Well, Dave was a bit stressed out that he didn’t have
anything to blog about today! As most of you may know, he has been trying to
blog everyday this summer. http://apartment1004.blogspot.ca
I’m not sure how he came to that
conclusion. He went into work this
morning, took a bike ride this afternoon, hung out with the fam for dinner, and
is now off to worship team practice.
However- I told him I would blog about the uneventful day and so he
needn’t worry about it!
This morning, Dave headed off to school to get some
September prep work done. We had the Mamens
over for a playdate bright and early, and Sarah, Tryne and Soren arrived with
smiles at 8:30. It was an overcast wet
feeling morning, so a good one to spend inside with friends. Sarah has to be one of my best friends in
Ottawa. Her kids are about the same age
as mine, and while Jesse and Tryne don’t always see eye to eye, a good part of
the playdate is about the momma’s anyways!
It’s so nice to have another adult to chat with while keeping an eye on
the kids. Sarah is a pretty awesome,
friend, too. She is genuine, fun, and
relaxed. She is a GREAT cook, and AMAZING
baker. She always brings me gluten
filled delicacies that are amazing. I
remember each set of things she has made, particularly the best chocolate
cookies I have ever had. I ate almost a dozen
of them in one sitting and went into labor with Janna that same night! Sarah
and her husband Chris are also inspirational in the things they tackle with
their 1 and (almost) 3 year old. They
hike, ski, run races, climb mountains, all with kids in tow. In fact, they are going camping in NY this
weekend, and outside of Ottawa next weekend.
Chris is taking Tryne on a 2 day canoeing trip with his very athletic
brothers and dad over the labor day weekend, as well. They are fearless, and I love it!
After our friends took off, I took the kids out front to play. Sure enough, the second we stepped out of the
door it started to rain. It was pretty light
and warm, and so I thought, “whatever- we will play in the rain.” Janna didn’t seem to even notice it, and went
about her favorite activity of locating the neighbors bike helmets, which are
always littered somewhere across the lawns, and buckling them up. Jesse decided that after 5 minutes on his bike
it was too rainy and he wanted to go in.
Janna was having a great time so I pressed on 5 more minutes before Jesse
really started to melt down to take them in.
Well, poor Janna was DEVESTATED.
She sobbed and sobbed and called out “mama,” through tears and frustrated
swats to the air.
I set Jesse up with his magnet game and set about making
some lunch. I found this at toys-r-us on
sale for 8 bucks. This has been the BEST
activity for Jesse. He asks to play this
at least once a day and will sit down making all the faces by himself for a
good 20-30 minutes at a time. Sometimes twice
a day. I know all kids like different
toys- but if you are looking for a fun thing to occupy a 3 year old- this has
been incredible for Jesse.
While Jesse happily arranged his faces, Janna cried at me a
lot. I feel like she is a bit of a
different kid over the past couple months.
SO much fussier and up and down than before. I’m not sure if it’s just her age and stage
or something more. The docs have been
keeping a close eye on her weight as she dropped from the third percentile off
the charts around 9 months. She was
making tiny gains here and there, but this week we found out she LOST over a
pound this past month. She eats like a
champ and has no developmental delays, so
has been referred onto a pediatrician who will hopefully get some blood work
done that would test for celiac. I
really want to take her off gluten to see if there is any noticeable
difference- but an individual needs to be on it for a month before a blood test
reads accurate. SO, for now I keep
feeding her bread every morning feeling very guilty that it may be causing her
stomach pain every day. I would feel
bad if one of my kids got this and not the other! We’ll see.
She has been cutting many teeth the past few months, which always throws
her into a bit of a loop, so could just be that as well.
Is she happy or sad??? She doesn't even know these days...
After lunch was downed, I decided to take the kids upstairs
for a change of scenery. It’s amazing how a different room can brighten
spirits. And sure enough my kids were in
much better moods. However- I noticed a bit of a dust build up and toy pile up,
and decided to do some cleaning. I have
been getting Jesse more involved with contributing around the house- so
enlisted his help. I want all of my kids
to end up as capable individuals in the kitchen and in household chores. He was not too keen on helping out, but when
he realized it wasn’t a choice- he was a superstar helper. On the other hand, Janna was all too keen to
help mama when she heard the clean up song and saw us get to work. Her contributions involved using clean
laundry out of drawers to “dust” random things, pulling bedding off and into
random areas of the room, and dumping toys out of bins and into new ones. It took us about one hour to get 15 minutes
worth of work done, but it pulled us through to nap time.
This summer, I have been trying to take the kids nap time to
genuinely relax. During the school year,
I usually have cleaning up to do and supper prep, and random other important
things. However- with Dave’s help there
is more time and hands available when the kids are up to tackle those things. So, I spent today doing a very quick clean
up, sleeping for 30 minutes, sending a few emails, and reading a book with a
cup of tea. Dave arrived home from work
and he relaxed for a while, then took off for an hour long bike ride.
Dave had a goal at
the start of the summer to put back on about 15 pounds of the 20 he lost during
the school year. I have been very supportive as he was a few
pounds lighter than me 5 weeks ago. So,
I have been baking lots for him, keeping lots of high protein stuff around for
breakfast and lunches, and making sure there is lots of meat at supper. I have even bought junk like chips for him to
snack on in the evening instead of my preferred hummus or fruit based
snacks. It seems, all my work has paid off, and he is
up 10 pounds! Passing my ever gaining
baby weight by 3 pounds. Woot! However-
I think he has realized the tendency his weight has to clump on his stomach-
hence the biking J
When the kids woke up, Dave hung out with them while I prepared
another pretty high fat dense supper. I
found an alfredo sauce that was extra buttery and creamy and got to work on a
pasta dish. I made a few omissions to
make it more kid-friendly- at the expense of taste in my opinion. However- I HATE when I sit down for dinner
and the kids don’t like what has been made.
It is so frustrating. Don’t you find?
Tonight, I was sure they would be just fine with it- but they both
started crying and fussing after trying a bite.
Seriously? I was even more
frustrated that I had tried to alter the recipe for them and they didn’t like
it. I had no energy to get up and make
them something else (a habit we try very hard not to succumb to), but no energy
to fight with them to eat it. So, we
just let them fuss as we enjoyed ours.
Half way through the meal, Jesse noticed that Janna’s pasta was larger
than his. I had given her some
gluten-free penne noodles to match Dave, and Jesse and I were using up some
leftover wheat spagettini noodles. Jesse
told me he wanted the “big boy” noodles.
SO, I switched their bowls. Well-
you’d think it was different food. They
both lapped up their new noodle shape (same sauce) with a good amount of
enthusiasm. Oh children...sometimes I
just don’t understand you.
Dave gave the kids a quick bath while I did some mopping and
cleaning up and then had to take off early for his practice. This has brought me to this point. I put on a movie for Jesse, and Janna is
wandering around making a mess, and I am just not even worrying about it. Bed
time soon!
Another day with it’s sweet and sour moments. Wouldn’t trade it for anything! Thanks
for reading! I’m out.
