one down, another to go

So I spent the whole day at home with baby boy yesterday. He's much better once the antibiotics kicked in. Very strange to be home with only ONE child. Doesn't happen often. It was so nice to spend some one on one time with him. We played board games. We cuddled and watched TV. He helped with laundry. It was pleasant and quiet.

At suppertime, the twins often have this ongoing conversation about what they will do when they grow up. Baby boy has always said he will become a dentist (!). Now he adds he will be a dentist during the winter and a zookeeper during the summer! Baby girl never falters: she wants to work at Farm Boy where there is a lot of good food! As for big sis, they always tell her that she has to work hard at school to get a good job or else she'll end up being a garbage collector to which a lot of "poooey, that stinks" and hysterical laughs ensue. Now yesterday, baby boy looks at me seriously and asks: "what about you mom? what are you going to do when WE are all grown up?" Good question sweetie. As I'm pondering an answer he adds " I know! you'd be very good at drawing pictures for kids' books!!" NO IDEA where he got that from. But so cute!

Talking about big sis, last week I attended the first parent information night at her new school. There I was sitting in this cafeteria with HUNDREDS of other parents. I'm looking around. I don't know anyone. Quite disconcerting. Then we met the teachers for 15 minute blocks of time. And then the knots in my stomach appeared. What a big school. So much change. No longer are they "babied" like in elementary. Their independence and self-organization are primordial now.

Just as I was half-heartedly expecting, baby girl started complaining of an earache last night. One down, another to go. Hit her with all the meds and by midnigth she was finally asleep. She's still sleeping now and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she will be OK today. Especially since I have a LONG overdue hairdresser appointment that I would hate to cancel.

Blogger finally is cooperating. Added a picture of my breakfast table to yesterday post. I should have taken it after all the food, glasses, cups and saucers where layed out. Oh well. And below, some flowers one of the guests brought me. Blue roses. Cool!

just another day

To start where I left off last post, picked up baby boy from school with a high fever. A little Advil and he eventually got better. Both his sisters were lethargic so we skipped their first dance class. No big deal.

Put them all to bed early and I started to get things ready for the next morning. It would be my friend's birthday the next day. Her 45th birthday and her first one without her mom who passed away a few months ago. So as a present to her and in hopes of cheering her up, I organized a breakfast/get-together for a group of common women/moms acquaintances. Most of them are from our Church's community. Every once in a while, one will throw such a breakfast/get-together. I had attended a few and now it was my long overdue turn to host one.

Now these get-togethers tend to be a little fancy-schmancy. Kind of a nice treat for the moms actually. So the house got a full tidy over. Then out came the fine china, silverware and fancy napkins and I even became creative with table decorations.



Freshly squeezed orange juice was served in tall champagne flutes with dried cranberries at the bottom of the glass, I made two kinds of quiches, lots of crepe suzette served with fresh fruit and maple syrup, cheese platter, home made apple tarts (thanks to my dad) and a huge fruit salad. And of course, lots of freshly ground and brewed coffee.

So I got everything that I could get ready the night before and finally went to bed. It was of course quite late by then. And isn't it one of Murphy's Law that when mom goes to bed late, something is bound to happen that will interupt her sleep. especially when there's something important going on the next day! Before long, I was up with baby boy, his fever had resurfaced and complaining of an earache. More advil. Finally resettled him and back to bed. Up again with baby sis. She was thirsty. Got her some water. Back to bed. Up again with big sis. She was in a daze, incoherent, finally dragged her to the bathroom for a pee and resettled her. 6 am was there before I knew it and I was bushed. Of course, when the kids got up, they were all fine. Got them off to school and did my last minute preparations.

The breakfast was awesome. The chitchat great for our souls. Did I mention there were NO kids! Moms only! A rare treat for us all. Seeing the joy on my friends face made me SO happy and made all the fussing and preparations so worth it.

