Sunday, February 28, 2010

A busy weekend

Last weekend we hosted a young woman from China (Wuha) who, unfortunately, we didn't get to spend nearly enough time with.  She was in Ottawa as part of the International Volunteer Exchange Programme run by MCC, and we put her up in our spare bedroom.  Her sessions each day went from 8:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., and by the time we picked her up and got her back to our house she was tired and so were we.  (The kids don't seem to understand that you should sleep in on the weekends.)  So, we didn't really get to talk too much in the evenings.  But then, last Sunday, she and another woman from her hometown in China spent a couple of hours in my kitchen cooking.  There was a potluck meal last Sunday night for all the (59) volunteers and their host families and so they made a couple of traditional Chinese dishes.  And I paid close attention and tried to take notes as they went along.  Of course, they had brought with them a couple of the more difficult to find ingredients, but they were kind enough to leave them with me when they left, and the one who is currently doing a placement in Calgary has assured me that you can get these things in T&T (which we now have in Ottawa!)  Of course, they told me that it wasn't actually traditional Chinese food, because they couldn't get the spices they needed for that, but they recreated it using what they could find here.  Tasted amazing, though, anyhow.

They were very kind and at the same time as they made their dishes for the potluck, they made an extra dish (Twice-cooked pork) which they left in the fridge for us to eat Monday night.  It was fabulous.  The potluck and programme last Sunday night were really great too, but unfortunately A came down with something and started with a fever.  It was a flu or something, and thankfully didn't last long.  She missed school on Monday but then was pretty much over it by Tuesday. 

We've exchanged email addresses with Wuha, and hopefully we can keep in touch with her wherever she ends up going (she's in Washington state for her placement right now).  And when we go to China for a visit with the kids, I'd love to see her there.

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Last weekend was also busy because the kids started swimming lessons on Saturday morning and the girls were invited to a birthday party (their first) on Saturday afternoon.  I was laying 50/50 odds that the girls would actually go into the pool, but they surprised me and both went in and said they had fun.  Not as much fun as B though, as evidenced by the fact that he screamed for about 30 minutes straight after DoT hauled him out of the pool at the end of the lesson.  It was awful.  I wonder how many people wondered if we were crazy white people abducting a little Chinese boy.  :-)  Anyhow, yesterday at their second lesson they all still loved it and we were able to bribe B out of the pool and out of the complex without a major meltdown.  

The birthday party last Saturday afternoon was crazy.  I think Shauna (the birthday girl) had invited her whole class, and most of them showed up.  I'm a firm believer of limiting the number of kids to the child's age.... i.e., if you're turning five, you get to invite five kids (of course I'm still hoping to avoid hosting birthday parties for a couple more years).  It was pretty chaotic in the house and it was the longest two hours I've lived in a long time.  So then the igrls went to school on Monday morning and came home with an invite to another kids birthday party which happened yesterday.  I was still recovering from the first one, so I made DoT take them.  :-) 

The weather in Ottawa is very mild these days.  Which makes it perfect weather to make a snowman.  A few years ago a friend of mine gave us a snowman kit, which we finally were able to use today.  Poor B napped during the whole event, but E and A had a great time creating our snowman.  Here he is...

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Of course, then they declared that was 'daddy' and proceeded to make a snowman to represent all of us.  I'll let you decide who's who (hint, the little one in the middle is B) ...

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I'll have to end here if there is any hope in getting this post published this weekend (believe it or not I actually wrote most of this a week ago).  I'll leave you with some random pictures taken this week.  The first one is from Friday following classroom Olympics at the girls' school.  As you can see we have a couple of athletes in the family... one silver and one gold medal (don't ask me why the colours are as they are).  Not bad.  :-)

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Monday, February 15, 2010

Family Day

Hi all, DoT here. Another weekend has flown by and I have survived Family Day with the kids (the Federal Public servants don't get this day off so K was at work - knew I should have picked "heads"). Today was especially a challenge since we will have house guests starting Wednesday night and the house needed, shall we say, "a lot of tidying up". As anyone with kids knows, as soon as they sense you aren't paying 100% attention to them, they start to circle.

