Thankful Thursday - 248 & Lately

Such a beautiful sunshine-y day! I am so looking forward to Spring coming - my favorite season! So much hope, brightness, new life, longer days, etc. 

This week I am thankful for...

1. A visit with Bobo Moma! Elim is allowing window visits again! They weren't for a long time as they were in outbreak and/or had enhanced protocols, but my mom arranged one yesterday for the kids and I to go with her. Dom was receptive to the whole thing, and suggested we bring her a sign which he made himself. We go up to the window at Elim and an aide brought Oma out. She lit up right away seeing the kids and I (the kids especially). I guess she's more used to seeing her own children, but the little ones are way more fun haha. We called the phone in there and she sort of held the receiver and chatted away while we held up notes for her to read (she can't hear on the phone, so that's not an effective way to communicate). Dom engaged with her through the window and played some peekaboo; Emilia was a bit more shy which is totally fair. I had low expectations for them, but knew it would be fun for Oma to see them. 

I haven't seen her in person since last February, before her health took a downturn, so this was a big deal for me personally as well, and I'm so glad we could make it work!

Peekaboo!

"We should make Bobo Moma a sign!"
"Good idea, Dom! What do you want it to say?"
"Ummm.. I love you?" 

Too cute! Love this preschooler lettering.

2. Another outdoor visit. Some of my siblings at I "happened to bump into" my parents at the park by their house last Saturday. It was a dry day, so we grabbed a coffee and hung out more than 6ft apart while the kids played on a blanket and at the playground. Mom and Dad masked up and came and both got to feel the baby kicking (yay! It happened at least once before baby arrives haha!) I can't wait until we can do this without an invisible measuring stick between us all, and without yelling our personal life updates across the park at each other (a slight exaggeration). 

Hard to explain to them why we couldn't go to Opa and Oma's and continue playing with their toys after the park. Sorry guys... soon enough!

3. I didn't burn the house down. Let me paint a picture for you here... 
It's Saturday morning, and I've been prepping and baking loaves of sourdough for the past two days. I'm exhausted and life feels busy. I pop my second loaf of the morning in the oven, turn on some loud music for the kids, and go to move the car for David as he goes out to a shoot. I come back in to a smell of smoke. Hmm... strange... I open the oven briefly and it's billowing smoke. SMOKE DETECTOR!!!! The kids both run to the couch and plug their ears, pretty wary of the situation. I can't figure out why the oven is smoking so bad, so I get the smoke detector off and go to investigate again. I warn the kids it will beep again. Again, it's billowing smoke, SMOKE DETECTOR!!! Kids are starting to get more concerned and I take the lid off the pot and see that the bread is BLACK! I know I need to get it out of the oven, and get this smoke detector turned off, and get the smoke out of the house. Game plan. Turn off smoke detector again, open all the doors, and rush the bread out to the deck. Here we go. I turn off smoke detector (6 month pregnant woman precariously standing on stool waving a towel and trying to reach the button to turn off the beep). I open the doors and windows on the main floor. The kids are still on the couch plugging their ears. Moment of truth - I open the oven again and rush the pot outside. SMOKE DETECTOR!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! I go back in and just need to get this smoke cleared out. I try to use a towel to fan smoke away from the smoke detector but it is way too smoky so it won't even turn off. A fan! I run upstairs to get the fan, and the smoke detector upstairs is going off too and yelling, FIRE! FIRE! The kids don't like that I leave and they finally reach their breaking point and start bawling on the couch. So, now we have... SMOKE DETECTOR!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! FIRE! FIRE! SCREAMING CHILDREN! Okay, okay. I can do this! Nothing left to do but get back up on that stool and try to get the smoke detector to turn off. It's still too smoky and it won't go off when I press the button the first few times. We have pregnant lady on a stool waving a towel around, all the doors are open so the neighbours hear everything, black bread smoking on the deck, two kids crying on the couch, two smoke detectors beeping and yelling "FIRE", loud random kids music on. I've got this! Just then, a kids rendition of Sherlock's favourite song comes on the speaker (Uptown Funk - Bruno Mars). so NOW we have... SMOKE DETECTORS!!! LOUD MUSIC!!! FIRE! FIRE! SCREAMING CHILDREN!! and Sherlock runs into the living room, sits down, and starts HOWLING! At this point I, still on the stool, can do nothing more but laugh. Such a perfect picture of chaos. 

In the end, I got all the things taken care of and had a hilarious story come out of it. Yeesh!! I also successfully baked three more loaves of bread the next day with no traumatic incidents. 

I think the loaf was too big, and it touched the top of the hot pan and that was just too much for it to handle. Toasted!! Within less than 10 minutes. 

Phew! Still got it!

4. Another organization project. Aunty Sonya texted me about this free shelf in her neighbourhood, and I decided we could give it a try to maybe organize Emilia's closet a little bit better in preparation for the new baby! Success!

Before

After. We didn't take anything out I don't think other than the diaper genie, and actually added that basket of toys. It is just WAY better organized now! With room to spare! :)

5. Dom reconnecting with his playdate buddies. Henry & Sam got a couple Star Wars toys in their Kinder Surprises last week, so Katrina sent us a video asking if Dom could identify them. We did that, and then Dom wanted to do a video call with Henry & Sam to show them his ships. They spent like 45 minutes together on the video call just showing each other toys and giggling while Henry stuck things in his nose haha. It was great to see him remembering his friends and feeling connected again!

This show and tell business also reignited his joy for playing Paw Patrol which is an EXCELLENT quiet play activity. Woo hoo!

And here are a few other things we got up to in the last week that I could come up with "thankful" things for, but easier to just post the pictures haha. 

Dom spent some time chatting with the baby and telling it about his teddies

Sherlock the pillow whore. He loves the kids so much <3 This morning he ran upstairs ahead of me and went and got them each out of bed. He ran up into Dom's bunk and snuffled his ears, and then ran into Emilia's room and gave her kisses.

Bedtime stories with Aunty Sonya! I love this routine of occasionally having someone Zoom in to do bedtime stories. Best way to kill the half hour before bedtime, and a great excuse to get 90% of the bedtime routine (jammies, teeth, etc.) out of the way early!

David's on a clean eating kick (some fitness challenge with my brothers and dad), so this was one dinner this week. Caprese chicken (which was actually super easy and super yummy), beets and goat cheese balsamic spinach salad, and then some toasted sourdough for the kids and I. 

I have relaxed my strict-ish TV rules a little bit lately and am having zero regrets! It's still not every day, and mayyyybe one movie a week. Most days it's just a show or two before dinner if I don't have David's help, or before bed if I need to shower. This week though they started asking all these questions about Frozen and the plot and why things happened (we listen to the soundtrack a LOT), and I didn't know the answers. I was making dinner anyway, so I popped on the movie for them. Ahhhh yes. Such a great tool!! Emilia is a little afraid of the "snow monster" or "Wampa" as they call it. Every time she got the slightest bit nervous she pulled her blanket up to her face like this to keep her safe haha. Cuteness. 

For reference, here is the Frozen snow monster...

And here is a wampa from Star Wars...

Janine dropped off some clothes for Emilia from Jaia last week, and in it was this dress. It look sort of like an Elsa dress so I showed Emilia the other day and she put it on and ran around saying, "Me Elsa!!" 

Also, Dom in his Gryffindor sweater **swoon**

Big brother standing by. Why does he look like a teenager here? Sometimes I see flashes of what he may be like as a teenager. So weird to think about.