One month

Exactly one month ago, we woke up in our new house in our new city for the first time. It still seems a bit surreal. Sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like longer. 

We are mostly unpacked now and settled in. We've had company from India and from town here. Tomorrow, we will have our first overnight guest (from BC). Jorja had a birthday and turned 9. We found a preschool for CeCe, got her registered and met the teacher. We found a piano teacher for the girls. Our next door neighbor came over with a warm pan of brownies one day (they were so good). This morning God solidified our feeling of what we were thinking would be our new church home. We discovered that the Pizza Hut here still has a sit down restaurant and a lunch buffet. Hello 1995!  We've got some pictures up but still need to paint. When you work in health care like Julie does, you have too many things to compare color to. Our walls are bile. All in all it's been a good month. A lot has happened once you sit down and think about it. 

Here are some pics of our first month I haven't already posted. 

My two corn shuckers:

Dropping Julie off for her first day of work:

The girls testing out Julie's new 'nest' chair:

My own minion army:

With the help of YouTube I can braid:

Art time:

Being this close to Alberta, I thought I should become a cowboy:

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.

Feliz Navidad (or something like that)

I sit here this evening in silence, at least for the time being anyway.  Until someone wakes up and wants something - a soother, drink of water, to go pee.  Julie is out at our church Bible study group this evening which we both usually attend.  Today I am on poop patrol though.  Let me back up.  Wednesday evening as we were getting the girls ready for bed, Julie was feeding CeCe her bottle.  She was no sooner done than she threw up.  She has always had little milk spit-ups, but this was her first full blown puke.  So it was back to the tub with CeCe and Julie hit the shower.  The next morning (I was conveniently at work), the diarrhea started.  We had three solid days of that - a full outfit change with every diaper change, full bedding change if it happened there, Lysol the crib railings.  Oh yes, it has been fun.  If I had known about all this stuff before we had three kids, I would have bought stocks in stain remover and Lysol.  Anyway, we managed to keep it off the carpet this time although it was close.  There were two instances when I walked down the stairs to the family room to see some bubblin' crude coming over her pants and heading for the floor. 

So yes, here I sit.  We didn't think that any baby sitter would ever come back if we left her with the situation that was going on here this week.  So I took the older two to Sunday School this morning and Julie went out this evening.  I don't want to jinx the night, but I think CeCe may have started to turn the corner.  She kept the same outfit on all day and only had one semi-solid poop.  All right, enough about poop.

I was driving Jorja to piano lessons yesterday and I switched the radio station from the country one to the eighties one.  Steve Windwood's 'Valarie' was playing.  I've always liked Steve Windwood, but I digress.  Jorja asked me, "Dad, is this your station, the '80's on eight?"  I replied that yes it was.  "You know, your station isn't that bad," she replied.  Thanks Jorja, I'm glad you approve.

I had a couple of errands to run this afternoon and CeCe was napping and Julie was doing some Christmas baking (yes!!) so I took the girls along with me.  I was standing in line at the post office in Shoppers not really paying much attention to the conversation the girls were having.  All of a sudden, Ginny looks at the woman behind us and says, "Maybe she could be our mother."  This caught my attention.  Then Jorja said, "You think she's our mother?!"  and then the two of them laughed hysterically.  I had nothing.  What do you say to that?  I looked and the lady, and she was smirking, so that was all right.  What did she really think?  Were these two kids looking for a new wife/mother like something from Sleepless in Seattle?  I told them to stop being so goofy and wished the letter to the Philippine consulate in front of us would move along a little quicker.

Jorja likes to think that she is Ginny's teacher some days.  She especially likes to sound out words for Ginny when she hears something new.  She does it syllable by syllable to help her sound the new word out.  I forget what the word was now, but this was going on the other day.  Then Jorja said, "I know almost all the words, except Spanish, I only knew a few words in Spanish.  Like Natalise La Di Da.  That means Merry Christmas."  How does that go again I asked her.  "Nah - Tah - Lees - La - Dee  - Da" she says to me very clearly and slowly so that I too may learn this second language.  Thanks Jorja, but I think we'll have to play a bit more Bony M. this year.  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.

