7/30/2017 0 Comments summer daysI love my summer days! Especially warm nights spent walking along the beach or water front. Enjoying the after affects of a wonderful dinner or sipping on a hot coffee. Kids running along, laughing and playing, throwing rocks or chasing butterflies.
So exactly what my summer days have not been like. Summer is normally madness but add moving in the mix and man I'm about ready for fall. It's been a mad balancing act of normal life activities, summer outings and attempts to pack. Since most of our non-essentials have been out already it's just the last decor things and our basic living.. things. I've been flip flopping between packing away decor so it doesn't look or feel like my house anymore and getting super emotional about leaving. Or going outside. We are outside a lot. My kids have tried to be so helpful. Last night at 9:30 pm the two oldest were wide WIDE awake while I was trying to pack (see, I really shouldn't be). But playing nicely in their rooms surprisingly. Jackson came to get me to very proudly tell me they had cleaned their entire room. Much to my surprise they had! And put everything, and I mean everything, on Shiloh's bed. Like cleared off the shelves emptied drawers like they've never done before clean. Except their pillows because they then informed that because their bed was full they needed to sleep in ours. Gah. We ended up having a tea party/birthday party/Canada day celebration on Shiloh's bed until 10:30 pm.
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7/23/2017 0 Comments mowing the lawnJackson, bless his little heart, has been incredibly helpful the last few days. He's still incredibly helpful at allowing me to play ''drill sergeant'' while he tries to get ready in the morning. You know how it starts.
"Jackson, please pick out some clothes and get dressed." (said firmly after making it a game for 10 minutes and failing) "Ok" *proceeds to continue playing with Lego "Jackson we need to get going. Please get dressed" *ignores* "Jackson. I'm not going to ask you again. It's time to get dressed" *ignores* "Jackson, do you need a time out" "Nope." "JACKSON PUT YOUR CLOTHES ON NOW!!!!" "Mom why do you always have to yell at me?" So I still get to be a drill sergeant multiple times a day. But he's also started mowing the lawn!! We have one of those motorless old school lawn mores because a - I'm stubborn b - our current yard is not nearly big enough to justify a gas powered one c - I'm stubborn. A few days ago he came up to me asking if he could mow the lawn because "Mommy you are working so hard and I want to help" (I was totally reading a book at the time but hey, concentrating was hard work). And he did! He spent 45 minutes struggling with the mower, slipping on the wet grass, manouvering it around and sliding face first into the fence. But he kept going and would not let me help at all. He's done the back yard every day and got to tackle the front today. Considering the fact that he ran over a snake and then was able to grab it's half mangled body, I think the front yard has become the highlight. Despite all the fighting, yelling, refusing to cooperate and just crazy he surprised me with a sweet little heart. My boy! 7/23/2017 0 Comments milestonesIt's so hard when people ask me about my children's milestones. Not because I feel like they aren't meeting them (although that pressure to compare milestones drives me absolutely freaking bananas) but because no matter how hard I try, no matter how many ''brain foods'' and ''memory foods'' I eat, I can't seem to remember them, especially for the girls.
I remember carefully researching what developmental milestones Jackson should be reaching, by roughly what date and all the trigger signs to watch for developmental issues. You know, incessantly google everything and then google the 10 000 possible ''issues'' my child may have because they ate beets yesterday and now have gray poop. I recorded Jackson's milestones for oh, about like 6 months. Then I was 2 months pregnant with Shiloh and back at work full time. So full time ''let's just survive the day'' mode. But I remember (funny eh, I can remember remembering but not what I was supposed to remember) at least having a rough idea of where my kid was at and when he should be doing what. And sometimes being so specific with things. "He rolled over for the first time at 3 weeks, 4 days". Or when people would ask you how old your kids are. "Oh he's 14 months". Now it's "Oh Harper? She's .. ugh let me see... today's the 21 so (*count on my fingers the months*)... 8 months!" But I do not forget that Jackson is old enough to start school in the fall. That I remember very clearly all the time. I love that boy dearly but holy smokes is he ready for school. I can name a few of Shiloh's milestones but Harper? Sorry. "Ummm.. She started crawling like, umm in July? When did she start sitting up? Umm I just found her like that on a day I can't remember and she hasn't stopped." Harper scooted everywhere on her back in a bridge position. If that was Jackson I may have been concerned. Harper, I just laughed. Guys Harper is 8 months old and I'm forgetting her milestones. Mom of the year right?! I've resigned myself to weird kids. I've gotten used to watching them do things that makes me question if I dropped them a few times without remembering. Like Harper right now smacking herself in the face and leg with her sister's shoe and growling like a bear. Or Jackson hip thrusting while he pees to see if he can make his pee go further. Now I've learned my kids are going to do the weirdest possible things no matter what I do (like lick floors and eat q tips). The harder I try to unweird my kids, the more they become super crazy. I'm totally fitting that mom of multiple children stereotype. The first gets your undivided attention (and memory) and then it's just chaos with each extra kid. And nothing irritates me more than the instantaneous comparisons some mom's do, especially if they find out that your kid is somewhat close in age to theirs. I mean I think some it happens naturally but every kid is different (thank goodness) with different milestones and markers. I mean if you want to compare crazy all the power to you. But my little darlings can't help if they aren't as long, as chubby or doing quite what your baby is. Just love them where they are! I found Shiloh dancing naked in front of the fan after her bath, shaking her hips and hair like nobody's business. Shakira, watch out! 2 year old milestone?! 7/22/2017 0 Comments theologyJackson is my little intellectual. Most of the time it's super cute and I love his curiousity. And then there are the times my 3 year old can make me feel so unbelievably uneducated it's like a hidden skill.
