One Year Down

Countless more to go. Today is Darcy's last day of junior kindergarten. Despite all my nervousness from last summer and fall, Darcy has had a fantastic year. She's disappointed to end the school year and I think she'd like to keep going to school all summer long.

Yesterday they had a big year-end concert and picnic at the school. The concert consisted of two songs that they performed in their classroom (the 4 other afternoon classes were performing in their classrooms at the same time) and then all the classes joined together for a picnic out in the sweltering heat. Even with the heat, it was a lot of fun. It just cracks me up to see her hanging out with her little friends.

Her teacher told me that at this point there isn't room in the morning class for Darcy. So if everything remains the same in the fall as it is now, Darcy will be continuing on in the afternoon class. I'm a bit disappointed but whatever happens, we'll make it work. She has done really well in that class this year and I know she can do great again next year.

5 Years Old

I can hardly believe it but Darcy's 5th birthday has come and gone. It hardly seems possible that 5 years have gone by since she joined our family. In some ways it seems like she's always been here, but in other ways it feels like these 5 years have absolutely flown by.
Here she is on June 6th, 2004.

Here she is on June 6th, 2009.

For her birthday party, Darcy chose to go to the bowling alley around the corner from our house. They seem to be the only place in town that does 5-pin bowling and she loves it. With her cousins, church friends and school friends all put together we had 12 kids joining us at the party. It was pretty loud at times but a lot of fun. I didn't get to see much of the bowling with getting the food sorted out but it looked like the kids were having a good time.

There is one girl from school who drives us nuts but Darcy really wanted her there, so she was there. All the other kids were just great. A lot of the parents stayed too which is great because they're our friends too so that makes it more enjoyable for us too, and with the number of kids we had, the extra hands came in handy (so to speak). My family stayed for the weekend so she had an all-around great time celebrating her birthday. Grandmaman and Papa will be coming this weekend from Montreal so we're all really excited about that too.

I thought that in honour of Darcy's 5th birthday, I'd write a little bit about Darcy at age 5. Darcy is a funny little girl. She's got a vocabulary that sometimes cracks me up and often says things that make her sound like she's older than I am. She loves the colour purple, Barbies, dolls, princesses, books and all kinds of fun stuff. Her favourite food is spaghetti and she loves chocolate (that's my girl). No meal is complete without dessert, she'll even try to get dessert at breakfast sometimes. She knows that you can't wear socks with sandals and is horrified if someone shows up school like that. She loves reading books and is starting to read a few words on her own. She is sounding out all the letters and it won't be long before she can completely read on her own. Darcy loves speaking French and if you ever get the chance to listen to her do it, I highly recommend it. It's pretty entertaining. She has really picked up the language quickly and is doing very well at school in both languages. She can also be stubborn, bossy and whiny, like most 5-year olds. All in all, we're incredibly proud of her and we love her. Happy birthday, Darcy!

Potty Training???

Warning: Bathroom content!!!

Lately Wesley has been showing a lot of interest in the potty which has caught me completely off guard. He is 21 months old and Darcy was over 2 before we started any sort of training with her. All the conventional "wisdom" that you hear says that boys start later than girls so I hadn't really given potty training any serious thought yet.

However, over the past couple of weeks, Wesley has been fascinated with the potty. He's always wanting to sit on there so we've been letting him, with no sort of "action" happening. Yesterday I was making supper when he walked into the kitchen and started tugging on his diaper. I told him I didn't have time to take him to the potty but apparently that answer didn't satisfy him. He then took off his pants. I figured he meant business. I took him upstairs and put him on the potty and what do you know, he peed! He was pretty proud of himself, you could tell.

Last night was a night when I go out before Nick gets home from work with a babysitter in between. When I got home Nick was all excited to tell me that Wesley had peed on the potty before bathtime. I had to rain on his parade and tell him that it wasn't the first time. Then when I got Wesley out of bed this morning I put him on the potty again and he peed again (although this time more got on the floor than in the toilet). I can't believe it.

I don't really think this is the real thing yet. I could be wrong but I'm not sure that he's ready for full potty training. I'm not pushing the issue but if he's going to start taking off his pants in the kitchen then I'll take him to the bathroom. Oh, what would I give to be able to stop buying diapers forever!