Continue reading »]]> Kira has been asking me about Valentine’s Day now for about 3 solid months She has been writing little notes for everyone and telling me it is for Valentine’s Day LOL! Apart from Christmas, it is her favourite holiday and she was beaming when I woke her up and she realized the day had finally come

We exchanged cards, decorated and blew up balloons together, she was ecstatic

Happy Valene’s Day hee hee

I asked her what she would like to do for her classmates and she asked me if we could do what we did last year….sure pumpkin, anything you want

This is what we did last year…

So the week before, we started working on those, this time she wrote her own name and helped me with everything! She did a really great job too! We had to do 16 for her class at school and 14 for her ballet class, plus a couple of extras. She even asked if she could have one LOL! I printed the others on 4×6 photo paper and I printed a much larger one for her and added a teddy bear chocolate sucker for her own Valentine’s treat (you can see hers down below)

Then she asked what we were going to give her teachers. She said she wanted to do something special for her teacher and the assistant teacher so I went online to look for some ideas and found this.

After a trip to the dollar store, Walmart and Staples…this is what we put together…

I only spent about $11 on each of them and Kira LOVED putting these together with me! The teachers enjoyed them and Kira was super happy and proud

The best part of the day was when I told her it was time to open her Valentine’s and she was confused and shocked…guess she was so focused on wanting to give treats to everyone else, she forgot that her Mommy and Daddy might get something for her

After school and ballet, Rob grabbed some pizza from Boston Pizza, one of our favourite restaurants. For years, they’ve done a special heart-shaped pizza for Valentine’s Day. Rob and I used to get them a long time ago but we hadn’t done that since well before Kira was born. Since she was Valentine’s crazy this year, we decided to revisit that old tradition of ours and make it a family one.

It turned out to be a really good day

Continue reading »]]> February was a fun month!

Kira and I did some baking, which she absolutely LOVES and Rob and Kira celebrated their 6th Ash Wednesday together by attending a new church, the one that is associated with her school.

She celebrated Carnaval at school making and eating “La Tire” which was fun for me because it really brought back memories from my childhood during Quebec’s Carnaval and the Cabane a Sucre. They had planned other outdoor events but the lack of snow made them impossible

She went to the dentist for her check-up

The gorgeous weather has made it possible for winter walks and park visits

But she also loves being inside playing games or doing crafts!

In January, Rob had major computer problems and had to upgrade his computer. Once his was all back to normal, mine started acting up so a few weeks later, we had to upgrade mine. It’s a good thing I married a computer expert

Continue reading »]]> Kira started swimming lessons back in September and she is still going strong! She is loving every single minute and each class (and instructor!) brings new fun and challenges. She only has 1 class left in her current swim program and then she will start her final Pre-School class the following week and she will be all done by April 5th!

She has gained so much confidence around water and has really grown to love being in the pool. I remember on the way to her very first swim class she matter-of-factly told me that she would NOT be putting her face in the water! LOL! Well, that idea quickly fell by the wayside when her instructor asked her to dunk herself within 5 minutes of the class

She still doesn’t love putting her face in the water but she does it all the time now without any hesitation! She can do short floats and glides, rollovers and she is comfortable both with and without a lifejacket.

Her favourite part of each lesson is the last class when they turn on the waves and let the kids jump around for the last 5 minutes

Here’s some pics and a little video…

 Click here for a short video of Kira splashing in the waves!

She is the one doing all the jumping LOL!

Continue reading »]]> It’s been a long while since I have blogged so I will just do a quick summary of things we did in the past few months with some pics for your viewing pleasure

November saw Kira lose her two front bottom teeth, both in one day, within 20 minutes of each other! Once she realized it wasn’t so bad, she wiggled the second one until it came out LOL!

She saw lots of movies in the theatre including Cars2, The Muppets, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Arthur Christmas, Happy Feet 2 and Puss In Boots.

One day while I was dropping Kira off at school, someone smacked into the back of our Highlander

We visited Santa in the mall

All three of us were REALLY sick near Christmas. We kept passing it to each other and poor Kira got the brunt of it. For two straight weeks (minus one day!) she was really sick so we ended up staying home the whole time except to get necessities. Not a fun holiday

Despite being sick, she still enjoyed the holiday season and eagerly waited Santa’s arrival

The only thing we got to do that was Christmassy was Zoo Year’s Eve. It’s a special showing of Zoolights at the Zoo on New Year’s Eve with fireworks. It was CRAZY busy and she wanted nothing to do with anything except for the slide and the VERY popular hay field they set up. She had a blast trying to cover her Daddy with hay Rob and I enjoyed all the lights and the surprisingly awesome fireworks show!

