news....

this, right before we left for the airport: Hendrik was singing, Alana bawling, and Steve: "I'm going to Greece!"

I'll just go ahead and blurt it out: Steve is in Greece! Patras, Greece, and he left yesterday after we decided the day before yesterday that we could make it all work and that his answer should be would be yes. There had been a few jobs in the works, but you never know if things will pan out until an offer is made and a contract offered up, and let me just say that it wasn't an easy decision; he leaves, I stay here with the kids on my own, and then pack it all up for a month or two after having (sort of) settled into a bit of a routine (Hendrik has preschool, I'm coaching and playing). However, a few months in Greece? Sure! And the plan is this (I think - we didn't have much time to make one): Steve leaves yesterday (check) while I hold on to my sanity (so far, check) and follow through on my Ontario Winter Games coaching duties. When those are all wrapped up (beginning of March), we get on a plane and make for warmer climes in western Greece. Hendrik was ready to pack his bags today, and to tell you the truth, I was too; it was -24 this morning - which is downright frigid... I mean, really really really cold. Too cold, in fact, for our stroller. It snapped. A plastic (I think it's plastic) hinge thing (I think that's what it was - it was too cold!)) actually snapped, and now we have a bit of a dangly footrest for our chiles. I'll pick up some superglue and see what I can do - and I'll keep the thing inside from here on out, though hauling it in along with two kiddies and whatever other paraphernalia we happen to have along (groceries, purse, backpack etc) might be challenging.

Anyways, Patras! We lived here when Steve played for EAP in 2006-2007, and even though this job is with a different team, I can still look forward to the food, to spending time with our good friend Nick, to enjoying warmer weather, the beaches... it's the place where these photos were taken (in 2005):

Yeah, right? I mean, why are we not on our way to the airport!?

And here's a fun fact: it's where my blog was born! The first few posts were pretty paltry if I do say so myself, but it was the start of something great for me - I know I'll look back at this log and be so thankful that I kept a record of some of our overseas stints.

one of her signature moves: food in the milk

And I'll be thankful that I'm keeping a record of Miss Supereater (see video: she's fully charged!) and our resident artiste and scallywag, Hendrik. I called Alana a scallywag (what a word!) and Hendrik said, "I am 150 tons more scallywag than Alana is. I am WAY more scallywag, 150 tons more." Yes you are Hendrik, yes you are. Though you wouldn't be able to tell from any of these pictures, would you?

art from preschool plus "alana" at the far right

"moooooose!" and alana's attempt at antlers :)

highlights of the week!

meet Lennon Margaret Marianne, our new niece!

congrats!!

It's late and I'm tired and I need to shower, but I also need to get a big congrats out to Steve's sister Erin and her husband Freddie and their new baby! Baby Lennon, born this morning... amazing! No matter how horrible the previous hours of labour and delivery may have been, those first moments are so magical and powerful; welcoming a new life - a little person!, so dependent and attached already - man oh man I remember. And then the little person gets bigger. And bigger.... Here are a few shots of ours; growing, growing, growing! Really, it's all magical - how much we love our little ones!

happy birthday steve!

Oh, and I must add that the chocolate cake that is on the cover of this month's  Canadian Living magazine is delicious; I made it for Steve's birthday (happy belated!), but opted for vanilla icing - and a big merci goes out to Mrs Martha Stewart for this recipe... it was ah-mazing! Also, as of today Alana is calling Hendrik "hekky" instead of "Hek" and it is adorbs: (and then that's it that's all!)

photos: christmas catch-up + family update

helping clean off the car | xmas hat! | frozen toyota chunk that fell off the car  | morning stories by the tree

a rare moment of sibling serenity | slippers! | dad and his girl | looking looking!

alana is on the map! | on new years day, with oliebollen and appelflappen (YUM!) | post winter classic nap | originally $130, this kidkraft dollhouse was tagged for $15 at target - supposed to be on sale for $75! (mispriced, awoops!)

And here come the family updates; I'll start with myself!

