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.

Merry belated Christmas and Happy New Year

It's been a busy couple of weeks here, and a while since I've written anything.  I guess I should squeeze one more post in before the new year.  I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas Eve.  We went to the evening service at church which started at 6:30.  It's a tradition that the last song (Silent Night) is sung by candle light.  Everyone gets a candle and the lights are turned off and the flame is passed from one person to another starting with the Christ candle.  We decided this year that the girls could each hold a candle.  Ginny did fine (surprisingly), but Jorja had a bit of a mishap.  She was getting into things and decided to hold the candle above her head.  The only problem with that was that she didn't keep it very level and dripped hot wax onto her head.  Ouch!  It wasn't a very silent night after that, but we made it through and combed some wax out of her hair when we got home. 

We then opened presents Christmas eve when we got home from church.  (Except for CeCe - she had had enough and was ready for bed)  The girls were pretty excited and had a lot of fun.  We got them a doll house this year.  It's funny, one doesn't realize the scale of a doll house when it is set up in Toys R Us.  It didn't look that big, but once it was home and set up, it is a real presence in the room.  Oh well, it will only be around for a few more years, and the shade of hot pink looks great in the family room.

Christmas toes

Jorja and Ginny in their new PJs opening presents

CeCe in front of the aftermath

Christmas day the weather was beautiful and I took the older two girls to the park to go sledding.  Jorja had mentioned once that a friend of hers brought a sled to school one day and they went sliding down the 'biggest hill ever'.  I've seen the playground and I wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, but I thought we'd see.  Her 'hill' was basically a large trench through the park - pretty lame.  Across the field at the public school, there is a bit of an actual hill, so that's where we went.  We had a lot of fun.  The hill wasn't too big, and for the first few runs, I ended up being the chair lift and pulled the two of them in the sled up the hill.  I came to my senses and made them walk up.  Then we all piled in and went down a few times.  Here's the view heading down.

Not the biggest hill, but we had fun.

On boxing day, we set out for Julie's parent's place where we feasted that evening.  We had another Christmas and the girls had fun again.  CeCe wasn't too into the presents yet this year, but she did have fun with a bow for a while.  The weather there was nice, and we went sledding in some hills in the field.  This was considerably bigger than the school hill, and I think the adults had more fun than the kids.  The girls had fun playing with their aunt and uncle and Nanny and Poppa.  They also got to spend some time with both great-grannies, so that was nice. 

Jorja must have been hearing some politically correct greeting this year, because one afternoon out of the blue she said to me, "Seasons ingredients!"  I smiled and said "Seasons ingredients" back to her.  (Yes, I did correct her after a while.)  Another afternoon she was helping Poppa in his office punching some holes in some papers.  She proudly came up afterward and declared she was his 'secondtary'.  So close on both occasions.

We came home on the 29th, and now it seems like the crunch is really on.  Julie goes back to work on Monday, the girls start at the sitter full time and Jorja goes back to school.  I'm back at work too.  It seems like this January back-to-work date for Julie has just sort of been looming in the distance, but now it's here and there seems like there is so much to do.  We went on a big shopping excursion yesterday to buy all the supplies for the sitter - diapers, wipes, zinc cream.  Plus we needed all that stuff for ourselves.  Julie needed some new shoes and uniforms for work, so we got that taken care of as well.  It was rather draining by the time we were done - physically, mentally and financially.  But we're getting there.

Now we are having some friends over tonight, my parents tomorrow for one last Christmas and then it's back to reality.  Have a good New Year's and try to stay warm.  Later.

Week 1

Well, we survived my first week back at work.  I think it was easiest on me.  Work itself was good, not too much had changed and it was good to see everyone again.  This week I am working the evening shift to give Julie a bit of a break.  This way I can still help getting Jorja to and from school and go to work after she gets home.  We'll see how that goes.

