Are We There Yet?

Let 'Er Rip!

It is all about “Beyblades” in these parts as of late.  In case you aren’t in the know, Beyblades are spinning top type toys that are used to battle.  The premise is that the final “bey” left spinning is the winner.  These spinners bang, clank and bounce off each other and walls until eventually a winner is declared.  There are launchers, rip cords, battle domes and many more accessories.  Suddenly, Nate’s vocabulary is full of words like; Rock Leone, Aquario, Tornado Battlers, Earth Eagle, Saggatario ,Orso and Lightning L Drago.  I can’t help but chuckle when I hear him with his buddies repeatedly counting down, “1…2…3…Let ‘Er Rip”, and then watching them all stare into this big dome waiting to see who will be victorious for that round, with the last Beylade spinning.

It all seems pretty innocent and like always I am interested to see how long this newest craze will last.  However, I can’t see this phase ending anytime soon as apparently Nate is known in these parts to be a bit of a “metal master”.  A friend of mine overheard her two boys talking the other morning as one son asked the other, “What beyblade are you bringing today to try and defeat Nate, the grade one beyblade champion?”

Oh to be six again!  What is the latest craze around your house these days?

 

Nathalie Jean

The concept of “filling buckets” continues to be on my mind this week.  Wednesday brought the much anticipated arrival of a letter from our “sponsored child” Nathalie Jean.  The kids love to hear from her and this letter was not a disappointment. Nathalie is almost exactly the same age as Sarah and she lives in a small town in the Phillipines with her mother and 3 brothers. From what we have learned about her over the past year is that she is smart, sweet, very pretty and a very good student.  Her life is tough but she has a very positive attitude.

 We first crossed paths with Nathalie when a representative from World Vision came knocking on our door last spring. Like most people, Blaine and I are always looking for opportunities to teacher our children about being giving and charitable.  Let’s face it our kids live a blessed life and we need to take every opportunity to discuss those who are less fortunate.  We knew the day would come when we would make the commitment to take on this responsibility as a family but we were waiting for the kids to be the right age so that they could be a part of the process.  As the four of us met with the wonderful young man from World Vision a year ago, we all listen intently to the details about World Vision Sponsorship.  We picked Nathalie because of her age ans story and we picked the Phillipines, well for many reasons.  Our hope was that our children could correspond with this child and develop a relationship of sorts.  Sarah and Nate both write individual letters to Nathalie, which go along with our family letters.  They are so proud to do this task.

 Nathalie’s recent letter was so heartwarming.  She was thrilled to receive some pictures of the kids and she writes,

“Dear Sarah, Your very very beautiful in your picture.  I'm 9 years old and in grade 3 too.  I like puppies”. 

 “Dear Nate, I’m so happy when I read your letter and also when I saw your picture your very  very cute.My hobby is reading books sometime i play badmenton with my cousin and brother” The kids were tickled pink.

The section addressed to Blaine and I went something like this,

“Thank you so much for sending me a letter again. I’m so very happy when I received your letter and also the letter of your two kids.  I’m so very proud when I heard that you are a teacher because my ambition is to become a teacher someday like you. And I’m an honor student in our class.”  She goes on to later say, “  I hope and pray we will meet someday together with your family.”

 As we fill Nathalie’s bucket with our monthly contributions to her community development programme in an attempt to help her family attain self-reliance, in return Nathalie fills our buckets with her heartwarming words and her gratitude.  Her picture on our fridge is a daily reminder of just how important and rewarding it is to give.

 “Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”

-Brain Tracy

 

 

How Full is Your Bucket?

Some of you may be familiar with this expression and the book of the same title that goes along with it.  The premise of this once bestseller by Tom Rath focuses on “The Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket” explained below;

“Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it's empty, we feel awful.

Each of us also has an invisible dipper. When we use that dipper to fill other people's buckets -- by saying or doing things to increase their positive emotions -- we also fill our own bucket. But when we use that dipper to dip from others' buckets -- by saying or doing things that decrease their positive emotions -- we diminish ourselves.

Like the cup that runneth over, a full bucket gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. Every drop in that bucket makes us stronger and more optimistic.

But an empty bucket poisons our outlook, saps our energy, and undermines our will. That's why every time someone dips from our bucket, it hurts us.

So we face a choice every moment of every day: We can fill one another's buckets, or we can dip from them. It's an important choice -- one that profoundly influences our relationships, productivity, health, and happiness.”Check out the book’s website for even more information.

