Lexie is 5

Lexie turned 5 yesterday. She really is a character! She's such a smart, happy, feisty, little girl. She asks really interesting, meaningful questions. She's kinda secretive and she will never admit when she's sick or hurt. Her room is the neatest of everyone in our house. It's not that she's super neat, it's more that she plays in her sisters rooms where she leaves the mess! When I was pregnant with Olivia I remember thinking about how much I loved Olivia and how my world revolved around her. I wondered how would I love another child as much? (I knew I would but I couldn't fathom it yet.) Boy did I find out how!! She was a surprise at birth and when I found out I had another girl I was so ecstatic! I had always wanted a sister and now Olivia would have a friend for life. (A mom can only hope of course!) In the weeks after I had her I was on this natural high. Some moms get the baby blues after birth but with Alexis I was just so euphoric. That's our little Alexis- bring so much joy and happiness to our lives!

 At the play area in Washington Square Mall- Tigard, OR.

20 weeks ultrasound.

 Just a day or two before I had Alexis.

 July 31, 2007

I would get (and still get) comments about how beautiful her face is and how striking her eyes are.

Oregon Zoo July 2009.

Sorry for another "swimming is so brutal and aren't I an awesome mother for still taking them swimming?" post.

So let me back to May and June. Every Thursday at 10:35 Lexie would have swimming lessons and Cassidy and I would go to public swim. Cassidy's favorite thing to do was the hot tub which had this great ramp where parents and kids could hang out. The problem wasn't in the hot tub but when we left. She would kick and claw and scream at me. Then there was the other problem of when we were in the deep end she would always want me to let go. Those were her words. The worse part was in the change room though. Bare feet on the floor, having to pee in their washrooms, trying to find a room with a shower, dropped clothes on the wet floor, and lots of crying. So what do I do? I sign up all 3 girls for swimming lessons this summer!!! Every Saturday!!! What kind of a fool am I? A big one. Olivia and Lexie go to lessons by themselves but I have to go in with Cassidy. The first class did not go well. I'm talking really bad. I was THAT parent that everyone in the pool was thanking God they were not. Cassidy has only been for public swimming so the concept of being told what to do was not cool with her. The class starts out with all the kids sitting quietly in their parents laps at the edge of the pool. All the kids except Cassidy. She wants to go to the slide and she's yelling "Slide!" over and over. I actually at one point let her go down the slide to quiet her down but that wasn't enough. She still screamed for the slide. I continued to try and get her to participate in the class but she was spitting mad and kept hitting me and scratching me, all while screaming. We went through the same cycle with her hitting and scratching and me taking her out of the pool for a time out- all while screaming. Her not me in case you're wondering. I was exhausted at the end. I mean it's bad enough I have to put on a bathing suit over my pudgy body and hairy legs but the added humiliation of being screamed and clawed at by a 2 year old was alot to take. I considered taking her out of the class. I really considered that one. All week. But I decided to try another time. My plan was for Dan to take her but somehow he wormed his way out of it. The second class was so much better. Still a struggle but alot better. Please someone share with me their stories of swimming. Am I weird? Does swimming just not go well for me???

Check out our pool! It's on it's second year of use. I bought it 2 years ago at Superstore's blow out summer sale for like $2.99. This was back when Superstore was well....the Superstore of old. Ya, some of you know what I'm talking about. Back when their colors were yellow and black and their sale signs were flourescent colors. Now they're all cool and hip and their pools are $49.99.

This is the same little girl who cries when I rinse the shampoo out of her hair. She's also the same little girl who gets agitated when a drop of liquid falls on her clothes. She then proceeds to get naked and away from the wet. This time she couldn't have cared less.

Remembering the Good Times (Gram Part 2)

I want to say so much about these pictures but in honour of my Gram I want to just share. I think the love in these pictures speaks loudly.

Lots and lots of love.

This is dedicated to my Gram (Part 1)

 

This is my first post since my Gram passed away and it's pretty painful thinking that she'll never read my blog again. We had the van packed and ready to go for a trip up on Saturday but Gram died Friday. I was too late. If you know me well you know I hate being late. It will be a long time before I can let this go but I was late and missed seeing Gram one last time. Saturday was more convenient b/c Thursday and Friday had school for the girls, appointments, and activities. CONVENIENT- I feel like such an ass for choosing convenience. Gram was all about keeping things convenient but in this case I would take inconvenient over convenience if I could do it all again. But this really isn't about me this is about my Gram. When my dad told me she was going into a hospice I was confused. I thought "That's for people who are dying. That's not Gram". Honestly I thought she was going to be in there a long time. She was going to spend her last days resting and reflecting. I mean my Gram is 98 and has always been there. I had always pictured her having her 100th birthday. The local news would do something about it and we'd have the newspaper clipping as a memory. There would be a huge cake and we'd get many pictures of the generations of adults and children. It was going to be an awesome party and a huge celebration of Gram. In all my fantasies of this party it never occurred to me Gram would not be there. Even as my dad tactfully told me it was unlikely Gram would make it to Saturday I kept my plan to come on Saturday. Looking back it seems so obvious I should have gone earlier but Gram has always been around and always been so strong. I only had visions of my Gram of the one above- frail but strong.

