Thinking back, it feels like we were just celebrating the year 2000! I CAN NOT believe that was 10 years ago!!! 10?! Oh boy ... Amazing how fast time flies!
We rang in the New Year in a quiet fashion at home. It was a nice evening though! We watched the Team Canada hockey game and then the Oiler's game and Cal and I had fun playing on our lap tops and chatting with people on Facebook (and each other!)! It was quite funny at times ;) Much different then the way we used to celebrate New Year's Eve!! I suppose when the kids are older, we'll venture out to those New Year's parties again (maybe!?)!?
New Year's Day we spent at home again, and enjoyed sleeping in a bit and having fun with the kids!! My parents and Lindsay came home from Saskatchewan on New Year's Day and Mom and Lindsay came over for a visit the morning of the 2nd. That evening we headed to the Streadwick's house in Sherwood Park for dinner and a visit. We had a great time and were treated to a very yummy dinner!! And kudos to Cal for picking out a great red wine for dinner!! Blake was shy for the first 5 minutes and then relaxed and had a BLAST playing with the 3 boys! I love watching him play well with other kids and having fun :) Emerson struggled through the hour around her regular bedtime and then was fine! She even let her godparents hold her for some of the evening!! They love kids and having 3 boys, enjoy having a little girl around once and a while and we were very glad she let them hold her!! The adults played a game of poker and much to my (and Cal's I think!) surprise, the women cleaned house!! And I realized I enjoy Poker - suppose it might have been different had I lost!?
On Sunday morning my Mom, Dad, Lindsay and Jeremy came over for a quick visit before we left for our New Mom's Group Christmas Party. We were doing a baking exchange and I had planned to come home from Brad and Julie's and bake 6 dozen raisin cookies, but much to my pleasant surprise I got a message from my Mom as we were leaving Brad and Julie's that she had made 6 dozen ginger snap cookies for me and would be delivering them in the morning!!! I was VERY happy!!! What a great Mom :) Thank you!!! We had fun at the Christmas Party! It's always fun to get together with our New Mom's Group. We have such a great group of people and it's nice that some of the Dad's join us once and awhile too! And it's great that many of us have had second children now and the babies have company too!! It will be so cool to see all the kids in 10 years and to share stories of the "old days!!" We already enjoy talking about the first few times we met at the health unit! They were all so teeny tiny!! Blake was the smallest for a very long time and now he's the biggest!! Kind of funny, because he's the youngest too! Emerson is the oldest in the "2nd generation!"
On Monday we started our last 8 week session of My First Preschool. We could still take Blake to the classes on Monday's, when Cal's off, but I don't think we will. He'll get much of the same things he gets from preschool at the day home. Emerson had a great time at preschool yesterday! She loved the music and was "dancing" like crazy!! It was cute! We will miss seeing our friends every week at Preschool :(
Today we went to what Blake calls "the big play gym" at O'Leary Leisure Centre. We didn't plan to go, but Emerson was up from her morning nap by 10, so I thought we'd go out. I asked Blake if he wanted to go to the play gym or Toys R Us and he chose the big play gym! So we went, and had fun!! It is so cold outside though. I am getting kinda tired of the cold weather. It would be nice to be able to go for more sleigh rides or even just play in the snow for awhile.
Blake starts gymnastics on Friday. I registered him in Tumblebugs at Dynamix Gymnastics Club in St. Albert. We've attended two birthday parties there and have enjoyed them! I'll be taking Blake most of the time. The program runs from 5-6 pm. I'm looking forward to spending some 1 on 1 time with Blake!
We start a new session of swimming lessons at the YMCA on Saturday. Emerson is in Splashers from 11 - 11:30 am (her first lessons!) and Blake is in Bubblers from 11:30 to noon! Cal will be in the water with both the kids most of time! He says he'll be wrinkled by the time he gets out ;) It will be nice to go to the pool all together and have both kids lessons back to back! Should be fun!!
So 2010 brings a whole new set of activities and fun!!! And my return to work ... I have officially mailed my back to work letter to my employer and will be back at work on March 1st. I am fortunate in that I will have been off work for 14 months and won't be returning to work until after Em's 1st birthday! But, I will still return with mixed feelings :S I was hoping to go down to a 0.6 FTE (3 days a week), but for numerous reasons, my manager couldn't do that. I'm also a bit sceptical about my position. There have been many changes within AHS since my leave began and I'm crossing my fingers that my position has not changed much!! I really enjoyed working in the community, but fear I may have to do more acute care work ... which I don't enjoy as much as being out and about!! We'll see in March! I have applied for a 0.7 FTE position at the Glenrose, which is 3 days one week, 4 days the next, with some Saturdays in there. I'm not sure what the days/hours would be, but if I get called for an interview I will sort that out before going!! I was hoping it might be 3 week days every week and 1 Saturday every second week. Then the kids would only be at the day home 2 days a week!! I will continue to keep my eyes open for a 0.6 position, but in the mean time I think we will all be fine with Cal working 4 10's, with every Monday off, me working Monday - Thursday (which is nice when there's a long weekend because I'll then only work Tues, Wed, Thurs and Cal will have the Tuesday off :) and the kids going to a day home Tues, Wed, Thurs (expect for the long weekend weeks!!). I've began looking for a day home and so far haven't came up with anything. But it is A LOT easier and less stressful this time around! I'm more confident in what to look for and I'm not too scared to ask too many questions or seem too picky!!! I'm beginning to think I might call Charlene who Blake stayed with for a few days in December of '08. She is a great lady and offers a daily rate. Although I had heard she may be closing her day home when her youngest starts Grade 1, which is in September. Soooo ... we'll see!!
I'm sure 2010 will pass as quickly, if not faster, then 2009, but we plan to make the best of each second!! Hopefully we'll be able to slow down enough to enjoy each other and spend a lot of quality time together! I find when we're on the go all the time the days pass even faster. We have no definite travel plans this year, but hope to get out camping quite a bit!
Cheers everyone and may 2010 bring you a year full of love, laughter, great health and much happiness!!
xoxo Cal, Tracy, Blake and Emerson
