Day 10: Childhood

My youngest, 7 months into his childhood years, trying to get the attention of my oldest, who at almost 12, is at the cusp between her childhood and adolescent years

Day 12: Close-up

Burning wood
(See if you can find any interesting images in this photograph!)

Day 13: In Your Bag

What I found in my bag today (Clockwise from L to R): Diapers, chiropractic “zappy” cards (yes, that’s 7 cards! 1 for each child + mine), kids’ immunization cards, kids’ health cards (realizing a few weeks ago that I didn’t receive one for the Chubs!), a hospital wrist band (when I brought Chubs to the ER a few days ago – he’s fine), a few “trying to look alive” products , and my wallet.

I’m surprised I didn’t find a dirty diaper in it. hahaha.  I gave up carrying a handbag a long time ago – when the babies started arriving.  I quickly switched out of carrying a “diaper bag”, preferring instead a generic looking bag that I could stuff with baby things.  The most challenging times were when I had two in diapers – but that wasn’t too frequent.  But most times, I probably under-pack.  Don’t know why.  I guess I just hate lugging around a lot of stuff.  But then the whole family thinks my bag is for their barang barang (stuff).  So many Sundays, I’d find everyone’s bibles stuffed into my bag.  I solved that problem by giving the girls their own little bags.  And MS Dad knows to not put his in my bag now.

 

Day 7: Favourite

My Interpretation: One of my favourite things to do: cooking

Day 8: Your Sky

This assignment took a little longer to do – it has been foggy and rainy the last few days. Today was our first sunny day in a long time.

Day 9: Routine

My Interpretation: This is 6-year-old Moose’s daily chore list.

Day 10: Childhood – still working on this one.

Day 11: Where You Sleep

My Interpretation: (The view from) Where I sleep…

Someone on the group suggested I use a tripod for the last photo and lengthen the exposure so that the light comes into the room.  I’ll try that and see what happens. Loving the group where there are experts who know what the buttons on my camera mean.

A friend from church started a facebook group in which participants would post a photo a day based on a list generated by fatmumslim.

This was timely for me, as two of my resolutions this year are to 1)figure out how to use our Nikon DSLR (which we picked up 5 years ago!) and 2) take more photographs. As our friend so accurately observed & described – MS dad & I looked tortured every time we were using our camera at church! hahaha.

We started last week and so far this is what I’ve got.

Day 1: You

Self-portrait – Taken in the bathroom of Great Wolf Lodge, Niagara Falls in the middle of the night

Day 2: Breakfast – I haven’t done this day’s assignment.

Day 3: Something You Adore

Something I Adore: Baby fat & dimpled fingers!

Day 4: Letterbox

Letterbox v.2. – You got mail

(v.1 got knocked down by a car trying to stop on a slippery hill. Our mailbox saved it from going down the gully. Haven’t gotten around to painting v.2 – hence the 2 toned post. And now, realizing that I didn’t take out my mail after shooting this photo)

Day 5: Something You Wore

Something I Wore….15 years ago at my wedding reception.

(the candy stripe is Big Mac subbing as my hanger)

Day 6: Makes You Smile

Makes Me Smile…my children playing nicely together

(And after taking this shot, I realized that a lot of other things in it makes me smile. On the left mantle – 1) the cross-stitch on the far left corner represents a weekend of all-nighters to complete for MS dad 20 years ago , 2) next to it, a series of family collages (my side) compiled by my mum who is now with the Lord. On the right mantle, 3) the picture frame that was a present for my first-born 12 years ago – my introduction to motherhood. On both mantles, 4) the christmas garlands (that really should be taken down now) that I put up for the first time in MANY years, just because my children REALLY love to decorate the house for Christmas; and last but not least 5) the blazing fire in the woodstove which keeps us warm and cozy and reminds me how blessed we are to be in this home.  And thus endeth my essay.)

That’s where I am right now.  Now off to complete Day 7 – Favourite.

I’ll be posting regularly this month with my photos.  Stay tuned!

It’s 2 weeks into 2012! Wow!

A new year. An opportunity to start afresh. Goal setting. Eager anticipation of what this year will bring.

For many years now, I’ve passed on making New Year’s resolutions. It was too depressing because invariably by the end of the month, I’d pretty much given up.

Well, not this year. I’ve been working on a list…specifically my 40 by 40 list. Yup, I’ll be turning 40 this November, Lord willing.

I split my list into 4 broad categories – Spiritual/Mental, Physical, Practical, and Family goals. Some of those goals include the 3650 challenge , practicing contentment (spiritual), getting on the treadmill 3x a week & working on my miles/minute time!, losing a specified amount of poundage/inches (physical), learning how to change a tire, starting our veggie garden (practical), playing games with my children each week, having a girls’ night out once a month (family).

Ambitious? You bet! Daunting? Very much so! BUT, as Zig Ziglar said, one cannot succeed as a wandering generality. You must be a meaningful specific. So, I’m setting my targets and aiming at them. And praying that, by God’s grace, I will hit some of them, and that in everything that I am striving towards, I will glorify the One that is the sole purpose of my life.