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.

Metashlope

Today we hit a milestone. Julie and I were both able to have a nap upstairs together at the same time. We got home after lunch and felt the need for a Sunday afternoon snooze. When I was growing up, Mom and Dad used to call it a 'metashlope'. I have no idea how to spell the word (it's German), so I just went with how it sounds. Most Sunday afternoons, after church, after lunch, Mom and Dad would have a metashlope. Up until now, the kids haven't been old enough for this to happen. Sometimes one of us can have a nap while the other dozes on the couch - being in sight seemed to be good enough. But today was different. We put CeCe down in her crib, put 'Sleeping Beauty' on, and told the girls we were going to have a nap. They did awesome. It was so nice, and we were so impressed with them. The house was still standing too.

Here's one for the category, 'you know you're a princess when...': We were getting ready for church this morning, and the girls noticed Julie putting on lipstick, and had to have some too. I like to tease them a bit, so I asked Jorja if I could have a kiss. "No Dad, not until bed time, I have lipstick on." All right then. As we were leaving, Ginny wanted a drink of water. "I'm thirsty!" Then Jorja chimed in. "Me too! I'm thirsty too!" As Ginny was having her drink, Jorja started to think about this. She asked, "Will my lipstick come off?" Julie replied that some if it would. "I'm not thirsty anymore."

Tomorrow morning is Kindergarten registration. So it begins. I believe there will only be one more half-day this week, with a small group of kids, and then it gets into full swing next week. Should be interesting. It's still kind of hard to believe. Later.

Busy

It's been a slow week for the blog it seems. Maybe that's because we've had quite a busy time the past few days. Last Tuesday we had some friends over, Wednesday and Thursday we were invited out to friends' places. On Wednesday we also got to reconnect with a friend I hadn't seen in quite a while. They have a little girl a month younger than CeCe, so the two of them really hit it off. It started out with a bit of a stare-down, followed by laying down on the floor together where one would start to cry and then the other would wail. It was kind of funny. Thursday we were at some friends who have an in ground swimming pool in their backyard (heated and no algae). The girls had a blast in there - Jorja is such fish.

Today we had CeCe dedicated at church. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but both sets of Grandparents said they could make it, so it was good. CeCe didn't even cry, and the girls managed to stand relatively still at the front of the church.

So yeah, it's been busy. Now we have one more week before school starts. I still can't believe it.

The other day I was changing Ginny's bum (don't ask about the toilet training) and when I was done I asked her to go put the diaper in the garbage. She replied, "I'm kind of busy now." Excuse me? You're two. You're not that busy, now put the diaper in the garbage. "My hands are full." I couldn't believe it. What is she going to be like when she is a teenager?

We were in Sobey's a couple of days ago, and as we were walking to the car, Jorja noticed an employee outside. "Hey Dad, there's a Sobey's girl there. You see, in the cape." I might have called it an apron, but it's probably more fun to be a super hero. Later.

Green

We went to church this morning, then for lunch, and were going to come home and have a dip in the pool. It was smokin' hot here today. We got CeCe laid down for a nap, had the girls changed into their swimsuits, sunscreened up, Julie and I changed and ready, bald spot sunscreened, baby monitor plugged in outside - we were ready. Then I pulled back the cover to the pool. It had been over a week since we were in it, and I hadn't really looked at it. Bad pool boy. Our nice little pool was now a green, algae filled swamp. Gross. No pool today. That sucked. So I threw a whole pile of chlorine into it, and started filtering the green stuff out. It is going to take a few days I think. So we did the next best thing, probably just as much fun for the girls - turned on the sprinkler. They had a blast. Julie was relaxing reading a book and they were filling a Frisbee with water, carrying it to her, and keeping her feet cool. "It's like you're getting a pedicure," I heard at one time. Then they decided to wash their soccer balls, beach balls, etc...all the plastic balls they have in the back yard (5 or 6 I think). Jorja said to me, "We're just washing our balls Dad. It's important to wash your balls every once in a while." Yes it is Jorja, yes it is.

