2011 12 Review

December went by in a flurry of activity. During the first week, I managed to decorate the house for Christmas, between packing and taking Charly to kindergarten. That weekend we had the staff Christmas party at our house.  Ended up taking the kids out to my Dad's for that night, where they had a grand time playing.  Charly had 2 days of kindergarten and then was off again when I took Sarah to doc in Calgary for a followup - doing well but needing to keep fighting with meds. Then we flew to Phoenix for a week's vacation.  We took our carseats onto the plane with us, so the kids were strapped in for most of the flight (awesome for dealing with Sarah), but a royal pain to drag around the airport ... since 99% of the people can carry their "carry-on" baggage fairly easily, there were no carts or such available to use. At one point we did make use of a wheel chair!  We had expected to fly out at 8am but found out the night before that the flight had been rescheduled to the afternoon. Flight went well, kids behaved, and we all happily arrived in Phoenix, to stay with my in-laws.  We had a great time there and did not really want to return, other than there was so much to do before Christmas arrived.  The trip back went okay, other than a delay, small planes and tired kids. I think I posted details / pictures from our trip so won't go on about it now. 

Got back very late Sat, unpack Sunday, 2 days of kindergarten for Charly while I shopped for Xmas, then another trip to Calgary to meet with a nutritionist for Sarah.  She said not to take Sarah off wheat, to give her a multi-vitamin since Sarah's off veggies right now, increase calcium, and in general just keep doing what I've been doing....Sarah is consuming just barely enough calories to keep her going and for now that's all that is needed. Handling the dairy and egg allergies is enough right now, on top of general toddler pickiness. 

Then school was out for Charly until January so had my hands full with both kids and Xmas prep. Xmas eve was spent at Aunt Janice's house with the cousins, nice relaxing time.  Christmas morning was the expected excitement from the kids, fun of unwrapping presents, and the joys of getting toys out of packaging.  Christmas afternoon my Dad came into town so there was 6 of us for turkey supper. This was the first time I've ever cooked a turkey before.  I've cooked chickens, ducks, geese, and wrens but not a turkey.  Followed directions and it turned out wonderfully.  For the dressing I followed a slow-cooker recipe that didn't turn out well, mainly because I hadn't read the recipe well enough ahead of time and so started it late... and it needed more seasoning.  Supper was good and filling.  Kids were worn out so it was a fairly early bedtime.  Boxing Day we weren't up to traveling for. the weather was great so we managed to get the energy up to take the kids to Bower Ponds for skating. It turned out to be lots of fun for all of us, and completely wore us out. 

Spent the next week playing with the kids new toys (especially Lego), and finally finished unpacking from our trip.  New Year's Eve we went with the Diamonds family to the Calgary Zoo's "Zoo-year's eve" light festival.  Started about 6pm and at 8pm there were fireworks there.  The temp was just barely warm enough for us to stay.  The 2 little girls were tired by 8pm and did not like the noise from the fireworks, let alone the cold and crowds.  There were lots and lots of lights to see, many outlining animal forms, some dancing to music.  I am glad we went but won't be back until the kids are older.  We stayed overnight at The Diamonds and rang in the new year with their warmth and friendship.

There have been so many little things that have happened with the kids lately that I never got a chance to jot down, so will see what I can recall...

• by Christmas Day the kids had "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph" down pat, and were familiar with other carols too. The kids love singing, so every time we get into the van I am bombarded with either them singing or listening to kids on a DVD singing.  I have become very familiar with some of the Sesame Street songs! 
• Managed to get the kids outside once in a while - the weather during December was very nice. At one point the kids took their tricycles out for a spin! 
• Charly has been enjoying kindergarten, and Sarah is a bit jealous of not being able to go.  He is slowly growing more comfortable holding a pencil and forming letters. Seems like all the kids in his class like him, which goes a long ways.
• I have tried potty training Sarah on and off since last Spring.  At the beginning of December she was down to having one pee "accident" a day but then with our chaotic life, she went down to having one success a day.  Will restart training again in January once we are back to a routine.  she knows what to do and when, but just doesn't want to make the effort half the time.  stubborn girl.
• Been digging back into genealogy more lately, and it is like an itch I just can stop scratching LOL.
• Resolution for the new year ... lose more weight (so original, I know) and to get more structure into the kids lives.  Start planning meals more ahead of time, reorganize some of our rooms, get the kids on more of a routine.  And to go to Vegas :)

Flickr, but this time also added the video there instead of to U-tube.  Enjoy!

December photos and videos

A story & poem that I just have to share with everyone

I searched the internet but was unable to find the author of this. Earliest dates it appears is in 2009, where it has been posted from someone who forwarded it ... Glad to see it still been circulated and remembered.

Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport.. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged, and the mother said, 'I love you, and I pray you enough.'

The daughter replied, 'Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I pray you enough, too, Mom.'

They kissed, and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there, I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy, but she welcomed me in by asking, 'Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?'

Yes, I have,' I replied. 'Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?'

'Well...I'm not as young as I once was, she lives so far away & has her own busy life. I have some challenges ahead, and the reality is - her next trip back will be for my funeral,' she said.

'When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I pray you enough.' May I ask what that means?'

She began to smile. 'That's a prayer that has been handed down from other generations. My parents use to say it to everyone..' She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail, and she smiled even more. 'When we said, 'I pray you enough,' we wanted the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.'

Then, turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I pray you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear..

I pray you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I pray you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I pray you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I pray you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I pray you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I pray you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

Then, she began to cry, and walked away.
 

2011 videos

I finally pulled a bunch of videos from our small camera, and discovered ones that started almost a year ago!  Here are a few:

Kids on Daddy's shoulders

Charly playing soccer

Playschool finale - Charly on tampoline

Playschool finale - medals handed out

playschool finale - group photo op

At Vernon - Sarah feeds goat

Vernon wind storm   (long, not too exciting unless you were there!)

Drumheller waterpark

drumheller waterpark 2

Kids playing on the trampoline

Phoenix Zoo - giant turtle (This was one of the first animals we encountered at the zoo)

Phoenix Zoo - cheetah and then panther

Phoenix Zoo - feeding GIRAFFE

2011 12 trip to Phoenix

Go to 2011 12 trip to Phoenix, a set on Flickr, to see all photos!

Dec 10-17, a great break away from winter. Stayed with Jeff's mom and had a great trip!  Celebrated Sarah's birthday there, went to Wickenburg, AZ to stroll around, went shopping at Macy's, JC Penney, and other stores, went to a wonderful playground at Anthem Community Park, and then completed the visit with a trip to the Phoenix Zoo: Wildlife World.

2011 11 Nov

Go to 2011 11 Nov, a set on Flickr, to see all photos!

Photos - Charly's 5th birthday parties, Remembrance day wreath, snowman, beginning of Christmas season.

October 2011

October - started by getting the new tenants into their places. Then Jeff went to Minneapolis for a few days.

Finished off another round of swimming lessons for the kids.  Sarah was just repeatng the smae class because she can't advance until she is 3 yrs old. Charly redid Sea Otters and passed it.  He is becoming more and more comfortable in the water. The Dawe has great instructors.

