Lately - Survival Mode!

 Well my "lately" has been a whole lot of survival mode! In my last Thankful Thursday post, I was saying how Dom was getting sick. I don't know for certain what he had, but I'm thinking he got Hand Foot Mouth from school and brought it home with him. Apparently it can manifest in different ways for kids, and all 3 of my kids got sick, but all in different ways and at different times. First was Dom with fever, cough, etc. Then it was Eva with blisters on her feet, hands and mouth but no fever. Then Emilia with a low fever and blisters inside her mouth/throat. Dom was off school for two days (making it a 5 day weekend), and Emilia was off for one. 

Trying to keep the sickness away from everyone, we left fevered Dom upstairs watching garbage truck videos.

Eva stroking Dom's head as he rests on the couch

Whipped up some bubble foam for Eva. She didn't love is at much as I was hoping haha

On Sunday evening Mom came over so Dave and I could have a date after the kids went to bed. We couldn't really have anyone babysit the sickies, so we got them to bed first. We went to Barley Merchant for some beer and poutine. One more date night before he's gone for 8 days!

On Tuesday, which was Dom's first day back after being sick, Dave left for his hiking trip in Montana at 4am. Gramma was dropped off that afternoon and stayed with me for 4 nights. THANK GOODNESS! It was absolutely necessary to have an extra set of hands with these kids. 

Dom started his full days of kindergarten this week and that has been a major adjustment for him. He comes home completely tanked and all his feelings come out in very loud and sudden ways. He requires 100% of my attention just to decompress after the long days for a while. In that time, Eva also requires 100% of my attention because Eva. And then Emilia is feeling middle-childed, so she's also requiring 100%. And then dinner. And ahhhh!!! 

The days are so quiet while Dom is at school though. So I do get time to breathe. But anyway, I am so incredibly grateful Gramma stayed with us and helped out or I definitely would not have been able to do it. It was also nice to have some evening company, and I introduced her to Ru Paul's Drag Race haha! Now I just have 4 more days before Dave gets home... At least we're all healthy now. 

I couldn't believe how quiet it was in the house with Dom at school

Gramma got there just in time for school pick up the first day. Nice to have extra hands with the girls!

Emilia waiting for Dom to get out of class

He asked me to get the big lego bucket out of the closet because he really wanted to play lego. He could barely keep his eyes open but was so determined haha

I did some lego with him for a bit and built what I thought was a pretty sweet not very aerodynamic race car. He looked and said in an unimpressed tone, "Ah. A golf cart." Guess that's why I don't design cars haha.

Emilia dressed herself this day. She also had a canucks tshirt on under her pineapple dress. It was a lot haha

She begged to get there early for pickup so we could play on the playground.

Thank you Gramma for helping the first half of solo-parenting to be possible!

Yesterday morning my parents took Eva for a couple hours, and Aunty Sonya came over in the afternoon to play and help out and give me a break. I'm so thankful for this village! I get very overstimulated and overwhelmed with all the noise and neediness, so it's amazing to get these opportunities for breaks!

Brought some crafts to do with the kids <3

She tried to take the kids to the park so I could walk the dog, but first Emilia the Velcro child wouldn't go without me, and then when I tried to sneak away the dog wouldn't walk without the kids. I had an epiphany as we were walking though. Almost every time Dave or I try to take Sherlock for a walk with just one of us he refuses. He will go half a block and stop dead, refusing to go anywhere but back home. It is extremely frustrating because we know he wants/needs to walk, but he just won't. We ruled out pain, heat, etc. He wouldn't even go for treats. 

We've been going for more family walks lately since the kids ride their bikes and can keep up, and he walks great. Like an angel. No issues. 

After this walk, I realized he won't go with just one of us because the kids are still at home. Even when we were walking yesterday, he would not let the stroller and Eva get behind at all. He walked directly in line with the stroller the whole time. SO weird. At home he's pretty indifferent to the kids, especially Eva. So realizing he is actually extremely attached and protective of them is very interesting. 

I heard Dom playing at 630 this morning and peeked at the monitor. He was behind his blinds and I could hear him playing something on the window sill. I went to check later and found this. Something about it just makes me smile haha.

And here are some pictures Dave has sent from his trip. These are just the phone pics. He also brought both his cameras and will be coming back with some amazing photos and video I'm certain.

