Supercrawl 2012

What better way to enjoy a crawl than with your babies? Hamilton closes a portion of James Street every year so they can celebrate art, music, and other creative ventures.  We walked the length of the street, danced past the bands playing on stage, browsed through the various street vendors, saw some art and even created some of our own.

The kids were well behaved and so I assume enjoyed the festival.  When we reached the end of the street though William pointed out, "We haven't actually done anything that I want to do."

"What do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want to get ice cream."

So we back tracked and went to the ice cream truck.  Both Will and Jadzia ordered popsicles and became a sticky blue mess. By this time it was almost five.  We decided to meet some of my Staircase friends for dinner. I asked a police officer where the restaurant was and he said it was a five minute walk.  It took us half an hour.

We enjoyed some tasty German food at the Black Forest Inn. The kids were on their best behaviour (minus some crawling under the table) despite a long long wait to be seated, then they dazzled everyone by eating large quantities of bread and spaetzle.

It was a good day.

Au Revoir à Montréal

My Dad's cousin lent us their house this Labour Day weekend so we could visit my Nana in the hospital.  (Thank you!) This way we could ignore the cost of food and gas and pretend the trip was totally free.  Nana was a delight to visit, rather than a chore.  Such a contrast from visiting Omi in the Alzheimer's ward.  If you can, I highly recommend maintaining all your faculties and your sense of humour right to the very end.  Though bed bound, Nana seemed in good spirits, and was delighted to see my kids.  Jadzia and William were timid around their great grandmother at first (they've only met her a couple times) but were soon climbing all over the bed, scratching lottery tickets together, showing off their toys, and giving hugs.  At one point Jadzia told Nana, in her sweet mousy three-year-old voice, "We're here to say goodbye to you because you're going to die soon."  Classic!  Nana found her honesty hilarious.

Of course, we also took full advantage of being in Montreal, the city I was born into but barely know.  The first day (not including the driving day) we saw the Science Centre (our Ontario Science Centre passes worked) and a rather sparse army festival (though it did include a skydiving show), then we wandered the cobblestone streets of Old Montreal, ate at a pirate restaurant, and had ice cream sweetened with maple syrup. It became a running gag that Adam (who doesn't speak French) would ask me to order for us and then I would just order in English. Montreal is fully bilingual after all.

The next day we went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, which is like the AGO only you don't have to pay to get in (as you can tell, we targeted free museums).  A crowd favourite was Tony Matelli's "Old Enemy, New Victim", a frighteningly realistic silicone sculpture of two skinny chimps attacking a fat one. I was amazed at how well behaved my kids were.  When they got tired of all the art-viewing, they sat on the museum steps and gave me a cuddle (instead of running around giggling like crazy fools, screeching bathroom words and having hair-trigger activated tantrums). Our plan was to go see the Redpath next, another free to enter museum but with dinosaur bones. Unfortunately, it was inexplicably closed.

Though we were all exhausted, we stopped at Fairmont to buy a dozen of their famous Montreal bagels. Then we went to Lac Aux Castors to have a bagel snack.  The lake wasn't there (no really, it was under construction) but we had saw a fabulous view of the city from Mount Royal.  Then went out for dinner for rotisserie chicken at Côte Saint-Luc BBQ.

Since it was our last day, we pushed our tired kids to the limit and went back to Mount Royal after dark so Adam could take night photos of the view.  There, we saw a frightening amount of not-timid-enough raccoons.  Maybe I still smelled of bagels and chicken because some of them were pawing at my leg.  Definitely a cute meets creepy experience.

Still what made the trip worthwhile was how our visit seemed to brighten my Nana's day.  I hope we get the opportunity to visit her again.  Or maybe one day we'll be going to Montreal to visit William, who told us "I want to live here when I'm a grown-up."

Family Camping Cancelled

After coming home from a wonderful week of camping just the two of us, it was time to take the kids for their vacation.  According to their Babcia, they were very excited to go, telling everyone they met that the whole family would be going camping even Worf! The day before we left we made last minute preparations. Adam bought the kids new sleeping bags and I bought some food for campfire dinners, as well as the ingredients for S'mores.