The weather cooperated so we were able to fit in a few more playground trips. Spend one glorious afternoon at Bower Ponds playground, where we went for an hour but ended up staying for almost 5.  The kids continued to use the trampoline outside as long as they could, until finally it was put away for the winter.

Charly switched from gymnastics on Wed afternoon (where he was all alone) to Monday afternoons with 5 other kids.  He didn't like having to wait his turn again, but is enjoying being with the other kids. I am glad for the change too since Sarah's lessons are Wed morning, and 2 trips to the Collicutt in one day is just too much for me.

Charly's friend Koen turned 5 so we went to his birthday party. That was the only excitement we had for Thanksgiving - we were all thankfully to just stay home together.

We got our flu shots soon after they were available.  There was a flu making its rounds here but we managed to avoid it :)

Fri Oct 28 - took the kids and Charly's friend Koen to the Clagary's zoo "Boo-at-the-Zoo" event. Started at 6:30pm, there were displays and activities set up throughout the zoo. Fortunately the rain held off and we weren't too cold until after 8:30pm.  I was expecting to see more animals, being at the zoo, but there were enough things to do that we weren't bored. 

Mon Oct 31 - Charly wore his costume to school. We had a nearly supper and then Papa Doug took the kids out trick-or-treating for just under an hour. Lots of fun and excitement there.  Then we went to the Collicutt Centre for their halloween event. They had free swimming and skating (which we skipped), and 3 of the field houses were open and set up with at least 7 bouncy castle-things. One field was meant for 0-4 year olds, second for 3-7 year olds, and the other was more sports oriented for the older kids.  My kids played and played and played.  They were so tired be the time we left. Charly burst into tears because he didn't want the fun to end, LOL!

Photos on Flickr
videos:
Trick or Treating
Halloween fun at the Collicutt
Slide at the Collicutt

September 2011

Well, Autumn has arrived, to the dismay of most people.  For me, I love Autumn.  I love that the variety of weather, the air is cripser, and each ray of warm sunshine becomes more and more precious as the cold winter starts approaching. I love the leaves turning colours and falling down.  If only we could skip winter and just go to spring after Autumn :)  This September was quite wonderful in weather, and we had some of the hottest, dries weeks for the year in it.


September of course brings school starting.  And this year Charly entered Kindergarten, full of smiles and excitement. He has a very experienced teacher so he is in good hands. There are more girls in his class than boys, but so far it looks like they will all get along okay. There is a set of triple girls to keep us all trying to figure out who is who. Charly goes every morning from 8:38-11:24, and gets about every second Friday off for one reason or another.  So far the mornings have gon well, in terms of getting up and out the door.  The school is only a few minutes drive away,  but the time getting everyone ready and into the van seems to take lots of time, and it will get worse once winter hits.  The first week I had to wake the kids up each morning - Sarah was not impressed by this at all. but they quickly adapted.

After I drop Charly off at Kindergarten, then I take Sarah with me, running errands, grocery shopping, and we try to be back at the school early enough to play at the playground for a little while before Charly is done.  So nice to shop with only one child :)

Sarah took about a week to accept the new schedule, and is now okay with leaving Charly in his class and going off with Mom for the morning.  She's had a rough month, between scheduling, and medical issues.  In august she had a bowel setback, had to essentially restart her at full Lax-A-Day strength again.  September was up and down trying to slowly reduce that, but so far she's back on track.  She's had numerous doctor visists and they are all satisfied with how she is doing.  Toward the end of the month Sarah caught a head-cold and shared it with the rest of us.  How nice. 

Second week of September, Gymnastics started for the kids on Wednesdays.  Sarah goes while Charly is in kindergarten.  It is a parented course so we can finally attend :)  Even though Sarah is the outgoing and athletic child, for the first 2 classes she only showed her stubborn and independent side, refusing to do what the rest of the kids were doing.  The third week she changed her mind, and with more sleep the night before, had a great class.  Charly goes in the afternoon while Sarah and I watch or wander around.  turns out that only one person (Charly) signed up for his class, but it is still being run anyways.  So Charly gets lots of one-on-one time with his coach (same coach as from last year), and since he isn't waiting for other kids to have their turns, he is getting lots of exercise during the class!

The last week of September we added in swimming lessons for both kids, Tues & Thurs just before supper.  I get to drop Charly off with his instructor and then take Sarah to her parent & tot class. We all get a work out and are hungry and tired when we get home!

During this month, we had numerouse visitors - STR & Helen, Ellen, John & Margaret, and my friend Kim. It was so wonderful to see everyone! 

My husband's birthday slipped by quietly. Everyone, including me and the kids were out of town.  We had gone to Calgary for Sarah's doctor checkup (all okay) and didn't get home until after supper.  We'll have to make sure next year's party is extra special (he he he)!

I took the kids to the Lacombe corn maze. So many things to do there - slides, swings, bouncy pillow, animals to feed, tractor pulled train, etc so we never did get a chance to walk through the maze.  But since we had done Bowden's maze it was okay with us.  Kids had lots of fun!

Of course with school back in, all the kidsget together and share their germs.  So the month ended with us fighting off bugs. Sarah had a fever for one day, Charly for the next with Daddy also down that day.  I did my best, suffered through lots of sinus pain and congestion.  Daddy and Charly recovered quite quickly (not normal) while Sarah and I continued to fight off the cold symptoms.  Thank goodness for Kleenex and Tylenol!

And through the illnesses I struggled to keep the usual day to tday stuff going, plus 2 of our renters had given notice to vacate at the end of Spetember, so I was running around showing prospective tenants the places, arranging cleaning, etc. The townhouse was rented out to a nice couple so hopefully they will treat the place with normal descency.

October photos (Flickr)
Video Bouncy pillow 1
Video Bouncy pillow 2

Aug 2011

August was another action-packed month.  We went lots of places and visited with lots of people.  A good month!  I'm not sure I'll go into details about everything - I'd be typing all day LOL!  Charly finished off summer school and I did what I could to take the kids to places throughout Central Alberta.


I took the kids to Calaway Park.  I had never been there before so didn't know what to really expect.  We had a blast! Trains, slides, rides, a ballpit, food - it was hard to leave such a fun place.  But by 5pm a storm was heading our way, so we piled back into the van and headed north.  Just as we hit Stony Trail the storm hit and we had another super exciting ride!
     Wild summer weather proves fatal Calgary


Reunion - Gusek family - yay for family, both new and old :D


Reunion - 20th high school at Cow Lake - so interesting to see what has happened to schoolmates over the years.  Kids had a blast playing with the other kids. Sarah was in her glory, pulling people randomly onto the dance floor to dance with her. Spent a couple hours at Cow Lake beach with Cathleen - so good to catch up with her and everyone else I ran into.


Leighton's birthday - The kids' friend Leighton turned 3 years old. More fun for the kids.

Calgary Zoo - dinosaur park was amazing

Stayed overnight at Diamonds in Calgary after visitng the Calgary Zoo. I am sure for the kids that the visit was more exciting than the zoo.