Eva - 17 Months

Eves is 17 months. Or was a few days ago. We got a surprise second dose of Hand Foot Mouth over here for her so everything is a few days behind. So far it's just her and it's mild, so hopefully it's just some sort of HFM relapse... Is that a thing? Since she had it in the summer? 

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Dominic at 17 months

Emilia at 17 months

Weight: 28.2 lbs (97th percentile)

Height: 33.5 inches (97th percentile)

Notes:

• Size 3T tops and 2T bottoms. Size 6 shoes and 5 diapers.
• She has... 10(ish) teeth. Two of her molars are through and she's been working hard on the other two. Her incisors are also in the works. Been a fun month.
• She had a week or two where she cried hysterically and wanted cuddles at every bedtime. I don't know if it was "just" teething, some sort of regression, or what. She's been a lot better, but this week has been a struggle again.
• This week is a sleep struggle because we did a room shift! Her and Emilia are now sharing a room so Dom can have his own room. Eva's crib faces the door so I think she gets upset watching us leave. I'm sure she will get used to it soon and stop fussing for an hour keeping Emilia awake every night. Right?...
• She basically repeats anything we say right back to us almost flawlessly. Her language is incredible. She's much more verbal than the other kids were at this age. I thought they were pretty good, but Eva is next level. I'd list all her words, but she gets 10 new ones every day so that's impossible. Here are a few of the frequent ones. 
• bottle (budl), cup (puh), shoes (zzchoos), basketball (bah-ball), belly button (buddybutta), book (buh!), thank you (dah tu), here you go (dee do), diaper/big poo (bih poo), blueberry (buhbeluby), "Oh Mommy", high chair (hi scha), cat (eeowww), banana (nana), happy, yes please (ya pee), cheese, all done (ohhhh dah), yummy (num num), bye bye, turtle (tutuhl), more (mowh!)
• Names she knows: Mama, Dada, Dom (Man), Emilia (Yaya), Oma, Opa, Gramma (Rama), Grandpa (Rampa), Phoebe (Bebe), Myles (Mayow), Owen (Owee), Wren (Naaaaa!), Eva (Eee-ah)
• She loves her babies, but Bunny and Blankie (Nana and Dee dee) are #1. 
• She's starting to string two words together here and there (Goodnight Bunny! = Nigh Nana!)
• If she poops in the other room or has a wet diaper she'll come find us, point to her diaper and say "bih poo." She handles diaper changes much better when it's on her terms.
• She can do a pretty good thumbs up.
• She can hold a tune and tries to sing along with most familiar songs.
• She's very friendly and will say hi to strangers
• She thinks she's one of the big kids with the neighbour girls (probably 8 and 10?). They come outside and she runs over and blabbers at them like they're supposed to understand, sits by them on the curb and continues blabbering and staring and being awkward. 
• Most people who don't know her assume she's 2. 
• She's getting much better with her fork, spoon, cup, etc.
• She's my first bathtime pooper. She's done it 3 or 4 times now. Gross. I disapprove. 
• She gets frustrated with her wooden puzzles. We just haven't done them enough with her since we don't get al ot of one on one time and D&E tend to take over. She knows where the pieces should go, but can't quite position them right. 
• She's learning independent play with the big kids in school!
• She's very very possessive of me and requires a lot of physical attention. This is exhausting, particularly when I have two other kids who also require a lot of physical attention. *breathe...*
• Can only go backwards on the ride on toys outside
• Loves to take off running through the fence/gate to the greenbelt when we play outside. Not cute!
• Loves being sprayed with the hose in the shower and does not mind getting her face wet at all. 
• She's a daredevil in the water. Someone get this kind into swimming lessons!
• We are still doing 2 bottles per day. We just switched from goats milk to full fat lactose free milk because I can't find goats milk anywhere lately! I could probably pretty easily ditch the bottle, but whatever. It's easy. It's temporary. It's the best way to get milk into her. 
• She's a pretty good eater. Most of the time she'll eat more than both other kids combined (particularly if it's some sort of pasta carb dinner). She doesn't love raw vegetables which is too bad because I often just throw out a plate of peppers and cucumbers. She will eat berries all day every day though. 
• She does better in the car. Still not good, but less screaming! More just whining most of the time. Keep improving, girl!

Cheeeese!

I love her cheesy smile <3

Thankful Thursday - 300

 My 300th Thankful Thursday post! That is pretty crazy.

