BLOG SEPTEMEBER 2010

Friday September 30th, 2011

Today was the school funfair. Pure chaos. The kids had a blast. I imported Nana and Opa to help manage the kids amongst the craziness. They got their faces painted, played some games, ate food and roared about with their classmates. Torren was having fun people watching. He loves to be amongst the commotion. Lots to look at I guess.

After school Rain heads for the pine trees at the edge of the school property. She goes up to the top and sits there. Other kids have been climbing up now too, some braver than most. One day Rain scaled the treet with her lunchbox in tow....and then sat at the top perched on a branch eating her snack. She's a fearless monkey.

Torren prefers walking over crawling now. He likes to take his walker with him though when we go for long walks like down the street. I think he even wanted to walk all the way to school on day. I called for the girls to get their backpacks to head to school and Torren walked right past the stoller. He loves wreslting now too. He climbs all over us, we can shove him over on the bed and he giggles his head off. He's a happy giggly boy when you play with him. He's still a non-sleeping machine though...naps are hard to come by and nigh times are still broken. He loves being chased around the house, or chasing you around the house...it switches back and forth, whiel he squeal with delight. The girls on picture day.



Rain busting teeth at the funfair.



Rain eating her snack after school at the top of a pine tree.



The family playing Uno at breakfast

Wednesday September 28th, 2011

Hapy Birthday to my baby boy Torren. I can't believe he turned a year old last weekend. It goes by so fast. We celebrated his birthday simply, with just visits from Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Opa. We had cupcakes and a couple of presents, and Torren's favourite...foil balloons. His sisters helped him blow out his candles. Torren enjoyed eating his chocolate cupcakes...he gave me a look like "how come we don't ALWAYS eat these things mom?".

Torren is doing better with his walking. He loves using his walker to tear around the house at high speed, chasing or being chased. He even goes up and down the sidewalk visiting our neighbours. He loves to chatter...baa baa baa daa daa daa mumm mumm mumm. He can walk about 15 feet on his own but only does this when he has had a bath and is naked. The rest of the time he does shorter distances and loves to crash into people he is walking towards.

We rebuilt the pond this past week as well. Actually, Opa rebuily our pond for us. It had a leak so we ripped out the old liner and put in a new one. The kids had a blast running around on the giant black piece of rubber and then filling the pond up with water. Torren liked watching the goldfish we caught to relocate to Opa's pond for the winter. Once the pond was done the girls stripped down to their undies and went for a wade. Torren desperately wanted to join them.

Rain has decided on her costume this year...supergirl. We found a costume for her to wear which she has been putting on several times a week. She is really loving superheros right now and we take out lost of easy readers from the library about supermna, batman and spiderman. She was cracking up with one book when Spidey says to a villain (who is breaking into the city zoo to steal animals).."Who are you? And may I give you a ride to the police station?" She reads this out loid and then cracks up laughing. She digs Spidey's banter. Piper has decided to go as Scarlett Witch (a super cool character from the Avengers, who is much less known to the average preson but super awesome to any comic fan). It's going to be fun trying to put that costume together.

Rain has noticed that things are not just "made in China" but that they are also "made in the USA".

UNO is still a big hit. Daddy and Piper play often and Rain sits and keeps score on the games won by each.

We've been rotating a cold through the house. Mommy is the last one to get it. Piper, Rain and Torren have all taken turns with sore throats and stuffy noses. Daddy avoided it...so far anyways.

The girls dressed up for school.



The kids pose on the pond liner



The kids act natural on the pond liner



The birthday boy



Cupcakes are yummy!



Listening to birthday wishes from Auntie Mags



GAME ON!!



Supergirl and Superman have a chat



Wading and splashing in the pond



Torren keep an eye out for planes.

Saturday September 12th, 2011

Torren is walking. He started today. After dinner we were all out on the deck and he stood up and then crouched down. Up then down. Up down, up down...then he walked over to me. That was it. He just stood up, got his balance and started walking. Unbelievable.

The girls have started asking to play card and board games again. They biggest hit is Uno. Piper has been playing with me, Daddy or Nana. Rain doesn't like losing so she sometimes gets in a huff when she doesn't win, and often she just opts not to play at all but cheers Piper on while Pip plays. Tonight however, I convinced Rain to play with me and Piper. She won the first game. On the second game she got down to one card and Piper was about to play a wild card and change the colour when Rain burst out whining with, "Aw no, now I'm not going to win. I only have a green." So Piper of course changes the colour to yellow. Rain then lays down her last card...a yellow and laughs. "I tricked you!!!" What a sneak! Both Piper and I fell for it. I'll never trust that kid again in cards. Her whining act was so typical of her and so believable...and this is Rain, who usually never lies, or if she does, she does so badly. Not this time.

