getting ready for baby and some leaves

That's my uncreative title for today's events. Oh yeah, and it's Halloween. I'm sure that'll be fun too. We borrowed costumes from a neighbour and plan to do a little walk around later, and then have friends coming over to play some games so it should be a fun night.

I think I'm officially nesting, except I've had a nasty cold all week so it's been hard to be productive. But with the help of some amazing people (Sheri-Lee and Julio), the baby room has been transformed since Thursday from crazy brown stripes on the wall amongst other colours to "oyster mushroom". And there is no longer a crib in my living room, along with other baby paraphenelia. I just came from sitting in the newly transformed room (it still needs some little touches here and there but at least it's painted), trying to imagine holding another little baby and doing this all over again. Somehow I think it'll be even more fun this time around, as Luke is so into things and understands so much, and it just feels so amazing to add another person to the mix and see what it'll all be like. The boys were so great today too, letting Julio do the painting this morning and helping to put on drawer handles, etc, this afternoon...Luke is just the most enthused worker ever. I hope that continues as he gets older and has more real skills! Samuel is more into climbing and tried to climb on every available precarious surface as we tried to get the baby room back in order. I have to say, Julio has been AMAZING wtih all of this. He didn't think we needed a baby room transformation and so I said I'd paint, but that didn't happen and he willingly prepped and primed the room on Thursday, including taking off the door and some of the door frame to get the crib out, then Sheri-Lee spent all of Emeth's nap painting away as I watched the 3 amigos wrestle and have fun downstairs, and then this morning Julio finished the painted, cleaned everything up, and helped put everything back in order. I managed to make curtains and a cushion cover yesterday too so I felt I contributed a bit. It was a nesting mother's dream come true. He even said how much he liked the room, the colour and the red curtains. What a guy. This is probably the most boring post ever I'm realizing. Moving on. (But not before a show a few pictures).

While I ran a short errand this morning, after the second coat was drying and pre-organizing, Julio and the boys had some fun in the leaves. Here's proof:

And here are a few pictures of our pumpking carving day a few days ago. As expected, Sammy was right in there digging out the goo and Luke was gagging on the sidelines. Good times.A little pumpkin craft I did with Luke. Lots of his friends are in preschool so I feel the need to whip out the scissors and glue once in a while, to clutter up our bulletin board with construction paper too.

Boo! Happy Halloween everyone!!

family weekend to remember

This was a great weekend. Often on weekends, we don't plan much and sometimes wish we had and the time slips by and before we know it, it's Monday. But this weekend we did a ton of fun, family things and just enjoyed being together. It's so great to be able to do more and more things with the guys and know that we're creating some lasting memories, at least for us.

On Friday night we had fish and chips at home, which was a real treat. We used to go to Fergie's at the Forks for fish on Fridays but since my gluten scandal we haven't. I had a craving and my amazing husband cooked up a feast...he's the best. After that, we went to Pan Am Pool for some swimming fun, and it was really great to see the boys get so into it...plus the water was pretty warm which helps. I could hang out in the kiddie pool there without kids, just because it's warm. It's nice that we have kids now so we can justify doing things like eating cotton candy at Tinkertown and sitting around in warm water. I digress.

Saturday morning the biggest treat of the day was that we all slept through the night until nearly 8am. Lately Sammy's been making his way to our bed at some point in the night, and comes to my side of the bed, and hours later I wake up and find him there, completely unaware of when he came. This morning I found myself squished between Sammy and Julio, on my back, with my arms above my head like a pencil. Not so comfy at 8 months pregnant. But the night before...sleeping bliss. On Saturday morning we had crepes, and then went to a hobby shop and bought a rocket and launch pad and engines for some rocket fun. Julio had made a rocket with the boys about a week ago and just wanted the engine to launch it, but we didn't have a launch pad so we got a kit that had another rocket in it. It was fun to look around, especially for Julio, as they had a ton of model boats, cars, planes, trains, etc there. At one point Luke looked at Julio and said, "You can't buy everything you see you know!" The man at the till kept joking, saying things like, "which kids are getting this for, you or them?" I think it was his classic line...sounded like it wasn't the first time he'd used it.

