My Birthday Party (Joshua's take on it all)

Hi everyone. I'm here to tell you about my first birthday party. My mom saw those frog napkins at Hallmark where she works and figured she'd throw me a frog party. She even drawed frogs on my cupcakes, but they didn't look much like frogs to me!!The day before my party daddy surprised mommy by decorating the house while she was at work. He sure knows how to make her day!

We got bored waiting for the party to start so Ellie gave me a most excellent birthday gift to help pass the time! A DRUM! Daddy is teaching me new skills every day.

Then the party started. For some reason everyone kept wearing these silly glasses. First my cousin Regan:Then my crazy uncle Jon...

And Ellie too. I think the glasses got stepped on and broken by the end of the night. Which is good, or they probably would have stuck them on me too.

Uncle Jon is one of my favourite guys in the whole world. He's got lots of skills....like wiggling his ears and making the best faces in town!Auntie Karla, Regan and Ellie had fun watching videos of Regan.

This is my little cousin Drew, who is pretty cute if you ask me! We're going to wrestle together one day.

And then it was SUPPER TIME! My favourite time of day. Ellie and Regan got to sit at their own table...

...because our apartment is a little squishy.

We had one of my best foods - SPAGHETTI! Here I am getting tired of waiting for my cupcake.

Uncle Nathan got tired of waiting for his cupcake, too. I'm not sure WHAT exactly he did to my Grandpa...

But Grandpa sure didn't like it!!

Finally, CUPCAKE TIME! The glowy thing on top was awe-inspiring.

I didn't know if I was actually allowed to EAT this messy goodness! Everyone kept taking pictures so I just kept on smiling.

Mostly I just sticked my fingers in the icing. It felt reeeal good.

After mommy helped me get some in my belly, I started to feel really full...

Enough, I said! Enough! And no more pictures, either!!

Ellie liked hers better. Mostly she just ate the icing, though.

And finally it was PRESENTS time!! Regan and Ellie were very...uh...helpful.

I think Mommy and Grandpa both have a thing for 'capturing the moment'. It must be genetic.
I liked all my presents, but especially my new police car from Nana and Grandpa.

Sometimes the best presents aren't presents at all! This lion birthday card was super fun to pull to pieces.

Boy, was I ever tired after that. What a great idea, this whole 'birthday' thing. I think I'll do it again next year!

Birthday Footage

I posted these two videos primarily with Rob's family in mind. For the rest of you friends (who are mostly young moms), I truly don't expect you spend 12 minutes of your (limited and valuable) free time watching my kid's birthday footage. :)

First is a video of Joshua (and mostly Ellie) receiving the gift you sent, Susan. (It's kind of funny how excited Ellie gets about the fishing rod, even though she's using it upside down and it's not working :)



This is a video of Joshua's party. The only people present were my immediate family, since our apartment is pretty much too small for any guests beyond that!



We wish you could have been here, Mom and Dad! xoxo

Happy FIRST birthday, Joshua!

Well, it's a little late, but it probably will be every year. We decided to push Joshua's birthday celebration back to the end of January so that everyone could have a chance to recover from Christmas first. Having a birthday on January 2nd may not be the biggest blessing Joshua will have in life as (outside our own little family) it'll probably get overlooked regularly. But January 2nd will always be one of my absolute favourite days and I'll never forget it:

What an amazing thing to have a son. This little guy was the perfect fit into our little family from day one.
The year has not been perfect, oh no, it hasn't.
Although Joshua has a pretty laid-back disposition, the last 12 months have been laden with thrush, numerous colds, the flu, difficulty teething, slow mobility and other things that have created many scenarios similar to above. Nope. We've had our fair share of tears this year!
But Joshua's early and most excellent smile made it all 100% worth it!!
And the smiles have only increased in size and number and so have the kisses we can't help but smother him with!

This month as I've thought about Joshua's birth, my heart has been truly celebrating. I am convinced that God hand-picks who our kids our going to be not only for what they will be and do for His glory, but also for what they do to their parents! Because Joshua has not always been a happy boy, I have learned a new level of patience and unconditional love. God has spoken to me so often through Joshua's tears about how to draw close to people when they're broken instead of turning away. God knew I needed a boy who prefers and learns baby sign language much more quickly than words, so that I would begin to think more about what comes out of my (rapidly-moving)mouth and see how much value there is in silence. God also knew how much JOY Joshua's exceptional smile, giggle, and sense of humor would bring to my heart. Joshua, you will never know how deeply we love you. I thank God for the gift you are to us every day.

p.s. I was going to post Joshua's birthday party photos today too, but it's gotten late and I'm fighting a cold...so I think I'll wait until later in the week. Check back Thursday or Friday for the long-awaited "devouring of the cupcake" video and photos.

