Ah December.

As my friends children grow up I am getting to see, from outside, my children in a different light. Wow is that a wake-up call. Sweet La-La and Sigh and two and almost two. Great kids, still rather dependent on their respective mommies, but big enough to do some things by themselves and I think, "Niles was this old when I went back to school full-time. What was I thinking?". Wow! I took my baby and left him with someone else ( a completely competent grownup whom I trust), and went to school. Then my brain shuts off for a second. Then I wake-up and decide that he is perfectly fine, he is happy and well adjusted although fearful of new things and that going to school allowed my family to be where we are right now. It was a factor in everything that has happened since then. Would we be where we are if I hadn't gone, and I have to say no.

The strangest thing is that I forgot about Rob's illness,the all consuming part of our year when Niles was two and newly three. I put it out of my mind. It came up when I took Niles to counseling to work on his fear. I guess there isn't a standard question like "Was there a life threatening illness in your family sometime in your child's lifetime?", and I forgot about it. Crazy huh? Do you think that has something to do with Niles' fearfulness? When I look at Jasmine's Longlegs I think that he is the same age as Niles was when Rob got sick. That was a big deal to him, and I forgot. Some sort of coping mechanism?! So I understand, but I also move on because I can't change the past, only learn from it. So now I deal with the things that come from the past. It is good to remember, but also good to live in the now.

On a totally different note, we have been rather busy this month and I think that something will have to give. Good thing Christmas is almost here and we can be done. Patience is tired I Santa vying for my time. How exciting, a first Christmas again. This will be our last first Christmas until the kids bring home their own firsts' so I am excited for many years I our family being together before we add more.

Patience eats more things

Since the last post Patience has discovered the Christmas tree. She is busy eating the decorations. In fact I am not sure that she didn't achieve actually eating part of one. I hope it comes out in the end (ha, I am so funny). This is a busy month. Walking is quickly being learned. Standing is old hat and crawling has been mastered and discarded. Now if only Patience would learn that the cup is for drinking out of and not playing. I guess we can't have everything.

Patience eats

 

Patience does her beany baby impression. Really I am so behind with the blog but I took a month off of the computer. Really selfish of me. I started enjoying my upstairs and ignoring my basement (I got distracted in the middle of the last word and almost wrote baby, but caught my train of thought before you all thought that I was the worst mother in the world).

 

Patience also discovered that I have better food than she gets. She remedied that by reaching up and grabbing the cookie out of my hand. Good picture.

 

We got new side tables and Patience thinks they are the best new toy. So much fun to crawl through. Josiah came over to help out. Aren't they cute?

 

There I did a short update. I am supervising Niles cleaning up so I am actually in the same room as my computer.

A good story

Patience is getting much better at creeping. She would crawl but the extra effort needed is not worth it. On Monday she found a squishy ball that she could keep in her hand. It was a great time and then she got lonely and went looking for me. She's crying and creeping one hand at a time because she still has the ball in her hand too. So left hand back, back to centre, trade ball hand, right hand back. Repeat. She took that ball to bed too.

New Picture New Year

Got to love the boys in the park. Thank-you Roy and Monica for the picture day.

They get so big so fast.

This is the picture I promised earlier. Here is Niles ready for his first day of kindergarten. He is very excited. He actually wasn't even worried. Check out the huge grin.

Patience is reading the paper like her mom. Well, sort of like her mom, if reading the paper involves ripping and tasting the paper, then she reads it just like I do, if not. . . well there is no accounting for taste.

Here she is really getting into the paper, or sleeping. Take your pick.

Being extra cute.

Ah Thanks.

I knew you loved me. Thanks for all the comments. Keep them coming to maintain motivation. Send suggestions for things you want to see.


Here is a random picture of me on vacation. It was really hot there but it was vacation. I love vacation. I need more vacation. Everyone join me in a call for vacation.

