Seven years old

Newborn- just days old! At the time I felt tired and unattractive but now I'd love to look like that again!

1 years old and full of mischief.

2 years old and hanging out at the Aquarium.

3 years old and hanging out with her lifelong BFF Lexie.

4 years old and posing for the camera!

Almost 5 and celebrating the February birthdays at the Boathouse.

6 years old and practicing ballet.

Olivia turned 7 on Sunday. It just seems so....weird? Wrong? These seven years have gone so fast. That's what all parents say right? Of course when I'm up with a sick child time goes so s.l.o.w.l.y.

Olivia wanted a skating party but it's a little pricey so we joined with her friend Irene and did the party together. We did it at Trout Lake Community Centre. What a gorgeous place!!! If you haven't seen it yet go visit! You can take a walk around the park and pop into the community centre. We had these huge ceiling to floor windows that looked out to the park and a nice big space for about 30 kids and 30 adults. We had some snacks then the kids went skating. They even had their skates waiting for them in our own change room. After skating we had pizza delivered to our room and afterwards had cupcakes. It was a busy but really nice party. Hello Kitty themed. I'll post those pictures next b/c I still have to upload from my camera....

I'm 2

OMG I don't have any current pictures of Cassidy! It's going on my list of things to do. She turned 2 last Sunday. It was hard to buy for her b/c that girl has everything! She really wants what her sisters have.

She is super busy. I mean SUPER busy. Today she spilled her yogurt drink- twice-dumped her crackers on the floor & stomped on them, found Olivia's squinkie stash and dumped them out, pulled all the covers off of Olivia's bed, scribbled on her legs and onesie with felt pens, scribbled on the floor & some toys, pulled all of Lexie's underwear and socks out of the drawer (this is a daily ritual), almost dropped Mario in the toilet, and threw a pile of folded laundry onto the floor. THIS IS JUST TODAY!!!! She is constantly on the go. Oh ya, she knows she's being naughty. Have I mentioned that I'm tired? It's a theme with me. At least she's still napping in the afternoon. Oh I hope I didn't jinx myself! Stayed tuned for a more recent picture of Miss C.

I'm getting political

Let me just say that I do not want to go on strike. BUT...I feel strongly that we need to make a united stand against the Liberal government. I live with budget cuts everyday and I'm pretty sure our policy makers have no clue what it's like in a typical classroom. Don't get me started on the fact that I have to buy my own materials and I can't even write them off on my taxes! I know my union is making some ridiculous demands but a zero % increase for teachers is just as ridiculous. The cost of living is going up but my wages are not? That just does not make sense. I have been reading some great posts written by teachers on the internet and facebook. I hope people get the sense that we are not in this profession to make money and our strike is more about the kids. I myself am in a position where I've got one seriously troubled child in my class. He has had such a negative impact on my class all year long and I'm now at the point where I know something has to be done. He cannot be in the class without support. I honestly don't know what else to do but I'm actually at the point where I may file a WCB claim b/c he's created such an unsafe environment. It has all come to a head b/c he threw a chair at me and the kids. I feel awful that I am unable to keep the 20 other kids in my class safe. I am taking a stand for them. One little person has held us all hostage all year long but no more. I'm now dealing with his behaviours in a very firm manner and the kids are now feeling more empowered. Before he would get away with things like hitting and pushing. The kids didn't tell me b/c that's just what this kid did. Or if they did tell me I would talk to him and nothing more happened. We all walked on eggshells. Not anymore. I know he'll blow up when I correct him or give him a consequence but I'm prepared for that now. Not quite prepared for a chair being thrown at me but I can't not correct him b/c I'm afraid he'll blow up. My admin actually said to me that sometimes we should leave things with him. This was after I told her he had stomped on someone's foot on purpose and I told him that was unacceptable in this class. This same admin told him he should take karate lessons while he was lunging at me and trying to get at me b/c I was writing in his communication book. Great, now I have to be prepared for him karate chopping me. But back to the foot stomping. The little girl who told me he stomped on her foot told me "he did it on purpose b/c he was angry". He shouts that he didn't stomp, he stepped on her foot. Well, she was so indignant and angry and she's looking at me waiting to see me response. How could I let her down and gloss over her concerns? Anyways, I have a whole binder full of documentation of incidents; growling, fists in my face, shouting "I hate you!", "I will punch you" and punching furniture. But no one is reading this binder so it sits there waiting. Waiting for someone to say "Wait, this is serious and this is unacceptable." I was really hoping to be able to write a post about how wonderful my district is and how they've really stepped up for me and the kids. But instead I'm wondering how I solve this problem on my own.
*Okay, I should just edit this b/c I work with amazing people. I'm def not on my own. I have a wonderful job share partner, our counsellor has really stepped up to help, the child care worker just goes above and beyond and there are a couple SEA's who are of great support to me. But we're not really supported beyond that. Unless you count being given books to read support.

I just can't seem to do a post without a picture so here's a recent one:

Hello snow!

Check out the snow pictures!!! All the girls loved the snow but little Miss Cassidy LOVED it! She didn't want to come inside and when we were inside she spent so much time hanging out at the door saying "I play snow!" This went on for days. And anyone who has helped dress a child for winter you know it takes FOREVER! So she didn't get to out too many times.

