Family Portrait

I set up the camera and tripod today to attempt to capture the elusive and shy Family portaitus. Out of one billion shots with wiggling children, here is the best. I might try again another day, or just photoshop our best faces together from the various shots. And YES, Jesse is growing a beard. It will be mighty.Violet then asked me if I would take a picture of her and her doll Baby-Baby. This is what happened when I asked her to look and the camera and smile. It really reminded me of a Calvin and Hobbs strip...

The laptop broke. Rats. I was just getting used to the art of nursing Jem and shopping on ebay at the same time. It's in for repairs, but that might take a long time.

A couple of mornings ago we woke up to a fantastic winter snowfall. Jesse and I looked at each other and both knew we couldn't wait to show Violet how everything outside had changed. We brought her into the living room and pulled back the curtains from the big window. Her face lit up and she breathed "snow!". Then she wanted to go play in the snow, but it was only 7 am, so for the next hour and a half we had to deal with "can I go play in the snow now?...now?....now?" until Oma was ready to take her out. All she wants to do is eat the snow. I even caught her picking up snow that had fallen out of the tread of my boots inside in hopes of eating it.

She eats cat kibble too.

Since we're on the subject of Violet being weird... she likes to play with stickers by sticking them one by one on to her forehead. For what reason, I do not know.

She also likes Jesse to sing Guns'n'Roses by glowstick as a bedtime ritual. It was cute until I heard her singing "Daddy works in porno now that Mommy's not around" (from the song My Michelle). Oh, I guess that's still cute, as long as no one else hears.Then there's the boy. He had his first doctor's appointment and shots yesterday. As expected, his sumo wrestler lifestyle (without the wrestling part) has put him in the 99th percentile for weight, height and head circumference. Huge, but healthy and sleeping like a champ at night. Hooray Jem!

One Liners

I wish I could record all the hilarious things that Violet thinks up to say. She keeps up a pretty steady chatter about anything that pops into her head. She'll even be talking about something before her nap, sleep for 2 hours, and immediately pick up where she left off. Here are a couple one-liners from the last few days that we're still laughing about.

Grandpa Santa Ralph came for a short visit last Saturday. You can probably guess what kind of facial hair Grandpa Santa Ralph has from his name. Violet exclaimed
"you're all covered in moustaches!"

While on a walk after dinner Violet looked up at the moon and called out "Hey! You got any sandwiches?"

For Libby

Jem turned two months old a couple of days ago. He can hold his wobbly head up for longer and longer. He likes to eat. He is easy going, easy to please, and smiles when I sing this little Ukrainian song to him.

In the background is Violet, who cannot tolerate a camera being pointed at Jem for too long without asking to see herself too. When Libby was here last summer we taught Violet to say "redrum" in that creepy voice, and Libby thought it was pretty funny. Also, she hasn't met Jem yet, so this one goes out to her special.

In other news:

Violet was drawing at the living room table yesterday evening. She stopped and whispered (in her theatrical whisper kind of way) "I'm going to go drink wine in my room", and left.

Hilarious!

The Long Car Ride

Driving home from Toronto this afternoon, we stopped at McDonald's for a snack. I told Violet I was going to order her a Happy Meal and she said "No! I want an angry meal!".
That was the kind of car ride it was.
Glad to be home!

Hawawe'en (UV pronounciation)

The more time that goes by since updating the blog, the more posts pile up in my head until I don't know where to start anymore and it seems overwhelming. Then I avoid writing.

The good news is that I now have a laptop on loan and wireless Internet upstairs so updating the blog will be much easier.

So can we start fresh here? Yes?

This is the first year that Violet understood what Hallowe'en was about, so we were really excited about taking her around the neighbourhood...and then raiding her candy stash. She wanted to dress up like a fairy princess, so we got her a little costume at the mall that included a tutu, wings, crown and a wand for whacking lamps off of tables. As the salesgirl was showing us how to attach the wings on Violet, she said "so I can fly!" in total seriousness. If I could bend the rules of gravity for this child, I would.

I was expecting Violet to want to go to a few houses and then home, but we stayed out for an entire hour. Every time we left a house she would call out "I want to go to another place!", and so we would. Jem was happy to come along in the stroller.

Brandishing the wand

About to hit up the first house

Candy gettin' face

Finally had enough. Check out the death grip on her bag of candy. We pull the bag out after dinner, and she gets to have one treat. So far, it's been all about the lollipops. More chocolate for me! This was a really fun Hallowe'en.

Jem is 7 weeks old today. I can't believe he's only been here for such a short time. It feels like he's always been here, sitting around looking at us and farting lots. He started smiling a few days ago!! The biggest, gummiest smiles ever. He is such a lovely and easy going boy.

In other news: Jesse, super-husband and captain of my heart, surprised me with tickets to go see Cats! last Friday. Oma and Grandpa tag teamed to look after Jembon and UV. Now I know why Jesse had been strongly encouraging me to pump milk and get Jem used to an occasional bottle the last couple of weeks. It was wonderful to get out, just the two of us.

In sadder, yet still cat related news: Rusty has moved on to the Heavyside Lair. Rusty had a long and fulfilling country life.

Best news ever: both kids go to bed at 8 pm.