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It’s been five days since school officially ended.  It feels more like two weeks – this is a good sign.  We’ve done so much as a family and are looking forward to more fun things to do. 

Seeing that W loves animals and both Z and V are older and have a different appreciation for the zoo, we reinstated the zoo membership.  It has been so great since we are close to the zoo and we love the splash island.  Some days we just go to the water park and then go home.  Some days we visit the animals.  It all depends on weather. 

Before I forget, we’ve also been enjoying sleeping lately.  M has been successful in sleep training W.  It has been 6 nights that she’s been sleeping through the night.  When she cries out, M just talks to her on the monitor and tells her to lie down and go back to sleep. The best part is when she wakes up she is happy.  She just talks to herself and does not get up and call out or cry.  In fact this morning, she fell back asleep after 20 min or so of talking to herself.  M and I got to shower and get ready. 

And where were Z and V the entire time?  Well, yesterday we got back into working with Perler beads.  Cyclops took me an hour and a half to make last night.  So when they woke up this morning, they went downstairs and got to work.  Instead of coming to our room and waking us up they chose to work quietly downstairs.  We feel blessed.  

Yesterday, they were both sitting on the floor in their room singing the chorus to the song Unsteady by X Ambassadors.  It was so cute.  M and I were giggling to ourselves listening to them. And it was all because we watched World of Dance with FikShun.  

In less than a week, we will be flying to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, for a week of all inclusive vacation. I can’t wait.  It will be so nice to just relax and play with the kids and not worry about chores at all. 

We’re currently on our way to MakerEd TO, happening down at the Lower House of the York School.  M is presenting with his colleague on how to choose the right bots for your classroom. 

The kids are at daycare so we are in a maker date.  So excited!!!

Surviving on Routines

Week two of back-to-work just ended for me. It has been non-stop since.   It feels good to just lie down and write, even though I have some planning and marking to do for next week. There’s no way I would’ve survived if it wasn’t for routines.  

So here’s my daily routine. 

6:45am Wake up. Brush teeth. Put on contact lens.  Change.  Hair and makeup. Dress W.   Head downstairs.  Grab lunch bags out of fridge, stuff them in respective backpacks.  Breakfast.  Jackets and boots for the girls. Out the door by 7:55 am.  

8:05 am. W at daycare.  8:20 am.  V at school for morning care.  8:35 am. Me at work. Go to office and grab attendance sheets.  Photocopying (if any), log into computer and check email.  Bell rings. School day starts.  

3:11 pm.  Bell rings. School day ends.  Tidy desk and pack bag.  Out the door by 3:25pm. Pickup V by 3:40pm latest. Head to W.  3:56 pm head home.  Home by 4:05 pm.  Jackets and shoes/boots off.  Backpacks on hook.  Lunch bags out on kitchen counter.  

Wash hands. Nurse W.  girls play while I empty lunch bags and dishwasher (if clean).  Prep dinner.  5:30 pm. Start dinner.  Cleanup. 6:00 pm. Homework for kids or free time. Pack lunches if not tied up with kids. 

6:45 pm. Head upstairs with W.  Bath, change, nurse and books. Lights out at 7pm.  Other kids come up and get ready for bedtime.  Books done and lights out by 7:45pm. 

Head downstairs.  Sweep and tidy kitchen. Pack lunches if not made yet. General tidy up if the house.  8:30 pm.  Ws first wakeup.  M goes to her while I try to get some school work done. 10:00 pm. W up again. I’m with her this time and stay in bed until the morning. (I don’t get to sleep through the rest of the night as she wakes several more times and fusses. )

And it starts all over again.  

What’s your typical day like?

Life with 3

It’s Sunday.  That means the day before Monday. Yes. I’ve got work to do to prepare for this week at school.  It’s challenging to get this down with three children.  

Typically, I do any schoolwork at night after the kids go to bed.  Friday night I decided to just relax and go to sleep early.  I was zonked.  Last night, W wouldn’t settle so I was stuck with her from 9:00pm. I even slept with my contact lenses on.  Yeah. Bad. 

