Such a beautifully crafted and thoughtful carousel. Definitely worth a visit

Week 202 motherhood with 3 year 10 month old and 19 month old. 

July 25 to 31, 2024:

• July 25:  The week unfortunately started off with missing the last day of the Creative Chefs Summer Camp program because we had an unexpected visit to the hospital.  The older child was actually looking forward to making the yogurt parfait on the last day and asked me why we weren’t able to go.  Ah, well.  The solace is that we’ll be able to go next month when we attend the program again (assuming they will make the same items on the same days).
• The older one doesn’t play with magnetic tiles or build structures as much as she used to when she was about 2 years old.  I remember once, she told me she doesn’t do it anymore because her sister likes to touch her creations or knock them down.  I also think we still have things to clean up as so many of their toys are all scattered around the main floor despite DH doing a cleanup every night.  It’s too messy for them to play creatively, I think.
• The 19 month old likes to throw tantrums a lot more now and is so vocal about what she wants and doesn’t want.
• The potty training books that my friend lent me, the little one has been pointing to them and wanting me to read them to her.  The older one will follow along with the reading too but she still doesn’t want to do anything with the potty otherwise.  The rewards system isn’t working.
• July 31:  I unfortunately unknowingly set down my phone on a ledge that had water which caused my phone to have water in it.  Thus it was another trip to Pacific Mall to fix it.  The back of my phone actually came apart while it was drying so it was just $15 for the people to help me glue it properly back together.  Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed the car and small carousel rides in the middle of the mall.
• We had an early birthday celebration for MIL and a 4th birthday party to attend over the weekend.  At the lunch buffet, the 3 year old sat by herself a good chunk of time (instead of on me or grandma’s lap) and used scissors to cut her own food to eat.  She loves doing that.  She favours the green scissors.
• As a matter of fact, this week/recently, she’s taken a liking to the colour green.  She chooses green for many things like markers, buttons, stickers at EarlyON, etc.
• The birthday party was super fun.  It was held at the Pride of Canada carousel.  Despite passing by that area hundreds of times, we’ve never gone on the carousel until now.  The older one loved it and kept wanting to go on it repeatedly, choosing different characters/items to ride on each time.  The younger one was kind of dazed (don’t think she had enough of a nap that day despite napping for 1 hour) and wasn’t a huge fan of the ride vocally but she still went on it.
• My friend hired a party balloon person (Instagram: special3cube) to blow up balloon animals too.  The 3 year old picked what she wanted (a green parrot) and then an orange classic dog for her sister.  I like how she wore the parrot on her head creatively like a headband afterwards.
• When it was cake time and all the little kids sat/stood behind the cake for a photo, naturally the 3 year old didn’t want to.
• At the end of the party, the 3 year old saw there were wooden blocks on the floor near the play area and actually built a small wooden house sculpture.  Love that she was able to find some free open-ended play time.
• It was such a fun and simple party.  I was surprised at how the time flew despite there being only two main activities for everyone to partake in.
• This week during the Richmond Hill EarlyON summer camp program, they had beads making for the first day of “Little Artists”.  I was shocked and in awe that the 3 year old spent ONE full hour sitting at the table stringing the beads on the string and making FIVE bracelets in total.  She made one for each of us and then an extra one too.  So thoughtful.  I didn’t even think that was her intention until I realized how many she made.  She was thoughtful and included each person’s first letter of their name on it too.  Amazing that she was so focused for one hour.  That’s a huge accomplishment for a little preschool kid!
• She also strung the beads according to the colours too.  She had a certain set of greens and whites and blues all together and then she had another one where the colours changed gradually.
• There was an activity where the kids could make “clay faces” to stick on a tree too but she doesn’t like to do things by the book and played with the clay as she wanted to only.
• On the Tuesday, we had a trip to the fire station!  Since grandma had a Zoom class in the morning, DH accompanied us.  It was his first time going with us to the fire station (the second time for the rest of us).  This time, the fire station was not called for an emergency while we were there and we were able to enjoy and take in the entire experience (as it is intended to be).
• I think I recognized the firefighters and they were the same ones as the crew last time who did the session with us.  One of the firefighters briefly explained the equipment on the fire truck and then we hopped in the back of the fire truck and went out the other side for a quick tour.  One of the kids kept asking the firefighter questions this time.  It was really cute.
• The older one didn’t seem so fazed by the visit this time.  Perhaps because she had already been here before and wasn’t that interested.  The younger one was ehh about it too.
• This time, the firefighters gave the kids a plastic helmet as a souvenir too (in addition to an activity booklet like last time) and we took photos of the 19 month old sitting in the front of the fire truck with it.  As usual, the older one didn’t want to take such a photo.
• It was so humid and hot that day.  I was glad when we were leaving because it was uncomfortable to stand there and wait.
• It was slated from 10 to 11:30 a.m. but we actually left at 10:50 a.m.  Good thing in a way because DH had to go back to work (he unfortunately had to miss a work call too while we were there).
• In the afternoon, I took the 3 year old to the Little Artists class.  She painted a rock, glued some fake leaves to a piece of paper, and played with transparent blocks on a light-up table.  She spent most of the time reading with me actually.  She loves reading time and spending time with me on the couch to read.