2012, HERE I COME!! WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!

What the children are doing now: Playing tag with daddy in minus 15 degree temperature.

I’ll just sit inside with baby and enjoy the view from my cozy chair.

Our backyard looked like this 6 short days ago:

After spending the week before patiently filling up this massive 35 x 40 foot rink with water, the temperatures dipped low enough to get it to this stage…sort of.  It was during this time we realized just how unlevel our ground was.  The corners of the rink have close to a foot of water…and the middle?  A measly couple of inches, if even.

I’ll spare you the details.

The important part is this: WHEN DO WE GET TO SKATE ON IT???

To the delight of the children, it was last Sunday, Dec 11.  Night time, no less.  At the children’s pestering, MS dad went out to test the ice, and declared it fit to skate on….except for a few areas deemed iffy.

So they all laced up and had a grand ‘ol time.  Fortunately we have a floodlight right on the deck that MS dad is able to twist around to light up most of the rink.  But we’re on the hunt for another floodlight thingy so we can light up the far end of the rink.

Monday & Tuesday saw the kids out there skating…the boys pretty much the whole day, and the girls in between their schoolwork.  It was awesome.  And I get to enjoy it all from the warmth (a relative term in my house) of the indoors.  For the fun of it, and just so I could say I tried, I rummaged through the storage area to find a pair of skates to put on.  I’ve never really enjoyed skating, to be honest.  Women’s skates are downright uncomfortable.  My feet were always cold and hurt like the dickens.  Probably because I have flat feet.  I solved the cold problem by putting wool socks on.  But I haven’t solved the flat feet problem.  Anyway, I took them out, walked out to the deck, skates in hand, and was greeted with shouts of joy from my shocked and surprised children.  You see, daddy is the skater in the family.  He’s the one out there with them.  Me, I’m the 2 feet on the ground kind of girl, remember?

I laced up, with my children watching intently… I think they were trying to figure out if I was REALLY going to get on the ice.  The girls politely asked if I knew how to skate.  :) I said, “well, um, I’ve skated before.  But I’m not sure how this is going to work out. And besides, the blades on these skates are really blunt, and I don’t know if I’m going to get anywhere on them. But thank you for asking.”  Or perhaps a shortened version of that.

Well, the bad news was that the blades WERE really blunt and were no help. But the good news was I didn’t fall flat on my face or on my tush.  The bad news was my feet hurt like the dickens. But the good news – my feet were warm and toasty in my wool socks.  I didn’t last very long.  I skated a few rounds, made myself useful by cleaning the ice, and then got out of way of my crazy boy (moose) zipping around me.

 Notice the shovels and hockey sticks strewn at the far end of the rink? That’s the no-skate zone.  It was still not frozen right through in those areas.

But the forecast for the latter part of the week was not looking very promising.  The temperatures were staying above 0 and by Wednesday & Thursday, we were supposed to go to double digits (above 0!) Oy.  All that hard work of getting our ice.  Sigh.

Sure enough, by Wednesday, it was getting pretty slushy when the kids went on.  Wednesday evening saw rain. And Thursday.  Well Thursday was a wash out.  And the rink became a pond.  There is now no more snow on the ground as well.  It is all brown.

So sad.  And it doesn’t look very promising for next week as well.  It’s hovering around the 0 mark, with a very low possibility of precipitation, or rather I should say the white kind of preciptation.  hahaha get it? The white kind?

OK. That was lame. Sorry.  I think I’m hungry. And in need of some sugar fix.

This time last year we had this:

We (and I use the term “we” loosely) were rolling in nice white stuff on Christmas day:

Unless the weather forecasters are wrong (which they’ve been a lot of times this past year), we’ll be mucking around in wet brown leaves in the forest, and fishing debris out of our rink pond this Christmas.

And Maple (not to mention the children) will continue to trek in mud and gunk into the house.

Lovely.

 

Just realized that I didn’t finish updating on the children from this post back in September. Sorry. My bad.  Story of my life. sigh.

I think I left out the 3 oldest ones…

Bubba: He’ll be 7.75 years old at the end of this month.  He is still one of the quieter ones in the bunch and it takes a lot of coaxing to get him out of his shell.  But this past Spring, after only a few months of piano lessons, he actually got up in front of a crowd of strangers and played his pieces, confidently and even with a little musical swag.  :)  And on Wednesday, he got up with his class at church to perform a song.  Very cool.

Admittedly, the boys have me a little stumped in terms of how to keep them busy.  I could teach them to cook, bake, and sew.  Those are good skills to have whether boy or girl.  But they really need to have some boy boy things to do, and that gets tricky with them spending most of their waking time with me and the girls.  MS dad has been picking up some little tools for Bubba to muck around with.  They scare me a little, but I guess he has to start some where.  Here he is above with an ax (?).  A few weeks ago, he’d ask me if he could take his ax and go outside and “cut down a tree”.  This was during the day, when MS dad was at work.  I was quite reluctant to let him go without supervision, but they (he and Moose) assured me that dad had taught them exactly what they should and should not do.  So, I let them go, them walking out the door, with my cautionary instructions trailing behind them.

