Thankful Thursday 231 - A Week of Gramma

1. Help! As I mentioned in my previous post, David is away this week hiking at Wells Gray Provincial Park. His mom decided to stay home and will go up there with Rachel & Rebecca this Saturday. She has been the greatest help this week when I really needed it most! (Thank goodness, because it was terrible timing for Dave to go away!). 

She's spent every day with us, sometimes a full day, sometimes just the morning or evening. I haven't actually had to cook hardly at all. Here are some photos from the week so far.

I walked Sherlock and met up with them at the park.

On Tuesday I dropped the kidlets off in the morning, and then had a whole self-care day that was SO needed I can't even begin to explain. I was planning to come home and get some stuff done on my to do list, but threw all that out the window. I booked myself a mani-pedi (first time I've ever done this for myself), and took a nap, and indulged in a rare treat!

Oh ya. I went there!

Aunty Rachel and Rebecca came over to play for a bit too, so here's all the kiddies playing in the sand box! Hiker may have loved it a little too much! 

He was zipping around in and out of the sandbox digging and just getting the puppy zoomies! So cute

Back to Gramma's for dinner and ice cream cones!

Emilia was blown away by the ice cream cone. She kept pulling her head back and just saying, "Yum." Over and over. I wish I could have gotten video of it. Something about it was just too cute!

2. More help! Jeff and Marta offered to take Sherlock for us for a couple days, particularly while I'm doing my first two full days at the midwives, so that Shelley doesn't have two kids, her puppy, and Sherlock! And so that I don't have to worry about walking him on top of everything else. They took him on his birthday! August 26 <3. I've missed his company in the evenings, but am glad to have that bit of responsibility off my chest!

3. Chickaletta baby #...15? Welcome to the world Lucy Wilhelmina! Dom was quite convinced you were going to be a boy, but thinks you're pretty cute anyway :) Congratulations to Katrina and Brayden on their 4th (and final?) baby! Born August 27 - 7lb 6 oz. Exact same size as Emilia!

And something random... I've heard that when my brother Jeff was little, he'd insist on reading the same Berenstain Bears book(s) over and over again. We all tease him about it to this day. Alas... It appears Dom has this very same affliction. I have read this book 3 days in a row now haha! There are so many behavioural/temperamental similarities between Uncle Dump (Jeff) and Dom.

Keep Trucking

We watched Frozen 2 today. #survivalmode

Whew! I completely missed Thankful Thursday this week! How is it Sunday again already?!

Dave and I were both really busy last week. On Tuesday I went in to the Spartan Foundation office for a few hours, and hew as in Penticton/Osoyoos all day for work. He left at 430am, and got home at 930pm! I also worked Thursday/Friday at the midwives, and he was working the other days as well. I'm poopered! 

Yesterday David left to go to Wells Gray Provincial Park for a hiking trip with his dad and some family friends. He will be gone for a full week. I don't know whether it's the adjustment of Dave being gone, or adjusting to me being out of the house a lot more after so many months of just our family in our house all the time or what, but it's taking an obvious toll on the kids. They've been acting out more than usual, and are being more clingy/needy than usual. Especially Emilia.

I made muffins with the kids today. This is an accurate depiction of how I felt after accomplishing that

Yesterday, for Emilia's nap, she fought it for the first time ever (that I can remember). She cried and just wanted to cuddle and kept calling for me. This is SO not like her. I finally took her into my bed where I was also trying to nap and she finally fell asleep. She tried at bedtime too, saying she was sad, and she needed to cuddle Mommy. She cried for 10 minutes straight before finally falling asleep. First thing she did when she woke up in the morning was call for me and get sad. She is my champion sleeper, so this is foreign territory for me! I am okay to leave her to sort it out, but I still feel bad that she's struggling. It's like she suddenly has separation anxiety around bedtime or something. To be fair, she's also getting her two top molars, so she's been a little extra cranky because of that. 

Not complaining (how could I?! She was so cute napping beside me), just interesting that she's suddenly having these issues, and that it happens to coincide with David going away haha!

It looks like I'll have lots of help this week though which is amazing. David's mom stayed back from the trip this week and will go up next weekend, so she's helping me out lots, and watching the kids while I work this week. My mom is back to work, but has also offered to help when she can. It takes a village!

Lucky I love you Emilia. "Mommy tuddle. Me haaad :("

Sherlock, why so awkward?! Remember that major rain storm we had a few days ago? I was out walking Sherlock and Emilia in it haha. I don't ever recall being caught in rain like that. This picture was before the big rain even started. People were coming out of their houses to watch the rain and I'm there just trudging through it. It was like being in a shower! Amazing. Sherlock probably disliked it the most since it kept pelting his eyes so he couldn't see and just walked with his eyes closed during the downpour :).

