Life at the Geertsema's

February Photos

2012-02-01T20:01:00.004-05:00

It seems as though my blogging has slowed down over the last couple of months. I don't know if it's busyness or tiredness or some other reason. I often have ideas about what to write, but they don't always make as far as the computer.

I also haven't been taking as many pictures lately. Sometimes it seems like my hands are too full to grab a camera as well.

Anyways, in light of those two things, I'm setting up a challenge for my self. I'm going to post a picture from our day for each day in the month of February.

So here it is, Day 1:

Another snow. On the agenda today... playing outside, painting, baking, and puzzles, lots of puzzles. (Oh, and a geography lesson.)

Style

2012-01-27T21:21:00.004-05:00

Rachel figured that with her new haircut, she should spend some more time styling it:

5 months

2012-01-27T21:05:00.005-05:00

Another month, more milestones...

Elijah has had a good month. After having trouble falling asleep on his own throughout December, we've got him back to having good naps in his crib during the day. (Night time is another story, though...)

This month brought lots of new entertainment for him, as he tried out the Jolly Jumper, exersaucer, and high chair. And while he likes all of those, I think he's still happiest on the floor. He can roll both ways, now, and spends a lot of time on his belly. On the slippery hardwood floors, he sometimes spins in circles or slides backwards. He is getting much grabbier, as he sits on your lap and tries to get into your food or the computer or paint brushes or whatever you happen to have in your hands. He hasn't had any food yet (besides a couple tastes of whipping cream), but he watches us so carefully when we eat, just waiting for his chance. He loves to grab faces and do slobbery kisses.

He also still loves his sisters, and they love him back.

This past week, Naomi has changed him a few times - diaper, shirts, sleepers, pants - she's done it all - very helpful! It's fun to watch her change him, as she sings and talks to him the whole time.

And, a couple pictures of this lovable little guy:
(I just love his little swirl of hair on his forehead. And the drool... you have to love the drool.)

Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T20:46:00.014-05:00

Somehow it's almost a month since Christmas... time just flies by so quickly! I wanted to post some picture highlights from our Christmas season.

Spending time with family:

The gingerbread house that Steve and Rachel made:

The real reason that Petra got her hair cut:

It was nice to have lots of time to spend together. Naomi has really started to enjoy holding Elijah and getting him to giggle.

Rachel enjoyed her first oliebollen, and got lots of icing sugar all over her:

The girls really enjoyed their new lego sets:

Picking out the favourite tree:

Elijah opening his first Christmas present. His sisters were more than happy to help with any presents of his.

Rachel enjoyed opening presents, but got a little confused. She knows that "R" is "her letter," so she figured anything with an "R" on it should be hers to open. Too bad so many presents said "FROM" on them. She kept finding R's and bringing them to me. "Please I open this?"

Crazy mealtimes with the cousins:

Petra hanging out with Opa:

A peaceful place to sleep:

Snip, snip, snip

2012-01-06T20:16:00.006-05:00

"Before" shots:

We've been talking about getting haircuts for a while. Naomi and Petra have been growing their hair "for cancer" as they put it. That is, they have been growing until have 8 inches and can cut it and send it off to be made into wigs for children with cancer. Petra's hair has been long enough for a little while now, but Naomi's still isn't quite, if we want her to have any hair left.

So today we visited the hair dresser.

Naomi got a trim, hoping that it will help her hair to grow a little faster and get a little longer.

Rachel got her first hair cut. (Cut off the "baby fluff" as the hairdresser put it.)

And Petra got a big hair cut - 10 inch ponytails cut right off. She was very brave about it, and seems to like her new 'do. I'm looking forward to saving some time in the morning. Less tangles!

My hair was getting pretty long, so I was able to get the required inches as well, so we have two bags of hair to send out next week.

"After" shots: (Naomi opted out of the "after" pictures, since there wasn't enough of a difference.)

Another month...

2012-01-03T20:01:00.005-05:00

Before I get to some Christmas and New Years' highlights, here's a little post about Elijah. Last week he was 4 months old. This past month has been a fun one, with him getting so interested in what we're up to, watching the girls intently and laughing at all the action.

One new discovery for Elijah was his toes, which he found just before Christmas. Now he loves to play with them, especially at diaper changing time. They haven't made it into his mouth let, but I'm sure that's coming soon.

The not-so-fun development for Elijah has been difficulty getting to sleep. This boy loves to be rocked and cuddled, but doesn't enjoy falling asleep or staying asleep by himself in the crib. I've spent a lot of time in the rocking chair. And although that can be frustrating for me (or for the other kids who want my attention), I do enjoy these snuggles - his little face nestled up against my neck. I tried to get a picture, but it was hard to hold him and take the picture from a good angle, so this was the best I got:

Roll Over !

2011-12-21T07:15:00.002-05:00

Elijah rolled over yesterday.It is 7:25 and Elijah is trying again. By NAOMI

A Sweet Age

2011-12-17T21:02:00.003-05:00

Elijah is a such a sweet fun age. I love the easy smiles and little giggles. I love the way he looks around the room, and the excitement he gets on his face when he notices one of his sisters. He stops looking around and gazes adoringly at whichever girl has caught his attention. The smiles he has for them melt my heart. We borrowed a Bumbo chair from a friend, and now Elijah has been joining us at the table. He sits there and watches and listens to us, sometimes coming in with a little "Ha!" laugh at just the right time.

Big words for a little girl

2011-12-03T22:03:00.002-05:00

I love listening to Rachel talk - she repeats so much of what her big sisters say. Things that she has no idea about:

Sitting at the table, "writing" with markers: "Me do uppercase and lowercase."

Playing with her smarties before eating them: "Make a pattern."

Playing with a bear: "What bear is in French?"

Making a birthday card: "What starts my name? What starts my name in cursive?"

I love how she says these things with such confidence, like she knows exactly what she's talking about.

Smiles & Giggles

2011-11-28T17:45:00.005-05:00

In the videos below, it's a little hard to discern whose giggle is whose, but we got some pretty good laughs out of Elijah today. Between Rachel and Petra's antics and Naomi's tickling, Elijah was one happy guy!

3 months

2011-11-27T21:24:00.002-05:00

Another month has gone by... so here's a little update on Elijah. He continues to grow - he has outgrown a lot of sleepers and outfits this month. He is also getting so much more interactive - smiling, giggling, talking to us. He loves to watch his sisters and smile at them. He's also starting to watch Abby when she's in the house. He's generally a content baby.

This week, though, we've been having some issues with him napping. He doesn't want to sleep during the day in his playpen or crib. Give him a shoulder or lap, and he'll have a great nap. Or take him for a drive or a walk. He sleeps alright in the bouncy seat or on the couch. But put him in his bed, and he usually just cries.

Here he is, sleeping peacefully, on the couch:

Food Critics

2011-11-26T20:12:00.002-05:00

I get all kinds of comments about the food I serve - some good, some bad.
Lately, when Rachel is enjoying her food, she says, "Da - lishis" with every bite. Makes me feel good, even if it's just scrambled eggs or grilled cheese - can't go wrong with those.
Sometimes the comments aren't as nice: We had scalloped potatoes this week, and the sauce was a little curdly. Petra looked at it and said, "Mom, it looks just like Elijah's spit up." (It didn't stop her from eating two helpings, though.)

Warning: This post is a little gross

2011-11-23T20:38:00.003-05:00

Our little Rachel can be fiercely independent. "Don't need help!" "Don't help me!" "I do it!" are all common phrases around here. But sometimes she starts something and realizes midway through that some help might be a good thing. This happened the other day.

On Saturday, there was a craft show at the girls' school, and Steve's mom had a booth in it. I was sitting at the booth with Steve's mom and Elijah, while the girls were busy playing in the kindergarten classroom. I guess while they were playing, Rachel had to poop, but rather than ask for help from Naomi or Petra or come to find me, she just went off on her own. The boys' bathroom is right next to the kindergarten classroom, so that's where she went. She managed to poop, but had some problems getting off of the toilet in a clean fashion, and didn't do so well with her wiping job. She tried to clean up the mess on the seat with some toilet paper, but things just got worse. Finally, she realized that yes, she could use a little help and came to find me. I looked up and saw Rachel at the top of the stairs to the gym, with nothing on her bottom half - no pants, underwear, socks or shoes! I jumped up, grabbed her, and carried her to the girls' washroom, expecting to find her stuff. I got the diaper bag, cleaned her up, put some fresh clothes on her, and asked her where her stuff was. "In the other room," she answered. I thought she meant the classroom, but she led me to the boys' room, where I found the dirty toilet, dirty floor, dirty toilet paper on the floor. I got some wet paper towels and started cleaning up. I got the clean up finished, and was washing my hands at the sink (in the boys' room), when a man (that I didn't know) came in. I tried to explain what I was doing with my daughter in the boys' room, but I don't think he wanted to hear my whole story... I just grabbed Rachel and walked out, laughing to myself. Really, what else could I do?

Just a couple of pictures of our happy, growing guy

2011-11-22T21:29:00.002-05:00

Super Seven!

2011-11-20T21:37:00.005-05:00

Yesterday (and today and tomorrow!), we celebrated Naomi's seventh birthday. She's been looking forward for this day for a while now, and she enjoyed her gifts and cake and spending time with family.

Here she is opening her present from us - the complete Little House on the Prairie set. She loves these books. We've read the whole series together, but she loves to go back and reread them, especially her favourite parts.

Last night, Grandma and Grandpa came over for one of Naomi's favourite suppers - tortellini, with cupcakes for dessert. Here she is getting ready to blow out all those candles:

A silly seven-year-old in her new cozy pajamas:

Below, Naomi is sporting her new dress from Grandma and Grandpa, and her tool apron from Oma and Opa:

Another favourite meal today with Oma and Opa - pancakes. She had another go at blowing out candles when we enjoyed cake at snack time. This time she got them all out in one blow!

When I look at these pictures, Naomi seems so grown up! And she has grown up in a lot of ways this year. She is getting to be such a big helper - getting things and cleaning up and sometimes making me breakfast before I get up! Her reading has really taken off this year, and she spends a lot of time with a book in her hands. But she still loves to just pretend and play too. She loves to role play, especially characters from the books she's reading. And she is still so expressive about her faith - singing praise songs and praying for causes close to home and far away.

We love this girl of ours, with all her imagination and personality! Happy birthday, Naomi, and may God continue to bless you as you are a blessing to those around you!

Quick Catch Up

2011-11-07T20:40:00.002-05:00

Once again, time has passed by too quickly, and I haven't written much. Between having a little baby around and a two year old who doesn't nap anymore, my "free" time has been reduced.

