Cake pops!

So, I while ago I made a cake and had extra icing and put it in the freezer. It's been there for only a couple of weeks. So I decided to use it to make cake pops.

Officially winter!

It's now officially winter and I am on my Christmas holidays for two weeks. Hooray! As usual, although it's lovely to have a break from the pressures of work life (mostly self-imposed), being on vacation often creates a separate pressure - the pressure to make certain that this precious time off is milked for all it's worth. On top of this, Christmas preparations are not complete. Ideally, I would like to just do fun stuff. I think I should probably stop creating an inner measure of whether or not I've made the best use of my time off (i.e. "this vacation will have been enjoyed and used to the best of my abilities if..."). What will likely occur is that I will make yet another to do list. Two weeks always sounds like a lot of time, but in fact, it goes by incredibly fast. Real winter has been around since sometime in November. However, since the weather this year has been mercurial, our entrance way is packed to gunnels with a variety of footwear and coats. A day of -20 degrees C can be followed by a day of rain and 4 degrees C.

Christmas cookies!

Christmas cookies I decorated! Christmas time is near!

Still tired a lot!

I think that when the girls were younger, I imagined there would be a time in the future where I would feel less tired. It's true that Rebecca, being a teenager, can now execute a pretty epic sleep-in, and Lucy never had any sleep issues. They are both fairly responsible and follow a routine. The thing is though - life has just become challenging in different ways. Teenagers might sleep more soundly (sometimes), but they also have a natural tendency to stay up late. Problems are more complex. Homework is more time consuming. Hobbies and interests are more pervasive, and the balance is more insane. I think this is the busiest time of my life and feeling tired has become my default. Every summer, when things ease off, I marvel that as a family, we are able to cope with the rigours of the school year. Last year, my Mom and I went on a trip to Halifax together for a week and stayed with my Aunt. It was laid back, and I got lots of sleep and lots of chillaxing. It was such a break. Every day I grapple with my work to do list and my personal to do list, and trying to shrink them both. Some days, things go off the rails in one but not the other. Sometimes neither. Sometimes both! I think I am better able to go with the flow now than I could eight years ago.

Rebecca turns 14!

Today Rebecca turned 14. It's a weird experience when your child turns an age that you remember distinctly. We showered her with attention, presents, affection, and tasty treats. I'm hoping the next year will be filled with happiness and joy for her.

Murdoch fans

The girls and I watch television series together. This is something that happens when all homework has been completed, lunches made, activities finished, and pj's donned (provided it's not too late at night). It's a fun way to relax. While we always invite Greg to join us, he usually declines. One summer we got through all the episodes of Star Trek Voyager. One of our favourites is CBC's Murdoch Mysteries. We've watched it in non-sequential order - starting somewhere in the middle, getting to the most recent episodes, then happily going to the beginning once Netflix saw fit to make all the early seasons accessible. We are almost caught up to where we started, but have now also fallen behind on the most current episodes. Greg and I never had television in the house for the girls when they were little, although we had videos and movies, and they had television exposure at my parents' house. I have never regretted this, although I realize it was not the norm. The only television show that we watch in "real time" is Frankie Drake - another CBC series - which we stream off the CBC website on the nights it airs.

It's startin' to look a lot like christmas

So, I play this game with my friends where one person taps out the beat of a christmas song with their hands and the other people have to guess the song. When the tapper reveals the song, they sing it out loud. I was revealing my song, Last Christmas I gave you my heart~ And the guessers started singing. Normal. Until we all start singing at max volume. The class was dead silent except for a couple whipers from the people beside us, so all anyone could hear was: LAST CHRISTMAS I GAVE YOU MY HEART, BUT THE VERY NEXT DAY YOU GAVE IT AWAY. THIS YEAR TO SAVE ME FROM TEARS I'LL GVE IT TO SOMEONE SPECIAL... It was really fun. Note we were doing this in the middle of lunch. And no teacher, not even one, complained about the noise. It was awesome!

Third year of guides

I am also in my third year of guides!

Return of the dino-lover

Hey, everyone! Rebecca here. Last night, we visited this blog for the first time in a while. Though I knew it existed, I didn't know that it had so many posts! To give an introduction, I'm in my early trete and one of my passions is writing. Other than that, I really love drawing, singing, and a few different sports. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is my knack for getting in weird situations, like the time I took the wrong bus, ended up at downtown and met one of my current friends there. I think it would be fun to post things on here and document the mishaps in my life, so it's less of an inside joke with myself, and more like an inside joke with whoever reads these. Maybe it will be a future inside joke with my future self, who knows.

Anyways, I really like writing poetry, so I might end up posting my good poems here when I'm in the mood.