Once we all got healthy, we were able to get some sledding and snowman fun in

Continue reading »]]> We recently changed hosts for all of our websites and due to some miscommunication, I almost lost my entire blog! Thanks to Mark from Nucleus, I was able to recover my database and all my photos and it is all back to normal! Well, almost…my smilies aren’t working and I need to fine tune some stuff but it is mostly normal again!

Now to just start blogging again

Continue reading »]]> As part of getting her ready for Kindergarten, I took Kira to an optometrist back in September. Rob made the appointment at a place right next door to the place where he gets glasses. He couldn’t come to the appointment with me but it was no big deal. I figured they would just have a look and she would be fine.

Boy was I wrong!

I was not very happy with this optometrist. First off, they made her look through all the eye testing equipment they use for adults. She was having such a hard time with it that they questioned if she even knew her letters! She was almost 5 then, of COURSE she knows her letters! After an agonizing and very frustrating 20-30 minutes of “testing” she finally saw the eye doc. She put Kira in a big chair and made her look in a mirror at some letter that were on the wall behind her. Kira was just shouting out some letters, not even looking at the letters for more than a second. Then  the doc said “Are you sure she knows her letters?”

YES!!! My daughter has known her letter since she was 1!!! Stop asking me that same question grrrr!

Then the doc put that big thing over eyes with the different lenses and kept changing lenses on her and asking her:

“Which one is better, 5 or 6?”

“Which one is better, 2 or 3?”

“Which one is better, 7 or 8?”

And every time, Kira would answer with the last number she gave.

The doc looked at her eyes, said she was near-sighted and gave me a prescription for -1.5 for both eyes and said she needs glasses!

WHAT????

I could tell that she was having some problems seeing far away but I was NOT happy about the way these tests were going!! I pointed out to her that she kept answering her questions with the last thing she said. She claimed that she didn’t even though, clearly, she did! Then I told her that I didn’t think she knew what the word “better” meant in this case. I mean she is four, maybe she just likes the number 8 better than 7 and it has nothing to do with what she is looking at!!!

She could tell I wasn’t happy and she said we COULD come back if we really wanted to and put some drops in her eyes, which relaxes the muscles and then check again. I asked her why she didn’t do that in the first place and she just said that she didn’t typically do it with kids.

What???

Wouldn’t it make sense that she SHOULD do it for kids especially because they don’t always understand questions like “is it blurry?” or “which one is better?”

She said I was welcome to get another opinion and then I told her that is exactly what I was going to do!

I tried looking for someone who specialized in kids but the only place I could find was the Children’s Hospital Eye Clinic but their waiting list was 6 months to two years!

So I decided to Google some nearby Optometrists and read some patient reviews. I found one that had several good reviews from parents of little kids so I made an appointment and made sure to bring Rob this time!

This experience was completely different! She didn’t have to do any of those tests on the adult machines and when they saw her having some difficulties with some letters, they switched to pictures! They recommended putting the drops in, in order to figure out a proper prescription for her and they were really good with her!

She ended up with a prescription of -1.0 for each other, a significant difference than the other one!

So, with some guidance, we let her pick out her glasses and we had a big talk about taking care of them and what all this meant. She was actually very excited to have her own glasses, just like her Daddy. I, on the other hand, was upset and ended up crying about it later.

I’m not sure that anyone but a mother would understand why I was so upset.

I remember when my mom was in the ICU, about to get her leg amputated (and eventually pass away 10 days later) and I had just found out that I was diagnosed with Lupus/RA. She was so upset about it! She seemed more concerned that she might have “given” me Lupus than she was about losing her leg! I couldn’t understand it back then.

I totally understand it now!

And I know it’s not the end of the world but every time I think about her wearing and depending on glasses for the rest of her life, I get sad and just want to cry! I know she is going to be ridiculed and be called nasty names by other kids and I hurt for all the times she will be teased and made to feel hurt and frustrated. It pains me just to think about it

Until that day, however, she will be dependent on her glasses to see far away and I am going to do my best to see that she is made to feel beautiful and smart and loved so that she will have the strength to deal with all of that crap!

