Where does time go?

We have been so busy but when I sit down to figure out what we have been doing - well it doesn't seem to add up to much.

It has been busy though. The kids are doing great. We have finally had some nice weather. Gavin wakes up in the morning and asks - Where are we going today? and - When can I go outside? I can't blame him - it has been a long haul and it is finally nice to have some half decent weather. And of course we are super thankful we aren't receiving kind of rain they are in eastern Canada - yoicks!

Two mornings in a row now Bronwyn has woken up and crawled out of bed (yes our bed) to go see her Dad while he is getting ready for work. When he brought her back to bed this morning she cried and called for "Daddy." I think she is becoming a bit of a Daddy's girl!

Here is a little video of Bronwyn playing the piano - I am sorry for the shaky video - I was trying to get her to not look at the camera and I seemed to create a fair bit of movement.

I am feeling better again this week - so far so good.

Ok fine, Nicola

So Nicola "tagged" me. I guess this is something new. She requested that I share 7 random things about me and then tag others to do the same. I am sure there is a greater good of peace and understanding for all mankind behind this?

So seven random things eh? How random is the question? They obviously have to be interesting but not too revealing. The fact that I have decided to wear maternity underwear for the rest of my days on earth (they are so much more comfortable - really) is likely too personal but saying that I won an award for reciting Casey at the Bat in grade 6 is likely too boring.

Add to that the fact that I am pregnancy and haven't formulated a solid thought in 4 months. And as always the compounding factor of the children - at this moment for example Bronwyn has figured out how to take her shirt off and is busily doing that while her brother laughs at her antics. This is a far more stressful task than I imagine Nicola thought it would be.

Fine, here goes...

1. I think my favourite song of all time could possibly be Tub Thumping by Chumba Wumba.

2. When I was a child I used to share my ice cream cones with my dogs - and it didn't gross me out. Now I have a hard time even sharing a cone with my kids.

- little recess to put my daughter's shirt back on and try talk my son out of taking his off.

3. I got one and only one D in University - it was in Statistics. The horrible truth is that I actually studied, got help and made an effort (which was super odd for me) and still got a D. I personally think they just make that stuff up as they go along!

4. I have fairly advanced theories about food. There are foods which I consider flexible (can be used in many different ways - eg. eggs, ham) and foods which are not flexible (ones that should only be eaten in their whole form - eg. apples). Then there are foods which I reject completely - like the melon family. It is a fairly complicated system - maybe I should hire a statistician to help me organize it.

5. Before I found out about my daughter's heart problem I could not have told you how the human heart works. I was thankful that it did - but I had no comprehension of how. I now know more but there are still bits that are hazy. This provides sport for my doctor friend Ali!

6. When I was very little my Granddad Watts told me stories about when he was younger. He told me that he was a soldier, a Welsh Guard in fact, and told me about being a guard in London. He also told me about the sewers in London (they are all made of cobbled stone - I guess) and how they are all paved. Just nice stories from his life as a young man. Of course, I grew up thinking that my Granddad guarded the sewers in London - didn't really know why - just knew it had to be important.

7. The first time I met Wes was at a church ball practice. I asked Andrea Reid who the cute guy at third base was? She replied Wes Davis. Now I thought I had already met Wes (the fellows name was Russ I guess - oh well guess I don't listen that great). I said - no that's not Wes Davis. Andrea said yes it is. I said - No, I am 99.9% sure that is not Wes Davis. Andrea shrugged and dropped it. Which is pretty amazing as she could have easily out ranked me considering she grew up attending church with Wes. Well - guess I was wrong - there is always room for error - you know that .01% chance!

So that's my random things. Now I guess the rules - of course there are rules! I now have to tag some others - so my apologies if this is as hard for you as it was for me. My logic for picking you - is you are avid bloggers whom I think won't have privacy issues - so forgive me if I got it wrong.

Tim and Sarah
Angela
Janet

Now for the rest of the rules - Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules in your blog entry. Share 7 random, or weird, facts about yourself. Tag people at the end of the post, linking to them. Leave a comment on their blog so that they know they’ve been tagged.

Buried in snow...

... and resenting it!

Sorry for my long absence but well - you know! The weather here is well frankly just shocking and I am not sure we shouldn't all write Weather Canada some nasty letters about it. I think it is time that this snow business just stopped.

It is so strange to feel house bound again in April. I have a water toy that the kids play with in the kitchen - I let them wear their swimsuits the other day as they usually get soaked when they play. It was snowing outside at the time - so this was purely an indoor swimsuit activity.

