I had a concert in my house on Tuesday! I sang in my Christmas Concert on Wednesday! And, Mommy, Daddy and I finished my big-girl makeover to my bedroom this weekend!

He said

As far as the weeks we blog about here, this has to be one of the busiest ones on record! Whoa-nelly she was jam packed! Aside from both Danielle and I putting in a full, 40-hour work week, we also managed to cram what felt like another 40 hours in activities, renovations and most draining of all – Ikea furniture assembling at midnight on a couple of nights.

Tuesday, in particular – as Danielle described – was a perfect storm of activity round this TeeterPod. It started with the arrival of no less than ten, very sizeable boxes delivered from the aforementioned Ikea. They ended up unloaded in the front room for lack of a better place for them. And as soon as they arrived, I kicked in to “let’s see how many of these I can get assembled before the next big event of the day begins”. (more on that event later) We then moved the rest of the boxes upstairs much to the demise of both Danielle and my legs, back and arms.

I managed to get both of the bedside tables for our bedroom assembled before I had to bundle up and head off to pick up Emelia from school. I convinced Emelia to forgo playing in the schoolyard in lieu of helping me assemble the new furniture — albeit in her mind somehow it was her furniture we were making and not Mommy & Daddy’s. That was a source of disappointment for later…

Emelia and I cobbled together the new dresser in very short order. The dresser once assembled we realized was much bigger than our previous one and with the added space, place the two drawers each extra in our bedside tables, Danielle and I were now set for space to put things in our bedroom for once and for all. And we’re both really in love with this new bedroom!

As if that wasn’t enough in the day, around 6pm started the second part of our day — our friend and musician Jenn Grant showed up with her three-piece band for the house concert we were hosting that evening. We welcomed them in, help them set up and then enjoyed a nice visit before people started arriving. Jenn had just finished a mini tour in the US with Diego Garcia – her last night in Minneapolis – and was able to sneak in a show at our house before one in Toronto at the prestigious Roy Thompson Hall!

We had a good turnout at the house for the show, and it is something we want to do again if for no other reason than the exposure to music and musicians it provides Emelia. She entertained the entire band downstairs in the daycare play room all by herself prior to the show and then grabbed her guitar when it came time for the show and sat mesmerized while Jenn and her band played. And in classic form, she grabbed her iPhone and even filmed some of the show for future reference. There’s no doubt she’s my kid… All she needed to do was post it to social media!

There’s something so gratifying about having a musician you love, and happen to great friends with, play your house. It was nice to introduce some friends to her music for the first time, and share in a mutual love with other friends who were quite familiar. There was a warmth and glow in the house that we’ve never had here, and it certainly won’t be the last time we do that!

The very next night was Emelia’s school Christmas Concert. And of course she was going to be singing songs with the Junior Choir at it. So, as soon as I got home from work, it was a quick supper before Poppa arrived and we all scuttled over to the school and jammed ourselves into the capacity filled gymnasium. It was such a delight to see her enjoy performing and getting so much joy from singing. I left that evening in an immeasurable place of Christmas joy and festive happiness.

The rest of the week was spent focusing on assembling furniture, painting Emelia’s room and shuttling the old furniture around. It was a crazy blur that brought us to today… and the hurried pace just before Emelia’s bedtime that included the final touches on Emelia’s room. As I type this, we are – aside from a new lampshade for Emelia’s lamp – completely done her room.

The irony in this is that Emelia’s room makeover is actually a birthday gift from Danielle & I and Poppa & Grandma. Our bedroom, which was originally supposed to be the main focus, because it was the gift Danielle and I were giving each other for Christmas! In typical fashion, somehow Emelia has pulled a fast one on us, and butted to the front of the line!

This week should be a much slower pace. The decorations and renovation should really slow down as it’s pretty much final touches on our bedroom. But the one big exciting thing is Wednesday night we’re going to see the Vinyl Cafe Christmas show that features The Good Lovelies – a band that I have become friends with. And the best part is, Greg, Testza, Mom and Dad are going! Thanks to Uncles Matthew & Shawn for watching Emelia and Vaughan to make this all possible.

So with that, I am going to put to bed what was a very busy week, by helping Danielle run the Titanic-sized collection of garbage to the curb, and then shovel the driveway before hitting into some well-earned vegetating time! Thank your lord that tomorrow is another day off for me!

 

She said

This week was like no other, it was go-go-go all week. Add into that working 40+ hours at the daycare (and about 10+ on top of that if you take in account pre and post prep work), most of the kids sick one way or another and renovating two bedrooms at the same time. Redecorating can always be a challenge but add in that we have to have the main level of the house safe, clean and organized for 5 addition wee ones each day. Add in to that John does not work a typical 9-5 Monday to Friday job anymore and the busyness of the holidays and I often thought this week what the hell were we thinking. Add in my need for order and organization and there were times this week that my anxiety level was at 10!

