Friday, May 31, 2013

Last day of preschool


Annika's doctor appointment

Yesterday I took Annika to the doctor, as a follow-up to her ear infection a month ago, and to talk to the doctor about the issues we've been having lately.  Technically it was good news, in that the doctor didn't see anything that was wrong with her, but it's also a little bit frustrating, as it would've been nice to have an answer for why she's been acting the way she has lately (but of course, children are never that simple, right?).  He did notice that she was suffering from hay fever (I thought it was a cold, but he could tell by looking up her nose that it was allergies) and that she still had fluid in her ear from the infection (but no more infection).  He said it could be affecting her hearing slightly and he wanted us to come back in another month to check it again.  He also wanted to get a urine sample to check for a bladder infection, which he said could be the cause of the bedwetting and the restless feeling at night.  He checked her legs and said he could see nothing that would be causing her pain, no sign of growing pains (something about how the muscles compared to the bones).  He said that with adults he would normally do some bloodwork to check for things like iron levels, etc, but he really hesitated doing blood tests for little kids unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.  At this time he didn't see it as necessary for Annika.  As for the behavioral changes, he didn't have much of an explanation for that (again, it's never that simple).  Could be some anxiety of upcoming changes, could just be "being a kid".

So we'll just carry on, with prayer and love and as much patience as possible.  We've started to do a few simple yoga moves with the kids before bed, to help stretch and calm down the "crazy legs" and relax and quiet down.  Hopefully it will start to help - right now they seem to see it as a time to be silly. :P  Annika's activities are all ending in the next few weeks (today is the last day of preschool - boohoo!!), so maybe being a little less busy will help too.  And it's not all bad - she definitely has lots of good moments still.  Yesterday she did really well at swimming - went in the water without a single complaint (of course, that was part of the deal to get her treat afterwards!).  Sometimes it's just hard to focus on the good when the bad starts to feel so overwhelming, but really, we have so much to be thankful for, if these kinds of things are our biggest problems.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Baby doll

Doctor Mom to the rescue!  Annika has had this baby since she was about 8 months old and she's had a few "surgeries."

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Just a phase?

The last few weeks we've been going through quite a rough patch with Annika.  I'm not sure what has caused the change, but it's like she's a different kid.  She resists going to almost all her activities (school, swimming, soccer, Y Neighbours, children's church, etc), and she's gotten incredibly clingy.  She's always been an introvert, but now she says she doesn't like being around crowds of people (and by a "crowd" she's referring to the 13 other kids in her preschool class :P) and doesn't like being in noisy places.  She doesn't want to be separated from me.  She's acting out quite a bit - having tantrums that could rival any two year old.  Bed times have gotten to be a struggle, with her often getting up multiple times before finally falling asleep.  She complains about her legs hurting, her stomach hurting, her head hurting (usually this happens when she's supposed to be doing something she doesn't want to do).  At bed time she says her legs "feel crazy" and she can't get them to settle down.  She's been wetting the bed almost nightly.  Tonight she told me that she was scared of the dark (something she's never had an issue with in the past).  I have no idea what's going on in my sweet girl - is it growing pains, restless legs syndrome, anxiety about starting kindergarten (could it be starting already?)????  I hope and pray that this is just a phase, but since it's been going on for almost a month, I've made a doctor appointment for her for Thursday just to see if the doctor can shed any light on what's going on.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Swing

New configuration for our play structure - we put up the 2-person rider today and changed the baby swing into a toddler swing. The kids love the new "teeter totter" (as they call it), but I don't understand why they are back to back. When I was a kid, we had one of these and we sat on the outside, facing each other, which makes more sense to me. Does anyone know why they changed it?


Friday, May 24, 2013

Catching up

421 photos to sort, label and put in albums. And there's still more to come...

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Repeat customer

Went to the dentist today and I have to go back again next week for ANOTHER filling (I've had 4 in the past 6 months). Seriously, shouldn't I be getting frequent flyer points or something from all this? Is the next one free??? (Yeah right!)

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Life is a bowl of cherries

Finally got to use the cherry pitter that I bought last September (after cherry season was done). I was quite excited about it, since last summer the kids loved cherries and it was such a pain trying to pit them with a knife. Of course... today they both decided that they didn't like cherries any more. Kids..... :P

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Garden

Last year I reluctantly planted a garden (Annika was gung-ho about growing stuff; I was not), but found myself actually enjoying it. I decided for this year I wanted a bigger garden, so Carey built me another garden box this evening. So far it's just growing cute kids, but I have high hopes for it! (It looks quite a bit bigger than the other one due to the angle of the picture, but it's only about 18 inches longer).

