This was the view from our window yesterday morning.
The view this morning is almost exactly the same.
I hope this snow doesn't mark the beginning of whiteness for the next 6 months, but it is possible.
Evelyn had fun outside. She swept the snow and made snow angels. She wanted to make snowballs, but the snow kept sticking to her mitts.
I am glad that I got to enjoy a second, more colourful, Autumn in Victoria. I can still see all the Reds and Oranges and lushness in my minds eye. Now, I have to remind myself of the beauty of the whiteness... It does fill the house with a great light - pure and gentle. It is actually brighter now than when the trees still had leaves. That is good....
Evelyn started asking about "Kris-Kras Trees". We explained that first came Ethan's birthday, then we will think about Christmas Trees.
Anyway, all you readers who are still enjoying Autumn and green, take heed! This may be your view in a couple months too! Enjoy the green and colours now!
Ryan and I firmly believe that little kids and dogs have way too much in common. They both learn tricks like 'stay', 'down', 'catch' and 'come', and they both put things in their mouths that an adult just cringes to think about.
I don't know how many times I have said the phrase "Don't lick the toilet seat" to each of my children. It is just one of those phrases I never thought I would ever have to utter. Yet, I have said variations of said phrase at least a dozen times. Perhaps it is the convenient height of the average commode. I really don't understand its almost hypnotic attraction to my kids mouths.
Dogs and children also eat food off the floor. Really, a crawler is almost as good as a dog for keeping the floor clear of cheerios and bread crumbs, and peas. Ethan likes to drop these things from his highchair so he can snack on them later - once he has worked up an appetite from scooting around. Their little bellies are essentially self-propelled 'swiffers' that catch every hair and dust bunny. I never thought my floors were that dirty - until Ethan started to tummy scoot. Really though, after all the kilometers that he has clocked scooting over my floors, they are no longer that dirty!
Dogs and young children also have an odd fascination for playing in - and eating their vomit. Gross, but true. Another phrase I never thought I would have to say (and say more than once) is "Don't play with your puke!" You see, and unfortunate side effect of scooting on your belly after you have just eaten is that your meal has a tendency to make an encore. It is just sitting there, right in front of your face, and it appeared out of nowhere! "What is this gelatinous goop?" "Ooh, look! It spreads around really well!" Are phrases I am sure float through Ethan's head as he investigates his newest appearing toy.
So all this preamble is just to get to the point that Ethan has learned his first trick. He will enthusiastically raise both his arms over his head with an excited little inhale of breath in response to the question "How big is Ethan?" I believe he is trying to answer "So Big!"
He is also getting the hang of peek a boo now. He prefers to play with a blanket or dish towel. I think the whole idea of his hands hiding whole body from view is a bit absurd to him. (Smart kid!) So he actually hides himself with a blanket. It's pretty cute.
I think he is trying to say "Ella" though it sounds more like "El-Lum." He almost seems to call her when he follows her around at times. He cut his second tooth the other day. Now his first is easily seen and will shortly be joined by it's neighbor to the right.
Oh, and he climbs. He tries to go from the kids bench to the coffee table, over the bench, along the bench... he also can climb up 2 stairs now. Watch out when we come to visit!
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We look forward to seeing you soon!
The light was so good yesterday. I just had to take some pictures. ('Some' being about 100, but I'll just post the best of them). The leaves are falling to the ground already, which is both beautiful and a bit sad too.
By the way, there are a couple cute videos in the post titled "2 videos and a series of unfortunate events" If you are not among the 4 people who left comments, please check them out ;-)
Yes, she is trying to eat the tree.
For more pictures, visit my online album at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21111&l=ef8c5&id=650696549
Ethan has finally cut his first tooth! Evelyn only has one tooth to go, so I should be down to having only one child teething in the near future! Yah!
So, the day before Ethan cut that first tooth was an unusual day. Let me tell you about it....
