Sunday, December 18, 2011

December...part 3

This was also the month for Christmas concerts and recitals.  Ginny's both turned out to be on the same day.  The preschool Sunday School program sang some songs in church in the morning, and then it was have a quick bite, turn around and head back out to her music lesson recital.  She did awesome at both.

Jorja missed her piano recital as it was the same afternoon as the kids' Christmas party.  Fun Factory or piano recital?  It wasn't really a tough call.

She had her school Christmas concert this past week too, but it was too dark for any pictures to turn out.  She sang her little heart out though.
Now all the parties and programs are taken care of, it's just a matter of getting all the presents wrapped and under the tree.  Jorja's last day of school is tomorrow, I only have three more days of work (since I don't work Fridays, I get off a day before Julie).  Then we are all off the week between Christmas and New Years, so that should be good.  Later. 
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December...part 2

There seem to be few days worthy of playing outside this year.  We have hardly any snow.  We had one big snowfall earlier, but a lot of melting temperatures since then have left things a combination of exposed grass and ice.  We did have a slight skiff recently so we all went out. 








I thought it was time to put them all to work.

A lot of the time they have been too sick to play outside too.  It seems we just have a steady rotation of colds and flus going through the house.  Jorja had bronchitis once and was on antibiotics.  CeCe is just getting over a nasty cold.  She always seems to get so hoarse when she's sick.  By supper time, she babbles on in her half words/half gibberish speak in this poor little voice that sounds exactly like Donald Duck.  If you didn't feel so sorry for her, it might be kind of funny.

Later.
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Friday, December 9, 2011

December...part 1

It's hard to believe where this month has gone.  We're less than a week to Christmas now.  I will try to remember some of what has gone on over the past few weeks.  Some photos may help me.

The first weekend of the month was the kids' Christmas party put on by my employer.  They do it every year, and it is always so much fun.  The girls really look forward to it.  The past several have been at the Fun Factory here in town.  Doesn't that just scream a good time?!  It's a whole factory of fun after all.  All three girls enjoyed themselves.  There is a huge maze of tunnels, slides, ball pits and the such for the older girls.  I did have to go in once to rescue Ginny.  I had to do the same thing last year too.  There is one particular slide that ends in a small ball pit.  The only way out is just out of Ginny's reach.  Jorja tried to boost her, but couldn't quite to it, so I got the frantic call.  "Dad, come quick!  Ginny's stuck!"  At least this year she wasn't freaking out when I got there.

There is also a small area for toddlers to play in complete with their own ball pit.  CeCe could obviously not read the sign that said 'Keep balls in ball pit' as her favourite activity seemed to be going and getting them and throwing them over the little fence that enclose the play area.  Oh well, she had a little helper who apparently could read the sign and took it as his own mission to gather up the balls she had thrown out.

And after a couple hours of fun and sugar, Santa showed up.  Not one of our kids cried this year!  That was definitely a first.  Jorja and Ginny both talked to him, CeCe not so much.  She sat there though, and used her famous 'if I don't look at you, you don't really exist' defense.  She's quite good at it really.




After all that fun, I took the older two to their cousin's birthday party yet where they were treated to a balloon artist.  Needless to say everyone slept good that night.

Later.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

CeCe gets mad

Ginny likes to make me 'smoothies' during her bath time.  She takes the cup I use for rinsing her hair and fills it with water, sometimes rubber ducks, sometimes face cloths and suds.  Sometimes she takes my order, other times she just gives me whatever she feels like.  As long as I pretend to drink it and ooh and aah about how this is the best smoothie I've ever tasted, she is happy.  The other night as she was making one, she informed me that she was putting spices into it.  This was something new.  I've never had one with spices before.  So I asked her what kind of spice she was using.  She looked at me, gave a little grin and said, "Cho-co-late chi-ip!"  Ahh, she knows me well.  That would have to be one of my favourite 'spices.'

Our ninja doesn't seem to be going away either.  Now she's got her own alter ego ninja persona - Ninja Lily!  Yes, she strikes fear into those who hear it and get caught in her path.  HIYAH!

Jorja brought home her report card this week.  Yup, she takes after me.  And Julie of course.  But now she's sick again - this is the third day of school she missed this week.  She's had a headache, slightly upset stomach and been coughing her lungs out.  Julie took her in yesterday and it turns out she has an infection in her chest, so she's on antibiotics.  Fun and games.

CeCe is developing into quite the little character.  She too definitely has a mind of her own.  We have a child gate on our family room to keep her from coming up the stairs and wreaking havoc everywhere.  I was getting supper ready the other day and needed something from the basement, so I had to walk through the family room.  Jorja, Ginny and CeCe were all playing down there, and all was well until I came into sight.  CeCe felt that she should be accompanying me to the kitchen, and decided to let me know.  She started walking over to the little Christmas tree (we have two - one small one with 'child-friendly' decorations downstairs and the big one with breakables upstairs).  She grabbed a decoration off the tree (while I was telling her not to touch the tree) and proceeded to march over to the gate and throw the decoration over the gate in my general direction.  Well, let me tell you, that was not going to fly.  I managed to keep a straight face (her little march of defiance was kind of cute and funny looking) and told her that that was NOT what we did.  She then spent her first time on the 'naughty step.'  So it begins.  Later.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Decorating

This afternoon we put up the tree.  Well, I put up the tree, strung the lights and garland this morning while Ginny and Julie were at piano lessons and then the girls decorated it this afternoon.  I think next year may be a bit more relaxing.  This year was a bit stressful to say the least.  Jorja and Ginny were excited and pulling decorations out of the box.  CeCe didn't really know what was going on - just that she wanted to be involved.  So between keeping her under control and keeping the really breakable ornaments away from the other two, it was busy.  I was ready for it to be over.  A lot of the ornaments have strings tied in a loop to put them on the tree.  The girls got them on, but not very far, so when they went to put the next one up, the previous one hit the floor.  There was a lot of 'Bang!'  'What was that?!'  'It's okay, it's not broken.'  In the end, there were two fatalities, but the girls had fun and were pretty proud of themselves.

