Sunday, January 30, 2011

Plumbing

This weekend has had it's ups and downs.  It all started a little over a week ago.  There was a wet spot on the carpet in front of the computer (right where you put your feet when you're sitting there).  We asked Ginny if she spilled her water there and she said that yes she did.  Poor thing is admitting to crimes she didn't even commit - I'll get to her innocence in a minute.  We put a fan on the floor there and it took two days to dry out.  That probably should have been our first clue.  A couple of days later it was wet again.  It didn't seem to make much sense, because it was right on top of a concrete floor.  So last night after the girls were in bed, I started to peel back the carpet to see what I could see.  Well, the whole corner of the room under the computer desk was wet and had been for a while - long enough for there to be mold there.  My brother came over (bless him) and helped me find the problem.  A fair bit of soft, wet drywall later, we found the culprit behind the wall.  The main sewer drain pipe from our upstairs bathroom had a leak from one of its joints.  Talk about gross.  This had been happening for I don't know how long, but way too long none the less.  So tomorrow I'll call the insurance company and see if we're covered and the plumber is already booked in for tomorrow afternoon.  Meanwhile the family room is slightly rearranged furniture-wise to keep the kids out of the contamination/construction zone.  Fun stuff.

On the upside, Ginny finally pooped in the potty today.  She has been wearing panties quite successfully for some time now, but still had not gone poop in the toilet.  She usually asked for a pullup after supper and we'd let her do her business in there.  Not any more.  She wanted one so bad today, the poop was basically falling out by the time she finally gave in and went on the toilet.  But she did it!  Yahoo!  One more to go.  Later.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The case of the missing soothers

I think the sickness in our house is finally on the upswing.  The antibiotics seem to have CeCe's ear infection under control and Jorja isn't coughing at all anymore.  Ginny still has a bit of a cough, but not too bad.  Last night was the best night CeCe had in a long time.  She woke up once before we went to bed and I gave her her soother, and then she slept all night.  It was monumental really.  If is wasn't for Ginny falling out of bed once and then me waking up with Jorja beside me once, it would have been a perfect night.  Apparently Jorja had a bad dream and crawled in - I was oblivious to that until my arm was asleep and I woke to find a little head on it.  Crazy.  Anyway, back to CeCe.  We always keep a spare soother on her dresser for when she wakes up in the night.  It's just easier to grab that and plug her rather than fishing around in the dark trying to find the one she lost.  So last night I had given her the spare before we went to bed and not found the other one.  Fast forward to this morning.  I turned my alarm off and went back to sleep.  I woke up to Jorja standing beside me asking if I was going to work.  Well, I shot up and and got dressed, put Jorja back to bed and brushed my teeth.  That's when CeCe started to wail.  Loudly.  I went in there and couldn't find any soothers anywhere.  She was screaming.  I started looking under the crib and still couldn't find any.  Julie was in there by now and rocking CeCe, but without the soother, that was still a pretty noisy affair.  I turned on her night light and still couldn't find them.  I moved the crib away from the wall because that is where they often fall.  Still nothing.  Finally I ran downstairs and got the one we keep clipped to her snowsuit.  Julie got her calmed down and I was out the door.  I still made it on time (pretty much) and CeCe went back to sleep.  It was an interesting way to start the day to say the least.  Later.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Bible story

Last night I was reading the girls their bible story.  There are questions at the end, so I always tell Ginny to pay attention.  It's not the first time we've read through this bible (they have two that we alternate between) and I remember what some of the questions are.  When I'm sure I know that the part I'm reading is a question, I slow down and say it loudly and clearly for Ginny's benefit.  Sometimes I even ask her right then and there the question.  It's not that she wouldn't know the answer if she paid attention, she's just usually off in her own little world.  We are near the beginning of the bible right now (still on creation) and I asked Ginny what God made one the day I just read.  The appropriate answer would have been Adam and Eve, but she looked at the picture and said, "Trees."  Yes, in case you hadn't guessed, her answer usually consists of whatever picture is on that page.  So we got to the end, and the question was 'What did God make Eve from?'  Ginny responded, "A pumpkin."  Oh so close.  Then the last question was one where I told them there was no right or wrong answer.  The question simply asked what is your favourite thing that God made.  Ginny made up some gibberish word and proceeded to laugh hysterically.  When she calmed down, I asked Jorja and she said, "Diamonds, jewels, anything glittery."  Apparently she already knows what is supposed to be her best friend.  Later.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Ears, puzzles and potty

It seems that the sickness has not yet worked it's was through the house.  CeCe had a terrible night last night and seemed to be pulling at her ear quite a bit, so I took her in this morning.  It turns out that she does have an ear infection, so now she's on antibiotics.  Jorja's last day of antibiotics is today, so I guess maybe it's time for the next one to start.  Hopefully she's on the mend by Monday.

