Good-Bye DayCare..Hello Kindergarten!

Today marks a momentous day for Miss Ava. Today, we say Good-Bye to daycare. While this adventure is ending, another is about to start...Kindergarten

I'm so proud of the little girl she has become because of the amazing care the ladies at this daycare have given to her day after day for almost 2 years. They have kissed her boo-boo's when I couldn't be there, they've held her when she was sad, and made her laugh. They've helped her become this amazing little girl who will be the most kind and caring big sister.

I started reflecting on her time with Children's World Daycare and how influential they have been in our family. I really wanted to say thank you for taking such wonderful care of our daughter, teaching her so many wonderful things and just being these selfless human beings that have one of the hardest most rewarding jobs and don't get acknowledged or thanked nearly enough! I wanted to say thank you for helping her grow!

I got onto Google to look up different ideas on how to truly say thank you andI stumbled across this idea of a flower pot that says, "Thank you for helping me Grow!" with flowers planted inside.  Well we all know that flowers die, so I wanted to put something in the pot that would never go away just as the gratitude we feel will never go away.

I started to create these flowers out of hearts that I cut out using construction paper and had Ava sit down with me and reflect on her time at Children's World.  I asked her several questions to get her thinking.


Her thinking face!

 Together we created a list of answers she had, to questions I asked;

•  "What will you miss most?"
•  "What are you most thankful for?"
•  "What do you love about them most?"
• " What do you think you are better at because of them?"

It was an amazing experience to sit and listen to her talk about others in such a kind way and to hear her talk about the things she thinks she is good at because they've helped her.  I stared at this litter girl and I fell in love even more! I've been falling in love with her as a baby for the last 5 years.  She's done many things in the year or so to show me that she is not a baby anymore but doing this project with her just made me begin to fall in love with her as a child.. my little girl isn't a baby anymore!

 

In doing on all of this, I realized, this is the first big moment in her life where one thing will completely end and another will begin. I think this time is so crucial in her development in teaching her about good things coming to an end, being ok with moving on and allowing her to own her emotions and express them in appropriate ways when she needs to.

So many times as an adult, I know I will get overwhelmed, sad or mad and not display my emotions correctly.  We get agitated or quick to snap and we take things out on people that don't deserve it. I want to be sure to take this time to really connect with her and teach her about emotions and feelings and what is appropriate and what is not appropriate. 

I'm going to be writing down some of her reactions to discuss later on in hopes to maybe help another mom or even someone else struggling with emotions, which I can admit, I have many times. In the meantime, please comment below if you have any tips or suggestions on how to help cope with what might be some hidden signs that she is having a hard time.

Thank you Children's World Daycare one final time from the bottom of our hearts and Congratulations Miss Ava, Kindergarten welcomes you, though I'm not sure I'm ready for that just yet! Thank goodness I have a summer to wrap my head around it!

Meet the Shearer's

Welcome to my Blog, I realized, I haven't formally introduced myself and my family, the Shearer's! We are a small family of 3, soon to be 4 and this is my blog.

 I've spent the last say 3 years dedicated to my "career" in retail management. Within the last year, I ended up taking on another company while working as a full time manager working roughly 110 - 120 hours every two weeks, this on top of being a wife and a mother! I thought this was it.. my career! The place I was going to be spending the rest of my life working on. Long story short..it wasn't and I am now back at the drawing board.

I started this blog, as a way to get back into the things that I remember I was once passion about starting with writing. I will be writing about crafts although, I've never thought of myself as very good or very creative in this area, cooking/baking; which I absolutely ADORE, my new adventure to find my "career" and of course, our life with Ava and the new baby on the way!

Let me start by introducing the head of the household and the current center of the universe.. miss Ava Blaire!

