I finally got my new leotard for gymnastics! And I made my own Hermione wand.

He said

Aside from getting in visits to the gym every single day we could, this week was also heavily focused on the snow removal arts. From Thursday onward this week we received an entire winter’s worth of snow repeatedly each day that didn’t let up until today. We were certainly beyond thankful for the show blower we were gifted with. Even with it, it was still taking an hour to get the driveway and walkways done. And to top that off there was more than enough days where I did the driveway once in the morning and then once when I got home too cause it looked like it was never done. As much as we were spoiled with a light winter so far, after this past week, I am ready for it to be all over.

After having worked all last weekend, I had Monday and Tuesday off which was a great way to start the week. It allowed me to get to the gym during the day at a much less structured time, and even allowed me to get in a rare skate with a group I used to play pickup hockey with on Tuesdays before I started work at Apple. I hadn’t been out to play with them for about three years and it was good to see some old faces and it seemed they felt the same way. I’m hoping to get in a few extra skates with them in the next few months before they wrap up for the spring.

With the short work week of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday out of the way we fell right into the weekend which was a combination of Valentine’s Day on Sunday and Family Day today. It was a rare three day weekend off work where I was afforded the luxury of spending it exactly as the holiday intended: as a family. The best thing about the three days off was that Emelia has gotten much better about getting up, going downstairs, and getting herself breakfast on the days we don’t have to be up. She does sound like a heard of elephants auditioning for an off-Broadway run of  Stomp, but at least once she gets set up downstairs, there is some more sleeping in for Danielle and I!

Friday at work I got a bit of a 911 text from Danielle after she and Emelia got home from school. With Valentine’s falling on the weekend, the kids at school celebrated it on Friday. There was a banana-gram thing they did where the kids could spend money (of course) and send a special Valentine to friends. And while Emelia had made Valentines for each of her classmates and friends, along with cookies, she completely forgot on Thursday evening to ask us for money so she could send a few to her special friends as a surprise. It turned out on Friday that in spite of not remembering to do that (something she fully owned having forgotten), she also didn’t get any from her friends either. She said (though, we’re not entirely sure it is true) that she was the only one in class to not get one. Reality or perception, we had one upset girl that evening.

As soon as I got the message, the solution was easy as I was at the mall, and already planning to get her some Valentine’s treats from me before heading home. So, while shopping for that, I found a nice little heart-shaped box of chocolates that came with a Teddy Bear that Danielle and I could surprise her with the next morning. At home, with the daycare kids gone for the night, Danielle and Emelia had a special movie night complete with popcorn that seemed to remedy how she was feeling.

By the time she awoke the next morning and got her bear, she was feeling much better about herself. It was tough to hear her go through this disappointment & heartbreak – certainly we know there’s lots more to come as a parent – but the part that was the easiest was having a sit down conversation with her reminding her of all the people in her life that love her. Once we had that conversation Saturday morning, she seemed to have much better perspective on that moment as much as it hurt.

The rest of the weekend was completely about the three of us. We of course had the usual stops like gymnastics, groceries, and errands which might seem mundane, but with my schedule it was a rare treat to get to do that all with Danielle and Emelia, rather than them taking care of it while I work. But over and above that there was some planning and cooking dinner together which was something we also don’t get to do as much either.

And then of course there was the three Harry Potter movies that Emelia ensured we watched over the weekend too! As far as weekends go, this is one of the best we’ve had – so much so – that the continual dumping of snow went for the most part unnoticed.  And that pretty much was all I could have wanted from the weekend. The things that matter most to me all together in one place, with nothing but time and the desire to be together doing nothing and everything all at once!

She said

John has really summarized this week to a tee.

The weekend was all about spending as much time as we could as a family and to focus on making our little girl feel as special as possible. Oh and to spread the Valentine’s love around this house the best way we could by being together.

As John mentioned Friday night I had to comfort an emotionally devastated little girl. She was fine at first, happily playing with her friends and as we walked home from school the conversation came up about these banangrams they had at school. Emelia hadn’t mentioned anything about them to me so I hadn’t sent any money in so she could buy them for her friends. We had done homemade cookies for everyone as well as valentines for her whole class and friends from the other classes. Well when she finally opened up about what happened she burst into tears. Apparently these banangrams were something you could choose to buy and decide which friends to send them to, not one of her friends sent her one. She says she was the only one in her class who didn’t get one, she was embarrassed and upset. She told me she felt like crying but didn’t because she didn’t want to cry in front of her friends. It broke my heart.

Emelia is one of those kids who likes and is most comfortable with a very tight group of friends, she has come a long way with coming out of her shell but she is still quite shy and is very sensitive. So having something so social happen in front of the class was quite devastating for her. As a parent you want to protect them from hurt and sometimes there is nothing you can do other than be the shoulder to cry on, to be the voice of love and assure her she has a safe place in her home. To assure Emelia had a special night she and I bundled up and walked to the store to get some treats for the night. We got some popcorn for mommy and Emelia movie night and we had a mini-spa night. It seemed to be the perfect remedy for a broken heart.

While she and I were watching our movie I messaged John to let him know about the night and asked him if he could pick up something special for our little girl. Well daddy went all-in to make his little girl feel better mode and bought half the Valentine’s section of the store (Editor’s Note: It was almost all on sale!). Emelia woke both Saturday and Sunday morning showered with treats and love.

Back to the rest of the week, the week started out milder temperatures but as the week went on it started to drop and eventually we started to get slammed with the weather. We had been able to escape old man winter for almost the entire season but man the last four days we made up for it with around 40 cm in only a few days. It made for school runs on Thursday and Friday rather interesting. By Saturday we thought we were done with the weather but then Saturday morning and early afternoon proved to be even worse and white-out conditions made errands and getting Emelia back and forth made things quite interesting.

The weather pretty well dominated the weekend activities, John made good use of the gifted snow-blower digging us out more times than I feel he wants to count. We got slammed pretty hard by the snow and cold weather but the weather coming this week is going to flip us on our heads again with milder temps by the end of the week and even rain. It should be quite a mess by the end.

By this morning the snow had stopped and the temperatures rose enough that it was mild enough to get outside longer. We are celebrating Family day and we spent today doing just that celebrating and spending time as a family. We took the morning at a lazier pace and then to the Y for a few hours of family fun. John and I swapped out our workouts while the other spent some one on one time with Emelia. Emelia and I did some rock climbing followed by some family karate, and she and daddy spent a good long swim in the pool and I joined them at the end. It was filled with lots of laughs and building memories. It was the great end to three glorious days as a family.