Thankful Thursday - 246

Full disclosure, this day did not start off great. I was up for a couple hours in the middle of the night. Partially because the baby was having a dance party, partially because I was thinking about bassinets and what newborns are like, but mostly because I had the Frozen soundtrack stuck in my head haha. Anyway, I think the lost sleep caused me to wake up on the wrong side of the bed at 6am. I did my regular morning routine, and decided to do an early (8:30) workout to get my blood moving and hopefully feel more alert and alive. Then instead I just got angry. I am angry about COVID. I'm angry that we haven't been able to hug our parents, and our kids haven't been able to hug their grandparents in months. I'm angry that I feel like my pregnancy is just happening behind closed doors (because it literally is), and I feel like nobody else is ever going to get to feel this baby. If you know me, you know how important and exciting sharing this part of my life is. I'm angry that I have to turn down the kids' requests to have sleepovers and pancakes at Opa & Oma's, or play at Gramma and Grandpa's. I know there is a light at the end of the COVID tunnel, but today it just seems very far out of reach. I know I have LOTS to be thankful for, but I allowed myself to just feel this morning. It probably needed to happen, but now I'm ready to try again to see on the bright side, and focus on the many blessings in my life.  

This week I am thankful for...

1. Organization after Christmas. Our tree came down early this year - December 28. It feels really good to get the house back in order, but boy is it a lot of work! The kids were so loved (I say this instead of spoiled haha) this year and were gifted many many really cool toys! This meant our house was an overwhelming mess of toys and new exciting things. Both for them, and for us. Couple that with all the boxes and wrapping paper and chocolates and every day mess, and it was enough to overwhelm anybody! On December 26, Dave and I made the snap decision to figure out an organizing solution - STAT! On to IKEA.ca and rapidly spent $200 on Trofast wall shelves and a bunch of new bins. We have moved our big white IKEA Trofast shelf from our living room to behind our dining room table and it's totally working there. We have now set up the wall shelves, but haven't mounted them yet, and I'm starting to have second thoughts about mounting them at all. Our original plan had us mounting them in our dining room above the play kitchen instead of the black shelves we have there that just collect junk. We could put little toys in there, and baby toys, etc. For now they're on the floor, and for some reason the kids (Emilia especially) love how organized it all is, and always puts her bucket back before moving on to the next thing. She actually walked past it all the other day, pointed to it as she swapped out her bucket, and said, "I love this." Our house is also kept significantly cleaner so far because there aren't toys dumped in piles all over the place! It's more focused. 

Where we started. Toys everywhere, messy black shelves, toys ALL over the living room as well, etc. I dislike clutter, but it is inevitable around here. I like having spots to put things. 

Work in progress. I got new shallower bins for the big shelves, plus two shelves so we actually have a spot for books now. The two units on the left are stacked now. They're the perfect height for Emilia to play with her microwave, and each little bin holds just the right amount of little toys. Right now they have lego (3 bins for 3 sets), playmobil, little puppy colouring set, 2 sets of stamps, stickers, etc. All the little things that would normally just be piled in one big bin and subsequently be dumped all over the place. 

There's still a ways to go, but I'm excited about the progress! We bought more shallow bins as well to put in Dom's room on his Trofast shelf. I'm like an ad for IKEA, yeesh!

2. A new washer/dryer. One of our anticipated goals (expenses) for 2021 was to replace our washer/dryer and hot water/furnace. They are both original from when our house was built, 13 years ago. We haven't had any issues with either, but a lot of our neighbours have replaced them, had them repaired, or had floods from their washer. We REALLY wanted to avoid having some sort of flood just because we delayed replacing/updating them too long. We noticed Jen & Ryan across the complex getting a delivery this week and I texted her for the details (we're nosey like that). Turns out they got a great boxing week sale on a washer/dryer set after doing lots of research. They have the same (but reversed) unit as us, so we did a little hunt online and decided to copycat them! We got an LG washer/dryer stacking set for 31% off. All in, including taxes, delivery, hoses, stacking kit, and removal of our old machines, it rang us less than $2,100. Not like we had that sitting around, but it was an inevitable 2021 expense, so... now it's done!