The next day we headed home, but stopped at the Bowden SunMaze.  Sarah was entranced by the cat and animals. Charly loved navigating us through the sunflower and corn mazes.

Aspen Beach - took the kids to the beach, and they completely wore themselves out playing on the playground (which is half in the water and half on the sand).  I had the chance to step back and observe the kids. Sarah is still as adventurous as always, but over the summer she has gotten a bit taller and stronger.  Charly's confidence on playground equipment has grown with leaps and bounds, and he manages to find someone to play with at each playground we go to.

Food diet - I finally got around to giving Sarah her very first ice cream cone - (soy milk) which she of course loved.  Her bowels suddenly started acting up toward the end of August so I started being very controlling over her food - restricted chocolate, raisins, and anything else that I thought might have caused her setback.  And I started investigating how to eliminate wheat (not all gluten, so she can still have corn, oats, etc) from her diet.  Tried a few recipes with varying degrees of success.

Blackfalds splash park - another sunny day, more play and fun.

Family tree - slowly chipping away at my photo albums. Ancetry.com website has been helpful in growing the family tree, and providing lots of much-needed documentation to my files.  I am alternating between scanning and uploading phots with searching for new relatives - I am so addicted to genealogy!

Flickr photos Aug 2011

Bowden SunMaze, Sarah counting
Kids playing at Koen's
Sarah on tricycle

2011 07 July

July continued to be another busy month for us. Starting to wonder what a "not busy" month would be like. We finished our stay at the Lake and came home to long tall grass and more rain.

We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a supper out and a movie.
The next week Charly started his Summer Camp.  This "camp" runs weekly for 5 weeks.  For the first 2 weeks, I enrolled him in the morning session, aimed at 3-4 year olds.  It was mainly play based and Charly thoroughly enjoyed it.  For me it was a bit of a shock having to get up each day and out the door on time - it has been so long since I've had such structure in my mornings!  While Charly was in his camp, Sarah I did various things, like visit playgrounds, shopping, etc. It has been nice to do things with only one child LOL! 

The camp ran Mon-Thurs so the first Friday I took the kids to Drumheller to the museum and the water park.  This was really the first musuem the kids had been too, lots of people on a sunny Friday, and right before lunch time.  As interesting as the place is, we weren't there too long.  Then we had lunch and found the largest dinosaur in Canada (in the world?) and walked way up inside it into its mouth.  Then we went to the water park - there are two areas, just a short walk between them, the first had no pool but lots of jets squirting water.  The second had a wading pool with a large fountain inside.  Kids enjoyed both parks.  Unfortunately at the end Sarah fell and wapped her head on the concrete, ending her fun. 

The next week - Parkland Play area for Sarah, Heritage Ranch playgrounds and fed the horses, and took both kids to see the city's parade.  The kids were able to sit through almost all of the parade and enjoyed it.  The next day, Thurs, I went to a friend's house for a playdate in the morning.  We traded kids, so that the 2 little ones stayed with her and I took the older 2 to the Exhibition.  The boys had a blast there! The weather managed to be nice throughout.

Then the Diamonds were here for a weekend. It continues to amaze me how well all 5 kids mesh together.  Everyone had a good time and we were sad when their visit was over.

For the next 3 weeks of camp, I signed Charly up for the afternoon session.  It is aimed at 4-5 year olds who will be entering kindergarten in the fall.  So more learning and writing involved, plus playtime too.  More challenging for him but he comes home proud of all the activities he has done.

We went to Rotary Park, Kin Kanyon, Kerrywood Nature Centre the following week.  Lots of outdoor activites in the morning, between rain showers and storms. 

During this summer we have had more than our share of rain. And especially thounderstorms with hail.  We sure wished we could have made the clouds go east to where the rain was needed - starting to get swampy around here!  After one vicious storm I managed to make it home (after rescuing the van from a HUGE puddle at Save-on foods) to find that our drain in the back "porch" area had clogged and water was seeping into the house.  I was frustrated trying to clean the water mess up while the kids were splashing in it ;)

On July 28 my mother-in-law babysat while I went and got my hair cut.  I went in looking for something a bit different.. and I sure got "different".  It is short and layered in the back, with the sides coming down in an agle to my chin without the layers.  So strange to have my neck bare!  I have gotten used to the hair cut, but will change it next hair cut to remove the slanted sides.

Story time:
-Sarah continues to be a curious creature.  She is so thrilled when she spots ants on the ground.  she'll try to get as close to them as she can, including lying down on the ground, to watch them crawl around.

-Sarah also continues to have little fear of climbing. At the playground she is a little monkey, doing everything Charly does, plus more.  She gets frustrated when she is too small to reach something but usually finds a way around it.  Sarah loves to swing, and has even found out that she can step on the door stopper and swing on the door on it.
-Kids enjoy water.  They have no fears of running through the sprinkler or into the splash pools.  They take baths together occassionally and soak the room.
-We set up the trampoline this summer and it has been a great hit.  Both kids love to jump on it, do rolls and generally goof around on it. It is fun to watch Charly try to teach Sarah how to do some of the things he had learned at gymnastics playschool.
-The kids continue to surprise me with food.  Charly will fight to not try something new, but once the first bite has been taken he is likely to eat more.  Sarah will eagerly try new foods, the first time, and eat lots, but serve them to her again and she'll turn her nose up at them.  Once Charly asked for an ate carrots - such a rarity.  They both will eat raw peppers and love salsa, but not bananas nor yogurt.  I have been buying more items that Sarah can have, like coconut milk ice cream - great stuff!  Both kids will eat butter, peanut butter, honey, and soya sauce by the spoonful.
- The Ipad continues to fascinate the kids.  Charly discovered Youtube and loves to watch Pokoyo episodes, even if they are in Spanish.  Chicka-chicka-boom-boom gets played lots!  It is funny to see them absorb some of the information they learn and try to make sense of it.  We were quite amused on the drive to Vernon when Charly kept asking if we were in Germany yet, and when we'd see "the volcano". 
-Sarah knows her ABCs and the sounds they make.  She can count to 12 correctly and then misses numbers on her way to 20.  Charly is starting to read words out on his own, like titles of books and signs and other short things.  He is not as shy as he was 6 months ago, and is way more active too.
Photos:
Photos 1 (Picasa)
Photos 2 (Flickr)

videos:
Sarah on trampoline
Storm puddles
Storm water in back yard
Sarah and Leighton on trampoline

June 2011 review

This month I have so many photos to share :) A couple videos too. Links are mixed with the text below.