My Gram was hilarious. She used to cut the mold off cheese and flick the bugs out of stale crackers. "Here you go," she'd say "There's nothing wrong with this." And who can forget the little glass bowl with the scalloped edge that held the pickled beets? I used to wait in dread for her to put one on my plate b/c as soon as something was on your plate you had to eat it. No getting out of it. She was firm and you didn't sass her. Well, there were rumors of people talking back but we all learned from those who sassed before us.

 I'm picturing my Gram sitting on her old porch, legs crossed and her tumbler of something (scotch? whisky? not sure which....). She's tapping her glass and looking out at the lake. It was nice just sitting quietly with Gram. You didn't feel the need to fill the air with words. I'm going to make damn sure I live my life like Gram Knox and have no regrets.

More to come when my mind (and eyes) are a little clearer.

updates courtesy our camera

Grampa Knox came to vist, Pa and Avo took the big girls to a festa, we've been to Science World a couple times and Miss Cassidy is up to no good- STILL! I started running a bath for the girls and when I went to check on the temp, there she was! She had climbed in (amazingly without slipping) with her shirt still on! She's a climber. We can't leave chairs anywhere. And me? Got my first noticeable wrinkle under my eye and it's really depressing me. Probably doesn't help that I'm so freaking tired. This 2 year old stage is seriously going to kill me. I feel old. On a nicer note I only have 9 more work days left!!!! How awesome is that? We're on the hunt for a nanny for September and I'm meeting one tomorrow. She's currently a nanny for a friend of mine and is interested in doing 3 days a week in the fall. Fingers crossed it works out!

We have guests this long weekend

I brought home our class caterpillars b/c of the long weekend. Two of them are hanging there in "J" position, all ready to go into chrysalis. Or become chrysalis. I'm not sure but I know I'm on the right track with chrysalis. The biggest dude is probably the most active. I think he already fell off once. Looks nasty too doesn't it? I don't even know what the heck is on the bottom of the container. I've just been telling my kids it's caterpillar food and no one has questioned me on it. And the strings are just yucky. They get all caught in them and I'm wondering do I open the lid and help them? Cuz I love animals that much. Luckily I didn't open it and they're all fine. Except maybe the hugest one who I'm going to refer to as Hugo. He's massive- he's almost as long as the container is tall. It took him forever to get up to the top of the lid. He's not even on the ceiling yet. I'm a little excited about the caterpillars. We went to the Aquarium on the weekend and they have a chrysalis display. We actually got to see a butterfly emerge! I could have stayed in front of that display all day waiting for more to emerge. But I was with little people and they do not stay still for long.

Grade one is hilarious!

So we're sorting through our chairs at school and getting rid of broken ones. I get rid of a few but that leaves us with not enough chairs. Not enough chairs- in grade one!!!! Oh this is a disaster of epic proportions people! There are "Mrs. S!"'s all over the place. People are stealing other people's chairs and other's are just left confused as they stand at their desk. I bring some calm to this disorder and we problem solve. But then Mrs. M comes and takes all our chairs before recess to make stacks in our open area so we can see how many we have of each kind of chair from ALL the primaries. It's recess but we have no chairs!!! The kids sit on their desks, this is actually pretty cool they think. Now, meanwhile there are new, blue, ergonomically better chairs in our main foyer. I'm hoping that we get some of those. But I had to be a giant pain in the butt with my admin when I had my behaviour problem child and I'm thinking I'll just take whatever chairs I get. Then Mrs. M tells me that my kids can grab a new blue chair from the foyer on their way back from music and now I have a class set of new chairs! This is super exciting for my kids. And me too. Just getting to take and carry a new chair makes my kids so excited. This is after all grade one and it doesn't take much.
I've been doing a unit on Community Helpers forever. I am not exagerrating. I started before Spring Break but then we had a strike, 2 week Spring Break, and I misplaced the booklets for 1 week. So we're finally wrapping up the unit that will not end and we're writing about what we want to be when we grow up. The kids are working really quietly and focussing on their work. Then, the most dramatic "Mrs. S"!!! I go over to check things out and S tells me that D wants to be nothing when she grows up. S is just not happy about this. I talk with D and try to figure out if she just doesn't know or she's having trouble choosing one community helper. But no, D wants to do nothing. She says "I just don't want to do anything." Me: Umm...D, sweetie, you can't be nothing when you grow up. D says "But I just want to stay a kid forever." Me: That would be fun but it's not going to happen. Please go look through our books and pick something. So D ends up copying S (who told on her) like I wouldn't notice. Especially since S's was a dance teacher which was different from all the other girls who said teacher.