Mommy Brag and then some

So last week I had a mini-meltdown over problems Sam was having with elementary school. I didn't intend on it; it just kind of evolved from a question I asked on a bulletin board I frequent. I guess I needed the vent.

Anyway Sam and I had a big talk last Sunday about why we need to behave at school and on the bus. I asked him if it was difficult and bless his little heart he told me yes in this quiet little voice. So we made a deal that if he did well at school this week and didn't get in trouble he could have a surprise on Friday. He worked REALLY hard all week. I even got to see him in action myself as Daniel and I attended a school assembly they had - 200 kids sitting on the floor of the gymnasium for an hour of rather boring material and Sam sat and behaved the WHOLE time - many old kids got pulled out for not behaving and his class was a beehive of restless kids acting up. I was amazed by Sam's self restraint. At the end of each day he was so proud to tell me how well he was doing and on Friday since he didn't have any reportable incidents at school I took him to the Dollar store and let him buy anything he wanted (he chose a foam sword). He was so proud of himself AND he has complied all weekend with the warning that if he hit anything or anybody with the sword it will be taken away.

I'm a little in awe of this grown-up behaving little boy I'm seeing. I want to know what he did with Sam. I am aware that this is unlikely to be a completely permanent change but I'm not asking for perfection just progress and evidence of effort.

Then came the cherry on the cake - he started indoor soccer for his second year on Saturday. Last year this was a weekly disaster. He went with my his not so patient father and every week Daniel stormed in the door after soccer and ranted about how awful it was. I didn't have high hopes for this year either and was super shocked when Daniel called me after the class to tell me he was taking Sam out for "coffee" because he had been so good at soccer.

Turns out that not only did he behave but the coach is so impressed with his skills and athletic ability that he moving him to the 5/6 year old class. The coach said "if I leave him in this class [the 3/4 year old class] he's just going to use the other kids as pylons." I knew he was pretty good with a ball (any ball - last year they used to stick him in goal to give the other kids a chance at touching the ball once or twice) but I never imagined ... Advancing kids past their age group is not common in this program so the coach (who has a really good reputation) really much see something in Sam.

My only worry is that the 5/6 class is an "independent" class (the 3/4 class is a Parent and Me class). While Sam has mad skills, I'm not sure if he has the maturity to handle the independence of the older class. The coach has recognized this as well though (I think I love him) and has encouraged Daniel to "helicopter" parent a bit given that Sam will be up to two years younger than most of the kid's in the class. I'm so proud of Sam, *I* feel like I did something special - lol - and I of course did NOTHING.

Week 3

So this is week 3 of Weight Watchers. Kind of week 3 because I’m not going to meetings or anything and I didn’t weigh myself to start with so I don’t know where I started. I do know it couldn’t have been good though.

At week 3 my clothes are fitting better and I’m pleased with that but no one has noticed I have lost any weight, which is a little frustrating. I need the constant gratification. But really, there isn’t much to notice. I’ve probably dropped 5 lbs. Maybe less.

Daniel bought me a Wii Fit and I got on it last week and I was flabbergasted at how much I do weigh. Yikes. About ten pounds more than I thought. Makes sense my clothes don’t fit. I’m enormous! I’ve lost 2 – 3 pounds since getting the Wii so not all is lost. Progress is being made. SLOWLY.

Touch Down!

Well some parents feel melancholic when their last child starts elementary school. Not this time. Wednesday morning it was just an immense feeling of relief. lol I got him there and it didn't kill either of us. I'm exhausted. Never was there a child more ready to be at school than Sam.

The bus comes at 8:15. At 7:03 Sam woke me with a kiss and a warning that he didn't want to be late for the bus (i.e. get your butt out of bed Maman THIS is an important day). Normally I'm so organized but this morning I realized I hadn't labelled any of his clothes (the ones he is wearing or the spare set) or his knapsack or lunch box. Not that that took all that long.