The girls are both doing puzzles right now.  Jorja has loved puzzles since forever, and Ginny has recently taken an interest in them as well.  She can do a 24 piece puzzle pretty good all by herself.  Jorja is up to the 150 piece count.  As I was listening to them talk while they did their puzzles, Ginny said, "I'm doing awesome!"  It's good to have some self-confidence I guess.

Ginny is doing awesome with the peeing part of the potty training.  She wears panties all day now and pretty much without incident.  She even went to a birthday party this morning at the Fun Factory and had no accidents.  She still refuses to poop though.  So far, we've only been able to get her to go in a pull-up.  I'm not sure how we're going to get over this hurdle - she's pretty stubborn and pretty scared to go in the toilet.  I guess it will come, hopefully sooner than later.  If she would just let that first one go, she would be fine, but she clamps up tight as soon as she sits down there.  You can see her push and then the look of horror when it gets close and then she shuts the door.  Crazy.

I hear CeCe through the monitor now.  I think she slept more this afternoon than she did all last night.  I guess I should go get her out.  Later.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fevers, snot and kijiji

This has been another week of sick kids.  It started off with Jorja staying home from the sitter and school on Monday and Tuesday.  She was coughing up a lung and had a fever for a few days.  We ended up taking her into walk-in on Sunday and the doc there put her on antibiotics.  She must be the only kid that doesn't like the banana-flavoured stuff.  After the huge fuss she was making, I decided to have a little taste and it was pretty good.  It tasted like a banana pudding cup that you can buy - I love those things.  Anyway, today the other two are sick.  CeCe had a pretty good fever when I picked her up today and Ginny is snotty and coughing.  The old snot cold has reared its ugly head again.

I guess it sort of turned out to be a good week for Jorja to be sick, depending on how you look at it.  I had a week of holidays left over from last year that I had to use up, so I decided to take them this week to get some stuff done around the house.  So I was off anyway, but this was supposed to be my week - the week of Dave.  It turned out I was still able to get a lot of stuff done.  We are going through a major clean/purge.  As soon as CeCe is done with something, it is out the door.  At one point, we thought we would have a big garage sale this coming spring, but I don't think there will be anything left, thanks to kijiji.  We have sold a lot of stuff on kijiji in the last year.  Today I discovered the two extremes of the kijiji shopper.  The first asked if I would take $5 less than the advertised price and could I deliver it.  I thought it was rather bold to ask for a reduction in price and expect it delivered.  Especially today when it was -45 with the wind chill.  I said no.  The other lives in Warman, works in Hague and is going to drive in from Hague after work tomorrow and said she would pay $5 more than the asking price.  I've never seen that before, but I'll take it.

I just spent the last half hour upstairs with CeCe.  It looks as though it may be another long, rest-filled sleep in the rocker.  Poor thing.  If that's the case, I better get 'The Big Bang Theory' watched now while I can.  Later.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Potty time

It appears we may have finally had a break-through on the potty training front.  It actually happened at Dee's house this past week.  Dee has another girl there a little older than Ginny, so maybe it was a peer pressure thing, but one day Ginny came home wearing panties.  She still had some accidents in the evening, but this weekend was great.  All day Saturday and Sunday with no accidents.  We even went out for a few hours on Saturday afternoon with her in underwear.  There's a new meaning to living on the edge.  She made it through though, with flying colours.  We made her go at Walmart, and that went off without a hitch I guess.  Julie took her and Jorja to the bathroom and Ginny got to pee on top of Jorja's pee - how exciting!  Whatever works.  Julie made cupcakes in honour of the occasion, and Ginny took some to Dee's today to celebrate with a potty party.  And she came home in the same pants and underwear that she went in.  Finally, there is an end in sight.  Now we just have to conquer the number two and we'll be set.  So far the only time she has done that since the wearing of the panties has been after she is ready for bed and in her pull-up.  Oh well, everything in due time.

I was going through my itunes library the other day and just for kicks, turned on the feature that shows how often each song has been played.  It soon became obvious that in the past five years there has been a definite shift in my music listening.  All of the top songs played were by Sharon, Louis and Bram.  The top song had been played more than twice as many times as the top played adult song.  At least I still have the ride to work.  Later.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Decisions, decisions

The conversation heard yesterday as I was making lunch in the kitchen while the girls were watching TV:

Me:  Do you guys want ham or salami?
Ginny:  Sawami!
Jorja:  No response.
Me (louder):  Ham or salami?!
Ginny:  Ham!
Jorja:  No response.
Me (the neighbours could probably choose now):  Jorja!  Ham or salami?!!
Ginny:  Sawami!
Jorja:  Ham.
Ginny:  Ham!
Me:  So you both want ham?
Jorja and Ginny:  Yes!