We went to the Children's Festival. The weather was cold but the kids didn't mind.  There was a pirate theme this year, so there were pirates running around doing battles, pirate ship slide, etc.  Playground equipment, abulance to climb into and check out, face painting, and more.
Children's Festival 2011

Then there was the work BBQ - the sun managed to shine when we got there and stayed out so we were able to enjoy the outdoors. There was a playground for the kids to use, in sight of everyone so we could just sit back and watch them.  Potluck lunch = wonderful.  Kids loved the balls and games that people brought. Overall a big success.
Misc June photos, plus a few of the BBQ
I took the kids on a road trip.  We stayed one night at Jeff's mother's place, and then we went to the Diamonds for a visit.  The 3 of us all slept in the same bed - good thing Charly doesn't move around as much as he used to!  The kids had lots of fun playing with the 3 Diamond kids.
At the Diamonds

Stats say that we received twice the normal amount of rain in May and just under average for June... I don't remember a day that was entirely nice.  It seems like the rain just never ended.  It would rain for 5 minutes and then clear up, then 10 minutes later it would cloud up again. And strong winds too!  I was kept busy watching the effects of the weather - flooding in some parts of Canada, forest fires out of control in other areas.
Sarah's Walk in the Rain (photos)
Sarah Jumps in Puddle (Video)
Sarah Finds Flowers (Videos)

On Father's Day we went out to my brother's place and celebrated the day and my Dad's birthday.  Kids had fun playing in the muddle puddles (from all the rain of course!) and then visiting the animals.  Neither were too sure about the donley ride though :)
Father's Day (photos)
Sarah with lambs and cat (video)

Charly had an outing for playschool at the ponds. Kids had fun but it ended sooner than desired because of rain.  On the last day of playschool the kids did a "finale concert" to show the parents what they've learned over the past year.  I got to be a parent helper at one of the five stations that the kids rotated through.  The concert went well, and Charly was sad that playschool ended.
Play School / Gymnastics

Charly's sadness was short because he then became distracted with our trip to Vernon. We drove to Revelstoke right after Charly's concert, spent the night in a glorious hotel, then finished the drive the next day.  On the way we had to stop for a beaver and a moose to cross the road, and we spotted deer and mountain goats. We stopped at the Enchanted Forest for an hour, and got to the Lake just after 2pm.

This time at the Lake was much different from last year. Sarah ran to the swing right away. Charly wanted to go fishing immediately :) The kids had a grand time investigating everything. Sarah was captivated by the quail running around, and would lie down on the ground to study ants.  Kids ventured into the Lake. Water was warm and its levels were very high so most of the beach was underwater. Made the sand great for digging in. We were able to sit back more and just watch, rather than having to be actively involved in entertaining the kids. As long as Sarah was in sight, all was good!
 
Many days/evenings the wind was strong at the Lake.  With the water level being so high, the winds were not too welcome. The sandy beach is almost all underwater. The guys playded with moving sandbags around, trying to hold the water and sand back. We watched the water slowly crept up to the bunk house/shed.
Wind at the Lake 1 (video)
Wind at the Lake 2 (video) 
 
For Canada Day I took the kids into town to Polson Park where everyone seemed to be flocking too. Played at playground for a while, listened to bagpipers, saw ducks and a swan, then went to McDonalds (espresso bar there and slides for the kids). We had fun while the guys cleared the weeds and stuff off the beach - so much was blown in that the sandy beach is now at least 2 inches higher than it was a week ago.
 
  The next day finally the weather cooperated!  Temperature got up to 28C with a faint wind - just perfect!!! Relatives came for lunch and supper; turned out to be a great day with lots of yummy food. Got a bit sunburned :) We completely enjoyed the day, especially since it was our last day there. 
Sarah on Lakeshore (video)
 
The trip home was pretty uneventful - we just followed the long line of all the other travellers LOL!
For this video (below) you may need to turn volume up - and forgive me for lack of visual stimulation LOL! We were in line up at McDonalds drive-thru on the way home.
Sarah singing ABCs (video) 
 
Vernon Trip (photos)
 

May 2011 review

May was a month of transition. 

I dared put away the snow mittens but still got the winter coats out though - this is Canada after all!  We're finally starting to get to go to playgrounds again, much to the kids' delight.  Sarah is a little monkey and generally does all the things Charly does plus is less timid at them.

Federal election - Prime Minister remains, now with more power to hopefully get something accomplished. 

T-Ball started, with me as an assistant coach.  First session was cold. Second one was extremely windy. Third one was nice except for the mosquitoes, and todays' was cancelled due to rain.  Frustrating but otherwise the kids seem to be having a good time, especially playing Tag. Each session Charly started to become less timid.  He has done well hitting the ball off the T, and runs and catches just like any other 4 year old LOL. Decided to get him a glove for his right hand since he said he wanted to throw with his left.  Before playschool he usually coloured and such with his left hand. But now he's been learning to write letters with his right hand... leaving me so confused LOL. At least with Sarah she is clearly right-handed. When I started letting Charly use the iPad, he was so excited.  It didn't take him long to have the thing figured out.  He likes to open Notepad and type the alphabet and numbers, uses the calculator for adding, and loves to surf Utube.

Mom finally went back home.   As much as we will miss having her around, we understand how hard such a long trip has been for her.

Went to a family reunion. Kids went to the playground, adults conversed, and later Jeff read everyone the entire poem of "The Cremation of Sam McGee" which his great uncle used to be able to recite from memory.  We all had a good time!

Put Charly back on his inhaler and Singulair since he still continues to cough at night.  Been almost 2 months since he had his cold and although his lungs are clear, he keeps coughing.  Sarah is now 21 pounds, one more pound to go to hit the weight Charly was at when he was 18 months!

Celebrated my brother's birthday.  Celebrated my friends birthday (We went to a bar, such an extraordinary event for me).

Tried finding Charly new shoes, size 10, but couldn't find any shoes that he liked in his size.  (Found some in June.)  I did find a pair of runners for Sarah - $7 and fits perfectly :) 

Sarah knows her alphabet letters and can sing the Alphabet song.  Charly drilled the song "Chicka-chicka Bang Bang" into our heads by singing it over and over and over.  By the end of May even Sarah was starting to sing it.  I was beginning to go crazy from hearing that same song so much.  Sarah's vocabulary is growing larger all the time.  I put potty training on hold until July when Charly is in summer camp each day and I have more time to devote to my princess ... she generally is able to use the toilet when she has a bare bum but put any clothes on her and she seems to think they are diapers.

Sarah continues to explorer the world.  She "helped" me bake one day ... when I came back from a quick trip to the bathroom I found flour everywhere (see videos).  If Sarah spots an ant she has to stop and watch it, and since ants are everywhere, walks can be very time-consuming. She identifies everything as being a parent (usually Mommy) or a baby. We were very amused one day when she came up stairs to show us her Mommy and Baby dice!

I started taking Reactin around the beginning of May to help my body prepare for allergy season.  with such a late spring, and right at the start when everything was budding the winds blew so strongly that the pollen didn't seem to bother me.  At the end of May the pollen hit me. I spent 1 day adding Benedryl on top of the Reactin, then started taking one 24 hr Reactin in morning and one 24 hr Aerius before bed.  This have worked well enough that I could stop the Benedryl (which makes me so sleepy).  Last year I was on two 24 hr Reactin and max doses of Benedryl.  Much better this year.  I plan to switch to just Aerius once I run out of Reactin since it seems to be doing a better job.  Haven't had itchy eyes this year, amazingly. I can remember springs where I would like on the couch with tea bags/ice on my eyes since they were so swollen and itchy.

