One Eye Open

Snowed In?

I refused to be snowed in yesterday during the blizzard. I had things to do, kids to entertain, nothing for dinner.
So I packed the girls up (Max had gone to work with Quincey) and headed out. Mistake.
We ended up getting stuck 3 times.
Amy had invited the girls to play, but I got stuck turning onto her street and decided our adventure was officially over. Charlie was upset so I told her we'd make some christmas cookies.
What a production that turned out to be.
Elly wanted so badly to help decorate them, but I wouldn't let her. We had a big enough mess as it was, and she only really seemed interested in the little canisters of sprinkles.
What a mean Mom! I found this photo later of me and Charlie making christmas cookies...when she was TWO!

Charlie quite possibly had a better mother than Eloise does.
So this morning when Charlie was painting and Elly wanted to join in, as I was pulling her away and telling her firmly "NO" I remembered the cookies and decided to let her.
She sat nicely by Charlie and painted a little picture on the back of my plumbing invoice. When she was done she squealed, "See! Mum mum!" and pointed to her picture.
It's hanging on the fridge now and I feel slightly better for it.

Charlie decorated EVERY cookie all by herself. I'd put the layer of frosting on and she'd draw the designs and put on the sprinkles. I think she did a pretty good job!

Max's 5th

His birthday isn't actually until the 14th, but we did his party last weekend.

To this day my sisters (including myself) chide my mother about the "horrible" birthday pictures she'd take with the cheeks all puffed out to make you look as "fat" as possible.
Well, phooey. The puffed cheek pictures are the cutest!

Happy birthday Maxy-boy. We're sure happy you're part of our family.

This ain't no seminary..

Me: Are you learning any songs at school for your christmas concert, Max?

Max: Well, Lily gets to be a special part. She's...uhhhhhhh....what are those things? Like fairies...they fly around....

Me: Angels?!

Max: Ya! Lily gets to be an angel!

Is it that obvious that my kids lack religious training? :-)
There are worse things in life! Like..religious training. Kidding! Kiiiiiddddiiiing!

Heartbreaking

This note was in Charlie's backpack today. She wrote it for me during free time at school:

Can you read it?
To: Momy
I em fare sad rit naw

Translation - I am very sad right now

Sweetie girl, I wish I could solve all your problems for you. :-(

Somebody likes the tree.....

Max: Why is the tree shaking?

Hmmm....I don't know...and I don't remember hanging this ornament on it.

Silly kitty. Between her and Elly I'll be surprised if my ornaments make it through the season.

The Good Ol' Hockey Game

Here it is. A little mashup of Max playing hockey. His 4th session, and 4 time on skates EVER.

He's come a looooong way since his first session!

He's number 28 in a blue jersey with a black stick and black helmet. The game doesn't move very fast so he should be relatively easy to follow. ;-)

>

The Village

When I was a kid my mother made a music box church out of plastic canvas as a christmas display.
The church morphed into a whole village with different kinds of houses and a general store. Mum let us help sow the patterns on the rooftops and other easy pieces. It really was a family affair.
She'd set up the christmas village every year on top of a piece of cotton that she strung christmas lights under.
As a kid, I would sit and stare at the village, and move the little plastic trees and people around. It was my favourite christmas tradition.
A few years later she bought a little plaster village that you painted yourself. Again, it was a family affair, and again I remember painting the roofs. I think for a while she displayed both villages, but eventually it was down to just the plaster one.

I've asked around my family and no one seems to know what happened to that plastic canvas village. We've moved so many times it probably got sold in a garage sale somewhere along the way. The plaster village ended up with my sister Amy (I'm not sure how she finagled that one..I would have fought her for it!)

I've wanted to get my own village for years, and last night finally I decided to do it. I told Max and Char that we'd go to Michael's and they'd each get to pick one building. When we got there they were 50% off so I indulged in a few extra too, and Walmart had them for $19.96! All of the sudden I had an entire village!

Elly is completely taken with it and has already broken a few little pieces. She stands up on the piano and stares and moves things around just like I used to do. If you try to take her away from it she sticks her hand straight out like a traffic cop and says firmly, "NO. GO."

I hope it's something the kids will look forward to getting out every year. Someday they can fight over who gets to keep it, but I have a feeling that Eloise might win. :-)

On Turning 6

So she's had her party, but I couldn't let the actual day - Friday the 13th to be exact - pass without celebration.
Yes, this is the anniversary of your birth. But I still think that birthdays should be cake and presents for the mothers who had to push their fat heads into this world. Oh yes, I AM going to be one of those mothers who uses my pain and suffering as a tool. How 'bout a thank you on the day of your birth to the woman who made it all possible? Did all the heavy lifting, so to speak?

