Mom to a JKer!

So the day finally arrived... The day when pregnant or comforting my gassy little infant seemed eons away. It has been really eye opening to me how time has virtually gone on fast forward upon returning to work after my first mat leave.
Here I am...a mommy of a junior kindergartener. What!?!
I shouldn't really complain because being a February baby, he just missed being sent to JK last September. It seemed to go ok and he seems to really like his new teacher. He wasn't too keen for daddy to leave upon drop off but the teacher quickly got him interested in the cars.
When hubby went to pick him up he proudly showed him a tour of his new stompin' (learning) grounds.

Chi-town!

Chicago!
Thanks to awesome Grandparents hubby and I managed to fly away for 4 days to enjoy Chi-town. It was great to reconnect (and not have any little people interrupting our every conversation)!
The bike tours along the waterfront were awesome. I was also surprised to have enjoyed the architectural boat tour. It was really interesting and the weather was great.
The deep dish pizza was well worth the wait but it was definetly hard to move after. The Cubs game was a great party - I have never had so much fun at a game before!
The best part, of course, was the welcoming hugs and excited smiles of our babies when we got home:)

Millions of peaches....peaches for me!

We took four kids on little sleep to the Winona Peach festival on Sunday and I'm the only one that had a nap after the adventure!
Despite the exhaustion created by our hot hike and outing , it is super cute to see how excited 4 year olds get to go the midway rides (our son has a cousin that is the same age).*

At first they (and their Grandma) seemed apprehensive to go on the "flying dragons" but after a few spins around they were old pros. After that there was no stopping them (except for the fact they were too tall for the bouncy castles!?)

*Note - upon first arriving at the festival, they were also equally enthused by the port-a-potties.

The Circle of Life Lesson

This weekend we had the opportunity to go to our first outdoor pig roast party (my uncle is turning the big F-word). There were about a dozen kids at this soiree ranging in ages of 2 - 9.
Most of the kids took one look at the roasting pig, proclaimed loud "EEWww gross - I'm not eating that" and hightailed it to other areas of the backyard party to scarf down their pepperoni pizza.
My son, however, much to the delight of the butcher, was fascinated with the pig. "Look mommy I can see the eye". "Look mommy I can see the teeth" It was also the first time he really fully connected the fact that the meat on his plate doesn't come from meat trees.

We just spent another week up at the cottage with the kids and quite frankly I am exhausted. I feel kind of like I just spent a week at a fat camp with all of the activities (but with copius amounts of food and beer).
My 4 year old has so much energy I can barely keep up. He always wanted to be "doing" something - and that did not include sitting his butt down with a sippy cup on a muskoka chair.
The good news is that he has come a long way from last year when he pouted and was upset for me putting him into the lake. Now I found myself being hyper vigilant about making sure he wasn't taking an unauthorized dip into said lake.
My 22 month old apparently likes to pretend at being a future femme fatale and you don't realize how much she can secretly do until you turn your back on her. Than she is scaling ladders and swinging on swings. Hmmmm...gonna have to watch out with this one.
But for now it's back to reality and the daily grind. At least I get to sit down at the office (minus the beer of course)!

Does anyone over 18 really enjoy splash pads?

I have recently realized I have a love/hate relationship with Splash pads. To be honest I don't really remember going to them as a child. They either didn't exist or perhaps were just a couple of small fountains spouting out of the ground? I did remember there used to be a lot more outdoor public pools in the 80's and the splash pads of today definitely seem to use more advanced technology than the small fountains of the past.
However, with temperatures soaring, no access to a pool and two small children I find myself packing up bags, jumping in the car and heading out to these places. But to be honest getting blasted in the face by streams of water is not really my idea of a good time. I find the whole experience kind of chilly and uncomfortable. The disgusting inevitable used band aids that litter these places also kind of turn my stomach - especially when your 10 month old decides to put them in his/her mouth and chew them like they are a free snack.
Not sure if it is genetic or what but my own two kiddies aren't overly big fans of being sprayed and heaven help me when they get a stream of water full on in the face. What they do seem to enjoy is splashing around in the puddles and activating all of the water sensors.
The reason I torture myself at these kind of places is because happy toddlers equals happy mama! On occasion I must also admit that when the humidex climbs its way over 35 the cool water misters are enjoyable for all!

Beach Bonanza

Call me crazy...but my mama guilt finally get the better of me and I managed to wrangle a vacation day off work to go on a field trip with my son's preschool class.
This time the daycare boarded the bus to take us to an indoor beach volleyball centre. Although a couple of beach balls did randomly make their ways over the net it was mostly just a trip for the kiddies to play in the MASSIVE sandpit. The best part was there was no constant worry of water or reapplication of sunscreen.
It was interesting for me to view the daycare dynamic as my days are filled with analytical adults.
I enjoyed watching the good cop/bad cop exchange between the caregivers and their charges. What was eye-opening for me was the appalling behaviour of 2 of the children. The kids sat in "time out" more times than I can count for throwing sand or running away. While the kids did sit in time out it seemed to do little to change their behaviour.
The best part of the day was that my son was just so unbelievably happy to have me there. I know that time is running out with regards to him wanting to have me around so I am grabbing them while I can. Now if only I could get rid of all of this sand in my hair:)