Not too many things have changed since my parents started posting. I'm still dramatic and love dinosaurs, but I have definitely matured since then.

Hope this is enough writing for now!

Return to the blog

It's been 8 years since I've posted anything to this blog. However, Lucy has convinced me to start writing again. When I read my old posts, I am amazed that I ever found the time to produce them, and I am also amazed by the sheer volume of details that I had forgotten. I'm not going to try to recap eight years of my life, especially given the fact that the past eight years have been exceptionally eventful. So here we are - starting anew. I am 43 years old. Rebecca is turning 14 in two days, and is in her first year of high school. Lucy is 11 and in grade 6 (also a new contributor to the blog!). Greg is 42 and has begun working as a flight instructor. I will be making short daily updates.

8 years!

Hello, Lucy writing here! It's been eight years since the last post, and the last time you checked in on our family I was three and didn't even know my mom had a blog. Actually, I didn't discover she did until this year. Anyways, she has granted me permission to write on here, so you'll get to hear about me and possibly my sister, too. Where to start? I'm eleven years old. My earliest memory is probably going to the park with my Dad, and pretending to be a baker and make cakes out of sand. My first day of kindergarten, I walked up to the first girl I saw and asked to become friends with her. She's my best friend to this day. In kindergarten, I had a half day, and would only start school at noon. it was like this for all the kids in my class. My dad and I would drop off my mom at work, eat at a diner for breakfast, go to the park, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch and then he would walk me to my bus stop. We ate at diners so often, that i was friends with the waitress at the diner we most frequently visited. A lot of chocolate chip pancakes and chocolate milk in those days. Tons. In grade two, I met my English teacher Mr. White (I won't say his full name due to privacy reasons.). He was goofy and very kind. However, if you disrespected him, you would be lectured. That barely happened to anyone though. In third grade I had Mr. White again. On the day of my birthday that year, I walked in and said "It's my birthday today!" Mr, White said, "No, it's mine!". Now, I thought he was goofing off, but as it turns out we actually had the same birthday. That year, I had a french teacher that I had in kindergarten. She liked me very much and teased me a lot. Fifth grade I had some trouble with my friends, as they never seemed to take interest in me and never payed attention to me. However, I resolved those problems and felt happier than ever. It also made me much more considerate of people's emotions and feelings. I actually learned quite a bit from it. Fast forward to now. I am in sixth grade, my favorite sport is fencing and as for hobbies, I love anything artistic from dancing to painting. Sadly though I lack confidence in singing and dancing in front of other people and i hope to overcome that at least partially this year. That's all for now, Lucy.

Ok, it's been a little while, but I have to share this...

Lucy is at the point where once a day, she needs to express that she is upset that she's not in charge.  It's usually a meltdown over some inconsequential thing.  When we're at home, it's easy enough to deal with.  Leave her alone to calm down, or put her in her room if she's wound up.  However, when we're out and about that's not always an option.  If she has a fit of the screaming meanies when I'm buckling her into her car seat, I still need to buckle her in.

Anyway, the day before yesterday we were visiting with my sister's family who were visiting from Britain.  My brother hosted brunch down in Westboro.  It was time to leave, and Lucy decided she didn't want to go.  My sister Fiona was with me, and helped me get the girls loaded in the car.  Lucy lost it when I was putting her in the car, yelling "I want to get out" over and over again.  Rebecca often gets a little upset when Lucy is screaming herself hoarse, and had her hands over her ears.  As we rolled away, Rebecca decided to try to placate Lucy by giving her little sister her blanket and Cabbage Patch doll.

"I don't want my blankie.  It's not my blankie, it's YOUR blankie now Rebecca!"  (Understand that this blankie is what Lucy uses to get to sleep every night, drags along with her throughout the day and is probably her best friend)

I chuckled at this.  Then I heard:

"I don't want the baby anymore.  No more baby.  It's your baby Rebecca.  Get the baby off of me."  At which point in the passenger side rear view mirror I see a doll in a fuzzy pink snowsuit get chucked out the window of the car.

I laugh.  Rebecca is bawling.  My sister Fiona is puzzled, looks in the mirror and sees something bouncing off the road and has a moment of terror thinking that Lucy somehow slipped her seatbelts and got out of the car.

Anyway, we went back and picked up the baby, and as normal, after another 5 or so minutes, Lucy was tuckered out and was reduced to sobbing gently.  After that, she always wants big cuddles and apologizes for yelling.

That girl, she's 98% absolutely adorable.  2% rage.

Sugar bush visit and 3rd birthday!

Couple little updates.  We decided this spring that we had to go to a sugar bush and see some maple syrup production.  We went for breakfast, some playing around in the park, a little walking through the bush and a hay ride.

