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.

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.

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.

Halloween

Thursday was Julie's birthday, and it was a good day.  She enjoyed her presents and cake, and the girls had fun too.  We all wore our party hats for cake at lunch time, and then we went out for supper.  Jorja told Julie that she got to pick the restaurant because it was her birthday.  In reality it wasn't entirely Julie's decision because we have to go somewhere that serves either chicken fingers or pizza (that is all the girls will ever eat at a restaurant).  We went to Boston Pizza.


The girls in their party hats.



Just to prove I had a hat too.

Jorja was asking Julie something about her birthday, and Julie said that she wasn't going to have any more birthdays.  Jorja replied, "You have to keep having birthdays so that you can die.  Don't you want to go see that golden place?"  At least the thought doesn't frighten her I guess.

After church today we went to Jerry's for lunch (as we do most Sundays) and after we were done eating the girls were playing in the play area.  Jorja had to go to the bathroom and Ginny continued to play.  She introduced herself to another little girl and found out this girl's name was Isabel.  She knows another little girl who also has that name.  As I was buckling her into her carseat to go home, I asked her about her new friend.  She told me that 'she is one of the Isabels.'  Maybe there's a whole gang of them, I don't know.

Tonight we took the girls out trick or treating.  They had a blast and ended up with way too much candy.  Ginny was dressed as a kangaroo, and her costume had a little joey sewn into the pouch on the front.  She spent the entire evening with one hand on her baby and said at one point, "When Joey gets scared, I just cover his eyes."  The later she said to Julie, "Joey is doing awesome, isn't he?" 

It is obvious which one of them takes after their father with respect to eating Halloween candy.  Ginny.  We let them have a couple of things when they got in, and Jorja was taking her time, and Ginny was 'can I have one more? ...chomp chomp... I'm just gonna have one more... chomp chomp ... can I have another?'

The kangaroo.

The skunk.

The princess.

The haul.

This marks my last Sunday evening without having to wake up for work in the morning.  It's not like the girls ever sleep in anyway, but I'm not looking forward to that 5:20 am alarm clock.  I guess I better make the most of this week.  Later.

The making of a masterpiece

Well, as promised, here it is:  the making of Julie's birthday cake:

My contribution:  the 'crumb coat':

The future cake boss?

The concentration...

Just a little more magenta over here:

Almost done: 

The masterpiece:

 And CeCe, the trooper, forced to watch all the fun from the playpen:

Later.

Birthday Eve

Tomorrow is Julie's birthday, so today was spent in eager preparation.  I think Jorja may some day be an event planner.  I baked the cake yesterday, so today we decorated it (Jorja, Ginny and me).  There are several words I could use to describe decorating a cake with a two year old and a five year old, but I think I'll just go with interesting.  I would post pictures, but I'll have to wait until after the big day as to not ruin the surprise.  Like anything with Jorja is ever a surprise.  Anyway, the cake turned out pretty good, so then it was time to make party hats.  After all, what is a party without party hats?  I fashioned five little cones out of paper and Jorja busily decorated them.  Oh yes, it is going to be quite the party.  For the girls' last couple of birthdays, Julie has made big poster-sized banners saying happy birthday along with pictures of the theme of that year.  Jorja also had to make a banner which I have been told I am to hang up tonight while Julie is sleeping to it's a surprise when she wakes up.  Who does she think I am, Santa?  I think I'll just do it in the morning.  She also thinks there should be balloons, but I don't think we have any, so I hope there aren't too many tears over that.  Don't laugh, there may very well be - she takes these things very seriously.  You also have to imagine her talking 90 miles an hour throughout this whole process as to what I am supposed to be doing and why we're doing this and how that will turn out.  It's very exhausting.  On that note, I've got some gifts to wrap.  Later.

38

Today was my birthday - it was a good day. It began with Jorja serenading me with Happy Birthday. She was beside herself wanting to give me my presents first thing this morning. She and Ginny had a good time 'helping' me with my gifts. Julie got me some really cool beer glasses made in Poland. Since I began tasting beer, she thinks I've become a bit of a snob. I no longer like drinking it out of the can. You can't really experience the whole aroma and flavour if you don't have a glass. These are tall and narrow, thin-walled with a heavy base, perfect for experiencing a cold beverage.

I went for lunch with the lab people from work. It was the last week for the summer student we've had for the last four years, so they were going out for lunch. It was nice to catch up.

