Feeling Talkative!

I realized today that it has been far too long since I really said anything on here, so I figure it is about time to give some actual news beyond pictures (which admittedly have been far too few and far between as well!).

We got some new neighbours about a month ago. The man works as a handyman, so we hired him to pull the cactuses out of the garden by the driveway (for very cheap, but he set the price, so we went for it). Anyway, out went the cactuses, and the discovery was made that the garden is absolutely full of poison ivy! We need to pull it, but I haven't been that brave... yet. Into that garden, we are going to put a few paths of (large) paving stones, a bird bath, a couple of little hummingbird feeders, various herbs, and different heights and types of perennial and annual flowers. I thinking about maybe a bleeding heart, hibiscus, milkweed, and then I already have seeds for columbine, yarrow, basil, oregano (I think), dill, forget-me-nots, African daisies, bachelor's buttons, California poppies, and probably a few others that I've forgotten. Most of those are perennial, so it will be minimal maintenence.

We've also revamped the garden in front of the house (near the porch) because it was full of bulbs, and we discovered that many of those bulbs have poisonous content either both in the bulb and the leaves, or just in the bulb, but regardless, Elias eats anything in reach/sight, so we pulled all the bulbs. They're going to go into the garden that has been completely ignored since we moved in here, and we've put in perennials in the garden in front of the porch. :) So far we have bee balm, prime roses, echinacea, some dasies, and potentially some yarrow... if it decides to grow. I've also got some nasturtiums, marigolds, and alyssum planted.

Elias is developing in leaps and bounds. He crawls everywhere very quickly, and I often will see him right beside me, turn around, and realize he's missing! Then I go hunting. While most boys are loud it seems, he is very, very, very quiet much of the time! It makes me glad to be able to say that we just got an Ergo baby carrier! He's spent about 2 hours in it every day since it arrived on Saturday. It allows me to get at least a few things done, and I discovered today that I can actually operate the vacuum with him on my back in it! I've tried three different carriers with him on my back, and this is the first he hasn't flipped out in!

Anyway, development. Elias loves to play with balls of all sizes. He likes to put things in and out of containers... particularly balls. :) He also likes to pull all the toilet paper off the toilet paper roll, and anything that has to do with the bathroom is his favourite activity. As soon as the bathroom door opens, he crawls as fast as he can to get in there so he can play in (yes, I said in) the toilet. The big news of the last week is that Elias has started taking the occasional step toward us or some other inanimate object! I'm really hoping that he isn't going to start actually walking anytime too soon though! It's already a lot of work chasing two kids in opposite directions! I don't want to have to do it with them both on feet! Oh yes, and of course, he has discovered the pilot light under the hotwater heater. I found out by discovering him with his arm inside the space under the heater trying to catch the flame. Yikes!

Rebecca is growing up so fast lately. She loves to play with the neighbourhood kids. Lexi is Rebecca's favourite by far. She watches for Lexi's mom to get home every evening so she can drag me over to play outside with Lexi and Lexi's little brother, Aaron. She's thrilled with the warm weather that allows us to get out every day for hours at a time... I'm not so thrilled by the pollen we've got lately though! Brianna and Chris are her other two "older" playmates (more often Brianna than Chris), and Amaya is her only age-mate playmate on the street. However, she is also the friend Rebecca sees least.

Rebecca is also developing a fascination and love for many little creatures such as worms, beetles, spiders, lady bugs, butterflies, etc. She actually (finally) picked up a beetle last night! She has refused to touch just about any 'creepy crawly' for the last year, so this is a huge milestone. :) And, speaking of creatures, Rebecca still loves frogs, adn we still walk up and down the road looking for them in the ditches, but she also absolutely loves turtles, fish, alligators, and the latest love is dolphins. To the point that she actually begs me to put on movies that are about dolphins. :) She loves the old Flipper television shows. Anyway, instead of having eggs or anything, we gave her a little Pillow Pet dolphin for Easter, which she absolutely loves, and she's actually taken a nap with it willingly for the last week and a half! :)

We're heading to Florida with my parents in a week and a half, and Shannon and Mara will be joining us there. We'll be spending a week there, and then heading back up to home. Thankfully our neighbours across the street have agreed to look after all our creatures and the house while we are away... but I'm still trying to find someone to take the dogs if possible, because they throw a little loop into things for them.

