BLOG MAY 2011

Tuesday May 31st, 2011

End of the month. A very busy month.

Gross warning. Rain wolfed down some rice crispie squares one day after school...a little too much, a little to fast and she ended up barfing them back up just outside the front door as she was running to tell me she was going to puke. I never got around to cleaning it up but when we headed to school the next day the barf was covered in ants. Piper exclaimed, "Mom the ants are cleaning up Rain's barf!). Two days later there was nothing left. Gross but hey I didn't have to clean it up thanks to the power of ants!

There previous owners fed blue jays peanuts. We've been trying to keep up with the peanut demand but we ran out a fe weeks back. I was sitting on the couch and a blue jay landed in the window next to me and tapped on the glass with his beak. Starring at me as if to say "Hey you, make with the peanuts!". I through some cherrios out (not having an peanuts) but all it attracted with squirrels. About an hour later I was working at the computer and the blue jay appeared at the window again (this time he was less than a foot away from me seperated only by the window pane). Tap Tap Tap. "Hey you, make with the PEANUTS!" I swear he was glaring at me. I had an Alfred Hitchcock moment. Do I dare go outside or will this bold blue jay accost me when I leave to pick up the kids at school? Will he organize a gang of blue jays to invade my home next time I leave the screen door open, to loot my (non-exsistent) peanut stash? Blue jasy are scary.

The girls had a week off school this month. We went with Nana and Opa to Ottawa to see some sights, take in some museums and stay in a REAL hotel!! You need to check out the photo page to see some pictures from the captial. The girls had a ton of fun. They really liked the Musuem of Nature and swimming in the hotel pool, and of course eating at Tuckers Marketplace and Tim Hortons. We also went on a cruise on the Rideau Canal, went to the Agricultural Museum, and the Museum of Science and technology. We saw Parliemnt Hill, the library, the eternal flame, the canal locks, and a statue of Terry Fox (whom the girls knew from school when tye did the Fox run). We stopped at the Big Apple on the way home but the apple itself was closed for maintenance.

Torren hit some milestones this month too. Crawling and getting teeth. He started crawling a few weeks back but prefers to whine at me to pick him up if he has to crawl to far. His ability to crawl is directly proportional his desire to get over to something. He can move quite well now, when he wants to. He has also grown the start of his bottom two teeth. It has given us some really tough days and nights but all in all he's been pretty good. He's in a new car seat too (bye bye baby car seat) and is wearing 9-12 month clothing, even though he is only 8 months...a bit on the bigger side...my monster child. He loves conversing with anyone...either in squeaks or in tongue spitting. He squeaks. You squeak. He squeaks. Your squeak. He spits. You spits...etc...

This is the city bridge. They built it for Torren to cross.



A mourning dove accidentally hit our front window and died. However it left this beautiful but tragic mark on the window. The detail was unbelieveable and hard to capture on camera.



A drawing of our adventure to Ottawa. All the places we went and things we did.



Another bridge was built, this time inside.



Rain playing Rock Band. "Gone like a freight train, gone like yesterday, gone like a soldier in the the civil war, bang bang."



Watching his first fireworks



Hanging in the capital



Hey there's a rabbit in here.



The BIG apple



Rain reading to Piper



Twirling, leaping, dancing. The music is always on for her.

Thursday May 15th, 2011

Piper found a giant worm on the way to school one day. She was showing it to everyone. When we were almost at school she told me she put them back. "Them?" I asked. She told me that she accidentally ripped him in half and now had two worms. She had been bug hunting in the backyard (something she does almost everyday) and came to me with he hand closed. She showed me what she had in her palm...a centipede, a millipede, two potato bugs, a snail and a slug.

The frogs have been breeding. We have tadpoles!! I can't wait to see them turn into frogs.

The girls had a wonderful three day birthday. We had a kids party on the 7th with thei friend on the street. We went bowling at the girls request. It was pretty fun to see the kids throwing (and sometimes trying to kick) the balls down the lane. Sometimes they'd throw the ball and then walk away unconcerned with whether it made it down to the other end or if it knocked down any pins. Sometimes a guy would have to come and get one of their balls back form sitting dead in the lane. Both the girls had fun though and were facsinated with the ball return. They'd talk into the hole where the ball would arrive and place their order.

We had a second party with family on the 8th, and a third party at Nana and Opa's on the 9th. We lucked out with some fantastic weather too. The girls got to wear their new birthday dresses, that they picked out on a shopping trip with Grandma. They picked about 8 dresses off the rack and tried them all on. They had to go look in the full length mirror and jump around a bit assessing both the poof (when jumping if the dress poofs up) and the twirl (whether the dress flies out when spinning) of each dress. They finally found ones that fit their idea of poof and twirl.

