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Tag: children

Make up dates… and their associated trauma.

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We were gone for two consecutive Wednesdays so that means my children missed out on two gymnastics classes. My wife, being the sweetheart that she is, has booked a make-up session for our girls so that they can get the most out of a high cost, pre-paid for program that they do. This has obviously crossed a line somewhere and both kids are melting down about having to go, and do an hour of gymnastics this afternoon. Oh my. The horror. How could you infringe upon their March Break Minecraft madness sessions.

I will say that we swam 2 or 3 times a day, and went on various other adventures in the sun, so they had plenty of physical activity. Just not of an organized kind, like Dance, Girl Guides, Taekwondo or the before mentioned Gymnastics. And yet, the shit fit continues. So that should be fun to look forward to in four hours time. Yeah!

Saturday is here, and it’s cold again. Grey skies and lots of cloud cover. It couldn’t be any different from our vacation if it tried. I for one miss being outdoors so much, and I really miss the swimming. So much so that I find myself with too much energy at night, and I am unable to sleep. I was able to ride a fixed gear bicycle in the Keys, and swim, walk about, beach comb and just enjoy the outdoors. Yes I had to wear SPF 50 sun shirts, or cake on the sun screen to comfortably do so, but I like warmth far more than the cold. I am looking forward to being outside here to trim our hedges and start on the lawn. I’m actually going to have the lawn aerated this year. For the first time ever. Might even go for a Weed- Man spray too. But I’m not sure yet. I’m not entirely sold on the need for a perfect carpet of green grass. I’m pretty partial to the blues and purples of some of our lawns weeds. And the pop of yellow from dandelions is a nice touch. Plus those help out the honey bees in their time of need. I’m a leaf mulcher, not a bagger & get rid of’er. Keep those nutrients near by, in the beds. Gives toads and such a warm place to hide for the winter, and it protects my bulbs from squirrels and chipmunks. Little bastards.

I’m sure our elderly neighbours hate us because we are so laissez-faire with the grass. I find a saturated all green carpet of grass is a good magnet for attention. Makes you look wealthy, and catches the eye of thieves and burglar types. My ratty-tatty lawn definitely does not scream wealth lives here. Mainly because it doesn’t,  wealth that is, but no point dressing the place up to look like it does and inviting unwanted, potentially dangerous attention. That’s how I feel about it. Kooky as it sounds. The old slightly rusty minivan does a lot to keep us grounded, and not looking too eye catching either. My 18 year old lawn mower says a lot about our household too. Ha. No diamonds here I’m afraid. Lots of rocks, but no gems. The kids weekly evening programming took care of that!

I have begun the process of doing my taxes. That’s always an eye opener. Will need to spend some time on that before we get into April. The dreaded tax season! Aah.

Hopefully you all enjoy your Saturday, the last one of March Break 2024. School is back in as of Monday. We wish you all well. Ciao Bella.

Clearing the ice is an undertaking not chosen lightly.

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To clean the ice on the 1/3rd size rink is a real endeavour. Snow blowing, scraping, and then shoveling off all of the wispy bits. Followed by checking the entire pad for cracks, hollow spots, rough edges, and then to flood the ice even further takes time aswell. Drilling a hole in the ice at the water source, dragging the pump down to the water, running stacks of two inch rubber hose, and then letting it flood for three to four hours. It’s a whole thing. Plus you add in the time it takes to get four kids, and several adults dressed, skates & helmets on, and a good two hour skate, and your day is over. Add in some meals, a hot tubbing session, and any other work done around the property and you’ve got yourself a weekend chock full of manual labour. Which is why my shoulder, arms and chest are all sore to the point of hurting. Love it.

Used the small electric Toro snowblower to clear of sixteen inches or more of snow on the back deck. I had to do that in layers, as the little Toro didn’t like being rammed into the bottom of a frozen, icy pile of snow taller than itself. It doesn’t look like much, but after an hour of holding it up in the air to clear off layers, my arms, back, and chest are just groaning today, let me tell you. Still much better than shoveling all that by hand. I imagine that job would have taken me about 3 hours to do manually, and just over 1 hr to do it with the mechanized helper. Huzzah for technology!