Photos: May 2011 photos

Videos:
Sarah and flour #1
Sarah and flour #2
Sarah and flour #3

April photos and videos

Photos
2011 April

Videos
Sarah gobbling like a turkey, or something!
Sarah finds alphabet letters
Easter morning egg hunt

End of April catch-up

I didn't expect to take this long to get my blog updated, but wow, what a month April has been.

I met with the local ped dietician at the beginning of March. Focusing now on getting rid of formula, and having Sarah try new food (especially legumes). got to keep her fibre up while still maintaining her iron and getting as many calories into her as possible.

That afternoon I ended up taking Charly to the walk-in clinic for his cough. He was coughing so hard that he'd vomit. Yuck. Doc gave us some antibiotics. No improvement over the weekend, back to clinic Tues, doc says we haave to wait for nature to do its work. Frustrating to sit by and do nothing.  My husband has had the same cough for at least 2 months by then so we weren't sure if it was the same and hoped that it wouldnt last as long!

Soccer ending in March. Charly is very proud of his medal he got for participation. I am proud of him for not quitting and doing so well.  Next time we'll need a much better coach though.

Moved Sarah from formula to completely Oat milk. This process had taken about a month to slowly introduce it to her.

Managed to get the kids a babysitter so I could go with my husband to the Womenn's Shelter fundraiser supper & auction.  It was great to have some adult-only time :)

Then I decided it was time to have Sarah drink out of a sippy cup instead of her bottles. At this point she was only getting a bottle before nap and before nap.  The problem was that she'd take juice and water out of a sippy cup, she absolutely refused to take milk out of a sippy cup.  She was a very sad little girl for at least a week and then she finally started to accept life without her bottle (clinging more to blankie though), but continuedd to refuse milk.  Sigh.

Went to a couple kids birthday parties. First one was at the Collicutt in one of the fields with all the balls, sticks, hoops, ride-on toys, etc.  Charly was still coughing but only vomited at little once, just as we were leaving.  Second was at a bowling alley.  Kids had a blast. But I'd never take 2 kids there alone again. Third party was at a swimming pool.  Great variety!

Started to move Sarah into size 24 month clothing. Hard to find clothes that fit Sarah's tiny waist - most are too wide, but she had lots to choose from.  And I moved Charly into size 5 shirts. This was hard because I didn't have many long sleeved size 5 shirts and didn't really want to buy long-sleeved shirts so close to Spring. But I did.

March 22 my grandma passed away.  Although it wasn't much of a surprise considering all the medical problems she'd been having lately, it was still rough.  Next morning I drove to the airport to pick up Mom and her sister.  Drove them to meet up with the other siblings. A couple days later a tiny funeral service was held for close family members.  Charly had started running a fever the night before but with no other symptoms we decided we could still attend that.  Next week took mom and aunty back to the airport. The plan wasthat they would return around April 12 and then there would be a large service for all of Grandma's friends and relatives to attend.  The delay in timing was to let people have time to arrange to be there.

Plans changed a bit when on April 3, my uncle passed away. This is my mom's brother-law. Uncle's death was a shock (stroke).  Back another trip to the airport to pick up Mom.  his funeral service was delayed until April 15, mainly for people traveling so they could attend both Uncle and Grandma's services in the same trip.   Went to the cemetery on the morning of April 15, then to uncle's service.  The next morning was spent packing ...my husband had arranged to host a guy's night on the 15th, like 3 months ahead of this, so I was packing to take the kids elsewhere.  That afternoon travelled to Grandma's service and back to have a sleep over at my in-laws place.  By this point the kids were completely off their schedule, had been eating at McD's too much, and were tired.  I ended up sleeping with both kids - an interesting experience!

During all this Sarah had been growing taller.  By April 11 she was able to reach and turn the doorknob so she practised that new ability lots.  I moved her up to size 6 shoes. Charly was hovering between size 8 and 9. Sarah was becoming more adventurous with food - finally eating sweet bell peppers, apples, cereal with a little milk, etc. 

I had slowly been weening Sarah off her Laxaday. At one point she was up to 15 mL a day, but finally got her down to 5mL.  Increased her benefibre. Overall things have been going well for her, health-wise.  She still needs to gain weight - seems like any calories she consumes she wears off.  And with summer playground coming this isn't going to change.  

And with all of the above going on, there were still playdates, grocery shopping, playschool, etc to keep us busy.  And I decided to start potty-training Sarah.  Well, she made the decision to be just like her big brother, so we began that progress.  She's slowly getting the concept but it is going to take a while before she learns to control her bowels long enough to get to the toilet and to get comfortable using it.  She's too small to push the button to flush the upstairs toilet - so I don't have to worry about her doing bad things to it,. But the downstairs one ... she's already painted the tub brown! 

What else? Had a wonderful visit with my friend Julie; my Dad stopped in one day and fixed our gate (so now the kids definitely can't get out).  My husband's father and wife were back from their wintering in the US. 

Oh, and in April was Easter.  Easter morning Charly was delighted that the Easter bunny had come. He had a grand time unting for the eggs.  Sarah wasn't sure what was really going on, but enjoyed unwrapping all the chocolates.

Time to wrap this up and go wake Sarah up from her nap (I so love nap time) to pick up Charly from playschool.  Will try to post photos and videos tonight.

Winter is over ... maybe!

April has been such a crazy month that I haven't been able to do a proper review of it, and for Feb too. So as soon as I have time, I'll create another posting with all the details of what the kids have been up to.  For now, here are some photos and videos :)

2011 March photos

Videos:
Super Spy - part 1
Super Spy - part 2
Sarah with new drum
Charly's last soccer game
Spring snow

Cute video (nothing to do with the family, just liked it)
Cokie the Penguin

Feb 2011 in Review

February started full of excitement and it didn't stop for the rest of the month - got to love life with two young kids :)

Feb 1 - I took Sarah for allergy (skin) testing in Edmonton. Reconfirmed that she reacts to milk (cow and goat), and to cats, and to eggs. The rest of us react to cats also so that wasn't a surprise, but eggs was. I have had a feeling that there was something that wasn't agreeing with her but had no idea what ... and now I know.
Clarification on these results - this is a milk allergy, not a lactose intolerance. She reacts to the milk's protein, not to the lactose. At least 80% of people who are allergic to cow's milk also react to goats milk. She has shown tolerance to trace amounts in foods, but we are avoiding it has much as possible. Same with eggs. I read a study that suggests if the egg is cooked/baked at high temperatures for a long time then allergic people react much less to it. And if you put one egg in a cake batter, the amount she'll be eating is small enough (and caked long enough) for her to handle. But no scrambled eggs or omelets for for breakfast for her! In baking, eggs can often be replaced by oil, apple sauce, etc so that's what I'm doing when I can.
Since we've know about the milk allergy for a while, she's been on formula until she was two years old (as ped physician recommended). Since then we've slowly started replacing the formula she gets with oat milk (yes the plant). She's doing well on it and I am just using up the last can of formula - yay, no more mixing! I chose oat milk because it has the most calories per ounce over rice and hemp milk, and is fully fortified with vitamins; I'm allergic to almonds so didn't want to keep almond milk in the house, and soy milk research hasn't been conclusive enough for us yet. So oat milk it is! It can be purchased as Safeway.

