Pasadena+Ottawa

I just completed a work trip to the Jet Propulsion Lab (nice long, daytime flight both ways = lots of stitching!) and then was home for a day and a half (!) before we then left for a three-day trip up to Ottawa.  School was out for our girls and at Cornell Monday and Tuesday, so this was a good time.  Oh, and I've been needing some Mimi time!  Jeanne is hard right now - she has developed a sensory overload thing with her hearing and really gets upset when she hears certain noises, particularly chewing.  Scream at everyone in the car or at the table-scale-upset.  It's awful.  It's the worst when she aims it at her sister.  We're looking into options for getting some help, since we've come to the end of what we can do with fancy headphones and patience, and she seems to be getting worse.

She's only four, and she shouldn't need to be able to do this, but Mimi has been a champ.  She usually doesn't get upset, even when her sister is screaming right in her ear, and she is thoughtful about things like even asking for a cracker when her sister is around.  And she gives me these special smiles and kisses and hugs all the time.  It is such a gift.  The two of them bond like crazy some times as well - Jeanne is teaching her math and they play-play-play so often.  I just get so maxxed out by the bad times. 

Anyway, that all means that this trip has been needed, and has been good.  We had some bad fights in the 20 minute drive to the hotel tonight since everyone was exhausted, but before that it was really good.  Skiing, zip lines, hugging people dressed like giant animals (Ottawa is kind of weird), everyone psyched about their meal at lunch, fun children's museum, one-on-one time between each parent and each kid, etc.  I should have been forewarned when Jeanne fell asleep in a video exhibit at the museum!  She did really well until we wore her out, poor thing!  Oh, and we've also had really good swim time at the pool here - both girls making breakthroughs and getting time to show them off to us, and the two of them enjoying eachother.