Lately - Tooth Fairy/Sisterly Bonding/Dance Parties

Looking back at the pictures from this last week, it looks like there has been a LOT of sisterly bonding going on! And there has :) Emilia and Eva play together so much, and like really together now. Not just Eva interfering and Emilia tolerating. They seek each other out, have similar interests, and Emilia is SO patient with her. It's amazing. 

Last Friday we had Hiker still from his overnighter and Gramma & Grandpa came to get him in the afternoon. It was Gramma's birthday, so we invited them to stay for dinner and had invited Rachel, Kyle and Rebecca to come too! I made Buddha bowls and we had tuxedo cake (Gramma's favorite, but also my favorite lucky for me!). They were of course both hits. 

Saturday morning I had band practice and then in the afternoon we met up with Phoebe and Ash at the library. We haven't gone in a long time and they actually have the kids area open and kids activities now! Much nicer for having toddlers at the library haha. 

Sisterly bath time bonding. Look at those laughing faces <3

Sunday I was at church from 8-1230 playing bass for both services. Dave brought the kids for the first service and Dom & Emilia went to cornerstone. I hung out with Eva in the foyer and then after church on the way down the stairs Dom lost his first tooth! It's been VERY wiggly for a long time, so I was relieved (though also grossed out). The tooth fairy brought him $2, and according to him she (they discussed and decided tooth fairy is probably a she) brought the money at exactly midnight because he'd be fast asleep. The next day he lost his second tooth! Both the adult teeth on the bottom were already coming in. I feel a little weird about how much he's going to change the next couple years with his teeth coming out and growing in and him no longer being a little kid! 

Aunty Lasagna surprised Emilia with some more animals for her collection so Emilia brings them out every time she watches the Lion King (which is wayyyyy more often than I care to admit). Also, I have to hide every time she watches it because I can't handle Mufasa dying haha. 

On Monday Emilia and Eva came up to my room the other day dressed in Elsa dresses and asked me to turn on Frozen music. It rapidly turned into an epic dance party and now we have an Elsa dance party every day! 

I cannot get over Eva in this dress. It is way too small for her and she kept fighting with the waistband, but love it so much. She wore it to school drop off this morning OVER her jammies haha. 

Real life mess haha

Monday evening I attended a listening circle at church to talk and share about the Synod's decision in June 2022 of making homosexuality a confessional sin and how it's affected us and what we need to move forward. It was really good. I cried, but hey... that's how I feel so I guess I can be vulnerable in that space! 

Tuesday I did school drop off which included the wait for preschool to start, so the girls played in the rain on the playground and Emilia showed Eva how to climb on the wobbly bar things. 

Wednesday morning I went to spin, then to church for 7 hours, then to pick up Dom from school. While I waited for him I speed read the chapters from The Secret Message of Jesus for Small Groups that evening. While I was out Dave went to get Eva up from her nap and couldn't find Emilia. He checked Dom's room and found that it was SIGNIFICANTLY cleaner than when Dom left for school. Then he eventually found Emilia in our room cleaning it. Hahaha! I mean I don't know who this creature is, but she had the best intentions and was so excited to show us all our clean rooms. 
Dave had a shoot in the afternoon so I was on dinner duty, then he came home in time for bedtime, and then I went out to small groups after bedtime. It was a very long, exhausting, but good day. 

I guess she made our bed... and was working on cleaning up the pile of not dirty enough for the laundry, but also not clean enough for the drawers clothes. Everyone has one of those right?

I've been busier with work trying to squeeze it in wherever I can as I try to double my hours. It means I also have to take a step back and allow the house to not be as tidy as I like, and to spend more intentional/quality time with the kids. Today I hung out with the girls in their room while they had yet another dance party in their beautiful dresses. 

Emilia dressed herself for school drop off today. Elsa dress, Star Wars socks, Yoda pants, Yoda sweater... It looked interesting! Haha

You can't see her Elsa dress underneath her jacket :) 
She's growing up. She's changed a lot the last few weeks it feels like. 

(Look at these two holding hands. Too cute)

Eva and her dancing. She's been a dance machine since she was a baby, but her dancing has evolved recently and greatly resembles some sort of interpretive/contemporary dancing I've seen on So You Think You Can Dance back in the day haha. She has great body control for a not even 2-year-old. Did NOT get that from me. 

Emilia got her dance moves from me :) Haha Sorry girl!

This evening we have dinner at Jeff & Marta's, and tomorrow Dom starts soccer again! Next Thursday he's also starting a very affordable basketball for beginners program which will run every Thursday evening for 6 weeks. 

I wish we could sign all the kids up for something. Dom would love any sport, and we do what we can because he's older. Emilia would benefit greatly from something (gymnastics would be awesome for her confidence), and Eva would thrive in some sort of toddler dance class or gymnastics. Why is life so expensive? :( I don't want the kids to miss out on opportunities purely because we can't afford it. 

Alas... that is one of the things we realized may happen when we decided to put them in private school. Living with our own decisions haha. 

Lately - A Dull Roar of Activity

Ah I've done it again. Gone almost 2 weeks without a post. This time it's partially because I haven't taken many pictures and we've just been doing life, but there are some fun things that happened too!

