Bev was at work tonight...

...so I decided to introduce the kids to the music of my childhood. I dubbed the music in just as it played while they danced.

More Christmas cheer with the kids.

Merry Christmas from Evelyn, Ethan, Bev and I!

Evelyn and Ethan Perform a Holiday Classic Like Only They Could

She's a Winner!

If you can, recall a pic I posted last month of the kids colouring contest entries. Evelyn won the 0-4 yr category! We went to pick up her gift basket today. She was SO excited and proud. I asked if it was a draw, or if the picture was chosen. The woman said she chose it because of the energy and effort it showed. She liked how she used the colours in an unconventional way.

We begged her to let them take a picture and coached her to give a big smile. I think she took us a bit too literally. Eventually, after some more coaching to just smile a little bit, we got a decent picture.

3 new videos

Some short (approx 2 min each) clips of what we've been up to this month.

Panis Angelicus

Panis angelicus
Fit panis hominum;
Dat panis coelicus
Figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
Manducat Dominum
Pauper, servus et humilis.

Te trina Deitas,
Unaque poscimus,
Sic nos tu visita,
Sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
Duc nos quo tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.

The bread of the angels becomes the bread of man;
the bread of heaven is given a bounded form.
O wondrous thing! The poor, the slave
and the humble man feed on their lord.

Of you, threefold and one God, we ask:
Come to visit us as we worship you;
lead us on your paths to where we want to go:
to the light in which you dwell.



What a great song! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

A visit from Nana

On Tuesday, I was in Bonnyville for an orientation to a new casual job. I will be working with the Alberta School Employees Benefit Plan. This is like Blue Cross health insurance for teachers. They are working on a healthy living illness prevention initiative. We will be screening for things like high Blood Pressure, cholesterol and lipid levels and blood sugars as well as BMI/weight issues and mental health. After having their risks identified, the hope is that the teachers will want to change any risk factors that they can. If they want to change, we will point them in the right direction and link them up with life coaches who will act as accountability partners.

Anyway, all this is just a preamble to say that I travelled on Tuesday, and it started to snow at that time. The conditions were actually really bad on the road that night.

The next day, we had had enough snow that our car needed to be shovelled part way out of our crescent. We then got stuck in Boyle and I shovelled some more. Finally, we made it onto the main highway and we arrived safely at West Ed Mall where I took the kids to visit the playground in Galaxyland.





It was actually +2 degrees last Wednesday! On Friday night, the temp took a drastic turn and we woke to -25 degree temps on Saturday. Add to that a windchill and the temps were, well, FRIGID! As far as my fingers were concerned when I unplugged the block heater and got the car ready, it may as well have been absolute zero!

Anyway, enough about things I have no power to change. We chose to live here - right!?


I picked up a tree in Bonnyville and we decorated it on Thursday evening. Evelyn passed up the ornaments and Ryan and I placed them on the tree. The kids tried hanging a few themselves, but our tree is so incredibly sharp, they decided to let Ryan and I suffer the sharp pricks. When we were done decorating, Evelyn put the angel on top of the tree and then said "Now we have to all hold hands and sing a happy Christmas Song" She's watched the old 'Grinch' cartoon a few times and I guess she felt singing around the tree was a great tradition. So, we sang "We wish you a merry Christmas" and the "Daboo Dooreah" song from the 'Grinch'. I think we will continue the tradition. As we drove home last night, I was thinking "Hark the Herald" would be a good song. Any one have any other suggestions?

Ryan's mom made us some melt-in-your-mouth shortbread to enjoy, and we decorated a gingerbread house together.




The kids each worked on a side. They did a great job! I love the shark that is beached on the roof of Evelyn's side. Ethan stuck the maximum amount of candy on his side that could possibly be stuck. As you can well imagine, not all the candy made it onto the house! I like the end result.





The kids enjoyed having extra snuggles with Nana and having the extra playtime too. For some reason, Ethan kept calling Nana "Auntie Kris-sa" and would ask "Where'd Antie Kris-sa go?" whenever Nana went outside. I had not realized that our last visitor made such an impression on him!








We attempted to get a nice family picture. The kids would not co-operate and kept wiggling and hiding their faces. This was the only way we could keep them still ;-)

Sunday came quickly and we went into the city a bit early to visit Chuck E Cheese before dropping Nana off at the airport. I forgot my camera, so I'll post a few pics when I get them from Nana's camera. We all got a plastic ID card with our pictures on it. They are pretty cool.

