It's time for a break

I'm ready for spring break. I love my job, and things have been going really well, but it's time to have some time just to hang out with the kids.

G has had a rough month. Wednesday was his first day of school in a week (parent-teacher interviews, a PD day, etc.), and he had a major meltdown when we got there. It is so heartbreaking to see him so sad and worried. So, once I managed to get him into the building, we went to a quiet room until he calmed down. When he stopped crying, we talked about how he was worried that school is going to get hard. So we talked about how hard gymnastics used to be and how he was worried about going there, but he went anyway and now he can do awesome teddy bear stands. He even showed his EA one of his teddy bear stands. After about 40 minutes, he was ready to be in his classroom and take on the day. I was back for lunch duty, and he was doing okay. Hopefully tomorrow's hot dog day will be enough motivation that we won't have a repeat. I am expecting, though, that the week or two following spring break will be another rough transition time. Disruptions to his regular routine just raise his overall anxiety level and he gets much more emotional. The disruptions are not a bad thing, they encourage him to learn that life is unpredictable and it's okay...but it does make life a little more stressful for all of us as we help him learn how to manage his anxiety.

And in the grown up world... I've just booked a flight to Toronto to go spend time with my little sis! Just the girls. No kids. No guys. I can't wait! I'll miss the kids like crazy, but it's been almost 6 years since I've done a trip like this to see her, and that is far too long!

M has decided that walking is not such a bad thing after all. I'm convinced that she's been able to for quite a while, but just hasn't been that interested. Honestly, I really haven't encouraged her to walk all that much either...I know (knock on wood) that she's going to be our last baby, and I'm not in any rush for her to grow up. Poor girl.

traumatized

We've had a rough start to the week! M has this habit of bashing her face into things when she's frustrated, and she's learned a lesson about what a bad idea that is the hard way. She bashed her face into the coffee table on Sunday night and put a big hole in her tongue with one of her teeth. Unbelievably she screamed for only a few seconds...but bled for a lot longer. It's healing quickly, but it was pretty gross.

And I've been battling some odd computer gremlins for the past two weeks that are driving me crazy! Ever since we installed a new router for our computer, we haven't been able to access our online learning on our RDI site. I've played phone tag with tech support for days, and today spent an hour an a half on the phone with some technician, handing over control of our computer...and still no luck. Ick. I'm sure that I'll spend most of my day off this week trying to fix this problem :-( The worst part is that we're now stuck...we can't make progress on our learning objectives because we can't get to them.

And L seems to be traumatized from her VCUG! She must've had a dream about it or something last night, because she was terrified to pee...and didn't pee until after 3:00 this afternoon when she finally just couldn't hold it any longer. We tried many times to get her to go before then but as soon as she'd sit down, she'd jump up crying. Once she actually went, it wasn't a big deal.

G got to meet some cows tonight with Nita and Paul. It sounds like he had a great time, but we were out when he got home. We went to a Quiz night tonight for a local school (placed 5th out of 23 teams), and had lots of fun.

Favourites

Lots of favourites in our house this weekend. M has discovered a few favourite new foods. She's loving tomatoes lately, even eats them like apples!

And G still loves his olives! He would eat a whole can of them if we let him...and he doesn't buy my explanation that there's too much sodium in them. He checks the nutrition label and just doesn't seem to think that they have that much sodium. I suppose there could be worse things.













We decorated eggs yesterday. Everyone was very into it...and M was really upset that she couldn't participate in a more hands-on way! G was very creative, dipping the eggs into multiple colors. And L took the painting part very seriously.

M has been in the Easter spirit! She's been pigging out on Easter buns. She ate two whole buns today, and kept pointing at them for more. There really is a limit, though, to the amount of sprinkles that she should be eating ;-)

The kids have discovered the joy of the Saturday comics. This picture reminds me so much of how excited I would get as a kid about the comics. We'd lay on the floor reading them, and sometimes we would even listen to them on AM radio! I love seeing them so engrossed in reading (or looking at the pictures in L's case).

We took G & L to see Horton Hears a Who tonight. It was great! We loved it, and so did they...although L did need to go to the bathroom a few times because she was scared.

It's crazy here....but at least the snow is melting!

and the kids have been LOVING the puddles. Had to dig out the rubber boots and splash pants last night because they got completely drenched splashing in puddles! I don't blame them though...I'm feeling pretty happy about this weather too :-)

It's been pretty impossible to take pictures of this one lately, because she thinks she's a supermodel, and gets right into the camera. So, either I end up with a blurry photo, or an overexposed photo. Apparently she thinks I need an SLR (hint, hint)...and she needs to be in every photo I take!