He rode the bus to school with his sister (who was also bouncing off the walls with excitement for him) and we met him at school. I stood back where he couldn't see me and took a bunch of pictures of him just "hanging." He was a little nervous but mostly he was almost excited enough to jump out of his skin.

He's going to be a challenging student to have in the classroom. All power to praise to his teachers today and for years to come. Pictures:


Sam and his teacher at our intake interview LAST week:



Dressed (in a more Sam-friendly uniform shirt – he may never wear his white dress shirt ever again) and ready to go:



Running to the bus stop (just a wee bit excited):



Waiting for the bus:




Getting on the bus:



Arriving at school:



Off to class. He was transfixed by this little girl who I THINK the teacher put in charge of him because she realized he wasn’t going to follow calmly. That evening when I asked him if he made any friends she was who he mentioned (we know her because she is the older sister of one of older Kamryn’s friends). That’s the school Director next to them. She thinks he is cute. Little does she understand how well she will get to know him.

Eating

Okay I'm on a diet or a lifestyle change as Weight Watchers pushes over and over again. I got out all my old Weight Watchers materials and I've been following the program (on my own, I know not recommended) for 6 days now. I THINK I might be feeling a change but I'm not sure. I don't own a scale. I'm not going to buy one so I have to go on how my clothes fit. They weren't fitting at all and now I think they are beginning to fit a little but I'm not really sure how much of that is just in my head. I haven't gone over even one day. Tomorrow – my tenth anniversary I'm going to binge completely. But that's what flex points are for no? (probably not but hell, it's my tenth anniversary).

 

You want to know a nasty side effect of all this good eating? I'm disgusted by what the husband is eating. COMPLETELY. And I'm not exaggerating. He eats terribly. He eats like a teenage boy and he really shouldn't. BOTH his parents are diabetic. And he carries all his weight in a paunch around the middle – not at all good for his heart. Now it has always kind of bugged me. but now it is grossing me out. Maybe because I'm hyper aware of what I'm putting in my belly? Now to make matters worse he THINKS he is eating quite healthily. And really he eats a lot of fruit and drinks a lot of water and his meals themselves are not bad but it's the snacking. He snacks on crap. When he is the least bit hungry he must eat immediately and it has to be crappy snacks. He thinks they are healthy - Casava and plaintain chips, for instance. Okay they sound like they might be healthier for you than potato chips but in reality they have just as much fat and are just as bad for you. And he doesn't just have one snack – he'll have chips followed by ice cream followed by rice cakes (at least those are healthy) And then there is portion control. I have some nice "healthy" trail mix that I snack on. Well a small handful is a healthy serving. He will eat several handfuls while waiting for dinner to be ready – yikes. This drives me particularly nuts because the kids and I aren't snacking and he doesn't get the urgency behind getting dinner on the table without needless delays.

 

Anyway its really bugging me. And being about 30 lbs overweight and dieting for all of 6 days I don't feel I have a right to say anything but I just wanted to put down somewhere that its driving me absolutely insane.

First Day of School

Well Kamryn started school yesterday morning. She was so very excited. Bus was scheduled for 8:45; at 7:45 she came bounding into our bedroom (I'm still on holidays) all dressed and her hair combed to announce that she had eaten breakfast and was ready to go but no one had packed her a lunch yet. lol The school bus was a no show (no surprise was the same last year) so we drove her to school much to her disdain.

Major topic among her friends when they saw each other for the first time - teeth! It was hilarious they were all comparing mouths - all twenty or so of them.

The school has already called us about the bus. Seems the transportation company is having major problems. The administration is calling each and every parent. Insane.

I asked Kamryn what was the best part of first grade: "Maman you know you get THREE recesses! One in the morning! One in the Afternoon! And one AFTER lunch!" Ahhh... the simple things.

