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.