Tuesday, March 29, 2011

CeCe walks

CeCe has been walking for a little while now, and I'm finally getting around to posting a video of it. Here she comes and there she goes.

Later.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Blue streak

Quite a while ago, the girls had decided that they no longer liked liquid medicine so we switched to the chewable Tylenol and Advil.  Things had gone fairly smoothly ever since ... until yesterday.  Ginny, in her full blown fever-induced rational state, decided she wasn't taking the chewable Tylenol.  I had already figured out how much of CeCe's infant stuff she would need based on her weight once, but now we were out of that too.  Julie told her how when she was little her Mom would grind up the pills and put them with a spoonful of jam.  This seemed a reasonable alternative, and she accepted.  My Mom did that too, but I was grateful when I learned how to just swallow the pills.  Anyhow, we decided that we could all use a little fresh air in the late afternoon, so we went to Superstore to get a few things (one of them being liquid Advil).  Ginny decided that she would like the blue raspberry flavour.  Whatever.  We bought the large $15 bottle just to make sure this didn't happen again.  She seemed to like it and Jorja was intrigued by it, so she wanted to try it as well.  She will be sticking to the chewable tablets.  Let me say that this stuff is blue!  Like toxic glowing radioactive waste blue.

Fast forward to this evening.  I was getting something for Jorja not really paying attention to Ginny when I think she said she was going to open her medicine.  I wasn't really paying attention, but I said sure.  She wasn't supposed to get the lid off.  It's childproof right?  Wrong.  I turned around to see a blue streak from one end of the bathroom to the other.  And that wasn't the one coming out of my mouth.  She was standing there holding the bottle, blue radioactive goo dripping from her cheek and a look of shock/awe/fear/disbelief/whathaveIjustdone on her face.  Then came the tears.  What could I do?  I hugged her and told her it was an accident and that I would clean it up.  She felt terrible.  To top it all off, when I was tucking her in tonight she looked up at me, her bottom lip quivering ever so slightly, and said, "Daddy, I won't spill my medicine tomorrow."  She definitely knows how to get to me.  I could have cried.  Later.

Sick kids

The house was finished on Friday, so now things are getting back to normal.  I am slowly getting things moved back into place, but there is still a fair bit to do.  My parents were up this weekend and spent most of the day here on Friday.  The kids had fun playing with their grandparents even though they weren't feeling too great.

Yes, they are sick again.  Jorja started Thursday afternoon with a headache and a fever.  She's got a cold on top of things too, but I think that's different than the flu part.  Ginny started Saturday afternoon.  She came running upstairs just crying saying she had a brainfreeze and that it wouldn't go away.  I guess the only time her head hurt before was when she drank something cold too fast.  We gave her some Tylenol and it helped for a while. 

Saturday evening we were supposed to go to my brother's place for supper and in hindsight, we probably should have just stayed home.  The girls usually spend the entire time tearing around with their cousin, but this time they alternated just sitting on the couch.  Every once in a while they would get a little burst of energy, and then they were done again.  By the time we left, Ginny was so miserable she didn't know what to do with herself.  She was asleep pretty much as soon as we were in the car though, so I guess she was done.

So today I am home with them all.  CeCe is all right, but I didn't think she would like to go to the sitter by herself.  It's too bad Jorja isn't going to school today - she is supposed to get her first report card today.  We had parent- teacher conference last week, and I can honestly say I'm not sure I've ever been more proud.  She is reading at a grade 3 level already (she's in Kindergarten), she helps the other kids when she is done something first and they are having trouble.  Her teacher said she's just such a nice kid - pretty much the best compliment a parent can get.  All right, enough bragging.  Later.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Gymnastics

Our house repairs are being done this week, and yesterday the new carpet went in.  The walls are now painted, just waiting on the baseboards basically.  I'm not sure what it is about an empty freshly-carpeted room, but it seems to bring out the wild side of the girls.  Ginny calls it the 'running carpet.'  Even CeCe was having fun running around this evening.

