Turning five has been pretty awesome for Brayden. He got presents (including a Lego space shuttle, some Cars stickers and a new big-boy backpack) plus his preschool had a field trip to a flight centre, so he got to tour a couple airplanes and an airport fire truck. The day could hardly get any better, but he’s still looking forward to having his favorite lunch (grilled cheese) and going out for a family supper. Life is good.
Happy birthday buddy!
We had extremely early flights to Saskatoon and back this time, but it was worth it to get to meet the newest member of the family. We caught up with some cousins we hadn’t seen in a few years, got together with the whole Kingwell clan to celebrate an early Easter, and had some cake to toast the many April birthdays (both of my brothers, two of my cousins and one of my sons…it’s a busy month). We also managed to get to the Fun Factory, a couple of playgrounds and the Build-a-Bear shop in the mall. Hard to believe we were only there for four nights.
Check out the photos:
I think he sums it up pretty nicely.
We’re supposed to be at a hotel in Langley right now, but it just wasn’t in the cards. The weather went to !@# about a week ago and today we woke up to a steady snowfall that lasted all morning. The mountain highways are a mess, so we opted to call off the trip rather than risk life and limb on the Coquihalla. It’s disappointing, but we still had fun today: we took the kids to the rec centre to swim (in their brand new swim shirts and goggles), which kept all of us busy for an hour and a half, and then we went for a very successful lunch at Montana’s.
Afterwards I went out to play racquetball with Laura for the first time this year. I haven’t been able to play since my dental surgery, but now, after 53 days of not biting anything, I only have three more to go, so I figured racquetball was pretty safe. (And as it turned out, I was safe, but Laura took a ball to the head a couple times. Ouch.)
So here we are at the halfway point of spring break. The kids both did a little mini-camp at a local park for three mornings this week, which they seemed to like, even if I had to send them in full winter gear (damn this crappy weather!) Plus we did a trip to the library, and to the Energyplex, and Justin went out on a couple play dates, so there seemed to be a good balance of time at home and time away. Next week might be a different story, but we’ll see how things go.
Happy St. Paddy’s Day!
Our oldest boy got a little older today — Justin just turned seven! He was up early (duh) for presents with us and Brayden, then Uncle Dave arrived to play for a bit, then we were off for a party at the local indoor soccer field. We had hula hoops, hopper balls, about a dozen soccer balls and what seemed like thousands of children running around…everyone seemed to have a good time and no one melted down, so it was all good. And now I have six weeks to recover before we have to gear up for Brayden’s turn.
Enjoy the photos!
I guess it’s a good thing Justin doesn’t need help with academics. Thanks to the teachers’ strike, two weeks of spring break and our upcoming trip to Saskatoon, he will have a grand total of seven (or less, depending on the strike) days of school in March. And Easter comes just after that, so he will actually have six straight weeks of little or no school. Yee-haw.
Thankfully, Brayden’s schedule is unaffected by the strike, so he still has preschool and swimming lessons this week. But he does get the two weeks of spring break off, so Mommy will have to get creative about keeping everybody entertained. So far this week I’ve gone swimming with Justin, gone to the park and played soccer with both boys, and allowed the kids to get back on the trampoline for the first time this year. Next week we’ll probably dig out the bikes. Let’s hope the weather cooperates.
The boys are not the only ones who need entertaining. I’m finding it hard to fill my spare time these days — I don’t start my next course until the end of the month, I don’t have any scrapbooking projects, my travel planning is mostly done, and I don’t have anything new to read right now. The kids are going to do a spring break mini-camp at a local park next week, so I’ll have three mornings all to myself, and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to fill them. Ho hum.
Weekends are looking good, however. Justin turns seven (!) on Saturday, so there will be much celebrating that day, and the next weekend we’re planning to take the kids to Vancouver for a quickie trip to see Science World (we get in free cause we have a membership at the Vernon science centre — an awesome deal). Science World has a special Dinosaurs Alive exhibit and related Omnimax show right now, which the boys will love, as well as a Lego Castle Adventure thing that looks interesting. I’m not a fan of science centres myself, but I’m definitely up for a road trip. It’ll be good to get out of town.
We hit the road last weekend for a quick trip to Kamloops. En route we stopped at the Vernon science centre, which had a special exhibit from the Canadian Space Agency — I thought I might expire of boredom, but everyone else had fun. When we made it to Kamloops, we had drinks with Dave (Tanya was napping) and then took the kids sledding on a huge hill at a nearby school. That same school also had a funky playground with a teeter-totter that strongly resembled one of those railroad cars that two guys would pump by hand. Dave and Chris got on there and I almost passed out from laughing too hard. Awesome.
Then it was back to Dave’s to play for a bit (Brayden played with his Angry Birds stuffies and the cardboard ship from his pirate pak lunch at White Spot; Justin played actual Angry Birds on Tanya’s computer). Supper was hamburgers, which everyone enjoyed (even if I had to cut mine up into small pieces…argh), and then they played Wii until bedtime. The boys even had a bath together — they were stoked about the chance to splash, since our tub at home has no shower curtain/door and this one did. Once they were tucked in for the night Chris and I had a chance to drink and play games with other adults, so that was awesome. (The boys went to sleep pretty well but were awake for a while in the night…c’est la vie, I guess.)
After a good breakfast the next morning, we played more Wii, went mini golfing, played some arcade games and mooched some lunch off of Dave at Denny’s. Then we went back to the house for a couple more hours of Wii before heading home. An awesome weekend.
I’m on day 30 of not being able to bite anything, and with 26 more days to go (not that I’m counting). It’s exactly as annoying as it sounds. Even the friend who referred me to this dentist (and who also had a gum graft, although not as extensive as mine) is surprised that it’s taking this long. Two straight months of having to mince all my food — this better be worth it.
I didn’t get the stitches out on Monday. He raved about how quickly my gums are healing, and how well the tissue is taking, and what an amazing job I’ve been doing taking care of the graft…and then he said he was going to leave the stitches in for one more week just to be sure. When I shared this news, the first words out of both my mom’s and Chris’s mouths were, “Did you bite him?”
(Because of course I did bite my orthodontist when he’d promised me he would remove the braces I’d been wearing for two years, and then decided to wait another month. But I was 13. C’mon. The guy really should’ve seen that coming.)
I might have been tempted, but I’ve been unable to bite anything for the last 17 days. And apparently it’ll be at least another month before I’ll be able to use (or brush!) my bottom front teeth.
I suppose the good news is that he gave me the OK to eat anything I want so long as I don’t have to bite it (so at least I can have salt, spice and vinegar again). But I am so sick of having to mince everything I eat. I have not had a raw carrot in over two weeks. The first thing I’m going to do when this is all over is wolf down a pizza and a bag of chips.
Sigh…
We have a new nephew, the kids have a new cousin and little Serenity has a baby brother! Sage William Kingwell arrived safe and sound on Feb. 4.
Welcome to the world little man!
This is day 10 of not being able to eat properly. I get my stitches out on Monday and as far as I’m concerned that moment can’t come soon enough — the stitches seem to be coming out anyway, and there’s a piece behind my teeth that I can play with using my tongue, and the whole thing is driving me crazy. Argh.
The boys had a couple friends over today for a play date, and it was a bit of a wild time. Justin got up at 5 a.m. and hardly touched his lunch, so he was going loopy from fatigue and hunger, and doing all the things we’ve been working on not doing: being bossy with his friends, asking the same question over and over, not engaging with the group and wanting to play computer/do his homework/listen to his iPod (basically anything to be by himself)…sigh. He perked up a bit after a snack, but it was far from his best performance. Oh, well.
The big news this week was that I signed Brayden up for kindergarten. He was so excited about it that he shared the news with his preschool teacher — and with his best friend, who’s a year younger and still has another year of preschool. The friend burst into tears. It’s really unfortunate that those two will never be in the same class again. But such is life.
We have dinner with our Asperger parent group tomorrow (we’ll see if I can actually eat anything on the menu), we’re planning to take the kids to the science centre in Vernon on Saturday, and Saturday night is autism moms at a friend’s house. It should be a good weekend.
Happy Groundhog Day!
Crystal's Commentary 