This afternoon we had eye appointments - all of us except CeCe. The girls did really well. Julie and Jorja ended up going together, and Ginny and I went together. Ginny was a little reserved at first, but she did really well - sat a lot better than I thought she would. There was one time though while I was having mine checked that she wiped out and started to cry. So she came and sat on my lap and was wailing. The technician then asked her if a bouncy ball would make her feel better. Through the sobs, she mustered a yes. It was pretty cute. Both girls got free sunglasses too, so that was cool. My eyes are still perfect. Apparently the age things usually start to go downhill is 42. We'll see I guess.

We ended up ordering some supper in and then eating cake. Julie made a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream covered in a chocolate ganache. Are you sensing a theme? She put a layer of cherries in the middle, which was nice. She called it 'Death by Chocolate Covered Cherries.' It was awesome. Later.

37 and 364/365

Tomorrow is my birthday. Not a significant one, I'm turning 38. That's not old yet in Jorja's books. That happens at 40. When I turn 40, all my hair will fall out and I will be totally bald. Or if I was a girl, all my hair would be white. At least I've got a couple of good years left. Perhaps I should grow it out while I have the chance, relive my youth, long locks flowing out from under the hockey helmet....ahh, those were the days.

The other day we were running some errands, and I had to stop to get gas. The girls were famished (or so they said) so I picked them up a bag of mini Ritz sandwiches and a bottle of lemonade. They were in heaven. They've got some work to do drinking out of a bottle yet. I took a peak down the neck at one point, and there were a lot of cracker crumbs in there. At one point, the crackers had just been finished, and Ginny was having a drink. Jorja noticed a rather large crumb on Ginny's cheek and picked it off and proceeded to eat it herself. Sheesh. Kind of reminded me of monkeys at the zoo.

I think the pool is back in business. If it would stop raining that is. I shocked it with chlorine again last night, and today it is all clear. It still smells like there is a lot of chlorine in there, but that will be gone soon if the sun comes out. I guess I'll have to keep on top of things now.

Jorja's birthday par-tay

It has been a weekend of a lot of prep, a great birthday party, and a nice relaxing afternoon in the pool. I'll start with the prep...

Jorja's actual birthday was on Thursday, and it was just us. She opened her presents and thoroughly enjoyed the day. That night after the girls were in bed was when the real work began though. A while back Jorja had said she wanted a Tinkerbell birthday cake, so we thought a fairy party would be fun. Then I don't know what came over me. I started looking up ideas on the internet for party games, costumes, ideas. It was like I had this inner uber soccer mom inside of me. I came up with the idea that we should give them all wings and wands. Then after we had that bought, one little girl canceled so I came up with the idea that Julie could wear wings as well and be the queen fairy and bestow the wings on the little fairies in waiting. Julie kind of smiled and nodded the whole way along and went with it. I'm sure she thought I was crazy. Then as the day approached, she really got into it as well. She started looking stuff up too and came up with the idea to give them all pixie dust on their cheeks. She also created this special 'fairy chair' for the girls to sit in and take their pictures. I looked on the Disney fairy website, and found this game where you create a fairy. Then it gives you a name for your new fairy, so we took down a bunch of different names, and decided to give all the girls a fairy name as well. Then we had to organize the craft, put together the loot bags, Julie had to make and decorate the cake. It was almost two in the morning Thursday when we went to bed. Friday was a bit earlier, bit still busy. I've said once before that my coworker at the brewery would be proud of me, but I think she really would be this time. I used to sit in marvel at the birthday party stories she would tell, but once you get into it, it just seems to consume you. Maybe I've been off work for a while and needed a good project, I don't know, but I think we set the bar kind of high.

The day of the party finally arrived, and Julie got into costume. She talked me into it as well, so I became the king fairy for the afternoon. Julie was Queen Marigold Sparkle and I was King Nimble Thistle. It was actually a lot of fun.

Yes, those are fake leaves on my hat. The covered up the Great Western logo and I thought they added a lot to the Pixie Hollow mood. Julie had all the girls sit on the floor around her as she made them all into fairies. They received their wings, wands, pixie dust on their cheeks as well as their own fairy name. You could have heard a pin drop, they were so into it and in awe as Julie was making each of them fairies. It was pretty cool.