Big news for me big news for me - I finished my photobook last night! I bought a groupon a looooong time ago, thinking I could quickly and creatively assemble all photos from our time in Trento/Vela, and that I'd have the book done and ordered, you know, a few months later, at max. Oh boy oh boy was I mistaken! I spent way too many hours on this thing, but it's finally finished and when it arrives I will be one happy camper. The proofs looked good and I'll be happy to have all of the pictures from our incredible year in northern Italy in one place - as opposed to the eight folders they live in in iphoto. Anyways, it was fun to do and great that the book is on its way yadda yadda, but I really feel relieved - like I can get on with my life! It's something I've been wanting to cross off of the to-do list for months - literally, months... and now it's done, woopwoop!!

In other news, I'm back into coaching action after a very nice calm, nothing pressing no-commitments break. It looks like I might be taking on a 15U team and I'm excited about it! That plus the Ontario Winter Games thing might keep me pretty busy - hopefully not too busy; and hopefully not too busy for Steve, who will be taking care of the kiddies while I'm dans le gym. As long as we can get more sleep than we did last night and avoid some of the three-year old meltdowns that have been ruffling all of our feathers, I'm sure it's all doable. Ummmmm... what else... I bought a panettone at Shoppers yesterday - a real Italian panettone - and I am excited to eat it. One day. It will sit in our pantry until some time later this month, and then I'll attack. First, I have to make a birthday cake (I'm thinking this one) and eat that. Does it come as a surprise that my new recipe box has more cake entries than anything else? It's true. Cake and cookies - these folders hold the most goods. No news there!

A few other things, in short: I'm going to a library conference at the end of the month (I'm thinking networking, career exploration etc) which will be awesome; I watched - with Bob and Marg and Steve - the Leafs/Red Wings 24/7 thing, and loved it. I love sport and it made me want to be an athlete again, to work hard and train and sweat and play a game I love for a living. It was a bit inspirational in that way, thought I found myself thinking that it's a bit of a shame that young female athletes can't turn on the TV and see women playing the game they love in front of tens of thousands of fans. With the exception of big Games (Olympics, Pan-Ams), female athletes don't get TV time; there are no big leagues here - for many reasons. This isn't an easy change - here. In Indonesia, we played in front of a full, crowded house, and in Europe, young athletes have role models that get their pictures in the paper on a regular basis (as opposed to sidebar mini-paragraphs here). Money is spent more locally, and teams receive municipal and provincial funding; there are no big league sports, though some pursuits are more popular than others. Sport pages are full of (mostly) soccer, but finding write-ups and pictures of men and women playing water polo, volleyball, basketball, handball and more, isn't an unusual thing. It all comes down to money, no? Anyways, I loved the 24/7 shows and love sport and love that more girls are involved in sport now than ever before; may that trend continue to grow!

Steve
Has a birthday coming up! The cake is for him, and I bought him a small birthday present this morning, hurray. He's back in the gym and trying to figure out if anything will come up contract-wise this year, and it looks like there are a few possibilities floating around, but still nothing concrete. At this very moment he's asleep on the couch with Hendrik (I just took a pic - above) - both boys are tired from full mornings of work and play. There must be more - but for now I'm drawing a blank; time to move on!

drinking tea and "reading papers" - I love it! great time spent with my boy :)

Hendrik 3
Terrible two - what? Terrible three is more like it. Okay okay, most of the time the kid is good as gold but he's had a few tantrums and flip-out freak-outs in the last few weeks, and it has seriously tested our patience and our eyeballs - popping out of our heads at the wild and crazy antics of a flailing boy. He loved being in Bowmanville and loved sneaking down the stairs every morning to join Grandma and Gramps in bed, where (I think?) they'd read stories and talk. And watch the clock. Now that we're back home, he's had a tantrum or two more, and gets up and walks around in the morning on his own while we reluctantly think about getting out of bed. He started back at preschool on Tuesday with his mom on as the duty parent; it was a good way to ease back into things (for both of us) after a three-week hiatus. This morning he was a bit quivery at drop-off (heart-string-TUG), but apparently was just fine as soon as we parted ways. I just read him The Colour Kittens and Pussy Willow twice (each), though his favourite book might be a Tonka Truck book (or bird books), and dinosaurs, trucks, sea friends (ocean puppets), writing (with a pen) and play food - and tools - count as favourites. We still haven't unpacked any of the Christmas toys, as we're going to start a rotation - to deal with the recent influx of stuff (good stuff, all good stuff). What else? He's not eating too much these days, unless presented with a plate of beef and rice; it's his favourite thing to eat, hands down - besides Smarties and the top two layers of a nanaimo bar, of course. As for how he feels about his sister, he tolerates her, and is sometimes mean and sometimes very sweet. So... it could be worse! And it just might be getting better....