It is also a yearly tradition in our house to bring out the Fisher Price Little People nativity scene.  The girls were all over that this afternoon.  When you push the angel on the roof, it plays 'Away in the Manger.'  Jorja didn't know all the words, but she remembered we had a story book that had all the words for the song.  So she went and found the book, played the tune on the stable and read the words and by the end of the afternoon, she had the whole song down.  Pretty impressive.

After everyone is bed, I like to find all the pieces and line everything up.  Julie thinks I enjoy it, and to be truthful, I do.


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Later.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Movember

I'm not sure where this month has gone, or why I haven't written more.  The longer I go, the more scared I get to write something new, so I'm just going to jump back in.  Time to shake off these winter blues (seeing as how it feels more like spring now) and write again.

Julie and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this month on the tenth.  We had plans of a little getaway - a couple of nights in a hotel (with the kids, so there wouldn't be too much celebrating) water sliding and having some fun.  Unfortunately, Ginny and CeCe both got the stomach flu the night before, so we ended up cancelling everything.  We were pretty disappointed, but didn't really feel like sick kids in a hotel.  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate puke?  Yup, not a fan.  At one point, we were in the process of cleaning up CeCe and her mess when she puked again.  Only this time I was holding her.  It's funny how my first reaction was to try to contain everything so it wouldn't make a mess everywhere.  She was in just a diaper at this point, to she went straight to the shower with Julie.  That left me and my shirt which had caught pretty much everything.  I should have been a goalie.  Long story short, I threw the shirt out.  Yes, our anniversary ended up a little more low key than we anticipated. 

On the upside, it was nice that weekend, so I got the Christmas lights up.  I thought I had bought a lot after Christmas last year, but they just didn't go as far as I would have liked.  I wanted to Griswold up the place, but it still looks tasteful.  Oh well, maybe next year.  If Julie gets her way, we will have at least one inflatable on the lawn pretty soon.

Ginny has decided that she is a ninja.  So far I'm okay with this.  She hasn't discovered throwing stars yet.

We got out the 'Just Dance' game for the wii the other night.  All you do is hold the controller in one hand and mimic the dance moves of the person on the TV.  If you wanted to cheat, you could just move your hand the right way and get a really good score, but there's no fun in that.  We started out with Ginny and Jorja each having a controller, Julie was helping CeCe, and I was dancing with no controller.  Eventually Ginny tired of holding it, so she went free-style and I took the controller.  It was fairly obvious that I was winning all the dances, so I put the remote in the wrong hand.  This strategy worked, and Jorja ended up with more points than me.  Later on that evening, Jorja said to me, "Dad, I know you let me win that game."  What, I said in shock.  "You put the controller in the wrong hand,"  she said.  Holy observant batman.  I can't even let her win without her knowing it.  I thought I was being kind of sneaky.  I guess I'm not a ninja.

We had Jorja's parent-teacher interview this evening (or three-way conference as they like to call them now because the student comes too).  There are not a lot of times when I have been more proud.  We knew she was a great reader, but she is just an all around good kid too.  She helps others, listens well (not sure why this doesn't happen as good at home), is nice to everyone and is a leader.  When they have 'free' time, they are encouraged to do whatever they want - draw, colour, play games, read.  Apparently Jorja's favourite thing to do during this time is curl up in the rocking chair and read the children's Bible that is in the classroom.  I almost got a little misty eyed when I heard that.  She's a pretty amazing kid. 

This November has also become Movember for me.  That's right, I'm sporting a stache.  I'm just not sure that a month is enough time to do all the things that I would like.  It's not really long enough for wax yet.  Oh well.  If you want to donate to the Movember campaign for prostate cancer, check it out:
http://mobro.co/DaveKroeker

Later.

Friday, November 4, 2011

My helpers

Jorja was in school today, so I had my two little helpers here with me.  Ginny wasn't doing a very good job of watching CeCe (in her defence, she is only three), so she was under my feet in the kitchen.  I brought a toy up for her to play with, but that didn't last long.  I started to empty the dishwasher, and CeCe was right in there, ready to help.  She started with the plates, followed by the bowls.  She actually did pretty good - nothing got broken.  Then she moved over to start the cutlery.  She grabbed the first spoon, gave it a big lick and then handed in to me.  She grabbed the next one, stuck it in her mouth, and handed it to me.  I could see I was going to have to intervene here.  I told her that we didn't need to taste the silverware before we put it away, and it went fairly well after that.  The only other spoon she put in her mouth was her own, so it wasn't too bad.
I decided to tackle the leaves while CeCe was napping, so Ginny came out to help me.  Julie's parents are up, so Nanny was on CeCe lookout.  I started out giving Ginny a rake, and soon realized she was going to kill at least one of us.  I took the handle off it so it was a little more manageable and that seemed to work for a while.  But she tires of that after a while, so finally I caved.  "Ginny, do you want to come jump in the pile of leaves over here?" I asked.  She was all over that.  She jumped, she rolled, she 'slept', she threw leaves in the air.  After all, what good is helping rake leaves if you can't have a little fun too.

