Bigger

My kids have gotten bigger. Way bigger.

Finn decided that he was ready to pee on the potty a couple weeks ago. Today he even put a "baby" on the potty today and talked for her, "I peed!" before clapping her hands together, then saying, "I'm so proud of you!" He's so funny. He's big into rhyming, especially our names. Mommy Bummy. Nana Banana. All day we sang songs. His fave was Five Little Monkeys, but Wheels on the Bus will always be a hit.

He's kinda rotten at the same time, though I think that naturally comes with being two and a half. We went to the library at the mall this morning. Not only was he not in sight most of the time, he ran from one corner of Safeway to the furthest corner as fast as he could get away. Then he ran away from me in the parking lot. He spent some time getting some negative energy out in the backyard when we got home. And even though he whines incessantly, he is so easy to make laugh. And his laugh makes my heart grow.

And Lily. Oh my. While she bailed on her last potential sleepover at Carly's, she's excited for an upcoming Brownie's science centre/pizza party/sleepover in a few weeks. Carly will have to be right by her side, but it's a step. Brownie's has been good for her. Glad we coerced her into it. More cookie sales. A food bank drive. Being on the Santa parade float coming up. And badges.

She's gotten so independent in the last month or so. She will walk home from school by herself at lunch and after school. She doesn't wake me when she has to pee in the middle of the night or even when she gets up and we're just downstairs watching t.v. She came home from Carly's the other day; Finn, Chris and I were all upstairs napping in bed. She didn't even come looking for us. Just went downstairs to play Barbie games online. These things are huge.

She's still painfully shy, but she spends more time at Carly's and from what we hear, even answers her parents questions. Out loud. I assume she's fine when we're not around, though I can't vouch for that. Even with us, trying to get something that's bugging her out of her mouth is like playing (four hundred and) 20 questions. Trying to keep all dialogue open, so hopefully someday she'll come around.

Gotta pick out clothes for tomorrow. Big kid clothes.

Buddy

Last night Finn said, "You're my best friend, Mom." He's pretty fantastic himself.

Big day!

Lily and I are heading up to Saskatoon after lunch for the Justin Bieber concert. As if we needed to sweeten the pot, Carly Rae Jepsen is opening. I don't know if I'll be able to wipe that grin off her face today.

Super busy crazy fun times

Shall I pull out my list of awesome things we've been doing? I think shortly after we got back from Minot we realized Finn had ringworm. Not a big deal, just a traumatic trip to the doctor's office.

That was followed by two Saturdays of birthday parties that Lily was invited to attend – and they were for boys in Lily's class. The first was Kylo's bowling birthday party, and right afterwards we hit the road to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend. Jet skiing, boating, tubing, throwing sand out of the sandbox, hot tub action, a day at the beach. It was that jam-packed.

Did a short day trip down to Weyburn to finally meet Khrystine's daugther, Ana, and her soon-to-be stepson, Eric. Tried to picnic but it was so hot we almost died. The following weekend was a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, but this time Lily was the only girl so it wasn't as fun. On Aug. 1, Chris took the day and took Lily to the Queen City Ex. A perfect activity for the pair. They spent over eight hours there, a feat I was lucky to avoid.

For the August long weekend, we headed up to Shell Lake for the Hood/Flora family reunion. Stayed over at Grandma and Grandpa's and got to see Ryan and Leslie before we headed out the next morning. We camped. Not my first choice, but there were actually no other options. It wasn't so bad – until the first night. A thunderstorm kept me awake most of the night, the constant pelting of raindrops sounded like small explosions over and over and over... The second night we were so cold that we had to all sleep with our heads covered. Got to see everyone, hold frogs, hit the beach and park. Finn rode his bike constantly, impressing everyone with his moves. We were all glad to get home, if only to be inside again.

