The Boulder Room

We started out the March break with a road trip up the 401 to visit my brother. Faith has been talking about climbing with her Uncle for about 6 months now, so we picked this weekend to try an indoor climbing gym. Duncan is an excellent climber, and has the muscles to prove it. (Faith still talks about him picking her up with his little fingers.)

So, on Saturday afternoon we headed out to The Boulder Room with Duncan, his girlfriend Michelle (who is fantastic, btw), Faith, and Blake. We all got strapped into our climbing harnesses, which requires that you have no issues with personal space as it's a puzzle to figure out how to do it the first time unless someone helps you strap in.

We started out with some little climbs. Faith went up the wall first and got about 10 feet up before deciding down was better. Then it was my turn. I'm not sure how far I got up before it hit me that I was clinging to the side of a wall, and that no matter what I logically knew about safety equipment, it felt like I could really fall. So, down I went.

Blake went next but lasted about 5 seconds as he didn't like the whole slipping and swinging on the rope. But, his harness was extremely useful for grabbing him when he took off around the gym.


Eventually, after trying some cave climbing, Faith worked her way up the wall to this (and then a little higher):
She decided that coming down on the rapel line was much more fun that doing the work of climbing up. But she had a great time!

It took me until my third try to get all the way to the top of the wall (about 30 feet). It actually felt fantastic! Michelle and Duncan were coaching me all the way along, or I wouldn't have gotten up the route. But apparently the secret is that it's all in the legs. Don't pull with your arms, push with your legs. Easy to say on the ground, harder to do 25 feet off the ground when you're looking for a stupid little hold to put your foot on. I was happy to say that I made it to the top twice! I even got to "stem"...which essentially means putting out your leg/hand to a side wall to get yourself up. I can see why climbing can be addictive because it's a big adrenaline rush.

It was also very cool seeing Duncan and Michelle show us "how it's done". Here are one of Duncan's climbs (and yes, he has his toes and fingers on these very little purple handholds that most of us wouldn't even be able to stub our toes on walking down the street):

After an afternoon of climbing, we headed back to Duncan's for a yummy supper (including homemade bread!), and a great dessert from Michelle...pumpkin pie!

Now we just have to plan our next climbing trip.

Hazardous housework

I have just spent the last 60 minutes confirming why I have a cleaning lady, and why I don't clean when Blake is awake. (Faith, on the other hand, can now do things like wash the windows.)

We have a small picnic table in our great room, on top of a rug, where Blake has snacks and eats breakfast every morning. The rug is basically to capture the food bits and pieces that fall on the floor as we don't have a handy dog to clean them up for us, and we have hard wood that allows dirt to travel everywhere. After a couple of days, we could feed a German Shepherd with the rice krispies. So I try to shake the rug out into the sink and sweep up.

Today, Blake decided that playing crash-up derby with this big truck into the broom and piles of dirt was a "fun" game. My ankles barely survived the experience, and I now have several blue streaks on the floor that used to be blueberries. Humph!

Then, I just got all the playdough toys picked up, for the second time, when he walked up beside me and dumped the whole bucket on the floor again! Gah!

Finally, he spilled his milk at dinner and, while I was getting a towel, decided that splashing in the white puddle with is fork would be fun. Blah!

My cleaning lady just called and she's coming early next week.

Another first

Faith had her first reconciliation tonight (first confession for the non-Catholics like me). She was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but there's nothing like practice, practice, practice. I have played the role of "priest" for a couple of weeks now...and yes, I know the irony is rife here.

Confession isn't really like you see on TV anymore. No going into a dark closet with a strange man (a situation in which we would normally tell our kids to run like hell). Instead, all the kids doing first confession sit in the church pews waiting their turn to go up to the front of the church where there are two chairs facing each other, one for the priest and one for the kid. The kid says her confession and then gets a penance from the priest, says a prayer, and that's it.

I took Faith as George had a speaking engagement in Toronto. Being Anglican, this was my first exposure to this particular sacrament, so I guess Faith and I were both in the same boat. But, when it was her turn to go up, she did great (at least from the body language I could decipher).

After she was done, she came back to our pew and I gave her a hug. Then, I asked her the penance. She gave me this look and then said, "I forgot."

In twenty steps she forgot her penance. "OK..." and I'm thinking what do we do now?!?

"Was it a 'Hail Mary'?"

"I don't think so. I think it was an 'Our Family'."

OK...this one I didn't recognize. We went with a Hail Mary. Hopefully she's covered.

Language arts

Faith: "I'm working on homoph.... at school."
Me: "What?"
Faith: "In languages, I'm working on homoph...."
Me: "Say that again."
Faith: "Homophones."
Me: "Homophones?"
Faith: "Homophones."
Me: "Homophobes?"
Faith: "Yeah. That's it."
Me: "In languages?"
Faith: "Yeah."
Me: "Do you mean 'homonyms'?
Faith: "Oh yeah. That's it. I get confused."
Me: "So do I."

A big milestone

Faith walked home on her own from school today for the first time! She was so proud of herself!

A guest post

I found this snippet that Faith typed out on our laptop:

Blake really wants mommy now he is playing ball with daddy. Now he wants mommy. now he is playing with daddy. Now he is peeing in the potty.

This pretty much sums up all our days.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here's the kids' attempt to make a human valentine. :) Lots of love to friends and family...and wishing you a little chocolate too!