A visit with Santa...

When we went to Springridge last year to see Santa, I vowed we would never visit the mall again to see him.  We headed off to Springridge again this year.  Apparently every second weekend he doesn't sit in a chair and just wanders around, but that was just fine.  We found him right away and the girls handed over the lists they had made that morning with pictures cut out of toy catalogues.  Paige's main thing she wanted was Littlest Pet Shop guys and Rose's was a scooter.  It was nice that they had a list as they (especially Rose of course), didn't want to say much to him. 

They also decorated a gingerbread cookie and ate it as their snack.  Mike and I ate lunch which was so difficult as they make my all time favourite sandwich, which I'm not supposed to eat while pregnant--ham, brie, and apple with red pepper jelly.  OMG, my mouth is actually watering right now. 

Putting up the tree...

We really let the girls do whatever they wanted.  Some branches have 4 ornaments on them.  It wouldn't have mattered if it was perfect because Rose has moved them all around again since this day, and Scout's tail has whacked a whole bunch off.

Notice Rose has an Ewok face in this picture:

Terrorizing a tired dog after doggie daycare...

Parent Teacher Interviews

Last week we went for our first ever parent teacher interview.  I wasn't sure what to expect as the teacher hasn't said anything all year, but as soon as we walked in before we'd even sat down she said,
"I have no issues at all with Paige.  She's a pleasure to teach".  Well then, that's a relief! All of her school work is on track too, so I have nothing to worry about.  Paige sometimes comes home with certificates for good listening etc. and I was worried that she was getting them to motivate her.  Her teacher said that she wished she could give her one every day, and that she sometimes struggles to give some of the other kids a certificate at all.  So....off to a good start!!! It was more positive than the observation and small sit down with her teacher last year, but then again, being away from home was new for Paige and she didn't really know the school routine yet.  This year as she is in SK she seems to want to be more of a leader for the JK's and help out by listening, participating more, and doing what she's supposed to do.  Her teacher said she was a good role model.  I was so proud of her.  At the interview her and Rose sat silently on the carpet playing with Lego.  I think Paige was trying to eavesdrop. 

Disney!!!

February 1st! Not much longer to go!  And this time we have an addition to our little trip.  Grandma Val is coming for a week! Grandma Val comes from out west and her flight passes through Toronto anyway, so we'll meet up with her when she lands and continue on together to Orlando.  Woohoo!!! OOOh she's in for a treat.  The warm weather in Orlando (knock on wood) will be a pleasant change from the -22 that is Edmonton.

I am so excited it's not even funny.  Mike was wary to go for 2 weeks as I'm pregnant and I said are you kidding!?? Warm weather, bobbing around like a beached whale in the pool, greasy food, relaxing, no house cleaning???? Um...yes please!!!!

Seriously I do need to double check our insurance though.  I could in theory have a premature baby there and then have to shell out $10k a day in the hospital as it wouldn't be covered under my insurance plan.  Also will get a note from doctor to state that i am only 27 weeks when we travel as I tend to get so big at that time that people say "any day now hey?"

The girls are excited and keep talking about the things they will do with Grandma Val.  Paige is a bit taller this year and will be able to go on some new rides that she's been wanting to try out for 2 years.  We have 1 breakfast booked this time...a Mary Poppins one.  We'd really better watch at least some of that movie.

So yep, every day I'm comparing the weather from here and Edmonton to Orlando.  At this time of year and Febraury the daily lows are about 14 or so, so not hot, but it can get up to 25-30 during the day with the humidity, so that is totally fine by me.  My only issue now is clothing.  My summer maternity clothes are from when I was pregnant with Paige and so so so huge.  I don't think anything will fit.  I grabbed a couple of cheap stretchy skirts and will get a couple of tank tops.  Luckily we have a washing machine in our unit because if it's hot I'll just be wearing the same thing again and again.  The bathing suit I'll buy in January to ensure it fits.  i'm anticipating gaining at least 10 lbs more by then.

Excitement factor through the roof!!!!!