A little later, they came back in to show me, quite proudly, their handiwork.  They’d conquered a sapling. hahaha.

Another time, after MS dad had finished building our ice rink frame, Bubba had access to the leftover lumber pieces.  So he brought his toolbox (yes he has his own – our birthday present to him when he was 6 I think) outside and started hammering pieces together.  I think he said he was making a boat.  okey dokey.  I’m good as long as no fingers get nailed or hammered on.  There was no blood that day.

School has been slightly more challenging with him.  I’ve found the need to do things differently with him, than with the girls.  I’ve been a little stressed with it, but learning very slowly not to compare and just to take it one step at a time.

He’s our soft, sensitive guy, always willing to oblige with a big hug, complete with a big smile.  And if you get him laughing, (and I mean LAUGHING) you could be forgiven if you thought that our sweet boy just became Woody Woodpecker right in front of your eyes.  I should really record it for posterity. It’s quite something.

Big Mac:It’s hard to believe she’ll be 10 in 2 weeks!  I still remember the day she was born.  She was my sunny-side up baby, my “you’re having back labour” baby, my “she’s stuck in the birth canal” baby.  My “take the epidural and hope she’ll turn on her own, or we’ll go in and get her” baby.  My “took the epidural, got poked in the wrong place and lost feeling in one of my legs for half a day” baby.  See, told you I remembered the day.

The 2 girls learnt to ride horses over the past year.  It was a Christmas gift from last year, and then got extended into the spring & summer (MS dad felt generous and said it was “payment” for their help in log hauling in the spring”)  So for a good half year, the girls had weekly lessons. Fridays couldn’t come fast enough for these girls.  We did see that it made them more confident, which you have to be, with these big hulking creatures.  As much as I loved seeing them enjoying this time, I was a little glad when the lessons came to an end.  The horses were moving faster, they were doing jumps as well.  As Megalos would say, “I LOVE jumping! It feels like I’m flying!”  Yeah, my momma’s heart is flying as well, right out of my chest cavity.

Yes, yes, I know. I’m a party pooper.  I’m a 2 feet on the ground kind of girl.  No sense of adventure.  And yes, I’ve got to lighten up.  I’m TRYING.  But, no, no plans for more horse riding lessons, as far as I know.  It’s a little co$tly, if you know what I mean.

I’m so thankful for Big Mac.  This year she has really been a great big sister, taking care of the little ones, cooking up meals during the day.  She’s usually the first one to remind me that lunch is around the corner, and “what should we make for lunch today?”  Then she’ll scrounge around in the pantry and fridge and come up with something edible.  No one goes hungry here with her around. hahaha.

And now, as I sit here pondering the past year, I’ve just realized something else that’s changed.  She’s grown up this year. A LOT.  As in, she’s a lot more aware of what’s happening around her now.  Years past I would moan about how my #2 seemed to be on a different time zone.  It’s just dawned on me that some time during this year, that’s not the case now.  How could I have missed that??!  Goodness.  That’s a major thanksgiving item!

Wow, I’m so shell shocked now that my mind’s gone blank.

Wow.

Sorry, but this is a really big deal.  I’m trying to think back to whether there was a moment in time when this change occurred, or whether it was a gradual thing…

OK, OK. I’ll think on my own time.

And we come to Megalos.

Our first born.

The picture above was taken last September 2010.

Then, without permission, our little girl turned into this young lady:

July 2011

She turned 11 in February this year, and was probably about 1/2 inch shy of being my height (a paltry 5’3″).  She continued her upward march in height and very easily overtook me shortly after that, and continued pinging off family members.  :)

April 2011

Here she is in the spring, wearing my work jeans.  My 11 year old wears my clothes!! Just to clarify – that would be my pre-pregnancy clothes.  And she doesn’t have to suck in her tummy to get into the jeans.

Oh. My. Word.  It’s crazy.  She looks so much older than her years.  I sometimes wonder what people are thinking when we’re out and about.  Imagine this scene.  Mother out grocery shopping with 6 children hanging off the cart…or wait, is that a mother with her 5 children and 1 grandson, the oldest obviously a teenager mom because she’s carrying a baby? tsk tsk tsk.

Who knows. As you can imagine, the size of our brood usually attracts stares as is.  Now with Megalos usually carrying Chubs, with that seasoned ease of hooking him on her hip, it sure looks like she could be the mother. Quite funny.

Dec 2011

This is us, (sorry about the horrible picture…as you can tell, we’re still trying to figure out our camera)…last week decorating our tree.  Skinny and chubby versions of me.  hahahaha.  NOT. I’m trying to hide behind the tree, can you tell?

As of today, she’s about 5’6 now.  And shows no sign of slowing down.  As Big Mac so plaintively notes, “I’M SHRINKING!! HUMPH!!!”  I concur.

