cities.  Saskatoon is one.  Prince Albert is one.  Yorkton is one.  Regina is one.  "But Ginny, it's not like the regina we have.  That's different."  At this point I had to intervene.  "Whoa, whoa, whoa!  You do not have a regina.  Yours starts with a V."  By this point there was a lot of giggling going on in the back seat.  Sheesh.

We also have some other fairly big news.  On Saturday, we got a kitten.  Maggie has joined our household and is fitting in great and getting lots of love.

Ginny is the most taken with her, which is no surprise.  I think now on our third work/school/daycare day, Ginny finally didn't cry about having to leave Maggie at home alone.  It just broke her heart to leave her alone by herself all day.  It's no surprise Maggie made out quite well and probably enjoyed a little down time.  Last night before supper, CeCe was wearing some dress-up fairy wings.  She took them off for supper and left them on the floor by her chair.  Maggie came up to investigate as kittens do and started playing with the wings.  CeCe looked down and in a very stern voice said, "Maggie!  Not Cool!"  I wonder where she heard that from.  Later.

A new year

I guess if I said I was going to write more regularly again this year, I should at least do it once in the first week.  2013 is shaping up well so far.  We've had a few big changes this year and the girls handled them all great.  The biggest change was new daycare.  Jan. 2 saw us start with a new daycare provider.  We had met her before Christmas and the girls all loved her instantly.  As we were leaving the initial meeting, Ginny asked how many sleeps till January second.  That was a huge sign for us.  (We thought she would be the toughest sell)  As it turns out, as the day approached, Jorja was the most nervous, but they all went and had a great time.  Not a tear was shed at drop-off or throughout the day.  With the daycare switch, we also moved Ginny to the morning preschool session.  I took her for the first class on Friday and she did awesome there too.  The teacher figured that after she made a couple friends, she would like this class better anyway.  They are a little more her speed.  This weekend brought us back to piano/music lessons and Sunday school.  The girls all jumped right in like they never left off.  Next week starts skating lessons for the older two, so we'll see how that goes.  So it's been a busy start to the year, but all is well and God has answered our prayers.

In the meantime, the girls are getting some use out of their Christmas gifts, which is good.  Ginny got a Hello Kitty make-up desk with some toy hair tools (straightener, clip, brush, hair dryer complete with a battery and working fan).  So there has been lots of sitting in the chair and getting stylized.  Today I believe I overheard the Furby was even getting her hair straightened.

It turns out that the hair dryer also serves another purpose because part of back to school/daycare was new toenail polish.

Nothing like a little fan to help dry the pedi.

I'm not sure where the girls got the idea, but this weekend they have been 'exercising'.  Basically this involves getting out a blanket for a yoga mat and rolling around on it.  I did witness some pretty feeble attempts at push-ups, and here is the ringleader trying to show her sidekicks how to do sit-ups.

This afternoon they wanted to dance as well.  So I got them set up with the wii and they burned off some steam with Just Dance 2.  It was quite the sight.  I think Jorja may have some Elaine tendencies in her dance moves (Seinfeld reference).  Interesting to say the least.  Anyway, CeCe felt left out with no 'remote' to dance with so I had to find her one.  We still have the VCR one kicking around, so that was her controller.  It actually did the trick.

CeCe has been learning from her sisters and is starting to appreciate potty humor.  The other day as I was getting her out of the tub, she let a pretty good ripper go.  "What do you say?" I said.  She grinned and said, "Fawted."  I asked her what she says when she farts and before I was done the question, she let another one go.  "Fawted again!" she said.  It's tough to argue with that.

In another month, CeCe will turn three, and the girls have been reminding her of that already.  The other day Jorja asked her what she wanted for her birthday and without missing a beat, she said, "Presents!"  It's good to know what you want.  Later.