Ava was born January 31, 2009, after a 10 month pregnancy that was classified as high risk. Miss Ava held out until her due date and like the true Rock Star that she is, showed up fashionably late by one day! Ava has always been a very independent, strong willed and funny little girl!  In one conversation, she can drive you crazy and melt your heart with sweetness. I could speak for hours on this girl but trust me throughout this blog, you will get to see the many faces of my favorite little Rock Star, Miss Ava Blaire Shearer.

Then the man himself Bruce aka ELdjLOCO; my husband, my best friend..my well everything! I met Bruce several years ago while working in a nightclub, I was the Door Girl, he was the DJ. That is my husband, a hard working successful DJ in Vancouver, he is kind of a jack of all trades, and there isn't a single thing that I think he couldn't do if he wanted to! He is my sanity, the first person I call, and the person who pushes me the hardest. 

Then there is me....originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, prairie girl at heart though I cannot stand the cold! I always thought that I was going to own my own restaurant or bakery or something like that; I guess there is still time! I moved to Vancouver in 2006 to attend make up school at Blanche Macdonald, I completed my Freelance Course in 2007 and began my mission to "make it" in the make up industry. Well I dabbled in almost every area of Make up and had small successes in each area but realized this wasn't for me, and walked away from makeup for good in 2010. I spent the last few years working in retail management, with about a year in the jewellery sales industry.

 I am currently pregnant with our second child due November 16 this year, my first born will start Kindergarten in September.  This is an amazing place right now, while there are so many unknowns, I feel such small comfort, that I am able to take this time off to be with my daughter and ensure the growth of our new baby and then have time off with our new baby while Ava is beginning the most amazing chapter of her life. My "career" is up in the air, but I have time to figure it out! I feel very lucky!

My world revolves around these people and I wouldn't change it for one second! I can't wait for you to fall in love with them as much as I have! This is an old photo but still one of my favorites! We are the Shearer family! Nice to meet you!

No mommy I can do it myself!

Last week, my husband went to Las Vegas for 5 days to attend a work conference, so while the husband is away the housewife will...Organize?

In my rather large kitchen, we have a Billy Bookshelf from Ikea which was very poorly organized, much like my entire kitchen really. This week really opened my eyes as to how much I had  previously focused on my "career" rather than my home and family. So I began to basically take everything out of the cupboards, clean and re-organize, this made space on 3 shelves of the bookshelf, which are perfectly at my daughter's height!

What do you do with this space? As I stood there, staring at my bookshelf attempting to figure out what to do with it, I began to hear my daughter," No Mommy, I can do it myself", "I'm a big girl mommy, I can do it" then I could hear myself cursing every time I tripped over that step stool that would allow her some independence to reach things in the cupboards above the counter.

 

That is what I came up with,  still missing a few baskets but this is the idea around the baskets for her.

 

The 1st baskets contain, plates, bowls and cups. She now gets herself something to drink and can make her own breakfast every single morning. Aside from a few cleanups, the joy in her face accomplishing this task has been a joy to this mama who really loves to sleep in!

 

The second one is the snack basket, I don't know how many times, I've asked Ava what she would like for a snack and I always get the same response, " I don't know, what do we have?" Now, I don't have to go through the list any longer, she can see it.  I also told her that since it's at her level, I will fill it once a week but if she eats it all really fast, she doesn't get anything else until the weekly fill up date. Once Kindergarten starts in September, she will be responsible for helping pack her lunch by choosing her snacks. This gives her a bit of responsibility and helps me out a bit!

 

The 3rd basket contains all her crayons, markers, and pencil crayons, that are constantly all over my house, they are now contained and always in the same spot. From this she is learning about cleaning up after herself more, routine and organization.

 

We've since added a few more baskets from Dollarama, they were $1.25 each and we are still trying to think of what else to fill them with but we will get there. It's only been a week but so far, it's been such a blessing for me and she has been so happy with doing these small things for herself.