in Bowmanville, enjoying the sled :)

Alana, 16 months
She eats all of us under the table! And then asks for more. Soon I'm going to have to start making double batches of their favourite meal (beef and rice); last night Steve, Hendrik and Alana almost polished off a full casserole dish of a meal meant for two adults and two kids. Yikes... those teenage years might require grocery store robbery! And the sleep... oh, the (lack of) sleep. She was up quite a bit last night - maybe it's those teeth again? Arrrrrr. Her favourite words are mama (I feel like she says it five zillion times a day), no, me, cookie, that, that one (more like "dat one") and she loves playing with baby, reading books and doing whatever Hendrik is doing. She loves the bath and loves brushing her teeth, and will play with and cling to a crumpled up piece of paper like it's beef and rice essence (I was going to say that she clings to it like it's a piece of gold but a chunk of gold would be super boring for a baby, no?). Over Christmas she was really into Alphablock, but has requested ("dat one!") A Book of Sleep, I Am a Bunny and The House in the Night for two nights straight. This means nothing, except that I get to read books that I like! Hurrah. For now, that's it!

2014 and first post recaps

And here is my first post of 2014, entry #679. It's been a while since I've looked back, so I thought I'd take a gander at my first posts of the year which carry me back to 2008; here's a recap, avec links to the original posts:

2008: We were on our way to Yaroslavl, and Living Like a Local was still a baby. I'd just started the year before, from Greece, but entries were few and far between... I was just getting started!

2009: Posted from Romania, but after a solid Christmas spent here in Bowmanville with a full house. This is one long blog, but so worth reading (for me, maybe not for you) - the events of those two weeks spent right here don't seem too far behind us; we had so much fun! We were all over the wedding planning thing, I found a gorgeous dress, we ate too much, drank too much, went to a musical and actually went to a party on New Year's Eve. FUN!

2010: This might be my all-time favourite New Year's Eve - spent in Tokyo, Japan. When the clock struck twelve we were at a shrine, and the Fab Four were right there with us (yes yes yes, really, it's you four that were the highlight ;)). I LOVED living in Tokyo and I wish we could go back and eat and eat and travel. One day, maybe.

2011: This one starts off with a mini-recap of the first decade of the 2000s, and I kind of wanted to do the same for the year that's just behind us. Anyways! Here's our first January 1st as parents, and the post is short and I am tired. Sigh... oh how I remember those days!

2012: This is a photos-only post, but what you see sure is easy on the eyes. Northern Italy, my home away from home, is not so far behind Canada in my heart as a place that I could see myself calling home forever and ever and ever. I loved living in Japan for a season, but I loved living in Northern Italy, and could have done so (/could do so) forever. Did I already say that? This New Year was also a special one because our little lady was newly known to us, as a wee tiny speck growing in my body. Vela, Trento, Italy, I miss you......

2013: China! We were in China, and the only things I really miss about it are having Shanti two floors away and Club Oasis in our basement. I haven't looked back at these pics for a while - I should revisit them more often; oh the days when Hendrik tolerated his baby sister, and the terrible threes were nowhere to be seen.

And then here we are, in 2014! I was hoping to do a family update sort of post, but I'll have to save that for another day; it's late and I'm tired! All the best to all of you in 2014, wherever you may be!

last post of 2013!

It's 2014 - tomorrow! Which is strange, since the 2000s don't really seem like that far away... nor do the 90s, really, for that matter. However, every time I say/think something like that, I have to acknowledge the polar opposite; because so much has happened say, since 2001, it's all quite understandable that we are here, at 2014, ready to welcome another year. So much has happened this year! And in the past two years and three years that if you told me that it was 2019 I'd have to believe you (but not believe that my kids were - how old will they be then? - nine and seven!). Anyways, the year has been good to us, as all of our years have been - we came home from China to clean air and open skies, and family. And future. And I am ever so thankful for all of these things and the many other things that we so often take for granted here in Canada. May all of our years, this one and those too, that lie ahead in wait, be full of health, happiness, love and support. And workouts. (And smooth transitions. And good books.)