CeCe was six months old yesterday - hard to believe. She goes for her shots tomorrow morning, so that should be fun. She is such a good baby - happy, laughs lots, doesn't make strange yet, puts up with a lot of 'attention' from her sisters. The last week or so, she has really started to eat solids well. Some days she barely has a spoonful in and her mouth is open wanting more. She's getting close to being able to sit by herself, but not quite there yet. A couple more months and I'll be back to work. Scary. 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.

Dishwasher

We have had an interesting couple of days. It started Saturday evening when our dishwasher decided to pee all over the floor. Not good, but Julie noticed in time and it wasn't too bad. I turned off the breaker to it and turned off the shut off valve and thought everything would be good. We got a sitter for the two older girls Sunday afternoon and went shopping. Trying to do any meaningful shopping where you have to converse with a salesperson with the two of them along is a lost cause. It almost felt like a date without the two of them...nice. We found a dishwasher at Sears, but it won't be in until Thursday. That's a long time, and a lot of dishes. So fast forward to this morning and I walked into the kitchen and stepped into a puddle. What?! Why is water still going into the dishwasher, let alone out of the dishwasher. Obviously the shut off valve no longer shuts off, but that still doesn't explain why the water was going in. Anyway, I went downstairs to investigate further, when I saw a bunch of water dripping down there. But it's not coming from where the dishwasher is. I do some figuring and realize it's coming from behind the stove. What?! I went back upstairs and pulled the stove out (gross!) and yes, water is pooling there. What next. So I pulled the dishwasher right out, fixed the valve and now we wait. The valve had me worried for a while because one of the home improvement tasks that scares me is soldering. However, I was able to get it fixed without a torch, so I was happy. $6 and a trip to Rona and we were set. At least it should stay dry. I was beginning to think the dishwasher may be possessed, but hopefully it can't flood us from the patio. And on the upside, behind the stove got washed.

Jorja was talking about aging this evening and how 'old' people get white hair. Julie said that she is getting grey hair, does that make her old. "Yes it does." I say that some people just lose their hair and go bald. "Yeah Dad, like the hole on top of your head." Ah, she sure knows how to make a person feel good.

We enrolled Jorja in a DVBS program at a local church here (she's not old enough to go to our church's program, but we got a pamphlet in our mailbox and thought we would give it a try). She did really well, considering she didn't know anyone. I asked her today if she made any friends. She replied, "I told you Dad, I didn't learn anyone's name." I guess that means knowing someone's name makes you friends. Interesting concept. I guess that means she's ready for Facebook. Poor Ginny was a little out of sorts this morning though without her sister for two hours. She didn't quite know what to do with herself. (Probably because she's used to being told what she should be doing with herself).

I'm feeling pretty good this evening. Things are getting back to normal, not too sore anymore. Suck it up already the women out there are probably thinking. Try giving birth. All right, I'm done talking about it. Later.

CeCe finds her toes

I haven't been writing that much lately, I'm not sure why, just feeling uninspired. We had a good Canada day yesterday. We went to the pancake breakfast at church to start the day. They had two astro-jumps there, so the girls had a good time. Then by the time we got home, my brother had called and asked if we wanted to come out to Pike Lake for the afternoon. We had a good time visiting, swimming and water sliding. Jorja and Ginny had a blast playing with their cousin, so that was good. I went out to check on them once, and they were 'washing' the motorhome. Well one was spraying it with a water pistol, and the other was wiping the water off with her hand. I asked what they were doing, and they replied that it wasn't easy being servant girls.

CeCe found her toes, and quite enjoys them. Ah, to be that flexible...not that I would want to suck on my toes.








We had a bit of a shower this afternoon. Well, maybe that is an understatement. This is what our street looked like. Crazy. Everything was good in the house though, so that was good. We are a lot luckier than a lot of people in the city.














The other day, I had gotten the girls some gummie bears. They were sitting in the car eating them, and Jorja was telling me all the flavours, "The yellow ones taste like lemons, the orange ones taste like oranges, the green ones taste like limes, and the red ones taste like all the red fruits." Wow, what a magical little candy. Later.

