Visit with Richard, Grannie, and Grand-Dan

The Wii has been a source of fun at night for us lately. This particular night, the boys tried out Mario Kart first. Dexter just wasn't willing to hold down a button while he drove. Toy Story 3 was going to be too difficult. Next, we tried Go Diego Go. This one was a success.
I realized it was a one player game. That would be a problem, so I thought. It turned out to be awesome. Little baby-Jaguar follows Diego everywhere. I told AJ that he was Diego. I told Dexter that he was Baby-Jaguar. They were both perfectly happy with that scenario. Half the time, Dex just sits watching the game like it's a movie anyhow, not even moving his controller.
Can you see Diego and Baby-Jaguar there? They played for about 20 minutes while I did some laundry and put all their clothes away.
Here they are doing stamps this morning. No shirts = less mess.


Guess what?
There's an indoor skate park in Abbotsford now! YAY! We went to check it out, and get AJ some pads of his own so he can practice at the outdoor park too.



A couple nights ago, we went to the playground at 5pm. It was dark! And it was cold! But they didn't care. I had my coffee, so I was good too.


Crappy phone photos, sorry, but you can still see their smiles!



I hmmm and hawed about when to head out to visit Richard yesterday. Kim and Kareen convinced me to head out during Dexter's nap. I packed up, and I headed out to Dad's.

It was a perfect drive. I got to bypass ALL of the backup from the counter-flow lane being in effect at the tunnel because I could use the HOV. Ohhh, people did not like watching me drive up the side to the front of the line. It felt good.

Once we got to Dad's around 3:30pm, right on time, as Dad pulled into the parking lot, we moved the carseat and the booster over and headed to the hospital.

Our visit overlapped with Grannie being at the hospital which worked out perfectly. The boys got to see Grannie, I got to see Grannie, and we all got to visit with Richard. Again, he looks great as always, but that doesn't reflect how he's feeling.

His urine has been clear of blood for a couple days now. Today, he said he's getting longer breaks between needing to pee, so hopefully, that's a good sign.

Just in case he's in the hospital on Christmas day, we brought him his gift wrapped up too along with all the other supplies he requested.

We fit in lots of hugs and love. The boys were good. We stayed for close to an hour.

Dad, me, and the boys went back to Richmond, had dinner at WhiteSpot running through what would normally be Dexter's 7:30pm bedtime. The boys eyes were beginning to close.

I remember, before I had kids, seeing kids peeking over booths, standing on the seats and thinking, "I will NEVER let my kids behave like that at a restaurant!"

Oh, I was soooo naive. The boys are actually really well behaved at restaurants, but... they're still kids.

Dexter, while I wasn't watching, had snuck his head around to peek at the people in the booth behind me. He was reaching his hand through and smiling at them.
me - "Dexter! Sit properly! On your bum or your knees. No peeking at other people!"
Dex - (quite sternly, I'll add) - "I just saying hi to them mom!!!"

However, after Dad brought us back to his place where my car was parked and I transferred everything over, I was feeling like pushing my luck.

I asked the boys (at 8pm) if it was okay if we went to the mall. We did. Dexter was actually falling asleep while we were walking. I was 'one of those moms' that I usually condemn in my mind, silently, for messing with their kids routines and taking them to malls WAY past bedtime.

Here's Grand-Dan looking at pics of the boys ice-skating on his phone while AJ does puzzles on the DS.

Here's Dex, colouring. He looks like he's sleeping here!

Thanks Dad for helping the night run smoothly!

Get better, Richard! We want you home!