When it ain't minus 130 degrees anymore...

We go outside! To PLAY. For the first time in 2 months.

We learn that it's okay...and FUN...to sit in a snow bank!

And how to climb a 'snow mountain'...with a little help.

When it ain't minus 130 degrees anymore, we discover the joy of pelting Daddy with snowballs...
And that it's pretty fun getting pelted back!

Some of us get to really touch the white stuff for the first time...

...and discover the good times to be had on a sled!

Butwhen the drool on our chin begins to form into an icicle, we pack it in and hope for 'nice' weather again some other day. Hopefully before May.

(Joshua and I came in early because his drool was really beginning to look like a health hazard. Rob and Ellie continued to have a blast until they heard the awful sound of a car crash happening right in front of our apartment. The snowbanks are so high around here that it's very difficult to see oncoming traffic when making a left turn. Our neighbour was trying to do just that when they were T-boned by a speeding car. Our neighbour wasn't hurt, but the passenger of the car was hurt quite badly. Kind of a sad ending to a really fun afternoon.)
p.s. it wasn't really minus 130 degrees. I'm exaggerating.
p.p.s. Joshua now has a nasty drool-freeze rash (or something) on his chin. Him and I both agree it was worth it.

Through Ellie's eyes

This week has been good but relatively uneventful so I figured Ellie could entertain us all this post. Here's a few of her latest antics:

In her chair during breakfast one morning:
Ellie: "I'm getting seasick, Mommy."
Mommy: "Why's that?"
Ellie: "Because there's a boat in my bum!"
(uh...is that similar to there being a 'train' in the 'station'? :)


One morning Ellie was helping me move Q-tips from their box into the designated jar on our counter: "Mommy, I need to put the earwax in the jar for you." (no thanks!)


A few words from Ellie's personal dictionary:
"can opener" - the cannon on her Dora pirate puzzle
"hamburger map" - a flier for McDonalds
"fresh chont" - croissant
"loopy loop", "hoop dee doop" or "hoopy doop" - a hoola hoop


Ellie's beginning to realize that she doesn't have a word for every thing she wishes to describe and has begun to make up her own jibberish words very freely.
Take this conversation, for instance:
Ellie:"My bagel is tickling me, Mommy."
Mommy: "How is it tickling you?"
Ellie: "Because it's too scary...and moppery...and razery." (huh?)

Or today at lunch Ellie was sitting there with her hands on her face like this:

And I asked her what she was doing. She said, "I'm uncle Jon. This is my beard." And then she started to curl her fingers and wiggle them and said, "He has lots of BINDEZ on his beard." I think she meant curls. Here's uncle Jon, the bushman:

There's a made-up word or name for anything or anyone. Most of them sound East-Indian. Sometimes for fun Rob and Ellie just resort to jibberish and it actually sounds as though she's speaking a foreign dialect. Who knows? Perhaps we should enroll her in a class or two. :)

One day I found Ellie like this...

...and before asking her to take the dirty kitchen mat off her head, I asked her what she was doing: "I'm an ICEBERG!" was her happy reply.

You've got to smile when your kids are in bed and you go to pull something out of the cupboard and you find that missing toy or set of keys that you couldn't find anywhere earlier in the day. Well, you know you have a daughter on the prowl when you go to turn on your computer and your power button looks like this:

One day last week when I put Joshua down for a nap I left Ellie upstairs alone with a basket full of freshly folded laundry. When I came up the stairs Ellie called out to me, "I'm setting up the laundry, Mommy! I'm setting it up! Come see!" So I did. Here's an example of how she 'set up' Rob's socks:

The rest of the clothes were in another line on the floor. My enthusiasm didn't match hers. :)

And I'll leave you all with a photo of Ellie painting her Christmas present for Rob last month. After she was finished I was trying to encourage her to say a few kind things about Rob for me to write on the top. She was adament I write one sentance and one sentance only: "You can go to the river, if you like!"

Though we may not always understand her, this kid certainly keeps us entertained!