Anyway, I think that's all the news!

So... it's the end of the month.

I thought I ought to update this!

Rebecca is working through the ABeka Nursery curriculum, because I really wanted to be able to keep her busy without having to think too hard (and not having a printer or easily accessible computer meant I needed something in hard copy). She's done about 7 weeks worth of materials now, and generally thoroughly enjoys herself. Of course, that's 7 weeks in the course of 3 months, so we're really taking it much slower than you're "supposed" to, but that's okay. :) The point is to have fun! She is definitely a challenge many days however, so sometimes "school" lasts a whopping two minutes before she stops cooperating and therefore gets sent on her way! We just pick up where we left off the next time/day we attempt school in those cases. There are times she wants to do two or three days worth of school in one day as well. If she's cooperative usually we spend no more than 10 minutes on school time in a day, so I think that's good. Anyway, she has learned about the letters A-E, her colours, shapes, about her body, and a number of things beginning with the various letters she's learned about, and we see her demonstrating her knowledge regularly. It also keeps her brain engaged, which means she's less mischievous!

She no longer looks or acts like a baby. I was realizing that this evening. She's lost the majority of that 'baby' look now. She really does look like a little girl. And, I need to trim her hair. I'm just afraid of messing it up! It's starting to look quite straggly. Perhaps she'll sit still if I sit her in front of a video. She seems to very much enjoy watching Madeline shows on Hulu, so that could perhaps work. She's been free of accidents aside from sleeping for more than two months now, and even before that we were only having one every couple of weeks... unless it was on purpose (she does have "accidents" when she is angry with me for something). She's becoming clearer and clearer in her speech, but also learning so many new words that we often struggle to figure out what she is talking about, as while she is clear for a two year old, she is not as clear as a five year old is, understandably! For instance, it took me almost a full day to figure out what a "stitue" was... she'd been asking for a tissue all day! Poor child! At least her pointing finger works well most days, and she DOES know signs for many things so we usually can muddle our way through new words.

She loves to play pretend, and I think managed to scare herself. She's now afraid of the dark, because she insists "It biting me" (her words). When asked to clarify, she told us "A nouse bite Bubba" (a mouse bite Rebecca), so we suspect she is afraid a mouse will bite her if it is dark... so we have MANY night lights in our house now. Two dim ones in her room (green and blue "cool" night lights), and one bright yellow one in each room between our room and hers, which we keep on through the night for her. She likes her lights, and is much happier when it isn't dark as she moves through the house. She hasn't told us anything will bite her in a few days, so it seems they have helped!

Elias has been sitting for a while now (evidenced in the pictures I posted!), but he has started trying to crawl properly on his hands and knees in the last couple of days, and he also loves to pull up so he can see more things around him. He's spending more and more time up and less on his tummy, so I'm getting ready to celebrate the day that I no longer need to stain treat every one of his garments because of all the dirt on his bellies and wrists! I'm sure in 20 years I'll wish I was back stain treating his clothing because he got it messy crawling around on our floors, but right now... it really is a hassle. :) I keep reminding myself to enjoy it because it only lasts for a short time though, because these kids really do grow up much faster than I want them to. :)

I introduced Elias to pears a couple of weeks ago, and added in some rice cereal this past week. He's been very interested in the concept of eating for a couple of months, and I even tried giving him some pears back around Christmas, but all he could do was gag on them, even when I watered them down to almost a water consistency, so we waited a while and tried again. He really enjoys getting the new flavours and textures now, but I don't want to go much further, as I don't want to end up with food stains on clothing, and he is most DEFINITELY a spitter! I want him to stop spitting up as much before I give him orange and green foods to stain clothing with!