Okay People

I know you are out there reading this stuff that I am writing. Right? So where are the comments? This isn't something that I just slap together in a minute; it takes at least 5 minutes and with pictures sometimes upwards of ten. Yah I know. Sarcasm does become me.

But in all honesty it has been weeks since you have commented. I am putting out some good stuff. All I am asking for in return is some COMMENTS! Give me some love.

Look what my computer found!

So if you have been following my recent activity you read that Picasa disappeared from my computer. Today I installed a new version and as it installed I got the program to scan my entire computer for pictures. Look what it found.

 

 

 

 

Aren't they cute? This is Niles at just 2 and Xavier at 4 1/2. Ahhhhhhh. Love those kids. Lets do a compare and contrast with the newer pictures.

Movers and Shakers

It was only two weeks ago that Patience started to think about crawling commando style. Chris took a video of her on her second day.

This is Patience at Dryden's 13th birthday. I will try for the video later.

The next week we put her in the annual baby crawl. She was the youngest in her heat and she would have won if she had started moving in the first twenty-five seconds but she was too interested in what was going on. Melissa and Josiah were recording the moment for posterity and Robin was along for the enjoyment of visiting. There were also shoes to look at.

Xavier is getting very good at wiggling those loose teeth. He lost one of the front top ones yesterday. An exciting time. He was very excited about the tooth coming in and he was also excited about the Tooth Fairy. I have such funny children. Xavier is getting ready for bed and he is very concerned about putting his tooth where it can be found. "Mom," he says, "will you be able to find my tooth if I put it under my pillow in this box when you are being the Tooth Fairy?". Ha! I let them have the joys of childhood, the pretending and everything, and they still know that Mommy does it all. Xavier ended up deciding to leave the tooth in a box in the bathroom so the Tooth Fairy would not have to trip over things looking for the tooth. He was also excited about the money that was there in the morning.

Niles has started kindergarten.
I took a picture of his first day but it has not made it onto my computer yet. I am a slacker. He likes school. I hear him singing the songs as he walks around the house. It seems to be working for him.

Xavier is in grade 2 and all the French grade two got to be in the same class this year so he is with all his grade two friends. We will see how this year continues. He is not sure if he likes it yet.

Both boys started piano lessons and have had one lesson so far. Xavier is stoked. Niles is more wary. He thinks he won't like it because it will be hard.(First Xavier, then Niles. How did I get two perfectionists? It is too much effort).

This is a blog in progress. Check back for more pictures. I am publishing it but am not done.

Funny! Oh So Funny!

Ah, we all need a little more laughter in our lives. Not to say that any of the other peoples' lives that are follow are depressing but you HAVE TO SEE THIS ONE! I laughed, out loud, like Roy. I am not kidding. I read the whole thing, including her old posts and I plan on returning to reread and read the comments because I have not done that yet.

All of you can stop holding your breath,
http:// www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com


You need to click on this one. (Yes I do have permission to link to this. She gives it right on her site).

A short post for right now. Perhaps I will return later.

How did this happen?

Do you ever feel like you are just floating through? Honestly I don't know how I ended up like this. By this I mean, you know, an adult doing adult things. How did this happen? When did laundry become interesting? When did I get to be in charge of little people? When did I have to be mature and responsible and planning things? Here's the thing. I think I am failing at adult. I haven't made any significant things yet. I have to yet achieve goals that I planned on as a child. Honestly I remember being a child. I thought that I was a child, but now I know that I am an adult but what is being an adult? I will be an adult for the rest of my life, a very long time, and it is getting monotonous. I do the same things over and over and they are not what you would call very interesting. Laundry anyone?Stagnation is occurring.