This week I am thankful for...

1. Bath time buddies. It's rare they all get in the tub together. Making memories!

The iconic bath time photo. We all have one of these from our childhood right?

One example I have on hand. How much does Dom look like Jeff? Freaky. Not in the top photo necessarily, but in general.

2. Emilia's Preschool Transition. Emilia had her first couple days of preschool this week! It's a major transition for her because it's the first time she's every done anything(?) on her own without Dom. She was soooo proud the first day I picked her up to tell me she'd made a friend already. I can't wait to see how this year changes her and makes her feel so much more confident and independent! Drop off also went better than expected and she was very brave. 

On Thursday we kept Dom home from school as he seemed like maybe he's coming down with something so Emilia was at school all by herself. She said she was a little nervous at first, but then she "had a happy happy day!" 

3. Baptism Invite. I got the honour of being invited to see James be baptized at a private baptism over the weekend! I also got baby snuggles which is a boooonus.

4. Drop Offs & Kindergarten. So far school drop offs have been going pretty well. We get there early and go play on the playground for a bit. Dom has no use for me anymore and doesn't even kiss me goodbye. That happened quicker than I expected haha! 

We had our private meeting with his teacher yesterday. We booked a time slot and went in for 20 minutes. Dom nervously and very goofily showed Dave around the classroom for a minute, and then his teacher pulled out some "activities". It was basically an assessment to see where the kids are at at the beginning of the year with letters, numbers, etc. 

First she did numbers 1-20. He was answering them before she could get to them.
Next we did the capitalized alphabet. Easy peasy. Then we did lower case. he got probably 24/26 of them. Then she moved on to the sounds letters make. He got most of them, but wasn't sure about a few (mostly the vowels). Since he flew through all of that she got excited and grabbed a pen and paper and wrote out a few two-letter words to see where he's at with reading. We haven't done much with reading at all, and he'd never done those words before, but after she explained her way of teaching sounding words out he got the pattern and figured the last couple out on his own! 

Not that it's about perfection, but I could tell he felt really good and proud of himself. Apparently there are quite a few "high level" kids in his class, so that will be good for him. He won't get passed over, but he'll be challenged instead. 

Side note. I am obviously a perfectionist and probably have been forever. I distinctly remember when I was in Kindergarten doing a similar sort of "quiz". One on one, my teacher (Mrs. Langille for any of you John Knox-ers that might read this haha) held up letter cards and we had to say what sound they made. I got all of them correct except one. For "Q", I said "qu". She said, "Actually, Q makes the k sound on it's own! It just says "qu" when it's with a U." Of course that's one of my core memories from kindergarten. 
So in Dom's assessment, they got to letter Q, and he said, "I don't know" and she said, "Q makes the 'qu' sound." 
I could barely contain myself. EITHER SHE'S WRONG OR AFTER ALL THESE YEARS I ACTUALLY SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN 100% ON THE FIRST QUIZ OF MY LIFE! 
Haha I might have issues :)

Not actually from school, but they have a log playground there too

Seconds before she climbed up and flipped over doing a header into a faceplant into a very awkward somersault that looked incredibly painful.

5. A good puzzle. I don't often do puzzles, because when I do I get into a wormhole and everything else in life gets neglected. At least I can accomplish a 1000 piece puzzle in 24 hours this way haha. 

6. The big room change! On Monday morning Dom woke Emilia up (again) before 6am. She's been SO tired the poor thing. We decided while Dom was at school to switch the rooms around. Dom now has his own room in Eva's old room and we've moved Eva into the big room with Emilia. It was a big job, but Dave helped me and we got it done. Dom is in heaven. Emilia is a little less sure, and Eva is... Eva. The girls will adjust soon I'm sure (I hope?). They both got to sleep in on Wednesday which was good for everyone involved!

I'll have to get some better pictures, but this is Dom's set up in Eva's old room. Basically it's the toy room with a mattress haha. He's very bitter that he's just on a mattress on the floor (he was demoted from the top bunk) and he will tell anyone apparently. 

He is taking such pride in his new room though and has cleaned up all his toys and put them in their proper spots every day. He has a nightlight he controls so he can turn it on after 6:30am, and turns it off at a time we decide together at bedtime (depending how tired he seems). Great step for his independence.

Very early stages of the room shifting. I turned their bed around and then things just got crazy from thereon in. Again, I'll have to take some proper pictures.