It all started when I decided to wash my glass teapot. I thought "I'll wash it by hand in the sink so it won't break in the dishwasher." Good idea, but poorly executed. I dropped a mug on my teapot and smashed it in the sink. "Argh! Jeez, Bev! Get it together!" I say to myself as I clean all the shards up. That evening, after supper, I remove Ethan's tray and start washing him up. He promptly stretches forward and pulls on my place mat. This sends my full glass of OJ crashing to the floor. Glass and juice everywhere. I set about cleaning it up and adding this glass to the glass from my unfortunate teapot. I thought I got all the shards, but I must have dropped one on the rug by the garbage pail. I discovered this missed shard a while later, but there is more to the story before we get there...
Supper is cleared away, the juice is mopped up. I decide to start cutting up some butternut squash that I have baked as finger food for Ethan. All goes well for a while and I am feeling very satisfied with my efforts to provide wholesome finger food for my son. While my mind is occupied with these happy thoughts, I proceed to slice my thumb - right into my nail. "Argh! What is wrong with you, Bev?!?! Jeez!"
Blood is everywhere (except the squash) as I attempt to staunch the flow with a paper towel. Evelyn is so helpful and runs to get a band-aid for "Mommy's hurt finger." All is well again, but I decide I am not cutting the rest of that squash. Ryan helpfully completes that task while I nurse my wound.
So, bedtime for the kids rolls around and we all settle in to vegitate in front of the tube. Our calm is interrupted by a very odd cry and gagging sound that is coming from Ethan's room. Ryan jumps up to investigate and quickly calls me to the room. I discover Ethan, absolutely covered in a huge amount of vomit. It is in his hair, his ear, down his back, in his little hands, all over his crib - everywhere! I whisk him into the tub and wash him off. He screams the whole time and keeps crying until he is dry and dressed and cuddled. He had been fighting a stuffy and runny nose for a couple days, but we were at a loss for the cause of this episode.
Once he was calm, I nursed him again and proceeded to burp him. All of a sudden, I feel his tummy tense and make a retching motion. "Uh-Oh!" he's gonna blow! "Yuck!" Everything in his stomach is released all over me. Fortunately, he missed himself, so I did not have to change him again! I call Ryan for back-up support (namely a towel to mop up everything) I get changed, and decide to keep Ethan up for a while.
With his track record, I decide to stick close to the sink. So, there I am, with a sick baby clinging to and cuddling my shoulder. I am walking him around the kitchen to calm him when I feel a rather unpleasant, sharp sensation in the ball of my foot. After a sharp intake of breath, I attempt to investigate the sole of my foot without disrupting the cranky and sick infant who is clinging to my chest. More blood, and a small shard of glass that is still protruding from my foot. I remove it and ask for Ryan to bring me a band-aid.
Soon after applying my second band-aid of the evening, Ethan's stomach starts heaving again. Thankfully, there is nothing much left to come out, and I am still standing next to the sink. Once he is settled, I cuddled him on the couch for a while and put him to bed. He slept uneventfully until morning. I made it to bed without further incident, and the next morning, Ethan had cut his first tooth.
Thank Goodness, that day is done!
This picture of Ethan shows off his fat lip. Two days after the series of unfortunate events, Ethan gave himself a really good split lip. He was pulling himself up to standing, decided to sit down, and caught his lip on the edge of the step stool he was holding on to. Blood everywhere (again) and Evelyn was so concerned. She wanted to put a band-aid on it so badly. She thinks they make everything feel better and wanted to make Ethan feel better too.
After a quick breastfeed, the bleeding had stopped, and I could assess the damage. He managed to split both the inside and outside of his lip. It was pretty swollen for a couple days, but looks almost normal now. I was surprised by how he ate and played and mouthed things without a problem. Poor little guy!
Here are a few more choice conversations heard recently around the Cracknell house.