Elias is no longer sleeping through the night either, though I somewhat wonder if when he has a little more solid food in his diet he will sleep more. He did sleep better last night than he has been, and I gave him a little snack of pears in the evening, so this evening I gave him some pears and rice, so I'm curious to see if he actually does sleep better tonight, or if it was a fluke! Maybe the poor kid is just getting hungry midway through the night and as my milk digests so quickly, he just isn't staying full long enough to stay asleep! maybe. I can always hope, anyway!

So, there's my update... I'll have to put some pictures on here again soo... I ought to try to at least so the "once a month" milestone pictures (ie, "birthdays") of each kid, but it seems my hands are often full of children these days, and thus the camera is left by the way side! I need to remedy this, as those pictures will be memories one day, and those little children will be all grown up and gone!

(yes, I'm rather nostalgic today, can you tell??)

It has been MUCH too long!

I suddenly realized last night that it had been about 8 weeks since I posted anything here, so I feel perhaps it is time to post something again! I DO have a lot of pictures (I will get them up... eventually!), but right now I'm just going to do some verbal updating.

Rebecca has been doing nursery 'school' for about three months now, and she's very much enjoying herself. Most days her favourite portion of school time is to do Bible time. She loves the songs and the stories, and she's learning to say the verses too! I'm so pleased! We've got her involved in AWANA (Puggles is for 2 year olds), and she's able to say her AWANA verse now too. :) She is quickly turning from a baby into a little girl. Prim and proper... until she decides to be anything but! She is a whirlwind of energy, she is determined, she is very engaging, and she is cute. Unfortunately the cute part sometimes overrides the other things and we fail to deal with certain behavioural issues adequately. We're working on that.

Elias is half a year old now! (WOW!!) He weighs around 18lbs and is about 28 inches long. We tried introducing pears, but he didn't really go for it, so we're holding off for another month. He's sitting up well, and has just started working himself into a sitting position from his tummy. He likes to pull himself all over the house with his hands and arms, but hasn't quite figured out that it is faster to get on his knees and motor everywhere. That's okay, because it doesn't take him long to get from one end of the house to the other anyway! He's also started pulling up on things when he wants to see what is in something... and he empties all my laundry baskets for me, with a grin. Hopefully in another year we'll be able to channel that energy into putting the clothing AWAY, rather than just putting it all on the floor for me to pick up and refold! :)

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling!

Yep, the baby's rolling! Elias has figured out how to go front to back and back to front. Actually, he knew how for a long time, he just didn't do it much. Now he's rolling to get places! I can put him down on his play mat, and if he gets bored with the toys on that, then he starts rolling off to other adventures. I've found him as much as 10 feet away from his play mat. He's gone visiting the dogs, the guinea pigs, the table, the piano, and various toys that get left out by his very helpful sister (at least helpful when it comes to being able to get into things!).

He's almost able to sit on his own. He's trying REALLY hard. In fact, if you lie him down on something he strains as hard as he can to sit up. He's almost managed a few times when he's been in a reclined position instead of a flat on the back position, but not quite. If you sit him up he'll maintain his sitting position for a few minutes though. He just ends up toppling over after that. :)

Rebecca has become quite interested in scissors, glue, and anything arts and crafty lately. She's also started trying to trace things if I make dotted lines for her (she doesn't do a very good job, but she's not even two yet, so I guess that's to be expected). She loves to use stickers, and to do "cut and paste" type activities. She likes to shred things using her scissors... everything ends up being about 1cm in size... or smaller. If we're doing cut and paste stuff, I do the cutting so there's something left to paste!

She's becoming quite vocal about what she likes and doesn't like as well. She regularly will run up and inform us things such as, "I like my shoes" or "I no like the food" or whatever... She was actually telling us in the car on Saturday afternoon that she likes her shoes, and Justin told her he was glad, but we had a budget, so she couldn't get too many of them, and she started to cry! Must have been quite distressing news to her! :)

There are a number of churches in the area that have been having fall festivals in the last few weeks, so we've been spending our weekends at various church activities having fun on bouncy castles, doing crafts, getting candies, and just plain having fun. Rebecca even rode a pony! She refused to get on by herself the first time, so Justin went with her, and then the second time she'd actually spent some time petting the pony, and she was willing to ride him on her own after that.