I meant to post on October 27th, to mark Elijah turning two months old. I missed that one, but I did take a picture: Elijah at two months is a pretty contented baby. He eats well, he naps pretty well, and is content to lie on the floor or sit in his bouncy seat and watch whatever's going on around here. He has lots of smiles and coos for us all, and is a healthy 12 lbs 14 oz. And, as Rachel likes to point out, "He's cute."

Rachel is doing well, and is a lot of fun right now. She has really gotten attached to one of her dolls, who she has named "Anneke," after her cousin in Barrie. Anneke goes everywhere with her. When she's not holding her, she puts her in the toy stroller, and parks her beside whatever she's doing. She's getting pretty good at multi-tasking - I've seen her try to hammer a nail on the dog house while holding Anneke under her arm. Last night I wanted to give Anneke a little bath in the washing machine, and I had to carefully pull her out of Rachel's grip while she was sleeping. At 12 she woke up and we needed to get her (still damp) off the rack by the woodstove.

Petra is really enjoying her year of JK, and is doing really well with letters and sounds. I often hear her saying words slowly, listening for all the sounds in them, and identifying letters in the words.

Naomi is in Grade 2, and is gearing up for her 7th birthday! We're working on ideas for her birthday party. Naomi's got enough ideas to fill up a week long party - we have to sort through them and pick the best ones.

Hopefully the next post will come sooner rather than later!

5 - 6 PM

2011-10-16T19:58:00.005-05:00

The hour from 5-6 can sometimes be a little hectic - supper needs to be made, kids are tired, baby is sometimes fussy. Last Tuesday afternoon was extra hectic...

All these things happened at the same time:

Elijah (wearing a onesie but no pants) had a big diaper blowout.

But he didn't get changed right away, because Naomi and Petra bickered about who got to hold a bottle of dark purple nail polish, which ended up falling onto the tile floor and breaking.

Meanwhile, Rachel, who had been playing nicely by herself in the living room, suddenly needed to pee, and didn't make it on time. Instead, she peed as she ran to the toilet, leaving a trail in the living room, hall and bathroom.

And then the computer guy came to return our harddrive. I greeted him at the door, with Elijah flung over my shoulder. I got the harddrive back, asked a few questions, but then I had to write him a check. I put Elijah back down, wrote the computer guy a check, sent him off, and got to work cleaning up messes. It wasn't until after he was gone that I looked down at my shirt and realized that I had baby poop all over the front of me.

Elijah's baptism

2011-10-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm behind again! Elijah was baptized almost two weeks ago, and I'm just getting these pictures up now.

Here he is in the baptism gown made by Steve's mom, and worn by all of her children, and all seven of her grandchildren.
My Opa was able to baptize Elijah. One of the songs we chose to have sung after the baptism was "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever." We have sung that after each of the four kids have been baptized. My favourite words in the song are "Thy faithfulness to all generations." We feel so blessed to come from strong Christian families, and know that our children are blessed by having Christian grandparents and great-grandparents that love and pray for them. It was meaningful for us to have my Opa (who turns 88 today!) be able to remind us of God's promises to us and our children.

Opa also took some time to talk to the children gathered at the front and remind them of how important it is for them to make their own decision to follow Christ.

'Lowed to

2011-10-15T20:06:00.003-05:00

Rachel, like most two year olds, doesn't like to be told that she can't do something. Her favourite response lately is " 'Lowed to," as in, "I'm allowed to do whatever it is you are telling me I'm not allowed to do."

She uses this for little things throughout the day, like when she is told she can't stand on her chair at the table or can't touch the computer.

Sometimes she says this and it just cracks me up.

The other day we had some yummy dessert in the fridge, and in the morning, when I opened the fridge to get the milk out to make oatmeal, Rachel noticed the dessert. "Have cake on plate," she requested. "Not for breakfast," I responded. "We're having oatmeal."
" 'Lowed to, Mommy," she whined.

Or the other day, we were getting ready to take Naomi and Petra to school. "I drive Nimi and Chepa to school?" she asked me.
Sometimes they get picked up, but today we were driving them, so I answered that yes, we were driving them to school.
We went out to the van, I asked her to get into her seat, but instead she went to the front and climbed into the driver's seat. I told her that she needed to get into her seat, and she said, "I driving Nimi and Chepa to school. 'Lowed to, Mommy." Silly girl. You still have 14 years before you're allowed to drive!

Smiles

2011-10-10T20:29:00.002-05:00

We're starting to get a lot of smiles out of Elijah. Here's a picture of him enjoying the beautiful weather today. Sunshine and fall leaves - lots of fun!

Sisters

2011-10-08T19:41:00.002-05:00

They sure do love little Elijah!

Summer highlights

2011-10-06T04:19:00.001-05:00

This summer, I just didn't get to this blog as often as I would have liked. I feel like I "missed" important things about our summer. Anyways, before summer is too far behind us, here are a whole bunch of pictures of some of the highlights of our summer. Unfortunately, they are in reverse order.

At the end of August, a few days before Elijah was born, I took the girls to Ben and Tracy's for the afternoon for a tiedye party. We made colourful new shirts (and underwear for Steve), and these tiny little onesies for the new baby. I didn't think he'd be wearing one four days later!

This is me on August 21. I was 38 weeks pregnant, and was feeling pretty stiff and sore at this time, but I figured I still had a couple of weeks to go. I really expected to give birth after my due date, not eight days before! Holding Elijah on my lap now, it seems like so long ago that he was tucked inside me.

We got to spend some quality time with Anneke this summer. David and Stephanie stayed with us for several days, and we spent several more days with them and Mom and Dad G. and Michael at a cottage. Here Anneke is getting mauled by one of Rachel's hugs:

Campfires and smores at the cottage. Yummy and sticky!

Enjoying the lake - Naomi swimming with Uncle David.

In August, Mom and Dad Geertsema celebrated their 40th anniversary. We threw a party at their house with friends and family and balloons and cupcakes.

In July, we had a birthday party at our house to celebrate the July birthdays - Rachel, Petra, myself and Grandma Triemstra. Here are the four birthday "girls":

Petra helping Ezra enjoy his dessert:

It was a hot summer. I was a hot and tired pregnant Mama. Fortunately there is a nice beach close by. Nice sand, big trees for shade, not too big, free, close parking, washrooms. All these factors meant that we made lots of trips to the beach. Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures. With a lawn chair, towels, snacks, life jackets, and sandtoys, I just didn't have a free hand for the camera!

I do have this picture, though, of the kids being buried in sand and made into mermaids. This was done frequently - and sometimes they were made into pregnant mermaids.

We had a little birthday party for Petra at the beach, with a couple of friends and their siblings and Moms. It was fun and simple - the kids played in the sand a water, we had some cupcakes and snacks and sang Happy Birthday. Best of all - I didn't have to sweep the floor after we ate cupcakes!

S'mores again!

And some more s'mores - you just can't get enough!

The girls having a ride in our little inflatable boat when we went camping at Upper Canada Campground. They had lots of fun in this little pond.

In June, we went camping at Charleston Lake for my Mom's 60th birthday. The cousins had lots of fun playing together, and climbing the big rocks in the campsite. You can't tell from the picture below, but the kids are all sitting on the edge of a very big rock!

We also had fun reminiscing as we played a "20 questions" game all about Mom, and enjoyed seeing all the blankets, hats and sweaters that Mom has knit for us over the years.

Well, that fills in some of the gaps. We enjoyed our summer - spending time with our families, being outside, going away, and just being at home.

I think this fella's pretty cute

2011-10-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

(but I might be a little biased)

Ahh! Not yet!

2011-09-28T18:49:00.002-05:00

We were going to the midwife today, for Elijah's 4 week check up. I'm talking to Rachel, telling her that we are going to the midwife.
She echos back, like she usually does, "Going to midwife?"
Then she pauses and thinks and responds, "Getting pwegnant 'gain, Mama?"

One Month

2011-09-27T20:12:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that a month has passed since Elijah was born. Parts of this month are a bit of a blur, but I think we're all adjusting well to having a new little one around. It has been great to have helpful family around who have spent a lot of time with the girls, especially during the first two weeks when I wasn't feeling well. And looking back, not feeling well had it's bonuses - when the girls were at my parents, I had lots of time to snuggle this little guy.

So, here we are, one month in. Elijah still sleeps a lot during the day, but is starting to be more alert and active when he is awake.

Here is Elijah showing off his biceps, and glancing at Petra (who is just out of view) to make sure she sees just how buff he is.

Petra just loves to hold Elijah. She spends a lot of time on the couch with him:

Back to School

2011-09-23T11:14:00.007-05:00

It's hard to believe that the third week of school is almost done. Here are the girls on their first day. They were both pretty excited to go and see their friends and teachers. They're still both enjoying it, especially today, since it was hot dog day and pajama day. Petra has been learning about apples and took a trip to the apple orchard this week. She's also started listening really carefully to beginning sounds of words and telling us what letter they start with. Naomi's class is doing a unit about Canada, and has been singing the anthem a lot, with actions. She has also asked a lot of questions about the anthem, and I've had to explain phrases like "true patriot love" and "with glowing hearts we see thee rise." It's great to have them enjoying their time at school, and it's neat to see and hear what they've learned.

Rachel also had her backpack packed on the first day, hoping to go along. When I explained to her that she was coming home with me, she started crying and said through her tears, "But I like too, though." We talked about what fun thing we could do after dropping the girls off, and she picked playdough, so when we got home, she went right to the playdough. By the time she was done playing playdough, she didn't seem to miss her big sisters so much. I think she likes the time and attention she gets when they're gone.
And here's Elijah, ready to get in the van for the drive to school. Steve was home for the morning to help me get everyone out the door!

Now Rachel and I are enjoying our days here with Elijah. Rachel loves to hold Elijah, and cuddle with him:

We also seem to be spending a lot of time on the living room floor. Rachel is really into puzzles right now, and I seem to be really into laundry these days. So there we sit, puzzling and folding laundry, with "'Lijah helpin' us" as Rachel says:

When the girls get home at the end of the day, they are so happy to see Elijah again. Everyone needs a turn on the couch with him. Especially Petra, who might break into tears if she hasn't had enough time cuddling and talking with her little brother.

After they have reconnected with the little guy, they usually play quite nicely together until supper - legos or sandbox or puzzles or colouring.

All in all, we are getting into a bit of a routine and enjoying it.

2011-09-16T19:42:00.002-05:00

Another couple weeks have gone by. Our little "Captain Adorable" is still a pretty relaxed baby, but is starting to have more alert times.

The girls still love him, and shower him with kisses. (Yesterday, I wiped Nutella, ketchup and sparkly lipgloss off of his forehead.)

One week

2011-09-03T12:40:00.002-05:00

Well, Elijah is now one week old. He's been pretty calm and content this week, sleeping through noisy girls and loud music and hundreds of kisses and cuddles.