Many of these things, workouts and good books included, were all a part of this past weekend; Steve and I spent three kid-free days in Niagara on the Lake where we lunched with friends (Dan and Milka), went to a movie (American Hustle - I'd give it 3 1/2 stars/5), went to yoga (just me) and feasted and feasted and feasted. I love breakfast buffets, but really when it comes down to digging in and getting my money's worth at the trough, I can't compete - though most people seemed to eat in moderation, the idea of overconsumption and pig-outery that happens at buffets is a bit mmmm off-putting. Even though I like having the option of going hog wild (har-har), in reality it's my eyeballs that enjoy doing the feasting. And there is my unintentional blurb on buffets. Anyways! We had a great time, and even though I missed the kids like crazy (Alana especially), it was great to get away from it all.

And then yesterday afternoon it was great to get back to it all! And Alana has been a little cling-machine ever since - though I'm sure the cold that she's working her way through isn't helping any. She did have a solid sleep last night, so that was the best welcome home I could have asked for. We went skating this morning, and Alana cried her way through her first (and last) five minutes on the ice. Hendrik, on the other hand, showed his best-yet performance, and managed to get himself skating! There were no - zero - frozen statue moments, and Steve spent minimal time hunched over and/or on his knees trying to get the kid going. Is it a Grandma and Gramps charm? Maybe. They were there and I was off-ice walking around with Alana, until she fell asleep on my shoulder, the darling.

Though we have no big plans for the night, I'm guessing we'll stay up and watch the countdown and cheers cheers and hug and then go to bed at 12:15. To all those near and far, all the best in 2014... see you next year!

 

Christmas 2013

My, my, Christmas has come and gone. Well... it might not have entirely made its way from present to past - there are leftovers in the fridge, Christmas goodies to be eaten and even a few presents under the tree yet to be opened. There was stormy weather and ice ice ice, there were power outages and presents galore - add food, family, fresh snow and voila, it's a year to remember! Plus, it was the first time that Hendrik left goodies for Santa and his equine crew; on Christmas morning he crept out with shiny eyes to see nanaimo bar crumbs and chewed carrot stubs, and watching him put it all together was more than a little bit magical.

the night before and the morning of - plus stocking contents, below!

Hendrik's stocking on the left, Alana's on the right

In the Brinkman family presents are usually exchanged on Christmas Eve, so we - the big kids - decided to follow tradition. After a candlelight service at church, we put the kids to bed, fixed ourselves some drinks and got to it. From my secret santa (we drew names for gifts this year) I got a few books (The Silver Spoon and Crafts for Kids) and a recipe box (thank you Freddy!) and a surprise mega-gift from Steve - a weekend away! This weekend. Away. No kids. Eeek! I opened a gift bag and pulled out a very old pair of flip flops and a bathing suit - cue confused look on my face..... but there was an envelope that explained all. We'll make our way to Niagara on the Lake's Pillar and Post tomorrow afternoon, and we won't come back until Monday - ! My first reaction was that I'd miss Alana - after all, I've spent just one night away, and we are somewhat attached at the hip. But..... it will be good for both of us and I'll get to read and work out and hang out with Steve and sleep! I'll get to sleep. It. will. be. fabulous. SLEEP!

new slippers!

Okay, now to Christmas day. The kids awoke and we opened stockings - Hendrik loved the books (we had to read them as we opened) and his Brontosaurus periscope and his Canada gloves (and more I'm sure)... there was mucho in there - Santa's sleigh was full of toys for these kiddos. After breakfast they opened a few more presents, with highlights being, for Alana, a new baby with a crib, bottle and pillow and blankie (from my parents) and for Hendrik a new car (from Auntie Erin and Uncle Fred), play-doh (G-parents B) and.... ? There were so many gifts that I'm drawing a blank. Pam and Bob showed up for the Annual GGG (Gift Grab Game) with gifts for the kids - a Cabbage Patch Kid for Alana (and a pink Leafs shirt) and a hockey net and set for Hendrik, and the trucks and Jenga (for H) and books and apron set (for A) from Aunt and Unc were also a hit. There were presents galore (from us: books, a stroller for baby) and there are even more under the tree..... can we just save them for next year? Hm. Maybe.

with bob and her new CPK (with whom she shares a birthday!) and in her new chef's kit

our girl.... so adorable!

