Grad Class 2014

i think i used to be one of those people who skoffed at things like preschool and kindergarten graduations (like really, what have kids accomplished at 4 and 5 years of age???).  but now i'm a mom of a kindergarten graduate, and there is a lot to celebrate!  like being brave and trying new things, making connections with kids (gabe had his first marriage proposal a few weeks ago...he turned her down), learning actions & consequences, having compassion for other kids, getting to sit in the bean-bag chair on your special helper day, and just overall, HAVE FUN at school!

because of the rocky end to the school year, everything just felt incomplete.  for me and for gabe.  a week before the full strike the kids had just brought home their graduation invitations for us and were planning activities for the celebration. i had just borrowed 18 books from the library for the kids to read in class since their library field trip had been cancelled. and then all of a sudden there was only 2 days of school left and everything was over. gabe reminds me daily that he misses his friends.  he missed them on the saturday after school ended...i was like, you just saw them yesterday!

it wasn't just us having this empty feeling...it was felt by most of the class.  so, since then, we have had several class playdates at the park as well as a couple birthday parties. a couple moms even planned kindergarten graduation for the class.  we had a potluck/pizza party in one of the family's common rooms, and the ENTIRE class attended, including the teacher (whose son happens to be in the class). the teacher started it like a normal school day, starting with attendance, and then talked to the kids about their successes in kindergarten and that they were all ready to move onto grade 1.  after that, they lined up to receive their graduation certificates and shook the teacher's hand. it was ADORABLE! i was definitely a proud mama, taking video and pictures simultaneously, and not wanting to miss a single second of anything.

fortunately the rain held off and the kids were able to run around outside and have fun, one last time as division 12.  in late spring, they lost a couple of classmates who moved onto other cities with their families, and we already know a couple more who won't be returning in the fall.  i think it's hard on us parents knowing that our kids won't necessarily be in the same class in september...not only do our kids get along great, but we've made our own adult connections and have our chit-chats in the parking lot or at the playground after school.  i think the fact that we organized our own grad is a testament to that connection, as the other kindergarten class didn't have a celebration planned :(

i also realize that next year will be very different for me as well.  i'll be back at work and won't have the flexibility i have now.  fortunately my hours will still allow me to be home mid-afternoon, and be available for after-school playdates/activities.  but i'll definitely miss the summer freedom i'm currently enjoying :(

6 months!

i started J on solid food about 3 weeks ago. i keep comparing this time to last time, and again...so different.  gabriel was a good eater...mouth open, food in, swallow food, repeat. jeremy isn't quite as neat...there's a variety of fist-shoving, sleeve-eating, bib-playing, and floor-admiring with open mouth while eating. it could be because i started food earlier than with gabe, or he's just going to be a messier eater.  i find myself very lazy this time...scrounging around for a new food item to start.  however, (so far) i have been pretty diligent with my note-taking so i remember how many times he's eaten a new food item before starting something new.  so far we've done rice cereal, mixed grains, bananas, apples and yams. i just visited the market today, so i've got sweet potatoes, avocado, and pears lined up. also, i will be trying a congee recipe in my slow cooker tomorrow.

we have a roller.  and by roller, i mean he will roll everywhere. even leaving him on gabe's bed while i throw out diapers and wash my hands...i've caught him with his feet dangling over the edge giggling away.  and on the floor, he will roll and wiggle himself all over the mats.  thank goodness for the exersaucer...there's no escaping that one!

sleeping habits have deteriorated.  i've been really tired at night, so jeremy usually ends up in my bed for his night-feed and then we both fall asleep together. but his morning naps at home have been pretty consistent at 2 hours. i fear everything is about to fall apart now that summer break has arrived 2 weeks early (and summer session is in limbo). we were also planning on transitioning J to gabriel's room this summer...we'll see how that goes :P

J's first 2 teeth should arrive any day now.  we've been feeling around for awhile, and the bottom ones are definitely trying to emerge...the outline of the teeth is visible, just not quite through the gums yet.  i think his top 2 teeth will follow shortly after that.  so quick!

and i completely forgot to mention our new car in last month's post! after some deliberation, we bit the bullet and bought a minivan!  at the car show this year, the frontrunner (because of rising gas prices) we were thinking of buying a diesel VW.  and then as we were leaving the carshow, we looked at the dodge caravan, and then visions of automatic power sliding doors, dvd players, and being a volunteer driver for field trips kind of took over, and the minivan trumped everything.  we were going to wait until the fall and buy the 30th anniversary dodge caravan (with some extra modifications), but then we were told about the chrysler town & country - basically the same as the dodge but it has more standard features and a nicer console (with a higher starting price tag).  so chris started scoping 2013 T & C's, and we ended up finding one that met our criteria (including super-low mileage!) at coquitlam chrysler.  we've had it for a couple months now, and while it does require a lot of gas, i do love it. it also marked the turning point for gabe - he's out of his convertible britax, and in his clek booster.