• After the class, it was time to pick up a Flashfood order and the child was so tired that she passed out in the car.  For the second time ever, I had to run into the Loblaws quickly and fetch the pickup while she was left in the car (with the windows open).  I don’t dare to do more or make another trip because I don’t want others to see her left alone in the car or for her to wake up and not know where I am.  A quick 2-minute is okay?
• On the Wednesday, we did tie dye T-shirts (thank goodness for Facebook marketplace and being able to get a $2 T-shirt just 10 minutes away from the EarlyON location).  I mean we could have tried to find an old T-shirt at home too but I like having a new shirt for her and $2 is really reasonable too.
• I had never done tie dye at all before and was looking to the facilitator for some instruction.  Unfortunately, we were the very first ones to be called up to do the tie dye and I think the facilitator wasn’t warmed up yet.  When I asked her what colours the dye were (they were too dark for me to see), either she didn’t hear me or she just didn’t answer, but I didn’t realize that one of the colours was a dark green (she later referred to it as an “army green”).  The child actually wanted green and I told her there was no green in the moment because I didn’t know.  I actually feel a little jaded because of this:  I feel like because we were the very first ones doing it, the facilitator didn’t explain to us clearly what to do despite me telling her, “I’ve never done this before”.  It was later when we were at the keychain decorating station that I overheard her telling other parents to “scrunch up the T-shirt with the elastic band as much as you can” because that will cause the colours to look nice and that “it’s an army green” colour.  I feel like we missed out because we were in the “second mouse gets the cheese” situation (“the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese”).
• I was able to successfully convince the child to wear a smock to protect her clothes (usually she doesn’t like to wear it — like when we were at creative chefs before and they had aprons but she never wanted to wear one).  I was proud of her for being able to wear it.  She wanted a yellow one.  All the yellow ones happened to be taken but luckily the facilitator had a yellow one in stock and gave it to us.  The child didn’t want to touch the damp T-shirt to try nor to squirt the dye bottles on to the T-shirt, so I ended up doing everything for her.  It was still cool for her to see and definitely neat for me to do it for the first time too.  It seems like everybody else has done it before (but somehow I just missed out on doing it in my childhood?!).
• When at the keychain decorating station, the child was more interested in decorating the small cardboard box it came in than the actual keychain (same with the other kids).  The facilitator was joking how they should just save money and not get keychains if the kids were interested in the boxes instead.
• At another station, the kids had an opportunity to paint big cardboard boxes with different tools (roller, circular sponge, regular paintbrush).  The child was the first one to do this actually.  (We arrived early this day.)
• When we were doing some DD at evening after dinner, it was so funny because the 19 month old was peeking out of her side of the car seat and wondering what we were doing lol.  Even the 3 year old was “laughing” at her.
• Lately, the 19 month old continues to nurse less during the day.  She actually can sleep through most of the night too!  For two nights, I think she slept all the way until about 8 a.m.  That’s so amazing.  As long as I can wake up sometime during the night to leave the bed, then I can get my me time/sleep in my own bed.
• Also she doesn’t seem to need to nurse until she passes out at night either.  There were two times at least where she unlatched and then fell asleep next to me.  Yay!  Huge improvement and step in the right direction!  Soon I’ll be able to nurse her quickly and she’ll learn to fall asleep by herself.  So, so glad.
• Lately, the routine is that I’ll sleep with her from 11 p.m. to about 6 a.m. when I wake up.  I’ll get out of bed and use my phone until I’m tired.
• We got a fresh bag of bananas recently from Flashfood and it seems like both kids love eating bananas so, so much.  The older one likes to share with the younger one by cutting the banana in half.  She will give the half with stem to her sister.  She always gives the part that she doesn’t like to her sister.
• The 3 year old continues to have fierce tantrums where if her sister is nearby and she doesn’t want her touching her, she will cry and kick or push.  Then the 19 month old will actually touch her on purpose, making the older one cry and scream even more.  Sigh lol.
• Grandma feels better this week, so it is a relief to all of us to have another adult in the house to help out again.  She tested negative for COVID.  We don’t think she had it at all.  It was just a really bad irritated throat.
• Oh and this week, we have been watching the Summer Olympics in Paris on the TV.  This is screen time I’ll allow — they see new and different things they haven’t before.  We watched most of the opening ceremony together, a lot of the swim competitions and the gymnastics ones too.  So great because I love watching the Olympics and this is the first year since having kids that I actually have time to watch the sport.  The older one recognizes the Canadian flag and says she is Canada while her sister is China 😅😅.  She is learning about different countries and the sports and what national pride is.
• This week after every camp session, the 3 year old has gone to visit the other unit for the last few minutes of circle time.  She loves it so much.  On the one day they didn’t have it, she was disappointed.
• The 19 month old freely allows us to clip her finger and toenails now.  Yay!  No more struggles.
• I’ve stopped recording down in the app her daily pee outputs but continue to record the poos (to make sure she’s outputting daily).  I’ve stopped recording down when I nurse her in the morning and night too.