Here's our little guy, just hanging out on the couch:

Sidewalk Chalk

2011-09-03T12:22:00.003-05:00

One of the girls' favourite activities this summer has been sidewalk chalk. They've drawn houses with beds big enough for them to lie down in, pet stores with dogs and bunnies and lizards, snowmen, roads for their bikes, and lots of girls with long dresses.

The other day, as I sat in the shade holding Elijah, the girls were busy drawing, and they each did such a good job that I took some pictures, so that I could enjoy these drawings even after the next rainfall!

Here's Naomi's pictures of Steve holding Elijah on his baptism day. Elijah is wearing the long white gown, and Steve has a very big smile!

Next is Rachel's first real drawing. She sat down and did this by herself, then stood up and announced, "'Lijah!" Now there are little drawings of Elijah all over the driveway.

And here is Petra's masterpiece: This is me, wearing a long, colourful, strapless dress, and holding an umbrella. To match my dress, my hair is dyed in multiple colours.

Welcome, Elijah John!

2011-08-27T18:18:00.003-05:00

This morning at 7:30, we welcomed our new addition into the world - a little boy, named Elijah John. (John after both his Opa and Grandpa)
He weighs 8 lbs 5 oz, is 21 inches long, and has already captured the hearts of his family.

Rachel is making the bear give 'Lijah a kiss.

And the whole happy family:

Just checking in ...

2011-08-20T19:45:00.002-05:00

... to let you know that we're all still here and alive and well. I haven't forgotten about this blog, I've just been too busy and tired to get anything posted. I'll be back again soon, I hope!

My growing belly through the eyes of the girls

2011-07-27T19:55:00.004-05:00

Naomi took this picture of me (next to her favourite flower, the Star of Bethlehem). In this pictures I am 27 weeks pregnant. Petra took this picture. She has a little trouble pushing down the button, so the camera always shifts when she takes the pictures. In this picture, I am 30 weeks pregnant.

I don't have a picture taken by Rachel, but she let me know last week what she thought of my big belly. After trying to get comfortable on my lap for a bedtime story, she lifted up my shirt, grabbed ahold of either side of my belly with her hands and tried to pull at it, saying, "Take it off! Take it off!"

And this picture, a little more recent (taken Sunday, 34 weeks pregnant). Getting bigger... only 6 weeks to go!

She's two!

2011-07-21T20:08:00.006-05:00

Another birthday today - Rachel turned two!
At first, she was a little confused when we told her it was her birthday - She kept saying that it was Petra's birthday. She soon learned, though,as presents and cupcakes and attention was given to her.
I think she had a pretty good day. Grandma and Great-grandma VanGilst came over in the morning. This meant lap time, presents and cupcakes. Rachel did a great job blowing out her two candles! This afternoon, Steve and Reuben came here to beat the heat with the hose, the water gun, and the kiddie pool. Rachel had a great time splashing her dad and uncle.

When she woke up from her nap, Rachel had more visitors - her Oma and Opa. Another party, with presents, blueberries, pancakes, a Timbit cake, and bubbles.

Between candles, and bubbles, Rachel had lots of practice blowing today!

All in all, I think that Rachel had a fun day - a fun day for our fun-loving little clown who keeps us laughing! We love her new words, fun facial expressions, her love of running and climbing, her need to "duddle" with us before she goes to bed, and her desire to be independent and grown up like her sisters.

We thank God for the joy and laughter that Rachel has brought into our lives, and pray that she continues to grow in love and joy.

Yay for corn and teeth to eat it with!

2011-07-19T20:57:00.002-05:00

We enjoyed corn on the cob today for the first time this season. (Not from our garden - it's got a long way to go still!)
We got half way through husking our dozen cobs when Naomi held one up to me and asked, "Can I eat it?" I had kind of forgotten that she liked to eat them raw. I let her have one, which she downed pretty quickly!
Then as we ate the rest of them this evening, I remembered last summer, when both of Naomi's top front teeth were loose, and we were cutting the corn off the cob for her. She had no problems tonight, as she made it through 4 cobs with her strong grown up teeth!

4 or 14?

2011-07-19T20:51:00.002-05:00

Last week, I sent Petra to her room to get dressed. A few minutes later, she called to me that she needed help. I thought maybe her dresser drawers were stuck or something, but when I came into her room, this is what she said, as she sat on a pile of clothes:
"Mom, I have nothing that I want to wear." Poor girl.

Happy 4th Birthday, Petra!

2011-07-17T19:53:00.005-05:00

Today, our Petra turned four! Not "almost 3" anymore!
We were camping for the weekend, so our morning consisted of a birthday breakfast of Fruit Loops. Then Petra opened her presents:

A birthday shirt, with a sparkly pink and purple number 4 on it.

A basket for her bike, and streamers for the handlebars.

Later we had beach-themed cupcakes, and Petra blew out her four candles. Grandpa and Grandma stopped by after church to bring Petra her presents and enjoy a cupcake with us.

When we got home, Petra had one more present waiting for her - Naomi and Steve painted chalkboards for in the play structure!

Today, we're so thankful for our four year old - her chattering, her imagination, her sensitive personality, and her care and concern for others. We love you, Petra, and we pray that God will continue to bless you in the coming year!

Limited understanding

2011-07-06T19:46:00.002-05:00

Being not quite two, Rachel has a limited understanding of this whole pregnancy thing:
I'm working on knitting a little sweater for the new baby, and any time I take it out, Rachel comes and points to it and says, "Baby." (Then she climbs in my lap and says, "Help you," and pretty soon the knitting gets put away. One year olds are not much help in the knitting department.)
Today, when she told us that the sweater was for the baby, I asked her where the baby was.
"Hiding," she answered.
"Where is it hiding?" I asked, expecting her to lift up my shirt or point to my belly.
"Closet," was her response. (Well, that's where she likes to hide when she plays hide-and-seek!)
"Then what's in my belly?" I asked.
"Grown up," she said, or at least that's what it sounded like.
Hmm... sometimes I feel like I'm getting big, but I don't think I'm huge enough to fit a grown up in!

Petra also made us chuckle recently, in regards to the new baby. Petra has been with me many times when I've been asked if I know what we're having, or as lots of people put it, "if we're going to find out if it's a boy or a girl." I usually respond with, "No, we're going to keep it a surprise." I guess I left out the "until it's born part," and Petra thought we just weren't going to find out. Last week, she climbed onto my lap and said, "Mom, I've got a great idea! After the baby is born, we can peek in between its legs and see if it's a boy or a girl!" So we can find out after all!

Just another 8 or 9 weeks, and we can find this baby in the closet, peek between its legs, and welcome this new little girl or boy to our family!

Independence

2011-07-05T20:28:00.002-05:00

I should have posted this yesterday, instead of today...
Lately, we've been hearing lots of declarations of independence:
"Own one" - which means I want my own; I don't want to share.
"Pick it" - which means I want to pick my own spoon, shirt, book, cookie, grape, etc...
"I do it" - self explanatory, told to us as she tries to put on her own shoes, buckle her car seat, put on her diaper, pour her own cereal, etc...

Finally

2011-06-30T19:37:00.003-05:00

Last week I finally got around to putting away the hats, scarves and mitts. I kept thinking about it earlier in the spring, but thought that we'd likely get a snowstorm the next day. But I think that the end of June is probably a pretty safe time.

Anyways, it was way more fun for the kids this way. It was fun for them to play with all these things, since they hadn't seen them for a couple of months. Never mind that it was almost 30 degress - they had fun with the mitts and hats for quite a while!

Just because I think she's so cute...

2011-06-15T19:32:00.002-05:00

Things that are making me happy lately:

2011-06-06T20:52:00.002-05:00

Rachel calling her sisters Tchepa and Neemee... it's just too cute.

Petra asking so many questions about God: Is God real? Does God sleep? Who made God? Can God see me? Does God have a bedroom?

Naomi praying in French tonight: "Merci, God, pour la ciel. Merci pour ma famille. Merci pour boucoup de ... things. Merci pour toi. Amen." Naomi's school has an awesome French program, and she has learned so much this year!

Steve helping me get the garden ready to plant.

Steve planting lots of grass in the garden, making it a little more manageable for this year!

Sitting down with my feet up, snuggled with Naomi, as we read together a couple of chapters from the Little House on the Prairie series.

Feeling lots of kicks and squirms inside of me.

Rachel's growing vocabulary. The other day, in the van, she asked for "Moo - sic," which I turned on for her. Then she added, "Louder!"

Petra's need to sit on my lap and cuddle for at least a half an hour every afternoon. She has outgrown her naps, but still just needs that down time with me. It's a great excuse for me to sit down.

Neighbours who always mow part of our lawn.

As I reread this list, it makes me feel so blessed. To quote Naomi, "Merci, God, pour beaucoup de things!"

Multi-Purpose

2011-05-26T19:42:00.005-05:00

About a year ago, we purchased an ottoman like this:

It was advertised as having multiple purposes - foot rest, extra seating, coffee table, extra seats inside, storage capabilities. Seemed like a good purchase for us in a small living room, with lots of toys and stuff that sometimes needed to be stored.

I don't think we thought about quite how "multi-purpose" this ottoman would be. It has been a stage, a train, a bus, a bench for photographer's subjects, a bed, and Snow White's bed, to name a few.

Shortly after we bought it, Rachel was in the cruising around furniture stage, and the tops were off of the ottoman, and the extra seats taken out. Rachel leaned over, flipped over, and landed in the ottoman. She looked startled for a minute, then had a big grin, and we all laughed. Now it was a playpen.

The other day, I looked over into the living room, and Naomi was reading to Petra and Rachel. They looked so happy and cozy together, and I thought about how we didn't buy this ottoman for this purpose, but it sure has been fun for the girls:

Princess Petra

2011-05-26T19:13:00.005-05:00

Today, as she sat on the couch looking through a magazine at pretty dresses, Petra said to me in a dreamy voice, "Mom, when I grow up I want to be a princess. Like, a real princess."

Yes, our Petra is into all things "girly."

For about a year now, her favourite colours have been pink and purple, or as she says, "purpl'n'pink," like it's one big word. I know that's not too unusual for a little girl, but she takes it to levels I've never thought of:

Of course, she likes her clothes purple and pink, and her dishes, and markers, crayons, paint or paper. Whenever we read a book to her, she will point out to me the girl in the pictures wearing the most purple or pink, and say, "That's me." Even Rachel knows now that purple and pink are Petra's territory, as she'll look through a book, and point out the purple or pink, and say, "Tepa," which is her name for Petra. The outside of a book matters too - When we go to the library, Petra chooses her books based on colour, and we come home with a stack of purple and pink books. One time I took her to Tim Horton's to get a bagel for lunch, and she was so excited. I asked her why, and she told me, "They have pink cream cheese!"

