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!