We had the street kids over today. Sasha comes to our house after school on Mondays and after school Brooklyn asked to come play (and along with her comes her brother Ben), we bumped into Ryley also coming home and then Rebecca and Mitchell came over...so 8 kids and a baby later, we had quite the party going.

Rain is on a growth spurt I think. She is out eating Piper right now. She is always hungry, and the kid who usually takes an hour to eat her dinner is done in 5 minutes and asking for seconds? Who are you and what have you done with Rain? Last night she passed out while I was making dinner and slept from 5pm until 7am the next morning.

The girls are both interested in a kids geography book right now. They love looking at different countries and seeing the flag and all the things that are known about that country, their animals, their buldings, capitals, landmarks, and so on.

The girls havs been into their lego. Rain built a stack of heads (a totem pole perhaps?)



Our watermelon is growing! (It's about the size of a plum)



Rain made an "R" with naked mole rats



The army of naked mole rats attack the monsters.



Torren wants to play drums in rock band



My beautiful girls

Saturday September 3rd, 2011

Torren took his first steps today. Grandma and Grandpa were visiting and he started to take a couple of steps with Grandma. He really got going when he was walking too and from me to Grandma. Later, after bath, he started getting a couple a steps from the upstairs railing to me. He's wobbly and falls the last bit towards you, but he is definately showing an interest in trying to make it on his own. Torren is super happy with himself when he does walk too. The downside if when he tried to make a wobble walk when you are looking or prepared to catch him. I forsee some bumps in his near future. He has a wonderful smile and is so pleased with his accomplishments.

We've been down to the beach the last few days. The playground was revamped this past spring and is really nice now. The kids have a blast though on the beach throwing rocks in and then wading out to get them again. Torren just like to try and eat the rocks...or throw them.

We have a visiting squirrel in the backyard doing his preperation for winter. He comes to beg for peanuts (which I have on hand to feed the blue jays). He will come almost right up the back door, look in and sit up on his haunches...waiting. He even followed me around to the front of the house one day and sat looking in at me through the front window. Torren finds him facsinating. Hades does not. He goes out to chase the squirrel off. The squirrel though does not stop coming despite Hades being out on the deck with him. He'll cirlce around and come in from the other side...or get Hades to chase him away off the deck and then pop back moment later to snag another nut. Clever little opportunist. It's almost like he's messing with the cat on purpose...taunting him.

Just so you all won't think I'm crazy when I say Torren eats alot. For breakfast the other day I wrote down what he ate. (This is typical breakfast). 1.5 pancakes, 1 small bowl of cereal with milk, 1 banana, 1 orange and a handful of blueberries. He eats about 4-6 meals with snacks inbetween. YUM!

The girls just had six days off over the long weekend. We went to the beach twice to play and throw rocks in the water. They had a sleepover at Nana and Opa's followed by a day at the Science Centre (where they saw the reptile exhibit), and we visited the R.O.M. for the first time to see the Dinosaurs and the Mummy. We also ripped the main floor bathroom apart to put in a new floor, vanity and toilet.

When Piper got back from the Science Centre he first words were "Mom, we saw a Red Spitting Cobra, but it was behind glass so it couldn't spit poison in our eyes". (That is good news. No one wants cobra spit in the eyes) The girls also learned about Morse Code and how to spell their name in code. At the musuem Rain got to try on some chain mail and they were both wide-eyed when we saw the mummy. "Is it a real mummy, Mommy?". "Yes sweetheart it is." "A dead one or an alive one." "A dead one. All Mummies are dead." "It won't come to life and chase us?" "No sweetie, it won't." Rain got to try on some chain mail and armour and Piper helped excavate some dinosaur bones. We saw stuffed animals, walked through a bat cave, looked at all kinds of jewlery and pots from ancient greece and rome, some suits of armour, huge five story totem pole, dinosaur bones and more. Probably the most exciting part of the day for the girls was when Nana bought them something from the snack machine at lunch. Prehistoric dinosaur bones are exciting but hey they're aren't hickory sticks.

The girls got to go to the Uxbridge Fall Fair this past weekend with Nana and Opa. They got to go on rides, play games and win prizes, eat, see farm animals, get their face painted and watch a man get dunked in a dunk tank (Rain thought that was funny). This morning they got into a fight over a business card they got from the woman who had painted their faces...fighting over a business card. Really? In a house full of toys, games, crafts...a business card is the coveted prize of the day. Grrrr.

Rain came to me today and told me that a lot of stuff is made in China. Then she started to list all the things in the house that has the "made in china" stamp on it. There were quite a few items that she had cataloged already.

Torren vesus the seagull



The cutest boy in the world (I know I'm biased)



The girls and a Mummy.



One night we found them both in Piper's bed sleeping together.