Gingerbread Train

This week Jason could hardly wait to get out of the van in the morning when we went to see Nana. He knew that he was going to make a train with her & as you can see from his expression, he LOVED doing it.

It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas

The past week was filled with Christmas parade, decorating, shopping, visit to Santa & practice for the Christmas pageant at church. All of this means busy, busy, busy- but it also means that I am completely kick-started for Christmas.

Here is a progression of the week...

Christmas Parade
Waterdown's parade is held at night & we could not have asked for nicer "winter" weather. People in this town take the parade very seriously. Even though the parade doesn't start until 6:30pm, if you went downtown at noon you saw lawn chairs lining the parade route & some vans parked in key location & backed up to the road. It was a nice reminder that although there are big box stores going up at the edge of town, we are still trying to keep ourselves a small town in heart. The kids had a great time & Sydney & Jason enjoyed their ride home in style.


Watching Christmas Specials in their jammies before bed


Tree time...
Sydney & Brad walked home with the tree while Jason & I jetted of to an appointment. Sydney was a great help with decorating the tree, but Jason was just interested in playing with the ornaments.


A Visit to Santa
This morning we went to Greensville Optimist's Breakfast with Santa. I was hoping to be able to post a picture of each kid with Santa, but the pictures didn't turn out for Sydney's or Jason's & again there was no way Jason was going to sit with Santa. I sure hope the ones that we receive in the mail are nice. Overall though things went great. I think we just found a new holiday tradition. The fact that we could do it with friends makes it all the more worthwhile!

Becky, don't think I didn't notice that you turned away from the camera.
Your attempts for a picture with Santa also are not here because they all turned out blurry.

Dress Rehearsal
This afternoon was the final practice before tomorrow morning's big performance. Sydney did really well today, so let's hope she has the same volume tomorrow morning when the whole congregation is there (plus some extras). Last year she did pretty good & as a result got a bigger part this year. Her lines are: "Hee Haw, Hee Haw", "I gave baby Jesus a present", "I did, I did", and "I carried his mother uphill & down. I carried his mother to Bethlehem town".

As you can see Mary is twice the size of Sydney, so it is unlikely that Sydney could carry her- but it is all very cute. It is funny, Sydney is pretty shy- but give her the chance to "perform" and she will typically step right up.

I took the pictures at the dress rehearsal, so that I could focus better tomorrow morning. Break a leg Sydney!!!

Mass Production

Today was Sydney's day with Nana & were they busy!

What a girl...

Sometimes your children do things that just make you smile & shake your head at the wonder of it all. Sydney has given us 2 of those moments in the last week...

The Chicken & the Egg story....
Brad is reading Sydney her Little House on the Prairie book before bed & the chapter is about a horse being born & Sydney all of sudden says...

• Stop Daddy! There is a problem with Mommies & babies. Not all babies have Mommies.
• Brad tries to tell her that yes all babies have Mommies & she insists no. She states...
• The first baby could not have a Mommy, cause it was first.

Brad & I both think...wow, she is only 4 & is already thinking this way. What are we in for? How long until we get the "If a tree falls in the forest & no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound" question?

The stocking story...
This weekend we put up some of our Christmas decorations & Sydney informed us that she does not need a stocking this year because she only wants one thing- a high chair for baby. So Santa doesn't need to fill her stocking. What a kid!

He still loves his Mommy

Yesterday I was sitting on the couch & Jason came up to me and was all huggy/kissy. The conversation then went something like this...
Brad: Jason, do you love your Mommy?
Jason: Love Mommy, love Mommy.
Brad: Jason, do you love Daddy?
Jason: (pause, shakes head emphatically)...Sydney loves Daddy. Jason loves Baby Ella (translation. Baby Elephant.)

Had to write about it...it still makes me laugh. :)

For the love of cousins...

Photo ops with little ones is usually precious, often trying & many times end with tears.

Sleepover

Miss Regan spent the night with us & although her awake time in our home was probably less than 2 hours before she had to go to bed, we managed to sneak in some games.

Seems a long time ago...

This picture was taken less than a month ago on a warm weekend afternoon that provided the opportunity to wash & vacuum the van without getting cold hands. Sydney passed the time colouring in the back of the van.

Little Funnies

This weekend is a system change at work & has taken a great deal of my time & especially Brad's time. As I type this I am at work in a holding pattern & the kids are with me & they have been here for almost 4 hours. Remarkably they are doing really well. I came with the trunk full of stuff. They have done Play-doh, colouring, driving another baby's stroller around, running around, and "activities". They are both completely wound & having fun, but the crash is coming.

I am writing this with the plan that when I go home I am going to take a picture of Sydney's door. She posted a sign on her door yesterday that she advises us says "No boys allowed". It really is quite cute. She now says however that Daddy is allowed to go in. Yesterday morning she wanted us to do a "show" which Jason translated that be watching t.v. and started to whine when the t.v. wasn't turning on. We told Sydney that we needed to know what our lines were so that we would say the right thing. She immediately went off & came back and gave us each a piece of paper that had lines (literally) written on it. Too funny.

October in Review

My Aunt Sue scolded me last week for getting behind on my posts, so here is one for October in review. I started doing this on my lunch for any of those noting the time of my post! Work right now is a little hairy, so taking a few moments to think about things that generally calm me & make me smile seems like a good idea.

Thanksgiving again this year was beautiful weather & we enjoyed the time with our families. Since the Robinson event was a week early this year we were available to watch the twins & Max while Michele & Robb had other things to attend to- like Michele prepping their house for us all to show up the next day. I am amazed at how much more I can get done without Sydney & Jason underfoot, I can only imagine how much easier that is without a 5 year old & two 6 month olds.

I met with a surgeon & my heart surgery is a go for next March or April. It is my aorta valve that needs replaced & I have known for about 10 years that this day would eventually come, but was hoping that the kids would be older. But having those kids is probably the reason I need it sooner. I will be having the Ross Procedure which means that they will take my pulmonary valve out & use it to replace my aorta & will graft in a donor valve for my pulmonary valve. The surgery is a little more intensive, but it means that I won't need to take blood thinners afterwards or have the same risk of infection as I would have with a mechanical valve. So, next year will involve a lot of strategic planning. Right now, that is in the back of my mind & I am trying not to worry any more about it until at least the new year.

October was also busy with starting my classes for learning how to help Jason with his speech & it is pretty interesting. Part of the course if having sessions with the SLP & she records me playing with him & then we watch it together. Hopefully by the end of this we are really seeing marked improvement with him. He seems to be getting better, but he definitely is not where we would like him to be yet.

Halloween this year with Sydney seemed like a week long event. She wore her costume to skating (where more kids than Liam's group also wore costumes), she wore it to school on Thursday (but we made her wear her doctor's outfit to ensure the child could still go to the bathroom), and of course she wore it on Halloween night. I am posting the video from Sydney's skating to show you that although she can stand up & move- she's not going anywhere too fast. We are working on that. If you can't make it through the whole video, I can't say that I blame you.

In regards to Halloween itself, I must say I did a terrible job of taking pictures this year- it all seemed a little hairy. Grandma, Papa, & Nana came in to see the kids & we all went around the block trick or treating. Sydney definitely had the routine down pat this year & she "performed" her Five Little Pumpkins poem when requested for a trick. However at the house that requested a performance, they gave a car to Jason in addition to the candy because I am sure they thought the little boy would love a car- which of course he did. Sydney however looked sad that she didn't get a car, but what was I to do? Ask them to give her a car too???

That's all I can think of right now that was of any interest. Here is a picture of how the kids tried to help out around the house.

She can skate!!!

Sydney has now had 4 skating lessons. The first one was solely devoted to learning how to stand up. They do not use chairs at her lessons & Carrie after watching your video of Liam I am thankful for it. I could completely see Sydney leaning on that chair for weeks! She did pretty good at the first lesson, but by the end of it she was totally depending on the teacher to help her stand up.


After the second lesson, I did not even talk to Sydney about it because I was so angry. She did not try to stand up or skate the whole time. She overheard me talking on the phone about it & came to tell me that she was sorry that she did not try at skating. Gave me a guilty moment for being overheard. Although, I think it was good that she heard that I was not happy with her for not trying because that weekend she put her skates on & Brad worked with her to stand up. It made all the difference in the world because the next Monday she tried hard & did well.


This Monday I could not stop smiling I was so proud of how well she was doing. She walked right away from me & stepped on the ice herself. Slowly tried to make it to her group's spot. She was getting up really quick, skating (walking really) forwards & around in circles. The teacher started to show them how to snow plow their skate to the side but quickly realized they were not ready for that.

Many of the kids have cages on their helmets too. Personally, I think that is a little overkill. Although, I guess if Sydney falls flat on her face & busts a tooth I might be thinking differently.

"Like..."

How is it that less than a month ago I sent my little girl off to school and already 90% of her sentences start with "Like..."? On the way out to skating on Monday I was asking her about school & her answers went something like this...

• Like we coloured a turkey
• Like, I put feathers on my turkey
• Like...I sat with Cariss and Sewdy
• Like...I rode the bikes at recess

Do you know what the result is of your child speaking like this? You start speaking like this & don't even realize it! UGH!

Her two other favourite words are "actually" and "anyway". Whenever I hear her say, "Anyway Mommy" I stop short. Especially when Mommy is often shortened to "mom" these days. Where is the little girl going??? sniff sniff

Good-bye Mama

I always thought that it would drive me crazy to be called "Mama", but when that was all Jason was able to say it grew on me. Now he is starting to convert to mommy and I am really starting to miss "Mama". However he can't say mommy "properly", so he says "mimi". Maybe mimi will start to grow on me too.

The little guy is still having difficulty with his sounds, but we can probably understand him about 50% of the time now. This lends to less frustration for him & us. Next week I start a parent program that will hopefully give me some more ideas of how to help him.

Our recent trip to the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls.
Jason loved it...Sydney couldn't have cared less.

Grandpa Taylor's birthday
Gracie was sleeping

Starting to feel like fall...

Picking Apples
Jumping on Hay Bales

Will lifted Sydney up onto the bale, it was sooo cute.

Fall Fair

Jason is up there too. He didn't cry, but I am pretty sure he was scared. There was a couple moments of nervous laughter, so hopefully I have not scarred him for life. It was a pretty fast Ferris wheel.

Exhausted