A Yearly Glimpse

I don't often post pictures of myself. It must be becoming a tradition though, as I showed you a glimpse of me around this time last year. I forced everyone in my family to do a "self-portait" with me in the snow yesterday and here are the results.

Shovelling Snow

Last night, Ben & I were outside shovelling snow off our driveway. Every few minutes, Isaac would come outside to talk about Pokemon with Ben. Each time, he'd open the garage door and let the cold air into the house and I'd have to close it straight away. After a few times, Ben came up with a condition to slow down the opening and closing. "Isaac, before you ask me a question you have to shovel some snow." I was surprised that this didn't deter him. He'd come out, shovel about 5 scoops of snow and ask his question.

Isaac is allergic to grass pollen - so as a teenager he won't be given the job of mowing the lawn. However, I can see the future. He'll be shovelling our driveway each year.

Beanies

We had snow yesterday. Lots of it, for us anyway. Ben & I measured 7 inches just before shovelling the drive way.

Of course, the kids wanted to go outside and make a snowman. The only condition was they rugged up, because the temperature was below freezing. I suggested to Lizzy that she should wear a beanie under her snow jacket because she'd feel warmer.

A few minutes later she came back and said "I found a beanie". I could see something under her hat but I wasn't quite sure what it was. It definately was not a beanie. Instead she had found a ziplock plastic bag which I had filled with dried beans the other day. She had carefully put it on the top of her head.

I was not surprised when she asked me "What's a beanie?" after I removed her bag of beans. "A winter hat, love - go find a winter hat. That's what I call a beanie."

A Cold Snap

We're experiencing a bit of a cold snap here. The saying "Arctic wind" is a literal term right now. We've got cold air coming down from the north and we woke up to -10 this morning. I'm not expecting to see the temperature above freezing even during the day for the next week. However, much to the kid's delight, we are expecting snow. You've got to take the good with the bad, I suppose.

Happy Birthday Isaac

Today was Isaac's birthday.

He's had a great day. He wanted a Pokemon/Star Wars birthday - not exactly themes that go well together but we managed. We had pokemon plates & napkins and some Star Wars balloons. For the cake I placed some Pokemon and Star Wars figures opposite each other, and told him it was a battle between the two. He was happy with that, and told me that the Pokemon definately would have been the winners.

For dinner, we went out to Chuck E Cheese. Think pizza parlour with a games arcade. If Isaac or Lizzy are ever invited to a party there again, I'm sending Ben. I've been to two parties there with the kids. Each time you play a game, you can win tickets. The kids and I usually win about 100 tickets (if I'm lucky). Ben, however, was quite the expert and helped us win over 600 tickets. Isaac was thrilled that he was able to choose 3 prizes at the end of the night.

He told me that he had an EXCELLENT day. That's what we wanted for him, so I'm happy.

Happy Birthday to our young man. Photos to follow, hopefully!

Presenting for the first time...

our newest family member - debuting in their first photo.

I love the little button nose.

Everyone has to wait until April though, to find out if baby a boy or girl.

Disembarkation

When we arrived home today, Ben announced "Everyone Disembark". And suddenly from the back, we hear "woof, woof".

Ahhh...somehow I think someone didn't hear right.

Edited to add that I've been told I've created some confusion today! Lizzy must have only heard "Everyone bark" and started to bark like a dog. No new animals in our household!

Shopaholic

Our daughter is a shopaholic. There is no other word for it. She does not need to be shopping for herself although this is the preferred outcome. Today I went shopping for a present for a baby shower. I barely had a moment to look for something as I was being constantly told "Mummy, look at this. Do you think she would like this?"; "Mummy, this is sooo pretty - can we buy this for the baby?"; "Do you think our baby would like this one?; We could buy this for our baby and the baby we are going to see!"; "Look Mummy, it's a SALE!!!!".

Nearly every shopping expedition lately has become like this - whether it's buying clothes for me and my expanding belly ("Mummy, look this is green. Green is your favorite color - do you like it?") or whether it's for groceries ("Mummy, look it says it's on sale!"; Look Mummy, it says buy one get one free!) Ahh - the joys that come when a child learns to read!

I complained to Ben today that I don't know where she learnt to shop like she does - shopping is certainly not a favorite occupation of mine. He claims it's a recessive gene that comes from a certain grandmother ;-)

5 years ago today

We welcomed a little girl into our lives...

It's amazing where 5 years have taken us...

Happy Birthday Lizzy!

Kindergarten Plans

Yesterday, Lizzy informed me that she was going to go to Kindergarten where she currently goes to preschool. I gently let her know that she was actually going to attend where Isaac goes to school.

The bottom lip dropped and the wail came "But they have music lessons at our Kindergarten. I want to go to music lessons."

I was very thankful that Isaac was with me when this conversation happened because he piped up and told her that he also has music lessons at school and that he went two times a week. This led into a conversation between the two of them about when they had music lessons. Isaac proudly told her that his lessons were after lunch and that they lined up outside the music room. (This is more than he ever tells me, so I was greatly interested.)

