Mommy Time

This weekend has been a nice mix of time to myself, time together as a family, and time spent getting things done.


On Friday night my friend Marcy, one of the Moms from preschool, invited myself and a few other friends of hers over for a wine night at her house after we had put our kids to bed.  She had the luxury of the whole house to herself for the weekend as her husband and kids had gone to Calgary to visit family.  We had such a lovely time together drinking wine, having snacks, chatting and laughing.  It was so fun to meet some new Moms and have a little time out together.

The next morning I felt very spoiled as I woke up and headed downtown to Provence restaurant in Yaletown to meet up with my friends Andrea, Saskia and Tracy for brunch.  It was a sensational day, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it felt like spring all around!  We sat at a beautiful sun drenched table and enjoyed a fantastic brunch together while catching up.  What a special treat!

I certainly felt so refreshed after so much time to myself and still had the rest of the weekend ahead of me to spend with Paul and Syd!

Sydney had another piano lesson on Saturday.  I am so pleased with how keen she is about playing the piano right now!  She had a great lesson this week and then proceeded to ask me if she could practice her own piano twenty minutes after we got in the door from the lesson!  She just can't seem to get enough, always prompting me to practice piano with her.  It's awesome!

This past Friday at school Sydney's class took a little field trip to the Weinberg Residence, an old age home, to celebrate Shabbat with the seniors.  It was such a special time.

Each of the children took turns in pairs going up front to sing a special song for Shabbat.  Sydney and her buddy Julia chose "Gilly, Gilly Good Shabbat".  I was so proud of Syd while watching her up front doing the actions with a huge smile on her face. 

We took advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday and decided to crack out Sydney's balance bike for the first time ever.  She has been riding it around the house for months on end this winter, so I assumed that she would love it outdoors.  She pushed herself about ten feet on it and then burst into tears, crying that she didn't like it and wanted pedals.

So we carried it back to the garage and swapped it for her tricycle and she was all smiles for a cruise around the neighborhood that inevitably ends up at the park.

She did try her balance bike again in the back yard later that afternoon and decided that she liked it after all!

Today was spent doing a bit of catch up, did a Costco run, went grocery shopping, did laundry, cleaned the house, meal planned for the week ahead.   I feel all organized for the week ahead, it's a nice way to start a fresh week.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Measuring Up

Thursdays have such a nice pace to them.  We have no scheduled activities beyond school so I always feel like it's a 'day off' of sorts for Sydney and I.  While Sydney was at school today I spent the morning getting a few groceries and hanging out at home, organizing a drawer here, tidying up something there, wandering through our glass-filled house with a bottle of Windex and some paper towel.  Very therapeutic, I have to say!

Sydney's class has been learning a lot about measuring things lately.  Each of the kids did an outline of their body and then measured it to see how tall they were.  Sydney has suddenly become interested in units of measurement and how tall or long things are.  Early this afternoon I had someone come to the house to take some measurements for some work that we are wanting to do on our kitchen.  As soon as Sydney saw the guy pull out his tape measure she ran to the drawer to get ours.

It was so funny watching her stretch them out over the floor all the while muttering to herself, "This is two inches, this is four inches."

This is the final result of Sydney's body tracing.  I'm thinking she didn't exactly sit still for the tracing part as the only body part I can make out on the entire thing is a hand and a dozen googly eyes glued to one end.  Either way it is another beautiful artistic creation made by the hands of Sydney!

This afternoon we decided to crack out a little craft kit that I had bought a while back and make some crepe flowers.  They were so beautiful!

We put the final result together in a vase and proudly displayed them in my office.

This week we received two Christmas cards in the mail.  I love that they arrived in March when there is typically no fun mail in our mailbox!  Both were beautiful photo cards with pictures of my friends' children, I love seeing them grow up year over year!

I bought myself a little bouquet of bright and cheery tulips today to brighten up my kitchen.  Feels like spring indeed!

Sydney decided that she wanted to take her little car out for a drive today so we strolled through the neighborhood for a little spin!

