I am having a sleepover at Poppa & Grandma’s tonight. And this week I finally got to see my best friends, Anna & Grace!

He said

This week was a real challenging one where Emelia was concerned… We had ups, downs and all arounds this week when it came to her behaviour. While we’ve confirmed that she is the midst of another growth spurt, which is usually the hallmark of her behaviour changes, there also seems to be a lot more boundary pushing for the sake of seeing where those boundaries are. And it is turning out to be very frustrating as she has honed her own version my sarcasm and smart mouth back on us—and more importantly on Danielle. There was enough of it that Danielle decided for the benefit of all, Emelia go have a visit for a day or two with Poppa & Grandma today and I think it is the perfect remedy right now.

The week started out reasonably well… I had Monday off so we made a day of it. After I got to the gym and Emelia finally figured out what she wanted to do for the day with me, we were off to the Thames Pool downtown which aside from being a great pool to swim in had a quasi beach area with a splash pad, a water slide and all sorts of fun things for an eight year old girl to do. We were there for two and a half hours having all sorts of fun before we had to leave in lieu of running some errands before getting Emelia off to her orthodontist consult. But, before we were off to there we spent about a half hour nosing through all the interesting finds at Yardigans – a consignment flea market that I had heard about through a work friend. It was amazing and even though we left with nothing I certainly did find a lot of things I would have loved to buy! Emelia too—she was upset that I didn’t buy her the typewriter she had to have. I am not sure what her fascination is with them? They don’t even have emojis.

As I mentioned we had a second opinion ortho consult for her and thankfully we did, because we found out that Emelia doesn’t need thousands of dollars of expensive orthodontist work and really only needs a retainer for night at some point as well as potentially a snip done to a piece of her gum line that down the road may prevent proper development of her teeth. The synopsis was much cheaper and way less “you need to do this right now or your daughter’s life will be ugly“. So we think we will stay with this orthodontist and her plan. It helps that she is a mother of kids in Emelia’s school, the employer of one of our daycare kid’s mom, and has a much less aggressive plan steeped in necessary work versus vanity work… And we didn’t have a problem with Emeli’s smile!

My other day off this week was Thursday… And low and behold a roller coaster of emotions and sass from Emelia again almost put that in jeopardy to the point where I would have been content her spending the entire day in her bed coming up with a heart felt apology for her behaviour. Her actions did turn around and rather than tempting fate and leaving her with Danielle and the daycare kids I opted to get her out of the house and back for another day at Thames Pool. We again had fun albeit a little cooler out. After Danielle’s daycare day wrapped up, we were off in the truck out to Ipperwash to have dinner and visit with our friend and see what her trailer and park was like. We had an amazing meal—all cooked over a fire pit and spent a great portion of the evening just sitting around the fire and talking about trailer life and enjoying the beautiful summer evening. By 10pm we packed up an already in her pyjamas and asleep Emelia and headed home. All-in-all it was a wonderful evening and I have a sweatshirt that still smells like a campfire.

The rest of the week was more of up and down behaviour and lots of work for me. Ultimately as I said we arrived at the place where Mummy needed to get a break from Emelia and Emelia needed to have a break from Mummy. She is over at Mom & Dad’s I am sure having a fine time and Danielle and I have already had our first just one-on-one dinner in a very long time. And, when Danielle gets done her part of the post we’re going to head out to see a movie—something we’ve also not done alone in a while either. As much as we love our daughter more than anything else in this universe, I think all of us – Danielle and Emelia especially – could really use this very brief respite to be reminded why we love each other so.

So if pardon Danielle is her entry this week is a little light on recap and more focused on getting time for herself. She is the one person in this house that has earned it the most, and yet never takes the time she’s earned or the break she needs…

She said

I will keep this quite brief this week because as John mentioned it was quite a week for me and Emelia. I am a person who tries to see the positive things in life, trying always to even in the most frustrating moments see the glass as half full. This week with Emelia I really had to dig deep to find that peace and sanity. I kept thinking over and over at times, if she is frustrating me so much that means she is here, I have a child and that she is becoming a strong and independent person. But the problem with her independence is down right disrespect and with horrible behaviour.

We have always said that we wanted to feel she can voice her opinion and that she doesn’t always have to agree with everything we say but what she does need to do is respect us as people and as her parents. That is what is lacking the worst way with her these days.

After a long week Emelia is at her grandparents and I am enjoying a quiet night with John. Strangely enough I miss her terribly and have already sent grandma a text telling her to tell her to tell Emelia how much her mummy misses and loves her. So years from now when Emelia you are reading this, please remember how much mummy adores you.

I know that one day Emelia will be a strong and independent person but getting there is going to be the ‘fun’ part.