Wintry Fun

Since the whole country seems to be in a cold state, here are some pictures to warm your heart! Yep, the girls got to play outside for the first time this past week. Nick works some days only in the afternoon, so I talked him into taking the girls out for half an hour on the nice day we had last week. This is at the end of their time, they each posed on the snow pile Poppa shovelled for them.
It was too cold for Katy to sit around outside so we stayed inside and took pictures of the fun. Nick started throwing snowballs at her and she thought it was the funniest thing ever. Belle and Brooklyn both go into the fun and pelted us with snowballs.

On a daily basis Isabella asks if she can make a snow angel. She finally got her chance. This was the very first thing she did as soon as I opened the door. Fell in the snow and started making an angel.

Hope you can stay warm today Canada!

Scene Stealer

Ultrasound Tech; "Well, this looks like it will be your last pregnancy."

Myself; "Pardon?"

Ultrasound Tech; "Yep. It looks like you finally did something right."

Myself; ......no comment.......

Ultrasound Tech; "I'm not supposed to tell the gender. And I wouldn't tell if I wasn't sure. That's definitely a boy you've got there!"

*I painstakingly pointed out all of the baby's facial features to the girls. All they can remember is that this last picture is his bum. Thanks Nick ;)

BOOORRRIIINNGGG

There are a lot of things I didn't anticipate about motherhood, but one of them is happening with Isabella right now. Thankfully she has yet to learn the phrase; "Mom, I'm bored.", but I can tell that she is. She runs around the house literally bouncing off the walls and has so much energy to spare I've seriously contemplated trying to figure out how to bottle and sell it.



The winter is a hard time to be a toddler in a small house. We have one room for her to play in and that room also houses our living room furniture, 'office', toys and such. Not much space. I would be bored too if I was three.




I've decided we need to come up with a school-like routine. One that is obviously flexible enough for movie days and not so routine that it's just replacing one form of boredom with another. We've started doing a playdough session each day and getting in our exercise with Wii Fit together. (BTW: Wii users, have you tried Super Hula Hoop? Holy hard batman!)

I'm not sure what else to do with her though. I've thought about a phonics program. My Aunt who is an ECE suggested Jolly Phonics, anyone else have a program they've used? Preferably a free one! What other things do you do to keep your toddler's brain happy?


From this series of pictures you can see that I enjoy spending the time teaching my children valuable skills like how to make the 'horns'. Vital information should she find herself at a rock concert in the near future. Isabella usually obliges willingly, but I'm beginning to think she 's tiring of my antics. ;)

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I am one of those rare and unusual folks who loves winter. Back in the day I loved being out in the winter weather, of recent years I have grown more crochety and it takes a lot of cajoling to get me outside. The last two winters I've had the really good excuse of either being pregnant or just recovering from delivery which have allowed me to spend most days looking out instead of in. It's a sad but true truth that I have yet to build a snowman with the girls or play outside to rush in for hot cocoa. In my defense Ontario winters are just weird. There can be a foot of snow outside in the morning and in the evening a gentle rain with not a speck of snow in sight. Ontario is just weird like that.

Even though I haven't been living life in the great white, I still greatly enjoy it. Today I was cleaning the kitchen after lunch and a light snow was falling. I was thinking to myself about how it looked like a snow globe and smiling while washing dishes. Isabella rushed in to ask for something and was immediately distracted by the falling snow. She had to grab Brooklyn and stand watching it for a few minutes. Within seconds of beginning their snow watch I heard comments like; "I just love it. It's so beautiful." I feel the same.

I laugh hysterically when they call a snow day here because the wind chill makes the temperature -15 and it snowed 5cm last night! But I've quickly become climatized and while I'm laughing I'm shivering and putting extra layers on the kids! I am looking forward to a few years down the road. When the girls will play outside but tell me when they get cold, (at the moment they don't mention they're cold which limits our outdoor interactions), when my body isn't growing someone so I can do things like hurtle down a hill in a very unsafe toboggan, when we can have family snow ball fights and us girls can throw well enough to give Nick a run every now and then.

Winter is one of those seasons that you have to grow in to before it can be safely enjoyed, especially when you live in a Province that's called in the National Guard on account of some white stuff.

Right now I like to love winter while sipping tea and glancing out the window beside my computer. But I'm looking forward to getting my thick skin back and enjoying it outside one day not too far down the road.

Under Consideration.

When I began blogging my intent was to keep in touch with two particular people. Friends whom I had lived life with during highschool but had since moved away from. We were all starting families and having crazy adventures. A method of communication to share stories, thoughts and pictures that wasn't bound by the time change seemed ideal. Since I began blogging life has gotten exponentially busier and 7 children have joined the scene between the three of us. We've pretty much fallen out of touch except for a random blog comment every now and then.

While I've been blogging I've been able to virtually meet some great people and connect on another level with people I sort of know, or knew once upon a time. I've greatly enjoyed reading the struggles and triumphs of others; loved laughing at the crazy things kids say and do; thought intently on subjects brought up by other people's posting and even been encouraged through the experiences of others.

More than enjoying reading, I've enjoyed writing. The times where I have sat down and drafted a post, done a few re-writes, found the perfect title and accompanying picture have been wonderful. Even the spur of the moment posts help me remember moments I would most likely forget in the busyness of life and sometimes just flipping on the computer and scrolling past pictures I've posted makes a bad day good.

As a New Year dawns I am considering what I want out of blogging at this present time. I'm not sure what the answer is. I have an idea in my head of this being my 'home page' in a very literal sense. That I start here and it links me to all the things I consider priorities in my life. It doesn't do that right now. But what about content? What do I want to share with the world? It's under consideration right now.

How about you? What do you get out of blogging?