So my helpers for the day may have caused me a little extra time and a little more work, but I wouldn't change any of it.  It was a great day.


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Hallowe'en 2011

The weather was fairly reasonable this year, but it was still fairly cool after the sun went down.  At least there was no snow.  We managed to sqeeze Jorja and Ginny's princess dresses over their coats, so that was good.  It would be a real waste to have to wear a parka over top - the dress would lose a lot of it's effect.  Not like the touques and jackets really added to the look.  Oh well, it's Saskatchewan, what can you do.

I have to admit that I did have a favourite costume this year, and that was CeCe.  She was my little princess Leia, and she was adorable.   Don't you agree?





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Later.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Sharing



There's one thing about Jorja - she's very good at sharing.  She likes to keep everything equal and usually won't have something if her sisters can't have it too.  If she gets treats at school or birthday parties, she will save them till she gets home so she can share.  She used to only share with Ginny, but now everyone's piece of the pie (or sucker) is getting smaller.  CeCe is not a fan of being left out.  So after Jorja went to a birthday party a while back and came home with a giant sucker, she insisted on sharing it with both her sisters.  It's a good thing they all had colds already, because I think there was a lot of spit being shared there too. 












After Jorja lost her first top font tooth, you could tell the other one wasn't far behind.  By the time it finally came out, it was just kind of hanging there all crooked.  She could push it out over her bottom lip and do a pretty good Nanny McPhee impression.  If you haven't seen the movie, you should google it and you will know what I am talking about.  She had kind of a snaggle tooth herself to say the least.  But they're both out now, so that's good.  I guess I never really thought about what it would be like without those two teeth, but they play a BIG part in one's speech.  The tooth was barely out and Jorja said something and Julie and looked at each other with shocked/amused looks on our faces.  She had a bit of a lisp.  It was kind of cute really.  It's been a few days now and she still has to work at saying her 's' and 'th' sounds quite a bit.
CeCe is starting to exert more and more independence these days.  She likes to eat by herself, but naturally there are still some things that pose a bit of trouble.  I am usually the one that feeds her.  The other day, we started supper before Julie was home from work.  I was trying to feed CeCe and she wasn't having any part of it.  Jorja offered to try, so she came over and everything went in no problem.  A few days earlier it had been the same scenario, except Julie had taken over.  Ginny had some reassuring words for me though, bless her little soul.  She said, "I guess she just doesn't like you as much as Jorja and Mommy."  Yes, heartwarming indeed.  Later.
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Friday, October 28, 2011

Petland

Here's a few shots of the girls at Petland the other day.  CeCe loved the fish.

 


Later.
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Saturday, October 22, 2011

Fart soup

Jorja had a birthday party to go to yesterday after school.  It started at 4:00, and since Julie works till 5:00, that left me and the little two to drop her off.  Ginny always looks so deflated when Jorja gets to do these kinds of things by herself, so I asked her what we should do.  We decided that we would go to Petland and then to McDonald's.  CeCe was really into the pet store this time.  She went right up to the giant parrot's cage, and was about to put her little fingers into the great beast's beak.  Luckily I swooped her up just in time.  Then we went to the budgies.  It was a little safer there.  I think the biggest hit was the fish though.  There was one tank that had a goldfish almost the size of CeCe's head low enough that she could look right in.  She was pretty fascinated.  I'm not sure if that store was closing out or what though, because there were no cats or dogs.  Ginny's favourites are the kitties.  CeCe didn't seem to care - she pointed to mice, guinea pigs and hamsters and called them all puppies.  We then picked up some McD's and headed home.  What Ginny really wanted was ice cream, so she and CeCe shared a strawberry sundae.  She thought that was pretty special.  Then Julie came home and we went to get Jorja.

Since Julie hadn't eaten yet, we stopped at Tim's on the way home and she picked up a bowl of cream of broccoli soup.  Now I know cooked broccoli has a distinctive smell, but I don't think I've ever heard it described like Jorja did.  "What's that smell?"  It's Mom's soup.  "It stinks!  It smells like fart.  It smells like your fart.  Yeah, it smells like grown-up fart!"

Before bed last night, Jorja lost one of her front teeth.  I don't think the other one is far behind either.  Julie and I were tired and ended up going to bed without the tooth fairy coming.  Not good.  Ginny woke up to pee around 1:00 and then I realized it.  I knew she would be devastated if there was no tooth fairy, so there I was at 1:00 in the morning, playing the part of the tooth fairy.  It wouldn't be that bad, but a friend of Julie's gave her an idea for the tooth fairy that we have been following.  Jorja puts the tooth in a dish of water on her dresser and writes a note.  The tooth fairy then leaves some sort of 'clue' in the water as to what sort of tooth fairy it was.  The first one that came I don't remember now, but the second was was a Canada Day tooth fairy.  It left little maple leave sequins in the water.  (She lost the tooth on July 1).  So not only did I have to find some change, I also had to think up what kind of fairy this was.  I decided on a fall tooth fairy and went outside to find some small leaves.  I had to go out to the car to find some change anyway.  Then I had to write a note to answer her note.  Needless to say I was up for about half an hour.  It was all worth it this morning though when she read the note from the tooth fairy.  The things we do for kids...

CeCe has now decided that if she can't see me, then I don't really exist.  Whenever I ask her to do something (usually come for a diaper change or get ready for a tub) she will run to the other side of the room and hide her face against the wall.  It's really quite cute.  A couple of days ago she ran away and then walked back past me, looking away the whole time.  Too funny.  Maybe if I don't look at the leaves outside, they don't really exist either.  Later.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

My little teacher

I decided this weekend to get back up on the horse and take Ginny to piano lessons.  It was the last trip to piano lessons that I had the infamous fender-bender.  As we were pulling out of the garage, I said to her that I would try not to have an accident this time.  She replied, "Yeah, you don't want to bump another car like last time!"  Thanks for the vote of confidence Ginny.

