So one of the best things about my little piece of the Internet here?

It’s the one area of my life where I can flake out on stuff.

Like last weekend.

After I made this grandiose statement the previous weekend about the merits of Lizzi’s Ten Things of Thankful Hop and how I’m COMPLETELY on board and have come to need my weekly thankful reflection, last weekend came and went and ….

…. there I wasn’t.

Yeah.  Life got busy.  There just wasn’t enough hours in the day.  And something had to give.

So it was blogging.

Because in the other aspects of life?

The ability to check out and just, well, do this:

Wasn’t so possible.

But I’m happy to be back.  Our whole house is sick, but, hey!  At least it’s something we can do together.  See?  There I am back on the thankful train.

Please go visit the others here:

So let’s get this started, yes?

Number 10

I’m thankful that my university’s basketball team won the national championships last weekend for the tenth time in (I think) twelve years! I’m thankful I was invited to watch the championship game against our cross-town rivals the Ottawa U Gee Gees.  I’m thankful my four-year-old was excited to go.  She asked about it all week.  I took her last year and she remembered!  She kept asking if she’d get to see the Raven.  She did.  Rodney (our mascot) was out in force kicking it with the cheerleaders.  I also brought my 19-month-old.  I’m less thankful that I couldn’t find another adult to come with me to help with that.  Because, in retrospect, that was crazy.  I did see SOME of the game.  And managed a few disjointed conversations with friends and others in our box.  But much of time was spent trying to keep two kids in view and not tearing up the house.  But over all we had fun.  And go Ravens!

Number 9

I’m thankful to my father who gave me a copy of Voyage of the Dawn Treader which I watched with the girls this week.  I loved, loved, LOVED the Chronicles of Narnia growing up; have seen each of the movies to date in theatres; and so was excited to share my favourite one with my girls.  I worried it was a bit “old” for them, but I’m rather of the opinion that some scary (within reason) in movies helps kids learn how to deal with difficult emotions in a safe zone.  And we seem to be nightmare free following the experience, so I think we’re good.  And they loved it.  We’ve watched it a few times since.

I equally had some fun looking up all things Narnia on Twitter and even managed to pick up what I deeply suspect is a fake Lucy follower.  If she’s for real I’m pretty stoked to have Georgie Henley following me on Twitter.  But I’m thinking given the absence of the little check mark, that she’s another fan – which is all fine too because anyone who loves Narnia is okay by me.

Number 8

I’m thankful that a rather horrible moment happened in the safest environment possible.  Last Saturday morning I took my daughters to play group at our local Ontario Early Years Centre.  They are, collectively, at a stage where together they are a handful.  Both mobile, both with, shall we say, developing listening skills.  All that to say, I’m usually pretty good at keeping track of them both in public.   But while chasing after my youngest, I lost sight of my eldest.

I didn’t panic immediately because it’s a closed area, but I scanned the room and there she wasn’t.  I called out and she didn’t come over.  I calmly left with my youngest in arms and checked the bathroom.  Nope.  I start calling her name.  Loudly.  Nothing.  A few parents perk up to my search and start asking others if they’ve seen her.  There is a secondary play area out at reception where my independently minded eldest also likes to play.  Again no.  The staff start looking too.  Back to the play room calling her name again.  Still nothing.  Vivid feeling of “is this seriously happening, maybe I’m in a dream” panic.

It took another minute for the staff to locate her behind the puppet show stage in the corner, totally engrossed in imaginary play and oblivious to the fact that anything was amiss.

I felt silly.  It felt like an over-reaction.  But that moment of she was right there, and then not?  Wow.  Fast.  And so thankful it happened THERE.

Number 7

I’m thankful that my daycare provider could take my eldest for March Break this past week.  The extra cost hurt a bit, but I appreciate that my eldest got to spend the week hanging with my youngest and her other friends from daycare.  I’m equally thankful that I got to avoid the stress and hassle of having to find a camp for her and then having to pick kids up from two different locations all week.  As for my eldest, she loved it!  It was like a week full of snow days!  Crafts and pizza and movies and lots of fun all ’round.  Returning to school might be a bit bumpy on Monday, but we shall see.