Swim lessons continued for both kids. this time they were at the Dawe pool, which I think is a better pool for kids their age. Unfortunately it is across the city and isn't salt-water. Both kids enjoy the lessons there. Charly is getting his confidence up in the water and will now jump into the water (a big leap for him, pardon the pun).

Charly has been taking soccer on Saturday mornings, half hour of practice/drills and then a game with one of the other 3 teams. Once Charly started becoming familiar with the place he started to have more fun.

So with playschool, swim lessons, soccer, grocery shopping, Valentine's Day, getting the mail for the grandparents who flew south for a while, playdates, and shoveling snow, the month passed quickly. The weather kept roller coasting on us - changes of 20C weather overnight, both up and down. One day the kids are out helping me chip ice/snow off the driveway, the next they'd have to be so bundled up to protect them from the coldness. Lots of wind, of course, driving the warm air in and then out again.

All this month Jeff has had a nasty cough, and toward the end of the month Charly got it (or something similar) which hasn't been fun for any of us. Often if Charly starts coughing after he drank/eat something, he'd be coughing so much that his stomach would try to empty itself. Ick.

After lots of consideration and discussion, and a tour of the school, we've decided that Charly will go into French-immersion kindergarten in the fall. We have little doubt that he'll be able to handle it and it won't be long before he'll know way more than us! Unfortunately Spanish is not offered in our city so we couldn't choose it.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/200102##

Videos:
Kids with chalk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6JHOQPAo4
Snowballs at Mommy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrmoSNs0k5I
Jello time on Valentine's Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJkbse2G8pU
Sarah wants bath http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_EdrRRMFwc
2 year olds sharing (rare moments!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zzaYGkzVc
Kids playing outside wit shovels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJIMoIU-zc

Jan 2011 review

The most exciting thing of January was the weather .... well it wasn't really exciting but definitely mentionable. Once it started to snow, there seemed to be no end to it. For a week and a half we got lots and lots of snow. Of course this was when my husband was away so I got to shovel most of it. The snowbanks kept growing larger and larger, to the point that in some spots I could not add more snow to the pile. I'd push the snow further and further away to where the piles weren't as high. And then when it finally stopped snowing, it got so warm that it all melted. Then it dropped to -37C and then got warmer and snowed. And then got colder, warmer, and so on.

Playschool resumed on Tues & Thurs afternoons for Charly. Then I signed both kids up for swimming lessons at the same time, Wednesdays at 5pm. Charly is showing improvement and is becoming more and more comfortable in the water. Sarah loves the water, but doesn't like lessons where she can't just go play with the ball that she can see other kids playing with across the pool :) And then I signed charly up for soccer on Saturday mornings. The first soccer event he got on the field and just stood and watched everyone else running around him. The 2nd time he joined in the fun of chasing the ball.

Our townhouse had been empty for a few months and in January we finally found a renter for it. So add showing the townhouse, getting final fixings / cleanings done, inspections for new tenant, etc. I had little time to spend around home. But I finally started spending time on genealogy, something that I've always loved to do but has been put on hold for the past 4-5 years. So I have years of info to go through and catch up on - a never ending jigsaw of people, events, and dates.

Photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201101##

Videos:
Charly on sled: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKxpRDkxrLg
Charly with laundry basket: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4WoyG0Zbvs
Daddy's welcome home: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xcmyIuRc8A
Soccer warmup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HT7zXn5taY
Soccer game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHY1b7-JBDU
Throwing snowballs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5S9jLmwLw

Dec 2010 review

Another exciting month. Charly finished another set of swim lessons and participated (err, kind of) in his first Christmas concert. We were all happy that he entered the room with the other kids and didn't hide or anything during the performance.


Took Nana Ellen to the airport so she could return to Ontario and then visited with our Diamond friends. After Christmas they then came and visited our place.


We attended many Christmas functions - a kids' birthday party (14 kids under age 6), staff party (supper out and then back to our house - 24 people was cozy), family get-togethers (so good to see everyone!), spent lots of time shopping for presents, wrapping them, and enjoyed Christmas morning a lot. First one that Charly could anticipate coming - exciting for all of us! Kids got new bath toys, which they loved, along with clothes, DVDs, Charly got a remote control airplane (stays on the ground), and Sarah got a tea set. Plus lots of other items, too numerous to mention!

I hosted Christmas Eve supper at my house for my family (was thrilled that my Grandma could join us). Christmas Day & Boxing Day supper at Jeff's Dad's house. Too bad Jeff was ill (fever) for Dec 24-26. He was better Boxing day so got to enjoy a bit of the festivities. Dug out the Wii again and now that Charly's old enough for it, will likely keep it out.

Had a few adventures with the kids outside when the weather co-operated. Sarah loves it outside, Charly prefers the comforts of being inside, LOL!

Lots of videos this month, since they helped to capture those precious Christmas memories!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201012#

Videos:
Sarah fixing Mommy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZMyEOK4_c4
Xmas concert pt 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c10LTae72TY
Xmas concert pt 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap3rQjDKll0
kids with wrapping paper roll http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWGK-sFll44
Sarah jumping on couch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LzvFtj8Wzw
Xmas morning 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjGTira5js
Xmas morning 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NkwonlKyA8 (re-uploaded)
Xmas morning - Diego http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2H73O-iM0
Xmas morning - car http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj55PHEyuo0
Xmas morning - keys http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLzaassNlkI
Xmas Day - pushing pan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3XUqEjAwZQ

November 2010 review

Life with little kids continues to be eventful, full of new and interesting activites. November 1 started out by Charly going to the dentist to get 3 fillings. A little bit of laughing gas helped him out and it wasn't a bad experience for him at all. the next day was Charly's 4th birthday, so supper at my mother-in-law's house. Nov 3 we made another trip to Calgary for a follow-up appointment with Sarah's doctor. She's doing well and now we need to start weaning her off her laxatives - not an easy task. Jeff was away all this first week at his annual conference in Orlando. We were all happy when he returned, especially me since we all had just started to come down with head colds, lots of wiping running noses to be done.

The next week was spent dealing with runny noses, and babysitting Leighton and Koen. By the weekend we were better so I took the kids to Edmonton to visit a friend, stayed overnight Saturday night, returned Sunday. I had just learned that Koen had the flu, and 3/4 of the way home Sarah suddenly threw up all over herself. Thus began a long week. Sarah was sick sun & Monday, Tues Koen & Leighton's mom got the flu so Koen stayed here for a sleepover. Wed I was about to drive Koen back home when Charly started to vomit. He kept nothing down from 5pm until midnight and then was fine. I had a queasy stomach that night, threw up once and felt immediately better. Jeff was unaffected (miracle). Wed night Sarah threw up once again, but then was fine. Thursday I started disinfecting the entire house, and put all the toys in quarantine until they had been washed. Saturday night Leighton and Koen both were here overnight - took 3 hours to get 4 kids bathed and into bed LOL.

