Christmas Eve

 With both girls sick we had to cancel our usual Christmas Eve plans of doing a family activity and lunch at a pub.  Rose had a fever and cough and Paige had a cold.  Instead we took advantage of the super warm weather (i think 15 degrees), and took Scout to the dog park.  Although people were sick, fresh air was bound to help. The kids weren't too happy at the dog park as it ended up being very windy, but at least we got out of the house.  In the afternoon we rested up, did some reading, checked out the Santa Tracker, tried to get Rose to nap, and eventually watched "Polar Express" before dinner.  We had our usual perogies with bacon, which we eat once a year.

After dinner the kids went outside to scatter the reindeer food from school and preschool.  

 I had a hard time getting great Christmas photos as the girls were tired from their illnesses.
People did well though and despite the fact that they were obscenely excited they were able to fall asleep quickly.

Pre Christmas...

We were fortunate enough to have amazingly warm temperatures this year before Christmas.  Kids could go outside, and even play on the swingset.  

Here are the girls riding their bikes to the park. 

Ella trying not to fall off the doorframe.  She fell off our plant one day so I scooped her up with 2 candy canes under her arms and she was ok.

Oh to be a kid--reading Harry Potter all day without a care in the world.

Annual Cookie decorating/pyjama party

Every year I hold a cookie decorating party for the kids and Amy, Clara, and Joseph.  New to join us this year was Rose's friend Claire! This event always makes Christmas feel like it is finally happening! Every year the cookies look a little bit better and the kids are better at saving them.  

Christmas Concert fun!

Oh the gear up until Christmas! Concerts at both schools and an open house at the preschool.  Lots of running back and forth to the various events, and lots of time off work by Mike.  So nice he could be there for everything. 

Rose's class.  Numerous children were coughing to the point of embarrassment.  All of the parents were there and I'm sure every last one of them was thinking "why did you send your kid to school like this before christmas??!!" (I really thought that later when Rose caught this extreme kindergarten cough and had a fever all of Christmas Eve). 

 At Henry's preschool.  They went through their regular routine and we followed them around.  There are only 5 kids in Henry's class.  He doesn't seem to play with them yet, but he finds lots of stuff to do, and there is craft time and lots of story time, etc.

Paige all dressed up for her concert.  Next year she'll be in the evening concert.  

Santa visit

This year we saw Santa at the RBG.  The same place we went for the pumpkin walk at halloween.  They have a big train show which Henry loved, and then we waited for a super long time and got on a train to take us to Santa's cabin.  The train ride was seriously short--about a 3 minute walk from the building.  We waited for about 25 minutes for the train.  But it was totally worth it as Henry LOVED it.  

We then waited about 50 minutes or so to see Santa.  Luckily it was warm outside.  Everything was fine until we actually went up to see him and Henry became way too scared to go up at all.  No chance of a photo without being an evil parent.  It was ok, so much nicer to see Santa somewhere other than the mall!

Flexible child!

Rose's gymnastics pays off extremely well for her dance class.  She is by far the most flexible student in her dance class.  Totally not bragging, just telling the truth!

Henry these days

Henry has been hilarious lately.  He's really developing his personality, explaining more in depth thoughts, speaking in longer sentences, and thinking about bigger things.  Back in October he started to have a real problem falling asleep each night.  He would call us in constantly and cry.  Only at night.  It turns out he had a fear of the dark, which a nightlight in the room eventually solved.  At the time of all of this, he pointed out all of his sweatshirts hanging on some hooks in his room and said it looked like a monster, and asked me to take them down.  He would point to scary looking shadows and ask what they were.  He always wanted to look outside to see if it was dark because he didn't believe me and wondered why his room was so dark.  But the cutest thing of all was when he asked me to "turn off the dark".  I clued in then that he needed a night light!