It was over before I knew it. As they were leaving, school called. Baby boy is crying in pain. Go pick him up. He's clutching his ear and his fever is up again. Call the ped. He can see us in a few hours. It was a long afternoon for him. The Advil and Tylenol not doing anything. Poor kid. I felt horrible seeing him suffering so. Pick up both girls from their schools and head over to the peds. BOTH ears have a massive infection. Gives us a prescription. Go to one pharmacy, tells me it will be ready in 15 minutes. Arghh. Go back and tells me, sorry, we don't have that antibiotic here. I'm fuming. Off to another pharmacy to fill it. Finally get back home, he has to take it with food. Kid doesn't want to eat. By then its past supper time. Emergency solution. Open up a can of chicken noodle soup. Hubby gets home and declares: "what? is that all we are having for supper?" He got THE look. And leftovers from that morning.

Just another day in a busy mom's world ;)

the catch up post

Ok. So this is crazy. All 3 kids are in school all day and I still don't seem to have enough time to do anything. Blogging has definitely become more and more difficult to get to.

So I've been going to the gym every morning after dropping off the kids and walking/ultralight jogging every day I'm not. Two weeks now. Results? Re-energized during the day and proud to do something for myself. BUT. Not a single pound lost. Everything is sore. I realize how out of shape and unflexible I've become, arghhh. I'm more hungry afterwards, wtf?. Its time consuming (driving there and back and chitchatting with people I know and run into--like, hem, I can't be rude and ignore them-- and the gym is in a grocery store, very smart concept, so there's always something and then some to shop for afterwards, sigh). I fall asleep earlier than before out of shear exhaustion. Getting up at 6 am with this new schedule is not helping either BUT I will persevere. It has to become easier and I should get some tangible results one day, right?

September is turning out to be quite the expensive month: school supplies, more school supplies, new shoes, new clothes, new raingear, new rainboots, cheques for special lunches and Scholastic and extra-curricular activites and special school events, I've literally run out of cheques, gotta order some more.

Even fundraising has started. Two days into school and big sis comes home with a huge box of chocolates to sell to raise funds for a special outing at the end of the month. I've never let her go from house to house selling anything for school. I ususally just give a cheque for a certain amount from ourselves. BUT this time, she wanted to do the door to door thing. She practiced her speech and set off after supper with her little sister in tow. I was quite surprised when she sold nearly the whole thing off. How could anyone resist chocolate and two cute girls? It was actually a great learning experience for her.

Gotta run. All 3 kids are starting dance lessons tonight. Not sure how that will turn out :~)

Edited to add: School just called. Baby boy has a fever and fell asleep in class. Great. So much for dancing tonight. Poor kid :(

another pet peeve

This happened last week. A beautiful sunny morning. The birds chirping. The kids are playing quietly after breakfast in the family room. I decide to go drink my second cup of coffee outside in the backyard. I open the door, coffee in hand, anticipating a few stolen moments of peace and quiet and contemplative relaxation when it hits me.

The smell.

DAMN.

They did it again.

The neighbours had their lawn sprayed with pesticides. It stinks. And I'm mad. That peaceful moment I was anticipating is ruined by this noxious chemical smell.



Now you have to understand, around here everyone has about TWO acres of land AND we are all on well water. The thought of those pesticides trickling down to our water source infuriates me.

So look at their lawn. Yep, it's green.





So is ours.





All right, theirs is mostly grass.





Ours is mostly clover.





So what, Green is green. We're in a rural area for God's sake. We don't need to have that perfect suburban lawn.


And yes, his is more grassy. But he also has to mow it more often, which is a two hour minimum job around here.

Good thing the kids have the sniffles, I kept them indoors away from that crap.

All right, feel better now. Pet peeve and venting over.

new routines

It's amazing how much you can tell about your kids' personality with how they react to change.

Big sis has been going to her new school for over a week now and so far so good. She's loving it. Made some new friends, joined the school's running club, keeping herself organized and on top of all her work. Hope this keeps up! And can you tell how very proud I am of her? Not only is she adaptable but a gogether too.

The twins started 3 days ago. This is their third and final year at this pre-school. Next year they go into Grade 1 at another school. So they are the oldest and know their way around. They get to stay all day now. They were SO excited to go back. They've been getting up way too early every morning filled with anticipation. They literally run into the school every morning without even a good-bye to ole' mom. What a change from 2 years ago when they had to be pried off my legs on those first days and I would then go sit in my car and ball my eyes out.