You can almost see his little brain wheels turning ALL DAY LONG. So question after question after question. And it's most often from a genuine place. I mean we do get questions like "Who is Shiloh? What's Shiloh" that he does not back down from. Or, "what is my nose?" where he is just trying to be silly. But a lot of his questions are so deeply theological. My 9 years (including kindergarten, I can do math) of Christian elementary school, 4 years of Christian high school and 4 years of Christian university did not prepare me for my pitiful attempts of teaching my 3 year old. We've experienced melt downs because Jackson is so upset Jesus can't come out of his heart to do crafts with him. Or the bumbling explanations of why Jesus was in the ground for 3 days and maybe he didn't really die but was just pretending to be asleep. Or the question that I still cannot answer, "When I die my heart will stop. What will happen to Jesus if my heart stops? I have to stay alive so Jesus can stay alive." Oh my buddy. Don't ever change (except the spitting, that can totally change) 7/22/2017 0 Comments i'm back!So... I apologize for the lack of posts! I'm sure you have all been just refreshing the page like a mad man dying for the next post. I know, I know. But here it is! You may get a few moving posts in the next little while...
To say life has been a bit crazy here is a bit of an understatement. It's been madness. We had been casually looking (when I say casually that's a bit of a lie, we had a realtor) at potential houses in the area. But Hamilton is an absolute wacko nuthouse crazy place. The market was seriously bananas. Houses that were complete fixer-uppers were going for $100-200 000 over asking. So we had looked at things that came up but everything went way out of our price range. We said if we bought a house it had to be pretty obvious that we were meant to get it. I wanted to live in Mount Hope - country space but still technically in Hamilton. Yeah apparently so does everyone else. So Caledonia became our option for a bit more affordable space still within Hamilton area way ish. The market was slowing down a tiny tiny bit. We saw a house, liked it and decided to put in a offer. We were not expecting to get it at all but it was better than always wondering what would have happened if we did. More than one offer on the house. And we got it! So nutty and unexpected. This was the first week of June so the insanity started of trying to get a house ready in less than a week to put on the market. If any of you have ever sold your house you know how stressful it can be. And I completely underestimated that in some ways. I figured we would do a ton of cleaning and packing a few boxes but I didn't realize the amount of things we needed to get out of the house to show it. Which meant packing away a lot of our life here before I was ready. And trying to somehow strategically pack things in the storage locker than we could find the items we may need back before we actually move but declutter as much junk as possible. Basically make your house looked lived in with non of the essential items you may need. And I have 3 children. And a dog. Thank goodness for family members. Seriously. I tried doing a few days with the kids here. And quickly realized everyone would be dead by the end of the day. Oh I'm going to bring down some things from the attic and sort downstairs so I can make sure my children don't kill each other. Oh you just opened every box I took from the attic and spread the items all throughout my downstairs in the 30 seconds it took to get another one? Oh thanks, yep great helping. I tried guys. I really did. I tried getting ready with my kids and there was just now way. So i shipped them out. For the most part people seemed to understand. But i did the get the occasional "Oh yes I understand, I would so do the same thing" but you could totally see them thinking "I could do this with all my kids in my sleep". There were a lot of bite my tongue moments in those days. Apparently my moms loves chaos as much as I did and welcomed me and my crazies (and dog) for a month. Yep, you read that right. A month. Well my kids were there a month. And let's be real, they thought they were at Disneyworld the whole time. I heard quite often from Jackson "I'm not leaving Grandma's for a loooong looong time. 51 days!" The love is strong with that one. But it was a huge stress relief not having to worry about my children and dog (although she ran away at Mom's too). It seriously felt like I was living in a super weird time warp. Our life in Hamilton had to basically pause while we lived at my mom's. I could only realistically come back to Hamilton for a few things a week, like appointments. It was quite the experience juggling appointments I couldn't change, rescheduling the ones I could, spending enough focused time with my kids and not wanting to eat away my stress (very unsuccessful by the way). It was great spending time with family and friends out London way but I had no sense of routine. Reuben was living it up bachelor style since he had to stay here for work. It was just this weird place to be in. My kids have different rules at Mom's house than I have for them and they made it clear I could leave at any time. I was also obsessed with my phone continually checking for any updates from the realtor. That was NOT fun. We