Easter Escape

I took Violet to Toronto for Easter. Just a girl trip, and we kept it on the down-low. We took the train. I'd been harbouring this fantasy of our journey as a snack filled giggle fest while we watched the landscape glide by. Violet said "Oh yeah, this is great....I'm bored, can I watch a movie?" about 5 minutes after we departed. The weekend was fantastic - we packed a lot into a couple of days. Spending time with my family, embracing our Ukrainian culture and eating.
Walks with Nana and Peach in her new hood.Sophisticated treats at Patachou
Introduction to Ukrainian easter egg making
This is Peachy's view.
Blessing of the baskets at the church.
Easter brunch at my Aunt's house. She's such a good cook, and this has to be one of my favourite meals.
Easter egg hunt victory (we only lost one to those savvy Toronto squirrels). Good times.

Hands up

Me, standing at the sink rinsing some dishes. I can hear Jem come up behind me.
Jem: Hands up!
Me: You'd better not be pointing a gun at me.
Jem: I'm not!
Me: OK, because we don't...
Jem: I'm pointing two guns at you!

At least he made them out of Lego himself...that's creative, right? And! Jem started drawing (which he's never been interested in before). Sure, if you ask him what he's drawing he'll say things like "this is all the people dying on the volcano" and "a shark is eating this guy and this is all the blood coming out and these guys are shooting their guns at him".
.....but he sure looks cute.

Hungry?

Jem: When I get my bow and arrow back from the cottage this summer I'm going to look for an animal and kill it and put it in a plastic bag. When people get hungry I'll go to the kitchen and get it and we'll eat its face.

Days of Celebration in the Context of Our Daily Life

Jem finally decided to go ahead and use the toilet full-time. I am done changing diapers! I'm pretty sure my eyes were moist with happiness when this happened. We ran to the mall and got the Star Wars Lego that we've been dangling in front of him as a bribe. He was happy. We clapped, cheered, and told him how proud we were. He's my big boy.
Violet, never to be outdone, stopped sucking her thumb a couple of days later. I don't think she could stand us praising Jem so much. Although it's not as easy to celebrate the cessation of something as it is to cheer a turd floating in the toilet, we took her out for dinner and will let her pick a prize at the toy store. Violet's been sucking her thumb since she was 8 weeks old, and it was always in her mouth, day and night. She took the initiative to wrap her thumb in a bandage before bed each night to make it 'taste bad'. That's pretty mature for a 5 year old!
At the Biodome she asked me to take a series of pictures of her pretending to hatch out of a giant penguin egg. It really feels like we've turned the last corner away from baby-hood. See ya!

You try and understand.

On Saturday morning we were getting ready to take the kids to the Biodome in Montreal.
Violet ran up to me with some assorted baking tools in her hands.
Violet: Can I bring these?
Me: You want to bake at the Biodome?
Violet: Yes!
Me: You can't bake at the Biodome, that's ridiculous.
Violet: UGH! You never let me do anything!
Jem: Mama?
Me: Yes Jem?
Jem: Let's do business in French, OK?

Rocking Out

Another year, another lovely kindergarten concert.
You'd never guess which one is Violet...
It's amazing she didn't flatten all the kids in her immediate vicinity with her enthusiasm.
She's awesome.

Sharp Tongue

While walking to the library this morning, Violet was noticing all the animal tracks in the snow. She rarely misses anything (especially if it's something like a bit of a candy wrapper sticking out of your purse).

Me: Violet, I'm going to give you a new name.
Violet: Really, what?
Me: Eagle Eye! You notice everything!
Violet: Now I'm going to give YOU a name.
Me: Cool, what is it?
Violet: Stinky name-picker.

Then I thought of a different name for her, but I kept it to myself.

Frozen Treats

We found the park covered in a layer of ice last week. I bought an iphone. Put the two together,
and the fact I sound like an idiot, and voila! A video!

Mystery

Violet, Jem and I picked up some mystery gum at the grocery store. It said 'mystery flavour', and had an intriguing swirl of colours on the package.

Violet: Is this really mystery gum?
Me: Yep.
Violet: Like, it lets you know about mysteries?!
Me: That would be really neat, but I don't think so.

Later, while driving home, chewing a piece....
Violet: Mom, are baby rabbits called bunnies?
Me: I think they're actually called kits. Isn't that funny?
Violet: What, No! They are bunnies! UGH! this gum is NOT working!

The New Look

Still me here, I just look way cooler.

At Home

Well, I guess the short version is that Oma got a great job in her town and I quit my job to stay at home. It was the right decision for all of us...except for the missing each other part.
It's a treat to be home with the kids. I have them both in the morning, and then Violet heads to school after lunch. Jem is in pre-school two afternoons a week, which is when I can work on my business.

I've been wanting to do some big projects with the kids; a giant paper mache spider for
hallow e'en, baking bread, taking little road trips. A big one on my to-do list has been to make a gift for Gavin, our little friend who is fighting brain cancer and is currently stuck in Sick Kids Hospital undergoing high dose chemotherapy. We knew he has lots of presents from friends and family, and were trying to come up with something different. Something that will distract him, make him smile and was easy to use if feeling icky and stuck in bed. It was Violet's idea to take pictures of the goofiest faces they could make and send them to him to help make him laugh. I so hope they do. We popped them in the mail today (so don't ruin the surprise!), but they turned out so nicely I have to share. I am so grateful for this time we have together and the beauty of my sweet children.

