Warmest greetings of the season to you, our beloved Friends and Family,
As I compose this missive, it's snowing outside and little Cygni is playing in the kitchen sink. Jordan is at school and Dad is probably just arriving at work after dropping our boy off. I've got the cheeriest Christmas music playing to inspire me, and honestly, it really is beginning to look like Christmas around here!
Cygni asked Santa for Kinder Surprise Eggs & Jordan requested a gumball machine
I have to say it is tough to write this letter, mostly because we put so much of our day to day lives into the blog, that we don't want to duplicate the information, and there isn't too much we don't publish on here. So I encourage you to have a look over the blog archive and scope out some of the photos from the last year, there are some good ones! Add us to your favourites bar and check in with us once in a while. Or even better, subscribe via e-mail and get our new posts digitally delivered right to your inbox, fresh as they happen! You can do that in the tool bar just to your left. Having said that, I'll still do a quick update on the children for you.
Jordan changed schools in September, he now attends Children's Hearing & Speech Centre in Vancouver. It's funny, when we started telling people, they almost all commented, "but isn't that further to drive?!" Haha! Yes, it is, to be honest, but the geography was hardly our primary concern. We decided that although DCS preschool was still a great place to learn, it couldn't hurt to send Jordan to a school with a more aggressive approach to speech, because he just wasn't talking much. They do not use any sign language at this school, instead they try to get all their students to communicate orally. And we really appreciate the changes that we have seen in Jordan in the last few weeks and months. He does speak more frequently now, and still signs, though only with family on the rare occasion. In particular, we hear him talking up a storm at home! He still doesn't communicate even half as much at school or other situations that are new or may be uncomfortable for him, but we think that is more to do with who Jordan is than with his hearing.
In fact, we like that CHSC has asked some questions which have less to do with his hearing loss and more to do with his success as a student and person in general. We have just approved some external assessments to help figure out some of the mysteries of Jordan, social and behavioural stuff like why he doesn't sustain eye contact as well as most kids his age, and why he rarely initiates play or communication with non-family members. In addition, he is now seeing an occupational therapist weekly at school. They tell us that he seems to require additional sensory input beyond what I grew up understanding one's senses to be limited to (sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing,) specifically his proprioceptive sense (body awareness) and slightly less so in Jordan's case, his vestibular sense (spatial balance and coordination.) Whoa, did I lose you? Don't worry, all it means is that Jordy likes to gather more information in order to feel comfortable in terms of body awareness and coordination which is why he kind of flaps his arms a bit when he runs (something which bugs Daddy to no end,) and why he might like breaking crayons or chewing on a pencil or marker, these behaviours may help him to settle and focus. It explains why he wants to jump around on Mommy & Daddy's bed and get his ya-yas out before settling down for a story and song at bedtime is even a remote possibility. It's good to know, and knowing it will help us to give him the tools he needs to be successful in school (and not drive us frickin' crazy at home,) until he is able to self-regulate these needs.
Other than that he loves going to school, and his favourite parts of the day are music time, gym time and yoga! He loves to listen to music on his iPod Nano on the way to school, and whenever we go to the swimming pool, Daddy teaches him a bit more and he is getting closer to swimming on his own all the time.
Cygni is still home with me all the time, though we are considering putting her in day care part-time, even for a day or two to keep her social. But it's hard to justify with our current financial situation. Until then, I just try to get her out with other kids as often as possible, though it can be tricky with the need to pick up Jordy every day at 3pm, and her nap time being at noon. It is a pretty small window of opportunity. At any rate, she seems to be a clever and well-adjusted kid.
Chris did a lot of traveling for work this year. Last January, he was sent down to Austin, Texas for a week. He got to see how the customer support call centre, located there, operates - he even got to sit on the floor and listen in on a couple of support calls. While he was there, Chris paid a visit to my very dear high school friend, Sarah. Sarah and her husband (also, a Chris!) were kind enough to take him out for a delicious BBQ dinner and a few beers at one of their favourite haunts, and they sent him home with some goodies for the Little Dumers. Thank you Sarah and Chris - give little Elllie a kiss for us! Besides the trip to Austin, Chris also visited his teams in Bucharest, Romania, and Guildford (just outside of London) in the UK only two weeks ago. This was just a week-long visit, so it was a bit of a whirlwind and unfortunately he didn't really get an opportunity to sight-see. But while in Bucharest he enjoyed the authentic Romanian fare that he got to taste and while out for dinner with the team, he got to see some traditional Romanian dancing.