Saturday night we went to Marble Slab Creamery which was so delicious and even had some great options for me which was so nice. Amaretto ice cream with skor chunks...yum. Then we went to Indigo Books, which Julio had never been to and which has an amazing kid section, so the kids played and we looked at books and relaxed...a nice end to the day.

And today was the grand finale of greatness...launching rockets in the park with our good buds, Stephen and Benjamen K, and Kevin, Robyn and Claire. There are some videos below that shows the fun. The kids and the adults were enthralled and it was the most beautiful, warm fall day. We ended it off with snacks and a baseball game where all the kids got home runs every time.

With three weeks or so to go until this baby arrives, it was nice to have a weekend to relax and enjoy time together. It's so hard to believe that before we know it life is about to change forever yet again.

35 weeks

After babysitting my boys for two hours while I was at a doctor's appointment, my lovely sister Robyn took these pictures for us. The photo shoot ended abruptly when Sammy got a stool leg in the eye...he's okay, but it shook me up a bit and I was wearing a white shirt and there was blood so...these are the best of what we got.

Hot off the press

Some stories from this morning...

This one I like to call "Luke and Gramma Anne's sketchy theology"
Luke says to us this morning: "Do you remember that chocolate bunny I got from Gramma Anne and Papa Ron? How we went with that rope, and it went over that thing (the banister) and we got chocolate? Gramma Anne told me that when Jesus dies on the cross again we can have another one!"
And Sam, this morning, has been playing away while we lie in bed, building with duplo and sucking on his beloved soother. So finally I started pulling it out of his mouth when he came to visit us in bed, and he said, "I go ni-night". So he hops into bed with me and sucks away. Then I tried to pull it away and he's just craning for the silly thing, finally I give in, give it to him, and he looks at me and says..."I'm happy".

Luke's theology

Much amusement around here this morning. First of all, Luke was having a typical morning sing-a-thon, at the top of his lungs (which he does in church too for the few lines he knows, much to the amusement?? of the people around us), and was singing "Forever, He can move the mountains, He is mighty to save, He is mighty to save. Forever, author of salvation, He rose and conquered the GRAIN, Jesus conquered the grain..." Loved it. I just pictured Jesus out in those fields. I told Julio what he had said and he felt the need to bring in more suitable doctrine, so he told him that it was actually "conquered the GRAVE" and did Luke know what that meant? This is how the conversation went, more or less:
Julio: Do you know what "conquer the grave" means? It means that not even death can hold Jesus back, that He is stronger than death.
Luke: But he wasn't axed, was He? Because you shouldn't axe people, that's bad.
Julio: No, He wasn't axed, but He did die and then He rose again and lives forever!
Luke: Yeah, I know, He was nailed to the cross. Or maybe they used screws, because screws are better right?
Julio: They were nails, not screws...they didn't have screws then.
Luke: But screws are better.

That was about the end of Theology 101 this morning. I was amused.

learning

Luke learned how to pump on the swings the other day...what a moment that was! I was inside doing a bit of sewing in the dining room and peeking out here and there while the boys played outside, and saw Luke pumping away on the swing. He had almost gotten it a few times, but this day he really got it and just kept swinging. Every time I looked out he would smile or giggle and I could tell he was just so extremely proud of himself. He said he wanted to swing until dad came home, so he kept going, and by the time Julio got home over an hour had gone by. When that kid puts his mind to something, he can do whatever he wants it seems! And he has the determination to keep at it...but if he doesn't want to do something yet, it's like pulling teeth to get him into it. He amazes me.
The next day, during Sammy's afternoon nap, Luke looked at me and said, "Mom, what can I learn today? Yesterday I learned how to pump, what should I learn today?" So I asked him if he wanted to learn how to bounce a soccer ball on his knee, or learn his letters (prime example of not really wanting to learn something yet!), or talk about shapes, or do music. He opted for music. So we went to the piano and spent the next 45 min or so playing songs on the piano together...me playing the melody and him playing some notes and both of us singing along. I played some hymns as he asked me to play some songs from "that Bible book" (the hymnal) and he even sang along to those. I love that he is into music, he sings so much of the day and mostly I love it. Sometimes I just wish he had a volume switch.
Today the same question came up and Julio told him he could learn how to patch a bike tire with him, so they worked on that for a bit of the afternoon. What will he ask to learn tomorrow? Any suggestions on things that may interest a 4-year-old to learn?