After dropping Nana off, we decided to head back to West Ed Mall. We were surprised to find it closed at 5 pm on Sunday. So, it was a short visit. Then, Walmart and McD's and home at around 10 pm. Whew!

In other news, Evelyn is getting really interested in words that sound similar. She'll hear a word like "hearse" (this word was introduced to her after we passed a traffic collision in Edmonton and she asked what type of car a dead person travels in) and then she'll pipe up and say:
"Hearse kind of sounds like 'purse'... and 'nurse'! That person in the accident needs a nurse. Mommy, your're the best nurse in the world."
(thank you Evelyn!)
"Why don't you fix the person in the accident?"
(Ummm...)
"I'm a nurse too. I have to go to work tomorrow. But, I'm a doctor now. I will fix the people in the accidents. 'Cause accidents happen and that's okay. Does that person need a hearse?"
(No, I think they will use that ambulance to go to the hospital)
"Oh. Only dead people go in a hearse."
(Right, and that person is just hurt)
"Are we going to the big Walmart, or the little one?"

A conversation of a few moments ago as I did her hair after her bath:
"Why do we have belly buttons?"
"When you were a baby in my tummy, your belly button connected to me and that's how you ate"
"Oh. But Ethan doesn't have a bottle anymore."
"Um, no, he is a big boy now"
"But why does he have a penis?"
"That's what makes him a boy."
..."Why are our tongues pink?"
"They are muscles. Just like the muscles in our arms and legs. All of our muscles are kind of reddy pink in colour"
"But, why do we have tongues?"
"They help us talk and chew our food"
"Why do we have this?" (pointing to the bridge of her nose)
"Your nose? it lets you breath and smell"
"No, not my nose, this part!" (Indicating the bridge again)
"Oh, that is a bone and it supports the holes in your nose so you can breath in. Otherwise your nose would sound like this!"(I make a sucking stuffy sound with my nose)
"That's funny Mommy! It's kind of like a bridge!"
"Yes, a bridge that holds our skin up"
"What do bones do?"
"They support us and give us shape"
"What if we didn't have them?"
"We'd be like a blob on the floor - all jiggly and wiggly."
"We'd be BLOBS! That's so funny! So, bones are kind of like dinosaur bones. Why do we have dinosaur bones?"
"Well, bones are really hard - kind of like rocks. After we die, our skin goes away pretty fast, but our bones stay around for a long time. That's why we only find dinosaur bones and not skin"
"Mommy, you're the best nurse in the world. You can fix up the people who get hurt in the car crashes and make them feel better. When they break their bones."
"Thank you Evelyn. I try to make them feel better."

She is obviously getting interested in anatomy and physiology. She is also still processing the idea of car accidents.

I really enjoy all these questions. You can all remind me of this statement in a few months when I am totally sick of them. But, now, I am loving her inquisitiveness and seeing how she makes connections between new concepts and those she already knows. Sometimes the conversations are a bit random, but that's how we think sometimes!

An interesting post about avoiding a mugging.

http://everydaygrace-alida.blogspot.com/

How to avoid getting robbed in Nairobi.

I think I'd be fleeced! I can't imagine living like that. Paranoid all the time that someone would steal my stuff.

Happiness May Be Contagious

Happiness May Be Contagious

An article by Caroline Cassels

Medscape Medical News 2008. © 2008 Medscape

December 8, 2008 — People's happiness is largely influenced by the happiness of those they are connected to — whether they know them or not — new findings from the Framingham Heart Study suggest.

"We've found that your emotional state may depend on the emotional experiences of people you don't even know, who are 2 to 3 degrees removed from you. And the effect isn't just fleeting," study investigator Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, from Harvard Medical School, in Boston, Massachusetts, said in a statement.

The study is published online December 4 in BMJ.

According to the authors, happiness is a fundamental component of human health determined by a complex set of voluntary and involuntary factors. While previous studies have identified a broad range of stimuli identified with happiness or unhappiness, none has examined the happiness of others as a key determinant of human happiness.

Furthermore, the authors point out there is evidence that emotional states can be transferred directly from 1 individual to another by mimicry. "People can 'catch' emotional states they observe in others over time frames ranging from seconds to weeks," they write.

Can Happiness Spread?

However, they note, despite this evidence, little is known about the role of social networks in happiness or whether happiness has the potential to spread.

To examine whether happiness can spread through social networks that include direct as well as indirect relationships, the investigators used data from 5124 participants from the Framingham Offspring Study to reconstruct the social fabric in which individuals are enmeshed and analyze the relationship between social networks and health.

