Shopping for toys after Christmas

Today we took Max and Darwyn to the store to choose the toys they want to buy with the money they received for Christmas from Uncle Don and Aunt Mel.  Please pause for a moment to reflect on what it's like shopping for toys with a two-year-old and a four-year-old.  Our experience went very well.  Each kid eventually settled on a clear winner.  As I write, the kids have been playing with their toys ever since we returned from the store.  Photographic evidence below.  More pics here.  Thanks Don and Mel!

Darwyn chose a play dough Rapunzel

Max chose a Star Wars (TM) Lego (TM) toy.  Observe the deer-in-headlights expression..

Max sneaked in a chance to enjoy Darwyn's toy, too.

Leaky Feet

Darwyn, Max and I had just finished watching a movie together, curled up in my bedroom under the covers.  As soon as the movie ended Max turned to me and declared with some alarm, "Mom!  My feet are leaking!"

I was obviously confused.  "What do you mean your feet are....leaking?  Are they bleeding?"

"No, but they are wet."  Max brought them out from the covers and touched them with his hand to demonstrate.  His hand came away from his clammy foot with a little sweat on it.   He was absolutely right....his feet were leaking :)

[Edit by Gus: He's definitely mine.]

[Edit by Greta: Just in case it wasn't obvious until now.]

It's a wrench that can also be a gun

Today for the first time Max made a tool out of lego that is not a gun.

It's a wrench, but it can also be a gun.  Also, it looks like an uppercase "F".

Max: "Dad, look what I made!"
Dad: Rolls eyes, expecting another gun.  Then in a bored voice:  "What is it?"
Max: "It's a wrench!"
Dad: Startled, perks up, puts on a great show of interest:  "Really?  How does it work?  How did you make it?  What do you use it for?  Tell me all about it!"  etc.
Max: Eagerly answers a couple questions.  Then:  "...and it can also be a gun!  Pshew! Pshew!"
Dad: Grabs the nearest pointed object and jams it directly into an eye socket.

To be fair, Max makes many exotic creations out of lego: construction sites, cities, trains, trucks.  But if it's handheld then it's invariably a gun.  Also, the story is funny and the only exaggeration is me poking out an eye.

Naming Number Three

So for those of you who have not already heard, we are expecting a third baby in late May.  We have only just told the kids and we don't yet know whether the baby is a girl or a boy.  Both kids are very excited, especially Darwyn, who has taken to announcing to anyone who will listen that "mommy has a very small baby in her tummy".  She seems especially perplexed by the fact that my belly is not huge like all the other mummies she has met with babies in their tummies.  She often stares at it suspiciously and then asks me to confirm once again that there really is a baby in there.  It is quite cute.

In other news, Gus has recently been reading lots of 'Calvin and Hobbes' to the kids.  Gus love 'Calvin and Hobbes' and Max has also taken to the more "lower brow" parts of the humor.  Darwyn cares for the series less, but will often listen just to be part of things.  One of the effect of all this 'Calvin and Hobbes' has been to renew Gus's affection for the name Calvin.  He would like nothing better than to name the baby Calvin should it be a boy.

Greta: I don't mind the name Calvin, but I don't really like Calvinism.  It's like giving your kid a name that means "fundamentally horrible in nature".

Gus:  Yes but we aren't naming him after Calvinism, we are naming him after Calvin in 'Calvin and Hobbes'

Greta:  Yes...who was named after Calvinism.

We asked Max....

Greta:  What do you think Max?  Do you think Calvin would be a nice name for the baby if it is a boy?

Max: YES!  And if its a tiger, we can name it Hobbes!

I'm willing to concede on that one....

Happy Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun this year.  On Monday we got together with our friends Rachel and Robin and their two kids, Elliot and Emily, to do some pumpkin carving.  When we began, Gus sighed and said "every year my pumpkin face looks like crap.  Every year I tell myself that I will come up with a really cool design ahead of time next year, and I never do it".   Fortunately, Gus let the kids design our pumpkin, so he didn't need to worry.  They drew the face with markers and he cut it out.  Part way through struggling with his carving knife Gus had the bright idea that he could just use his favorite hole cutting set to cut out the pumpkin.  He wanted me to go get two more pumpkins so he can carve them with power tools.  He kept trying to convince me that "the kids would love it."   As it was, the kids loved their old fashioned pumpkin even with the absence of motors.  They attacked the pumpkin with butter knives, covering it with mini lacerations.  Then they coloured in their lacerations with a purple marker.  The final effect was....creative.  I said to Gus later, "well honey, the pumpkin face leaves something to be desired, but I'm really glad you let the kids design it."  Gus objected, "what are you talking about!  That is my best work!"  Anyway, you can see our pumpkin in the video at the end.  It is a very endearing little pumpkin.

