Upcoming events

So I have to start with the cutest story this morning. I had just put Charlotte back in bed after her morning milkfest and saw Brayden in the hallway (around 6:45am) walking towards my room. As I motioned to my lips for him to be quiet he looked up at me with wide eyes and excitement and said "Mom, guess what! There are icebergs on the rooftops outside!"

Oh how I love this kid!

So I'm not sure that I've blogged about our upcoming adventures yet so now is as good a time as ever! Sean has 3 months of elective time that he needs to do in his training and it starts in January. This requires him to leave Kingston and work in other places! So we decided to head down to Dallas and live by my sister for a bit! He was able to get a spot at a Sports Medicine Clinic down there for 5 weeks which is great! So we just found a place to live the other day (which relieves the stress!) and it's only about 10 min from Jeni!! We're so excited! So anyway, we'll be there for 5 weeks and then we have a week to get ourselves up to Calgary for the next 6 weeks! Sean will be working with some Orthopods up there (my Dad included of course) and hopefully learn some good skills to bring back to Kingston. The fun part of this whole trip is the fact that we're driving it! There are only a few states that we'll miss out on, but otherwise we cut through a lot on our way down to Dallas (New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas), then up to Calgary (Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana), and then back home again (North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan). Wow...I guess we'll hit the eastern states next week when we drive down to Orlando...so that just leaves the west coast untouched! Maybe next time! We're all excited and look forward to a fun trip together and some much needed time together!

Yesterday I talked to Drew's teacher about this trip and what I could do to help him stay focused on school work while away. She was actually really excited for him and suggested he keep a journal with pictures to document the experience. She also said mapping was a great thing to learn (does GPS count??) and working with money! He's pumped to do this and will do a little show and tell when he gets back for his class! One thing she did say though was that he was doing excellent with the school work, but still struggling a bit with behavior. Drew has always had this response from teachers since he started kindergarten so it wasn't surprising. He has had his fair share of office visits and calls home because of little spats with other little boys. He is a perfectionist and is very hard on himself when he can't get something the first time. I often try to bring him down to earth and reassure him it's okay to fail at first, but to keep trying. His teacher said that the other day he didn't understand what to do, or couldn't figure out the answer to something so he asked her what it was. Instead of giving him the answer, she redirected the question in a different way to try and get him thinking. In response to her, under his breath he said "What kind of teacher is she anyway!" haha...I love him...but we are learning that he's a very literal thinker, even down to cutting things out of paper. He does great with straight cuts but round cuts like a flower petal he struggles with. I guess I need to get him back on the piano because he sounds like me! I'm a very technical thinker too!

Our two Christmas trees...one in the front room so you can see it from outside and the other in the family room. I decided to keep all my decorating to one level this year.

So I got my entire house decorated for Christmas since I didn't want to wait until we got back from Florida. I like to enjoy the Christmas spirit for at least a month before I take it down again! Brayden was an awesome help in getting things unpacked and put together! He LOVES to help and doesn't see it as work, just has fun being together and seeing the end result! So after unpacking all of my Christmas stuff I got the packing itch and decided to go through all my clothes in the house and decide what stays and what goes! Why did I do this? I don't know...but hopefully it won't turn this house upside down! I think half of my storage room downstairs is full of bags and boxes of kids/pregnancy clothes! Get them outa here! So I'm working today on that and hopefully I can get rid of a bunch of bags!

Taylor is STILL struggling with poop! I don't want to talk about it but just want to document it for my own good. I'll look back at this year as the year of the potty and hopefully laugh! Last night at the dinner table she got down from her chair, went over to this little table where I have a Christmas calendar and I thought I heard her peeing on the ground, but when I looked I couldn't see anything. Well then I notice her sloshing her feet in something and having a gay old time! Seriously? Why does this not gross her out! I don't get it...

Well I HAVE to get my work out in today so the scales tip on Saturday...I have a deadline to make people!

L