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.

Ginny's wisdom

I was driving the girls home from daycare today (it was a much better day) and Jorja had made a paper crown in Kindergarten.  Ginny asked if she could wear it.  Jorja replied that it would be too big now and that maybe they should try when Ginny turns three (like it will still be around then).  "I'm still two now," Ginny says.  "Yes, I know," says Jorja, "we'll try when you're three."  "Great idea Jorja!" Ginny says.  Maybe you had to be there, and I'm not doing the story justice, but it was the cutest thing.  She's so supportive.

Our trip for Petland is planned for the morning - the girls are quite beside themselves actually.  As we were getting ready for bed, I told Ginny that if she wanted to go that she had to go to bed good.  She said that she would and we started up the stairs.  I mentioned again that she had to go to bed nice and that I was really looking forward to going to the pet store.  Without missing a beat, Ginny turned to me and said, "Then you have to sleep good."  Touche.  I guess if I want to go, then the same rules should apply to me.  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.

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.

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.

Scratched cornea

Yesterday morning we were going to go outside and 'harvest' the garden. The weather is pretty miserable lately and the forecast is for frost this week, so we thought we would get the tomatoes in. There were a few more zucchini and cucumbers, but not much. For some reason, we didn't get any potatoes. I have now dug up all 2o plants, and there was not even enough there for two meals. Anyway, back to where the story had started going. Jorja and Ginny went out first while Julie and I were still getting organized. All of a sudden, the death wail was coming from the back yard. Jorja rounded the corner screaming and covering her eye. The long and short of it was that she found a bungee cord that held the pool cover on that I didn't clean up and got the end of it in her eye. After we got her calmed down and got her to open her eye, there was a visible scratch on her cornea. So Julie called the eye doctor and they were off. I didn't know eye doctors did emergencies. He confirmed the scratched cornea, but thought it would be all right in a couple of days. He gave her some eye drops and she has to go back tomorrow to get it checked. This time he is going to dilate her pupil though to see if anything was done inside. Poor thing. On the upside, she is looking cool wearing sunglasses to Kindergarten.

This afternoon I went outside to work at getting the rest of the garden ready for the rototiller. Ginny came to 'help' me while CeCe napped and Jorja was in school. We have some big, unruly shrubs the backyard that we don't like, and I ended up digging one out today. That was a lot of work. It's a good thing I had help. Well, in her mind anyway. About halfway through, she told me that she pooped. So she went in to get Julie to change her (I was way too muddy). She told Julie that she had to get back out there to work. She had fun though, talked non-stop for over an hour, worked on her slide, pretended the Nemo sprinkle was her baby brother ("SHH Dad, you have to be quiet. He's sleeping). Like I was the one making the noise. Then she was looking over the fence at our neighbour who was in his garden (he's probably 70-something). "I see a boy over there Dad. He's working in his garden too." I wonder how long it's been since he's been called a boy. When you're two, you don't really have that sense not to talk about people when they are right in front of you and listening. Oh well. Later.

Close, but not quite

This evening before bed, I was reading the girls their bible story. It was the one about a widow giving her offering of two small coins and Jesus saying that this was a greater gift than the rich people giving a lot. In the children's' bible we have, there are some questions after each story. One question was 'what did you learn from this story?' In an effort to relate it to their lives I used the analogy that they had lots of toys. I said what if you gave away a box full of toys and someone else who only had two toys gave them away. Jorja quickly replied, "They would have to buy more toys." Hmm...missed it by that much. Later

Pocahontas

The last time we were at the library, we got some movies, one of them being Disney's Pocahontas. Normally I tune out or doze while the girls are watching a movie, but yesterday for whatever reason, I ended up watching most of it. Later in the day, Jorja was telling Julie about the movie. I asked Jorja if she learned anything from the movie. She looked at me and slowly shook her head no. I asked if she learned that it's better to try and work out our differences by talking and seeing what the other person is going through rather than fighting. She looked at me and slowly shook her head no. Hmm. I asked her if she learned that it doesn't matter what people look like on the outside, it's what's inside that counts. She looked at me, and it appeared as though light went off for her. Then she said, "Yeah, we could see their bones." Yes, that is exactly what I meant. Later.