Number 6

I’m thankful for local randomness from my city that I find online.   I came across this tweet this morning:

Apparently there is an “Ottawa is no fun” documentary coming out.  “The City that Fun Forgot” is the quote that gets thrown around.  I don’t think so.  I had meant to link to this a few TTOTs ago, but it slipped my mind.  Which is good, because it works here.  I have recently discovered My Ottawa Life, a lovely blog by Melanie – and she posted this video a few weeks ago.  How’s that for some random Canadian fun?  PS:  You should also check out her first TTOT post from last week.  I was pretty thrilled to have another Ottawa blogger join in!

Number 5

I’m thankful that work was quiet enough on Friday afternoon that, with my cold setting in, I could take off early and crash for a few hours before I had to go and pick up the kids.

Number 4

I’m thankful for some fun evenings out over the past few weeks with friends.  I caught up with a friend this week before sickness truly descended (complete with some great live music in the background); enjoyed a girls night out last week at the Hintonburg Public House (another fun Ottawa place if you please) with three good friends; and fit in some pubbing and (a bit of) planning last Friday for this year’s Alumni Throwback pub.

Number 3

I mentioned we’re all sick, right?  So there’s been an increase in TV watching ’round here.  So I’m thankful for Netflix.  On Friday, I settled down for an evening of Enchanted with the girls before bed – cute flick – and Susan Sarandon plays the Evil Stepmother!  And then once they were down?  I (sort of) watched Brad Pitt in World War Z where Brad fights the zombie apocalypse.  By “sort of” I mean I “fell asleep for a good chunk of the middle”.  I caught the end though.  Either way, it was delightful to just zone out on the couch.  But for the record?  I have reconfirmed that zombies just don’t do it for me.  I like my undead like this:

Number 2

I’m thankful I live today and not back in the 1600s.  Before we all descended into sickness, I decided it would be fun to play with the girls in the backyard.  We got all decked out in our snow suits (mine is a 1980s special I picked up at Value Village last year.  If I ever need a snow suit for public events, I’m gonna have to go buy another one.  I don’t have any photos for you – but … baby blue and pink.  And $20.).  Anyway, I don’t really “do” playing outside in the winter because I don’t like cold.  So our backyard hadn’t really seen any action this season.  My eldest thought it would be fun to do sled rides.  The snow was about …. 4 feet deep all ’round.  It was fun; we created trails; tipped over lots.  And took an awful lot of “breaks”, by which I mean pulling the sled was exhausting so I’d just fall over and they’d all fall out.  Ten feet from our house this was fun.  If I’d ever been a Fille du Roi back in New France?  We all would have died.

Number 1 

I’m thankful for all the parenting newsletters and such I subscribe too.  Because every now and then, they enable me to notice stuff like the fact that two of my car seats got recalled on Thursday.

Given I own these, and have already had to have one of the buckles replaced, the reason for the recall isn’t really a shocker.  You’ll be stunned to know that I wasn’t the only one who had trouble getting the buckles undone.  And that this might be … um … hazardous in the event of an emergency.  So I’ll be calling Monday to see what I can do about it.  We’ve mostly been fortunate with our gear and purchases, but every now and then you just strike out.   As for the current state of our two recall-flagged seats?  I’m thankful they still appear to be functioning and that, despite a few struggles, I’ve managed to get the kids successfully out of the seats to date.  In the world of ironic, I recall that the patent is “pending” on the buckles – a fact I noticed as I crawled around the car trying to get the numbers required to give to Graco so they could send me the replacement piece a few months back.  I wouldn’t be holding my breath on that patent :).

———–

Well, here endeth my thankful for this week.  And here’s hoping that next week I can be thankful to be over this cold.

Before I close – I just have one small milestone to flag here at the end:  If I haven’t miscounted, this post is a bloggy milestone: My 100th post on Baby Gates Down.  So thanks so much to everyone who reads and who I’ve connected with through my blog!

Until next time!