We had a good long weekend. Chris only had Friday off, but it was nice to have him home one extra day. We did a family dinner at his parents’ place on Saturday and then took the boys out for dinner on Sunday, so that was fun. Justin was so excited about the Easter egg hunt that we had to re-hide the eggs three or four times so he could find them again; Brayden mostly enjoyed making a huge mess with the Easter grass from his basket. Good times all around.

Brayden turns three in a couple weeks — boy, time sure flies. His speech keeps improving by leaps and bounds, and it’s amazing to finally get an idea what’s been going on inside his head. Last week we were out walking and we came to a construction sign that said “Trip Hazard”, and Brayden paused, then pointed to each letter and told me what it was. Not only that, but later that day when I told Chris about it, Chris asked Brayden if he saw a sign today, and Brayden proceeded to spell it out again from memory (he only got as far as “t-r-i-p”, but it was still astounding). This is a kid who spoke almost no words until a month or so ago, so it’s incredible to hear him come up with something like that. Another activity that’s been great for his speech is Play-Doh — he’ll want to make things that remind him of movies or TV shows he’s seen, so we make a fish tank and some fish (Finding Nemo), or a cheeseburger and hot dog (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) or different cars (Cars). I don’t even have to prompt him; he just starts telling me all kinds of stories about each movie. Awesome.

Three weeks from today we’re off to Europe for our Mediterranean cruise — I can’t wait! I get a little panicky when I think about leaving the kids for two weeks, but I’m pretty sure I’ll get over that. My brother and his girlfriend are leaving a few days earlier than us to do Venice and Rome on their own before the cruise starts. Cool story about them: when they booked the cruise, they chose a cabin with a fully obstructed view (cause it’s cheaper) but said they were open to upgrades. Then they got a free upgrade to a room with an unobstructed view, so that was neat, but then the cruise line offered to upgrade them again if they paid a little more money. So they paid, took their chances…and ended up with a verandah cabin (meaning they get a balcony) on the navigation deck, mid-ship. So they’re going to have quite a view. Chris was jealous and had to be reminded that I have motion sickness problems and could never have a cabin that high up on the ship (and then he had to be reminded that no, we can’t afford two cabins). I figure we’ll hang out in Dave’s room (he says the price of admission is beer…when I mentioned that to my mom, she noted that it would probably be cheaper for us to get our own verandah room) and if the sea gets choppy or whatever we can always go back to our cabin. The best of both worlds, I say.

More news about Dave and Tanya: they’re moving from Whitehorse to Kamloops. I’m very excited cause they’ll only be a two-hour drive away. She got a new job in Kamloops and he’s giving his up to follow her, so we’re all impressed. They were on a house hunting trip a couple weeks ago and managed to come down to Kelowna for a short visit, so that was great, although the boys found it strange that Uncle Dave was only here for lunch (usually when he comes, he stays for a week). I’ll finally have a golf buddy within a reasonable distance — yay!

Shortly after my last post I got fed up with Brayden staying awake until 9 or 10 p.m., so I finally caved to the inevitable and let him give up the nap. We tried this a couple months ago, but he would get really strung out in the afternoons, so we went back to a daily nap. This time around, things are much better: he goes down hard at 7:30 p.m. and sleeps for almost 12 hours (nice!) plus he’s more than happy to have an hour of quiet time in his room watching Diego on the iPod just after lunch. Justin will still occasionally have a nap, but even when he doesn’t he knows he has to stay in bed until 1:30 p.m. The bottom line is I still get a little break during the day and a much, much better evening. I’m loving this.

Brayden has also made phenomenal progress with his speech over the past month. I don’t know whether I should tell his speech therapist that the key seems to be to let him watch lots of TV. He loves identifying the characters and wants to tell us all about whatever show he’s been watching, so it’s been a real motivator for him. The boys’ current favorite movie is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which is enjoyable even for Chris and I (I laugh every time I see it cause the main character reminds me so much of my older brother), and that got Brayden saying words like “cheeseburger” and “tornado”, so I have no problem with his media exposure.

I’m pretty sure we’re one of the last people in our neighborhood to get a trampoline, but we finally did, and it’s been amazing. It’s a springless trampoline with a safety enclosure, so there’s no way for them to fall off or pinch fingers or whatever, which is cool, and yesterday I even managed to get some weeding done while they were jumping. We used to have a play structure with a slide and a tunnel and so on in the backyard, which they loved, but if it rained or the sprinklers ran overnight the kids would get wet or muddy while they played, and that drove me insane — but the trampoline is off the ground, it dries quickly and they stay clean. A good deal all around.

Four more weeks until Chris and I leave for Europe…not that I’m counting…

Justin was very aware that he was turning five on March 10th, which was cute to see. I still can’t quite digest the fact that my son is now old enough for kindergarten. He can read extremely well now (his favorite book right now is The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss), he loves to learn and he has a mind like a steep trap. Currently his favorite things to do are play bowling on the Wii and play virtually anything on his iPod Touch, but he seems OK with the limits we’ve imposed on those. I’m afraid I have another geek in training. Sigh…

We had his birthday party a couple days ago — we did a Cars theme, since he’s seen that movie at least 40 times in the last two months and can’t seem to get enough. I wondered how he’d react to a house full of kids playing with his stuff, but he did just fine. Last week he asked me if we could play pin-the-nose-on-Elmo again, like we did last year (this kid remembers everything!) so I had a pin-the-wheel-on-McQueen game planned, but he couldn’t have cared less. On the other hand, the simple road puzzle I made out of cardboard was a surprise hit. You just never know.

