Sickies

I'm so sick! Painful cough, sore throat, stuffy nose and achy body. Olivia and Lexie have been sick but are better. Cassidy had a runny nose today so I think she's getting sick too. She had been sleeping through the night- 9pm-5am- but was up last night. I just want to sleep!!!!

More updates when I feel better.....

Our "new" van

So it's now 2 months old so it isn't entirely new. We got it at the end of

March when Cassidy was 2-3 weeks old. I am LOVING it! Dan reminded me of when we first got married I swore I would never drive a minivan. Well, this girl has changed her mind. With 3 kids there aren't too many options. My favourite thing about it is the sliding doors that open by remote, 2 buttons on the inside or by just flicking the handle. It seats 8 so we could have 3 more kids and still have room!!! Just kidding.

I was kinda awesome today!

Here's why I feel pretty good about myself:

I put on a bathing suit and took Lexie swimming!!! I can barely tolerate looking at myself in a side profile but I found a bathing suit that covered up my zig zag stretch marks and flabby tummy and went out in public in a swim suit.

Here's another reason I'm feeling pretty awesome:

I got all 3 girls ready to go to the pool where we met Dan's mom who looked after Cassidy while I went in with Lexie. (Olivia had lessons) Getting all 3 girls out the door on time is something to be pretty proud of but that's not why I'm full of myself. I open up the van (my fantastic new van that will have to show you all) and see that Olivia's car seat is missing! It's still in the Rav4, which was with Dan in Surrey. So I grabbed the stroller and we walked to the pool! It's about a 15 minute walk. The girls did really well too walking all the way to the pool. We were only 5 mins late to Olivia's lesson.

And the last reason I'm so happy:

The girls were in bed by 6:20! I put them so early b/c it takes them like an hour to wind down and finally fall asleep. And they were fast asleep by 7:20.

Milestones

Some new milestones from Cassidy:

*10 weeks she started laughing- is there anything more precious than a baby cracking up???

*11 weeks she noticed me and herself in the mirror

11 weeks 5 days...

That's how long little Cassidy went before I had to wake her from a nap. I hate waking a sleeping baby. Naps are hard to come by at this house too. But Olivia is doing another set of swimming lessons. She's in the Crocodile class now.

Sleepover at Pa and Avo's

Olivia and Lexie spent Sunday night at Pa and Avo's. Did you hear the loud "woo hoo!!!"'s coming from our house? Love those girls to death but they have so much energy. I wish I had half of their energy. So guess what Dan and I did? Not much. We enjoyed the quiet house and did a little cleaning. So lame, I know. The above picture is of them all ready to go. They even packed their own suitcases! I had to repack b/c who needs 15 undies for one night away from home? We forgot to pack running shoes and they didn't get to go to the beach :(

They did go for a walk with Avo and get a cupcake. Pa and Avo are probably going to need a few days to recover from the chaos!

I'd love to share more but right now I have a grumpy Lexie to deal with. She is going to sleep later than she should and waking up earlier than I'd like. GRUMPY. On a good note, Cassidy slept through the night last night. So amazing waking up when it's light out!!!

Aquarium

We have a family membership to the Vancouver Aquarium so we decided to head on down there today. We knew it would get busy so we went early-ish. I can't really tell you what we saw because it's all such a blur. The girls run from exhibit to exhibit, just spending a few seconds at each.

Visit from Grampa Knox

Grandpa came down from Kelowna to have a visit with the girls. I always love seeing my dad because he's so good with the girls. I am torn because I want to spend time with him but I love how he'll take the girls for a few hours so I can get stuff done. On Thursday he took the girls out for a long walk while I did some grocery shopping. Then we all went to the Kerrisdale Play Palace. Friday he took Lexie to Killarney Gym while Olivia was at preschool. I got to go to the dentist. I had to take Cassidy with me. I had hoped she would fall asleep in the car on the way there but she didn't. And yes, being at the dentist with a baby is as fun as it sounds. Oh well, I survived it.

Country Chic

Olivia and Lexie wore their best "country" outfits to preschool today. (Lexie just drops Olivia off) I also drew freckles on their cheecks. It was the best I could do.

Save the Date!

Cassidy is getting baptized on Sunday June 27th at Corpus Christ Church at 12:45.

Moving Day!

It was moving day here at the Sardinha house. Yup, one of the girls had to move. Cassidy moved from our room to her very own room on Saturday! I don't know if it's a coincidence or what but the last two nights in her own room she has slept almost 8 hours! Sh's growing up so fast. She's so alert and interactive, she's making new sounds everyday and she's wearing Olivia and Lexie's 9 month sleepers! (they must shrink alot in the dryer)

Wednesday is dress like a farmer day at Olivia's preschool. Olivia is all about princesses and ballerinas so I'm not sure how that will go. She has a red and white gingham skirt that I'll try to get her into. I think I'll call it Princess Farmer.

