just a few

I'm short on sleep, so photos is all there'll be for tonight... fingers crossed that the babies have a good night!

I love this girl! | closing in on 10 months...

Hendrik and I got home from a downtown errand trip and told his dad that we'd seen dinosaurs - true story!

she's deciding which page she'll eat

books books books!

from the library: Demolition (Sally Sutton), Just Ducks (Nicola Davies) and If I Built a Car (Chris Van Dusen)

and recently purchased: Extra Yarn (Mac Barnett), Roadwork (Sally Sutton) and The Boat Alphabet Book (Jerry Pallotta)

I'm in love with Extra Yarn - the story, the art (Jon Klassen), the girl in the story... all of it. Most of the time when I buy books for the kids (/for me), I tuck them away in the closet for future special treats or birthday or Christmas presents, but Extra Yarn is out on my desk and we gave Hendrik the alphabet book a few days ago, and he loves it. He's loved all of the Jerry Pallotta alphabet books, and though some of them are a little broad in terms of age appropriateness, they're winners. Plus, we've all learned muchissimo about dinosaurs, underwater creatures and construction vehicles, and I'm way more interested in all of the aforementioned things - a good thing, no? The library books - man, we must've read Demolition and Just Ducks at least 75 times in the week or so that we had them; the car book was great, but just a little too out of Hendrik's league age-wise. We'll look for it again next year!

reading in the garden | chocolate wars - recommended for chocolate fans!

I found some time to get through this book (recommended reading for chocolate lovers - I was sold as soon as I laid eyes on the cover) in Bowmanville, and just finished Half Broke Horses, the prequel to The Glass Castle. There's a good stack of books to be read here, and I'm not too sure what I'll start next - I have The Finkler Question and Born to Run on deck, so it'll likely be one of those.

Doesn't this all sound a little too idealistic? Time to read? And make dinner? And exercise? And blog? Yeah. No wonder most of my to-do lists are undone. Sigh... ah well! Time to go and hang out with my boy, who has been referring to himself as T-Rex, alllllll day. CUTE!

35!

I am now, officially, in my mid-thirties. Last week's big 3-5 celebration involved cake, family, gifts, sleep, a run - and then the following day, a birthday sandwich backseat drive from B-ville to Gatineau, with me gooing and cooing at Alana so as to not have her blow her top with tears. And upon our arrival there was more cake at the Lewis household, where Dan and Jess and William and Freddie and Shanti and Haldane were waiting with the best ice cream cake I've ever had - thanks to all aforementioned people and La Cigale... it was dee-licious. And since then, we've more or less settled in - I've gone grocery shopping, we've unpacked, and Steve is back to work. On that note, there's glass half-full glass half-empty news: he's not traveling to Finland and Japan to compete in the next two world league matches, but will stay here with us, training, working away and wondering, like I am, about what comes next (this fall, next summer, and beyond). Is this 16-year national team chapter coming to a close? Maybe, but maybe not.

a celebration of these two, coming up!

So our plans are to more or less stay in this swamp-pot (32 and humid today) until the big 50th wedding anniversary of Aunt and Unc, which is happening in a few weeks. Back to Bowmanville we'll go for a big family reunion, and while we're there, hopefully we'll get back into the city to see some friends. Oh, and hopefully Alana will sleep; she's had some really good nights (11 hours) and some baaaaad ones (Steve and I woke up this morning feeling like we'd had zero zzzzs), so even though I know that we need to just take what we can get (and go to bed early), I'll hope for consistency.

I've had a few amazing catch-up chats with my sisters, and I'm looking forward to our westward September visit like a donut looks for a deep fryer (donuts on the brain). The Original 6 Osbergs will all be there under one roof, with a few chillins added on for good measure. Plus, my most favourite girlfriend in the world is getting married (she has her dress! we have bridesmaids dresses!) and I can't wait to see her and see her marry the love of her life. I have to admit that I've been feeling a little too far away from friends here, and while I know that I can make new ones, it's been a bit challenging - our move-all-the-time life, the language barrier, and, you know, most people have their lives all bustling along, social circuit included; people aren't always looking to strike up new friendships, and I get that. Anyways, I'm beyond thankful for the good friends that we do have here, but miss all of the others that live so far away. Sheesh, I shouldn't (and don't want to) complain... but that regularity that will come with the roots that we'll put down one day will be refreshing. When? Where? TBD.

good set'o videos

Since I'm seriously overdue for a good solid blog, I'll give you some good, solid videos instead. Our girl sure does keep us entertained - at the dinner table, just before bed (yeah, right...) and everywhere before and after and in between....

a shortsy

babies! getting together on a sunday afternoon instead of a saturday night ... a few more years and we'll revert, right?

hanging with milka at the vb game... as good as it gets!