While we were at the lesson, there is one point where the kids get to play the sticks.  The idea is that they only play when the music plays and then stop when the music stops.  They are getting better, but before the song starts and the teacher has them all quiet, it usually gets a bit noisy.  This week was no exception.  Well, except for Ginny who was sitting there quietly.  Then she chimed in,"Why do I hear tapping?!"  I guess there's a bit of a teacher in there somewhere.  Oh well, I got a few smirks from some of the other parents.

We were driving home and Ginny commented on the fact that she was wearing her monkey shirt.  Now she was in the backseat with her coat zipped up, so I couldn't see the shirt at the time.  I was trying to remember what it said, so I asked her if it said funny monkey dance or funky monkey dance.  She said that she wasn't sure and then she said, "We'll have to ask Jorja when we get home."  Yeah, because she is the only one who can read in the house.  Later.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The right choice?

It appears my back seat drivers are only concerned about me bumping into other cars when they are not in a hurry.  Last Friday, the younger two girls and I picked Jorja up from school and then I was taking them for haircuts.  (It's school pictures this week and now that they decided they want bangs, they need haircuts more than once a year.)  Anyway, traffic was fairly heavy, but we had plenty of time to get downtown.  We were stopped at a red light, and when it turned green, it took a while before we could go.  Finally Jorja piped up, "Dad, the light is green."  To which I replied, "I know that the light is green, but the car in front of us hasn't gone yet.  Would you like me to bump into it?"  That quietened down the peanut gallery for a little while.

The other night at supper, the topic of marriage came up.  Ginny looked at Julie and said, "Did you make the right choice?"  Julie was a bit taken aback (so was I for that matter).  "What do you mean, did I make the right choice picking Daddy?"  Ginny nodded.  Julie replied, "I think I made the right choice, do you think I made the right choice?"  Ginny looked at her for a moment and said, "I don't know."  What do you mean you don't know??!  Thanks for the vote of confidence Ginny.  Later.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Thanks for the tip

On the weekend, I was taking Ginny to her music class, so it was just the two of us in the car.  We weren't very far from home yet when I rear-ended someone.  It was just a little tap and we couldn't see anything wrong with their vehicle, but there was some damage to our front bumper.  It doesn't take much to crack something on a new vehicle.  Everything was still drivable, so we ventured on to the lesson.  When I got back into the car, Ginny said to me, "Daddy, why did you bump that car?"  I said it was an accident.  She said, "You're not supposed to bump into other cars."  Yeah, thanks for the tip.

When we were driving home after the lesson, Ginny piped up that she was going to tell Mommy and Jorja that I bumped a car.  It's good to know she's got my back.  Anyway, Julie was fine, but Jorja gave me this chastising look, shook her little finger at me and said, "You're NOT supposed to do that."  Again, thanks for the tip.

Now you should see the two little backseat drivers I have.  As soon as I get close to another car, they both chime in, "Don't bump into that car."  Once again, thanks for the tip ladies.  It'll be a while before I live this one down.  Later.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Tough questions

It's been a while since I last wrote.  I guess I'm having a hard time thinking of what to say.  I generally like to keep things fairly light but things haven't been as light lately.  Here are some questions and comments we’ve been dealing with lately:
  • Poppa has an owie on his heart.
  • Why can’t the doctors fix Poppa’s heart? 
  • I’m going to pray for Poppa. 
  • Why did Poppa get ‘the cancer’? 
  • Does the cancer hurt? 
  • Terry Fox died from cancer.  That’s too bad, isn’t it? 
  • I’m going to give some of my money from my piggy bank to ‘the Terry Fox’? 
  • Terry Fox lived in BC. 
  • It looks like Terry Fox beat the Roughriders. 
  • I prayed for Poppa and the doctors who are going to fix him. 
  • It’s a good thing we have two kidneys. 
  • I wrote down my prayer for Poppa at Sunday School.  My teacher helped me spell cancer.
Yes, needless to say, we've been dealing with some things lately that a three year old and a six year old shouldn't have to worry about.  My Dad has a heart condition that because of some other complications, they can't do anything about.  Julie's Dad has recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer.  He's still really early in the diagnosis stage, so we're not sure what the total course of action is there yet.  It's always tough to know how much to tell the kids, but Jorja picks up on everything.  You can think you are talking cryptically without saying any names and she will ask a question that she could only ask if she knew exactly what you were talking about.  So we decided to be open and honest with them.  It's tough, but we think talking lots and answering their questions to the best of our ability and their knowledge is best.  There have been plenty of tears.  Bed time seems to be the toughest.  There always seems to be some new questions after they've had time to lay there for a few minutes and think about things.  All we can do is pray.  Later.   

Thursday, September 15, 2011

You did good, here's a sticker

Our daycare provider, Dee was sick today, so I had an extra day at home with the girls.  Well, two of the girls, Jorja still had school.  This morning after we dropped Jorja off, we went to Walmart to pick up a few things.  When we were done and back in the car, I told Ginny that she was really well behaved and that I was proud of her.  I said, "You did awesome Ginny - you listened good, helped when I asked and didn't touch things you weren't supposed to."  She thought for a minute and then said, "You did awesome too Dad.  You got everything we needed and put it in the cart.  For that, you get a sticker!"  (If you have small kids, you know that every Walmart greeter has a plethora of happy face stickers to give out every time you leave the store.)  I thanked her and she put a yellow happy face sticker on my hand and we headed home.  It's nice to hear that I did a good job shopping.

