I finally got a matching workout outfit like Mommy – something I have been asking for weeks. And yesterday we spent the day at the beach. I got to even have an ice cream with Mommy & Daddy!
He said
As the title suggests, we had a much better week. Monday was no walk in the park mind you—Emelia really learned what it was like to lose privileges last Sunday. But, by the end of the week we were back to a lot less grey-hair inducing parenting moments. By Friday we were back to the normal dawdling tactics at bedtime. The out-and-out bedtime tantrums are a week in our rearview mirror.
We’ve nailed down some of the behaviour that we’re seeing with Emelia to her finally after seven years getting tired with sharing Mommy. She’s been a little more clingy and a little more frustrated in the evenings when she comes home from school. She’s concerned at bedtime when she can’t have Mommy and often will cling to her on the days we have off together. We’re trying to give her the attention she craves, but we’re also trying to impress upon her the wrong ways she seeks this attention.
She’s also in the middle of another growth spurt—I swear by next weekend she will have eclipsed my height by at least half a foot. But who am I kidding? It wouldn’t take much for that. The growth spurt is also – as we’ve seen in the past – indicative of some developmental changes for her too. She’s definitely a lot more aware of what bigger girls do and definitely more interested in being a ‘big girl‘. But as with other developmental spurts in the past, we’re seeing her also slip back to more toddler-type needs and reassurances.
I’ve tried to spend a little more time in the latter part of this week being a little more helpful with her bedtime routine and offering her a bit of latitude when she gets needy a bedtime in hopes that: a) we can avoid the blowup tantrums; and, b) also have her feel our support when she needs it. So far, last night was a pretty reasonable bed time with the new tweak I put into the routine.
On Monday, I had the fortune of being off which meant I got to watch the live broadcast of the WWDC Keynote. Had I been at work I would have missed it, so I was pretty happy to sit and watch the announcements as they were happening. Typically the announcements are focused on our software with it being a developer’s conference and all. But certainly with the impending share split and all the rumours about things people thought we were going to release it was fit to be a very interesting Keynote.
In the end there were previews of some of the features in iOS 8 as well as a reveal of our next version of OS X: Yosemite. In both cases I am very excited about the features being introduced as they will make life a whole heck of a lot more seamless between OS and iOS devices. One of the features I am most excited about is no matter what device I am working on (iMac, iPad or iPhone), if a phone call comes through it will ring and I will be able to take it on any one of those devices!
As much as a lot people wanted to see new hardware, I was happy that the Keynote remained focused on the software side and the developers who can now create great new apps utilizing these features. Plus there’s the whole last half of the year to see what things may come…
Midway through the day on Tuesday Danielle and I heard a pretty loud thump and as we were in the process of trying to figure what it was, we noticed the power had gone out in the house. “There’s a tree in your front yard” came out of the mouth of one of the daycare kids and as we looked and confirmed his observation we realized the reason we had no power: the branch fell on the power line to our house. When got outside, we saw the extent of the damage. The branch from a tree two yards over, had taken out the power to ours and two other houses. Our house had damage to the stack and the soffits and fascia. Later on we even saw the large black spark mark on the soffits from where the hydro line had arced as it came down, but thankfully had not set the house on fire!
We were without power until the evening around 8 o’clock when we could get an electrician come out to the house and repair the electrical stack – a condition that London Hydro mandated be done before they would reconnect the hydro. Thankfully it will all be covered by insurance less the deductible, but it still looks to be about $500 and it certainly wasn’t the Tuesday night enjoyment we were looking for—eating takeout and hoping the contents of our fridge and freezer survived the power outage.
In the end the food survived and while it wasn’t ideal, it could have been a whole heck of a lot worse!
It turned out this Saturday that I was off work and that we could have a day completely focused on family time. The day started with Danielle getting a much needed pedicure while Emelia and I struck off – me walking my bike, Emelia riding hers – to the gas station down the road to fill up my bike tires. Once we got that done, we took a tour of the neighbourhood on our bikes before heading back home to reconnect with Mommy in time for Emelia’s swim lessons.
After swim lessons, at the brilliant suggestion of Danielle, we were off to the beach in Port Stanley! We spent a good two or three hours basking in the warm sun playing in the sand and water. And when it was time to head back home we made sure to stop off at the legendary Shaw’s Ice Cream for a treat—a requisite end to every trip to Port Stanley! When we got back in to town, we stopped off at the grocery store picked up some kabobs and veggies for the BBQ and finished the night with an awesome dinner on the patio before retiring Emelia to bed, and Danielle and I to the couch and a date with the newly released, second season of Orange Is the New Black on Netflix.
It was a much better end of the week, than last week was for sure. As I type this Emelia and Danielle are working on her story and I am about to go spell off Danielle to finish off the bedtime routine with my fancy new technique that has worked two nights in a row. So, with any luck, Danielle will be in here soon pounding at the keys, and then we’re off to enjoy the last few fleeting moments of this Sunday night, a glass of wine, and another couple of episodes of Orange Is the New Black…
Wish us luck!