Poor Cassidy

Check out her little scratched up face. The ones on her forehead are from when she was asleep. She got out of her swaddle and did that to herself at night. Then the big one on her face happened today. I was in the kitchen getting breakfast and the older girls are making a fuss over her. Out of the blue Cassidy starts screaming. I immediately ask what happened? And Lexie is standing there saying "nothing". As soon as I saw Cassidy's face I knew she had scratched herself. She wore mittens the rest of the day.

Mortified

I guess I should get used to feeling mortified. I'm a parent and one of my kids for the next 20 or more years will do something that I am embarassed of. So Miss Jodi told me that at snack time Olivia was telling one child that another child was stinky. And some other things too but Miss Jodi didn't elaborate. She pulled Olivia aside immediately and let her know that wasn't okay. The girl who Olivia said mean things about is the sweetest little girl and super shy. OMG I was embarrassed. Now, if my mother is reading this she's probably thinking 'Payback'. I hate to admit this and I'm ashamed but when I was young, maybe 6? I made fun of a handicapped girl at my school. This girls mom is a friend of my moms and my poor mom was mortified about it. But that's not all. I also called another girl "shrimp" because she was small- repeatedly. Guess what? Her parents were good friends of my parent's too. I deserve this.

It's a beautiful day here and the girls are outside playing picnic. They can keep themselves busy out in nature all day long. It doesn't matter how long they've been outside or how many minutes I've warned them they have left. It's never enough.

Still loving little sister

Olivia and Lexie are still so in love with Cassidy. They're constantly saying "baby is so cute!" In Walmart today Lexie even said "Our baby is the cutest" after looking at someone else's baby! (Not the first time she's done that in public either!) I don't know when the honeymoon will end but I'm lovin the fact that Olivia and Lexie still love Cassidy so much.

The Sleep Situation

I got so excited that Cassidy was sleeping longer and longer. I started planning a summer trip to Oregon, moving her to her own room and just feeling like that day when she sleeps through the night is so close. Wait, hold on, beep-beep-beep back it up. She had other plans. She has started to regress. Insert swear word here. She's been sleeping about 4- 4.5 hours for her first stretch. Not terrible but going the wrong way. And then when she wakes up a second time it's really hard to get her back into her crib. She's sleepy and will sleep no problem in my arms but not her crib. I may have solved it this morning by swaddling her super tight. We paid $40 for a special swaddling blanket with Lexie and it's definitely paid off. (That's what Cassidy is lying on in the above picture) It's called the "Miracle Blanket". (I'll have to get a picture of her all swaddled in it)

Terrific Tuesday

I dropped the older girls off at my aunt Laurie's house and headed to a doctor's appointment with Cassidy at Oakridge. I was worried about Cassidy's head bones- which are fine and her belly button- which is not so fine. It turns out some of the umbilical cord did not fall off. I'm supposed to keep cleaning it in the hopes it falls off. If it doesn't then it has to be burnt off with liquid nitrogen. Yes, that will be painful for her so I'm hoping and praying that it falls off on it's own. It doesn't appear to bother her right now. I was cleaning it and moving it around and watching her reaction. She just lay there sweetly so I can only assume it doesn't hurt.

At Oakridge I got to do some shopping at Lululemon. Their clothes are very flattering on a post partum body. I picked up some shorts, a jacket and some capris. I also had a very enjoyable curry lunch while Cassidy slept.

The girls spent a good chunk of time hanging out in auntie Laurie's garden. Then when we got home they spent alot of time in our garden. Can you see the strawberry bushes in the background of the above picture? We've got tons of strawberry bushes! We can't wait until they grow in. Lexie was being naughty yesterday and picked about a dozen of the white flowers! I was so annoyed b/c she knows better. But that's Lexie lately- naughty. Even though her verbal skills are amazing and she's really independent, I have to remind myself she's only 2.

Mother's Day Weekend

We decided to make the big trip out to White Rock on Saturday. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and we've been meaning to get out there for a long time. Dan's parents house was free so we had a 'home base' to stay at while we were there. First thing we did out there was check out Tommy Hilfiger for mommy. I managed to pick up some cute clothes that help hide a few of the 15 lbs I need to lose. We had lunch at Wendy's and then went to the house. The girls ran around the house and actually didn't want to leave. But the mere mention of ice cream got them running out the door. We had a lovely walk to the end of the pier and back. Along the way we got some great ice cream at White Mountain.