 

Feel free to pass this along to any moms wanting an inexpensive blessing to help with the "no mommy I can do it myself"

 



Parent Perks - Free Gift Bags for Vancouver Parents

A while ago, I stumbled upon this great little fan page on Facebook called Parent Perks - Free Gift Bags for Vancouver Parents. I do not remember how I managed to stumble across this page but I'm so glad that I have. Parent Perks are 100% Free gift bags to parents in Vancouver and Surrey/Langley areas.

Parent Perks is this super cool way for parents in the lower mainland to receive gift cards, coupons, samples and FULL sized products. I love that this small business is operated out of the living rooms of these super dedicated Parents!

I check in on this page almost daily to see what this one hard working mama in particular is up to each day and I see the boxes from sponsors begin stacking up in her living room. I love seeing what this company is up to and which sponsors Monika gets in touch with.

Joining Parent Perks is super easy and she has the list of requirements down, Like the page, join the mailing list and comment on the wall " I want my Parent Perks and you could win one of these highly sought after Gift Bags.  Of course, she does certain things to increase your chances of winning as these bags are only done twice a year and only 100 Bags at a time.   She has the "Likestravaganza", which basically sends you to each of the sponsors fan pages to "LIKE" their pages.  So many of these sponsors have free giveaways on a frequent basis, that you can enter to win some great prizes, and maybe learn about some great products and support other Parents.

So basically once these amazing bags are all assembled, she begins to release the Parent Perk bags, however, only 15 bags at a time, and at various pick up locations.  I was lucky enough to be chosen for the very first pick up!

 

Tomorrow, I will head down to Denman Street for the first pick up and I couldn't be more excited and honored to receive one of these bags!  Since it's the 1st time that I will have gotten one, I'm really curious to see all the products inside.  I'm thinking once all the bags are released, I will do a full product review on each of the products received in these bags with links to the sponsors!

 

For more information on Parent Perks and how you can get one of these amazing bags, check out their blog Parent Perks or find them on facebook and join the fun! Stayed tuned for my Vlog on the contents of this bag.

 

Who ever said this was going to be easy....

Today's topic: Naming your offspring.

I had always thought this would be an easy feat, until I got pregnant the 1st time. Before we found out what the sex was, my husband (boyfriend at the time) went back and forth on many names. He had all sorts of reasons as to why he should chose the name of our child.

Seemed like there was always a reason for him to hate every single name I chose:

Boys: Jacob, Oliver, Finn; everyone of these was a huge NO.  Girls: Blaire, Olivia; and again NO!

His choices to name a few; Diesel, Torge, Hunter... Ava.

Our daughter was born January 31, 2009 as Ava Blaire Shearer. She perfectly suits her name, we couldn't have chosen a better name, I like to think that by throwing Blaire in there it instantly made her sound like the rock star that she is!

Now many a years later we are expecting baby number 2 but now on top of my choices and his choices, we have a little Ava wanting to throw in some of her own choices.

Mom's top picks

For Boys -  Jacob Douglas. For Girls - Olivia, Quinn, Ainslie, Zoe, Briar, Ashlynn, Emsley

Dad's top picks

For Boys - Malcolm, Bhodi Zapha, Jackson Douglas. For Girls- Mary Jane, Marley

Ava's top picks

For Boy - Michael Jackson, Blais. For Girls - Stylish Unikitty, Sasha, Sara

You can clearly see how this isn't going well! Also, you have to consider middle names and then how it all sounds together with the last name.  Then does it vibe well with the other child.. " Hey look it's Ava and Bob!" It just doesn't sound right! So many things to consider but thank goodness we do have until November 16th to decide.

My next ultrasound is set for July 3rd for my 20 week, detailed ultrasound, which we will be finding out the sex again, so stayed tuned for our gender announcement.  In the mean time, I ask, how did you decide you're child's name? What played an important role in decision making for your family? If you have more than one child, did/would you let your first born choose the name of the next child?

I'd love to hear from you, send in your experiences with naming your child. I will put together a collective blog full of your stories, sure to be worth a few laughs or at least good tips.