Samuel learns too, just mostly all the wrong things. His vocabulary has expanded into every possible version of 2-year-old potty talk, and honestly I don't know where he gets a lot of his choice expressions. His current favorite is "I poopoo yours head off!" Nice. The problem with him is, as soon as he knows it's not allowed it makes it funny and way more desirable to try out again and again. I am at a parenting loss - this child truly thinks he's a comedian and loves to get a rise out of us! Tonight we had company for dinner and he just sat there goofing off at the table the entire time - putting his corn on the cob on his head, putting his hands in his milk, eating like a crazy person - he makes me nuts. He's a little climbing machine too - always climbing on tables and couches and trying to get up on their bunk beds in every possible way other than using the ladder...yikes. He climbs on us too, which is only sometimes fun for me. Yet, for all his shenanigans, he is always so quick to give a hug or a kiss, is quick to say sorry for his misdemeanors, and has curled up on the couch with me to cozy up a couple of times this past week and just lay there with me for the longest time. It's amazing how the same little person can make you crazy, make you laugh, and make your heart soften into a pile of mush all in about 10 minutes. That's our Sam.

(My most recent project - aprons/smocks for the guys, much requested by Luke)

birthday bash

Last night we celebrated the boys - ice cream style. My big plan was to have an "easy" year, and that became the joke as the party got bigger and more complicated. We normally just do a family birthday with both sides of our family and do a bbq and dessert, but that seemed like a lot for me this year so we decided to just do ice cream sundaes instead. But then I thought it might be fun to have a few of their friends, mostly from our small group, as Luke especially has made some good friendships that are becoming more significant for him and I wanted to have those people too. But when I told Luke that we were just going to have ice cream sundaes for dessert he said, "and cake too, right?!" uhhhh...but of course! And not to be left out, I thought I should also make gluten-free cake for myself and the couple of others who are gluten intolerant. So our small, easy party with one dessert turned out to be a party with about forty people, ice cream, tons of toppings, cake and cupcakes. And guess what? It was pretty easy :). Thankfully the weather was good, people brought their own lawn chairs, the kids were great, and the boys had a blast. And by 8:30pm everyone was gone. I think it was my favorite birthday party yet.

Now the boys have some new toys, some of which were even handmade, Luke got his painting easel which he was asking about for a long time, a cool desk that matches their room and a few other things. Now comes the task of purging some old toys...I have been trying to convey to them that we don't NEED so much stuff and that it's good to give things away too, so we'll see how that process goes.

Birthday boys, excited about gifts.

An amazing hand-made barn, made by the oh-so-talented Michelle.

Rainbow cake! I got this idea from this site. It was a hit, and really quite easy to do. Basically just a cake mix with a bit of extra stirring.Gluten-free cupcakes - I can't be left out :).After eating so much icing in the afternoon, Luke actually decided that he didn't want cake right away, just ice cream, and didn't even finish all his ice cream and in the end didn't try any of his cake! But seeing as he ate his weight in icing in the afternoon I don't feel so badly. He usually just eats the icing off of cakes and cupcakes anyway.

And now it's 10am and I'm still in my pyjamas as the boys have been content to play with new things. Birthdays are the best.

