Say What?

It has been a busy week and it's only Wednesday. C left for Saskatoon on Sunday to start his third year training for Heavy Truck Mechanic Apprenticeship ... or something like that. This leaves me on my own for two months. Two months of wrangling all household and parental duties. Of course it also means two months of doing everything my way. As much as I dread school time it really isn't that bad and usually goes by fairly quickly. We fall into a routine and the day usually goes somewhat smooth. I find the worst time is bed time - which is really the time that C is home during the week normally. C and I have a pretty good system going on here. I am home all day so when he is done work supper is ready to go. After supper he gets the girls into the bath, gets them ready for bed and basically does the whole bedtime routine (except giving Daisy her bedtime milk - geeze you think a guy could learn to lactate in this day and age). Meanwhile I clean up the kitchen, tidy up any lose ends from end the day and park my arse on the couch. It's a pretty sweet deal. Of course now that I don't have that extra hand it is around 9:30 by the time I get the girls to sleep, supper cleaned up and all the little things that I leave until the mini tornado's have settled. Normally not a big deal, but sweet Miss Daisy decided that this would be a great time to get her first tooth and Miss Lily wants to stay up until 10:30 .... I'm not getting the "me" time to rejuvenate myself after a trying day of two year old tantrums and teething troubles. Thankfully I have some friends coming over the next couple of evenings .... much better than drinking alone.

A few weeks ago I went for an eye exam and found out that they now recommend children begin getting routine eye exams around 6 months of age. I honestly had no concerns but figured I might as well bring them in and get them used to eye exams (we will work on the dentist next). I was absolutely blown away to find out Miss Lily needs glasses!! She is showing to be very farsighted and if we don't get her glasses now her eyes could start turning as her focus develops. Now here is my total honest mommy moment - My initial reaction was purely vain. I was immediately sad that her beautiful eyes and adorable face was going to masked behind glasses. When they told me that her lenses are going to be thick in the middle and magnify her eyes it took a lot of strength to hold back tears. Thoughts of teasing and name calling flooded my brain. Visions of googly eyed characters in movies and shows that are always portrayed as the "geeky shy kid" or the "weird kid" flashed in my head. My logical and nurturing side of my brain knows that her needing "coke bottle" glasses is not a big deal - and there is so much worse that she could need, but it was still a shock. We tried a couple pairs on her and yes, she is still beyond adorable, but was still a little hard to see. -------------- this is where a bunch of people start writing comments telling me what an awful mommy and human being I am for being so superficial -------------

Well, of course I had a thousand moments of "I must blog this anecdote/comment/event" but I can't remember any of them. I really must start using my iPhone for more than Facebook. Like say - keeping notes, using the calendar, phoning people ......

As The Month Goes By

I have yet to post. Just realized that it has been a solid month since my last post. Here is where I should give a bunch of excuses as to why I have crapped the bed in the blogging department, but I am feeling to lazy. Instead i will continue on as if I have have always been here and you my fellow readers (all 2 of you) never noticed I was gone..

We survived! We survived our first long car ride as a family of four. We took a trip to Red Deer/Edmonton last week. We all arrived safely, sanely and still on speaking terms. The girls actually did way better than I expected. The last 1-1.5 hours seemed to be the roughest part of the journey which in the grand scheme is pretty darn good. It took about 10 hours between the stops to stretch, pee, poop and nurse. I am sure Lily watched a lifetime of Deigo on the iPhone and ate way more chips than someone her age should be allowed, but you do what you gotta do to survive the road. We had tonnes of fun visiting with family and touring the 'big mall". Lily loved the water park. Unfortunately she could only go on 3 of the slides and they just were not enough for our adventure seeker. She kept asking to go to the higher ones. The wave pool as a big hit too. I am sure we could have skipped everything else in the mall and spent the whole week at the waterpark. She did enjoy Galaxyland and the sea lions as well. The trip was fun but exhausting. Vacations just don't leave you as refreshed with children. While there we were kind of starting to think that she was too young and said we wouldn't do it again until she was older. Then on Monday she was playing with her babies in the kitchen, she lined them all up on the chairs, sat beside them and said "okay guys, we are going to the big mall. We are going to the water park and the sea lions..." She went on and on about all the stuff they would see and do. It made the whole trip worth while as I knew then that she did enjoy it and we had created memories with her. We hope to take the girls (and maybe a third babe) to Disneyland/World in around 2015. That would place them around 7, 5 (3) which would be great ages!

Our next challenge - Operation Sucky Removal

We have the potty training down. Sleep has vastly improved. Now we need to remove the soother. This is prooving to be harder than it was for me to quit smoking. She is an addict. A closet sucker. It is crazy. We've tried the - it's only for bed/naptime - she tells me she is tired 20 times a day and will retreat to her room for a hit. We've hid them, cut holes in them, thrown them out, threatened, pleaded, bargained .... in the end we are weaker. I talked at great lengths before we left for Edmonton about the "Sucky Fairy". How she was going to come and take all of Lil's suckies and leave a special toy in place. This has seemed to backfire and Lily has been even more sucky dependent. She actually reminds me of myself every New Years when I have announced my resolution to quit smoking, chain smoke for a good week.

I know the only way it is going to happen is good old cold turkey. It is the most painful but only sure fire way We have to rid the house of the devil. I have to be the strong one and not give into the whining, tantrums, screaming and everything else that i am sure she will throw my way. I will wait until Curtis is gone to school ... he is not as strong as me ;)

I would love to hear any advice, tips, tricks, words of wisdom ...

**pictures to come eventually. My computer is out of commission while I wait for a new power cord**