"Fluffy"

Ellie's never been very dedicated to her stuffed animals (her blanky is the only 'sacred' object in the house), but in the last 2 months this little stuffed sheep she got from one of her Grandma's (I can't remember which) has become very dear to her heart! He used to be called simply, "sheep", but last week Ellie asked me and Rob, "What's sheep's name?" So for lack of anything better to call him, we named him "Fluffy". So now he's Fluffy. And she does everything with this sheep. From the time she wakes up until the time we leave the house in the morning (about 2 hours) Ellie will do everything with the sheep. Feed it, change its diaper, put it in the exersaucer, talk to it. One day we were reading stories together when Ellie suddenly jumped off my lap with a little gasp and said, "Sheep's crying!" and ran over to where sheep was lying on the couch. She tenderly picked it up and said, "It's okay, little guy. It's okay!" HA! I love her imagination. Anyhow, here's a few pictures of Ellie and her "Fluffy":Yesterday I found sheep like this on the couch, all tucked in.

Ellie said she was coloring a "Mother's day card" for Fluffy.

How come I didn't get a mother's day card?

Pool Party at the Clark's

One day last week the kids and I went over my long-time friend Lisa's house (see sidebar for her new blog) to check out her new deck and "swimming pool" (which is more like a large tupperware container, but water is water to a child). We had a blast! Thanks for having us, Lisa!




(Joshua was there, but I only managed one photo of him while he was on Lisa's lap. She was wearing a bathing suit and I gave her my word that I wouldn't publish it. So I won't. But he was there. )

Summer Vacation

So I've been feeling for quite some time that, even though I try to go on the computer just three days a week, I'm STILL spending too much time blogging and going on Facebook. There are so many things I'd rather be doing - cleaning (I actually mean that!) baking for my husband, reading, suntanning, Bible study, etc.. So I'm taking a summer holiday. For the rest of the summer I've decided to make Wednesdays my only computer day and I can easily go the rest of the week without. So for all my faithful blog friends out there (and especially mom and dad Balfour), please keep checking back - just check on Wednesdays, when I'll do one big post for the week. Love you all!!

Father's Day at the Zoo

This year my family decided to celebrate Father's Day by going to the zoo...one of my favorite places on this earth. Well, in this province, anyways. It was a blast! We were a little worried because there was an 80% chance of thundershowers for the evening. We prayed that God would hold back the rain - and that he did! We got approximately six drops of rain each, and the rest of the time the weather was awesome. My dad seemed to have a marvelous time, which was the goal. And, well, I just love hanging out with my family. There's not much else to say. The pictures say it all. (As always I had trouble picking which pictures to post. So here's a shwack load for you all. Is shwack a word? If not, it should be. Because that's what you're getting.)

Ellie had an overly-enthusiastic comment about each and every animal. Even if she couldn't see the animal. In fact, she was so excited about being at the zoo that she declared it was her birthday.Regan and Ellie had fun pretending to pick the tiger's nose. We didn't tell them to do it. Okay, maybe we did. I'm one of those moms that tells Ellie to pick her nose all the time, actually - it's better than me trying to stick my giant-sized pinky finger up there and it's most certainly better than having the big green booger hanging out all day! No, we cheer when children find their own boogies in this home. Ellie and her Nana.Joshua giving his best, "I'm cute. Carry me" face. Grandpa, always the marshmallow, got suckered in and carried Josh till his back got sore.They truly were excited...inside.Jon is looking for his second-cousin in the baboon cage.

Regan, "Yet's go see the camels again, Eyee!" Ellie: "Okay, Regan!"Dana, demonstrating to her nieces how to become a baby dinosaur.Regan thought it was cool.Ellie thought it was downright terrifying!

Happy Father's Day, Grandpa Balfour!