MMA - Kindergarten-style

back in april, the kindergarten class did a session on mixed martial arts. sensei scott came to class twice a week for gym-time, and taught the kids some karate and jiu jitsu. anytime gabe learns something at school i always ask him if he wants to continue doing it. so this time it actually stuck to him, so i signed him up at scott's dojo. for $49, the 1 month trial was a no-brainer since it included the "gi". it also helped that 3 of his peers are also in the classes.  after watching him attend a karate class and a jiu jitsu class, i figured that karate would be more his speed, since it's no-contact. but i was wrong. he's really into the "wrestling" aspect of jiu jitsu.  such a boy :-) 


we're halfway through the trial, and i already think we'll take the summer off.  we've got summer session (fingers crossed!), kamp kaleidoscope, and swim lessons coming up, and i want to keep time for him to spend at the waterpark/playground/grandma & grandpa's house.  so we'll re-visit martial arts in the fall and determine if we'll stick with this big commitment.

5 months!

at his 4 month check-up, baby J weighed 16 lbs, 12 oz.  definitely a big boy in the 90th percentile ;-)

the past few weeks have been interesting.  baby J isn't sleeping nearly as well as he used to.  he's still in my room and he's in the pack & play, but with his ability to roll around (since we don't wrap him up anymore), he just doesn't settle down.  sometimes i have to nurse him to sleep in my bed and then transfer him when he's fast asleep. he's also been happier sleeping on his stomach, which i don't remember gabe doing when he this age. once i find our old sleep sacks, maybe he'll be a back sleeper again.

i also wondered if baby J was getting hungrier (he will stare at us when we eat at the table - it's very uncomfortable) or if my milk supply was decreasing.  so we started him on rice cereal.  he's still very awkward in the high chair since he can't sit on his own yet, but he seemed interested in the food. since he's still pretty young, we'll do it once or twice a day and slowly add to his menu over the next 3 weeks.

J has graduated out of the bumbo seat and happily bounces around in the exersaucer...one of the upsides of him being in the 90th percentile :-) it's so funny how baby gear is used differently the 2nd time around.  the bouncy chair was used for the first couple months, and now we use it as a "shelf" for toys; the playmat once had toys hanging on it for J to stare at, but now he rips them off and the toys are on the bouncy chair "shelf"; the bumbo chair - see bouncy chair use.  i think it's time to de-clutter :P

4 months!

unofficially, baby J weighs 16 lbs (fully dressed). we'll get his official measurements next week when he gets his immunizations.

the past month has been pretty fun.  baby J is now sitting in the bumbo chair, and we'll put toys on the tray and he'll bash them around.  when he's lying on the playmat, he can roll onto his side.  he hasn't quite made it all the way over since his lower arm gets stuck. just like his big brother, baby J is becoming a thumb sucker :P  he's not as accomplished as gabe was at this age, but he's working on it.

sleeping at night is getting better.  6 out of 7 nights, i can get him in his crib right after a feed and he's out until 3 or 3:30 a.m.  then after his 3 a.m. feed, he's asleep until 7 or 8 a.m.  on that 7th night, sometimes i'll take him to bed with me for another feed, and then transfer him back to his crib. or else, chris will cuddle him again and then put him down. napping is all over the place depending on what's happening during the day, but he's a great car-napper so if all else fails, we hit the road :-)

on the topic of feeding, we're trying to cut out the formula at night, since it's doing nasty things to his bowel movements, and also he's a very healthy weight so my milk should suffice.  the only time it's going to be a problem is when i leave the kids at home with chris...i don't have a frozen milk supply like last time, so it's good to have some formula available.

i've been taking a stroller fitness class in coquitlam for the past 3 weeks, and i've enjoyed it so much that i've signed up for the may session. i'll have to take a hiatus over the summer, but will probably resume in the fall.  gotta lose all that baby fat...and more hopefully!

and speaking of the summer, i'm very excited that gabe is enrolled in summer session for july.  i spread the word to other parents, and about half his Kindergarten class will be with him.  hopefully with only a month away from school, we won't have any anxious moments in September and the transition to Grade 1 will be smooth!

