Three days left

I am going to take a step out of our crazy life and post a pre-Christmas update.

Glenn:  Glenn has one final day of work and then he is off until the first Monday in January.  He has also been busy getting a gift ready for Elspeth.  He has built her a really cool, suitably short water table which she will love.  He is geering up to brine and cook our traditional turkey.

Me:  I finished picking all of the sequins and tape that I had originally sewn onto Katrine’s solo dress and am almost ready to start over.  You see, I made a HUGE mistake…I forgot to have her try it on before doing all of the sewing so when everything was on it looked great but would no longer fit.  Sigh.  On the upside, finished embroidering the stocking that my mom made for Elspeth.  I am also in the process of confirming or dismissing my previous diagnosis of asthma as well as my multiple food allergies.  Wouldn’t that be a great gift.  Katrine had her last gymnastics class yesterday and I am eagerly looking forward to the one night a week that will now be free. (Oh the joys of not having to be somewhere at a specific time)

Katrine:  Katrine has a break from skating nights until the second of January.  However, she volunteered to be part of the show that her morning skating school is putting on the first week of January so our “break from skating” will be spent….skating.  (Bet you can’t say that you are surprised)  It is nice to see how she lights up when she steps on the ice.  She really does enjoy it.  Tonight she did her first skating exam – the Dutch Waltz and, much to her relief, she passed.   She is also going to be something in the church’s Christmas Eve pagent but she won’t know what until Friday’s rehersal.

This week saw the dreaded family tree assignment arrive home.  The amount of work was appropriate for a Grade 2 student but it made Katrine upset that there were not enough spaces for all of her family.  Off we went to google translate to locate the French terms for birthparents, birthfamily and forever family. (Not sure we got them right but I should get points for navigating that with one child while keeping the two year old occupied)  Then she began fretting again about where to write the information and we worked that out; only to have her begin to worry that her teacher would be upset that we altered the assignment.  After working through that I thought to check the messages on the phone.  Well, wasn’t there a message on the phone from Katrine’s Social Studies teacher explaining that the wrong sheet was sent home and she could make all of the changes that we had just made.  Played the message for Katrine and all was right again.  Guess that will teach me to check the phone for messages before beginning homework.  Sigh.

Elspeth: Elspeth is fascinated with puzzles right now.  She will do the same four puzzles multiple times in one afternoon and always get frustrated at the same parts.  I have been wanting to bang my head against the wall by the fifth time doing the same four puzzles in a row so I took her and bought her two new puzzles.  Sounds great right?  Now she will do all four puzzles and then tidy them up, stop, take all of the pieces out of the two new puzzles before beginning again at the beginning leaving me to put the two new puzzles back together.  Oh well, at least it is a new pattern.

She has dug her heels in with the potty training.  Her stuffed animals frequently visit the toy potty but she tends to go when Katrine goes or she feels the need to hear “Upp-a-da” which is more commonly known as “Up on the Rooftop”.  She will however, bardge into the bathroom whenever someone it is in use and cheer for you.  You want to say, “Get out” but can’t because you are laughing at how darn cute she is.

She is also copying Katrine.  When Katrine is up walking through her solo to the music, Miss Elspeth must be up to trying to mimic all of her moves.  Our personal favourite is Elspeth’s version of the spiral.  Please notice that she looks like a little puppy going to the bathroom when she does it independently.  Her form is much more standard when someone helps.  I am beginning to worry that we will have a second figure skater on our hands; in which case, we should just buy ourselves an arena.

"I've gotta go."
"Stretch a little bit more Baba. I want to be just like Katrine."