Spot on

Violet was doing an imitation of a cartoon character when I stopped her and asked "pretend to be me! What do I sound like?".
Violet, without missing a beat:
"I'm just drinking this Diet Coke!...Jesse, do I look OK in this?...Well, BYE! I've got to work".

It kinda gave me the shivers.

Star Wards

Star Wars has consumed the kids lately. I'm not talking about the prequels here, but the original films. It's made for some fun dialogue around here.

Jem: Mama, I'm being a Bouncy Hunter!
Me: I think you mean a Bounty Hunter?
Jem: No! I'm a Bouncy Hunter!
- - - - -
Jem: Mama, you be Darth Vader and I'll be Luke Skywalker
Me: Ok, Jem...but Darth is knitting, is that OK?
Jem: Darth can knit.
Me (Darth voice): Luke! Pearl two, knit two! Find the rebel base!
Jem: OK! I'll find the where the webels are! (runs off...comes back)
Jem: Darth, can you put your knitting down and fight?

- - - -
Violet: Let's be Han Solo and Leia and kiss and talk a lot!
Jem: Vi-O-Let!

Gulp

Tomorrow Violet starts senior kindergarten and Jem starts pre-school.

The Shadow

So you're just making lunch in the next room. Jem's playing in the living room. Violet is at dance camp. Then you see this...black...out of the corner of your eye. It's moving towards you! It's Jem! It's creepy! He's like a little figure out of a Japanese horror movie (accepting possible titles in the comments section) He's figured out how to completely envelope himself in his snuggly, and he walks around like this. But being Jem, he still has a lego gun in there.Summer is winding down. It's been one full of ups and downs, but mainly ups. School will be starting for UV and Jesse soon, and Jem will be starting at a pre-school for a couple of afternoons a week. I'm both looking forward to and sad about this - but it does mean one good thing - Oma will be back with us soon!

Now we're cooking....

With Nina, that is.

Comedy and Tragedy

Comedy first.
Violet's last days of JK are winding down, and there was a performance for the parents from the JK and SK classes. A few songs with actions, and lots of cuteness all around. I don't have to tell you how much Violet likes to do this sort of thing, so here is a montage. See if you can't spot the ham.
About halfway through I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned, and a mom behind me leaned in and whispered "Wow, Violet's really into this".

I thought bringing Jem with me would be a good idea, but he was very upset that he didn't get to stand up there with her and sing. I kept telling him "I'll let you go up when they're finished. Then it will be your turn". So, he waited as patiently as a two year old can wait. When the performance had finished and the kids were filing off to go back to their classrooms, I let him go up on the stage.
Now, the Tragedy:
Jem jumped up ready to sing, but then noticed everyone was leaving. The man with the guitar had left. And he was HEARTBROKEN. And then he did this:I laughed. Then I teared up. Then I took a picture before I rescued him. Have you seen a sadder boy?
Just in case your heart is breaking a little too, I present a photo taken 10 minutes later. We went to Violet's classroom, he was given a popsicle and got to eat it with the big boys in Violet's class.
All is well.

Prisoner....of love.

Jem: here Mama (hands me his snuggly), you can snuggle my snuggly if you like.
Me: Jem, thank you! Do you know what my favourite snuggly is?
Jem: What?
Me: It's you! My little Jem is my favourite thing to snuggle.
Jem: I'm not your snuggly, I'm your prisoner.

Babes in the wood

The gun issue.

I always had a vague concern that if I ever had a boy, he would love guns, and then what would I do about that? I knew I was never going to be that mom who gave her kids fake guns for toys. Oh, and also my kids were not going to watch TV, and we all know where that went…down the Disney drain!

But one morning there was sweet little Jem sitting at the breakfast table making a gun out of a piece of toast, then out of Lego, my tripod, out of ANYTHING. Since that day, he’s had a weapon in each hand as soon as he toddles out of his room in the morning. Violet has watched exactly the same programs and read the same books as Jem, and has never had even a remote interest in weapons (unless it’s a means to irritate him).

So, I was worried. I stressed about how to break this fascination. I cringed when the mothers in the park would raise their eyebrows when my little boy held up a stick and says “see my rifle?! I’m gonna shoot things!”. Just like I used to do.

One day I asked him "what comes out of guns?"and he said "shooting juice!". We talked about it and talked about it- guns hurt and kill people, and I don’t like them. It changed nothing. I have decided to stop worrying about it, since oddly enough it has nothing to do with killing and hurting. I'm not actually sure what he thinks he's doing when he shoots something.

There’s nothing I can do except lay the rules about where he can point his weapons, and decline to play guns with him when he asks. It’s a bit sad, because my stance makes him try to endear guns to me, “See Mama, this is a nice gun! I’m a nice bad guy! I’m not going to shoot you in the face!” So sweet.

I'm saying "I" a lot because this doesn't bother Jesse whatsoever. Jesse makes him Lego guns.

When he’s older his Uncle Max can teach him about hunting and responsible weapon ownership, but for now I’m just going to let him play.

Peace out.