Well, that was easy, wasn't it?  Later.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

I won't cry

We are preparing for week two of Julie working and daycare.  Week one finished on a better note than it started.  CeCe didn't cry at all the last day, and Ginny didn't for very long.  CeCe had a fairly decent nap for the first time, and was happy all day.  Here's hoping that the weekend didn't put us back to the beginning.  Poor Ginny, she's trying so hard to be brave.  All weekend a long, she kept asking if tomorrow was a home day.  Then she would say how there are four (I will call our new sitter Dee) Dee days and then three family days.  Today she was asking if tomorrow was another Dee day.  (That doesn't sound very good, does it?  I think I might cry too.  Oh well, it's not her real name.)  Then she got this look like she gets when she wants to cry, but is trying to fight it.  Her bottom lip kind of quivers and you can just see it in her eyes that she is trying with everything she has not to cry.  She said, "I won't cry tomorrow."  It was enough to break your heart.  What a little trooper.

A couple of nights ago, Jorja was sitting at their little colouring/craft table which is in the corner of our dining area next to our kitchen table.  I was around the corner in the kitchen working on something.  I was listening in on a conversation between Jorja and Ginny.  Maybe Jorja comes by her snoopy ways honestly.  Anyway this is what I heard.  Ginny asked Jorja what she was doing, and Jorja replied that she was making cut-out puppets of our family.  Interesting.  She was working on making the hair for the girls.  Apparently they were all going to have the same hairstyle.  Then Ginny asked, "What about Daddy?"  Jorja replied, "I'm just going to leave him bald."  Is that right?  Ginny suggested that she should make me some spiky hair.  Thanks Ginny.  Jorja replied that she didn't know how do that, so she was leaving me bald.  The nerve.  Okay, maybe it's not so much of a stretch.  Later.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Ginny's wisdom

I was driving the girls home from daycare today (it was a much better day) and Jorja had made a paper crown in Kindergarten.  Ginny asked if she could wear it.  Jorja replied that it would be too big now and that maybe they should try when Ginny turns three (like it will still be around then).  "I'm still two now," Ginny says.  "Yes, I know," says Jorja, "we'll try when you're three."  "Great idea Jorja!" Ginny says.  Maybe you had to be there, and I'm not doing the story justice, but it was the cutest thing.  She's so supportive.

Our trip for Petland is planned for the morning - the girls are quite beside themselves actually.  As we were getting ready for bed, I told Ginny that if she wanted to go that she had to go to bed good.  She said that she would and we started up the stairs.  I mentioned again that she had to go to bed nice and that I was really looking forward to going to the pet store.  Without missing a beat, Ginny turned to me and said, "Then you have to sleep good."  Touche.  I guess if I want to go, then the same rules should apply to me.  Later.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I hope everyone is having a good start to 2011.  Our new year has been a little less than smooth.  Julie went back to work on Monday, and that went pretty well.  She's doing all right so far - just half days this week.  The girls are not adjusting quite as well.  CeCe remembered being left at the sitter's place before Christmas and immediately voiced her displeasure with being left there again on the first day.  And on the second day.  And on the third day.  Tomorrow?  We'll see - I'm guessing more of the same.  Ginny seemed to do fairly well on the two practice runs before  Christmas, and the first day wasn't too bad.  The second was not pretty and today was even worse.  It started last night before she went to bed - she was crying  that she didn't  want to go.  Then she was up at 6:30 saying she didn't want to go.  Jorja has done remarkably well with this change - maybe her reaction is still coming.  Needless  to say, there  is going to be a bit of an adjustment period. 

I start work at 6:00 am, so Julie gets to be the drop-off person.  I get the pick-up job.  Who got the short end of that stick?  The first day I picked them up, CeCe was so excited she didn't know of she should laugh or cry.  It was kind of a mixture.  The other two gave me a greeting fit for someone  they hadn't seen  in years.  Yeah, I've definitely got the easy job.

Anyhow, one more day of work for me, and then I get the three little darlings all to myself on Friday.  We've got a trip to the pet store planned  - I had to give Ginny something to look forward to and that seemed to do.  It's a cheap and easy fix - there probably won't be many more of those as they grow up.

By the way, what the heck happened to Canada tonight?  5 goals.  Really guys?  Really?  Later.