Hey Weekend!

You took longer to get here than last week.

It was a big week for us over here.  It was my husband’s first week back at work after parental leave; my eldest’s first full week of school; and my youngest’s first full week of daycare.  We also did our first meet the teacher night.

We’re feeling all grown up over here.

But it’s the weekend.  Dammit!  So it’s time to reflect on the lighter side of life.  So with that, I give you:

My Top Five Laughs of the Week

Number Five

• My eldest, after what can only have been hours of observing yours truly, has decided that she has an imaginary IPhone.  Just like mine.  Only it’s pink.  And she is forever misplacing or forgetting it.  By way of example, we go to the gym on Saturday morning and get through the main doors.  At this point she stops and goes “Oh no!  I forgot my IPhone!”  She then runs back out the doors; back down the stairs; and to the tree about twelve feet from the door.  She pauses there a moment.  Then she comes back and informs me that she now has her IPhone.  We then proceed to the change room.  She leaves it in the locker with mine before I drop her off at the playroom.  Because we don’t want to lose it.

Number Four

• My almost 14-month-old has mastered the twirl.  We have one of those kiddie piano/music-making machines on an end table in our living room.  You can either play the piano keys, or just press the side buttons and it makes music.  My youngest now enjoys starting the music and then dancing about to it.  At first she just swayed side to side, but in the last two weeks she has incorporated twirls and is immensely proud of herself.  At times she is actually quite graceful.  And then there are the times she totally wipes out.  But with pure toddler determination and total lack of self-consciousness, she picks herself right up and just carries on: Truly dancing like no one is watching!

Number Three

• We’re big on music and dance in our house: we sing songs; we have impromptu dance parties after dinner; and the girls pound away at the piano (which I keep tuned in the delusional hope that I’ll have time to take it up again in the near future.  You know, during those frequent moments when a) the kids aren’t napping/sleeping and are otherwise occupied and b) I’m not at work).  I’ve also previously mentioned my eldest daughter’s current obsession with Barbie: The Princess and the Popstar (which asks the eternally practical question that I think every 3-year-old girl should have a ready answer for:  If you had to choose, would you rather be … a princess or a popstar?) So, the girls are busy watching that while I’m, well, doing THIS, and my eldest decides we need some rockin’ gear.  So she goes and gets the RockBand Guitar from our PlayStation game [Aside: I often wonder if there is a whole generation of kids who think that playing guitar consists of going: RED, RED, GREEN, RED, BLUE, RED etc…] and insists that I wear it.  For the next hour.  Seriously. Every time I tried to take it off, she put me straight.  Because SHE was the PRINCESS.  And I was the Popstar.  I understand.  It’s important to stay in character.

Number Two

• My eldest has a tendency to mumble.  We’ve been working on it.  But there are times, after I’ve asked her to repeat herself multiple times, that I just give up.  In some of those moments I’ve been known to say something to the effect of: “I can’t understand you Sweetie.  Are you speaking in tongues?”  Earlier this week, we are walking up to the house from the car after school and she starts to – very clearly – babble.  I ask her what she is doing and she informs me: “Mommy, I’m speaking in tongues!”  It’s good to know that while enunciation and elocution might need work, we are doing just fine on the comprehension front!

Number One

• I was in our storage room on Tuesday looking for something and knocked over the box of stuff that I’d packed up from the office for my last mat leave.  Mike fell out.  That’s Mike at the bottom of the post.  More specifically, that’s my “limited edition” Mike Mintenko Bobblehead and he sat on my desk at various jobs for almost ten years.  By way of quick background, he was a Canadian Olympic Butterflyer in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.  This coincided with my father’s tenure as the volunteer President of Swim Ontario, which is how we came to procure this fine artifact.  He gave it to me, as I’d been a former competitive swimmer (though not to that level), and then coach, and still remain involved in sport through my alumni association.  I liked the story.  As it was told to me, his parents sold these to raise money to be able to go see him compete at the Olympics.  Anyway, to make what’s becoming a long bullet less long, I intended to take Mike back to work to put back on my desk, but my eldest saw him before I had the chance and apparently fell in love.  From what I figure out they hung out and bonded while we bottled wine on Wednesday.  That was the night after I found him, so my eldest decided he should come with us.  Basically my husband bottled wine while I watched the kids “race” each other down the stairs at the Wine House on their bums.  My eldest firmly holding Mike.  When I picked her up from daycare yesterday she asked where Mike was.  I explained he was at work.  She lost it.  And pretty much demanded I bring him home.  So I followed instructions and brought him back home with me tonight “for the weekend”.  She was thrilled.   But then, after holding him for a moment, told me I could have him back and wandered off.  Ah!  ‘Tis fickle, young love.  On the upside, I’ll take him back to the office with me on Monday.