This is the second week of spring break and it hasn’t been as tough as I thought it would be to fill the time. Still, I’ll be glad to get back to routine (I’m big on routines, but then so are my kids, so I guess that’s OK). Next up is Easter, then Brayden’s birthday, and then…six weeks from today Chris and I are off on our Mediterranean cruise. Sometimes it occurs to me that it’s sort of insane to spend a whole year waiting for a two-week holiday, but anticipation can really keep you going. I think it’s important to have something to look forward to. And God knows I’m looking forward to this!

OK, I admit it. I didn’t “believe.” I have always thought the Olympics were a huge waste of money — and for the most part, I still believe that. I didn’t watch the opening ceremonies and I really didn’t care when what’s-his-face won the first gold medal for Canada. But even I got caught up in the excitement as Canada won gold after gold, and I found myself recording the curling finals and the men’s hockey gold medal game so I wouldn’t have to miss a single moment. So while I’m not quite a believer, I’m also not as much of a doubter anymore.

Today is about thinking positive. I’m going to focus on the good things around me, cause there’s been way too much negativity lately and I refuse to wallow in that anymore. So what if Brayden doesn’t nap anymore and consistently wakes up at 5:30 a.m.? At least he goes down early at night. So what if the kids’ bickering often drives me insane? At least they’re off to Grandpa’s house this morning. So what if Justin has totally regressed in his potty training and Brayden isn’t making any progress with his speech? At least we’re not in Haiti.

See how I’m being upbeat?

Other good news: this has been one heck of a mild winter. There’s no snow and temperatures are consistently above zero. The sun has even come out a few times in the past week, which is usually my biggest concern at this time of year. In just 11 days we’re off to West Edmonton Mall with the kids, so that should be fun, and it’s a little over three months until we leave for our Mediterranean cruise. All good.

Another successful family visit has come and gone. It was nice just to be able to relax and enjoy people without the pressure of Christmas celebrations. We weren’t totally housebound, either, which helps: we went swimming, tubing and bowling, we went out for dinner, we played in the snow on the one day there was any…and everyone seemed to have a good time. I really enjoyed the fact that the kids (or at least Justin) were old enough that we could do some stuff that was actually fun for everybody (i.e. waterslides and tubing). That’ll happen more and more as the boys get older and I’m really looking forward to it.

It’s back to routine this week, which makes me happy, and the sun is shining, which makes me even happier. Justin was almost quivering with excitement at going back to preschool, so that was good to see. Brayden didn’t nap at all yesterday and I think he’s starting to give it up (the horror!) but he’s down for a snooze right now, so I’ll take the break while I can get it.

Happy New Year everybody!

I have never had a Christmas quite this stress-free before. To begin with, everyone was healthy, which is a big plus. With no family staying with us, we could actually just relax and focus on the kids (and THEY could just relax and play with their new toys). In past years we’ve been preoccupied with entertaining a crowd, opening a bunch of gifts and of course preparing vast amounts of food. This year we went to the grandparents’ place for the big Christmas dinner, so the extent of my cooking involved making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Ho ho ho!

Not that I’m dissing the relatives. As Christmas got closer I was sort of wishing the crowd was here the way they always have been before, but they’ll be here in a couple days and I’m sure we’ll have a good visit. It might even be more fun than in the past cause all the pressure of Christmas is over. Justin is really looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Dave coming, but a big part of that is because we’ve promised to take him back to the waterslides while they’re here. It’s gonna be a good time.

December has been about trying new things with the kids. We’ve been to two Christmas parties with them that went pretty well. Justin has been good about playing with whatever kids are around and even Brayden hasn’t been the destructive beast he often can be. I laughed when a woman I don’t know very well commented that Brayden is a tank — she didn’t even know that that’s his nickname. Brayden is fascinated by babies and is amazingly gentle with kids who are smaller than him, but it’s a whole different story with the older ones.

In that spirit of trying new things, we took them to a Disney movie yesterday, which was their first time in a theatre. Justin talked a bit throughout the movie and kept wanting to stand up, which we expected, but he wasn’t overly disruptive and seemed to enjoy the show. Brayden sat on his booster seat, totally absorbed in the movie, munching a bowl of Cheerios like it was popcorn — so cute. Afterwards we went to a McDonald’s with a play area and let them run and jump and climb. So that was dinner and a movie, toddler style. A good time.

This morning we took them over to the kick-ass water complex to splash and play. There are three big waterslides at this place that we’d never done before, so I asked Justin if he wanted to try them, and he was all for it (he was just barely tall enough to slide, so poor Brayden didn’t qualify). I thought Justin might freak out because he had to go down this big slide all by himself, but he never hesitated. It’s weird how some insignificant thing will set him off, but then he’ll surprise us by stepping up like that. Anyway, he had fun, and I was super proud.

I’m also proud of myself for finally allowing the boys to play around with paint and glue and stuff at home. I’ve never encouraged that before because a) it’s messy and b) I have to sit there with them while they do it. But now we have construction paper and scissors and glue and fingerpaints and it’s a good way to kill an hour in the afternoons.

And we have plenty of hours to fill for the next while, since Christmas holidays have begun and most of our usual activities are on hold for a couple weeks. The snow we got last week is all but gone, which is fine with me, but the kids would love to get a pile of white stuff to play in. We made snow angels and played around with the sled one day, but we won’t be doing that again for a while apparently. We do have family coming to visit, but not for another 10 days, so we’ll have to see what we can come up with to do.

Merry Christmas everybody!