Ants

Edzea the bed hoarder went to get into her bed for her nap yesterday and it was crawling with ants. She had taken one of our brown camping boxes to make a “bed” for Brownie in her bed and it happened to be home to a horde of ants as well. So, needless to say…she was in my bed for her nap and then last night and of course Rohan too.

This stuff always goes down when Tim goes away. Tim’s big plan for his “work” fishing trip was: Sleep until 11am and then read, then nap again, eat & sleep. Although after loading a ton of books on to his Kindle, he promptly forgot to bring it. I did have a little smirk on my face when I saw that.

Anyways, Edzea is banned from having anything in her bed other than books and bedding from now on.

 

Update Rohan

Rohan has been able to spell his name for about 6 months but he now writes it all by himself. Just wanted to get this down. At 3 yrs, 2 months he can write his full name. He’s also started drawing figures/faces etc.

Plus, today I was asked to come to the preschool for a Mother’s day presentation. So cute, he sang all the words and kept giving me hugs/kisses for the Mother’s Day songs etc. Presented me with a painted pot with pansies planted in it. (He’d been telling me about it all week!) I pretended to be surprised. I’ll upload picture of it when I get a chance.

Nana left today after a quick 2 weeks visit. It felt super fast this time around. No sickness for a change and she and I actually got to go to my painting class together on Sundays. It was a fantastic visit and we’re going to miss her. Summer isn’t too far off!

Happy 5th Birthday Edzea

Just a quick picture of Edzea in her full Snow White regalia for her party Saturday. I didn’t take many photos as it was so crazy busy. Approx 40  people…luckily resident photographer, Katherine Silcock-Ross (Allan’s wife) took tons and will send them to me soon! Will upload as I get them!

Outdoor Fun

We’ve had a great week, mostly since Tim left for YK on Monday am. Kids have had lots of outdoor play and although it started raining today, they still had fun!

Monday, kids went to swimming lessons in the afternoon. Rohan is now putting his face in for his instructor and floats on his back with a noodle assisted. He’s having fun! They have a new playground at the entrance of the pool so we get there a little early to play and stay a little later so kids can play and eat their lunch there. My only complaint: bark mulch. Hate the stuff for playgrounds, have always hated it. Little itchy slivers get into your shoes all the time and I can’t wheel the stroller in. Had a playdate at Amanda’s afterwards and kids got to use their neighbours HUGE outdoor trampoline-they had lots of fun. SInce they didn’t nap, they went to sleep easily that night.

TODAY was the FIRST day that we’ve been able to hold Neve’s hands and walk her. She is amazingly stable, should be walking but won’t. The only reason she did it or started it today was because Edzea held her and tried it out. So the novelty of having Edzea play with her like that was motivating and then she let me hold her hands and I was surprised by how little I had to hold while she walked towards Rohan and Edzea as motivation. She should be walking soon! She stands on her own and lets go on her own…so not quite sure why she won’t walk when she will be able to quite easily. Anyways, we’re excited that she finally is letting us walk her!

Mitchell came and played with the kids yesterday and stayed for dinner. I asked him to call his Dad and then I spoke to his Dad. His Dad said it would actually help him as he had some things to get done. I said it helped me as the kids will play in the back yard forever with Mitchell around. Over dinner, it turns out that we were talking about Mitchell’s family background-his Dad grew up in Yellowknife!!!! Small world. I’ll have to mention it next time we chat on the phone!

Mason came over to play with the kids today. I let them skip their naps to be with him. He is such a nice kid and it gave his Dad( Dev’s husband, Steve) a break while Colby napped. While Neve napped, the kids played outside the whole time, even when it started to rain! They used the gazebo as a fort and set up blankets to “camp” in it. We made birdfeeders, kids did a scavenger hunt and then painted rocks. We dropped Mason off at about 4:30 and then dropped in to the new people’s house at 1 Links to drop off a birthday invite for the new 4 year old girl, 3 year old boy in the neighbourhood. Their house is almost the exact same layout as ours. Same facade exactly. Edzea seemed excited to meet a new girl in the neighbourhood who might be in her French immersion class at A.Lorne next year.

Here are some pics of the kids with Mason today.