Funny little story- we're walking by a patch of grass where people were sun tanning and hanging out. There's a largish man sitting up with no shirt on so it looks like he's naked. Olivia, in a fairly loud voice says "Why is that man naked?" I start laughing (well trying really hard not to laugh) and I can't answer her. Her and Lexie stand in front of him staring! We call the girls to keep walking and only Olivia walks away. Lexie stays there staring. I can't control my laughter and I'm starting to laugh so hard I'm crying. Lexie just looked so cute standing there and I'm wondering what's going on in her little mind!

Sunday was another great day. We stayed at home and both grandmas came over to have some White Spot.

9 long hours

yes, that's how long little miss Cassidy slept last night! I put her down at 8:10 and she woke up at 5:15. Fingers crossed this is the beginning of a beautiful pattern.

Kindergarten Orientation

Wow, it's really hit me that Olivia will be starting kindergarten this September. I just can't believe she's five. I'm too young to have a 5 year old! I had to take all three girls and it was a bit of a gong show. Olivia had to be sized for a uniform and Lexie was quite the distraction. But boy did Olivia look cute in her kilt, blouse and cardigan. I ordered $205 worth of stuff but I'm not entirely sure what I ordered. The lady at the uniform company was suggesting stuff and writing it down so who knows. After the sizing we listened to the kindergarten teacher talk about what a makes a healthy child. Unfortunately Cassidy woke up and I had to breastfeed her. While doing this Olivia and Lexie got a little silly and I couldn't do much about it. Then Olivia got to go with the other kids to the kindergarten room for some play and crafts. Lexie started to bawl! She was crying for 'Livia'. Meanwhile Cassidy was fussing. One nice mom (who I know from Olivia's preschool) offered to take Lexie to the playground. They got out the gym into the foyer but Lexie wanted back. She did at least stop crying. Honestly, I can't remember much about the meeting. I think it was mostly stuff I already knew about. I got the worst headache too. It took hours to go away. Lexie and Olivia sure love each other but are super silly together. We're debating wether or not to put them into a summer camp together. After today I'm leaning towards 'no'.

Waitlists

When we were out yesterday Killarney Community Centre called but they didn't leave a message. Hmm....what could they want? Both girls are on a waitlist- Olivia for swimming and Lexie for the preschool. I was so curious so I called yesterday. And called and called a third time but each time I got a message. I tried to leave it alone because they would eventually call me back. But it kept bugging me. Why wouldn't they have left a message? I had been wanting to find out what number Lexie was on the waitlist so that was my excuse to call. (I registered early in morning on the second day of registration and Lexie was #63) But before I called I went online and checked out our account with the community centre. Very handy to be able to check things out on the computer. At the very top of the list of our transactions with the community centre was "Deleted from waitlist- Alexis" What the heck???? I called the community centre and finally got through. To make a long story short (they couldn't figure out why she had been taken off and what was going on) it turns out that someone called and since I wasn't home they put "unavailable" next to Lexie's name and then deleted her from the waitlist! The preschool programmer was really nice and got Lexie into the class I wanted and was really apologetic.

Boy or girl? What do you think?

I took Lexie to a drop in at the elementary school by our house. I had about 4-5 people ask me if Cassidy were a boy or girl. One person even said "is it a boy?"

Seriously, I was confused. When I got home I took a picture because I thought it was so crazy people didn't know she was a girl. The picture you see is exactly what they saw. I'm wondering if people are just super cheap and would dress their boy in pink and drape pink blankets on him too. Why would you dress your son in your daughter's PINK clothes????

Two good nights in a row!

Maybe a pattern is emerging? I can only hope. She's gone 5 & 6 hours before but then the next nights she's back to about 3-4 hours. So on Friday she went 5.5 hours and last night she went 6 hours 20 minutes. (oh yeah, I know to the minute how long she's slept!) Woo hoo! This is great. Now before you're thinking that I'm well rested, you should know that she wakes at 5am and will not go back in her crib after that until about 8am. By then Lexie and Olivia have been up for an hour so there's no way I can get back to sleep. So essentially I'm up everyday at 5am. Oh the joys.

Long weekend

And in a not so good way. My child development book says that 8 weeks is the peak of crying. I thought "oh that's for other people. Not Cassidy. She's such a good baby" I jinxed myself!!! The last two nights she has been super fussy. It's called the "witching hour" (seriously, it is) and she has fussed and been hard to get to sleep. She's still pretty good compared to many stories I've heard from parents and read on the internet. But still....I'm exhausted. My shoulders are aching, my back hurts and my house is a mess. Not to mention myself- skipped showers, no make up, spit up stained clothes, the last 15 lbs to lose......sigh.

That being said, I love my life! There will come a time in my life when I wonder where all the time has gone? I'll look at my girls and they will be women. I am fiercely treasuring this time.