Big Girl

Mika had her first ballet lesson yesterday. To say that she loved it is an understatement. We had to peel her kicking and screaming off the rec centre floor because she didn't want to leave. Parents are not allowed to watch. We stripped her down to her leotard and tights, slapped on her ballet slippers, and off she went into the classroom by herself no problem. No hesitation. As the door was closing, we could hear Mika introduce herself and respond with 'Pink!' when the teacher asked what Mika's fave colour is. She was awarded a green foil star sticker for a class well done at the end. Good times!

First Class

We're off to Mika's first ballet/creative movement class this morning. Everyone is excited - Mika has been gearing up for this day for a long, long time. Upon waking this morning, the first thing out of Mika's mouth was "Can I go to ballet school now?"
She has her wee quilted satin ballet bag packed with tights, leotard, and ballet slippers. Hopefully we'll remember to bring the camera...

Happy 35-Month Birthday, Mika!

My baby girl is one month away from having Officially Not A Baby status - but we're too wrapped up in daycare adjustments to get overly sentimental right now...

Back to work..

Day 1 complete. Kids stayed home with Daddy instead of being shipped off to daycare. Both kids had fevers and uber runny noses. Hot snot machines. Declan was awesome about being without his mama for the day. I hope tomorrow's daycare venture goes half as well.

There's plenty to do at work to make the time fly by. My office looks pretty much the same as when I left - including both my sweater thrown on the back of the desk and hoodie folded in the physical inbox. There's a years worth of random computer related junk mail on my desk. New firewall appliance and mail server on the racks. 'Upgraded' OS on my fave server. And my workstation system had disappeared, so I'm back to using a laptop. All day I felt like I was in a Douglas Coupland novel for some reason.

Actually...

Mika is in the "Actually, it's..." correction phase. How long can we expect this to last? 30 years? She says it with such a tone of professional authority too - quite funny.

She also talks like a shrink sometimes. This morning: "So Mommy..how do you feel about watching another video today?"

Mika must have inherited her paternal grandmother's teaching skills too because she continually offers me verbal positive reinforcement sounding like a grade school teacher. If I correctly answer one of her many, many, many daily questions, she'll say something like "That's right!" or "Good Job!" or "Clever Girl!" in this sing songy voice.

meh

We're not adjusting to daycare so well.

Mika is not into it at all. She seems to always be either the youngest or oldest. Currently, she's the oldest in her room and not being challenged nearly enough. I requested that she be moved up, but there's a 'system' in place and they won't move her up to the 3-4 yr old group until she's actually 3.

Declan already caught his first daycare illness and is a barrel of fun right now. There's one caregiver there that he seems to really like, but he mostly sits and cries. Luckily, he breaks for food. They've assigned him a little cot instead of a crib and the director lays down with him to help get him to sleep. A bonus for sure. My heart breaks each time I pick him up - as soon as he sees me, he breaks down. Needless to say, he's clingy to the extreme when we get home. Declan is also not sleeping well at all - trauma? illness? some of each? Anyway, he wakes up every hour and a half or so.

On the plus side, Declan is a walking machine. He's also got a serious love on for Dora. All he says all day is "Dora Dora Dora" with a little "d-d-d-d-d Dora" (imitating the theme song) thrown in. Yesterday he started saying "backpah" when the backpack part of the show came on. Oi.

Mika is coming along really well with spelling and word recognition. She's a video game addict like her parents. I picked up a Dora game from our local Apple retailer and she loves it. Just load up the game, sit her down, and she'll stay there for as long as you let her running through all the mini-games. Her mousing skills are mad, I tell you, MAD!

The kids and I are home today. My last day before going back to work full time. I wasn't going to waste it by sending the kids to daycare. I'd much rather have time with them than time alone.

Happy 11-Month Birthday, Declan!

This month was all about mobility. Declan is a force to be reckoned with for sure. He's walking more and more now in his weebly-wobbly way - it's adorable. Dex loves to clap along with music and dance. His latest obsession is putting things on his head and walking around. Current fave items to wear as hats are dirty socks and teatowels. The kids love playing in the dirty laundry. Ugh.
We logged two days of daycare last week. Not full days and I only left the room for 10 mins max - enough for him to have a complete and total breakdown. Next week he's going to be doing half days all by himself. Send "It's OK, Declan" vibes. And some for me too.
Declan still talks up a storm and is trying new words all the time. He now says Dora. Lovely. We have Mika to thank for that one.
I have no idea what the guy weighs now - a lot would be my guess. He starting to outgrow some of his 12-18M clothes and fits his 24M Oilers sweatsuit just fine. Carrying him in the front position in the Beco is harsh after about 20 mins. Poor guy - he has to be broken of the Beco front position AND get used to daycare at the same time. Everything in 3's, I've been thinking about trying to move him into a crib or bed again too.
The next month will be a heartbreaker for me as he gets used to his new circumstances and turns 1!

On a lighter note, Ava turns 5 tomorrow! 5!! We're off to her gymnastics club for her birthday party today...