Sam drove me insane all day (he's better today) - he doesn't start 'til next week and he's lost without his playmate. Today we go off to the school with him for his intake interview. He already had a registration interview so this is his second encounter with the school – this school likes interviews. We'll put him in his uniform for the interview. I ironed his dress shirt because I figured it will be one of the only times he wears it. Unsupervised I fear for the poor shirts life. Golf shirts are a little hardier.

Roadtrip 2008

Okay this is lame. This video is 11 minutes long and it won't mean much to anybody unless they are a memeber of our family but I tried to upload it on Youtube to share with the kid's birthparents and failed because its to long. And this is the only way I know to load it on whatever the video program blogger uses is. So here is is. LOL I'm so technically savvy. Oh and the first minute or two are the same as my last video (just in case you have 12 minutes of your life to waste). Now I see that even loaded here it can't be shared seperate from my blog. I expect to have to burn it to DVD and mail it to them in the end.

Hotels

We are currently in our sixth hotel room in two weeks. Can someone please explain to me why they make electrical outlets so hard to find and use?

Returning to “Our home and native land...”

So here we are hurtling through Southern Ontario having just crossed the border. It's nice to be "home" again. Don't get me wrong, I like visiting the U.S. – very much actually. It's just different enough to be a bit of an adventure while being common enough to be easy. But there is a comfort to being in your home country and to carry it one further, your home province. Here I can complain righteously about things, safe in the knowledge that I have every right to complain, praise or try to change things. I have confidence that I know and understand the laws. Hell, that I know and understand the food! Who knew food could be so very different in places so much alike (there were sausages, biscuits and a HUGE TUB of white stuff that I later found out was gravy – yuck! Who eats gravy for breakfast?) And, I know where I am in the universe without consulting a map or our GPS.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed our little sojourn through the Northern U.S.. Michigan is really a beautiful state. I got to see it from one end to the other – twice! And Wisconsin is no slouch either. I'm firmly biased against Minnesota though because every time Daniel drives though he gets a ticket (we escaped unscathed this time). It's not even that we're speed demons either just bad luck and some confusing signage – thus the bias – it's like we are targeted because we have Canadian plates.

 

Oh! And I just clued in and turned on the radio. I'm so desperate for news: Canadian news... international news. I'm sorry but Americans do a piss poor job at relaying what's going on in the rest of the world. I know all about Obama, McCain, the US Olympic team and the Tropical Storm that hit Florida. I know a little about Russia and Georgia and there it ends. Although I must admit the "Daly Report" is a hoot! It's not real news. I'm desperate to know what's going on in the world beyond the US border. In 7 minutes (it's 7 minutes to the top of the hour) I will have real news. I'm not alone in my assessment of US broadcast journalism – Daniel gave a "Thank God" when the news started. lol

Anyway, on to more mundane topics. We are definitely getting to the point though where it's good this little journey is coming to an end. All this quantity time just might kill us. The kids are antsy and Daniel and I are just tired. Sam 24/7 is an exhausting proposition (at home when you're at the end of your rope you can always send him to his room – for the past 10 days though his room has been the same as my room. He's a good kid but he needs his alone time just as much as his parents. And Kamryn is just gone completely giddy. Getting her to bed each night is getting harder and harder.

Okay battery dying, more later...

My life just gets easier and easier

Tonight, I learned that I can publish directly to my blog from this version of Microsoft. Too cool. I love this new computer more and more. What it means for me is tons 'o convenience. What this means for you is probably more, less typo filled entries (no guarantees there lol).

