Family Pics

We had some more family photos taken last weekend and are very happy with the results.  What do you think?

Camping...

The day after Maya's hospital episode, we were due to go camping.  Weather & schedules just didn't work in our favour this year and our 1st planned camping weekend of the summer was cancelled due to rain.  This was our only opportunity to go so, stitches or not, we were going.  The previous evening's activities pushed our schedule back but we still managed to get to the campsite in time for Friday dinner.

It was a great weekend with nice-ish weather, fun friends & a nice campground so we were happy.  M just LOVES camping!  John just LOVES what I cook when we go camping.  Everyone's happy!

Scars and Stitches...

Well, Maya had her first big injury this month.  She has other scars, but other than her surgery scars, we don't know the history of them.  This one, we know what happened...

Maya and John were having a shower before bed and Maya slipped in the tub.  It wasn't a big fall but it was the perfect angle on her chin to create a deep gash.  She was holding Johns leg & he had a hold of her but she was soapy so he couldn't hold her well enough. 

So, off to the hospital we went to get stitches.  After a 2.5 hour wait, we finally got in to the examination room for someone to look at her.  With freezing in her chin, getting the stitches wasn't the worst part of it for Maya.  It was being held down to keep her still.  With a nurse holding her head, me holding her arms/chest & John holding her legs, she was TICKED off that we were holding her down and screamed quite loudly about it.  M ended up with 4 stitches in her chin but the pink popcicle at the end seemed worth it for her.  As for me, once the stitches were in I got woozy, nauseas, dizzy & cold sweats.  The nurse quickly sat me down, gave me juice & a cold compress.  I never have been good with blood.  The whole ordeal took 4 hours so we were back home at midnight.  Yawn....

The next day, we all slept in before heading to preschool & work.  M was so proud of her bandage & hospital bracelet, she wouldn't let us take either off.  She had to show her friends...

Pre-school...

Despite how much we liked her daycare, and how convenient it was to us, Maya wasn't being very challenged there.  She had friends, adored her care-givers and enjoyed playing there... but needed more stimulation than what they could provide so we made the decision to move her to pre-school in the fall. 

As it worked out, that week we were offered a part-time spot at CEFA (Core Education & Fine Arts) which is the pre-school at the end of our street and the place we wanted to put her before.  Part-time wasn't ideal, but it was only for 2 months so we figured we could work it out.  Had we not taken the part-time spot, we would have remained on the wait-list for full-time which was another 8+months long.  So, we took the spot. 

Upon our return from Ontario, Maya started pre-school and, so far, loves it there.  She's taken a few weeks to adjust but she seems to be blossoming... developing a great sense of humour, not being as needy/whiny, and just growing up quickly.  One thing we didn't know was of 16 kids in the class, 12 are boys so M's a bit sillier, more vocal and assertive now but not beyond our limits.  We're thrilled with the decision to move her there even though it's more expensive, less convenient & shorter days for her (we're going to need a PT nanny soon to do pick up at the end of the day because it's really hard for us to leave work early every day).

Trip to Ontario...

Maya & I spent the first 2 weeks of July in Ontario, visiting my family.  We had a lot of fun visiting Gramma & Grampa, Aunt Sue & Uncle Brad, Cousins Megan & Grace...  It was a lot of not doing much, which was great!  We also spent a day at Storey-book Gardens with G&G and cousins putting live images & memories to all of M's nursery rhymes which I think was one of the best parts of the trip for her.

Juggling...

I've been back to work part-time for 6 weeks now and I'm finding things are slowly getting a bit easier now.  Balancing pick-up and drop-off times are challenging but we're lucky to have Maya in a full-time daycare that will look after her for as long as we need.  That's going to change in July when she starts pre-school and her days get shortened and we need to arrange 'after-school' care.  It's funny how pre-school is shorter and less convenient than day-care but costs so much more.  I guess it's like the bikini argument... the less fabric, the more it costs.

Juggling other things is getting easier too.  I have 2 week-days off each week and those 2 days are REALLY packed tight now with all of the things I used to spread over 5 days.  I'm actually busier on my days off than I am at work.  At times, I long for the days when we only had our apartment and nothing else.  No houses, no tenants, no house maintenance.  No car, no motorcycles, no maintenance on those.  No 2 businesses, few bills, no accounting.  Housekeeping was simple.  There were no gardens, hot tubs, cats, triathlons or 'things' to fill our days looking after.  We just enjoyed being together, going for walks and snuggling together at night with a movie or a book. 

On the good side, it is nice to be working again.  It gives me something to do (although not interesting), it brings in a tiny bit of money and gets my brain working again.  I would like to work part-time in my own industry but that doesn't look like its going to happen any time soon so I will continue to amuse myself in this way for a while longer...

Birthday party...

Even though her birthday was on May 19, we celebrated Maya's 3rd birthday on May 28 with the assembly of her new 'big girl' bed and with a pizza party with our friends.  M was so excited about all of it.  Especially the chocolate cake...