Baby boy's best friend didn't come back (a surprise to me) but he's OK with that. He just told me that he'll just have to play with other kids. A very easy-going young boy. Baby sis still has her best friend there. Which is a good thing, otherwise she wouldn't talk at all. Even though she talks a lot at home and is actually the dominating one out of the two, she's been getting quieter and quieter in social situations. She even tells me ahead of time before we go somewhere that she won't talk to anyone. So at school, she only talks to this one girl. Which is not really a good thing. Makes me sick with worry on what will happen next year when she goes to a new school with new people. Ah well, let's hope one extra year will give way to extra maturity.

And me? Well, as I said all along, when they would be back to school, I would start to take care of myself. So I've been making a conscious effort to eat better, plan our meals more and have been going to the gym every morning after dropping the twins off. Yep, every single muscle of mine is sore today. But its a good thing. And after the gym, I've allowed myself to go visit a few new stores in the area or have a leisurely coffee with myself and a book before heading back home to laundry, dishes, ya know, housework. I have a gazillion little projects in mind. Of course, there will never be enough time to do it all.

One big change in all these new routines is that I have to get up early. As in earlier than used to for quite a while. Have to get up at 6:30 to get breakie and lunch ready for big sis who leaves at 7:10. Then hubby comes down for his breakie and leaves by 8 and then its the twins turn and we are out of here by 8:30. And then evening routines all had to be altered. Earlier bedtimes for everyone, including myself or else I can't cope come 4 o'clock.

All in all, just new routines for our family. Just a matter of getting used to them.

what kind are you

What kind of whistler are you?

Can you carry a tune?

I can, a little. Hubby can't. He can only do that really loud two-fingers-from-each-hand-in-corner-of-mouth kind of attention-getter whistle. I can't do that one.

My dad is a good whistler. He'll be working away, like puttering in the garden, and whistle a tune. Hearing him whistle gives me warm fuzzies. And he's always had, as long as I can remember, this two note special whistle just for me. Just a few weeks ago, I was shopping at the mall by myself and I heard THAT whistle. I turned around and sure enough, there he was a 100 ft or so behind me.

And now, all of a sudden, baby boy has started whistling. He'll be playing with his Lego castle and dragons (his current absolutely favorite toy) and whistle away. It. Is. So. Cute. Or he'll be in the car and whistle along to Jack Johnson (which is the only thing we are allowed to listen to when in the car with the twins).

I'm so in love with my nearly 5 year old whistler ;)

another family first

Yep it happened last night. For the first time. We all went out together and did it. We had a blast. The twins did surprisingly well too despite the length of it all.

We went golfing. Not mini-putting. A real golf course. We played 9 holes.

So hubby has been a golfer for a while. His interest in it became such that he joined a private golf course close by. He goes there a lot. And I'm fine with that. He needs it as a stress release and he gets his exercise walking all those miles. Being athletic by nature, he keeps improving and I joke that he can one day join the Seniors PGA TOUR and we can travel North America together!

Not one to be golf widowed at such a young age, I caddied him for a while, then tried it out, took a few (as in 2) lessons. When preggo with the twins, I played my best games ever. Something about the hormones loosening up muscles and the big belly shifting the center of gravity. Haven't played much since they arrived. Maybe one or two rounds a season. And it is like riding a bike. Kind of all comes back to you and after a few swings, I'm right back where I left off.

Big sis has taken a few lessons over the years and she can wallop it good when she concentrates. As for the twins, they've been "playing" on the front lawn for a while. We just have to work on baby boy's swing: he kind of uses his golf club like a hockey stick!



So last night was the night. And the weather was perfect. Hubby made arrangements at his course to get us two carts and we teed off late so as not to have too many people before or after us. We had none. Hubby and I played for real and big sis played from the 150ft marker and we let the twins do some putting at every other hole. They enjoyed so much watching us play. They cheered us on. Learned a bit more about golf etiquette (like when to be QUIET). They kept score. They had little drinks and snacks in the cart. We let big sis drive the cart too. And after 9 holes we all went for supper at the clubhouse. We were famished. And hubby was beaming. He had his whole family with him and we were sharing our very first golf stories.

Hoping for many more of these times.