had over 35 private showings and 2 packed open houses. Somedays we would get a call for a showing in an hour or for like 8:00 am. Those calls made me feel justified in living at my moms. If I had to get my house show ready and all the kids out of the door before 8.... well we'd all be crying. Blah sometimes I hate being an adult. Between discussions with the realtor, explaining why I no longer in Hamilton to everyone, trying to focus on the old house before the new one, financial updates, mortgage broker meetings, I've decided never ever to move again. Until my kids move out at least. Or until they are helpful. So... until they move out? BUT! I can happily say Jackson is completely potty trained!!! He has had no accidents for almost a month, minus the fart that turned out to contain a little more than he was anticipating - happens to the best of us right?. AND we actually lost Shiloh's soother accidentally on our weekend away. So she has been without a soother for 2 weeks. The bright side?! Here's to big emotional stressful life changes!! 7/3/2017 0 Comments bucket listI've had a lot of conversations about bucket lists lately so I thought I'd share mine publicly. I try to create a bucket list for each season which often takes quite a bit of time. But I find it gives me a bit of a direction and suggestions of ideas on those days where we would all kill each other if we stay inside. Some of our ideas are ridiculous, some cost money, some are specific to a certain kid. Some are reminiscent of my childhood so I'm forcing my kids to do them and like them. My maternity leave bucket lists are always a bit more than my normal ones because you know, I have ''time''. We don't usually accomplish everything - some things are added and some change due to life circumstances. But I hope you enjoy, share ideas and be inspired! Or just truly recognize the crazy that we are.
1. Be brave (My kids have astounded me with this one so far! Shiloh rocked her socks off at her dance recital despite her obvious nerves.. Jackson has introduced himself to someone he thought was pretty scary...Harper.. well Harper bravely poops wherever she chooses despite her ability to make others gag) 2. fireworks (we did our own Canada Day ones in my mom's backyard!) 3. marineland (free for kids under 4 !) 4. catch a bug (Jackson does this nearly every day. My least favourite is the spiders. I see a lot of snails. 5. crayfishing 6. festival/fair 7. make a new friend 8. learn to pump on the swing (this may be me forcing the kids to learn for my own sanity) 9. catch a butterfly 10. plant something (we planted wheat grass and then added it to our smoothies! Kids thought they were scientists) 11. watch a movie outside (The Hamilton Conservation Authory shows monthly movies outdoors in one of the conservation areas) 12. go camping 13. go to a hotel overnight 14. Clovermead 15. strawberry picking 16. apple picking (not quite summer I know I know) 17. build something 18. the Dutch Mill 19. RBG Lego exhibit (great outdoor lego exhibit!) 20. Fort George (free with your Canada Parks Pass!!) 21. Niagara Gorge 22. Story Book gardens 23. Children's Museum (this year we've done both London and Hamilton's) 24. Flying Squirrel (indoor trampoline park, yes please!) 25. Dundurn Castle 26. Conservation Areas (we are trying to visit all of them at least once this summer) 27. ROM (my kids LOVE this museum) 28. Play in the rain 29. cook a meal 30. Safari Niagara 31. Feed a farm animal 32. Warplane Museum 33. Bake someone a cake for no reason 34. Write a card to a friend 35. Build a sandcastle 36. Read a book in a pillow fort 37. Learn another song besides "Baby Shark" 38. Ice cream at the beach! 39. Carousel at Port Dalhousie (only 5 cents a ride!!) 40. Canoe ride 41. Bedtime stories outside 42. Paint something 43. Touch a truck 44. Have a sleepover with friends 45...46...47...48...49...50... I have 50 things but cannot remember them for the life of me! We've accomplished about 25 so far so we have some work to do this summer! It takes some researching, planning and a lot of flexibility but it makes your summer so much more fun! Hamilton has so many amazing resources available, you just sometimes need to look. There are free museum passes, summer kids programs at museums, library programs, endless parks and green spaces, conservation areas, etc! Sometimes we last a few hours, sometimes we pay a fortune and leave after 15 minutes. Some outings seem like a huge waste of time and others turn out far better than I could have planned. Some end in smiles and sweaty naps, some end in poop explosions and tantrums. Sometimes I proudly show off my kids, sometimes I pretend they aren't mine. But I really think they are all worth trying even if they seem impossible. There are days we all have a tantrum in the car. But we learn about flexibility, determination and compromise. I'm trying to learn better organization skills. The kids run and explore and discover and learn (sometimes things I don't want them to) We call them adventures out loud, madness in my head. Yet I love hearing my kids talk about their adventures or thinking every outing is an adventure. And I want my kids to know that I did my best trying to teach them that everything can be an adventure. You know magical childhood with fireflies, sweat and sunshine. |
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