Ryan got a haircut a few days ago (on his 29th birthday, right after we wrote our wills) and upon returning home, Evelyn immediately noticed his new 'do. It went something like this:
"Daddy home!, Daddy got a haircut!?!" "Do you like it?" Asks Ryan "It's so funny! Ha Ha Ha!" "My haircut is funny? Don't you like it?" "Make you feel better Daddy." "How will you do that?" "Need a hammer!" How about that comment to make you feel good about your new cut? On your birthday no less!
We celebrated Ryan's birthday the day before with a special dinner. Evelyn was so excited all that day that it was his birthday. She wanted to have balloons and hats and "pretty letters on the wall" (that say 'happy birthday') and a cake - no, a bunny cake! Then he had to have presents, and "Evelyn have a birthday present?" (nice try!) She is really into birthdays right now! We did not have a bunny cake, but I made some cupcakes and Evelyn chose some star-shaped sprinkles to put on top.
Both Ethan and Evelyn are in the midst of sinus colds. Evelyn is really good about using a tissue to wipe her nose. A recent conversation went like this:
"May I have a tissue please?" "Oh, yah, you need to wipe your nose," I reply. "It's got honey in it!"
HA HA HA! how appropriate that deduction is!
As you can well imagine, my home has not been serene with two ill kids. Ethan is also teething very actively at the moment. That first tooth is getting so close! He has also become much more mobile and has begun to explore every nook, cranny and crumb in the house. I think this makes him into a regular little kid in Evelyn's mind. She has been more rough in her interactions with him, now that he is not a little baby. Ethan spends much of his time on the floor on his belly while he scoots around. This makes him very easily accessible, and Evelyn has taken to sitting on him like he is a horse! Let's just say, Ethan is not appreciative of his new role to his sister. I don't think he has aspirations to become a beast of burden!
This morning Evelyn figured out that we were going to be going on a trip to Victoria soon. She has not stopped talking about it. She says it will be a long car ride, she'll see mountains (and maybe a mountain goat too), we'll go on a ferry and see the ocean. She wants to build sand castles and play with her auntie Dawne's cats. She also really wants to see D and B and Casey. I explained that we ware not going for a long time yet. Lots and lots of sleeps still. So, she promptly replied "I want to go to sleep now" I guess she thought she could knock a few sleeps off today, and we could go sooner!
Here is a video with some of her Victoria talk.
Who wants to play a little game? We'll call it 'So you think you can dress yourself?'
So, let's break down getting dressed into smaller goals and give each goal a point value. The more important a goal is to ones overall comfort, the higher the point value.
Now, having your shirt on your torso and pants on your legs is pretty important. Let's give those 2 points each. Having each piece facing the right way will be worth another point a piece. Having it right-side-out, another point. And, finally, putting it on right-side-up will be worth...we'll make it 2 points a piece. (imagine wearing your pants upside-down!)
So, a properly dressed person, wearing a shirt and pants should score 12 points.
Okay, to play this game, take a good look at the picture below. Now, count up how many points Evelyn should get.How did she do? Post your answer in the reply sections and we'll see who wins ;-)
Evelyn now wants to brush her own hair - at least for a little while (then it is my turn). But, the other day, she sat nicely for long enough to let me french-braid her hair. This was the first time she has let me do that. I thought it looked pretty nice.
This morning, she let me take a picture of her in one of her new sweaters that has a matching hat and scarf. She thought the scarf was pretty fun.
A few days ago, we bribed her into letting us take a picture of her in a sailor dress she has had for a while. For her own irrational reasons, she has decided to dislike that dress (and a few others I have bought her). The bribe worked very well, and she was most compliant with having her picture taken. I think it looks very cute, and, after she actually let herself wear it, I think she liked it too.
Evelyn is really missing having Daddy around. There have been many more tantrums than usual the past few days. It was cute when he came home today, she asked "Have fun at school today, Daddy?" Then a little later, she was talking about how the kids ride on the school bus and asked "Maybe Evelyn ride the school bus?"