We ended up having to evict tenants from our townhouse, so the rest of the month was spent dealing with that - getting them out, getting locks rekeyed, and began the cleaning process. The tenants had done damage to lots of things and it was filthy.

Nov 27 we hosted a joint birthday party for both kids, celebrating Char;y's 4th birthday and Sarah's 2nd. At Charly's insistence, he got another train cake. I had fun making and decorating it, and I think everyone enjoyed it. 7 kids came here and helped devour it.

Charly started his 2nd round of formal unparented swimming lessons, as a Salamander. I'd take both kids, turn Charly over to his swim instructor, and take Sarah into the splash pool. After his lessons, Charly would join us until I finally managed to drag the water bugs out of the pool. The pool is 5 minutes asay, and his lessons were 40 minutes long, but the entire trip would take 3 hours by the time changing and splashing were over!

At playschool Charly was the first in his class to celebrate a birthday for the year, so everyone was excited about that. They sang to him and he got to pick out a small prize (Cat in the Hat magnet), making the event special. Charly continues to enjoy playschool but wishes Mommy would stay with him. Unfortunately I can't. I drop Charly off, race home and put Sarah down for her nap, then I get about an hour to get cleaning and stuff done, then I have to wake Sarah up and go pick up Charly.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201011##
Videos:
Sarah police hat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N499c0wy8h4
Sarah snow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72lPPFkWTA
Sarah Leighton bathing 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToRppW8-LUM
Sarah Leighton bathing 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxDWOw636cw
birthday party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_8IaAMkrrM

recap of updates (Aug - Sept)

Sent the last update out in an email instead of blogging it - what was I thinking?! Anyways, here is the email update:


Well, life got busy and I haven't been able to get decent updates out. I believe I sent out August's picts but no events. There are a great many of wonderful photos to share. This autumn was so much better than the summer was, weather wise :) there were lots of events and photo ops. Enjoy!

August
Charly went to 2 weeks of summer camp, which he enjoyed. And Sarah and I enjoyed the break from him as we went shopping most mornings. Jeff was in Ottawa for almost a week. I managed to leave the kids behind and go to Edmonton for a night to attend Julie's jewellery party she was hosting. It was so nice to be surrounded by just adults! Third weekend was the Gusek family reunion (Dad's side) - I managed to make it out for a couple hours with the kids, so great to see everyone!

Sarah managed to grow tall enough to climb onto the kitchen chairs by herself. It was a bit of a shock the first time I turned around to find her standing on top of the kitchen table. Sarah's last eyetooth finally broke through. It was so much later than the other 3.

Charly finally weighed in at 30 pounds, when most kids his age are closer to 40. Sarah still under 18 pounds as we continue fighting with her diet and medications. Bought new shoes for Charly - size 9. Last shoes were size 7. Sarah is now in size 4 shoes.

Story: Sarah wandered out of their bedroom one morning, with Charly's shorts on her head and arm stuck up through a hole - she couldn't see where she was going and while struggling to get her arm free, she fell down the stairs to the landing, starts crying and struggles to get u,p but bumps her head on wall getting up because she still couldn't see anything. My tough little girl was okay after 2 minutes of crying, wanting the shorts back!

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201008#
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHeDau7292Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UA2QtB1tMQ&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=ScDu2G6PqgY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p7FuavfkGk&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=_mnXGgcmS6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5bBpzGeY4k&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=zcZIe24aMDQ


September
Sept 4th we left for another trip to BC. We drove to Vernon and stayed with Jeff's dad and step-mom for the weekend, then left the kids there and went on to Harrison Hot Springs. This was our vacation away from the kids, and we spent as much time as possible just reading and doing little, enjoying the silence and the bliss of not being interrupted from what you were doing every 2 minutes. We got to visit with Jeff's great aunt Margaret, which was wonderful. Then back to relieve the grandparents of the kids (and they were relieved to see us!), more time at the lake and then back home.

Mon Sept 14 Sarah finally weighed in at 18.2 pounds, after being 17 pounds for what seemed like forever. The next day Charly started playschool at the Collicutt, at the Exalta Gymnastics club. He plays in the activity centre room for an hour and then spends the next hour in the gym. goes twice a week, and the exercise should be good for him throughout the winter. I drop him off and then rush home to put Sarah down for a nap. Then I have just over an hour to accomplish something off my "to do" list. Wake Sarah up and go get Charly. Most of the time we'd stay at the Collicutt and play at the playground there, enjoying the warm weather while it lasted.

Sept 22 Sarah saw her pediatrician. She measured 30.5" long and was 18.2 lb. He had me double her stool softener, and this has helped things a lot! Also that day Charly started swim lessons (Sea Turtle level). This is the first of the non-parented classes, held at the Collicutt. Sarah and I went into the splash pool during his lesson and then he joined us afterwards. Charly is less hesitant around water now, and Sarah just loves it. I make her where a life jacket and this has saved her many times. Sooner or later she'll have to discover life without it... Charly experienced taking a shower at the pool so he then had his first shower at home without screaming.

Sept 23 - Sarah decided to play with the light switch downstairs, couldn't reach it so she thought she'd be clever and put a (toy) water jug on the stair to step onto it to reach the light switch. But of course the jug moved and she fell down and hit her head. That was her 3rd fall in a week but she just keeps on exploring.

Sept 25 - I took the kids by myself to the Calgary Zoo. It was so busy there that day - being a Saturday and beautiful weather, plus if the kids dressed up as a Princess or Prince they got in free. Sarah wore a darling dress. That day was full of adventures for me, and the kids had a ball there.

Jeff - Journeyed to Ottawa and Vancouver, plus trips to Calgary. Celebrated another birthday Sept 28th.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/snowite73/201009#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IUhkP6SaU0&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=cW39JXgI77g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gnOG-7CTUs&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=dqKXXcnLn9E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWcXV6hlg58&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=Bh6CDg7BroM


October
My mom flew out to Alberta for a 3 week visit, and this has turned into a much longer one. After being here/Rocky for 2 weeks my Grandma took a fall and has been in the hospital since then. For a while things were day to day but it looks like we can start looking further into the future - possibly moving my grandma to another lodge. Add in Thanksgiving celebrations, and family get togethers, this has been a busy month.

Over the summer I had started trading kids with Jenni - I'd take her kids sometimes and she'd take mine. So far it has worked out well. Her kids, Koen and Leighton are the same age as mine so it works out well. Leighton turned 2 in August, Koen turned 4 in October, Charly's 4 in November, Sarah 2 in December - what a lot of birthdays to celebrate! On Sept 18 Jeff and I had to be in Edmonton overnight so my Mom looked after the kids, and then the following week we went to Banff for 2 days/1night, and Jenni was so good at looking after both kids (Auntie Sherry took Sarah for that night while Charly stayed at Jenni's) - not sure what I'd do without Jenni and all my relatives!

