goodbye friendly mascots

Vancouver's 2010 party wrapped up tonight.

We bid farewell to our little mascots, Miga, Quatchi and Sumi. The best Happy Meal toys McDonalds
has done in a long time. This isn't the entire group of them either...I couldn't find all of them to round up for the photo. (sorry it's a little out of focus).

working mom

Okay, yes, all moms are working moms.

It is hard work, whichever way you slice it. Lately, I have been reflecting on howt how much I have been able to let go of and not feel guilty about.

This has been what's working for me lately:

1. My car is a mess inside. It has not been cleaned since, oh, I don't know when. But frankly, I don't care. I am pretty close to calling John the car detailing guy and just letting him go to town with it.

2. Do work at home; do home at work. I do this all the time. Breaks at work are good for scheduling kid appointments, ordering clothes from Lands End for the kids, or a million other things. On the flip side, I email myself work documents to edit, letters to write at home. It is just easier. I just need to accomplish a certain number of things and get them ticked off my list. Where I do it is sometimes besides the point.

3. My only goal each morning is to get to the gym if it is Tuesday or Thursday AND get Sophie and myself out the door before her school bell rings. My black, grey, brown dress pants are my godsends.

4. Have some secret weapons: mine are Flo (our housekeeper), an awesome daycare, Sophie's french tutor, a husband who is a good cook, and my debit card. If I see something that I know we will need, I buy it. I don't waste time debating little things like buying kids' birthday cards, socks, makeup, or stamps on the fly.

5. I can get a lot done while my kids are in the bath.

6. I don't worry about how Sophie and Fynn will turn out by being in daycare. They are good little creatures who have learned a lot of stuff at daycare. Not all good, but on balance, the goods are still ahead.

7. We live it up on the weekends. We've been known to take our kids to some pretty cool places on the weekend....indoor play gyms, water parks, Tube Town, movies. I don't think it is parental guilt that causes us to want to do this, but just the desire to make those moments really memorable.

8. The library is my friend.

9. I'm not going to miss out on any of it (wherever possible), but I can call in reinforcements. Today I was not able to take Sophie to ballet because I had back to back meetings all day, so Vic took her. But tomorrow I asked my boss if he could rearrange the order of our management meeting agenda so I could go to Sophie's school for her little mini concert and math workshop tomorrow morning. I'm not scared to push it a bit at work, but they know they get 110% of me.

I enjoy all of these hats. It's a lot of juggling, but the balls generally stay up in the air.

work

I am going to Vancouver in another week and a bit to present some information on an innovation award that myself and my colleague Maureen have been nominated for.

Here's some more info...scroll down...that's me in the green turtleneck.

madeline

Madeline is quite charming. She also throws in a little French language, so it's nice reinforcement for Sophie. We've watched this library DVD a couple of times now.
Some Amazon reviewers didn't like it because it shows girls not enjoying science. I think the reviewer was being a little picky, because let's face it, if a subject is not taught in an engaging way, it can be terribly boring.

We had a very fun day down at EnergyPlex in Kelowna. We did the gymnastics side this trip. The trampolines are amazing -- you get real spring! I wasn't really supposed to be bouncing on them, but I got in a few jumps. Photos coming...

holding on to your kids

Tonight our PAC brought in Dr. Gordon Neufeld. His website is here. The schoold gym was packed with parents who wanted to hear words of parenting wisdom and he didn't disappoint.

Some of the points he talked about were intuitive things that we had been doing but maybe didn't have the words for such as bridging (when you tell a child you will see them after school, or "I'll see you in the morning" to ease them to sleep), but others were more challenging, such as how to build a stronger relationship with your child - through attachment - so they don't become attached to peers.

Lots of good information that Vic and I picked up.

that terrible sinking feeling

Oh, I did a doozy today.

I had a meeting mid afternoon which meant that I couldn't take Sophie to ballet, so Vic did. Normally I would drop her off and pick her up. However, since Vic was dropping her off at ballet, I was out of my routine (and I REALLY count on routines lately).

At 4pm my meeting was wrapping up and I went sauntering back to my office. My phone message light was flashing a message from Vic saying he had dropped Sophie off at 3pm and he was heading back to his office. OMG! It was now 4:05. Ballet ended over 35 minutes ago. All I could imagine was Sophie sitting in the studio crying her eyes out. Her worst fear about being forgotten by mommy completely realized. She will NEVER trust me again. I phone Vic, no answer. I phone daycare asking them if she by chance happened to get dropped off over there (not sure who I was thinking would have dropped her off). I got in my car and raced over to the dance studio.