She and I are working on our mother-daughter relationship.  It’s an interesting season for both of us, and I desperately wish my mom was here for some encouragement and advice.  I think she would have smiled at what we are going through right now, and would be trying to hold back the “See, I told you so.”

At the same time, despite the challenges of being a mother to a girl blossoming into a lady, we are enjoying the benefits of having older children.  Conversations are more interesting, (not dissing conversations with 5 year olds, you understand), board games from our (MS dad & my) younger days are making its way out of storage now.  Fun times.  When it isn’t hair-pulling times.

Another benefit of having a girl who looks like she’s 16?  She can sit up in the front seat of my van with the children at the back while I do a quick stop at a store.  You would understand this last one if you had errands to do with 2 or more kids in car seats.  haha.

And that, my friends, is a little snapshot of our 6 wonderful blessings.  It’s a wild and hairy ride.  And the Lord is definitely using each of them in a different and unique way to shape and mold me.   I have to trust that we will all come out of this process in a way that glorifies Him.

We’re counting on a long cold winter.

And trying to make the best of it.

So in that spirit, here’s what MS dad has been up to the last few weeks:

Trying to keep costs down by being creative with materials we had lying around – these are the old deck boards we pulled up when we re-surfaced our deck (post here) last summer.

For the liner, we didn’t want to fork out $200+ for the size we needed for this rink, so MS dad will be using vapour barrier (one of the largest sizes he could find) which will need to be taped down the middle to get it to the right size.  We’ll keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get leakage.

In other EXCITING news, look what’s sitting in our parking lot…

Our minivan has a new friend… can you see?

Here, I’ll zoom in.

Our minivan now looks puny next to that THAT thing. We haven’t decided his/her name yet.  But I think it’s more a “he”, don’t you think?

And no, we didn’t come across some extra money to purchase this vehicle…it’s a 12 passenger van – official name: Sprinter, made by Mercedes.

The story behind this is quite amazing, really.  When we were expecting the Chubs (aka baby #6), we had to figure out a new mode of transportation – our Honda Odyssey had reached maximum capacity @ 7. We discussed a few options.

Option 1: Drive 2 cars (MS dad’s VW Jetta and the minivan) whenever we needed to go out as a family.  (During the week, the children & I would still be able to fit in the van, as Megalos was old/big enough to sit up front)

Option 2: Modify our Odyssey to fit in an 8th seat.  (our second row had 2 captain seats, and we sourced out a guy who would put in a jump seat so that we could fit 3 people in the 2nd row).  Cost: $700

Option 3: Purchase a larger vehicle.  Choices would include the North American 8-passenger SUV’s (aka GAS GUZZLERS!), the Toyota Sequoia, also 8-passenger, (marginally better in fuel consumption), or going up to the 12-15 passenger vans (all North American made).  So exciting, not.  We did drool over a Sprinter – which is a 12 passenger van made by Mercedes.  But that’s hard to find used.  Purchasing new would be out of the question.  And MS dad is extremely wary of buying used, and even more so about the N.American vehicles.  Sorry, if I sound a little less enthusiastic about a N.American vehicle…nothing personal.  :) Cost: new – $scary, used – 5 digit range probably

So for the 9 months of incubation, we talked on and off, and finally decided to wait till the baby was born.  In the meantime, we would go with option 1.  But as the day drew closer for baby to be born, I was getting less and less enchanted with the idea of driving 2 cars whenever we needed to go out to church, or whatever.  We’re not talking 5 minute drives, it’s like 45 minutes one way.  Ugh.

Well, fast forward to May/June after the baby is born.  MS dad figures an ingenious way of securing everyone into the odyssey.  Don’t worry – there was no 2 children 1 seatbelt thing going on.  Everyone had their own seat and seatbelt.  A little squishy, especially for my almost 5’5″ oldest girl.  Yeah, you read that right.  She’s almost 5’5″.  Actually, maybe she’s already past that.  She seems to grow every single day. And this measurement I took last week.  She’s taller than me. sob sob.

Sorry. Got a little sidetracked there.

Getting back to cars.

Of course, this would only work until Mr. Chubs switched to a forward facing seat.  It would then get a little hairy.  But that was at least 9 months away.  In the meantime, we were quite happy with not having to spend any $$.

Then in June/July, MS dad springs a big announcement that he was keeping to himself for a few months. (I guess I was busy being pregnant, and having a baby, and he didn’t think he should bother me with the news…I have not idea!..we won’t go there.)

Anyway, the big news was that he was getting a promotion, and the new position included some perks, one of which was that he would get a company vehicle.

WHAT?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!???

This was EXCITING news.  Well, there was a little apprehension as well regarding that promotion (a different story altogether), but definite excitement on the vehicle part…on my part anyway. haha.  You see, my husband would now be able to pick some super sporty, super luxury vehicle to zip around in, all expenses paid.  But, he, ever the self-sacrificial think-of-the-family-first kind of guy, says to me…”So I was thinking we could get the Sprinter.”

My reaction?…BWAHAHAHAHA.  Are you serious?!  You’re going to drive that to work?  It’s like an airport shuttle bus! Are they even going to approve that kind of vehicle?

