Elbow Valley Stampede Breakfast

Sunday, July 6th was our development's annual Stampede Breakfast.  There was a children's petting pen provided by Butterfield Acres farm, a live country singer singing famous cover songs, face painting and of course, pancakes, pancakes, pancakes for about 150 people to enjoy.  Christian loved the petting pen with baby goats, rabbits and pigs.  Liam, on the other hand, liked the idea of the pets, but when we asked him if he wanted to go in and pet the animals, he said no and held on tighter to me.  Face painting was a hit.  Christian, of course, wanted a vehicle drawn on his arm.  He asked the girl to draw Imo the Limo, a character from one of his favorite book series, Benny the Breakdown Truck, but of course she had no idea what he was talking about.  Christian thinks that just because he knows and loves all the vehicle characters in his Benny book, EVERYONE should too. 

Stampede BBQ at Daddy's Office

Christian, Liam and I attended Daddy's Stampede BBQ picnic at Daddy's office on July 11.  For four hours, I was chasing Christian and Liam around Daddy's office making sure they let his employees get work done, but more importantly, making sure they don't get themselves into any physical danger.  It was quite interesting for me, but the kids seemed to have a nice time exploring the office and chowing down on some good 'ol fashioned junk food.  We dined on burgers, smokies (aka bavarian style sausages), chips and soft drinks.  Christian said he wanted a beer, which made me laugh as he was referring to the root beer he helped put in the ice chest.   Liam was hard at play with two golf balls he was throwing around and chasing and climbing up the stair to the accounting department.  The weather was nice, about 20 C (which for all non-metric folks is about 71 F).  Liam was so overtired that within 1 minute of me leaving Mark's office, he was conked out.  It was nice to have a staff BBQ to show appreciation for them if even in a small way. I like the idea of Stampede where people open themselves up to others and show what it means to be neighborly or, in the work setting, appreciative.

Liam "Daycare"

July 8th marks the beginning of some great swimming memories with Christian, but it also marks an important milestone for Liam.  Given the nature of one person taking two kids to a swim lesson, I decided to take advantage of the baby sitting service at Killarney.  Christian and I dropped Liam off in the play room before heading to the pool for the swim lesson.  I was nervous about leaving Liam because I had never left Liam alone in a third-party setting.  Liam's personality is also distinguishable from his brother's in that he is a bit more reserved than Christian and needs more time to assess a new situation, new people before feeling comfortable. We stayed and got out toys we thought Liam would like to play with (a play garage with some toy cars) and soon after Liam was playing, we left to go to the pool.  I was sure Petra would call  me on my cell phone to tell me Liam was not happy, but surprisingly, I did not get the call.  

I left class to check on Liam through the window and he was sitting in the same spot we left him in and was playing with the same toys.  I felt sad to see him in there playing by himself.  Since there is only 1 caregiver for up to 8 kids, each child is sort of being looked after for basic needs as 1 caregiver can not engage with 8 kids at once.  I know this is a silly thought because at Liam's age kids are not interacting every second with each other and that the playroom is safe and fun, but it still broke my heart to see him playing in the same spot with the same toys.  As the week progressed, Liam was moving around the whole room playing with different toys and "mingling" with the other kids.  Amazing how adaptable young kids are!  Liam loves the playroom so much he tells me "no" when I tell him we are leaving.

Swimming with Lindsay-Week 1

After a one week to decompress from our Vancouver Island vacation, Christian began swimming lessons on Tuesday, July 8 for the first time since 2007.  He's taking lessons at the Killarney Aquatic Centre and is enrolled in Preschool 1-Sea Turtles.  Given my fear of deep water, I wasn't sure how Christian would react to being in an unparented swim class.  The night before class, he told me he did not want to go, so I braced myself for our first class.  Not surprisingly, though, Christian was eager to go to class and was very enthusiastic about it.  The other two children (age 4.5) in his class both cried when they were dropped off, but Christian had the biggest grin on his face and was Mr. Volunteer to be first to do anything the teacher asked.  The kids wear life jackets, so parents don't need to be too worried about leaving them with the teacher.  The kids spend some time in the big pool (.9 m) and then go over to the baby pool to play with water toys and get more comfortable in the water without life vests.  The week progressed with having the kids slide down a slide into the water and on Friday, Lindsay helped the kids do back floating (life vests on).  Christian even let go of Lindsay and was back floating by himself for about 30 seconds.

Two of the most memorable moments for me this week were seeing Christian in the baby pool getting squirted by Lindsay with a hose and having him see me through the observation window squealing "mommy, I'm having so much fun!", and dropping Liam off in the babysitting room without him having a separation issue.