update!

Man oh man, I could have written a blog every night this week - I have that much content but mmmm not that much time. I mean, I could have that much time, but then the kitchen would be a disaster, I wouldn't have read The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place (loved it), and nor would I have fit in an anniversary dinner with my husband or pounded out a Wednesday evening workout. At this very moment I am eating chocolate applesauce loaf (low-fat but with a serious chocolate punch) and listening to Steve try to get Hendrik to clean up his room before he'll give in and play "mole sisters"... again. (And now: "jammy excitement - daddy, watch it go flying!") I'm thinking I'll see if I can get a family update sort of update in here, and maybe - hopefully? - everything that I could have put into writing Monday through Thursday, will find its spot somewhere, with someone. But first, a few pics from last weekend - we made a last minute decision to spend Canada Day at the cottage, and enjoyed almost two full days with the Fab Four:

Alana

Our girl hit the 10-month mark while we were up at the Crowe, and she sure is a'growing. She's crawling and pulling herself up and getting into everything, and knows exactly where everything that really isn't for her is, and goes for it. She learned how to climb stairs (we don't have any chez nous) in five minutes, and is letting people walk her around - we hold her hands and she marches. Her current top skills, in my opinion, are eating, pointing and smiling. She can eat. The quantities that she ingests don't really follow suit with the size of her stomach let alone her body, but... I remember Hendrik being like this too. And she isn't picky - salmon, spinach, broccoli... she'll eat it. Favourites are blueberries, pasta (both kids love rice pasta) and clementines (she'd eat them whole if she got her hands on them). So yeah, she's eating three meals a day and I'm still feeding her five or six times a day, depending. Her current favourite books (this means she pays attention and turns the pages instead of mouthing them) are Pat the Bunny (she does all of the actions minus the smelling - I love it!), I Am a Bunny, Goodnight Moon and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. She said one of her very first words yesterday - "quack" - !! She can do the mama-mama thing but I don't think it's really directed at me yet - she's just saying the sounds. Wait, let me get back to her top three skills; she points at everything! She'll pull out a fully-extended arm - shoulder to index finger, and direct it at whatever (dad is a favourite on this one) - and follow it up with a smile... it's heart-melting. And skill three - she smiles a ton, and is there anything better than a happy baby? No, there is not.

the point!

She gets along pretty well with her brother, but that's only because she doesn't (usually) mind getting manhandled. He can be pretty physical with her but - and we're not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing - she usually likes it. He'll steamroll her while our attention is elsewhere, and while we both think that it's maybe a bit much, she doesn't seem to mind. Now, when he tries picking her up by the neck - she yelps and we intervene immediately (obviously) - that's a different story. We still have to be nearby at all times, to make sure we let him (/them) know when too much is too much.

she looks like she could hold her own in this picture...

The sleeping, I feel like I really shouldn't say anything about; because doesn't Murphy's Law always apply to this sort of thing? Case in point: last night we stayed up late, and Alana was up twice in the night and Hendrik was up once... ugh. That hasn't been the norm as of late and I haven't fed her in the night for a few weeks, and then that was only because she was feverish. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

2 1/2

Hendrik

Hendrik loves: anything to do with construction sites (and playing construction site), cars and trucks , and dinosaurs. He also loves pretending to be Franklin or T-Rex, and we are frequently actors in his charade: Steve is a Baryonx or Bear, and I'm a Velociraptor or Bunny, and Alana is a baby Velociraptor (she doesn't factor into Franklin's cast). He'll talk in a high-pitched voice, and if we address him as Hendrik, he'll immediately correct us "No, I'm Franklin" and not follow directions until we ask "Franklin." And just now, he had Steve playing "mole sisters" - inspired by The Mole Sisters series, by Roslyn Schwartz. I wasn't crazy about the first one we got out of the library, but it grew on me pretty quickly - and I just realized there are a whole bunch of Mole Sisters books. Anyways, Steve and Hendrik put on a mole sisters show tonight - here it is: (They're acting out The Mole Sisters and the Wavy Wheat, entirely Hendrik's doing; "Oh dear! Yoohoo! Then they swept the mole holes" are some of my fave quotes. And at the end he asks to talk about cars and trucks ... love!)

Besides The Mole Sisters, his favourite books are probably Dinosnores (out from the library once more) and How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food. He has a set of four dino puzzles that he likes, and is into asking us if he's been a good listener; if we say yes, he'll ask, "so what can I watch?" Hmmmph.

The potty training is going really well - most things happen on the potty during the day, and that makes me SO happy because it means I don't have to clean out wash out rinse out... yeah, you got it. Ummm what else what else - ? He entertains us constantly, and is such a sponge with information and new skills (Shanti taught him how to tip and a pancake last night - volleyball stuff), and he is always listening. Volleyball would be his number one sport, and he loooooves practicing. He can execute all of the skills, with his strongest being the spike/attack - if you lob a little serve at him, he won't bump it... he'll spike it. We'll get that on video soon.

Me

Ummmmm.... hm. I've found time to read which is awesome, and I'm into this Incorrigible series which is (I think) pre-teen/teen fiction, but I love it. It's so readable and refreshing and Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back, Extra Yarn) did all of the illustrations which got me onto it in the first place. I had a lovely evening out with my husband last night, and have another lovely evening out planned with Shanti tomorrow night - we're going to see Jersey Boys! Woot woot, should be good. I'm sort of but not really at all on track for training for the half-marathon, and I'll blame it on some knee pain which I'll blame on my erratic commitment to exercise. I mean sure, I could get a workout in every day but then I really would never blog and I'd never read and I'd never spend any down time with Steve. Are these excuses? Maybe. But I also know that the event is still almost two months away, and I'm still planning on running it - and running to finish it, not running to get a certain time. Aaaaand I don't really know what else to say.

Steve

The man of the house is training hard and enjoying some time off here and there too - spending the weekend up at the cottage was awesome. Depending on World League results he'll have some time off, and we'll head west once again to Bowmanville where his aunt and uncle will celebrate fifty years of marriage next Saturday. Then, more cottage time, more fishing, more swimming and lots of time with the kiddies. And hopefully, more Mole Sisters. :)