This afternoon, we were sitting for a minute and watching TV.  There were some toy seals on the program and I was pointing them out to CeCe.  Ginny piped up that they look like chickens, no seals.  "Chickens?!  They don't look like chickens," I said.  She replied, "No Dad, they look like the animal kind, not the kind we eat."  I simply didn't have the heart (or the energy for that matter) to tell her that there is only one kind of chicken.  I just said, "Oh."  Later.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Growing

I'm not sure where September is going, but it seems to be flying by. And fall is coming. It was -5 this morning when I was driving to work. I'm not ready for that yet. It's a good thing we brought the tomatoes and peppers in the night before.

I'm amazed at the drama that goes on on the schoolyard already. I guess I just don't remember being that young. Jorja came home one day this week and said she had a problem. "B asked me to be in her club, and then A asked me to be in her club. A's club only goes during the last recess, but B told me that if I didn't come to her club all the time then I would be kicked out. I went to A's." Sheesh. Then the next day, "A was mad at everyone in her club today because we were all chasing E (a boy) and she didn't want us to. She was angry." Double sheesh. Today she came home and said that "E was falling in love with O. That's a silly thing to do in school." Triple sheesh. What a week, and it's only Wednesday. I asked her if she was falling in love with anyone and she said no. Big sigh of relief. We also told her that any club that you get kicked out of for something silly like that was not worth being part of. Crazy.

Ginny seems to be outgrowing all her clothes these days, so I stood her against the wall where we have all their measurements written. She is about one week over three and a half years old, and she is already taller than Jorja was on her fourth birthday. We pretty much skipped over most of the size 4 clothes and are heading right into the size 5. Now that it's getting cooler out, we're digging out the pants again, and every size four pair either looks like she's ready for a flood or she can't get them up. The shirts are the same way.

CeCe is getting into everything these days. She figured out how to turn the TV on and off, so that seems to give her endless pleasure. Not so much for everyone else. She can also turn on the DVD player, open it, and has been know to taste the DVDs from time to time. We're trying to get her to go down stairs, but getting her to sit down and do it isn't going very well. She thinks she should just walk down them like everyone else. Not good. She has taken one tumble so far (thankfully it was on the carpeted set of steps). I think I'll be bald soon. Later.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Lunch hour

I have Fridays off, so they used to be my Daddy-girls days.  Quite often we'd go meet Mommy for a lunch date.  Things are going to be different this year with Jorja in Grade 1.  It's still a little strange not having her there, but we had fun playing this morning.  Since she stays at school for lunch the rest of the week, I thought it would be good if she came home on Fridays.  She was thrilled.  It's a bit of a challenge though - you have to cook something, keep it warm, pack the other two up, walk to get her, come home, eat, pack everyone else up again and walk back.  It's fairly rushed, and will only get worse as we need to put more layers on for the walk.  When we took her back, the noon hour recess was still on, so I thought I would just walk her up to where the kids were playing.  We got to the very edge of the playground (a loonnggg way from where anyone was playing) and she said, "Okay, this is good."  She hugged and kissed us all and then she was off, running across the grass by herself.  She sure is growing up.

Ginny and I were playing this morning and she was the grown-up and I was the kid.  She told me I was nine and that she was twenty.  With that age difference, at least she didn't say I was her kid.  After she told me her age, she took some of her hair, pulled it in front of her eyes and said, "But my hair isn't white yet.  You have to be really old for that."  I asked her exactly how old.  She said, "Seven - oh - seven."  Whew, that was close.  I guess we'll all be dead before we have white hair.  Later.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Getting adjusted

It's taken three days, but I think Jorja may be coming into her own at school. She talked nonstop all the way home today. This was the first time she didn't look totally exhausted when she walked out of the classroom. I think it finally caught up with her and Ginny too how much they miss each other. They were playing and laughing and giggling like crazy this evening.

I asked Jorja if she played with anyone new today, or made any new friends. The first two days she pretty much stuck to playing with one girl who she was good friends with in Kindergarten. She said that yes, for the first two recesses she played with A. The last recess she played with B. (That worked out kind of neat - it's like I'm calling them girl A and girl B, but those were actually their fist initials.) She said, "Dad, let me tell you something that happened today. A said she wasn't friends with B anymore." I asked if that was why she played with B for the last recess. She said that yes it was and then she said, "But then A got over it." So I guess everyone was friends again by the end of the day. I'm so not ready for all of this 'she said that and she said this' stuff. This is only the first week of grade one. I'm pretty sure it's only going to get worse from here on.

It's been interesting to see Ginny at home without Jorja around. The two of them always play together, and it seems like Jorja always makes all the rules. The first day Ginny didn't do too much, but by today, she too was really coming into her own. We were playing and I was just letting her take the lead. We went swimming, water sliding, for sleepovers and drove in her all of her cars (and we never left the family room). Yes, at first she had a rainbow car, but that one got too old and turned brown, so she got a pink one instead. The pink one has purple tires - purple that is so dark they almost look black. Her second car is purple and her third is green. The purple car is really fast, and she is kind of a crazy driver in it. The green car doesn't go as fast. She also has a bathing suit to match whichever car she is driving. Yes, I think it's safe to say that when Jorja isn't there, she can come up with an idea or two of her own. She's got quite the imagination. Later.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Jorja's first day of grade one

Today was Jorja's first day of grade one.  We had everything packed up the night before, so we were ready to go this morning.  When she is at the sitter's, she is going to stay at school for lunch, so we thought we would just get into that routine already.  So we packed her lunch, loaded her down with a year's worth of school supplies (okay, I took some) and off we went. 




