Time to get involved

We are staying in a carpet filled condo that requires daily or at least every other day vacuuming. Especially with toddler/baby moving around leaving a trail of crumbs where ever they go. Of course I vacuumed at our old house but in a house with wall to wall hard wood the vacuum did not come out as often as the Norwex mop did. Let's just say that here the vacuum has become somewhat of a novelty for Kaia. Well novelty I don't know but it has become a hot topic for conversation and activity in this little condo. For the last three ish days Kaia has been saying to me "vacuum Mom". I started responding by simply saying "yes Mommy will vacuum later". Kaia would persistently ask me through out the day the same question until finally I would do a serious scan of the floor and decide well yes Kaia is probably right I need to vacuum. I would pull out the vacuum Kaia would get all excited and watch me gather all of the toys and things off the floor and pull out the vacuum. Kaia would race to the couch and sit and watch me vacuum with deep concentration. This has gone on for a few days now but there has been some evolvement to the routine. Kaia will not let up until I whip out that vacuum. At first it was all cutesy and funny haha she likes watching me vacuum,  haha she is trying to tell me something about the state of our little home. Now I'm feeling like I have a little parent following me around monitoring my chores and when things should be done. She asks me at least every hour "vacuum Mom", "Vacuum Mom". I feel like a whinny teenager now...I'm thinking in my head every time she asks me "sheesh leave me alone I'll vacuum later". arghh. It even got the point where I stopped Kaia mid sentence and said Kaia I will vacuum later OK lay off! I am trying to figure out what in the world is this new obsession about. But then I thought hmmm maybe she is trying to tell me something here like um maybe "I'm bored". Yes we live in a city with many many options. But right now as a part of our transition Erick is taking our car to work. Erick needs to get into a carpool and we are in the market for a second vehicle. So we are some what stranded at the moment. So after a morning of being pestered by my 2 year old to vacuum my floor I gave in and started vacuuming. She watches me so intently while I vacuum so I had a second thought maybe she really wants to learn how to vacuum or maybe she wants a vacuum ride....oh I'm a fool. Just as I was finishing up Kaia got off her little perch and came over to me and said "I try Mama". But as I handed her the vacuum she ran so fast back to her perch and said "no Mama". I put the vacuum away as I am finished for today and doesn't that brown eyed little girl look up and me like 10 minutes later and say "vacuum Mom". AHHHHH.  Although my floors have never been cleaner I'm thinking its time to get involved in a little play group or something! Our weekends are always full we are on the go go go and come Monday and Tuesday the girls and myself are pretty content to relax and catch up with our routine things. But I'm thinking we need to add a play group to our schedule for the mid week crazies. It is time I need to do some research and figure out what we can do....that falls on the path of the city bus route too. We have already had one trip on the city bus and I don't think I have seen Kaia's eyes so big when the giant bus pulled up and we actually got on it. And then we all know that there is no lack of characters on the city bus to stare at. We can handle a little city transit until we get more organized. Time to make an effort....other wise I may start getting harassed to scrub the toilets or something. We were active participants in most all the play groups in Elkford so it is time to get involved in Kamloops.

Hello Kamloops

It has been one month...one month that has flown by. I remember when we first pulled into the city. It was about 5pm the sun was shinning we were so excited. We got the keys to the bachelor suit we would be staying in for the first 3 weeks. The shock and excitement that we were HERE clouded the fact that we were staying in a bachelor suit. We did not care we would make it work. After quickly scanning our new home we realized that there was definitely some things that we needed to get, apart from the obvious grocery shop. Off to the grocery store we went, our cart filled up fast. We needed this that and the other things.....we grabbed the bulk toilet paper, bulk paper towel and bulk everything. We had doubles and triples of everything that we needed. It was weird both Erick and I kind of stopped looked at each other and it dawned on us. "wait a minute we live here now". If I need more of this or that I can come back tomorrow and get it heck I could come back in two hours and get what I forgot. We call our condition the "hoarder mentality". Living rurally causes such side effects as buying bulk items to "stalk up" because who knows when you are going to "get to town" again or even worse you may be snowed in. I mean yes this was our first grocery shop on our very first couple of hours in town. But even one month into this adventure and we are still catching ourselves grabbing 7 of each item in the ethnic food section which contains items that you wouldn't dream of finding at Kootenay Market. Erick and I are both naturally shopping lovers so this new adventure has brought shopper to a whole new level. Shopping is our weekend fun and even during the week we will make a special trip winners or walmart just because we can. I will never forget a couple Saturdays ago we were driving Kaia to her dance class and both of us were silent just taking in the sights as we drove until all of a sudden I see this little sandwich board sign that says "Filipino Store" "look look Erick a Filipino store" I'm shouting and pointing Erick says "what what where, lets go stop the car stop the car"......and then our new Mantra kicks in ok, we have to take Kaia to dance. "We live here now we can go shopping at this store anytime we want to, We live here now we can go shopping at this store anytime we want to".  I will never forget Erick's comment as he took his first bite of Pandesal (sweet bun) "I love Kamloops". We now visit this store every Saturday after Kaia's dance class.
  Kaia has had some additions to her vocabulary since we have arrived. I put my jacket on last night to take the garbage out and Kaia says to me "shopping Mama" Every time we go somewhere she says that. When we are driving around town Kaia says "Kaia's Kamloops" or "I lub Kamloops".  On a couple of other occasions Kaia has said to me "home Mama, home Mama". Hearing this breaks my heart. My girls have been so incredibly resilient through all of this change. It has been 2 months now since we left our house. Both Kaia and Luka have had little moments of out of the ordinary fussiness. But for the most part they have not complained much at all about all of this change and bouncing around sleeping in different rooms and beds. They have done well and for that I am glad but oh boy do I wish that I could give Kaia her things back. I want her to have HER room back with her bed and her toys. SOON
 Kaia's dance class....oh how I love that she is in dance. Although last week she would not have anything to do with the dance class she is loving it. The class is not parent involved so we drop her off and let her do her class for a half an hour. She is loving it for the most part and as it turns out her dance teacher is someone that I use to dance with back in my dancing days....(Yes I had dancing days). Erick joined a gym and I started going to a yoga studio....oh the possibilities....I am loving it WE are loving it.
 Thank fully this last weekend we moved into a 2 bedroom apartment with lots of space for the girls to run around and each of us to have our own space. No luck so far on house hunting The right house is out there somewhere and we are determined to find it. We have looked at oh...15 houses I think. It will happen SOON.