Life changes.....

I was thinking the other day....wow has my life ever changed since I became a mom, don't get me wrong I knew it would but it struck me how much it has changed in ways I would have never imagined.

• Long gone are the days I'd spend $200.00 on a sweater or a pair of shoes just because I liked them (I was finally able to part with an expensive sweater recently that I have held onto for years just because I had paid alot of $$'s for it).   I now buy nothing full price, for me or the girls
• I used to be a Walmart snob......now I sing their praises
• I used to buy a new car every 4 years, mine is now 8 years old and needs to last another 4 or 5, until Tienna hits grade one, although I'd love a bigger SUV it just ain't gonna happen anytime soon
• Shopping for clothes is no longer a luxury that can take hours it's more like "I need a white shirt....ok I can likely get one at whatever store" so I run in with 1 or 2 kids and find what I am looking for pick up 2 sizes that I think may fit, pay and leave.  Once home and the kids are in bed, I try on said shirts and the one that does not fit gets returned.  I bought a new bathing suit last week in this manner, the woman at the cash thought I was nuts as I bought 6 bathing suits.....5 went back!!!!
• I now cook real meals...ok not every day but I do...no more bags of chips for dinner, this is a good thing though :-)
• I rarely watch TV when the program is actually on (other than Treehouse) ...I am so glad I made the jump to a PVR
• Chores are broken down into 1 to 2 hour segments, the maximum amount of free, reasonably uninterrupted time I get at a time
• While I have always been active, I am more conscious of it now, I need to stay fit and healthy for my children and also show them a good example (this is why I eat my junk food after they are in bed, yeah I know bad mom!!)
• It will be another 7 years or so until I can go into the washroom by myself, both at home and in public, it's typically like a party in there for me now, especially at home where I am also usually joined by the dog and a cat!!
• I am way more adventurous with trying new foods now, again trying to lead my example......I now even eat broccoli (still hate it but I grin and eat it!) and I have found I actually enjoy most of the new things I try, so bonus
• I never really felt like I was a part of my community....now I do.  I always felt like I was missing out on something and now I finally feel like I belong and I really love and enjoy it.  
• I have met a ton of people I never would have otherwise met as other than through our kids our paths would have never crossed,  many of these people have in turn become great friends

Ah changes.....what would life be like without them....they keep us guessing at what's around the next corner and you just have to roll with them, embrace them and enjoy them.

I have to get up at what time?!!

This past Saturday Ciera was performing, with 3 other girls, in a dance competition......45 minutes away from our house.......at 8:19AM....and had to be there 1.5 hours beforehand.   YIKES!  I asked her teacher "do we REALLY need to be there that early?"  After all the competition didn't start until 8:00AM how far ahead could they possibly get in 19 minutes?  She thought that no later than 7:30 would be ok.  This meant getting up at 5:30AM for me.........now I know some of you get up that early every day but for me I'm used to getting up at 7:15 so 5:30 is darn early!!!

I had every thing packed and ready to go before I went to bed, I had also asked Ciera "do you want to eat breakfast here or just have me get you out of bed and carry you to the car?" she said she wanted to eat breakfast here, I reminded her it would still be dark.  "That's ok"...all right then.

Flash forward to 6:00AM when I go in to wake her up....."just carry me to the car when we are ready" and she rolled back over and went to sleep!!  So at 6:20 I bundled her into a blanket, carried her downstairs and put her in a chair, went back up and got Tienna up, changed her, rolled her into a blanket and put her in the car, then went back and got Ciera and put her in the car. This of course was after 2 trips to the car already putting our necessary stuff in.  Whew!!  On the road by 6:40.  It surprised me how many people were on the 407 at this time on a Saturday morning.

We arrived at exactly 7:30, everyone and everything out of the car and headed to the entrance...great a flight of stairs and me with a stroller.   Thanks to other moms who have also been here and done this, they just grab the front of the stroller and up we go.