Swimming

Today we decided to test out the pool. We bought a 12 foot above ground pool at a garage sale earlier this year. It's supposed to be 4 feet deep, but the water is maybe two and a half. It wasn't a super hot day here, but it wasn't bad. The water, however, was cccccccccold (70F). Well, I thought so anyway. Jorja and Julie didn't seem to think it was too bad. Jorja is just like a fish though - she just jumped right in and was splashing around like crazy. She was fearless, kind of like Ginny on land. Ginny was a little more tentative, she didn't like to be let go of, even though her feet could touch the ground and she has a life jacket on. I held CeCe for a while and when she got too cold, I took her out. By that time Ginny's lips were starting to turn blue, so I took her out too. Hopefully with a little more heat, the temperature will rise a few more degrees. Or maybe we'll have to get something better next year with a heater.

We were driving home from church yesterday, and the girls were talking about Sunday school. Ginny then piped up, "I love God and Jesus, they're just lovely." It was pretty cute.

Yesterday afternoon the girls were playing outside. Julie and I had stepped in for a bit, and I went to check on them. We have a gazebo set up on our patio with a three person swing in it. I look out and Ginny is in the gazebo by herself. I'm not sure where Jorja was at the moment. Anyway, I'm watching Ginny and I'm thinking to myself, 'She's not really going to do what I think she's going to do is she? She is. Holy cow, I've got to stop her!' Here she had taken one of their little plastic deck chairs, placed in on the bench seat of the swing, and was attempting to crawl up there and sit in her new captain's chair. Did I mention this is all taking place on concrete? It will be amazing if her baby teeth come out naturally.

Anyhow, time for bed. Later.

Garage sales

We had what seemed like a fairly busy weekend. Thankfully there were no more major bodily function mishaps. We had enough of those on Friday. Let me start with a picture of Jorja from this morning. She had a new hairpiece, and was pretty proud of it, and looking pretty cute if I do say so myself.

This weekend was the Parkridge Community garage sale, so there were tons of garage sales in the area. Friday night, I bought a hedge trimmer, and started attacking the unruly cedars in front of our house. It worked pretty good, I just have to get a ladder out now.

Saturday morning, we set our again, and ended up buying a pool for the backyard. It's above ground, 4 feet high, 12 feet across, and should take up a fairly good chunk of our backyard. It's a good thing our grass is so poor anyway. We could have had it set up already, it was so nice out.

On our way home from church this morning, we thought we would drive around a bit, just to see if there were any more deals to be had. We ended up spotting a battery powered jeep for the girls to drive. It was a bit too big to fit in the back of our SUV, so I rode in the back with it holding the hatch down till we got home. Thankfully we didn't encounter any police officers - I may have had to drive it home. We took it out to the backyard, and the girls had a blast. Ginny was so funny. She didn't get the hang of steering, but figured out the forward/reverse thing. It looked like the scene from Austin Powers when he is trying to turn around this cart in a narrow hallway. She would drive straight ahead until she hit something, spin for a while, and then hammer it into reverse. She would go until she hit something, spin for awhile, and then slam it back into forward. It was pretty amusing.

The girls were playing outside this afternoon, and I thought I should go investigate. I happened upon a bit of a performance. They had their four little chairs set up in a row to observe the show, one seated a soccer ball, one had a watering can, one had a Nemo sprinkler, and the last had another ball. Jorja would then climb to the top of their play centre (the stage) and get ready. I think my coming outside cramped her style a bit, because I never did get to hear her sing. She had to come down and adjust this, and then try to make Ginny sit. "No Ginny, it's not your turn. This is my performance." She got pretty frustrated with her little sister, who seemed oblivious to the fact. Eventually Ginny snuck up there herself and made up a few of her own songs, one which was called 'The Speckled Frog.' I honestly don't know where they come up with this stuff.

Tomorrow is Jorja's last special day at preschool, which means I'm the parent helper. Hopefully it's better than the last one. I can't believe she's done preschool in another week. Time flies. But before I get all sentimental over that, I should go to bed. Later.

