New Calling

Yesterday I was called and sustained as YW president. I am excited about it - but as always, it is hard to get released. I will miss being in primary with my kids. It was a really fun 16 months as primary chorister. I got lots of nice hugs from junior primary ( I didn't get to go the Sr. primary because I went to YW instead).

I am excited to work with my lovely friends who are already serving in YW. It has been 8 years since I was last in this calling. I have learned a lot since then, which i am happy to put to use. Should be fun!!!

And Andrew is the Councillor assigned to YW. I like correlating with that guy!

Update on Eve post.

I have an official correction to make. Apparently Jackie is not Eve's favourite person in the family as I mistakenly reported in my previous post. When the question was put to Eve at supper the other night she looked around the table and then pointed to .......herself.

I apologize and hope to hold a higher standard of reporting in the future.

Really I should know better. When you think about it it, it a no brainer. I should have considered the following information:

Eve's favourite gender - female ( it is rare that we get to any music sung by a man while Eve is in the car. Her only exceptions are Cold Play Paradise because she likes the video, Micheal Jackson because he sounds like a girl, and Foster the People because Pumped up Kick's is catchy)

Eve's favourite number and age - 4.

That information alone should have been enough for me to get that answer right.

For the record - I think it is awesome that Eve loves herself so much and really really really hope she will be able to keep that feeling her. whole. life.

Eve is growing up!!!

Today I registered Eve for kindergarten. Wait - that didn't do it justice. I'll try again.TODAY I REGISTERED EVE VANESSA RASMUSSEN, MY YOUNGEST CHILD, IN PUBLIC SCHOOL!!! Yes, that is better.

As you might have guessed, we both were REALLY excited about it. And why shouldn't we be? I have often felt that being the youngest must be hard. No matter how old you get, you are still the youngest. Eve may be hazy on some of the details, but she KNOWS that in turning 5 and starting school she is officially in the club that her big sisters are in - and for Miss" don't call me baby" that is super exciting. And it's everyday - so that is 2 days better than preschool. And how do I feel about my baby starting school? SO EXCITED - she will LOVE it!! She is my most adventurous child and I can't wait to watch her adventures. And I'll have every morning free. WIN WIN!

Eve is maybe a little too excited about her 5 birthday, which is still a little over 5 months away. If you ask her how old she is she will tell you that she is "almost five". It was so warm over Christmas, she kept saying, " It is warm, so it is spring and almost my birthday - and then I can go to school." Don't worry, we talk a lot about all the things that will happen before then. We talk about it so often that she can list them... Mom's birthday, Alice's birthday, Soccer, Then her birthday, then summer and the beach then School. She has already picked her birthday party theme " Who dunnit" ( though that may change - since her obsession with the Who Dunnit Backyardigans episode as recently been replaced with an undying love of Ruby Gloom (thanks to Netflicks)

Anyway - we are enjoying Eve. Five will be great but four and half is pretty awesome too. Four and a half is an age when sometimes she just seems so grown up to me and other times her little body still looks so small - too small for the unstoppable spirit that is in her. Here is a bit about her now:

1. Favourite person in the Family: Jackie. hands down. She loves wearing Jackie's old clothes and loves it when we tell her she looks like a little Jackie.

2. Favourite person in the world: her friend Chelsa. Can't wait to see what those too will get into as they get older.

2. Favourite game: Playing Barbies with Jackie. She asked Jackie so nicely today, "Do you want to play Barbies with me?" And Jackie is basically a barbie playing SAINT. She will go to heaven for being SUCH a patient sister.

3. New Skill: Skating and something I thought she would never learn: PLAYING IMAGINATION GAMES BY HERSELF!!!! Jackie has finally rubbed off on her.

4. New Interest: Chapter books. Once during Christmas my dad came up from the basement and said, "Eve's reading "Dress for Success" and I wasn't surprised at all. She has the bookshelf in her room and all the kids chapter books are stored there and she is always taking them ALL off the shelf to "read" them. Tonight she choose one for her bed time story and sat through three chapters. I think it is all about being grown up.

5. Favourite food: Toss up between Vanilla yogourt or Honey Nut Cheerios. Or maybe Nutella toast - no it couldn't be that, who would buy such an unhealthy item? Not me.

6.Worst part of her life: Chronic constipation. We are still battling this very rasmussen of problems. She is getting better at drinking her water and "special juice" but still basically births a baby each time she goes. Which is what I thought of she said the other day, " When I grow up I will be a mom, but I am scared to push a baby out". I read too much into her fears though. Yesterday she said, " Mom, when you had me did your stomach burst open?" The, "No, you came out my vagina, remember" answer calmed her fears, then confused her.

7. Things that always surprise me: How good she is at sports. Not that it should surprise me. It just that I learn things so differently than she does. She just knows how to move her body. So whether it's soccer, or dribbling a basketball or learning to skate - it just comes easy for her. Her Daddy's girl.

8.Favourite Christmas present this year: Playdough ice cream maker. ( not Andrew's favourite thing to clean up.

Anyway - we all love Eve!!! I am super lucky to be her mom. She is so much fun. And she gets to go to Kindergaten next year!! Woo woo!!