I ended the evening off by trying a fabulous new recipe for dinner, Roast Chicken with Kimchi Smashed Potatoes.

The main flavour in this dish is Kimchi, a spicy Korean cabbage.  It added so much flavour to the dish, it was so yummy!

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Epicurious,  if you want to give it a try, it's easy and quick, not too fussy and makes for a beautiful presentation on your plate! 

 Roast Chicken with Kimchi Smashed Potatoes

• 1 1/2 pounds fingerling or baby Yukon Gold potatoes
• 4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 4 large skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds total)
• 2 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 16-ounce jar Napa cabbage kimchi, drained, 1/4 cup liquid reserved
• 1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
• 4 cups trimmed bitter greens (such as mustard, mizuna, or arugula)

Preheat oven to 450°F. Toss potatoes and 1 tablespoon oil on a large rimmed baking sheet; season with salt and pepper. Roast, turning once, until browned in spots, 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, rub chicken with garlic and season with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook chicken skin side down until golden brown and crisp, 8-10 minutes.

Arrange chicken skin side up on baking sheet among potatoes. Roast until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are tender, 15-20 minutes longer.

Using a large spoon, lightly smash potatoes. Scatter kimchi over; roast until kimchi is warm, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk reserved kimchi liquid, vinegar, and 2 tablespoons oil in a small bowl.

Scatter greens over, drizzle with half of dressing, and toss gently. Divide among plates and drizzle with remaining dressing.

Enjoy!

This Girl

At least once a day these days I am completely amazed by Sydney, astonished at her capabilities, intelligence, humour and love.  I am feeling the definitive shift of going from primarily meeting her physical needs to finding that her emotional and social needs are coming to the forefront.  She is growing up, there's no denying it.  She is charging ahead with full speed and I am willing the days to slow down.

One of Sydney's latest favourite things is to ask me questions about when she was a baby.  She'll often say "Mom, tell me about when I was a baby" or, more specifically when she was a baby being born in the hospital.  At least once a day I tell her a story about what she was like as a baby, which is most often followed by us sifting through dozens of photos on the computer from when she was born.  It's pretty cool!

Last night while we were lying in bed just about to doze off to sleep she said in a small, sleepy voice: "Mom, when I was a baby how did I get out of your tummy?"  Okay, wasn't thinking that I'd have to answer that question quite so early on.  I paused for a minute wondering if I should just tell her matter-of-factly exactly how she did get here, and then decided that less might be more and simply said "The doctor got you out at the hospital."  She wasn't satisfied with the answer, I could tell.  There was a long pause and then she said, with her eyes half shut, "Tell me about when I was a baby in Hawaii."  Sweet girl!

This past Monday it was pajama day at school.  Syd was very excited to get to wear her PJ's to school, she chose her special pair of ladybug pajamas the night before and laid them out for the big day.  It was super cute seeing all her little buddies wandering around the class in their jammies and bathrobes and slippers!

Syd is fast becoming my right hand gal in the kitchen these days.  She loves rolling dough out more than anything and worked diligently to help me get a pizza together for dinner the other night.  I love that she loves being in the kitchen with me!

I have been making an effort to practice piano with Sydney for at least a few minutes every day.  Some days she's more keen than others, but today she sat for a full twenty minutes at her piano and reviewed every lesson that we've completed since starting formal lessons.

Her piano teacher rewards her with a sticker on the lesson book page when she completes one of the lessons and I have carried that same reward system over into our practicing.  Her piano lesson book is looking more like a sticker album these days than a work book!

All of our out of school activities are winding down for the winter semester.  Today Sydney had her second last swimming lesson before we start up again for the spring session.  She is doing so well with her swimming, swam a good long distance to the instructor after sliding down the slide today!

The kids are learning about Passover in school right now and the story of baby Moses.  Today Sydney told me she wanted to paint a picture of the Nile River.  I love how she retains what she learns so much and that it shows up at home!

We went for a last minute play date to our friend Christina and Jack's house today.  I love their enthusiasm and energy so much, they are such a pleasure to spend time with!  What a nice way to end our day with friends today!