All of Isaac's information cheered her up greatly and she now wants to go to the public school again. Whew....tears avoided thanks to a big brother.

Shake that Boody

Lizzy has a new toothbrush. It's called a Tooth Tunes toothbrush and it sings for the amount of time she is supposed to brush. Her toothbrush sings "The Bare Necessities" from The Jungle Book. It's quite a funny sight, for she now happily cleans her teeth with her bottom stuck out and a little tail shaking happening.

Who's cooking are we talking about?

I was about to cook sausages the other morning for breakfast and had just put them in the fry pan when Lizzy asked "Are they burnt yet?".

Considering Ben usually is the one who makes a cooked breakfast, I'm going to blissfully think that she was making a comment on Ben's cooking skills.

Halloween

Big brother worship is strong in our household. Once Isaac had chosen his halloween costume, there was no convincing Lizzy to be anyone but Princess Leia.

And another - as proof as to who really is under that mask!

Can I tell you something?

This is a phrase we hear from Isaac quite often, especially when talking to someone he doesn't know too well. Usually, when we hear this we know he's about to tell someone about Pokemon.

However, on Friday, he met Lizzy's Kindermusik teacher for the first time. During stamp time, he went up to her and said the usual "Can I tell you something?" I was thinking we were about to hear about Pokemon again when he said "My mummy has a baby in her tummy. We're going to have a baby after my birthday."

I've got to say I was taken by surprise as he's not usually one to give out too much information. It's sort of nice to know that a new baby and Pokemon rank up at the same level of interest.

Authors

My kids love reading. Last night we were reading and we spoke about how the person who wrote the book was called the Author, a fact that Isaac told me he already knew.

Despite his vast amount of knowledge on what an author is, he was a little confused about our author for the night. Her name was Barbara someone and he wanted to know if she cut hair as well as wrote books. I had to explain that a Barber was someone who cut hair while Barbara was a girls name.

Reasons

It's Isaac's teacher's birthday next week. As a present, one of the mothers is putting together a poster board about what the students like about their teacher. Each child has been given a card on which they have to write something.

This is Isaac's card...

I like everything about Ms McCathern. I like her because she gives me twice as much work as in Kindergarten.

I couldn't help but smile and appreciate his love for learning.

Made in China

Ben is going to China in a few weeks time. As a result Lizzy has been taking interest in anything about China.

The other day she suddenly yells out to us "This is made in China!". Ben & I smile at each other - what a little smarty we have, being able to read the label. However, we both laughed when a few minutes later she exclaims "Everything is made in China!" How true. Isn't it ironic when a 4 year old makes such a profound statement about our buying habits. Maybe we need to start looking harder for presents that are made in the USA.

Some glimpses of Alaska

We did a cruise to Alaska a couple of weeks ago. It was an awesome trip, enjoyed by the whole family. If you ever make your way over here, I'd definately recommend it.

I have not yet downloaded all my photos, but here are just some glimpses of Alaska.

This first photo is of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. The second is of the kids touching some glacial ice. It's hard to believe that it's the middle of summer in these photos.

Whale watching in Skagway was awesome. Unfortunately my photography wasn't very good, and most of my shots were out of focus. We even saw these whales breech (jump completely out of the water) which is apparently rare in Alaska. My photo of this happening is terrible though, so you have to content yourselves with my most in focus photo.

I have so many more, but I'll post them on another day.

Grade 1

Isaac started grade 1 yesterday. I asked him today if he liked being in grade one - his response...

"It's better than kindergarten even though I don't get to play with the toys anymore".

Mt St Helens

We have just recently come back from 4 days at Mt St Helen's (or more precisely, a state park just near by). It was quite awesome to see the volcano up close, and to see the devastation that is still evident 27 years after it's eruption.

This first picture is one of the first glimpses we got of the volcano. Mt St Helens is the hazy mountain with the flat top in the background.

We stopped at a lookout part way along the road, and took these photos with Mt St Helens in the background.

This is the closest we were able to go to the volcano. I took this picture at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is the last visitor center you can get to. The entire front (north) of the mountain is completely wiped out, due to the blast going out to the side instead of straight up.

If you'd like to read about the history of Mt St Helens and the 1980 eruption, you can see read about it at ... http://www.mt-st-helens.com/history.html

What amazed me is that you could see evidence still of the blast. They grouped the blast zone into 3 different zones. The first zone was about 6 miles around the volcano and it was called the Tree Removal Zone. As guessed by the name, the trees in this zone were totally destroyed. These next photos are from this zone, and as you can see there are still tree stumps left and the vegetation is slowly returning.

The next zone was the tree down zone, which was from about 6-18 miles. In this zone, the force of the blast knocked huge trees down as though they were blades of grass. Lastly was the standing dead zone which was from about 18-24 miles. In this last zone, the heat of the blast killed the vegetation but the tree trunks stayed upright.

