06.11.14

This weekend we went to the Teddy Bear Picnic. My in-laws joined us as Josh was at the funeral of a fellow firefighter who was killed in a workplace accident.

I'm incredibly grateful that they showed up - my father-in-law has a magical ability to talk Wyatt into doing just about anything. So Wyatt drove the Power Wheels. He went into a bouncy house (with other children!). He was all over the place - but he drew the line at face painting. ;)

This week we started swimming lessons. They've been going terribly. That's about it.

05.24.14

Paige's Lalaloopsy Cake

The set up

The sundae toppings (YUM)

The birthday girl!

Thoroughly spoiled!

Cousins

Having a blast in the bouncy house

Some fun new colours for her birthday

A birthday cake donut on her birthday!

Cake #2 (one we actually ate!)

Not really enjoying the sparkler.

Paige celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday!  We had her party last weekend, and she had a great time.  We had an ice cream party (as per Paige's request) with tons of different toppings, sauce and 4 different types of ice cream.  It was a great idea!  Josh's parents lent us their bouncy house and the kids had a blast with that.  I was floored at how much Wyatt loved it, to be honest.  When they first got the bouncy house, he mostly just wanted to stand in it (no one could jump!).  Now he was hoping around, going down the slide head first, running back up the slide, just generally enjoying himself.  Paige, of course, loved it and that was no surprise. 
Everyone was terribly generous, and there were lots of gifts to open.  Josh and I had picked up a few things for her to open at the party, and then kept a set of Duplo (Sleeping Beauty) for her to open on her birthday.  Looking back, we didn't need to give her anything to open at her party!  I think she was a little overwhelmed.  A week later, she's still discovering some of the gifts from the party!
One silly oversight was that I did not serve her cake (everyone was full of ice cream I guess!).  So no one sang happy birthday AND she didn't get to blow out her candles!  She's recently gotten into Bubble Guppies (a show on Treehouse), so I made her a small cake for her actual birthday (I was making cupcakes to bring to daycare anyway).  She was thrilled!

04.24.14

Obligatory Lego photos.

On our Easter egg hunt!

A rare afternoon nap at home.

The Snow White doll Paige got for ditching diapers!

Wyatt wandered outside to play this evening, and I found him laying with Shrek in the backyard.

Not a whole bunch has been going on in the last month. The weather has (mostly) been downright miserable still. High of 11 for Monday (my birthday) with rain. I remember having a birthday party on our deck a few years back where a couple of people got sunburns. That won't be happening this year. :/
Our plan over Easter long weekend was to attempt to potty train Paige. The Wednesday before, she suddenly decided she was ready. So she was into underwear on Friday and has been dry (save for one accident while she was totally preoccupied on the iPad) since. Easiest potty training ever. I promised her a princess doll when she was out of Pull Ups, so she got that yesterday.
We had a really quiet Easter weekend, as my parents were in Calgary visiting my brother and his family.  We saved our Easter egg hunt for Sunday, and the kids had a blast searching the backyard and following a trail of eggs the Easter bunny had left behind. It brought back memories of when we searched for Easter basket hunts with my mom's side of the family. There were usually at least 10 of us cousins, and the uncles were in charge of hiding the baskets. They made a game of making my brother's the hardest to find. I know there was one year his was hidden up in the eaves of my grandparents' house. Mine was in the ditch in front of their house 2 years in a row. I suspect they did not have confidence in my searching skills. ;)

03.14.14

It's no secret our family has gotten big into Lego lately. While Paige has lots of Duplo, she loves playing with the regular (and much smaller) Lego. Because she's normally careful with it (as in, she doesn't try to eat it - she takes everything apart as soon as I build it for her), I don't mind her having a few small sets. We've bought her the Lego Friends sets - there's lots of controversy about these sets. They only come in more feminine colours (pink, purple, lighter shades of green, yellow and blue), and the sets themselves are "ehhhhhh" (my official review). Bakeries, lemonade stand, pool sets, etc. are the more prominent sets, however there is a drum set, karate class and a pretty neat tree house. What gets my goat is the new figures that come with them. I just don't like them. They're big, you can't really change outfits (not beyond changing the colour of their tank tops), and they don't look like Lego.