Inside were the Grade 1 students have their lessons. And there at the back sitting on a stool was Sophie "assisting the teacher". Mrs. Wonnacott who is a dear woman said that Sophie was fine and had been happily helping her out. Her teacher had figured that I had gotten tied up and took Sophie under her wing. Sophie proclaimed that she wants me to be late more often because she gets to watch the older girls use the barre, which is cool. I felt so terrible, I just hugged her and told her how sorry I was. I then walked her over to Pharmasave and bought her a little outfit for her new Webkins. Major guilt.

She seemed to really take it in stride. Later I had my gym class which I let her attend with me (still feeling guilty) and she and Fynn came out to my Canadian Parents for French meeting, which we had to leave a little early from due to a very poopy and stinky diaper on Fynn's part. I didn't think I should subject the poor parents to anymore of his smelliness.

Nice to be home now and relaxing and the day's craziness is just a distant memory.

peter rabbit

Vic's mom gave Sophie the Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny book/DVD for her birthday. We watched one of the stories tonight. It's a lovely animated story. However, I think a couple of parts were a little scary -- the bunnies got a few smacks on the bottom with a stick when they were naughty. Sophie is also going through a stage where she asks if characters on TV who appear in old costumes are "dead". Beatrix Potter is portrayed by an actress in the story and naturally prompted that question.

exhaustion, oh and valentine's day

Facebook has a thing going around right now where you update your status bar with how long you have been with your significant other and to post a pic. This photo is a favourite one of Vic and I taken at Baby Eats in North Vancouver a couple of years ago.

Definitely less hectic times as I was not back to work yet. Work has been crazy busy. I am up before 6am to get to the gym and then the whole day starts from there. I really am looking forward to a bit of downtime at my parent's place this weekend. A nice 3 day weekend.

Tomorrow I'm doing my little craft with Sophie's Kindergarten class and then back to work for a bit and then down to Oliver.

birthday wrap up

Ahh, the 6th birthday is history. Sophie had a great day yesterday with her friends at the pool. We did her thank you cards last night and delivered them today.

All wrapped up!

super 6!

Sophie woke up today and found that I had decorated her room with a heart shaped banner for over her window.

Downstairs, Dad offered her pancakes however she opted for her usual cereal. She was dressed up in her little Lands End skirt, leggings and top. She happily let me take her to daycare early so she could catch the van into school. At around 2:00pm, I popped down to the daycare to watch her cut into the cake Karen had made for her. She did a great job of the Polly Pocket theme.

After daycare we took Sophie and Fynn to dinner at Boston Pizza, her favourite place and she got to have a "special" drink, an orange slushie. Then she opened up her two gifts. She got her much anticipated Nintendo DS and THE most adorable little outfit for her American Girl doll. Vic and I went out for about 2 hours to a fundraiser and she had one of her favourite sitters over. She went to bed a very happy little 6 year old.

much too much

Today was my day of CRAZINESS.

- woke up at 5:40am so I could get to my fitness class;
- at 6:30am got back home because I needed to get showered and dressed as
we were all leaving the house at 7:30am today so we could get Sophie over to the daycare so she could catch the daycare van to her school;
-at 8am Vic and I head up to Kamloops. I had a workshop to attend and Vic had some running around he needed to do up there;
-at promptly 12noon Vic picked me up from my workshop so we could head back down to Salmon Arm again (just over an hour drive) as he had to get back to work and I had to get to a meeting by 1pm (which I knew I would be late for and was okay with that;)
-he bought me a latte from Starbucks and a flax bar because we knew we would both miss lunch so that is what we ate on the way back to Salmon Arm;
-get to my meeting for 1:10pm -- didn't miss too much
- work, Vic picks me up at 5pm with the kids;
-back home for dinner and then I was off again at 6pm to meet the consultant who is working with me on some HR staffing plans right now. We had a productive session from 6-7:30pm at which time I needed to get back home so Vic could go biking;
-7:30pm bathe kids, read stories, help Sophie figure out what she is going to wear for her birthday tomorrow (she is over the top excited about that)
- 9pm - sit on the couch and breathe ahhhh...