It's been pretty business as usual the last couple weeks which is nice. We were SO busy over the holidays, so it's now gone down to a dull roar of activity :)

Hey, does anyone want a toddler 1-2 days per week? (Only sort of joking). I need to work more and I also need a break from Eva. I have reached out to a few daycare centres and am on their waitlists, but chances of 1-2 days per week for an almost 2-year-old are SLIM!

Walked down on 176 with Eva and Sherlock. She was stoked about all the big trucks "WOAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! TUK!!! TUK!!!"

We got our property assessment. Blech. Seriously. I mean it's not another 28% jump thankfully, but yeesh.

Went to grab some clothes for her after her bath and she took off on me. Found her halfway up the ladder in Dom's room.

School pick-up

We made the cookie and brownie jars the kids got from Aunty Allana for Christmas

Eva kept busy for about 4 minutes and 25 seconds playing Playmobil. I'll take what I can get haha.

Dave and I ordered some sushi, cashed in our scratch and wins from Christmas, and played darts downstairs white watching Muse - Live at Wembley for a date night. 

On Saturday Dave took ALL THREE KIDS to Abbotsford for a family brunch. I was supposed to go, but I asked Dave if he'd be willing to take them so I could get some things done around the house. It's been a major struggle doing anything with Eva around. Like anything. 

I realized Emilia had no runners (at all), so I did a Talize run and got a bunch of great shoes for all 3 kids for $40!!

Excited about her new shoes. 

Poor little girl got pink eye :( We caught it pretty quickly so it didn't get bad. Her second eye got it a bit, but again only symptomatic for a few hours. So far nobody else in the house has gotten it! Fingers crossed!!

Uncle Scott found a huge pack of 2022-23 hockey cards at his work so I bought those from them and gave them to Dom. His hockey card binder is almost full! He still spends hours each day with his hockey card binder and his team logos I printed for him last July prior to our trip to the cabin. 

Jesse helped Dave install some legit gym flooring in the garage and it looks so great! 
Jeff has also been coming over two mornings/week to work out with Dave. Dave's dream is to share the gym and work out with other people so this is perfect!

She got her helmet on and I thought she might ride her strider for a minute! She stood on it, wobbled and then got upset. 

Not sure the ottoman bottom is strong enough for this, but she was busy and quiet for another 4 minutes, so we allowed it. She actually stayed in one spot. Could hardly believe it haha.

I FINALLY finished this puzzle I started in like October. 

She found Emilia's Jellycat bunny and started snuggling it and sucking her thumb (which she never does outside the crib). I think it reminded her of Phoebe's bunny that she loves to carry around and snuggle and suck her thumb with. 

She found Dom's potato head Star Wars toys that he got for his 1st or 2nd birthday from Gramma and Grandpa.

I tried to make a quick grocery story run with Eva and Emilia. No such thing with a toddler. Emilia sticks RIGHT next to me, Eva is a wanderer haha.

Here's some big news! Dom had his first filling(s) at the dentist! I picked him up early from school and brought him. I think I was more nervous than he was, mostly because I didn't want him to be traumatized or afraid of the needle/freezing/pain. Alas. He was an ABSOLUTE champ. The dentist and aide couldn't believe it. They said he was the best 6-year old they've ever had and that I should be a very proud Mom. He was completely compliant, relaxed, didn't even have a curious tongue. I don't know how he did so well. Such a sweet little old soul <3

I mean it probably helped that he had a blanket, took off his shoes to get comfy, had his rubiks cube to keep his hands busy, got to watch TV with headphones, etc. Different experience than when I was a kid! 

Once he was frozen and they started the drilling I went and grabbed a coffee in the lobby. 

Dom asked me to take a picture of his x-ray from last time. Filling was in the bottom left tooth on the picture between those two teeth. When they drilled it out they found a shadow starting on the tooth next to it so they just went ahead and filled that one too. 

I am SO thankful we applied for/received the Canada Child Dental Benefit as that covered Dom's exam and his fillings for us. If it were not for that, I don't think we would have gotten him in for his cleaning/exam and who knows what would have happened with these cavities. I wish dental was covered like regular medical is. 

Emilia and Dom made lego structures. They speak to their personalities well. 
Emilia's is creative, artsy and whimsical. 
Dom's is symmetrical, structured and strong. 

Soaking wet drop off this Tuesday

Still doing this thing twice a week at 5:45! They have added an additional 6(?) bikes to the room and all of a sudden classes are FULL! Usually in a "full" class there would be 15 or so people. Now suddenly it's near 30. Different vibe for sure. New Years Resolutions?

On Thursday Emilia's class had a gymnastics field trip. She was SO excited! She was extremely clingy and meek around the other people, but did actually try a few things and really wants to be signed up for gymnastics classes. They're just so expensive! I don't have another $120/month to spend! I also really don't want to not do it and have her/us regret that in the future. Sticky spot for us here...

I think her favorite was the balance beam

She also enjoyed swinging on the rings

Last night we had Scott & Ash over for dinner. They brought potato soup in the crockpot which was 10/10 delicious! 

I'll have to try take some more pictures this week. I've been doing yoga much more regularly the last few weeks which has felt good, but I'm also struggling to fit these things into my days. Hence the 6am blogging this morning.