On Wednesday we packed up the car and drove three hours through farm country. At a restaurant bathroom en route, they kids were loudly yelling "poopy!" despite repeated requests to stop. They giggled when I got annoyed and continued to egg each other on (3 and 5 are exactly the wrong ages for impulse control).  Finally I said that there would be no stories.  This usually gets William to stop.  He loves his bedtime stories (Jadzia doesn't care).  In this case, they both kept going.

We arrived at the Pinery in the afternoon, a provincial park that for me is the setting for many happy childhood memories. After setting up the campsite we went to the beach. We had a pleasant time in the water, then built a sand castle together with each child adding their own creative touches.  I made thrones and a table for the king and queen and Jadzia put small handfuls of dirt on them saying they were the people.  

William was hungry and it was nearly dinner time so we washed the sand off our bodies and prepared to leave.  At this point William had a massive freak out. Not because we were leaving the beach, oh no, because I asked him to hold my hand and not crawl in the sand.  William told me I was the stupidest person in the world and that he didn't like me. Finally I told him that we wouldn't be fishing after dinner like we'd planned.

After eating fire-roasted fish, Adam drove into town to get some things we'd forgotten and to avoid being tempted by S'mores. I sat the kids a safe distance from the fire and put marshmallows on very long sticks for them. Neither of them actually like roasted marshmallows (they prefer raw) but they delight in the roasting process.  Especially Jadzia who got seven marshmallows to catch on fire and let them them drip into the flame. I made us some S'mores with my new S'more maker while re-mallowing sticks and frantically trying to avoid a third degree burn scenario.  I told the kids the "stop, drop, and roll" rule but they just laughed and turned away.  The only burn suffered was my own.  I now have the imprint of my S'more maker on my inner forearm.

Far from salvaging the camping experience, the sugar got the kids riled up and I finally had to institute a walk to the washroom in order to keep from killing them.  To avoid malicious pee accidents, we recently instituted a one-pair-of-underwear-a-day rule for Jadzia.  She wets her underwear, she gets a diaper.  Jadzia responded to this by pooing in her diaper, something she hasn't done for months.  Well, when we got to the comfort station I discovered a poop in her diaper.  The kids giggled and exclaimed "poopy!" "poopy!" as I wiped the excrement from my daughter's butt.  I told them to stop, but I felt less like an authority figure and more like the victim of schoolyard bullies, whining "stop it!" as they taunted me.

Finally they brought me to tears, not that that's hard to do when I'm stressed.  Anyway, witnessing their mother have a nervous breakdown in the campground washroom was a wake-up call for them and they finally stopped.  Ha!  So not!  Jadzia had to walk back to the campsite bare-bummed because I hadn't brought an extra diaper with me (because she's a big girl, not an infant for Spock's sake!)  William pointed and squealed "vagina!" and "naked!" the whole way back.

Adam got back at that point and he "put the kids" to bed.  Without stories, there wasn't much to do besides put them in the tent, give them a lecture about treating Mommy better, and tell them to go to sleep.  Surprise, they didn't.  They screamed and giggled.  Actually, it was more Jadzia screaming while William, in a low voice, told her what to yell.  I really regretted not bringing any alcohol with me.  We threatened to cancel the whole trip.  They yelled "Stupid Mommy!" "Stupid Daddy!"  Our plan had been to wait until the next morning to see if their behaviour had improved, but at that point the idea of getting in the tent with them was so repugnant to me that we packed up the campsite.

I went for a last washroom break as Adam put the tent on the roof.  Looking in the mirror I thought "boy do I ever look tired, even my hair looks tired."  I could hear the kids wailing all the way from the comfort station.  I hoped this was because they were upset about the trip being cancelled (up until that point they hadn't seemed to care).  Nope.  They had got hold of the dog food (measured out for four days) and emptied it inside the car.