Other than this, I don't even know what to write about! I've just been coasting along, taking it day by day, looking forward to my next sleep haha! Looking forward to a day where I can eventually slow down again and focus on some self-care. Even yoga had taken a hit for a while, but I'm trying my best to get back up to 5-6 times a week again. At least I'm putting this evening all to myself to good use so far! 

Oh! The Canucks! The start of Round 2 (vs Golden Knights) starts tonight. I watched every game of Round 1, and it's actually feeling like a promising year! Not sure I'll use my quiet evening by myself to watch a full hockey game, but at least I'd like to keep up to date on it! 

We gave David Dom's little R2D2 toy to take pictures of on his trip to send us, so then Dom can see the adventures he's going on. Here are the first three we've received! Haha

I'm grateful Dave has the opportunity to go do this trip, and that I have help back here at home. I'm trying not to be jealous. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd ever get to leave and have complete freedom from responsibility and home life for a full week. Maybe one day... girls trip to an all inclusive?!?! :)

Family Weekend - Party, Panthers, Picnic, Playoffs, & Pizza

Sometimes I like to feel like Captain Turbot when I title my blog posts. Sometimes it means I have to stretch a little bit haha.

Such a superb weekend! Friday afternoon we went to my parents' place to watch the hockey game (great 2nd win for the Canucks!), and then the rest of the siblings joined for dinner and we put the kids to bed there. We were celebrating Adam's birthday, Marta's birthday, and Scott & Ashleigh's first anniversary. We celebrate a lot :)

Mom walked out of the kitchen with this after earlier saying, "You guys, I didn't put any thought or effort into snacks for later - I'm sorry." Okay then Ma!

Saturday morning we woke up with no plans whatsoever. I was determined to get some chores done! Instead, we ended up packing up to go to the zoo for the morning. I think it's the first time we went with just the 4 of us. It was hot, but a nice morning outing. Also, in addition to the 3 baby grizzly cubs, the zoo now has two black panther cubs. They're where the porcupine was. Curious what their story is! We then came home and all took a 2 hour nap. Glorious! I went to check on Dom at 3:00 because I hadn't heard anything. When I walked into his room, I hear this whimpering. I couldn't find him. I checked his bed, under his bed, beside his bed, etc. Finally I see he has crammed himself into the second spot on his IKEA Trofast shelf and he fell asleep in it, curled up in a ball. He was completely drenched in sweat, and obviously uncomfortable. Poor guy!

Dom rode his bike pretty much the whole time. He had two decent tumbles and came home with scraped knees and elbows, but was a total trooper.

She was not happy with me for this one.

Dom was way up ahead on his bike so he didn't make the cut for this shot. 

Sunday both David and I had to be at church (he was on media and I was playing bass again). Scott & Ashleigh came over and took the kids to Tynehead in the morning. After church was over, we came home to them and my parents making crepes at our house! Now that's a Sunday morning I could get used to! After they left, it was naptime/quiet time, so we all rested.

After naptime we packed up and went to Gramma & Grandpa's house for dinner. Rachel, Kyle and Rebecca were there too. It was probably the hottest day of the year though. I think it was high of 33, feels like 39, with no breeze. We actually brought the standing fan outside to make it remotely tolerable. 

This is kinda like a picnic right? 

These kids are so cute together. Dom & Rebecca usually go off and play together, and Emilia revels in the independent play time she so rarely gets at home. It's a great arrangement for everyone!

We came home to get the kids to bed. While we were out, we had set up our good A/C in the basement to cool it down to watch the Canucks v. Blues hockey game. Scott, Ashleigh and Selena came over for the game and oh was it ever nice to have the refreshing cooler air in there! No turning back now! Definitely doing the same thing for the game tonight. We should just sleep down there. We lost the game, but with the series at 2-1 in our favour still, I'm feeling optimistic. 

Today we were invited to Opa & Oma Gerber's for brunch! We got there at 10, and left at noon. Opa made this incredible breakfast pizza. I would happily pay for that in a restaurant for sure. After lunch Opa turned on the sprinkler and Dom was allllll over that. He spent almost an hour running around in the sprinkler, and watering the garden. 

It's been a very long time since we've hung out with just Opa & Oma, since before COVID for sure. I'm grateful for this beautiful weather so we can all stay outdoors and do things like this! I'm not looking forward to the fall/winter when we can't gather because we'll have to be indoors. 

Very dutifully watering every plant in the yard.