Anyway, back to Charlie. I like to put sparklers on my kid's cakes. Just another one of those things I coveted when I was a kid that makes me happy to give my kids now. I'm not so sure Charlie feels the same way. She wouldn't get near the sparklers.
It took awhile to get the darn things lit. We couldn't find a lighter or matches and eventually went to the neighbours to borrow some. Then they wouldn't light. When they were finally lit we all just stood there silently and stared.
"Umm..shouldn't we sing?" somebody said.
"Oh! Right! uh..Happy birthdaaaay...."




Charlie said, "I'm going to the bathroom." and jumped off her chair.
"You sit back down! We're singing!"

6 years of Charlie:






HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG GIRL!

Can't imagine a day without you.

Real Men Play Hockey

Oh so long ago I had a friend..boyfriend?..well, it was complicated as they say. Anyway, after I had moved on from this "friend" and started dating Quincey, Friend would always say to me, "oh wait that's right..I'm not a real man. Real men play hockey." I don't know why he dwelt on that. I don't recall ever making a statement like that to him.
For years it was more normal than not for my rockstar hockey husband to come home bloody or bruised from a hockey game in one of the 4 leagues he played on. Recently, though, it's a pretty rare event as Quincey reigned in his hockey to only one league where he doesn't play all too often.

Last week he came home like this:

That's my Mr. Tough Guy. Definitely a real man. He got high sticked, bled all over the ice and kept on going.

Oh wait...did I mention the scars are courteousy of a 4 year old on Max's team?? Yup, that's my man!

Advice?

Tuesday I got a call from the school to come pick Charlie up. She was in the office crying and complaining of a tummy ache.

I was surprised, but ran down and found her just like they said - crying and holding her tummy. She seemed in true distress. Once home she was fine. She went to the bathroom as soon as we got in so I figured that must've had something to do with it.

Wednesday was a holiday. Then Thursday around the same time of day I got a call from the school to come pick Charlie up. She was in the office crying and complaining of a tummy ache.
"This may sound stupid," I said over the phone, "but could you ask her to go to the bathroom?? There was nothing wrong with her last time." But nope. She insisted that wasn't it so down I went.

Once home she was fine.

So here's my question - there's obviously something going on. I'm trying to draw it out of her without planting ideas of my own in her head. But how do I deal with this? Do I refuse to come get her? Do I tell the teacher not to send her home? Would they even believe me?
Based on everything she tells me, Charlie loves school and is for the most part well liked. I see her with her friends over lunch hour when I go to drop Max off to Kindergarten - always laughing and playing. I hate that she's being so stressed out that she fakes sick, and I know the tears aren't faked. It's pretty intense when I get there.

Later that night she had dance class. It was a regular class, but special because the parents were allowed to come in and watch. A few minutes in and I noticed she was stifling tears. She put her hand up and asked to go to the bathroom. I didn't follow her. She came back out and rejoined the class. Within minutes she was asking to go to the bathroom again. This time I followed her. She was in tears, and told me her tummy hurt.

Of course, I didn't believe her. I tried to get her to spill, but she insisted she was sick.
We had come with Amy and Kenzie so couldn't leave. We went back out and she sat with me while we watched her classmates practice their moves for nearly an hour.

(I took pics of my niece to make myself feel better :-P)

At the end they were about to perform a short dance they had been practicing.
"Do you want to do the dance?" I asked her.
"No." she said.
"Really? Are you sure? You've been practicing this.."
"OK." And she reluctantly went.


She's such a talented girl....but not in dance. And that's OK! She's 6! This is for fun and exercise! There's no pressure to be perfect..except that there is - from herself. A gift from her mother.

I don't super-schedule my kids, and I don't force them into activities they don't want to do. Charlie begged me to do jazz, and I love it because she always comes home tired and sweaty. I don't know if I should let her drop out, or teach her to follow through and finish out the school year. It's not like she's committing to a life of jazz hands.

Hmm..this little one is going to be a challenge to figure out. All I know is that I want to establish right now a relationship where she can share her fears and frustrations with me. It'd be nice to know that all the crap I've experienced could be put to some use! Let me in, Charlie! I'm cooler and smarter than you will ever give me credit for!

(PS - Love you, Mum)