3 months, and a return to big white!

it's been 7 years, but we finally made it back to big white!

at 11 weeks old, this actually worked out to be a good age for baby J to travel on a road trip. i fed him right before we left home, and he slept all the way to merritt.  once there, we grabbed a snack and i fed baby J again, and he fell asleep as soon as we hit the highway. after such a dodgy winter, we actually hit some good weather on the coquihalla.  the connector was another story...as darkness was setting in, we ran into some heavy winds and snow. fortunately for us, we ended up behind an 18-wheeler and followed safely behind.  phew!

the road trip for gabriel was a different story.  he did nap for a bit but woke up before we got to hope.  with 5+ hours ahead of us, he had a hard time just sitting in his seat.  i was so focused on baby J's travel needs, i didn't even think of any car-ride activities for gabe.  so he just sat there, sucking his thumb, asking how much longer till we would see trevor :P

once we arrived at big white, the kids had a blast. they converted the downstairs bedroom into the kids club, and trevor was determined to sleep in the bunk-bed with gabe.  well, it started out that way, but when i checked on them 20 minutes later, gabe was standing at the bottom of the stairs. so he ended up in my room for the trip :P  baby j actually slept really well on our getaway.  he would be asleep at his usual time, between 10-10:30, and then he would wake up at 4 a.m. for his next feed. and miraculously he would sleep until it was time to get up (7 a.m.)...or sometimes even later!

the skiing was great!  gabe and trevor had 2 full day lessons, while brendan was in 1/2 day lessons.  it worked out great that chris, geoff, and sunny would ski half days, and then at lunch, the boys would stay home with brendan and baby J while sunny and i hit the slopes. on our last day of skiing, we had a family day and gabe and trevor skied all day.  they even did a bit of night skiing with their daddies! it's pretty crazy to see the kids ski in the trees, go over jumps, and plow through the moguls!  they'll be out-skiing me pretty soon :P

our road trip back home was much less eventful - we had sunny weather all the way.  we had originally planned on driving to hope for a lunch break, but given the measles outbreak in the area, there was no way i wanted jeremy exposed to any potential illness.  so we had an early break in merritt and then drove all the way home.

as for baby j's development at 3 months, he's definitely more chatty with us, and is flashing his smiles at everyone he sees.  we've had a few rough nights of sleep since our big white trip, and i've had to feed him every 1.5 hours from 1:30 onwards. since we've taken a step backwards, my plan of setting up the crib in gabe's bedroom has been kiboshed.  so, it looks like baby j will be my roommate for awhile longer, and we'll have to upgrade him to a pack & play.

2 months old!

my little munchkin is growing up!  he's a whopping 12 pounds now, which probably explains the better sleep routine we've fallen into.  by better, i mean his first stretch of sleep is usually 4 hours long, and 90% of the time i can get him to sleep in the bassinet.  the rest of the night is a bit dodgy...sometimes his 2nd feed is short and he'll go back to his bassinet and sometimes he's more alert, so a diaper change might be required and then he usually ends up sleeping in bed with me (unless i give him another bottle in his bassinet).  by 8 a.m. i'm up and making my first caffeinated beverage.  once baby J is up, the rest of the day is unpredictable :-)

we've been fortunate to have 2 cars for the past month so chris has still been doing school drop-off, and i'm doing pick-up. but soon we'll be back to one car, so i'll have to be up earlier to get gabe to school in the mornings.  what's worse is that chris' dad is on vacation in april, so chris will be working 12 hour days and i'll be "single-parenting" for 3 weeks :P

in terms of baby J's development, he's been very vocal and loves to coo and screech at us. he's also been giving us little smiles which melt my heart :-)  we've been doing a bit of tummy time, and he really enjoys lying on the playmat and flailing his arms at the toys.  instead of taking a pacifier, baby J has started to suck on his fists.

as for gabriel, the worry dragon has reared its ugly head. ski lessons have been great, and he really enjoys it. floor hockey has been a disaster. chris has reported that gabe spends half the class in tears and not participating, and then we had 2 weeks in a row where gabe burst into tears and refused to leave the house. one night he actually fell asleep after dinner, and when i woke him up, he asked if hockey was over yet.  so just like soccer, we are quitting hockey.