Oh to see life through the eyes of a four-year old

So here we are in finally (it rained for the first two days we were here as if we'd done something to offend God) sunny Winnipeg. Yesterday we went to visit my Father-in-law. My father-in-law is a very sweet man who told the funniest little stories. He was laid back and just fun to be with. Kamryn used to follow him everywhere like a shadow; it was hilarious to watch. He didn't seem like a "kid person" but here was this little kid toddling after him and it was so obvious that he just loved it. The kid's don't remember that man. He was sick by the time we adopted Sam and never really got to know him all that well. Now he is a shrunken (he has gone from over 200 lbs to under 120) little man who doesn't speak. He spends his days wandering the ward in a wheelchair that they have had to strap weights to the wheels to keep him from moving too fast (he runs down the other patients). Yesterday was the first time I had seen him in three years. When I last saw him he wasn't the same man I had known but he could walk and talk and take care of himself. I didn't want to see him yesterday. I went because, I think, it was expected that I would. I really wanted to remember him the way I knew him before but hey I obviously needed to get over myself as this really wasn't about me. I was though quite nervous about having the kids see him.

   
 

They took it in stride. I think Kamryn was scared although despite many questions about how she was feeling and if she wanted to ask me anything she seems to have taken it all in stride. Sam was intrigued that Grandpérè didn`t talk. Like any child who has questions and doesn`t quite understand he managed to work the fact the Grandpérè didn`t talk into everything he said for the first 10 minutes or so of our visit. My father-in-law had taken a fall a few days earlier and had gotten some stitches so he had a bandage on his head. At one point Sam pointed out that he too had a "bobo" -- indicating a mostly healed scrape on his knee – but that he still talked. That out of the way Sam climbed into his father's lap and proceeded to play cards with Grandpérè (Who doesn't really play as much as hold tightly onto the cards). At the end of the visit Sam went over to his grandfather and gave him a very tender hug and marched happily off to the elevator. The visit really showed his personality. He is such a rough and tumble kid but when he needs to be he slows right down and can be so incredibly sensitive. I dare say he did better than all the rest of us (his uncle, aunt, 2 cousins, sister, mother and father). I think we all learned a little watching him.

My first film

So I made a little movie. Never done that before. I was in the hotel in Ironwood Michigan on night two of our wonderful voyage and bored and I have this snazzy new computer so I was goofing off. Hey - movie making is fun. I thought the kids would get a kick out of it but Kamryn's comment "you can't make a movie without video." Ah well.

There is kind of a sweet little (somewhat boring ;)) story around this video. We are navigating with a GPS and were searching for somewhere for lunch and not finding anything nearby. We saw a "pay-for-the-day" campground and decided to stop as we passed it. Looked pretty non-descript from the highway but behind all the trees was a really sweet spot. We had a quick lunch and then discovered the beach behind all those trees. The water was frigid! But pretty. It was a nice little surprise and a good break to a long day.

On the Road Again

Hi from Saginaw, Michigan - only about 10 hours from home. Only another 20 hours of driving left. Ugh.

You know we didn't even make it out of the driveway before we were all bickering over something. Thankfully things improved after that. Still a LONG day.

Good things - we hit almost no construction. Couple of miles in Southern Ontario. No real slow-up.

Bad things - Border was somewhat backed up but we only lost about 40 minutes there.

It really is easier to drive cross country with a 6 and a 4 year old rather than a 3 and a 1 year old.

Hotel room smells funny.

Oh, when the customs agent asked us if we had anything with us that we planned on leaving in the US when we left (in 2 days) is it bad that I muttered "the children."

In my defence - when is the one time you want you kids to sit quietly and respectfully? Need I explain what my kids were doing? Ugh!

Cheers all!

Picture of Kamryn on Canada Day (July 1st)

Waving

Hello anyone who is still left reading. I haven't abandonned the blog ... quite. Not sure what I'm doing and I guess I should figure that out soon. I can no longer post from work as they have blocked the website. Can't read either which I really miss. :( I can post from home though and really should.

Anyway, I do owe a real post and will endeavour to write one in the next few days. So watch this space. :) I'll be back. Cheerio.

Turns out that you can't will a UTI healed

The good news is that I didn't expire overnight when I realized that the my kidneys were not supposed to feel so abused. Also, that after some really good antibiotics and a day sleeping that I'm getting an entry in courtesy of my shiny new lap top. Bad news is that its going to be a really short one.