We were in Calgary this past weekend to celebrate Julie's Mom's birthday.  We left on Thursday and had supper with my sister and her family.  We had a nice visit there (the girls had fun playing with their cousins) and then went to Julie's brother and sister-in-law's place for the rest of the weekend.  We did some shopping on Friday and had a nice birthday supper for Julie's Mom.  Saturday was spent at the zoo which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.  Sunday was a looonnnggg day in the car.  We broke down this time and borrowed a DVD player from some friends for the car ride.  Why did we not do this sooner?  We were always 'we never had that as a kid, our kids don't need that'.  Who were we trying to fool?  It was awesome.  It was the best-behaved the girls had been for a long car ride.  And Calgary is a long car ride.

On the way home we stopped in Hanna for lunch.  We ended up finding a local restaurant that had a Sunday buffet, so we had that.  It was a nice change from the usual road trip fare.  After lunch, Jorja had to go to the bathroom, so I took her.  It was a small bathroom with one stall to sit and one urinal.  I sent her into the stall while I used the urinal.  I was standing there waiting for her to finish when another gentleman entered the bathroom and proceeded to wait for the stall.  It was at this point that Jorja yelled (loudly), "Dad!  You've got to see the size of my poop!"  The guy looked at me and smirked.  I told her to just finish wiping and come out.  "No Dad, you've got to see this.  It's massive!"  At this point I told her someone else was there waiting to use the bathroom, and that she should just hurry up.  I wonder what that guy told his dining party when he went back. 

Taking Jorja to school today, I was walking and holding Ginny's hand.  I guess I was squeezing a bit hard trying to keep her on the sidewalk and out of traffic.  She said to me, "Dad, don't squish my mitt.  If you do, I will be mad."  All right then.  Later.

Sunday school

Today was the first day of Sunday School for the year. It was also Ginny's first time ever. We had her pretty psyched up about the whole thing - she knew her teacher's name before she went in and was all excited. She did really well too - dropping her off was no issue - no tears, no nothing. It must have been stressing her a little more than she had been letting on, though. After church we went to Fuddrucker's for lunch. The girls both wanted booster seats to sit in, so we went to get some. I tried to hold Ginny's hand and all of a sudden she just freaked out. I'm talking laying down on the floor, screaming. Where did that come from? I tried to pick her up and she did the whole going limp thing - I don't know where they learn that, but it works well. I finally got her to the booster seats, and she picked one up, carried it, and screamed the whole way back to the table. The strange thing is that I wasn't even really embarrassed by it. It's funny what I person gets used to - a couple of years ago I would have been mortified, now it was like 'eh, whatever.'

Julie's parents are down for the weekend. Originally just Julie's Mom was going to come (she has tickets to the Johnny Reid concert tonight) but with the weather being as crappy as it has been and no combining going on, her Dad came too. Last night we went out for supper to Chili's. This was our free meal for the last time we were there. It was much better this time - the food was good, the service was great. When it came time for dessert, Jorja decide she was going to share with Nanny and Poppa. Well, you would swear she hadn't eaten any supper the way she dove into that chocolate cake and ice cream. Now there is one thing you should know - Nanny loves chocolate - you don't mess with her chocolate. Up until this time, I didn't really think the grandkids could do much wrong in her eyes, but Jorja crossed the line. She's laughing about it today, but last night Jorja was getting the look normally reserved for Poppa when he comes home from an auction sale. That is not a good look.

In the girls dress up clothes, they have some pompoms. On Friday before the Rider game, Jorja was pretending to be a cheerleader. I asked her if she was cheering for the riders. She replied that yes she was, and then she picked up a magic wand and said, "And if they start to lose, I'll just use this to help them win." Where was she at last year's Grey Cup game?