It seemed so unreal that the company would let him get something that was clearly more for the family than him personally.

Anyway, once his promotion was “official”, we decided to go test drive the candidates – 2 N.Am. SUVs, the 8 passenger Odyssey, and the Sprinter.  We brought the kids to see the Sprinter, and they just about freaked out on the dealership lot.  hahaha.  For them, it was the obvious choice.  Although, I must say Moose was quite attracted to the top of the line Odyssey – it had a 9 inch DVD player.

 Mini and the Beast

Obviously the Sprinter won out.  MS dad decided it gave us more breathing room.  Road trips would be a little more comfortable, cargo space was more generous. The dog could come with us, etc. etc.  And so, despite being the butt of jokes at the office, MS dad put in the request for the vehicle.

That was back in September.  He picked it up yesterday.  And we are all giddy with excitement.

The Lord is good.  He provided, even when we didn’t ask for it.  And the timing couldn’t have been any more perfect.

Thank you Lord Jesus!

Our little guy will be 5 months in a couple of days. So cliche, but time really flies!

The poor child has the record-breaking least number of pictures taken. This picture wasn’t even taken with a proper camera.
Maybe we’ll just take some of his brothers’ baby photos and pass it off as his. They really do look alike. So much so, that currently there is a debate going on about a particular picture that we have on display…none of us (the children included) can agree on who the (baby) picture is of. =) It was a pre-digital camera shot, so I’ll have to go dig up my negatives or photo bundles to see where that picture fits in.

Crazy huh?

And what’s crazier?…Lots being lost…

Losing my hair in copious amounts,
Losing weight, unfortunately not in copious amounts,
Losing sleep, because a certain baby is up many times during the night. But he smiles when he wakes up, so I guess that’s ok.

And here’s the worst…

Losing brain cells, slowly but surely:

I’m SO embarrassed but here’s the confession….

I cannot remember my baby’s first name!!!

I am NOT kidding you. It’s been 3 days now, that I’ve been wrecking my brain. I haven’t asked my children or MS dad because I would REALLY like to figure this out myself. Ironically, the name that sticks in my mind is the one that we eventually decided against. (At least I think we did.)

Goodness, how bad is this? Forgetting your child’s name? In my defence, the children all have 2 English names and a Chinese name. Multiply that by 6 and that’s 18 names I have to remember. So I’m just forgetting 1 out of 18. hahaha.

If you don’t hear from me by next week, put me out of my misery and tell me my child’s first name, ok?

…Wordpress changed it’s look.

Shall I just get you caught up on the happenings around here?

Baby:
1) will be 4 months old tomorrow!! He has filled out very nicely, after putting me (& himself, I guess) through a traumatic 2.5(?) months of nursing. Ironically, my 6th child required finger & tube feedings, trips to the breastfeeding clinic, and extra attention from my midwife for the first couple weeks. Very humbling.

2) Just 2 days ago, we finally assembled the playpen in our bedroom for him to sleep in. Before that, he was sleeping in our bed. But he’s been inch-worm “crawling” around, so it’s too dangerous for him now to be alone on the bed.

3) a very smiley one. He’s also been gurgling and chortling, which thrills his siblings (& us) to no end!

4) hates his carseat and can be counted on, quite reliably, to grace us with his loud cries on car trips. And we’re not talking about 10 minute car trips. More like 45-minute trips to and from church. Can you say, “Ouch”??

5) has refused every pacifier I’ve given him (just like both his brothers). Has found his finger…more accurately, his pointer finger on his left hand, and his thumb on his right hand. Strange. Here’s a picture I just took while he’s hanging out with me on my bed this evening.

Roste:
1) turned 3 in July and has learnt this summer to swim without a swim noodle. Well, not really swim, more like doggy paddle – with her head barely above the water. Her non-swimming mummy is freaking out about this.

2) still cracks us up with her funny antics. For example, one day she’d come into my room and inquired about an object that was sitting on my night table. My first reaction to her inquiry was, “Leave it” (as in, don’t touch it). To which, she very indignantly replied, “But I’m NOT a dog!” As you might have guessed, the “leave it” command is what we say to Maple when we want her to…leave it. hahaha

3) is learning that even though she’s very cute, she can’t get away with EVERYTHING. (We were rather delinquent in our discipline with this one, and are now reaping the unfortunate consequences of it.)

Moose:
1) continues to amaze us with his athleticism. He’s like a speeding bullet. A lead one. He’s dangerous, this one. Come to think of it, his nickname “Moose” is quite appropriate.