I do all the things that other adults do. I surf the internet, watch tv, read but it seems so . . .stupid, wasted, repeated. Even music is the same thing over and over. Nothing is new under the sun. Laundry anyone? What should I make for supper?Maybe there are too many choices. Maybe I am overwhelmed by all I can do. I think the most terrible thing you can say to a child is "You are smart. You can do anything". Why? This is most often told to teenagers before they finish high school and think about their futures. This is also a time where a teen thinks that picking the wrong belt to wear with an outfit will destroy her life,and where she also thinks that when she walks into a room everybody notices that there is a huge zit on her chin. And we make this person choose what they will be doing for the rest of his life! Wow! I couldn't imagine being 25 when I was 17. How could I decide what I wanted to do? What had I seen to choose from? You know I still do not know what those people do in those tall office buildings, but I want to. Do you think it is interesting?

The time is near

We started our back to school routine today. Got the boys up at 0730. They did alright. Xavier starts school on Weds and Niles starts in Sept. Niles is really ready for school. In-fact he should have gone to school last year except for the part where he was not old enough. He really was ready and now he is over ready and is refusing to do things that he used to do before. This is why I appreciate the public school system. They can get my kids to do things that I would never be able to do. Niles won't even write his name (something he was doing at Christmas last year) for me.I am sure some of the regressing is because of the baby but some of it is because he is really stubborn. Now I have mentioned how stubborn Xavier is but Niles has to be more stubborn because he has to be able to stand up to Xavier's bossing. Oh I am so excited for him to have learning presented to him by another person. I ran into the mother of one of Xavier's classmates and she said the new French Kindergarten teacher is supposed to be the one that replaced the old one on her maternity leave. That is good. She was a good teacher and she met Xavier so Niles will not be too much of a shock. Back when I took Niles to sneak peak I understood the way my children will be remembered by the teachers. Like everyone teachers learn the names of the people they need to speak to. Niles was the first name every teacher learned. The principal stopped to reassure me that he was a normal little boy; I hadn't mentioned that Xavier is his brother or I may have been labeled as "that mother", not really but Xavier is known to the administration and he is only going into grade 2. Now there will be two of them. I pray for no phone calls this year. At least Patience is enough younger that she won't have the same teachers so she can start on a clean slate, and Josiah and Linaya have different last names so maybe the connection won't be made.

Along with the new school year we are starting daycare again. It is with some trepidation that I send them but not because I am worried about the daycare; daycare is a great place and there are many friends; the trepidation is because I will still be home and should/could be continuing to interact with them. This is all preplanning for my return to work. I just can't arrange everyone else's lives to get my children cared for what with everyone having babies or going back to work at the same time. It will be good though. The boys will be happy.

I saw an advertisement for conversational French classes and I remembered that was one of my plans for my break; learn French better. Xavier will quickly pass my expertise and I would like to understand what he is doing and besides continuing learning keeps your mind young. It was a goal of mine to learn three languages so I had better get on that or that will be another goal that I throw by the wayside. This one is achievable. I had better speak to Rob about it.

No pictures this time. Picasa is still missing and I haven't had time to fix/look at/get someone who knows something to look at it yet. I will keep going though.

Good thing of the day; the boys helped me change their sheets without complaining and Rob made coffee, good coffee. Why do I buy the cheap stuff when I don't like it?

I lost Picasa today.

I lost Picasa! For real. I even got a computer message that it is lost. How can it get lost? HELP!
I will use Kodak but I don't like it as much.


Ah Niles. So big,. . .so little. I will try not to yell. I will keep my patience. Boy does he drive me crazy. He will go and play nicely by himself, he can get his own snacks even pour drinks but he cries...all the time...loudly. It hurts. It is annoying and it makes it difficult to want to have him around. Don't get me wrong. I love the monster but honestly, can you live with that? He will be in kindergarten this year so hopefully he will grow out of that annoying habit.

So why do I feel guilty about sending him back to daycare? It must be social mommy guilt. You know, I should raise my children. After all the time I spend talking about Village living and raising your children in a village. Daycare can be my village. I can share my children. This is a good plan.