A couple of weeks ago, we made a rare trip to the mall. I think that it was the highlight of Petra's year so far. She loved looking at all the clothes, and would point out to me dresses that she thought I should buy. "Just hold it up against yourself, Mom," she would say, as if that would convince me that I needed a ankle-length, purple-flowered sundress.

She also has become more particular about how her hair is done. Sometimes she finds a style she likes in a book and asks me to copy it. Last week, it was the bun (although she called it a door-knob.) I have found her in the bathroom, wetting her hair down to make it straighter or darker, and colouring it with chalk. Often she asks me to do "curly braids," which I just don't know how to do.

Yesterday, someone gave us a big bag of hand-me-downs, mostly size 4/5. Just perfect for Petra to grow into. It was like Christmas for her. She spent an hour unpacking the bag, pulling each item of clothing out, hold it up, checking the size, then putting it neatly into a pile, or talking about when she would wear it. (Side note: In Petra-speak, "in the morning" means tomorrow. "In the morning from the morning" is the day after tomorrow. "In the morning from the morning from the morning" is the next day after that.) The first time Petra found something in the bag that she really liked, she said, "I'm going to wear this in the morning." A few minutes later, she found something else. "I'm going to wear this in the morning from the morning." Another pretty shirt: "In the morning from the morning, from the morning, I'm going to wear this." And on it went. By the end, Petra's drawers were full, and she was happily wearing a new outfit, with plans for more new outfits in the days to come.

Oh Petra, I think we're going to need to learn this verse with you, from 1 Peter 3:

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight."

Rachel the Clown

2011-05-11T20:38:00.004-05:00

With Rachel becoming more and more vocal, we've all been enjoying "questioning" her and listening to her responses.

It started with my Mom coming over one day for lunch a couple of months ago, and Rachel looking outside expectantly for my Dad, calling out "Pa? Pa?" We told her that Grandpa wasn't here, and she looked up at us, held out her little pointer finger, and whispered, "Barn." Where else would he be?

After this, the girls started asking her other questions, "Is Grandpa feeding the cows?" "Ep," she would respond, which is her way of saying Yes. "Is he feeding the chickens?" "Ep." "Is he feeding the pigs?" "Ep," and then she would think a minute and say, "No!" Once she realized that the girls thought it was funny if she said that Grandpa had pigs or horses or goats, then she started answering "ep" to all of those, and getting laughs from all of us.

After one of these questioning periods, I said, "Oh, Rachel, you're a clown." Now the girls like to ask her, "Rachel, are you going to be a clown when you grow up?"

As she has learned more and more words, she has more and more answers for our questions. The other day, she saw a truck go by our window, and said, "truck." Since we've been talking about colours with her, I asked her what colour it was. She answered, "pink." Petra was in the basement, and heard her say this, and came running up to see the pink truck. (Which was actually black, and was long gone.) I told Steve this story that evening, and Rachel was around when I told it. She must have realized that it was funny or cute, because the next day, when she saw a truck pass by, she said, "truck," then looked at me and smiled, and said, "pink!"

She also cracks us up with silly faces and noises. Here's an example:

Little girls' thoughts on pregnancy

2011-05-05T19:30:00.006-05:00

The other day when Steve came home from work, I was feeling pretty tired. We talked about it for a couple of minutes, and then I said, "I feel bad complaining about being tired, when I'm getting more sleep than you and not working as hard."

Petra climbed onto my lap, rubbed my belly, and told me, "That's okay, Mom, it's what pwegnant girls do."

Petra is pretty excited about my pregnancy this time around, especially with my growing belly. She often lifts up my shirt in the morning to see if my belly "growed in the night." Once she even dragged me over to the other room where Steve was so that she could show him how "huge" it was. (It's only going to get huger, Petra!)

Naomi has been enjoying feeling the movements of the baby as we sit and read stories, and she's still hoping for a boy, so that there is someone to be the Dad when they play house.

And Rachel, well, she doesn't really know what's going on, but she likes to lift up my shirt and push on my belly. I'm not sure if this is because she already senses it taking up her spot on my lap, or just because she sees her sisters do it.

Another thing the girls have been enjoying is looking for "pregnant girl spots" in the parking lot, and being able to park nice and close!

And here's a picture of this new little one, the cause of all this excitement here. Petra's response to this: "There's no colour in your belly? It's black and white in there???"

... May flowers?

2011-05-03T20:55:00.007-05:00

We actually made these flowers in April, when we were so eager for spring. The flowers were bright and cheery and got us excited for when our own flowers would start to bloom.

The late afternoon shadow on the yellows walls was bright and cheery too:But now it's May and the flowers are taken off of the window in the hopes that we'll be able to see real flowers blooming in the sunshine... but instead all we see is rain, rain, rain! (And grass that is growing way too fast!)

The Games they Play

2011-05-01T19:48:00.006-05:00

Naomi and Petra seem to go through stages with what they play. A month or so ago, it was lego every day. Two weeks ago, toy trains and cars. But when they play with legos or trains or trucks, it's different than how some might play...

Last time they were really into legos, these were the creations they made:

The one of the right is Petra's lego princess, and on the left are Naomi's bride and groom. I love the looks on the faces of the bride and groom - at least they both have the same unsure feelings about the wedding.

When it's cars and trucks and trains, the cars and trucks and trains get married, have families, adopt children and move to new houses. One time, Rachel took one of Petra's red cars, and Petra got upset. I passed Petra a different red car and said, "Why don't you use this one instead?" "But Rachel took this car's husband!" Petra cried. Well, you don't want to go ripping apart families!

The newest game here has been "House on the Priarie," as we've been reading these books to Naomi before bed. They have three daughters and a dog in the book, so it works quite well with our family - Naomi is Mary, Petra is Laura, Rachel is Carrie and Abby is Jack. Last week one day, we were outside in the backyard and the girls had made a carriage out of lawn furniture, and they were going hunting for some meat. The only problem was that little Carrie wouldn't stay seated in the carriage and kept wandering away. "Carrie! Carrie! Come here!" Later Petra called, "Mary, I shot a tiger!" I noticed that our neighbours were outside working in their backyard, and thought I better explain to them what was going on, since the cries of "Carrie!" and "Mary!" sound a lot like the names of our neighbours - Gary and Mary.

It's also interesting to see them play this because Petra hasn't heard the books, and doesn't really understand the concept of the "olden days," so there is often some modern day technology thrown in - calling Pa on his cell phone, or putting the meat in the fridge.

Learning new things

2011-04-27T19:06:00.003-05:00

These days, Rachel is always learning new things. This week, she learned that when she pretends to make cookies and eat them, she shouldn't actually put them in her mouth. As she learned this lesson, she also learned two other lessons: 1. Playdough tastes bad. 2. So does sand.

Also this week, Rachel started saying two syllable words - but usually with a little pause between syllables. She has learned some of the most important words already: Coo - kie. Bown - ee (brownie). Mark - er.

A long service

2011-04-18T20:18:00.007-05:00

The church that we go to doesn't have evening service, so Petra has only ever been to church during daylight hours. The church we go to also has a reputation for having long services. With that in mind, what Petra said to me this evening shouldn't have surprised me: We were reading a book before bed, and on one page there was a pretty little church. In the picture it was evening, and the moon and stars were shining. The lights were on in the church. Petra looked at it and said, "Woah! They're still at church! There must have been too much songs that day!"

April Showers

2011-04-10T19:12:00.007-05:00

This afternoon, as the rain was falling, Rachel put on some boots (Naomi's), grabbed a rain coat (Petra's), handed me my boots, and was ready to go out in the rain. She enjoyed the puddles and feeling the rain drops on her hands. Of course, the umbrella was fun too! Say cheese!

A Great Start

2011-04-06T19:59:00.002-05:00

Last week, one of our mornings got off to a messy start. I put some boxes of cold cereal and the pitcher of milk on the table, along with the bowls. I turned around to go and get cups and spoons. Meanwhile, Rachel climbed on the chair, and used the almost full box of Rice Krispies to pour herself a bowl of cereal. There was more cereal on the table, chair and floor than in the bowl. I groaned, then cleaned up the cereal. As I was putting the broom back in the closet, I heard a splash. Rachel had added milk to her cereal (and the table, floor and chair.) I was ready for my coffee that morning!

During March...

2011-03-31T19:42:00.005-05:00

Before this month ends (it's April tomorrow!), there are a few pictures I want to include of things that happened in March.

The girls did a lot of colour this month, which meant a lot of markers in Rachel's reach. I found her in her room one day, covered with blue and black marker. When I asked her to show me her hand (the palm was completely blue), she held it up and looked at it.

Here are Naomi and Petra, busy with playdough. This is serious business:

During the March break, I went with the girls and my parents to the Museum of Civilization. The Children's Museum was a hit, and since there were three adults and three kids, we each took one and they got to go exactly where they wanted. After lunch, we went through Canada Hall, which looks at the settling of Canada, and shows interesting boats, houses, churches, schools and stores. Naomi and Petra enjoyed this, and Rachel didn't mind being in her stroller as long as Grandpa kept moving.

At the beginning of March Break, we had a house full as we celebrated Opa's 60th birthday. There were cupcakes and party favours and presents and fun and food and hugs. We also enjoyed having David and Stephanie and Anneke stay with us for a few days. The girls loved to listen to Anneke squeal and bring her toys.

Well, that's it for March - let's see what April brings! (Hopefully lots of time outdoors!)

Fun memories of a fun age

2011-03-19T19:10:00.008-05:00

I know I'm behind in many things that have happened here over the past few weeks, but instead, I'm just going to reminisce tonight.

Rachel is at such a fun age right now, trying to hard to communicate with us, learning new words and figuring out new things everyday. She often has us laughing at the dinner table, as she answers our silly questions, or tries out knock-knock jokes on us. (But doesn't know more than "Knock-knock," and then a giggle.)

Anyways, I was just thinking back to when the other two were this age:

When Naomi was this age, Steve's summer soccer league had just started up, and we would take Naomi along to the early games. She loved watching her Daddy (and Kurt) play soccer, and would run along the edge of the field shouting, "Go, go Daddy!" and "Go, go Kurt!"

When Naomi was 19 months old, I spent a week at my parents's house with her. She loved the cows, tractors, chickens, lawn tractor, etc. She would wake up every morning at 5:30 and stand in her playpen saying, "Go to barn! Go to barn!"

Petra shows us her moves here, dancing to some groovy music at "Jackfest." She still loves to dance and twirl, and she still loves purple!

Petra has always loved to help in the kitchen, especially with baking. Chocolate chip cookies are her favourite, and her Daddy's favourite too. Here she is watching intently as Steve runs the mixer. Now she runs the mixer, while we watch!

