Preschool

Lucas attends preschool 3 times a week and generally quite enjoys it. He loves his teachers and the crafts and his friends there. This month they have had guest speakers come in and talk to the kids. First was a dentist, next was a fireman and today was a policeman. So once Lucas got home we tried to have a conversation about what the policemen taught him. I can't remember he says at first. But as he starts to eat more this is how the dinner conversation went

Me: So what did you learn about from the policeman?
Lucas : You know those silver circle thongs they have?
Me: Yeah
Lucas: Those are called handcuffs
me: Oh yeah, is that what the policeman taught you?
Lucas : Yeah. And he has this thing that zaps people
Darryl: Like a taser?
Lucas: Yeah a taser. But don't worry he didn't zap any of us.
Me: oh good

Of course Darryl and I are laughing at what a boy he is, what he remembers most about the visit is all the weapons the policeman has. We did probe him a bit more and found out the did talk about strangers and 911. Which I am sure is the majority of the conversation.

Till tomorrow

Jenn

New Barenaked Ladies

My very favorite band is coming out with a new album. Here is the first single from it. I like the single, but not sure how I'm going to feel about a whole album without Steve. I was listening to my Ed playlist to try and get into Ed music, but I just felt sad when I heard Steve singing backup. Have a listen and tell me what you think.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

A Compliment

Even though his face looked like this (he tried to clean off his face painting), they still invited Lucas to try out for the competitive gymnastic teams. I think 4 hours a week of gymnastics is too intense, I think it will be better to expose him to a variety of things. Plus the schedule doesn't work for us. But it was still nice to know he is quite good at something and that he is a good listener and very teachable.

What about other kids out there, does anyone spend 4 hours a week doing a sport? Is hockey like that?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Don't Drop Them

There has been lots of crazy things going on around here, our PVR is on the fritz and I'm having to watch commercials again. Lucas and I were in urgent care last night becuase the swelling in his finger hadn't gone down. He does have a buckle fracture, but it's something that will heal itself. I have been working a lot and then we are preparing for for our trip to Mexico coming up soon. We are also having growing concerns about Nathan and he lack of speech progression. We are hoping to go see a speech therapist for some ideas on helping him. We also would like to get some carpet ordered for the basement before we go on vacation, as the governement is giving a tax benefit on home improvements before the end of January. We are painting the basement and also painting over the dark chocolate brown color on the main floor. So yeah it feels like we have lots of balls in the air. I'm certainly looking forward to having a week of rest and relaxation.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Weekend Work

It has been a long weekend. I worked a lot this weekend. I worked at job 2's and 3, which makes it seem less like work, but it was still more working and less being with my family. Luckily very soon we are all headed away together to spend a whole week together as a family, no work and no chores. Just having fun together. I am really looking forward to it. We did have fun with Grandma and Pop on Saturday and celebrated Pop's birthday. Nathan was looking forward to it the whole day. He kept making the action for blowing out the candles.



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Division of Labor

I was having a conversation with a lady last week about our husbands and chores. I'm lucky because Darryl does a fair bit around the house. This lady was complaining about her spouse does very little housework, and she said with exasperation " I even have to do the garbage". Her comment got me thinking, are there certain chores that are women's chores and certain chores that are a man job. Part of me can't believe I even wrote that. I am a feminisit to the core. My inital reacation would be no way. But even in my own relationship Darryl does more of the typical male chores, like cutting the grass, keeping up the cars or fixing things around the house. Where I do more of the typical female chores, like grocery shopping, cleaning and laundry. There are some things we do more equally, like the cooking and the garbage. Not that we are not capable of doing the chores the other one does, for example I can cut the grass or fill the car up and Darryl always helps with folding the laundry.

