july 2009

july 19

reading the paper on a sunday morning

i've been reliving my childhood this week. peter and hitomi bought me the complete first 4 series' of grange hill for christmas and aly and i have been watching them in the mornings [v weird to see characters i think of as 16 year olds as 12 year olds by the way]. i was also trying to explain the video games i used to play to toby and ended up downloading a BBC micro emulator. he was a bit bemused by the strange key combinations you had to use, the peculiar sounds and the fact that all of the monsters did the exact same thing every time! finally, at the library we found some of the 'choose your own adventure' books which both children loved as much as i did [and apparently still do].

the kitchen cabinet guy and our contractor, dan, come to take final measurements for the new kitchen first thing on monday morning - yippee! i've been reliving my childhood dream of being an interior designer by making a mood board for the kitchen.

peter and hitomi are over from tokyo at the moment and are coming to visit this week along with sascha's dad. unfortunately, aly is away camping with her friend on vancouver island for the week so they won't have much of an overlap. i'm sure the rest of us should have some fun and i'm all for bonus baby entertainers.

july 15

i've taken up baby signing with zoe. if i remember rightly, i think i did a little bit with the other 2, but not a huge amount - i think they both ended up using 'more', 'eat' and 'drink' but not too much more. i'm hoping that between aly, toby and i we can keep the momentum going long enough for her to learn some signs and start using them.

zoe has taken a break from working on bottom shuffling to move herself around and has, instead, opted for upside down crawling [on her back]. she can still only push herself backwards, but can rotate a little so doesn't end up going the opposite way to the way she was actually trying to go! she's also a splendid foot clapper. why is it that it's so much easier for babies to clap with their feet than with their hands, but for us, clapping feet is quite the achievement [which by the way, my mum is very proud of being able to do!]

we're getting a new kitchen - hooray! much as i'm very excited about the long awaited kitchen renovation, it's a little frustrating to have 3 children who's idea of summertime fun does not seem to include trudging around cabinet, tile, lighting, appliance and countertop stores. weird!

i've had the coldplay song 'viva la vida' stuck in my brain for at least 3 weeks now. i literally wake up singing it in the mornings. it's not been helped by the fact that aly has decided that it will be the song she learns in her voice lessons so we're now listening it to it in the car while she practices. it's a good thing i happen to really like the song. i just wish i knew what it was all about. i've read a few different theories, but if anyone happens to know the actual answer PLEASE let me know!

july 7

it's looking like a busy few weeks - aly is going camping with her friend, brianna, for a week [unfortunately for sascha that means a 10-hour round trip to get her to said campsite!], sascha's brother pete is coming for a week, and then we're still planning to go somewhere[?] for some time [?] at the end of the month.

i LOVE the school holidays. no worrying about school lunches, field trips or getting the children to and from school [really - how is 2.30pm the end of the day?] i had such a productive day yesterday - a richmond family place mother goose program in the park with zoe, a playdate and lunch at our place, singing lesson for aly, some grocery shopping and prescription pick up, 2 loads of laundry, an hour of paid web work, several emails i'd been procrastinating about, an advocacy letter to the health department to try to get an infant health clinic in the area, a stir fry craftily using up every vegetable in the fridge and i even squeezed in a little scrapbooking once the children were in bed.

speaking of the children being in bed, zoe didn't stay in hers for long. she seemed weirdly disturbed. at about 12.30 i finally figured out that it could be teething - sure enough her 2 bottom teeth were just starting to peek through. after some medication, she slept fine. it was precisely at this moment that i stopped breastfeeding toby - fortunately he was 8 months before he got a tooth. fingers crossed she's not a biter! at this rate she might have her adult teeth before toby does [nearly 8 years old still not a wiggly tooth to be found].

we had our first family game of risk the other day. i'd forgotten two things - first, how much i LOVE risk and secondly, how tantrum inducing the game can be. fortunately, aly and toby quickly discovered alliances - namely them against me - which helped.

finally, you know you've got too many children when you try to put a bib on the 9 year old. in my defence, the 9 year old was holding the 6 month old at the time. all those heads can get very confusing!

july 3

happy canada day.

toby's new savings account seems to have gone to his head. he opened a new bank at home today and aly and i had to invest in it. it does have a fantastic rate of return and there's already been a split and dividend payment. [he was all hyper last night because sascha had been talking stocks and shares with him! - personally i usually fall asleep when sascha starts talking about finances].

at butterfly world - toby was a little freaked out by all the butterflies aiming at his head!

we decided to head over to victoria for a couple of action-packed days: we went to the royal BC museum, glendale gardens and butterfly world. we had a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone and pick some fresh veg. we had been wary of going because we weren't sure we wanted to listen to zoe scream in the car on the journey. as it turned out, she was actually fine in the car, but apparently doesn't like to sleep anywhere but her own bed. needless to say, we came back a little tired! we had planned to do a week long road trip later in the month - just travel south as long as zoe didn't scream the place down. we're thinking maybe one or two nights now!

i took aly and toby to a mom and me scrapbooking class on sunday. it's the first time i've taken both of them, but it was a mad science themed session so toby wanted to come. it turned out pretty well. toby wasn't exactly brimming with enthusiasm for the craft portion of the day, but they both really enjoyed the mad science experiments and making slime [which aly managed to spill in my friend, renukha's car on the way home - sorry again renukha!] it was the first time i'd been out with just the two of them since zoe was born and it was nice to spend some time with them without having to worry about the baby. zoe did her part and behaved very well for sascha for the 5 hours i was gone. although she's VERY clingy with me, she apparently does much better when i'm nowhere near her.

so we've officially entered the realm of finger foods. it's amazing how many different surfaces a damp cheerio can stick to! it might be messy, but it is certainly useful to have something to give her as a distraction - especially when we're all trying to sit down to a meal.

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