Degas Inspired Ballerina Painting

Tonight Edzea and I went to a painting workshop for a Degas inspired Ballerina painting. She did the whole thing herself. I just talked her through the drawing a little at the start. Otherwise, it was all her. She had a great time and wants to do the life-size portrait class next and then there is a parliament buildings workshop again that she wants to do.

I’m starting a class at the Ottawa school of art tomorrow afternoon. 8 or 9 Sunday afternoons. I can’t wait! The instructor looks fantastic and I had to go into the vaults of my art supplies to get all of my stuff ready for class tomorrow. I’m going to be rusty but I’m looking forward to it. Thanks to Tim for letting me have the time to myself!

Also, we have provided Edzea with a light in her bed for reading at night. She wanted some time to “read” in her bed so we have provided her the opportunity. She asked me if she could read me a book tonight in addition to the one I was reading her. I said, sure. So the book was called “Is the spaghetti ready?” She said she thought the title was ” Is the restaurant ready?-so that is the only correction I gave her. She read the whole thing to me and then Tim. It had tons of words she didn’t know and I didn’t know that she could read. She said that she worked hard on figuring it out and that she just thought about how Mommy and Daddy would do it and then she did it. So this is ALL good!!!! We are excited about her continuing to read for pleasure…it’s definitely our pleasure too!

Neve & Rohan updates

I love birthday cake!

Neve is now babbling up a storm. We believe that these are the words she says now: and of course she understands so much more!

  1. Aya-Edzea
  2. Ra Ra-Rohan
  3. Mama
  4. Dada
  5. Nana-for Nana and Banana
  6. Hat
  7. Up
  8. Manda-Amanda
  9. Bo-Book
  10. Mi-Milk plus she signs it
  11. Quack Quack
  12. Signs: finished, more, eat
  13. Talk
  14. Cacka-Cracker
  15. I for Hi
  16. Tries to say diaper
Waves Hi/Bye
Blows kisses
Brushes hair, my hair, her hair
Washes counters/trays etc

And she is standing on her own off and on so walking is not far off.

Rohan had his first solo swimming lesson this week. I didn’t realize that he was worried about it until we were driving in. He says: I am NOT going to jump in the deep end Mommy. and then later: I am NOT going to float on my back with a noodle. So, Edzea and I quelled his fears and in the end, luckily, he had Edzea’s old teacher, Kyle, and he had a great time! Although he shivered through the entire lesson! So he will be wearing two wetsuits next week!

 

Belated Rohan’s Party

Rohan’s 3rd birthday in photos. It was fun and better because it was quieter than past parties so we enjoyed ourselves but still stressful to prep for.   I’m being very relaxed about Neve’s first birthday party this weekend!

Spring Break & other

Haven’t posted for a LONG time. Life is BUSY!!! Here is a little video of Rohan’s ski experiences to date. I can’t film him much as I have to do a lot of hands on with him-when we ask him to do pizza (snow plow) he politely says, “No thank you,” and then takes off yelling “woohoo!” until either I catch up to him or he crashes. So, his learning curve is a little steeper than Edzea’s. He’s in lessons all week and I hope he gets it by the end of the week. We’ll see. He’s enjoying himself anyways!

Edzea is being taught parallel turns on the blue runs now. She is having great success and wants to ski all day! So tomorrow, when Tim skiis with the kids after lessons, I’m going to go pick Rohan up and then Tim and Edzea can ski most of the day. The kids sure are pooped this week anyways which is good!

Rohan Skiing

Rohan First Time Skiing & Haircuts!

Rohan and I went skiing for the first time together yesterday so he got on skis at 2 years old! (well one week short of 3 anyways!). He’s a natural. The instructors thought he’d been on the mountain many times before and I said…no just 15 minutes with me before the lesson. He has incredible balance. When Edzea heard all that he’d done on his first day she said, “Wow Rohan! You were better than me on my first day, I couldn’t do all of that!”

Too tired to write right now, been busy prepping for Rohan’s Firefighter party next week so I’ll just post the pics and write details later.

When I was grocery shopping solo this morning I came out to see a firetruck parked in the parking lot. Rohan would have flipped! Really too bad he wasn’t with me but I did talk to the firefighters and got some pictures.

Kids got their hair cut today after we watched Daddy in his playoff soccer game this afternoon (they lost but the kids enjoyed seeing Daddy play!).