Has anyone read the youth novel "The Watsons go to Birmingham"? Totally unrelated to the content of this post, but the title of the post reminded me of the book title. Anyway, "the watsons" is a HILARIOUS book. I strongly suggest finding it at your local library. Be prepared for out-loud guffaws, chortles, snickers and chuckles. It is seriously amusing and funny.
So, our friends Steve, Jen, Juliana and Evan Brand came to visit on Saturday and Sunday. We met them while we lived in Calgary and were in the same 'small group' at church. They moved to Lloydminster a while ago. I think it is funny that they live a 3 hr drive from us, but are in the same phone book as us. (A rather small phone book at that!)
I took the kids for a short visit earlier in the month while Ryan was in Cold Lake. Since that visit, Ethan has become very mobile, and Evelyn has started to use much more complex sentences. She also has started saying "I do it!" and is becoming more independent. She saw Casey dress himself and brush his own teeth last week, and has decided to do that stuff too. She really tries to get her clothes on properly, but they usually end up backwards, or both legs are in one pant leg, or (this was funny) she'll put both legs in one leg of her panties, and pull them up around her waist like a belt. What is funny is that she did not seem to notice that anything was amiss.
So, they arrived around lunch time. Evelyn was so excited and started yelling "Hi 'Juwie-jana" as soon as she saw their van. Never mind that we were inside with the doors and windows closed. She was determined to give an enthusiastic welcome.
After lunch, we decided to forgo the girls naps and visit a "Harvest Fair" in the nearby hamlet of Hylo. The girls spent a good time petting goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, ponies, a calf, and even some tiny baby pigs at the petting farm. They also held a 'pig catch'. For an entrance fee of $2, you bought the chance to chase a herd small pigs around a large corral with a bunch of other people. The goal is to catch one of the pigs. Here is the great part: You catch it, you keep it!I had never heard of such an event before. They started out with the 2&3 yr olds. They mostly followed the pigs around and tried to pet them. Then, the 4&5's gave it a try. One little boy actually caught one of the pigs! We did not stay for the rest of the age groups, but I think we will enter Evelyn to give it a try next year. I heard that the trick is to catch the pigs back leg and lift it up that way. They will just wiggle away if you try to hold their belly.
That afternoon and evening, the girls played really well together with Evelyn's new Doll house from her Nana. They set up house and moved the baby around in the stroller and put it in the little swing. They did some puzzles, coloured some pictures, and watched their parents play Wii bowling (I came in last place). After the kiddies were in bed, we played the bean game and hit the hay.
On Sunday, before we had to leave for church, Evelyn had one of the biggest meltdowns she has had in a long time. She had closed the door on Juliana's face and needed to apologize. I think she was feeling really guilty and she just lost it. About 15 min later, she had calmed down enough to breath and was able to say sorry and share a hug with her friend.
Evelyn was very excited to introduce Juliana to her friend Elizabeth. The three of them had a good time in Sunday School. Then, back to our house for a spagetti lunch, a few family and group pictures, and time to say good bye.
It was a fun visit.
Ryan started back at work yesterday and the kids start school on Tuesday. His co-worker Melissa is staying with us until her rental house has its renos completed. Evelyn calls her "Miss. Melissa" which sounds more like "Missmissa". We have tried to have her address Ryan's co-workers in a semi-formal way because she will be a student at the school in a few years, and they will be her teachers.
Our friends Bettina and Shane Sahota came up for a visit with their kids Casey and Lillian on Friday night.
It was a nice visit and Evelyn seemed to really enjoy having a playmate in Casey.
Lillian seemed to enjoy the jolly jumper. She looks so much older when she is in it!
After the kids went to bed, the adults played a Settlers of Catan expansion called knights and cities. Bettina, Shane and Ryan kicked my butt. I realized near the end of the game that the way to win it was to get as many knights as possible and as many cities as you could. Perhaps this explains the title of the expansion... It was fun (once I got the hang of it).
On Saturday, while the kids were napping, Ryan and I taught them 'the bean game' (correctly known as Bonanza). That turned out to be a close game. I will try to remember to bring it to the lake next summer - or to Victoria in October!
