This just made my day!

Today, your daycare class moved back into their regular space. The school has been renovating all summer so it was nice to finally get back to your original classrooms. Kendall has been adjusting really well at her new daycare (your current daycare). She cried for about a week straight so I was really worried, but for some reason something clicked and she was amazing this week. She even waved goodbye to me. I think it helped that I got you to hold Kendall's hand before entering the daycare. I think she is comforted that you are with her. What made it even better? I found these snapshots of you and Kendall taken at her new daycare in her cubby. It really looks like you guys love each other even though most of the time you guys want to claw each others eyes out!

I have a good system going

I was so fearful of doing the sole drop-offs in the morning. I was so used to dropping just Aidan off. And he was pretty easy. All I had to do was wake him up, brush his teeth, change him and turn on his morning show while I got ready. You, on the other hand, can't sit for long periods of time watching TV.  I worried that mornings were going to be absolute chaos and I would go to work frazzled and unkempt. It was definitely a looming task that I wasn't looking forward to.

To my delight, it's been actually pretty good. I even get to sleep in a bit later! I used to wake up at 6:10am when daddy dropped you off. I would first wake up, brush up and then I would wake you up around 6:35am after getting your daycare bag ready. You would have your morning milk and then I would send you off with daddy around 6:55am. Then I would wake Aidan up and get him ready, etc. etc. Now, I wake up at 6:35am. I still get myself ready before either of you wake up. Usually Aidan wakes up first around 7:15am. I sometimes brush him up first before I wake you up, but I find that you usually wake up around the same time that Aidan wakes up. After getting both of you ready, I bring you two downstairs and give you both milk and cheese (you guys usually have breakfast at daycare). Surprisingly, you will sit on the couch with Aidan while I go back upstairs to change and grab my bag. Then we head out. This photo is just before we headed out the door. 

So long, farewell~

Becoming a mom turned me into such a sentimental wuss. I don't know why, but every little milestone makes me into such a cry baby. 

Today was your last day at your daycare. You are starting a new daycare that Aidan is currently attending. The reason why we wanted to put you in Aidan's daycare is so that the pickups and drop-offs are much easier for both daddy and I. Last winter, daddy had such a hard time going to 2 different daycare centres to pick you both up. We would have put you in Aidan's daycare sooner, but they only accepted kids over 2 2/1 until recently. They are now accepting 2-year olds. I guess the demand is high where we live…

I didn't think that today would be a sad day for me. However, it made me realize that my babies are growing up. This daycare was the daycare Aidan started at when he was 1 so it's a little bittersweet. I think I now know why people keep having more kids. 

Your teachers- Miss Karina and Miss Sandeep wrote you a beautiful card and inside were handprints of all the kids in your daycare class with a class photo. I literally had a lump in my throat when I read this. Thank you Karina and Sandeep!

Birthday girl

Happy birthday sweet Kendall!

Mommy woke up super early today to finish assembling the fruit platter that I made for your daycare birthday party today. I also had all the loot bags packed and ready to go. 

Here are just some of the loot bags I made for your class. They got popcorn and bubbles.

Here's a better look.

And a better look of the bubbles.

On Saturday we will be having your birthday parties with our family. Good night! Gotta get some sleep…

Birthday boy

As I write this, I'm dead tired and basically running on adrenaline. I'm in the busiest time at work, but I've been staying up late every night to make Kendall and your loot bags for your daycare birthday parties. Never have kids with birthdays 1-day apart! #deadtired #whydoidothistomyself

Yes, I could have gone to the dollar store to pick up loot bag items in their party section and I did do that, but nothing was good enough for my taste. My occupation is a graphic designer/art director so I can't put my name on something that is not up to par for my liking. I decided that I would again, hand make something. Of course, once I start something I go all out. I hardly got any sleep this week, but it was all worth it. You were so excited to see the finished product and super excited to go to daycare this morning to give them all out to your friends.

It all started with me seeing something on my Instagram feed. I follow a crafter, Sharilyn Wright and she
posted something not too long ago of her handmade notebooks with washi tape spines. I thought that was
such a great idea. I modified the notebooks I made by adding the names of all the kids as well as some
more personal details that they could fill out at the bottom- age, birthday, favourite colour. Since your
writing skills have drastically improved as soon as you started junior kindergarten, I noticed you are always
drawing and writing. I figured a personalized notebook would be the perfect gift for all the kids. I scored
the cover stock a 1/4" on the left where the washi tape ends so that it would open easily. 

Just a close-up of some of the washi tape patterns. Aren't they pretty stacked like that?

Instead of just plain, blank pages, I printed grid paper and lined paper to give it more of a custom feel.
I also added a page at the beginning where it had a box that you had to draw a picture of your family. 

As well as the custom notebooks, I added a bag of flavoured popcorn- white cheddar popcorn or butter
popcorn to the loot bags. 