Spent the following week readying for Lily's birthday party, which we had on Aug. 12. It was super old-school. Musical chairs, scavenger hunt, random playing in the yard, a weiner roast, then cake. Ta da, over. Lily was very satisfied, though, exclaiming that this was the awesomest party ever.

Then this past weekend, Grandma and Grandpa so kindly came down for the weekend so they could watch the kids for us while we attended a co-worker's wedding. Of course, on Saturday the kids got sick. Chris and I followed a couple days later. On Tuesday, I hurt my back so bad I had to lay down all day. Then at supper Lily said, "My head is itchy." An hour of flashlight searching over her scalp until we found the little bugger that would ruin the rest of our evening. Chris and Finn immediately left to get lice shampoo. We did all of our heads so Lily wouldn't be alone; she was so upset. Took hours to strip the beds, rid our rooms of dirty clothes and towels, throw toys in the freezer, pillows in the dryer, re-dress the beds. Poor kids weren't asleep until 10:15 p.m. Chris stayed home since we're moving on Friday at work and I had to go in and pack. It all kinda went to hell and I ended up having to come home early anyway. Back at daycare today, but they're shutting down tomorrow since they found four more cases of lice, including Jack and Carly. Gonna do a thorough clean, though nothing makes me feel NOT itchy right now.

No time for including photos, but see our Flickr pics to get the full effect of this awesome narrative.

Hot fun in the summer time!

School's been out for just over two weeks. Since then, it's almost been a blur.

First there was the big Canada Day long weekend. The Winnipeg relatives came into Regina on Friday night and we all headed up to Saskatoon the next day for Auntie Norma's 50th birthday party. It was hot and fun with lots of kids running around.

Lily, unfortunately, had an awful ear infection that we could only keep at bay with Advil for so long. She crashed just after 7 p.m. so we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's for the night. Uncle Jared was there, too, and Finn kept us all entertained as we sipped wine.

The next morning, Lily felt up to going in the hot tub before we headed back to the farm to get Nana. We drove back to Regina as Lily, Finn, Nana and Skye all slept for almost the entire trip – exactly how it should be. We dropped Nana off and rushed home to put together a bbq of our own for Uncle Terry, Auntie Brenda, Kim, Aidan, Isabella, Trevor, Amber, Hunter, Heather, Colin, Zander, Keira, Nigel, Jessica, Ferguson, Nana and us! Trev, Amber and Hunter only stayed long enough to meet Ferguson before they hit the road.

After a few hours of eating and playing, we called it quits because it was apparent that everyone was exhausted. Nigel, Jessica and Ferguson stayed over so we got to visit with them in the morning before we jetted off to Rowan's Ravine to spend the day with our neighbours, Bob, Lori, Carly and Jack. They had their trailer out there for the weekend so we went for swimming in the lake, some mini golf, supper and bike riding before Lily's earache got the better of her again. We didn't make it home until 10:30 p.m.

After a few days back at work and daycare (where they went to the Leg and library for some field trip fun), we headed off to Minot on Saturday for watersliding, shopping for Lily's clothes, and touring the devastating flood damage that wreaked havoc there just over a year ago. That part was absolutely mind-blowing. Neighbourhood after neighbourhood you could see how the water had reached the tops of the houses. On some streets, every house was abandoned and nature had come back in to reclaim these yards. It was almost post-apocalyptic. While some were rebuilding, many were not. What kind of neighbourhood will that be? And will it flood again. I suppose we're lucky to be in one of only two cities in North America not built on a river.

Anyway, Lily's got birthday parties over the next couple Saturdays. We're hopefully heading down to Weyburn to visit Khrystine's baby this weekend and next weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's. Then the crazy rollercoaster of August begins!

Funny Finn at (almost) 26 months

The last couple months since you turned two have been lots of fun. You are just starting to talk in well-formed sentences that you thought up yourself. Which is surprising. And entertaining. Like:

"I go outside now. Bye!"
"I ride my bike."
"Yilyee (Lily), come sit down."
"There's Mezia's van."
"Mom, come back."
"I stay home."
"You coming?"
"Oh, it's suppertime."
"Motorcycle!"
"No bugging me."