2) will be 6 in January 2012, and is eager to outshine his older brother, in sports, academics, pretty much anything, much to our chagrin. And he’s not shy about it too. In fact, he’ll tell everyone and anyone what he can do, and what Bubba can’t do. Ugh. We’ve had to have many talks with him. Interestingly, I was reading with the 2 boys Aesop’s “Tortoise & the Ducks”, in which the moral of the story was how pride & vanity leads to misfortune (the tortoise falls from the sky and gets smashed to bits ). That story has stuck with the boys, and now whenever Moose starts to get a little prideful, we ask him if he’s being Mr. Tortoise. We all end up chuckling, remembering the story. Just the other day, we were driving home from our church mid-week program, and MS Dad asked Moose if he was one of the faster boys when playing tag. Usually we’d get a very proud “yes, I’m fast.” type answer. This time, his reply was a little giggle, followed by a rather modest-sounding “Welllllll…..” hahaha.

3) loves to tag along whenever I want to run some errands without all the children. I’m learning to welcome that request enthusiastically (even though I was wishing for some time alone.) And I’ve never regretted bringing him along because I get to spend some much needed one-on-one with him.

Lots more to post, but the baby has decided that he’s done lounging around quietly. So, I will post again later.

Popping in quickly to update my totally neglected blog – our baby boy arrived 2.5 weeks early on Monday May 30th, weighing a healthy 7lb 3oz.  I’m so glad he came early – he probably would’ve tipped the scale at over 8 lbs, had he incubated to his due date!

This photo was taken on our bed…and Megalos got all antsy because she was worried. Worried about what, you ask? Well, worried about “what happens when we have another baby?? We won’t be able to fit on your bed!” To which I replied, “Megalos, let’s not worry about another baby now…we’ll take it one baby at a time, ok?!”

Brain is a little foggy these days, with round-the-clock feedings. I’m short on words, and therefore find updating my facebook account a little easier. One liners are easier to manage than page-long blog posts. hahaha. But I’ll try to get in here periodically to update. Give me a holler if you want to find me on FB.

It’s that time of year again. Wild leek season. Also known as ramps, which cost an arm and a leg if you were to buy it at the farmer’s market.

And we get it all for free…
(this was taken last May)

Our favourite way of preparing them is making it into potato & leek soup. My heightened sense of smell during pregnancy makes it a little hard to cook them; the whole house reeks of garlicky onion. But yum, does it taste good!

We’ll be having lots of soup the next few weeks. It’ll help with the sky-rocketing grocery budget…well, it’s nice to be optimistic.

We try to instill in the children the importance of telling the truth.

No if’s, ands, or buts. Right? You be the judge.

Last week, I was in the bathroom ensuite in my room, and in comes Bubba (the 7 yo). He sees me sitting on the throne. He doesn’t say a word, just gives me a little smile, and goes zooming out of the bathroom on his toy truck.

I hear this exchange happen in the kitchen, which is just outside my room.

Bub: DADDY! We need a bigger toilet!

MS Dad: Huh? What?

(I’m thinking he means more washrooms, because perhaps the other washrooms are also occupied, and he needs to go)

Bub: We need a bigger toilet because Mummy can’t fit on it any more!

MS Dad (& the girls): BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Me (still in the bathroom): WHATTT?!!! EXCUSE ME???!

MS Dad pokes his head into the bathroom, laughing his head off.

He goes back to the kitchen and tries to tell his firstborn son in his most serious voice: Now, Bubs, when you have a wife, it’s best if you don’t say things like that. It’s not very nice.

hahahaha.

It’s a good thing I don’t take offence easily to these kinds of comments. However, we’ve had to stress to the children that while these types of remarks don’t bother us, others might not take to them as kindly, and to refrain from such observations (however truthful they might be.)

You’ve noticed the pattern, haven’t you? Blog, blog, blog, get pregnant, no blog no blog no blog. Then somewhere in the 3rd trimester, I re-emerge,
like the spring flowers that have begun to pop up in the woods, the green that is now sprouting up from the brown floor.

I just downloaded more than 400 photos from the camera, dating back to January.  It was nice looking through the pictures.

Here’s a recap:

December: We celebrated Big Mac’s birthday with a cool carousel cake, baked by Megalos.
January: Moose’s 5th birthday with a race-track cake, courtesy of…you guessed it…Megalos
Enjoying the daddy-created ice rink this year…Can you believe this is the first year the boys have ever been on skates??! We were quite amused with Moose – he seems to have a natural talent – he picked up skating very quickly and was quite game with handling the hockey stick.

Here’s Roste learning how to cut a bell pepper, with a steak knife. She was quite pleased with herself.

February: Megalos and her cousin turned 11. They were born 11 days apart.
Celebrating her birthday on the actual day…I believe the cake was baked by Big Mac – a chocolate sheet cake. yum.
Getting pummelled with snow this year. Much to the delight of the children. Especially when the snow is packing snow. This was a big project – Great wall of China.

March: I have 2 sets of pictures for this month. The first one was taken on the 6th: The only thing separating me from that muskrat was the sliding door in the dining room. I was relaxing on my rocking chair by the door, when I looked out and down to this horrible present dropped there by Maple. I did what any self-respecting city girl would’ve done: shrieked and jumped out of my chair to get away from this piece of nastiness. MS Dad took the picture.