The weekend past was solid: Team Canada won both games vs Korea, we spent time with friends we don't get to see enough of, the sun (and hammock) came out, and Hendrik grew:

Is this not priceless? I love it. We also went to Jungle Cat World... and ? there's more, but it's sunny and books are piling up. I'll get a good blog in here one of these days, but right now, I've got to get outside! The kids are sleeping and the hammock is calling...

this et that

After a good, full, busy-with-kidstuff week, we're heading back into the city tomorrow - more games! More volleyball! Catch Team Canada vs Korea live on Sportsnet, 7pm eastern time. Steve won't be suiting up, but we'll be there to cheer them on nonetheless (obviously) and catch up with some friends - I can't wait! I'm hopeful that it won't be deluging (delugional?) - there has been a serious amount of rain in these here parts, and most of us are getting a little tired of it. But maybe, by the looks of the pictures I'm about to post, you wouldn't believe me...

this girl too, likes the construction site

gramps built a sand and water table, and the kids lllllove it!

I can not over-emphasize how much Hendrik loves Watsons, the farm behind the house here. These pics are from yesterday's trip; we went again today, and Hendrik must have told me 25+ times, "I love Watsons. I like Watsons. I like it here." So cute!

Steve was on CBC morning radio a few days ago, and was great. I wasn't up to listen (at 6:24am), but Marg and Bob found it online later that day; if you're interested, you can listen here.

I got my hair cut today and have worn it down for a record amount of time... mmmm maybe five hours? Like I said, it's record setting. On that note, I find it quite admirable/amazing/incredible when I see moms of young kids with their hair down... and styled. How women come up with the time to do that is beyond me - or maybe they don't have thick, heavy, Hudson's Bay blanket hair like I do. Meh, whatever.

To finish, here are a few pics and vids: Alana pulling herself up to standing (ooh, and she's figured out how to crawl without her belly slip sliding on the floor) and Hendrik skating, - oh! and check out the goodies I found roadside yesterday: a lawnmower and a mini-wheelbarrow! It was the cherry on top of my outing last night: I went for an evening swim (8:30-9:30 - the pool was empty!) and took the long way home.

from b-ville

So how is it that I didn't know anything about National Donut Day? I mean, sure, okay, it's not "celebrated" in Canada (officially), but south of the border there's a fair bit of hoopla for donut aficianados - see this article that I have yet to read. (I could SO write an entire blog on this.) Anyways, it was on Friday (the first Friday in June) and by some weird outside my-stars-are-in-line-with-the-donut-stars, I ate my first donut of the year - wait, of the year? - at least, the first one since we've been back in Canada, post-Beijing... on Friday. (Did I eat any donuts whilst in China? I don't think so.) And I've been drooling over the Top Pot Donut Cookbook ever since I received it in the mail; I need a candy thermometer and a regular exercise routine going before I can tackle any of those recettes. Man, they look good.

Okay, more importantly - volleyball. The guys split with the Netherlands last weekend (did I write about that at all? Read about it here) and then again with Portugal this past Friday and Saturday in Mississauga (story here and here). The whole family caught the game on Friday and the kids were SO well behaved... I was so very pleasantly surprised that Alana didn't lose her cool and that they both had pretty decent sleeps despite no car-nap on the way home. The Friday game was good - Canada won in three and set the tempo, pace etc - there wasn't much light for Team Iberia. Saturday night, however, was a different story altogether: I only caught the last 10 points of set four in the 1-3 loss, and the recap was that the home team just couldn't get into a rhythm and there were way too many unforced errors. Next weekend they'll face Korea at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga once again; here's to a 2-0 record for the next series. (And here's to hoping that Steve gets to don a jersey - he traveled, but remained one of two guys that had to sit out.)

We've been in Bowmanville chez les grandparents B since Wednesday, and it's so great to be here. (I only wish we were so close to everyone we want to see on a regular basis - my family and friends, the rest of Steve's fam.) What wasn't so great at all was the trip out here, oh and that's because Alana cried for three hours of a near six-hour trip, and... I got a speeding ticket. The cop didn't seem to mind that Alana was crying or that I was crying (mostly because she was crying - and she cried even harder while the cop took 15+ minutes to write up my traffic offense) or that I was driving by myself with two little kids. He took such a long time that I had to get out of the car and tend to her - by some timing-miracle he showed up beside the car just as I was taking her out of her seat (red eyes, crazy puffy face) and I couldn't help asking him if he had kids ("that has nothing to do with anything," he said) and then saying, "well I hope you feel bad about this". I nursed the girl there beside the highway (I took Highway 7) with trucks careening by - and, get this: the officer stayed in his car for at least 15 minutes while I calmed her down and fed her. I was halfway wondering if he did feel bad about it and if he was going to come up to the window and say something (he didn't). Anyways, I'm going to contest the ticket.