Mother's Day Weekend

I call this post Mother's Day weekend, because we've kind of been celebrating all weekend (Julie deserves it). It all started when I called around last weekend and realized that I was too late to make a reservation somewhere nice for mother's day. Who knew? I guess people are organized. So we thought in lieu of mother's day brunch, we'd go out for supper on Friday night. We went to Tony Roma's and it was nice. The girls were reasonably well behaved. They get an 'appetizer' with the kids' meal there - Kraft crackers and cheez whiz. I think that was the highlight for Ginny. She used that little red stick and got every last bit of cheese product out of that container. It's weird, because they never eat cheez whiz at home.

Friday morning, Jorja decided to make Julie a Mother's day card. She also decided to give Julie one of her pens. She had finished the card, and came down to the family room, where Julie and I were sitting. "Mom, close your eyes." She then proceeds to 'whisper' how she made Mom a card, Ginny made one, and she had made one for CeCe to give to Julie. And she had found the perfect gift - a pen with a heart and feathers on the top that lights up when you press on it. This pen was Jorja's but she had decided to give it to Julie, 'because Dad, I have like four pens, and I don't need that many, so Mom can have this one.' It's hard to argue with logic like that. It's good to see I'm raising a Mennonite. She then tells me that she is going to go hide all the loot in her closet, and runs off to do so. She then returns to tell Julie not to look in her closet, because that's where the surprise was. She's got a lot to learn yet.

Saturday I took Jorja to piano lessons. She goes every Saturday at noon. It's a crappy time for the lesson, but she seems to be enjoying herself for the most part, and does pretty good. She can play with both hands now. It's amazing how much they learn in a year. Her only problem is that she doesn't like not being good. So any time they learn something new, it's a struggle to get her to do it. She gets all goofy and doesn't want to play. "Do you want to go to piano lessons?" I ask. "Then you better try this. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time. That's why we practice." Eventually, she will try it with me there, and then over the next couple of days, she goes to the piano and tries it herself, and soon she has it. It's just that getting started part. And sometimes she plays my bluff. "Do you want to go to piano lessons?" "No" "Well too bad, we're going anyway." Ah, the mind games. Anyway, back to this weekend in particular. After piano lessons, Jorja and I went to get some stuff for Mother's Day. Our first stop was to get a gift certificate for a pedicure. What's the perfect gift for a mother of three small children? A nice evening relaxing away from the children I figure. Then it was off to M&M to pick up some steak to BBQ and then to the flower shop. Jorja carried in the flowers all proud as punch, and gave them to Julie. She was most proud of the little swirly card holder that she had picked out.

That brings us to today. Jorja awoke this morning pretty much beside herself ready to bestow her treasures upon Julie. She presented her with all three cards, and the precious pen, that 'if Daddy wants to use it, he has to ask you Mom.' I am dying to use a pen with a flashing heart and feathery wisps on the top of it, so it's good to know I just have to ask.

After church, we thought we'd take a chance on Jerry's. Apparently it wasn't the hot spot for Mother's day. I thought everyone loved Jerry's. We were done eating and the girls were playing in the play area. CeCe slept through the entire meal - it was great. Julie and I were just enjoying some quiet time after lunch when Ginny came up to the table and uttered those two words you just don't want to hear when you're enjoying a cup of coffee after lunch. "I'm stinky." Great. Since CeCe had eaten in church, we had left the diaper bag in the car, so I told Ginny I would change her outside when we were done. Our SUV has a fold down tailgate, which has come in handy as a change table before. So there I was, in the Jerry's parking lot, changing Ginny's diaper. Julie was standing beside me jiggling the car seat, because CeCe had woke up by this time. Then this car drives by, the window rolls down, and this woman yells out, "It's nice to see the Dad doing that." Happy Mother's day!

