Happy Leap Day!

It is my opinion that today should be a statutory holiday!  Who's with me?  Should we get a petition going?

It's kind of cheap when you think about it since February 29th only comes around once every four years.  It's not taken into consideration for those of us that are salaried employees, so basically we get to work for free.  I guess if you're paid hourly then it's an extra days pay.

I wish that we could consider it a bonus day. 

A day that you can do whatever you want with.

I can guarantee you my extra day would not be spent at work!

So what are you doing with your extra day this year? 

Clearly I'll be working for the pure joy of it.

Best morning ever!

One of my favourite things ever is to wake up all lazy in bed.

I remember when Ryland, and later Darcy, were little, that we'd spend our weekend mornings lazily playing with them on our bed. There were always lots of silly things that amused them and in turn, us. They were guaranteed to make you smile and laugh and it was a great way to start the day.

This morning reminded me of that.

I slept in, or rather "snoozed in" by repeatedly hitting the alarm snooze button. No sooner was I officially awake when I heard my son coming down the hall to find me.

Caelan has gotten into the habit of needing to see Momma first thing in the morning. His eyes open and then he’s asking where I am. Daddy’s not impressed with this new routine and I can sympathize with feeling like a second class citizen where our son is concerned. It wasn’t that long ago that it was all about Daddy, all day, every day… However, I am loving all the new love!

We had a little snuggle in bed. He gave me kisses. He gave me feet to smell. I told him he had smelly feet. Stinky! He giggled and gave me more feet to smell. We played peak-a-boo. There was nose stealing and nose throwing all over the place! We tickled each other. We teased Daddy by sleeping on his side of the bed. Oh and Calean has become the Grand Master of stealing Momma’s kisses for Daddy. There’s often a battle between Daddy and Caelan as to who gets to kiss Mom, a game that I am truly loving and encouraging!! There were lots of laughs and it was a fun way to start the day.

I didn’t worry about the clock.

I didn’t rush.

I just enjoyed the moment.

I need more moments like this.

My Ryland is growing up

This weekend Ryland was very excited about her first overnight school trip.  She’s off for three days and two nights to an Ecole de Neige Program in St-Emile-de-Suffolk Quebec, just over two hours away.

Girls stay in one cabin, boys in the other and for what it’s worth the girls’ cabin is bigger. That’s an important bragging right when your 10 years old! They’ll get to live in their own private cabin with their friends during their stay. They’ll be responsible for their own activity schedule and sports equipment too.

There will be cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, and broomball, hiking, skating and tubing. Sounds like some fun-filled days to me and if they're still not exhausted by all that fresh winter air, they have evening activities planned too!! On their first night there they’ll go night tubing and have an outdoor bonfire and their second night there’s a dance!

My little girl is growing up.

I know we’ve spent years trying to teach her how to be more responsible and independent, that’s what everyone wants for their children… but I’ll admit that it took everything in me not to check her bags for this trip. Damian handed her the list of things she needed and she packed everything herself. When he handed her the list I was thinking that she’d start by putting everything out on her bed and I’d come in and help her later. However, she packed everything in her bags and I have no idea what she brought. I think I might have some control issues because it was really hard not to pull everything out and repack for her. I also tried really hard not to ask too many questions like “Did you pack your toothbrush?” … I probably did though.

Sometimes it feels as though time is going so slow. I catch myself wishing away different stages of behaviour and attitude. Then at other times, life is just going by so fast. Ryland is already in grade five and she’s quick to remind me that there’s only one more year after this one before she heads off to the high school. Ugh.

I can only hope that we’ve prepared her well… 

It's true

"The only way we can be there for our children is to be there for ourselves." (Anonymous)

Five years ago, Damian and I took a winter getaway vacation to Mexico.  It feels like a lifetime ago.

We believe that it's really important for parents to take time for themselves as a couple, away from their children.  We have had tremendous support from our own parents in this endeavour.  They've always been happy to have the girls for a weekend while we escape together.

Some think it's funny that we refer to these weekends as our business meetings, but it's not all fun and games.  We found that as the girls demanded more of our attention we had great difficulty making time to discuss our finances, our plans for the house, our travel dreams, our goals, or whatever else.  It seemed as though every opportunity for discussion was spent going over the girls education, behaviour, schedule or growing social life!  Not that these things aren't important, it's just that there was so much else we needed to talk about too.  We felt that these weekends away gave us an uninterrupted opportunity to reconnect and to make sure we were still on the same page.

Unfortunately at a time when we could probably most benefit from these escapes from reality it became increasingly difficult to plan them.  Our respite hours are expensive, limited and sometimes very difficult to plan.  We are at the mercy of available nursing. 

We'll I'm happy to say that we have 24 hours of continuous nursing planned for this weekend.  It's not an entire weekend away, but it's a start, and we're all over it!!

True Monkeys!

We had a CHEO Trio reunion this past weekend.

The boys are growing up and moving faster.

Getting a pic of all three together is becoming quite a challenge.

Before things got completely out of control…

We got the Dads to hold them up for a picture!