Odds and Ends

I thought I would share some odds and ends from around our home. 

Rebecca, who "wasn't tired" on this particular afternoon, fell asleep in this position at nap time. She has since stopped having naps in her room, and instead has a quiet time in the living room so as to give Elias the ability to have a nap. She was becoming far too noisy in their room, and would talk to him and get him playing so much he wasn't napping. He needs his sleep in the afternoons still, in order to be happy in the evenings. She plays outside for 30-45 minutes while I get Elias into bed and Esther fed and down for her nap, and then comes in and does school with me for about 30 minutes, and has a 30 minute quiet time. Usually we hit about 3pm at that point, and we get a snack ready and play outside for the rest of the afternoon.

Esther now likes to watch what is going on from the floor on occasion. She still prefers arms many times, but sometimes she will tolerate lying on her belly (or will flip onto her back!) to watch what is going on around her. In fact, just this morning she was fussing in our arms, fussing in her little rocking chair, and when I put her down on the floor she was suddenly perfectly happy again. I'm going to have to scrub my floors so she can spend more time there!

When Justin's parents moved, they left behind many items. The carpet sweeper was one of them, but I hadn't realized it was left behind! I got it out for Rebecca and Elias to use a couple of weeks ago, and they love it! They scramble to clean the play mat and then be the first one to clean the carpet.

We had a neighbour move in a few weeks ago, and the kids begged to bake cookies for our new neighbour, so we made him some chocolate chocolate mint chip cookies. They were a hit with everyone who got some, and were all gone within a few days here. There's a reason I rarely bake cookies. We all eat too many!

While trying to sort out behaviour issues, discipline issues, Daddy time, etc, we tried keeping the kids up until Daddy got home, which varies between 9pm and 10:30pm. It didn't work, so we are back to going to bed before Daddy gets home, but they sure enjoyed it while it lasted. They played games with him, he read them stories, and then he put them to bed. In a perfect world it would work. In our household, I couldn't get schedules shifted well enough and they were still waking at 6:30/7am despite no nap and going to bed super late. Lack of sleep made for cranky children! No thanks!

Rebecca is working so hard at growing up, and wants to do everything for herself. This makes for some interesting hair styles! Hard to believe this little girl was the size Esther is about 4 years ago! :-)

Pocahontas State Park

On Valentine's Day I had to get a couple of fillings put in, so Justin took the day off so I wouldn't have to deal with two babies and a half frozen mouth (THANK YOU, JUSTIN!!!). After the fillings were in, we went to Pocahontas State Park and took a very, very, very long walk, and a number of pictures along the way. :)

We got Rebecca and Elias a double umbrella stroller, which we use very regularly, and they enjoy a lot.

I'm not really sure what that is, but I'm suspecting it is an old kiln or oven. There were no signs to say what it was.

Yes, I've cut his hair since then. He no longer looks that shaggy.

This is Rebecca's "sulking" position. Anywhere, anytime she needs to pout, that is how you will find her.

Someone took it upon themselves to carve dead tree stumps into chairs along the path, which we thought was pretty neat. :)

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!

Fun With Daddy!

Rebecca and I hung out on the front lawn with Justin for a while last week, and I took advantage of an extra adult to get some fun pictures. :-)



(well, except for that one, since I'm in it... Justin took that!)



Rebecca just LOVES to fly through the air, and Daddy loves to toss her around, so they have a lot of fun when they have the opportunity to play like this!




Justin has also recently started doing what is shown in the following series of pictures. He swings Rebecca back and forth upside down, and then flips her up in the air and catches her on the way down. It makes my heart stop every time, but she loves it, LOL!







And, finally, what would a day of fun with Daddy be without giving him a nice, slobbery kiss at the end? :-)