playing catch up - winter 2017

This winter has been filled with travels for both Cal and I. I kicked off the year by heading to Denver for a conference in January, which was fantastic. As someone who is typically developing and delivering learning sessions of all kinds, it was sooooo nice to sit back and just be a learner. I soaked up my three days there, and enjoyed my first trip to Colorado, though I didn't get to travel much beyond the hotel. Of course I was there just days after Trump's inauguration which made for an interesting time to travel to the States. But that's probably a story for another day! 

At the beginning of February, I also got to hop on a plane to Vancouver for a quick wedding weekend! Much of my dad's family - including my mum, dad, brother and sister in law - were in attendance as my cousin was married in a lovely winter ceremony. Of course, we choose only to come to town at the most exciting times, and Vancouver was experiencing their biggest snowstorm in years, shattering many snowfall records seen in their history. For us Ontarians, the snow was pretty minimal, but it makes you appreciate the city services we have in place for snow removal! It sure made for some stunning wedding pictures though! More importantly, we had the majority of our cousins together for the first time in years. I was only in town for about 48 hours, but I soaked up every minute with the cousins who I adore, and just wish that I was able to see more frequently. 

A couple weeks later, it was Cal's turn to hop on a plane, when he headed off on his annual Daytona 500 trip. He certainly didn't experience any snowfall, and instead enjoyed a week of fun in the sun with the other side of my family! The girls and I held down the fort while - I assume - he drank beer, attended races, hung with my family, drank beer, drove fast cars and drank a little more beer. A well deserved mini-vacation for my hard-working mister. 

In April, Cal was off once again to spend Easter weekend in Calgary with one of his oldest friends and his family. Living multiple provinces apart means that we don't see these friends as often as we'd like, so it was such a nice opportunity for him to go visit, and spend time with D, Katie and their three sweet little kiddos. While most of the time was spent in Calgary, he and D also took a 3-hour detour for a night in Edmonton to see John Mayer on his recent tour.

I'll try to stay away from mentioning my favourite story from his Calgary trip - the one where Cal left for his flight that first morning and called me just before 6am from his airport gate to let me know he'd lost his wallet...and his keys. Thankfully, he was flying out of the Hamilton airport, so the girls and I hopped in the car and saved the day with his spare set of keys that opened the truck where his wallet had fallen out. After holding up the plane, he hopped on and made his way to Calgary... but right, I'll stay away from mentioning that. :) 

Now it's May and we're staying put a little bit more! The boat is out of storage, and once it actually warms up around here, we are so ready to get it out for a ride. Lady M has the countdown on until the last day of school, and I'm looking forward to getting through the push to the end of the school year, and taking a little time off over the summer to spend with my fam. 

waterproof mascara: the sequel

We knew this day was coming...we knew that our little girl was well prepared for school...but waterproof mascara is still one of those key items required to make it through this milestone.

The last couple weeks in our house there has been a great deal of chatter about school. With Lady M heading into grade two, and Lady A preparing for junior kindergarten, the excitement has been mounting!

School supplies were purchased and packed into fresh new backpacks. First day outfits were purchased and laid out with care. We had a wonderful summer filled with memories to last a lifetime, so when Labour Day weekend hit, we knew the first day of school was just moments away.

Tuesday morning, first day part 1

Tuesday was the first official day of school. Lady M had been fighting an upset tummy all weekend thanks to an extended case of the butterflies. Though she looked confident in her zebra dress, and matching hat, the nerves were kicking in. The school was familiar this year but she was still clinging to my leg a little bit when we stepped into the gym that morning. (It was a very rainy first day of school this year - no outdoor organization possible!) Once she learned who her teacher was, Lady M relaxed a little bit, and by the time we were leaving, she was happily walking down the hallway toward her new grade two classroom.

Next we headed to Lady A's new school. Though she was prepared to go to one school close to our current home, we bought a new house a few weeks ago so decided to start her at the school in that district to save her from changing schools in November. Until Monday morning, she had never stepped foot in the building. And her school is BIG! There are 8 kindergarten classes alone (that's almost double the population of Lady M's entire school). But, she walked in with confidence and we headed to her new classroom to participate in her 30 minute 'meet and greet'.