Many schools use the concept of the “bucket” to teach pro-social skills and I was thrilled to hear that Sarah and Nate’s school was one of them.  What a great way to talk to kids about how we treat others and how we want to be treated! This picture book version  is a great way to introduce the concept to kids. I was even more thrilled when Nate’s teacher started regularly sending home “bucket notes” when the kids do something kind to fill someone’s bucket.  Nate was the first one to get a bucket note and on it Miss P wrote this:

“Nate filled a bucket today.  He fills buckets everyday and gave Miss P the idea for bucket filler notes! Thank you for making me smile Nate!” 

 My little grade one boy couldn’t have been more proud and even though Nate is now on his fifth or sixth bucket note he still can’t wait to show me them afterschool and he proudly displays each one on the fridge for weeks.

“The Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket “ is a great metaphor for life.  It is simple enough for young children to understand yet potentially very powerful.

How many buckets have you filled today?

 

"You are Richer than You Think"

You may be familiar with this slogan made famous by Scotiabank.  Sarah, most certainly is.  An important part of being a Brownie is the “badgework”.  Recently, Sarah chose to do a badge entitled, Money Talk and part of the criteria of this badge is to open a bank account.  When I asked Sarah what bank she wanted to open her account at; she was adamant about Scotiabank.  Oh… the powers of advertising!

I tried to explain to her that it was really just a slogan and that generally all banks kind do the same thing, but she was unconvinced.  So off we went afterschool one day last week only to find Scotiabank closed by 4:00.  She decided we should try BMO, her second choice. 

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the Bank of Montreal was running a promotion for kids opening accounts.  With a minimum $25 deposit the BMO would then deposit another $25 into the account. The kids both opened a youth chequing account.  They were so proud as we went through the motions.  They loved answering all the questions, signing their names and walking up to the teller with their deposits. Now they each have their own bankcard (that mom will hold on to for save keeping, of course!) and they were very excited about the prospects of using a bank machine and checking their account details online with our help. 

This whole process was more about teachable moments and real life learning than the cash itself.  Although, Sarah is now set on saving up for a pair of rollerblades and Nate –Lego City Corner.  It was an extremely valuable learning experience for all of us and I am so glad we did it.  I can only hope this is only the beginning of a long life of positive and productive banking experiences for them.  The staff at the bank was so good with the kids  and Sarah and Nate left thrilled as apparently they are “richer than they think”.

 

The Joker

We have had a tough go of it in recent weeks around our house.  Sarah’s Cold Urticaria has proven to be more of a challenge than we thought (check out this post from December for more details).  Even in warm weather Sarah gets hives on her arms from a cool breeze.  Cooler weather leaves her hands and other exposed skin, red and itchy.  Bathing has proven to be a huge stress as her skin erratically breaks out in rashes from the changes in temperature.  An accidental exposure to peanuts in February, Sarah's first, has also taken its toll on her.  Understandably, all of this has had a large impact on my sweet girl emotionally.  Tomorrow we see both Sarah's allergist and pediatrician.  We can only hope these appointments bring her and all of us some answers and peace.

Amidst these daily struggles my little boy always knows how to bring a smile to our face.  Whether it be a hug, a snuggle or a joke, he is a ray of sunshine.

Nate loves jokes.  He comes home with silly jokes and riddles to share every day.  He asks me bring him joke books from my library on a regular basis to help expand his repertoire.  He is thrilled when someone asks him to share one.  Some of his most recent jokes have been;

Where does a polar bear keep his money?  In the snowbank.

What is a zombie’s favourite ride at a carnival?  The Roller Ghoster

Why shouldn’t you play cards with a cat?  He might be a “cheetah”

My little buddy is so proud of all this and it is so great to see how he loves to play with language.  Knock Knocks, riddles…you name it…he loves it! He even tries to make up his own jokes, and although many of them aren’t that funny…I make sure to laugh whole heartedly anyway.   Nate’s big brown, expressive eyes, huge smile and infectious laugh can brighten even the darkest of days.

“All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other.”

August Wilson

 

Movie Night

Last week we enjoyed a relaxing and enjoyable spring break close to home.  We had plans… but not too many.  We did stuff…. but not too much stuff.  We organized and purged in preparation for a spring garage toy sale.  We stayed up a little later, slept in a little later, spent time with family, spent time with friends and enjoyed a lot of down time.

 One of the best things I managed to cross off my to do list (right after clean the fridge and sort through the winter clothes) was the downloading of 4 years worth of home videos.  The only downfall of taking a ton of video of your kids is the maintenance and upkeep of it all.  We have most definitely watched little bits over the years but I needed to get it organized.  Yes, it took a ton of time, but time I had.  I downloaded, I burned and then we watched.