This evening I BBQed steak and potatoes. I just get everything in off the barbecue, and Ginny comes up and asks what's for supper. After I tell her, she says, "I want tomato soup." Grrr. Then Jorja says to me, "I don't like steak." Grrr "Yes you do." "No I don't, I tried it when I was two, and I don't like it." Ginny had decided that she needed help eating hers, so Julie was helping her and I asked Jorja if she needed help too. She said yes, so I stabbed a piece of steak, smothered it in ketchup (because that's our dip for all our meat) and fed it to her. She makes this awful face and chokes it down. A few nights ago, each one of them scarfed down three barbecued wieners each (they don't eat them in buns), and now it was the end of the world to eat some steak. I think Jorja did like it, because after the initial bite, there was no hesitation, or carrying on . She just wouldn't admit that she liked it. If it wasn't mother's day, I might say 'typical woman'. Bazinga.

And that pretty much brings us to now. I hope you all had a good mother's day. Later.

The weekend

I've got to be honest, the reason I didn't write anything yesterday was that I was too irritated. By the time the girls were in bed and asleep, I was done. Let's just say that Ginny didn't get a sticker this morning. CeCe was not very happy most of the day - she's been such a good baby, we've been spoiled. We were at the Pet Land in Stonebridge yesterday afternoon, and she screamed the whole way home, just inconsolable.

Today has been a much better day, except for the usual few hiccups. We went to church this morning, and that was good. The girls really love going now. Jorja has had such awesome Sunday school teachers all along, and Ginny loves to go play in the 'toddwer woom'. She knows most of the other kids names, and talks about going to play with them.

We went to Jerry's for breakfast/lunch after church (we go to the early service, so we're done by 10:30). We sat in the back by the new kids' play area, and let the girls go play before our food came. I've got to say, it was the most relaxing time we've had in a restaurant probably since we had kids. There was no telling them to sit still/quit drinking all your chocolate milk/stop fighting with your sister/put that down/do you want to go sit in the car?/leave your sister alone. They were well behaved, we could see them, but couldn't hear them (and we were within earshot, so that was good). There was no fighting, just getting along. It was nice. On the downside, CeCe was ready for her bottle, so Julie was feeding her. There's one thing I should know by now after three kids is to always have a change of clothes for the baby in the diaper bag. This is a rule we usually live by, but I forgot to replace the clothes after our last explosive outing. Just as our name was being called saying our food was ready, Julie noticed a discolouration on CeCe's tights. Oh oh. I took her to the bathroom to change her, and it wasn't good. The diaper shirt was affected as well as the tights, and there was nothing in the diaper bag. So I changed her, put her poopy clothes back on, and we gave her a bath when we got home.

It was actually nice enough to go outside this afternoon. It was cool, but it was dry, so we took advantage of it. The girls wanted to go for a bike ride, so we did, Jorja on hers, Ginny and me on mine. There's one thing Jorja lacks when riding her bike, and that is focus. She likes to ride in front, which is fine, but then she wants to talk and see us, so she turns her head around while still riding. When you are four years old, this is not a good idea. 'Jorja, look where you're going. Don't hit that car...Jorja, there's a car coming, stay on our side of the road...You can't just stop right in front of me.' Yes, it's always an adventure. We had just went by a parked car, and there was a guy outside in his driveway that I didn't see till we were right there. He was laughing when he said hi and waved. He must have thought we were crazy. Then Jorja asks me, "Dad, is your bike as fast as mine?" Yeah, like it's the bike.

We got the call this evening that soccer starts this week Tuesday. I'm curious to see what Jorja is like this year. She was pretty timid last year, kind of followed the play around, and made sure the ball didn't actually come to her. She was more concerned with the way her hair was bouncing around while she ran. And the water bottle. The Tim Horton's water bottle was always empty at the end of a game. However, the forecast is for a high of 7 and rain, so we'll see.

Right now, Julie is watching 'Animal Autopsy' on the National Geographic channel. This episode is of an elephant. She is fascinated with it. I told her that strange things pop out to her on the program guide. There is no way that would have even registered for me, and she picked it out right away. "Animal autopsy, what's that? Click on it once, let me see. Yeah, give me some HD." And she accuses me of being a high definition snob. Let me tell you, an elephant's bowels in HD are pretty impressive.

Anyhow, I think that's about it for tonight. There's no preschool tomorrow, so I'm not sure what we'll do yet. There's actually only 8 more preschool days (one of which I'm the helper), and then we're done for the summer. What are we going to do for three months?