Catching Up...

Maraget is over two months now, and man is she ever getting chunky.  Cara will soon be taking the two mont pictures and will be making up some sort of post I am sure.

Teresa is loving kindergarten, although we need to get her tested for her hearing and eyesight (eyes passed today).  Also, we are learning about the insanity of government trying to micro-manage our lives as Teresa was not allowed to bring any Hallowe'en candy as part of a snack, and we just got in trouble for sending a fruit snack (fruit gummy things) as they aren't healthy enough.  Thanks, but I'm the parent, so butt out.  Lastly we have dealt with our first head lice scare and Teresa has been bringing home all sort of exciting illnesses...  The girls have both had the stomach flu in the past few weeks and one other horrible sickness that required us getting up at all hours of the night.  Last Sunday night at 3 am (Monday morning I guess), I got up and tried to run to get Teresa to the washroom on time and ended up kicking the bed in the darkness.  I have been limping since and I am pretty sure my middle toe is broken, of course I am ot sure because I spent time in an emergency waiting room (over 3 hours) during which time not even the people brought in by ambulance on stretcher had been admitted.  I gave up.

As for me, I'm still crazy busy with football, as we won the championship.  When you win you have more stuff to deal with after.  Losing is easier, though less fun...  After we won, we went out to Thief River Falls and enjoyed their water park for Ray & Myrna's 35th anniversary.  I have no pictures, as I was having too much fun getting wet with the girls.  I also learned that the CBSA at Tolstoi are a little more into their job than those at Emerson, no big deal, but to make a long story short I learned that  #1: Even if you have Andrea in your car, you can't use her booze limit as she is not "family" and #2: Tobacco limits are not actually duty free, you can only get tobacco as part of your limit if it has a "Canada Duty Paid" stamp on it (buying for a coworker, don't worry mom), which begs the question what the hell is the point of the tobacco exemption?

Um yeah, so here are some pictures, and some videos I have taken of the girls lately.

 

Teresa's Play-Doh version of Rapunzel

Frances & I watching skating.

I love it when Margaret falls asleep in my arms...

More of the same sort of cuteness.  I think Cara texted this to me at work...

Pics from the family photo session

Frances looking much too old

Same thing for Teresa.

Now for some videos:

Frances running like a crazy girl at skating.

   

Teresa skating a month ago.

   

Teresa skating two weeks ago

   

Teresa turning around a cone.

   

Teresa & Frances spin dancing.

Skating Classes

Teresa has been doing skating classes for four weeks now and Cara came out this week so we have pictures and video!  As an added bonus she came out to see Teresa's breakout performance.  Her balance, ability to get up and move have increased exponentially, and she is now the fastest in her class.  Her favorite time of class though is when she goes 'fast', and by that I of course mean that I am going fast, pushing her on a cone or dangling her in the air...   I think she gets that from Cara.

Falling on her bum is an important skill.

Look at her getting up all on her own!

And what stellar balance!

Happy New Year, etc...

Well now that I have the pleasantries out of the way, I figured I would post today simply to tell everyone about Teresa's first skating lesson today. It seems that Teresa does not like doing new things with daddy, as her first swimming lesson ever was a disaster, she cried on the way to gymnastics and today she tried every trick in the book to get out of the skating lessons today.

Today was more of the same. I was first told that it was cold out to skate, to which I informed her that was irrelevant due to the indoor nature of the ice rink. At this point Teresa went to her more traditional method of whining and crying to avoid them. She got herself worked up about almost everything, the extra clothes, the helmet, whatever... I got Teresa into the van and she was howling, so I tried the line "This is special daddy and Teresa time, don't you like spending time with daddy?" Well, if you have children and a sensitive ego (like me), do not try this line - ever - as Teresa cried "I like MOMMY!!! Not DADDY!". I was laughing so hard I went back to the house to tell Cara and then I left anyhow. During the car ride I calmed her by doing what all good parents do - bribery!

"Teresa, you are not behaving."
More Crying
"Teresa if you want a treat after skating you need to behave, and that means no crying and whining."
Crying Slows
"Teresa the way you are acting right now you won't be getting treats for a long time."
Exeunt Crying


The lessons were neat. Teresa walked to the rink carrying her skates and she was quite wobbly walking to the gate to get on the ice. If you want to know what the next 30 minutes were like, watch the following (and Thumper she ain't):

Actually it involved the teacher having them practice over and over and over again falling on their bum and getting up. Nary a child could get up without significant help, and Teresa was highly mediocre. There was also a period where the dads (I think there was one mom, and her kid was the only one that could balance - cheater!) held the kids up and we practiced picking our feet up and taking short choppy steps. I know I will be sore tomorrow as I haven't been skating much lately and this time I had to do it crouched the entire time... Nevertheless it was fun and Teresa seemed to enjoy it (she said it hurt her bum, but she LOVED me skating as quick as I could while dragging her skates on the ice at the end) so we shall return.

Tomorrow we do swimming lessons...

Lastly, in honour of the 100th season of the world's greatest hockey team, and to harass one grandpa while making the other proud, here is a quick video of Teresa. Any stories Cara tells about the making of this video are lies.