And our little Rachel. She loves to "help" us, whether unloading the dish washer, scrubbing the toilet, sweeping the floor, or helping Daddy with his tools. Here she is at the Children's Museum, exploring the construction site, and getting to use paint brushes and rollers!

Rachel wants to do everything her sisters do! And unfortunately, her sisters don't always put away the things Rachel shouldn't have. In this picture, there is evidence that Rachel has been into the markers (on her face, hands and shirt... yay for Crayola washable markers!). I love that she is looking so serious and concentrating so hard as she colours. (And no, she didn't just write PETRA, she just took over Petra's drawing.)

2011-03-04T20:08:00.002-05:00

"Y-U-T-I-R-E-X" Petra was seated in front of the computer, typing out her "spelling words."
"What does this say?" she asked me.
I looked at her letters and said, "Yutirex."
She paused, looked at the screen, and then said, "I think that's what we should name the new baby!"

Happy Birthday, Steve!

2011-03-03T19:55:00.003-05:00

Today was Steve's birthday, and we spoiled him with presents and pie and cupcakes and tacos and lots of hugs.

When we were decided what to get for Steve, Petra said, "He needs a birthday shirt!" and so we put together this shirt to celebrate his age - 34!

Here he is, allowing the girls to blow out all of his candles:

We hope you had a great day, Steve (Daddy), and we thank you for all that you do for us!

From your girls.

Heartbeat

2011-03-03T19:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, we heard a little thump-thump-thump at the midwife's office. 150 beats per minutes. Even the fourth time around, it's such a miracle to think that such a tiny little human (3 inches long, 1.25 ounces) has a beating heart and that we could hear it. Incredible!

(This is not our baby, but shows what a 13-week old fetus looks like.

Outdoor Fun

2011-02-23T20:19:00.004-05:00

We've spent a lot of time indoors this month, but this weekend we got some outdoor fun in. Some friends of ours from Barrie came up for the weekend, and we ventured to Ottawa to skate the canal. Although the weather had been bad the week before, a 4.4 km section of the ice reopened on Sunday.

Naomi did an excellent job, and used her trainer to help her skate a good long piece.

Her hard work was rewarded with a BeaverTail!
Petra enjoyed hers too - chocolate!

The TeBokkel clan with their Beavertails:

We also went to see what was left of the ice sculptures:

Smile!

After all that, we went to Zak's, a diner-style restaurant that must be pretty popular, because it was very busy. We waited to get a seat, we waited to get our menus, we waited to get our food. Most of us didn't mind, but Rachel was getting a little hungry from all that fresh air. Fortunately, there was a stack of peanut butter packages on the table.

"What? Isn't this the way you're supposed to eat peanut butter?"

"Maybe four fingers would work better than just one."

"Yep, that's the way to do it!"

All in all, it was a great day - good food, fresh air, good friends, good exercise!

Indoor Fun

2011-02-22T21:48:00.003-05:00

We've spent a lot of time indoors this month. Between really cold weather and me feeling pretty tired, the living room was the place to be. Puzzles, legos, books, Little People - these kept us busy this month.

Enjoy a few pictures from our indoor days:

Rachel has discovered that the lego bin is way more fun than the lego itself! (She's also learning to accessorize.)

And in this last picture, you can see the new four-legged addition to our family. She also likes lego time, since it means a nice soft blanket to sleep on. This is Abby, a two year old beagle who is great with the girls.

2011-02-21T19:57:00.003-05:00

Last week, we sat the girls down and told them some exciting news - in September, they will have a new brother or sister!
They were excited, despite the fact that two days earlier, Naomi had told us that three was a good number of children, and that four kids would be "way too much work."
Naomi thinks that we need a boy to even things out around here (I'm sure that Steve agrees!). She also thinks that the new baby should not like chocolate, so that the "teams" are more even. (Petra, Rachel and I love chocolate; Steve and Naomi not so much.)
Petra doesn't even want to think about a boy - she loves pink and purple and dresses and princesses and wants another girl!
Rachel of course has no clue - but I think she'll enjoy having someone younger than her around - it will make her feel like one of the "big girls."
Steve and I are excited, and look forward to meeting this new little one, whether it's a girl or boy, and whether it likes chocolate or not!

Petra's Playdate

2011-02-12T19:54:00.004-05:00

Petra had a friend over this week - a little boy, two years older than her. He was here all day, and the two of them had a great time together.

First on the agenda was "house" - they quickly figured out their roles (Petra called her friend "husband!" all morning) and went off to the bedroom to find all their "kids" (stuffed animals). In a few minutes I was called to help them, as they had decided that the "house" (the bedroom) wasn't big enough, and they needed to move. They wanted the shopping cart tied to the stroller, to the two laundry baskets, the grocery basket, the toy basket and a toy suitcase. When this was done, they loaded up and moved to the living room. You see, Petra was pregnant (with twins!) and they needed a bigger place. Once they got to their new place and unloaded everything, Petra needed to lie down, since she "had a big belly and was really tired." She said this as she rubbed her shirt stuffed with two little dolls inside. Her friend wanted her to make some dinner, but again, she made the excuse of being pregnant and lay down instead. Anyways, they got some dinnner, slept, and the next morning was the big day. They went to the hospital, came home with twin baby girls, and promptly packed them up into a suitcase, since this new house still wasn't big enough and they needed to move again.

Once house was over, we went outside, played in the snow fort and on the hill, then came in for lunch. After lunch, they did crafts at the kitchen table, then played trains in the basement.

Later they played "Tim Hortons" with felt donuts. A Home Depot apron, golf visor and work gloves was the uniform for the worker.

Before they knew it, it was time to head to school to bring her friend back and pick up Naomi. She was tired by the end, but had a great day, and is busy planning her next "playdate."

From Petra

2011-02-10T19:57:00.002-05:00

Earlier this week, Steve's Dad's truck was not working, so Steve drove his Dad home from work and then slept over there so that they could make it back into work the next morning. After I got off the phone with Steve, I told the girls that Daddy wouldn't be coming home that night because he was having a sleep over at Oma and Opa's. I thought they would be upset, but Petra was excited. Here's what she said, as she clapped her hands together and grinned: "Oma and Opa will be so excited that their son is sleeping over! They can pretend that he's their little kid again!"

Yesterday afternoon, Petra wanted to play lego. Tired of messes, I groaned a little. "Oh, I'm not sure if I feel like dumping all the lego out again."
"That's okay, Mom," responded Petra, "I'll dump it out!"

Helper???

2011-02-01T20:32:00.006-05:00

Rachel loves to watch all that we're doing, and often tries to be helpful. Sometimes she actually is helpful. When it's time to brush teeth, she hands out the toothbrushes (and she knows who gets which colour!). When it's time to go out, she brings Petra her boots or Naomi her mitts.

And the table... she loves to help set the table. We can pass her plates, cuts or cutlery, and she places them on the table for us. But even more fun is taking things out of the fridge. When Naomi opens up the fridge to get the milk out, Rachel grabs whatever she can and puts it on the table. Sometimes there is syrup on the table when we're having spaghetti, or mustard on the table when we're having pancakes.

Last week, I did some cleaning in the girls room - the kind where I took everything out of drawers and off shelves so that I could wash off the shelves before I put things back. Well, that afternoon, while I was working on supper, she brought a chair over, climbed up, opened the cutlery drawer, and proceeded to take things out. At first I thought she was just planning on setting the table, but she kept going until everything was out. Then she grabbed for a cloth from the sink, and started washing the drawer out. Perfect - something crossed off my list!

Sometimes, though, she seems to prefer disorder and making messes... A couple of weeks ago, the girls got some puzzles from Steve's cousins. They made them in the evening when we got home, then put them in their boxes, but left the boxes on the floor when they went to bed. Rachel got up early, and after cuddling with me, wandered out into the living room. She hadn't been up for more than three minutes when she managed to dump all the puzzle pieces into one big pile. That makes for a more challenging puzzle!

Another night, we were going through the bedtime routine. Naomi and Petra had just (grudgingly) sorted and picked up two bins of craft stuff. The bins were on the floor in the basement, and we were sitting in Naomi's room reading. Rachel wandered off. I kept reading, and a couple of pages later, looked up from the book to see her holding the bin over her head and dumping it upside down. The second bin followed. I took a deep breath, looked back at the book, and read the next line: "I'll love you with patience." How appropriate!

18 Months

2011-01-21T20:21:00.005-05:00

Our "baby" is 18 months today! She's developing into a full-fledged toddler, starting to assert herself more and more. "No!" and "Mine!" are common words now. She watches us and listens carefully, and always seems to know what's going on. She loves to "help" us, whether with setting the table, cooking supper or cleaning the toilet. She wants to be included in whatever the big girls are up to. Yes, she's growing up!

That's why I included this picture below. Most mornings, Rachel wakes up first, before I'm quite ready to get out of bed. I get her quickly, so that she doesn't wake up Petra. I take her to bed with me, and she snuggles in against my chest and rests some more. At these times, she's not my independent, walking, talking toddler. She's still my little baby - and I like it!

Special

2011-01-18T20:28:00.005-05:00

When I was a kid, I remember having a box of Special K cereal on the table, and getting a marker, and very carefully adding "atrina" after the K. Ahh... Special Katrina.

Last spring when Special K was on sale, I bought a box, and told the girls about what I had done, and they thought it was funny and Naomi carefully wrote the letters on for me. For a week, we enjoyed eating "Special Trina's" as Petra would call them. Since then, Petra's been watching the cereal aisle at the grocery store, waiting for "Trina's" to go on sale. (She's learned from grocery shopping with me to look for the yellow tags - sale items!) Last week they were happy to see that Special K was on sale, so we loaded a box into the cart. Naomi wrote the letters on for me, and I feel special at breakfast again!

Lucky

2011-01-17T20:53:00.002-05:00

This morning we had hot cereal for breakfast - oat bran. Naomi and Rachel always love it, and Petra loves it half of the time, and struggles to get it down on the other days. Today was a struggle. Petra sat at the table for a long time, got her bowl reheated, and was working on it very slowly. Finally, we left it on the table, and she was going to finish it for snack, since she was "full." Well, Rachel had been eyeing her bowl for a while, and while Petra and I were busy in her room, Rachel climbed up on Petra's chair and polished off her cereal. I came out, saw Rachel putting the last bite in her mouth, and said to Petra, "I guess you're lucky. Rachel ate your oatmeal."
"No, I'm not lucky," Petra responded, "Rachel's lucky!"
Actually, we're all lucky, I thought. Petra doesn't have to eat her cereal, Rachel got to eat what she wanted, and I didn't have to fight the battle again a snack time. A win-win-win situation!