(If anyone is having trouble viewing the video, you can also check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJeGgMPW-ik )

Ellie-isms Part I

I figure that as the kids grow their 'isms' will increase in number since toddlers can't help but be hilarious...so why not make a sort of 'series' out of them? It'll probably be a while before the first installment of 'Josh-isms' comes along, but you know what I mean.
Last week when I put Ellie down for her nap, this blue braided bracelet I was wearing fell off my wrist without either Ellie or myself realizing it. Later, when she woke up from her nap, she began to wail (this isn't entirely uncommon). So I went in to get her, and as I entered her bedroom she sobbed, "MY BRAID FELL OUT!" I was confused, because her braids were still intact. "My braid!" she wailed again, holding up my bracelet. Hehe.
On Monday morning Ellie and I went to get Rob out of bed. We tried pulling all the 'we're your sweet, wonderful family, don't you want to come be with us?' cards in the hopes of alluring him out of bed, but to no avail. Finally I said something like, "Boy, Ellie, we sure want Daddy to come upstairs with us, don't we."
"YESS!" Ellie responded enthusiastically. "Because he is sooooooooo CUTE!"
He was up in a heartbeat. Last Sunday we went to a birthday BBQ for one of Rob's friends. I decided to walk home with Ellie in the stroller for some one-on-one time (Rob drove with Josh). I remembered that it had been a while since I had made a conscious effort to 'teach' Ellie anything (more just floating from day to day) so I decided to make this walk...you know, somewhat educational. :) So we stopped in front of a big red stop sign and I pointed to it and asked her, "Ellie, what does that red sign say?" Without skipping a beat, and with the most serious expression on her face, Ellie replied, "Poopee."
HA! Close Ellie, but not quite.

NEWFLASH: Mama slept through the night! Well, almost.

I kid you not, folks. I just about slept through the night last night. Some of you may not realize that Rob and I and our two kids live in a 2-bedroom fourplex. Not ideal for a growing family, but definitely great for an apartment and you can't beat our neighbours! Anyhow, because of this whole 2 bedroom dealy, Joshua's little crib is located snuggly in our walk-in closet. It's actually a great arrangement - in some ways. I walk precisely 4 steps to get to him in the night, it's very cozy, and if we close the closet door part way it's dark in there at any time of day. Setback: I wake up - ALL. NIGHT. LONG! I am one of the world's lightest sleepers, and even with a fan on in the room and an earplug in one of my ears, I wake up almost every time Joshua stirs. And if he stirs too much, I DO something about it, like put his soother back in, or whatever, so that I can go back to sleep.
Well, last night I'd had it. I was so terribly exhausted from 5 months of waking up anywhere from 2-6 times a night that I rolled out of bed and went looking on the internet for 3 bedroom houses for rent...and didn't find anything. Then a new idea hit me (from the Lord? who knows!) Get a playpen. Stick the kid upstairs (our bedrooms are downstairs) far far away from my overstimulated eardrums. So thanks to a little advertising on Facebook, 12 hours later I was the proud lender of a playpen (thanks Elleah!). Once Josh was in bed for the night at 7:45pm, I set up the playpen in our pantry (which is converted into a toy room. Hey - you do what you got to do in a space like ours!) and after his 10:30 night snack bottle I put him to sleep for the rest of the night in there. Not without a bit of anxiety, mind you. That's awfully far away. But I had the monitor snuggled up right beside my pillow, set just loud enough to hear the little guy CRY...and not loud enough to hear him grunt!
So if I didn't have another child in my house I would have slept through the night. Ellie must have had a nightmare or something because she woke up screaming and then fell straight back asleep the moment I came into her room. But besides that, I didn't really wake up all night! Did Joshua? I have no idea. He did have a poop in his diaper when I got him at 6:30am, but it must not have bugged him enough to keep him awake! He was out of his swaddle, his arms sprawled, sootherless...and sleeping. What a sweet sweet sight for these tired eyes!

Now, after saying all that, I must warn you (and myself) that I will probably not sleep happily ever after from this night on. No, generally when one shares news like this with others, things...change...the night after. So I'm not expecting perfection. But I am hoping for improvement! I am full of hope! Here is the face I was greeted with this morning:Why'd you leave me all alone mom?!? :) Just joking. That's Joshua's "I'm stunned by a flash in my face at 6:30 in the morning" face. Wow, that was mean of me. But really he felt more like this:
Finally! Mom let me sleep on my own!!

In other news...