As we were leaving the "vacuum truck" was close to Opa & Oma's, so Dom went out to show them and talk about it.

Thankful Thursday - 230 & Lately

This week I am thankful for...

1. Spontaneous Quaran-Team double date! Scott and Ash were spending their anniversary weekend downtown, and I had the idea to see if they were interested in going out for dinner one evening together. We very very rarely actually go out and do things with the 4 of us, we're always just at our place playing games and hanging out. Mom and Dad took the kids for dinner and put them down for bed at their house. We went to Vancouver and had dinner at Via Tevere, followed by ice cream from Earnest, a walk around False Creek, and then a visit in their hotel for a bit before it was time to go home. Poor Dom had just fallen asleep when we went to get him up from Opa & Oma's. I was nervous they'd treat it as a nap because it was still light out, but they both didn't make a peep when they went back to bed at home. Whew! Worth it!

Back when COVID started and we agreed to continue to see each other through the lockdowns, I cleverly renamed our WhatsApp chat "Quaran-Team". So now that's what we are.

Waiting in line for our Earnest ice cream. Scott said once he came by on a rainy, cold winter evening and there was a 40 minute lineup outside of people trying to get into Earnest... to get ice cream... IN THE WINTER! Must be some darn good ice cream! (Spoiler alert. I do not regret waiting in line for our ice cream one bit).

Man, Vancouver is so beautiful

View from their hotel room - 22nd floor

2. Firm Boundaries. Dom and Emilia sharing a room has been awesome, except when he wakes her up at 530 or 6 to talk. One morning at 545 I went to get him knowing he had to pee, and told him he had to go back to bed. He started having a meltdown so I said, "Okay Dom, it's not time to get up yet, so you can either go be quiet in your room, or go be quiet in Emilia's crib." Well... he opted to say, "Nothing." so he was put in Emilia's crib. He was not too pleased, but it was fine. Now this week he tried to pull the same thing at 6am, so I went in there and said he had to be quiet because Emilia is still sleeping. He fought me initially, and then I gave him the same choices. He quieted right down and stayed quiet in bed until 7am. Winning!!

Emilia's crib is technically a mini-crib, which makes this actually quite comical. There is more space above (below?) his head, but it's still a tighter fit.

3. Locking doors and windows. Every year we have this spider that lived in the top corner outside our office door. This year though, it's about twice the size of other years. It has eaten an average size wolf spider (or whatever it is), and you can see the size comparison between the dead one and this behemoth. I had a nightmare about it where it was chasing me the other night. As long as it stays in that corner I'll survive... hopefully...

*SHUDDER SHUDDER*

4. Slow days at home. Now that I'm busier with work and stuff, I'm relishing in my quiet days where my to do list is small! Lots of playing outside, getting some chores done (I know that's a to do list thing, but whatever), reading books, and playing with my speedy-growing children. Time seems extra fast/slow/weird during these COVID months. 

Nice walk with Sherlock on Sunday and we met this horse. Sherlock and the horse were nose to nose at one point, but I missed the photo op :)

Spot the quiet-time Dom

Blackberries right by our house. The kids were devouring them so I thought I'd give one a try. Oh my goodness. They are so sour. Why do they like these?!

Making post-bathtime, pre-bedtime memories reading by flashlight in Emilia's bed

Different day than the above horse/Sherlock photo, but he got nose-to-nose on camera with this pony!

I took Dom on my walk with the dog yesterday and he actually did so well! We visited the horses, which reminds me of my childhood. We grew up with this horse field very close to our house and we'd walk up there to feed and pet the horses all the time. Dixie and Omar :)

5. The collapsing economy. Just kidding, but we did just renew our mortgage and got a 4-year fixed rate of 1.99%!! Five years ago when we bought our house we got a "record low" rate of 2.59% for 5 years. Glad I held out when they were trying to get me to renew a month ago at 2.59% again! 

6. Flyers! We very rarely eat red meat at home, but the top sirloin was on sale at Independent so I ordered two huge steaks and they came in at less than $10! WINNING! Dave cooked them to perfection and we had such a yummy dinner. It doesn't happen often that I/we cook like this just for ourselves, but it was really nice. 

Mmmmmmm I'm that guy! Taking pictures of my meals :)

I boiled the potatoes, cooked the bacon, blanched the beans, and sauteed the onions/mushrooms earlier in the day so that at dinner all we would have to do is cook the steak and warm things up. That's the way to do it!

7. Another Chickaletta play date. I miss our weekly play dates! We still try, but the weather has been hit or miss the last few weeks. Luckily today was a beautiful, though a bit chilly at times, morning.