2 and 4, time to reflect

Tomorrow our little Sam turns 2. I have just spent the last month working on his one-year album and going through pictures from the last two years, from pregnancy, to newborn, to baby, to walking, to talking, to climbing, to potty mouthing, current day Sam. I love that kid. He is such a party and makes our lives just an amazing amount more fun because of his love for life and mischief. The latest funny Sam moment happened in the van on the way home from the lake. Luke and Samuel both love to sing in the van and were both singing off and on for a long time, when suddenly Sammy started singing, "Twinkle twinkle little butt!". Not even two and he is into butt humour, that kid cracks me up. Julio and I just burst out laughing, which of course just made him realize it was funny and he kept going. My current parenting challenge is disciplining with a straight face. And curbing my own "potty mouth", which really just consists of calling him a silly goose, or a monkey, or a turkey or whatever, but he will latch onto anything and take it to the nth degree. His favorite "insults" all end in "butt" or "head", usually "stinky butt" and "coocoo head" and often just "stinka" which he finds terribly amusing. Luke has never had to have the soap treatment done but Sammy has twice now, and when he says "bad" things right afterwards he usually says, "soap in mine mouth?" I've been trying to get him to say nice things after his apology, like "you're a nice brother" or "I love you" or something along those lines after insulting his brother, and today, on his own, after a stinky butt moment, he looked at me and said, "say good things?" For all his mischief he is also very lovable. We get lots of hugs and one day he just came up to me and say, "I hold your cheeks" and held my cheeks and gave me a big kiss on the lips. We often ask him now to "hold our cheeks" which he nearly always does, complete with sloppy kiss. It's awesome.

Luke is 4 on Wednesday and has really grown up this past year in so many ways. I feel like it is a rare day that I have truly tough times with him, mostly he is very willing to help and very eager to do "big boy things". The other day we were at the cottage and he was outside, helping my dad and Julio do work outside, wearing big work gloves and Sammy decided he wanted to go in for lunch so I asked Luke if he wanted to come in too, and he said, about an octave lower than usual, "no that's okay, I'll stay out here with the mans". That is him to a tee! He is always into being grown-up. On another occasion this summer I asked him if he wanted to pull weeds with me or play in his pool, and he got all excited and said, "Let's pull weeds!" I am also very impressed with how patient he is with Sammy - he is by no means perfect, but it takes many times of being pestered before Luke loses his cool with Sammy and he almost never retaliates physically which I find amazing. Sammy will sometimes get frustrated with him and start hitting him, or just gets excited and starts pounding him on the back for no reason, and often Luke will say, "That's okay mom, he can hit me".
I'd love to say more, but it's late and I need to get going, so stay tuned for a birthday post, coming soon!

bunk beds and cottage days

trying to enjoy the bottom bunk with dad

Sammy crying because I made him pose on the bottom bunk instead of being on the top bunk. He still doesn't quite believe he'll end up sleeping down there and not up top with Luke. He went up to the top bunk after this picture, looked at me and said "CHEESE"!

hanging out.

wrestling

top bunk fun

biking at the lake
big pregnant lady on a bike
marshmallow goodness
Our lives have been filled with much cottage fun these past few weekends, much laundry and trying to get back into city life, and much packing up to do it all over again. It's great. We took the boys on a hike, which they both loved and which for sure Luke had more energy for than I did, we had fun at the beach, fun with friends and some time with my parents out there too...truly, some of the funnest cottage times I've had yet. It's so neat to see all the things the boys can do now. Luke is really into biking and I was able to bike around the block a couple of times with him at the lake. He's really getting the hang of braking, even going downhill, and yet still reminds us that he's not quite four by needing a little break on the way up. It's hard to remember that he's such a little guy still when he's so into trying everything. He was eager to help Julio clean out a bunch of brush that Julio had cut down and had massive work gloves while he gathered sticks, etc. I remember being a kid at the cottage and having to gather sticks so my dad could use the driving lawnmower and not finding it all that fun. I'm quite sure all of Luke's good work ethic and attitude comes completely from Julio! We also got to spend some time with some of our favorite people, the Krymusas, or the "Musas" as Sammy calls them, and their one (unknown to us before this weekend) brother and wife and cutie baby girl, the "other Musas", as Sammy referred to them. They were all so lovely and it was fun to hang out and visit at the beach with good weather and fun friends. So now we officially know and love all of those "Musas", as I just came from having a wonderful visit from the other "Musa" wife, Kirsten, who is visiting from Africa for the summer. What fun. And all the laundry is already folded and put away so I have absolutely nothing in the world to complain about. But watch me try anyway.