Chris after dinner with his Romanian Team
Chris says it was very interesting to see how this city is rebuilding and revitalizing itself as an emerging market and hotbed of entrepreneurial spirit. On the other hand, he really enjoyed his ten minute walk along cobbled streets to work every day that he was in Guildford; it really had the flavour of an olde English towne, for Chris. It was a tough week for Deb, as it meant driving into Vancouver twice daily to take Jordy to school and pick him up. We thought, in light of this, we would play hooky on the Friday, so we stayed close to home, had a pancake breakfast and then went to open gym time at the local rec centre instead. It surely was nice to have Daddy home again. Just knowing that you have a teammate around to back you up, or take over when you're at your wit's end, is helpful. Mad respect to all the single parents out there who continue to do it right, with a smile on your face, and without putting your children out on the curb on garbage collection day!
I've been back to work at Starbucks since November of last year, but it's just for a few days, I average twelve hours weekly. It's not much help on the finances but it does get me out of the house and gives me a break from the kiddos. It is nice to be a barista again instead of a manager -- lower stress factor. Last January I did start a book club, and I am so glad I did. I am a pretty avid reader, and when I realized I had a few friends who would be willing to get together every month for wine and a discussion, I set it up.
Book club members last March
Book Club has been so much fun! I have had some good reads and tried some books and genres I may never have tried otherwise. It also feels great to have brought together a group of women of diverse backgrounds that may not ordinarily hang out. I can't believe we're coming up on our one year anniversary soon. I have loved reading and discussing books with others and have even made some new friends! Check out our book club blog if you would like to read along with us!
Chris'n'Deb celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss last March with a night at the Opera
Another highly diverting Dumaresq event this year was our 2nd Annual Beer Fest. It didn't make the blog, mostly because we weren't sure how appropriate it was to add drunken revelry to the documentation of our "journey through parenthood." The inaugural beer fest happened in 2012 when my friend Jackie and her husband came up for a visit, and unable to score tickets to a beer festival happening at the time, we decided to host our own.
It was a huge success so we decided to do it again this year and once again, we had a raging good time! So much so that we have decided to make the beer fest an annual Labour Day tradition. We've got some great ideas and are booking spots for 2014, so let us know if you're interested in attending! One of the best stories of the night was when the local fire department showed up! Some neighbour, rather than coming over and asking about our fire, called us in, only to have the firemen say, "oh, it's propane, that is just fine." We invited the firemen over the fence for a cold one, but they declined, as any good firefighter on duty would. Still, it makes a good story. I wonder which authorities they'll sic on us next year...?
We took Jordy to see a concert by some of his favourite Yo Gabba Gabba characters last spring, you can read up on that post here, but I just wanted to share a funny story related to that trip. See, the concert was in Seattle, but YGG was not coming to Vancouver, and this was going to be our only opportunity, but we figured it would be worth is for J-man to see, so we booked a hotel and drove down to spend a day in Seattle. I didn't think to check my passport until the day before and as it should happen, it had expired just a few weeks before on February 19th. Oops. What to do...? Well, I was plum outta time to rush a new one. So I thought, hmm, better not say anything all about this, Chris is a terrible worrier. I'll just have to play dumb if the border agent notices the expiry. Wonder what my acting chops are like.... As we approach the border crossing, I'm feeling pretty nervous. We hand the fellow our stack of passports and he asks us a few questions,then... passes them back to us and tells us to enjoy the show. Whew! OMG, I want to express my relief to Chris SO badly. Buuut, we still have to get back home through Canadian customs.... better hold off, not through the woods yet! We get down there, enjoy the show and have fun staying at a hotel and driving back. Again, we're coming up on to the border and I am feeling pretty queasy! When it's our turn, the border agent barely looks at our paperwork and then hands them back to us. Woohoo! As soon as we are on our merry way again, I turn to Chris and say, "hey, I need to tell you something..." And we had a good laugh about it. You will be happy to know that I renewed my passport in time for our big vacation trip down to Oregon last August. And so I will leave this friendly tip to check the expiry on your passport at least a month before any trips across the border!