Out with the old (it hurts me to get rid of these machines that function just fine, but it's preventative...)

In with the new :) The washing machine is on and I can't even tell from downstairs. Our old one was so loud and it shook the house on certain cycles. 

3. A cleaned out linen closet. Ordering a new washer dryer made me realize what a mess our linen closet was. It's really small, but it was full of huge duvets and towels and sheet sets we never use. NO MORE!!

Before - yikes

After - floor space?! I also made room in our bedroom closet for our laundry basket. It will be so nice not to have that floating around our bedroom floor anymore. 

4. A surprise sunrise. On Tuesday I saw a pink hue through the blinds and opened them up to see the most incredible sunrise. This photo obviously doesn't do it justice, but I was expecting rain that day, so it was a great surprise. 

5. A healthy pregnancy. As much as I hate doing this "alone" (without the direct physical support of friends and family), I remind myself often how lucky I am to be doing this without any significant ailments or physical limitations. I am not on bed rest, my baby is healthy, I have the luxury of two independent children that allow me to sit down and blog sometimes, my baby keeps me up at night kicking me because it's growing and thriving... I do not take this for granted. 

Thankful for this sweet boy <3

6. These two have each other. I am thankful every day that Dom & Emilia have each other. They drive each other (and us) crazy sometimes, but much of the time they are best friends and compliment each other so well. 

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year this evening!

24 Weeks (SEGA GAME GEAR) - 3.0: Dec 22-28

 

• Not a whole lot has changed this week. I've noticed some weight gain which is good. Good considering I should be gaining weight, and good because if I didn't gain weight the way I've been eating the last couple weeks I'd be concerned! Haha
• I have started producing colostrum. I am so determined to have a better supply breastfeeding this time. My body has not responded to pumps very well in the past, so it will probably just depend largely on baby's motivation to work.
• The other evening I noticed some rhythmic bumping/twitching in my lower abdomen. Ahhh yes... baby has the hiccups!
• I feel like I am not in as much hip/SI Joint pain as I was with Emilia at this point, but maybe that's still coming. I'm sure my workouts are helping though! I'm definitely in better shape! I do the Beach Body Prenatal Barre Blend 5-6 times per week at least. I recommend!

Now because there's not a lot to say this week, here are some bare belly shots!

All those battle scar stretch marks from the previous two pregnancies. I'm noticing some more starting to appear above my belly button this time too. 

And Emilia my little photoshoot buddy. Every week both the kids come up to our room for the photoshoot. They're usually just goofing off on our bed. I am so glad I painted our room this year! I still love the white and navy :)

Natural light (white) vs. artificial light (YELLOW!) What a difference.

Dominic's Birthday Celebration

Oh 2020 Holiday season! Yesterday Dominic turned 4, and all he wanted to do was have his family over to see them and show them all his new things. "We can blow up balloons and have Rebecca come over so I can show her my new toys and we can play!" Sorry hun... hard to explain this to a 4-year-old. 

That being said, our family did make an effort to make Dominic feel special yesterday, and all things considered I think it was a really lovely day for him! He woke up a little early, and Dave brought him down. We had blown up balloons and put up the HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign, so he was all excited. We had leftover cinnamon buns for breakfast with candles in it, and then we gave Dom his big present from us. Since the summer Dom has been saying for his birthday he wants a pedal bike. We got one off marketplace for him a few months ago, and brought it up to show him yesterday morning. It definitely needs a tune up, but for right now it is perfect. Dom is quite cautious about new things, so we didn't put any pressure to ride it or anything like that. Dave showed him how it works, and how the pedals turn the wheels, etc. Then Dom asked to ride it. Umm... okay?! We (Dave) pushed him around the kitchen a couple times, and then we brought it downstairs to lower the seat. They did a few laps around our driveway with Dom trying to learn the motor skills of pedaling. I am shocked he was so willing to hop on and give it a go! He'll be a pro by Spring or Summer I'm sure! It helps that he's been riding his strider bike (2-wheeler with no pedals) for a long time, and understands the concept of balancing and steering on 2 wheels. 

