Up too early

It is Saturday morning and by their standards, Jorja and Ginny are sleeping in.  It may only be 7:20, but for them, that's pretty good.  Why am I awake?  Unfortunately, the youngest one needs some supervision.  I'm not sure why CeCe was up so early today.  She was crying this morning at 5:30, so I went into her room to give her her soother back.  As soon as it was in front of her mouth, she said, "Yeah!" and proceeded to lunge at it.  At this point I was surprised when she was still quiet when I left the room.  Then at 6:30, she was awake again.  This time when I went in the room, she said, "Hi!"  I knew it wasn't going to be good, but I tried to rock her for a while, but sleep was not happening.  So here we are, up too early while everyone else sleeps.
Jorja went to a birthday party last night after supper.  It went from 7:00 to 8:45 which could explain why she is still asleep.  It was at a gymnastics club in town and she had a blast.  As I was walking her in, she said to me, "I'm so excited I'm almost crying tears of joy."  Oh my.  When I picked her up, she tried to say that she wasn't tired.  "I did yawn once while I was there Dad, but it wasn't because I was tired."  She was a little wound up, but it didn't take her long to fall asleep. 

While she was at the party, I did some grocery shopping and then had a little more time to kill, so I walked around a mall for a while.  I went into Bootlegger to look at some jeans.  I must be getting old (at least perceived old by 20 year olds).  I was standing there looking at the jeans, and this kid came over to me and asked, "Do you need help finding a size because you look really confused?"  And we're done here.

Yesterday morning I took all three girls to the doctor.  Ginny and CeCe were getting their yearly checkups and Jorja was getting something else looked at.  There are times when they all make me proud and this was one of them.  They were all well behaved and listened really well.  I'll have to admit I was a bit nervous as to how the whole thing was going to go.  Our doc is awesome though and made them all feel so comfortable that at one point Jorja was trying to tickle her.  As we were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in, I asked the girls who was going to go first.  "CeCe!" was the unanimous answer.  That's it, throw the youngest one under the bus, she can't argue.  CeCe is in the 85th percentile for height and weight and Ginny is in the 90th for both.  Ginny was 39 inches, which is a full inch taller than Jorja was at three.  I guess it's no wonder that she has to wear size 4 clothes already.  Ginny said the alphabet, counted up to 39 and said she liked broccoli.  I was impressed.  I'm not sure about the broccoli thing, but they claim to eat it at Dee's house.

Well, I guess I might actually have to wake the girls up soon.  Ginny has music lessons this morning at 9:30, so we need to get them fed and watered first.  Later.

Speaking of...

The other day at breakfast, the girls were looking at the flowers on the table.  Jorja asked if they had drank all their water.  I said that I had put some in yesterday.  Then Ginny said that she would like water to drink for breakfast.  Jorja then piped up, "No Ginny, you should say, 'speaking of water, I would like some for breakfast.'"  Where does she get this stuff from.  Then she did the same thing at lunch time.  It was Friday and I was getting her backpack ready for school.  I asked her what she wanted to take for a snack.  Then Ginny said she wanted a granola bar for her snack.  Jorja said, "No Ginny, you should say, 'speaking of snacks, I would like a granola bar.'"  Sheesh.

Friday morning, CeCe had her one year shots.  She did pretty good, all things considered.  She cried of course, but who wouldn't.  Julie works Fridays, so had all three of them to take with me.  Ginny was a little upset by the whole thing - she doesn't like to see her sister hurt.  "Will there be a hole?"  she asked me.  Poor thing.  She held it together though and didn't quite have any tears.  They've changed things again though and combined some vaccines.  There were only two needles instead of three like the other girls had.

Ginny is now pretty comfortable pooping in the toilet.  So much so that she and Jorja have started discussing it.  Ginny had went yesterday and Jorja asked her, "How many turds did you have Ginny?"  "Six," she said, "they kind of looked like a flower."  If only they smelled that way.

Last night Jorja came into my room in the middle of the night quite upset because something was wrong with her clock.  "Daddy!  Daddy!  You've got to come see my clock!  There's something wrong.  It says '1 h two dots h.'"  I tried to assure her that it was fine, but she was not letting go of this, so I went to look.  I have to admit that in my semi-conscious state I was a bit confused myself.  It really did say '1h:1'.  Then I looked closer.  Somehow the clock got turned upside down.  It was 1:41.  As Pooh and Tigger say, 'this mystery is history.'  Later.