Kaeleigh recently linked to an article where a 7 year old takes Lego to task for having more "boy sets" and she wanted more girl sets that "had adventures". Kaeleigh asked if it was actually up to Lego to provide an equal number of male/female sets, or up to parents to teach their children to get more creative and invent that which we find lacking. It got me thinking - because I agree with the 7 year old (why can't I find a female firefighter set?), but also with Kaeleigh.

So tonight I ordered a few female Minifigures that I hope will help Paige's imaginative play later on - a scientist, a police officer, a surfer, a robot...thanks to EBay, I was able to "build" my own minifigs for her. Okay, and for me.

03.03.2014

Wyatt and I have been working on a little project for his room. I'm not sure who had more fun setting up the scenes - I do know that I have several photos with Paige's hands reaching into the frame though. The kids have been getting more and more into Lego. He had received 2 sets when he was 4 (a fire truck and concrete mixer) and after we put them together for him, they drove him insane. He'd try to play with them like toys and pieces were falling off or it was just too difficult to manipulate. We put them away for a year and bought him Duplo instead, and now he is a Lego pro. I bought him a Lego Creator set (one set, three different configurations) and he did all three (mostly) on his own. I'm having a hard time not buying 100 sets all at once, not because I don't want them having Lego, but I don't want to spoil them with any sort of toy. We just started with allowances, and I'm trying to teach Wyatt the concept of earning money and having to save for things he wants (and right now it's all LEGO).

Paige, on the other had, watches us build her sets (I've just been buying her small sets like a bunny hutch and a dog with a dog house), and then takes everything apart. Which I understand is the idea behind Lego but it still drives me nuts. :P

2.26.14

Nothing new going on here! The kids have gotten more into Lego (especially after seeing the Lego movie), so there's been a lot of that lately.

02.09.14

 

 

St. Malo last summer

I am looking at pictures from the summer to remind myself that, from time to time in Manitoba, we do have warm weather.  On record, this winter has literally been one of the coldest EVER.  Windchill warning after windchill warning, school cancellations - it all adds up to everyone feeling like caged animals.  People who don't live in this climate comment casually, "Just dress warmly and let the kids out!"  No.  If you've been outside when it's -35 with the windchill, you know there's no way to be comfortable out there. -15, -20?  Sure.  But this recent weather is just ridiculous, and if they say skin can freeze in 10 minutes, I'm not taking the chance to send my kids out just so we don't all feel like poking each other in the eye.
Every winter I seem to get the "winter blues". Last year it went far past blues and I was up to my eyeballs in depression.  I had no desire to get out of bed, to be with people (even my family), to go to work, to get dressed, to shower...I think you get the point.  I didn't want to do anything. I tried a total of 5 different anti-depressants during a 6(ish) month period.  None of them were great.  If I was feeling better, then I started to get terrible side effects that weren't going away (uncontrollable muscle twitches, anyone?).  I finally weaned myself off and resigned myself to dealing with depression - but by that point the weather was improving and so was my overall mood. After speaking a little more in depth with my doctor, it was determined that I'm actually sensitive to serotonin and that makes me especially vulnerable to the side effects. 
This winter I was determined to not let things get as bad as last year (as if somehow I could control my mental health if I just focused enough).  Whether or not it had anything to do with me, things actually didn't seem too bad until I realized that my depression is just presenting itself in different ways - mostly being really irritable.  Sure, the kids and Josh probably see the most of it, but I have noticed that I'm not being as careful with what I say at work or around other people.  I don't like being grouchy and miserable. I'm sure a warm getaway would help a bit, and when they start giving those trips away I will be first in line. Otherwise, I will just power through and promise not to take spring, summer and fall for granted this year (but uh...realistically speaking I will still complain about the weather when it is almost 45 degrees with the humidex. There really is no pleasing me).