We drove three hours home and thankfully the kids fell asleep in the car, seemingly unaware of the gravity of the situation. The next morning, they were back to demanding snacks and screen time as normal.  We limited the snacks (no matter how annoying they are we do have to feed them) and instituted a ban on screen time.  At first it looked like they were going to have another stellar day, but by the afternoon William was being a little angel, building whimsically-engineered tanks and segways out of Lego. By dinner time, even Jadzia was behaving.  So we decided to take them fishing.

We went to Burns Consevation Area, which has a sad-looking pond whose water-level looks about five-feet lower then it should be.  But there are fish!  Both Jadzia and William are better fishers than I am.  William caught one fish all by himself, and Jadzia caught 4 or 5.  We fished until past bedtime.  I finally caught one sunfish and declared it time to go. Despite getting more mosquito bites on my ankles than I did an entire week of camping, it was a perfect evening.  The kids protested leaving only minimally and, at William's prompting, Adam told us all stories of his childhood on the way home.

Trekking with the Next Generation

How important is it to see in theatres something I have watched countless times on television? I can close my eyes and picture the scenes in my head.  In fact I have. As a kid I would invent new episodes, played in my mind for my own amusement.  Of course, none of these were in high definition; none of these were on the big screen.

How important? Very.  Important enough for me to cancel all my other Monday commitments.  Important enough to do laundry for the specific purpose of washing my Star Trek shirt.  But, for some reason, not important enough to enlist the help of a babysitter.  Yes, I made the mistake of bringing my children. To be fair, I wanted them to come.  I wanted to share this thing I love with them.  I wanted my offspring to experience the awesomeness that is Star Trek.

The show began with a behind the scenes look at how the show was remastered, how they had to go through warehouses of film footage to find the scenes needed to recut the show.  I drank it all in, while William whispered "When's the show actually going to start?"

William seemed interested in the first episode, watching wide-eyed as the Enterprise sped to the edge of the universe, pointing out the Traveler's chubby fingers. Though while the second episode played he was preoccupied with his "hunger".  Adam eventually bought the kids some candy, and William pouted because this was rationed, and we didn't let them have the entire bag.

Jadzia didn't even pretend to pay attention.  Though she was quite good at pretending to be a cat.  She also spent a great deal of time fiddling with her broken arm rest, hunting for bits of stale popcorn on the floor, and finding creative ways to position herself in her seat.  She had three bathroom breaks during the show.  Her brother had one.  My husband and I took turns escorting.

William wore light up sandles, which bathed the theatre in flickering light whenever he kicked the chair.  I took them off, but we kept accidentally jostling them anyway.  And, of course, he needed to put them on to visit the washroom.

I've seen the show enough times that I wasn't worried about catching plot points, though during one washroom break I missed most of the completely redone 3D rendering of the crystalline entity. Also I got pee on my Star Trek shirt.

If you've ever been annoyed by young children in the theatre, take solace in knowing that they are annoying their parents 100 times more.  And sadly, I now have to spend $700 buying the complete Next Generation series remastered on blu-ray.

Circus Afro

So William has been wanting to go to the circus ever since he saw the preview of Madagascar 3, which involved a Chris-Rock-voiced zebra dressed in clown make-up and singing about his circus afro. Today my ever-resourceful husband found two for one tickets to the Shriner Circus.

We crossed a field from the parking lot to an impressively large and colourful tent. I bought a program and got some clowns to autograph it.  A booth outside the entrance sold used action figures and stuffies.  William chose a batman and Jadzia a stuffed dog.  Adam bought the Hulk.  There was no Wonder Woman.

Once inside the sweaty tent we chose seats in the front row, partially obscured by a support pillar. The kids were "hungry" so Adam bought them a popcorn and a snowcone to share. Later, he also bought them some large annoying balloons which they swung in the faces of their fellow spectators.  Every treat left them wanting the next.   There were so many things that we didn't partake in, cotton candy, light up swords, Dora balloons, face painting, elephant rides.

The show itself was good.  It had all the things you'd expect and want from a circus: trapeze artists, clowns, various trained animals.  I enjoyed the guys who did flips through the air off this giant seesaw thing. Also the elephants. Jadzia had to leave to use the port-a-potty twice during the performance.