Ben was most facinated by the "silent" zone. The people in the immediate vicinity of the blast did not hear a thing when the volcano erupted. However, people a few hours away reported hearing sounds that resembled thunder or sonic booms.

All in all, I loved this camping trip. I've been wanting to see Mt St Helens since we moved here and it certainly met my expectations. The scenery was definately different from what I've ever seen before.

I'll leave you with this last photo of the Toutle River. The river is actually very small, but the devastation around it makes it look huge from the distance. (I'm guessing that the mud flow followed the river path)

Geometry Lessons

Each night we hold hands and say grace before dinner.

Last night Ben was about to say grace when Lizzy exclaims "We made a circle!". Ben hushes her because they've been told numerous times that we need to be quiet for grace. Suddenly at the end of the table we hear Isaac muttering "Well actually it's more like an oval".

Ben & I grin at each other and he begins grace. However he adds at the end "And thank you for the geometry lesson".

My Favourite Photo

Every now and then I manage to get a photo which I fall in love with. This was one of them. It's from the farm yesterday, as Lizzy ran around in the Hay Maze.

I love how it catches the twinkle in her eye as she runs through the maze.

At the Farm

Yesterday we went to Remlinger Farm. We go a few times each summer, and the kids always have a great time.

Pony rides were definately a hit. Isaac waited on top of the railing, while Lizzy went around on her pony.

Isaac then got his turn, while Lizzy was lucky enought to get another turn.

I loved this photo. I'm not sure who took who's hand, but they stood holding hands as they waited for the canoe ride.

Two random photos from when they climbed the rock hill....

This was the expression of their faces as they waited for the pumpkin ride to begin. Within a few seconds they had huge grins on their faces. However by the end of the ride, Isaac was yelling at Lizzy and Lizzy was in tears. They had a huge argument because Isaac wanted to pull the lever to go up while Lizzy wanted to stay low. They went in separate pumpkins the next time around.

They enjoyed the carosel, despite that fact that Isaac is getting a little bit too big for it.

I explained to Isaac that he needed to look at his reflection in the camera to get a photo of him looking at the camera. This was the result...

Although Lizzy looks a little stunned, I thought it was a cute photo of Isaac.

4th July Photos

We had a very quiet 4th July. We just stayed at home and enjoyed a BBQ on the back verandah in the late evening. (Yes...these photos were taken around 8.00pm).

The kids enjoyed eating corn on the cob. It's currently in season and so very sweet and juicy.

As you can see, Isaac not only enjoyed eating it but he enjoyed making faces with it.

I had to show you this cup...Isaac kept on calling it all manner of names. It was the Independant Cup (my favourite), the Independance Cup and the 4 July Cup.

Gymnastics Camp

Something broke a long time ago on the kids websites, so photos have not been updated there in a very long time. One day that will be fixed and you'll all be able to enjoy photos again. As you will have noticed I have been doing a photo dump. I hope you have enjoyed getting some new photos!

This first post have photos from Elizabeth's gymnastic's camp. At the end of the week they did a presentation for parents and were awarded a medal at the end. This was one of her "moves" where they crab walked over the bars.

She was so proud of her medal. You would think that she had won some major prize. Lizzy wore it for the next 2 days, and showed everyone who we met.

Audio Options

Lizzy has a couple of movies which she enjoys watching. Every now and then she'll come and ask me if she can watch one of them but lately there's been a twist. Our conversation tends to go like this...

"Mummy, can I watch Cinderella?"

"OK. Go and put it on."

"Mummy, can I watch Cinderella in French?"

"OK. But you'll need to change the Audio Options."

"Thank you."

And off she goes and changes the language option to French (or Spanish if that's the mood she's in).

I'm not sure if she knows the DVD well enough and follows the story that way, or if she's actually taking in a little of the other languages.

Summer Hairstyles

It's been a time for new hairstyles in our house. Ben & I had our haircut today and Isaac & Lizzy the other day. Everyone but Isaac have had dramatic changes, as you'll see below.

Ben has had everything lopped off for the first time in about a year. Doesn't he look handsome? He's got the haircut now he just needs a job ;)

Me...we'll let's say I'm sporting a "mummy" look. It's the first time I've ever had short hair.

And I just love Lizzy's hair - no more screaming over having her long hair brushed. And to make things even better, she loves it too.

And finally, a photo of Isaac. He is the only one who hasn't had a hairstyle change. I really couldn't get a good shot of his hair because he didn't want to take off his hat. However, I caught this moment on camera and thought it was cute.

Year One Forever

Tomorrow is Isaac's last day of Kindergarten. He is very excited about summer holidays beginning and was telling me everything he wants to do over the next couple of months.

We then started talking about next year, when he suddenly annouced "I want to be in year 1 forever and ever." Ahhhh. If only time could stand still like that but, alas, he will grow up.

The Cheat Sheet

The kids computer is password protected. We chose to do this so we could monitor how much time they spent on the computer.

As the password was for time monitoring (not content monitoring - we have a whole other system for that!), I allow them to enter the password by spelling it out to them as they type it in. I knew it would only be a matter of time until they learnt how to spell it by themselves.

