March was pretty fun, as we celebrated both Max and Jeff's birthdays. As documented in my last blog, Max had a super awesome party and it was followed by a brief getaway for Jeff and I to Gibsons, where we awoke to an amazing mountain and ocean view (that we specifically designed for my sister's bedroom) and spent a few uninterrupted hours perusing the new architecture books I bought Jeff. The following weekend, Jeff bought himself a little birthday present - a BMW X3! He deserves it. (Besides, Jeff did get the Jetta into another little fender-bender that instigated the search for a new car).
I felt like a jet-set woman for a day, driving our new Beamer to the downtown Harbour plane airport for a day-trip to Victoria on the 17th. I sort of invited myself to visit my friend Malaika and she scored me a couple of buddy passes from her hubby Peter since he is a pilot for Harbour Air now, and it was a lovely day for a little excursion and a great chance to visit.
Before Easter, my Calgary sister, Krista, flew out so we could have a girls-night at Gibsons on Good Friday, so I was lucky to enjoy 3 separate getaways from my 3 crazy boys that have been driving me crazy (well, really it's just the youngest one that is driving me crazy!). We still managed to fit in a little Easter Egg hunt on Easter Monday, and they were adorably excited.
Oh ya, and there was Spring Break. We went to Vancouver for a day to do a little Seawall biking and meet up with our friends. I like to say that Callum is the "country mouse" that gets to play with his "city mouse" friend, Banyan, when either his Mom, Julianne, or I are willing to make the drive, but we really should do it more often since they have such fun together.
I'm not sure how we ended up choosing the theme of Max's birthday party, but it was a Secret Agent Party! He invited 7 of his preschool buddies, plus Lorelei and Callum, so it was a good little group of kids. They each got Secret Agent sunglasses and ID tags to wear before we played some games, like decoding a secret message by finding letters that were hidden in the backyard.
There was also Pin-the-Disguise-on-the-Spy.
The kids were very excited for Max to open the gifts they brought, so we did that before Cake.
I think it was a success. We had planned for Max to have a sleepover at Lorelei's that night and my Mom was going to spend the night at our place while Jeff and I went to Gibson's, to have some quiet time together for Jeff's birthday. While on the ferry to Gibson's, however,
my Mom calls to tell us we never gave her our house key - Oops!
What can I say - it was a snowy holiday with lots of skiing, hot-tub frolicking and bunk-bed-jumping. February 16-20, we rented a condo at Sun Peaks so we could get as much family-time as possible, and, with my sister Krista's help, I think it was a success!
After Sun Peaks, Jeff did a couple non-kid-friendly ski days in the backcountry around Mt.Baker and was happy to get some fresh powder tracks.
Before I forget what life was like before I had kids, I recently remembered something that I thought I should jot down.
Jeff and I met at
Dalhousie while pursuing our Masters of Architecture - a degree that
required spending endless hours and often sequential days without sleep,
working away like hermits in each of our tiny studio spaces, blocking
out any interruptions by wearing headphones and listening to constantly
streaming music. We often joked that we fell in love while taking
quality, but oh-so brief breaks from school to prepare quick meals and
prolonged the return to work by actually doing the dishes together.
Anyway... while plugged into our computers, we both got hooked on the
BBC radio show called 'Colin and Edith' and could stream it live or
listen to recordings through the BBC radio website. Colin and Edith did
this lunch-time love song thing, where you could write a little note
and make a song request on their website, dedicating it to someone you
loved - which I did. I remember that we happened to both be holed up in
our separate studios one day, fortunately listening to the live show,
and I heard them read out my note, (I remember it said something about
'my love, Jeff, sitting not-so far away across the studio') and then
play the song I requested (which I can't remember). I smiled that they
actually read it out, but felt completely satisfied when a moment later I
see Jeff standing in my studio, also smiling because he actually heard
the dedication to him! That was cool.
(March, 2004. Jeff presenting his work to our professors for our "Dichte" studio at the Fachhochschule in Dusseldorf, Germany).
(November 22, 2003. In front of Le Corbusier's Chapelle de Notre-Dame-du-Haut outside Ronchamp, France)
I remember when I used to think the word "Playdate" was funny. Now it is just a part of my daily vocabulary since my 2 older boys are constantly asking me for them. They are very social little boys and apparently our huge playroom and their million toys still isn't sufficient to entertain them during long days at home while Simon naps and I try to keep my house organized. I find myself missing our 700 sqft condo downtown - not necessarily because it was in the heart of the city with so many things to do with my boys, but because it only took me a few hours to completely clean! The house we are in now is pretty great and how dare I whine about the fact that my ginormous house is too big to keep tidy - but I can't help it. A smaller house means less room to get messy which means less time cleaning which means more time at the park or the pool or the beach... Oh, poor Kelli, she has a nice big house. Boo hoo. Ok, ok.