Once the kids were all up, we took them to the park at the school where they played hard for about half and hour, took some family portraits, then we said our good byes.
I was nice to have visitors and show off our rural home. It is quiet, and perhaps a bit boring, but we really like it here!
Yesterday, I took our vehicle in for a big maintenance appointment. What I thought would be a 4 hr appt turned into a 7 hr appt. I spent the day getting my hair cut and browsing through just about every store in Lac La Biche. I was disappointed that the thrift store was closed for all of August. I had planned to spend a good hour in there. I had a leisurely lunch, went to a chiropractor appt, shopped a bit more, had some tea, and went to pick up the car. But wait! there is no car for me to pick up! They did not have a part that they needed to complete the maintenance and the car was undriveable in it's partially complete state. ERK! But, they gave me a courtesy car(a Ford Taurus), and I was home by 6 pm. I think I can pick our car up late on Wednesday or Thursday.
Overall, it was really nice to have such an extended time to poke around and do whatever I wanted. I can't remember the last time I was totally by myself for more than an hour. Ryan had the kids all day and did very well. Ethan is now taking a bottle of enriched Rice milk at lunch, so he does not breastfeed from the time he wakes up, until Supper. I am liking the increased flexibility that is giving me. I plan to start subbing his supper feed for rice milk in the next month or so. That way, I will be able to work the day shift without having to pump for him. The evening shift will be a bit trickier because I will miss his bedtime feed.
So, Ryan is off to Calgary tomorrow morning and will return late on Friday. Yet another workshop. Our friends Jen and Steve and their kids Juliana and Evan will visit on the weekend from Lloydminster. And, Ryan's co-worker (and our friend) Melissa will be coming to stay with us on Sunday evening until her little house is ready to move into (some time in September).
So, check back in a few days for more pictures of our next visit!
I just posted several posts from our adventures of the past 2 weeks. If you are just checking, look and read from the post "playdate" through to this one. The past couple days have been intentionally low-key. Ryan took some pictures of Ethan and Evelyn playing in a laundry basket that turned out well. I made a deal with Evelyn that she could play outside after she cleaned her room and put all her puzzle pieces away. I was very impressed with her efforts. She put things where they belonged and tidied her puzzles really well. I like that she knows that everything has a place and can put things back.
We are looking forward to a visit from the Sahota's tomorrow night and Saturday. I hope the weather co-operates and we can visit Long Lake. Evelyn wants to play with the train set with Casey. On Monday, I have to take the car in for a big maintenance that will take about 4 hrs. Ryan has offered to take the kids. I am VERY excited to have 4 hrs of puttering and window shopping and visiting the chiropractor without kids in tow.
On Wednesday, Ryan will be going to Calgary for another workshop. Thankfully, they are car-pooling so I don't have to drive him.
On Friday, Ryan gets home from Calgary, and we are expecting a visit from the Brands (Juliana's family).
Then, Ryan starts back at school and the next year begins! What happened to the summer?
Ryan's sister Dawne saw that she had an empty few days in her work schedule and decided to fly out to visit and babysit the kids for our anniversary. Dawne has most of the pictures on her camera, so I'll have to post them later.
Evelyn loved playing with her Auntie. They had a great time while Ryan and I went on a 12 hr date to Edmonton. We went to the waterpark at West Ed Mall and rode the water slides and played in the wave pool. Then, we went to East Side Mario's for supper. 7 years has already gone. Wow!
The next day, we drove back to Edmonton and visited Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Evelyn was SO excited to "Ride the Bob the Builder" and "Ride the Merry-go-Round" and "catch a popcorn" (one of the games). She had a blast. After lunch and a bit of shopping, we dropped Dawne off at the airport and drove home.
