We have had a busy week this week between preschool, a field trip to the sugar bush, and Laura starting gymnastics, but we managed to squeeze in a few Easter activities, too. :)
We tried using natural dyes (red cabbage, onion skins, and beet juice) to dye our eggs this year. They turned out very... earthy.
{boiled onion skins}
{beet juice}
All done!
Laura helped me make some "birds' nests" treats to take to Easter dinner
Our little monkey had her very first solo lesson today: gymnastics! She was by
far the littlest in her class, but she did really well for it being her
first time. She seemed like she really enjoyed it, too. :)
She said her favourite were the rings and the bars. :)
I couldn't help but indulge in a cute little gymnastics suit for her,
too. She helped pick it out - she wanted a 'sprinkle' (sparkly) one. :)
Generally, I try not to do this because it kind of irks me when people want their kids to be exactly like them, but I couldn't help but project myself a little on Laura this time and sign her up for gymnastics. Plus, I am getting kind of tired of her using Rachel's playpen as a jungle gym. I always wanted to be a gymnast when I was little, but that dream was crushed when I failed a level in gymnastics several consecutive times due to not being able to do a single chin-up (despite being able to do everything else required for the level.) :( Gymnastics are not really a necessary skill the way, say, being able to swim is, so I felt a little guilty for prodding her into it. She did seem excited when we went to check out the facility, so much so that she suggested we sneak into the gym area to try it out. Haha. I would be thrilled if she ends up loving it/ doing well/ wanting to keep it up. But, if not, that's okay. I also want her to be her own person with her own interests/ hobbies/ talents.
A week ago today Josh ran the dishwasher, as usual, when we went to bed. Little did we know...
Thursday
Before bed Josh goes into the laundry room for something and discovers black sludge all over the floor. He asks me what it is. I come down to inspect and think at first something is terribly wrong with our washing machine, but upon closer inspection we decide it has actually emerged from the floor drain, and is also crawling with sewer worms. Lovely.
I research what type of worms they are on the internet to find if they are dangerous/ the best way to get rid of them. Several kettle-fulls of boiling water and bleaching the floor later, we go to bed.
Friday
Josh goes to work and asks around for plumber referrals. I attempt to wash a load of laundry to see if the drain backs up again. It does. Good thing I spent an hour + cleaning the floor last night. After calling several different plumbing companies, we finally get ahold of one that will help us out today. Josh decides to come home from work for the day to help get this mess sorted. Two guys come and attempt to snake the pipe. It doesn't work. They say their snake is not long enough to reach the major blockage and we will have to dig up the pipe outside and put in a clean out access. First we must call and get locates for all of the water, hydro, and gas lines so as not to dig through those. This takes several hours and it is nearly dark by the time Josh can attempt to start digging.
Saturday
We are busy with swimming lessons and recording sessions all day. Unfortunately, my method of laundry-doing involves letting it pile up and then doing about 10 loads all at once. Of course, this is the weekend I need to do 10 loads of laundry. So while Josh is recording I pack up all the laundry, the girls, and everything we need for a weekend at Grandma Laundromat's.The girls also get to have a bath.
Sunday
We come home from Grandma's about midday and Josh attempts to continue digging. His back is not the greatest and so he decides to call it quits when he has dug about 1.5 feet down (the hole needs to be about 4 or 5 feet deep - there is no way he is going to be able to dig it by hand). We will just have to cough up the extra several hundred dollars for the excavator to do it.
Monday The plumber and excavator arrive around lunch time, and proceed to dig a massive, 5-foot-deep hole in our front yard. We lose our garden bed under the window, but I ask them to please spare our sand cherry bush if possible. (When we bought the house the inspector said we should lose that garden for fear of water damage to the foundation, so at least we were planning on getting rid of it anyway.) They finally get down to the sewer pipe, and the guy starts digging around with a shovel. He exposes the water line lying right along the sewer line. About three feet from where the locate said it was. Josh has come home for lunch to supervise the process and is outraged by this violation of code. Twenty-seven years ago, it probably wasn't a violation of code, though. It's just good that the excavator didn't dig down about two more inches than he did.
The plumbers replace the section of pipe and add a clean out that comes to the ground surface for easy access should we need to get into it again. Three hours later the hole is filled back in and our entire front yard is just a giant muddy mess. The plumbers still cannot go ahead and auger the blockage because it is unclear what exactly is blocking the pipe. It could be the gas line, and if they auger through it our house could easily blow up.