1. We finally got our new double stroller! Well, it's not technically a double - it's more like a seat and a half. It's called the BabyTrend Sit 'n Stand and it's virtually impossible to get in Canada. And it's often out of stock in the cities that are near us in the US. And they don't ship to Canada. So finally Rob's brother James (who lives in California) was gracious enough to go and buy it for us and ship it to us. And we're pumped! THANKS JAMES!!

Rob took the kids out for an hour so I could get the house cleaned. Poor Rob - Joshua screamed all the way home. But the house was clean. :)

And the box made a great tunnel, window and mail slot included. Ellie managed to fit her entire body out through that little window, with more than a few scratches all over her semi-naked body as a result.

2. Ellie is no longer napping...when we can help it. For the last few months Ellie's been a napper about 60% of the time. The other 40% she just plays for 2 hours in her crib. We used to darken her room and do everything in our power to make all the elements JUST SO in the hopes that she would nap. Lately I've clued in to the fact that if she naps, she doesn't fall asleep at night until 9 or 9:30. But she's still up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning - and tired! So instead of darkening her room we are now keeping it bright and sunny with many reachable toys and books by her crib and it's officially "quiet time", not napping time. She's good in there for about 1.5 hours...so we still get a nice afternoon break! If we turn off the monitor we can even pretend she's actually sleeping. (Yesterday, however, I decided to peek in on Ellie to see what she was doing. Good thing I did. The child was buck naked. Again. What is it with toddlers and their clothing-removal syndrome!??!)

(Yes. She is in the exersaucer. She climbs in there daily.)

3. After many tears and much complaining, Joshua's second tooth sliced through his tender swollen gums during his morning nap today. Before his nap I could see it, but not feel it. After his nap - VOILA. Tooth number two! Good thing, too, since his mouth was starting to look a bit uneven. Here he is showing off his latest accomplishment:

Joshua and his girls.

Joshua has a number of special women in his life at the moment, but here are a few of his current favorites (aside from his mother, of course):

#1. Ellie (She's entertaining, kinda cute, and to-date has only made him cry a handful of times):Ellie now suggests I take pictures of her and Josh together almost daily (I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree). Anyhow, Joshua is most often thrilled at the chance to snuggle up with his sister.
Josh whispers some sweet nothings in her ear.
And then they share a good chuckle.

Here Josh is stoked that Ellie's letting him touch the sacred blanky. Note the guarded look on her face and hand ready to spring into action and snatch it back if Josh makes one. wrong. move.

#2: Nana (need I say more?)

#3: Keira (she's cute and ...well cute!) Josh thought it was pretty special when Keira wrapped her arm around him (we didn't arrange it, honest.)

Joshua whispers a secret in Keira's ear...

...and then she whispers one back...

...but apparently Joshua got offended. Check out that karate kick! We're enrolling him in anger management classes.

And last (but not least): The Doll (cute, silent, and a great audience)

Joshua seemed to enjoy the doll's appreciative gaze as he showed off his bouncing skills.

Somebody's watching you...

I'm sure we're all aware of the fact that toddlers are mimickers. They naturally do what they see done around them. I have never been more aware of this fact than I was this morning, when Elianna and I were coloring with markers.
Coloring with markers is a treat for Ellie. Being two and all, I don't entirely trust her not to color on things that aren't paper. So this is probably only the third or fourth time she's used them in our home. Suddenly she decided to stick the end of a lid of one marker into her mouth. First she did what is natural for her, and pretended it was trumpet. "Doo do doooo!". It was what she did next that shocked me.
She sat there quietly for some time, with this lid sticking out of her mouth, looking down at it somewhat cross-eyed. After a few moments she looked up at me and said, "I'm Cohd". "Cohd" is Ellie's word for "Cole", our next door neighbour.
He smokes.
I wish I could tell you that I managed to hold it together and sternly tell Ellie that smoking is not good...but I didn't. I laughed. I laughed looong and hard.
And then I told her that smoking isn't healthy for us and gives us 'owies' inside and we shouldn't pretend to do that. But I'm sure all that was lost on the fact that she got a good laugh out of me.
Needless to say, I have a heightened sense of awareness that I need to be so very careful, not just of what I say, but particularly of what I do. There is an observant little pair of blue-gray eyes watching my every move.