Tuesday, March 31, 2009
My whereabouts
Friday, March 27, 2009
Going a little crazy with the movie camera
Liam waited until the tempo picked up to decide that he had to go pee - thus his reason for hitting pause just when Mallory was really getting into it. *sigh*...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Big finish
Still... I treasure a lot of these little clips that we've collected over the past two years. Some of them are pretty mundane, but it's fun to look back and hear Liam's little colloquialisms from when he was younger or to see how shaky Mallory was when she first started walking. The reading of Brown Bear, Brown Bear that I caught the other day was a completely lucky catch. I had never seen Mallory do that before, and I only had the camera out because I was checking on the battery so I could film Liam's skating routine this week. It's made me pledge to have the camcorder out more often. You never know what you might get.
Without further ado... I present to you, from the 2009 Figure Skating Club production of "A Night At the Movies"... the preschool CanSkate class, and their interpretation of Kung Fu Fighting. Liam is maybe half a dozen kids in from the right hand side.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
I like this picture of Mallory because the way Cindy fixes her hair after her nap reminds me of the girl from Napoleon Dynamite
If it seems to be all about Mallory lately, well, that's because it is. But don't kid yourself and think that is necessarily a good thing. A couple of nights ago, Mallory realized that unlike the crib that actually confined her - her bed has no mechanism to prevent her from getting out at will. So I put her to bed, and she got out. And I put her to bed, and she got out. And we repeated the game several more times before she gave up and went to sleep.
The same thing happened again last night, except that she was much more persistant and we played many more rounds before she finally went to sleep. She cannot open her bedroom door and in fact, the only way I knew she was out of bed was that every once in a while, I (working in the office across the hall) would hear the sound of plastic rustling coming from her room. And I would go in to find her sitting right by the door (likely because that's the only place there was a crack of light to see by) playing with an unopened package of baby wipes. Where she kept finding these packs of wipes, I have no idea. I mean, there's a box of them in her closet, but I wouldn't expect her to be going in there in the dark to find them. It was actually pretty funny, to find her sitting there acting like this package of wipes was just the best plaything ever.
Each time I found her I would pick her up and plunk her silently back into bed, and the last time I heard from her, she was talking to herself around 9:40 p.m. I figured that was it for the night, but she woke up crying hysterically at 2:30 a.m. I dragged myself down the hall to see her and found her standing by the door. When I put her back to bed, it seemed pretty cold and empty. I have a sneaking suspicion that she was actually out of bed again, unbeknownst to me, and fell asleep beside the door before she woke up cold in the middle of the night after the furnace ratcheted back.
Oh well. Serves her right, and will hopefully teach her a lesson.
And just so he's not left out of everything around here this week, here's Mr. Liam, sporting his spiffy duds. Man, do I love this shirt.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The kind of day I'm having
I wonder how many other people saw those before that kind soul pointed them out.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Work? What's that?
It was extremely strange to have a full day around the house with neither Chad nor the kids there. Liam and Mallory had gone to Gramma and Grampa's the night before for a sleepover, arranged long before Mallory infected me with her little germs. It sounds so great, right - eight hours! So much opportunity to do stuff! But then I went back to bed for a few hours, watched a bit of Ellen, and before I knew it the day was done and everyone was home again. I just didn't have the energy to do any more than that.
During my time off with the kids I did get a few projects done. Blind sewn and hung? Check! Drywall patched and painted where I erroneously told Chad to drill some holes four months ago? Check! I wish I could say as much for my personal projects, which have been lacking lately. I decided to start making another quilt from some leftover fabric scraps from my other projects. I got 14 of the 48 blocks done before I ran out of fabric. I don't want to buy any more since this is supposed to be a scrap project and besides, I only need a small piece of each fabric... buying even a 1/4 yard would give me tons of leftovers I just don't need. I went so far as to cut up one of Mallory's old dresses and include that (it fit perfectly with the brown/pink/orange/yellow colour scheme) but I am still way short. So that has been put on hold for a while. I also wanted to catch up on the kids scrapbooks, which have been sadly neglected lately, and I did get one page done for each of them, but that's all.
In other news, Mallory single handedly ate about a quarter pound of raw carrots yesterday when I put them out with a container of French Onion dip, something we have never even bought before, but Liam accompanied me to the grocery store and... well... you know how that goes. At least he was begging me for vegetable dip rather than cookies and candy, so how could I say no? If I had known that onion dip was the key to getting Mallory to eat her vegetables, I would have bought the stuff a long, long time ago. (I tried it myself, and I don't like it at all. I would say I will never buy it again, but if it works for Mallory, so be it.)
