18 month update

I have my laptop back! Hopefully I can journal regularly again.

The last post from 18 months ago was potty training Leni. Well, needless to say, that was a great success and came much faster than it did with Gemma. She has maybe had three accidents in the last 18 months, maybe once at nighttime.

Preschool has come and gone, Gemma had a great year. After talking to her teacher, we decided to put Gemma into kindergarten this year instead of next. The school board changed their age cutoff to Dec 31, so Gemma will definitely be one of the younger kids in the class. But honestly I think I would be doing her a disservice not sending her this year. She is so bright, smart, inquisitive, and SOCIAL. I don't know where she gets it from. She just loves making new friends - almost too much. Her preschool teacher was Ms. Sandi, her best friends this year were Grace, Mina, Charlie, Wyatt. I actually enjoyed my volunteer days and it was great to see Gemma interacting with her teacher and peers. Definitely surprised to see how quiet she is at school compared to home.

Gem also did dance -jazz, ballet, and tap - in the spring and even got to participate in the recital! She did great, cracked up the audience by covering her ears every time they applauded after a routine.

Leni did the Ms. Pat classes at the rec centre. It was a bit of a hit and miss for her, definitely a miss in the beginning. The first class, she didn't like it when I was leaving and I figured she would cry for a bit. When I went to pick her up, Ms. Pat just patted me on the shoulder and pointed to where Leni was - passed out on the couch. She threw a tantrum over changing activities and got sent to the couch to calm down, where she just cried and screamed until she fell asleep. I was just dumbfounded to see her there like that.

After scooting around on the balance bike and getting better at it, Gemma turned to a real bike with training wheels. Mom had a brilliant idea of having the bikes in the basement so the kids could practice over the winter. By the time summer rolled around, they were pros at pedaling. Right now we are in the midst of getting Leni to get on the training bike instead of the tricycle, which I gave away behind her back.

They also did their level 1 of preschool swimming lessons recently and, to my surprise, Gemma passed! When she did her swim lessons with Ms. Sandi's class, she was the second worst swimmer there, so scared of everything. I figured she wasn't going to pass, but she was really brave in putting her face in the water and doing floats, etc. Leni was a bit more hesitant, so she will be repeating it, but she also did pretty well in the class. Bribing them with popsicles after their lesson didn't hurt either.

The summer is almost over already, even though it feels like it just began. I dreaded summer thinking the kids would be bored to tears, but they have been inseparable! I love the age they are at right now. Leni looks up to Gemma so much and Gemma is so eager to teach her. Don't get me wrong, they still fight A LOT. But now they're at a point where they will almost give in to compromise to make the other one happy. It's heartwarming to see them play together so well. Now I wonder how Leni is going to handle Gemma's full days at kindergarten.

We just spent a week in Toronto visiting my brother and sister-in-law. I gotta say, every time we go on a trip, it gets easier and easier. Not having to haul a stroller and a box of diapers is also nice. We had a great time and did so much, Wonderland, Toronto Island, science center, taste of Danforth festival, and even a birthday party.

I hope I can keep up with the blogging again, I miss reminiscing about my day this way. My kids are evidently growing up way too fast and I don't want to forget so much of it.