We found her class room alright, got all her stuff unloaded, and then it was time to say goodbye.  We hugged and Ginny, CeCe and I were off.  When we left the school, a fair bit of emotion came over me.  If I had let myself, I could have cried.  My little girl is in grade one - I was leaving her there all day.  I held myself together mostly because I didn't want Ginny to get upset and I didn't want to look like an idiot in the school grounds.  I knew she would be okay.

When 3:30 rolled around, we were waiting there to pick her up.  She had a pretty good first day, except for the shiner.  Yes, she and another girl collided on the playground at recess and Jorja took the worst of it.  She too must have been holding herself together for the day, because pretty much as soon as she saw me, she started to cry.  It was quite at bump just under her eyebrow, but no real bruising.  By the time she went to bed though, it had some pretty good colour to it.  Accidents happen.

After the initial emotional outburst, we learned that she did have a good day.  Her teacher is great, and I know she will be just fine.  She was pretty wasted after her first full day though.  It really does take a lot our of them.  A friend just told me how she remembered her kids were pretty much zombies from after school until bed time that first year until about Christmas.  I don't think Jorja will be any exception.  Later.
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Monday, August 29, 2011

Bed time with Ginny

Ginny has the ability to make my blood boil one minute and then melt my heart the next. Especially at bed time. I know all kids go through this stalling phase - 'I want one more drink...I have to pee...my blanket is off.' Ginny is definitely no exception.

Every night as soon as I leave the room and get downstairs it's the same thing. "Daddy. Daddy. Daddy!" A couple of nights ago this was going on and I went back up. She said she was still thirsty. I gave her the benefit of the doubt this day simply because we had had company and she had been playing outside for quite a while after supper. I got her a drink and then read her the riot act. As I was walking out of the room, she said "Daddy." The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. "I won't call you again. I promise...and I won't break that promise." How do you stay mad at that?

Tonight was a slightly different scenario with the same results. Jorja had piano lessons tonight, so they were a little late getting to bed. The commotion had disturbed CeCe who was now crying in the next room. I got Jorja and Ginny tucked in and then went to rock CeCe back to sleep. Ginny's bed is right next to the wall that separates CeCe's room from the other girls'. As Ginny tosses and turns, her every move seems to hit the wall. It's not quiet either. With every thud, my blood pressure begins to creep up. Then she starts to say, "Jorja, wake up." No response. "Jorja, wake up!" No response. This goes on several more times until I can feel my pulse in my forehead. I put CeCe down and storm into Ginny's room. I ask her what she is doing and she says, "I just wanted to tell Jorja I love her." Really? Again, how do I stay mad at that?

We like to ask CeCe if she has phoofey toes and then when we smell them, we make a face and say, "Phewwweeee!" It's usually good for some laughs. Now she has started doing it to herself. I'll ask her if she has phoofey toes and she'll stop, sit down, smell them and say, "Phewwweee!" She's a pretty funny kid.

Tomorrow is Jorja's first day of grade one! I took the week off work because I have more holidays than Julie to use up, so I thought this would be a good time. Julie and I were up labelling all her supplies the other night, so I think she is ready to go. She's excited. I'm nervous. She'll be fine I know. It's just another one of those milestones that seem to be happening all too often these days. It's going to kind of weird being home with just Ginny and CeCe. Weird and challenging. Jorja is a good helper - she'll watch CeCe for half and hour so I can get some lunch or supper ready. Ginny means well, but I wouldn't trust her to watch much, let alone her little sister. We'll see. It should be interesting. Later.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Rockin' out

I was getting supper ready yesterday and Jorja was sitting at her colouring table. I was singing 'Here I go again' by Whitesnake. I'm not sure why it was in my head, but it was. She asked what I was singing, so I told her. Then she repeated every line I sang for a while. I told her that the song was popular when I was young and I used to listen to it a lot back then. She piped up, "You used to rock out to it?" Why yes Jorja, I did used to rock out to it. Then she asked me what my favorite country song was and I said probably something by Sugarland. I asked her what her favourite song was and she said she didn't have just one. "I really like the eighties," she said. That's my girl.

The girls like to pick out their own clothes to wear, which can prove to be quite interesting some times. We usually get everything picked out the night before to facilitate the speed of things in the morning. I used to just get stuff ready for them after they were in bed, but every day when I picked them up, Ginny would not be wearing what I had set out. I'd ask her why and she would say she didn't want that. Anyway, we forgot to get stuff ready a few nights ago, so when I was doing laundry, I set out three different things for both Ginny and Jorja. I figured that maybe I'd get lucky. Sure enough, when I picked them up from the sitter's, Ginny had on one of the things that I had picked. She said to me, "That was nice to have choices Dad. Choices are good." Yes, she is only three.

This past weekend I had the chance to do something that I have never done - not since we've had kids anyway. I went away by myself for two days. I spent the weekend with my Dad and my brother, just hanging out and doing a little fishing. I use the term fishing loosely since there were no actual fish at the end of the weekend. It was a really nice time though -good times and good memories. The girls were happy to see me when I got home, which was nice. CeCe is still making me pay for leaving a bit though. For the longest time, she would give Julie a hard time and not say Mommy when we wanted her to. She's over that now. She says both Mommy and Daddy. Well she used to anyway. She was getting to the point where she would come running saying 'Daddy, Daddy' every day when I picked them up from daycare. I got there Monday to pick them up and she looked at me, started walking over, and said, "Mommy, Mommy!" I still don't think she's called me Daddy yet. I guess what goes around comes around. Later.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

A few pics

I took the camera out into the backyard the other day, and Ginny actually posed for the camera.  I was shocked.  Lately as soon as the camera comes out, she turns her back or hides her face.  CeCe on the other hand yells 'Cheese!' the minute she sees one.  And Jorja is always ready to pose.


