Xavier...
He has certainly grown this year. He is a good big brother. He is a big brother; for any of you that have older siblings you should know what I mean. He is mean and he thinks he should be the one in charge, his ideas should be the most important and Niles is annoying to him. . . when he won't do what he wants. Summer is getting to be too long but grade two is rapidly approaching. I am excited. Right now I am excited that the kids won't be home all day but I am also excited that they will be learning and meeting new people that I would not have been able to provide them access to without the blessing of school.

Different thought string now.

We played dress-up when Avee came over awhile ago. Check out these cute kids.



Got to love wigs and things.

Taste of Saskatchewan

Yes the best time of the year has arrived. Taste of Saskatchewan. So I say over lunch on Tues, "Taste of Saskatchewan is here", to which the boys reply "Taste of Saskatchewan! Robin is back!?". That is right. Robin and Taste of Saskatchewan are interlinked at my home. It is very good. Robin is coming home. The boys are counting down. Excitement is on the rise. Yay!

Today I am feeling like the world is stupid;which it is, but having acknowledged that I wish in my childish way that it would stop and go back to making sense. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through...The angel beacons me from heaven's open door, and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Stupid world. Stupid people. Be with me Lord. I cannot live without Thee. Arrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

A Life Crisis

Not quite 30 and already it is happening; my friends are beginning to have crises. Can't call them midlife crises because we pray that our lives will all be longer than late 50s but life crises never the less. It hurts my soul to hear what is happening in Jasmine's life. We have been friends since we were both seven and in grade 2. We got married within a year of each other and have small children around the same ages. So it came as a total shock to me (and to her) when her husband said he was not happy and moved out. WHAT! HAS THE WORLD ENDED? HUH? Questions run through your head. I just want to shake him but it won't help anything. I can just watch from the sidelines as this terrible drama plays out in the lives of people I care about. And if it hurts me imagine how much worse it is for those involved. So I pray and feel like I am not doing enough but there is nothing really I can do. So everyone pray. Pray for Jasmine and Sabastian, Jaspar and Ivy.

Totally unrelated; here are pictures of work weekend and Roy and Dave's excellent adventure (girl free zones mostly).

 

 

 

 

Not so cute anymore

It has happened. We all knew that we would get to this point but you kind of forget that it will happen so soon. . . Patience has lost the cute newborn cry. Now when she cries she sounds like she is telling you off, loudly, . . .really loudly, . . . with a growl in the back, . . .and getting louder. She is getting more opinionated all the time. She kicks her legs to get you to pick her up, and she kicks faster if you don't notice (A is for aisle, B is for bdellium (?sp) funny music in the background) so you better pick her up. Now I didn't say Patience isn't cute, she is, just her cry isn't anymore.

We got the new Barenaked Ladies CD. You should here the Alphabet song and I especially like Popcorn. I like mostly the whole thing. Really Niles got it for his birthday but we all enjoy listening to it.

He is big and 5. It is hard being older. He doesn't like the babies some of the time. They follow him around they get in his way. It is nice being older though. He is very talented at getting what he wants. He doesn't waste time asking for things he just takes. He has learned how to climb up on cupboards to be able to do this. How wonderful.

It's Xavier's last day of Grade 1. . . there it goes. I will never have a Xavier in Grade 1 again. He is getting so big but wants to be be little at the same time and be taken care of. He is a great helper but worries when he can't get Patience to stop crying. He thinks that there is something wrong with him instead of an opinionated baby having a moment.

It isn't really hard to see how I got opinionated children. Opinions breed true. That's right they must be dominant. It is good. At least you know what they want even if you don't always know what they are thinking. Opinions are sometimes sneaky, other opinions are afraid that being different is not good. Ah, good times.

The business is going well. Rob is managing to keep busy enough to have an employee. Right now Joseph is working for us but he thinks he wants to go back to school in the fall and you hate to discourage someone from from learning the Bible but it would give me more confidence if he was passing right now. I may be wrong but usually you show that you are learning by passing the classes you are taking. It is so much less hassle for those who are teaching and learning along with you. I guess we will see how things proceed. Besides having an employee, there is a van; with decals that look very nice on it. ( I think I am throwing in extra punctuation today, back to the book). We have also managed to get paid in the very first month. All very good. Keep praying for our family in this time of change.

