Dino 101

A week ago I was telling Mike about how when I applied to the UofA way back in 1997 my first thought was to take Paleontology.  I never did, and ended up in Business (even though I had heavily focused on Science in school and had taken extra courses). Well obviously that really didn't work out (boring!!...and So so soooo not characteristic of something I would do), and I ended up switching to Anthropology (and eventually added a secondary major in English) when I transferred to UofT.  Obviously I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I digress.  Anyway, I was curious as to what the prerequisites were for the program, as I was wondering why I never took it.  I was on the UofA site and stumbled across an online Paleontology course I could take for free.  UofA students can take it for credit, and if I wanted a certificate I could pay a small fee, but also I could just take it for fun.  I decided to sign up! Dinosaur Paleobiology.  Why not? I have extra time now and I was in the mode to learn.  And how much fun is it to just sit with a coffee and a snack for 30-50 minutes a week and watch a lecture without the pressure of an exam.  There are quizzes at the end of each session, but it is fun as it doesn't really matter.

I'm really excited to be learning something random and new, and I'm hoping I can do an Anthropology course soon to brush up on the current knowledge, and even if the current knowledge is the same as the knowledge from 12 years ago, I don't remember it anyway.

School days...

Henry and I are adjusting to our life while the girls are at school.  It's a mixture of enjoying the time with Henry, missing the girls, and appreciating the vast amounts of time I have every day while Henry naps.  Henry and I haven't done too much so far, but have another 165 days or so to take advantage of our time together before the girls are off for the summer!

Every day we drop off Paige at 8:45 at her school where she walks from the car to meet her class lineup.  Then we drive home and drop off the car where we then walk in the opposite direction to Rose's school, taking Scout along for the trip.  While pushing the stroller and walking Scout is a bit annoying, it gets everything done at once and leaves more time for mike to sleep in the morning, and more time for me to get up and get ready for the day before anyone else gets up (and have a coffee and read a chapter of my book).  Scout enjoys the walk as we see lots of dogs and people.  Rose can walk the entire 1.2 km, but she stands on the stroller stand for part of it to make sure we get to her school in time.  We could drive there also, but the weather is too nice to bother driving, and getting in and out of the car is silly as we have to park super far from the school anyway.  Plus, on the way home I have to get in and out of the car at both schools to pick the girls up at the door--which makes pick up at least an hour ordeal.

So the mornings are quite busy, and when you factor in gymnastics at 5 on Tuesdays, and Brownies at 5:30 on Wednesdays, there is a lot of activity.  But really Henry and I don't have to do much during the day, so the middle section is pretty laid back.  By the time we get to gymnastics pick up and Henry has been in and out of the car about 12 times, he gets pretty cranky though.  Mike has been busy though, and next week we shouldn't have to do all of these trips alone.

Henry and I started Kindermusik this week which was pretty cute.  I tried to do the free library program last week though, and it was a disaster.  He spent the entire time fixated on playing with the blinds and wasn't interested at all in the class.  I had to take him out of the room and just abandoned my stroller for the rest of the class, as I couldn't get it out without a huge ordeal.  I wasn't surprised at all as he is the most active of the 3 kids.  Kindermusik was more song and instrument based (obviously), which was fun for him.  He hated the parachute part though and was sacred of it.  Another funny thing as the girls loved the parachute in the classes I took them to as toddlers.

The other thing Henry and I have done is get caught up on overdue chores, and errands.  Not too exciting, but at this age he's not too worried, and still only likes to sweep at home.  I was hoping to sign up for the baby gymnastics program in the winter, but as I discovered, he will not sit still, and definitely will not follow a structure or stick with the class.  I used to see little boys just like him, running off from the group as my little girls sat nicely in my lap.  Now I TOTALLY get it.

As for nap time,  I have tidied up a lot of stuff around the house, done a lot of dinner prep, baking, reading, drank too much coffee, watched a show or two, tons of laundry, and obviously caught up on this blog.  Also, have began my next blog book--hopefully won't take an entire year to edit this one.

Also something else very exciting I have done...in the next post....

Sweeping

Henry likes to sweep.  I mean that fully and entirely.  That's all he wants to do.  And anytime he sees a broom-like object he is ready to go.  He sweeps all day long.

Swimming lesson success!!

The girls had private swim lessons at home during the summer.  A college aged lifeguard from the city of Burlington came to the house and taught the girls a half hour lesson each.  Paige worked on her front crawl and learned how to dive...success! And Rose fully learned how to swim...double success!!

It was so awesome to avoid pool change rooms, and all of that business and just be able to really focus on the swimming.  Rose just loves getting in the pool now (as limited as the swimming days are now), and swims all over the place.  She needs to stay in the shallow end though where she can touch until she can build up some endurance.  But for 4 years old, it's really amazing swimming.  I never thought we could teach Paige to dive either as I'm such a rough swimmer, but it was easy for her.