So, presents aside (/piled up everywhere), we had the GGG here with goodies and coffee and then appetizers - plus a charged round of Left-Right-Center (Steve won $24) - and then made for the Tukkers for a feast: turkey, ham, sweet potato casserole, brussel sprouts, broccoli, stuffing, buns, green bean casserole, tutti frutti (see 2nd paragraph here), red cabbage, mashed potatoes, applesauce, corn, and then sticky toffee pudding for dessert. It was delicious! Probably one of the best turkey dinners I've had..... yum. The kids did a great job of staying awake and keeping happy, and Hendrik entertained the crowd with jokes and stories (though we're yet to hear the "flipsy-flopsy" story). Man oh man am I ever thankful for the people I have in my life, and that includes family in Vancouver and Denver, and too, our friends around the world - many of whom find themselves far from family at the end of the year. I have more on my mind and more to write about, but I'd better get to the photos and save something for the one last post that I might have time for this year... and then it's 2014, eeeek!

GGG: formalities, Steve with his best wrapped gift, our boy and perusing presents
Dinner:good food good times!

reading with dad, nanaimos with gramps and hockey with justin
shuffleboard, with Dylan and books with dad

the ice

photos and a few videos, on a snowy, snowy night!

back at the museum of nature!

making faces

A few things:

It has been snowing here non. stop. All day. And there are travel advisories and storm warnings (snow, freezing rain, ice) ringing in the weekend. But you know what? Playing in the snow is fun, and temperatures have been much milder than the minus twenty-somethings that we saw earlier in the week.... so, if we do get stuck here for a few days, I'll just go out and play in the snow. Right?

or i could eat cookies and look this happy - ! love it!

Hendrik is day-potty-trained and it's great - BUT he leaves the seat up. He's three! And he's leaving the seat up! When Steve reads this I'm sure he'll snicker, and I'll have to deal with the seat-up/seat-down debate... again. Bleh!

We went to a preschool holiday family sing-a-long on Thursday, and seeing our two blondies sitting beside each other so nicely was just the loveliest thing. Aren't they adorable?

 Hendrik with a special present: tile art, thanks to preschool... it's a keeeeeeeper!

And now... dishes.

A few vids from the day before yesterday:

busy busy busy!

I can't believe I've only posted twice this month... things have been busy busy busy around here with volleyball stuff (coaching for me, training for Steve), preschool, museum visits and Christmas baking - and eating Christmas baking. This is what the goodie box contains this year: jam diagonals, candy-cane cake balls, sugar cookies, nanaimo bars, mint chocolate chip chocolate cookies, gingerbread, aaand I think that's it. So yeah, now that all of that fat and sugar are mixed together into glorious goodness... what do we do with it all? There is mucho to eat, so I suppose we might bring it with us to Bowmanville this weekend to add to the Christmas bounty that surely awaits us. If only it weren't -20something degrees outside and I could get everyone out without their skin freezing I might be able to get a bit more exercise in... man, I am not used to this frigid weather.

SO, because outdoor activities are somewhat limited, you know, with frostbite advisories and all, I purchased a membership to the Museum of Nature last week, and feel like it was the best thing I've done in a while. Both kids were as happy as they get, walking around and ogling at dinosaurs and fish and little creatures in caves. We might try and stop in again before we head to B-ville on Saturday - the trick is balancing a schedule that works for the kids, for Steve and with the traffic to and fro.