Nice picture of Shelley. Xavier was busy with the camera.

I don't have any pictures.

It's true. I am at so many other people's houses and they all have cameras that I keep leaving mine at home. So I don't have new pictures to show you. Other people do. Maybe they will e-mail me some or post them in a web album or something (except Melissa and then I have to go to her house to blog from there to get the correctly formatted pictures, not that that is a problem because I am there often), and then I will continue to update you with pictures. I guess I need a camera that is small enough to go in my bag because the one I have at home is not and my hands are full enough so it just doesn't get brought. Enough excuses.

Happy Birthday Niles! Here is a picture of scary Niles. He is two in this picture.

















And here he is almost five. Still cute. He says the strangest things. Today he said, "Mom can I have some of your beverage? Is this called a beverage?" and then he proceeds to finish my drink.

Since this blog is all about Niles I will share more about him. He has been finding the adjustment to not being the baby in the house rather difficult. He is struggling with wanting to be big and independent and needing to be little and helped. It makes for a frustrating day. He is a GREAT BIG whiner and we are working on it. On the other hand he knows his address, phone number, how to spell his and Xavier's names, can cut with scissors, can choose appropriate punishments and put things in the dishwasher. He is also going to be five. Five is a great age. He starts kindergarten in the fall and already recognizes his teacher. Great things.

(Roy! Rob chooses Vanessa for a girl name and Evander for a boy. In fact that was the winning boy name if Patience came out with accessories if you know what I mean).

Mommy this is the way!

I keep threatening to blog about this and I am sitting at Melissa's house watching kiddos (they are behind me playing happily) so there is a computer just waiting for me (and Melissa actually has more recent pictures than I have).
So I was getting ready one morning last week and Patience started crying. I couldn't get her to stop (she was in a mood). Xavier really doesn't like to hear her cry. He comes running into the room, "Mom! You aren't doing it right! Let me", and he takes Patience and starts bouncing her and she stops crying. "See Mom," he said, "you have to bounce her medium". Oh boy. I have a 7 yr old baby expert on my hands. Its good though. Patience really likes her brothers. She saves her biggest smiles for them.
If you haven't been keeping up we have been spending a lot of our time at Melissa and Robert's house helping them put their roof back on. We are all praying for the day the roof is on and we don't have to spend all our time so far up in the air. Not that it hasn't been fun, but I think Melissa is incredibly easy going. She just keeps feeding the hoards that show up. We are blessing their house with our presence and soon we will bless it by our absence. (For at least a day or so).
Niles and Xavier are learning Ps 23 for a memory verse right now. We are up to verse 4. ask Niles to tell you if you see him. It is quite sweet to listen to. Xavier doesn't get as much practice because he is at school but he is also very good.
Niles is becoming very proficient at baby speak. He spends a lot of time with the littles. I think he would like a few more friends his own age. Xavier is teaching himself to read but if you ask him he doesn't know how to because he can't read all the words yet. He was looking at the screen on Sun and said "Mom what comes after the Day of Prayer and ?.... (Purpose)" He got all but one word. And he isn't learning how to read in English at school.
Here are the random pictures. (Okay I can't figure how to get off this computer. I will get Melissa to help me in a minute).

All about Xavier.