Monday, May 20, 2013

Not-so-special occasion

I got this cake plate/punch bowl a few years ago and I love it and take it out for almost every special occasion. However, I started thinking - why shouldn't I use it all the time?  Why not make the most of it?  So here it is today with a half-eaten loaf of banana bread. I think it looks just as good like this as with a fancy cake.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Grand Forks

Just got home from our little getaway to Grand Forks. Here are a whole bunch of pics...

Ready, set, go!


Our "non-smoking" room smelled an awful lot like smoke, so we switched rooms.  Emmett was determined to pull the suitcase all the way down the hallway.  Cutest little bellhop ever.


Supper at Paradiso.


Swimming after supper, then a little coloring before bed.  Emmett was out almost immediately, but Annika took about an hour to fall asleep (and we already put them to bed an hour later than usual).


Swimming again this morning after breakfast.


Our first trip to Menards, before lunch.  We bought a 2-person rider swing for our play structure and many, many lawn chairs (they were on sale so we were picking up some for other people as well).


Lunch at Texas Roadhouse.  I think all Emmett ate for lunch was peanuts ("me more peanuts, me more peanuts").


After lunch Carey took the kids back to the hotel for a little quiet time (we paid a little extra to get a 3:00 check out time) and I went to Target and Old Navy.  After they picked me up, we went to a park and played for a while.  It was overcast, but not raining.




Then it was time for ice cream!


And one more trip to Menards!  Carey needed some time to think over a purchase. ;)

We had planned to only leave after supper, but since we were pretty much done everything we wanted to do by 4:30 (and since we had a big lunch and ice cream for snack and no one was hungry for supper), we decided to leave early.  We were home by about 7:15, had some toast for "supper" and put the kids to bed (they had both slept about an hour on the drive home, but were still pretty tired).  It was a nice little getaway, but I'm glad that we only went for one night - that's about as much as we can handle at this point!

Friday, May 17, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Back float

After having issues at swimming lessons the past two weeks, Annika was reluctant to go in this week but she did it.  And it only took 3 bribes...


Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Rainbow

I was looking back through some old posts the other day and realized that we missed a birthday!  May 1st was Annika's fish Rainbow's first birthday. Can't believe we've kept her alive for a whole year! (Especially since the first fish we gave her died after 2 weeks :P).

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Uploading

Been spending some quality time with my laptop lately, trying to get caught up with printing pictures. The last time I had pictures printed was summer 2011, so it's quite the job now!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Another night of soccer

Thank goodness it warmed up this afternoon!  I was a little worried with how cold the wind was this morning.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day

They may not be perfect, but I wouldn't trade 'em for the world!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Swimming

Annika and I went swimming this afternoon during public swim time at our local pool. I wish I could've taken a picture of her jumping into the pool - I never knew she could jump like that! In the past she always sort of "stepped" off the edge and into the pool, narrowly missing hitting her bum on the way down. Today this girl was practically flying!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Coffee break

Brought Timbits to Carey at work this morning. Annika ate all the jam busters.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Fashion faux pas

Emmett insisted on wearing his sandals with his socks today. Good thing he's so cute - he can almost pull this off. (He looks a little grumpy because I had just woken him up from his nap to go get Annika from school).

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

1990's Harvest

Enjoyed a delicious breakfast at Cora's this morning with some lovely ladies.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Officially a soccer mom

Annika had her very first soccer game this evening. I'm not sure that she actually touched the ball during the game (which wasn't very long, they mostly just practiced tonight), but she had a good time.  She's in red, number 3.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Pretty

Beautiful jewellery, handmade by a friend, and on sale too?? Yes please!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Dressed up

Dressed up to go to a wedding. I used my new curling wand for the first time, but I don't quite have the hang of it yet!

Friday, May 3, 2013

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Little helpers

We had to pick up just a few groceries this morning, and we weren't in any rush, so I let the kids each have their own little cart. I lost track of how many times I said, "watch where you're going!" Good thing the store was pretty empty.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Green

My happy color!

After saying goodbye to my old favourite jacket on Saturday, and an unsuccessful shopping trip to the mall on Monday, I was very excited today to find this awesome spring jacket at a store where I wouldn't normally shop (and at half price too!). Now we just need spring to come and stay for a while.


Just a quick update on Annika's ear infection - she's doing much better today.  It's amazing how quickly the antibiotics work!