I guess maybe I am just amazed and impressed with Simon's ability to make mess - I mean, a lot of mess, everywhere. I am constantly tidying up the contents of my purse in the front entry, the take-out menus from the kitchen, my make-up and hair accessories from my bathroom drawer, the previously full garbage can in the office now strewn on the floor...etc. This kid gets around. Taking him out anywhere is also quite messy since he loves puddles, and the muddier the better. Getting him back into the van is usually a good fight and he tends to share all the mud on his boots with my clothes. Well, luckily, this kid is also so darn cute, he gets away with it all!
Simon now has 6 teeth, 3 on top, 3 below, and is wearing size 6 diapers. For the past few weeks, he has been waking for the day well before 6am and therefore has a morning routing of watching Sesame Street on Netflix by himself until he climbs up the stairs yelling for me because he's hungry. He's down to one ill-timed nap per day (sleeps over lunch time, usually around 11am-1pm), and wakes during the night for unknown reasons but sometimes just because his soother isn't in his mouth anymore.
Partially because taking Simon out is such a hassle, we have Max or Callum's friends over at least 3 or 4 times a week or sometimes they play at their friends' places, but this has the result of them getting bored at home when they aren't playing with friends. Callum goes through phases and he is currently in a computer-game phase. I actually had my 16 yr-old nephew, Sam, come over to explain to Callum and I (well, mostly to me) the ins-&-outs of Minecraft since free online games are no longer good enough. Although I have absolutely zero interest in the video-game world, I've decided that, since it is interesting to my son, I have to learn too. And I have to pay closer attention to his 5-hour per week limit.
We have been keeping busy on the weekends, though, by going skiing pretty much every Saturday. Callum loves it and can now go on Blue runs by himself. We're not bothering with lessons this year since he is too advanced for his age-group and Max is still too young. Max is further along than Callum was at his age, but I guess that is because we really are spending more time on the mountains. Jeff's interest in backcountry skiing has developed into more of a passion now, as he has begun the process of buying all the gear required for the sport. He got Callum and Max all stressed out last weekend when he explained to them the purpose of his beacon, as they started to think that Daddy was going to get covered up by an avalanche and maybe his beacon batteries would run out so no one could rescue him!
I think Max definitely gets the short end of the stick right now because he would love to do so much more than be stuck at home with his napping baby brother and his Mom trying to keep her house clean while Callum is at school. As I am writing this, I should probably be playing with him instead of making him watch another episode of Backyardigans while Simon sleeps (...ok, I took a break and played Beyblades then Hungry Hippos with him...). He has Preschool 2 afternoons per week and T-Ball Wednesday mornings, but he'd love to do skating and swimming too and, of course, more playdates.
Thankfully, Max is my best sleeper - he usually makes it all the way to 7am, bless him!!
Over the holidays, my sister Krista said that she loves my blog but commented that it made my life seem a little too perfect. Huh. Ya, I mean, with kids this cute, I can see how that might be the case:
I guess it is almost perfect. A while ago I asked Jeff if this is how he imagined his life - when he was younger, did he picture this as what he wanted? I confess, this is pretty darn close to my vision of the future...except I had a daughter and a dog - don't want the dog anymore and the daughter is only a possibility if I make a trip to Africa and buy one. This week, though, I saw a poster at the Rec centre for Sun Run training and had a fleeting thought about running again. Fleeting. When would I train? Well, I could go to bed earlier at night so I could run in the mornings before Jeff leaves, but then I would have no time for myself after the kids were in bed. I could go at night, after the kids are in bed and Jeff's home, but I usually feel like crashing then.
Anyway, I guess, no matter how perfect life is, we always want more, don't we? Or we always feel lacking in balance, like we could be more organized and more fulfilled. I
have finished installing the floor tile in my parents new place and
will be moving on to doing the tile in my brother's house. It makes me
feel ever so slightly more useful to be able to help out there, like at least there is something more in my life than organizing playdates and cleaning up after Simon.
I tend to forget that Callum is a rather mild-mannered little boy, more calm and patient than most other kids his age. I was quickly reminded of that when I took him and 8 of his friends bowling for his birthday party. Ha!! Not the smartest idea I've had... Well, they had a lot of fun, but not necessarily from the bowling but from the running, climbing and jumping that they were doing all around the alley. It was a good thing it wasn't very busy.
After bowling, we came back to our place for home-made pizzas, ice cream cake and general playing around. I'm super glad I had asked my sister Kami to come help out!
And here he is, my super-awesome 6-year old. Well, I guess, this is six:
