Spring Eludes Me

Well, here we are in the throes of another Winter.. What the H-E-double hockey sticks is going on??!! On the upside of all this absolute crappy weather and brrrrr temperatures, I hear that most of the pine beetles are dead. At least there's one good thing to come out of the past 6 months of bone chilling punishment..argh. I guess I had never really noticed just how crappy the weather can be until I had kids. I chomp at the bit to get them out the door and playing in the yard, just for my peace of mind and for the fact that they are getting some form of outdoors in their childhood years.. Actually, I find it like pulling teeth to pull Kyra away from some mindless children's show on Treehouse but when I can actually get her outside and playing with a pile of mud or snow, I can't actually get her back INSIDE for any reason other than food. She's a simple thing sometimes. Noelle loves the 'outside' . period. so any mention of it is like mention the W word around the dog, salivation begins and pacing ensues.. I'm still kicking myself for not having enough toasty clothing for her to wear - next year, I hit the stores like Eddie Bauer (if they even sell kiddie clothes) for some serious kids thermal stuff. I'm not feeling trapped by the cold AGAIN!

Spring...Winter...Spring...Winter...Strolls through the puddles, snow, puddles..

Poser!

We're also careening closer to birthday #2 for Noelle..just 13 days away! Nothing big planned really, just a little cake made into a turtle (Kyra's idea). And I'm informed that this year "we will turn out the candle before she has a chance to cry" - Kyra knows it all, I tell ya! I can't decide on a gift for 'Welly' yet, but I'm leaning towards a slide for the yard seeing as she's positively addicted to the 'Slidey' as she calls it. I've seen a folding one at the toy store and I'm patiently waiting for it to go on sale before pouncing.. I'm fairly confident this will happen within the next few weeks (not!). ha ha..

Mommy & Ms. Naked 2009

Also in Noelle's world, she's speaking in sentences. Actual, long sentences like, "Put it in the garbage, Mommy" No, nambie pambie two word stuff around here! She's our second MENSA child in the making...now if only she'd figure out how to use the toilet..ah, but that's another blog post.. I guess it's back to spring cleaning - some of us do this in our Sunday best around here..

Don't worry if you're not good enough...

..Just sing..sing a song!!!
I remember this song from my early childhood days, when the guy on Sesame Street sang that song. I'm not sure why I remember it so vividly, but I'm sure it has much to do with my love of singing throughout my life (with or without an audience, of course). And the girls are no exception here. Noelle is now asking over and over again for me to sing 'itsy bitsy spider' to her. She makes the hand movements and always comes in on the last word of the line, as sort of an off-key reverb to my singing. It thrills me to no end to watch her rapt focus on my lips and hand signs as I go through the motions and you can practically see the wheels in motion, soaking up every little note & nuance of the silly tune. She also asks for 'rock-a-bye baby', 'twinkle twinkle little star', and 'I wanna be sedated (by the Ramones)'..Well, actually, the last one she just likes it when I do the guitar part on my rockin' air guitar, but I'm sure she'll be asking for it soon!
A milestone event in Kyra's singing repertoire, is the fact that she can remember a song after hearing it twice (shocks the heck out of us!) and that she can actually carry a tune now! Even Grandpa remarked on her amazing ability to do just that - sing in tune! Up to now we were silently cursing her tone-deaf aproach to singing, but after a collective sigh of relief - we are extremely happy. And rightfully so.. It's pretty hard to stay sane with what seems like 20 small girls running around the house, screaming at each other, shrieking & laughing, banging toy instruments AND singing off-key - it's almost too much to bear, no matter how much love we have for them!!
Happy tunes ahead for us... phew.

Snow Juice

Being forced together during the winter months allows us to fully enjoy the strange scenarios and verbal graspings of our kids. Like 'snow juice' for example. While we were out walking the other evening, Kyra noted that when she squished the snow at the side of the sidewalk, some of it melted. Doing so took an immensely long time out of our walk and when I encouraged her to 'get a move on', she said, "But Mommy, I'm making snow juice!"

.. As for Noelle, she can't quite make up words or new names for things but she can sure find humour and fascination in the mundane. Daddy's magazines occupy many minutes of her short attention span, "hotrod" is a new word in her repertoire. And the toilet is a constant source of intrigue, too. Especially when one has free reign of as much toilet paper as the roll will put out! She's now very much into helping us with making dinner/breakfast/lunch (much to my exasperation sometimes as she's quite relentless in her helping). And she can sure spend hours putting on necklaces and shoes to parade around in! I even have to hide my glasses from her...

Do I look smarter in these?