Because you do get bugged a lot. And when taken to the edge, you like to bite and hit. Not that we blame you, but then we learned that you got into a fight with Lulu at the daycare. She ended up bleeding and you had two lumps on your head. She's three, but she's sweet on you. We got to see it in action at Jack's fifth birthday party. Despite having her own bag of popcorn, she just wanted to eat yours. And she was always by your side. I think she's the highlight of your weekdays.

Lulu is the little girl behind Finn.

On the weekends and some evenings, playing outside or with Lily and Carly is where it's at. You jump on the trampoline and play games with them. You swing beside them. You ride your bike, push the cart and throw your balls – and try to get into the garage where all the tools are. Our patio was a smart investment as it gets used constantly and as long as the gate's shut and the kitchen window is open, you are happy to be out there by yourself. You spend fairly long stretches of time in the sandbox or up in the "tree fort" scribbling over Lily's birthday party invitee list written in chalk. Some mornings before work, we send you out just to keep you busy while we finish getting ready. One day, you were eating a popsicle in the tree fort when you put in down on the chalk board ledge, then just came over and gave me a tight hug around the next before going to get your popsicle again.

You can count to 12 and say your ABCs (or something akin to it). You like to sing and read books about the babies on the bus, diggers and garbage trucks. You still sleep fairly well...until 5 a.m. when you request my presence. You spend at least the next hour in my arms until Lily comes in. Usually you spring right up to see her, even though she immediately starts poking and irritating you. She and you eat cinnamon toast or smoothies for breakfast. Usually you help Dad make the smoothies because they taste better then. You love ketchup on everything, maybe because we eat a lot of home fries as a supper side dish. Dipping is high on your list of suppertime demands. But you say "yucky" a lot, even when you don't mean it. Don't know if you picked that up from Lily or from daycare.

You go grocery shopping with Dad. I can't come because it all goes to heck then. I send you on a mission for broccoli, which you dutifully accept. You actually will go anywhere with Dad which is so, so nice.

While you haven't done it for a while, you'll put yourself in a time out. You sit on the stairs while I put the timer on. You can't move until it beeps. (We're just impressed that you listen because Lily never did. We still can't put her in her room without her literally trying to claw her way out!) But if you're well rested, you rarely have bad days. On the weekends, you slip into a two to three hour nap around 11:30. Weekends are so nice, especially since you don't require a whole lot of structure or entertaining. And we try to never have much to do, just play it by ear because the more you can play whatever you want, the better.

You still love to help. You scrape plates and stack the supper dishes. You put the condiments away. You help with the food processor and the mixer. You get toilet paper for Lily when she screams that there is none. You close the door when we leave the house in the morning. You start Nana's car. You pull weeds. You say you want to help water, but I think you just want the hose.

You want to play t-ball because every Monday through Thursday, kids and their parents walk behind our fence to the ball diamond. There are two games. One at 6 and one at 6:30 p.m. Sometimes you want to play with them so bad, you lay on the floor and cry. On Sundays, the older kids play football right behind the fence and you want to join them, too. Oftentimes, we'll just go to the park to be near all the action. That seems to help. You love climbing and going down slides with Mommy.

And I'm sure there's a lot I'm forgetting... You change constantly, always for the better.

Deep breath

Chris works with a guy that sits maybe four feet from him. We drive by their house on the way to and from the sitter every day. After work yesterday, Chris was telling me about a fundraiser account that was set up to help him and his family out. He's been away from work for the last month because his 7-year-old son went from normal to needing a liver transplant within weeks. He, his wife and son are in Edmonton now...desperately waiting while their younger son is still here in Regina. Anyway, I just can't stop thinking about them, especially after reading this article about them last night. And I can't help but be overtaken with this crushing empathy. And then I squeeze my kids a little tighter.