 What a riot!  They say, “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  If that is the case then what is a video worth?  Nothing captures the essence of our children more than a video.  One evening last week, larger than life, clear and loud my precious little ones filled our big screen for hours in our living room.  As we sat cuddled on the couch watching these outtakes I couldn’t help but tear up at times; in awe of how they have changed and grown.  I laughed out loud at little two year Nate with his big eyes, his toddler voice and his endless energy…coming down the stairs on Christmas morning yelling the random word, “cannonball” as loud as can be. Or sweet, little preschool Sarah with her bangs, curly hair, toothless grin, and giggle that melted my heart; leading her little brother by the hand through the house and the clues in our annual Good Friday Scavenger Hunt. 

 We have many traditions surrounding video around here.  We always film the typical holiday escapades; Christmas Morning, Easter egg hunt, birthdays, just before Trick or Treating etc.  We do the school concerts and special events.  We always film a little on the first day of school before they head off on that big day.  If you are anything like me you are often behind the camera on these occasions and although you hear your voice a lot you don’t see yourself in too many frames.

 We have a ton of footage of silly, fun-loving times too…. extra curricular activities, New Year’s Eve dance parties, home based talent shows and summer days of dress up with Mol’s kids and the imaginative skits, plays and routines they come up with. One of the funniest is Sarah, Nate and Ty attempting to reenact the “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” with a furry creature they had caught.  It seems at “take 15” I finally quit recording. 

 My kids LOVED watching these hours of themselves on video and so did I.  It warmed my heart to no end.  These dvd’s are some of our greatest treasures and will always be so.  If you haven't recorded your kids in a while get to it!  Document these wondruous times as often as possible!  And if you haven’t downloaded those clips off your videocamera in a while…go run…do it now…and enjoy every precious minute!!

 

Art from the Heart

This past weekend Sarah picked up her latest creations from her second round of pottery classes.  She returned home pleased as can be and so proud of her handiworks.  She LOVES these classes and there seems to be no stopping her.  She starts her next session in early April and I can’t wait to see what they make in the spring. 

Sarah eagerly bestows her pottery to others as gifts.  I have grown very attached to the cat mug she gave me and use it proudly at work each and every day.  Her brother is now the lucky owner of the fish sculpture, her dad a cow, and her grandma and grandpa proudly display a wishing well.  My favourite piece Sarah has made is the heart shaped jewelry box, which she gave me for my birthday.  There is certainly no better gift than something homemade… created and prepared in the little hands of our favourite little people.

The other day I wrote about treasures.   There is no doubt that these pottery creations are ones we will treasure in our family for many years to come.

Treasures

My parents recently bought a condo.  It is a great move, a fabulous place and a lovely location.  I could not be more thrilled for them.  Along with moving and downsizing comes a purging that must take place.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have helped them work through this process and needless to say I have come home with the van full of treasures of sorts…multiple times.  It is now my turn to house the family punch bowl, coffee urn, extras chairs, folding tables and humungous turkey platter etc.  Good thing we bought a bigger house!

My mom sells Avon and had years worth of fun stuff to go through.  Who can resist a brand new make up bag, beach bag, purse, pair of shoes, slippers, mug set, serving platters and the list goes on.  Good times!

Nate and Sarah are both now proud owners of official CFL footballs and Nate has enough sports memorabilia to fill two rooms when we redo his bedroom in the summer.  However, the items that now reside in my own home, that I will treasure most are the little things like; the set of corn plates I used growing up, the sundae dishes that are way older than me and the banana split bowls I fondly remember from way back.   The boxes of Christmas decorations I sorted through were narrowed down to a smaller number that will be hung with pride on our own tree this year.

Finally, an old blue trunk that is been in our family for years, and I have bugged my mom about forever has made its way to our house.  Now, instead of housing winter clothes at my parents, it will hold all of our family’s dress up clothes.  Costumes, wigs, hats, shoes, accessories…dressing up never gets old around here, particularly when Mol’s three monkeys are over.  I love that my kids still let their imaginations run wild and play for hours with this stuff, creating plays and acting silly.

As we work through this process, I can’t help but think about which items that I have inherited from my parents will in the future be passed on to my own children and what other things they may one day treasure and want to keep for their own.  I am a nostalgic person.  I am all about memories and traditions. I also don’t like clutter and value organization and order.  Needless, to say with all of these new additions rolling in the kids and I have been busy this Spring Break going through a ton of our own stuff.  The kids are most definitely moving out of the toy phase and they are ready to do some selling at a garage sale in the upcoming months.  They LOVE this process and are very gung ho about getting rid of toys and such they no longer use if these see a profit in their future.

 Around here it is “spring cleaning” at it’s finest!