V wanted to bake chocolate chip zucchini muffins.  Z wanted  to play a board game with M.  And little W? She just wanted to be held by me. So I wore her and measured out the ingredients for V to mix.  It’s challenging. W just wants to keep eating chocolate chips.  And she’ll scream if she doesn’t get it. Lol

I finally got some reprieve while W naps. M stayed with her in case she wakes.  I got about 2 hours while the kids play on iPad or watch tv.  V prefers watching than playing.  

Here’s what I need to get done by tonight. 

– make seating plans for each class

– Mark assessments from fri so I can return them in a timely manner

– plan this week’s lessons and assessments

I’m now upstairs with W.  I didn’t get to finish marking two class’s assessments.  But I did make the seat plans (which need to be adjusted tomorrow) and plan for tomorrow’s lessons.  That’s all I got done.  This is her 2nd wakeup and it’s only 9:30pm. 

W had a rough time falling asleep – almost 7:30pm.  She usually is asleep by 7pm at the latest.  Her first wakeup was at 8:30pm. I sent M to settle her to buy some more time so I can get some more prep done for school.  I’m not sure why she’s waking so often.  She’s also super upset when she does. 

Friday night she slept for almost 4 hours before waking.  And that was her only wakeup really.  Tonight ia a replay of last night it seems.  Perhaps she’s teething.  But her appetite is good.  She’s definitely much better with the coughing. In fact a lot less.  We’ll see. 

I don’t know how other moms with three kids do it. Seriously.  I have 15 min tops in the morning, after dropping off both girls, to prep before the bell rings.  After school, I have 10 min tops to finish and pack up before leaving to pick them up. My nights are mostly taken up with going to W.  I also tutor on Tues nights. 

I feel like I don’t have enough time at all do anything.  I hope things get better with Ws sleep soon. I can’t have this every night. It’s stressful. 

The Low Down

I managed to survive my first week of back to work. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous or anxious about being back in front of a group of 11-13 year olds.  I must’ve been going on adrenaline during the week because I fell asleep hard while nursing W for bedtime.  I’m exhausted that’s for sure!

As for W and daycare, by Day 2, she had it figures out that she wasn’t going to be staying with me for the day.  Here’s what it looked like:

Day 1 – she cried when we got into the daycare home 

Day 2 – she cried when we got into the neighbourhood

Days 3-5 – she cried even before we left the our house 

Despite the tears, there are many moments of progress. For example, on one day, she slept straight from 12:30-2:30. She usually wakes halfway through her nap.  Also, she doesn’t cry as much anymore when she’s there. Her eating is hot and miss.  It depends on what the food is. 

At home, we’ve definitely seen developments.  Lately, W has been wanting to self-feed.  This morning, for example, she fed herself most of the Rice Krispies and milk.  The key is the food has to be able to sit in a spoon and the spoon has to be the right length.  She’s so happy when she feeds herself. I might have to help her every so often but she’s content to sit and eat in her high chair in the kitchen while I prep food. 

W just fell asleep in the car.  We were on our way home from grocery shopping, hoping to nap her in the car.  I guess she’s eaten her fill for lunch while we are the store.  She ate grapes, freeze dried bananas and Nesquick chocolate corn cereal. She’s been munching since we left the house basically.  

I love how her face looks so relaxed.  Not sure what we’ll do.  By the time we drive home and get there, she might wake up when I take her out and not be able to go back to sleep.  So we might end up driving around. It’s a good thing we have some food while we’re driving. 

It’s a Good Thing

I’ve been up since 4:45am.  W decided to wake up and roll around the bed, climbing on top of me to go over and call dada – even though he’s deaf to world as he’s asleep.  After about 30 min of nursing her back without much luck, I strap her onto the Tula.  She’s finally out.  Took 15 min to settle. 

But now I’m up for the day.  It’s a good thing I went to bed super early.  I think I was asleep by 9pm – haven’t done that in a while.  Reminds me of  how I felt at the end of the first day of teaching in my first year.  I literally was exhausted – mentally and physically.  Well, this time, it was just physical.  

Seeing I didn’t do any planning last night, I’m going to just have to wing it again today. I think I’ll do some more mental Math strategies They liked learning about percentages. I have to get clarification on how to move forward with each class anyway since I’m still unclear about what needs to be done still. 