She said
Thankfully the behaviour of last week was a bit behind us and we are enjoying a much better behaved little girl. The list of things she was grounded off came to a close at the end of the week and it really sunk in that she knew mommy and daddy meant what we said. Her emotions still are running pretty high. She has been making the point pretty clearly lately that she is less than impressed with the toddler and baby toys take over our home, less than happy that our after school routine is built around the needs of 5 additional children. And basically she wants mommy and daddy as well as her house to her family once school is done. She is really going through a confusing emotional time right now and we are trying our best to balance the needs of her, give her guidance in these emotions and also realizing that mommy needs to work and be home at the end of the school day because well we have no choice. We don’t really have an alternative for work for me and care for Emelia. So we balance it all as best we can and hope that she continues to learn about cooperation and love though the needs of the daycare kids. It’s been hard lately for sure. Add in the economic pressure of not a great income doing the daycare and it has made the last few months really challenging to say the least.
But it was much better this week, she was working hard on communicating her frustrations but we have seen some insane mommy attachment again this week so we are doing what we can to assure she gets lots of time with us while understanding cooperation, respect and thinking of others.
As the crazy week moved on we came to Tuesday. The day of the ‘tree’. The day was like most others. We were just finishing up our afternoon snack with the children and I was just about to get some emails caught up while the kids ate their food. I was on the couch and all of a sudden my 3 year old daycare boy comes off his chair and says, ‘hey Danielle a tree just crashed in your yard’. Sure enough with little noise down came a massive branch off a tree that was at least 100 years old and about 40 feet tall at least. The branch was so sizeable that it tore the power lines out from our house, the next door neighbour and the one next to them. I was just about to take 5 children to the school and pick up Emelia so a quick call to London Hydro to explain to them that three houses worth of power lines were down and live on the same street as a school that was about 20 minutes from being released. They were quick to send someone out, I made my way over the school as Hydro arrived. John was called back to the house by our neighbour and we found out then that this was going to be a long scramble of a night. Because the power line pulled the stack right off our house we would need an electrician to come to the house to repair the damage before we could hydro restored. Fantastic, 4:00 in the evening and we are scrambling to find an after hours electrician. We started asking around and thankfully friends and neighbours had recently had some electrical work done and could give us the name of their electrician. By every stroke of luck they were just finishing a job and could come that evening to fix everything. After about 3 hours from when it all started we had power back and thankfully with adding as much bags of ice to the refrigerator we were able to save all the food from our recent grocery trip.
By the end of the week I was glad to say good-bye to the week and hello to a Saturday as a family. It was an amazing day, I spent the morning getting a much overdue pedicure. Man my feet were a total mess, but the aesthetician was able to take all the built up crap off and my feet feel like a million bucks. After that we went over to see Emelia in the pool. She has come so far in the last year. Gone is the little girl who was afraid to go in the big pool and now we have one that can swim the entire length of the big pool. I am so proud of her, not only for the skills she is gaining but more importantly for Emelia’s personality is that she took a fear head on and concurred it! I am so proud of you sweetie!
After swim and lunch we packed up the swim suits (well Emelia’s because I am a wimp for cold water), beach toys, towels and snacks and we were off to the beach. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and not too hot that you were baking in the sun. After a few hours of play we made our way back home to do a bit of shopping and get the fixings for a yummy dinner.
Today was a bitter sweet day. Last weekend I had to cancel plans with Maria and Emma because of Emelia’s behaviour. Normally this is not a big deal, we could reschedule but this time it was very time sensitive. Maria and Emma are moving to Alberta at the end of the month and this was likely the last play date for the girls. I am so incredibly happy for their family. It has been an insane year for them. Steve moved out west in early October and other than a week at Christmas and a week in March they have not seen each other face to face going on 9+ months. This is a move for the family’s future. Steve has been able to get a job out west that will pay MUCH better than he was paid here, there is so much opportunities for him in his field that it was a chance they had to take. Now from lifetime Londoners this was not an easy decision but they realized that it was something they had to try.
And I cannot tell you how much I am going to miss Maria. We have been close friends for almost 20 years. We have been through weddings, house purchases, job changes, becoming moms, miscarriages, life’s ups and downs and always managed to be there for each other with a laugh and support. She is truly one of my most treasured friends and I will miss her terribly. I know since their family is still all in London that I will see them on holidays and vacations home but it certainly won’t be the same. With lives so busy we just don’t see each other as much as we want but we both know that a phone call and we can be there in person in a second. So as much as I could not be happier for them, I will not lie I am really going to miss my friend. I love you Mare. Miss you already!
I will leave this week on that, it was all about family and friends this weekend, as it always should be.