While Jorja was in school on Friday, Ginny and I went out by ourselves. Canadian Tire had a car seat on sale, and we are going to need a new one pretty soon. I had also told Ginny she could have a treat, so she found some gummy worms. The clerk put them in a little bag for her, and she thought she was pretty hot stuff after that. There was no getting that bag out of her hand after that. I asked her if she wanted one in the car, and she said no, she was just going to hold the bag. I had to stop at M&M after that, so when we were getting out of the car, I asked her if she wanted to leave her bag in the car. Again, the answer was no. The bag was coming in with us. After I had bought some chicken, and the clerk put it in a bag, Ginny piped up (loudly), "Look Dad! Now we both have bags!" That was the first time I heard that. Later.

Catching up

It's been a few days since I posted anything (other than the video of Ginny). I was going to last night, but I didn't have the energy after the drive home and watching the finale of the Bachelorette (I know, but it's over now - I had to see it through). In case you watch or want my opinion, I think she picked the wrong guy.
Let me start by showing you CeCe in the pool:


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That was Friday afternoon, before we went away for the weekend. We ended up going to Julie's parents' place for the weekend, but didn't leave until Saturday morning. Julie's brother and his wife were there as well, so it was good to see them too. Before we left on Friday, Julie's Dad called and asked if she could find him a couple of kittens for the shop. Julie looked on kijiji, and was only able to get one little charcoal grey male. She went and picked him up after the girls were in bed. We had him set up in the downstairs bathroom and put the baby gate on the door. He was still in there when I fed CeCe at 5:00 am, but by the time the girls were up, he had figured out how to scale the gate. So the girls get up at 7:00, and head downstairs. Now in hindsight, maybe I should have warned them, but it was just a kitten. They get to the kitchen and that is how far the cat had made it as well. He was under the table when they spot him. (Keep in mind, he is only 9 weeks old and tiny.) They started screaming like little girls (okay, bad analogy). 'AHHHH! There's a kitty! AHHHH!' I come down, and the two of them are both in tears and cowering in the corner pointing at this ferocious beast. I couldn't believe it. I'm not sure what has gotten into the two of them lately, but they both seem to have developed this fear of animals. The sitter they went to every day before CeCe was born had a big dog and two cats, and there was never any issue. I don't know.

We left Saturday morning right after CeCe finished her bottle, and drove the whole 3 and a half hours in one stretch. It was pretty good. We had a good visit, the girls had a blast with their aunt and uncle. This time CeCe suffered from holiday lockdown. I'm not sure why, it's not like her diet changes (we bring our own water for the formula). Anyway, she finally broke through on the drive home, but it must have been fairly close to the city because she slept most of the way and never got crusty when she woke up.

This morning Jorja started swimming lessons for the first time. She did awesome and had a blast. So she goes every morning now for the next two weeks. This afternoon we went to Superstore and bought school supplies while we were there. School supplies! That sounds so strange. It's still hard to believe she'll be in school in less than a month.

We ate our first two cucumbers from our garden today. We were pretty impressed. Despite our almost complete neglect, things are doing pretty good. I finally got out there with a hoe last week and knocked down some of the weeds and grass. I was attempting to get cages around the tomatoes when the neighbor across the fence started talking to me. He's an older guy, probably 70ish, and his garden seems to be his pride and joy. It takes up half his backyard and is spotless. He says to me that we 'have good soil - it's very fertile.' At this point, the only thing you can really see on our side of the fence is a sea of weeds. Where is that mole we had last year so that I can crawl into one of his holes. I agree with him, as he continues to hoe at weeds that are coming through the fence onto his side. So later on that day I went back when he wasn't there and attacked the weeds. It actually looks pretty good right now. Later.

We're back!

We made it home this evening from the weekend at Julie's parents' farm. Things went well until we got to Rosetown (an hour from home) when CeCe decided to scream...and scream...and scream. There's nothing like a screaming baby inside a car with two other kids who are bothered by it to get the blood pressure going. She finally fell asleep about five minutes out of town. I suggested we should keep driving somewhere else then, but no one took the bait.