It’s Sunday Funday again. Not the usual Lazy Sunday we have around these parts. It is a good time to get out and do stuff, although the cold does inhibit some of the fun. Just have to play in moderation to avoid frostnip, bordering onto frostbite. Sledding, skating, tobogganing are all lots of fun. The snowmobiling is not advised right now as the kids helmets don’t all have face shields, and that wind is dangerously cold. So would I rather lie in bed until 10:00am, have a hot brunch, and then watch movies or read for a good portion of the day by the fireplace? Yes, yes I would. But the kids? Not so much. So activities it is. Probably why some weekends don’t feel very restful as we jump from one activity to another.

Almost a whole month past Christmas and the kids still have a few Lego sets left to build. I took it upon myself to Plough through the submersible build. I finished the main sub, and got 3/4 of the way through the sunken wreck / shark lair. And my oldest built one or two other small ones aswell. There should still be two or three left to go. All small, maybe 250 pieces each, or around there. That’s always a solid move if I want some peace. Lead them to Lego! They will either sit quietly and build for the better part of two hours, or immediately start to squabble over pieces. I think I have it worked out, new sets equal peace, building from the same bin of parts is mayhem. Hence so many small new kits for Christmas/Birthdays.

I have a sneaky suspicion that work is going to pick up in the next couple weeks. I need to review some documentation for a job I have to quote on. I will leave that until later on Monday afternoon. I’m hoping to do some repairs early tomorrow on the van’s bumper before I dig into actual paid work stuff. It’s lashed down pretty well to the body of the van, in order to get the kids to school, but I’d like to try and repair it in a more stable manner if I can. Hot staples, wire mesh, and melting plastic, what could possibly go wrong. At least the temperature is supposed to go up a few degrees this week, so I don’t have to work in subzero temps. Small miracles and all that. Ciao Bella.

Big Feelings – Tiny Little Baby Bodies.

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How do these furious & wild mood swings emanate from such small children seemingly from out of the ether? These two kids man. Woah! It’s like magic with these two. Pulling on endless streams of angst, anger, and histrionics. Not sure whether it’s all coming from frustration with video games, or the looming start of school, the end of summer, growth spurts, sibling rivalry or what. But it is here, and it is fierce. These two have a seemingly endless supply of “MOOD” to attack each other with. Enough  “BIG FEELINGS” to weight down an air craft carrier. Pray for us.

Here I was just 24 hours ago lamenting how quiet the house was without them, and now their frustrations, and anguish echoes off of every surface. It rings in my ears, rather literally once they manage to reach the fevered pitch of a tea kettle whistling indiscriminately. Did I miss their presence & smiles, and warmth of the heart. Yes. Do I miss the furious fighting? Yeah – not so much. My oldest, with less than ten days to go, has finally discovered the joy of sleeping in, but I’ll have to squash that in favour of waking up before 7am for school. Ha. One new set of issues to add into the mix come September. Glad for the hugs and good night kisses, could give the fighting a miss though.

So here we find ourselves once again, Thursday. With appointments to get to, errands to run, work to finish up, and an approvals process to observe. I think we are to have a few more days of rain, and if not rain then atleast overcast and cloudy. Temperatures more like mid to late September, than the dog days of summer like we are used to. Not that I miss the extremely hot stifling heat with no breezes that usually accompany the last days of August in southern Ontario. Perhaps we will once again wind up with a hotter November / December and on into January, with a wet cold October, and frigid February. Weird way to run things, but out of my control.

Hard to believe that we are almost into the ninth and final week of summer break. I feel as though we should be able to redo the two weeks in the middle, you know? I know we can’t, but that’s how it feels. Perhaps I over reacted by going and running a fundraiser to cover for being sad and upset. It certainly worked as a coping mechanism to get beyond the sadness I felt. Made it so I could sleep at night. Probably one of the more selfish things I’ve done in the face of emotional upheaval. Feeding on thanks & gratitude rather than wallowing in any sort of grief beyond the initial shock from the Monday night. Not a great quality, admittedly. But here we are.

I need to get a jump on a poster series for the upcoming Markham Fair 2023 at the end of September and very early October. So I best be about my business. Ciao Bella!

How do you tell your little kids some of the worst news they’ll hear.