UPDATE: The boy and his mom, who donated a portion of her liver to him, went into surgery a couple days after I posted this. Right now, they're doing fairly well...considering.

The perks of being right there

Odd little ducks, kids are. Over the last month, the kids in Lily's class seem to have just discovered that we back the schoolyard. Now every recess and lunch hour that I'm home, a whole row of them will stand on the fence and yell until I see them. Every time they ask for something to eat but because we only stock ingredients, no pre-made snacks, I really have nothing to give them. Today they asked for seaweed – which I do have – plus a little bowl of fruit that they eat took a piece of. Then off they ran...

Left to right: Rachel, Lily, Kyra, Rowan and Saul

When I pick Lily up at lunch, I'm always involved in at least three conversations with as many or more children. Today a boy came up and said, "I like you." To which I replied, "I like you, too." He said, "Do you remember my name?" I asked for a hint. "It starts with H," so I easily guessed it was Holden. Very charming indeed. I'd also brought Grace's poncho to school that she'd left in the sand behind the fence on Thursday before the long weekend so she was happy to see that.

It's good to know the kids that Lily spends her days with. They watched me pull weeds and ready the garden beds last week. They boys want to talk the most. They want to come and jump on the trampoline. They wanted to meet Chris and they all politely introduced themselves.

We had Rachel over on Monday and wow, what a different dynamic that was from what we're used to. They are very similar, very shy and quiet so they did quiet things. It was wonderful...except for the part when I thought they'd been kidnapped from the schoolyard park, but that's best left unsaid. Rachel and Lily are absolutely best friends at school. They hold hands and hug a lot. It is very sweet.

Lily has been doing lots of things with her classmates – from grade one and kindergarten. Emily invited her to come to karate class with her. She was also invited to Joleen's hot tub surprise birthday party. And Jenifer's birthday party at Dino Bouncers. Her social network is expanding and she's only just completing her second year of school. Just imagine what's next...

Hitting the big time!

Last night you learned to ride a two wheeler! Finn got a new bike, you rode Carly's old bike and Carly rode her bike. You guys went up and down the sidewalk while Dad cut the grass. When he was done, we all went to the park. Before we even hit the grass, you were off! You probably rode five metres. It was a huge success and I was SO proud. And you glowed with pride. I can't wait to see you do it again!

That's my dad.

My dad died ten years ago, the day before my parents' 26th wedding anniversary. It's still so sad. Especially looking at pictures of him. It's hard not to think of how things would be different if he were still here. Chris always says we would for sure have baseboards in our house by now. And oh, how he'd love to play with Finn and Lily. Always liked playing, whether it was playing catch, playing in the sandbox with our younger cousins, playing with the kids I babysat, or playing hockey with the boys who lived next door years after I moved out. Anyway, I miss him. Always will.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Finn!

Today you turned two so we celebrated by going out for supper, opening some gifts and blowing out some candles. On Saturday, we'll celebrate again with Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Carly with supper and cake and more candles. You'll be really good at it by then. Happy birthday, little man!

Earth Day

"Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned
and the last fish has been caught
will we realize that we can't eat money."
– First Nations proverb 

Easter break

With Lily off school for the week, we thought it'd be a good opportunity to make a trip of it. Of course, to throw a snag in things, we woke up to half a foot of snow. So into the van went the winter coats, boots and a shovel.

Bunny spotted in Saskatoon and area
Along with Nana, who we took to Connie's, we headed up to Grandma and Grandpa's for Easter weekend. Ryan and Leslie and Jared and Andrea were there, along with a couple cats. Finn spent most of the weekend saying, "No. Mom." to everyone he encountered because of course, they weren't Mom. Lily got to swim in the hot tub – twice. And the Easter bunny came and left eggs all over the house, along with baskets of candy popcorn and a small toy for each of them.