Rebecca got her face painted, which was probably the biggest deal about the whole thing:

Next up:  Lucy's third birthday.  Man, time flies...  Had some grandparents cousins and aunts and uncles there.  Much merriment to be had by all:

What to say and how

I had a grand total of two history classes during the course of my education. The first was in junior high and began with australopithecus and ended with the Second World War. The second was in high school - the history of Québec and Canada which did venture into the modern age but was decidedly narrow in its scope. Anything else I know about history (and Canadian history in particular), is a result of personal study or exposure to things like Heritage minutes. I suppose this is a consequence of pursuing a degree in life sciences. If only our fields of study stayed broader longer... At any rate, when it comes to the Famous Five, I'll admit to knowing next to nothing (beyond those Heritage minutes which I'm told have some inherent problems). My daughters have been exposed to the concept of suffrage via Mary Poppins, which is to say, only at the most basic level. The question is - what do you say about the Famous Five to your five-year old? Obviously, you say the good stuff in simplified terms but do you qualify the statements? Do you launch into a discussion of whether the ends justify the means? Until my sister illuminated me, I was completely unaware of the controversy surrounding some of the members of the Famous Five. I had accepted information presented to me at face value, with none of the rigour or analysis I would have employed when receiving data in a "scientific" context. Bad on me. Still, I feel ill-equipped to determine what I should do with my mixed feelings on this issue. Advancing the feminist cause - definitely laudable. Doing so in a potentially racist way... yikes. I don't think I want to have this conversation with my daughter and yet - I don't want to give her sanitized information either.
As a parent, there are many times when I have to navigate a tricky conversation with my daughter. Sometimes I do a good job, and sometimes I do not. Certainly, this issue has not proven as fraught with opportunities to truly mess up as in conversations on mortality, however, like most parents, I want to do right by my children and impart a certain set of values along the way - no matter the topic.
I think in the end, I will tell her that it's not just what you say and do that's important, but also how (a concept that should already be familiar). Maybe that's enough detail for now. After all, it's that very idea that has made me struggle over this issue in the first place.

Where's Daddy sheep?

Lucy was playing with a small plastic Fisher Price sheep and a giant stuffed sheep. She was making voices for both sheep. The big sheep was the Mommy sheep and the little sheep was the baby sheep. Baby sheep said "Where is my Daddy?". Mommy sheep said "He's at Bushtukah".

First household infection of the year

By the end of her first week back at school, Rebecca had brought back a cold and shared it with Lucy and I.  Mom so far seems unaffected.

I called this morning to see if I should keep her home.  They said if she wasn't feverish or coughing badly to send her on in.  "If kids stayed home every time they were sniffly a few students would never come to school."  Seems practical enough.

New Tricks

Trick #1:  "Look Daddy, I can have one eye open and one eye closed!"  "That's called winking honey."

Trick #2:  Maori tattoos for their baby dolls.  Rebecca and Lucy discovered a permanent marker hidden among some odds and ends on the dishwasher.  They decided that scribbling all over their dolls (one of which is Lucy's required bedtime companion) in black marker.  It was later determined that they were marked around the back of the neck to "protect them from predators".  They were also given "polish" on their feet.  Assorted scribbles on their heads and bodies remain unexplained.

We've done some internet research to see if it's possible to remove the markings.  We may be in the market for replacements.

Perhaps we'll take pictures first.

Sisters help each other

Was taking care of dishes yesterday after dinner.  Rebecca and Lucy were playing well together for a little while, then I heard sounds of conflict.  Rebecca was opening and closing a door and Lucy was getting quite upset.  I told Rebecca to let Lucy in.

A couple minutes later Rebecca came up and said:
"Lucy's bum is all stinky and messy.  I tried to wipe it but I couldn't do it."

Uhoh.

Check the bathroom.  As I suspected, there was a poopy toddler, poopy potty seat, poopy pull up in the bath tub, a couple of errant poops on the floor and a little other assorted mess.

Obviously I couldn't be angry, as Lucy was just trying to be independent and Rebecca was just trying to help, but I had to try to explain that Lucy needs the help of an adult if she's going to be using the potty.

American Dagger Moth

The girls and I found the caterpillar of the American Dagger Moth crawling up the side of the house today.  Since our street is lined with linden trees - I guess this is not too surprising, but this was the first one I'd ever seen.  At any rate, I took some pictures (not my forté), which will be posted later.  When we came inside, we all sat down and tried to identify the caterpillar in our book of North American Insects and Spiders.  We had no luck - but the process was very nice, and ultimately the internet came to the rescue.

