Some of my favourite people were in town this past weekend, passing through on their way from Brasil! to good old Gatineau (well, Ottawa actually), and we spent Saturday night chatting and catching up - and Sunday morning at Cora's with an even bigger, finer group of people. The kids had a table all to themselves (a first), and were for the most part well behaved. Hendrik and Alana ordered the usual, a full waffle piled with whipped cream, strawberries and custard, and demolished everything. There were a few odd conflicts (boy vs. girls), and our attention was divided; I prefer dining out without children.
Hours before Freddie and Shanti arrived on Saturday we were downstairs getting the bed made while the kids were jumping off the futon into different "portals"; Alana's was the unicorn portal which, of course, took her to unicorn land, and Hendrik's was the dinosaur portal leading to dino-time. Alana was randomly doing a one-legged downward dog (as one does in unicorn land) when she face/mouth planted hard off of the cushy tiles and onto the hard ones. There were immediate tears and immediate small shards of white near immediate paaaaaaanic! We thought she'd smashed her front teeth out - but she wouldn't let us look! Finally we had to tear her hands away from her mouth - revealing all teeth intact... which was very confusing. As it turns out, she probably smashed her teeth on her necklace and a small white bead of her necklace shattered instead of her pearly whites (thank goodness!). Phew! It was a close call on a smashed face first (it'll likely come one day right?). Phew.
We cycled down to Hendrik's school after dinner tonight to check out the kindergarten open house, and though we're pretty sure the little miss will be ready and raring to go when it comes time for big kid school, she was shy and reluctant to set foot inside the classroom. Hendrik did some coaxing (Dad too), and we finally got her inside what is currently Hendrik's classroom and will soon be hers. The visit ended well, but the clingy and emotional residue of the day remains. Alana was in tears when I dropped her off at school this morning and then again when I left for an afternoon meeting - and I might be to blame! I gave the kids a reminder this morning about the possibility of one of our fabulous neighbours showing up in the middle of the night and being here at morning wake up instead of mommy and daddy - a though that excites Hendrik ("that means the baby is coming!") but might frighten Alana a little bit. I didn't notice a reaction this morning (post-reminder), but that's the only thing I can think of when it comes to the irregular extra-emotional behaviour we've seen from her today. I suppose it's a fine balance, preparing them for baby and letting them continue with the regularity of everyday life (a balance which is soon to be very UNbalanced!).
I've spent some time recently learning about lexiles with the hopes of getting a good idea of the level at which Hendrik is reading - and with intentions of picking just the right books off of the easy reader and juvenile fiction shelves. I could spend hours and hours and hours in the junior and children's stacks, and have come away with a stack of books that he's devoured (Lego Chima Easy Readers, Pokemon Easy Readers, Mighty Robot, Nate the Great, and a few others) which makes two of us that stay up too late reading. Mornings are becoming late and later - and with an earlier start for a morning math function at Hendrik's school I'm going to try to put my book (Americanah) DOWN by 11:00 10:30 tonight - wish me luck!
There are no baby developments to report (his arrival as of Monday's doctor's appointment wasn't "imminent"), though seeing as how both kids went to term (+3 days for Alana) I'm thinking/hoping that'll be the case with baby numero 3. Stay tuned!