Late Monday night the guy from the gas company comes to scope the pipe. His batteries for the camera die and he cannot conclusively say anything. He returns at 10PM with a geomagnetic tool to determine the depth of the gas pipe and whether it conflicts with the depth of the sewer pipe. He leaves without telling us anything.
Giant muddy mud mud hole
Tuesday
The girls had a very shallow bath last night and it didn't back up when we drained it, but this morning after our two showers (+ last night's bath) the laundry room floor has flooded again, worse than before. The plumber returns around lunch time to see if they have the go ahead to auger yet. I tell him the gas guy didn't tell us anything. The plumber shrugs and leaves.
The gas guy comes back in the afternoon for a third time. Presumably with good batteries this time. The report we get is that, "There is too much backed up to even see what is causing the blockage. So I'm going to have to fail it again. We are going to have to call in the specialists with a robot they can send from the street end of the sewer. They will be here some time tonight. It might be in the middle of the night."
10PM, as we are getting ready to head to bed, a large truck shows up with robot equipment to scope the sewer line from behind the blockage. Josh wants to watch but the need for sleep trumps his curiosity.
Wednesday In the morning, we find out that, yet again, they were not able to conclusively tell if there are roots or a gas line (or something else - perhaps a dead body?) blocking our sewer drain. They have located where the blockage is, however, and the order now is for a huge truck to come and vacuum excavate holes in our yard in the approximate location to determine whether there is anything crossing the sewer. They show up in the late morning and our quiet street is swarming with various large trucks and men in orange jumpsuits all talking on their respective cell phones. Nothing visible happens for over an hour.
Eventually the men come out and use a giant vacuum hose and a high pressure water gun to excavate more holes in our yard. Their first hole is a miss. The second one reveals the gas line, hydro line, phone line, and at last, the sewer line all in the same location, but at differing depths. The sewer line appears to be free of other pipelines crossing it and roots. The blockage occurs at a join in the pipeline, and we find out that the camera showed the blockage to be a large ball of grease. (It must be a big ball, as the pipe is probably 5 inches in diameter.) ... and we don't even dump any grease down our sink... so who knows.
First hole they excavated with the pressure hose on the right
Second hole (pictured on left above) showing gas line, hydro line, phone line, and the sewer way down at the bottom
Everything is all clear, so yet another large truck comes with a load of sand, and the boys fill the holes back in. The plumber now has the green light to run the auger. It takes them only a few minutes before the pipe clears and I can now do the diaper laundry I desperately need to do. The plumber did warn that this could happen again since seemingly nothing caused the blockage (roots or pipes). But at least we have a clean out access in place now, so it won't be such a huge hassle.
And now I get to go re-clean the laundry room floor. And tomorrow, attempt to clean up our mess of a yard.
Yay for being homeowners!
I usually keep a running draft post of her monthly achievements so I don't forget them, but this month I didn't have a lot documented. Until this past week, that is - she seemed to have a development explosion!
In the past month, Rachel has started rubbing heads as a sign of affection/ humour. Since Josh has shaved his head, he picks Rachel up and rubs her on it, which she thinks is hilarious. In return she has also started rubbing her head on people. So funny. She also now makes the "fish" noise (pops her lips) and the elephant noise... a lot. :)
She has made her stair climbing debut this month. Good for her, bad for me. It's Baby Gate Central around here now.
She is growing less and less tolerant of the playpen and would rather be crawling around on the floor and pulling up on furniture. She has also been attempting to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor (not successfully yet, but she did pull up on me and let go to support herself on her own at library reading group the other day!)
Our biggest issue this month has been sleep. Rachel has never been a big sleeper. Her naps were always short (like 20 minutes, maybe) until fairly recently. She now naps about 1.5 - 2 hours, usually from 10 - 12, and sometimes that is it for the day. She will still take a quick catnap in the afternoon sometimes, but I think she will be completely weaned down to one nap pretty soon. Night times have been fairly awful this past month. She has been waking as much as four times a night many nights. And combined with having to get up with Laura a few times, too, has left me one tired mama. Rachel did, however, sleep from 11:30 until 7 one night this month. For the first time ever, she did not wake me up! She hasn't done it since, so I'm not getting my hopes too high yet, but I certainly am looking forward to impending less broken sleep.
Rachel continues to be a good eater (I swear she eats almost as much as Laura) and when she went for her nine month check up about three weeks ago, she was 16 pounds and 26.5 inches. :) Still waiting on teeth.
