winter update

wow, it's been awhile!  as a follow-up to my last post, here's gabe's anxiety update: after taking out a bunch of books from the library and searching the internet for anxiety resources, i decided the best course of action was to visit our family doctor.  so, i gave him the full run-down on gabe's situation, and on doctors orders we are ceasing all group activities for a year.  obviously gabe has performance anxiety, and considering he's only 4 years old, he told me that we shouldn't be in a rush to get him involved in swimming, soccer, skiing, what-not.  so until he turns 5 and has adjusted to kindergarten next fall, we aren't signing up for any group lessons.  however, we will continue to help gabe develop his skills, but on a more 1:1 basis (i.e., private lessons).

and onto more somewhat recent (and happy) activities!

the month of december was pretty rough in our household.  gabe caught a cold, and passed it to my mom, dad, brother, and chris.  my mom is pretty susceptible to catching bugs, but once my dad got sick, i started popping the cold fx like nobody's business!  knock-on-wood, i've been fortunate enough to have escaped this round :-)

with the girls weekend trip to seattle, sick family members, christmas parties, and birthday parties, this was the first year we missed out on bright nights @ stanley park.  by the time i even thought about organizing anything, all of the weekend prime times were sold out!  turns out to be just as well, since it was a pretty rainy month :P  we also missed out on the santa claus parade, and gabe refused to visit santa at the mall.  we'll try for next year!


christmas eve was our usual tradition of opening presents at my parents house.  as christmas should be, gabe was the big winner of the evening...this year everything was Cars or Lego-themed, and he was in present heaven.  and the grand finale of the evening was a brand new scooter. he hopped onto it and almost smacked his head into the kitchen wall :P  but he has improved a lot since that night, and he's ready to hit the pavement!  on christmas morning, santa was also good to gabe and brought him some Lego and books...just as requested in his letter :-)

since my mom was run down leading up to christmas, i had to do some turkey dinner research.  FYI, sutton place hotel offers a full christmas dinner for pick-up on christmas day - 18 pound turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veggies, gravy, cranberry sauce, dinner buns, and a cheesecake.  as a back-up plan, it worked out great, especially since my mom and aunt had supplemented dinner with some "extras...just in case". all in all, not too shabby!

this was the first year (in a long time) that chris had to work on boxing day :(  so, gabe and i hit the seymour toboggan park with our friends.  being my first time on the sled, i ended up taking gabe and lexi together...traumatizing for all involved...that was the only sled ride the 3 of us did :P  afterwards, gabe was content to play in the snow, and "sled" down a 2 foot mini-hill into the parking lot. next time we'll just drive up and play in the parking lot...at least it's free!

and right in between xmas and new years, i celebrated my 35th birthday :-)  gabe and i spent the day together just puttering about and then my parents graciously took gabe for a sleepover that night, so i could have a girls night and chris had a boys night.  the girls and i hit minami in yaletown for a delicious dinner.

this holiday was extra fun because the lowe's came home for 2 weeks! we had many playdates with them, but the highlight was our getaway to whistler.  chris was still suffering from bronchitis (and the many side effects of the medication), so gabe and i loaded up our car and drove up on our own.  we stayed at the greystone lodge (ski-in/out) on the blackcomb side of the upper village.  for 2 days, gabe and trevor were at the all-day ski-camp while geoff, sunny and i hit the slopes.  we couldn't have asked for better weather...gorgeous sun, mild temperatures, and best of all...the kids had a great time at ski camp.  looks like ski trips will be in our future soon :-)

keeping in mind gabe's anxiety, he had a choice between group ski lessons (i had to remind him that trevor wouldn't be with him) or private lessons at mount seymour, and of course he chose private :-)  he's only had one lesson so far, but hopefully by the end of his 5th lesson, he'll graduate from the magic carpet to the chair lift.  he seems to have inherited my fear of height, and has already expressed concern about going on the chairlift.  i'd like him to do it with a teacher first and then i would be willing to buy a lift pass and take him skiing after his lesson.  if all else fails, we'll ski together at whistler and just use the gondola!!!!