Jeff's mom and step-dad were away to Europe for 3 weeks, so I was picking up their mail and such. Jeff's dad and step-mom were here for a few weeks so we tried to see them lots. they've now headed to the US for the winter. Charly finished his swim lessons, passing Sea Turtle. I had planned to put him into skating lessons next, but no longer feel that he's ready for it. So I'll try to get him into more swim lessons to keep his confidence up. Next is "Salamander" and he'll likely have to do it a couple times. One of the things they want him to do is to jump into water, well Charly is nervous jumping on land ... so we have some work ahead of us :) I want to keep him swimming once a week for him to get used to it, plus it is great exercise!

Sarah is now into size 18 month clothes. And at 22 months old, she FINALLY started to sleep through the night without waking for a bottle. So nice!! Her language skills are developing well, and her climbing skills are awesome. She isn't learning the meaning of "no" as quickly as Charly did - I keep finding Kleenex tissues everywhere! Charly is a little sponge, soaking up knowledge everywhere. He recently used the word "camouflage" - he was hiding under a blanket and didn't want Sarah to take the blanket away because then he wouldn't be "camouflagued" any more - took us completely by surprise. I assume he learned the word at playschool since their theme the past week was camping.

And October ended with Halloween festivities. He missed the Halloween party at playschool, but then attended 2 other Halloween parties, one as a Fireman and the other as a pirate since the fireman coat was too uncomfortable. On Oct 31 he got quite nervous about going trick or treating but after visiting one house he decided it was all good. Papa Doug and I took the kids out for maybe 45 minutes and they got way too much candy :) Sarah followed Charly's example and quickly knew the ropes of knocking on doors and holding out her container for the treats. She was soo happy when she received her first lollipop! At one house she decided the lady was taking too long so Sarah reached into the candy bowl to help herself! Both kids were very sad when I called an end to trick or treating, but were happy to gobble down a bunch of Smarties. Sarah cried all the way home because she was so tired but didn't want the fun to end. Charly went to bed with a tummy ache from eating so much candy. Both want to go trick or treating again right away!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ajvjFT0yvA&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=kgwsabx2Ar8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDegaAM-XkA&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=aELy4ykInX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjQwq-vcuvw&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=9mv1-KCWgTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX_nkykE4fE&feature=mfu_in_order&playnext=1&videos=u3L3y-b-IbM
Photos:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/snowite73/201010#

Trip to the Zoo

I'm awake with indigestion so I thought I'd blog my adventures Saturday, before I forget all the details.

Invited lots of people to go, couldn't connect up with anyone. Sarah doesn't like her dress.
Hair cut for Charly at 9:30, not prepared to leave town.
Trip down okay, gloomy skies, Sarah napped.
Drove to zoo but decided to go and get lunch, drove around for a while to find a McDonalds, eventually settled on Denny's. Get in, go to bathroom - never fun with 2 kids. Order food, Sarah needs diaper change, both kids out to van change her there, back inside. Food arrives, try to kep Sarah in one spot finally get high chair but that just makes her mad, Charly not interested in eating. Drink cups for the kids leaked so Sarah made continuous mess. Charly drank his orange juice so waitress offeredto fill his cup (that we got to keep) with water. Back to van. discovered that the waitress hadn't emptied the cup out before adding water so now he had orange-tasting water that he wouldn't drink.

Figured out where we were, drove to zoo, parked in lot D (furthest away), got everything loaded into stroller, start to walk away, decide to check for keys and discover had locked keys, and cell in van, and had slammed the door on my wallet - could see it but could not get it unlodged. Bored cell phone, then had to ask another person for AMA phone number. Walked back to the parking gate to meet AMA guy (pushing kids in double stroller) and direct him to the van, walk back to van. He opened doors in less than a minute. Got stuff and finally went to zoo. Paid for admission (kids free since dressed up) and parking (flat rate).

Charly only wanted to see a giraffe so we went to Africa section of zoo. Place was soo busy with people since such a nice day (finally) and special event day. Get to animals, Charly discovers info stations with 2 speakers that look like a phone on a cord at each, must listen, push buttons, not share with Sarah, Sarah looking at everything, her in harness, Charly running around, trying to keep the stroller with us with so many people around = stress for me. Saw giraffes, red river hogs (not pigs), lions, zebras, ostridges, other birds. Went to jungle section, saw crocodile, gorillas, snake, etc. About 4pm finally went to the playground there (enclosed area thankfully) and spent next 2.5 hours there! 3 stations = one for 0-2 year olds which Sarah loved, another for 3-5 years for Charly, and a third area for 6-12 years that kept enticing Charly. Sarah tried the 3-5 station and discovered she was too short (made her mad) and too many bigger kids.
Add in bathroom break, snack break, diaper change, other kids playing, I wasn't bored.

Finally time to leave, we were one of the last people there, which was nice after all the crowds. Found way out, back to parking lot, all the way across parking lot C to lot D, but there is a bank with shrubs and rocks separating the lots. Started walking toward the lot's exit, discovered Sarah had taken her shoes off and dropped them ... somewhere, not in sight even though the lot was empty! Oh well, continued to exit, finally found a part that was barren and not too steep so pushed stroller down to the van.

Supper time, drive to closest McDonalds but Sarah falls asleep instantly so decide to go to Airdrie's McD instead of waking Sarah to go to the McD in the Walmart. Order at drive-thru, and Sarah wakes up. Charly is demanding to go inside so take our "take-out" and go inside to eat. I had ordered salad with grilled chicken for me, 1 chicken nuggets kids happy meal for Charly. Open bag, had received an extra hamburger and no happy meal toy. Go to counter and return burger, they give me a whole new happy meal which I kept for Sarah :) Get kids eating, open my salad and discovered it was not grilled chicken but crisy, ate it anyways. Bathroom break (had to leave all food on talbe, take both kids to bathroom since couldn't leave either alone, and thankfully no one had cleared our table yet). Back in van, head for home. Both kids awake, until Charly falls asleep near Innisfail and Sarah starts to scream for her bottle which she'd dropped. Finally found a turn-off place, got her the bottle, back on road with silence but Sarah wide awake the entire trip. Beautiful drive with fall colours and then glorious harvest moon.

Home, Jeff takes Sarah to change her, I unload most of the van, put Charly in his bed (still in clothes but they were comfy ones), I collaps on my bed and fall asleep (feet/legs started to ache). woke up an hour later, plugged in baby monitor and changed into PJ and went striaght to sleep. Jeff dealt with putting Sarah to bed (she didn't stay awake long). Somehow I slept through Charly waking up in a terror, screaming in bed until Jeff could get there to calm him down, put him in his PJ and back to sleep. Woke up a couple times because of Sarah's coughing, bottle time, etc. What an exhausting day. But kids had fun, got to see animals and be out in the sunshine. So not too bad of a day overall, just lots of frustrations for me.

OK, an hour and a half has passed, Peto has finally worked enough that I think I can sleep now. Not sure if this was the garlic from caesar salad or the wine, or both, but not a happy tummy. Just the price to pay for all the great food and company at J&M's BBQ tonight.