Another day, another park, another playdate.

Playdates. It's what we do best. But summer-time playdates take the cake against indoor winter ones. Yesterday we met with our friends Carla, Alexandra and Zion at a park in their neighborhood.Ellie and Ali. You may remember from Ellie's birthday photos that this is the friend Ellie used to torture with her loud, happy shrieks. Ali is the more thoughtful of the two, and still seems a bit perplexed at times by Elianna's non-stop talking and yelling.

Ali enjoys a long, happy rest at the top of the slide before going down.

Ellie throws herself down the slide almost before I can take a picture.
Joshua, the ever-patient observer from his stroller.

I have a funny feeling that next summer I'll be pulling rocks and bugs out of his mouth and running after him non-stop.

Sort of like Zi, Ali's winsome little brother. He sure does love to run (away).

Okay mom, there's a lot of rocks to be shoveled here. Put down that camera and help!

Keeping my eyes peeled

The other day I went to the bathroom.
I don't know about you, but this is something that I do from time to time.
When I left, my son was playing peacefully in his exersaucer. When I returned, he looked like this:Apparently Ellie had decided it was time to party.
Then again, with her it seems it's always time to party. Like today, for instance:

She's a maniac! (I don't put these costumes on her, honest!) Anyhow, I'm starting to feel the need to become more vigilant. I parked the car on Wednesday and when I went to get Josh out of his seat he was chewing on Ellie's shoe. I'm pretty sure he didn't take it off himself. I don't entirely trust this girl anymore...

...to be continued (I'm sure!)...

Okay...you can slow down now.

Joshua has been a very busy little boy this past week. Three events occurred that will change his life forever:

1. He sprouted his first tooth!! (You can't actually see it in the picture but I tried.) I have absolutely NO idea why that little fact causes such a thrill of joy to surge through my being, but it does. Feeling that jagged little razor sticking through his swollen little gum…I don’t know, there’s nothing quite like it! I find myself wondering if God doesn’t feel the same way when we mature in our faith...and develop the 'teeth' to understand His Word better and live it out! (see Hebrews 5:11-14)2. He’s rolling over! Only in one direction, however. Joshua has now discovered that he doesn’t have to endure tummy time if he doesn’t want to. It takes a fair amount of concentration and a brief moment of panic as he begins the roll, but he looks pretty pleased once he’s found the way back to his back, the place he loves best.

3. He’s eating solids! Okay, well, I actually tried starting him on solids a couple weeks ago (even though it’s considered early in this day and age) but he wasn’t ready. Now he most certainly is…and he’s also very enthusiastic! He is one hungry little monkey who continues to grow chunkier by the day (which I didn’t know was possible). Here’s what he thinks of his sweet potatoes:So there’s the latest on our chunky little fellow. Next task at hand: teaching Joshua to sit on his own so that his chin will stop resting on his wet drooly chest and getting all rashy.

p.s. I just have to add a big WOOOHOOO for my friend Elly Schoepp who has just informed me that she and her family will most likely be able to come to the Okanagan for a visit while we're there in June!!! It will be quite the experience to introduce our four children who've never met! (Elianna and James carpooled together in the womb, however. They are already bonded. :) Click on the "Jed and Elly" link on my sidebar and check out their adorable little guys!

Treasuring the memories

Rob always jokes that I try to 'immortalize' our lives by taking so many pictures every day. Well, that's probably true. My mom passed away when I was 10, and it seems as though much of my childhood 'died' with her. The memories, anyways. Compared to today's digital standards, we didn't have terribly many photos. And even if they want to, dads just don't remember things the way moms do. So I find myself subconsciously trying to make sure that in the event that I leave this earth early, my kids will still know what their life was like, and what my heart was for them. I started keeping a journal for Ellie from the day I figured she had been conceived and now I have one for Joshua too. I don't often have time to write serious, long messages, but try to document the funny or sweet things they say or do whenever I get the chance. (It'll be great wedding material one day, if nothing else!) Anyhow, ALL of this is to say, here's a few recent excerpts from the journal I keep for Ellie:We had company over last week and they were light-heartedly talking about wanting Ellie for a daughter-in-law one day. So jokingly we asked her, "Ellie, who is your boyfriend?" knowing full well that she has no clue what that is. And without hesitation (and with a very coy grin on her face) she declared, "OWEN!" (Owen is the 3 year old friend of hers pictured above). Then she walked away from the table, threw her head back and repeated again, for good measure, "His NAME is OWEN." Well, that settles that!

The other day Ellie was fake crying about something in the living room (not uncommon). I knelt down at eye level and asked her, "Ellie, are you FAKING it?" Ellie immediately stopped fussing and began to do a little dance, shaking her whole body. SHAKING it. Ha!

On Sunday daddy was starting to make waffles for the company that would soon be coming when I asked Ellie what kind of juice she'd like to drink. Mommy: "Apple juice or orange juice, Ellie?" "I want THAT juice!" said Ellie, pointing to the large vegetable oil jug on our counter. Mommy: "Oh, that's not juice, Ellie, that's oil!" Ellie, "Yeah OIL!! I want that one!"