The other week was a typical day. Elizabeth had asked to play on the computer and I'd given permission. I wasn't looking when she was asking "Mummy, what's the next letter?". Little did I know that she was writing the password onto a brown paper bag instead of typing it into the computer.

So now she has her own cheat sheet. Luckily, she still asks me whether she can play on the computer. If I say "yes" out comes the cheat sheet, and she types in the not-so-secret password.

Junuary

I know they say that if you can't find anything to converse about, talk about the weather. Here in Seattle, that's easy. Even the comedians of the world have worked this out. Ben sent me this cartoon, which sums up our weather.

I know I moan every year, but this year is it's really sad. The media is calling this month "Junuary" because although it's almost summer, we are having winter weather. Yesterday, there was even snow in the mountains. Come on summer - I'm missing you.

Mum & Dad

I have fallen from grace. My name is no longer Mummy. I am now called Mum. Ben has also taken the tumble with me.

What has surprised me though, is that it's Lizzy who's made the change. To Isaac, we are still mummy and daddy.

One part of me smiles, and thinks "oh my she is growing up" while the other part of me is sad whilst thinking the exact same thought.

The funny part to all of this is that I'm "Mum" if she wants something, especially if she's calling from a distance. However, for quiet times, I'm still Mummy. It's like she's sitting on the edge of little girl and baby. I think I'd like to just teeter here for a little longer.

Secret Hideout

The other weekend, we cleared out all our junk from the space under the stairs and Ben turned it into a server room. It's now not uncommon to go looking for Ben, and find out that he is hiding out in his "den" fixing something.

Isaac discovered this room the other night when Ben was working in there, and he happily spent an hour playing his gameboy next to his daddy.

However, it has now become his "secret hideout". Ben came home from work, and Isaac ran downstairs to get his gameboy while calling out "Daddy, I'm going to the secret hideout."

For now I'm going to let boys be boys, and they can have their hideout. It's kind of nice also knowing that it's the boys space, but I know where to search if I need to find them.

Apportioning Blame

One of the great things about having a brother or sister, is there is always someone else that you can blame. If something goes wrong, it's never your fault. The downfall happens when one of group goes to school. There is no longer someone else to carry the blame when something goes wrong, or even if there is any possible chance of getting in trouble.

That's when Elizabeth arrives on the scene. No, not our Lizzy, but the other Elizabeth. The doll that goes everywhere with Lizzy.

"Mummy. Elizabeth wanted a pear." (as she uses the doll to lift the pear from the fruit bowl, and then begin to eat it.)
"Mummy. Elizabeth wanted to play in the water." (when explaining how water got on the floor)

Yes. It's good to apportion the blame. In theory that surely means that she gets in trouble half the time.

Poetry

Isaac has been learning to write poetry at school, as April was National Poetry Month. They learnt all about free verse, and these were Isaac's efforts at writing some...

The Fish
A fish can swim
Fast as a rocket
going to the moon.
That is fast!
Wwwwwwooooooowwwwww!

Hurricane
The eye is calm.
No winds at all.
Outside, strong winds
blow trees
until they bend.

Pokemon
Gameboy.
Double screen.
Fun to win.
I love Pokemon.

Orcas
They look like
I could swim
with them
and have fun,
fun, fun, fun
fun, fun, fun
fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

My favourite was the Hurricane poem. I was really quite impressed with them all though.

Tip-toeing through the Tulips

Last weekend we headed up to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, and were lucky enough to see the fields in bloom. (There had been concern due to our unseasonal weather that they wouldn't bloom in time). I thought I'd share this little part of our weekend with you...

This is how Lizzy spent much of her time at the tulip farm...

The Grandma's will be proud...

Lizzy has decided that we need to have tea parties.

She will pick flowers (read...weeds with little purple flowers) from the garden, and put them in a cup. Next she tells me that it's time for a tea party, and I need to make cups of tea. Then we choose a snack. She likes to pour the milk and put the sugar in her tea.

So for the past week, she's been drinking tea almost every day. I'm sure that within the year I may even be able to tolerate a cup. Right now, I just dutifully take a mouthful and say "thankyou".

So next time we are home, Lizzy will probably be drinking tea with the best of you tea drinkers and loving every minute of it.

My Favourite Words

Elizabeth

becept - except
Awona - Werona
Lawy - rally (imagine the vowel sounds being correct but "L" instead of "r" and then "w" instead of "l"


Isaac

optapus - octapus

Their little word exchanges are quite cute, but I have to smile at Lizzy with her "becept". There is nothing like an arguement where she's saying "Becept I wanted to have my turn first."

Why?

Everybody warned me about the "why" stage which every child goes through. Why is the sky blue? Why are you doing that? Why? Why? Why? Like every parent, I chuckled over the many why questions, but was also relieved when it ended.

What I was never warned about was the next stage. It's slightly more advanced than the great question of why. It's called the "What would happen if..." question. Isaac is in this stage right now.