What about you and your spouse, are the chores divided by the typical man/woman roles?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Copycat

I can't believe how much Nathan copies Lucas. If Lucas laughs Nathan will. If Lucas starts to cry when he hurts himself Nathan will too. If I get Lucas a cold compress for his hurt, Nathan wants one too (even though Nathan didn't hurt himself). Nathan is pretty good about finding something similar to play with that Lucas is and doesn't try to take it from Lucas, but loves it when Lucas is playing cars or lego or something there can be alot of. If Lucas has something specific for breakfast Nathan wants the same thing. If Lucas gets a curly straw with his hot chocolate Nathan wants the same thing.


Today I really had to laugh, Lucas spilled milk on his leg at lunch. I wiped it up with a damp cloth and Nathan insisted I wipe his leg as well.

So when will this stop? If ever? I never really remember my sister copying me, a bit but very rarely, probably mostly to annoy me.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Monthly Newsletter: Month Fifty Three

Dear Lucas,

Well as another month passes I can't believe how fast time is going by. Maybe because I signed you up for kindergarten this month or a blog post I read by my friend Kim about what a short time our kids our at home and how soon they go off to school but it feels like you are growing up so quickly.


The good part of you growing up is that we get to share fun things together. There are some things that I am not very good at. I'm not good at the imaginary good guys, bad guys stuff or at building lego. Or playing guns and you can turn almost anything into a gun. Like the broom or eggs you are eating. But there are some things we really love to do together like playing games or baking. We are good at making different stuff together. I'm hoping that I can pass on the love of cooking and baking to you like my mom and my grandparents have done to me. You are also still loving the chapter books. We have read quite a few Ronald Dahl and Charlotte Web and Staurt Little. It's nice to get more indepth stories as well and that you don't need pictures to entertain you. You love stories and books and I'm glad that we are similar in that way too.



Speaking about kindergarten, we are putting you in a kindergarten in an english school and then moving to french school for grade one when it is full days. It's good because we sat down and had a conversation with you about it. Talked to you about the choices and your opinion helped us come to the final decision.



I love being with you and I love that you are growing up into your own person. I just have to conciously think about enjoying every moment as they all go by so fast.

love mommy

Baking Bonaza

I do like baking and cooking. I'm not really great at either but I pretty good and I do like to do it. We like to try new things as well. This weekend was Mom and Dad's anniversary so I thought it would be fun to try creme brulee. Creme brulee seems like a challenging sophisticated, eat at a restuarant dish. But it was pretty easy to make and very delicious with that crunchy topping.

Earlier this week, Lucas and I made chocolate chip cookies, which we make frequently and are very good. Then we thought we'd try blueberry muffins. They turned out a little odd as we used frozen blueberries which turned the batter purple. We were also suppose to put a crumble topping on it but I made the butter too warm so it did not work as a crumble.


We also got to put our new Christmas gift apron's to use. Thanks Lesley, they worked out really well.



Even though the muffins were a little odd, they still tasted good. After that we made a big pot of pasta fajoli soup (although I forgot the pasta =)

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Thanks Mom!

I was in a crappy mood today. You know when you are in a crappy mood everything seems so much worse then it is. But Mom and I had plans to go swimming this evening. Half and hour of swimming and 15 minutes of great conversation with my Mom totally changed my mood. So nice to have a good mother.

On a side note there is a funny story that happened over the Christmas holidays that keeps coming up but that I didn't blog about. While Alexis was here she had her birthday and bought mini Crave cupcakes. We went to her house for dinner and she gave Lucas one of the cupcakes. Nathan although cannot say more then 20 words but turned to Alexis and kind of shrugged and said "unh", like where is mine. It was so funny. For a kid who doesn't say a lot of words he can communicate a fair bit.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Back to the Couch

