Christmas Day

This one is from Santa to Chance!

Special gift from Chance's Ontario Aunties.

Karin's first Christmas - Santa brought her baby sized cereal bars and a toque!

Christmas dress and new haircut.

Chance woke up at 6 AM. He opened his door..."CLICK!" (his door has magnets on it rather than the usual door knobs because he has French doors on his bedroom). He popped his head out into the hallway and listened...no one was awake. So he went back into his bedroom and closed the door... "CLICK!!". 10 minutes later, his curiosity peaked again. "CLICK!.....CLICK!". Another 10 minutes later, he could bear it no more and opened his door again, only this time Cam and I were asleep and didn't hear the "CLICK!" and instead only hear the "thump thump thump thump" of him jumping up and down. I rolled over and poked Cam and said maybe we should just get up, he's doing laps in his bedroom...and then 2 inches from my ear Chance piped up "NO I'm right here! Mom, Santa was here and he left two presents!!" Just about jumped out of my skin!

We made him eat a bowl of Cheerios before tackling his Santa gift and stocking. He was pretty impressed that Santa brought him a Megatron Transformer just like he asked. It kept him busy enough until Karin got up around 9. We got her fed and then got her opening gifts too -- she had a great time ripping paper. Santa brought her a bowling pin set...she spent the whole morning running around the house with a pin in each hand and screaming "OOOOOOO!!!"

We spent most of the day in our jammies. Chance finally had enough somewhere around noon or 1 and got dressed, but I think the rest of us took a few more hours.

THANK YOU everyone for the lovely Christmas gifts and warm wishes.

Everyone seemed to be feeling healthy on Christmas day and that was my highlight. I had been so worried that the kids would come down with the rotten flu that Cam and I had earlier in the week.

We had a ham supper with scalloped potatoes (new food processor sliced 6 spuds in 0.3 seconds) and corn. No room for dessert so the blueberry tarts I made went into the fridge for another night. We stayed up late with Chance and watched his new movie, Toy Story 3.

Merry Christmas to all!

Well, it will be in a few hours here. I still haven't gotten rid of my bad habit of getting up in the night.

This morning Chance and I took Karin for her first haircut. At first we just gave her bangs and trimmed her ends but she looked like she had a mullet, so then we asked to have it all lopped off to be a cute little girlie bob. Photos to come!

We had a very simple Christmas Eve compared to ones in the past, which we have usually had a lobster supper. Tonight Cam and I are recuperating from the flu (touch wood so far the kids haven't caught it) so we stuck with beef barley soup and a tomato salad with balsamic vinegar. Chance and Karin ate well, then Karin demolished an Oreo cookie while Chance hacked into his recently completed gingerbread house. We bathed the kids (Chance showered....a "big" kid thing lately), and then snuggled together on the couch and enjoyed Mickey's Christmas Carol. Karin went to bed at 7:30 or so and we finished the cartoons and then left snacks for Santa and his reindeer. Chance then went to bed at 8:30. We heard him get up once...but he never got out of his bedroom: "Thump. Thump thump thump thump....thump thump thump thump....whump!" He must have remembered 1 step from his door that Santa doesn't come if you're not asleep! Tomorrow is likely going to be an early start as he is VERY excited about opening gifts.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy Christmas!

5 days of Christmas

I posted a video of Chance on youtube singing his version of the "5 days of Christmas" and included a translation:

Translation:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 5 golden rings, 4 calling birds, 3 french hens, 2 turtledoves and a partridge in a pear tree!!!

I was corrected by a random viewer named Snappy Penguins with the following:

More accurate translation:

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to mmmoorrrghhhh: EURGHHH GOLDEN URGHH, three French hens, three turtle doves, and pah-tree-a-lemon pear TROOOOOOUGHGHGUHAGAWAGAAGAGaaw­ahayyy.......

I stand corrected.

Fuzzy Blanket, I Love You!...and He Shoots, He Scores!

Thank goodness for Karin's fuzzy blue blankie. It has really helped her settle into daycare. She's been there twice now for 7 or more hours each time. Now we just need to convince her to eat her soup at lunch and take her naps and we'll be great. But at least she's not crying!

Chance is learning to skate. Cam is taking him most evenings out to the frozen pond near our house and they spend about an hour practicing. Chance can pick himself up now and manage to shoot a puck into a hockey net (he falls down after though). I am looking forward to watching him on the weekend, up to now I have been at home getting Karin ready for bed.

Also Chance will be in a Christmas play soon. He has lines and apparently has memorized them. He's kept all of this a secret -- so secret that we wouldn't have brought him to the play had his teacher not told me about it (he usually doesn't go on Fridays). When his teacher told me about the play she also gave me a last minute note that there was an Open House at the neighbourhood school for parents and kids who will be going to Kindergarten next year (that's us)!! Registration is January 15th!!!

Karin's first day at daycare...

...didn't go so well. Karin was there for about 1 ½ hours and then they called saying that there was nothing else they could do. Yet, they didn’t give her the comfort items that I packed: blankie & soother (not that she uses the soother usually, but it might have calmed her down). I know they didn’t give them to her because they were exactly in the same spot I left them. The soother was still wrapped in the plastic bag I had it in, it wasn’t wet, and her soft blankie was completely dry. If they gave it to her and she was hysterical it should have been wet and snotty. Also they didn’t let Chance come visit her like they said they would. Chance was disappointed too, he wanted to see Karin on her first day. They didn’t give her a snack even though when I dropped her off (near 10 AM) I said she should be ready for a snack right away, they said they finished “breakfast” (what I would call snack time) at 9:30….they would see what they could do. So they let a hungry, thirsty, scared baby cry for an hour and a half. Now she’s terrified to let me leave her anywhere, including the pool babysitters that she’s been fine with for weeks. We’re not very impressed, and on Monday when she goes back we’re going to sit with them and talk this out because it was a plain old lack of effort, in our opinion. Cam is the one who picked her up (he was home that day, use your vacation days or lose them). I was at the chiropractor. What also irks me is that I can’t have the daycare phoning me at work in a few weeks saying “we can’t calm Karin down, you have to come pick her up”. Just because I’m not working in December doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do – I have all my doctor’s appointments and personal things to do on the days the kids are in daycare! On the bright side: all of the disappointment with the daycare has overshadowed my emotions more or less on the fact that my time at home with Karin and Chance is coming to an end. And those emotions are affecting my decision making skills too. I have been bringing Karin to pick up Chance most evenings so that the place is familar to her. But the last time I did this I got teary on the drive home and started wiping my eyes without thinking. So...I had just been to a daycare and then started touching my eyes without washing my hands first. Pinkeye. Next time I'll smear myself with hand sanitizer before bursting into tears, haha.