Then Jorja started doing somersaults.  Now I'm not sure what possessed me, but I too was a bit overcome by the moment and the big, empty room.  I mean, when I was a kid, we would do somersaults from one end of the gym to the other, get up and maybe be a little dizzy.  So there I was, crouched down and ready to go.  I did manage to do one, but when I got up, it felt like I had just been on the Zipper.  I mean, really, what was I thinking?  Hello vertigo!  There are certain things that a middle-aged man just should no longer attempt.  Like handstands.  Yes, I thought I would try one of those too.  I tell you, there is something about a freshly laid carpet.  (maybe it's the fumes from the glue)  Anyway, I successfully completed the handstand much to the awe of my children.  However, I don't recall having the pain in my neck when I was a kid.  I think I seriously compressed some vertebrae.  I was considering having Julie pull on my head just to get them back to where they belong.  Maybe we need one of those inversion tables. 

Hopefully tomorrow the furniture goes back in and the powerful spells of the room are silenced again.  I don't think I can survive much more.  Later.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Babysitters

This seems to have been a fairly hectic week.  I am in the process of trying to empty our spare room so that carpet can go in there next week.  If it was just a spare room, it wouldn't be bad, but it is kind of a catch-all storage room as well.  I think I'm done for tonight - I'll finish tomorrow.  Yes, carpet is coming.  If all goes according to plan, the basement should be painted Monday, carpet Tuesday and then repainted Wednesday.  That could be a long three days without any access to this level of the house.  On the upside, the girls will be at daycare all day and there isn't that much evening time that they're awake during the week.

We ended up getting a sitter twice last week.  Sunday night we had our Bible study group and we got one of our two regular teenage sitters to come.  For whatever reason, Ginny cried when we left, Jorja cried at bed time, and CeCe just cried whenever she felt the need.  Then they were all sensitive and crying easily at Dee's house on Monday.  And because we're suckers for punishment, we got a sitter again on Wednesday.  This time we got Julie's cousin (who the girls all adore) so we thought things would be a little better.  Before she came over, Jorja said to me, "I just cry when S. and L. come over to babysit us.  I don't cry when Auntie comes.  Isn't that weird?"  Yes Jorja, that is weird.  It was the same thing at Dee's house on Thursday - Ginny was crying at the drop of a hat.  Either we need to go out more so they're used to it or less, so we don't traumatize them.  If we had the money, I'd go with more, but since we don't, I guess we'll just deal with it.

The reason we went out on Wednesday was that my company is putting out a new beer and there was a launch party to kick it off.  It was a really nice time and quite a big to-do.  The mayor spoke, an MLA spoke, there was a live band.  Quite impressive.  The new beer will be available next week from Manitoba to BC, so that's pretty cool.  It's the first time we've launched something across all western provinces at once.  Check it out here: www.original16.com

Every Saturday is piano lesson day in our house.  Julie takes Ginny and I take Jorja.  For the most part I enjoy it.  When I was young, I took some piano lessons, but never kept it up, so it's kind of nice to learn things along side her.  (We do Yamaha lessons which are group lessons where the parents stay.  So far anyway - next year Jorja is on her own.)  This morning I was sitting at the piano and playing one of her songs.  It was the first time I had tried it hands together, and it was a bit rough.  Jorja pokes her head up from the colouring table and says to me, "You should practice that more Dad."  Thanks Jorja, I guess I should.

Jorja goes to the Catholic school in our neighbourhood, so they celebrate lent.  One of the things they are doing is bringing in pennies to show that if everyone does a little, it can make a big difference.  We were talking about pennies for lent this morning and Jorja wanted to bring some in.  I asked her where we should get them from.  I've had a whole container in the spare room closet (see what I mean about the catch-all) for years I figured that I would give her, but I wanted to see what she would say.  She said that we could get them off my dresser.  Interesting.  Anywhere else I asked.  "We could give some from my piggy bank," she said.  There we go.  And she did - I opened it up and dumped a bunch of coins out and she sorted through them and took the pennies out.  I was quite proud of her.  Ginny was there wanting to help, so I asked her if she wanted to give some of her pennies as well.  "No, I'll just give Jorja's.  I guess we still have time to work on her.  I'm not sure how many three year olds have a real sense of charity anyway.  Later.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Queen of the remote

