Yay Day!

(Note: Although Postcards from the Mothership is now live at http://danigirl.ca/blog, I'm continuing to cross-post for a couple of weeks until I get all the kinks out. See the original post at http://danigirl.ca/blog/2007/08/23/yay-day-4/)

***

It's a dreary kind of day here, grey and threatening rain - not that I can see a window from here. And I have a cold that kept me up all night and so I might have otherwise been tempted to be a little cranky and feel just a little bit sorry for myself.

But then I started thinking about all the things that I have to be grateful about these days:

• a healthy, happy pregnancy. (What they say about the second trimester being the "honeymoon trimester" really is true, isn't it?)



• the new nanny. I don't know who is happier, the boys or Beloved and I. Not once has Simon said, "I don't want Jen to come over today" whereas he complained endlessly about going to the previous caregivers' houses.



• a four-day weekend this weekend, and a four-day weekend next weekend. Yay!



• as if a four-day Labour Day weekend weren't enough to celebrate all on its own, we're going on a mostly FREE weekend getaway to Smuggler's Notch resort in Vermont!! The media relations folks out there (Hi Karen and Barbara!) caught some of my posts about the trip to Bar Harbour in their 'family vacations' google filter, and they're doing an experimental blogger outreach campaign. They've offered us the standard press package, including two nights of accomodation - free! We've got all sorts of cool activities lined up, like an "evening wildlife watch" family canoe trip, and day camp for the boys on Saturday so Beloved and I can enjoy a (don't laugh!) Segway tour of the resort. You know, those stand-up motorized scooters? Now picture pregnant, naturally clumsy me on one of them - hilarity, if not trauma to innocent bystanders, is sure to ensue. Plus they have FOUR pools, EIGHT waterslides, a couple of different playgrounds, trail hiking, shopping... it's going to be a busy weekend! (Don't hate me; it's an embarrassment of riches, I know. I'm not worthy - but I still said yes!)



• and last, but not least, the boys continue to make me laugh every single day. We haven't told them about the baby yet (the anticipation of the new school year is enough to make their little heads explode; I can't burden them with a five month wait when I can barely stand it myself) but we have been casually dropping babies into the conversation a lot lately. The other night at bedtime, the boys spontaneously started talking about having a baby brother or sister. Tristan's preference is for a baby boy, whom he thinks should be named "Joe Joe". Simon, on the other hand, favours a baby sister, and he insists her name should be "Darth Luke". Note to self: don't engage the boys in the baby-naming process!

Now you go! What's making the sun shine in your world today? (But, please click over to the new blog location to leave your comments!)

Yay day - the birthday edition

I have a lot to be grateful for as I look ahead to my birthday tomorrow. (Shameful how I gratuitously troll for your birthday wishes, isn't it? It's the Leo in me.)

We're on our way home after a nearly perfect summer extended weekend away. Details will follow, but it included endless hot, sunny weather; a cottage tucked into a perfect little campground; my brother's family; a pilgrimmage / day trip to my very favourite summertime place; and a baboon sitting on the passenger-side mirror of the car begging for Ritz crackers. No, really!

So today, I'm happy for family, for boys who are road-trip tolerant, for weekend getaways, for perfect summer weather, for people who love me and whom I love in return, for a life so full of joy it exceeds whatever wildest hope I might have had for it when I was growing up. It's the best birthday gift a girl could ever want.

And you? What are you celebrating today?

Yay day!

See how nice I am to you? I'm about to brag blatantly, but I'll turn it into a yay day so you can brag, too.

We got Tristan's report card this week. They 'grade' them on a four point scale, from "needs to work on this skill" to "beginning to develop" to "meets developmental expectations" to "exceeds expectations". He met developmental expectations in most areas - math and science and art. He knows all his letters except for Q, and can count past 40 in English and to 28 in French. He can also follow simple directions in both languages, and remembers his vocabulary in both languages well.

(I must admit I'm still just a little bit entertained that they grade four-year olds in junior kindergarten on math and science and art, to be honest. I kind of expected to get a report that said either 'does' or 'does not' eat paste and colour within the lines. They take this educational stuff pretty seriously right out of the gate.)

He got a few "beginning to develop" in some areas where we already knew he needs to put in a little more effort - writing his letters, for one, but mostly in areas like following instruction and social skills. He still follows his own mind a little more often than the teacher's instructions, but he's come miles and miles from that first week, where we got called in for "the talk."

So while I'm proud that he did well overall, and the comments reflect a bright, happy little boy who is a pleasure to have in the classroom, who enjoys role play and music and story time and interacting with his peers, there were two areas where his teachers said he excelled. He got a '4' for exceeds expectations in oral communication and reading. I'm really not surprised that my boy is particularly literate, given that I can say without modesty that he comes from exceptionally literate people, but I'm proud nonetheless.