Later.



Monday, August 15, 2011

Backpacks

I took Jorja to the dentist last week.  I'm not sure whose kid she is because she still has perfect teeth - no cavities.  I'm glad she doesn't have to go through what I did - as long as we keep up the brushing I guess.  Anyway, the hygienist is cleaning Jorja's teeth and they're chatting about life, family and school.  You know, the typical stuff.  The hygienist asked Jorja what grade she was going into and Jorja says one.  She then asked her who was on her backpack and Jorja said that it was all the princesses.  The conversation ensued:  Hygienist:  Which ones? 
Jorja:  Tiani, Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Rapunzel...(probably some more that I can't think of right now)
Hygienist:  Whose your favourite?
Jorja:  Ariel.
Hygienist:  I still remember my grade one backpack.  Do you know who was on my backpack when I was in grade one?
Jorja:  Who?
Hygienist:  Ariel!

It was at this point I began to feel a wee little bit old.  Make that a lot old.

It was also time for CeCe's 18 month shots.  It's amazing how fast the time goes.  She did pretty good - as good as you can for getting two needles in one arm and one in the other.  I took her on Friday when Julie was working so I had the other two along as well.  They were pretty good until the actual needles came out.  Then they buried their heads in the chair.  Now CeCe is all done until she's four.  Crazy.

Speaking of crazy, I was getting CeCe dressed on the weekend and I was doing up the buttons on her shirt.  I usually count out loud when I do them.  So I said one, and before I could say any more, CeCe pipes up, "Two, Tee."  Where did that come from?!  She can count!  It's amazing what they absorb.

There's a guy at work who always has some interesting sayings.  One of my favourites is, "I'm picking up what you're laying down."  Julie and I have started saying this at home more often just because it's pretty cool...and funny.  So the other day I was saying something to Jorja and I said, "Do you know what I mean?"  Without missing a beat, she said, "I'm picking up what you're laying down."  Now if you think that saying is funny, you should hear it out of the mouth of a six year old, or even better, a three year old.  Like I said, it's amazing what they absorb.  Later.  

Thursday, August 11, 2011

39

Today was my 39th birthday.  I've got some good friends and a great family.  The day started off right when my coworker in the lab brought 2 dozen doughnuts to work for the occasion.  No, I didn't eat them all.  She spread the word that it was my birthday though, so I received lots of well wishes.  Some guys tried to guess my age.  I got one 32, a couple of 35s, a 36 and a 'you can't be 40 yet.'  I'll take that.

Yesterday the girls made some pet rocks at Dee's house.  Ginny decided she was going to give me hers for a birthday present, but first she had to hide it.  When it was put in its spot, she came to me and said she had three clues for me to find it.  "Clue #1 - it's indoors...clue #2 - it's in CeCe's room...clue #3 - it's in the closet."  Wow, I said, those are good clues.  I'd hate to see what would happen if she just told me where it was.

Today on the ride home, Jorja said she was going to give me a hint about my present.  Before I could stop her, she said, "It's a football shirt."  Realizing that she may have given it away, she tried to backpedal.  "But it's not your favourite team.  It's the flaming C...it's a hockey shirt."  She knows how I feel about those flaming C's - under no circumstances do we cheer for them.  Needless to say, when I opened the Roughrider shirt, I wasn't super surprised. 

CeCe didn't give away any presents.  She kept everything a secret.

Julie also got me a Tshirt that has a picture of the 'soup nazi's' head on it and it says 'No soup for you!'  I love Seinfeld.  She got me another Tshirt that says Def Lepard.  I love 80s rock.  In case you hadn't guessed, I love quirky Tshirts.

The cake was chocolate, cut into four layers, each separated by peanut butter buttercream icing and then totally enveloped in chocolate buttercream.  As Bryan Adams once said, "Baby, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven."  Later. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Finger popping

Julie drops the kids off at daycare in the morning and I pick them up.  As a result, we have to have a set of car seats in each car.  Jorja and Ginny are both big enough for boosters now, so a while back, we bought two new ones for the Outlander (which we drive more) and put the old ones into the Alero.  The new ones are quite a bit narrower and therefore easier to get the seatbelts done up.  Cars and even SUVs are not really made to fit three car seats across - it is a tight squeeze.  Anyway, the point of all this is that we have one black booster seat and one pink one with flowers in the Alero.  When we first made this transition, there was always a fight to sit in the pink seat.  There had to be a strict regimen of who sat there yesterday and whose turn it was.  Now things have changed.  Jorja always wants to sit in the black seat.  Very strange.  Yesterday she said to me, "Dad, I'm not really into pink anymore.  I mean I still like my room, I'm just more into some other colours now."  Once I could close my mouth again, I asked her what colours.  "Black," she said, "and blue."  Wow, it appears my little princess may be going goth.

I like to keep the girls educated in their musical tastes.  Lately I've been playing old videos for them on Youtube.  One of their favourites is 'Pop goes the world.'  CeCe especially enjoys this one.  I usually put my finger in my cheek and make a popping sound when it's playing.  CeCe has picked up on this, so as soon as she hears it now, she puts her finger in her mouth, gets it all slobbered up and pulls it out quickly.  It's pretty impressive really.  She's a pretty smart cookie.  Today, all I had to do was hum the song and she was popping her finger.  Pretty cool.