And this one is going to get some quality time with Grandma again. This time it's pink eye, or some kind of viral eye thing. I get itchy just typing those words. At least she's feeling okay, she's just not allowed to spread her cooties around daycare. She's all about climbing these days...onto the coffee table, onto the couch (and then over the side), and onto little chairs and her toy bench.

This week has been pretty hard on G. Nita is on holidays, and his school schedule has been wacky all month (holidays, PD days, and spring break). This week he has only one day of school, and next week there's an extra day off too. He was thrilled, though, to have JB over for a sleepover this weekend, and VERY proud of his first report card!

Our athlete of the week

It's been a great week in the sporting world in our house for this little guy! On Sunday Nita and Paul took him skating for the first time, and he loved it...and did great!! By the end of the hour, he was skating on his own, still holding the chair, but doing it by himself. I am so proud. I didn't expect him to be doing it so independently on his first try, because we've had to work hard to develop his balance and he struggles with coordination. He's been loving hockey though, so he was really motivated to keep trying. He didn't want to get off the ice, and kept saying "I'm not tired," even though he was too tired to teach us the "up and down" song that he's always giggling about. He thought Paul and Nita were really silly too, because they could skate backwards :-)

His gymnastics program was on Tuesday night. I'm so proud of how much he's learned, and how much improvement he's made. He can do a teddy bear stand for more than 20 seconds, does great somersaults, and is getting more independent on the balance beam! His cartwheels are pretty hilarious though...it's just too many different body parts to move at the same time. He's got the steps down, but he basically just concentrates on getting his hands and feet onto the mat at the right time. He did really well during the rehearsal right before the program, but found the big crowd pretty distracting during the actual program.

M is walking more and more every day, but every time I pick up the camera, she plops down. She has this hilarious sideways prancing shuffle walk that she does most of the time. One of these days I'll get a picture.

Glad that's over

L's VCUG and urology appointment was today. The VCUG was awful! The first technician wasn't able to catheterize her, so she got a more experienced technician to do the job, and it was a long, very painful process (for us and for L). This is the first time she's had the test when she's been old enough to really know what's going on, and that made it a lot more difficult! Needless to say, L was really upset and cried and screamed a lot! She was in quite a bit of pain afterwards too, and had trouble going to the bathroom. She seems to be back to her usual self now. Amazing how quickly those little bodies and minds heal themselves!

The good news is that there seems to be an improvement in her reflux. Not a huge improvement, but better than last year. So, there is a chance that it will heal itself. There is still some uncertainty about the utero-seal on her extra ureter, and we'll be going back for an ultrasound in 6 months to determine how her kidneys are doing. At that point, there's a chance we may be able to take her off of the antibiotics! That would be a nice change!

G had a great day at daycare today. He was cheerful, and playing imaginatively with the other kids all day long! So great to have days like this again :-)

Unfortunately, M is still sick. She threw up at daycare today...has the runs...and threw up again tonight. It looks like she'll get some one-on-one time with Grandma tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to everyone feeling good at the same time one of these days!

Phew!

I made it through...shipped off a five inch stack of reports on Friday at noon, and took a great big deep breath! Cleaned up the office, and now it's time to attack the "to do" list that just kept growing while I was in a report writing craze!

Spent the weekend just enjoying the kids. M wasn't eating Friday, and Saturday she woke up with a fever...just lay around, cuddled and slept all day long, poor thing!

I think she must be cutting teeth too, because she's rubbing her gums like crazy...and she was stinking up the daycare today like she was an old man who had beans & beer for supper ;-) Unbelievable!


These two played together really nicely all weekend, and last week too! They've been really into playing "The Incredibles" lately, pretending to fight the bad guys, pretending to fly the plane, and making up "super land." They use the pillows from the couch to play "Violet's Quest," a game that's all about jumping onto the different islands, and avoiding the bad guys in the water. I love this picture of them...it's blurry, and out of focus, but it catches them both in mid-jump! They've also been playing kitties together, making a little kitty den underneath their easel. And they've been loving their castle and pirates. It's great to see them playing so imaginatively together, even though there are the odd fights when they can't agree about the rules, or when L inserts completely improbable and illogical elements into the play.

Yesterday afternoon we went sledding. It was a beautiful sunny day, only -1. The snow was melting on the roads, but when we got to the hill it was very windy! The kids had lots of fun sledding and playing on the pond. G was a real dare-devil, and insisted on going down the hill by himself after the first run. He was sure that he was going at least 250 mph! Of course he insisted on going on the widest sled, which would not go in a straight line with his little body on it, so there were a few crashes. The first one happened when his sled cut right into the path of his Daddy's sled, which drove right over him! The second time he slowly slid into the snow fence. As nerve racking as it was for him, he got a real charge out of sledding, and it seems to be a really good activity for him. Hopefully it will warm up again so we can go soon!