Let the New Year Begin!!

Here we are, on the last day of 2008 - fighting illness, struggling with underwear in the morning and finally enjoying a bit of quiet time. It's been a long month of inner turmoil for the little ones in the house and heavy wine consumption for the bigger ones. I'm sure one isn't caused by the other.. Noelle continues to challenge us in ways that Kyra never did. She's sneaky, goofy and currently abundantly FULL of new words to throw around. I'm still trying to get used to the fact that if you ask her a question, she will actually answer you (most of the time) with something intelligible. On the flipside of this learning curve, she also thinks she has choices about what she eats, when she goes to bed and if she has to be fastened to her carseat or not. Sigh. The battles have begun with the coming of the new year... I'm girding my loins!

The Days Fly By...

I just cannot believe how much time has been speeding along. It seems as though I was just getting out summer togs and now I'm getting out the winter woolies. Of course, here that could just mean a matter of minutes has passed but I find things just a bit more final when clothes actually go into the old Rubbermaid containers.. Another shipment of donation baby things has been loaded into the van, too, so that feels just a bit more permanent when speaking of season changing.

The girls are changing a lot this month as well. It's nice to hear 'please' and 'thank you' come non-chalantly out of Kyra's mouth, after years of DRILLING them into her. She seems also to be calming down in the 'hairy fit' department as well. I still see her having a hard time with us saying 'no' to her on certain requests - this is the typical procedure to begin the hairy fit...

K: "Can I have MY T.V.?" (eyelash batting included here)

Me: "No."

K: "YES!!!" (brows knit together, lip pouts)

Me: "No."

Evil K: "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" (head spins around)

I can stay calm for all this, as I know it's coming now. Some days are better than others, tho'.. As for little Noelle, who can predict what behaviour arises from her??! One minute she's calmly petting the dog and the next minute she's climbing into the dryer! She has been on a voyage of self-discovery though, and dressing one's self is at the top of the list. Keeps us all amused...

No E.I. for Me!

Well, today was the last day of our 'dayhome' stint. Wee Jesse has returned to his Mum and I have once again returned to being the mother of 2 - not the mother of 'twins' and an older girl as so many have asked me in the past 2 months... It was a new experience for me and suffice it to say, not a vocation that I would really pick for myself. I mean, I was never a really good babysitter when I was a teenager (I wasn't really sure just what to do with them, really). And to look after someone else's kids, when you're just learning to really love your own takes a whole new bucket of patience, tolerance and stamina. But I did my duties, didn't kill him through neglect, changed his diapers on demand, fed him when necessary and called off Noelle when she thought he'd make a better hitting target than her stuffed animals. All in all, I think it went well as the little fella didn't really want to leave today, miniature plastic horsies were MUCH more interesting and he was surrounded by cute chicks to boot...

We'll miss ya, Jess-man!

There's a Chill in the Air

..and a gale force wind to follow! Eek. The winter weather is starting to creep into our lives here and I'm not sure if I'm ready.. There is that certain kind of heart-pumping exhilaration when that first blast of cool air hits your face as you step out the door; and that cozy comfort that you get when you're all nestled in a warm jacket & cords. So I do think that winter has its obvious merits but somehow it always comes as kind of a disappointment & surprise that the warm weather of summer/fall has to end. Curses on you, Mother Nature!

And lets not forget that now there are 3 jackets to put on, 3 pairs of shoes to velcro & tie and 3 bodies to squeeze out the door within a set period of time before said jackets start to come off, those shoes find their ways elsewhere and those children start to get bored and wander off to play with something that was previously completely UNINTERESTING - "But I CAN'T leave now, I'm playin' Mum!". Some days it's a well oiled machine, somedays not so much...

Noelle is now 18 months old, officially yesterday. Wow. She's still little and fairly clutzy but she's starting to really throw words out there (even if they are only understandable by me) and make it around the block without the stroller! Those little legs can sure book it! On a not-so-great side of things, she's learned to defend her space with hitting & biting (giving Kyra a nasty circular bruise through her shirt!), she's learned that NO is an answer to things and that she can act pouty when she's mad or doesn't get her way. Exasperating to say the least. But to end on an upnote, she's got a sneaky sophisticated sense of humour and she loves a good book. Phew! Lucky she likes reading or she'd be really the odd duck out in this house.

And what have we been up to for the past 2 months? Well, there's been sickness galore, camping holidays, trips to the zoo, trips to the shopping mall, and numerous aimless walks to interesting destinations within our fair city..because we all know that it's not the destination but how you get there that matters. and getting there with 2 little girls is always a good time!