The data included all family changes for each study participant, such as birth, marriage, death, and divorce. In addition, there was also extensive information on participants' closest friends, coworkers, and neighbors. Coincidentally, many of these friends were also study participants.

The final analysis included 4739 individuals and more than 50,000 social and family ties. Using the Center for Epidemiological Studies depression index, the investigators found that when an individual becomes happy, a friend living within a mile experiences a 25% increased chance of becoming happy. A coresident spouse experiences an 8% increased chance, siblings living within 1 mile have a 14% increased chance, and next-door neighbors, 34%.

Popularity Leads to Happiness

However, the most surprising finding, say the researchers, was with indirect relationships. While an individual becoming happy increases his or her friends' chances, a friend of those friends experiences a nearly 10% chance of increased happiness and a friend of that twice-removed friend has a 5.6% increased chance — a 3-degree cascade.

"We found that while all people are roughly 6 degrees separated from each other, our ability to influence others appears to stretch to only 3 degrees. It's the difference between the structure and function of social networks," said Dr. Christakis.

With coauthor James Fowler, PhD, from the University of California, San Diego, the investigators also found that popularity leads to happiness and that individuals in the center of their social network clusters are the most likely to become happy.

However, becoming happy does not help migrate a person from the network fringe to the center. Happiness spreads through the network without altering its structure.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The authors report no financial disclosures.

BMJ. Published online December 4, 2008. Abstrac

Lets start an epidemic!

Pictures!

We have slowly been decorating the house for Christmas. I'm hoping to be able to find a real (from a tree farm) tree this week. We've had Charlie Brown trees for the past few years - it's just not the same.

Evelyn, Ethan and I worked on a few Christmas crafts this past week (no pictures - it would ruin the surprise!) Crafting with little kids is stressful! If we had a room covered in plastic drop cloths and with a tub in the room, I might not be so anxious. So much potential for large messes!

Ryan and I went to Edmonton yesterday to see the Vinyl Cafe with Stewart McLean. I thoroughly enjoyed it. When it was over, it took us - literally - 45 minutes to get out of the parkade. Everyone got to their cars about the same time, pulled into the aisle, and waited, and waited. After about 15 - 20 min (once our cars were warm) we all turned them off and waited. A man went around with some candies he had and shared them with all the cars on our level. That was pretty nice of him! Eventually, the cars below us cleared out and we got to leave. I have never felt so trapped before. Good thing we were not on a tight schedule!

We took this pic of me and the kids yesterday before we left for Edmonton. I am so impressed that we got a picture of both of them looking at the camera with happy expressions on their face!

I finally completed a sweater I started knitting at least 4 years ago. It was origionaly intended for a friends daughter, but, now it's Evelyn's! She really likes it. I love the colours. The tension on the front panel is a bit wonky, but it works.







Ethan continues to be a funny and silly boy. He has actually gotten a bit sillier lately. I loved watching him try on Ryan's shoes the other day. He even managed to walk in them to the end of the hall. He has a long way to grow before they fit!







Evelyn presented me with this pic the other day. I never saw her working on it, but I can't think of anyone else who could have drawn it! I am so impressed by it. Literally 3 weeks ago, her idea of a picture was a bunch of scribbles. What happened! ?








These last pics are from today.

The kids had a sort of tug of war with the foam fish. I loved how they were so focused on each other and were enjoying each other so much. They have been playing together lately. A very nice development! They still get a fair bit of joint naughty times for fighting, but not as much as they used to.

Tomorrow, I am in Bonnyville for an orientation day. I am starting a new casual RN position with the teachers health benefit plan. It's a health promotion and risk screening type of job. I get to get up really early tomorrow!

On Wednesday, we are back in Edmonton to pick up Ryan's mom Brenda. She is coming for a short visit before Christmas. We are all looking forward to seeing her.

Quick update.

Ryan has just taken the position of Vice Principal at his school. We're not sure exactly what his duties and responsibilities will be. They've posted his teaching position, but until it's filled, he is still doing that - plus some admin stuff.

So, anyone who knows a teacher who wants to work in Rural Alberta with Metis kids - give us a shout!

Cold(s)

This post is about the cold (weather) and our colds (illnesses). As I write this sentence, Ethan has just sneezed onto a picture he coloured, then he decided to spread that gooey germ laden goodness around the page. YUCK!

So, in the last post, I left you just as we were about to go out in the snow. This is where I will start off now.