We still feed CeCe a bottle of milk before she goes to bed.  She could probably be done - maybe we're just hanging on to this bonding moment with our last baby.  Anyway, the last two nights when I stood up and was patting her back to get her to burp, she pushed my hand away and started to slap her butt.  Not only does she hold the bottle herself, now she wants to burp herself.  The scary thing is that it worked.  Maybe she is ready to be done.  Just not sure I am.  Later.

Friday, August 5, 2011

The shopper and the entrepreneur

The shopper:
One thing I've noticed over the years is that kids' channels don't have commercials.  Treehouse, Playhouse Disney, PBSkids - all are commercial-free for kids.  That's a good thing.  Today Jorja said she wanted to watch Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird.  I'm not sure where she discovered them, but I put on Teletoon retro for her.  I soon discovered that there were commercials on this channel.  She was watching today, and called me down - "Come quick Daddy, you've got to see this!  It lets fresh air in your house, has 18 magnets to keep the bugs out and is great for pets too!"  She was watching some commercial for this screen door with a magnetic closure down the middle so as soon as you walked through it, it shut by itself.  And she was really buying into it.  If she was this into a screen door, I can only imagine what it would be like if she was inundated with commercials for toys.  She was a pretty good salesperson too.  I have to admit that if we had a patio door, I may have bee tempted.

The entrepreneur:
A couple of nights ago, the girls were making me 'smoothies'.  They combined their efforts and made me a strawberry smoothie, which Jorja informed me was on sale today.  "Oh really, how much is it?" I asked.  "One dollar," she said proudly and held out her hand.  I paid her the imaginary dollar and drank some of the imaginary smoothie.  Ginny then piped up, "The smoothies are on sale today!"  "Oh really, how much?" I asked again.  "One hundred dollars!" she said and held out her hand.  "I thought they were on sale," I said.  "They are," she replied, "now you have to pay because you already had some."  I guess I couldn't argue with that.  I should have asked the price first.  Later.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Competitions

Where does the time go?  I can't believe we're into August already.  In 27 more days, Jorja will be back in school - full time this year.  Crazy! 

We went to Julie's parents' place for the long weekend.  Julie had to work Friday, so we left that night after supper.  We used to think that driving in the evening was the way to go - girls would sleep and generally travel better.  Not the case.  We also came home in the evening, and CeCe didn't sleep one wink in either direction.  That's over 7 hours of an awake 18 month old in the car.  That's too much.  The other two slept eventually, but not CeCe.  If it would translate into sleeping in, it would be a different story, but that does not happen.  Oh well, we survived.

We had a nice visit while we were there.  On Saturday we drove to Cypress Hills Park because I commented (others may say complained) that after twelve or so years of going to Julie's parents' place I had still never been.  It really is a beautiful place.  We had a nice lunch there, played a round of mini-golf and played at the playground.  All right, there may have been better things to do without the kids, but we had fun and I still got to see the scenery.

Now it appears that a cold is making it's way through the house again.  Not everyone has it yet, but I'm sure they will.  Yeah sleepless nights!

Lately it seems that everything between Jorja and Ginny is a competition.  I pick them up after work and they race to the step.  Then they crowd the door so I can't open it.  Meanwhile, I'm holding CeCe, my backpack and their bag of supplies from daycare.  Don't worry about me guys, just push each other off the step.  When I do get the door unlocked, there is a flurry of little bodies clamouring to get around my legs.  Don't worry about me guys.  Turning off the alarm isn't that important.  Then there's the race at the supper table.  Seriously guys, you shouldn't be able to put 30 blueberries in your mouth at once.  It's a good thing they're in season right now.  A mouthful like that would cost three dollars in the winter.  Today's competition took the cake though.  We were driving home and Ginny sneezed.  Julie commented on how that was a big sneeze and said 'bless you.'  Jorja piped up right away, "Actually I'm the sneeziest!"  Really dude?!  Later.  

Friday, July 29, 2011

Haircuts

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I took the girls for haircuts this morning.  This has always been Julie's area up until now, but with her working Fridays and me off, I thought I would give it a whirl.  Except for trying to wrangle CeCe the entire time, it went pretty good.  The girls both decided that they wanted bangs.  Jorja has never had bangs, so we weren't sure what to expect, but they both look really cute.  Jorja went first and opted for braids rather than curls.  As Ginny was in the chair, Jorja was standing in front of the mirror admiring her no do.  I said to her that she could probably look at herself all day.  She looked over at me and said, "I could!"  I know Jorja, I know.

Here is how they turned out.  Ginny didn't want her picture taken, so all I got was her braids: 


CeCe didn't get her haircut, but I thought she should have a picture too.  Here she it in her favourite spot:  inside the toy box.  Usually she empties one bin completely out, pulls it into the middle of the floor and just sits in it.  It's the small things in life I guess...

Later.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Jorja's birthday party

We had Jorja's birthday party yesterday.  We went out this year, which is definitely the way to go.  No set-up, no clean-up, no worries.  All we had to do was bring the cake, and Ariel from 'Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo' did the rest.  The girls all had a blast.  Jorja got to pick which princess would lead the party, and Ariel was the choice.  CeCe and I showed up about half way through in time for cake and a little bit of chaos wreaking.  Here are some shots of all the action.
The cake


Ariel leading some parachute games.

Time for a pop break.

Limbo like and elephant.

Jorja and her fancy shoes.

All the party princesses (Ginny looked away of course).

Time to eat the cake.

Jorja blindfolded while everyone hides presents.


Opening presents.
Later.