What would happen if the earth was broken in half?
What would happen if there were more people than houses in the world?
What would happen if ....?

We've moved from basic facts to the hypothetical - and it's driving me crazy.

Camping On Hold

We were supposed to try out our tent for the first time this weekend. But as you may see, I am here at home posting to this blog.

Whilst I am blogging, I am looking out the window watching the snow clouds move across the sky. It's been snowing on and off since yesterday. What is the meaning of this? Snow in Spring? It's totally wrong! I'm just hoping my new plants won't be too upset about it.

So our camping trip has been put on hold. While I expect to encounter rain, for that is what living in Seattle is all about, I really have no desire to set up a tent in snow.

Let's hope for a nice weekend next week.

Bloomin' Spring

Spring is here. The daffodils are blooming, and all the other bulbs are about to bloom. Within a few weeks my garden will be full of tulip blooms, and soon after the roses will appear. I love this time of year.

However, this afternoon, it felt more like saying "bloomin' spring" rather than spring blooming. Just picture one child with a potted daffodil in hand, running and screaming "No, no, it's mine" with the other in chase, in tears, screaming "no, I want it!". My peaceful spring image was quite distorted, although I could not help but laugh. Once I pulled myself together I had to go and intervene. "Isaac. The daffodil is Lizzy's. She picked it out today at the nursery for her garden. Perhaps you'd like to come and choose another flower and we can work out where to put it."

Thank goodness he was willing to cooperate, and once the tears had been dried, we were back to the work of making Spring bloom.

Camping

If you have read Ben's blog today, you will have seen that we are getting into Spring. To go along with this theme we bought a tent today. We've been married for 8 years now and I don't think we've ever been camping. However, I grew up camping and have wanted to do it for awhile. Ben has finally relented and, in fact, is quite excited about the idea now.

I remember camping with a great big heavy tent, however our new tent roles up to the size of a sleeping bag and is about 8kg. It fits 6 people, giving us room to live in when it rains, because living in the Northwest means that you have to expect it to rain while you camp.

So over the next few months we are hoping to go camping at a few state parks in Washington, and enjoy seeing some more of this beautiful land.

The Jesus Sandwich

Lizzy has started to make her own sandwiches for lunch. She takes great joy out of coming up with various combinations.

Today she made a sandwich and happily annouced that it was her "Jesus" sandwich.

"Your Jesus sandwich?"

"Yes. The carrots are Jesus and the bread is the tomb."

I was so stunned that I totally forgot to ask what the cheese was. However, I am happy to annouce that yes, Jesus did come out of the tomb - although in this instance he now resides in her stomach. For the time being anyway.

Summer Holidays

"Isaac, do you know where we're going for our summer holidays?"

"Australia?"

"No..."

At this second the bottom lip starts quivering.

"But I want to go to Australia. I miss my grandparents."

Followed by a very unhappy face and some more quivering lips.

"How about we call Jan or Joe tonight?"

"OK!" And all is right with the world again.

Like Father, Like Son

I had my hair cut on Tuesday. It used to be fairly long, probably about mid-back length. I had it all cut off back up to my shoulders again.

When I went to pick Elizabeth up from preschool, she noticed straight away. "Mummy, your hair is smaller!" Usually I give advance warning to Ben when I get my hair cut, but I decided that if my 4 year old could see a difference, surely my husband would be able to.

The next test came when I picked up Isaac from school. I was not really surprised when he did not notice, so I asked "Isaac, is my hair any different?" He looked at me for a moment and said no. Groan.

So with one child noticing and one child not noticing, the odds could go either way. Would Ben notice?

Let's just say, it was a case of "like father, like son".

Adoration

Lizzy loves her brother. If Isaac does something, she wants to try it too. Her adoration became very apparent a number of months ago when she told Isaac's speech therapist "When I am five, and a boy, I'm going to do speech therapy."

Although the boy part is a little out of her league, it looks like she may achieve her goal. She has just started physical therapy, and the therapist noticed that she has low facial muscle tone and recommended some speech therapy.

She's thrilled that she is now doing PT and will start speech therapy, just like Isaac. Obviously there is nothing like following in the footsteps of an adored brother.

Girlfriends

On Valentines Day, the receptionist at Speech Therapy asked Isaac if he had a girlfriend. After moments pause he replied "Lizzy is my girl friend." There was a collective sigh and comments of "What a sweetheart".

However, obviously alot of thought has gone into this question over the past couple of weeks. We were in the car yesterday, and we got into a conversation about last names. He thought the story about how our last name came about was very cool. That turned into a conversation about how girls have the option to use thier husbands last name when they marry. In the middle of all of this he suddenly says "I'll marry Grace if she is still my friend when we grow up because she is my girl friend." Yes...he's still a sweetheart.

I'm so glad I'm dealing with girl friends rather than girlfriends. I still need a few more years to prepare for that.

The best option...

As Lizzy cried out in pain after stepping on lego for the second time, I made the statement "Well, you know the best way to stop that happening, don't you?"