Anyway, I think that's about all I can think of right now!

Computer Troubles

Well... the biggest reason I've not posted much on here in the last month or so is that my computer is having troubles. This means that all the pictures I have on my camera haven't been transferred to my computer, and that I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and write a 'newsy' post either (not that I can think of any news anyway)! Every time I try to do anything with my computer it either shuts down completely, or restarts without being told to. Justin says it isn't an issue with the CPU overheating, and it isn't an issue with a half dozen other things, so he's pretty sure the motherboard is cracked... and we're not sure how that happened exactly, but it's not worth the time and money to attempt to repair the machine. Soooo... this means I need a new computer so that Justin can keep his 'toys' for his own purposes... which means I get to use one of his until we can afford a new one. I think this is going to mean I'm adopting the desktop computer in the FROG which we rescued from the trash pile. We priced laptops and netbooks yesterday (found one netbook I would be *okay* with, the rest I do not want), and we've got a lot of savings ahead of us to replace the computer... maybe Christmas... or my birthday next year(?), I suppose!

Anyway, something we have been saving and watching for is an inexpensive propane grill/BBQ, which I happened to find... yesterday! It was posted on Craigslist, just a few years old, everything on it works, and so now I'm looking forward to a grilled hamburger for supper this evening! Justin happened to have a 3/4 full propane tank, while it is a little rusted on the exterior, it holds the gas just fine, so I guess it just needs sanding and a new paint job. :) However, we do have a new tank in case they refuse to refill that one, as we're not sure anyone will be okay filling it.

Rebecca is now talking a steady stream to us, though we only understand about half of what she says. She seems quite certain she is communicating a message though, lol! Pretty well every sign she knows is accompanied by it's verbal word now, and we're working to teach her even more signs, so we'll be able to more clearly understand what she thinks she's communicating to us!

We had a week of sickies this past week, which started out with me not feeling too great, and then Rebecca started running a fairly high fever early Wednesday morning, continued through the full day, was fine Thursday until late afternoon at which point her temperature spiked up again, and then she's been fine ever since. I guess it's just going to remain a mystery as to what caused it, as the only other 'symptom' she has is an incredibly runny nose. Perhaps it was the flu.

Rebecca's current all time favourite thing to do is get her hands on any crayons or markers she can, and any paper she can find, and just COVER the paper with colour. She'll sit for 15 minutes or more at a time just colouring on a sheet of paper, and the thing literally has colour on it from one edge to the other when she's done. The results make me rather thankful that I purchase washable crayons for her! She actually is always fascinated by anything that is 'art' orriented any time we are in the stores-- she is always attracted to the Crayola kits on the shelves, and all the colouring/painting supplies they have, and it seems we essentially have to drag her away from them. And... speaking of colouring and such, we discovered something in the last couple of weeks we never thought we would need to know-- they use soy based inks print on many commercial cards (particularly ones made with recycled materials or other 'green' companies), and they use soy to make some brands of crayons! I never thought I was going to have to be careful what sorts of inks or crayons I got for my child!!

And, with that I should be off, we've got church this morning, and then hopefully a prenatal appointment this afternoon-- with all the sickies at our house, and then my midwife having 4 births this past week, we haven't had the opportunity to do the appointment that was supposed to happen this past week yet!

Spring/Easter Pictures

We attempted to take a picture of Rebecca in her Easter dress on Sunday, but she wasn't willing to cooperate-- she looked everywhere except at the camera! So, we gave up and had our little egg hunt with her. :) She's thrilled-- she found eggs just stuffed with candies! We also put out 6 little chalk eggs and chicks, which she loves to carry around with her both indoors and out. :)




This morning, as it was quite nice out, we decided to do a second attempt at a good little photoshoot... I think we were at least slightly successful this time, so here are some Easter/Spring pictures in her dress! :)











We had a nice Easter, it was quite warm-- hit the 30's (Celsius) by mid-afternoon. We've been hitting the mid-30's all week now, and I think the heat is starting to get to everyone. I can't justify turning on the air conditioning in April though, so I've got all the windows open... which is letting in all the pollen. The pollen has been so bad this year that I actually had to sweep it off our front porch, and it looked like a pile of yellow dust. Our lawn is currently rather yellow looking, and all vehicles on the roads are slightly yellow! It was bad enough yesterday that stepping out the door the air actually felt gritty. I think I've had enough with this pollen!