The allergy pill I took left me exhausted and the heat didn't help, nor the whining, but all in all I'd call this a successful family outing.

Snow!

Perhaps it's global warming, or perhaps snow has always been elusive in the month of December, when the Christmas season has us collectively wishing for a blanket of white. We got rain instead of snow on Christmas Eve and then, a few days later, a tease. A thin layer of crunchy icy stuff that is no good for snowballs, snowmen, snow angels, or sledding.  We went outside anyway.

Yesterday we had a real snowfall, I threw snowballs for Worf on our evening walk.  The temperature threatened to climb above zero before the morning.  I awoke today relieved that the snow was still here, packing snow, snowman snow.  I got the kids dressed in their snowpants, mitts and hats.  I told them that if the tobogganing hill was too sticky and slushy, plan B was to build a snowman in the schoolyard.

Fortunately, the hill was covered in slippery snow, if a little muddy at the bottom.  The stark white maple leaf on the palm of my mittens is now beige.  Looks like it was meant to be that colour.

I immediately wished I'd brought a camera.  Jadzia helped to straighten the sled before they got in, making sure they would go down at just the right angle. William held his sister, protecting her as they slid down together.

I went down a few times with the kids, but then my eldest made it clear that it was better without a grown-up. He was right, I slowed them down and caused the unbalanced sled to spin out of control.

I was just getting bored of watching others have fun, when William exclaimed the he had to go pee.  He wanted to pee in the bushes, but since he was wearing snowpants and a jacket I wasn't sure how that would be accomplished.  Nor did I want to try.  It was time to go home anyway.  When he started to fuss, I lured them both away from the hill with a playful snowball fight.  I pretended to be attempting to evade their attack, using the toboggan as a shield.

Despite William's repeated insistence that he "couldn't hold it", neither he nor his sister walked any faster than they normally would.  To be fair, they were both dressed like astronauts.  However, since he didn't seem to be in a big hurry, I made him wait a minute longer so I could run inside and grab my camera (they looked too cute in their snowsuits).

And he didn't pee his pants!

Appreciating Art

Today the family and I went to the Art Gallery of Hamilton because, being a dreary cold day, I was in the mood for some culture. If you spend enough time looking at art you begin to feel saturated by it, as though each painting, sculpture and installation imprints itself on you, exhausting your ability to perceive.  This is the feeling I anticipate every time I go to a gallery.  My family anticipates boredom.

Though I was the only one particularly enthusiastic about visiting the gallery, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves once we arrived.  Although Jadzia was afraid of most of the art.  No, really. She hid her head in my shoulder as we browsed through bold colorful paintings, black and white photographs, and African masks.  Adam and I tried to tell her that these were just pictures that people had made and weren't likely to come alive, but I don't think she quite grasps the difference between reality and fantasy.  She did, however, enjoy the quilts.  I was never that into textiles, but seeing my daughter delightedly point at the patchwork of flowers, animals, and colours made the exhibit worthwhile for me.

William seemed inspired, and only a couple of times claimed to be "hungry" (four-year-old code for "bored").  His favourite piece (everyone's favourite actually) was Kim Adams' Bruegel-Bosch Bus, an installation involving an old red VW van covered with various toys, trains, cars, models, etc.  (It's on permanent display, so you can go have a gander any time you want). It reminded me of one of those I Spy books.  The more I looked at it, the more details emerged.  The kids inched closer and closer as they examined the various scenes, and Adam became paranoid that they were going to touch the artwork, especially since a security guard with dreadlocks had been following us around the gallery since we arrived.

By the time we left, we had spent an hour and an a half in the building, seen pretty much everything, and no one had fainted from fright, whined to go home, or destroyed a priceless artifact.  I declare the outing a success!

They Feed Us then We Feed Them

 



On Saturday I went with my family to the ostrich farm. (In this instance my family includes my four-person family, my brother's three, and my friend Columbia's three as well).  Our first order of business was to order barbecued Ostrich burgers, which most of the kids didn't like (my 15-month-old niece seem to enjoy them).  The meat was lean, not as greasy as beef burgers, and it had a distinct flavour.  Vaguely remeniscent of beef or chicken, but not the same as either.  I found them quite delightful.

