Warm weekend.

The weather couldn't have been better this weekend, warm temperatures coupled with glorious sunshine. The family got to enjoy an outing to the Cherry Blossom Festival at the Nikkei Centre on Saturday and a nice bike ride at Pier Park on Sunday afternoon.

The sticker reward system is still chugging along. We're still having some issues, but all in all there have been some micro improvements. On their own the kids are pretty fantastic, it's when they get together things become volatile. Call it sibling rivalry, call it being mean, Tracey and Roger get tired of it pretty fast.

Here are some pictures from the Nikkei Centre:

Science World

So Roger and Tracey bucked up and finally bought into the family membership for Science World. It's been a long time coming. In the past they never thought it was worth the trouble, especially considering Melody's age. They'll have to go at least 3 times to make it worth their money. I don't think that will be a huge challenge as Malcolm and Melody are both excited to do so. Hopefully, the next feature exhibit will be of interest to both of them. The cartoon/animation exhibit that's going on now was pretty cool. Malcolm had fun making a stop motion movie and Melody enjoyed colouring and tracing some figures.

In other news, the kid's behaviour has improved slightly with the implementation of the rewards chart. They are awarded stickers for good behaviour, showing kindness and only getting up once in the night to pee (for Melody). They're about half-way to their goal already. Once they reach the end, they'll be able to pick out a treat for themselves. Fingers and paws crossed it will work. Now to deal with the other issues like homework and whining, baby steps I guess.

Easter and stuff...

No one said that parenting was easy and for what ever reason it's been extra tough on Tracey and Roger these days. Forget those wistful thoughts of the kids getting easier as they get older. The fighting, complaining and whining can be so exhausting! The silver lining in all this came last week when the kid's report cards came home. Honestly, they couldn't have been better. There were so many kind words, words that would make anyone proud. There were things written by their teachers that literally brought tears to Tracey's eyes. The good and bad of it all is that they know the kids can be extra great and for what ever reason at home it's a different story. We're all keeping our fingers and paws crossed that things will get better soon. For the most part it's a maturity issue coupled with some typical sibling rivalry.

Last Friday, we had some friends over for brunch and a little Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Fun was had by all. It was nice seeing everyone. In our midst, some of the friends are going through a lot. Roger and Tracey find themselves in a situation where many of their friend's parents are getting older and even some dealing with some pretty serious illnesses across the board. I guess as we go on there will be more of this happening.

Last week Malcolm was experiencing some serious leg pain, just above his knee. He actually stayed home for a day. He couldn't walk, he couldn't even move. Roger went so far as to get him a pair of crutches. The ultrasound and x-rays came back this week and the doctor said that he has some calcium deposits near his knee. From the sound of things, it's quite typical and no cause for concern. It's lucky cause baseball season is just starting. Roger decided to keep him back a year and play Rookies again this year. He figured that he wasn't quite ready for Minors yet. This year's rule change with Little League actually cheated him out of a year.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks, including ones from Sierra's 4th birthday.