 

 

 

The Extras

Today we wrapped up the hockey season.  Nate had a phenomenal year and although I won’t miss the 7:45 am games or the rush of the 5:00 pm practices, we were still a little sad to see his first season draw to a close.  Nate was blessed to have started hockey the same year as the Jet’s return.  He is an avid Jets fan and it really seemed like everything fell into place for him in such an incredible way.  The coaching Nate received was incomparable and the kids and parents on his team were nothing but kind, gracious and generous throughout the season. 

Although, Nate’s “ice time” maybe over for a while I am pretty sure there will be many more hours of playing street hockey with his buddy who lives across the street, or taking shots on his dad in the driveway in the upcoming months.  Nate’s other recent hockey obsession involves his hockey cards.  A friend on his team, taught him to play “Hockey Card War”.  It works just like playing card war except you use the players jersey numbers and who ever has the higher number gets the cards for that turnover.  He can play this for hours and funny enough…he ALWAYS wins!

As we head into spring, Nate will turn his attention to baseball.  Sarah, on the other hand, has decided that after four years of soccer that she is ready to hang up her cleats.  I am sorry to say that Sarah may have taken after her not so athletic mother.  Just a reminder…I am the girl who ruptured my Achilles tendon dancing at a Christmas party.  Let’s hope she got some of her daddy’s genes in this regard.  This spring, Sarah will continue on with Brownies and start a new round of pottery classes, with swimming for both kids set for the summer.

Thinking ahead to the fall, this past weekend we took Sarah and Nate to an open house at a local curling rink.  An instructor spent an hour and a half on the ice with both of the kids and they LOVED it!  Blaine has curled for years and we were happy to see the kids show such enthusiasm for this great Canadian sport.  Both of them have expressed an interest in trying curling when the season starts up again in October.

What sports, camps, or lessons to put our kids into?  These decisions never end. This topic is one that comes up over and over again.  So many choices, so little time. Balance.

As parents, Blaine and I strongly believe in giving our kids plenty of opportunity to try new things that they are interested in, as an attempt to find what they are passionate about, what they excel in, or what they just, plain enjoy doing.  

Extra-curricular activities…a never-ending work in progress.

 

Time for an Update…

A couple of readers have asked about how Nate has been doing in regards to PANDAS.  Check out this post from last summer to see the full story.

Nate has been doing great.  The Fall brought a couple of blips…one where we saw a dramatic shift in his anxiety and behavior and he ended up on a round of antibiotics even though he himself did not have Strep throat.  However, it did come to light that the EA in his class did at the time.  There is some evidence that kids with PANDAS can even merely react to people around them having a Strep infection.  Going on meds is not something I hope we have to resort to often but if it occurs only a couple of times a year…I am okay with that.   Within a day or two of being on the antibiotics Nate was undeniably back to his old self.  Since then he has been doing extremely well and only recently did we have some concerns arise again.   Since then, those concerns seem to have worked themselves out.

Toward the end of last year, we also got in to see the experts at the Anxiety Clinic at St. Boniface Hospital (finally...there is a long wait list!).  Because PANDAS is still relatively new on the scene, there is a lot that is not understood about it. In many ways it is unchartered terrritory.  Still, our doctor was extremely helpful and after seeing her a couple of times we all agreed that moving forward we will only contact her if problems arise.  She did recommend a great book that I found very helpful to use with Nate, entitled, “What to Do When You Worry Too Much”.  It has a workbook format and contains great strategies and ways to talk with kids about anxiety issues.  It helped Nate really learn to easily share what he is feeling and it gave us a common language to discuss any "worries" he has.  This book helped him tremendously and he is much more open now about any anxiety he is feeling, which has become minimal.  There are a number of other great books in the series too.

When I reflect back on the past year and how devastated I was last spring when the word PANDAS became a possibility in our family, I can’t help but think about how much I have learned from this whole experience. 

I was terrified when I first starting reading about PANDAS.  The Internet can be such a scary resource.  But things are not always as bad as they first seem.  Nate is doing so well and I am truly grateful.  I have learned so much about my son over the past year.  He is much more open now and we talk about his feelings and how he is doing more frequently and easily.  It is a blessing.  

My little boy is thriving in so many ways. He is excelling in school, has a new found passion for the game of hockey, and has a bunch of great little friends.  He has a wonderful imagination, a sense of humour that doesn't quit and a heart of gold.  He makes me proud each and every day.  

Secondly, I believe so strongly in intuition.  If something doesn’t feel right with your kids…. trust your gut. Sure, kids go through phases and such, but sometimes there are other logical explanations just waiting to be uncovered.  As parents, we know our children better than anyone and we need to advocate for them until the end of the earth.  I am so grateful that I trusted my gut and that my children are blessed to have an extraordinary pediatrician that was able to connect some dots that many others would have missed.  

Only good news in this update!