Both of the girls seem to pick up on anything electronic fairly quickly.  It always amazes me how they can manoeuvre around the computer (even without reading).  We still haven't replaced our desktop computer, and we don't let them use the laptop yet.  So it seems that they have channeled their efforts into the TV remote.  Jorja has learned to use the remote quite well, and now Ginny is starting too.  It's tough for Ginny to get any access to things when Jorja is around, so I've been showing her some stuff when Jorja is in school.  We have PVR, so we can pause live TV.  Ginny is all about the pausing of things lately.  Pause the show, pause the story, pause whatever you're doing.  She likes to pause the TV now when she goes to the bathroom.  Last week when Jorja was in school, I showed her which buttons to press to pause and restart the TV.  This is some information that Jorja is not yet privy to.  Fast forward to yesterday afternoon.  Julie and I were trying to catch a few winks while CeCe was sleeping and the girls were watching a show on TV.  Jorja had a death-grip on the remote to keep a close eye on the volume.  Ginny had to pee and wanted Jorja to pause the show, but Jorja didn't know how.  Ginny came burning upstairs to inform me that Jorja wouldn't pause the show while she went pee.  I think the irony of the whole situation was lost on her.  She had to come upstairs to wake me up so that I could come and pause the show while she went pee.  Hmmm.  What's wrong with this picture?  I paused the TV and you should have seen the shock on Jorja's face.  Then Ginny came back from the bathroom and started playing the TV.  Oh, how the tables have turned.  Jorja was a bit put out that Ginny knew about this and she didn't.  Oh well, there's got to be some perks to staying home while the big sister is in school.  Later.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Construction and dentists

Our house is now a construction zone.  Things are covered in plastic and there is fresh drywall and mud on the walls.  It's a good thing, but kind of a pain right now.  I spent yesterday evening relocating all the girls' toys so they still had somewhere to entertain themselves.  It was still a bit of a shock when they got home today though.  Oh well, hopefully this stage should be done by Friday.  Then we have to wait for the paint and carpet.  We picked out new carpet today, and it should be in within two weeks.  Here's hoping.

I went to the dentist yesterday for the first step of getting two crowns put in.  I've had bad teeth since forever, but over the past few years, they've been holding their own and now we're starting to fix some of the old stuff.  Most of my work over the past few years has just been fixing or replacing old fillings.  To be honest, I'm not sure there is a tooth in my mouth without a filling in it.  Anyway, after I had the temporary crowns in place, I was sent to the lab to get the color for the permanent crowns matched to my teeth.  The tech there started trying to match things up and she said to me, "You've got a lot of character in your teeth."  That's one way of looking at it.  Later.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Ginny turns three

Three years ago today, Virginia June was born.  She is definitely our feistiest child - has been right from day one.  I guess it's good to be strong-willed and independent.  Well maybe some day it will be.  When you're two going on three, the strong-willedness can be a bit much at times.  But she is also kind and tender-hearted.  She is the first one to find a soother for CeCe when she is crying and tries to comfort her.  She has a great sense of humor and can be quite the clown.  She is wonderful and beautiful and perfect in every way.  We are incredibly lucky and I love her more than I thought possible.

We had her party yesterday.  We rented a room at a local civic centre - it had a slide and a little play house and some cars to sit on and drive.  There were 5 kids plus ours and I am glad we didn't have it at the house.  They're a little young for anything too organized yet, so we basically let them loose to play, then had cake, opened presents, and then we were done.  We've learned a few things about birthday parties.  Jorja's first one was in the backyard - we had the slip n slide and kiddy pool out.  It was for three hours.  From that we learned that 2 hours is plenty for a party.  From Ginny's we learned that for a 3 year old, an hour and a half would be plenty.  We'll have it all figured out by the time CeCe is ready.  It's not like the kids didn't have fun, you could just tell that they were starting to get a bit restless.

Julie made a Hello Kitty cake, which was the theme Ginny had decided she wanted.  It turned out awesome.
 
Here's a few more shots from the festivities:










So this evening we had Ginny's actual party.  Earlier on she had thought that she needed cake on both the party day and her actual day.  Needless to say that after the party, we were drained and Julie didn't feel like making more cake.  In order to avoid a meltdown, we picked up a cake at Safeway last night just to be ready.  So we had supper and I asked Ginny if she was ready for cake.  "No," she said, "I'm good."  Ice Cream?  "No."  Voortman blueberry cookie (Walmart had them on for $1.00 the other day and I've always been a sucker for them)?  "Yeah."  Well happy birthday to you.  Jorja decided she just wanted ice cream, so now we have an entire cake in our fridge.  Who's coming over?  I'll be up for an hour.  Later.  