I took Gavin to see The Wiggles last week. It was great - except he fell asleep! He was so tired from the weekend and not napping - but what he stayed awake for he loved. He just loves The Wiggles - well not the new Wiggle Sam. Nothing personal, I am sure that Sam is a lovely man and a lovely Wiggle - but my son is quite resistant to change. He cries if I turn on The Wiggles and Sam in on instead of Greg. Oh yo yo!

I am off to bed - I am weary.

Time gets away

I have been a bit slow in posting this week. I have often thought of sitting down but just haven't managed to get the time necessary. It is crazy how busy life can get - and I don't really do anything!

It is finally a beautiful spring day here and the snow is almost melted - yes snow! The foot of snow that fell on Thursday. Calgary has some seriously weird weather. The kids are both napping which is a real rare occasion. Gavin rarely has naps now - which is likely why I never have time to do anything. Oh - I spoke to soon - the little one is now awake.

I was going to tell a few funny stories and share some thoughts - but heck that will have to wait!

Bright days ahead

The kids and I had a pretty busy day today - the best news - I felt pretty good. I am now tired, but considering how yucky I was feeling this was amazing.

I had an ultrasound yesterday and a doc appointment today - all looks good so far. It is way to early to tell if this baby has any heart issues - but we will be looking into that down the road. I was just amazed at how clear this ultrasound was. The first and only ultrasound I had with Gavin was pretty mysterious. I couldn't figure out which end was up, let alone how that could possibly be a human. I think the huge number of echos (which appear just like an ultrasound) I had before Bronwyn was born helped me learn how to pick things out. It was great to see this new little baby just moving and clapping - seriously the baby was clapping!

The kids and had a quick trip to the park today as the weather was nice and a bit of a visit with Max too. I don't know what the fascination with piling gravel on a slide is - but wow - every kid I have ever met loves to do it! Bronwyn is no exception.

I have also been watching the situation in Zimbabwe with keen interest. It is seriously crazy! Those of you who pray, pray now for this beleaguered country. I would love to see some change in a way that doesn't cause wide spread violence. Harare, the capital, where these journalists were staying is where my family lives. Scary!

Our peaceful little day seems somehow very ironic considering the turmoil and distress in Zimbabwe. But, the population there and my family are heavy on my heart and mind. I pray that positive change will come soon.

Busy week

We have had a pretty busy week. I thankfully had a couple of good days - not all of them were good - but thankfully at least a couple were.

The highlight of the week was on Wednesday. Natasha (our neighbour) and I took Max and Gavin downtown to the Jack Singer to see Sid and Patty from CBC kids (the morning show Gavin watches). Bo on the go and Curious George were also there (well people dressed up in costumes like them). Because it was downtown we decided to take the boys on the c-train. It was a hoot. The kids loved it. I think the train was almost more exciting than the show. It was a very nice experience and they enjoyed it a great deal.

The low point of the week was yesterday. I had to take Bronwyn in for a test. She has an on-going bladder issue that needed to be checked. It is an ugly ugly test. It is uncomfortable and distressing for her.

It is really stressful to watch her be so distressed and have her look at you and expect you to help her. I am supposed to be her safest person and protect her and here I am watching while these nasty people poke, prod and mess with her. Now I know that it is all in her best interest, but I also know that she has no way of understanding that. She just got lost of hugs and cuddles after the ordeal.

It is a grey day today - but the good news is that spring is coming! I have a couple little crocuses (wow - how do you do the plural of crocus?) popping out through the ground. The tulips are starting to come too. So cold weather or not - spring is coming!

Lovely saturday morning

It seems - so far - to be a pretty nice day. I think we'll take the kids for a little walk. I am slowly getting my energy back - its been a pretty long haul. I'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes and thoughts. I greatly appreciate it.

Lately at night I am so tired I just take Gavin to bed with me and we do a few puzzles and he reads and plays while Mommy tries to go to sleep. The other night I was starting to fall asleep while Gavin chattered away to me. Thankfully I wasn't in the state of drowsiness where I start saying - Uhhuh and Mmmm to everything.

He started saying that at his birthday he would get a cow, and that he would keep it in the back yard and it would eat the weeds that grow in the back yard. Now as logical as that may sound to a very drowsy mommy there was still the little matter of the poop. I couldn't imagine he had factored that in.

I very carefully said - Just so there is no misunderstanding, you are not getting a real cow for your birthday - not this year - not ever.