My two year old fashion critic

This morning I decided to wear a sweater with a shirt underneath it to church.  I thought it looked pretty good, if I do say so myself.  I left the shirt untucked so that it was sticking out the bottom of the sweater the way the young people are doing it nowadays.  Every once in a while I like to pretend that I'm still hip.  Anyway, I came downstairs to get the girls' coats on and Ginny looked at me and said, "Why do you have two shirts on?"  I asked her if she liked it.  She said, "No, it's kind of weird."  Do you hear that?  That's the wind whistling out of my deflating ego.  At least Jorja tried to reassure me that I was still handsome, and CeCe was still undecided.  Julie liked it and that's all that really matters.

We've been trying to get CeCe to say Mama recently.  She knows how - she has said the words, but getting her to say it when Julie wants her to is another story.  I think she's just being coy and playing with us.  The other day at supper, Julie was trying to get CeCe to say Mama.  She was repeating it over and over and then Ginny decided to join in.  "Ma-ma...Ma-ma"  Nice slow, distinct syllables.  Then Ginny decides that this was enough of this.  She said, "CeCe, can you say Virginia June?"  Yeah, like that is going to roll off her tongue.

We have been in the teething phase in our household for about five years now.  We have now begun the de-teething phase.  Jorja lost her first tooth this past week.  It had been loose for a while, and she let Julie wiggle it long enough to actually pull it out.  She was pretty excited.  Ginny was kind of freaked out by the whole thing.  She kept walking around saying her teeth were still all 'tight'.  Jorja wrote a note and got all ready for the tooth fairy.  She asked for a tooth brush.  Seems like a logical thing for the tooth fairy to bring, and she did.  She was quite tickled to find her new tooth brush in the morning.

Proudly showing off her missing tooth.

This morning Jorja asked me if I went to Kindergarten when I was little.  I replied that yes I did.  She then said, "Because they didn't have Kindergarten a long time ago."  Glad to know she already thinks of me as old.  Later.

CeCe's party pics

Getting ready to eat.

The cake

Some of the guests of honor

Let me at it

The spoils

Cecilia turns one!

Well, actually CeCe's birthday is tomorrow, but we had all the festivities this weekend.  All of her grandparents were able to make the trek for her party which probably meant a lot more to Julie and I than her, but she was happy nonetheless.  She got to stick her fingers into her cake and yes, she likes cake.  And ice cream.  I guess the apple doesn't fall that far from the tree.  Julie decorated the cake which was in the shape of an elephant.  When I get the pictures off the camera, I will post them.  CeCe wasn't too concerned about the presents though - not nearly as into that part of the party as her sisters and cousin.  They were all over that. 

It's hard to believe a whole year has passed already.  At this time a year ago, Julie and I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of her parents, so that we could go to the hospital.  The got here around midnight and CeCe was born by three.  It was a little closer than we had planned.  That was the beginning of my parental leave -37 weeks at home with all my girls that I will be eternally grateful for.  It had it's moments, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Ginny is still not that comfortable with the whole pooping thing.  She finally went Thursday evening and now hasn't gone since.  She's starting to look like its uncomfortable and now she's getting a cold again.  She's been coughing quite a bit this evening.  It can't be easy to keep that sucked in there while you're coughing like that.  I don't envy her that feeling.  It'll come I guess, one way or another.

Speaking of Ginny, we tell her that she need to listen to her body when she has to go to the bathroom.  It's actually a saying we picked up from 'The bear in the big blue house.'  He's pretty smart that bear.  Anyway, she says this quite often - Dee gets quite a kick out of it when Ginny says that her body is telling her she has to pee.  This evening though, she started to use this logic to play me.  She was procrastinating going to bed, like usual and wanting one more drink of water.  After several strong no's by me, she said, "Dad, my body is telling me I'm thirsty."  Nice try.

Jorja is so close to losing her first tooth.  Most of her friends have lost some already it seems, but she's hanging on.  One is literally hanging on by a thread though.  It's driving Julie nuts I think.  She is always wanting to wiggle it and pull on it.  Jorja lets her for a bit, and then has enough.  It won't be long now though.