Off

Jorja and I went out to give blood this evening, and while we were there, she played a soccer game. Boy the mosquitoes are relentless, even with spray. Speaking of spray, it seems Off is sold out everywhere these days. Walmart was out, Zellers was out, London Drugs was out. We finally found some at Shoppers. But back to the soccer game. There was no goal this week, but she did have 'a few good kicks.' She's so tentative out there, even when a lot of the kids are smaller than she is this year. There were a couple of times when she chased the opponents and caught up to them, and then just kind of jogged behind them. So I told her that it was okay to try and take the ball away from the opposition. She just looked at me like I had two heads. Why on earth would you want to do that? Oh well.

The weather here has been decent the last couple of days (it is raining right now though). We spent most of the afternoon in the backyard yesterday. Julie had bought a sunscreen stick for the girls' faces and used it for the first time yesterday. I was talking to Jorja about it today. "Mommy put it on my ears, and my nose, and on my forehead." I asked if I could put it on my forehead. A look of shock and disgust came across her face, "No Dad, I don't want it to get all sweaty!" What could I say? I didn't really have a case against that. Later.

My animal

This morning we attempted to go for a bike ride with the whole family. A while back, we had bought an attachment for Julie's bike where Jorja can ride behind her. It has handle bars, pedals, and one wheel, and attaches to the seat post of the big bike. Ginny rides in the seat on the back of my bike, and then I pull CeCe in the chariot. It turned out that there were some kinks to be worked out in the assembly if Jorja's bike attachment (by kinks I mean that after they took one corner, the trailer bike shifted so much that she was leaning something fierce). We were all helmeted up and the other two kids were loaded, so I just took Jorja's trailer off and got out her bike. Well, she's not really up to going anywhere too far too quickly. So Julie went for a ride by herself while I rode with Jorja and then I took the other two girls for a ride while Julie biked close to home with Jorja. CeCe really enjoyed the ride - she fell asleep. I just came in from the garage now, and I believe the kinks have been worked out, so we'll have to see when the sun shines again. Maybe we can make it as far as the park or something.

A few days ago, our super dandelion puller broke. I think maybe it has already done a lifetime worth of work, but we thought we would try taking it back anyway. We no longer had the receipt, but we gave it a whirl. We walked into Canadian Tire, I explained the issue, the clerk said that the Fiskar has a lifetime exchange warranty, so she went and got a new one off the shelf, and we were done. We were so impressed.

This evening Jorja was getting ready for bed, and I was teasing her saying I wanted to sleep with one of her stuffed animals (she has a Care Bear that she got when she was 18 months old and a panda bear she calls Bamboo that she must sleep with every night). I said I really wanted to sleep with Bamboo. She replied, "No Dad, Mommy is your animal." If you only knew Jorja, if you only knew... Later.

4 month shots

Sitting here this evening, we remembered that we were out of both bread and milk. That could make for a pretty slim breakfast, so I went to Walmart at 10:00. It was kind of nice at that hour with no kids - probably mostly the no kids factor that was the real selling point.

I was reading Jorja a book today about fish. One page had an octopus on it that was swimming away from a shark. She informed me that it was swimming to get away from it's 'creditors'. Aren't we all?

Today was time for CeCe's four month shots. She did pretty good, as good as you can when you're that small and get a needle jabbed into each one of your legs I guess. She weighs just over 15 lbs now, so that's good - 75th percentile I think. The nurse was going over the whole rundown of things with me and we started talking about introducing solid foods. She said that the thinking now is to introduce meat as one of the first things. Meat? Better iron I guess. But really? She suggested that when me have meat, like chicken, say, take a drumstick that you already cooked and boil it in a bit of water. (I didn't have the heart to tell her that all we buy are chicken breasts with no bones.) Then scraped it off the bone, and along with the water you boiled it in, put it in the blender. Doesn't it just sound delicious?

Well, it's time to go feed the little one. Just a bottle. Later.

Pretty coat

So I was watching hockey this evening, and Don Cherry comes on. Jorja asks, "Does he always wear such a pretty coat?" It's amazing what passes for pretty when you're four. Jorja has such an amazing memory. We watched Don Cherry once before and she was asking about him, so I was telling her. Today she says, "He was married to a girl named Rose, and now she died, and he always wears a rose to remember her." Pretty amazing. Later.