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Tragedy struck on Sunday night when our family friends were killed in an accident. My friend, and her five year old daughter in one fell swoop. My kids adored them both. We attended the five year gold’s 5th birthday party a mere two weeks ago. Hell, we met up at Wonderland in late June so that our eldest kids could have lunch together, and ride a few rides by themselves while we chatted under the shade of the carousel. We are absolutely gutted. My wife and I have been in tears for much of last evening over their sudden departure under such tragic circumstances. But now comes the hard part. We need to delicately pass along the news to our two kids. My heart goes out to her son, the only one to survive the accident. I cannot fathom the grief, and potential survivors guilt that will plague a nine year old boy after an event like that. Truly heart breaking.

I’m not much looking forward to giving my two such heavy hearts. Tact is not my strong suit. Nor is delicacy. Looking into their faces to tell them their friend, and her mum are both gone so suddenly. Ugh! They need to know right? Can’t hide it. It’s on the news, in the paper, and all over the parents Facebook groups. If we don’t break it to them someone else will. Not going to like it, but I feel it must be done. To honour our friends. To Michelle & Heidi.

Sobering moment.

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Last night my oldest fell (for a silly reason I won’t mention to avoid further embarrassment) and cut herself fairly badly on a tin can from our recycling. What saddened me was she was so afraid I’d be mad that she hid the actual scalloped wound and only showed me this very minor scrape on the outside of her shoulder. But as she became very pale, I asked her to go lie down, and if she needed a bucket, because she is prone to vomiting at blood/pain. This should have been my first clue to stop and really examine her. But I asked and asked “are you ok?” And didn’t pry or really focus. Her ashen face really should have twigged my senses and I dropped that ball, badly. It wasn’t until later at night when she wanted to replace a bandaid for bed, which she had secretly put on earlier, that my wife and I saw the true extent of her real injury. A 2.5 inch long gash, nah! Scalloped divot cut out of her arm pit (or near enough) that was still bleeding 2 hrs in. We dabbed it, and added Polysporin, and applied a larger sterile pad, and sent her to bed. But it bothered me that she was more afraid we’d be mad, than seek help for what very nearly could have been a horrific injury. Had it of gotten into her actual armpit, hit a lymph node, or worse an artery, she’d have hidden it and bled out before we knew enough to apply a tourniquet which I have in the house for lacerations! I was terribly angry at myself, one; for the cut lids being up on the cans I’d opened that day, and two; my child being afraid I’d be mad about a little mess on the floor rather than being concerned for her well being. I realize I harp on at them for making messes, and their lackadaisical cleaning efforts, but I’d hoped they knew I loved them more than I care about a clean kitchen floor.

Seems I have some revaluation of my demeanor to look into. I say “I love you”, lots, but do I show it enough? I realize I’m not terribly sympathetic. Usually it’s a result of people hurting themselves by doing exactly what I have asked them not to, in order to avoid injury. So… I should work on that. By being more sympathetic, and having greater empathy for little kids trying to learn by doing. Gotta make those mistakes to learn the hard lessons I guess. I wanted to shield them from all that pain, but they do it anyway, much to my annoyance. So there. Yes. It’s all me. I definitely need to work on that. Seek out to comfort first, before being annoyed or upset. Leave the lecture for after we’ve all been patched up and looked after. Sounds reasonable. What a way to learn that lesson for myself. Yikes. I feel terrible about it. I’m writing it down, so it won’t soon be forgotten. Cheese. Huh.

Yeah – so welcome to Thursday. Talent show today. Hope that goes ok, as we’ve got more rain and storms coming. Not to mention my daughters injury to contend with for her act. I need to go edit some photography, and look over my daughters book report. Take care. Feel free to be introspective today too. Ciao Bella!

When the kids are spoiling for a fight…

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Oh my god, these kids are driving me nuts! All they want to do is follow each other around and start shit – constantly. Shouting & fighting for what appears to be no reason. Ugh! I’m sick of this, so very, very sick of this. The name calling, the breaking stuff, the little puppy dog following routine just to start throwing punches, scratches, or a bite. No wonder people way back when used to beat the shit out of their kids. Time outs, and being sent to their rooms has only worked for so long. In the words of the Simpsons, I have a “hanker’in for a spanker’in“. But that doesn’t really work either. Just makes everyone hate each other. Can’t lock’em in a closet to keep them apart either. Truly very frustrating.