After the 6th, we must’ve been too busy to pick up the camera, because the next set of pictures was taken at the end of the month, Bubba’s 7th birthday. Here’s his cake…yup by Megalos. This time, a dinosaur theme.The birthday boy, (who just lost his 2nd tooth, but the first one we were able to keep; we think the other one went into his tummy. We couldn’t find it.) and his younger brother, who also just lost his first bottom tooth (at 5?!!).

It’s been a long cold winter. Not complaining. Just a fact.

Spring came last week but we got dumped with a new load of snow on the first full day of spring and everything was white again. It is now melting again, and with the melt comes mud piles, and Roste has had several falls into them, resulting in my having to wash her jackets pretty much every other day.

I’ve been putting on an insane amount of winter and baby fat. (29 weeks) I now officially weigh more than MS dad.ugh.

So much that I got really antsy and decided to go for the glucose test to rule out gestational diabetes. I got a call from my midwife on Tuesday saying I flunked the screening test.

Which meant having to go for a diagnostic test yesterday in which I had to take a super sweet drink and wait 2 hours at the lab for them to poke me 3 times to get my blood. I’ll find out the results by next Tuesday.

I’d been bugging/begging MS dad to consider getting me a treadmill the last few months, and he’d been very reluctant, quite understandably, since we hear so much that a lot of times it just becomes another piece of unused equipment in the house. But I was also adamant that I wasn’t about to go trekking into the forest for exercise, on my own or with the children. That was not my idea of fun or exercise. Last week, he softened his stance and agreed to allow me to get a treadmill. A few days after, we got the news of possible gestational diabetes. Along with that diagnosis, and the thought of being this size even after the baby, the motivation to make good use of a treadmill got even more urgent.

And timing couldn’t have been better – there was a decent sale at Canadian tire this past week – MS dad had to go to 3 different stores to get the model we agreed on. It’s a basic model, but has had good reviews. And we really didn’t want to spend too much money on it. I figure it’s just for me to get moving.

Here it is folded up – we put in our bedroom – it’s a honking big machine. (You’re seeing it reflected in the closet mirror)

I’m usually not so obsessed with my weight during my pregnancies. But this one has been quite unsettling, not just because of the # of lbs per se, but all the other issues that come with being this “chunky”. I’ve had joint pains, the extra effort in lugging around all this weight, which makes me tired, and not being able to get into a comfortable position, whether sitting or lying down. I hear myself grunting and groaning every time I try to change position. It’s awful! The other day, MS dad and I were napping in the family room by the fire. I was lying on my side on the sofa, and he was sitting in a chair next to me. As I was getting up, I had to turn to my other side, and then push myself upright to get off the sofa. As I was doing this, I was umph-ing and oomph-ing. MS dad started laughing at me as he watched me struggle to get off the sofa. Mind you, it’s a leather sofa, not even one of those cushy-sink-into-the-sofa types. He said it looked like I was wrestling with the sofa and trying to loosen the sofa’s hold on me. I’m glad I still make him laugh. haha not.

So I have a appointment with the nutritionist to plan my diet for the rest of my pregnancy. Hopefully I will not have to take any insulin injections. Sigh. Me thinks age is catching up with me.

I have a mini crisis on my hands. I am at the halfway mark in this pregnancy and have gained an inordinate amount of weight. I look like I’m going to pop any day now.

My midwife tried to laugh me off, saying I was still a small fry compared to the women (mostly Caucasian) she sees. Then she looked at how much weight I gained in between my visits, and conceded that I DID put on quite a bit. It’s all relative.

I really don’t think it’s wise for me to continue gaining at this pace…trying to lose all of it will be painful, and I also don’t want the baby to be hitting the 8 pound or even 9 pound mark.

So exactly how much do I weigh right now? Well, I won’t tell you the #, suffice it to say I’m almost the same weight as MS dad (and he’s 5’10″), and still have 20 weeks to go. That should set off alarm bells.

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve cut out any kind of bread and rice. (I was eating several slices of bread with almond butter (yum) every day). Lime juice and coriander have been my best friends instead. I’ve been alternating between guacamole (with less avocados) and Thai tang hoon salad, loading up on the tomatoes and greens.

I’m hoping that it’ll make a difference. Got to go get a weighing scale that works to keep track of my weight. In the meantime, with CNY coming around the bend, I seem to be having a hankering for some nonya kueh and bakkwa… I’ve got a batch of bak kwa marinating and I’m thinking of making some ondeh ondeh…I’m so in trouble…

And here’s the proof of the pudding…or is it proof IN the pudding…whatever:

Scary huh?!

We woke up this morning to a landscape blanketed by a nice thick layer of snow.

Probably 12-15cm that fell overnight.

It was so still early this morning and all the branches had a beautiful coat of snow.

Evergreens groaning under the weight of the snow

(Actually, it’s not that bad…this snow was the light and fluffy stuff)

Glad I’m not a dog, having to sit bare-bottomed on the snow

With this amount of snow and the area that needs to be cleared, the troops have to be called in…

Hmm, yes there appears to be a few missing in action…slackers, I tell ya. Just kiddin’. They’re somewhere. Only Roste and I are exempt at this time.

