Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Olivia's First Christmas







Well...right now we are here in Brampton for the continuation of the Holiday festivities. Olivia celebrated Christmas in Ste.Sauveur with the Savard clan. And man on man...it was busy. We were a bit worried about how Olivia would react to the big gathering and the big family dinners, especially since our last experience with family members was in Florida. That was the peak I'm thinking of her "mommy" separation issues.

When we arrived at our Christmas Eve dinner at Marc's place, we quickly saw all the kids and was fine. Phew! Even the lucky few got to hold her for a few seconds. hahahahha. It was truly memorable because she enjoyed playing with her cousins and running around the great upstair level. We opened the presents before dinner and Olivia was actually starting to get the hang of it. How could she not? All the kids tore into their presents quickly with squeals of glee. There was Olivia, as soon as Mathieu (oh I mean Santa's elf) called out "Pour Olivia!", she went running to grab her gift. She brought it over to Papa and together would tear into the presents. The gift that made her night (and Papa) was a doll stroller. She was going around and around pushing this stroller.

In the end, we changed all the kids into their pjs and hoped they would go down while we ate our late dinner. The kids were winding down and didn't put a fuss. Audrey, Nico and Matt said their "bonne nuit", and there was Melo and Olivia left upstairs. They put a mattress on the floor for Melo to sleep, and we put on a Elmo DVD for Olivia. Well...Melo fell asleep quickly. Olivia? Well...let's just say there were many times when she walked into the kitchen and sat on my lap to munch. It was probably around 11:30ish when she finally fell asleep in my arms. However, it was also time to leave. Sigh. Sooo.. we woke her up again and put on her coat and tucked her into her carseat and drove back to Grandpapa's house. What a night.

Then next day. We ended up having a much needed quiet morning and afternoon. Olivia played in the house and had a morning nap AND an afternoon nap while we were getting ready for another Christmas dinner. And yes...more presents.

In the morning, Olivia, Grandmaman, and I went to Christmas Day mass in the village. It was very beautiful and calm. It was even more calm with the fact that Miss Olivia fell asleep for almost the entire mass. I think I woke her up when I had to carry her to get communion. hahhaha. After mass, we walked back to the car and out of nowhere, SANTA came out of his car! He parked right behind us. What are the chances? hahahaha Olivia got to high-five Santa before we drove back home. It was quite the surprise for Olivia. Certainly made my day. :0)

The family arrived shortly after 6 and we began the festivities again. Christmas' in the past, we had the "opening of the presents" upstairs in the family by the big Christmas tree. This year, because of the number of gifts, we had the event downstairs in the basement. There was much more room. Again, Mathieu did his job and handed out the gifts. The kids were again equally excited by all the spoils of Grandmaman and Grandpapa as you can imagine. Olivia was starting to get the hand of this "gift" opening idea. She was right there ripping the paper and moving on to the next gift. hahahahha. I have to say though she was equally excited about all the snacks that were in the room. Sigh. That's my girl.

We had a lovely Christmas dinner after all the presents were opened. Just as always with the holidays, we were all pretty exhausted. not only because of the late nights and preparation, but all the food! It was just too yummy. Again after dinner, the kids changed into their pjs and this time I was able to put Miss O down in the bedroom. She went down quickly and slept soundly for the night. She woke up around 8ish the next morning and played with her gifts.

Papa ended up doing his Boxing Day tradition with the boys. While the boys "bonded" (while going shopping ironically), we drove to see Grandmaman Anita. It was the first meeting with her great grandmaman. Luckliy there was no traffic and we got to the other side of Montreal under an hour. Which meant...no cranky Olivia. hahahah. When we got there, to Olivia's delight, Grandmaman Anita had a little dog. Even more of treat, her name was "Cookie". One of Olivia's favourite things. Of course, Olivia did not disappoint and lived up to the stories of how active she was. She was very excited about the dog and kept calling her name out and chasing her around. Poor Cookie. As always though, that didn't last long and Melo and Olivia were getting bored. Out came the snacks. Then to entertain them, they played with the magnets on Grandmaman Anita's fridge. Just like toddlers though, when we were leaving, we couldn't find 2 magnets. Ooopps! Sorry. It was a pleasant visit and I hope we will have another chance to see each other again. Of course on the way home, Miss Olivia finally falls asleep in the car as we literally got into Ste. Sauveur. Sigh. I decided to stay in the car for another 10-15 minutes to give her a good power nap.