Now if we lived on a farm I wouldn't have drawn such a hard line - but since we live in the middle of Calgary and I don't even like most the cats in our neighborhood, I thought a cow might be overkill.

Bronwyn doesn't tell long stories or ask for cows yet - but I am sure she will - one day! She is getting bigger and is developing such a personality. She is a bit spoiled - ahem!

Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids a fiver each for Easter. I thought they might enjoy going to the dollar store and blowing it. Gavin is just learning about money and how to use it - so I thought it might be a fun experience for him. Bronwyn, well, she just enjoys anything that she does with her brother.

Cats out of the bag

The info has been pretty wide spread at least around Calgary, so I wanted to make sure anyone out of that particular loop wasn't left in the dark. We are expecting again. Yup! The baby is due the beginning of October - I'm not quite 12 weeks yet.

So there you have it - that is likely reason why I haven't been posting as often lately - I feel yucky! But I am hoping that this will pass as it did with both of my other babies.

We are excited but have a lot of work to do to the house so we will be ready for a third little body. Wish us luck!

A great visit

We just returned home yesterday. We drove 6 hours both ways to visit my dear friend Alison. The kids were fantastic for both drives. It was such a great visit. I honestly feel so refreshed even if I am tired. My spirit has been renewed.

Alison's kids Aleya and Austin are so sweet and cute. The kids just had a blast playing together. While they terrorized small villages Ali and I got a lot of visiting in. We laughed, cried and shared - just as it should be with a life long friend. Ali and Darren have such a warm and welcoming home and I felt like an honoured guest.

Here are a few picts of the kids. As we left Edson Gavin asked me about 45 times if he could go back to Aleya's house. I think Aleya is missing him too.

Quick update

I am just posting a quick note to let you know that we are going to be away for a while. I am headed up Saturday to visit my best friend Howie! The kids and I are going it alone while Wes stays home and works. Someones got to bring home the bacon!

So if I don't post for a while there is actually a reason.

Long time no post

Yeah - I have been a bit absent from blogger world this week. I have tried several times to write and entry but well I either had nothing to say, couldn't think straight or was just too tired. But here I am now.

The kids are doing great. Bronwyn is doing so many cute things but doesn't talk. When you ask her if she is poopy she points to her bum and blows a raspberry. She'll poke me in the face with a pencil and I'll scold her and say - no don't Bronwyn. And then she laughs and does it again - GREAT!

Gavin is just full of beans. He is like a 9 month old German Shepherd, still a puppy in side but way bigger.

Today he was in fine form. He will often call Wes or me by our first names and I usually reply - That's Daddy (or Mommy as the case may be) to you." We were at Mom and Dad's and Mom called - Dad do you want tea? Gavin said (to my horror) - Grandma, that is Pops to you.

The second picture is of Gavin skating with Uncle Jon at the Okotoks arena. He had fun although it is more work that he cares to do.

Our musicians

As you can see we have a very high standard of musical excellence in this house!

A few picts

I thought I'd throw some cheery pictures on the blog since I'm not feeling all that cheery today. We are all feeling better and Wes has been helping me with all the house catch-up. So on our front we are all fine.

I am truly struggling today. I had some bad news from an old and dear friend this morning and I feel pretty devestated. There are things in life that I never want those I love to have to face and I would do anything to take it away. But, as good as my intentions I am rendered helpless. I do not have the power to change any of it. All I can do is pray and think, and pray, and cry and think and pray.

I was listening the other day to some women discussing the power of positive thinking. The whole idea that what you imagine and desire for your life is drawn to you because of that thinking.

Now I do believe that this is true in one way but I do disagree in another way. I believe that many things in life happen to you regardless of what your attitude or thoughts. For example, having a child that has a severe illness is always a shock and there is nothing that the parent has done to attract this to their life.

But don't get me wrong I do stronly believe in the power of positive thinking. For me it boils down to a simple thought. I will not let the trials of life define me, I will be defined by how I handle these trials.

I maybe didn't give the thoughts these ladies espoused enough attention so this may be unfair. But for me it is too simple to say "think it and it will be." I am not denying that can happen. But there is a whole big portion of life that falls into the unthinkable!

ps - the spell check isn't working and I am horrid at spelling - so sorry for any errors.

A week goes by

Wow - time does fly when your house bound and miserable.

Bronwyn got sick on the weekend, then I got sick, then Gavin, and finally Wes. I think we have had more flus and colds this year than ever! I think this is just our year to be sickos. Next year should be totally smooth. I find it hard when the kids are sick but when I get sick - well now that's just insulting. We haven't even been able to enjoy the goodies that Wes' Aunt and Uncle sent to us yet.