Ben pipes up and says "Yes...put on a pair of shoes!"

What ever happened to cleaning?

A Little Shopper

Isaac needed new shoes, so today we went shopping. Lizzy decided that she wanted new shoes too. I explained that Isaac only had one pair of shoes and he'd grown out of them. She, on the other hand, had 4 pair of shoes which fit her perfectly. I ended this with a question "Who needs the new shoes, Isaac who only has 1 pair that don't fit, or Lizzy who has 4 pair of shoes?"

The answer: "I need 5 pairs"

Despite the protests, we did only come home with a pair of shoes for Isaac. She was not happy with the outcome, but such is life.

All Beaten Up

What on earth happened?

No, he really wasn't beaten up. However he did fall over at school on the concrete. He had his hands in his jacket pocket and was unable to put his hands out to save himself. His chin took the worst of the fall, but he also has a nice bump and bruise underneath his hair.

Little Gordon's

We have a population crisis. Today I discovered 22 new baby fish in our 10 gallon fish tank. This is on top of the 3 adults, and 6 babies we already have. As a result of our over-population problem, we have bought a new 26 gallon tank. It's really quite a nice one, with a stand and all. I think it will become the girls tank. Boys will be banned to the smaller tank.

Whilst setting up the new tank, I mentioned to Ben that it was Dad's birthday today. He quickly dubbed the babies "Little Gordon's."

So dad I want to wish you a very Happy Birthday, and as a honour we have named 22 babies after you. Yes - even the girls, although maybe once we work out which ones are really girls they can be called Gordona's.

Just How Old Are You?

"No. I'm pretty sure that Grandma & Grandad were not children when the dinosaurs were alive."

"No. I'm positive. The dinosaurs lived a long, long time ago."

"No. Trust me. They really, really have not seen a dinosaur."

I know that you've all turned a year older in recent months (or are about to!) but it took Isaac a lot of convincing for him to accept that you all really were not children when the dinosaurs roamed the world.

Party Time

Lizzy is very excited about going to a party today. Everyday she has wanted to know if today was the party day. Therefore, as she was going to bed last night I was finally able to tell her that tomorrow would be Amber's party.

This morning, she woke up and ran into our bedroom. She already had her shirt part way off and was telling me "I have to get ready for Amber's party."

I blearily opened my eyes, and said "Darling, we need to have breakfast first, have some playtime, go to the coffee shop for milk & cookies and then come home for some lunch and playtime - then it will be time for the party. Right now, Mummy wants to go back to sleep."

I just hope the party is as exciting as the anticipation.

Happy Australia Day!

Although we're not home to celebrate, we're doing a little Australia Day on our patch of earth.

It's a lovely fine day, so Lizzy & I played a little game of cricket in the backyard.

We'll have some lamb, tim-tams & ginger beer tonight. And we can't forget to mention we'll be listening to the Hottest 100.

Ahhh...it's nice to have a little bit of home for a day.

I Want to tell you Something...

"I want to tell you something" is Lizzy's latest phrase. When she doesn't want to go to sleep you hear these words. When she's trying to delay you from leaving playtime you hear these words. It's quite often followed by "Ummm, ummm" as she madly tries to think of something to tell me.

However today we had a twist.

"Awona. Awona Awmstwong. I've got something to tell you."

She was so proud of herself as she was able to tell "something" to me...

"That's your name!"

Math & Music

I've been struggling for awhile to develop Isaac's sense of rhythm. Clapping on the beat has just been impossible for him; even keeping a steady beat has been difficult. So how do you teach rhythm to a child who seems to have no sense of rhythm?

It struck me the other week. "Isaac - can you hear the math in the music?"

His head pops up, and I can see a gleam of interest.

"Listen...the music is counting to 4, over and over again. 1,2,3,4; 1,2,3,4. It's like a pattern."

So each time we've heard something with a strong beat, we've listened for the counting in the music. And do you know what? I think he's starting to hear it!

An adventure...

What does a princess need for an adventure?

Well...first she needs to be wearing a princess dress and a backpack.

In the backpack she needs to have a coloring book, a reading book and some dental floss. (Obviously keeping your teeth clean on an adventure is critical for princesses).

Once all of that is packed - she needs a scooter and a helmet so she can take off an explore the world.

I must run now - I can hear the adventure is occurring upstairs and need to check it out.

Let's not do today again..

What a day! A Bad, Bad Day!

For those not in the know - that's a quote from a Level 1 reading book which my kids love. It was a very appropriate line for our day today.

We started off with preschool being cancelled and school starting late due to snow and ice on the roads. Not fun for driving, and I had to go out this morning, now with kids in tow.

When we came home, my carbon monoxide alarm was going off. O-oh! I send the kids back outside into the snow while I open up the house and call 911. So instead of taking Isaac to school, I'm telling firemen to please ignore all the toys over the floor as they look around my house for possible causes of CO gas. We found the cause, but so not to incriminate anyone I'll not go into details. Ben..sighs a sigh of relief ;) Oops..did I just say that!