We had a couple gifts that had been dropped off for Dom by people who wouldn't be able to see him on his birthday. When we said we were going to open the gift from Great Opa & Oma, he right away asked to Zoom with them for the gift opening. So sweet! We did a quick Zoom chat with them as he opened his gift and they wished him a Happy Birthday. I love that it was his idea entirely. 

We came inside and played for a while, and made cupcakes. I had plans to give cupcakes to every visitor that came by, but I missed 5/9 people... D'OH! The weather yesterday was supposed to be a little dreary in the morning, and then sunny the rest of the day, so we planned for lots of fun outdoor visits. Mom and Dad came at 11:15, and it was raining, so they masked up and came inside. They brought Dom a helium balloon and a wrapped gift. From them, he opened his Lego Star Wars X-Wing set! We spent the next half hour building it and he hasn't let it out of his sight since. 

Around 12:15 he got upstairs for quiet time, and then at 1:00 Scott & Ash came by for their Happy Birthday visit. They stayed at the door, but brought Dom a gift and a chocolate cupcake! At 1:15 Uncle Jeff showed up with an exchanged hockey net from Christmas (it came missing some pieces). We set it up in the garage, and he and Dom got some hockey play and rough-housing in. Dom needs this rough kind of play, and it totally filled his bucket. He hasn't laughed like that in a while. When he decided he was ready for a break Jeff and Dave played for a bit; I think that filled Dave's bucket too haha. 

Only picture he would allow me to take of him eating his chocolatey chocolate cupcake from Scott & Ashleigh

Emilia was asleep for all of this, but I guess Dom told her about it, because all afternoon and evening she kept laughing and saying, "UNCLE DUNK!" (Dom used to called Jeff Uncle Dump for some reason so now they say it to be silly).

At 2:30, Grandpa came to visit and wish Dominic a happy birthday! He brought another Star Wars themed gift, and after he was gone, I spent some time playing with Dom and his Star Wars sticker book! 

We didn't plan a birthday dinner for Dom, because I knew he would request pancakes, but we had just had cinnamon buns for breakfast. So dinner was just leftovers - nothing formal! He doesn't care though - his favorite meal is breakfast anyway haha. Just after dinner, the doorbell rang, and Aunty Rachel, Uncle Kyle and Rebecca had come to say Happy Birthday too! They brought Dom a gift, and we sat on the stairs to chat for a few minutes through the front door. We got a kids version of Jenga called "Wobbly Worms". It's already been played with lots haha. 

Thank you to everyone for making Dominic feel special on his 4th birthday! Getting to see some people face to face (or mask to mask) was a special treat! Now let's all do our part so we can get these restrictions loosened and have a big family dinner to celebrate everything that was missed this year! 

Dominic - 4 Years Old

This year has been so different for our kids, but it's reminded me of their resilience, adaptability, and what really matters to them. Dominic is becoming an incredible little boy. His nature is so kind, gentle, warm and patient. Of course he's still 4 so he has his moments, but at his best, he is exactly what you'd dream for in a 4-year-old! 

Weight: 43-44 lb  (95th percentile) 
Height: 43.5 inches (95th percentile)

Likes:

• Garbage trucks - he was a garbage man for Halloween, he tracks his days of the week based on who's garbage day it is, and he received no less than 3 garbage trucks for Christmas! A little Hot Wheels one, a Lego one, and a bigger one that makes sounds and has levers to lift and dump garbage. Dominic heaven!
• Star Wars - I'm sure there's some level of "I get attention because I like Star Wars", but I also just feel like he really likes it. He's never seen the actual movies, but knows quite a bit from Lego Star Wars movies/shows. He had a few books and knows more about the characters than I do, and will correct my knowledge. The other day he had some narrative going as he ran around with his lightsaber (also a Christmas gift) about someone trying to steal the holocrons. That's beyond me. 
• Cars - fear not, his love for cars hasn't wavered. We got him a bigger (1:18 scale) Ferrari for Christmas. When he opened it, he goes, "A LA FERRARI!" Like who the heck knows what KIND of Ferrari it is? Again, beyond me. 
• Preschool - he loves his preschool friends 
• Breakfast food - cereal, pancakes, waffles, cinnamon buns, etc. This boy is definitely his father's son when it comes to interests and preferences. 
• The kids don't watch a lot of TV, but when they do, their most frequent requests are: Lego Star Wars, Mickey Mouse Club House, Racing Cars (Pixar's Cars)
• Tomatoes - he will sit and eat an entire container of grape tomatoes in one sitting. Weirdo. 

Notes:

• Size 5T clothing, size 11 shoes
• Started preschool in September (two 4-hour days a week), and frequently talks about his new friends. We plan for Emilia to join him one of two days in January and he's already begun teaching her about his friends and the routines at preschool.
• Everything is a competition/race (eating, colouring, puzzling... everything). Again, more of his Dad's personality! 
• Short attention span for art usually. He scribbles a couple times and is on to the next thing. Super age appropriate, but we're working on finishing tasks we've started, or cleaning up before moving on to the next thing. 
• Excellent pattern recognition - not a new thing, but still quite evident!
• Can count to 100 with a little help (mostly just reminding him which 10 multiple comes next.
• Can write his name, and recognize all of our names and some other random words (like Zoo) haha. I was opening up a Zoom call and he's like, "Mommy, why does this Zoo have an M on the end?" 
• He has been a huge help with Emilia's potty-training. He's her number 1 encourager and always cheers her on to get to the potty in time! (It's been a great success)
• He will generally sit with us for all of mealtime and usually eats what we serve. We try not to apply any pressure. We could probably use some more tools for keeping them at the table longer, but we try to be realistic. I think they say 2 minutes for every year they've been around? So we can realistically expect 5 minutes of table time from Emilia, and 8 minutes from Dom? Or something like that. They last longer than that 90% of the time, so we're starting from a good baseline!
• He is very excited about his new brother or sister. He loves to feel the baby kick, and feels like baby is playing with him. The way his face lights up when he's asked about feeling baby is possibly the sweetest thing ever. 
• He is always the "-est" at everything. "Mommy, I am the smartest/fastest." "I am too smart for you." "I am too good." No questioning his self-esteem when it comes to intelligence haha. Again, super age appropriate I've learned. 
• COVID has been pretty smooth sailing for him. He's introverted, so while he misses his play date friends sometimes, he's happiest at home with us. He definitely misses seeing family though, but we're in touch via Zoom with them often enough that there hasn't been any recognition issues or anything thank goodness. 
• He's very complimentary of others and patient with his friends (and sometimes Emilia). "Mommy, you look like a princess!" for example. With his friends, he wants to share his knowledge and experiences/toys with them too. He brought his new garbage truck all the way to Abbotsford when we dropped off gifts with Rachel and Kyle to show Rebecca. He was very patient and showed her all the parts and encouraged her to try them all too, and made sure she was understanding and having fun with his toy. 
• He does shorter quiet times now (sad, but I knew this day would come). He usually lasts 45-75 minutes in his room before he comes down. Sometimes less. He knows that it's still my quiet time when he comes down, and usually keeps to himself (ish)... as much as a 4-year-old with lots of questions about life can. 
• He can "read" an analog clock. He knows what all the "o'clocks" look like and "thirties". So if we say, "you can come out of your room after 1:00," he knows what we mean. We got him a "Cars" clock for Christmas to hang in his room, and I think that will be really helpful for his quiet times.
• He and Emilia play very nicely together as long as they're both fed - hanger is the ultimate shit-disturber between them. 
• He still has his favourite naptime blanket, but it pretty much stays in his bed now unless he's not feeling well or needs a special snuggle downstairs. He also only sucks his fingers when he's falling asleep now. Slowly growing out of his baby-ish comfort habits.