Announcement time!!

I think by now it will be no surprise to blog readers, but we are expecting another addition to our family! I didn't post anything on here until this time to ensure that we had told people, or that people had been told (hopefully) before reading on the blog.  If you consider that and the fact that I'm behind on my blogging, I'm almost halfway through the pregnancy.  Eighteen weeks as I write this. It feels very weird being pregnant for the 3rd time.  With the 2 girls and Scout I rarely think about the pregnancy.  As I'm in the second trimester I'm feeling really good.  When I felt awful it was easy to think about the pregnancy.  I'm also keeping up with my exercise with my daily dog walks--I think this helps to make me feel energetic, not tired, and keeping excess weight off.

I did have a rough start to the whole thing though. when I was around 8 weeks along I had something that felt like a running cramp.  We were about to go for a walk to the duck pond so I figured I'd go anyway, and walk off the random cramp.  As we got into our walk I decided that I'd better go back home.  I tried to do some stretches as well as have a bath but nothing really helped.  I thought maybe it was some sort of gas problem, but nothing seemed to help.  After putting the girls to bed we watched tv and then decided to go to bed.  Still it was not any better after laying on the couch and then getting in bed.  In fact laying down almost made it worse.  I ended up calling telehealth as our google research brought up things like appendix problems.  The nurse told me to be driven to the hospital right away.  Luckily Grandma and Grandpa had come home early from the cottage, and Maura came over to stay with the girls while we went to the hospital at 12:30am. When we got there i was in agony.  Luckily there were only 2 other people in emergency (when does that ever happen??), and I was seen fairly quickly.  When I finally saw the nurse I was saying "I need medication!!!!" The doctor who came in did a quick ultrasound to rule out an ectopic pregnancy (which I hadn't even thought about), and said that it couldn't be an appendix problem.  He alerted the gynaecologist, and kept me on morphine all night.  Mike ended up going home to relieve maura for a few hours and get some sleep.  With the medicine I was feeling not too bad, and was able to sleep on and off.  First thing in the morning the doctor came to see me and sent me for a full ultrasound.  The people doing the ultrasound seemed very surprised and the sonographer (is that what it's called?) came in to read the results right away.  It was discovered that I had an ovarian torsion--essentially a twisted ovary.  The people there were saying that it was very rare and the pregnancy threw a loop into the whole equation.  There exact words when I was wheeled out of the room were "well, good luck".  The gynaecologist came to talk to me and mentioned it was best to operate right away.  He said that the ovary was most likely not receiving any blood and would have to be taken out.  Surgeries during pregnancy are usually not advised, he said, but that we would obviously have to do it.  I wondered about how removing an ovary would harm a pregnancy and he said that they really don't know at what point the ovaries stop assisting in the pregnancy.  There was a large cyst on the ovary (pregnancy related) which likely caused it to fall over and twist.  He didn't sound 100% confident that the pregnancy would survive after the whole ordeal.  So into the operating room I went and was put out.  After I woke up he said he was able to save the ovary, and he looked pretty enthusiastic--probably a great and exciting day for him! Pretty amazing outcome.  The operation was a laparoscopic surgery so only involved 2 small incisions.  I was very bloated and sore in the abdomen.  It was very hard to walk for a couple days and the bloating and pain took a while to subside.  Mike was able to take the week off work, and we even went on a scheduled weekend away the following weekend.  Took it pretty easy of course, but without worrying about kids and dog it was easier than being at home.

Since then I have had I think 3 ultrasounds, and both baby and ovary are doing fine.  Oddly enough when I go for the ultrasounds the technicians barely believe the story and then say "oh I heard about you!" The one lady told me that they never see this problem.  But all is well as far as I know. I feel good, like I said, and the baby is starting to kick a lot, so I have no worries there.  pretty resilient little thing.  I had a lot of medication at the hospital but apparently that is fine and I shouldn't worry about it.

On Monday is my 18 week ultrasound and we are able to find out the gender.  We decided to find out this time, as we did with Rose.  Not finding out is more exciting of course, but I think the girls would love to know.  We'll all go to the appointment for the big news.