Tried a new recipe for dinner last night, borrowed from my friend Sally, Pesto Pistachio Baked Salmon.  It's super easy, you basically rub pesto over a filet of fresh salmon then dunk the top in chopped pistachios and bake at 350 degrees until done, about 25-30 minutes.

It was quick, delicious and healthy!

Hope you're having a good week both near and far!

Pineapple Express

For the past five days it has been raining non-stop in Vancouver.  We've been experiencing what's called a Pineapple Express, a storm with high winds, buckets of rain and mild temperatures from a system that has moved up from Hawaii.  We have literally had 40mm of rain in one day, it's been incredible!

Yesterday Paul and I had our much anticipated night out together.  Paul and I love to walk, especially along the water and beaches and I was determined that, rain or shine, we were going to go for a long walk together to get some fresh air and exercise.  Midday it was looking really dismal, it literally looked like a monsoon outside with blowing sheets of rain.  I wasn't sure that we were going to want to be outside at all!  But then, about 4:00 in the afternoon, as if by magic, the clouds parted and the sun came out to shine!  It was amazing!

So we enjoyed a lovely long walk, grabbed a quick dinner and went for coffee before picking Sydney up from my friend Christina's where she was playing with her buddy Jack.  It was so nice to have some time together, am so looking forward to more evenings like this over the next few months.

Here's a bit of what our weekend looked like:

Swap Meet

Early Saturday morning, before we headed to Sydney's piano lesson, we hit up our first swap meet of the season at West Point Grey Community Centre.  Swap meets are hit and miss and this one was definitely a miss, not a lot of great stuff this time.  We came away with a couple of new books for Sydney, which are always a hit with her, and a new dress and shoes.

Whole Name

Sydney has been so into writing letters out these days.  She will literally spend ten minutes at a time practicing writing letters on her dry erase board, it's fantastic!  She had been writing her name in it's shortened version "Syd" for the longest time.  This past Friday, she asked me to write her name on the board and then proceeded to write her entire name underneath all by herself!  It was fantastic!  She went off to school that morning and did it again on her own on the easel there, she is so proud of herself!

Ducks

While we were out at the swap meet on Saturday morning, we walked past a little pond with a few ducks swimming in it.  Sydney insisted on returning to the car to fetch a bag of bird seed that we had inside and feeding the ducks.  It was quite cute!

Happy Birthday Alexa

This afternoon Sydney and I went to her friend Alexa's house to celebrate her 4th birthday!  She had a fantastic party with eighteen of her friends!  The highlight of the party was a visit from Cinema Zoo, a company that brings exotic animals to the party to show to the children.  The kids got to see everything from tarantulas and scorpions to snakes and skunks, ferrets and turtles.  It was amazing!

This brave Dad donned three tarantulas!

The birthday girl even got to hold the boa constrictor!

We enjoyed a lovely lunch and cake and some time outdoors before ending the party off with a pinata filled with chocolate Easter eggs.  Sydney had a blast hitting the pinata and scrambling all over the ground to collect the chocolate!

Time at the Park

Today was a beautiful, sunny day.  We enjoyed a walk to Dunbar this morning with Daddy and squeezed in a little visit to the park this afternoon as well.  Syd was so thrilled to finally return to the park after a long and rainy winter's break!

Break from the Kitchen

I am feeling especially spoiled after three nights in a row of having dinners out.  On Friday night Paul, Syd and I decided to go to Thai House for dinner, Saturday night Paul and I had Greek food while we were out together and tonight we ordered sushi in.  Three of my favourite cuisines and a lovely break from cooking and cleaning up in the kitchen this weekend!  Gotta love it!

Go Canucks Go!

Sydney is really into watching hockey games these days and always insists upon wearing her Canucks jersey while she watches.  Today she was standing in front of the TV chanting "Go Canucks Go" and jumping up and down in her little jersey.  It was awesome!  Their littlest fan!

It has been a wonderful weekend, I am so enjoying my days with Sydney lately!