In other news, we now have bunk beds for the boys. Tonight is Luke's first night up top and, much to Sammy's dismay, when it's time for him to join Luke in the bunk bed fun he will be stuck with the bottom bunk. Tonight he opted for his crib instead of trying out the bottom bunk and I'm not quite sure when I'll be willing to do away with such fabulous confinement, so we'll see when we officially transfer him in. We got an amazing deal on kijiji for the bunk beds and couldn't be happier with the set-up. Julio's dream has now officially come true - I think within a few weeks of Sammy being born Julio was talking about how great it would be when one day we could get bunk beds for the boys. They are loving them, and basically think of them as a play structure in their room, which is still a little scary in the Sammy department. He's such a climber and has already climbed onto the dresser beside, from the top bunk, and once I caught him hanging off the top bunk above the lower one...yikes. Feel free to say a prayer or two for Sammy's safety if you'd like :).

It's way too late so I'm off to bed...enjoy the pictures above, I don't even have the energy to put them all in nice places so place all this above commentary by the appropriate pictures please and thank-you. Here's a video for your amusement. It's long and sticky, don't feel obligated to watch it all.

variations on a lyric

I may just have to add to this post as more things come to mind, but I thought I'd do a post on all the funny lyrics I hear out of the mouths of my boys. They both LOVE to sing, it's almost constant when we're in the van, although Luke would prefer it if Samuel and I didn't sing along. I hope you know some of these!
"Wings of an Eagle" a la Luke: "We will not grow weary, we will not grow far, on the wings of an easel we will rise!!" Yesterday he asked me, "mom, what does 'wings of an easel' mean?" Good question!
"Baa baa black sheep" a la Luke: "Baa baa black sheep have you any wool, yes sir yes sir flee flags flull."
"Baa baa black sheep" a la Sam: "Baa baa back sheep ya ya ya ya wool, yes sir yes sir..."
We were singing some song with the word "hosanna" in it, and then Luke says to me yesterday in the van, "what's that one that goes hosanna don't cry for me?" I thought for a long time and finally figured it out: "Oh Susanna, oh don't you cry for me..."
Luke also likes to make up some of his own songs. He's big on the word "strength" for some reason. His songs are often along the lines of "God is our strength! He is so mighty!" And now Samuel has started to sing "God is mighty. God is mighty" over and over again. Let's just say that sometimes even a van seems small. I can only take so much repetition.
Luke loves singing in church and often belts out the choruses that he is familiar with. It's quite cute - I can see him thinking during the verse part, wondering if he knows the song, and then if he does he is completely oblivious to the volume at which he joins in during the chorus. It's awesome. Some of his faves are "Shout to the north and the south. Sing to the east and the west..." I think he just likes that he can sing the word 'shout'. He and Sam also sing "How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be..." over and over again. Although sometimes Luke mixes up the order of the marvelous and wonderful, and today when he was singing it, he did it in this order: the wonderful, marvelous, then remembered the wonderful was supposed to come afterwards and sang the wonderful part again, just tons higher. That's always a treat in a confined space.
More to come as memory and moments arise...

Biker Luke and other summer fun

(A spontaneous, share-the-chair popsicle moment.)

Our biggest news around here is that our Luke can bike without training wheels! We are so proud of him and his determination. He just decided one day that he wanted to do it, so Julio took the training wheels off and after Luke saw how tippy it was, he immediately wanted them back on. But...Julio wanted him to at least try it, and Julio ran, holding on to the back of Luke's bike, all the way to the park and back. The next day, Luke pretty much got the hang of it, (as shown in the video below), with a bit of help with the starts, and then the next time we biked, we did a family 3km bike to my sister's place, and after lowering Luke's seat he could do the starts no problem. I couldn't believe he biked that far, but he was very determined and did great.

Okay, that's probably enough bragging. On to other events. We went to "Morning Sound Farm", just outside the city, for a little farm experience the other Saturday with some of our favorite people, Steve and Sheri-Lee Krymusa and their boys, or the "Musas" as Sammy refers to them. We had a blast.Sammy was completely into everything and loved being thrown into any pen with any animal. He was a little scary with the baby chicks, holding one by the leg and refusing to let go, but other than that I think the animals and him were unharmed. It was so great to see him so excited and in awe of everything.Cowboy Sam. He was a pro.