Justin had his 3-year anniversary at work this past month, so he came home with another Canon t-shirt. :)

We're starting the final process on the permanent residence papers now-- we've got most of the stuff we need pulled together now, just have to fill out the form, write the check, compile it into one big envelope, and submit it. We'll have to have that final meeting before I can leave the country again, as my green card runs out in July, and we're not going ANYWHERE in the next 8 weeks or so! I'm not sure how quickly they get you in for that second meeting, but the first wasn't too long a wait, so I'm guessing the second should be similar or even shorter since we've already done half the process.

Anyway, I think that's about all the news... oh, except that Rebecca now says the WORDS egg, door, bow, bib, chalk, and a few others that I'm currently forgetting!

Bubbles!

Having realized that children who can whistle can probably also blow bubbles, I taught Rebecca how to use a bubble wand and blow bubbles. She does quite well with it, though she tends to get the wand too close to her lips and ends up with soap on or in her mouth. It doesn't seem to stop her though, and I figure eventually she'll figure out how to make bubbles without touching her lips.

We got her a little no-spill bubble bucket, so that I didn't have to hold the bottle all the time. I was a little concerned about whether she'd be able to fit the wands into the slots, but she did it just fine. Those buckets are a wonderful investment for anyone with little people-- Rebecca literally turned it upside down and shook it and nothing (except the wands) came out!

She really gets a kick out of being able to make bubbles herself. :)

She wants to be like Daddy...

It seems no matter what Justin is working on lately, Rebecca thinks she should be assisting him! He rotated his tires at the end of February, and she toddled along after him trying to help every chance she got.


She helped with the jacks...


and thought she should help with the lug wrench as well. :)

Justin will get up with Rebecca to let her play for a little while in the morning while I get a little more sleep. This is usually because she wakes me up at least once through the night still, but lately because I have a cough that occasionally wakes me through the night as well, so I'm definitely not well rested by the time Rebecca gets up at 6 or so in the morning!





Justin tells me that she was pretending to eat something out of his hand. She loves to play pretend games, and does it regularly with both of us through the day. :)


I've decided we must be making use of screwdrivers just a little too much lately. She decided her dolly needed an operation that only a screwdriver could care for!




And... when the dolly was finished, the operating table apparently needed some work as well! :)

Random pictures

These pictures are spanning mostly February, I believe. I don't recall exactly, and don't feel like looking it up at the moment, lol! They're getting much closer to being 'current' pictures though. :)

Rebecca is a rock collector. When we go outside, she always picks up rocks she likes and will bring them to me to hold on to. I'm just waiting for her to figure out how to use her pockets, and then I'll have to remember to check her pockets every time I do laundry!

Rebecca also likes to throw rocks into puddles to see them make splashes.


This is a picture of ice. It's what happens when my garden is wet and then things freeze quickly enough that the ice makes the dirt 'grow' right out of the ground! It's kinda neat to see. :)


Putting shoes on. She's actually becoming quite successful, though she generally puts the wrong shoe on each foot. Just happens she's got the right shoe for the foot in this picture!


She did a bit of a face plant into a patch of mud. She wasn't too happy about it, but she did put on a little smile for me anyway. We had a very early bath that day!





She likes to lie on that shelf (we don't encourage this!) and play with her puzzles!



I can't remember if I've shown a picture of this before or not. Rebecca believes the place to be when she 'reads' to herself is in the book bin... good thing they're all board books in there!!

And... I just thought this was a sweet picture... notice the little tear in her eye...? :)