Anyways! I'm neglecting the kids. And dishes. I have my last night of vb tonight - a scrimmage against the U18 girls team I'm helping coach... should be fun!

recap

"wake me up for breakfast!" says Hendrik, lying on a mini-pillow, just like the dino in this Syd Hoff book

We had a doctor's appointment for Alana this morning, so Hendrik and Miss Miss and I headed all the way out to Orleans to see what we could see; she was due for a shot, and the nurse measured and weighed and listened, and here is the news: she is a champ with shots (no fuss) and she is off the charts in height and 95th percentile in weight. She's big, we're big, Hendrik's big... it all makes sense, no?

And to get back to the weekend - it was great; we split our Thursday-Sunday time away from home between Bowmanville and Toronto and were both with kids and without kids, thanks to les grandparents. I coached an 18U Ottawa girls club team in a tourney on Saturday, and that was really fun - fun especially because even though there were the usual ups and downs, we finished on a high note and won to stay in the division. After that wrapped itself up, I drove into the city, checked in at an "urban resort" (see here and decide for yourself) and got into bed and read my book (this one - it's good!). Steve joined me after a night out with his buddies, but stayed tucked in tight in the morning while I walked over to the Ontario Sport Alliance building for a Learning Facilitator workshop. Essentially, I can now coach beginner coaches and get them started in their coaching education... I just have to get my individual presentation going and feel good about it, and then I can start delivering courses. We drove home on Monday morning and it took us SEVEN hours - seven! (It usually takes 4/5... bleh.) The 401 was closed due to an accident (no injuries) and we were rerouted and it took for-ever... but at least the kids were happy and we had food and the boys peed by the side of the road. Happy trails, right?

The kids had an great time with the Brinkmans, and were busy with Christmas stuff and ice cream bars and the regular fun with grandparents stuff. Some pictures (+ vid):

I've been baking, and we finally got a few Christmas decos up around the house - I'll try to get a video up before the blog goes to post. Oh, and what you won't see is the WORD that Hendrik wrote on the other side of our front-door snowman... m-o-m-m-y! Can you find it? The "y" is a bit questionable, but the other letters are legit:

We had a women's league game last night and it was SO much FUN... I'm so happy to be back in the gym and playing a bit, even if it is just once a week. Well, that's misleading because I'm actually in the gym thrice a week, with coaching on Monday and Thursday nights. It's one of those hand off the kids and run things, as practice is way out on the other side of the city, and with Steve home late from practice, there's nothing else I can really do to make it (sort of) on time. Anyways, fun. Volleyball is the best the best the best! (And so is Christmas baking. We made sugar cookies today... YUMS!)

And to wrap it up here, I'll share something really, really strange that happened today: my phone rang some time after lunch and Steve answered it to find a frantic woman on the other end of the line shouting, "My kids! My kids are gone I'm shopping and they're gone oh my god oh my god my kids my kids" and then she hang up. Really? Really! It was weird....

this that the other

This is going to be one sprint-through-it blog - how does it get so late so quickly? And how does that list of things-to-do never get any shorter? Mrrrrr. This is the thing: if I could count on Alana sleeping through the night, I could would might stay up a little later to attack the must-do section BUT... I sure can't count on her getting a half-decent nights sleep, unfortunately. Every morning I remind myself that it could be worse...... but I will so oh so so so SO welcome that uninterrupted sleep when it comes... but when? When? When when when? She's teething and she's always wanting me - you should her hear scream (like someone is ripping off her arms) when Steve goes in to get her - and she wants into our bed, which is our last-ditch effort to get some sleep. Anyways.......

we've had much much fun with all of the snow - alana isn't so sure, but hendrik LOVES it!

We're in the Christmas spirit, but I just put up the first of the decorations today (a red and green paper chain) and festive baking is still a work in progress (nanaimos, jam diagonals and gingerbread, made; sugar cookies, vegan nanaimos (just because I'm curious) and candy cane cake balls, yet-to-be-made). Because we're heading to B-ville this weekend and then again in a few weeks for Christmas, we're not going to put up a tree, but I still do want to get a bit of holiday spirit up in colour on our walls; we'll chip away at it, I suppose. There's more I could be writing about, but I'll just post a few pics and get to bed. It's late late late!

hendrik's first jam diagonal was circular... ish!

a new, grandma-b fait birthday duvet - with dinos and franklin... it's a hit!