After they were done that part, we went upstairs and did a craft. They each got to decorate their own pair of flip-flops. Then it was back downstairs for a Tinkerbell variation of pin the tail on the donkey and a little bit of freeze dance. They really enjoyed the dancing. Julie was dancing with them at the start, and I was manning the controls. Then we switched it up. I showed them all some moves from the eighties (the classic side to side shuffle with a finger snap) which they all tried to imitate. Then I picked Ginny up to dance with her for a bit, and soon I was getting all kinds of requests for dances. For obvious legal reasons, and well as my back holding up reasons, I opted not to pick any of them up. I did get down on my knees and dance with each of them for a bit though, most of them twice. I've never felt so popular. *sigh*

Next it was time for the cake. Looking back on this picture, I'm amazed Jorja didn't light her hair on fire. Yikes. Julie did an awesome job on the cake though. Lastly, Jorja opened her presents, and posed for a picture with each of her friends. Notice the special fairy chair.

By the time parents started coming, we were exhausted, drained, spent. It was an intense two hours. The girls all had a blast though, so it was worth it. Everyone was in bed early.

It was gorgeous out today, so we all went in the pool for a bit. It was pretty cold at the start, but I did get used to it, and it was a lot of fun. Ginny was so cute, she spent most of the afternoon just laying back and relaxing on this floating lounger we have. I'm not sure what this week will bring, but hopefully a little more sleep. Later.

Birthdays of years past

Today was Jorja's fifth birthday. It's hard to believe how time flies by so quickly. Here are pictures of her first four birthdays. She's having a party on Saturday, so I'll wait until then to post pictures of her fifth birthday. Her first birthday was still in our old house on Avenue B. There was no air conditioning, and a fairly large group of family there, so we held all the 'festivities' in the backyard. Looking back at the pictures and how much I was sweating, I think it was equally hot outside.

Jorja's second birthday was actually on the day we moved into the house we live in now. Needless to say, there was no party, just an ice cream cake from Jerry's in amongst a whole lot of boxes.

By her third birthday, Julie had started to dabble in cake decorating. I'm pretty sure this was before she took any classes though - pretty impressive mermaid. It was a hot day again, and the kids all played in the pool and slip 'n' slide in the backyard.

Her fourth birthday was hot again, and spent slipping and sliding in the backyard as well.

This year we thought we'd switch things up a bit and have the party inside. It's a Tinkerbell theme complete with fairy wings and magic wands. What have I got myself into? Later.

Christmas in July

We got back from my parents' place yesterday. We had a good trip - the visit was dubbed 'Christmas in July' because everyone was there - all my siblings, spouses and kids, as well as my grandparents. It's getting harder to all get together, especially at Christmas, so we found a weekend in the summer that worked for everyone. The weather cooperated too, which was a blessing (there are four of us in the family, plus my parents and grandparents and then 8 kids). It would have been awfully crowded if it rained. The girls had a blast playing with their cousins, and we had a good visit. The ride home went remarkably well too. CeCe had a 2+ hour snooze, and the other two girls both slept for over an hour, we stopped once to feed CeCe, and everyone was fairly well behaved.
We were barely home five minutes, and I had changed two poopy diapers already. Ginny never pooped the whole weekend we were were away, and CeCe only did once. I too suffer from this problem quite often. Some of Julie's friends call it 'holiday lockdown.' When I was still working, they were talking about it on the radio one morning too, so I know it's a real problem. Anyway, Ginny has been cleansing ever since she's been home - twice yesterday, and four times today. Did I mention that my Mom makes really good bran muffins that the girls both love and ate quite a few of on the weekend? I think everyone is pretty much cleaned out now though.


I made the call today to switch back to Sasktel. I just can't believe how crappy Shaw is. Last night when we were watching the Bachelorette (I know), even Julie said how glitchy and pixely it was. That was the final straw. Not to mention, I couldn't go through a whole CFL season with the picture we had. So July 29, we switch back. They've got quite a good deal on too, for people who are coming back from Shaw. Plus, Sasktel has the Playhouse Disney channel, which Shaw doesn't offer. That means no Strawberry Shortcake, Carebears, Handy Manny...It was a bit of an adjustment for the girls. So today I told Jorja that we were getting it back and she was ecstatic. Tonight when we were saying our prayers she thanked God that 'Daddy talked to those boys and that on July 29 we are going to switch TV.'


Jorja's fifth birthday is coming up this week on the 22nd. We're having her party on Saturday, so that should be draining (there will be 7 little girls in the house for two hours). She's pretty excited though. One little girl that she invited wasn't able to come, so there were tears over that this morning. It's a rough life. Later.