Great job kids!!

Random summer fun

A few from our cottage trip late August...

Bedtime:

Playtime!

New outfits for back to school!

Trying out some fun beds for a couple of nights:

More new outfits...and matching again!

More from the cottage trip

A book called Pugsley with the main character named Lizzie. Coincidence? I think not.

Finally! The  s'mores pizza box oven we wanted to make all summer!

Green summer hair! Wicked! Just means we were having fun in the pool!

A trip to the park:

The rain...

This was the day it rained so much that most of south burlington was flooded out.  Thank goodness we weren't effected.  The pool almost overflowed and mike had to drain it a bit, but really thats nothing compared to the people with 4 feet of sewage in their basements...

Too cool for school!

Cool school outfit.  Paige wore her new outfits, but the days were so hot in her non-airconditioned school that she really could have just worn a bathing suit and still been too hot.  Yikes!

Special dinner night!

Paige and I went out for a mother daughter dinner night at Montana's on the first day of school.  We decided that when Rose was at gymnastics I would take Paige for a special dinner, and then Mike would have a turn in the future.  Then when Paige is at Brownies, we'll do the same for Rose.  Paige was really excited to have the special dinner, and Rose is really looking forward to her nights too.  As much as I was worried about the summer, it was really awesome, and the dinners will be a great way to connect one on one, now that the summer is over and they're at school so much.

Riding lessons

Paige started her riding lessons yesterday.  What a happy girl.  She was right in her element: totally confident, and loving every minute.  She picked Shadow to ride, and I think she'll be riding her every lesson.  I'm glad that we can let her pursue this interest.  She liked the horse camps but was always bummed out that she got so little time on the horses every day.  Now that she's in private lessons she basically gets a full hour each time which is probably about the same as she got in the entire week of camp.  It was really fun to watch and the instructor said we (Rose, Henry and I) could come for a walk with them at the end of the lesson, which was great.  It's a little tricky to bring Henry there as he gets into trouble, so he probably won't come every time...but fun for Rose and we've already discussed bringing hot chocolates when the weather gets cold.

To Rose on her first day of Kindergarten!

My sweet little Rose is at Kindergarten.  Full day Kindergarten has begun at all Ontario schools now, which means that for the next 2 years, Rose will be in Kindergarten all day everyday (unlike Paige who only had 2 or 3 days a week).  I wonder if she will be surprised by how much time she will spend at school.  At the age of 4, I don't believe she truly realizes what to expect. My confident Rose lined right up with her class, and had no worries at all about the day ahead.  Although she is shy, she makes friends easily, and is a fun girl who gets along well with everyone.  I know she will be fine at school.

To my little Rose: your school journey begins today.  Although you may not realize it, you will be learning new things every day.  Mommy and Daddy, (and Paige and Henry), and your days at preschool, have taught you many things about the world, but there are still so many more things for you to discover.  You will learn about friendships, writing, reading, art, new sports, about the country that you live in, and the rest of the world.  Maybe one day you'll be interested in Anthropology, or computers, but if not, that's ok too.  I want you to be happy and discover your own path.  So dance, sing, twirl, and swim, and everything else that brings you joy.  I will miss you at home every day, but I know you will have so much fun.

Can't wait to hear about your day, and every day that follows!
xoxo
Mommy

Paige's first day of Grade 2!

Paige and Amy

Paige was a little nervous heading off to grade 2.  She started the day after labour day. She was worried that she would be in a class of all new kids and I kept reassuring her that she would know most of them. Ahem.... Only knew Amy and 2 other boys.  Whoops! For whatever reason the classes from last year were fully split up into the 5 grade 2 classes.  I remember going through school with essentially the same kids so I just assumed it would be similar.  Everything seemed to go well though, and her teachers seem to be really fun and have a lot of great ideas for keeping the kids interested and engaged.  The first week sounded like fun to me! Looks like it'll be a great year!

Henry books

Henry has finally caught the reading bug.  For the last month or so he has been really into his bedtime books.  Before that he had little patience and just pushed them out of my hand or chucked them on the ground.  His favourite is "Brown Bear Brown Bear What do You See?".  He once asked me to read it 12 times in a row, no exaggeration.  His "asking" is a noise like "ah? ah?" while shoving the book in my face.

Visit with the Pugsleys!

What a great visit with the Pugsley's! We barely saw the girls though as they were just off playing the entire time! We took them to Springridge for the first time, as well as the waterfront, a couple of parks, and an indoor playground. We spent a lot of time in the pool and backyard too, although the weather was kind of cooler while they were here. It's just so neat for the cousins to be able to spend lots of time together to bond at a young age.  And soon we'll be enroute to St. Albert for a few days!

 Lizzy took about 200 selfies secretly with the iPod

Why don't they just move here....???