Last night was the first night of soccer for our little Tim Horton's soccer star (#8)! We registered E for the soccer program a few months ago, and it has been a long wait for him to actually get on the soccer field.
I waited to tell him until Monday on the way home from the cottage that soccer was starting this week because I knew his excitement level would be through the roof. And it was! When Wednesday rolled around he groaned at the thought of having to go to daycare before he could go to soccer - he thought for that day we should just skip daycare and go right to the field! What a boy!
I have to say, I thought the program was well organized considering you're taking 60 some 3 to 4 year olds and putting them on a field with their own soccer ball. The organizers had it very well layed out for the first night to get all the kids in their uniforms, on the field, doing drills, and having fun within the allotted hour.
This was the first group type activity that I have seen E jump right into without hesitation. He was gung-hoe before we went (which is common) but to my surprise his enthusiasm continued for the duration of the activity. He had a good sweat on and was pretty pumped about the whole experience - even wanted to wear his soccer shoes to bed last night! E had a blast to say the least - and the fact that they gave out popsicles as a post game snack scored mega points with him!
Overall a great night of fun for everyone... when I asked E if he wanted to go back next week, his response was 'totally'! So we are 'totally' looking forward to it!
The last two weeks our household has been controlled by the flu bug so I have spent many days at home either being sick myself, or tending to pukey-poopy boys. Needless to say, although we were sick, we were also bored of being sick, and we had a lot of time on our hands, so I decided to break out the paints one day so that E and H could create a couple of pieces for the Grandma's for Mother's Day.
The beauty of these projects is that they didn't break the pocket book, and the results came out pretty good considering the combined age of the to artists is only 4! I got all the canvas' and the wooden hanging plaques at the dollar store (although each piece was more than a dollar - but that's a whole other blog). The paints we had on hand from some previous projects - put those together with an hour of free time and presto! we had some pretty fun Mother's Day gifts to give two special ladies!
Take a look at the results. They didn't rid us of the flu bug but they definitely put a smile on the faces of Grandma Coleman and Grandma Bellerose - and E and H were pretty pumped about their artistic masterpieces too!
Happy Mother's Day to two of the best Grandmothers in the business!
Every year that I get to celebrate Mother's Day as a mother... is another great year to me. I love being a Mom, and being a Mom to two boys, but the last couple of weeks have had me run down and feeling like I am falling behind in so many other areas of my life. However, along comes Mother's Day and boom, I am reminded why I love this job so much!
I got to spend the day with my boys, and we didn't do anything over the top, but I did enjoy it, and I enjoyed hearing my big boy tell me 'did you know that today is a special day for Mother's like you Mommy ... cause your my special Mommy'.
Lots of sweet conversations with my big boy today, and lots of slobbery kisses and oohing and awwing from baby boy. PC also stepped in to help out with a few of the Mommy duties too, so that was a nice way to break up the day (and he played photographer too!). We had a nice family dinner with my in-laws and the boys fell asleep on the ride home so bedtime was a breeze!
I am so thankful to take part in this special day - it sounds corny, but I really truly love being a Mom.
To all of my Mommy readers out there, I hope you were reminded in some small way today just how special you are!
This is a little bloggy meme that I did a few years back, but of course, a few years later the answers are much different, so I thought I would do it again! I find that time passes so quickly... and I like to have these little tidbits on record for when I'm older and the memories of days gone by don't come as easily.
15 years ago I would have been... convincing my Dad that instead of getting the new car he wanted (a Grandpa driving Buick Century), we needed to get a cooler ride, a teal Pontiac Grand AM, that he would have to squeeze in and out of for 5 years, but that a decision like this would really go a long way in cementing his 'coolest dad ever' title. I still can't believe he did it, but man did I love that car... as in LOVE cruising back and forth the high school with my friends, pumping Backstreet Boys to the MAX! Thanks Dad - you're still one cool dude to me!
10 years ago I would have been... waiting on call back for a student job at HRSDC, but not realizing that not getting the job would be a life changing moment. I instead asked my employer from the previous summer if they would take me back and when they did so without hesitation, it led me to lay eyes on my 'work hottie' - or as I now refer to him as PC! I spent that summer emailing my bestie (who was in France at the time) about all of the interesting conversations my 'work hottie' and I were having over lunches and coffee breaks. Taking that old job back was the start of a very beautiful thing!