Gone are the days of Barbie, and although he inquires about this show from time to time, his new favourite is Paw Patrol.  He asks to watch this every time it's show time.  He's totally into it.  This Christmas he was given tons of paw patrol stuff and he has been loving it.

We have been weaning him off the dresses and it has been a few weeks since he's worn one around the house now that I think about it.  I've treated it more like a dress up thing in the basement with the princess dresses, and he knows to take them off when he comes upstairs so he doesn't trip on them.  I'm glad to be getting away from this phase, not that I had a huge problem with it, just that he was SO obsessive about them and would talk about dresses as soon as his eyes opened and right at bedtime.  Also, he was wearing Rose's dresses out.  Poor Rose was being nice about it, but in the meantime wasn't wanting to wear certain ones anymore.  The other things that Rose has been really great about are her Anna and Elsa doll, and Henry wanting to play with them non stop.  Granted, she wasn't playing with them really, but she has let him carry those things around all over the place.  I had to soak them in vinegar and baking soda and scrub them with an old toothbrush the other day when I found mould in their hair!! Gross.  And a few weeks ago I had to take a magic eraser to their faces since they were so dirty.  If we could have foreshadowed this other obsession we could have bought him his own so Rose could keep hers pristine, but we didn't foresee this of course.  A few nights ago Henry had to go to the bathroom one more time after getting in bed, and he dragged Elsa along.  As he's sitting on the toilet he clutches Elsa and whispers, "Sorry Elsa".  This was way too cute.  I can't wait till he sees the wall of Elsa's at the disney store....and better yet...when I get a picture of him and Elsa on the Disney cruise!!

Something Henry needs to work on is walking rather than being carried around.  If we go somewhere where there is a short walk, and not stroller worthy, he says "Carry you!! Carry you!!" and has a huge meltdown if I make him walk.  I always have to get the stroller out at Rose's school, or I'll end up having to carry him the entire way.  I know it'll change eventually, I just feel like the girls were way more into walking everywhere by themselves at this age.  I wonder if he feels like he can't keep up and is discouraged.  Who knows.

He still continues to be the biggest lover of sweets.  The advent calendar ended on December 24th of course, and he was distracted by Christmas day, only to have a meltdown on the 26th because the calendar was gone.  And the next few days he asked for it every morning.

So many more things I could say I'm sure.  I have to remember to blog more.  At the end of January we'll be off to Florida which will satisfy Henry's want/need to wear shorts and no socks at all times.

Outtakes!!

Trying to take Christmas photos...unsuccessfully.  I was really late in getting around to this project and as a result was rushed and desperate.  I got a few good photos in the end and ordered our cards far later than I would have liked.

Auntie Amanda's baby shower

Maura, Cheryl, and I held Auntie Amanda's baby shower mid November.  As I write this the baby will be coming in a week or 2.  Exciting!

Hello again Ste. Anne's Spa

At the beginning of November we ventured out to Ste. Anne's spa again.  This time for 2 glorious nights! Two nights is the way to go.  We had a gigantic room this time.  The room was off site at the gym, so we had to get in the car to go to the main building, but the size of the room made up for this minor inconvenience. This time we each had our own bedroom.  Mine wasn't a bedroom per se, as I had a Queen sized murphy bed in the living room, but it was still my own room.  Since I wake up way earlier than the others I loved my space as I would start the wood burning fireplace in the morning, make a coffee and read until the other 2 got up. 

Here are some photos in random order.  We had our spa treatments of course, spent time in the hot tub (we had our own hot tub outside our door!), ate a ton of food, read books, and went for a long walk.  Amanda was 7 months pregnant at the time, and Maura was getting over being sick and having her voice problem, so I'm surprised we did the long walk.  It was good for everyone though as the day was amazing and we all needed the exercise.  Maura's voice went from probably 20% to 99% while we were at the spa as well, which was crazy,  and a testament to the healing powers of relaxation.  

The strangest part of the getaway was that we often got in the car wearing our robes.  It felt super wrong and awkward.