1.30.14

Big News!
Wyatt lost his first tooth on Sunday.  He had a dental appointment on the 13th and they told me his front two bottom teeth were loose.  I scoffed in disbelief, because I had been routinely checking them.  Turns out I was wiggling them "wrong". Go figure.  The process of getting his tooth out was quite lengthy, as Josh initially volunteered to do it (and he didn't want to cause Wyatt any pain).  After an hour of gently wiggling, I had to step in. I may or may not have had to headlock my own 5 year old, but the tooth literally popped right out and on to the floor once I got a hold of it.  He got a toonie from the tooth fairy, plus 2 freezies and a Blizzard from us...and Josh's grandma showed up yesterday with a toonie as well!  This losing teeth business seems lucrative.  How much do adult teeth go for?
Not much going on otherwise. We've discovered that both kids have a love of music, but watching Paige react to it is hilarious.  She sings along to "Wrecking Ball" and "I Like to Move It" (both songs would never have made it onto my iPhone at any point, but thanks to Wyatt's daycare's questionable taste in music, there they are. He requests them regularly.), and dances too.  I've tried to catch it on video but she stops immediately and I get reprimanded. "Mommy. NO. Phone away."  I'll catch it yet.  She'll appreciate it on her 16th birthday when I send it to all of her friends.
One truly unpleasant thing I've been dealing with is a serious increase in migraines.  Ever since the end of November they have been out of control.  I miss at least 1 day a month from work, never mind the ones that hit on weekends. I had one a month ago that was so terrible I honestly had the "well, this is it" thoughts running through my head. It took 3 prescription migraine pills and 3 T3s to make it manageable.  Not gone. Just manageable.  And for the last 2 days I've felt like I'm on the verge of one, which is torture.  I'm making a conscious effort to clean up my eating, but it most cases my migraines are triggered by hormones - which means I have zero control over it. I'm thinking a week of warm weather, no kids, no work, no family stress would really do the trick.  Too bad I keep picking the losing 649 numbers!

01.15.14

We finally had some nice weather this weekend, so I hauled the kids outside Sunday morning.  I started digging a tunnel for them, and thank goodness Josh took over.  I am a terrible Canadian - I don't own a toque (I was wearing Josh's), my mitts are fleece (super useless when fort building or snowball throwing) and I don't have ski pants.  I finally bought a pair of boots last year.  I guess my plan was to pretend winter wasn't happening. ;)  I still often wear flats (barefoot) to work.  I'm sure that's a skill that will come in handy at some point.
Not much is going on here.  Christmas was busy, we were all sufficiently spoiled.  We're still struggling with some of Wyatt's outbursts at home (a new favorite is using his fingers as guns to point at us when he's mad. I assure you he did not learn that at home, or from anyone I would ever invite into my home). We're at a loss as to how to handle his behaviour, we've read books on filling theoretical buckets, we've tried time outs, time ins, quiet time, no TV, early bedtime, no treats, positive reinforcement ("I really appreciate how you are making hissing sounds instead of hitting your sister like I know you want to!"), taking away toys, blah blah blah.  Next step is more TV, later bedtime, more treats, more toys and lots of sarcasm.
But seriously. I'm considering developing a drinking problem just to deal with this.  "Terrible Twos" seem like a walk in the park compared to, "If you tell me to clean up again I'm going to punch you in the face." Because when Paige is having a tantrum, I can pick her up and give her kisses and snuggles until she starts laughing, or stick her in her crib.  When Wyatt is having a tantrum, I grind my teeth to the root while evenly saying, "You cannot speak to me like that. You need to go to your room." When in my head I want to flip tables upside down Real Housewives-style.*
Children. Are. A. Blessing. (repeat as necessary)


*no need to fear for my well being. I've never watched Real Housewives, only seen the table-flipping scene on commercials. It's all good.

12.25.13

Merry Christmas! 
The kids (and Josh and I too!) got sufficiently spoiled  - and we still have one more gathering to go!  Unfortunately, because of either being sick with a stomach bug or head cold over the last 2 weeks, I have zero ambition and energy.  I hope 2014 brings lots of good health for this household!

12.18.13

Aaahhhhhhhhh!