Preparations for her birthday party have commenced. Can't believe she is only two months away from being one year old!
A friend of mine wrote a similar post the other day documenting her daily activities with her son. I thought it provided a nice glimpse into their life, and so I thought I would do the same, mostly as a memento for myself to come and look back on.
7:30am
Roll out of bed to retrieve both already awake children. Change Baby's diaper. (Toddler appears to be completely night trained and diaper free as of this week! Woot!)
Take nursing supplement.
Let dogs out.
Let dogs in.
8:00am
Make juice for husband (and self).
Strawberry, Apple, & Pineapple (carrots didn't make it in before the glass was full)
Kiss goodbye and send husband off to work.
Feed dogs breakfast.
"Why are you taking a picture?! Can I just eat it already?!"
8:30am
Feed children breakfast.
Banana and whole wheat toast with coconut oil
Banana and whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Try to fit in breakfast for myself.
Bring diaper laundry upstairs while both children are contained in high chairs.
9:00am
Toddler TV time. Baby playpen time.
Watching Brave
Mommy computer time (facebook, check emails, maybe a little online window shopping if I'm lucky.)
9:30am
Nurse Baby.
<3
Sweep floor in an attempt to prevent Baby from eating dog hair dust bunnies. (Doesn't work.)
9:45am
Get children dressed.
Playtime downstairs.
Notice dog water is empty on way downstairs. Come back up to fill dog water.
Find baby halfway up stairs upon return.
Tea party.
Rachel not impressed as nap time is impending.
10:15am
Change diaper. Nap time for Baby.
Sleepy head
Let dogs out.
Mommy-Toddler time:
Using puppets to act out/ sing "Little Bunny Foo Foo"
Using puppets to sing "5 Little Ducks"
Playing dress-up. All princesses need swords, don't ya know.
Using puppets to act out "The Paper Bag Princess".
Puzzle time.
We also read some other stories, one of which is called "The Giant Next Door". Laura then wanted to pretend that I was the sleeping giant, and she proceeded to cover me with blankets and then slide down my body for a good ten minutes. She also seemed taken aback and a little confused when I pretended to have a tantrum about the blankets not covering me sufficiently. Yeah, welcome to motherhood, kid. ;)
Let dogs in.
11:45am
Start making lunch.
End Baby nap.
12:00pm
Brush Toddler hair while waiting for lunch to finish.
Laura entertaining herself with empty ribbon spools while waiting for lunch.
Assemble lunch plate in hopefully appealing manner for Toddler.
Triscuits and cheese. Hard boiled "Jell-O" egg. Orange & strawberries.
Feed baby (same lunch as Toddler).
Reheat leftovers from last night.
Eat said leftovers, while Toddler demands that instead of her own lunch.
Encourage Toddler to finish lunch.
12:30pm
Husband comes home for lunch and declares nothing to eat. Leaves to go get McDonalds.*
12:40pm
Husband returns and scarfs down lunch.
Change diaper.
Throw on clothes. *
Spend 15 seconds brushing hair. *
Toddler meltdown because its time to put on boots and go to preschool.
Mommy meltdown because we are now going to be late for preschool.
Take detour to avoid stinky car in front of us. Fight back tears as we drive past the hospital and Toddler announces, "Remember I went there when you were sick? And you had a big ouchie on your tummy? Baby brother is in there. He's getting bigger." "No, Hunny. He's not in there. Baby brother is all gone." "But I still have a baby sister." "Yep, you do. And you should love her very much because she is the only baby sister you're going to have." "Yep. I love Baby Rachel."
1:05pm
Drop Toddler off at preschool.
1:15pm
Arrive back home and have Free Range Baby time. And Mommy computer time.
Let dogs out.
Let dogs in.
1:30pm
Nurse Baby.
Songs and cuddles for Baby. Baby dances along. :)
Read Baby various Touch 'n Feel stories.
"That's Not My Dragon!"
"Hairy Mclary and Friends"
Play Baby music while Baby crawls and explores.
Make sure all components of children's special outfits for Disney on Ice are present and accounted for.
1.5 weeks!
2:30pm
Nurse Baby again because she seems a little fussy and didn't nurse long last time.
Take nursing supplement.
Change diaper.
Go out to grab a few groceries before picking up Toddler from preschool.
3:50pm
Arrive home.
Let dogs out.
Let dogs in.