She is actually quite happy with her glasses and is doing very well taking care of them and has adjusted to wearing them incredibly fast!

Here’s some pics…

Continue reading »]]> Last weekend I finally got my rear in gear and started scrapping our photos from our Walt Disney World and Disney Magic 2009 Vacation. I had meant to start this book last year in May but for those of you who read my blog, well, you will understand why I never got around to it! For those of you who don’t normally read my blog, let’s just say I got really distracted

I just started last weekend and have only managed to get 20 layouts done but I thought it would keep me motivated to finish if I posted what I have done so far

I still have a LONG way to go but here is the first 20 layouts…

Continue reading »]]> This past Wednesday, our little princess turned 5!! Where did the time go??? 5 already???!!!

Rob and I had decorated the house the night before with only balloons left to blow up. I set my alarm for 7 AM, with the intention of sneaking downstairs before Kira woke up (usually at 8AM) and finishing up. I was up at 6:30 so I just rolled out of bed and went down early. I was just about to fill the first balloon up with helium when I heard the shuffling of little feet coming down the stairs!!!

“Mommy, I was looking for you!”

BUSTED!

I ran over to the stairs before she could really see anything and rushed her back up the stairs

I gave her some cereal and the iPad and told her to stay in her room for a bit LOL! I went back down and finished the balloons and then we woke up Rob and went downstairs together. She went immediately to the presents on the table and totally ignored the decorations

She had fun opening up her gifts! We got her princess Ariel and Cinderella dresses, an Ariel dress-up kit, princess shoes and a princess jewelry box. She has been on an Ariel kick lately, which is nice to see because normally she only likes Belle or “Cinderlella” so she dressed up as Ariel right away! She LOVED the jewelry box and hasn’t stopped playing with it for days now!

After gifts, she got some snacks and sat in our Christmas tree box and watched cartoons with Lilo

Then it was time for me to make some special snacks for her to bring to school. They normally do cupcakes but I wanted something healthier for the kids so I made rainbow fruit kabobs. Kira helped me and then made her own

I was supposed to volunteer in class today but I wasn’t doing all that well so Rob was sweet enough to take over for me

After they came home, we got ready to go to the pool party! She was VERY excited to swim! We met everyone at the Port O Call Inn and swam for about an hour and a half. Then we all changed and went to the party room to eat supper and cake!

I felt bad because she only had 2 gifts to open and she sadly asked me where her other presents were. I told her that there were still gifts from Auntie Deb, Uncle Ken and Auntie Heather coming and then I asked her to help me hand out the gift bags. That cheered her up, especially when she saw that I made her one too

It was a very long, exhausting but VERY fun day and she had lots of fun!

I think next year we are going to do things a little differently and just invite a few kids to her party.

Continue reading »]]> On September 25th, we attended CDS’s Ovo at Le Grand Chapiteau on the Stampede grounds. We were very excited about it because this would be Kira’s first Cirque show. Rob and I are big Cirque fans and have seen 9 different shows so far. We knew this show, in particular, was a great choice for taking Kira as it is more or less aimed at kids.

Turned out to be the perfect show and Kira loved every single second of it! She asked a billion questions before it started and was actually quite sad when she found out there were no “bouncy houses or things for kids” LOL!

She was thrilled that we were able to get popcorn beforehand and then she was in awe when we walked into the tent. There was a huge egg on the stage and thus began another round of questions to which we, ourselves, didn’t know the answers to

She was a little freaked out with the characters (bugs) walking around the theatre but once the show started she was grinning ear to ear! She danced in her chair and laughed and giggled while Rob and I looked at each other with that same look we shared during her first theatre movie We were finally able to share one of our big loves with our little baby girl!!!

At intermission she was sad because she thought it was over and she jumped up and down when we told her that it was only half over  We had a bathroom break and were hoping to snack on some hot dogs but they ran out Good thing I always bring some snacks for Kira in my purse!

Before we knew it, the show was over and it was time to go. Kira wanted to watch it again LOL!

Because we knew the show was mainly aimed towards kids and we had one with us, it was  very enjoyable!  However, if it was just Rob and I this time, I would have been rather disappointed in it. It only had 2 acts that really wowed us (normally most of the show wows us!) and the whole bug thing kind of turned me off. Not a typical Cirque show in my opinion.