So far I haven't gained much weight at all.  I attribute that to the surgery, feeling super gross for a few weeks, and more positively, those morning walks.  My stomach is quite ball-like, but I can still wear my usual pants with the button undone.  Another reason to keep up the activity level, is our trip to Disney coming up on Feb. 1.  A lot of walking will happen there, and unless I want to miss out, I need to be fairly in shape to waddle around the theme parks.

In a way it's good to hold off making this announcement.  I never blogged about how gross I felt, so I can just pretend that never happened.  As much as I'm not thinking about being pregnant, I am excited about the new little one on the way.  I think it'll seem more real after we do Christmas, Disney, start getting the room ready (Paige and Rose have to bunk up!), etc.

Halloween...

Pumpkin Carving...

Reading!

As I mentioned in the previous post, Paige has always responded well to sticker charts.  She was starting to get jealous that Rose had a sticker chart with new stickers and she didn't.  I reminded her that she also had a sticker chart when she was potty training, but then I figured she could also have a sticker chart for reading.  I kept trying to get her to read her My Little Pony books to me, but she was never interested.  As soon as I put the sticker chart up she was reading us 1 book a night, and even though the chart is done she still wants to read 1 book a night to whoever is doing her books that night.  I think as she got going she became more confident with her reading and realized she could actually do it, and sound out most words in her phonics books and level 1 books. 

Paige also finished her chart, and her reward was to go to Chapters to pick out 2 books--one she could read to me, and one we could read to her. 

I'm really impressed with her reading.  The chart really motivated her and got her into the swing of things.  I was worried she wasn't being pushed to read at school and then a program started in the classroom where she brings home independent reading books every day.  I'm glad because before that she said they were supposed to be identifying letters at school, which she told her teacher was "too easy".  

Potty trained!!

After a few randomly successful trips to the potty, we decided to go all out on Rose's potty training.  Mike was pretty flexible with his schedule which helped with the process.  I had worried about taking Paige to school, etc. if Rose hadn't used the potty yet.  On those days, Mike just stayed wither her and tried to get her to go while I was out with Paige.  Rose didn't get out much for a few days, but with each day we had more and more success.  Paige always responded well to sticker charts, and we had set one up for Rose a while back.  Once she got going with the stickers on the chart it was a huge incentive.  We told her when she finished the chart she would be able to pick out a toy from the toy store.  After a few days her chart was done and by that point she was going every time in the potty, even telling us when she had to go. 

Here is a picture of Rose putting the last sticker on the chart.  She had just woken up from her nap and was able to go before getting Paige from school.  We all went out to the toy store afterwards and after wandering the store for a long time she picked out some Disney princess figurines. 

At the beginning she alternated between the small potty and sitting on the big toilet with the potty seat.  Now, a few weeks later, she tends to choose the toilet.  I'm glad as there is no clean up.  She has seen Paige only using the toilet of course, so she is fine to use that too.  When we go out she just holds herself up on regular toilets and can go with no issues.  No lugging potties around for us! sick.  Since she has been fully trained she has had 1 real accident, which was luckily at home.  Also, her undies are always completely dry. When we started the training process we put away all the diapers.  One of the first nights she peed in her bed first thing in the morning, as she forgot.  Since then nothing.  I was so happy to put away that diaper genie!

I'm so proud of Rose, she's so confident now with the whole process.  She remembers to flush the toilet and wash her hands too.

Pumpkins at the farm...

Another Halloween and another trip to Springridge for pumpkins.  I think we got 7 pumpkins or so. 

How many photos do we have of the girls on ponies? Tons.  Paige keeps asking me to remind her how old she has to be to go to pony camp--8.

Scout almost 7 months...

Probably won't take long before Scout is heavier than Paige and Rose combined.  Scout was spayed last week :(, and she weighed in at 42 lbs.  When we brought her home 5 months ago she was around 15lbs. 

