Monday, March 27, 2017

a weekend away!


After 10 months of maximum three hours away from baby J, I got away for an ENTIRE WEEKEND and it was amazing. Okay it wasn't just amazing it was aaaaaaMAAAAAZZZZing! Yes I missed the kids but I didn't FaceTime anyone and I didn't feel sad - I just had tons and tons of fun playing ball, hanging out with friends, and making decisions based on my life instead of little people's lives - like What do I want to eat? instead of Will the kids eat this What time is it Who is hungry? and Where's my beer? The basketball team I'm playing on that's going to Auckland (for the World Master's Games, link here) hosted the Ontario Master's Basketball tourney in Kitchener this weekend which involved an early afternoon departure on Friday and an earlier afternoon return home on Sunday. We had one game Friday night, one Saturday morning, and then the finals on Saturday night (which we WON!) and then a night out on the town (okay it was a night out at one bar) that culminated in a hotel room dance party and the front desk never even called to tell us to turn down the music. The team is comprised of a great group of super fun women - and they can all play basketball too. YAY! And the big trip is less than three weeks away... incredible. Okay, and it turns out that Jordan was fine without me - even though he still won't take a bottle or a sippy cup or have anything to do with formula (or cow's milk). Steve got him to take small bits of water out of a cup, and gave him runny rice cereal (made with formula and masked by mashed banana) before bed in place of his regular nursing appointment with mom. And Steve did it! He was fine with three kids for 48 hours - hurrah hurrah. When I got back on Sunday the family was just finishing lunch, and Jordan was doing this:



Hilarious! He can really get the spray going, so clearly he's not that dehydrated.

What else what else what else... I'm sure there's more but this past weekend wasn't exactly loaded with sleep time so I have some catching up to do. I can't believe it's almost April!!
2017 champs!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

spring break happenings

There is so much to write about! And so little time. The kids are still awake (it's 9:45) and have had a few early mornings and late nights, so they must be tired and running on fumes (but they're still running instead of sleeping, bah!), and both Steve and I are still pretty tired after a busy week of volleyball and kid-care (for me). Steve was in Edmonton with McMaster where they won bronze, and I was back and forth from Bowmanville to Toronto where Western finished a respectable sixth. Jordan was always with me - well actually I should say that he came in with me to games but spent time with Bonnie (yay Bonnie) in the stands during the actual matches; then it was back to me and then back out to B-ville where we were welcomed home by energetic kids and their grandparents. I definitely couldn't have done it without Bob and Marg so I'm very thankful that they held down the fort with Hendrik and Alana - I'm sure they're in recovery mode after a week of non-stop fun (non-stop fun!). The kids love love LOVE it there, and had a fabulous time as usual. For me it was great seeing lots of familiar faces at Nationals (the volleyball world is a small one) - but I didn't take any pictures! Not a single one. I think I was at mental capacity with the volleyball stuff, the kid-juggling, figuring out Jordan and his needs and driving and making it work to go to the next event and the next one after that... ugh. I really could and really should write multiple blogs about the weekend - about the team, the volleyball, my role, my coaching presentation, seeing friends, the juggling - but I just can't right now, and probably won't. I'll get a few photos up and then get to bed - I need to catch up on some zzzzs!

brotherly love :)
happy in the bath!
hendrik and alana were pretending to be mom and dad with jordan as their baby - great photo!
this one LOVES being on his feet and is constantly pulling himself up and shimmying around... big boy!
a welcome home sign for dad - love!
one of many beautifully coloured princess creations :)

"ghost dragon one step ahead"

Friday, March 10, 2017

marching on: family update on the fly

After the last week of rocky rock-bottom-ish sleep (Jordan Jordan Jordan), last night's four hour stretch felt like four-ty-eight hours of shut-eye (you know it's bad WHEN...). But (sigh), he's been sick (runny nose, mild cough) and is teething, and maybe he knows that I'm going away sort of soon - and he's protesting. This will make those all-night New Zealand sleeps (I hope) even sweeter, unless that strange thing happens where/when you finally get time and space to do something and you can't because you're missing what you left behind. Anyways! I'm hoping the littlest hub starts feeling better and sleeping better and drinking from a bottle... we still haven't had any luck on that front.