Summer update

Oh my gosh, only three weeks to go!  Yikes, where did all the time go?

I didn't get in all the camping I wanted, or have as many play dates, or teach Rebecca how to ride her bike without training wheels yet.  Time just seems to evaporate around the ultra compact nuclear energy source that is my two little girls.

Rather than being comprehensive about all the stuff I've neglected to post about in the last few months, I'll offer a picture of the last couple days.

Yesterday I biked the girls out in the early afternoon to Agincourt Park, which is right behind Becca's school.  It's got a little play structure and a wading pool.  We met up with Becca's classmate Rachel (one of Rebecca's favorite people), Rachel's little sister Rebecca, and their mom Elizabeth.

Let me tell you, the whole Rebecca/Rebecca thing was a little trying for Lucy.  I think we got her sorted, though, without thinking that her sister split in two.  ;)

We spent a couple hours playing in and out of the pool, and really blew through a chunk of Lucy's naptime.

I noticed that they were having a 'Park party' type event today, though, so we made plans to return.

I'd seen one of these parties at the park at the end of our street a couple weeks ago, but we weren't able to attend.  There was music playing, games aplenty, BBQ and ice cream and bouncy play castles.

I arranged to meet with Rowan and Luka (and mom Sarah) as well as mentioned my plans to Rachel's mom, who suggested she might show sometime around 1pm.

The morning consisted of dropping Mom off at work, and heading out for groceries.  By the time we got back there was time to make a few phone calls and then pack up and head out to the Park again.

I got there a little later than intended due to an apparent slow leak in my rear bike tire, but it held up and we made it ok by around 12:30.

The event was a little more low-key than the one I had witnessed previously.  They had music playing, and 'BBQ' hot dogs (ok, they were wieners done on a George Forman grill, but they were only $1) and a cotton candy machine.  Things were less elaborate, but the various lifeguards were all very enthusiastic, some playing games and live music, and making things fun for all the kids.

Rowan had already had a taste of the water by the time we arrived (Luka too, apparently accidentally) and had decided it was too cold.  She was back in her dry clothes.  Lucy and Becca would have none of that, though, and went right into the pool.

I had to drag Becca out for lunch, after which they went back in the water, joined by Rowan.  Shortly after that, Rachel showed up with her dad.  She got in the pool, and came out pretty quickly after that.  Rebecca must really have a thing for the water, though, because she stayed in all by her lonesome for a while, when the other kids were off doing other activities.

Timing of bathroom visits meant some running around, and being pulled in different directions by the kids meant no chance to sit down and relax and socialize with the parents.

The kids were well sun screened, but my plan of finding a place in the shade to watch over them didn't really pan out.  No burn for me, but it made for a very tiring afternoon.

Lucy had had enough by around 3 and we beat our retreat.  As I was trying to convince Rebecca that we needed to leave the play ground she wiped out on the slide and bit her tongue.  Some cuddles and teary goodbyes and we were on our way.

Lucy went down for a nap fairly easily, and Rebecca put herself to bed too (!).  But it was less than an hour until we had to get out the door to pick up Mom from work and go to swimming lessons.

The lessons started at 5pm, and today was 'parent day'.  Lucy is in a parent and tot class, but this is the one class in the session where we get to go in the water with Becca.  So Mom and I both swam, and traded off a couple times to spend time with each of the girls.

Both girls are coming along in their own ways.  Rebecca seems to have this class mastered, happily climbing out and jumping into the pool unassisted, floating with her face in the water holding a pool noodle, and swimming around the pool on her back and front with a noodle.  Next level will introduce swimming with no flotation aids.  I'm interested to see that.

Lucy is a champ at jumping in the pool, kicks much better than Rebecca did at this point in her swimming career, and most importantly seems to love the water like big sister.  What she can't abide by, though, is back float.  Don't know why, but she freaks out about it.

Anyway, we were back home at 6pm, and Mom took off for a dinner date with a friend.  The girls and I shared some leftovers, and we were into bedtime routine shortly thereafter.  It took FOR.... EVER.  As I tried to get one room tidied up, one or both of the girls would destroy the other one.  Finally, I just got everything done for Lucy, and put her to bed.

Rebecca was supposed to be cleaning her room, but was so tired that she had the attention span of a chipmunk.  I stubbornly had decided to dig in my heels and make her clean her room by herself.  I would ask her to pick up a toy, and she wouldn't even make it to the appropriate shelf without starting to make up a little story, talking in voices and such.

All told, bedtime routine took the better part of an hour and a half between the two girls.

Neither of them were being particularly bad or trying at any point today, but it sure took a lot out of me anyway.

I'm pretty certain that they both had an awesome time, though, so I wouldn't have it any other way.