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.