We love you Dominic!

A 2020 Christmas Season

 I think our Christmas festivities are complete now, and we have Dominic's birthday tomorrow, and then no plans for the remainder of lockdown. This year with not being able to do a lot of our regular traditions, we had the opportunity to create our own traditions with our little family. This is the first year we've done an Advent Calendar, stockings, gifts, and a special Christmas breakfast. I may have overcompensated feeling like I had to make up for the year of weirdness, but it was really a lot of fun and a great distraction for me. It made my heart feel good to make things special for the kids and us still when a lot of the special had been taken away for me. 

This year on Christmas Eve, we did a Zoom chat with Bo Bo Moma. We were hoping to do a window visit, but Elim is on lockdown, so that wasn't a possibility. Zoom it is! The kids were absolutely thrilled to see her (and everyone else) on Zoom. They yelled Merry Christmas, showed her some toys, and smiled and were goofy. We held up signs and one said "Merry Christmas Oma! (Bo Bo Moma)". She apparently always gets a little more silly and animated when she reads Bo Bo Moma. It's clear she knew who we all were, but was still a little confused. She asked to see my belly, and made a comment about the kids being wild. Over all it was a nice way to visit given the circumstances. 

I don't know what's gotten into me with my, "I don't like baking" attitude, but I decided this season to make a loaf of sourdough for our whole family, which is 8 loaves (including our own). When I was done with that, I decided, "Hey! I'll make homemade cinnamon buns for the first time ever as a special Christmas breakfast!" I think my "nesting" behaviour is taking a different angle this year. Normally it's painting or redoing a room (not that that hasn't crossed my mind too), but maybe I got all my painting out of our system when I painted our entire house white last year, and then our bedroom and powder room this year. Oh and we (Dave) painted the office this year too. 

Our Christmas Day loaf

After Christmas Eve dinner (which was French fries and cesar salad... apparently I was so focused this season on ensuring everything was perfect, I completely forgot about the fact that we had to eat real food at some point...), we let the kids open their stockings, got changed into jammies, and watched the Christmas Eve service together. Dave filmed the whole thing, but didn't have to edit it this time which was a blessing. The whole Christmas Eve Service team did an amazing job. I got emotional watching the service about... well everything. I've been emotional in general lately. It was beautiful, I loved the music, the monologue at the beginning was very fitting, but most of all, I was sad that we weren't all there enjoying it in person. It was a perfect substitute for the regular Christmas Eve, but something about it made everything hit home again. I missed my family, I missed my church, I missed my friends, I missed normalcy. A good little cry and I was okay again haha. I'll have to re-watch to catch the sermon though, because sugar-high kids and trying to listen to a sermon do not go hand in hand. 

After we finally got the kids to bed, Dave and I had a quiet evening with just the two of us. We ate some snacks, opened our gifts for each other (we haven't done gifts in a few years), played a game, and did some scratch & wins. I got every thing off my list this year which is so awesome! Some people think Christmas lists are boring, but I think they're genius. I got all things this year that I actually needed/wanted. Even people who bought off-list somehow hit the nail on the head. Dave got me a fruity smelly candle, a dough scraper for my sourdough, a teapot, and a curling wand :). I got him new kitchen scissors, sweatpants, a Nike Dri-fit compression shirt, and skipping ropes. 

Our game of crib post-gifts and snacks was hilarious. We made it 3/4 of the way through the game and then this hand came up as we were counting points... 

Before the game, we did our due diligence, and counted the deck to make sure there were 52 cards - perfect. There were! So we played. We had a good laugh about this, and then when I (inevitably) won the game, we decided to lay out the whole deck and found this to be what we were playing with. Haha!! How on earth did it take us that long to notice?! 