Feed children and self snack.
4:00pm
Playdate arrives.
Feed playdate snack.
Play.
Let's all climb the stairs!
Broken conversation with friend while refereeing toddlers' play.
Send Toddler to room for multiple time outs (probably because she didn't/ wouldn't eat her snack and was subsequently in an aggravating mood.)
Change diaper.
Nurse Baby.
5:15pm
Playdate leaves.
Mommy is grumpy about Toddler's behaviour, and attempts to diffuse mood with computer time.
5:30pm (aka "Witching Hour")*
Husband arrives home and attempts to diffuse now hysterical Toddler.
Baby becomes hysterical because everyone else is. And also probably because she only napped 1.5 hours today.
Nurse Baby.
6:00pm
Husband starts dinner.*
Toddler is diffused by Mickey shorts on YouTube.
Mommy takes over dinner.
6:30pm
Family dinner time.
Rachel does the "neck dance" throughout most of dinner.
7:00pm
Get tired Baby ready for bed.
Nurse Baby.
Baby out like a light by 7:15pm.
Toddler finishes dinner while watching Dora.*
Mommy reviews book order catalogue while Daddy gets Toddler ready for bed.
7:45pm
Say goodnight to Toddler and lay in her bed a few minutes. Apologize for being grumpy with her.
Glorious and much needed adult conversation time on facebook.
This past week a cousin of mine posted a video on facebook of her little guy reading. This child is the same age as Laura, and he's reading. They both just turned three last week. !!!!! Of course, all children are different and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. And generally, people don't go broadcasting about things their kids suck at (with possibly the exception of sleep). So I'm sure there are things that Laura is better at than her same-age peers. Memorizing details of Disney movies is probably one of them. ;) Blah blah blah, etc etc. Either way, I still feel a little ... competitive? about stuff like this. Which is dumb, I know. But its also kind of good, because it inspired me to find some printable letters that we could use to practice with.
Because we have an awesome printer now, I was able to google printable letter flashcards. I was hoping to find the regular Aa Bb type ones, and maybe they would include a picture of something that started with the letter. But I didn't find any like that (somehow? If anyone has a link, feel free to share!). So then I went to Pinterest, and stumbled across these printable Disney alphabet flashcards. Generally, I'm not a big fan of commercial merchandise like this, especially since I was planning on putting them up around the playroom... I'm more of a homemade, old-fashioned kind of girl. But, I know how much Laura loves Disney, so I thought these would probably be better for learning's sake. (I'd still like to find a set like that for the playroom, though).
Anyway, if there is one thing I learned at teacher's college, it is that you need to make the subject material relevant for the student, or else they won't care or want to learn. And to date, Laura has not shown a lot of interest in learning letters and numbers. She usually just shuts down if we quiz her on them. So, I'm on a mission to find new ways to make this exercise fun for her.
She also really likes singing about stuff. Anything. And the other day, I'm not sure how it came up, but I started singing this old verse that we used to jump rope to as kids:
Allie allie allie-o!
Listen to the radio,
I like the radio,
and I like (__insert letter here__)
(__letter__) is for (__name__)
Pretty, pretty (__name__),
All the boys for (__name__),
Kiss her(/him) goodnight,
Sleep tight!
Run out!
She has completely latched onto this, in only the way a three-year-old can, and we sing it on repeat. Over and over and over. However, I have used this to our advantage and have begun asking her to figure out the first letter of whatever name we are using (this includes but is not limited to people names. We have sung for Road, and Chair, and Window, and pretty much anything else you can see from your carseat.) And of course she likes the alphabet in song form, as well. Whoever came up with that idea knew what they were doing.
We have also made a game out of eating Earth's Best Organic Letter of the Day cookies, which are found in the health food section at the grocery store and come in the form of small letters. If she gets it right, she gets to eat it, if she gets it wrong, Mommy gets to eat it. ;)
One of our older tactics is using a rotation of a few foam letters in the bathtub and just practicing maybe 4 or 5 at a time. We should probably get back to this, actually, because it seemed to work pretty well when there wasn't an overwhelming amount to learn.
Hopefully these tactics are successful, and I'm open to more suggestions. Then again, this may all be in vain, because if Laura has taught me one thing, it's that I, in no way, can force her to do things she is not ready for/ does not want to do. I guess we'll see. :)
For now, I'll be spending my evening laminating Disney flashcards with colour-coordinated cardstock backing Laura helped pick out.