While Dawne was here, Ethan made some big developments. He has figured out how to pull himself to standing at the coffee table, and he is getting even faster at commando crawling. He has started to pull his knees under him and is rocking on his hands and knees too. He also started drinking dilute apple juice from a bottle and is pretty much weaned from his lunch time nurse. Now, he drinks 4-6 oz of 'juice' at lunch instead of breastfeeding. I am going to try rice milk soon. He also is getting better at grabbing cheerios and is starting to use a pincer grip.
I love this picture of the two of them. Evelyn loves to give Ethan hugs.
While Ryan was in his workshop, I had to keep the kids occupied in Cold Lake. I had noticed a sign for the fish hatchery on the drive there, and thought a tour might be fun. So, I checked out of the hotel around 10 am and drove the 20 km to the hatchery. Of course, the kids (who has slept very poorly) fell asleep on the drive. So, I let them sleep and read a book while they slept in the parking lot of the hatchery. After about an hour, they woke up and were refreshed and ready to explore.
The hatchery supplies trout and wall-eye to the thousands of land locked lakes of Alberta. They harvest the eggs in the wild, and bring them to their facility to grow. The lady who gave the tour was very knowledgeable. She said that they have a 60% survival rate for their eggs compared to about 1% in the wild. She also said that for every dollar spent by the province on the hatchery, $35 is made in sport fishing related activities, equipment and licenses.
Some of the Kindergarten classes that had visited over the years sent really neat thank-you crafts. One was a mobile of fish made from 2 CD's and some paper. Another used 1 Ltr containers that they painted on the inside and cut out tails from the ends. I took some pics because I thought they would be fun crafts to try.
When we visited, all the eggs had hatched and the last of the baby fish were maturing. We were encouraged to handle some of the fish. Evelyn loved to catch the smallest ones in a little net. We also got to feed some of the bigger fish and touch some mature Rainbow trout.
Evelyn has been reading "A Fish out of Water" with us and called the baby fish "Otto" like the fish in the book. When we fed the fish, she was bit concerned that we feed them 'a little, but not a lot' so they would not grow and grow and grow like 'Otto' does. It was pretty cute.
After the Hatchery, we had a late lunch, shopped a bit, then picked up Ryan and drove to the Edmonton Airport (about 3 - 3 1/2 hrs away) to pick up Ryan's sister Dawne.
After a day of rest on Wednesday, we (the kids and I) drove to Lloydminster to visit Evelyn's good friend Juliana, her brother Evan, and her Mom Jennifer. We made the drive in 2 hrs and 45 min and arrived around 10 am. The girls enjoyed their time together. They did a lot of puzzles and played with their brothers. After lunch, everyone but Evelyn had a nap (she slept in the car on the way there) and I got a migraine complete with nausea, light and noise sensitivity. I think it was just from driving. Anyway, I laid down for a bit and took some Tylenol and Advil. The Advil really helped and I was ready to join the world again around 2:30. After Juliana woke up, the girls did some much anticipated and much enjoyed puddle stomping. When we visited in March, the snow was melting and it was very mild. The girls had a blast splashing in the slushy run off. They both remembered and wanted to do it again. Luckily, the weather complied and the day we visited was wet and perfect for puddles.
The boys played together in their own way too. They both tried to conquer and possess a little chair. Over all, Ethan was the more aggressive boy and won that little battle ;-) They also did a bit of parallel play and Ethan played with a doll by hitting it on the head with another toy!
We drove to Cold Lake (about 90 min from Lloydminster) and met Ryan for dinner. We decided to got to Humpty's for dinner. As we pulled in, Evelyn started reciting "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a fall". Ryan and I looked at each other with a questioning look to say "Have you taught her that?" Neither of us remembers ever reading or reciting that verse to her. I think one of the baby Einsteins recites it, but does not show the picture of Humpty. There is also a Dora episode that shows Humpty, but does not say the verse. So, somehow Evelyn matched the verse and the picture of an Egg on a wall to go together. Kids minds are such sponges!
So, we spent the night with Ryan in his hotel room. Evelyn was awake until 10:30 at least. Ethan was up every 2 hrs. They both woke up at about 7 am. It was a GREAT night :-P
