Last week we had a flood at our house, caused entirely by a completely absent minded mistake I made. I plugged the laundry room sink and started to fill it to soak a stained shirt. Since our sink is incredibly slow to fill, I usually multi-task and do something while I wait. I guess I got distracted because I suddenly realized we were going to be late for my exercise class at the gym so I quickly got Hadley ready and we raced out the door, forgetting to turn the water off. By the time we returned, two hours later, there was quite a mess waiting for us. The laundry room was only about an inch deep. I was able to contain most of the mess by removing the rug and going to town with the shop vac. I was just beginning to breathe a sign of relief that it was under control and maybe Dayven wouldn't have to know about this mishap. I decided to double check the basement below to be sure it was ok and that was when the real fun started. Luckily the laundry room was over the unfinished storage portion, but water was everywhere, on the floor, coming out of the heating ductwork and even dripping down through the ceiling beams. I frantically tried to move all of our stored belongings before they were ruined, like our furniture, car seats and even pre-lit Christmas tree. The entire time the kids were fighting and whining and begging for lunch. I finally had to break down and call Dayven to help. He was in the middle of a meeting and not happy about being called home but I really had no choice. I also called the water damage company who had helped us with another flood (not caused by me) and they were at our house within 10 minutes. They pulled a couple of pieces of drywall, got rid of soaked insulation, peeled back carpet and got the industrial-sized blowers going. I tried to blame "Baby Brain" for my absent mindedness but Dayven wasn't buying it. That's a real thing, right? I have been doing crazy stuff lately and really have no other excuse.
This was really just the kick off to our week and a true indication of what was to come. Dayven was gone for week long training in Arizona. It all seems a little less bearable when you're flying solo, tired and running low on patience. Wyatt left one of his ray blaster guns on the stove and I didn't see it before I turned it on to cook dinner. Of course, it melted into a pile of goo and emitted this noxious chemical smell in the kitchen which took forever to get rid of (I'm sure that's healthy to breathe). There were countless other tantrums and messes in between, but I've lost track of them all. Luckily we had some fun things interspersed so the week wasn't a total loss.
I had a couple of nice outings this week, including a pedicure date with the a friend and even a cooking class with a bunch of girlfriends. We learned to make sweets with alternative healthier ingredients - Chocolate cake with quinoa instead of flour and cinnamon chip cookies with spelt flour, chia seeds and agave nectar instead of sugar. They were all surprisingly delicious and you'd never know you were eating something healthy if someone didn't tell you.
Wyatt's teacher called me to tell me she knew he would be missing their field trip this week because of his ear tube surgery and wanted him to have a chance to have the same experience his classmates were having. The class was going to be walking to Safeway to have a behind the scenes tour of the store. His teacher arranged for us to have our own private tour of the grocery. Wyatt, Hadley and I met her at the school on Friday (a teacher work day) and made our pretend grocery list with a food for each food group, then we walked to the grocery store three blocks away, talking about the fall leaves and learning about pedestrian safety. The manager took us through all the areas in the back and we got to see them slicing meat, go through the giant walk in coolers where the ice cream is stored (only -25 degrees, not even a Canadian winter!) and even cruise through the bakery to see the giant mixers in action. The baker makes over 200 loaves of bread a day! Wyatt's teacher let him hold the camera and take the pictures, which explains the blurriness, as well as photos of random things. The kids both said the bakery was their favorite part (mine too) although they probably liked it because of the free cookie. It was so sweet of his teacher to organize this for us.
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| Wyatt's favorite food! He choose this for the pretend grocery list. |
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| Carl, the baker. He thew a ball of dough in one end and the machine spits it out baguette size automatically. |
Saturday we headed to West Edmonton Mall for the Grand "Re-Opening"(??) of the New and Improved Disney store. I normally avoid West Ed Mall on a Saturday like the plague, but Mickey Mouse was making a special appearance and I knew of two small people who would be very impressed by this. We were in route when a friend called so tell me there was a 30 minute wait to see Mickey (Seriously, who does this guy think he is, Santa!?). I knew my kids would never make it. I had almost convinced Wyatt we were just going to wave at Mickey from afar but Hadley really wanted to give him a hug. We were just parking when my friend Christine sent me a text saying they were only 2 people away from the front of the line. We raced in and I quickly flung the kids up on stage with her and they all jumped in for the photo. Of course, there isn't a single photo where everyone is looking, but that's just group photos with kids, right? I love the pictures because they truly capture the chaos of the outing. Christine was desperately trying to wrangle kids and get them all the look and smile, at the same time, without much success. Hadley loved it more than any of them and wasn't eager to get off the stage when her turn was over. She was almost in the next family's picture! Afterward we headed over to check out the new store where was yet ANOTHER line to get in. They had it roped off in red velvet with a "bouncer" outside. Really Disney? Thankfully the line went very fast because I don't think we would have gotten out of there without going in.