Photos from our last few days here follow. I'm going to make myself a drink and read a magazine - hup!

outside activities galore - love!

watching Steve beat Bob in a washer home opener

hendrik rocking a housecoat/bath robe (cutest ever) and up in the tree

short + etc.

There's too much to write about, and no time. After Hendrik's last gymnastics class tomorrow morning we'll drive to Bowmanville, trailing Steve and the rest of Team Canada; they're busing to Mississauga for weekend #2 of World League play after an early 8:00 run in the weight room. Quickly: Alana is nine months old (!) and pulled herself to standing in the crib yesterday for the first time - she had no idea what to do with herself. I finally went running (for the first time since race weekend) and it felt great. Um. Um... Ummm... For now, that's all... too much to! do!

(The following five minute vid is of Hendrik reading the Construction Alphabet book to himself. After reading Dinosnores (library book) eight times, I convinced him to read on his own so that I could get through a bit of my book (Moominpappa). He's throwing around some serious vocabulary and intonation... it's fabulous.)

alana eats and hendrik.... moos?!

family updates

This'll be an update sort 'o blog, so I'll just start with Hendrik, since he's 2 1/2 today!

This kid loves playing with cars. And he likes cake and ice cream and caves and books and everything that has anything to do with construction sites. Pointing out diggers and excavators has increased everyone's awareness of vehicles of all sorts, and I have to admit that I have never been more excited about an oversized vehicle than when, the other day, we saw a knuckleboom loader, in action. I had to laugh at myself a little bit but whatever... it was kind of cool. We're trying to teach him a bit of french, since we've been wondering whether or not we should all be taking advantage of this opportunity, living in Quebec (albeit temporarily), to learn francais. He can count from 1-5, say "comment ca-va?" and respond ("ca va bien!"), and we're working on the quel age as-tu? He can also count from 1-5 in Chinese and Italian, and I often ask him if he understood in Italiano ("hai capito?"), and it's the cutest thing when he responds - "si mama, ho capito"; I must get all of this on film. Hendrik also loves pretend play, and takes on the same, high-pitched voice regardless of whether he's a fish or a frog or a flamingo... it is tres cute. Potty training has been a bit more successful since I last posted - for each potty chart he finishes he gets a Hot Wheels... so that's a pretty good motivator. I'm sure there's more (like how he asks me, "mommy, are you a kitchen worker?"), but I have more people to write about before my time runs out here....

almost nine months!

Alana! Alans. She's sleeping much better than she was a few weeks ago - no more night wake-ups! Or, at least, no more night feeding sessions. Some nights she'll fuss a bit, but usually settles herself down within 10-15 minutes (yay!). She has that baby radar for things she's not supposed to get into - Hendrik's cars, outlets, vents, anything with small parts, anything remotely not-for-baby. She likes her food, and likes feeding herself; most of her meals are pieces of chopped-up whatever-we're-eating, and like I said, she feeds herself. We're still in the trial and error stage (so to speak), where we'll feed her a new food and just wait and see if there are any adverse reactions - and so far so good. She gobbled down Halibut Florentine the other night (one of my go-to dinners), and ate salmon and broccoli tonight. And why she loves doing this I can't say, but she'll squish her food up in her hands and then rub it on her ears and in her hair behind her ears... ugh! And of course she hates it when I try to clean it off afterwards. Not a big deal at dinner, since a bath follows close behind, but breakfast and lunch.... I definitely notice dried chunks of food, earring style, stuck to (or in) her ears now and then, especially when we're out in public. She's getting more and more into books, and turns the pages of her before-bed reads - my go-tos are Goodnight Moon, Eric Carle's Polar Bear one, A Book of Sleep and Ten Little Fingers. I need to rotate a few more in there to mix things up... those have been on repeat for a week or two. She can get up on all fours, but is still doing the commando crawl thing... but man, she's fast. I zip down the hall to do something and then just see two little legs poking out of the bathroom - she likes the dots on Hendrik's Ikea stool that sits at the sink. And (this is funny), since Hendrik sees me scoop her up and peel her out of the bathroom (I'm somewhat afraid of finding her with her mouth all over Hendrik's potty), the other day he took matters into his own hands and dragged her out of there, one arm to one leg... it was fu-nny (she didn't seem to mind). She makes constant noise when she eats, but otherwise doesn't babble too too much, and mmmm there might be more BUT .... mmmm... yeah. Onwards!