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Mallory reads a classic
Friday, March 20, 2009
When you know that having kids was the right thing to do
Love that girl. Even if she did get me festering sick.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Where is the justice?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
How things have changed
Liam and Mallory shared a bed during this trip, which is probably not the best way to do things. Liam was clearly exhausted at the end of the day, having skipped his nap entirely. Mallory skipped most of hers too, but when I put them to bed together, she thought it was time for a sleepover party. It took nearly an hour for her to stop talking to him, jumping on him, wrestling with him, and otherwise provoking him. He practically had his head stuffed under the pillow, trying to drown her out. At one point she started wailing and I headed back in to her, expecting to find that she had fallen out of bed. Nope - "Liam did something!" she wailed, which is her code for letting me know that he hit her/pulled her hair/bit her/took something away from her. It's likely that he clocked her, and I can't really blame him for doing it.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
Happy, happying
As promised
At the OEYC, the kids hula'd and limbo'd, and they made a smoothie out of pineapple, mango and coconut. Mallory spent the entire morning playing at the water and sand tables. It sounded like they had a great time. It got me thinking about how much I miss the OEYC and doing that kind of thing with them, and as luck would have it next week is spring break, and I am taking most of it off to be with the kids. I'm not sure if we will make it to the OEYC as we have some other plans up our sleeves, but it's bound to be a fun week nonetheless.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Praying he doesn't figure it out
So I got to see them do this over and over: they put their hands up in the air, do a praying lotus position, take a bow, punch two jabs, and then skate to the other end of the rink, all in time to "Kung Fu Fighting." (The routine made a heck of a lot more sense when I left the warm confines of the area lobby where I usually watch, and went into the rink itself where I could hear the loudspeakers.) They did this about five times in a row last night (keep in mind how long it takes kids this age to cross from one end of the ice to the other). (The lessons from now until the end of the season have been lengthened from 30 to 45 minutes to allow for this, and really, I have no problem with that, except that nobody told us. We just figured it out on our own when he kept skating until 6:45 last night. The lack of communication is my biggest pet peeve about the Figure Skating Club... I just wish I had figured that out before they sent out the parental satisfaction surveys a few months ago. But I digress.)
Anyway, we had not mentioned anything about the skating show to Liam, figuring the less said the better, but now that he is practising for it with music and extra-long sessions, I wonder how long it can go before he starts to inquire. For what it's worth, I know of several other kids his age who aren't going to be in it either, including one whose dad said he was last night and then after I rhymed off my reasons for not wanting to do it, changed his mind. I hope his poor kid doesn't know he has me to blame for it. I really do think the skating show is going to be ten minutes with a hundred little kids on the ice to appease the parents and then two and a half hours showcasing their star figure skaters. I can't blame them, but I'm really not into that.
Today is Hawaiian Day at Cindy's house, and I hope I can get a good photo of Liam's get-up to post later today - he is really quite the sight.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Giving my two little models a break, and picking on the cat for a change
Mallory's favourite movie lately is The Aristocats, and in the movie there is an elderly lawyer whom Mallory has named "Old Boy". Every time he comes onscreen she says, "It's Old Boy! There's Old Boy!" She has a thing for him, I think.
Well, McDonald's was packed, and sitting at the table next to us was a group of old men drinking coffee, including one hunched over little man with glasses. Mallory was watching him intently and Liam picked up on that and pointed directly at him and said, "Look, Dad! Look, Mom! Mallory thinks that guy is Old Boy!" Lucky for us, he was old enough that he was probably hard of hearing. And even if he had heard Liam, I doubt he would know what the Old Boy reference meant, anyway.
Monday, March 09, 2009
A recommendation for the Blogger people: add a function to let me review my last blog entry while composing the next
Unfortunately, I came down with a bug on Friday night which lasted well into Sunday. So that was kind of a bummer. I'd much rather be sick midweek than on a weekend, thankyouverymuch. I don't think it was the fault of the Thai takeout on Friday night, since there were five other people eating it too, and they are all right as rain.Speaking of rain - that's all it did, all weekend long. So it was, in fact, a good weekend to check things off my list. For instance, I did get the binding done on Mallory's memory quilt. I am very happy with how it turned out though in hindsight, I would have used a different batting. I don't know if that would have made much difference, but it might have made it a little less lofty, which I like. Live and learn. I will probably do Liam's overly-lofty as well just so they match, even though I'm not crazy about it. I am a glutton for punishment like that. We watched Revolutionary Road, which Chad thought was craptastic and I thought was just about the most depressing movie ever. Which I knew it would be, heading into it. No surprise there. On Saturday afternoon the kids video-conferenced with Gramma and Grampa in Hawaii. Liam lost interest after about two minutes, and Mallory spent the remainder of our chat trying to read them her princess books. After that my dad politely suggested that we knock back from attempting a video call every week to every two weeks. I think it's all that his nerves can take. Mallory has that effect on people.
This photo reminds me of something else I swore I would do on the weekend: finish editing the twins' birthday photos (you can see one of them on the computer screen, peeking out in Bridge from behind iTunes (apparently we were listening to Beyonce when Gramma and Grampa called)). Check! They're all posted in the Flickr badge in the bottom sidebar.