The B word

Jackie has officially banned the b-word from our household lexicon. Some of you are probably thinking "was that necessary? Is that a word you use on a regular basis" . The answer is yes, we used to use it regularly - because this is not the b-word that rhymes with witch we are talking about ( I don't think Jackie knows that word). It is the b-word that rhymes with mud - as is BLOOD. Jackie does not like to see, think about or speak of blood. Sometimes she doesn't even like people to say the word "heart" because it makes her THINK of blood - so no crossing your heart and hoping to die please.

Anyway - on Friday I took the girls to see Puss in Boots at the cheap theatre. On the way home Eve started talking about her cut on her leg ( that she got from skating on Thurs) and the conversation turned well - bloody. Jackie began to feel upset. I told the girls to stop talking about it but Alice and Eve were slow to stop. I said, " Girls - stop talking about that, I'll turn on the radio so we can listen to music in stead.

And guess what was on the Radio - no not Leona Lewis, "I keep Bleeding", or U2

a "Sunday Bloody Sunday " something even worse. A commercial about donating blood, " Blood, It's in you to give". Jackie felt the universe was tormenting her and the rest of us had to laugh.

Later that night, I went with Eve to pick up a pizza for dinner. The dj on the radio said, " We'll play this song so you all can dance your butts off". I heard Eve laugh and say to herself, " Dance your butts off, that' s so funny. There would just be soo much blood". Clearly, she is much more comfortable with blood ( maybe a little too comfortable?)

On Saturday I took Jackie and Eve skating ( Alice was at a play date). This was out second time skating this year and I was impressed at how well they were doing. Eve is a maniac with the skating trainers and pushes herself so hard. The way she goes at it makes me want to put her in timbits hockey next year. When she is on the ice she is oblivious to anything else and what I hear most often is, " Mom, I don't need you" Which is great news for Jackie who has a different philosophy when it comes to learning to skate. Anyway, I felt bad when I took Eve's skates off and found that her skate was still rubbing her leg funny even with the extra socks I had put on her. Her cut had started bleeding again and she had bled through her socks and leggings. We couldn't talk about it on the way home in the car because it would upset Jackie. Quite frankly Eve thinks it is awesome that she has a cut so big that it requires three Dora band-aids.

Today I think Eve must have been looking at her band-aids. She and Jackie were eating a snack at the kitchen table while I was loading the dishwasher. She came up to me and whispered in my ear, "Mom, I'm thinking about blood". Then she smiled at me and looked at Jackie andwent back to her chair with an air of benevolent superiority. I am glad that she decided not to talk to Jackie about her thoughts of blood - but I have to say that having your 4 year old whisper in your ear that they are thinking about blood IS a little creepy....

Christmas 2011

Another Christmas has come and gone. It was a great one where we ate a lot, played a lot, visited a lot, spent too much money and didn't take hardly any pictures. Without a bunch of good pictures it is hard for me to know where to start - so I'll start with the only pictures I have which are from the Christmas Eve Nativity Pageant. The pictures aren't of the best quality since they were taken by Andrew ( so he is not in any of them) with Sam's i-phone. I love the group shot because it shows Karen and Eve is their cute animal costumes. Thank goodness for Karen being an animal, so Eve could have fun being an animal and not sad about not being an angel. Elise (7) was Mary and she tried to get her brother Chase (3) to be Joseph but that didn't fly, so her dad (Sam) was Joseph, with Chase trying to be there with his Dad the whole time.
Here are Audrey and Jackie being the Angels of the Lord. We have a Christmas cd that quotes the angel of the Lord bible verses in one of the songs, so Jackie has that part memorized. Because of this she always wants to have that part, and so far has not had to fight for it. Eventually someone else will want to have it, but until then Jackie will continue to bring good tiding of great joy to us each Christmas Eve. Audrey was pretty adorable as well.
This was the first year that Alice has been a performer in the pageant. She has always been to shy and instead would be back stage working the lights (holding a big flashlight). This year she decided to be a wise man with her beloved aunt Anne and wasn't even embarrassed of me joining her. She did a great job and looked "kingly" in her outfit. Anne's outfit was exceptionally original this year - you can't really see in this picture but she basically has a birds nest on her head.

Christmas Eve we always have an ethnic dinner. This year we chose Greek food and it was SOOOO GOOD. It was better than Christmas dinner in my opinion. We had calimari, Garlic shrimp, souvlaki chicken, lemon garlic lamb chops, pita bread and tzatziki a salad and baklava for dessert. It was divine.

After dinner and the pageant we read an abridged version of the Best Christmas Pageant Ever, then we put out our stockings and put cookies and milk out for Santa and some food for the Reindeer and then the kids went to bed. Alice, who this year as been initiated into the world of adults by not believing in Santa, kept asking me things in a sly and secretive way like " are you going to put the stuff in our stockings before you go to bed or just as you wake up". Alice was careful to allow the rest of the kids to believe is Santa and really enjoyed being in the adult club. Not believing in the man in red did not seem to squelch Alice's Christmas excitement - I think she maybe slept a total of 2 hours tops.