Next we took a tour of the farm, with a guide named Joey who looked about 15-years-old.  He showed us the breeders, adult Ostriches that were lucky enough to have avoided the chopping block.  Then he gave us a cup full of feed and took us to see the "Teenagers", who weren't so lucky.

They plunged their heads into our chalices of corn with such vigour, that the feed spilled everywhere.  Then, when the cups were empty, they pecked violently at our feet.  Although the word "pecked" is far too dainty, as the sound was across between machine-gun fire and an angry village mob pounding on your front door.  Joey told us that the ostriches have brains as big as their eye, and that they really aren't very smart.  While I enjoyed the experience of having dinosaur-like creatures lunge their rock-hard beaks at my toes, I really didn't feel too bad about eating them.

After that we got to peak through a window at a small group of adorable leopard-spotted ostrich chicks.

Advice: if you go, bring lots of cash.  They don't take debit or credit and there are lots of exotic meats you can buy there.  Luckily we had just enough to purchase some bison for Adam's birthday dinner tomorrow.



Yes, that's chocolate cake.



While William and Adam went off camping at the cayuga dragstrip, I offer proof that Jadzia and I had much more fun.  We attended a lovely party for my friend Natalie, mother of two of my daughter's handsome suitors (including the icing monster pictured above).  We picniced on the grounds of Dundurn Castle, then took a tour of the lavish mansion.

Jadzia's favourite phrase of the day: "I want to go that way!" She would then dash off in the opposite direction of the tour, ducking under any rope barriers that were in her way. She wanted to go downstairs when we were upstairs and upstairs when we were downstairs.

Dundurn Castle is significantly larger than my house, even though it was a family of four who lived there.  As the gentleman in 1850s attire lead us around, I felt a bit envious of the previous inhabitants.  I have a family of four.  I should therefore have an 18,000 square foot mansion with twelve servants, and a view of the lake, and cannons.  But then I remembered that they didn't have television or internet access.  I would trade all those servants and that big old mansion to be living here in the information age.  It's also pretty cool having cholera-free water.

Anyway, I really must use the magical powers of the internet to figure out how to make olden times sour dough bread.  The stuff they made there was hella good.

I went to the zoo today.

I went to the zoo today.

Here is a video of a peacock dancing for a peahen:

Here is a picture of my family on the zoomobile:

Here's a picture of my daughter flashing a zebra:

The end.

When I have fun, I get tired

So on Thursday my inlaws came over.  I made lasagna and banana bread.  After enjoying the delicious meal and my mother-in-law raving about the banana bread, we all walked to the park together (the kids biked) because it was perfect weather to be outside.  It was a very pleasant evening, and afterwards I was very tired.

On Friday was our five-year-old friend Annaliese's birthday party.  We went to Amazing Adventures, a play centre complete with a bouncy castle, free-to-play arcade games, pink Harleys, and an intricate network of plastic tubeslides, all within a surprisingly confined area.   I of course had to try the slides and the bouncy castle in the name of supervising young ones. There were several birthday parties going on at once and I'm pretty sure there were some fire codes violated.  We had an amazing time.  Afterwards I was very very tired.

On Saturday we drove to Etobicoke to visit the Fantasy Fair for my friend Columbia's birthday.  We rode all the rides, many of them twice.  My favourite were the bumper cars, which are especially fun with friends. We also spent a fair amount of time chasing our kids through a giant play structure, vaguely reminiscent of the one we had spent hours in the day before.  After one last ride on the Fantasy Fair Express, we went out to dinner even though it was past the kids bedtime.  We ate cake.  It was a fabulous day. Afterwards I was exhausted.

On Sunday, which was Mother's Day, my husband and kids made me a wonderful card and an odd breakfast in bed.  Then we hitched up the trailer and biked all the way to Bronte Creek, a distance of 9.8 km (one way) and had a picnic.  The kids played in the park and in the play barn, and then we visited all the animals including a litter of piglets.  It was the best day ever.  Afterwards I was extremely exhausted.