at school they are doing a session of 6 tennis lessons.  all kids are encouraged (expected?) to participate even thought it's an additional cost for it. when i sent the payment to school, gabe indicated he didn't want to participate. well, he's had one lesson, and it sounds like it went ok.  i will have to check with his teacher this week :P

as for the rest of his kindergarten experience, he's doing really well.  by that i mean the teacher hasn't finger-pointed at me for an after school discussion...phew! with the decent weather we've been having, gabriel gets to play with his friends after school at the playground.  it's nice to see that he's already got 3 best friends, and as one of the boys tells his dad, "we're not friends, we're like brothers!"

it's different the 2nd time around

i was extremely optimistic thinking that jeremy would start sleeping through the night like gabriel did at 5.5 weeks. well, he's 7 weeks old and we are nowhere close to sleeping through the night, let alone taking regular naps.

this time around, i'm doing whatever i need to do to survive the day:

• i'm co-sleeping with jeremy, so that i can breastfeed him to sleep, unlatch him, and then i can sleep. the problem when i wake up is that he is tucked right against me, and i'm literally about to fall off the bed :P
• we are napping together on the couch - i've tried to no avail to get him to sleep in the basinette. after an hour of solid crying (jeremy, that is), i give up and he gets to sleep in my arms.
• it seems as though i don't have enough milk for jeremy, so we are giving him a bottle of formula at bedtime to help him get to sleep.
• chris has driven jeremy around the 'hood a few times in the middle of the night, just so i can get a couple hours of sleep before the 2/3 a.m. feeding.

at 7 weeks, i'm definitely getting cranky at the lack of a household routine. part of my new routine this week is picking up gabriel from school in the afternoon.  i'm fortunate that for this month chris is still taking gabriel to school in the morning, but starting in march i'll be doing drop-off and pick-up. thankfully march is a short month with our 2 week spring break!

baby's first cold

it was inevitable...gabriel caught a cold right before christmas and right after new year's, jeremy caught his first cold. we figured there wasn't much we could do for him since he was only a couple weeks old, but after hearing his cough worsen and his stuffiness wasn't subsiding, we took him to the brentwood medical clinic to be seen by a doctor. i have to say, i will never go to the clinic again when dr. li is on the rotation.  she was the worst doctor i have ever seen.  she totally dismissed us when we talked about his symptoms and said she couldn't diagnose J without hearing him cough.  and then when he did cough, she totally said "that's normal for babies".  bottom line, she told us...he's not sick, and it's normal for babies to be stuffed up.  um, ok.

once we left the clinic, chris told me that she was a quack. he had seen her a few years ago, and she misdiagnosed him with a cold (and basically told him to "tough it out") when he actually had pneumonia!  once he told me that, we made an appointment to see our family doctor. because J was almost "normal" by this time, my doctor agreed it could have been a cold. i just wanted to get a proper examination done and our worries were laid to rest.  it was also an opportunity to have J weighed.  at his 1 week check-up, he'd gone down to 6 lbs, 12 oz., so we were glad to see that at 3 weeks, he was back up to his birth weight despite being sick.

J is now fully recovered from his cold, and we are still trying to figure out days/nights with him.  we've had a couple days where he's had cat-naps, and then he sleeps great at night, and then he flips to sleeping all day and deciding at bedtime that he wants someone to entertain him.  we have also hit his first growth-spurt, and he is feeding every hour...not fun!  and at bedtime, i need to supplement with formula...it's the only way to get him to sleep.  gabe never had formula so this is new to us...i hope it's just temporary until my milk supply can catch-up, which is ironic because with gabe, i had too much milk.  but then again, J is only 4 weeks old, and i can't actually remember when i started to store and freeze my milk last time.  the milk bank might be in my future again :P

our christmas gift

after what seemed like a never ending 9 months, we welcomed jeremy kenji into our family on wednesday, december 18 @ 9:41 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 11 ounces.

