The Rest of April - Walks, A Puppy, and Parks

April 9 - Walk

I wanted to walk and walk and walk and see how far we could get. Kate and I made it to Veteran's Point Gardens, at the bottom of Harwood. I loved the walk so much. Ken came and picked us up so we didn't have to walk home. Kate was excited to discover that some of the things along the waterfront that seem really far away by car, aren't actually that far on foot. 

Apr 18 - Park

Fiona is determined to go to every park in the area and do the monkey bars! I love how strong she is and how she loves to build her strength and push herself. It inspires me! This was a park we'd never been to before behind the Ajax Community Centre.

Apr 21 - I didn't really get a great picture of Milo in the snow, I took a funny video. There's always one funny snow day in April - the 21st is late this year!

April 23 - Being on a laptop or chrome book makes it easy to have class outside with the puppy! And of course school at home means playing with the puppy at recess. We finished off the day with a visit back to Miles Park.

April 24 - Rotary Park - three sets of monkey bars, two of which were a little too challenging. But the sky, the sunset! Goodness, I love where I live!

April 25 - I think it was this fun website I found that talked in depth about parks in Durham that led us to this neighbourhood at Westney and Rossland. Alice and Fiona had lots of fun at both parks. We saw a third that we want to visit another time.

April 26 - Scientist in the Schools - Fiona was SO happy! It was great. And then back to the same neighbourhood we were in yesterday, this time with Kate.

April 27 - Fiona and her pumpkin hat and our adorable little pumpkin Milo! After dinner we went to Mullen Park and the girls had sort of fun. They are funny and like parks to themselves sometimes.

April 28 - Fiona and I went to deliver a parcel to Carmen and McKenzie Pistritto to deliver to Suzanne and family on their mother/daughter trip to Utah. After the delivery we found a park around the corner with a crazy high set of monkey bars that was a little beyond Fiona's comfort zone.

April 30 - It's been seventeen days of Milo, and we are ALL in love!

A Spring Break Vaccine

Last week I found out that I was eligible to get vaccinated because I work in the community class at my school with special needs kids that don't wear masks. It was really confusing at first looking at the vaccine booking sites. I had no idea where I was supposed to book. Then slowly more information came out, that booking would open up next week and and that I just needed to wait. 

At 8:30 on April 13th booking opened up for York Region teachers that work with the community class. I was able to book a time for this morning at 9:50 a.m. in Markham. Ken came with me just in case.

The vaccination site was at a community centre at Markham Road and 14th Ave in Markham. It was so incredibly well organized. I had to show my documentation to a few different people, and answer questions and then I was sitting in a chair with a doctor. I had to sit for 15 minutes for observation after the vaccine was done. As I sat waiting it was hard to hold back tears. I just feel so grateful that I was able to get vaccinated. I can't wait until the vaccines are more readily available and this covid nightmare is over!

My arm was sore afterwards but I felt fine and I was determined to be fine! I drank lots of water and Fiona and I went for a bike ride.

I was allowed to leave at 10:12. I found the paper in my pocket when we were out for our bike ride. You weren't allowed to take pictures in the vaccination centre, or I would have. 

Ken mostly made dinner tonight. It wasn't long after dinner that I just didn't feel quite right. I texted my friend Jodi who had her vaccine on Tuesday. Jodi said by the evening she was incredibly exhausted and had chills and a headache. So I'm taking two tylenol, going to bed and hoping that I feel better in the morning.

**Friday morning - I feel fine!**

A Spring Break Meltdown

Fiona was excited about the dog. Alice and Kate were over the moon today. Milo had a great first night. He didn't wake us up crying and he didn't have any accidents inside the house. Fiona seemed to be okay, she was super excited yesterday.

Milo sure does love his dog bed which is good!

This is Milo's Dad - 100% Dalmatian

This is Milo's Mom Eva. She's a Dachsador, which is a mix between a Dachshund and a Labrador. We met Milo's Mom. She is a sweet pup herself.

At some point Fiona asked to go to the park, but just with me. I told her I'd take her to a park that she'd been to before but that she might not remember. I took her to Duffin's Bay Park. It's just south of Duffin's Bay Public School. We looked at a house on Bolland Cres. when we were buying a house, and if it weren't for that, I don't know if we would have discovered the park. We when came home I looked it up on my phone and realized the last time we were at the park was summer of 2017 when Fiona was four - hence, she did not in fact remember the park. Fiona had fun having me all to herself and she had fun playing and jumping and trying out the equipment.

After she'd played for a bit I asked her if she wanted to walk down the path to the lake. It's a really quick walk to the lake from the park, so we went to say hi to the lake. Along the way Fiona told me her secret - or at least, said she had secrets but wasn't sure if she wanted to tell me. 

After the park Ken and I went and picked up the Fit - no more snow tires! I made dinner and then it was YW for Kate and Toast Masters for Ken.

Fiona was in an increasingly bad temper and didn't want to talk about it. Alice wanted a blizzard from DQ and we needed a few things from the grocery store, so Alice, Fiona and I went to do some errands. I ran into Sobey's with the two girls in the car. Fiona tried to escape and set off of the car alarm. They figured out how to make it stop - I didn't know any of this until I came back. 

When we got to DQ there was a big mess of cars in the parking lot. We finally figured out how to get in the drive-thru line - after a confusing exchange with a Subaru. The Subaru driver ended up paying for our blizzards - which was so super nice of him. I wish there was some way to say thank you!

Fiona was getting more and more upset - in part because I made the decision for her at the drive-thru because she just said "I don't know" over and over again. By the time we got home she was not in a good state at all. Fiona and I sat in the car and she rage cried about Milo. About how she didn't want a dog, that she didn't like dogs, that she was afraid of the dog and that she didn't want to see the dog again, and she wanted it to go away. She cried with me in the car and then cried some more with Ken. She's not only upset about the dog because she is afraid, but also because she's jealous. She's jealous of all the love and attention that Kate and Alice are lavishing on the dog. It was good that she was finally releasing all of the feelings she had stored all day but goodness it made me sad. 

I reassured Fiona that she is more important than the puppy. I gave her lots of love and told her that she needed to give the puppy a fair trial, but I did tell her that ultimately her happiness is more important than the puppy. Then I told Alice and Kate that if they want to keep the puppy they need to pay attention to their little sister and help her not to feel jealous. 

Oh and the puppy peed in the house tonight for the first time. He peed at the back door where he goes out. So that's something, but also not good. Ah well. At least I didn't have a meltdown too!