Fam-dam-update day? Sure. This is completely unplanned so here goes.


MOI
Quoi de neuf? Our volleyball season at Western is in its last legs - the team left for the OUA Final Four in Toronto last night, and I'm spending the weekend at home with all of my chickens. I made it to two practices this week and one club practice, and that felt fairly maxed out with nary a second to spare between one practice, dinner prep, dinner, dinner cleanup, feeding baby and rushing out the door to get to the next event. I'm trying to get multiple workouts in every week, with varying degrees of success (and consistently sore legs) - I should have hit the gym this morning but opted to stay home and hang out with Steve and do some housework (oh yeaaaaah) since I'll be alone for the next few days while he's at the men's Final Four in Hamilton. I've been working hard to get a presentation in order for a coaching conference that's coming up next week in conjunction with  Nationals in Toronto, and I'm hoping that the time I've put in will combat the mild nerves I'm feeling about presenting and knowing my stuff. This will be my first solo conference presentation (1 hour), and I hope it's a good one! There must be more but that's all the information my brain feels like producing about myself.


Steve
This one heads to the Hammer this afternoon for Mac's Final Four games, and then will likely be on a plane heading west early next week for Nationals (if Western makes it I'll make it into Toronto where the Women's Nationals are being hosted at Ryerson) - hosted by the University of Alberta. He's been working a bit with some contractors, dealing with the usual random house and car issues, and has put in a few more hours with Mac's volleyball team in the lead-up to the end of season.

cute!!!!!
Jordan (almost 10 months)
The youngest of the fam one gets an A+ in eating, and a near F in sleep - though it could be worse so really I should give him a C-. As my dad says, he's in Search and Destroy mode, crawling everywhere and immediately finding whatever item or piece of flotsam that is the least appropriate for a small baby: plastic bags, cords, tiny objects etc. I keep meaning to look back on the other two and see what they were doing/eating at this stage, but, well, I'll add it to the mental list. He's eating a variety of mush: rice cereal, applesauce, yams, squash, chicken, egg yolk, pureed fruit; and little bits of small food - Cheerios, blueberries, kiwi, orange, cheese... maybe more? Probably. He's super happy and easy going (at least during the DAY he is) and couldn't get much cuter. LOVE him but hope he starts sleeping better again soon (how about tonight!).

it was wear green day today at school - Hendrik got an A+ for spirit!
Hendrik
Oooooh Hendrik - Hendrik's latest thing is pushing limits as far and as hard and as often as possible, with whoever happens to be there (or not there). It's frustrating... exasperating... and so difficult to stay calm and collected to respond appropriately (whatever that means) - without TOTALLY exploding like a crazed psychopath. He's in bed now, reading, and I'm not far behind him. What else is new with him - hm; he aced his spelling test today (50/50, woohoo!), is SUPER excited for Spring Break (because he doesn't like all of the sitting he has to do at school - I get it), and still picks Bey Blades as his toy of choice. Next.

with one of her besties, ngawang

Alana
Alana is a social butterfly and LOVEs school - she loves spending time with her friends and comes home with notes and pictures from people and notes and pictures for people. More of these are created at home - for her friends and for her family members; she drew a trophy for Hendrik the other day because he won a family BeyBlade Burst tourney (that's right, we had one) and then drew and coloured in a beautiful heart for Steve just because. She also likes playing with Barbies and stuffies/toys at night before bed (while Hendrik reads) and she's probably fallen asleep in the spread she had laid out all over her bed, with doll arms and legs sticking out willy nilly. She's into Barbie books (she brought home Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale from school - ugh!) but thankfully she hasn't discovered the show. I picked up a few movies from the discount bin at Best Buy this afternoon and has to pass over a few Barbie DVDs... Even though I know she would LOVE them, I just can't! There must be more to say but I need to go to bed. Fingers crossed that tonight is flooded with SLEEP!

some at-home art

reasoning-to-have-a-bath lists
"hideout hendrik"