happy ho-ho

Christmas tree

 

Pajama morning

 

Hello

I'm sorry for the lack of regular posting, it's just that, well, um, yeah. Sometimes during my day, I compose wonderful little stories to post, but by the time I get to the computer (which doesn't happen every day if Amelia doesn't nap. she doesn't nap all the time anymore, rather calls out to me, waking up Burke and getting my blood simmering) they're gone. So, here is Amelia asleep one night. She's been insisting on going to sleep in her crib for about 2 weeks now. She also has her afternoon quiet time in here. She is too long for it now, so I worry about her little scrunched up body and I move her to her big bed when I go to sleep.
And here is a slightly washed out picture of Burke doing his favourite activity; standing. He stands up anywhere he can, even the bathroom scale, 2 inches off the floor. Sometimes he just has his hands on the floor and his legs straight and tries to push his body up. He's always been about his legs, always pushing with them, even in the womb. 

Snow!

View from the front door
View of the backyard. 

yeah, right

Would you believe sick and sick & teething? We made it through the day, with the help of a great many tissues. Now it's Daddy's turn. For the next two days, I will be gone all day. I'm taking a doula training course! (A doula is a birth coach to help women (and their partners) through the whole labour and birth process). 

Turbidity, another word for muddy

Pineapple express-a tropical rain and wind storm. Very high water turbitity-boil water advisory. baby with a cold-plugged nose-wake up at 4:30.Same baby teething-top right tooth and the canines (again, and for real hopefully). Toddler with a cold-awake and ready for the day at 5:30. Spit-up (I thought we were over that). Diapers.

And all the coffee shops are closed-see water turbidity:

Wish me well.

Posted before 9 am.

May I vent a little?

Why do people think that it's cute or funny to ask little girls with big brown eyes if they can take them home, or if their mom would notice if they took her little brother away with them? And then they have the audacity to expect that little girl to give them a polite goodbye or even a hug? I wish I could think of a good snide comment to make in these situations, but these people are frequently people that we see on a semi-occasional basis and on whose goodwill in their job we rely on. Argh.

Sleeping girl and apple pie

This is where Mia fell asleep today. She's not been napping lately, and if she does fall asleep during the day she's awake longer at night, but I'm loathe to wake her up, she just sings and talks to herself at night, so it's not as if it makes any more work for us. The past few days have been dark and rainy, Vancouver & November rain, so I think that may make her a bit more sleepy ( don't we all get sleepy on those days?)
The above was a creation to imitate the below. Lance had this pie a few weeks ago and loved it so much he took a picture. I made sort of an egg-y crust, I found the recipe I want to try next time, but it calls for yeast and I couldn't find mine. I used gala apples (it's what we had) and I don't think they're very good for baking, they stayed crunchy. Still tasty , but not nice and mushy like theirs. But the topping, oh Yum! I toasted hazelnuts, cashews and almonds in the oven, took what skin off the hazelnuts I could and then added pumpkin seeds. I cooked some water, sugar and cornstarch together to make the glaze and mixed the nuts in. I love the way mine looks, I like the colour much better than theirs, and the toasted nuts are so yummy. Overall, a very good dessert, and it will only be better next time with the improvements to crust and apple variety.

Burke

On October 25, Burke finally got his first tooth! ( His bottom left, same as Amelia's first) A few days later the bottom right broke through. Our own little Jack-o-Lantern.

Burke has been able to get up onto his knees and rock back and forth for quite some time now, and can get into the sitting position easily, but only in the past few days has he done any crawling, and that was only one 'crawl' at a time. This morning he managed5 or 6 in a row. He's very unsteady, but definately moving forward. I was reminded, watching him, that even crawling is a balancing act.

Perhaps in response to this new phase in his life, I had a wierd incident last night. I would say dream, but I was very much awake.

I woke up, looking for Burke. (We co-sleep and his bed is right between me and the wall.) I was throwing off his blankets, looking all around me, even looking on the floor to see if he had managed to get down there. I was really starting to get worried and woke up Lance to get his help.

All the while there was a poor confused baby right at my lap (who just wanted to nurse, please!) I thought that was Amelia.

I don't know what Lance must've been thinking as he pointed out that Burke was RIGHT THERE. But, I wondered, where was Amelia? Safe in her own bed. It was about then that my real brain kicked in and I settled down.

the end

the little caterpillar

 

A few pics from the hallowe'en party

Don't you just love her liitle hand on his face?
I had thought to call her a butterfly and Burke a caterpillar (I'll get a picture of him on Tuesday), but she looks more like a fairy. It's shiny, it has wings, that's plenty.
 

more beach shots

(and don't worry, in the shot below, I was just out of the picture, not that far away!)

Sorry I haven't posted lately, it's just the way it's been around here lately. Amelia's quiet times are shorter because she doesn't usually fall asleep anymore, and Burke's been waking up more often, so I don't get much time. All these wonderful and sweet little things happen and I think "Oh, that would be a perfect little story for the blog", but now I can't remember them.

I have made a little costume for Amelia and will be making one for Burke, so look for those soon... 

at the beach

 

Now if only she could change his diapers...

 

matching!

We recieved a new, larger ducky sweater. An early Christmas present, thank you C! The little one still fits Mia, but I don't really have a sweater for Burke, so I've been putting him in this. And these are the hats we got from Amanda in the spring. It's the only hat that I have a chance of keeping on Burke's head, he rips everything else off.

As the four of us were heading out in the car today, Mia started asking about something, it sounded like "bed", but no she said. "bear?", "not bear, bed" ,"bird?" "no". Then she said "not a bed, not a bird, not a bear" (a la green eggs and ham). It was so funny we started laughing in the front of the car, me a bit louder apparently because then she said "are you freaking out, mama?" (I'm laughing just remembering) (after she's had a meltdown, she'll sometimes ask me 'what'd I do?' as in what just happened, and two or three times I've responded by saying 'you just freaked out a little bit') 

more aquarium shots

Stellar sea lion and pacific white-sided dolphins. 

Belugas!

(Amanda, if you guys ever come up here, we would love to take you here!)

We've gone to the Aquarium three times in the past three weeks now that the tourist season has somewhat slowed and the children aare back in school.And this, in the underwater beluga visiting area, is our favourite spot. We usually have our mid-morning snack there.  

Two years ago today

 

Amelia took this picture,

She also set up the animals with their food, plates and spoons. She also wants to type something.

v nxn,nroooxnc nxz ccxzncsanx m lfm sf smmfksmffmkdlflkf ekffk fk lfk;f;eff'fl'f'fff]wf
f
'f
'f;f;f;f;f
;
f;
f;f;

ps.
I was upstairs and Mia told me she needed the camera, so I came and was going to take the picture of her animals for her, but she insisted on doing it herself. Very soon she'll be doing her own blogging I guess....

And so it begins...

"Why Momma, why?"

"Because you're two-and-a-half."

"Why?"

"Because you've got lots of questions."

"Why?"

"Becau-u-u-use there's lots of things that you want to learn about and understand."

"Why momma?"

"Because you're a curious little girl."

"Why?"

"Because I love you."

"Oh."

This last answer was Lance's idea, and it worked the one time I tried it, so I'm going to use it sparingly so it doesn't lose potency. She just started this why on top of why yesterday.

what can i say?

 

playing around