Big Day for Kamryn Today

It was a PD day at school so she had the day off. Came and joined me downtown at my office and then DH took her across the street to that mall and got 9 inches chopped off her hair. It's what she wanted (a mantra I've been repeating to myself all day lol)

Here are a couple of shots.

This is Easter Weekend and the best "before" shot I have (In deep denial I didn't take a real "before" shot today).




And afterwards, clearly thrilled:




And with her truncated pony tail which I have decreed will go to the cancer society. Kamryn isn't so generous and would just like to keep it to play with (in truth I think she is just a little sad and would like to somehow re-attach it.)

Sigh

A colleague’s wife lost her baby this weekend at 14 weeks. Not that it would have made the pain any less if he hadn't of, but he just shared with everyone that she was expecting (their second child). They’ve had an ultrasound. They saw a heartbeat. They waited until they got out of the first trimester. They shared their happy news and now devastation.

As luck would have it – I’m his boss this week so he called to tell me he wouldn’t be in and to share why. He also gave me permission to share his sad news with the rest of our colleagues. Is it selfish to wish someone else had had that job? Anyway I shared it with out little section and then went up to the morning staff meeting with the other two section heads, our admin clerk and, our Director (all men) to tell them. Okay out of this group of 4 men + me we have 4 father’s or father’s to be. Two of them are expecting babies, one in a few weeks and one right around the time my colleagues wife was due. My director has two girls. Everyone expressed sympathy and then some bizarre need to bury the issue. The consensus seemed to be that to much of an acknowledgement would “draw attention to ‘it’” and “would serve as a reminder” as if it no one said anything they would just forget by next week. GRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I don’t understand this. If they had lost a living child would not having a funeral make it easier? I’ve heard about these attitudes surrounding miscarriages but this is the first direct involvement I’ve had in it. Makes me a little angry. I did manage to convince them that a card (not a sympathy card but a thinking of you card; that was very important to my Director!) would be appropriate. Have I sighed enough yet?

I am Niles Crane.

Okay I’m hanging my head in shame but I just came from the coffee shop (not Starbucks - I've decided I don't like Starbucks BUT there are MUCH better alternatives in Canada so no worries). I had to use my fingers to keep my order straight. Medium, non-fat, de-caf, no whip Moccacino latte. Yes, it’s a bit ridiculous. And now the kid’s can’t go to university because I spent their college savings to purchase said Latte. Ah well. It was yummy and I gave lattes up for lent and it was torturous. Lent is over. Perhaps they will both grow up to be baristas instead of barristers. I can only hope.

Pots, Kettles and maybe a frying pan or two.

We had my cousin and his wife for dinner on Saturday. It’s been forever since I’ve spent any real time with their 3 ½ year old son. It’s been awhile since they’ve been over to visit and he hasn’t been sick (i.e. sick equals glued to Mommy and VERY quiet). It was a sad evening. I couldn’t wait for them to leave and take their brat with them. Oh My. He was SUCH a sweet, quiet, easy child. We were the ones everyone in the family whispered about after we left. Us and our ADOPTED little hellion. That used to bug me – the fact I knew they were saying things about poor Sam and no doubt blaming it on his origins. Now I’m even more angry because they are still saying nasty stuff about Sam behind our backs and comparing him unfavorably to a child whose presence I couldn’t wait to be free of. I have no real proof of what is being said just a VERY strong suspicion and an in depth knowledge of what my extended family is like.

Sam is a handful – always has been and probably always will. He is spirited, spunky, determined and aggressive. He is rough and tumble and the kind of boy you always hear described as “all boy.” BUT he will generally listen when you tell him things (once you’ve managed to get his attention as he runs around the room like a bee on heroin that is. ;) He eats well. He sleeps like an angel. You can discipline him and it has a noticeable effect on his behavior. He really is a lot easier to handle than it might seem on observing us parenting him. He does X we do Y and everything ends up plotted nicely on the Z axis. More importantly everyday it gets just a little easier.