Christmas morning, we were up at 6 as usual (Dave actually may have been up at 5, I can't remember), and I got the cinnamon buns in the oven for our special breakfast. The littles were up at 7 and helped me make the icing (aka licked the beaters). After breakfast we invited them over to the tree and they opened their gifts from us. The vast majority of their gifts from us were either from Marketplace, or things we'd accumulated over the year and saved for Christmas. Emilia got some Play Mobil that I actually intended to give her for her birthday, for example. Emilia also got a sweeping/cleaning set (Marketplace), a Berenstain Bears 10-story book (Costco), and a Minnie Mouse microwave that actually makes sound, spins, and beeps... SO COOL! (also from Facebook). 

Dominic got... some cars that we got for free from a neighbour like two years ago, a clock from the dollar store, a Star Wars book (Marketplace), and his La Ferrari Dave picked up from Costco like 5 months ago). 

After some playing with toys we got a text from Aunty Sonya saying Santa had dropped a couple things at our front door. We waited until she got home, and then did a Zoom call with her so the kiddos could open their gifts with her. Emilia opened a floor puzzle and a Minnie Mouse Hot Wheels car, and a Minnie Mouse stuffy! (Later that day when they were opening gifts via Zoom with Rebecca, we found out she was also gifted the same Minnie Mouse stuffy!). Dominic was gifted a Hot Wheels garbage truck, and a Lego garbage truck! I'm so excited that Lego is making its way into our household! I love Lego. 

"Uncle Scott is a garbage man"

We quickly dropped by my parents' place to bring them some cinnamon buns, and then back home to play for a bit and have nap/quiet time. After naptime, we had a little Zoom meeting with my Opa and Oma, just to say Merry Christmas, and so we could chat for a few. The kids were hamming it up again. Dom just loves to show everyone what he got for Christmas. After that call, there was a big Gerber family Zoom call which was total chaos and cacophony, but it was fun to see everyone's faces! 

After this call I realized we don't have Christmas dinner. Everyone was rattling off their fancy dinner plans and we had nothing. Everything is closed so we couldn't even do takeout. Mom and Dad EVER SO GENEROUSLY dropped off some leftovers from their shortrib dinner for Dave and I to eat. Oh my gosh. So delicious. So much better than the bacon and eggs we were going to end up eating otherwise (sorry kids, they got stuck with that still haha). 

I forgot to take pictures, but at 4:00 we had our Kimber kid Christmas gift opening. We Zoomed David's family and the kids took turns opening gifts with Rebecca. They opened some really cool gifts, and were way over excited and overstimulated! They're getting used to this Zoom thing though which makes it more fun and interactive haha. Emilia was gifted two Baby Yoda t-shirts, and Rebecca showed that she had matching ones, so that's super cute. (Emilia was very excited about the Yoda shirts because Dom always gets the Star Wars things, and now she has her own Star Wars something). We spent the rest of the evening before bedtime playing with new toys. Dom and I played Snakes & Ladders (minus the snakes and ladders since he's just learning, so pretty much... roll to 100) and he won, and then we built his other new Lego set which was a bulldozer and a wrecking ball. 

At 7:30/8:00 it was time for the Kimber grown up Zoom Christmas! Lots of time spent on Zoom this day, but it's just a part of life now, and we're all used to it making it easier to connect. We exchanged gifts, and then played some online games. The gifts I received were hilarious, because they were off-list, but almost every single one of them happened to be something I/we needed. A couple candles (I used up my last candle a few weeks ago, so now I'm stocked back up for a while), gloves (I lost mine last week), a hummingbird feeder (ours broke a week go), a deck of Harry Potter cards (well, you saw our card situation from Christmas Eve!), scrunchies (I just started wearing scrunchies, but only have one), and I may be missing another one or two things, but it was hilarious and awesome. 

Now it's Boxing Day, and we all came down to an overwhelming mess of toys and toys and toys and toys. Dave and I scrambled to get things semi-organized as it was clear it was too much stimulation for the kids as they jumped from one activity to the next every 35 seconds. We hopped online and spent $200 at IKEA ordering some storage solutions, and put some things away that didn't have to be out anymore. Once we got it to a manageable level the kids played nicely together for an hour. Quiet time was also more successful today because Dom had the clock in his room, and lots of new stuff to play with!