Then this afternoon, my poor baby boy is doubling over in pain and barely able to walk. So it's off to the doctors we went. We're not sure what's going on yet, but for the first time in my life I'm really hoping he's going to start vomitting.

I'm looking forward to a better tomorrow, for today was a bad, bad day.

Stuck

We had a little bit of snow this afternoon, and of course, Lizzy wanted to be outside. After about 10 minutes I had her all rugged up and sent her off to play.

A little later I paused, thinking I heard a cry for help. It came again, and I realised it was Lizzy. I threw on my snowboots & jacket and ran outside. She was curled around an apple tree, looking like she was giving it a big hug.

"What's wrong Lizzy? Are you stuck?"

I walked over and realised that her jacket had become caught on the tree.

She looked up and said "Yes. I'm stuck. Like an apple."

My apple tree doesn't usually have apples on it at this time of year, but I thought I'd pick this apple. It's such a cute apple.

Excitement

At Christmas time, Lizzy was so excited that Santa was coming that she could not fall asleep.

Tonight has been another one of those nights. She is so excited that it took about an hour and a half for her to fall asleep. She finally fell asleep clutching her Dora the Explorer book.

You may be wondering what special event is happening tommorrow...

Let's just say that the dentist will be thrilled that he rates up there with Santa on the excitement scale.

A Mother's Work

Our family was driving in the car yesterday when the topic of women & jobs came up. I was explaining to Isaac that some mummies went to work, some worked out of their homes and others choose to stay at home to look after their children. He asked a few more questions and finally I said "Mummy chose to stay at home and look after you & Lizzy."

His response was "That's not a job. Anyone could do that!"

Maybe when I finally get a green card, getting a "real" job should be the first thing I do.

Sad Day, Happy Day

One of our fish died yesterday.

You would have thought it would have been a sad day. Usually when a fish dies, it is. However our children were more excited than sad because although our fish had died it had left six tiny babies behind. The excitement of baby fish definately outweighed the sadness of a dead fish.

If we manage to keep them alive, we're going to have 10 fish. I think some will need to go back to the pet shop.

Word Confusion

Today, Elizabeth requested an egg sandwich for lunch. She's never had one before so it was a new experience for her.

She sat down and had eaten a few mouthfuls when she announced "This is awful". I initially thought "Oh well. At least she tried it." But then she kept on eating it. So I asked her "Is it yucky or yummy?"

"It's yummy!"

We were obviously not only trying new foods but trying new words too. In the meantime, I'll just tell myself that she was full of awe about her sandwich.

A Tooth Fairy Oops

Isaac lost his second tooth on Sunday night. Like every other child around he was all eager to put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. However, unlike alot of other children he completely forgot about it by Monday morning.

This was a very good thing this time because the tooth fairy got her schedule all mixed up and forgot to visit our house.

It wasn't until Lizzy remembered on Tuesday after preschool - giving the tooth fairy enough time to make a quick stop into our house and deliver the cash before Isaac came home from school. She hit a slight problem though when she couldn't find the missing tooth.

Thank goodness for Daddy's who are able to find teeth and arrange for tooth fairy pickups after hours.

A New Meal

I like to cook. So it's inevitable that every now and then I stumble across something noteworthy. Our latest find is Acorn Chicken Stir-fry. It's so yummy and very quick to make.

Basically all it is, is an Acorn Squash (a type of small pumpkin for all my Australian friends) which is split in half, cooked and then stuffed with a chicken stir-fry. While my acorn squashes are cooking in the microwave, I stir-fry some chicken and veggies along with a store bought stir-fry sauce and - voila - it's a meal.

You should try it one day - really.

A traditional Christmas

Growing up we used to see the traditional white Christmas pictures, despite it being so hot on Christmas day.

Living in California and then in Seattle - chances of having a white Christmas are still pretty slim. It rarely snows in San Francisco and only about 3-4 times a year in Seattle.

Therefore, you can imagine how thrilled I was to look out my window just after writing my last post to see that it is snowing!

Now we have to wait and see if it sticks, and see if we might have a white christmas or not.

Some Christmas Quotes

There was definately alot of excitement in our household this morning.

Just to let you in on the Christmas scene, these were some overheard comments...

Isaac

"Mummy, Daddy, quickly! Look, Quickly, Mummy, Daddy! Santa came!"

"What would happen if someone was called "From"?" Followed by lots of giggles.

"That's just what I wanted but I forgot to put it on my list!" (When opening a transformer from Santa)

When talking about the Christmas story...

Werona: "What did the angels do?"
Isaac: "They came to sigh."
Werona: "Sigh? Did they sigh when they saw the baby?"
Isaac: "Yes!"

Lizzy

Werona: "What did the angels do?
Lizzy: "They flew"

"Santa didn't bring that! We bought it!" (said when Ben opened a present from his stocking)

Ben

"Oh - it looks like Mummy put some more things in the Santa Stocking" (followed by a confused look from Isaac and a dirty look from me).