I was treated to a Mother's day tea at the girls school on the 9th. The moms all came to their classroom and each child escorted his/her mom around the classroom to see all the Mother's Day crafts they had done (see Rain's Gallery and Piper's Gallery for some of these crafts). They then escorted me to a table and did a teapot craft while I had tea. Then they lined up with their classmates and performed a Mother's Day poem and a Mother's Day song. It was SO cute. Rain has a boy admirier named William. His loves superheros calls Rain his darling. He's standing next to her in the Mother's day photo.

Torren loves bubbles. Well he loves watching Piper blow bubbles anyhow. He kills himself laughing when she blows bubbles. It's hysterical. I remember the girls both loving that too when they were his age. Something about kids and bubbles.

Rain was disgusted by the trash alongside the high school we walk past and had been begging me to let her pick up. I let her put her garden gloves on and brought along a garbage bag. She picked up a ton of stuff on the way to school. After school she came out put her gloves on again and then recruited about 6 other kindies to help her clean up the hill they play on after school. It was awesome to see them all pitching in. Rain is SO proud of her garbage bag. It's like a treasure bag. She can't wait to go picking again. Chalk it all up to Earth week and their studies about way to help the earth.

Bowling



Torren gives it a shot



The girls in their new birthday dresses (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa)



Mother's day tea at the girls school



Rain, Eco Warrior. The trash she picked up one day on the way to school. It was her idea after she was "disgusted"(her words) by the garbage alongside the high school we walk past.



Oh my, look at those thighs!!! Torren is stading up now and working on cruising



Piper's beetle. The kid loves bugs.



The cake I made for the girls birthday. Rain wanted chocolate and Piper wanted vanilla. I made a a split cake with both flavours. Rain's cake is rain-friendly taking into account her food intolerances, and Piper's cake is just a regular kind of cake.



Our baby puppy. Ruff! Grrrrrrr.



The giant bouquet of dandilions Rain picked for me. It took her over half and hour. I think kids love dandilions so much because it's the only flowers they never get in trouble for picking.

Wednesday May 4th, 2011

Frogs! We have frogs in the pond. I thought the noise was some kind of bird. Rain knew it was a frog (from the Zoo display where you can press buttons and hear different frog songs). We've seen three of them. One was sitting on the others back.

Torren is getting closer still to crawling. He can get from sitting onto his knees. He can spin around on his belly and kind of squirm his way to get where he wants. He seems so happy to just sit on the floor now and practice. He is also laughing way more, singing a lot more and growling. Piper had him in hysterics the other day when he was sitting in his swing and she was throwing a toy back and forth across the room. He thought it was the funniest thing.

One night I noticed at bath time there were three pairs of underwear on the floor. One was Piper's, the other two were Rain's. When I asked her if she had been wearing two pairs of undies she said "yes". When I asked her why. She said "To keep my bum warm." Makes sense. It's been raining a lot and the girls like to go play outside after school. I guess she knew she's be getting a bit wet and prepared for it.

Speaking of rain...Rain's was in the rain, with a stick, and a muddy puddle. She started stirring the mud with the stick until it was very coated. At this point the muddy stick became a paintbrush....can you guess what the canvas would be? Herself of course. She used the stick as a paintbrush and painted her own rain coat with mud.

We had one nice evening and went out for a bike ride. The girls wanted to go race down the hill. We rode around the block and the girls went up the hill. Rain started down first, Piper second. About half way down the hill Rain decided to look over her shoulder to see if Piper was close. She wobbled and turned the wheel in the direction her head was turned and of course hit the lawn and rolled her bike. Piper then slammed into Rain and went flying over her. I was at the bottom of the hill (at this point I was sprinting up the hill with Torren tucked under my arm like a football). Piper popped up and happily said, "I went flying". Rain was crying and hurt her bum and was 'trapped' under her bike. She recovered after a wee bit and we rode home again. Lesson learned, both eyes forward. Won't be the last bike fall I'm sure.

Piper is still sleepwalking. She gets up and usually goes into another room or into the hallway and is upset and crying. She usually mutters and seems frustrated. She looks at us and can sort of talk to us but doesn't make any real sense. we take her back to bed and get her to lie down and she's usually out cold prety quick. It's really unerving. I ask her about it the next morning but she never remembers anything about it.

Bug hunting with Sasha is still Piper's favourite activity in the backyard. They literally flip over as many rocks as they can and grab and put in a container any and every bug. It's a box of mixed bugs....slugs, worms, centipedes, snails, millipedes, beetles, potato bugs and more...nice crawling pile 'o bugs. A photo to illustrate.



Our frogs



One is on the others back.



This is all that is left of Rain's apple.



The power of carrot compels you!



Piper with a fiddlehead.



Piper eating a fiddlehead. Rain tried one too...she liked it and ate several more. Piper said she didn't like it all that much but would eat it anyways.



Hello cat. Are you keeping dry in that house?