Things weren't too bad until just after lunch. I told B it was time for his nap and he started running away saying "no!"(hope my new team at work turns out to be a little more cooperative when I ask for things). I then carried B to his nap with him screaming and kicking. Once he was behind bars, I turned back to cleaning. The girls were able to amuse themselves for a while but then started to want to shred paper like Dad. Now you might think "what's wrong with letting the kids help out" - well I have stories about scissors that made me hesitate with giving any shredder lessons. I still think it would be wise to hide the shredder before they start improvising sometime soon.

As well, I got the usual challenges to have treats all day. I fear the day is coming soon, when they will have out-thought me at every turn and have an answer prepared in advance for every situation. Today A spotted some jelly beans Grandma had sent us from Xmas.

A: "What are those?" (sensing the set-up already - pretty sure she has seen a jellybean or two before)

Me: "Jellybeans" (missing a chance to change the course of the conversation).

A: "Are they yours or ours?" (again all finesse - my answer won't change anything)

Me: "Yours I guess". (here it comes)

A: "So...can we have some?" (no beating around the bush when the jugular is exposed).

Me: "After Supper".

A: accepts after minor grumbling sensing she has totally mastered the negotiation. By the time she asks for that convertible, I will have no chance other than to run away from her.

In the midst of all this, we have an ant problem in E's room. I didn't think ants came out in the winter but we now have proof that they do. She, it also turns out, has a fear of ants (either one of the other two kids would have loved that upgrade to their accomodations). We put down some traps, removed a kid snackbag that was likely attracting them and vacuumed everything; but apparently it will take a few weeks for the traps to take effect. In the mean time she has not been too keen to go in there or go to sleep.

So by this afternoon I am getting tired, and a bit frustrated, and the kids must have decided I needed a bit of comic relief.

After the girls playing in E's room for 20 minutes, E came out with a big pout on and said "Daddy, A has an ant and I don't". I had to think this phrase over to make sure I had heard that right.

Me: "Let me get this straight - you want an ant?"

E: "Yes"

Me: "Let's go find you an ant". For the next 15 minutes A and E both have ants crawling on their hands and arms and think it is hilarious. This goes on until E can no longer find her ant. She figures it is in her pants. She finally ends up getting totally undressed in an attempt to find her ant, and plans to stay that way. I convince her to at least put on her PJs. It is at this point that I hear A talking to her ant "where are you Ant Mimi?" She had a pretty dead looking ant and I told her finally to flush it. She told me finally that Ant Mimi had been flushed down the toilet. A half hour later, I am in tears and laughing so hard that I can barely re-tell this story to K on the phone. All in all, a good ending to a day I had ant-ticipated would be difficult (sorry couldn't resist - hope Ant Mimi won't be offended).

Here is a shot from the day.  They look so innocent don't they?

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Tuesday, February 02, 2010

We're back

For those of you who think, based on the title of this post, that we are just returning from a fun-filled vacation in the sunny south, think again.  What we are back from is a week of sick kids, and a lost Internet connection.  But no need to dwell on that... we survived both and are back in the land of the living and the connected.  :-)

So the big news these days is that after 9.5 months of full-time French language training, DoT took his oral interaction test last week and passed!  He is now back to his regular day job, and couldn't be happier.  Yesterday was his first day back to his regular job, and then today I found out that I've been approved to go on full-time language training.  What are the odds?  Unlike DoT though, I will be leaving my post for only about 8 weeks.  And I have to clear my desk of the seventy billion projects I have on the go before I leave, so I won't be going on training until at least May.  I think I will enjoy language training in the summer months. 

Good news for those of you who like winter about as much as I do... A announced today that she couldn't see her shadow so spring is coming soon.  Never mind that she was standing outside this evening, in the dark, while looking for her shadow.  Good thing she didn't take a couple of steps backwards where the light cast from our lamp post would have hit her. :-)

DoT is away today and tomorrow at a management retreat for his work, so that makes me a single mom for a couple of days.  I don't know how people do it.  Thank goodness it's only for a couple of days. 

Well, that's it for tonight.  Happy Gound Hog Day!  Pictures next post... I promise.

K...