So, I kind of liked being up early because I got a lot of things done. 

1. Emptied dishwasher 

2.  Prep breakfast 

M3. Made coffee for both of us

4.  Loaded the bags into the car

5.  Did my hair and makeup without anyone under my elbow

6.  Packed lunch bags into backpacks. 

But unfortunately, M didn’t sleep from 5:30 am and on.  So it may not happen again.  Besides, I won’t be able to go to sleep super early today because I have to tutor.  And lunches have to still be made.  And I’ve got some work to do to prep for the rest of the week. 

First Day Back

It’s 3:25pm. I’m sitting at the turnabout, waiting to pick up V. I’m early.  Just like I was this morning. I’ve been running on adrenaline since this morning. I can feel the exhaustion slowly setting in as my day unwinds. I still have to get through dinner and bedtime. I think I can make it. 

As expected my room was a mess. This was just one part of my room.  I had a stack of chart paper on my desk and there were things strewn around the classroom in corners and shelves.  The hall pass has gone missing and there is no sign-out sheet for the classroom.  The pencil sharpener is missing and the hole puncher is broken. Basically, it feels like Sept and I have to setup my room and clean.  Everything is covered in dust.  

On the plus side, I had a great time doing math with my kids and I got to know some of their names. I started them on some mental Math strategies working with percentages.  The feedback was good – some kids told me that things were starting to make sense to them.  I also have the ones who stare because they’re just lost.  I’ve got to work on those ones. 

Hitting the sack early tonight.  Too zonked to do anything else.  Not even watch tv. 

Working Mom of Three

I can’t believe the time has come.  In less than 12 hours, I will be in room 307, teaching Mathematics to 12 – 14- year olds.  It feels like Day One of Back to School, except it’s the middle of March.  Earlier this afternoon, I was panicking.  I couldn’t find my school keys.  I remembered keeping them instead of turning them in to the caretaker just before I left for my maternity leave.  It took a little bit of searching and it’s now attached to my purse.

Today, we stayed home all day, with the exception of going for a walk to get some groceries.  All weekend long, I felt the need to get the house back in order since I would be going back to work this week.  I would hate to come home to a messy house.  So I at tidied up the front at least.  It made me feel better. But the rest of the house is still a work in progress.

I guess you can say that I am anxious about returning to work.  The morning rush out the door will likely be the biggest source of stress for me.  I need to leave the house by 7:45 am, drop off W at daycare by 8:00 am, then drop V off at 8:20 am at her school.  If all works out, then I should be entering the school doors by 8:30 am.  That gives me 15 min to catch my breath, organize myself for the day as the kids enter the building by 8:45 am.  I know, it’s tight.  But what can I do?

My time as a working mom of three will be very busy.  I’m not even sure what spare time is going to look like, honestly.  At the end of the day bell, I have to rush out to pick up V and then W, get home to make dinner.  At least, we’ll be home by 4:30 pm – with some time to spare to make dinner.  Z gets home between 4:30 pm and 5:15 pm so we usually eat before 5:30pm.  By 6:00pm, I’m getting W ready for bedtime.  The other two kids have lights out by 7:45 pm.  The rest of the night is going to busy – packing lunches and trying to prepare for my classes the next day.

Lately, W has been feeling much better but her sleep at night is still not great.  She usually wakes about 2.5-3 hours into the first part of the night.  Then she may or may not stay up coughing from 1-3 am.  I really hope that she sleeps for the rest of the night.  I was so exhausted last night – W stayed up from 9:30 pm – 12:30 am.  I had to ask M to take her and he ended up sitting in the chair holding her for 2 hours.  Then I don’t remember when she woke up again. But she work up at 6:20 am this morning – a little too early for my liking.

Wish me luck tomorrow.

 

DST

Ok, I just came down from trying to put Z to bed.  Yes, yes, we still sing to them.  We tried to take it away but they whine.  V is much better sleeper in the sense that she falls asleep way before him most nights.  It’s already 8:32 pm and he is having trouble falling asleep.  This always happens when DST (Daylight Savings Time) hits.  I’m sure there are plenty other people whose sleep is also affected by this change.

