Tuesday, June 28, 2016

family update



Hendrik
With just one day left of school, we will soon have three kids on our hands morning, noon and night - at least for most of the summer. Hendrik rounds out kindergarten on Wednesday and will start his first summer camp on Monday, an all-day affair run through the YMCA that he'll attend with a few of his friends from school. His most favourite thing other than hanging out with his best friend Grayson is to play and/or read about Pokemon. He has a few books that list hundreds of Pokemon and their strengths, weaknesses, stories etc. (I think?) and I wouldn't be surprised if he knew most of them (in bed earlier he listed off at least 25 when I asked him how many he knew). When we play Pokemon, we each choose a creature and then do imaginary attacks which will vary depending on whether it's a fire type or whoknowswhat type with set numbers for health (?!) and damage (?!). Clearly, I have a lot to learn (but probably won't). He's the owner of a new-to-him set of golf clubs (it's adorable seeing him with his shouldered bag), and he's hit the course with Steve and Grayson and Grayson's dad once - a trip that included a few groundhog-related highlights. He's in baseball (loves it) and soccer (sometimes likes it), and we're signing him up for another half-day sports camp that he seems to be excited about. Lastly, I've had my first brand name request from Hendrik - in the underwear department. I got him some new undies (from H&M, super cute) but they were not up to snuff; "But Mommeeeeeeeeeee, I want ones that say Calvin Klein on them." For real? For real. 

Me
For the first four or five weeks of Jordan's life I was pretty good at napping during the day and getting to bed early, and unfortunately, that routine has fallen by the wayside. I'm just finding that there's way too much to do and not enough time to do it (is this life?), and I'm not even trying to do that many extra things outside of the regular must dos of family/house life. Our volleyball team had a team weekend this past weekend and I made it to a Friday night practice and a Sunday practice, and it felt great to be back in the gym especially after the previous weekend of pro-D. Other than that... ? I feed people, clean up after people and want to read and exercise and sleep more. But life is good - I love my people!


at the spring concert last week - hendrik told a joke, vid coming soon!

Alana
This one has discovered Frozen, and it sure was difficult coming out of H&M yesterday with just one Elsa t-shirt; that place is full of Frozen stuff! She zeroed in on a frilly ballet costume - blue with a huge Elsa face on the front - and I somehow managed to convince her to just try it on and then go for a much cheaper Elsa t-shirt. At her friend's house the other day the two girls came down from her  room dressed up like princesses and I'm sure it was a highlight in Alana's life to put on an Elsa dress (and play with no fewer than four Elsa dolls, two of which were musical). On our way home she said, "Maybe one day Chloe and I can get married and I can wear an Elsa dress and she can wear an Anna dress." Maybe, I said, maybe. She's been into talking about getting married - to me, to me and Daddy and Hendrik and Jordan, and to her friends - "because we love each other," she'll say. It's pretty darn adorable. Anyways, she's into the princess thing but she's also into Pokemon, just like her older brother. She elected to be Charizard the other day when we played in the back yard - and told me I was Elsa... think fire vs. ice? Hendrik was annoyed that a Frozen character snuck its way into the Pokeplay but there wasn't much he could do about it. She had her last day of preschool this morning and I think she'll miss going to school and seeing her friends on a regular basis. Not too many of them will attend the same school as she will come September, but there are some kids in the neighbourhood and hopefully we'll see them around.

thumbs up! ready to hit the links
the boys

Steve
This one has been busy building and planting and maintaining gardens and outdoor spaces (this includes watering, see above), and has a nice little veggie garden growing in the backyard. He's also hit the greens a few times and has kept a close eye on the men's team on their road to Rio, which, as many of you know, was successful. He's beyond stoked for the team and program but after 17 years of working and dreaming towards that very goal (the Olympics) it's also tough to not be there I think. We'll be tuning in come August - and over the next few weeks too, to see who gets the golden ticket to go. 

smiles!
Jordan
The smiles! J-bubs, Jords, Jordie, Bubs, P'tit bubs - he is one cute little muffin. He still does what most 6-week old babies do: sleep, eat, poop, pee, and cry. He's starting to coo a bit and is really quite mellow; there's not too much crying unless he's ready to eat, which is every 2 1/2 - 3 hours during the day and every 3-5 hours at night, so it appears (fingers crossed knock on wood) that he's figuring out the difference between day and night. I'm sure there's more to write about but it's bedtime... 'night!