That night we had another family dinner. But that night, Nico and Melo got to sleep over. Yay! It was a pleasant surprise for Olivia when she woke up to see her cousins playing downstairs. By the end of the weekend, she was calling them by their names. It was totally cute. Sadly, we had to leave that day to go back to Ottawa. The next day would be another road trip to Brampton to see Lola and Lolo. The fun never ends. We drove back and Olivia fell asleep all the way home. She was exhausted.





When we got home, we unloaded the car. I started the laundry. Of course, Olivia had more presents to unwrap. Lucky girl. We invited Nalina over her BFF because we hadn't see them for ages. I know Olivia missed her. They played for a bit and then it was time for dinner. Tomorrow would be another busy day. Another couple of days of family gatherings, opening presents, food, and fun. That's how it should be. I pray that how it's always going to be for Olivia. I hope every year will be like her first Christmas - you don't need all the gifts, but the excitement, the family, the love is the core of any great Christmas. She is so lucky to have that.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Signed, Sealed, and Delivered


On Wednesday, December 8th, The Honourable Judge B. ordered that Olivia be "officially" ours. Yes, the adoption is finalized. It was an early Christmas present from the government. I only wish that I could have met this Judge in person to thank him for putting his signature on a piece of paper and stamping it with his seal. He doesn't realize how much power he has. She was always ours..but now we have the papers to prove it. :0)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Week 2 - Full day today!

Well...the morning did not start off right. She went to bed early, and slept pretty well for the night. I was thinking it would be a fresh start to the day. However, Olivia is much smarter than that. Although she pretty much had a 12 hour sleep, I had a hard time waking her up this morning. When I did she was crying "Maman!". Sigh. She finally got up and wanted to read her books. Stalling!

She went to her playroom and sure enough she gave that look. The same look on the plane when we went to Florida. The "caca" look. Damn...so early in the morning. This is strange. So I changed her and brought her down for breakfast. She had a hard time getting into her chair. She didn't want to eat her cereal. She didn't want her toast. She refused a bib. Whining throughout breakfast. Sigh...this is not good. I finally feed her more fruit and brought her up to change. Gave her my phone to play with and put on her snowsuit to leave.

The drive this morning wasn't too bad. I put some ELMO on because I wanted her to be in a better mood. I know I'm a sucker. :0P We got to the school just in time for outdoor play. Papa met us there so we could do this drop-off together. She was super happy getting out of the car. We walked together towards the playground. That's when she saw Miss Crystal and the other kids. SHE STARTED TO WAIL. Ugh...my heart broke. Tears and tears came and she was crying "maman!" all the time. The teachers finally took her and brought her in the gated playground and we said our goodbyes and walked away.

Today was a brutal. Waves of emotion for me. It was funny because the other parents sensed we were having a hard time. A parent said "Don't worry. It happens all the time. She'll be fine in 3 weeks". I'm thinking...wait a sec...I only have 2 weeks till the Christmas break. 2 other mothers approached Martin and I by our cars and told us it was going to be fine and she'll adapt. I knew that she would adapt eventually, but right now she was crying for me. Ugh.

Now I'm at home and feeling a tremendous amount of guilt because I have the whole day without Olivia. What am I going to do? I'm so used to planning my day around her schedule. I'm at a loss. The first thing I did when I got home this morning was open up my email and noticed GAP was having a sale. I felt like going shopping. That's my thing. Bored and feeling blah...shopping makes me feel better. hahahhaha I actually didn't buy anything though. I miss her terribly. But I guess I will keep myself busy today.

I'm looking at the clock now...10:11am. She's having snack. I hope she's eating. sigh. Anyways..I guess I'll jump in the shower. A luxury for me because I don't have to rush today. Yay! I'm sure the day will be fine. She'll cope. I can't wait to pick her up this afternoon.