Not so Lord Fauntelroy. He destroyed our family room – toys EVERYWHERE. Okay he’s a kid we’ll excuse that. When the time came to clean up though who didn’t help at all? We sat down to dinner. I have some vintage kid’s dishes that I didn’t give the boys because I’m not crazy. Kamryn though had one. She was sitting next to Little Lord Fauntelroy. He immediately began pounding on the dish with his spoon. His mother told him to stop. He continued so she told him to stop again with pretty much the same result. Ummm… so she said stop again. Real effective! He’s not 15 months old here he’s 3 ½ and plenty capable of listening. We needn’t have had him at the table anyways. He didn’t eat anything and basically wanted down immediately. Kudos for my children who sat and ate with everyone and chatted and were basically angels.

Then bed time. I put all the kids up to bed (Fauntelroy was going to nap until it was time for his parents to leave; we were going to watch Little Miss Sunshine – NOT a kid’s movie.) I read stories to everyone and got everyone snuggled up in bed. We started to watch the movie. Who should wander downstairs because he had to go to the bathroom no more than ten minutes later. No fair you peeked at the answer! He comes into the room where we are watching the movie and announces that he is staying because “Mommy said I could.” Okay whatever. At this point I didn’t stop the movie – he’s not my kid and there was a perfectly good bed for him that he was happy staying in until “Mommy said I could.” By the end of the film he was muttering “F***ing losers” along with the character in the movie. Smart kid. Learns some things without much prompting. Again – not my kid.

Oh and then there was the crying about how he was hungry – I would be too if I’d eaten what he didn’t for dinner – and wanted chips. I offered crackers so there was a meltdown over chips. I bowed out. Not my kid. My brain was screaming “take him home!” I think they heard because they departed soon after. It was 10:30. It seriously felt MUCH later.

It might not seem that much but it was just one thing after another strung together with whining. I never want him to come over again. I know I won’t invite them over to dinner that’s not a family gathering ever again. They often ask us to watch him for the weekend. I’m lining up my excuses why we can’t now.

He was SUCH a sweet kid. A few boundaries and we’d still be raving about him. Cousin’s wife is due to have another in 6 weeks or so. Lord help them. Really burns me though that Sam is characterized as the “bad” kid. Is it wrong of me to look forward to family events so that others will notice how good he actually is.

What a blast we had!

What a day. The most snowfall in one storm I can ever remember (2 feet). The worst winter for snow that I can remember (more than 13 feet). My neighbour noted that we can now walk from his yard into ours with ease, careful don't trip over the 8 foot fence. I must say though we had the most fun.

The kids played outside for two hours, went in and warmed up and then went back outside again. It was about – 12 and no one cared. Everyone in the neighbourhood was out. It was like a huge block party. We had 4 snowblowers going and a lot of shovels. And just a lot of standing around being neighbourly. We used the snowhill on our front lawn as a toboggan run (my lawn - during the summer is COMPLETELY flat; no hill, no remarkable slope). Parents stood in the street to watch for cars – they were few and as the street hasn’t been plowed completely yet and is near impassable nothing was going very fast anyway. One parent at the top of the hill (the top is even with the second story of my house!) to police who’s turn it was next and let the fun begin.

What a way to spring forward. I took a ton of photos – none very good because its hard to shoot in snow and I’m not the best photographer. But here’s a little of our day.

The trek up the hill.



Said hill.



Kamryn at the top.



Kamryn at the bottom.







Same at the top of the hill.






And my last photo: Back on the 3rd of January when I THOUGHT we had a lot of snow I took this shot. I've put the one I took this morning next to it. It looks sooooooooooo paltry now. lol Kamryn is about 47 inches tall to give you some perspective. Our neighbour who is just a big kid at heart is working on building a luge run on the front lawn - seriously!