The evening after the surgery.  Whimpering and freezing under a blankie.  The next day she was back to normal.  We still had to limit her activities, so no walks for 5 days, even though she seemed normal.  She started to get restless and destructive without exercise.  It kind of worked out well though as Mike was away and it's hard to take her for much exercise when the girls have to come too.

School, dance, gymnastics, mix and mingle...

Now Paige is fully into the swing of things at school.  She still has had barely any days of classes, as the gradual entry went on and on, but things seem to be going well.  It's hard to know.  She doesn't talk about school all that much, even when I ask questions, which I do every day. As far as I know nothing upsetting has happened, and she came home one day with an "attentive listening certificate" so I assume all is well.  One day she also came home with a ton of school resources (tracing shapes, velcro animals, etc) in her backpack which I had to explain was stealing.  Right away she said that her friend put them in her bag, which I could tell was the truth, but I think Paige still needed to learn the lesson that you can't bring home stuff from school! When we sent them back the teacher talked to Paige and the friend about it.  Apparently her teacher said "you can't put things in your friends' backpacks". I hope that Paige will branch out and try to make more friends, but she;s shy to do that unless someone approaches her.  She has her 2 friends from last year, Rebekah and Keianna, and I think they might be a bit clique-y.  They are the only SK girls, so they are sticking together.  I'm encouraging Paige to talk to the JK's and become friends with them too. Learning their names would be a good start.  

I already know the things that Paige needs to work on this year.  Penmanship, writing in lower case letters instead of capitals, and cutting with scissors! I also think she needs to learn to slow down and focus on being neat or correct, rather than trying to do things as fast as possible.  At home though she is making huge progress with reading.  She has a "my Little Pony" phonics book set.  There are 12 story books.  She read one every night for 12 days.  Lots of the books she could almost read on her own as she was sounding out the words and remembering the sight words. We put a sticker on a chart for her every night as a reward. She has branched out to other beginning reader books and is doing a great job. It's so fun to see her read.  At first she wasn't interested, but the sticker chart motivated her, as well as when she realized she could read.  That was exciting for her I think.  She's also learning to sound out words and write them down.  I don't tell her if they're wrong, I just read them if I can and tell her good job! She started a Christmas list the other day which was good practice (Yes--there is lots of talk of Christmas around here...even a couple of viewings of a Rudolph show). 

On Saturdays Paige has dance class.  First she has ballet so she changes into her ballet shoes and brings her dance bag into the class to change into her tap shoes after ballet is done.  I don't know if she knows anyone from ballet, but on the first day of class as jazz was about to start, who strolls into the studio but Rebekah and then Keianna! Her 2 friends from school! Now they see each other all the time.  Nice to see their moms once a week though to discuss school stuff. 

Here's Paige in her dance attire with her jazz shoes (and Rose copying in the background of course).  Next September Rose can start baby ballet, although we'll be at the studio for a long time on Saturday morning, waiting for both classes.  I think Rose would love it though.

On Wednesdays the girls have gymnastics.  Paige seems to be learning a few new things this time and Rose is loving it.  A natural gymnast for sure.  Superb jumping abilities, and she is FAST! I decided to get Paige an outfit as it would be easier to just put on under clothes when it is cold outside, and Rose insisted on getting one too.  They look so cute in their outfits! When Paige starts Grade 1 next year she'll be full time, so not sure what activities she'll keep up, but I think Rose should definitely keep up with the gymnastics!

Rose is also loving "Mix and Mingle", specifically the painting.  She paints for a good 15 minutes, just layering on the paint. Unlike last time, she is actually a huge participant in circle time, doing all the actions and singing along to songs she knows.  She sits right up front.  Paige was the same way.  

Oh--and obedience level 2.  Scout had a rough start.  She's one of the younger dogs out of 5 or so, and a lab to boot, but this week she did awesome.   I am determined to get her to outperform the other dogs by next week! I feel like there is so much more control over dogs than kids.  I find it fun to train Scout because she actually listens and it takes her about 10 minutes to learn something new. Kids are so much harder!!