We bundled up and took the kids outside. It was a mild -2 with about 8 cm of fresh snow. The first significant snowfall of the season. The kids were very excited to play in the white stuff. As you can tell from their huge grins in all the pictures. Evelyn wanted to wear my sock monkey hat, but it kept covering her eyes. Eventually, we walked to the store, said 'Hi' and returned home for dinner.




Evelyn has started to draw people on the chalk board. This picture is a family portrait. It started out as 'Daddy' then she decided to add the rest of us. So, Daddy is the huge face in the middle while Evelyn Ethan and I are squeezed in around the corners.




Ethan gave himself a black eye (as I wrote in the last post) here is a picture of it, plus a scratch on his cheek - courtesy of his sister. She says she only meant to pinch his cheek - not scratch it. He looks so banged up!





He has been more snuggly since his cold. He actually posed for these pictures. Pretty cute!










Evelyn has been setting up scenes for me to take pictures of her lately. She asked me to take this pic of her on the toilet with a book, and then this morning she waned a pic of her with the fan on our bed. She actually reviews the first couple shots then adjusts her pose to make a better picture. I am just happy she'll actually let me take her picture! (once in a while)





The kids entered a colouring contest at the local Co-Op. Here are their entries. Ethan is on the left, Evelyn on the right. She worked really hard on this picture.

On Friday, Ryan and all the staff went to visit a couple schools in Edmonton that are using a literacy program that Caslan will be starting. Friday was my turn to be sick. Fever, chills and aches. Coughing and sinus congestion. Fun stuff.

Saturday was Ryan's turn to be sick. Fever, fatigue and some sinus congestion. He slept all day until I left for work at 2:30 pm. Then, returned to bed as soon as the kids went to bed in the evening.

This morning, we are all feeling much improved. Ryan put on a folk music radio station this morning. Evelyn piped up "Daddy! I don't want to listen to chicken music. I don't like barn music!" I guess she is not a folk/country music fan!

I work this evening, and tomorrow evening. Next Sunday, Ryan and I are going to see the Vinyl Cafe in Edmonton!

A Visit to Lloydminster for Evan Brands Birthday.

Ethan came down with croup on Tuesday night. All day Wed he had a fever and tight breathing. Then, Wed evening he got his energy back and was back to his old antics again. This time those antics took the form of pulling his dresser onto himself and (not 5 min later) giving himself a black eye on the edge of the bathroom counter. So, he was snotty, had a congested cough, and black eye! What a sight!

Anyway, we were not going to go visit the Brands because of Ethan's cold. But, after discussing with Jen, we decided to go. Ethan did really well and seemed to feel well.

Evelyn and Juliana had a great visit. They both had the same 'nurse' PJ's and thought it was really neat to wear the same thing. The both love to pretend to be nurses. They played with a Littlest Pet Shop play set Evelyn brought and they set up Juliana's doll house.

Evelyn and Evan played together a fair bit too. She actually went up and asked him to play with her. He was very pleased and happily went to do her bidding. Later, those two shared a few hugs. So, it looks like Ethan has a crush on Juliana and Evan really likes Evelyn. Pretty cute.

Ethan showed Evan how he uses the potty. They were both interested in each others parts. What a boy thing! The boys also played cars and balloons and danced together. Evan loves to dance.

We drove to Lloyd after Playschool on Thursday and arrived around 4 pm. We left around 1 pm on Friday and did some shopping ($15 jeans for me!), then drove home in time for bed! The sky was crystal clear and there were thousands stars visible. It was really a beautiful drive. I managed to successfully avoid hitting 2 suicidal deer(they'll just have to live another day), and Evelyn got to try to pee on the side of the highway with a horse watching her from a near by pasture. She got stage fright and decided to hold it till we got home.

During supper on Thursday, the sky lit up like it was daytime. Totally bizarre. For about 2.5 seconds, it looked like someone had turned on Stadium lights. We'd never seen anything like it. We thought 'Is it lightening? - but where is the thunder?' then 'Maybe something exploded! - but where's the boom?' About 2 minutes after the light, we could hear a low, sustained rumble. It reminded me of what an earthquake can sound like (but without any shaking). The rumble lasted for about 10 seconds, followed by some crackling and popping. It turns out the light was caused by a meteor glancing across the Earths atmosphere. It managed to fall low enough that the air was thick enough to transmit sound. As it travelled through this part of the atmosphere, it created the low rumble. It is unknown if any portion actually fell to Earth, or if it glanced back into space, or just burned up. Apparently, when a meteor actually falls to Earth, it stops burning and falls in darkness. This makes it a lot harder to see it's trajectory. Whatever the outcome, it was an experience I've never had before. Apparently it was seen by most of Alberta.