On Monday, I was still in biking mode, so I biked with the kids down to Central Library, a distance of 7.3 km, (one way).  We met some friends there and William went to story hour.  We picked some books and the kids went on the computer. After some convincing by the Mommies we lured our offspring outside and played in the park a while.  Then I biked home, uphill, and (after a quick stop at home to grab some birthday presents) continued biking to my Mom's house.  We celebrated my Dad and my nephew's birthdays (which were actually on Saturday).  We ate pulled pork, potato pancakes, mashed potatoes and cake.  It was an awesome day.  Afterwards I was extremely exhausted (and a little sunburned). 

Today I'm trying to keep it low key and not have so much fun.  Of course I've already played Star Wars Lego with William on the Xbox and looked through the Halloween I Spy book we got from the library.  I also put Jadzia down for a nap because she threw my ipod accross the room.  I was going to catch up on some laundry today, my dryer is in pieces.  It wasn't drying so my husband is fixing it using the magic of internet knowledge.  Instead of watching youtube videos, or playing plants vs zombies, I've decided to take a moment to tell you how my week is going.

Done.  Now what should I make for dinner?

The Party that really deserves my vote

For those of you who are disappointed in the election results, here's some photos of the party that really deserves a majority.  I'm talking of course about my friend Columbia's outdoor fairy party which took place on Saturday.  There were fairy costumes, face painting, swords, an Easter egg hunt, potluck food and a giant Earth ball.  Just look at how much fun we are had:

Best Day Ever

This morning I got up early and finished my daily word count so I wouldn't have to ignore my kids all day to complete it.  I wanted to get the kids out of the house to avoid anymore ketchup or yogurt messes, but the morning sky looked grey.  So I invited my friend Becca over for a playdate instead.  William and Aedan have literally known each other since they were infants and they were very excited to get this opportunity to play.  After a nice chat, lunch, and cuddling of baby Amelia, Becca and family had to be on their way.

Once they had gone, I realized that the grey sky had turned a beautiful blue. So I got William and Jadzia outside on their bikes.  At first William didn't want to go downhill because he was afraid to go too fast (he is my son, after all), but he soon conquered his fear.  He raced down the steepest portion of sidewalk again and again, a proud grin glued on his face.

When the hill became tiresome we biked to the park.  By this time my youngest was getting tired (partly from the excitement and partly because she insists on lifting and dragging her trike instead of using the pedals).  After a short time both whined at my inadequate swing pushing, so I bribed them home with the promise of chocolate chip cookies.

As always, the kids helped me get all the ingredients together and mix them.  For those who are interested, I always use this recipe but modify it based on my mood and what I have in my cupboards.  Today I made the following modifications:  omitted the cocoa, put half brown sugar and half white, added a cup of oatmeal, a cup of chocolate chips, and some coconut. I cooked them for 11 minutes, left them in a turned off oven for 5 minutes, and let them cool on the cookie sheets for 5 more minutes.  Holy Q, they were perfect; melty chocolate chips, soft chewy consistency, subtle coconut taste.

Of course none of this avoided food mess.  I left the cookies on the stove too long and my daughter helped herself.  I was finding half-eaten cookies all over the house for hours afterwards.  Of course I saved them.  Cookies this delicious should not be wasted.

Snow Man Snow!

My one regret about winter was that there was never any snowman snow.  It was either too cold for the powdery stuff to stick together, or so warm that everything melted and it started to rain.  Well this afternoon I looked out the window and saw the sunshine and the snow, and I thought: could it be?  I opened the side door and grabbed a handful to test.  The snow packed together perfectly in my hands. Huzzah!

So on this beautiful "spring" day, my children and I got all dressed up in our winter duds and headed into the front yard  where we built a snowman.  By "we" I of course mean me and by "snowman" I mean snow toddler, since my creation was about the same height as Jadzia.  Here's a pic that William took to commemorate the occassion:

For the Love of Sugar

Today my friend Cara and I enjoyed the maple syrup festival at Bronte Creek.  We ate maple sugar candies, maple toffee and pancakes with maple syrup.  In case that wasn't enough sugar, William drank the leftover maple syrup.  Yum!

