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.   

Freedom

This weekend we had a first since CeCe came - six hours totally kid-free. A good friend of ours offered to take our kids (all three!) for the afternoon. What a blessing. It was nice to just relax and go out for once as a couple again. We went and looked for new cell phones, got some new shoes and went for supper. It was strange not having to worry about any kids during supper. Then last night we had a sitter for the older two while we went to our small group meeting with friends from church. Such freedom.

I'm not sure if it's the transition of Jorja in Kindergarten, the impending return of me to work, or just her age, but Ginny has started acting out some of those terrible twos tantrums on a more regular basis. It's funny, because she seems older than two most of the time (with the exception of diapers). And we sort of thought she went through the terrible two stage when she was one. Not so lucky I guess. Oh well, there's plenty more changes coming to rock her little world yet in the coming months, so I'm sure it will get worse before it gets better. Let's hope there's still a bit of hair on my head by then.

Jorja is doing good at school - most days she comes home bubbling. You can tell on the days when something upsetting happened. Last week one day, three boys were getting in trouble and it seemed to bother her. Then today, another little girl was throwing sand at her on the playground at recess. And so it begins. I think she seemed to handle it fairly well. She said she asked the girl to stop, and when she wouldn't, she tried going and playing somewhere else. Maybe she'll get a bit of a tougher skin yet.

CeCe's first tooth finally broke through today. It has taken forever and given her constant grief. She actually napped well today for the first time in a while. I guess it's a little early to comment on the night yet, but here's hoping. Later.

Downpour

This afternoon, I took all three girls on a little outing. I had a couple of errands to run, and then we had to go to Safeway. The first stop was to Shaw to return all their equipment. I decided it would be easier to leave the oldest two girls in the car and just take CeCe while I ran in. It was mid afternoon, so I had brought along a snack for them to occupy their time just in case I had to wait a couple of minutes. It wasn't super warm today, but I thought I would crack the windows just to give them some fresh air. It had been cloudy all day, but nothing was really happening. So I had them all set up, took CeCe and the cable box inside, and had to wait in line for a minute. Then the sky opened up. I'm talking torrential downpour. Out of nowhere with no lead up. Just sheets of rain. I'm standing there with CeCe and I realized that I left the windows in the car open. Now what to do? There was a bush between the window and the car so I couldn't actually see them, but the direction of the rain looked like it shouldn't be too bad. I decided to wait. It took a few minutes until I was done, and then I threw a cloth shopping bag over CeCe's head and ran out. From the building out to the sidewalk I was soaked. I opened the car door and realized that perhaps I should have came out sooner. The girls were in hysterics. "The windows are open! The windows are open!" I got them shut and me and CeCe in and then proceeded to try and calm them down. They weren't wet, so that was good. Had I left CeCe in the car too, she would have been soaked. Eventually the wails turned to sobs and then to sniffles, and then to just tear stained cheeks. Boy, did I ever feel like the good Dad. I waited a few minutes more before driving away because the windshield wipers couldn't keep up. The storm sewers couldn't keep up, there was water up on to the sidewalks. It was a serious storm. It was over in ten minutes, but it was nasty. It just had to happen for those particular ten minutes. There was no sign, I mean, I wouldn't have left the windows open if I thought it would rain. Crazy. Just another reason to get rid of Shaw. Later.

Nice hair

This morning I went to work for a little visit/coffee/sanity break under the guise that I had to drop something off there. It was great to catch up with everyone. So this evening, Jorja asks me how my visit was with my friends today. Good, I say. "Did you ask them what kind of apples are their favourite?" she asks. Hmmm, no that totally slipped my mind.

This evening, after her bath, I was getting Ginny dressed. Sometimes after her diaper is on, and her bottoms are started, I get her to stand up on my knees while I pull them up. I always tell her to hold on to my head. Today, she looked at the top of my head, kind of stroked the side, and said, "You have such beautiful hair." I haven't heard that since the '80's. Later

Soccer shoes

After preschool today, we went to Walmart to get some new runners for Jorja. Soccer starts tomorrow, and she doesn't have any. We had decided that it didn't really pay to buy cleats, so we were just going to get her some regular runners. I tried on some brand name ones that were in the $20 range, but they didn't have velcro or laces, just kind of an elasticized tongue. They were next to impossible to get on over her soccer socks. And I'm not about to get her anything with laces - that's just too much work. So I found a pair of no name velcro ones for $8. I'm not opposed to spending more money - if I really believed the shoes would make any difference in her soccer-playing ability, I would buy them. But the $8 ones fit good, and I asked her if they were good enough. She looked at me, looked at the shoes and said, "Yup, they have pink on them." Enough said.

We also had to pick up some new plastic pails for playing in the dirt in the backyard. On the weekend, we were playing soccer, when I inadvertently stepped on the 'carebear' one. It spent all last summer outside, the winter in the shed, and most of the spring outside. The plastic was so brittle, it basically exploded under my foot. Well, I thought the world was going to end. Jorja cried...and cried...and cried. Even upon my insisting that we would get new pails, she said thinking about the carebear one still made her sad. I even said we would get two pails - one for each of them - to replace this one sacred pail. Finally she agreed. So today we walk into Walmart, and they have lots of summer stuff in a section right by the front doors. I walk down the aisle without pointing anything out, and see some princess pails for $4.93 each. I couldn't believe it was going to cost me ten bucks to replace this brittle, old pail. So we walked to the toy section, and I ended up spotting some for a buck. And they had pink, so all was well.

CeCe had been kind of fussy, so Julie stayed home with her. Lately, when I go somewhere with just the two girls, they insist in driving the red car. We went to get propane for the BBQ on Saturday, and Jorja said, "Yeah, this car is better. It has more power."

Ginny spent the whole car ride today singing 'Cecilia, you're shakin' my heart'. She gets the lyrics a bit mixed up, but she was right into it. She would close her eyes, tilt her head back, and just belt it out.

I went to work this afternoon by myself for coffee. It was great to see everyone and have an outing on my own. I love my kids, but it was a nice break.

I think that was about it for today. Later.