I have high hopes still, that the two will like each other as they grow up into their teen years and beyond. A man can dream can’t he? Maybe it’s just a multi year long phase? Are they just bored? Upset by all of the impending cold weather? Out of sorts because Christmas looms so ominously large on the horizon. I wonder if the youngest is upset due to all of the birthday talk for the eldest’s birthday party that is coming up before Christmas. Could be a multitude of things given how complicated children are. Sometimes I have to just shake my head and walk away. Take a minute to decompress while they work in tandem to press all of my buttons at once like only your family can.

Now look, we’re all cuddled up on the couch watching Mike the Knight as they share a snack. So who knows what the hell is going on. Doesn’t make those tense moments any better. But I far prefer the quiet times over the tumultuous ones.

Gah! Kids. So much hard work. A real labour of love to keep all of our heads on straight. Kudos to all of you out there raising little ones. It’s a daily struggle.

One of the many problems with chronic illness is…

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I have a tough time figuring out if I’m sick with something new, or if it’s a flare up of the same old, same old. Fatigue, upset stomach, head aches, nausea are all pretty standard fare around these parts, so anything new has to operate outside those bounds. I need to see a Fever, or rash, boils, or something visible to know right off the bat that I’ve picked up something new. And that isn’t the case. A rogue cough might make me sit up, but if I don’t immediately have a runny nose, or an audible wheeze it could just be a rando cough from dust or air quality. That’s no gimme. It frustrates me to no end. Rotten guts? It’s just a Tuesday. Fatigue? Well I did run up and down a ladder earlier today for 90 minutes, so could just be physically tired. Feeling cold? It’s a damp November morning. Head ache? I work on a screen for hours at a time, no surprises there. Like I said, frustrating.

But it could always be worse, so I thank my lucky stars I have symptoms that I know how to live with and work around. The malabsorption issue is tougher, as that affects teeth & bones, but that’s why I take the vitamins and such. Not much else to do there. Live & learn.

So it’s friday, the first Friday in November, and the EA (CUPE) strike has the kids at home for… the day at least, possibly a few week(s)??? Maybe? Who knows. If all of the unions band together it could work to calm the waters by showing unity, and a united front. I don’t know, I’m not a negotiator for anyone, and I have no inside information from our provincial PC government. Instead it could fan the flames and make both sides dig in their heels. You never know with some people. Especially those whose whole MO, is the shit on the little people, under spending to purposefully ruin programs, and settle into needless road building to appease the very wealthy construction donors. Screwing the little guy is what gets them hard. Or so it would seem, from where we sit.

Kids want to erect the Christmas tree this weekend. So now we need to figure out which furniture we’ll move around in the living room or dining room to make room for our seven foot tall tree. Has to be close to a wall outlet so it can be turned on/off easily, but not block too much of the room. If I get rid of some of the really young kids toys, I can push the couch back, and put it infront of the storage unit (newly built by me!) And have it roughly where it usually is. But that will restrict the kids ability to play there, and will effectively block off access to the toy box behind the couch. First world problems, that aren’t really problems.

The kids finally found the D&D terrain board…

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And they are tromping around the boards using their collection of LOL Dolls. I’m not sure it’ll withstand the level of punishment that they dole out. But what a good excuse to build new ones if the bash and beat my current one beyond repair. Not that I want to see four hundred dollars worth of static grasses, tufts, trees and miniature flowers, rocks, stones, tree barks and sculpt a mould, and paper mache, and three types of foam  not to mention the two to three months I spent, painting, modeling and building it all. I made a small dock and a water/beach area, open plains, mountains and a grid plateau where I have ancient ruins of a temple. There is an underground cave network, and a road, road signs, ladders and a marsh too. I hope it survives, as we haven’t gotten around to playing any D&D games with it yet. I usually have it left as a diorama of a battle/fight.

I keep meaning to reread my books and create a campaign that my young kids can enjoy, but I have been distracted by home DIY projects, sculpting, guitar, model building and making furniture as of late. Plus throw in paid day job and parental commitments and my D&D dreams of family conquests of far away lands has laid dormant for quite some time. Could be worse.