12.17.13

Only a week until Christmas Eve!  How crazy is that?  We're still working away at our Christmas Countdown list - we went to see the Winter Wonderland at the Red River Ex (the kids were great for that part, but do not even get me started on their caveman-like behaviour in Swiss Chalet), and today we made "snowmen".  The weather this month hasn't really been favorable to making anything out of snow (a snow fort is on our list as well), so I made play snow (baking soda and conditioner, thank you Pinterest). The idea was to make snowmen with the play snow, but they thought it'd be way more fun to drive Wyatt's vehicles through it. Oh, and Paige thought it'd be fun to toss it all over the table too. And her pants. And the chair.  And floor.
While this is happening, I decided this would be a great time to paint my nails.  Which, as most women know, left me virtually useless for the next 30 minutes while my polish dried.  Josh was super appreciative of my play snow disaster zone that I could not possibly help clean up (okay, I did, just later on).
We had a good few weeks with Wyatt (okay, maybe it was only 2 weeks), and now he's back to being Captain Terrible again.  Some of today's precious moments were hearing him mutter, "Oh my GOD!" (UM NO.), pretending to use his hand as a gun to shoot Josh when he was told to stop screaming, the screaming, and this gem: "Mommy, you have 2 choices. Either help me get my jammies on, or I am going to scream bad names at you." Needless to say it was an early bedtime.  He was repeating an awful lot of garbage today (all new stuff, courtesy of "that kid" at school again) and I can't help but wonder if hearing stuff like that makes him feel badly, and then he reacts this way?  I'm probably reaching, but think about how you feel when you're surrounded with nasty people.  How great do you feel at the end of the day?  The good news is, we've already been told that "that kid" and "the other kid" (yes, I am being vague) will be separated next year - and Wyatt won't be in either of their classes.  I know there will always be "that kid", but this gives me some peace of mind for now.
Back to the Christmas fuzziness!  Wyatt's Christmas concert is Thursday! :D

12.14.13

Helping make waffles this morning.

Cold and flu season has hit.
Well, actually it hit about 2 months ago.  At the beginning of October, we dealt with the flu, strep, pink eye, a stomach bug and the run of the mill cold.  Since then, we've pretty much been taking turns having something.  Josh and Wyatt have both been suffering from a stomach bug this weekend again.  And something I've learned from this is that I cannot deal with vomiting.  I just can't.  It's not the actual vomit that bothers me (oddly enough). It's the unpredictable nature of throwing up that makes me all sweaty and panicky.  I've only thrown up once in the last 16 years, and that was during our last bought of stomach illness. But just thinking that I might get sick with this bug is enough to make me all edgy and anxious and searching Google for a priest that can come in and rid our house of this plague. 
Yes, I realize barf is trivial in comparison to what some people are dealing with right now. But I am taking a few minutes to feel sorry for myself and the fact that I won't be sleeping tonight - instead I'll be running into my son's room in a cold sweat every time he starts to cough (which is all the time, since he has a cold).
I've started the kids on Vitamin C, but feel free to comment with all and any suggestions for warding off illness.  I am not opposed to animal offerings (may I suggest we start with the dog who ate HALF A POUND of wrapped butter off my counter?!?). Joking.  Mostly.

12.12.13

Tonight our activity was to have the kids pick out a new ornament for the tree. Wyatt really wanted an Angry Birds one, but the only one I could find was a candy filled one - so each kid picked one of those, AND an ornament to use every year.  Wyatt found a Lightning McQueen one, and Paige was hemming and hawing between Minnie Mouse and a princess...until I found "MIKE!" from Monsters Inc. Unfortunately she dropped him while trying to hang the ornament, and his leg broke off - she was so sad. Glue gun to the rescue!  Right as rain...ish.
Earlier in the week our activity was to leave a gift for our mail lady. We chose to do a Tim's gift card, and some chocolates. We had several Christmas chocolate packs in the cupboard (just small ones, perfect for something like this), so I asked Wyatt to help me choose one.  He had a really hard time with this - "But I want to eat them all!"  Eventually he picked some Lindt ones when I assured him we could buy more if need be (guaranteed he's already forgotten all about them).  I left that in the mail box for her, and 2 days later, there was a very nice thank you card from her. I read it to Wyatt and he was delighted that she wrote - and that she liked it. :)