Hadley started her activities this week and I think she really enjoyed them. We had our Tumblin' Tots class, which was slightly misleading in the description since there was no actual tumbling. ? It was more of a mommy and me playschool class with activity centers, a craft, circle time and free play. She was a little shy at first which surprised me because she's such a chatter box at home. By circle time, she had warmed up and she stole the show, sitting right up next to the teacher during the story. She was acting out all the animal sounds in the book before the teacher had a chance and laughing hysterically at herself. She was pointing things out to her classmates "Look guys! Dere is da moon! Right dere!" All the moms ate it up and everyone commented how cute and silly she was.
There was a small craft at the end where they painted the kids hands and asked them to press them all over the paper. The sight of those open bowls of paint was enough to put me over the edge - I have FOC (Fear of Crafts) and only use washable markers at home over a special cloth with very careful supervision. I quickly dunked her hands in, pressed them around and madly raced over to the sink yelling at her to keep her hands out and not touch anything. The teacher kind of looked at me funny - surely I'm not the only one? I noticed that the intro letter said to dress your kids in "play clothes" so they can do crafts and have fun. This is probably what a good mom does. But we have a hard enough time staying stain-free during normal daily activities! All I can think of is how many cute clothes she has and it's not like we really go a ton of places. If she can't wear her cute outfits to her activities, who are we saving them for, the Walmart cashier? Oh well, I guess that's why Oxy Clean was created...
Hadley loved her first ballet class. When I gave her the choice of salsa or ballet, she was insistent and confident with her choice. "Oh Mommy! I do ballerina class!" She insisted on wearing her tutu (and she wasn't the only one) and danced around like the ham she is. It was exactly what you'd expect a dance class of 2 and 3 year olds to be - organized chaos. She did a great job listening to the teacher and actually did most of the moves. I was so proud of her and she was pretty proud of herself too, clapping like crazy after each move. I certainly do not have shy kids. She was dancing right in the center of the circle or right next to the teacher while a lot of kids clung to their moms' legs. I remember Wyatt dancing right out in the open too when he was little (still does).
We also had our first storytime session at the library, which was fun, but not as much fun as ballet. She was on a bit of a high after all the dancing and had a hard time staying seated for the story. She kept hopping up and spontaneously breaking into dance. She wanted to hug all the puppets and was commenting a lot on the story. She got a lot of laughs from the crowd (as she always does), but the teacher was less amused and kept reminding her to sit on her bottom. Maybe she's too spunky for storytime. Not sure if it was the fact that it started right after dance class or if it's just a little too sedate for her. Regardless, we'll stick it out to see if it gets any better.
By Thursday night, I was physically and emotionally spent. I both booked my sitter so I could just enjoy a nice dinner out with girlfriends and have a chance to chat. Although I had seen one of them several times this week, we always had the kids with us and could barely finish a thought before we were interrupted. We have to schedule a night out to have a real conversation! I had just sat down to order my fake mocktail when the sitter called to tell me Wyatt was crying and saying his ears hurt. I could hear him sobbing in the background and asking for me. I quickly cancelled my drink order and headed home. So much for a night out! We're going to do a rain check for next week. What a let down to eat cereal at home after I had psyched myself up for a yummy meal out. Oh well, such is life with kids! Wyatt turned out to be fine, just overly tired. He is still checking up on sleep from Wednesday I think. I probably am too...
Friday we had a friend over for a playdate which was a nice way to end the week. We are all really looking forward to Daddy's return this week and he's ready to be home too. He's had a long week of training and is ready to be back home with us. The kids have been asking about him every day. We have a picture of his smiling face on our calendar to indicate his return. I'm not sure who is more excited - me or the kids! He was due to arrive home at 1am tonight. He made it to Denver, but then due to mechanical problems, his flight was delayed, delayed again, then finally cancelled. He and the coworkers he was traveling with took a shuttle to the nearest hotel to sleep for a while. In the morning, he's being re-routed through San Francisco, then Calgary, then home. Such a long day of travel!
* On a side note, Wyatt spilled my coffee all over the computer desk (why I thought it was ok for me to drink coffee in here I don't know) and some may have dribbled onto the keyboard, or else I used too much water on the rag when I was cleaning. Either way, a bunch of the keys don't work now, including most the symbol keys (how will I swear now in my posts?? I may have to break down and buy a new keyboard) and the capital I. This is by far the most annoying and every time I use it, I must hit the caps lock, then hit it again when I'm done so the entire sentence isn't all caps. Do you know how many times I use I in a typical post?? I I I I I I ARGH!!!
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