OY.
What a weekend! I’m going to need a few days to recover, indeed.
Friday ended for me in the afternoon with a contentious call with the government and the phone being hung up on me in a conference call over some tax related issues. I left the office to pick up my oldest boy and the other kids in his carpool and just made it in time. (Heck, it was -16 degrees out there and the kids were outside waiting). I dropped everyone off, went to get diapers for the baby and ended up dropping my son at Starbucks to hang with his grandparents while I ran into the grocery store. I came back to pick him up with diapers and bananas only to find him and his grandmother using those wooden stir sticks to teach him about roman numerals.
Once at home I logged back into my office computer to catch up on some work – set the table for dinner, bathed the kids, ate, cleaned and went back to work until about 3am when I decided it was time for bed.
6:30am wake up. Got the kids ready for skating (Pancakes for the big boy, oatmeal and raisins for the younger son), and just made it to the arena in time to lace up and jump on the ice. By just made it I mean my skates were still undone… One the ice, my little – not so little – boy decided he was not skating and spent most of the time on his ass or his back whining and crying. I asked him in front of his skating coach if he was having a meltdown and he said, “no”. OK. So off the ice we went so he could calm down / pee. Once in the dressing room we call his mummy and he explained that his feet hurt from the skates. Too tight. Hmmmm.
So back on the ice we went for the last 10 minutes of class. I signed the boys up for the end of program ice show (LOL) and in my amazement turned to see my 5 year old standing by himself on his skates and jumping up and down on the ice. “WOW”, I blurted out. He said he taught himself that, not the instructor. He’s getting it. Yay.
So after class we went home – Stewie cried the entire way. We ate lunch then packed up our stuff and went to the mall for the afternoon. After finally finding a place to park, I woke up Stewie and Berry (2 month old baby) and in we went. Part way through the mall trip the boys saw the Godiva store and they were making chocolate dipped strawberries. Guess what the boys cried and whined for the rest of the afternoon?!?
I also walked into Harry Rosen – again – with the boys and again could not get a sales agent to come up to me. Even after falling in love with a gorgeous $85.00 dress shirt but wanting to ask a question about it, no one wanted to give me the time of day. You would think any customer is a good customer, eh? They don’t know what I can afford and if I am going to buy one shirts to 10 of them… Their loss. I’m going to contact the store’s PR department!
So from the mall – and another Stewie meltdown (“I can’t walk”) we took the kids to dinner at the Genghis Khan Mongolian Grill. The kids “ate” while I held a cranky baby so my wife could eat. I was glad we were all out together and the prospect of eating cold food didn’t matter to me that much considering my wife is with the baby all day and all night and she deserves to eat and have a few minutes to relax. So we hung there for a couple hours and off to home and bed – 10:30 for both my wife and I.
Sunday began with a rush as we all headed out to the kids karate class. Stewie and his friend were the only kids in the Little Dragon’s class with 4 sensei’s. They had lots of attention and both did very well. In Linus’ class, he performed much better than last week, but he was distracted from 2 seriously goofy kids in his class. One was jumping up and down like a frog and the other was a complete goofball – taking flying leaps at the karate dummy’s and looking out at the parents instead of paying attention. Must get him away from these boys…
After karate we split the boys up and went to birthday parties – I took Stewie to a party where I knew no one and he was not being adventurous. He fell in love with a giant gumball machine (he’s never eaten gum) and required me to hold his hand for most of the 2 hours we were there. We left a touch early and met my wife and baby at a new outdoor mall to check out a new store called Anthropologie… Beautiful clothes there and Linus really liked the fancy door knobs. We left there to go grocery shopping and from there she took the kids and I drove to the other end of the city to pick up Linus and his friend from their birthday party – set to end at 6pm.
Once in the Car, I turn on the radio, listen to a little satellite radio, then bored, switch over to real radio only to find out that there were 2 blockbuster NHL traded made by my Toronto Maple Leafs. The managed to get another team to take 6 average commodities in exchange for 5 new bodies who appear to have more upside and come with a name. I get Brian Burke now… He’s building the team with young talent… He has my confidence now. After an awful 5-3 loss Saturday night (after having a 3-0 lead) the team has totally transformed. WOW.
So I picked the kids up from the party, chatted with some dads about the trades and off to drop my son’s friend, then pick up our nanny to bring her back home. I learned a very valuable lesson with my son and I in the car… Don’t hold your pee too long or your kidney’s hurt and you pee in your pants… Hopefully we both learned this lesson! When you gotta go, you gotta go!
Home, snack, bed for the boys, while my wife cared after the baby, I cleaned up the house, showered, and hopped back on my office computer to clean up some files and do some tax research. Saw the Royal Rumble was last night – Toronto-born wrestler Edge returned from a ruptured Achilles and won the rumble. Yay.
I started working, blinked and decided it would be best for my sanity if I went to bed earlier than Friday night, so Sunday night’s bedtime came at 2am… UGH.
Monday brought a tough, slow morning for me… The baby is sneezing and her eye looks a little puffy and red, but I have some serious meetings today and an appointment at the gym with my personal trainer… Also have to get my ass in gear so that I can be home for the kids swimming tonight at 6pm since it’s parent’s night and the one night of the year the parents get to watch the kids swim. Exciting. My wife is coming to see – she’s never seen them swim. The boys will be SO happy!
After that it will be some more work, then off to bed so it can all start again tomorrow…
Update: Linus was smiling and waving in the pool and having a fantastic time so we asked him in the car if is always this happy in the pool. He said “no”. Puzzled we asked him why he was so happy, and he said, “I don’t know”. Odd, but he was REALLY REALLY happy.