5 years ago I would have been... finished my french language training and returned to my work place after a year of hell. I was mustering up the nerve to leave my 'home' department, and move onto the next step in my career. It was such a hard decision, and I still miss many of the people there, but I have discovered a whole other side of government in public health, and because of that decision I can say that I truly enjoy (most parts of) my job, and have made many wonderful friends because of that decision.
1 year ago I would have been... on maternity leave with my second sweet boy and adjusting my lifestyle to coming and going with two boys in tow. I remember wishing I had enjoyed my first maternity leave as much as I was enjoying it the second time around. All Moms would probably agree, the one-on-one time you have with your children when they are young is so precious, and something that once it passes, you never get it back. I was happy to have a year off with both my boys to focus on them... and to just be responsible for being a Mom.
This year I am... back to work, back to reality, back to figuring out how to balance work responsibilities with family responsibilities. The office has been a stressful place over the last few months, but seeing those smiling happy faces at the end of the day makes it all bearable (when they are not sick and puking with explosive diarrhea - sorry TMI)!
Today I am... I am sick, but mustering up enough energy toregister my first born, for kindergarten. I think all parents say it, but it really is true 'I can't believe he's going school - already'. He is such a big boy in so many respects, but he is still my first baby, my sweet little boy, and there is so much innocence that I want to protect for him for just a little longer.
Next year I want... to take a hot vacation ... at an all-inclusive resort and just the enjoy the beach for a week, sans kids. Its been over 4 years since PC and I have done that, and I really REALLY miss it!
In 5 years I hope... to have two happy health boys in school, that are thriving in all aspects of life. I hope that with the money we aren't spending on full-time daycare for two, we are planning to do something really really AWESOME!
In 10 years I hope... that the beginning of having teen boys in the house doesn't cause me take up alcohol full-time! I hope that PC and I have survived the hurdle of parenthood, marriage, and all of the little hurdles that life throws at us this far... and that we can still lean on each other for the challenges life will present us in our (gasp!) 40s!
Days pass so quickly, but memories last forever! If you want do some reflecting on your own, feel free to take this meme and post it on your own blog or FB wall with your own answers.
Similar to what I have done for E in the past, I have stuck to my guns and completed a memory book that captures Hudson's first year.
While E's memory books have made great Christmas gifts, H's memory book comes in just in time for a solid Easter gift for grandparents.
If your interested in making a memory book of any kind, I highly recommend Shutterfly - their application is very easy to use, and I have had great experience with their customer service.
If there was ever a boy who was put on this earth to keep me on my toes, I am pretty sure its my baby boy!
We are in that stage of discovery and independence, and while this is a great from a one year old's perspective, its wearing on my last nerve as a mother!
It seems every time I turn around he is into something... I think he believes he was put on this planet to identify the baby loop holes in our house - and trust me, there are many of them!
I guess the biggest challenge for me is believing that he can and will get into something each and every time I am not all up in his grill. His older brother was not that kind of a kid, and still isn't. E's level of mischief is actually pretty pathetic as it isn't worth charting on the holy graph of mischief. However, I can see that H is making up for that.
I try not to compare my boys... because while they are brothers, they are very different personalities and as such require different parenting techniques. But I can't help it! For E, raising your voice just an octave or two got his attention and deterred him from any further destruction, but for H, raising your voice three octaves (or down right screaming your head off) doesn't do anything but encourage him to continue his actions. Once he has it locked in his mind that he wants to do something, I have yet to discover a technique that will change his mind.
This week, H discovered that he's tall enough to pull the door handle open that leads to the basement stairs. When E was in this stage, we kept the door to the basement shut and that was the end of it. We actually only installed one baby gate in the whole house at the top of the second floor stairs for E. But now with H, its a different story. He insists on opening the basement door and I can't trust that he won't instinctively go head first down the stairs, so we took new measures to ensure that doesn't happen - a second gate.
He's not pleased about it, but at least I can safely contain him to the first floor and do so with peace of mind. Of course... restricting him only triggers the 'what kind of trouble can I cause under her nose' button, and it turns into issues like these...
But such is life... with a busy boy!
He's not all trouble all the time, every now and again, we are pretty pleased with his actions... like last weekend, before the baptism, he decided to take his first unassisted steps... in the presence of Grandma & Grandpa B too!
We love him to pieces... we just hope, like all parents of a busy boy, that its JUST A PHASE!
This past Sunday was a special day in our household. We finally made the arrangements to have the boys baptized and did so at a small service on Sunday afternoon.
Now... for many families, baptism happens when a baby is only months old, but in our household this was not the case.