Knock on wood.  Why?  So far, W has not woken up since she fell asleep with me.  She’s definitely feeling much better now.  It’s about time.  It has been almost two weeks, for crying out loud!  So she gets to go to daycare tomorrow.   W got her Chicken Pox vaccine today.  I got M to take her to the doctor while I stayed home with V and baked a carrot cake.  I never knew she liked carrot cake that much. She asked me to “trim” off the edges of the cake so she can try it out.  Cheeky monkey.

As part of our decluttering efforts, I finally got around to posting the three Moby Wraps I own.  I used to have more, if you could believe it.  W is too heavy to go in it now that she’s a toddler.  It was great when she was a baby though.  We still have two toddler Tulas and a woven wrap that I’m still trying to break in.  Oh, and not to forget, a Storchenweige ring sling, too.  I still use all those every now and then, depending on the days.  It now dawns on to me that this is the reason why playpens never worked with our kids.  They just love it so much on us.  Who can blame them, right?

So, as mentioned, M said this week would be my birthday week. He asked what I wanted for my birthday.  My response?  A clean and tidy house.  Maybe I should have also added, SLEEP.  Well, may I say that it’s “getting there”?  Honestly, there’s still a whole lot to do.  It’s never-ending.  Anyways, back to my birthday…Today, after M came home from picking up Z from school, he brought flowers that Z chose.  Z also wrote the sweetest message inside.  It made me teary.   On his own – no coaching. Just him.  My sweet boy.

Ok. I spoke too soon.  W woke around 9pm and had a total freak out when M went to her.  She’s usually ok.  When I went to her she calmed down immediately.  

Oh, before I forget, I made the kids a cardboard elevator.   Saw it on Pinterest and totally loved it.  So did W.  She knows what elevators are and pretends to press the buttons to choose a floor. She loves it when I ask her to choose a floor and I close the door, making the sound effects as the elevator goes “up” or “down”.   

 

March Break

The other day, Z comes home with a phone number written on a small piece of paper torn from the corner of a larger piece.  He wanted me to call his friend, S, to set up a playdate this weekend.  It is so cute. In fact, I just got off the phone with S’s mom and she was under the impression that the kids have already set a playdate up.  So funny.  He’s going to be thrilled to hear that he’s going over to S’s house – apparently they might be playing Mario games.

That aside, things have been very hectic lately, despite being on March Break.  In my mind, I’m thinking, “It’s already Wednesday today.  I have to go back to work next week and W is still not completely healthy!” So, yeah, I am panicking a little bit inside.  I have not done any preparing, because I was told that my class lists are still not ready.  This was two days before the break began.  Yeah, talk about people being disorganized.  I’m just going to go in and have a super chill first day.  You know, get-to-know-each-other-kind-of-day.

Anyhow, about W, she’s still coughing – but significantly less.  She has missed five days of daycare so far.  This was not part of the plan.  Poor thing last night, she was coughing so much that she threw up twice.  Every time she catches her breath, she starts coughing again.  It was a rough night – lots of getting up and rocking her and even wearing her in the carrier.

We’ve been having a lot of just low-key activities since it’s been so cold out lately.  IKEA and mall visits and playing at home is the extent of our exciting times. V is also recovering from a cough.  The only people healthy are myself and Z really.  Even M has a cough.  

I still can’t believe that I’ve been home with W for 15 months. It really does not feel that long.   She has grown so much and is now a little person. Lately, she shakes her head no and nods for yes.  At night she points to her water bottle if she wants a drink.  She is able to take instructions and follow them.  My baby is growing up. In the above picture, she’s discovered she has eyelashes and was trying to pull at them. Funny.

PIn other areas, we’ve been making some changes to the house.  Nothing huge or costly, just tidying, organizing and decluttering.  Our most recent purchase is a kitchen island.  Yes, it does make the kitchen a little tighter but it also provides extra counter space that we are so short on in the first place. V love eating there as she did for breakfast. You can see she’s having her cup of tea, looking all serious. 

This march break feels different. I do miss Z.  When we’re all home during the day, Z is at school.  It seems unfair but somehow he’s learned to accept it. I know last year, when he was in grade one, he kept saying it was unfair that V was off and he wasn’t. Next year they will both be in school. 

 As for me next week, wish me luck.