William's favourite part of the day was the tractor ride to and from the pancake house.  That, and playing with his friend Leyla, who he's still excited to hang out with even after all these years. Jadzia enjoyed climbing the bleachers and wandering as far as she could away from the grown-ups.  Also the pigs.

Below is a shot of William hanging the sap bucket during the educational portion of the trip. Leyla drilled the hole; they make an excellent team.

I've been a shut-in the last little while

a) I didn't have a car because my hubby's car had a broken wheel or something and making money is apparently more important than going on outtings with the kids and doing my own grocery shopping.
b) I was waiting for the good snow to come back so I could go tobogganing or build a snowman.  Or whatever.

The snow hasn't returned and has instead transformed into various piles of slush, and sheets of ice, and pits of mud.  Still the sun, and my furry houseguest (my parents' jackapoo Morty), motivated me to go outside this afternoon. 

It was too warm for snowpants, but the kids wore all their other winter paraphernalia.  Although Jadzia opted to wear William's old alligator galoshes instead of her pink winter boots.  When we arrived at the park near our house, we discovered that the playground structure was now standing in an iced-over muddy sink hole.  This did not stop my children from climbing and sliding.  Jadzia can now navigate that curved ladder without much hesitation. William was delighted at his new super power of breaking ice, and splashing in the frigid water. Of course I had to join in, just to show him that I was better at it, because I'm bigger.  

After pushing my offspring on the swings (William is too big for the baby swings *tear*) for a tediously long time, I suggested we explore the forest near the park.  Favourite quote of the day from William: "That's not a forest, it's just a bunch of trees."  Okay, so it's not algonquin park, not even enough cover for teenagers to smoke pot without getting caught, but I didn't expect my son to become so jaded so soon.  When we were in the trees, though, he decided that it was a forest after all.  He found a long stick and sword-fought the bushes in a distinctly boyish way, while Jadzia examined the different consistancies of mud.  We found squirrel tracks.  I lured them out of the mini-forest with the promise of a snack.

I did have a car today, but I didn't end up going anywhere until after my hubby came home and we went out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday (Happy Birthday Mark!).  On the way, the wheel made a funny noise.  It sounded like a drunken Nascar car and was so loud that we actually pulled over, but ultimately ignored until after dinner.  Now it's my car's turn for the shop.  Oh reliable transportation, if only I'd appreciated you when you were here.

I found my Twister game.

Yesterday I was having dinner at a friend's house and we were thinking how fun it would be to challenge each other to a game of Twister.  Well, today I found my old Twister mat, along with the warped cardboard spinner very biased to the left hand.  Luckily I  also have this old Flash program I made to spin for us.  Next time somebody challenges me to Twister, I'll be ready!

I also have a video  (which I may post later) Adam took of the kids and I playing (very challenging when you're too short to reach the dots and don't know your left from your right, or the rules, or your colours).

Now I just have to find the painting I did in university of people playing Twister naked.

Winter wonderland

This morning I awoke to a fresh heap of powder all over everything.  Now I try to get up at seven every morning and do a little outdoor exercise, usually walking since my bike was stolen and winter arrived.  But today I decided to be extra productive and shovel the driveway.

Most of the time we just leave the driveway as is and drive our SUVs over whatever hardened mountains of ice result.  A couple of years ago the mail man refused to deliver our mail because our driveway was too treacherous.  Through rain, snow, sleet or hail my butt!  Anyway, me shoveling is such an event that my husband snapped some paparazzi-style photos of me to commemorate the occassion.

Check out my giant he-man shovel!

Anyway, being outside in the snow reminded me that playing in the snow is a part of childhood that we've been doing far too little of this season.  So I put "play in the snow with kids" on my to-do list and after breakfast I got them ready.

William, Jadzia and I had a great time frollicking in the mounds of powder my shoveling created.  Well, William and I had fun anyway.  Jadzia, who can barely stand in her boots and snowpants let alone walk, mostly just sat in the snow and glared and me.