I did a few odd jobs around the house that have been waiting for far too long, I did start reading New Moon, and although I didn't finish it, I did start sewing a new blind for the family room window. I feel bad that I got all the other blinds done before we even moved and it's taken me six months to get around to this one. With my sewing machine constantly in use these days, I had no excuse not to do it. I am writing the process out as I go along and will post when it's done. I'm sure there are other ways to do it and probably better ways to do it, and real honest-to-goodness seamstresses will probably cringe to know how I do it, but oh well. It is what it is.
So all in all... it was a pretty successful weekend. I got off my duff and got a lot done. I am normally a pretty high-energy person and it feels like this winter sucked the life out of me. I am just now starting to get some of it back, thank goodness. Most of this stuff is done while the kids are either napping or in bed for the night, and it is not always easy to dive into a project at 9 p.m. at night - I need all the help I can get. Next weekend is another loaf-around-the-house weekend with no plans yet, and if it stays that way, I should be able to knock another good chunk off the to-do list.
(This is Mallory settling down for her Sunday afternoon nap. It doesn't look like she is planning to do much sleeping.)Friday, March 06, 2009
Why she always has a green or pink smear on her nose
There is not much on tap for our weekend, and frankly, I am ready for it! I have a pile of movies to watch, I just picked up New Moon from my wait list at the library, and a package came in the mail today containing the binding fabric for both of my memory quilts (Mallory's, which is already assembled and just waiting for the binding, and Liam's, which still exists as a pile of baby clothes on the floor in the office.) I have one other quilt to bind, too. I tell you... the quilting is a new obsession.
Oh, and I hope to sew another blind this weekend. If I work up the energy to get to that I will try to take some pics throughout the process for anyone who's interested in following along.
I believe tomorrow morning is my turn to accompany Liam to swimming lessons... I have to finish up editing the twins' birthday photos... so, yeah. Do you think that's a little much to hope to accomplish in 48 hours??
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Shop talk: Lost
For years, I have been reading spoiler sites and theories and bits of trivia about the show. This week I came across this theory that strings together the pieces of the show. I dunno... I think they may be onto something. This is the most cohesive explanation I've seen so far. It doesn't spoil what will happen in the future, but makes a hell of a lot more sense than anything else I've read. And frankly, with the complexity of the show at an all-time high... it's nice to have something spelled out for me.
Time Loop Theory
A potential catastrophe in the making
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Dream on, little one
Anyway, Liam went to the party while Mallory napped, and came home full of stories of games and presents and other good things. The party was mid-afternoon, so I was not sure that he would be fed, but he was; so we reported back to Mallory and dad that Liam was not hungry for supper because he had filled up on pizza and cake and ice cream, and especially a lot of chips. Good wholesome party fare. :P
The next morning as Liam arrived at Cindy's house, she asked him if he had had fun at the party. Liam hung back for a second, and I guess that's all it took for him to lose his opening, because Mallory stepped right up and told Cindy that yes, she did have fun and she also ate a lot of chips.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Police lineup
[Chad got around to renewing his expired passport well before I did, having needed it for work - thus his absence from our photo shoot.]
Starting in June, of course, we will all need passports to cross the border into the US. And because we live just 45 minutes away from the border, we are actually there... well, not a lot, but certainly several times a year - trips to the zoo, shopping, sporting events... with Detroit being less than an hour away, it's probably fair to say that we cross the border more than most Canadians do.
Add to that the fact that we have a vacation planned for this year and we had all the incentive we needed to get the passports done. We actually booked a trip to Disney World last summer (!) and it is finally sort of starting to feel like it might someday actually happen. Not til the end of the summer, mind you, but at least it is on the horizon now. The kids know and are starting to get excited about it, although I try not to encourage them to too much; it's still a long ways off. But we have a few brochures and such that they like to look through and pick out the things they want to do and see while we are there - Cinderella's castle of course being the highlight for both of them. One of the brochures has a map of the entire grounds - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, the hotels, you name it - and Liam already knows where our hotel is and where the monorail runs and where Mickey Mouse's house is (somewhere behind Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom I think - though I'm sure he could correct me if I'm wrong). It would be lovely to be going to Florida, like, NOW - to escape the cold and snow - but late summer is low season, so there were deals to be had on both the Disney end and on the flights.
I sort of cringe to mail off all of our ID right now in order to get the passport process started, but I'd rather do that than waste a day going to the office in person with kids in tow - there is no passport office where we live, so we'd be looking at at least an hour in the car each way - and that's not to mention how long it would take once we actually got there. We don't need our ID to cross the border until the end of May, when we have a long weekend planned, so now seems to be a good time to do it. I'm hoping to get the applications completed tonight, have a coworker act as guarantor for me tomorrow, and have it go out with tomorrow's mail. Then we just need to wait six more months... and then we're off to see The Mouse.