Craft Time

2011-01-09T20:10:00.003-05:00

For Christmas, the girls received a craft kit that Uncle Ben and Aunt Tracy assembled for them. This past week, they all enjoyed working on their crafts - cutting, gluing, "stickering," and of course, using the glitter glue.

And the finished product, hanging in our front window:

Thanks Uncle Ben & Aunt Tracy!

Silly words

2011-01-08T20:42:00.004-05:00

The other night, as I was about to crawl into bed, I had to first move this little trio, who was tucked in cosily on the bed: a pink poodle, a green hippo, and a baby doll. It made me smile, because that little green hippo is one of Petra's favourites. But she doesn't call it a "hippo" or even a "hippopotamus." No, Petra's favourite is her soft green "potamushippo."

It also made me think of a couple other words that Petra consistently says incorrectly:

Yogurt has always been "orgit." We've broken it down into syllables and tried to get her to say it properly, but it always comes out as "orgit."
We've been telling a lot of secrets here, especially Rachel, who has picked up the little whisper in the ear from Grandpa. But Petra doesn't tell secrets, she tells "swequits." (And her swequit is always the same, and I love to hear it, but I can't tell you what it is - It's a swequit!)

A.S.

2011-01-04T21:14:00.002-05:00

We've had some dinner time battles with Rachel over the last month or so. It started when she discovered how much she liked applesauce. She started refusing to eat anything at dinner unless it was applesauce. (Don't suggest mixing the potatoes or carrots in with the applesauce - we couldn't trick her!) Anyways, I stopped serving applesauce, or would leave it on the counter until it was time for us to eat it. We also stopped using the word, and started referring to Apple Sauce as A. S. That seems to work, although we had a good laugh at the table the other night after Petra used the forbidden word, and Naomi blurted out, "Mom, Petra said the A.S. word!"

2010 - A summary

2011-01-01T19:19:00.002-05:00

Another year has passed. It was a good year, a year of:
- first steps and first words
- listening to Naomi's reading taking off
- continuing to be amazed with our girls' imaginations
- reading lots of books out loud
- more renovations in our house (new bedroom & bathroom)
- a bountiful crop of beans, carrots, corn and weeds!
- taking out the sewing machine and enjoying it
- being fascinated by the little things that Petra notices and remembers
- a new shop for Steve, so he doesn't have to store his tools and try to work in the garage amongst the strollers, bikes and sidewalk chalk
- Rachel watching her sisters so carefully and wanting to try everything they do
- many knitted projects
- Steve being busy enough with work
- a new cousin
- baking chocolate chip cookies with Petra
- lots of time spent with family
- many puzzles done on the living room floor
- watching Naomi grow more responsible and independent
- most of all, a year of God' provision and care for us, and a year of trusting in Him for our daily needs

Among all of that, there were moments of frustrations - mealtime battles, messes to clean up, children being stubborn, paper work to catch up on, sore backs, more paper work. Things here are not perfect, but God has blessed us in so many ways. We hope and pray that we can live in service and gratitude in this coming year.

A Gaggle of Girls

2010-12-13T20:04:00.005-05:00

We did a little early Christmas celebrating at Oma and Opa's this past weekend, with all six granddaughter's present: Anneke (2 1/2 months, with lots of smiles for us this weekend!)

Nicole (11 months, and always looking for hands that will help her walk around!)

Rachel (16 months, with lots of hugs and kisses, especially for Opa!)

Maria (2 years old, loves Oma's books and doll carriage!)

Petra (3 years old, loves purple!)

Naomi (6 years old, proud of her sjoelbak abilities!)

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

2010-12-09T21:32:00.003-05:00

The tree is up, the lights are on, the Christmas music is play, the Advent nativity scene is getting more colourful and full everyday, we're busy with baking and crafting and sewing and knitting... I'm really enjoying this Christmas season!

And in between all of this (and cooking and a little cleaning and laundry), I get a short role every now and then in the ongoing Christmas pagent in our house. Yesterday, while I cooked supper, I got to appear as the innkeeper, the shepherd and a wiseman. I'm not sure that a candle, a bell and a cassette tape were the three gifts of the magi, but we'll go with it.

Bakefest 2010

2010-12-09T21:19:00.003-05:00

Rachel, Petra and I did a little Christmas baking today... and by a little, I mean 15 dozen cookies/squares... a good start!

Petra has loved helping out with baking for as long as I can remember. She has known how to use the Kitchen Aid Mixer for far too long, and she is getting much better at turning it on only to the number I specify. We've had some flour outbursts in the past, but today went smoothly.

We did have a flour accident of another nature, though... Rachel needed to be in on the action today. I lined up some chairs so that she was caged in, and she stood at the table with us. She liked to dump the spoonfuls and cupfuls into the bowls just like Petra. But, Rachel doesn't understand turn taking, so when Petra was holding the flour, ready to dump it, Rachel grabbed it. Two little girls, both pulling on a cupful of flour. One girl gives, the flour goes flying! Rachel got a nice dusting, and we had a good laugh!

Rachel also learned a little about ingredients: Most things we used today tasted good - she didn't even mind the cocoa. But baking soda - well, she didn't go back for more!

Last week, Petra got some oven mitts from Oma that match her birthday apron. Today she wore them with pride whenever I opened the oven. But she hasn't gotten the name right - she calls them her "cookie gloves."

Well, I've got some tea to drink, and a few samples to try, so that's it for now!

"Ha!"

2010-11-28T21:42:00.004-05:00

Thursday morning, we were busy getting ready to bring Naomi to school. Getting dressed, brushing teeth, combing hair, practicing spelling words, eating breakfast. As we were nearing departure time, Rachel disappeared into her room, and came out a minute later. She exclaimed, "Ha!" and proudly patted her head, on which she had placed a knitted doll dress. She thought it made a very nice tuque, and wore it happily as we ran our errands around town that morning. Silly Rachel!

Happy 6th Birthday, Naomi!

2010-11-19T22:10:00.003-05:00

Today Naomi turned 6! She was excited to go to school today with treats for her class, her number 6 shirt and a birthday cake hat on. This evening we had Oma and Opa over for pancakes and cake and lots of stories. This is just the beginning, though, as she has her friend party tomorrow and the VanGilst party (a joint party for her and Aunt Emily) on Sunday.

In the picture below, she pumping her arms up and down, doing her French class actions for the word Fan-tas-tique!

Naomi, we think you are Fantastique - you are a unique and special part of our family, and we love you very, very much! Happy birthday, Naomi!

Accomplishments

2010-11-15T20:24:00.004-05:00

In the girls' room, Petra's clothes are kept on open shelves in her closet. The underwear shelf just happens to be right at Rachel's height, so she loves walking around with Petra's underwear. The other day, she grabbed three pairs and sat down to work. She worked hard and accomplished her mission:She was pretty proud of herself with that underwear on! Sorry the first picture is fuzzy, but she was so excited that she was running! The picture below is a little clearer, but doesn't show as much excitement on her face:
Rachel's other accomplishments are new words popping up: Juices, shoes, keys, cheese, stairs... it's so fun to hear her trying to communicate.

Yesterday afternoon, we were having a lazy afternoon watching a movie downstairs. Rachel was busy playing and jumping on us - we thought she wasn't paying much attention to the TV. But then one of the characters in the movie said "Steve." Rachel smiled, turned around, pointed at Steve and said, "Stee!"

Questions

2010-11-15T20:11:00.002-05:00

The other day, I was tucking in the girls, and it seemed like they kept wanting more things - another kiss, another blanket, another book, another toy. As I was leaving, Naomi piped up, "Mom, I have a question..."
"Okay, just one last question, and that's it!"
"Mom, what is water made of?"
... she didn't get her answer.

Petra has been starting to ask more and more questions lately, too. I've been asked all of these lately:

What are hiccups made of?
How do you spell Williamsburg?
How do you sing O Canada?
How do you make toys?

The girls also had some questions about Remembrance Day. Naomi got asking about the war that her great-grandfathers fought in, and I gave her some information. She wanted to know what countries fought, and who were on each side. I talked a little bit about the Axis and the Allies. She didn't quite get it, though, since later in the conversation she asked, "So the team that fought with the axes was the bad guys?"

Petra heard the word soldier on one of our CD's today, and started asking about why the soldiers died. I told her that they were fighting. "Oh, what were they fighting about?" She's probably picturing them fighting over a toy they both want. Big concepts for little minds!

best buds

2010-11-08T22:24:00.004-05:00

(usually...)

Goofball

2010-11-08T22:17:00.003-05:00

This little goofball keeps us smiling!

Little chuckles

2010-11-03T19:47:00.003-05:00

A few things that have made us chuckle lately:

I remember writing here a couple of years ago about dinner time battles with Naomi. Fortunately, these seem to be getting better, but now Petra can be difficult at meal times. She just doesn't want to eat. She's too distracted or too tired. So we get near the end of the meal, and she still has a full plate. More often than not, she asks to be fed. And I give in more than I should. But at least I know I'm appreciated after her prayer last night: "Dear God, Thank you for our food. Thank you that Mom feeds me. Amen."

Naomi's prayer this morning also made us smile: ".... And thank you that Mom and Petra's days just fly by until I get home..."

Everyday, Petra asks us the same question. And everyday, Petra gets the same answer. What's the question? "Today are we going to bed?" Sometimes she asks it at supper, sometimes earlier in the day. But at least once a day, these words come out of her mouth.

Yesterday Rachel shoplifted for the first time... Today I was putting her coat on, with mittens dangling from strings. I picked up her mitten and was going to put it on her hand, but there was something in it already. Curious, I pulled it out. It was a toy from the store where we were shopping the day before. Oops! But at least it was from the quarter bin at the thrift shop!

Road trip

2010-10-25T20:43:00.004-05:00

This past weekend, we travelled to Barrie. We had a great weekend - we got to meet little baby Anneke, visit with friends, cuddle little Anneke, drive by our old place, witness Anneke's baptism and visit our old church, play Settlers of Catan, and did I mention holding little Anneke?

So, the weekend Barrie was great. If only Barrie were a couple of hours closer... then we wouldn't have to do the long drive with three little kids.

We drove during the day on Friday. It wasn't great weather, but the kids need a chance to get out and run, so we decided to stop at the mall in Belleville. We knew there was a Chapters there, and we wanted to pick out a few favourite board books for Anneke. Plus, there's a train table and little riding cars for the kids to play on. After Chapters, we went to the food court for lunch. I feel like I've taken the kids a lot of places, but it seems that we don't go to malls very often. The food court was pretty overwhelming for Naomi and Petra - so many choices, so many people. They ended up with a plain bagel with plain cream cheese. Even then, they hardly ate because they were watching people and waving at the boy that they met at Chapters.