The meet and greet mostly consisted of me completing paperwork, and Lady A sitting quietly beside me observing everything around her. She was quiet until she finally said "mummy, are you almost done? I'd like to go play with the play-doh" that she had spotted at another table. I finished up, and she happily played with the delightfully familiar dough and that seemed to be just the icebreaker she needed. Apart from that, the orientation consisted of looking around the classroom and writing her name on the whiteboard (a highlight for her)! And as we walked out of the school, she looked up at me and said "I don't want to leave". Ahhh, music to my ears. My sweet little 4-year old was feeling comfortable.

Later that night, Lady M came home raving about her day at school, and declared "I think I have the best teacher in the school"! The butterflies were long gone, and she was holding tightly to a goody bag, and a kind note that her teacher had given everyone in the class. Clearly, a super start to second grade.

Wednesday marked Lady A's first full day of school. She bounced out of bed and was beyond excited to get the day started. She may have been most thrilled about her new outfit that consisted of a flowered skirt, and t-shirt that read "Hooray for today!", and boy did she look cute when she got dressed. Seeing as I had taken her to Tuesday's orientation, I was needed back in the office and Cal was on drop-off duty. In my office I anxiously awaited some pictures via text message and was thrilled when I received a beautiful picture of Lady A, in front of her school, grinning ear to ear.

Wednesday morning, first day part 2

Cal said she was watching her crying classmates with concern, but kept looking back at him and smiling broadly. While he was holding back tears in the school yard, I was barely containing mine in my office. But when I picked her up at the end of the day her smile was still enormous and she told me she had a fantastic day. All we can ask for, really.

It's funny how these days are bittersweet - I want my kids to find great success and happiness with their schooling, and enjoy all of the wonderful social and growth opportunities that come along with it; but I also want to keep them small for as long as possible.

Three years ago I was writing about Lady M's first day of school (read 'waterproof mascara' here!), and suddenly 1,095 days have passed by in the blink of an eye. My older beauty is settling into second grade, my baby girl is in full-time school, and I'm still just 29. {wink, wink}.

the apple doesn't fall far...

In the third week of November, Lady M received her first official report card. The reports received in kindergarten covered important details such as skills at the sand table, in the bean bag chair library and in the house centre. So, this one was exciting. This one was going to cover the real crux of my daughter's educational journey. This one was going to set her on a path to greatness.

Ok, not quite. But, I was curious to see what her teacher chose to say about her. I had my hunches, of course, but not getting to be a fly on the wall in her classroom each day, I was eager to read through her report.

It was very good, and she seems to be progressing quite well in first grade. Once I had a handle on everything that was said, I did my best to break down the lengthy commentary into an abridged, Coles Notes version so Lady M would know what had been said about her. 

There were two main things: first, she needed to improve in the area of 'personal responsibility' - I took that to mean that she needs to "pick up her stuff"; not surprising, as that's an ongoing challenge at home as well! The second theme that came up again and again was around leadership skills - she seemed to be exercising these skills quite frequently. 

"Lady M, do you like to be a leader at school", I asked her. 

"Yes. Today I organized all the kids into groups", she replied. 

"Did your teacher ask you to do that?", I queried. 

"Nope, I just decided to do it", she shared honestly. 

Clearly, my kid likes to be in charge...I have no idea where she gets it. :) 

I develop and deliver leadership programs for a living; so I am always thrilled when my daughters' show their tendencies toward natural leadership abilities; we foster and cultivate that skillset, but I needed to dig into this a little more. 

Every year when we head up to my camp, Lady M observes the leadership camp that I co-teach. So I asked her "Lady M, when we're up at camp, is mummy always the one leading the group?"

Lady M: "No"
Me: "Who else leads the group?" 
Lady M: Well, T and R (my co-teachers) do"

Me: "That's right - and who else leads the group?" 