We survived the first year. The lovely part is not so much that I'm looking forward to the next year of challenges, but that Tristan is. That's my boy.

And now, after all that, I turn the microphone over to you. What makes the sun shine in your world today?

Yay day!

It's been a few weeks since we've celebrated a yay day around here. The sun is shining and it's two weeks until our Bar Harbor vacation, which are two things worth celebrating all on their own right, but I have more!

My bliss right now comes from the fact that I've been able to spend a lot of time with the boys recently, and I think we're all the better for it. We're in a phase where they're generally a lot of fun to be around (when they aren't bickering like an old married couple, that is!) and I am constantly tickled by their expanding world views.

Kerry and I took the boys to Westfest on the weekend while Beloved attended a weekend-long seminar, and Tristan recounted his encounter with a life-sized Lunar Jim and Clifford the Big Red Dog with some enthusiasm. "But," Tristan concluded with a worldly sigh, "it wasn't the real Lunar Jim."

"How do you know it wasn't the real Lunar Jim?" I asked.

"Well, Mom, because I looked at his back and it had a big zipper on it." Remind me not to let him get too close to Santa Clause this Christmas!

Later that day, Tristan also decided he needed to make a craft, but he was quite secretive about what it was. He asked me to cut a large circle out of a piece of paper, and returned a few moments later with what he called a CBC frisbee; sure enough, he had made an impressive approximation on his 'frisbee' of the exploding cabbage that is the current CBC logo - freehand, using only the image in his head for reference. Be still my patriotic, mothercorp-loving heart!

Yesterday after a bath, Beloved was helping Simon put on his jammies when Simon observed that his fingers were "fancy". It took us a minute to figure out he meant they were wrinkled from the tub.

So my joy is simply that I love my boys, and they love me, and with that everything else in life is golden.

Care to share what's making the sun shine on you today?

We definitely need a Yay Day!

Whaddya think, peeps? We're long overdue for a Yay Day around here.

If you haven't been by on Yay Day before, the rules are simple. Leave a comment with something that makes you happy today, or something that makes you proud, or something that makes you smile. Celebrate the small victories in life - and the big ones, too! For once, you're allowed to brag to your heart's content.

Given my emotional instability of the past week or so, I'm feeling surprisingly happy today, and that alone is a reason to celebrate. And the boys, those boys who were in one of 'those' testing phases, the relentless and exhausting testing phases? Apparently they're done. They've been just lovely little creatures for the past 30 hours or so, and I've been thoroughly enjoying simply being with them.

Hmmm, which came first - the relaxed and contented mommy or the relaxed and contented boys?

Regardless, here's my contribution to Yay Day: the simple pleasure of a sprinkler and a warm summer evening.







(That's a soccer game in the background. One of the occupational hazzards of living across the street from a park - the invasion of the minivan-driving soccer parents three nights a week!)

Your turn! What is making you happy today?

Yay day - again!

I'm feeling joyous today. Simply happy. I'm having trouble suppressing a smile. The sun is shining, the first of our family summer vacations is next week, I'm going for a pedicure with my mom tomorrow night. Life is good.

You seemed to really enjoy the last time we shared our happy thoughts, so let's do it again. Here's how I described it last time, in case you missed it:

I'd like to know what's going on in your life today that makes you happy. What's worthy of commentary? What are you proud of? Why do you (or someone you know) deserve a pat on the back? Share an anecdote of how life is good in your little corner of the universe right about now.

Mine is small, but I'm very pleased. Simon is officially sootherless. Yay! You know what, it was so easy. The day after I posted about it last week, Simon again forgot to ask for his soother at bedtime. The next night, when he asked for it I told him we didn't know where it was. He asked me to look in the usual spot where it ends up when we take it away in the morning and are to lazy to put it away properly in his room, and I lifted him up to show him it wasn't there. I told him we'd look for it the next day. The next night, we couldn't find it either. (Because it was hiding in my jewellery box, of all places.)

He never shed a tear, and did not once wake up looking for it. On the weekend, Beloved took the boys to Toys R Us and got him a special treat to compensate for his lost soothers - an Incredibles bubble blower that Simon has had his eye on for some time. And that was it! Simon asked for the soother last night, and Beloved reminded him that he's a big boy now and doesn't need a soother anymore, to which Simon replied, "Oh. Okay." And that was it!

Okay, now it's your turn. Brag, share, boast, celebrate. Big things or small things. What's good in your life today?