On Easter Sunday, the Hurlburts were having brunch so we went out for the afternoon – after Finn's first of three morning naps of the trip. My cousin, Colleen, brought her two youngest kids, Shelby and Sidney. Brian, Colleen's brother, and his wife Amanda brought their son, Rowan. It's always so nice when Finn and Lily have other kids to play with, especially second cousins of which we have a lot of now. And if it isn't obvious, Lily kinda really loves babies. (I can relate.)

Edmonton-bound
On Easter Monday, we packed up and got on the road to Edmonton. This is the stretch I fear the most as it's a long time for Finn to be strapped down. It was good until we were leaving Lloydminster and then he cried for over half an hour. Anyway, we got to Nigel and Jessica's just before 3:30 and thankfully we still had their key from last time (and actually we still have it for next time). So we unloaded the van (with the high chair, baby clothes and gifts for Ferguson) and waited anxiously for Jessica to arrive. Well worth the wait. Ferguson is so sweet and soft and cute. Lily couldn't wait to hold him and held his hand every chance she got. Finn even asked to hold him, "My turn?" They were just so enamored by the little guy. I held him for a long time that evening, the longest stretch for the rest of the visit as he was prone to crying spells that wound him up in his mama's arms most of the time.

On Tuesday after another morning nap for Finn, we spent the afternoon at the zoo. (Nigel and Jessica and nicely situated close to the zoo and the West Edmonton Mall.) It was nice and quiet since the kids there were in school. We saw monkeys and frogs and wolves and foxes. Even a tiger and a spotted seal. Lily fell asleep on the way back and was pretty miserable for the rest of the day – until we turned the situation around with an ice cream treat.

The next day was spent at the mall. We really only intended to stay the morning. We saw the Disney store, Anthropologie, H&M, the skating rink and went on the pirate ship. Then we had lunch – right beside Galaxyland. It was closed and we said it likely wouldn't open that day. And then they opened the gates. Right in front of us. This is where it goes to heck. Trying to get Finn to sleep in his stroller. Lily begging to go on some rides. Long story short, she and Chris went on rides for two hours and I shopped during Finn's shortest nap ever, then placated him by letting him run wild in the Disney store again. We were very glad when it was over. We won't be going back to the mall for a long time.

To the land of the dinosaurs
On Wednesday morning we packed up, got Finn out of Ferguson's bedroom because he locked himself inside (he unlocked it eventually), said our good-byes to little Fergie and Jessica, and hit the road for Drumheller, Alberta. It was the scenic route, courtesy of our GPS, but we couldn't complain. It's nice to get off the beaten path sometimes. Upon arriving in town, we immediately hit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology. Well, Lily and Chris went through while Finn and I slept. When we woke up, we went in and Lily and Chris toured us around. And it was amazing. A really beautifully done museum. Much classier than when we were there in college. The kids thought it was pretty terrific, too. Even just driving through town was cool as Finn pointed out every dinosaur around.

After checking into our hotel, we hit up the local IGA for fruit, veggies and buns for supper and a few snacks for later. Finn helped himself to the bulk bun bin before we could catch him. At least his bun kept him busy for the rest of the excursion. After supper we hit the pool and waterslide. Chris tested just how fast the waterslide was by first going down with Finn and ultimately scarring him for life by completely submerging him upon hitting the water. Then it was back to "No. Mom."

The next day we packed up again, visited the world's largest dinosaur, then headed off on another scenic route through the valley where we could gaze upon the layered hills, go across a suspension bridge and check out some hoodoos.

Just like home
Any reason to go to Medicine Hat is good so that was our last stop. We had no plans so we got some ice cream, went to the park, watched the clouds roll by, went for Chinese food, swam and went watersliding before having chips and pop. (Pretty much our only junk food was on the last day, so we felt pretty successful and not disgusting after 7 days away.) After breakfast the next morning, we went swimming again. This time Finn was all over the waterslide so all of us were up and down over and over until I got dizzy from the spiral staircase. We bathed, washed hair, packed up, and grabbed the Muppets movie at Walmart and lunch for the road.