Because it was Kira’s first show, we ended up buying some t-shirts, something we have only ever done one other time but I am glad we did So, with the ticket cost, parking cost, snacks and souvenirs, it was an expensive evening but since we don’t go out very much, we didn’t mind.

We can’t wait for next year’s show, Totem…it looks awesome!!!

Continue reading »]]> September 13th was Kira’s first day of Kindergarten and we were all very excited! We had been talking about her new school (and visited twice!) for months now and she was sooo ready to go

We got there early because I knew I wanted some pics of Kira in and around her school without any other kids in them. She was such a trouper and posed for all the photos! Took some video and then it was time to meet her teacher at the fence where they line up. This day was actually her staggered entry day which meant that it was just Kira and 2 other kids. They do this so that the teacher can get to know them a little before she has to deal with the whole class. The next day was the first full day with 14 other kids.

Today was also exciting because it would be the first time she would ride the bus home on her own. Kindergarten only offers one-way bus transportation, which is good I think because then they can get comfortable with it before taking it both ways.

As parents of a 4-year old, we were excited but also a little nervous. Would she be okay all alone for 40 minutes? Would she be able to figure out which stop is hers? Will she accidentally get off the bus too early?

We also didn’t know exactly where the bus dropped her off. We knew the block but we didn’t know which side of the street or the exact location, which also added to my stress.

Just in case, Rob and I showed up to her stop area about 15 minutes early and we waited excitedly and nervously. And we waited and waited and waited. It was now 5 minutes after her bus is supposed to drop her off and I was worried! We waited 10 more minutes before calling the bus company. The line was busy! We called again and got their answering machine so we left a message.

We then called the school and the principal answered the phone and he told us that he saw her get on the bus. I was a little shocked that he not only answered the phone but knew who Kira was and saw and remembered that she got on the bus. He then told us that her bus was stuck in traffic on Elbow Drive and told us to stay at the bus stop.

Elbow Drive? What??? Not only is that really far away but it is not even in her school district so I thought the principal didn’t know what the heck he was talking about it

After that, the bus company called us back and confirmed that her bus was, indeed, on Elbow Drive stuck in traffic. They said that they hadn’t even dropped off 1/4 of the kids and that it might be another hour or more!!! We decided then to try to pick Kira up at an earlier bus stop so she wouldn’t be stuck on the bus for any longer. We told them where we would be picking her up but again, we didn’t know exactly where the bus stop was.

It ended up being a really busy intersection and I was getting very stressed about the whole thing. We didn’t know where she would be dropped off or at what time either. What if we miss the bus? Then what? We didn’t know what her bus looked like or her bus driver and because this was her first time, she didn’t know to look for us at a different location than the one we had showed her!

We waited about 15 minutes and then we saw a bus pull up but way on the other side of the very busy intersection. We see that the driver is waving over in our direction so Rob runs over there and sure enough, it was her bus! How the bus driver knew that it was us, I will never know? She might have known that her Kindergarten-er was being picked up at this stop but there were tons of vehicles everywhere so I still have no idea how she figured out we were the parents!

We were both relieved to see our baby girl!!! I know she is almost 5 but she is our one and only and we treasure her so much that this was really hard on us! I felt bad because she was stuck on the bus for about 2 hours so we both kept saying sorry to her and she just looks at us and says “Why are you sorry?” LOL!

Since it was her first ride, she didn’t know any different so she was just fine. Well, she was extremely sad that there were no little kids on her bus to sit with her, she had been soooo looking forward to chatting with kids on her bus so THAT is what she was upset about

Glad we went to get her because she would have been on the bus for another 25 minutes! Unfortunately because she was so late, she missed her ballet class but I was so happy that she was safe and sound with us

She said she really had a great time at school and she couldn’t wait to go back. She was happy to know that she was going back the very next day! She’s used to preschool where she only went every other day.

The next day was a much better experience on the bus for everyone

We found out that her bus does indeed make a stop over in Kingsland and then comes back on Elbow Drive. I am still upset about this as that area is not even within school boundaries! I am going to talk to the office about it because that one stop makes the kids’ bus ride 15 minutes longer than it should be and puts them in major traffic areas! Turns out that a semi truck had exploded in a very high-traffic area and stopped all traffic around there for over an hour