Saturday January 21st:
I hear a little voice from her crib call "Mama!" I look over at the clock and see 5:44. As in 5:44 AM. Oh crap, it's too early. Doesn't Cassidy know that? Okay, I figure the dark and quiet will tip her off and she'll go to sleep. Nope, then I hear more chit chatting with more "Mama!" I ignore for as long as I can and eventually drag myself out of bed. When I get in she's "Out crib." Then she throws in some "in" with her outs b/c she still gets those confused. I get her out and try to keep her quiet but she immediately starts saying "Lexie! Livia!" I try to shut doors but Lexie gets up too. I try to bring Cassidy into bed with me but she is not into that. None of my girls have ever been morning cuddlers. So we get up and start our day. It was still dark. We went on our Wii game Animal Crossing and even the characters on that were still asleep!!!!! I think that really told the girls it was early. It was rough b/c by 9:00 we had been up for so many hours but it was no where near lunch. Or nap. I got to go out to Metrotown BY MYSELF!!!! It was so nice to just be by myself. I love my little ones but the constant barrage of "mama!!!"'s gets tiring. Even when Dan is in the same room the girls will ask me to do things. So there I am at Metrotown doing a ton of returns. BY MYSELF! (Did I mention that I was by myself?) The only thing I ended up getting myself was a pair of winter boots. Then in the afternoon it was skating lessons! Olivia was actually pretty excited. This is big for Olivia. She's pretty timid but she's gaining confidence. Alexis is pretty fearless out on the ice! She zooms around so fast. She falls alot but she picks herself right up. Olivia had her own helper while Alexis was totally on her own. I've been sick and I'm still battling a sore throat. Poor Cassidy has a full blown cold and I'm afraid she's got the same sore throat as me. There were times today when she was just miserable but then a little Tylenol and she was good. I feel so bad but I had to force the medicne down! She refuses to take the medicne when I want her to and then she'll go crying for it when she can't have it! I am praying to God that she doesn't get worse.
What's up with us next: more skating lessons, swimming lessons in February, registering for baseball (despite the protests) SPRING BREAK!!!! (only 21 more working days for me!) planning Olivia's birthday party

December Recap

Okay, it's been awhile so I'll try to recap as best as I can:

Dan and I hosted Christmas dinner at our house for the first time! We had tenderloin and prawns.


I made gingerbread houses with the girls and they had so much fun!!!!





































The work days went pretty fast and I got to do some pretty fun things with my little grade ones.
Once I was off work it has been so great to spend time with the girls and of course Dan. Here are some things we've done: (I've blocked out the faces of other children for privacy)

We went to a Portuguese Breakfast with Santa while Pa and Avo were in Hawaii. We ate tons of food and Olivia met her friend from school and even saw her teacher! Here we are with Santa and Olivia's friend even joined us!





Look at my little Bohemian Olivia! She wore a headband and a scarf with her flowy dress. Lexie is my glamour girl- the day after I had bought this dress she came downstairs ready to go to preschool in this dress! And Miss Cassidy wore a light color dress to coordinate with her sisters- looking super adorable in her polka dots! I even coordinated myself with them too.









Lexie with her friend at her Christmas concert. She sang her heart out again. I've uploaded a video to her concert to youtube but it's set to private. Email me if you want to see it! (You should see this girl shake the jingle bells!)










Olivia got to wear pajamas for her Christmas concert which means she got to wear pj's to school two days in a row!!! She loves to wear pj's. Here she is singing "Let's all got to Bethlehem".



















Here's Lexie at her last ballet class.












Cassidy did pretty well at Lexie's concert. It was hard to keep her in one place but we managed.












Other highlights:
Grandpa Knox came down to visit us before Christmas but I don't have the pictures on my computer. More to come....

Containment

Have I mentioned how busy Miss Cassidy is? It's all about containing her. Well, all my girls have been busy bees but Cassidy seems the busiest. Maybe it's b/c I'm older, or b/c I've got 2 other kids to keep on eye on but I'm exhausted! Don't get me wrong though- I wouldn't have it any other way. Today we went to Superstore and Cassidy doesn't like being strapped into anything. It was like 2 degrees but holy cow was I ever sweating in Superstore! I was with Lexie and I had to have her chase after Cassidy if I didn't have the angle. But here's the bad news- I'm not losing any weight doing all this running around!!!! Maybe I should lay off of the chocolate....but it tastes so good!
Here's another Santa picture. This is from my mom's school. Poor Lexie had thrown up the night before so she wasn't able to make it. Cassidy was not impressed with Santa but she was okay with the elf. See Olivia's shirt? It's scratch and sniff! She just loves it! Problem is I bought it on sale from Oldnavy.ca and didn't get it in Lexie's size. Now she wants it. It's so tricky- I have to get 2 of everything even if they don't need it! And there are times when I know I need to get 3 of something. By the way, the chef/teacher at my mom's school (and his students) made the breakfast and it was so good!!!!

Ho ho ho!

The girls got all dolled up and we went to Metrotown to get our pictures taken with Santa. Ya, WE. I did not intend to be in the picture but I knew there would be a chance. Last year Lexie was terrified of Santa but this year she hopped up on Santa's knee with a big smile! Olivia was more nervous for some reason- hence the awkward pose. I tried to put Cassidy on Santa's knee and she did the whole "slip and slide". You know, where kids put their arms up and they slide out of your grasp. Her pretty little polka dot dress was all up over her head, totally not the look I was going for. But still, there they are- our 2011 picture. I'm so glad it's done b/c it really is stressful planning for it, getting to the mall on time and then waiting in line. We were at a breakfast with Santa at Grandma Knox's school. So much fun for the girls!!! I am totally and utterly exhausted from chasing Cassidy around. Man that girl can move fast and she has to touch everything. EVERYTHING! Poor Lexie couldn't come b/c she threw up in bed last night.