Reminiscing!

Isn't it funny how you can forget a moment, then see a photo and be suddenly reminded of such fun. I was preparing to upload the pictures from last month from my camera to my laptop, when I came across some really great times!

A few weeks ago we went to the Quemby's house to catch frogs. Naomi has been crazy over all things furry or with reptile skin this summer - so our friends were kind enough to invite us over for a frog catching morning. What ensued was a lot of mud, a few frightened frogs and lots of fun. Suprisingly enough, it wasn't the photos of the frogs that scared me the most, it was the picture of the girls on the back of the little four-wheeler with their friend Simon driving. Yeah -- immediately I got a glimpse of life 10 years from now. SCAREY!

Naomi was also thrilled to see that Ben, Caleb and Kate have some terrific monkey bars on their fort. Guess what our $200 Home Depot windfall will probably go towards! Hopefully Adam can come over to help with the building.

Joel would probably say that even more scarey is the shoe fettish that Myles has lately. No kidding, the kid cannot go anywhere without shoes on. If you take them off, he just goes and finds another pair to wear. Most of the time, they aren't even his shoes. Since he and Lilah share the same sized foot, you can imagine Joel's dismay at coming home and seeing his son VERY PROUDLY wearing black patent leather with polka dots! Only more scarey was the day that he got out the barrettes!

We also headed to the Chinese Lantern Festival again this year and I've included some shots of that trip. The kids have been wanting to take a train for a while now, so we decided to catch the GO train in Oshawa. The train ride was a ton of fun - even when Myles decided to investigate the emergency bars that are conveniently located at toddler height and the conductor came screaming back to our car to make sure everything was OK on the way in. On the way home, Naomi's highlight was when the conductor asked her to make the announcment for our stop. "Next stop OSHAWA!"

The Lantern Festival was fun again this year. In fact I think that the kids enjoyed it even more this year. The shows were spectacular and we had to drag them away so that we could check out the lanterns. Would have been a more difficult thing except that Naomi spotted Baskin Robbins and we got sucked in. Last year we stopped in front of the panda lanterns and took a photo of the girls. When we got to the Panda's again, we decided to make it an annual thing and we lined them up. The resulting photo was hilarious - and typically serious, until the girls could no longer hold their serious looks and burst into giggles. I posted both pictures for your enjoyment. :)

So . . . that was fun and the memories were even better! Enjoy the pictures - I know that I did.

Cheers,
Karen

October

What??? It’s the middle of October??? I’m not sure if the warm weather has me fooled into thinking that it’s still summer, but I sure don’t feel like Halloween is 2 weeks away!

The past month has been lots of fun as we’ve been enjoying an abnormally warm autumn. In fact two weekends ago we were at Auntie Heather and Uncle John’s place for Thanksgiving, and the kids were swimming in the lake! We also spent an afternoon with the Millen family in Teeswater and got a fun shot of all the great-grandchildren. You will find it in the slideshow, wow, what a crew!

Since our return, strep throat has been running through the house. Naomi was off school last week and just yesterday Lilah came down with it. I’m so hoping that it will escape Myles and that it’s not a prediction of what is to come this winter!

Myles is really chatting up a storm these days. He’s definitely the comedian in the family as his little personality is starting to come through. Whenever he thinks that it’s time for everyone to have a good laugh, he tips his head back and starts to let out this loud and raucous laugh. He also has figured out that he’s bigger than Lilah and has made torturing her a routine event in our house. We’ve finally gotten beyond the part where he tackles her to the floor and bites her bum. Now he tackles her and gives her an enormous hug. Myles and Naomi share a really cool bond. Often I will find that he does things for her that he will not do for me. He loves to hold her hand and often calls her over when he’s navigating a hill or set of stairs. It’s pretty cool to see how much he adores her and she adores him.

This past Monday the girls, Myles and I went on an “expedition” through the forest trails that surround our house. It’s the first time that the girls have walked the entire 3km and Myles actually walked half of it. We enjoyed collecting acorns, sweeping the forest trail with weed-brooms and counting deer tracks. It was so much fun to watch them explore and to not have to rush.

Looking back 4.5 years ago we had no kids and Joel had hair – can you imagine!! How quickly life has changed and our worlds have evolved. It’s nice to now be able to enjoy what we have, as opposed to wish and pray for it (well except for Joel’s hair).