Later in the week Max visited the pumpkin farm with school.  He brought home a tiny little pumpkin and Gus seized it to use with his hole cutting set.  The end result was quite cute.  Max made the hat.

Max spent the whole week looking forward to his last day of outdoor school, which just happened to fall on Oct. 31st.  Max loves outdoor school at the worst of times, but this day was going to be particular fun because they were going to have a Halloween party, outdoor style.  Unfortunately, Thursday night Max woke up vomiting.  He vomited again Friday morning and I just couldn't take him to outdoor school in good conscience.  Max was heart broken and I felt terrible.

Fortunately, Max was back in peak form by the evening and he and Darwyn could barely contain their excitement.  Max dressed up as a pirate and Darwyn as a fairy.  They raced from house to house.  At each door they would yell "trick or treat!" and then receive far more candy then is good for a child.  Afterwards I would prompt "what do you say guys?"  and they would stare blankly and then look back at the person who had just given them candy, hold up their bag again and say "trick or treat?"  Sigh....eventually we got the hang of it.  Darwyn would begin to say trick or treat and then Max would whisper out the side of this mouth "no the other one" at which point she would switch mid sentence to thank you with a result something like "trick or thank you!"

At a couple of houses the kids were prompted to do tricks.  Darwyn did a lovely fairy dance and Max pulled out a bunch of sword tricks.  Although rather stereotypical, both were quite endearing.  Part way through the night Max lost his sword and then his act became a little more perplexing.   We only did a short circuit, but by the end of it the kids were loaded with candy and I'm already trying to figure out how to keep them from eating it all.  I remember my sisters offering their kids the option of trading in candy for favorite activities or toys.  I may need to do the same thing....

Anyway, all in all a successful Halloween. You can see more photos here.

Newest Block Buster Release

Tune in for our newest block buster release....on his two hundredth reading of Willa the Wonderful, daddy can stand it no longer.  Hoping for some variety he adds in a twist to the usual story, with disastrous results.

Out of the mouth of babes

Everyday the kids say something funny.  In most cases, I forget to write these down, but I finally collected a few vignettes.  I apologize in advance for all the stories centered around the bathroom....

1) At an Ultimate game Darwyn declared that she had to go pee.  I carted Darwyn on my hip to the port-a-potty, a little worried that she wouldn't want to use it.  I need not have worried.  When we got there Darwyn looked at it with interest and excitement.  She kept staring between her legs into the disgusting chemical tank and declaring "Mommy, this is a muddy potty!"  I decided not to set her straight (although Max did later when he heard the story).

2) Darwyn came careening into the kitchen one day, slipped and did a spectacular fall on the tile floor.  Whimpering a little she righted herself and said, "well, that wasn't too bright".

3) It was Canada day and we had dragged our kids out to the middle of a crowded field to watch the fireworks.  Darwyn had been doing well with her potty training, but tended to take it upon herself to use the great outdoors whenever she pleased.  Suddenly, surrounded by the crowd, she pulled down her underwear and squatted in the middle of the field.  He face contorted with effort as I stared in shock.  Then she stood up with a huge smile and declared "just farts!"

4) A baby sitter had come over to watch the kids for the evening.  She noticed the kids huge dollhouse and said "Oh wow Max!  Is that dollhouse yours?"  Max looked at her as though she was missing a few brain cells.  "No....I'm too big to fit in there."

5) Max was doing his usual rough housing on the couch.  He did some sort of karate move and wound up landing on Anne.  Anne started to protest and Max proclaimed "I'm sorry I hit you Annie, but you were in the wrong spot!"

