Blake's 19th and 20th month

Eating rice krispies
Originally uploaded by Robin's Nest3

To Blake:

OK. Mommy's been a little delinquent in her blog writing lately. I can make lots of excuses (summer vacations, weddings, life), but you can use this in your therapy later in life.

Let's see. What's been going on with you lately? Oh, yes. Words. Lots of them. In sentences, loud, over and over and over. You have discovered the joy of talking, and you won't shut up. Of course, this is the good stage of talking, when you are cute, and don't talk back, call your sister names, or learn swear words from your Grampa. So, I'm enjoying our little conversations about backhoes, and trucks, and various types of food you want to eat. And, your word for help right now..."MUM.MEEE".

You also like to talk on the phone. Not big conversations. Mostly, "Hi Buppa" and "Bye". But, it's earning you big points with the grandparents, which I'm sure will convert into Christmas booty for you.

You have also become fairly obstinate. As Faith says "They shouldn't call it the terrible twos, they should call it the terrible ones." Your favourite phrase right now is "No, no, no, no, no." Followed closely by "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine." If these two items fail, then a big scream also works.

But, when you're not pulling her hair, biting (yes...you did bite the neighbour....low moment), or hitting her, the best times are watching you and your sister play around the house. She's definitely still the "big sister", but watching you guys scream through the front hall laugung and giggling is like watching my favourite episodes of MASH--funny and touching at the same time.

Love,
Mom

He peed.....

...on the POTTY! Holy crap! (Or Holy wee-wee.)

I'm sooo not ready for this yet.

Happy Birthday Wyatt!

Best friends

I called George as we were on our way to McDonald's to celebrate a good first day of grade 2, I called George to see if he was interested in some salty, fatty goodness. He mentioned that Uncle Curtis was coming over later, so he'd be heading home.

Faith piped up from the back seat:

"Uncle Curtis is Dad's best friend."

"Why do you say that?"

"They talk and drink beer together."

"That means they're best friends?"

"Yeah, that's what men do. Talk, drink beer, and sometimes have a cup of wine."

Introducing....grade 2

Faith ventured off to the world of grade 2 this morning, full of all the fears that naturally befall her quiet demeanor. (I'll have to say my name in class! In front of EVERYONE!)

For the first time, I didn't drop her off for the first day. George got the pleasure this time, and was generally appalled by the mob scene at the primary school door. This is, in fact, normal, as I think families recruit extra relatives to drop off their kids for the first day of school.

Faith was her normal quiet, sober self entering school. She told me that she tried not to cry when Dad left, but she had one tear come down her cheek. (Sniff.)

But, the rest of the day went very well. The grade ones in her split 1/2 class are "learning how to be quiet". And, she wants to do harder work. She's also very excited that she gets to do four days of French this year including counting to 100 en francais. The best part apparently, was recess in which her friends came and found her to play with. This was her big fear the night before, that no one would play with her at recess. (Sniff.)
I swear that school is just another way of reliving all the angst of your own school years, only this time squeezed through the eyes of your kids.

But, all in all, we were pretty happy with how the first day turned out, and Faith celebrated with a new webkinz, and a trip to McDonald's.

Oh, all you'll note that Faith is wearing a nice sweater from her Uncle Duncan. It was chilly this morning, but about 28 degrees C when I picked her up. Yes, the first week of school has turned into summer around here.

A living fence

Ryan arrived on Monday to put in a "living fence" for us. Melissa, his fiancee, designed it, but Ryan got to do the grunt work. :) Here's the before picture of the bed that Ryan dug out. Apparently our ground was too hard for the rototiller, so he had to do most of this by hand.

This is the bed after the plants were all in, but before mulching and edging. He had Faith and our neighbour helping out by getting rid of the grass he'd pulled our earlier. Faith decided that she should be paid 25 cents for her work...cheap if you ask me.

And, here is the finished product. It will take about three years to fill out completely, but I'm really happy with how it looks now. The bed has forsythia, weigilia, zebra grass, snowball, and some other stuff I can't remember now.


Thanks to Ryan and Melissa for all the hard work...and to Ryan for dealing with our grumpy neighbour (hint, hint...the reason for the living fence).

Not my kid!

One of my favourite treats are macaroons and their various incarnations in cookie form, such as haystacks. I love the combination of chocolate and coconut. Our local cafe sells a particularly luscious version of this treat called Tits of the Andes (seriously). It's basically a giant, dark chocolate haystack full of coconut goodness and topped off with a white chocolate "snow cap", which has a chocolate dab in the middle. (I'd show a picture, but I already ate it.)

Anyway, besides the great name, they also have a great taste. So, as a treat I picked one up today. After supper, I pulled it out and broke off a little bit to give to Blake. The kid loves anything chocolate.

I put the chocolate in this mouth, and instead of asking for more, he promptly spit it out and said, "Bleah." Bleah! I couldn't believe it! He obviously takes after the non-coconut lovers in the family (including his Dad). I swear this is a genetic defect as coconut is such a delightful treat.

On the plus side, this meant I got to eat the whole cookie myself. Yum.