By 7:50, Ciera was in her dance costume, makeup on, and hair done.  Confession time....to those who know me, you know I don't wear makeup....so it's tricky enough putting it on let alone on someone else who happens to be a squiggling almost 6 year old.  But we got it done, by the way the lipstick is the worst part to do.  I also confess one of the other moms did her hair....I had no clue how to use the bun "net" nor how to put her fake ponytail on, and since I didn't even watch as I was doing her makeup at the time so I still don't know how, other than there were about 4,000,000 20 bobby pins in it.  This was the end result...



This is a $40 ponytail, which her teacher then lopped off to shoulder length...I almost cried!

I took advantage of the time and quickly fed Tienna breakfast and changed her out of her jammies!!! Tienna has quite a fan base at dance, there is a group of 9/10 year olds who adore her and she had quite an audience while she ate her breakfast and then lots exclamations like "oh look how small her pants are!"

Just after 8:00 we dropped the girls off with their teacher backstage...Ciera is too young to even think about being nervous her comment was "I'm so excited" so a hug and a kiss and she was off.   Their dance is very cute...it's jazz and done to Madonna's "Holiday", which brings back memories of the Dominican Republic for me at age...never mind....!!  But they did a great job and all smiles as they came off stage. 

Now the waiting started, we had to wait until 10:00 for adjudication....Tienna is not known for her waiting skills.   Lots of walking around, going in to sit and watch others perform, then more walking around, got Ciera out of her costume, then back in it to go on stage for adjudication (yes I know....why?)  She needs to wear it 3 more times without it being dirty!!!  

Finally it's 10:00 and they go back on for adjudication...by now Tienna is totally out of sorts, she had been up since 6:30 and her body was telling her it was soooooo nap time.  Way too much talking by the dance dude and they finally get to the scores.  Our girls were in Novice and got a score of 83.11 which earned them a Gold (there is amethyst, gold and platinum).   Well done girls!!!!

Now Tienna is out and out crying and thrashing around......get Ciera dressed to her asking about 15,000 50 times "Can we go back in and watch some more?"  "no honey I'm sorry we need to go home".  Back out to the car, this time helped down the stairs by a mom...seriously a man was standing there watching me bump the stroller down the stairs and a mom came over to help.  Granted Tienna was laughing at the bumping but still why would he not think to help?

Tienna fell asleep before we were on the highway, Ciera refused to give in to it..  Once home we had lunch, Tienna went to bed for a 3 hour nap, Ciera changed into her dance outfit from 2 years ago (yes it still fits!) and proceeded to put on an entire recital  in the kitchen

me?  I napped off and on for 2 hours in the afternoon on the couch.  These early  mornings are just too much for me!!!!

Officially waterlogged

Victoria, Ciera and Tienna "we're here......"

Last Friday could not come soon enough for Ciera, she had been looking forward to this day for weeks....we were heading to Niagara with her friend Victoria (and her parents) for a night at Great Wolf Lodge.   Thursday night Ciera came downstairs with her little suitcase packed, when I asked what was in it I was impressed...she had a pair of PJ's, 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, I asked "what about underwear and socks?"  "oh yeah" and she scooted back upstairs for them. 

We were in the car all of 5 minutes when she asked "are we there yet?", she does it as she knows it drives me insane!!!  I had planned our departure to coincide with Tienna's naptime, my thinking was...ok she will sleep on the 1.5 hour drive and she will be good for the afternoon, Ciera was under strict instructions not to play, tickle, or talk with her sister in the car or there would be "big trouble", Ciera stood up to her end of the bargain, Tienna however did not.  Tienna was wide awake the whole drive there...sigh.

We arrived at 2:00PM and by 2:30 we were in our bathing suits and in the waterpark. 

Victoria and Ciera all ready to hit the water



The whole family set to go!



What a fun place, Ciera was up and on a waterslide before I could even blink, I was surprised that she was not even hesitant, and proud that she is really coming into her own and out of her safety shell.  Tienna was in baby glee...all this water!!! 

