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