And within five minutes of returning, Carly came over. And stayed for supper. Nana popped in within ten minutes, too. It was all back to normal.

All our photos are here if you want to check 'em out.

A visit

Finn and I finally got around to visiting my friend Amber's newest addition. Dalun was born in October and we had planned on a November visit, but it all kinda went to hell.

Here are Finn and Dalun's big three-year-old sister, Alivia and below is little sleeping Dalun. How nice it was to hold a little baby. (Can't wait to meet and snuggle my nephew next week!)

Sentences!

Finn's speech has improved a lot this past week with a lot more sentences. Today he said, "I go in, too." It was the "too" part that surprised me. And even before this week, he'd just say "in" and nothing more complex. Of course, there are still things he just whines in one long word. Mostly it's been "outsiiiide" this week. But here are some other thing I can think of off-hand:

• "biPad" became "iPad"
• "Put on boots."
• "Finn throw ball."
• "No, Mommy push." On the swing.
• "No, Mommy do it."
• "No, Lily. Stop it." 
• "Sit down."
• "Change my bum."
• He sang Twinkle, Twinkle using only the word Mom.

And here's where I just upload a really adorable pic of him in his new awesome shades. Ah, I could just eat him up.

She wins a prize!

After art class week in a completely unrelated event, Lily and I were walking down the hall at school to retrieve her boots when we walked past her winter picture. They'd been hanging on the wall for a couple weeks, but apparently they'd been judged that day and Lily won second prize! Her prize was a 36 set of coloured pencils, including lots of metallic colours! She wouldn't pose beside her picture, so I finally just got her to pose with her pencil crayons.

 

In other happenings, yesterday was report card day. We told Lily we'd take her out for supper if she did well – and if she didn't, she'd have to make us supper and clean the house this weekend. When we picked the kids up from the sitter, she eagerly waited for me to read her report card, asking "Did I do good? Can we go for supper?" And of course she did good. Improved a couple 3s to now be 4s, which is what they rate out of, and she has many more 4s than 3s so she's at the top of her game for the most part. Her French reading and comprehension is at a 3, whatever that means. In English, she can read almost anything proficiently. I'm so impressed at her development over the course of this past school year. Unfortunately, I have to hide things that I don't want her to read now. And we can't spell things we don't want her to understand, but I suppose that doesn't last forever...

Overheard...

...Lily singing The Littlest Hobo theme song. Okay, so I was singing with her, but she's been known to sing it alone. We watch the Littlest Hobo every Saturday morning from 8 to 9 a.m. on CTV. The song still gives me goose bumps.

Lily of the Valley

You are now six and a half; it was official on the day before Valentine's Day. After we plunked some candles into a muffin when Finn turned 18 months, you wanted to know when your half birthday was. Now it's "a thing" and we celebrated with beet chocolate cake with beet icing. Delicious and fudgy and a perfectly good excuse to eat cake.

Things change with you almost as fast as they do with Finn, though they are things that could easily be missed. Not asking me or Dad to call and ask for Carly, but just asking yourself. Just going over to Carly's without anyone to knock on the door for you. Eating supper or lunch at Carly's with her family.

You've just started an after-school program one day a week called Artrageous Minds. It impresses me that you make your way there, all by yourself, without prodding or help. You went to Sparks camp for a day and thought it was the funnest thing ever. You cooked your own lunch, you played games, did crafts. You actually really like Sparks so it looks like you'll go into Brownies in the fall. You worked a tea about a month ago and though it was a little frightening to ask people if they wanted more cake, it got easier as time went on.

School is going well. You've been bringing home lists for weekly spelling tests. So far you've only gotten one wrong. But you're happy. You have a crush. Some girls drive you bonkers. You think M. Dubé is funny. And you criticize, rightly so, Mom and Dad's French pronunciations.