I ran as Jeffrey Carrier. I got a medal!

Me. I ran a 10km the other day! I mean, a race! It was my first one and it was as last minute as decisions come. I bought the pinney off of Kijiji at 2:30 (from someone just down the street) - the race started at 6:30. And how's this for timing: I fed Alana at 5:15 and then left the house, ran the race in just under 55 minutes, and was back in time to feed her at 8:00, just before bed. Kapow! I pretty much ran through the finish line, walked to the car, drove home and walked in the door to feed baby. Like I said, it was my first race, and it was really neat to be a part of an event that involved more than 10,000 people. I have that half marathon in mind too, which is at the end of August. Yikes, I'll have to amp up my training at some point and get in some longer runs. But as long as my body holds up (knees), it should all be enjoyable! What else - I have a few crafty crafterson projects that I want to get to and finish - updating (sparsely) Hendrik's baby book, doing Alana's, putting together an Italy frame (pictures and maps from last year in Vela/Trento), and doing the photo book thing (as seen on Young House Love). I also found a job I want (this one), a blog I'm in love with (I'm obsessed with children's books) and currently have a bazillion tabs open in a bazillion windows. Not much new there.....

young Steve, circa 1999

Steve... is knee deep in volleyball. He's been training like crazy in preparation for this weekend's World League matches up in Quebec City - they play the Netherlands on Friday at 7pm and then again on Saturday at 4pm, and both games are live on Sportsnet East, Ontario, West and Pacific (National), so tune in if you want to catch the best of the best. Because this paragraph is so short I just asked Steve if there are any other updates he has, other than life-dominated-by-volleyball, and he flexed his bicep (I rolled my eyes), and said, "Playin' volleyball, feelin' young." So that's pretty good, right?

And that's a wrap! Life is good......

photos photos photos

Sleep training? Yeah... we tried. We're trying it. We are trying to get Alana (8 1/2 months) to drop the night feed(s) and get to sleep on her own if and when she wakes up in the night. The first night of said training she cried for two hours, no exaggeration. It was horrible, for everyone; her sheets were soaked with tears and snot and I felt just plain mean. But then the second night she cried for just 10 minutes around 10:00, and that was it! Magical, yes... but since Hendrik was up in the night, I still didn't get that elusive uninterrupted sleep. (It's been 3+ months.) And last night she cried for 30 minutes at 4:30 - and Hendrik slept. SO! Fingers crossed that BOTH of them sleep their little hearts out tonight ... and the same goes for me.

Skating: It was the first class for me (third for the boys), and Hendrik indeed made a little bit of progress - he shuffled. Apparently he just lay there on the ice in the first class, and did a lot of the hunched bunched crab-elbow thing - albeit standing alone! - this time around. So yes, progress is slowly being made (we think). There was zero progress in Toilet Training 101 - he peed and pooped his pants at Milestones afterwards, and seemed completely unperturbed (un-pooterbed) by pants full of mess; we left extras in the skating bag in the car, so we had no other choice. Bleh... After two days of full-time diapers (wait, make that three days) and confusion and frustration for les parents, we had a stellar day today - dry pants, no accidents! We big time talked it up last night, and talked about perks and the possibility of a party, and there was one. Gangnam Style and dancing followed by cupcakes (this recipe) and ice cream and a candle - we made a big deal and I'm really hoping it'll pay off.

getting ready...

...for this!

at Milestone's after for a Sunday brunch-lunch

On holiday Monday we drove out to Nepean to visit Valleyview Animal Farm, and nope, there were no huge crowds or lines - just lots to do and see and play with - it was great! We'll definitely go back for more fun; there were several different play areas, structures galore, trucks, tractors, baby animals, train rides and sheep shearing... sha-bow! It was good times.

tractors, swings, animals...

forts, tunnels, bridges...

and a construction site = kid heaven

We had our family opener Chelsea Pub dinner on Tuesday evening, and Hendrik did this:

"I'm a bird! I'm in the tree! I'm in my nest!" he said, in his high-pitched I'm-something-else voice. It was cute, but then he didn't want to get out of the tree, you know, since he was a bird. And then, when faced with the decision of stay in the funny house (he started calling it the bunny house - ?) or get ice cream, he chose to STAY IN THE HOUSE! And since both of us wanted ice cream and thought it irresponsible to leave him, we had to cajole and coax him TO the ice cream shop. Seriously. I mean, I get it, just a little bit... this is a pretty cool little house.

he LOVED it in this house... loved. the glee! it was adorable...

Up next: bath, beauties, and playing together... love it all!