Monday, June 20, 2016

feeling like summer!

There's so much to write about! We're just home from a busy weekend in Waterloo, where the kids spent the weekend camping (or glamping or Gramma and Gramping) with Steve's parents in their tent trailer and I spent the weekend doing the revamped Level 3 Technical course (I'm talking coaching - NCCP, volleyball), now named Performance Coach. With a playground literally right next to their campsite and a pool and crafts and activities and special treats, I'm pretty sure the kids had the best weekend of their lives; I also had an enjoyable weekend, though the days were long and the nights (with Jordan) longer. Steve spent most of his time at the gym, and was on-call with Jordan when we had to leave the classroom for the sauna-esque gym, but escaped to the campground a few times to swim and hang out with the kids. It was one of the hottest weekends of the year, so everyone was thankful for the pool - and I for the air-conditioned room we spent most of our time in. PLUS we celebrated both Father's Day and my 38th birthday on Sunday with a pizza dinner and cupcakes, and I was happy to have had some "me" time doing pro-D with the coaching stuff. Jordan was pretty well behaved all weekend - actually, he was exceptionally behaved save for the first night in the hotel... which made me wonder how on earth I'd get through the weekend, up all night and mentally engaged all day - but things improved with each night and it wasn't so bad after all. I'm wondering if maybe I'm just getting used to the interrupted sleep, as he's still eating every 3 hours around the clock; this means he's growing by leaps and bounds, and I won't be surprised if we'll have to ditch the 3 month clothing for 6 month wears soon.




birthday girl and fathers - i'm sad that mine is so far away!
cupcake surprise / grab
Steve and the kids surprised me with sundaes (complete with homemade chocolate sauce) after dinner tonight and they were deeeeeelicious (see below). I was spoiled with a few fabulous birthday gifts, but the best one of all had to be some big first smiles from Jordan which is darn good timing if you ask me. After a weekend of what felt like summer holidays, it's back to school tomorrow - for just nine more days!


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

june june june


exploring with auntie sarah
June is motoring along and I have things to write about! My sister Sarah was here for a few days visiting and it was THE BEST having her here... I wish we lived closer to each other! The kids loved spending time with her and she got lots of snuggles in with the littlest one, especially on Saturday morning. Last Saturday was the first day of baseball - Alana is in Little Sluggers and Hendrik is in T-Ball - and Alana refused to set foot on the field. Thankfully, week two was a different story; was it because Sarah was there? Because she could put her jersey on at home? Who knows, but Sarah spent a solid hour with Jordan while I (sort of) ran bases and played catch and fielded balls with Alana - and she had a great time! Her favourite part was batting and my favourite part was seeing her rip around the bases, hair a'flying. (At one point she told me "my baseball arm is growing stronger!" a line right out of a book we've been reading called Baseball Hour... love it!) I haven't had the chance to watch Hendrik too much yet, but in T-ball they do 45 minutes of stations/practicing and then play a game, and he seems to like it. He's also enjoying soccer - isn't he adorable all decked out in his gear? I love it! 

soccer time
Things are going well with the p'tit bub, our baby Jordan. He's eating well (every 2-3 hours around the clock) but also sleeping fairly well at night - which means that he goes right back to sleep after most nighttime feeds. I feel like I'm adjusting to new routines and less (and interrupted) sleep, and have to keep working on reducing the number of non-baby related things I want to get to in a day... because there's just not time to blog and nap and shower and make dinner and fold laundry (and and and). It's 10:50 and so far I've made it out for a walk, put breakfast dishes in the dishwasher and folded 1/3 of a load of laundry... watch out world.

older sister snuggles
sprinkler + trampoline = MUCHO fun!
I've been meaning to write about how totally spoiled we've been with support and help and gifts from family and friends - thank you to everyone who's sent well wishes, messages, gifts... and groceries! Last week (or the week before) we were just about to sit down for dinner when a guy appeared at our door with several bags of groceries. First, Steve told him he had the wrong place (nope) and then he looked at me - "did you order groceries?" (nope)... it was a gift from my sisters in Denver, hurray! There was stuff to make a pizza, milk, eggs, avocados, chocolate, fruit, and much more - I had no idea that an unexpected stash of food could make me so happy! I think I should look into having groceries delivered on a regular basis - it was awesome.


baseballing... I love it!

more big sister cuddles
our neighbour getting in some cuddles 
A taking care of her baby
auntie time (yay!)
The baby stirs, I have to run!