We arrived at the farm Thursday evening in time for supper. Both girls fell asleep in the car so bedtime was not going to come early. Jorja and Ginny went for a ride with Papa first in the tractor and then in the truck. They were having a blast. Jorja couldn't talk fast enough. "The tractor has three speeds slow medium and fast we went mostly in slow and a bit in medium but not too much and not in fast because that would have been too fast and we each got to steer and it has a loader that we got to put up and down and we had to take turns and it was a bit noisy but not too bad and it had three speeds..." Then they went for a ride in the truck to look at some land. They have some land with on old yardsite on it that they call the 'Huber place' (sounds like Hoo-ber). I asked Jorja where they went, and she said, "The Hooer Place." Where? "The Hooer Place." I was going to correct her, but it was just too funny listening to her say it.

On Friday, Julie, Jorja, Ginny and Nanny went to Medicine Hat. CeCe and I stayed back to get some rest. We napped for two hours in the morning. We napped for two hours in the afternoon. It was awesome!

Saturday the sun was finally shining, but the mosquitoes were sooo bad it wasn't funny. I made the comment that they were brutal. Apparently this was the first time Jorja had heard the word, because she kept saying it over and over. "The mosquitoes were bruuutal Nanny. The mosquitoes were bruuutal Papa. The mosquitoes were bruuuutal Mommy."

So that's the weekend in a nutshell. We made it home safe and sound and without any tickets (thanks to a very kind police officer just south of Kindersely that made a motion with his hand for me to slow down). Later.

What Mother's Day Means To Me

Doesn't this title sound like an essay that we would have written in Grade 5?


Tomorrow is Mother's Day. I am now a mother, so I am legitimately remembered on this day. But I have to be honest. It feels weird.


I think that this may be the first Mother's Day out of the 5 that I have been at my home with Dave and the girls to celebrate it. I've either been away at a conference (this happened twice), or we've been at my folk's house, as this is the weekend that the Mother-Daughter Salad Supper happens. There is a flurry of excitement in the house, especially from Jorja. She's been telling me that there are surprises hidden for me in her and Ginny's closet, so I can't go in there and look, but I'll be getting them tomorrow. So, no peeking, Mommy! I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers today, and yesterday, we went out for an early Mother's Day supper. I truly am spoiled!


Why does it feel weird? I don't know. I am having feelings of inadequacy, as though I don't deserve to be celebrated, because I'm really not a great mom. Sure, I get by - the kids are clothed, hair is brushed, food is on the table, etc, etc, but a lot of this is because they also have a really great dad! I think that Dave and I balance each other out, but it's more of a 65/35 split....where I'm slightly below average, he's in the exceptional/gifted status.


Don't get me wrong - I love my girls, and would do anything for them. I just think that I don't score high in the super mom quotient. I guess that's okay but the important thing is that I am continually trying to do my best, and am always striving to be a better Momma - more patience, less annoyance, more attention, less frustration, more understanding, more laughter, and more love.


That being said, I hope that my girls grow up to be exceptional young ladies, knowing that their Momma loved them to the best of her ability. I hope that they grow up to have the wonderful kind of relationship with me that I have with my Mom. I hope that, someday, they will get to experience the joy that comes with being a mother -having sticky little hands clasped inside of theirs, slobbery kisses, big, sweet hugs from tiny little arms. I hope that they will get to experience the wonder of having a little person growing inside their body. I hope that they will hear the beauty of four magical words that can cross a child's lips - "I love you, Mom."


And to my Mom - what a lady you are! I am so blessed and privileged to have such a role model as you, and I am proud that you're my Mom. I'm glad that you're one of my best friends. You're a great source of wisdom, advice, laughter, fun, and not to mention, great recipes and cooking tips. I'm thankful for all of the love and support that you've given me, and I don't know where I'd be without our almost daily phone chats.


I love you, Momma - have a wonderful Mother's Day. I hope that I can be half of the mother to my girls that you were and are to me.


~Julie