Werona

"Oh no. It wasn't me. It must have been Santa" (said whilst trying to cover Ben's blooper)

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
And all through the house
Not a creature was stirring
Not even a mouse..."

Oh darn. Who came up with that perfect image? They obviously didn't have a 4 & 6 year old who are so excited that Santa is coming that they can't fall asleep nearly 3 hours after bedtime. It's not through lack of trying. They are lying so quietly in their beds, and when Ben checked on them Lizzy told him "I'm trying to sleep but I just can't wait for Santa to come".

Maybe we'll be sleeping in tomorrow morning after all.

Sandwiches

Just lately, Isaac has been wanting some variations to his usual peanut & butter sandwiches. We've tried it with the usuals such as jam and honey, but yesterday he wanted something different.

"Mummy, can I have peanut butter and vegemite?"

I told him I didn't think it would taste nice but he still wanted it. I ended up putting peanut butter on half and vegemite on the other and then cut off a slither of each. He put those slithers together and gobbled it up. The verdict? Yummy! So the rest of the sandwich was placed together and eaten.

Maybe his dual nationality is coming out in his eating habits...a sandwich which is a little Australian and a little American in flavour.

How Do You Feel?

Yesterday, while Isaac was at Speech Therapy, Lizzy I and played a game we found in a kid's magazine.

There was a question in there which asked "How do you feel when you argue with someone?".

Her response was "Happy".

I was a little confused and thought maybe she didn't understand the question. "Do you feel happy when you and Isaac have a fight?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because then Isaac is sad".

O-oh. No misunderstanding there. I think we have a little issue to work on.

Chistmas Concert

Last night was Elizabeth's Christmas Concert. She was very excited about singing at the concert, and had been singing her songs to us for the past week.

The time finally arrived for the concert, and she seemed a little overwhelmed. She stood quietly with all her class and sang her songs whilst seeming to look for Mummy & Daddy. I don't think she ever found us, despite the fact that we were in the 4th row and had shown her where we sit.


Here are some photos of her singing...

Now...don't go into shock - but Ben took a photo of Lizzy & I...

OK...now I've actually posted a photo of myself. Don't expect another for a long time :)

It's Beginning to Look alot Like Christmas

Yesterday was December 1. For me, this is the offical first day of the Christmas period. From this day forward I can listen to Christmas carols, put up the decorations and starting feeling Christmassy.

To help along with the mood, mother nature decided to dump a few inches of snow on us. It was really quite beautiful and so fitting for the first day of the Christmas lead-up. As a result, the song "It's beginning to look alot like Christmas" kept on going around my head.

Fiercely Independant

Today Lizzy went to her music lessons. At the end, all parents come back into the room for 5-10 minutes of family time. However, today I had just parked my car when the lady beside me asked if I was going to be long because she had a passenger with a disability who would have trouble getting into the car.

I quickly ran up to Lizzy's classroom and let her teacher know I needed to quickly move my car. Miss Allison responded with the comment "That's fine. Lizzy is very independent and she'll do fine with me. In fact, I'd call her fiercely independent. And that's a good thing."

I had to laugh. Yes - fiercely independent is probably an excellent way to describe our girl.

Raw Fish

As a general rule, I don't sushi. To me sushi means raw fish. The thought of eating raw fish makes me queasy. However, just recently Ben has been on a sushi kick so we have started to make our own. (It is the most cost efficient way to let him eat sushi). For me, we make vegetarian sushi. I can handle that.

What has surprised me however, is that Lizzy seems to love sushi. And just to make me gag, her favourite is raw salmon on top of rice (salmon nigiri). She & Ben devour the stuff.
I was watching them eating their sushi tonight and felt like gagging, when I look over at my husband. He is there, beaming, thrilled that he now has a sushi eating partner, albeit a 4 year old one.

Logical Thinking

Did you know that my Mum must be smarter than Jan. Well, according to Isaac-logic this must be the case.

We saw one of his preschool teachers yesterday. I asked him whether he rememeber Miss Denise, which he did. Then suddenly he says "But I like Ms Beaver more. She knows more. And I'm going to like my grade 1 teacher even better because she'll know even more than Ms Beaver."

Sorry Jan - being a grade 3 teacher must be aced by being a high school teacher :)

A Big Heart

Lizzy loves to draw pictures of people. Most of her vast quantities of art work are of either people or houses. Just lately she's started adding a heart to people. She puts it smack bang in the middle of their chest.

Unfortunately for me, Ben has only seen pictures so far of mummy with a heart. I had to carefully explain that yes - it was a big heart and not a big .... do I have to continue?

I Don't Love Australia

In the mail today, we received some lovely little presents from Jan. Each package had a little note book which had "I Love Australia" on the front. Isaac and Lizzy got busy stamping and writing in their note books, when suddenly Lizzy came over to me and said "I don't love Australia!".

"Oh? What do you love?"

"I love you, mummy. I don't love Australia".

Obviously you can't love two things at once when you are three, so I'm quite happy being the focus of her love. Australia can wait.