The shovel that MS dad is using…the big kahuna

Side of the house…if you look carefully, you’ll see a faint outline of the boards that MS dad is using to create an ice skating rink in the yard. (The red arrows are pointing to one corner of the rink)

He put it in New Year’s Day – when the ground was completely greened out because it was so warm and rainy. It’s finally getting close to the state where the water has frozen up completely and skating can commence…I think. Well, first we have to get skates for the children, and then they can go crazy. It’s not super big – probably about 16′ x 32′ (guessing) – but we’re just using materials we had on hand for this year.

Tobogganning remains a favourite activity with family and friends, both young & old young-at-heart.

 

 

 

 

 

And weather-permitting, guided treks into the woods are given as well.

In other news, as you can probably guess since I’m blogging again, I’m feeling much much better. 4 months along in the pregnancy, but feeling AND looking like a beached whale already. Seriously, I look like I’m in my 8th month already. AND I’ve been getting Braxton-Hicks (false contractions) for the past week or two. THAT has never happened to me till I was in my 3rd trimester. So this has been interesting to say the least.

And no we don’t know whether it’s a boy or girl. And IF I find out, I won’t be telling.

Moose is almost 5.  He’s a boy.  What does he think about the baby?  He’s a boy and he’s 5.  Do I need to say more?

As for 2.5 yr old Roste….this is what she thinks of it.

Picture me taking up my post at the shiny bowl, retching away.  I didn’t have time to close the door.

Retching, retching….

Roste toddles in…

Roste:  Mommy, are you sick? are you sick? Are you sick? Mommy? Are you sick?

Retching, retching, thinking in my head, oh my word, please go away, I can’t talk right now.

Roste continues her incessant “Mommy, are you sick? Are you sick? ARE YOU SICK?!”

Me: Yes, I’m sick.  (retch retch)

Roste: Oh.

Toddles out down the hallway to the kitchen, and I hear her announce to whoever was in the kitchen:

“Mommy’s sick”

===============

Scene 2: In the bathroom (where else), this time I’ve got my stool in front of the bowl

Me: retch retch cough cough retch

Roste walks in.  I tell her to please go out.

Roste: Mommy? What’s matter? (translated: what’s the matter) Mommy?

Me: You need to go outside Mei mei.

Roste: You sick? You sick?  Mommy?

Me: Yes, PLEASE go outside.

Roste: Mommy you sick?  You sick.  (peers into the toilet bowl)

Me: MS DAD!! Please get mei mei out!  She’s in the washroom.

Roste: Mommy you sick.

MS Dad: Mei mei! Come outside. Leave mommy alone.

Roste: Daddy, mommy sick.

MS Dad. Yes mei mei, mommy sick.

Roste: Oh.

The end

I’ve been out of commission for almost 2 months.  During that time, my girls have come to my rescue, taking care of the younger ones, feeding them, and changing diapers as well.  Megalos was unofficially put in charge.  This, my 6.5 year old son caught on very quickly, as evidenced by this exchange between him & I several weeks ago.

I was in the kitchen one early morning getting something to drink.  All the children were still in bed.  But Bubba heard me, and got out of bed.

Bubba: Mommy, what can I eat for breakfast?

Me: There’s banana bread here.  You can have a slice.  (Megalos had baked several loaves the night before)

Bubba: I can’t have banana bread!  I have to ask Megalos first! (said with much shock that I would even suggest doing something without asking Megalos for permission!)

Me: Well, gee, excuse me.  I’m sure you can have a slice.

Bubba: Oh no! I have to ask her first.

Me: ??? (feeling like chopped liver.)

Well, ok then. I know my place in this household. Thank you very much.

Big Mac came bouncing into my room where I’ve sequestered myself asking if she could get me anything.

Me: No, thank you.

She stood by my bed, staring at me, saying nothing. Uh oh. I know that look.  That slight downturn of the mouth, the huge eyes.

Me: Big Mac, are you ok?

Big Mac still silent, just nods her head, the eyes getting larger.

Me: Big Mac? Are you sure you’re ok? You don’t look ok.

Her mouth quivers, her eyes start to water. Oh dear.

Me: Are you upset?

Nodding of head.

Me: You’re upset that mommy’s sick?

The flood gates open, and the tears start to flow, like only the Big Mac can.

Me: Come here.  (She crawls into bed with me, crying buckets)

I tried to comfort her and assure her that I am ok, even though I’ve been retching like there’s no tomorrow.  That my body does funny things when it’s pregnant, but everything turns out fine in the end.

As we’re talking, I hear Megalos calling for her, and so I hide Big Mac under the blankets (since she probably didn’t want her big sister to know she’d been crying, otherwise she’d get the 3rd degree questioning).  Megalos comes in and I feign ignorance.  She resumes her search in the other parts of the house, and by this time Big Mac is giggling, and happy once more.  I tell her to hurry out to the dining room and not tell her sister where she’s been, even if she asks.

To this day, Megalos has not figured out her secret hiding spot.  It was a precious moment between my middle girl & me.