A couple of weeks ago I was having milk and cookies up in bed. When I was done with the computer I put it down beside me and went to sleep. At some point the last of my milk got spilt on the computer. Now the computer has been through lots, it had grapefruit juice spilt on it. Was once shocked to the point it took days to wake up. So when I saw it was wet, I let it dry opened it up, washed it and put it back together. It wouldn't start. I left it for a day and tried it again. I took out the battery and plugged it in and boom it turned on. So we took it up to the apple store to see if it was just a new battery that we needed. But no, it was the connection between the battery and the computer. Suddenly my laptop became a desktop. So I ordered a new computer. In the last couple of weeks, there was a lack of posting and a lack of checking e-mail. But today my new computer came, so once again I can post on my couch. I am amazed at how seamlessly the transition was. I plugged in my old computer to the new one and a couple of hours later my new computer is just like the old one, expect I can use it on the couch.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Green Tip

Meat trays always use to be stryrofoam, but now are made with a recyclable material. Check the bottoms of them for their numbers to recycle.

Jenn

Nathan's Monthly Newsletter: Month Twenty One

Dear Nathan,

Happy 21 months bub-bub. This month continues the fun-ness we've been having with you. I remember Tammy saying one of her favourite ages was the time between 18 months and 3 years and I can totally see her point. You make people so happy, whether it's making the family laugh at Christmas when you enthusiastically agree with stuff or smiling at people in the grocery store and them smiling back at you, you spread alot of happiness.

You have taken to sleeping on the couch in your room. For a while it was just if we came in to see you in the night we would sleep with you on the couch, but now you sleep there all the time. We thought it would be a good idea to move you out of the crib and put you in a big boy bed, but you still like sleeping on the couch. It is fine with me as the couch is an old futon, so it has a good angle to keep you in the bed.

You really enjoyed Christmas this year, you enjoyed the tree and the lights and the presents. You would like to take every piece of paper off the present before actually paying attention to the present. You also took every present you your favourite person Pop to help you open it. Maybe because Pop has the little pocket knife but it got to the point that every present that was given to you, you'd say " Pop, Pop" and go sit on his lap to open it.

This month you have also started to play more independently. I'm not sure if it's all the new toys or your age, or maybe a combination, but you are much more willing to play on your own now rather then always having me play with you. It is great and weird to watch you grow into your own little person, it's nice to be able to do some things while you play in the play room.

More accepting of other people, including Daddy even if Mommy is around. We also really noticed over Christmas how you were much more accepting to lots of other people as well. You would get on people laps and show them things. Or if you try to grab my hand and take me somewhere and I won't go, you'll just go grab someone else's hand.

You still really want to be just like Lucas. Sometimes it drives Lucas crazy, but more and more he is getting to enjoy it. The other night you guys were actually playing together. You were on a ship and everything Lucas did you would just do (or at least try) to do the same thing.


love you
mommy

One More

When Lucas was Nathan's age we started trying to have another baby. I thought 2-3 years apart would work out well for our kids. Now we have two and Nathan is at that age where if we wanted another one 2-3 years apart we better get on it. The question that has been going through my head lately is are we done? But there are things on both sides of the fence on if we should have more or not.

We do love to travel and that would be a much bigger challenge with 3 kids. We have a three bedroom house, although the boys could share a room I guess. But I find babies to be so hard..... do I really want to go through all of that again? Nathan is just getting out of the hard stage, he is in the really fun stage. Do I really want to go back there again. Plus more kids cost more money. More food, more activities But am I forsaking "things" for having another person in our lives.

I love being a mom and Darryl is an excellent Dad. Plus I think it's great for kids to have siblings. There are more kids to play with, more kids to help out. It is adding a person to our lives who will enrich it for the rest of our lives.

When I look at my pros and cons paragraphs, the cons seem to be much longer. But the pros one seem to be more important..... Most people I know seem to have two kids, maybe because the con list is longer. Much fewer have three.

What about you? Are you done? How do you know when you are done?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Eat at Home Challenge 2010

For those of you who forget, last year a couple of us didn't eat out for a whole month. For me that is a real challenge. We eat out at least once a week. Not fancy eating out but Wendy's or McDonalds. Last September (or maybe it was the September before that) the bunch of us didn't eat out for a whole month. Here is the link to the blog with our progress and recipies of what we ate. Lesley mentioned in the comments that we should do it again and I'm all for it. I was thinking in March? Does that work for everyone?