Speaking of our trip to Oregon last August, we got a nasty little surprise when we went down to the crawl space to find our luggage and the pack'n'play at 11pm the night before we were depart. There was a very large amount of water dripping into the crawl space and creating a big puddle! Lovely. After cleaning up and moving items to dry areas, we assessed the situation. It wasn't the hot water heater we replaced just six months before -- thank goodness! It was a pipe leaking from somewhere upstairs. With no other recourse on such short notice, we shut off all water to the house before we left and made a note to call our plumber, Graham as soon as we got home. We enjoyed our vacation, but as soon as we returned, things got seriously real. Just to find the leak, Graham had to pull out our downstairs washroom/laundry vanity and mirror and cut a big flippin' hole in the wall! Guess, what -- this leak just turned into a bathroom renovation job too. Bonus.
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in the end, glad we found out about this leak when we did, as we had enough mould already!
Thankfully he did find the leak, in an awkward spot right between the two floors, which warranted yet another hole in the ceiling. Whatever, in for a penny, in for a pound, I always say. Now, Chris did have an expensive but brilliant stroke of genius. Since we now had a gargantuan hole in the wall already anyhow, and since we were now committed to replacing the walls, floor and vanity in this washroom, we didn't want to have a nasty leak happening again, which is a totally possible situation, why not replace all the old plumbing? Could Graham do that? Yup, he could and did. It really was the right thing to do and Graham did a fine job, but $2500 later we had the whole house re-piped and still hadn't started on fixing the room. So, we got on the horn with another contractor, strongly recommended by some friends, Will, at Home Squad, and got to work fixing up the mess in our laundry/washroom. Now we have a pretty new bathroom downstairs, and a much flatter wallet! Special thanks to Nanny Mary though, who sprang for a new washer/dryer pair for us. It is nice to have a shiny new set to go in our shiny new washroom! The last thing that needs to be done, is to install a new door and we will be all done in that room, and though it cost us a lot, at least now we no longer have to concern ourselves with the possibility of leaks!
I know it makes the room look funny, please forgive the panoramas,
it was the only way I could get everything in this small room into the shot!
You can see the new Allure flooring and the heater Chris installed in this photo.
Now, I have to tell you about the Door Situation in our house. As I just wrote, we have yet to replace to door on the downstairs washroom. When we made the decision to put the door in the garbage it was in October, and we were kind of thinking of replacing all the ugly old doors in our house some day anyhow, so off it went. I really wish I could take it back. It's just proving difficult to find the time to go pick up a new door and do the whole rigamarole of installing it, because believe me it is a pain for laymen like us. Besides that, I'm trying to avoid paying the $60 for delivery, though that fee is growing more and more economical all the time, considering our doors are dropping like flies:
Another three-fer above! To be fair, the tool room hasn't had a door since the days of our cat Smokey; we used to keep the litter box inside. The second shot is of Jordy's bedroom door which we had to break into at the end of October because the knob stopped working. And finally (?) just last week Chris had to kick a hole in the door to Cygni's room because Jordan turned the lock while Daddy and Cygni were inside and I don't know who installs a knob this way, but the room side of the knob has a key hole (to which we do not have a key, of course!) and Jordan was unable to turn the knob from the outside since we had put a child-safety cover on it.
Needless to say, Mommy is hoping Santa gives her at least a new downstairs bathroom door for Christmas, so that people will be able to use the loo in privacy when they come over on Boxing Day for our Open House! Oh by the way, that leaves just two interior doors which work and appear as they should in our home. But who's keeping track?
Yeah, it's been a tough year on the ol' pocket book. But we are still looking forward to the wonder and joy of the season. We've had fun with the kids visiting Santa and building a gingerbread house, and there is still so much to do yet! We truly have a great time with our holiday activities and traditions in the Dumaresq household. We hope you can say the same. Happy Holidays everyone, we hope the rest of the year is merry and bright and that your have a most auspicious New Year!
XXOO
Deb & Family
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