I came upstairs the other morning after having showered for MAYBE 10 or 15 minutes. Ellie threw herself into my arms and exclaimed, "MOMMEEEE! It's SO good to SEE you!!" Talk about making me feeling appreciated. :)

I was trying to get a shot of Ellie in her birthday dress from Auntie Dana when she started to pray. "Lord Jesus. Monkeys. Judah. Malachi. Window. Another window. Blinds. Amen."

Poop Happens

On Saturday Joshua pulled his first "I'm your disgusting little brother" act on Ellie. It was half an hour before bedtime and Josh and Ellie were both in the bathtub. They love having baths together. Joshua was viciously sucking on his wet little fists and kicking his feet as he watched Ellie make soup in a big jug. Rob was home, so both of us were enjoying this relaxing activity together.
Suddenly, Josh's face turned bright red. "Um, Rob..." I said. "I think Josh is going to poo." (You must understand that this is a relatively rare occurrence. Joshua poops once every other day on a good week!) Before I even got the sentence out, there was this....LOG floating around in the tub. Rob quickly grabbed Ellie and pulled her out of the tub. But she didn't understand why bath time needed to end so soon...so she kept trying to climb back in. She was a little upset that bath time had to end just because Josh couldn't keep his "train" from arriving at the station, so to speak. Rob, being the hero that he is, removed the stinky bath-time perpetrator from the tub and took Ellie to get her pajamas on. Just as he left Josh's face turned red again. Before I could even think, there was another, even larger....LOG floating around in the tub. By this time I was laughing...HARD. "ROB!!" I called between hoots. "He did it AGAIN!!" Again Rob came to the rescue (I was laughing too hard to do anything except hold Josh there) and just as he was extracting this turd from the tub, there was a POOF! And the water was all cloudy with...well, I won't go into any more details. Needless to say, another bath was absolutely necessary. And Josh looked mighty pleased with himself. We'll have to teach him some more appropriate ways of letting us know that he wants the tub to himself. In the meantime, well, poop happens!!

A splashin' good time.

Yesterday my good friend Allison and I decided to get out together and meet at the playground. Consider this equation: 2 toddlers + 2 infants + one ginormous play structure with ample opportunities to inflict permanent damage on little spines = 2 very busy, heart-rate-slightly-elevated mamas. But it was fun. In retrospect.

Ellie's a bit of a daredevil on the slides. I'm sure this is partly the reason I found my FIRST white HAIR a couple weeks back. Yeah, man. I've crossed over to the 'other' side. Dying my hair will no longer be 'just for fun'. Thanks, Ellie.

Here's Allison's cutie patutie, Kiley. She's got quite the singing voice.

Joshua was too busy watching other children to really notice that he'd gone down a slide for the first time.

Here's 22 month old Azelin giving me 'the nose'.

Ellie has been learning to ride the big kid swings...

...and so has Azelin!
So that was all fine and dandy. But the fun didn't stop there. There was this fairly deep, muddy looking puddle close by the swings that had been calling Ellie's name this entire time. She had come close to running through it, but heeded my warnings that she wouldn't like how her shoes felt after if they were all wet. Well, Azelin decided she was done with swings and began to run back towards the playground. Straight through the puddle. I don't think she honestly saw it there, because the look on her face was one of total shock when she realized how wet her feet were. Ellie didn't hesitate for more than a second. If Azelin was allowed, so was she! She ran straight in with gusto, and it became one of those golden motherhood moments to indulge in laughter and picture taking instead of a scolding.

After all the splashing was done, Ellie realized I was right. Her shoes felt awful. She whined and cried all the way home. But all great times at the park end in tears. This time was no exception.

Parkin' It!

Today we took one look at the sunshine outside, said 'BOO' to housework and went to the park: Me and Josh sat on the sidelines with a bottle (note his milk-mouth) letting our pasty white Menno skin soak up the rays.

It was easier to get in than to get out!

Queen of the castle.

The teething observer.

The things you'll do to look cool for your kids. And your wife. You go, honey!

Ellie and swings are good friends. Add daddy to the mix and it's a blast!

They conquered the man-made hill. That's the only kind of hill we have around here - the man-made kind.

Crossing the 'swimming pool', as Ellie called it.

She would have gone right in if we had let her!

Sometimes these evening shifts of Rob's are a real blessing. It's so good to have days like today.

Miscellanea

Ellie taking advantage of one of the rare nice days we've had.Josh is getting much better at the bumbo chair.Ellie has just entered the magical world of painting. Her paint box doesn't look anything like this now, a week later. Every circle of paint looks kind of...gray. She decided it was time to go for a walk to Nana's. Rain boots and pjs...what more do you need?Mom:"Ellie, can you smile?" Ellie: "No."Make her stop, Mama!!

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma Balfour!!