If I had more time, I would have added one more thing to the loot bags, but I didn't have anything left in
me to design something else.

I love the Ikea-brand ziplock bags (purple bag behind the notebook). I covered the Ikea logo with the
tags of all the names of the kids. This is your loot bag.

There were 26 kids in your class, so you can imaging just how many I had to do. And that's just for your
daycare. I worked on Kendall's daycare loot bags too. The Longo's bag on the bottom right had peanut-free
cupcakes to bring to your daycare this morning.

This was you after I picked you up around 3:30pm. You guys were all eating the cupcakes when I picked
you up. When you got the car, you declared that this year was the best birthday of all. 

Waiting on our front porch for daddy and Kendall to come home. BTW, since Kendall's birthday is on
Monday, I will be giving out Kendall's loot bags then. Yours falls on a Sunday this year, so I had to do your
birthday party today.

While we were waiting for daddy and Kendall, you enjoyed eating your popcorn.

Welcome home Kendall!

She had show and share day at daycare where she had to bring in a teddy bear so she brought Muk Muk,
one of her large entourage of stuffed animals that she carries around these days.

My cutie patootie.

Watching Aidan eat his popcorn.
"When can I have some???" —Kendall

I end this post off with a cute video I took of Kendall today. She is constantly saying no these days. 

But it's not just a short "no!" It's a long "Nnnnnnnnnnno!"

Daycare Portfolio Night

One of the reasons why I liked the daycare that you are currently attending is the fact that they make a portfolio for every single student at the end of the year. That's one thing that jumped out at me when I was touring your daycare. Your previous daycare (Kendall's current daycare) didn't do this. I remember taking tons and tons of artwork that you had made and they would just be loosely organized in your daycare folder for me to take home. I only kept the ones that were decent, but it was becoming out-of-hand. 

Tonight was the daycare's portfolio night where they presented all the parents with each child's portfolio and they had a slideshow of all the activities that happened during the year. It was so sweet and thoughtful.

I was amazed how the teachers worked on every single student's portfolio. This batch (not sure which teacher
worked on these) were the best. Yours weren't as nice, but I still appreciate what the teachers did.

Here's your portfolio cover.

I loved how the teachers documented every single field trip and class projects that you were working on with the description of what it was you were doing and a photo of you doing it. 

While we were browsing through the portfolio, there was a slideshow that showed all the student's in the class. And here you are on the projector!

They also showed a clip of you and your daycare classmates singing a song. I was quite surprised because I thought you never participated. You were actually doing all the hand motions :-)

And so it begins…

You've been complaining to me since last week that the shoes above are baby shoes. I didn't think anything of it, but today I found out the real reason why you didn't want to wear these shoes. 

We were just about to leave the house in the morning and I asked you to wear your running shoes. You said to me, "Mommy, I want to wear my white shoes, not the black shoes. The black shoes are baby shoes." I said that the black shoes weren't baby shoes and that Kendall's shoes were baby shoes and you said that Daniel B told him that it was. I asked you why Daniel B told you your shoes were baby shoes and you said that he thought it looked small and that's why he said they were baby shoes. You are pretty small for your age and it has always worried me a little, but you were visibly upset when you were telling me this. You were insistent on not wearing your black shoes. Even though your white Adidas shoes were the same size, I guess you thought they were a different shoe and that Daniel B wouldn't make fun of you anymore. It really tore me up inside. I wanted to go to your daycare and confront Daniel B and give him a piece of my mind. I also wanted to take you shopping to buy you new shoes. Shoes that you would be confident in wearing. I hate that what your peers say matter to you now. I want to protect you from everything, but I know that I can't. The whole day, this whole incident was bothering me. I haven't told daddy yet because all he would say is, "Yeah, Aidan needs to eat more. He's a runt."

On another note, I have a little bit of good news. I took your Toronto grandpa, my father, to the doctor's appointment this morning. We found out earlier this week from his biopsy results, that he had a very rare form of cancer- neuroendocrine cancer. It's the same type of cancer that Steve Jobs had. It's a much slower-growing tumour so the prognosis is much better. But today, we found out that he has another even rarer type of tumour on top of the neuroendocrine tumour called acinar. We are still finding more about this type of cancer and how the doctors will treat my dad, but it's very good news. His cancer cells also shrunk by 30%. 

Please let this be the start of Spring!

Even though it is officially Spring, it's been mostly cold every single day. So imagine how delighted we all were when today's forecast was in the double digits. 

I worked from home and as daddy had a work event this evening, I picked both of you up at school/daycare. Instead of just staying cooped up in the house, we decided to walk over to the park and spend the rest of the evening just enjoying the sunshine. It was so nice! 

Pink lady.

"I love you"

Isn't this just the cutest thing???

Your daycare took this photo of you and made us a Valentine's Day card. I just l-o-v-e it!