So, today it is Evelyn's turn to have a fever. She has not developed a cough, but she's a bit annoyed at Ethan for making her sick. We have a fresh dump of snow on the ground. That was a big surprise to me because the sky was so clear last night. The temp is already just above Zero, so it may not stick around for too long. Winter has been very mild so far this year! Evelyn wants to try making a snowman - after her nap. We'll see how the kids are feeling, then we may take advantage of this wet snow and create a monument to last until spring! (most of our snow is too dry to make anything with it)

Ethan's Second Birthday and another November Update

The first slide show is random pics from the past 10 days. The second shows pics from Ethan's birthday.

He turned 2 years old on Sunday, Nov 16. I measured and weighed Ethan. He is now 35" tall (or 2 feet 11 inches) and weighs 27 lbs. Two years ago, he weighed 10 lbs, 10 oz and was 22" long. This puts his height at the 72nd percentile and weight at the 36th percentile. Overall BMI is 15.5 or the 20th percentile. This is in the healthy range for kids his age. (check out this website for a nifty calculator! blubberbuster.com )

I measured Evelyn also. She is 41" tall (or 3 ft 5 inches) and weighs 35 lbs. This puts her height at the 84th percentile, weight at the 57th percentile and overall BMI at 14.7 or the 27th percentile. Again, this is in the healthy range for kids her age.

We celebrated Ethan's birthday with his favorite supper (pasta, meatballs and spagetti sauce) and a Sesame Street cake. We opened presents first thing in the morning (kind of like christmas!) and the kids spent most of the day playing with Ethan's new toys.

The day before, I wrapped his gifts with Evelyn. She bought him a 'Mater' truck (from Cars). That evening, as she was going to bed, she started rummaging through her figures and told Ryan she was finding another gift for Ethan. She found her only 'Diego' figure and proclaimed "This is going to be for Ethan!" then she carefully wrapped her gift in a tissue and placed it with the other gifts. The next morning, when we opened the gifts, she immediately handed Ethan the Kleenex wrapped Diego declaring "Here Ethan! This is for you!" He replied with a hearty "Thank you Ella!" All around, it was pretty cute!

The day before she wrapped her special gift, she built Ethan an elaborate block city. Se worked on it for quite a while and declared it was "a surprise for Ethan for his birthday". He did'nt appreciate her effort, but the sentiment was nice.

In other news: It snowed, melted a bit, froze, rained, froze, and snowed again. Yah, the back roads are skating rinks and the car was covered in ice. At least the temperature has been mild!

I was the parent helper at Playschool. They did a craft involving glitter. yah. That was really fun to clean up. It was cute to watch them prance around like reindeer and be involved in thier imaginary play. The boys got a bit rambunctious and I believe there was a bit of a fight. I missed that part! Overall, the class was not having a harmonious day. I felt bad for the teacher - stressful days are hard.

The same day I helped, we also watched Evelyn's dance class. It is a 45 min class, but they are pretty much done after 20 min. It was nice to see her do her little routine and obsticle course.

During that class, Ethan started to get a bark-like cough. He still had lots of energy and ran around with Evelyn's classmates. That night (last night) he woke at 12:30 with a fever and very noisy breathing (stridor). Great. Croup - again. It seems like he gets croup with about 25% of his colds. So, I was up with him for a couple hours until he fell back asleep and his breathing started to sound better. His fever and stridor has continued intermittantly through today and he's had no energy. However, as I type this, he is clomping around in my winter boots, making monster noises. I think he's feeling a bit better! I will say I enjoyed all the extra snuggles ;-)

During Ethan's illness today, Evelyn has been learning about fevers and coughs and "Tiny Yucky Germs". She understands that fever helps kill the 'tiny yucky germs that make you sick' and she even knew that Ethan probably got sick because he did not wash his hands often enough (or he shared a spit covered toy with some other kid). She learned how to assess for signs of fever (flushed cheeks and listlessness) and how to feel his forehead. It was a good learning experience for her. She was very thoughtful and stayed quiet through the day and brought Ethan his sippy cup. Right now, she is saying "Ethan, you have to stay in bed. You have a cold! Now let me go and get Hank!" Ethan is being a bit reluctant to resume his role as invalid.... I should go.

Oh, they're happy again. The picture to your right was drawn by Evelyn. This is the very first time I have ever seen her draw a recognizable face. She said it was her teacher (Mrs.Romanyshuk) I showed the picture to Mrs.R and she said it was the best part of her day so far.