Also in April should we have another monthly challenge that has something to do with exercise? 15 minutes of exercise a day? Sweat everyday? Would anyone be interested in this?

Let me know...... maybe 2010 will be okay....

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

ZooLights and Bowling

Darryl, myself and the kids all had the last week off to hang out and enjoy each other. I love my family and it is great to spend some time with them. We got out of our early morning and early nights routine. We stayed up and enjoyed each others company and slept in late in the mornings. That made this morning hard as it was the first morning back to regular routine, but I enjoyed the last week with my family. We went swimming, Zoolights, bowling, out for lupper and lots of fun playing with new toys. On a bad note my computer has taken another turn for the worst. I think I may need to order a new one. So if blog posts are not a frequent as normal it's becuase I have to use it in the kitchen and not at the couch. Here are some picture highlights of some things from last week.
Lucas and his friends bowling.
A great action shot of Lucas bowling.

Alexis and I warming up in some tropical plants at Zoo lights.

Nathan, Lucas and Lauren playing with some huge balls at zoo lights.

Walking through a lighted tunnel at zoo lights.


A lighted tiger/jaguar at night.


Warming up with hot chocolate at Zoo lights. It was a very very cold night.

Till Tomorrow.

Jenn

Happy New Year..... I guess

I don't know what is wrong with me but I am not looking forward to 2010 at at all. Maybe because 2009 was so good, I'm not sure how 2010 can top it. I've read lots of things this morning about how people are looking forward to it and how it is going to be such a great year, but I just can't get on board. I'm skeptical and usually I'm so optimistic. We do have some nice vacations planned and the kids are at an awesome age and I plan on doing more triathalons, but I"m not sure that it can get better. It will be interesting in a year to read this and see how it all turned out.

As usual I have a look at the resolutions I made in 2009 and see how I did.

So now onto resolutions or things I would like to accomplish in 2009.

1. Do a sprint marathon. That should be this summer and I'm looking forward to it. I seem to have gotten a team of people together who are also interested in doing it, so I think it will be one of the highlights of the year.

This one can be checked off. I did it I loved it. Only Mom did it with me not the whole team, but I think we are doing it again this year. And it was one of the highlights of the year.

2. With the economy the way it is I have been thinking alot about money. I kind of do things backwards where I buy something large and then pay for it later. It's not a huge deal becuase we both make good money, so it gets paid off quickly. But with all this money talk around I'd like to get better at saving for the things I want before I buy them. Darryl and I would like to get some furinture for the house, and a new TV and maybe even a new washing machine. But I want to save for all of those things before purchasing them.

We did good with this for the first couple of months, we saved to buy our new TV. But then came summer and it was out the window. I was not very good at this. I am a spender and it is hard for me to not be a spender. I think it will add something similar to this for this years resolutions. I feel that this will be a constant thing I need to work on.

3. I will be heading back to work in 4 months so I hope to get some rhythm to our lives when that happens.

I think I can check this one off too. I feel like we got some good rhythm this year. It took Nathan a bit longer to catch on, but I think we all have it now.

4. More decorating in this house.

Last but not least I think we can check this one off too. Again it's a work in progress, but we did some last year.

Okay now here are some resolutions for 2010:

1. No pop.

Alexis inspired me with her no McDonald's in 2009 and I keep reading on the lulu lemon bag where we keep our recycling how bad it is for you. So no pop this year. Ice tea sure, but no coke or sprite or anything of the like.

2. Finish the basement.

This is kind of a Darryl and Jenn resolution. I couldn't do it without him, but I know he's on board with it as well.

3. The added one and the one I'm always working on, pay down the debt and save for things before buying them.

4. Take more pictures. Not sure if it's because it's the winter or what but I haven't been taking that many pictures over the last month. I need get back into it again. Maybe Lesley and I can take a photography close together. =)

Do you have any resolutions for this year?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn