This and That

Well, the kiddies have started at their dayhome for real now. Not even a backwards glance toward Mama or Daddy when we drop them off. I quickly learned to ask for my kisses before I let them out of their carseats because otherwise I'm right out of luck. They scamper into the house and pretty much bolt downstairs to see what the other kids are doing.

I certainly have been pleasantly surprised by E. She has gained so much self confidence over the past year. Around this time last year we started the Mom's Morning Out group. At the beginning of that group E. used to panic if she couldn't see me. It was impossible for her to stay in the childcare room and play while I was in a different room. As we entered the parking lot she would start her chorus of, 'Mama, mama's room, E mama's room.' We worked that out and now look at her. Going into someone else house, having a great time and trusting that either Mama or Daddy will be back to get her soon.

Daddy is at the Flight Simulator in Fredericton this week. Yes, a week of hotel and restaurant living for Baba. The kids ask me at least three times a day where he is. J. really, really didn't want him to go, but he seems O.K. with it now that Daddy is actually gone. Daddy gets home Saturday night and then leaves again Monday for a week in Cold Lake. Not the greatest schedule and I have seen little changes in the kids' behaviour to indicate that they are reacting somewhat to all the changes that have gone on over the past month.

Mostly I've seen that they have both been pushing the envelope more than usual over the past week or so. J. just ignores my instructions. I ask/tell him not to do something and he does it anyway. On the weekend he was leaning over on my back. I asked him to not touch my hair because it was up in a ponytail and I didn't want to redo it. He reached up and pulled out the bottom half of my ponytail. Ahhh...For her part, E. has been having more tantrums. She had a nice one on Sunday. She screamed all the way around the block as we went for our evening walk and then continued the session as I bathed her. Lovely. She slept really well afterwards though :-). So, it's not like they are wildly out of control or anything, but they aren't exactly themselves either.

Next week will bring more changes as I start my teaching contract. I still don't have my full assignment yet. The principal has left that decision up to the other two teachers I'll be working with (or more properly, 'with whom I'll be working'). It appears the bulk of my assignment will be the English Language Arts portion of the Grade Three cirriculum. Since these kids are in a French Immersion program, grade 3 is the first time they will be learning to read and write in English. I'm interested to see what skills they do have or if we're starting from nothing. I've been organizing the heaps of teaching stuff that I haven't touched for the past 3 years. I have lots of stuff on reading and writing. Now I just have to decide how I'm going to organize my time with the students and which stategies I'm going to start with.

Last Day Tomorrow

Yep tomorrow is my last day of work at the oil company. I'm sorry it's coming to an end because I've really enjoyed it. I have to say that working in an office was a bit of a challenge for me at the beginning. I found out I'm not detail oriented at all. That trait combined with the fact that I hate to make mistakes made me a little crazy at times.

So, I don't work next week, but things should start heating up for school the week after. I hope to talk to my principal and find out what my assignment will be so I can begin to prepare more than two days before I have to face a classroom (or two or three) of kiddies.
My kiddies will start going to the dayhome each morning next week so we can all get used to the routine before I actually start my new job. The kids seem pretty psyced about it and have been asking me when they'll get to go to Miss Kelly's. There are three other kids at Miss Kelly's. A boy, the same age as E. and J., and then two littler boys who are about 20 months or so. I think they are going to like it there. I'm sure the other 3 year old is going to be happy to have kids his age to play with.

In other news, J. has come up with a new strategy to get his own way. It has yet to work one time, but he persists anyway. When he really wants something and I say, 'no', he says, 'Daddy dit yes' (Daddy says yes). Daddy can be (and usually is) standing right there and, as you are probably aware, he hasn't voiced an opinion about the situation. I know that J. is getting the vocabulary from me because when the kids aren't listening I usually say, "J. (or E.) Mama a dit non/put your shoes on/go to the bathroom/stop running/come to the table/turn off the TV/it's time for bed". Well, you get the picture. I never say that they should do something because daddy told them to, but J. tries to use it. He only used 'Daddy dit...' for the longest time, but the other day when he wanted a story before bedtime he told me that 'Lao-Lao dit yes'. Um, she didn't. I asked her. I wonder how long it will be before Miss Kelly will be telling us what to do from afar too :-)
J. is also pretty much over this whole 'Daddy Working' thing. He thought it was cute for a while, but now he wants things to go back to 'normal' (like the last six months) or, if we can't do that, it would be fine if Mama goes to work, but Daddy needs to stay home. J's new conversation on this subject goes like this:

J: Mama, Daddy go work tomorrow?
M: Yes, J.
J: He-li-cop-ter (insert strong French accent)?
M: That's right.
J: (insert whinny voice) No Mama. J.J no want it, J.J no want it. Nough (enough) Mama. Daddy no work. Mama, Gung-Gung (maternal grandfather) dit Daddy no go work. (Um, J. hasn't seen my dad over the past few weeks. I guess they must be communicating telepathically).

Ch, Ch, Ch Changes?

DH has been telling me for the last few weeks that he thinks that J. has changed so much. I just don't see it so tonight DH took matters into his own hands. He dressed J. up in what he was wearing the day we met, took a picture and then did a before and after kind of thing. Here is the result so you can judge for yourselves:

One interesting thing about this little experiment is that J. was willing to try on his Gottcha Day clothes. Two months ago he didn't want to have anything to do with them.

Since we were trying J.'s clothes on, we decided to put E.'s on too. Her's finally fit. She was 15 months old when we got her and now at 3 years and 4 months her Gottcha shorts stay up!

So, here they are....thinking they are so incredibly funny.

What's J. Up To?

While Daddy and Mei-Mei were upstairs getting ready to go grocery shopping, J. settled down to a quiet few minutes with his favorite books. He read three of them, but by the time I clued in to what he was doing, got the camera out and set it up somewhere that he wouldn't see me, he was on his last one - 'Le Bateau de Leo' (Leo's Boat). He says 'bateau' (boat) and 'poisson' (fish) alot as he turns the pages. He's right, the book is about Leo catching a big fish while riding in his handsome, handsome boat.

It's too bad I missed taping his rendition of 'La Voiture d'Arthur' (Arthur's Car). He 'read' a lot more of that one. Hopefully I'll catch him at another time because I'm sure when he graduates from medical school he's going to want to see how far he's come.

In other news, J. became a Canadian Citizen on July 16. See how proud he is. Apparently becoming a Citizen doesn't mean he's going to wear pants more often though. (Yes, the certificate is strategically placed).

Daddy made a yummy chocolate cake to celebrate the occasion. Celebrating with cake means only only thing to this little man - CANDLES. He just HAD, HAD, HAD to have a candle to blow out!

Second Year Anniversary

Two years ago tonight DH and I were lying in a bed in Nanning, China unable to sleep with worrying about how our Gottcha Day with Jiang, Yilin was going to go.

At this time, two years ago, Yilin was being dropped off by her foster mother at Guigang Social Welfare Institute (3 hours from where we were) to spend the night. The pictures we have of that night show a smiling little baby totally unaware that she would soon meet two very nervous people who would become her parents.

Tomorrow marks the second year anniversary of our Gottcha Day with E. On July 31, 2006 a beautiful little girl dressed in green shorts and a green and white t-shirt was placed in our arms to become our daughter. As E.'s tears attest to, it was a scary moment for all of us.

The next day, Friday, August 1st, 2006, E. offically became our daughter. Suddenly having a child to care for was a total shock to us, but thankfully E. knew what she was doing. She expertly guided us through those first bewildering weeks and turned us into parents. Two years later and my sweet baby is becoming a big girl. Yet for all the changes, I still see that sweet, scared little baby that was placed in our arms at 3:10 pm on July 31, 2006. I trust that I will always see her.

How incredibly blessed we are to have this little girl as our daughter.

Work, Work, Work

Well, we made it through our first day of both working full time. Whew! Everything went very well.

My mom got here just after 7:00 am. and E. ran to the door to welcome her. H. (E & J's cousin) was with Lao-Lao (my mom) which helped things considerably since E. loves to play with her and she's great with the kiddies. I also had a little brain-wave this morning which I think helped E. feel more comfortable with everything. When she saw me getting dressed for work she started crying and saying, 'E. no want it. E. no want Mama go work.' I sat her down on the stairs and explained that Mama would go to work like all the other days, but that maybe she could look after Mama's necklace while I was away and I would collect it back once I got home. I took it off and put it around her neck. She was thrilled. I told her that she could rub it if she started missing Mama and that was it. She didn't whine or complain anymore. She happily kissed me good-bye and waved to me from the window just like every other day. It was GREAT!

J. got up later than E. He asked me, 'Where Daddy go?'. I told him that Daddy had gone to work. He'd gone to the place where he'd taken J. the other day, the place with the helicopters. 'O.K.' he said. Then he asked if I was going to work too. When I told him yes, he asked, 'Devon?' (my job is in Devon and they came to visit me for a few minutes one day). When I told him yes, he said, 'O.K.' and then went downstairs for breakfast. Everything was right in his world and he was as happy as a little clam.

DH really didn't want to go to work this morning. Yucky. I talked to him around 2:30 and he was missing the kids. Luckily he was able to get home by 3:45 so things were already cooking (literally) once I got home from work just after 5:00. I love it! It made for a much more relaxing evening than we would have had otherwise.

We passed!!!

This was J and E's first swimming lessons. They did great! It was half an hour, every morning for two weeks. They enjoyed going to the pool for their lessons and are now more confident. Here are a few pictures.

Bike Riding

Yes, it has happened. At 39 months of age my two babies can now ride bikes. J. prefers the tricycle. E. never got the hang of that, but yesterday some friends of ours (people I went to highschool with who now live two cul-de-sacs over from us) gave us a pink two wheeler called...... A TIGRESS. E. loves it. She jumped on it and rode home from our friend's house just like that!

J. does need a two wheeler with training wheels too though because he can't keep up when we go out of the cul-de-sac. This afternoon we went for a ride on the paved path behind the house and Daddy and E. were way ahead of us. We'll have to hit some garage sales and see what we can find.

