Saturday, April 26, 2014

New Stages. Some Are Easier Than Others

These things always go in stages. I know. I know this because I can remember Jace being about two months old and every night for sometimes upwards of three hours for weeks on end, I was awake with Maizey, going back and forth between her bed and ours, trying to get her to go back to sleep. She was awake for no reason but just couldn't get back to sleep. It was so fun doing it with a brand new baby that also demanded my attention a number of times throughout the night.
 I am currently doing the same with Jace.
It's almost every night. It's for no reason and it's not really that fun at all, even without a new born to tend to. I have no answers. I don't see an end in sight, but I do know that it does end and when it does, I won't even notice because we will have moved on to some new phase that will just use my time and energy in another way.

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It has felt pretty darn spring-ish around here lately.
Maizey rode her bike to town and back the other day. She packed her backpack with water and snacks and her field journal and a pencil, all of it 'just in case' . We stopped about 10 times for a water break on the way to town and only once on the way home. I think the novelty had worn off and she was tired. We were pretty close to home when she saw a tiny little something on the ground, so decided she better stop and record it in her field journal. She set her bike down, sat down on it and pulled her field journal and pencil out.





Everything was recorded in the proper way, she flipped through a few pages to cross reference whether that was an ant we had just seen scurry by us (spoiler * it was an ant* ), she packed her bag back up and was ready to continue. It was pretty fun to watch her ride her bike the whole way. She's pretty aware of how to be safe and where and when to stop and I am really looking forward to many more bike rides this summer. Lets just hope we are getting more sleep too.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Totally Random Stories From A Few Busy Weeks

A few nights ago, long after both kids had been tucked in and our house was peacefully quiet, Jace came running upstairs sobbing. He was borderline hysterical, trying to tell me what had happened but the only word I could understand was Maizey. I took him back down and learned that Maizey had eaten his entire pretend popsicle off the colored popsicle stick he had taken from the craft drawer, rather than the one bite he had told her she could have. THE OUTRAGE. In that moment, he was sure he had the worst sister in the world. It took a lot to come down off that kind of blatant disregard for the fact that HE wanted a few bites of his fake popsicle.



Not many days before that, out of nowhere at lunch, Maizey was suddenly furious at me. Apparently, I had left her to swim all by herself, in the ocean at the skating rink and there was A LIZARD in the ocean, and I *know* she can't swim and that she is not so fond of lizards and she was asking me to help her and I just wouldn't and how could I be so freaking mean??? Naturally, I did not have a sniff what she was talking about. I mean, an ocean at the skating rink? We don't even have one of those. Anyways, after a bit of digging, it was in fact a dream slash nightmare she had had the night before and she was pissed. And given the right circumstance even now, she will bring it up and remind me just how not cool that was of me.



Jace started spitting. It's gross and I have no idea where he learned it. He spits on things, at things, in things. On us. On the floor. Everywhere. It's not funny and after many weeks of warnings and unsuccessful attempts at getting him to stop, I told him I would put hot sauce on his tongue if he did it again. Literally 15 minutes later he spit on the kitchen floor while waiting for me to cut up his kiwi. I put a drop of tabasco on my finger, he willingly stuck out his tongue and I wiped it on. Ohhhh did he cry. I *almost* felt bad, but then I got over it, because OMG stop spitting JACE!!! We'll see if he learned his lesson... my guess is no (he's *awesome* like that) - but time will tell.



The kids were fighting over an empty plastic bucket. Maizey had it, Jace wanted it - there was running and yelling and trying to hide with it when, as can be expected, someone got hit in the face and there was a bleeding nose. The bleeder was Jace. Maizey came running to tell me and rather than just saying "Hey, I accidentally hit Jace in the face and now he has a bleeding nose" she went with "I knew this was a bad day for us to choose for Dad to go to work, because I wanted the bucket and Jace tried to get it and then he got hit in the face and now he is bleeding and if Dad was home this totally wouldn't have happened, I just know it" . Way to take responsibility for your actions Maizey  *slow cap*. Also, doesn't she know we don't "choose" when he goes to work? The assholes at CP Rail choose that, thats why it's always such unfortunate timing.





Things have been pretty much non-stop around here for weeks now. It's hectic and great to be actually busy, not waiting for the weather to get better and crying over the fact that it was still snowing well into March. Everyone is happy to be out of snow suits and boots and into runners and onto bikes instead. As seen above, no moments seem to be dull.