I guess I should get to bed now.  Another work week awaits.  I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, but every day when I get to Dee's house to pick up the girls they ask me what kind of beer I tested that day.  That just seems odd coming out of a two year old.  Anyway, on that note I'm off.  Later.

How long can she go?

Things have been happening slowly with the plumbing issue.  I called insurance and it looks like we should be covered, to that's good.  The adjuster was too busy to come out all week, so probably next week.  In the meantime, we had a plumber in to fix the issue and another company came in and took care of all the mold and cut out a big chunk of carpet.  Now we have the couch blocking a triangular area in the corner with no carpet and we can function pretty much normally for now. 

I also forgot to mention that our desktop computer crapped out last weekend too.  A friend of ours is looking at it, but he's pretty sure it's the hard drive.  Originally I was worried that I hadn't backed up any pictures from the past year, but I did some last May.  At least we still have CeCe's baby pictures.  We don't have her first Christmas though, or Jorja starting school.  I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself - I don't know for sure that they're gone.

Through all this stuff, I was trying to stay positive and look at the bright side (I'm not too sure what that is).  I guess it could have been worse.  Despite the brave front I'm trying to put on, the knot in the middle of my back tells me that this is all bothering more than I would like to think it is.

Ginny has not pooped since Sunday.  Every night she gets ready for bed, puts her pullup on for night and asks if she can poop in the pullup.  We say no and then she doesn't go.  Poor thing.  It's just going to fall out here again pretty soon.  She was walking around this evening looking pretty uncomfortable.  She's stubborn, but I'm not sure how much longer she'll be able to hold on.  My guess is she'll let loose tomorrow when I'm home alone with them.  Good times.

CeCe turns one on Monday - it's hard to believe.  All her grandparents are coming for the party, so that should be fun this weekend.  Now to get the house presentable.  Later.

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.

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.

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.

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.   

Sensory experts

There's a bit of sickness running through our house again - nothing like the last bout thank goodness.  This is just a cold.  Ginny and CeCe have had the worst of it.  I've heard a few different names for colds - chest colds, head colds, night-time achy fever runny-nose colds.  Now, thanks to Jorja, I've heard of another one.  This is apparently the cold that Ginny and CeCe have, and the description is actually quite fitting:  the snot cold.  Yes, according to Dr. Jorja, they are both suffering from the 'snot cold' which occurs when snot runs from your nose and touches your top lip.

A lot of the basic skills I use at work, I learned in school.  There is however one skill that they don't teach at SIAST and that is sensory training (some may call it tasting).  This had to be learned on the job.  Before you laugh, there was a lot of training that went into this.  It is a critical component in the Quality Assurance of the finished product.  You can do all the chemical analysis you want, but if the beer doesn't taste good, what do you have?  To make a long story short, you could call me a beer sensory expert.  Apparently this sensory gene can be passed down, and I think Jorja might have it.  A few days ago we were running low on milk, so I ran out in the evening.  All that were left were 2 litre cartons (no 4 litre plastic jugs).  Not thinking anything of it, I bought the 2 litre carton.  Well, you should have heard the outcry from Jorja when I put that on her cereal in the morning.  "I don't like this milk.  I only like milk from the jug."  I thought she was just being a diva and forced her to keep using the milk until it was gone.  Finally we reached the end one morning and I filled her glass up with the 2 litre carton and her cereal got the new 4 litre jug milk.  She asked if it was new milk and I told her that she should tell me.  She took a sip of her cup and turned up her nose.  Then she had some from her bowl and sighed in relief.  She could tell the difference.  Who knew?  I guess we have a milk sensory expert in the house.  Later.