Not-so-cowboy Luke. He had a death grip on me for the first part of the pony ride and didn't even want to do it, but I kind of forced him to. He eased his grip slightly and talked pretty tough about riding the pony afterwards, saying he was glad he went. Our boys are SO different!

Sheep shearing demo. Just before that was the goat milking demo, which Sam got to try with Julio's help. Luke wasn't so into that. This picture pretty much sums up Luke's farm experience. Cautiously checking things out. He spent a good amount of time making sure Sammy wasn't getting too close to any of the animals and avoiding them himself. But he did say he really liked the farm after the fact, and I do appreciate his caring, protective nature towards Sam. I just wish he could relax a bit more sometimes...This pretty much sums up Sam's farm experience. Pure giddiness and bliss. We now think we should get some land outside the city to have a few chickens and a goat. And some kittens and dogs. And a big garden. And lots of energy for all of it. Julio was practically sleepless the night after the farm, dreaming of our country life! I have absolutely no concept of how much work it would all be (we wouldn't have a massive farm or anything, just a few animals, that can't be that much work, right??) but it sure looked dreamy after our visit to the farm. Just don't look at our backyard currently and see all my crazy weeds and fairly pathetic garden. You will think I have no farming future whatsoever! Alas...it's good to dream.

And now, life has consisted of trips to the wading pool, the park, washing swimming clothes, drying swimming clothes, repairing sandals, finding sand in every imaginable place, eating far too much ice cream...ahhh, sweet summer! I love this time of year.

First trip to the cottage...and a bath.

I haven't posted pictures in a while, mostly because I haven't really been taking any, but here are some cottage pictures from the long weekend. The May long weekend was gorgeous, lots of sun and the kids spent a lot of time at the beach with their other three cousins on my side, and we squeezed in some walks and the evenings were filled with Wii. It was a really good time. Here is the one time I brought out the camera to take pictures, on one of our walks.

Luke's latest trick is refusing to look at me when i have a camera. Thankfully that isn't Claire's newest trick. And finally, two boys in a bath. We hadn't taken a bath shot in a while and thought it was time. They are looking more and more like brothers to me, shorn heads and all.
That's all I've got for now...

before I forget...

A couple of funny stories. I'm still in the peak of nausea and fatigue, so this will be short but in an effort to remember cute things my kids have said for when they're teenagers and not as cute as I'd like, here's some current samplings.
Luke, in the van today as we're driving..."Ahhhhh....I just love being a kid". When I asked why he liked being a kid he said, "I like playing and I like soccer..." and his voice just kind of trailed off. I hope his comment was because he was thinking that life was grand and not that he dreaded adulthood...
Sammy, as we're trying to watch hockey on cbc.ca and it's having trouble loading..."What's happening it? Stuck?" I am so amazed at his vocabulary and sentences lately...I feel like I can say anything to him and he'll just get it. Usually his sentences just mimic Luke's, like if Luke will say, "Mom, I'm the biggest right?" then Sammy will pipe up, "I biggest too!!"
In an effort to be positive and not dwell on my overwhelmingly horizontal moments lately, I will just say that today was great. By some miracle it was not only my day off from work, but the sun was shining, I had energy enough for Fabricland with the two boys, a trip to St. Vital Park to feed some ravenously scary ducks some dried out bread and fun at the park with the boys' cousin Victoria, a playdate for Luke in the afternoon, a long nap for Sammy, time to myself to read my Bible, catch up on email and relax all while having the doors and windows open, nice chats with my sister and a slurpee. I have truly been forced to learn how to take life one day at a time, as these days are pretty overwhelming, and I can truly say that this day has not been one to be dreaded. Praise God.
Can I also just say, if you've never done so before READ ELLEN'S BLOG! That woman makes me laugh every time I read her posts, she's a beautiful woman, inside and out, with a wonderful way of finding humour in the everyday and with three amazing children who say and do the funniest things. She makes parenting three look fun, despite the challenges and I often think "I hope I do those kinds of things with my kids someday" when I read her fun outings and ideas. Her current Mother's Day post was priceless, but read any really, they're all good.

