A sign of the times?

I'm not sure if some recent developments in the house mean that the girls watch too much TV or if they just compare things to what they know.  As I write that statement, it is dawning on me that the two things are not that far off.  If they didn't watch TV, they wouldn't know about it and therefore could not compare something to it.  I think I'm rambling.  Is anyone else confused?

Anyway, the point of my story...the other day I was reading Ginny a story and she had to go pee.  She said to me, "Dad, can you 'pause' the story till I get back."  Pause as in how you would pause a movie when you have to go to the bathroom.  Then this past week, Jorja was talking about imagination and she said that when you imagine things, your eyes are like the remote.  You blink and then you can change channels to imagine something else.  I guess the upside is that they both have very vivid imaginations.  And now that our desktop computer is fried, they haven't been able to play computer games for a few weeks now.  I don't really think they're missing it too badly either.

On a totally different note, I think Ginny has rounded the potty training corner.  She pooped in the potty twice on the weekend, and then she looked like she had to yesterday, but held off.  Now she went twice today.  Twice in one day!  Who knew that could be so exciting?  Her pull-up is still wet in the morning, but she has been getting up to pee once in the night the past couple of nights too, so one of these days we should be down to one set of diapers.  Crazy. 

Time for bed now.  I'm not sure of it's teeth or what, but CeCe has not been sleeping very good lately.  That means neither am I .  Oh well, another 10 years and they'll all be sleeping in.  Maybe.  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.

Outside

The other day while Jorja was at school, Ginny and I were watching TV while she had her snack.  We had on the Playhouse Disney channel and 'Johnny and the Sprites' was on.  This show is pretty lame, even by kids' show standards.  The story this day was that Johnny had a new video game and was obsessed with playing it.  The sprites (some sort of little creatures that live in his garden) wanted him to come outside and play cloverball.  He wouldn't go and insisted on playing his game.  He played so long that he fell asleep.  In his dream he played his video game long enough to look like Santa when he woke up.  All his little sprite friends had moved away and he was devastated.  He woke up and was relieved to  find he was still young and then went outside to play.  Was the irony of this totally lost on the writers?  Is there really a difference between TV and video games?  I guess  so.

It is definitely starting to feel like fall here.  The girls went outside to play this morning before lunch (no evil video games or TV - I learned from Johnny) and they had cold hands and ears, so we dug out mitts and toques.  Jorja wanted to wear the toque and mitts to school this afternoon, and it was still cool, so I said sure.  So when I went to pick her up, she had the toque on, and didn't have the bottom rolled over like it should be.  It was sticking straight up way over her head kind of like Bob and Doug.  If that wasn't enough, she had the mitts stuffed into the pockets of her hoodie.  She didn't put the mitts on  for the walk home and about half way home, she looked down and just started to laugh.  Like really laugh.  She said to me, "Look at my mitts.  It looks like I have little tummy boobs."  Then she howled again.  I had nothing.  All I could do was laugh.  I guess they did kind of look that way.  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.

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.

Riding in the truck

Today was the day the dishwasher arrived. Since I borrowed my brother's truck to clean up some yard stuff last week and he told me to keep it while he was on holidays this week, I thought I would use it to pick up the dishwasher. But first I took the old one to the dump this morning. Jorja was still at DVBS today, so I took Ginny for a ride by herself. She thought that was pretty cool, riding in the front seat of the truck right beside me. (It's an old truck with no airbag, and I put her seat in, it was all good.) On the way home, I thought I would ask her if she wanted a treat. Naturally she replied yes. So we stopped at a corner store that has a bakery in it and picked up some doughnuts. I was good with just getting some for us, but she insisted that we get one for Jorja too. I thought that since Jorja was doing her own thing, Ginny could use her own treat too. But she wasn't going for it. It's nice to see she's that considerate. Jorja was the same way when I would stop with her after a soccer game. She always insisted on getting something for Ginny too. Too bad they will likely outgrow that. Anyway, after we get the doughnuts and get home, I go to roll up the window. Ginny asks what I'm doing. Then it dawns on me that she has probably never seen a vehicle where you have to roll up the window without pushing a button. Crazy.

The dishwasher was in after lunch, so I took both girls with me to get it. Apparently Jorja didn't know about rolling down windows either. She really took to it though. She asked if she could roll it down and I said sure. She rolled it down till it was a couple inches from the bottom and stopped. I told her that this window would go all the way down if she wanted. Well, you should have seen the look on her face. She thought she was pretty grown up. It must be a totally different experience riding in the front seat when all you've ever done is ride in the back. They were both just full of questions about pedals, buttons, levers. They thought it was pretty cool.

Then came the task of installing the dishwasher. Things went fairly well. First I hooked up the water and turned it on. No leaks. Good. Then I hook up the water drain line. Finally the power. Then the ultimate test - down to the basement to flick the breaker. No smoke. No fire. No Julie yelling, "What have you done?! Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!!!" (She was on the lookout for me while I went downstairs. Then we washed a load of dishes and it worked. Clean dishes and a dry floor. I was pretty proud of myself.

We started watching the new summer show 'Rookie Blue.' (A cop show.) It's awesome. It is really the only thing worth watching on TV right now. Well that, and the Bachelorette (Julie always watches it and I started and now I'm hooked.) Okay, the Bachelorette isn't worth watching, but I just can't stop. Yes, it's embarrassing, I know. Later.

House Hunters

There's not much for TV on during the days (or late at night for that matter) but we usually like to watch something while feeding CeCe. It usually ends up being HGTV. At first I didn't think the girls ever paid much attention when it wasn't a kids' show. Apparently I was wrong. It started with Ginny asking, "Is this House Hunters?" every time I turned on the TV. Hmm. Now lately, the girls have started playing 'House Hunters.' Jorja is the real estate agent and Ginny is the client. The other morning they came up to me and Jorja asked me if I knew of any nice houses for this little girl. I replied that I thought the pink house (their room) would be a good house for her. So she took her there and showed her all the features, and I guess it must have been a sale. Then Jorja came and asked me if I needed a house. I was just about to feed CeCe, so I replied that yes, I did need a house, and one that would be good for a baby. She took me down to the family room and pointed out the chair where we always feed CeCe and the pillow we use under our arms. "I think this would be a good house. It has this chair and this pillow. It would be very good for a baby." Another sale. She's good.

Julie had to have a mole cut off today at the doctor's office. Sometimes Julie doesn't do that well with needles, so I took the girls to check on her when it was done. It just so happened that Julie's appointment was at the time when I had to pick Jorja up from DVBS, so we couldn't just drive her. So I took the other two girls, picked Jorja up and went to the doctor's office. On the way over, Ginny asked if the doctor used pink scissors. I replied that I wasn't sure. Then she asked if she used a pink knife. Jorja replied that the knife would just be silver. "Everything in a doctor's office is either silver, white or clear." It turned out Julie was fine. I guess after three children and all the needles that go along with that, having GBS and getting a spinal tap, she's getting better at handling needles.

Julie's Dad was in town today on some business and he stopped by with Jorja's birthday present. They had also got some fold-up canvas lawn chairs for the girls that they could have today. They even have cup holders in the arm. So they wanted to take them out this afternoon to try them out. They asked for their water bottles immediately of course. Now I know they always like to sit at the top of their play centre to sip their water and I've seen plastic lawn chairs up there before. I thought I would preempt anything bad from happening so I said right off that bat that these chairs were not to go to the top of the play centre, they were not to sit the chairs on top of the swing, and that the chairs were to stay on the ground. They kind of gave me this look of disbelief like I was asking for some outrageous request. I'm glad I did. Later.