After that stop, back into the van. We got another hour or so down the road, and the crying started. And continued. And got louder. And more irritating. Poor Rachel just didn't want to be in her seat any more. We made it to Newmarket, and decided to hit another mall so that they could stretch their legs. We had fun in this mall riding the elevator together! We went into Old Navy, and they stopped and stared at the ten manequins at the front of the store - men, women, children, even a dog! "What are these?" asked Naomi. You don't know what a manequin is??? I thought. Then I remembered where we usually shop - Timmy's Place (thrift store), garage sales, maybe Giant Tiger or Walmart for socks and underwear. None of these places have manequines... We told the girls what they were and why they had them. The girls then proceeded to hug them. Country kids at the mall!

After that last stop, the rest of the drive was fairly uneventful.

On the way home, we managed to only stop once - at a McDonald's Play Place. The kids love to have a chance to run and climb midway through a long drive. When it was time to leave, I took Naomi and Petra to the bathroom, while Steve held Rachel in his arms. She was upset because she wanted to go with us. When I got back, Rachel put out her arms to me. I took her, but she immediately wanted down. She walked right to the bathroom door. Curious, I pushed the door open. She walked in, and pushed open the stall door. She backed up to the toilet and looked at me. (She does this at home sometimes too.) I lifted her up, she made a funny face, then reached for the toilet paper. I gave her a piece, she crumpled it up and rubbed the side of her let with it. I lifted her down, then she put the toilet paper in the toilet, walked out of the stall and went to the sink. She's got the whole drill figured out! We washed her hands, and then she was ready to leave.

All in all, a great weekend!

Two Weeks

2010-10-20T21:24:00.004-05:00

Somehow two weeks have passed with no posts. Doesn't mean nothing happened... just have been too busy to get it down on the computer.
I'm not going to attempt to "catch up" right now - I'll just show a couple of pictures that show us enjoying the change of seasons:

Big winnings

2010-10-05T20:43:00.002-05:00

Every year, there is a fall festival here in Williamsburg. Last year, I took the girls, and we enjoyed face painting, pony rides, bouncy castles, a parade and a petting zoo. This year, we had a family potluck, so we didn't make it to the fun and festivities, but we did enter a couple of the contests.

The gas station had a trivia contest that Steve picked up a couple of weeks ago. Some questions were easy to figure out just by driving through town - What year was the park dedicated? Who painted the mural? Where is the payphone in town located? Others I got from reading the paper - Who's running for mayor? How long has Whitteker's Meat Market been open? Others were trickier, and involved some research in the phone book or calling the township office. Steve, Reuben and Dad G. have been working here, so they've helped me out with some of the answers. Anyways, I got it all put together and handed in, and on Sunday, I got a call - I had won! They dropped off my prize later that day - a decorative thermometer for outside, a NAPA Autopro shirt, a pair of kids sun glasses, and two kids books that make a lot of noise. I don't know if it was worth all the effort, but it is fun to win!

And then today, Naomi got mail. Turns out that she won some money in the kids colouring contest! She's pretty excited about her certificate and five dollar bill!

Fun times in Williamsburg!

Another cousin!

2010-09-27T19:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday at supper, the phone rang. It was Uncle David calling for Naomi, to let her know that she had a new cousin! David and Stephanie are now the proud parents of little Anneke Leigh, born yesterday. The girls were excited - Naomi giggled, Petra clapped and shouted, and Rachel shrieked.
This morning, they were excited to discover that Uncle David had posted pictures so they could see their cute new cousin. Naomi was excited to tell her class at school, but Petra didn't quite get it. This was her breakfast prayer: "Dear God, Thank you for our food. Thank you for baby Anneke in Stephanie's belly. Amen."
We told her that the baby had come out. "What?" she said. Maybe she thought the pictures we had looked at were a very advanced ultrasound.

Congratulations, David and Stephanie!

Adjustments

2010-09-27T19:47:00.001-05:00

Petra seems to be adjusting to Naomi being away at school. But we know that she's happy to have her home, as we heard from her lunch time prayer on Saturday:
Dear God, Thank you for our food. Thank you that Naomi didn't go to school. Amen.

2010-09-26T19:43:00.002-05:00

Naomi came upstairs yesterday morning, groggy in her pajamas. She held in her hand the story Bible that she had been reading before bed. I noticed that the bookmark was much further along than it was last night.
"Mom," she said in her sleepy voice, "the Bible is more important than sleep."

Laundry

2010-09-26T19:40:00.002-05:00

The laundry around here seems to pile up so quickly. My clothes hamper is full before I know it. Now I may know why: I was emptying it the other day, and along with dirty laundry, I found five shoes, two books, and three pairs of tights that I know none of the girls had worn this week - one was still in its package. Hmm, who's been filling up the hamper???

Random

2010-09-22T20:24:00.006-05:00

Now that Rachel is walking well, she is never in one place for long. She walks from room to room, picking up random things and putting them in random places. She is also discovering how to open drawers and cupboard doors, so that means even more mess!

Here are some things I found around the house today:

The other thing that Rachel likes to do lately is play with her baby. She hugs it and kisses it and carries it around, and takes it for walks in the stroller. Unfortunately (for the little baby), the stroller has seen better days, and the seat is broken. Poor little baby just hangs on by her neck:

Here is little Rachel taking a break to clean up her messes:

2010-09-21T20:20:00.003-05:00

Well, here we are, two weeks into the school year, adjusting to a new routine.

Naomi seems to be enjoying grade 1. She was very excited the day she had "homework." She is happy to be playing with her friends, loves her math work, and is happy to have her own desk to put her things in. She has been taking BunBun with her to school, though, I guess as a bit of a security thing. She plays house with BunBun and her friends at recess. Last Friday after school, Petra and Rachel were napping, while Naomi and I were staining the play structure and chatting about her week at school. "Mom, I'm not going to take BunBun with me to school," she told me. Interesting, I thought. "Why not?" I asked. "Well, if there's a fire in the school, we have to leave right away and can't take our backpacks. BunBun would be in my backpack during the fire. Backpacks can be replaced, but BunBun can't." And so BunBun gets to stay home safely with me.

Petra's still adjusting to the transition. Mornings are hard for her, as Naomi is getting ready for school, and Petra realizes her playmate is leaving again. Once Naomi is gone, she is usually okay. One advantage to Naomi being gone - more clothes to choose from. Petra has been going into Naomi's dresser to borrow clothes. She often leaves something of hers behind - a trade. I didn't expect them to be borrowing clothes until they were a little older!

With Naomi away, Petra likes to do a lot of pretending with me. Lately her favourite game is to pretend that she is an orphan looking for a new family. "Mom, let's play 'I don't got no mom'," she has said to me. Then she pretends to be a kid whose parents have died. I am supposed to be the welcoming mother who will take her under my wing and allow her to live with me. Naomi plays this game too, although I'm not sure where it came from.

Rachel is still pretty easy going, and goes with the flow. She enjoys Petra's attention when Naomi is gone, and is excited to get in the van at the end of the day to pick up Naomi.

Anyways, that's what we're up to these days.

Back to School

2010-09-12T21:05:00.003-05:00

I know I'm almost a week late with this, but Naomi is back to school.

She was excited to go back, and enjoyed her first week of school. She is excited to go everyday, and to have a special French teacher and computer teacher. She has been enjoying French, and even told me the other day that the supper I cooked was "Fan - tas - tique!" as she pumped her hands in the air for each syllable.

It has been an adjustment for Petra to have Naomi gone so much. On the first day of school, as we were leaving the parking lot after dropping Naomi off, Petra asked me, "How many days does Naomi have to go to school?" Petra definitely misses Naomi, but it is also fun to see Petra interacting more with Rachel now. And Petra has started striking up more imaginary scenarios with me. She likes to play Reuben and Emily. A couple times this week we were in the van, and she was calling out, "Reuben. Reuben. Reuben!!!" I was thinking about something else, and it took me a minute to realize that I was supposed to respond to the name Reuben. It's fun to see Petra's little imagination going.

Anyways, we are all adjusting to this new routine, but we are off to a good start!

So long, summer

2010-09-12T20:28:00.004-05:00

School has started again, the leaves are starting to fall, the garden is almost empty...
Summer is over, and fall is on it's way.
Just a couple more summer pictures that never made it up:

New Tricks

2010-09-05T21:06:00.004-05:00

Over the last month or so, Rachel seems to have gone from being my little baby to being an independant toddling toddler. She watches us so closely, wants to be part of the action, and loves to copy the things that we are up to.

A few examples:

We went camping last weekend, and had Rachel sleeping in the tent trailer while we were across the site visiting. Steve and Petra went back to the tent trailer to get something to eat, and Petra opened the door to the tent trailer to find Rachel standing in the middle of the floor with a sharp knife in her hand. Somehow she got out of her playpen, climbed down from the folded down table, and opened the drawer. And of course a sharp knife is more fun than a butter knife. Fortunately Petra opened that door when she did!

I watched her carefully at her next nap, peeking in every couple of minutes to make sure she was settling. This time I found her trying to climb out, with her diaper taken off.

She has tried the diaper trick here too. Some of our cloth diapers have velcro closures, and on a hot morning earlier this week, she was napping with just her diaper. She was fussing, which then turned to loud crying. Steve went up to check on her and found her naked in the corner of her crib, almost looking scared by the big poop that was lying on the crib sheet. Silly girl!

She also is starting to figure out how to use different household things and tries to "help" with different jobs - unloading the dishwasher, combing hair, scrubbing the floor. (Although I can't figure out how she learned that!)

Today we told her that we were going to go outside after she got changed. Steve put her pants on her and set her on the floor. She took off straight for our bedroom, opened the screen door, walked through, turned around, closed the screen door and headed for the next door. While I'm not too excited that she can open the screen door, I am impressed that she turned around and closed it. If only I could get the other girls to do that!

And she was pretty excited to be included in our painting session the other day:

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

2010-08-26T20:38:00.003-05:00

On Tuesday of this week, the girls spent the day at my parents, so that I could do some paper work. The girls had a great time, especially Naomi, who said that she had "the most fun she's ever had at Grandma and Grandpa's." They spent a lot of time playing in Grandma and Grandpa's canoe. When they got home, where there is no canoe to play in, Naomi started planning to make a canoe. She took it seriously, drawing up a three-step plan to make a canoe, and some paddles. This is her plan:

She was pretty proud of it. She even asked Steve if he thought it was "splendid."
So, the next morning, we found some cardboard and duct tape and put Naomi's plan into action. The girls had a great time playing in their boat, and by the afternoon, Naomi had this great idea that someone could sleep in it.Petra got to sleep in it last night:

Naomi's in in right now:

I guess Rachel's next!