She would lead you to where she wanted to be, in little water fountains, puddles, it didn't matter.  By 5:00 her little knees were all scraped from crawling around on the tile floor.  

Ciera was up and down slides, in and out of the water all afternoon.  Our friends were wonderful and would watch Tienna so Ciera and I could go on slides and spend some time alone.  3 hours of water fun and then a bath for the 3 kids, life is good!

We signed the older girls up for the "PJ Party" and we dropped them off in their PJ's at 7:00, and we put our bathing suits back on so we could enjoy some almost kid free time at the waterpark.  Again we took turns with Tienna and I had a blast.  

Ciera had a great time at the PJ party, again no hesitation about me leaving, I had to call her back for a hug and a kiss.  By 9:45 we were all back in our room and Tienna was having her bottle and we all thought wow she is going to crash hard, she had been up since 8:00 and going hard all day.  By 10:00 she was crashed in her pack and play.  We had some snacks, some quiet time and then it was off to bed for the older girls.......Tienna woke up as they were coming in.  When I say woke up, she didn't just cry softly this was full out wailing....for a good 15 minutes, but somehow Victoria managed to fall asleep while Ciera lay in bed with her hands over her ears.  Ok, the kids were now all asleep...phew...back to the couch for mom to relax for a bit.

I finally went to sleep and poof at 11:30 full out wailing again from Tienna, rigid body, eyes not even open just wailing...loudly.  I understand, it was dark, she had no idea where she was and why, heck last time she slept somewhere different her whole world turned upside down.  It took me an hour to get her back to sleep.   I flaked out.....until 1:30AM full out wailing again..........nothing I could do to console her...I gave her a bottle....nope...I rocked her..nope....changed her diaper...nope.  Poor Victoria got down off the coveted top bunk and went to the bed in the other room with her parents.  Ciera woke up, "why is Tienna cuddling with you?" I get asked accusingly "I'm trying to get her to sleep Ciera, I did the same with you when you were a baby".  Finally I decided to just have Tienna lie down on me and we'd sleep this way....bear in mind I am in a small single bed, thank goodness on side was up against a wall.  Tienna settles down...it's now 3:30AM...I hear soft crying from the other bed....Ciera.  "what's wrong?"..."why does Tienna get to sleep with you?"....oh for crying out loud..."ok come over here and don't knock her she's asleep now".  So Ciera curled up at the bottom of the bed across my legs, I had pillows on one side to allow me to not sleep with the wood frame on my back and Tienna on me with a pillow on my other side she if she rolled she would not hit the wall.  She woke up a couple other times but I was able to settle her quickly.   Not much sleep for any of us that night.

By 11:00AM we were back in the waterpark......with a bit less enthusiasm than the previous day.  We stayed for about 2 hours and then after asking Ciera "are you sure you don't want to go on anything else?" "no mom I want to go to the arcade", we hung out in the arcade for an hour as Tienna got more and more miserable......yep she was tired...really?  I can't imagine why :-)






Tienna on her first "ride", please note Ciera with the big sister  hand protectivley on her sisters leg!



End of day 2......too pooped to smile

As we walked to the car Ciera was sniffling..."why are you crying?" "I don't want to go home, I love Niagara Falls, I wish we could live here","I wanted to go on more water slides" this continued for quite a while until she fell asleep.   Tienna was asleep pretty much before we left the parking lot!  I drove home the long way so they could both get some sleep.



Princess Ciera on the way home



Princess Tienna on the way home (it's hard to catch a car shot of her as she is still rear facing!)

 Even that night as Ciera went to bed she was crying "I wish we could live there, it's fun"..."yes honey and that's why it's called a vacation".

Ciera is still refusing to take off her wrist band.....guess she had fun!!!  Let's just say Saturday night was a quiet and early bed night at our house!!!!



Tienna when I went in her room at 6:00PM when I went to wake her up for dinner!!

Hmm...... no wonder she was not overly thrilled when I took her swimming yesterday morning, I guess she was still waterlogged!!!