We are back to Monday, and a good amount of rain has fallen since late last night. I do hope, nay – pray that all this rain finds it’s way to the farm. They had a full inch of rain last week, but more during the month of July is always welcome. A steady drizzle over days that soaks into the ground rather than a massive singular downpour that runs off into the creek/river is preferable. But at this point, rain is rain. France is bacon. As it were.

Not a whole lot of domestic duties will be accomplished on this Monday, nor any Monday in the next seven weeks. I need an empty house in order to get a worthwhile cleaning session in. Not to say we aren’t cleaning up after ourselves. But a touch of a lackadaisical approach to the floors has entered the chat, if you know what I mean. Laundry, dishes, food prep surfaces are unaffected by the kids 24/7 presence. But the floors? Hoo boy, not their proudest moment. Cabinets ate looking shabby from a plethora of grubby hands touching them constantly. Blood and food has found it’s way back onto the hallway walls – again. This is why the first week of school is spent decluttering and cleaning the house from top to bottom. My kids spent nine weeks getting grime over every surface imaginable. Chocolate milk spatter on the ceiling? Check. Blood streak on the hallway base board? Check. Face imprints of both sides of every glass door or window? Check. Takes several hard working days to get rid of it all once I have them both back in school come September.

I am trying very, very hard to not get mad or have an outburst regarding the current state of our home. But it’s always there, just under the surface. Itching to throw away any and or all items left on the floor after weeks of requests to tidy up after themselves. I did build a series of large toy boxes for this exact reason. So I wouldn’t step on anything sharp every single god damn day. But growth, exploration and experimentation are key building blocks for well rounded youth. Just wish a healthy dose of tidying the fuck up, was as important to them, as making a huge fuctangular mess of my living room floor. But I digress.

This weekend we visited the Mediterranean festival in town and enjoyed some funnel cake and ice cream. Not going go lie, had hoped to find that Fish Taco food truck that swings by once in a while that makes fantastic – well, Fish Tacos. Squeeze of lemon juice on top, fresh from the batter and fryer. So good. Was sad to not see it. The whole thing was a Fusion event, with lots of Greek cultural stuff to explore. Smelled so good down at Memorial Park on Saturday.

The long January begins with a – whine…

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Once again we have come back to online e-learning for the kids. The long grey bleak winter has finally settled upon the ground around us, and we are house bound. Which is both a blessing (greatly reduced Covid exposure) and a curse, cabin fever with two very socially starved kids. It could very well be far, far worse. I mainly bemoan the situation because I detest the cold and dreary Canadian winter, and much prefer the sunshine and warmth of summer. We also prefer biking, walking, swimming and other far more fun warmer weather outdoor activities. In all actuality we are very protected here in our home bubble, and we shouldn’t be put out by the actions required to flatten the curve and bring the numbers of cases back down to a reasonable level of infection. We have masked up, socially distanced, hand washed, and avoided going into more than one store per week for almost two years now. We were very fortunate that we qualified for a 3rd booster dose, and my older child has had her first dose, but our youngest isn’t eligible for six more months. I work from home regardless of the situation so I’m not impacted much work wise. I can put the bulk of my work into the evenings if need be in order to help my two kids navigate online school, home work, lessons and finding pages or web sites for classwork. If both of us were full timers things would get ugly, but my work is flexible so we have that going for us. The only real impact is to my cleaning schedule which I can’t properly do with two young kids underfoot. Hobbies are on hold until cases come down and schools can safely open for the educators, admin, cleaning staff as well as all age groups of children. The next however many weeks of us all together twenty four seven could get ugly, but it is definitely for the best.

Why, oh why

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Do my children insist on trying to communicate with me at the pitch of a whiney tea kettle. A stream of unending vowels and consonants imitating the squealed peel of an agitated dolphin. To my hearing lossed ears it’s just a pointless whistle that contains no information at all. Like a fire alarm in a high C monotone in which I am requested to decipher both the meaning and an action plan remedy. Followed, obviously by tears, flailing and shouting from the other sibling in response. And it happens constantly no matter how many times I tell them that I don’t speak tea kettle, dolphin, or whistle languages fluently. The Joy’s of parenthood I suppose. Blessed.