The white stuff was too powdery for a snowman, or even a snow ball fight (though we did try).  Instead I dragged the children in a toboggan to the nearby school (which has a wicked hill, tame enough for my kids but not so slow the adult gets bored).  Jadzia giggled the first time down the hill but shortly after began to get weepy.  I convinced William to go home by promising hot chocolate and declared our winter outting a success.

Except I ran out of milk and had to make the hot chocolates partially with water, blech.  Luckily they had just enough milk in them to be tolerable.

William's Hotwheels Track

Two blogs in one day? Consider this a bonus, an epilogue if you will. Some moments are meant to be shared.

Christmas Moments

Jadzia loved the underwear she got from my parents.  Sure she had toys to play with, but who needs them when you can sort and stack your big girl briefs and fill and empty a little gift bag over and over.

There's nothing quite like watching babies opening presents.  Violet's intense expression while tearing the wrapping was priceless. The presents inside the paper weren't nearly as fascinating.

William got a hotwheels track made for colour-change cars which involves a skull head with sponge brain, a little squirt gun to spray the cars, and several vats of water for the cars to fall in/ drive through.  He literally played with it all night. My Mom's table was so soaked that a small waterfall was gushing off the tablecloth onto the floor.

I should mention my Mom's Christmas log.  I look forward to this chocolately monstrousity all year and it never disappoints.  She also makes sticky toffee pudding, which is well received, but I find the caramel just gets in the way of the true meaning of Christmas: chocolate!  This year, my mom had eight Lindor bunnies to be Santa's reindeer.  Unfortunately, Jadzia snuck into the kitchen and quietly ate them all before they could decorate anything.

At 8 o'clock Christmas eve, Future Shop and Best Buy officially begin their Boxing Day sales and the whole family gathered around Dad's laptop to watch him attempt to buy an e-reader.  Eventually Jadzia convinced him to watch Elmo videos instead.  They also watched the video of Jadzia doing knock-knock jokes.

At the end of the night, William desperately wanted to have a bath to try out his new hotwheels bath toy.  He had a gigantic freak out when we told him it was too late (it was ten o'clock).   Luckily, it was Adam's turn to but him to bed.  According to Adam, William crashed immediately after his good night hug.


Jadzia's favourite toys Christmas morning were the Pez dispensers from the stockings.  Jessie for Jadzia, Buzz Lightyear for William, and Snow White for me.  Jadzia ate the two packages of Pez that came with hers and then ate half of mine.

There was a Christmas present under the tree for Adam that I did not purchase.  Proof of the existence of Santa Claus?  Anyway Adam took his giant remote control big wheel truck out in the snow with William to try it out.  They said it worked great, but the batteries didn't last long in the cold.

The whole family enjoyed playing with William's new lego set.  While Adam and I searched through the big bucket of parts to find tiny, highly specialized, pieces to build a fire truck and police station, the kids mostly enjoyed the sound of the pieces in the box.  Jadzia fished out a dozen tiny translucent coloured circles and carried them around the house.

Moments after I got Jadzia dressed to go to my in-laws, she got into Adam's Toblerone bar.  She walked up to Adam, hands covered in chocolate, her tiny little bite-marks all over the large chunk in her hand.
Adam:  "What the...."
Jadzia: "Chocolate!"
Miraculously, none got on her dress.

At my in-law's house, Jadzia loved eating her borscht, which is a delicious purple soup made from beets.  (I like it too).

William got a fairly elaborate robot track, from my in-laws.  My son is a little engineer and was able to figure out how everything works in only a few minutes (about as long as it takes me to figure it out).  The first robot kicks the car, launches it into the claw-launcher, causing the next car to speed towards the giant robot, who punches the building twice, once quickly and a second time with a slow-moving spring-loaded arm.  One car sails out of the building toward the end of the track and the other launches straight at the giant robot, breaking him in half! 

Of course it was also Jadzia's birthday, so she got a tiny icecream cake with candles to blow out.  She gets so excited at the whole Happy-Birthday-singing candle-blowing ritual, whether it's her birthday or not.