After the kids went to bed we Anne, Andrew and I watched It's a wonderful like and cried in all the usual places. Anne would get texts from Greg and we knew that he and Nicole were watching it too. Family Traditions bring us together even when we are apart. "sniff sniff".

So that was Christmas Eve! I didn't get much sleep - due to my own excitement and Alice's late night antics. At 4:30 I decided to stop trying to get her to sleep and just take her upstairs and give her a book to read. I read the Hudson Family Book Club pick ( the Sisters Brothers) and she read Time at the Top and asked me what time it was every 15 minutes until 6:00 when we finally got to wake everyone up. Anne nearly had a heart attack when we woke her up.

So that was Christmas Eve - I'll write about Christmas day another time. Still can't believe the Christmas Break is over.

2nd Grade Trials update

So Jackie got sick with croup the night her teeth got pulled out. Dentist stress induced croup. So we spent some time by the open door so she could start breathing normally. And Jackie's mouth some how kept bleeding until the morning of the next day.

Jackie looked like life was notwoth living for 24 hours, then finally was compelled to eat 2 bowls of mint chocolate chip ice cream and perked up. She coped in the morning by watching Ruby Gloom continuously, (thanks Netflicks) Eve was happy to have her home, even if she was more morose than the Misery character on that show. Jackie was back to her happy self by the evening - though still a little freaked out by the gaping holes in her gums.

And I don't have to worry that Eve is heartless - because the night of Jackie's appointment, when I told Eve that I did not have time to snuggle with her, ( something that normally results in her whining and crying) she simply said ," Because you need to snuggle a long time with Jackie, coz her had such a hard day". I said, "That's right, Evie." and then she just turned over and went to sleep.

2nd Grade Trials

Last week Jackie had a dentist appointment to"check the eruption" of her adult teeth. The word "eruption" in that way always sounds funny - like my child's mouth is a volcano or something. But looking at her x-ray I thought it kind of looked like a natural disaster. So much many teeth coming in at crazy angles. I new the news would not be good and I was right: she needed 4 teeth extracted and a spacer put in on her bottom teeth - and it needed to happen as soon as possible. That's exactly what every 7 year old with a genetic fear of blood and dentists wants to hear. I knew it was going to be really bad when Jackie screamed when the Dentist was putting in the plastic plates that are just meant to make room for the spacer caps.

Needless to say, Jackie was extremely worried about the appointment - and how could she not be? She's had teeth extracted before and knows it is really not fun. She couldn't sleep so we decided on a plan of action : I would change her appointment date and not tell her when it was until it was time to go to the dentist. It worked well because she stopped thinking about it and was able to have a pretty normal week - but boy did I feel awful picking her up early from school this afternoon. She was so happy to see me,

" Why did you need to pick me up?". All I said was, " You don't really want to know". Then she figured it out right away. She also figured out that I had not changed her appointment, but realized that since she thought I was changing it, it worked to not change it - but I still felt duplicitous.

On Alice's advice, Eve and I picked her up a little early so we could have some time before we went to the dentist. We had a snack for her and asked her what she would like to do. She decided to go to the mall beside the school to buy Alice's Christmas present and while we were there I got her a new hairband and she got to see Santa (from a distance). It was a nice time and she managed to not cry in the car on the way to the Dentist, and even held it together as we were walking up the stairs. The kind dental assistant was her undoing, and the tears started coming - but she was fighting. All attempts at composure went out the window when the Dentist started putting the freezing in - we are talking full on screams. My baby was being tortured. I am not an over protective mom, but I did go up a couple of times to see if there was anything I could do. Eve however, was unfazed - she just looked at me a couple of times and said, " Jackie's crying loud isn't she?

The worst part was the freezing and she was pretty brave for the rest of it, - Eve and I only heard the occasional whimper. An hour and 15 minutes later, when she walked back into the waiting room she looked like she'd been through hell. Alice always looks bloodied from battle but triumphant or at least relieved that it's over - Jackie just looked beaten and sick. She got to pick 2 toys and Eve got to pick one, but really a small plastic camera and a ring are poor payment. The $900 it cost didn't make me feel that great either.

It was a rough day for her - but not the worst - her worst day is still the day she forgot her lunch and thought someone had called me to bring her one but no one had, Alice wasn't on the bus and no one told her where she was, and no one was home when she got home, because Alice was supposed to unlock the door and let the girls in while they waited 15 minutes for Andrew to get home ( I was facilitating a work shop) so she had to sit tired, hungry scared and alone in the garage....that is still her worst day. This one was her 2nd worst.

But on a bad day we must be grateful for small blessings. When the admin assistant at the school found out that she had to get her teeth pulled, she gave Jackie a necklace that has a little tooth shaped container on it that they give to the students who lose teeth at the school. When her front teeth were loose, Jackie was hoping they would fall out at school so she could get one of them, so that was such a nice thing. Also, this is the day when Jackie has her class's stuffed bat Pip to take care of, so that helped brighten her mood tonight.

Here is the thing - how can you not hate the dentist? People who say they like going to the dentist are crazy -- have they never had teeth pulled? Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for dentists - but I am very relieved that none of us have to go back till the summer time.