because this was a planned c-section, everything felt different than gabriel's birth.  we checked into the case room (a.k.a. labour/delivery) at 7 a.m. for our 9 a.m. surgery. the nurse checked all my vitals (and was a bit horrified at the hives on both my legs), chris got his hospital scrubs on, and then came the needles.  for a week prior to D day, i was stressing out about the number of needles i would be needing, and most of all the IV hook-up since it hurt really bad last time.  my nurse was actually quite good, and pinched me really hard to distract me from the actual pain of the IV insertion. chris said she was good because she was a fellow South African.  whatever :-)

then she told me about another injection (heparin) that is given to all surgery patients to prevent blood clots. not only is it another needle, but it was injected into my belly, and would be administered before surgery, after surgery, and once daily while i'm in the hospital. UGH!  so, she gave me the first dose, and as she did it my reflexes kicked in and i hit the nurse, inflicting more pain upon myself. it's not the first time i've hit someone with a needle...when i had my steroid injection for my trigger finger, i kicked the doctor as he was prepping the dosage for me :P

just before 9 a.m., we were called to move to the pre-operating room.  once there, a stream of people came to check on my vitals and introduce themselves to us and their role during my surgery (and once again, there was mild panic on everyone's faces when they saw my hive-riddled legs...hoping that i wasn't having a reaction to the iv or the heparin).  my OB was checking in on me as well, and provided us with updates on our wait time.  we were only a few minutes behind schedule when i was wheeled into operating room #10. once there, my anxiety kicked in and i was freaking about the epidural. maybe because it was christmas-time, or because it was still early in the day, but everyone in the room was in a good mood, even the anesthesiologist was singing a happy tune.  thankfully i respond well to drugs, and within a minute i was already losing sensation in my legs.

with gabe's birth, i thought the surgery went a lot faster getting him out...perhaps because his heartrate was erratic that they were a bit quicker at getting him out.  this time, it felt like eternity before we heard baby's first cry...obviously it wasn't that long since he was born at 9:41 :P immediately after his birth, chris was by his side cutting the umbilical cord and snapping some pictures :)  because i was also having a tubal ligation, chris and jeremy went back to the case room for measurements and newborn screening tests and some father/son bonding time.  at 10:40 a.m., i was finally wheeled into recovery. another difference from 5 years ago, was that while i was in recovery (once i was able to wiggle my legs, and they were sure i wasn't having any side effects from the epidural), the nurse brought jeremy back to me to start breastfeeding.


shortly after 12 p.m., i was finally taken to the maternity ward, and we were reunited as a family.  we had a bit of quiet time as a three-some before my parents brought gabriel after school for a visit.  it was a bittersweet day because we missed gabriel's first winter concert at kitchener, and we actually pulled him from the evening performance so he could spend time with us.  at least my parents were able to attend and took some photos and videos for us.  i had also signed up as a volunteer for their gingerbread building activity, so instead my dad ended up going with gabe.  and unfortunately gabe missed the last day of school festivities because of the snowfall since my parents weren't quite willing to drive in the miserable weather. so instead, he had a pajama day at home and my mom made pancakes for lunch :-)

it seems as though dec. 18 was a very busy day for births...we were #6 that day with my OB performing another c-section right after me.  i have to say that hearing (some) women in active labour is probably the worst thing i've ever heard in my life.  while a c-section is no walk in the park, at least there isn't any screaming, moaning, or crying :-)  the only pain is inflicted by me when i hit or kick people with needles!  hahahah!  on this particular day, the maternity ward was almost at full capacity...we were fortunate to get a private room, one of the last rooms in the wing. on our 2nd night at least we didn't have any neighbours beside us, so we got a bit of peace and quiet (aside from our screaming night-owl baby).

i've been working on this post for over a week, and i've now noticed more differences between my surgery recoveries.  my hives got progressively worse after i had the baby...they spread to my arm while i was still in the hospital, and then after i was discharged, they spread to my belly.  jeremy is over 2 weeks old now, and the hives have dissipated but my skin is still bearing the scars from the hives and now my skin is drying out and flaking off :P  another weird thing is that my skin has changed colour on my belly.  originally i thought it was just the iodine that i didn't wash off properly, but after 2 weeks of scrubbing, i could have permanent discolouration...will have my OB look at it when i see her next.  i feel like i recovered pretty quickly from surgery, and i often forget that i should be relaxing and taking it easy while my body heals itself.  so every once in awhile, my body will react and get angry for overexerting myself.  with gabe's recovery, i don't recall taking any painkillers once i got home, but this time around, i'm literally counting down the minutes till my next dosage. 

with jeremy's hourly feeding schedule right now, i've neglected gabe a lot and he's been spending a lot of time watching tv and using the ipad.  i just don't have the energy time to focus on entertaining a 5 year old.  it also doesn't help that he's been sick, my dad is now sick, and my mom has injured her knee and has limited mobility.  so, i'm very glad that school resumes on monday, and he'll be out of the house and i can just focus on me and jeremy during the day.

4 more weeks until i have my freedom!  and it's not a moment too soon, as my parents will be off on their next travelling adventure.