Today was Grandparents Day at Adam’s school — I can’t imagine that this ever would have worked when I was a kid: very few children had grandparents living close enough to attend such an event. Here, however, many of the parents I’ve met actually attended this school 30 years ago and moved back to the area when they had children of their own. Crazy. Anyway… due to a lack of communication, I only realized that Grandparents Day was happening yesterday. Sigh. I offered to be Adam’s stand-in grandparent but thankfully Todd’s parents were able to participate — when I picked Adam up from school this afternoon I expected him to have been super excited that Nana and Papa had showed up but Adam doesn’t do well with surprises and was rather upset that I had stood him up. Some days I just can’t win.

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Elizabeth is off to camp for the long weekend as part of her leader-in-training program, much to Adam and Leah’s dismay. Leah was crying as the car pulled out of the driveway screaming “Elizabeth come home!” and Adam was seriously sad that Elizabeth would be gone for the entire weekend — but the promise of Family Movie Night quickly cheered him up. Why yes, Elizabeth, Kung Fu Panda 2 was all it took to turn his frown upside down. Sorry.

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Thanks to my friend Shannon, I’ve become rather enamoured with My Fitness Pal. I’ve been tracking my food and exercise for the past week and it’s been an interesting experiment to see what (and when) I tend to eat. So far it’s helped me cut down on mindless snacking because I’m too lazy to keep track of exactly how many handfuls of trail mix I’ve nommed. My plan is to keep track for at least a month and then I’ll reevaluate.

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Work is still crazy and I’ve just committed to (yet) another project. Seriously, my to-do list is out of control. Todd keeps reminding me that I don’t have to agree to take on every project that comes my way since apparently my sanity is important to keeping the family going — but I have a hard time saying No to interesting projects, particularly for really great clients. So life will be crazy for an extra couple of weeks but I’m (mostly) okay with that. Hopefully the rest of the family will be okay with it, too. Maybe I can bribe them with all-you-can-eat sushi.

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Despite my increased workload, I’m hoping that I can keep this weekend work-free since it is a long weekend and I should probably try to spend some quality time with Adam and Leah. Adam in particular has already submitted his list of things he’d like to do: mostly baking and playing Lego. I think I can make these things happen. Leah, on the other hand, wants to go to the mall. To buy shoes. (And this is why I have to work: that girl has a shopping habit — and expensive taste — like you wouldn’t believe.)

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Have I mentioned that we’re planning to finish the basement this year? Somehow with five people in this house, two of whom work from home a significant portion of the time, we are running seriously short on living space. After the Great Basement Clean-Up of 2012, we now have a subfloor and Todd and my dad will be building the outside walls this week. I can’t wait till it’s all done and we can move the family room and my sewing space downstairs, freeing up the main floor a bit.

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I’m so looking forward to a fabulous long weekend — wishing an early Happy Victoria Day to all!

“Mummy, I sit beside you.”

Music to my ears. More or less literally. Leah decided that “work” meant playing educational games on the iPad that are chock-full of repetitive music and annoying sound effects.

You win some, you lose some. I was willing to take what I could get and made the most of the 30 minutes or so she spent sitting next to me at the dining room table, engrossed in her games and occasionally showing me something particularly engaging.

So sweet. I was thrilled to get in some extra work this morning and Leah was happy: “I work like Mummy!” A win/win for both of us. Eventually the silliness took over and I knew it was time to call an end to our mother/daughter work session.

And now that the rain has stopped and the sun is shining, I think I owe Leah a tricycle ride. She deserves it.

Through all of the ups and downs of our life over the past decade, Todd has been unwavering in his ability to provide level-headed, even-keeled support to balance my, um, lack of level-headedness. And he can definitely bring the snark when necessary.

Here’s to many, many more happy and healthy years together. I love you, Todd. There’s nobody else with whom I’d rather share all of life’s big — and small — moments.

Thankfully, with Leah in daycare, I have three six-hour days during the week in which to cram as much work as physically (and mentally) possible. This sounds great in theory, but it’s often difficult to schedule creative sparks so I find myself in front of the computer whenever inspiration happens to strike.

So what’s a girl to do when she’s got some time on her hands during the day waiting for The Perfect Design to appear in her head? Todd might suggest laundry (given that I think we’re only a day away from having a serious Lack of Clean Clothes Crisis), but that’s boring. I prefer knitting.

Like this hat.

And this scarf/shawl.

And I’m trying to exercise some degree of restraint and resist winding this lovely yarn.

So far, so good, since I’m currently on a roll with work — but if I hit a wall tomorrow… well, I make no guarantees.

We’re now reaching the point where books at a challenging reading level are way over his head from a content perspective and I think he’s now exhausted the school library (he’s likely also completely exhausted his teacher and librarian, but that’s another matter entirely). So we’ve taken it upon ourselves to add to Adam’s home library, focusing on non-fiction.

The first order arrived late last week and Adam was thrilled: “You got me an atlas?! Awesome!” What can I say, the kid has a thing for maps.

He was equally impressed with the books on weather and rocks, poring over them with unparalleled intensity, at least until he discovered the runaway favourite of the bunch: the Time for Kids Big Book of Why.

I’m sure that Adam will soon have all 1001 facts committed to memory — he’s already shared with me why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans and the reason for the Statue of Liberty being green. Yesterday, however, he was stumped by this page:

See the look of confusion? He wanted to know why the bald guy was eating donuts. (I love that he’s currently too young to have even an inkling of who the Simpsons are.) Eventually, the whole think was just too much for him — he ended up rolling around on the floor, laughing hysterically that the bald man was going to eat all the donuts. And still be bald.

Can’t wait till our next order of books arrives — hopefully next week!