The trials of having children. Xavier is having trouble listening in school. He is having trouble doing his work in school. He is having trouble not bothering the other kids at school. Does anyone see a theme here. Let's talk about Xavier. (Do you remember those books where you learn about proper behaviour ... Let's Talk About Lying, ... Disobeying, ... Good books. "If you say something to someone that you know is not true it is not a fantasy, it is not a mistake. You are lying!) Ah Xavier. I didn't expect to have this trouble at school so soon. He is bored. My theory is that because he is in french immersion he doesn't read in English, he does not have enough vocabulary to understand ahead, and he can't entertain himself by going ahead by himself. So we have problems. The latest problem lead him to spending the day in the principal's office. (Don't tell him you know). We will work on it. I guess I will take some time to talk to his teacher. Ah boys. Got to love them.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is the day! Mother's day that is. Happy Mother's Day everyone. That means you. Everyone knows about mothers and we are richer for that. Reach out and hug a mother if you are close to one.

Patience is losing her patience

Eight weeks old already. So exciting. Patience is getting very much more aware of the world around her. She has noticed her brothers, who are among her favourite people, and smiles when they talk to her. She also laughs now. Check out the web album to watch the video. Pictures are included. Another thing about being 8 weeks old is that you can't sleep. You might miss something. So today it took over an hour to get Patience to sleep 10 min and then it was time to eat and she was so hungry she took another 10 min to tell me off for making her work to eat. Why was the milk not just flowing into her mouth? Why did she have to suck? That was work and it made her angry.

April 2008

Xavier is having trouble listening at school. He has been a distraction to the other children. I asked him why he is doing this and he says "Mom, I start goofing and then I can't stop. I just can't. It is too hard." Spring has arrived and my oldest child is having trouble concentrating. Apparently it is hard being 7 and in school.He is learning how to spell. Every week they have a spelling test. We are learning together how best to study. Right now I am writing the words out and Xavier copies them three times. Then we do that again later. It involves no fighting.

Niles asks, "Mom, you know why we call Joyce Robin? It is because we love Robin so very much. We love Joyce too,but we already call her Robin". He is keeping busy at home. So far his favourite part is watching movies.

Rob officially put in his notice at work and is starting his own company. He called it Faithful Plumbing. Keep Rob in your thoughts and prayers.
Patience woke up so I am doing this with one hand. It seems a good time to stop.

I drank my oatmeal today

(twn) I think that the title says it all. That's right. My well cooked, mushy, old fashioned oatmeal required too much chewing so I added enough milk to drink it... one spoonful at a time. Ah, the joys of having your wisdom teeth removed. For anyone who has also had this joy filled experience you likely know what I am talking about. There will be no pictures of this experience so you will just have to use your imagination. Right now I look like a chipmunk that was in a fight and lost. The bruises are impressive. I haven't brushed my teeth for 2 days because I just can't imagine putting a toothbrush in my mouth and I don't think I could open it wide enough anyway. Really overall getting the teeth out was the easy part. I remember the Dr putting a clear medication into my IV and the room moving in funny ways. Then I watched him add a yellow, milky fluid, or at least I watched 2ml of the 5ml go in and then all I remember is some fuzzy colours, then the nurse was getting me up to go to another room. Ha! I don't remember anything. Something must have happened because I have stitches in my mouth and I look like someone beat me.

Enough about me. Spring has arrived. I know this because the allergy monster has reared its ugly head. Xavier has been a beast. He is very moody. Happy then sad. Angry, crying and all the other emotions in 5 mins or less. Oh well it is supposed to snow this weekend. That is right. Environment Canada is calling for snowfall of 30-50cm. I will keep you posted if that happens. Niles is testing his boundaries. When Grandma met him at the door the other day he said "Hi Nancy." "What do you say?" I asked. "Hi Nancy," he said again. He got a little talking to about how to address you grandparents. He has been getting a lot of use out of the bandaids lately. Bandaids fix everything real or imagined. Patience is still the easiest going baby in the world.
Sorry no pictures. They won't upload today.

Nintendo night

This was as good as I could get for pictures of Nintendo. As you can tell I have none. I will try to get new ones when Robin comes back. Robin this is for you. Remember when....hee hee, yah Joyce went... and then...heee..yep...snort....heee hee heee. Ha ha ha ha hee! All the while Rob looks on in bewilderment. Good times should always involve sugar.