One last funny story about the past. Those who knew us when we got married, also probably know that we received lots of Home Depot gift cards as gifts. Unfortunately they were stolen from my van a few months later when I went to use them. Recently though, we were purging some old boxes and started going through some cards we had received from our wedding. Imagine my surprise to have a $100 Home Depot Gift card fall out of one of the cards! Then a few minutes later, another! So . . . we are $200 richer at Home Depot. Not sure what we’ll buy now, but the feeling was almost better than when we opened them the first time!

So photos will follow next week (or perhaps next month). Who's kidding who -- it took me over a month to post what I wrote last month because I couldn't find the time to upload the pictures from my camera! Hopefully I'll be more on the ball this month.

Cheers to all!
Karen

August September Photos

Where does the time go?

So Myles is now in a big boy bed, and yesterday as I was taking down his crib I had this sudden thought. "Hey, there are no more babies in our house and there won't be a crib in our house again!" The thought came with a fleeting pang of sadness and then an exhilarating feeling of "wow, this time next year I might not have a diaper bag anymore either!"

Naomi started senior kindergarten this week and was thrilled to be with her friends again. It was amazing to see her excitement at heading off to school this year. Even more amazing is hearing her little mind explore new things. Not surprising, school has added a whole new level of vocabulary to her repertoire again. A conversation from two evenings ago went something like this . . .

mom - "Naomi and Lilah, dinner is ready. Please go and wash your hands."
a few minutes later . . .
mom - "Naomi and Lilah, please go wash your hands and get ready for dinner."
a few minutes later . . .
mom - "NAOMI AND LILAH, GET IN THE BATHROOM AND WASH YOUR HANDS!"
Naomi - "Oh mom, just RELAX!"
A conversation and a few minutes later,
Naomi -- "So what's for dinner?"
Mom -- "Noodles"
Naomi -- "Do I like those noodles?"
Mom - "Of course you like those noodles"
Naomi, getting ready to take a bite -- "Well, here goes nothing!"

Joel being the financial guy has also been trying to teach the girls about money these days. The latest lesson came this morning as he dropped Naomi off at her classroom.

dad - "Ok Naomi, time for me to go to work and for you to go to school."
Naomi - "No dad, I'm coming with you to work."
dad - "Naomi you can't come to work with me today."
Naomi - "But I've been to work with you before."
dad - "Well not today."
Naomi - "What's that jingling in your pocket? Money? Well let me see."
dad pulls money out of pocket.
Naomi - "Ok dad, I'll have one and then you can go to work."
dad hands over the loot that he won in a 50:50 draw at a golf tournament yesterday.
Naomi - "Thanks dad, see ya, have a nice day!" (Dad grumbles, nice doing business with you).
Mom hears the story and thinks that perhaps she should be taking lessons from her eldest!

Lilah is also starting to demonstrate a spark of humour too. Her latest is "Trust me mom"! She and Naomi have been cooking up a plan to get her into Jr. Kindergarten early. Lilah is completely ready, but must wait another year in Nursery school before she can "ride on the bus and go to big girl school". This is quite disappointing to her, so she's constantly asking when she's going to be big. Yesterday Naomi decided she was going to start "teaching her" all the stuff she needs to know to get into Kindergarten. Stuff like, "Lilah, repeat after me. . . " and "Lilah, I'm the leader today and you can come with me to hand in the attendance". She's also trying to teach her all the songs that are in the typical kindergarten repertoire. Everything from "There was a farmer had a dog and Dingo was his name oh", to "Sing oh well, Sing Oh well, Oh well, Oh well" (hint - oh well = noel).

Myles is also testing new language skills these days. We're starting to progress from "NO" to "NO tankwoo". His favorite person in the world seems to be Naomi, and when he can't find her he calls, "OMI, whe-aah-oo". Bet you are thinking right now that understanding the written toddler vocabulary is almost as hard as the spoken!

Oh where does the time go?? It seems like only yesterday that I was buying a crib for a hypothetical little gal who wasn't even born yet. Now our house is filled with babbling little one's. While I might complain that it's craziness, taking down the crib this week reminded me that it's also a dream come true!

Enjoy these pictures of the last days of summer: the Klassen Christmas in August, beach days, a trip to Sara and Tim's cottage (where we caught lots of fish), the Zhuzhou Gals travelgroup reunion, a trip to the Bowmanville zoo (where Myles overcame his fear of hungry baby goats) and kicking around the house.

Cheers,
Karen

Summer 2007

Cool Slideshows!