One of my sisters went garage saling today and picked up a beautiful pair of skates for E. She wants to skate. She went skating with Daddy once last year and was very impressed with it all. She says, 'E. go skating in winter. E. fall down?' When I answer that yes, she will fall down she seems happy about it. Then she says, 'Mama hold E.'s hand' and the discussion is closed. Little does she know that holding my hand is likely more dangerous than her taking her chances on her own :-).

On another subject, I've known it for awhile, but I guess I'll have to get into a horribly embarrassing situation before I change my ways. My kiddies now really do understand and remember everything we say. Last night at supper I was telling DH a story about my boss. He's American and he was in Vietnam. Long story short, he was a gunner in a helicopter that was hit. Some shrapnel hit his gun, bounced off and then hit and broke one of his arms before lodging in the other. That wasn't enough of an injury to get him sent home. He was put in a hospital on Guam for three months and then sent back into action. O.K., so this afternoon, S. (my neice) was over to babysit while we went to see the moive Mama-Mia (I really enjoyed it by the way). Anyway, she came for lunch before the babysitting actually started and during lunch J. related the whole story of my boss' experience in Vietnam. Of course S. didn't understandbecause she didn't know the story, but J. got the whole thing completely right. How much he really understands about the fact that the guy was in a war and that he could have died, I don't know, but he told about the helicopter taking 'the man' to the hospital when he got hit in two arms (demonstrates by pointing at each forearm one at a time) and he stayed on an island. Oh boy. Lucky it wasn't a racier story that I told (I don't mean to say that I have racier stories about my boss, because I certainly don't, but there are stories I've told DH that I wouldn't necessarily want repeated or understood by my babies!).

I'll leave you tonight with a little video of J. 'dancing'. He has this VERY weird move he does when he's really, really getting down with his funky on. I had been telling him that he was going to get time-outs for all kinds of crazy things. The last thing was the one you'll hear me say in the video, 'Time-out for dancing Jay-Jay'. He thinks he's so hilarious when he 'breaks the rules'.

And yes, my kids hate wearing pants. Because they usually strip to their underware as soon as they get home, most of our in the house videos and pictures catch them in their skivies.

Hay!

Hey All,

Yes, I'm still alive. I couldn't sleep this morning which was great because it gave me a chance to catch up on what's happening in bloggy land. I must say that spending all day at an office, mostly in front of a computer, puts a rather large damper on any desire to compute once I get home. Anyho.....I miss my babies and I definately don't like working full time. Next Thursday Jean-Pierre goes back to work. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! He's already scheduled to be away for the whole third week of August. The only bright note is that when he goes back, my mom is coming to be with the kids until I am finished at the oil company. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

So, cute kid story. As you might remember from a previous post we have a farm near our place. The farm's 'driveway' runs behind our house so, during meal times, we see vehicles coming and going. My kids have come up with a new joke. Whenever a trailer load of hay drives by, one (or both of them) yells, 'Hey, hay!'. Then they absolutely crack up. These days (since the first cutting of hay is in) we are treated to this belly laugh at least once each meal. You'd think the joke would get old, but seeing the way they laugh everytime as if it's the first time they've ever said the joke always makes me laugh too.

Dad's update.

Alright, here it is. Some of you have been asking what was going on in our life since Dawn started working a month ago now.

Well, the kids are still alive and kicking. They miss their mommy but they understand that mommies have to work while daddies stay home. It is a bit harder on them on Mondays because they get used to seeing their mom all weekend and when Monday come she has to go again, but dad is keeping them busy and they are sure enjoying their time with papa.

Right now they are taking swimming lessons every morning for half an hour. It's for two weeks. So we get up early, have breakfast with mama, wave goodbye to her at the window at 7:30 and finish breakfast before 8:00. Get dressed, do the hair and everything, time for some Dora or Diego while Daddy cleans up the kitchen and gets himself ready. Around 9:10 we leave for the pool and we come back home around 10:20, unless we go straight to the park from the pool or visit our future dayhome provider to get them used to her or go WEM to use the rides, then we are home just before lunch.

But let me tell you that when Mama comes back around 5 ish she is the most important person in the universe. They run to her and start telling what they did all day right at the door. Poor D. she doesn't even have time to take off her shoes.

So you were wondering what's been happening in the last four weeks. There you are.

D. was updating the blog regularly but now that she works she likes to relax a bit in the evenings and enjoy some quiet time. I think she might be tired sometimes. I'm sure you guys can understand how she feels.

Last week we went to the zoo for Canada day. The kids really enjoyed it and they really liked seeing real elephants. Their cousins were with them and we liked asking them to talk about 'seals' but to say the name in french. For those of you who don't know, it is written 'phoque' and you pronounce it like *%#*. My brother-in-law did not think it was that funny.

As for myself, well I am really enjoying the time spent with my children. I have to admit that yes, it is hard sometimes. Man oh man, there is always something to do in this **&@** house.

This parental leave has given me the opportunity to really get to know my son and deepened my relationship with my daughter. I am really grateful for that.

I have to go back to work on the 24th. I will be busy at work when I go back and eventually I'll have to go away for courses or training, that is the hard part of my work. But that's life and I'm sure we will make it work.

Talk to you later.

J.