PC and I have always had the intention to have our children baptized but there were a series of excuses factors that came into play during the last three years. Of course, PC and I being children of catholic parents, and being raised with the influence of the catholic church, the silent pressure to have our boys baptized only mounted with each passing Sunday. As PC likes to say... "3 hours after they were born is too late for my mother!", and that's a fairly true statement for my father too!
Nevertheless, we finally got things rolling on our end and made the arrangements a little over a month ago to have it done this past Sunday. I don't think it matters when we did it, but just that we finally did it!
I have to say, it was a really nice day, and the fact that E was very into it, also made it fun. He was so proud to be called up to receive his baptism candle with his godparents. I loved the look on his face. And H was pretty pumped to have the holy water poured on his hair - gave his famous 'rock on' sign right away!
It turned out to be a bit of a bigger deal than I had first envisioned, and I am really happy with our decision to have it done at the church the boys will now be apart of throughout their school years.
Here are a few pics from this special day... thank you to the boy's godparents, and their grandparents for setting aside sometime to be part this day and for spoiling them with love and support - it means so much to us.
Without boring you with the government background or my personal opinion on whether or not I think the moves this Government is making are right or wrong, what you need to know is that this past week my home department (along with many others) announced the implications of the overall recent budget cuts which includes staffing implications for many employees.
While I should be jumping for joy at the personal outcome for me, I am finding it challenging to hold back tears for so many reasons. To put it clearly, I was deemed 'not affected' by this week's staffing implications and this came as a HUGE relief to me. I feel as though some-how, some-way I dodged a very big bullet and I have take a moment to appreciate that and to thank my lucky stars for what this means to me and my family.
My job is stable, and appears to be for the foreseeable future, however, many of my close colleagues and personal friends are affected and now must go through a selection for retention and lay-off process to determine whether they can retain a position in the department or be declared surplus.
As I've mentioned briefly in the past, since returning to work after my maternity leave, I have been tasked with working on some of the communications activities surrounding the deficit reduction action plan. It has been a draining file... interesting and challenging, but also morally exhausting when your preparing products that will tell people (potentially yourself) they are at risk of losing their indeterminate position.
I knew the day was coming when the cuts would have to be announced, and not knowing my own fate created a world of stress that I had underestimated. Upon learning that my position was not affected, I actually broke down in tears... because I was in shock of hearing the news, but also because I knew that my safety meant someone else was at risk of losing their position.
Last night the overload of stress caught up with me by way of a massive headache that felt crippling. It almost underlined for me everything I had been feeling all week.
Working in an environment that has affected and non-affected people in the same group is challenging. It immediately creates a division between colleagues, and a segregation that you try not to acknowledge, yet it is there. Undergoing changes like these also drives workplace moral into the ground. I know personally I have hard time focusing on my day to day tasks when something like this is happening to my colleagues, and I am not the one who has to actually think about the next steps in the process. I can only imagine what this news has done to them and their personal lives. It is paralyzing in so many ways - and while I tell myself the good ones will make it through these retention processes, I know that some of them will not, because the exercise is designed to realize savings through the elimination of positions regardless of the individuals who hold those positions.
Its a mathematical equation that determines who is affected and who isn't, but it feels personal on so many levels. Those who are affected are feeling like somehow their work is inadequate, or their commitment to their position is in question and those who are unaffected are somehow positioned to look like their work speaks for itself. The truth of the matter is that some people who were unaffected by the cuts don't have the best performance records or half the commitment level of many of those individual who are affected (not in all cases, but in some). When you put all of these factors together you have a lot of people questioning the commitment of the department to employees in general when really, it appears they are just a number or box being moved around on an org chart rather than a person with skills and abilities and a dedication to the department's mission, vision, and overall values. I know that is not the intent of the exercise, but that is the reality from my perspective.
This last week has presented so many questions for what the future will hold, and many of them I still don't have answers for. I have had a very heavy heart over all of this, and while I am not deemed 'affected' this has, in so many ways, affected my professional and personal life.
I will take each day as it comes but I will not for a moment forget this experience or how it has impacted me on so many levels.
Once known to the world as Sara Bellerose, now married, and operating under the alias SC, but it's still me... born and raised in Thessalon, Ontario, attended Ottawa University from 1999 to 2003. Received my degree in Communications and work for the GoC as a Communications Advisor. Met my husband PC in 2002, we were married in 2005, and are now parents to two beautiful boys, Emery (2008) and Hudson (2010). This is my little space of the World Wide Web that I am using to journal my often uneventful life!
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