A noteworthy day

This is how my day began. It's 6:30am, Julio and I are sleeping peacefully when suddenly we here a tiny person say in a loud voice: "Anybody home?? Anybody home??" I think this may be one of the first times in my life when the first thing I do in a morning is laugh. What a riot. We have no idea where he got that from! And no, we don't leave our children home alone, but yes, it's true that first thing in the morning we're not always exactly scrambling to get to Sammy's room when he calls. I guess he thought he'd cut out the preliminary babble and whimpers today. Blessed Julio got up and said, "Yes Sam, I'm home!".So that was a little something from offspring #2. Would you like to hear news from offspring #3?? Well, here you go, I heard a little heartbeat today! It took a while to find, but it was there and strong and the best sound in the world. After all this nausea I needed a bit of good news. And despite the fact that my belly is gigantic and people are asking me all the time if I'm pregnant, my doctor is quite sure there's only one little Silvestri in there. Phew and phew! Today I actually had a conversation with another grade 7 teacher who basically stared at my stomach the whole time he and I were chatting. It's a christian school, so I suppose staring at a woman's chest is frowned upon, but seriously, eyes off the belly too! I still have a face you know!! And finally, a little something from the firstborn. My sister Robyn thinks everything he says is pretty much hilarious so I should just try to remember ANYTHING he says, but I'll just recap the events that happened just moments ago as that's all this pregnant brain can come up with. I was putting Luke to bed, and he's having a lot of issues lately with wanting to talk about "killing" and we've pretty much figured out that it's coming from his Bible stories at night. Seriously, I don't think the Old Testament was intended for preschoolers. It's like the 10 commandments are the only place where killing is NOT advised. Just kidding, I know God is the same in the Old Testament and the New and His graciousness and love abounds all over the place, but what do I say to my 3-year-old when he starts worrying that the walls of our house are going to come tumbling down or that giants are going to come and try and kill us and that we're going to get eaten by whales and then puked up? It gets tricky. Anyhow, he had a change of heart tonight and decided he was against killing and loved Jesus and God and so when I asked him if he wanted to pray he said sure, I want to pray for someone who doesn't love Jesus to love Him. I said that sounded like a good idea, who did he have in mind? He said, "Goliath!" Well, I explained that Goliath had been dead for a long time but that he could pray for other people that don't love God because they're around too and he said, "No, I think I'll just pray for Goliath". So, tonight Goliath got prayed for. Probably the longest and most sincere prayer I've ever heard from Luke. That's all I've got, it's about 51 minutes until my bedtime and I'm going to use all those precious moments to sew. See the shameless self-promotion below:

quick update

It's 9:08 which is about 8 minutes past my newly determined bedtime, so I'm going to make this quick. I haven't blogged in so long that it's daunting to start, but "You must begin before you can finish" as the wise Nunga Punga and the Booch once said. (Side note: "The Nunga Punga and the Booch" is one of the best children's books ever and in no bookstores anywhere.)
Begin I shall. The best and most exciting part of our lives right now is a little someone who has taken up residence in my womb. Coming soon to a world near you, sometime probably well after the expected due date of November 11th. We're thrilled. The other side of this thrilling news is that I'm experiencing the most intense pregnancy symptoms of my life and have no trouble declaring this our last child. Lord willing and all that jazz. I'm almost 11 weeks along now and in a week we will have an appointment to hopefully hear the little heartbeat that has caused all this nausea. As Luke put it the other day, "Mom, I'm sorry the baby is hurting you so much and kicking your stomach". What compassion. I hope he doesn't take all my months of lethargy and nausea out on the poor thing when they finally meet. So far both boys have already really loved to give the baby hugs and kisses, which is easy to do since my abdomen has swollen nicely, or rather, never fully unswelled from Samuel making this pregnancy somewhat convenient as I can now answer YES! to the perpetual "are you pregnant" questions. I still forget not to be grumpy when people ask that now and rather just celebrate the belly. I realize this baby is still only a bit bigger than a plump olive, but I will celebrate my bump nonetheless.
I have also, because I am a glutton for punishment, started teaching grade 7 part-time again, the exact grade I vowed never to go back to. So, add hyper pre-adolescents in springtime every morning to the general nausea and fatigue I'm experiencing and voila my life. The grade 7s are starting to become more tolerable to me and hopefully I to them and life is really not as bleak as I'm making it sound. It's the evening and I always feel worse in the evening so forgive this post for being a little bit more grumpy than it needs to be. The morning version would be, "oh bliss! God has granted me this golden opportunity to speak French and goodwill into the lives of children on the cusp of adulthood!" Who are we kidding, I couldn't foster that kind of enthusiasm any time of day.
The best part about teaching is my mom. She is looking after the boys 2 or 3 times a week (Julio does the other days and he's great too) and I usually come home, sit on the couch and my mom feeds me. Today when I came home, Luke realized it was near lunch time, as I only work mornings, and said to my mom, "Gramma Anne can you make me lunch now?" Yes, the children know she is more reliable to feed them and take care of them than I am. My mother is a dream on all fronts, including washing my dishes and sweeping my floors, not to mention saying my kids are wonderful and what a joy it is to be with them. They definitely have a good deal having my mom and Julio around in the mornings, they are much more chipper and energetic than I could muster at this point in life. Today I managed to drag myself along with my family to the park before supper, sit on the park bench and watch them all play, and it genuinely amazed me to see how much energy Julio had for chasing the boys around. Julio has had the most remarkable attitude this time around and even deals with my spontaneous bouts of tears and emotion with amazing calm. He has obviously walked this road before. He said to me, after my first emotional pregnant outburst, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this!" That just shows you how even keel I am emotionally most of my life. Take that.
Okay, it is now 9:25 and the nausea is winning out and my bed is calling. There, I blogged. Happy??

whirlwind days...

For some reason these last few weeks and months have felt like a whirlwind. I thought that after having finished work in January I would have this sense of freedom and life would be restful and relaxing...it has been some of that, but life with kids just isn't exactly that, and I'm always trying to squeeze in some fun and excitement (aka sewing) into the mix. Anyhow, excuses excuses as to why I never blog anymore. But here's a little attempt.
First a couple of Luke stories:
We were having a conversation about porcupines the other day and Luke insisted that they were called "poke-u-pines" instead of porcupines. Can I argue with such brilliance??
Then there is his singing...he's been into medley's lately, one of my favorites being "How Great Thou Art/O Canada"...at least we're no longer "standing on God for thee", that didn't seem very nice. We have some nice, cheesy, 80s christian VHS video where young kids do different songs to music and Luke pretty much knows them all now. It's pretty neat to be at a point where when I don't know the words to a song, or I can't remember where I put something, I can just ask Luke and 9 times out of 10 he knows.
And then there's been birthday talk floating around, first of all much talk about his birthday and turning four, and what kind of cake to have. He said he wanted a "heaven" cake. Hmmm.... Usually his cake requests are firetrucks or firefighters or spiderman (which he knows absolutely nothing about but heard of somewhere and talks about him all the time). His cousin Victoria is having a birthday party on Saturday and today he was speculating about what kind of cake SHE would like. His first thought was a princess cake, and then he changed his mind and thought maybe she would like a lawnmower cake. A lawnmower cake?!?
Finally, when talking about what present he would like for his birthday he said, "I want a parrotshoot (parachute), so I can shoot parrots." What?!?!? Poor parrots, what did they ever do to him???
And now for some pictures. Here are the boys watching themselves eat coconut lollipops. Strange, yes, cute, also yes.
Reading...in matching pjs. Always a hit.

An attempt at ice skating at the Forks. It was so freaking cold that day we didn't last very long.

Sammy and I trying to be excited about how freaking cold it is.

Short-lived skating.

My dad. The 60-year-old. We've just had a few celebrations for him so he's a big hit around here. As is his hot yellow curling sweater. We go and watch him curl, mostly for the sweater.

The boys, in Papa Ron glory, watching curling.

Wrestling with dad. Good times.

Luke in a bumbo chair. Playing an obnoxious xylophone.

That's all for now, this winter has been long so I'll spare you the un-taken shots of us lazing around at home, playing blocks for hours on end and watching cheesy 80s praise videos.