But everything had to happen this week. As it happened Ikea‘s Cyber Monday sale meant the furniture was all being delivered unassembled on a day John was home which was great but what wasn’t ideal was the timing. With 10 large boxes arriving at 1:00 we had a very short window to assemble as many packages as we could while working around 5 little ones ages 3 and under. Now John did have assistance, not only from me but from my oldest daycare boy Hudson. Hudson idolizes John and loves to ‘help’. He was in his glory passing John tools and ‘helping’ build. It was an amazing learning experience and he loved having our sole attention while the other wee ones napped. After about an hour and a half of being John’s assistant the other ones started waking and we found activities at the table to keep them all safely away from the boxes while John and I moved the packages upstairs.

When Emelia got home from school she took over and she and John got another piece of furniture built. Once the kids left it was an insane dash to make supper for us and the musicians, de-daycare the house for the night and clean the mess that the house had become. Oh and run out to the store to get munchies for everyone. By the time Jenn and her band arrived I had just quickly changed my snot covered shirt to greet them and enjoy some food before our other guests arrived.

The night was so worth the insanity leading up to everyone arriving. Emelia adored everything about the night and she took an insane shine to not only Jenn but her bandmates. All on her own she took them to show the daycare playroom or as we called it that night the ‘green room‘, she entertained them and talked their ear off. Might not mean much to every parent but this is unheard of for Emelia. She is painfully shy and often takes YEARS to finally speak to someone. She really connected with Jenn unlike anyone I have ever seen.

The band did an incredible job including Emelia, playing some of our daycare instruments in their set, including Emelia in the night while Emelia attempted to play along with Jenn on her Hello Kitty guitar. She was up way past her bedtime and loving every second of it, and so were her parents. It was incredible.

Once Jenn had left for the evening we got a very tired little girl to bed and John and I moved on to stage three of the evening, furniture assembly. Well, after midnight that night we finally had our dresser assembled and clothes out of totes and in their new home. Our room was coming together. Our room sits in the same place since, we are trying to figure out art for the room and are planning the custom curtains that will be made in the new year. So our room that was supposed to be done first is about a month out from really being done and photographed for the blog. But we do love where it is going. Just cannot wait for it to be actually done.

Two days into the week and it felt like a month but it was only ½ way there. Wednesday was another busy night. Emelia had been so excited about her Holiday Concert for the last month, she has been practicing and practicing her songs and planning her outfit of course. It was one of those moments you just love as a parent. Seeing your child glowing with pride doing something she just adores. She was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her.

We finally dragged a very tired little girl reluctant home and got her into bed and then John and I were at it again, this time assembling her new bookshelf.  I had someone originally scheduled to come buy her bedroom set for Friday so we needed to start focusing on getting her room started and built. Another late night and we had one of three pieces built. Thursday after her last Sparks meeting until the new year and John got home from work we got the huge new dresser built and filled with her abundant wardrobe. One last beast to build, the trundle bed.

That was Friday, John thankfully had the day off so first thing in the morning after Emelia got up John and I took apart her bed and moved it down to the main level. The next big task was building the large new bed, this took the better part of the kids sleep time and once the fish tank was partially drained we could move her tank over to the new dresser and start figuring out the new layout of the room. A bit of trial and error and we had it all worked out.

Emelia came home and was so excited to see her new room, well at least the new furniture part of her new room. That evening she and Daddy went out and got the necessary supplies for painting and she and I went out to get some other supplies we would need and some supper since neither John nor I had the energy to cook after the week we had.

A tired girl crashed and was up with the birds the next day. After some errands on Saturday with John at work the original plan was for me to cut in and prep the room for painting when John got home. After getting started I quickly realized that the tight space with the new furniture and shape of Emelia’s room meant that it would never fit two of us working around each other. So I spent the next couple hours while Emelia watched TV to get the room painted once and for all. And it looks amazing, it is so girly and feminine. In photos the purple comes across might brighter than it does in real life. It is a soft lavender and with the flowers and butterfly accents it could not be more Emelia if it tried.

With accessories all purchased before I painted we were well on our way to finally having her perfect bigger girl room. One last girly room before she plasters her walls with boy band posters. She adores the room.

Today John had off and the week of late nights, sick daycare kids had caught up with me and I was starting to get sick. John took Emelia in the morning after she let him sleep in a bit while she played in her room.

I woke, we took part of the morning at a slower pace and then Emelia got her focus on, she wanted to get the art made with daddy on his computer to replace the framed art we had in her room. She and John sat for the next hour or so and made perfect little pictures taken from images on the canvas we found for her room. She really loved making this with him and loved that she was part of making art for her own room.

After we sent them to be printed we got our groceries done, a visit with Poppa and Grandma and then home to finally hang all the art and accessories on her picture perfect room.

An exhausting week but a pretty fantastic one. Now off to crash for the night for John and I. And to take on the next week, a week that will involve getting our Christmas cards out, wrapping all the presents for the holidays and planning the daycare kids Christmas party!