Lady M: (pausing to think...) "The campers lead sometimes!" 

Me: "Yes! So, what does that mean to you?" 

Lady M: "I see mummy...I need to give others a chance to lead too."

EUREKA! Thankfully, she seemed to get it very quickly, and hopefully I didn't squash any of her budding leadership skills in the process; I just want her to know that there's a time to lead, and a time to let others do the same. 

So a week later, I headed to the school on a PD Day to have my first official parent-teacher interview. Another exciting moment in my mom career! Lady M's teacher is a lovely woman who has made a really positive impact on her so far this year. We discussed her conduct in class, and worked around to discussing the 'personal responsibility' piece that had come up in her report. As it turns out, this is coming from her penchant to travel around the class to ensure everyone else is completing their work properly, to the detriment of her own work at times. The leader strikes again! I'm told that many kids go to her for her opinion, assistance etc., so her tactics are working, but striking a balance is key...I just need to make sure my 6-year old is clear on that. 

It's true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I'm more than happy to see her budding leadership skills...we'll just have to work to ensure she learns that the fine art of leadership consists not of telling others how to do things, but empowering them to become leaders themselves. 

Maybe that enhanced skill will be captured on her next report card!

kribble the frog

Swimming: an essential skill for any child, as far as I'm concerned. I may not have a perfect swim technique, but I swim well and have always loved being in the water - pools, lakes, oceans - anything goes. Now, I look forward to the day when my kids are strong enough swimmers that we can spend hours in a pool playing Marco Polo, doing underwater handstands, and having cannonball contests. But first come the swimming lessons!

When Lady M was 3 1/2, she took her first independent swim class at the rec centre near our house. She was excited to take the class, but when it came to the end she hadn't passed. According to her water stained report card, she was unwilling to splash water on her face, and put her face into the water. Fair enough; these seem like essential skills to demonstrate before graduating from Splash A to Splash B.

Rather than stick her right into another class, we gave her some time to practice these skills in the bathtub and in the pool when we went swimming as a family. Slowly her confidence grew, and our little lady was happily sticking her face in the water, blowing bubbles and splashing herself (and her sister) in the face. However, with all of the other extracurricular activities happening in our world suddenly more than a year had passed.

This spring, we signed her back up for Splash A to try once again, and in a few short weeks she had breezed through the class, splashing and kicking all the way to Splash B. Though we're not on the pool deck to observe the lessons (rather, we're behind the glass, watching from afar) it's clear they spend a good amount of class time singing songs. With these merry tunes stuck in her head, Lady M would come home singing them.

Her best song reiteration was "dunk, dunk went Kribble the frog one day, dunk dunk went Kribble the frog". Yes, it was meant to be Kermit, but my child of the new millenium is unfamiliar with the fabulousness of Jim Henson and all his muppets.

Unlike I did, Lady M isn't spending part of her youth watching The Muppet Show, or Muppet Babies, so has never heard of Kermit, Miss Piggy or the Swedish Chef. No, to my sweet little four year old, "Kribble" is just some frog who likes to dunk himself in the water. Maybe this Christmas we'll pull out The Muppet Christmas Carol, or introduce her to the updated movie with Jason Segel & Amy Adams. But for now, we'll just stick to Kribble.

Over the last two weeks, we put Lady M into the boot camp of swimming lessons, with a lesson every night for 9 weekdays straight. Getting home, eating an express early-bird dinner, getting changed and to the pool by 6pm each night was a brutal, frustrating, delightful challenge to say the least. Little Lady A wanted to watch her big sister swim too, so the whole family would pile in the car and rush, scramble, head to the pool each night for her half hour lesson. As one other parent said to me, it was basically a swimming boot camp, but 9 days later my little lady collected her report card, complete with Splash B sticker, and instruction to sign up for Splash C next.

Lately she's been telling us that she wants to complete every level and become a lifeguard when she's bigger, which I think is great. But, one step at a time. For now, she and Kribble will just move along to Splash C...