Words of Wisdom (from Naomi)

2010-08-25T20:18:00.002-05:00

Naomi's imagination, topics of discussion and word choice continue to entertain us. Sometimes she is such a little kid, and other times she seems so grown up.
Here are some nuggets of wisdom from her this summer:

We camped a few weekends ago, with my family. This was only a few days after coming back from Halifax. Not enough sleep, too much excitement, so the kids were a little trying at times on our camping weekend. At one meal, Steve and I were sitting with the girls and some others on the ground in the dining tent. The girls were complaining about their food. They weren't sitting still and knocked over their drink. They just weren't eating. I was getting frustrated after repeating myself over and over. Finally, I looked at Steve with what must have been exasperation. Naomi saw this, and said to me, "Mom, having children must be difficult sometimes." (Difficult sometimes, but also a joy, Naomi!)

Last week, Naomi and I were talking about time, and how when you are really enjoying sometime, the time seems to pass so quickly, but when you are not enjoying, the time drags on and on. A couple of days later, Naomi had 30 minutes to play quietly, and then she was supposed to have a rest for 30 minutes. She was enjoying her playtime and was not looking forward to her rest time. The timer on the fridge was counting down the time, and I caught her looking at the timer and whispering sometime to herself. I asked her what she was saying. She responded: "I was telling myself not to enjoy myself, because then the time would go by too quickly."

And just today: This afternoon around 5, I was feeling pretty tired. I said that to the girls. Naomi stopped what she was doing and said, "Why don't you just sit down and put your feet up. I'll make you a cup of coffee." Well, that was just the wisdom I needed to hear. I sat down, put my feet up, and Naomi (who has helped me make coffee before), made me a cup of coffee completely unassisted by me. Petra did help by adding the cream. All I had to do was get off the couch to get it. And it actually turned out pretty good. Now that was wise: Give Mom coffee, so she doesn't get too tired and grumpy. Thanks, Naomi!

Trip to Halifax, Part 6: Happy First Birthday!

2010-08-22T18:40:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I looked at the calendar, and realized that it was the 21st. This means that it's been a whole month since Rachel's birthday, and I still haven't posted any pictures of her birthday. This summer is just slipping by so fast!

On Rachel's birthday, Oma, Emily VG and I took the girls to Rainbow Haven, an ocean beach about 20 minutes away. We had a great time - picnic lunch, playing in the waves, digging in the sand. Each of the girls had fun, but enjoyed it in a very different way.

Rachel loved the sand and the water. The first time we took her to the beach on this holiday, she hated the sand. She tried to keep her feet up and out of it. It took her a couple of times to get used to it, but by her birthday, she was ready to get in down and dirty! She dug in the sand, and crawled around. She would crawl right into the waves, and laugh as they came up and splashed her.

Naomi loved jumping into the waves. She had a great time finding some bigger waves with Oma. You can see her here, timing her jump into the water.

Petra was tired out, after a 10 minute nap on her drive. She was tired and cold, and the ocean breeze didn't help. She didn't like the water or the wind. She wanted to be wrapped up warmly in her towel, but couldn't get it to stay just how she wanted. Finally I took her up to the dry sand where we had eaten our lunch. This sand was warm, and felt great on her legs. She had a great time being buried in the soft, warm sand.

After the beach, we went back to the campsite. That evening Martin & Emily and the girls joined us at the campsite to celebrate Rachel's birthday with us. Rachel loves blueberries, so we had blueberry pancakes for supper. I added a little icing and sprinkles to an icecream sandwich for a substitute cake. We sang and opened presents, and the girls played together.

Sand, water, blueberries, ice cream, a new ball, a toy cow, a baby doll, and a new book. This birthday was spoiled!

Trip to Halifax, Part 5: She walks!

2010-08-10T20:16:00.006-05:00

Rachel has been on her feet for a while now. She's been standing, squatting on her haunches, walking along furniture, standing up without holding on to anything, but walking seemed to be a little trickier. Before we left already, she would sometimes take a few steps, but usually if you tried to get her to walk to you, she would just get down on her little bum and scooch on over. Finally on Sunday, after trying to crawl or scooch in her dress on grass and rocks, she figured it might just be easier to walk. And so she did. Right across the campground.

Way to go, Rachel!

Now, three weeks later, she's really got the hang of it, and is getting faster and faster, especially indoors - so much easier than rough camping terrain!

Trip to Halifax, Part 4: Happy Birthday, Princess!

2010-08-07T21:01:00.006-05:00

The next birthday we celebrated out east was Petra's. In the weeks leading up to our trip, Petra was getting excited about her birthday, but kids this age don't really understand time that well. She knew that she would be having her birthday in Halifax, but kids this age also don't really understand places that well...

After our first day of driving, Petra asked me if we were in Halifax yet. I replied that we weren't, we still had another day of driving. The next day we arrived, set up camp, went to bed. Petra didn't ask any questions. The next day was the big Spain/Holland soccer game, so we all went to Martin and Emily's to watch it. Petra knows that Maria lives in Halifax, so she must have figured that we had finally arrived. And so had her birthday. We watched the game, had supper, and then packed up to head back to our campsite. Out of the blue, Petra came running to me in tears. I bent down to hug her and ask what was wrong. "We didn't have my birthday," she sobbed. Big disappointment...

The next day I tried to explain what would all happen before Saturday, when it would actually be her birthday. She seemed to understand a little better.

By Saturday, she was ready to celebrate. On Friday evening, we hung up balloons on the awning and the dining tent. We also posted a "Happy Birthday Princess!" sign that Reuben and Emily had picked up for her. Her face lit up when she came out on Saturday morning, ready for her big day. And a big day it was! We had breakfast, and then packed up for a road trip. We went to Wolfville, where they have a nice farmers market. We bought some yummy bread for a picnic, and then went to Blomidon, a provincial park on the Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy. Petra had brought her sign with her, and enjoyed her walk on the ocean floor with her sign and her princess purse to put treasures in.

After the long walk back up the stairs, we had a picnic, followed by cake and presents.

On the way back, we stopped a winery to look around. It was hot still when we returned to the camp ground, and there was time for a swim before hot dogs and KD for dinner.

A busy day for our little 3 year old princess!

Our little 3 year old is already looking forward to her next birthday, telling people who ask how old she is that she is "turning 4." Her concept of time still isn't great, since she has already asked me a couple of times, "Is my birthday tomorrow?" Three's a great age, Petra! Just enjoy it!

A Day Out.

2010-08-06T19:23:00.002-05:00

After having such a great day at home yesterday, we woke up this morning to a cool, cloudy, windy day. Knowing that Steve is going to be gone for the weekend, I knew I'd want to get out one of these days, and since the weather wasn't good, figured I might as well go today.

After Rachel's morning nap, we headed into Ottawa for some errands and to visit my Oma and Opa. First stop - print some pictures at the grocery store. The grocery store was busy and loud - there was live music when we walked. I was confused, but kept going. Then a lady handed us cake. Well, I never refuse cake... turns out it was a grand reopening. The cake was good, and the picture machine was available, so that went smoothly.

Next stop, Michaels. When I mentioned to the girls this morning that we were going to go to Michaels, Naomi groaned, "Oh, but that's so far away," knowing that it's in Ottawa. Petra joined in, "Very far away. In the mountains!" She thought we were going to go to Uncle Michael's. Sorry, Michael, no visitors this weekend! We actually went to the craft store - I got a gift certificate from my parents for my birthday, so I was anxious to go and spend it. I've done a lot of knitting over the past year, but none of it has been for me. So today I bought yarn to make myself a sweater. I'm pretty excited to start it!

After that we had a little picnic lunch in a park, and then headed to my Oma and Opa's place. We sat down in the living room, and Opa went to the kitchen to find a snack for us, and came out with a bag of chocolate chips. Well, it didn't take Rachel long to warm up to him! He sat on the couch with a bowl of chocolate chips, with Rachel on one side and Petra on the other. When Rachel tired of the couch, she would walk over to Oma, who would give her some from the bag. When the chips were finally put away, Naomi and Petra headed off to Opa's study to play with the stuffed animals and the walker. A little while later, Rachel followed. When I went a few minutes later to see what they were up to, Rachel was in the basket of the walker, Petra was on the seat, and Naomi was pushing them - a double stroller! A little more play time, a walk around the building to look at the gardens, and we were ready to go. I'm sure the girls will be asking to go back again soon!

A quiet ride back, as all three napped, with a quick stop to pick up some sweet corn. (Can't wait two more weeks till mine is ready!)

All in all, a great day out...

Now I'm going to start knitting!

Sweet Summer Days

2010-08-05T20:37:00.003-05:00

...swings

...sand

...sprinklers

...wading pools

... happy sisters

...garden produce

...summer weather

I enjoyed being away, but it's nice to be back home and enjoying our little corner of the world.

Trip to Halifax, Part 3: My Birthday

2010-08-04T20:52:00.002-05:00

I had great birthday. A perfect birthday, really.

Some reasons why:
- yummy breakfast made by Steve
- ferry ride across the harbour
- Beavertail for lunch (Not just any Beavertail - the "Avalanche" Beavertail, which had Skor bits, cream cheese and chocolate drizzle. Yummy)
- happy girls who napped after their exciting excursion
- no cooking or dishes!
- pizza for supper
- "date" with Steve to pick up my present

A few pictures of our fun day:

Trip to Halifax, Part 2: The Discovery Centre

2010-08-04T20:26:00.004-05:00

One of the things Naomi was really looking forward to on our trip was visiting The Discovery Centre, which they call "The Children's Museum." It really is a great place for kids. It has all kinds of hands on exhibits for kids to play with (and maybe learn some physics along the way.)

We learned about composting worms & diamonds on the first floor, and then went up to the second floor, where the kids were set free to explore and discover.

Here the girls are pushing Aunt Emily around on a little spinning disk. The real experiment here was to stand on the centre and hold a spinning bicycle wheel - it makes you spin. You can change the direction of your spin by flipping the wheel over. But it was also fun like this:

The Bubble Room!

The girls (especially Maria and Rachel) loved these mirrors - they had lots of fun looking at all their reflections. (I pity the person who has to clean the mirror...)

Not only was the museum exciting, but so was the ride there. Rather than drive across the bridge and try to find parking in downtown Halifax, we parked at Martin and Emily's and took the bus across. The girls were excited to ride the bus, which we haven't done since we left Barrie. Naomi seemed so confident, finding her own seat next to someone she didn't know, and asking if she could sit up on the raised section at the back of the bus. Petra was super excited, especially as we crossed the bridge. For the rest of the week, she got excited whenever she saw any city bus. "There's the bus we rode on!" For Rachel and Maria, though, the excitement of the museum was enough, and they both fell fast asleep in their strollers on the bus ride home.

A fun day for all!