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Up too early

It is Saturday morning and by their standards, Jorja and Ginny are sleeping in.  It may only be 7:20, but for them, that's pretty good.  Why am I awake?  Unfortunately, the youngest one needs some supervision.  I'm not sure why CeCe was up so early today.  She was crying this morning at 5:30, so I went into her room to give her her soother back.  As soon as it was in front of her mouth, she said, "Yeah!" and proceeded to lunge at it.  At this point I was surprised when she was still quiet when I left the room.  Then at 6:30, she was awake again.  This time when I went in the room, she said, "Hi!"  I knew it wasn't going to be good, but I tried to rock her for a while, but sleep was not happening.  So here we are, up too early while everyone else sleeps.
Jorja went to a birthday party last night after supper.  It went from 7:00 to 8:45 which could explain why she is still asleep.  It was at a gymnastics club in town and she had a blast.  As I was walking her in, she said to me, "I'm so excited I'm almost crying tears of joy."  Oh my.  When I picked her up, she tried to say that she wasn't tired.  "I did yawn once while I was there Dad, but it wasn't because I was tired."  She was a little wound up, but it didn't take her long to fall asleep. 

While she was at the party, I did some grocery shopping and then had a little more time to kill, so I walked around a mall for a while.  I went into Bootlegger to look at some jeans.  I must be getting old (at least perceived old by 20 year olds).  I was standing there looking at the jeans, and this kid came over to me and asked, "Do you need help finding a size because you look really confused?"  And we're done here.

Yesterday morning I took all three girls to the doctor.  Ginny and CeCe were getting their yearly checkups and Jorja was getting something else looked at.  There are times when they all make me proud and this was one of them.  They were all well behaved and listened really well.  I'll have to admit I was a bit nervous as to how the whole thing was going to go.  Our doc is awesome though and made them all feel so comfortable that at one point Jorja was trying to tickle her.  As we were sitting in the room waiting for the doctor to come in, I asked the girls who was going to go first.  "CeCe!" was the unanimous answer.  That's it, throw the youngest one under the bus, she can't argue.  CeCe is in the 85th percentile for height and weight and Ginny is in the 90th for both.  Ginny was 39 inches, which is a full inch taller than Jorja was at three.  I guess it's no wonder that she has to wear size 4 clothes already.  Ginny said the alphabet, counted up to 39 and said she liked broccoli.  I was impressed.  I'm not sure about the broccoli thing, but they claim to eat it at Dee's house.

Well, I guess I might actually have to wake the girls up soon.  Ginny has music lessons this morning at 9:30, so we need to get them fed and watered first.  Later.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Kill girl

On Saturday I decided that it was time for a haircut.  It had been quite a while since my last one, so it was needed.  I should clarify that when I say haircut I mean buzz it all off with a clipper.  I decided a couple of years ago that it no longer paid to have someone cut the few hairs that are on the top of my head.  It maybe wasn't the best timing considering the weather out there - it was quite the shock to my scalp to feel the -40 degree windchill.  Anyway, Julie buzzed me after the girls were in bed on Saturday.  When they woke up Sunday morning, the first sound that escaped both Jorja's and Ginny's mouths was a giggle.  I'm not sure how I should have taken that.  I decided not to let it bother me.  On Monday when I picked the girls up from Dee's house, I was wearing my touque (a necessity now).  Ginny asked me, "Did you get your hair back Daddy?"  Not quite yet Ginny.

This evening Ginny found an ant on the bathroom floor.  I'm not sure where they come from at this time of year, but there it was.  Usually when Jorja sees a bug it's the end of the world.  Screaming, kill it Daddy, I'm scared, the whole nine yards.  Ginny has kind of taken Jorja's lead in this matter, except for today.  I'm not sure what clicked in her head, but she was on a mission.  "There's an ant Daddy!  Let me get it!  I'm the kill girl!"  All right then, I'll stay out of your way.  Later.