On a book front, we've been reading chapter books. In the fall, we read some Ramona books (by Beverly Cleary) that were mine when I was little. On Sunday, we just finished all 79 chapters of Peter and the Starcatchers, a prequel to Peter Pan. Now we're reading Charlotte's Web, also mine. We have Peter and the Shadow Thieves reserved from library, the follow-up to the Starcatchers. It's super fun to share these books with you.

You surf Pinterest, madly pinning all the cute animals and babies. You and Dad (and Carly sometimes) play Minecraft constantly. You eat frozen mangoes and raspberries and smoothie popsicles. You jump across the couches. You walk home from school by yourself. You can be sweet and fiery. You throw tantrums and ignore our barking orders to get dressed, brush your hair, brush your teeth. Good days and bad days. But we enjoy them all.

Oh, Finney

You are now twenty-two months old. Over the past five or so days, your personality has exploded. You are funny and grouchy and oh, so sweet. On Saturday, we found you having fallen into the toilet, a wad of toilet paper in your hand for wiping. Of course, you still had your pajamas and diaper on. The next day you were "washing your hands" in the bathroom. When I heard the water and came to haul you out, I saw that you'd submersed the cordless phone into the water, the screen three-quarters full and lighting up with things we'd never seen before. You often get hauled out of the tub for continually turning on the cold water when you and Lily and having a bath, so water in the kitchen, bathtub, sink and toilet are kind of a problem...

You love to vacuum. You eat apples whole – core, stem, seeds, all of it. You walk up and down the stairs without hands now. You love to be scared when we run the loop around the kitchen and living room. You yell at Lily when she's freaking out, pointing out the absurdity of her poor behaviour. You love talking on the phone or being on FaceTime. When you are having a general conversation, you just jabber on without distinct words, mimicking the style and flow of a conversation. But you know how to talk and will surprise us by saying things. You helped me do laundry one day and were so proud, you just kept saying "I did it!" then went and got Dad to show him what you did. You also say, "Yesh! I did it" when playing basketball.

You know all the Muppets on Sesame Street from their website because we do a fair amount of video watching. My favourite is when you laugh like Bert, say Ernie and do the Snuffle Shuffle with Snuffy. You play kitchen, often pouring me drinks or cooking "tupper" for your baby that cries and giggles. You put her in the high chair when she eats and into the crib when it's time for bed. You know when something's hot, whether it be food, water from the tap, the toaster, the microwave, the oven, the coffee maker. You love warming up Dad's warmie (aka: magic bag) in the microwave because you get to push buttons. You like dinosaurs and trucks and polar bears and owls. You lift your shirt or undo you jammies when you want to press your tummy against my tummy. You have a waning obsession with belly buttons. You often put your head down on our shoulders when we hold you. You and Lily hit each other; rather, you hit her and she hits back until it gets nasty. You easily say good night to me and Lily when Daddy takes you to bed, even though you are less of a fan of going to sleep lately. You watch the same episode of Elmo's World every time we go in the van. You don't watch t.v. at home at all.

You're still our baby, but you're getting to be such a big boy. It's an amazing time and we enjoy (almost) every second of you.

He's here!

I'm an auntie! Chris is an uncle! Lily and Finn are first cousins! Ferguson Clarence Hood was born this morning at 9:20 a.m. in Edmonton, Alberta to Nigel Hood and Jessica Telford. He was 7 lbs., 10 oz. and absolutely perfect, I'm sure. We're so, so excited to meet him!

Look at the perfectly round little head!

How long?

Yep, 10 years of marriage plus the five and a half years before that. We're making good time...

Yeah, what they said

Hope the holidays were great for everyone. We spent a lot of quality time in our pajamas and when we weren't doing that, we were spending time with friends and family. Obviously haven't been updating here, but I almost regularly update our Flickr photos, so cheers and happy new year!