Potatoes

Growing up on a farm, potatoes were a staple.  They were served with almost every meal and they were good.  Everyone liked them.  Julie grew up pretty much the same way.  What's not to love - mashed, baked, boiled, roasted, fried, barbecued - the possibilities are endless.  I guess we just assumed that when we had kids, they would like potatoes.  Wrong.  With Jorja, it doesn't matter how they are done, she has never liked them.  Ginny has turned out to like the deep-fried variety (naturally) as well as the occasional hash brown.  The jury is still out on CeCe.  This is a fairly long preamble, but it is leading somewhere.  We had the kids at the new sitter two days this week.  After the second day, we asked them what they had for lunch.  They replied that they had potatoes.  A look of shock and awe crossed our faces.  "What kind of potatoes?" we asked.  Ginny said, "White ones."  That narrows it down anyway.  "Did you like them?"  Both girls said that yes, they did like them.  Again, shock and awe.  This was going to require a little more digging.  Julie called and asked what kind of miracle potato was served that the girls ate.  It turns out they were No-Name frozen hash browns done up with some dill and seasoning salt.  I guess Jorja looked at her plate and said that she didn't like potatoes.  The sitter said that she should at least try them, so she did.  Her response: "I like these.  They're better than the potatoes my Mom makes."  I guess that's what we get for trying the unprocessed variety of the food.  Later.

Christmas concerts

It appears that at the ripe old age of five, our daughter is ready to become a snowbird.  Jorja has decided that she has had enough of winter.  The other day after piano lessons we were walking back to the car, and it was a bit windy and quite cold.  She said that this cold weather made it hard to walk and hard to breathe.  We made it all the way back to the car (less than a block) and she flopped down into her seat and exclaimed, "I'm exhausted!"  Life is rough.  She has now decided that she has had enough and we should move to Mexico.  Just wait until January.

We took the girls to the new sitter today for a test run.  Things went pretty good, considering it was the first time and they stayed there all day.  Jorja walked to school with the sitter's son who is in grade six (it's a good thing it wasn't too cold today) and that went well.  CeCe had a few issues, but nothing too serious.  Ginny seemed to do the best of all, surprisingly.  Except for the fact that we were barely home, and she asked if she could poop.  Apparently she didn't feel comfortable enough to let go at the sitter's house yet.  A bit of holiday lockdown.  I'm sure that will go away.  As it is now, Julie will have to deal with a day of 'cleansing' tomorrow.  Too bad I have to work.

It's the season of the Christmas concerts and recitals.  Sunday was a marathon session for us.  The girls both performed during church as part of their Sunday School program.  They sang some songs, jingled some bells and Jorja had some lines to say this year.  For as much of a performer Ginny is at home, she was pretty reserved in front of the church.  Jorja was at first too, but she made it through her lines.  She looked a bit like a deer in the headlights when she first spoke into the mic, but she did it.  We were barely home and had a bite to eat and we were back on the road for piano recitals.  The girls are far enough apart  in age that we had to attend two - Ginny's started at 1:00 and Jorja's at 2:30.  Ginny sang a couple of songs and Jorja played the piano.

'Love may come and tap you on the shoulder, some starless night...'

'Ring those bells and turn around...'

It was a long day, but one that made me feel pretty proud, not only because of their performances, but because of how well behaved they were all afternoon.  There was a lot to sit through, and they did awesome, listening to everyone and clapping enthusiastically right to the end.

On another note, we are officially back into the 'gate stage' at our house.  CeCe is going to be walking soon enough, I'm sure.  She pulls herself up on everything and is starting to scooch along holding on.  She has also decided that she can climb stairs.  I turned my back for a minute and she was up two step already.  That's not good for the blood pressure.

Tomorrow night we are off to the final concert - the school one.  Now it's time for bed.  Later.

Feliz Navidad (or something like that)

I sit here this evening in silence, at least for the time being anyway.  Until someone wakes up and wants something - a soother, drink of water, to go pee.  Julie is out at our church Bible study group this evening which we both usually attend.  Today I am on poop patrol though.  Let me back up.  Wednesday evening as we were getting the girls ready for bed, Julie was feeding CeCe her bottle.  She was no sooner done than she threw up.  She has always had little milk spit-ups, but this was her first full blown puke.  So it was back to the tub with CeCe and Julie hit the shower.  The next morning (I was conveniently at work), the diarrhea started.  We had three solid days of that - a full outfit change with every diaper change, full bedding change if it happened there, Lysol the crib railings.  Oh yes, it has been fun.  If I had known about all this stuff before we had three kids, I would have bought stocks in stain remover and Lysol.  Anyway, we managed to keep it off the carpet this time although it was close.  There were two instances when I walked down the stairs to the family room to see some bubblin' crude coming over her pants and heading for the floor. 

So yes, here I sit.  We didn't think that any baby sitter would ever come back if we left her with the situation that was going on here this week.  So I took the older two to Sunday School this morning and Julie went out this evening.  I don't want to jinx the night, but I think CeCe may have started to turn the corner.  She kept the same outfit on all day and only had one semi-solid poop.  All right, enough about poop.

I was driving Jorja to piano lessons yesterday and I switched the radio station from the country one to the eighties one.  Steve Windwood's 'Valarie' was playing.  I've always liked Steve Windwood, but I digress.  Jorja asked me, "Dad, is this your station, the '80's on eight?"  I replied that yes it was.  "You know, your station isn't that bad," she replied.  Thanks Jorja, I'm glad you approve.

I had a couple of errands to run this afternoon and CeCe was napping and Julie was doing some Christmas baking (yes!!) so I took the girls along with me.  I was standing in line at the post office in Shoppers not really paying much attention to the conversation the girls were having.  All of a sudden, Ginny looks at the woman behind us and says, "Maybe she could be our mother."  This caught my attention.  Then Jorja said, "You think she's our mother?!"  and then the two of them laughed hysterically.  I had nothing.  What do you say to that?  I looked and the lady, and she was smirking, so that was all right.  What did she really think?  Were these two kids looking for a new wife/mother like something from Sleepless in Seattle?  I told them to stop being so goofy and wished the letter to the Philippine consulate in front of us would move along a little quicker.

Jorja likes to think that she is Ginny's teacher some days.  She especially likes to sound out words for Ginny when she hears something new.  She does it syllable by syllable to help her sound the new word out.  I forget what the word was now, but this was going on the other day.  Then Jorja said, "I know almost all the words, except Spanish, I only knew a few words in Spanish.  Like Natalise La Di Da.  That means Merry Christmas."  How does that go again I asked her.  "Nah - Tah - Lees - La - Dee  - Da" she says to me very clearly and slowly so that I too may learn this second language.  Thanks Jorja, but I think we'll have to play a bit more Bony M. this year.  Later.

Ho Ho Ho!

As close as Ginny would get.

With the exception of the Roughrider game, we had a great weekend.  Julie and I were able to attend my Christmas party and the new sitter did great.  Even though (surprise, surprise) our middle child pulled some fast stuff at bedtime and CeCe was a bit unsettled later on, we were still able to stay out until midnight.  The supper was great and the dessert table was to die for.  The entertainment was a game show and it was fun for a while, just went on a bit too long.  That was followed by a dance and Karaoke.  I sang 'Sweet Caroline' and was waiting for my Waylon song to come when the phone rang.  CeCe was awake and not settling.  Oh well, it was good while it lasted.  We arrived home to find all quiet, the sitter rocking CeCe and trying to get her back to sleep.  Did I mention I was impressed with her?

I want a doll house...



I'll stare you down old man.



Sunday evening brought the kids' party.  The girls were beside themselves all day long.  We were barely home from church and they were asking if it was time yet.  It was held at the Fun Factory and the girls did have a blast.  There is this whole jungle gym set-up with slides, tunnels, ball pits.   Ginny turned out to be a bit short for a couple of spots.  There was this one spot where a slide came down into a ball pit and then there was this tunnel to crawl out of.  The only problem was that she couldn't get up into the tunnel.  So when I came to check on her, here she was stuck in this ball pit dead end.  Poor thing.  This meant that I had to go in though.  I managed to get through the tunnel and fish her out and gave her strict instructions not to head that way again.  "Why not?" was the response I got.  Good question.  We had supper and then Santa came.  Ginny was  having nothing to with him.  I'm proud to say we had the only child that freaked out and screamed when trying to be coerced into sitting on Santa's lap.  Even CeCe did good.  She tried to stare him down, didn't crack a smile, but there were no tears.  The gifts they got were awesome too.

  

The other day I was wearing a Tshirt with the Superman symbol on the front.  I have had the shirt for a long time, just hadn't worn it in forever.  I don't think Ginny had ever seen it.  (This is another one of those examples of how doomed I am, being the only guy in the house.)  I was trying to explain to Ginny what it was - the S for Superman.  She just didn't get it.  The next day she told me that she like my jewel shirt.  Need I say more.

Jorja has informed us that everything she knows she has learned 'from Kindergarten and commercials.'  The more time we spend in the toy aisles before Christmas the more I am inclined to believe her.  They always love to push all the buttons on everything and see what wondrous noises things make.  When something doesn't work, she says, "Batteries not included."  Later.

Christmas parties

This is the weekend of Christmas parties.  Tonight is my work party and Sunday is the kids' Christmas party put on by my employer.  Julie and I are pumped for tonight, and the girls are pumped for Sunday.  I guess when the organizers were putting this together, they didn't think Saskatchewan would be in the Grey Cup.  Now it turns out Santa is scheduled to arrive right at opening kick-off.  Oh well, we should be home by the time the first quarter is over.  We are trying a new sitter tonight, so hopefully we're not home by 7:00.  I broke the news to Jorja last night and she seemed all right with it, so we'll see.  It's also the first time we've had a sitter for all three, so here's hoping the new girl does all right.

Jorja and I were talking about Santa last night before bed.  I told her she was going to see him on Sunday and that I had been talking to him that afternoon.  I told her he came to visit me at work.  Little does she know, Santa has a day job.  Anyway, I asked her what she would tell him of he asked her what she wants for Christmas.  She said, "I want a doll house with a grey elevator."  It's good to be specific I guess.  There's no point dropping subtle hints (with men regarding presents), you may as just spell out what you want so that you're not disappointed.  Then I asked her what she would say if she had been a good girl.  She looked at me and sheepishly whispered, "What should I say Daddy?"  I told her she could probably say yes.

Ginny was awake at 6:300 this morning, and I managed to convince her that it wasn't morning yet.  By the time she was back asleep CeCe was awake and not going back.  So much for sleeping in.  Jorja is up now too, and Ginny is the only one sleeping.  How does that work?  Oh well, time to put the coffee on.  Later.

This is it

Well, it's Friday evening now, so with just the weekend left, I guess you could say my parental leave is pretty much over.  I'd like to say this last week was a special, magical, memory-filled week, but truth be told, it was pretty much the same as any other.  The kids weren't little angels the entire time.  There were times they were each in trouble.  We didn't get to do anything super special to celebrate.  But that's okay.  It was a real week in our real lives, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

Jorja had a dentist appointment this week.  This was the first one where they did more than just kind of look around.  She had her teeth cleaned, polished, had xrays taken and did awesome.  There were no issues at all.  I was so proud of her.  I guess if you've never had a filling or a tooth pulled or a root canal, there is less reason to be nervous going to the dentist.  The dentist did say that her bottom two front teeth are starting to get loose though, so maybe she'll start losing teeth this year.

Ginny continues to be Ginny.  So frustrating and stubborn and head-strong one minute, then so cute and funny and lovable the next.  We've all had colds here for what seems like forever, and we've pretty much got her trained to cough and sneeze into her arm.  Last night at supper, Julie sneezed and Ginny looked over and asked, "Did you sneeze into your elbow?"  Oh yes, she's watching.  We were eating a casserole that has crunchy chow mien noodles on the top of it.  Sometimes, I like to take a couple of noodles and tuck them under my upper lip and let them hang down so that they look like a walrus.  Yes, I'm kind of a dork.  Anyway, I did this yesterday and Ginny said that walruses bite.  Julie said, "Oh, did you read about that or was is on TV, or who said that?"  Ginny looked at her, paused and then matter-of-factly said, "I did."  As if to say, 'Hello, weren't you listening?'

CeCe is our easy going child.  She just sits back and takes it all in.  She is getting awfully mobile now though.  She still isn't quite crawling, but she can roll quicker than you would think possible.  She can sit back up when she gets to her destination with no problem.  I've found her sitting up in her crib quite a few times now, and today, she was trying to pull herself up on something.  It may be time to lower the crib already.  Yikes.  She's got a second tooth, and is becoming less interested in baby food.  We mashed up a real banana the other day and she loved it.  It was as if to say, 'What is that crap you've been feeding me?  This stuff has real flavour.'  The reception to the kiwi today wasn't quite as warm, but they may be an acquired taste.

Jorja brought home a note yesterday saying she was supposed to bring in a couple of little boxes of Smarties left over from Halloween because they were going to count them and graph the results.  First of all, it's a good thing none of my teachers ever wanted me to bring in candy a week after Halloween.  Second of all, graph?!  Really?  In Kindergarten?  Don't get me wrong, nothing gets me revved up like a good graph.  It's always amazing how a good graphical representation can really make some data come to life.  I wanted to show her Excel, and all the cool stuff we could do.  We could add a trend line, find the slope, intercepts...the possibilities are endless.  But I restrained, and kept my excitement bottled up on the inside.  I know she's really smart, but I didn't want to freak her out too soon.  I asked her today how the graphing went and she said, "The green won."  Maybe we'll wait with the Excel for a bit. (Yes, I know I'm a geek.)

So this is it.  Monday morning will see me out the door off to work for the first time in nine months.  It will definitely be a transition.  I'll keep you posted.  Later.

CeCe

It is now exactly two weeks until I go back to work.  Technically, I'm back to work already, but I took two weeks of holidays first.  I figure I earned them.

CeCe seems really close to crawling these days.  She gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth, and can kind of push herself backwards.  Look out.  As it is, she rolls everywhere now.  She is less and less content in the exersaucer, which is too bad, because it was a good place to contain her for a few minutes if you needed to.  Now she just wants to be free.  I can't blame  her I guess.  We had to shut doors though, and I guess it won't be long until we are back in the 'baby gate' stage.  Today she was rolling around on the carpet here and got up against the wall.  The next thing I knew she had the plastic plug-in cover pulled out.  I thought those things were supposed to be child proof.  The whole point of them is to keep kids out of the plug-ins.  Even Ginny never pulled those out and she was crazy.  CeCe also opened the DVD player today.  Oh yes, the fun is beginning.  Last night I went into her room to when she woke up at midnight to eat and she was sitting up.  Holy cow, how did that happen?  Julie is going to have her hands full - unless of course this happens more often:

Later.

Broccoli

I like potatoes.  I like cheese.  I like broccoli (really, I do).  I like cheese on broccoli.  So when I saw the baby food jar labeled 'Potato Broccoli and Cheese Casserole,' I thought it sounded like a good idea.  Let me start by saying that each of the girls had at least one flavour of baby food that made them gag.  For the older two, it was peas.  Once they were old enough to eat real peas, they loved them.  But the pureed variety - not so much.  CeCe has had a few flavours that she is not that fond of, but nothing that she absolutely couldn't stand.  Well, I found it.  I gave her a spoonful of the 'casserole' and she proceeded to gag and sputter.  Hmm.  I gave her a few spoonfuls of cereal and then I thought I'd try again.  Maybe she was just choking.  No.  Again the gagging and heaving.  Enough said.  I brought out some fruit and all was well.  I guess I was an adult before I liked broccoli, so we'll see.  Maybe once she is onto more solid food she will like it.  Maybe she'll be like her sisters and not like it.

Let me tell you about one of the first times I ate broccoli.  The year was 1999.  Julie and I had just started dating and she lived in LaRonge at the time.  I went up to see her for a weekend and she cooked for me.  Now my idea of vegetables at that time were peas and corn.  Well, she made a stir-fry with all sorts of things that scared me half to death - broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, zucchini.  What was I going to do?  Here was this girl that I really liked and wanted to impress, yet every fibre of my being told me I wasn't going to like this.  One rule my Dad had always impressed on me as a child was that when you are at someone else's house, you eat what's on the table.  So, sweaty palms and all, I bit the bullet.  And it was actually good.  I was shocked and impressed all at once.  Who knew?  To this day, that is one of my favourite things.  Later.

First tooth

I know it's a few days late, but I finally got the pictures off the camera, so here is a shot of our thanksgiving spread. Notice the ketchup bottle in the corner that I forgot to get out of the shot. Oh well, just in case I thought we were too classy, that brings me back to reality.

Here is a shot of CeCe and her first tooth (you have to look pretty close and you'll see a little bit of white on her gums.) I like the triumphant fist pump, as if to say 'that's right, I've got a chomper now!'








We had our first of many school picture days this week. I'm curious to see if Jorja 'posed' as much for a strange photographer as she does here whenever there is a camera out. The head gets cocked to the side, hair flings over the shoulder, the pose it struck all right.

I've got pretty much exactly three weeks left until I go back to work.  I have to admit that it is getting me down.  I'm trying to enjoy the rest of the time that I do have instead of looking ahead and worrying about going back to work and all that that will bring.  It's a lot easier said than done, but today was a better day.  Later.