I did want to send a quick update today because Bronwyn saw her cardiologist today. She is doing great - they are thrilled with her progress. They have several concerns that they watch after the Glenn and she is doing well on all accounts. I suspected she was doing well because is just so symptom free, but it is always a bit scary going in for a check-up. I can't see whats going on in her little heart or her body and I am always worried we'll get some unpleasant surprise like another blood clot or something.

Well - my daughter is wailing. I told Dr. Harder today, when she asked about her behaviour and fussiness, that as long as she gets exactly what she wants she's a model child.

So after a week of craziness here all I have to show for it is the piles of dishes and laundry and other neglected chores - wish me luck!!

Quiet days

I really have nothing to report right now. Nothing interesting has happened, well beyond the usual kiddie fun. I don't even have the ability to report on my latest greatest thoughts. Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much thinking. It seems we are in the winter duldrums. I am anxious for spring!

Just wanted to let you all know that we are still here and we are well.

Its a heat wave

It is -19c today. Wow! A heat wave. It has been too cold to do any outdoor play. We are also all recovering from a nasty cold - yeah we ALL got it.

The kids are doing well. I am attaching a fairly long little video of Gavin reading to Bronwyn. I grabbed my little camera as it was close and it ran out of memory just before the ending. It is still pretty cute. This little clip reminds me so much of my nephew Jared. I remember recording video of him reading the same book aloud at about the same age. Precious memories!

Speaking of precious moments - Gavin is at this moment trying to lift and put his sister in a little cardboard airplane that I made him this morning. It is just a long cardboard box with a hole through it. I had a feeling when I made it that it might be used for the forces of evil! Oh well -what are ya going to do?

Winter fun week

We have had a lot of outdoor winter fun this week. We had fresh snow and fairly mild temperatures so we made the best of it. Gavin also got to play with several of his little buddies through the week: Max, Norah and Madeline (well and Pops - lets not forget Pops).

Both kids seem to have bad coughs and runny noses right now. Wes and I are resigned to the fact that we likely won't get a very good sleep tonight. Oh well, who needs a good sleep after a long week anyhow?

We had planned to do some family activities tomorrow but I think Mommy is going to make everyone stay home and just get better - and FAST!

Gavin said something pretty cute today but I have to admit I have no idea what he meant. Usually children say stuff that is amazingly perceptive and/or creative. I have a feeling this was both but truly it was over my head.

We were driving out to Mom and Dad's and he had been coughing. After a bit he sneezed. I said - bless you. He replied - all the bless yous are in my throat.

Cute - but...

I best get off to bed and see what little sleep we can squeeze out tonight. Knowing us by early morning the whole family will be in our bed wrestling for space.

Both sides of the same coin

These pictures say it all, really.

Serious reflections

Wow - I feel very serious at the moment. I received an email from my old boss (I mean old as in past not that he is old!) with some info about a coworker. This was a coworker who I didn't really know. She started when I was on my first maternity leave and I didn't get many opportunities to visit with her. But she was sweet. She passed away from cancer a month ago.

I knew she was sick but I had not heard of the outcome. I went through my old emails and found a link to her blog and I spent sometime reading. One post she said how she looked forward to being a real mom again. How when she was healed she would chase her daughter in the park and enjoy her.

This came as a bit of a wake up call for me today. Gavin has decided he gets up early and he kept waking me up in the night - Mommy, come here... you know the drill. So I have been feeling a bit cranky and sorry for myself.

Then I read these reflections and I realize that this coworker would have loved to be woken up in the night to go lay beside her baby!

I was impressed with her faith and dignity. Maybe it doesn't hurt to be reminded to be thankful for our blessings. After all perhaps our problems and blessings are the same thing just a difference in our attitude.

Kid's books that I like

There are so many great books for children. I thought I’d just share some of my current favourites. Be advised these are very much preschool and pre-reader books.

Russell The Sheep – by Rob Scotton
Hi! Fly Guy – by Tedd Arnold
Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! – by Mo Willems
I’m Sick of It! A Fishy Melodrama – by Vincent Bourgeau
On the Moon – Anna Milbourne and Benji Davies (Usborne)
Scaredy Squirrel – Melanie Watt
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs – Jon Sciezka

There are lots of other fun picture books that both of my kids enjoy. These are just a few of the ones that I really like. After all I read them I should get to pick now and again.

Just for fun – please make a comment if you know of a fun book for kids that I might enjoy too.