6) Darwyn was unusually grumpy at breakfast and I said "Geez Darwyn, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"  Of course, the kids had never heard this expression and wanted to know what it meant.  I explained that there were a number of expressions we used when people were grumpy.  There favorite was "Who peed in your cereal?"  Max decided it would be fun to make up a new expression.  "I've got one mom!  'Geez, who chopped off your head?'....'cause that would make you grumpy, right mom?"

7) Darwyn was eating her meal at the river and spilled a little food on her lap.  She sighed audibly and said to herself "Oh Dar Dar..."

8) When asked her name Darwyn always replies "Darwyn Doodle."

ESP verified

Max is a little annoyed with kindergarten because the teacher has declared that he cannot make, bring or use weapons in class.  This is not a totally unreasonable request, but I've had some difficulty convincing Max of its wisdom.  Of course, they have no weapons at school, Max has none at home either, but he makes them our of lego and tinker toys.  Now that he is not allowed to even make weapons at school, Max has decided kindergarten is not worth attending and complains at length when we get ready in the morning.

While I completely understand the teacher's sentiment, I also understand Max's.  It is hard not to have the freedom to explore what you really care about.  For Max, that is weapons.  This morning Max was explaining to me again why he didn't want to go to school.

Max: I was building a tower out of blocks, mom...and I wanted to have a gun on the top of the tower.  But the teacher said I couldn't build a gun on the top and that made me mad.

Now I've seen the guns Max builds and I know that they only very loosely resemble guns, so I'm sure the only way the teacher could know what he was building is if he gives it away by using it as a weapon.  I wasn't sure divulging this to Max was a great idea, but I wanted to revitalize his enthusiasm for school.

Me: Well you know Max, the teacher can't actually tell if you are building a weapon unless you use it as a weapon.

Max: She can't?

Me: No.  She can't read your mind.  She doesn't know what you are building, she just sees a tower of blocks.  But if you start using it as a weapon then she will be able to tell what it is.  You need to be an agent in disguise.

Max's eyes lit up at this last though, but quickly clouded over with suspicion.

Max: Are you sure she can't read my mind.

Me: I'm positive.  Nobody can read your mind.

Max:  But Joanne can read my mind!

Me:  She can?

Max: Yes.  The other day she saw a pee spot on my pants and I told her it was water, but she still knew it was pee!

We definitely should have held on to Joanne longer.  ESP is hard to come by in hired help. Hopefully Max's teacher is not similarly endowed or my plan is shot.

Max starts school - update

I have had lots of queries about how Max's first day of school actually went.  I can't say much because pulling details about school out of a 4-year-old is like trying to pull every hair out of your leg using dental floss - painful and very slow.  (Note: If you are wondering where I came up with such a crazy simile it actually happened to my sister in Vietnam under the label of "getting her legs waxed").  Anyway, here are Max's thoughts on his first day of school:

- He played with marshmallow blocks, which are cool because they stick together.  Apparently this is all he did all day as I could not get him to report any other activities.

- He made a friend, but he doesn't remember the friend's name.

- He didn't like putting up his hand when he wanted to talk, especially because he had to wait a really long time.

- The teacher was nice, but she was also very bossy.

Max starts school

Today was Max's first day of school.  We tried to get him to pose for some pictures, but it didn't go well (observe failed attempts below).  As Gus and Darwyn and I lined up outside the school I felt my feelings alternating between pride and concern.   I watched Max milling around with the other four-year-olds, all of them looking like their backpack was about to pull them over backwards and leave them stranded like an upside down turtle.  But in spite of being undersized Max looked so confident and excited.  He didn't show even a shadow of fear or doubt.  And I felt very proud of him.

Darwyn and Max before Max's first day of school.
Note the matching water bottles.  Darwyn, carried
hers around all morning as proof of her connection to
Max and his going to school.

"Can we go yet mom?"

Max was clearly interested in making friends.  He spotted a 3-year-old child (someones sibling) wearing a batman shirt.  To Max, this seemed reason enough to be friends.  He launched across the school yard, bared his hands like claws and roared with all his might at the child.  The kid looked terrified.  

ME: Max, you need to use your words.  Say, "Hi I'm Max, what is your name?"

Max tried this, but the kid had already decided he was worth avoiding and hid behind his mom.  Max shrugged him off and set his eye on a couple of older boys chasing each other around.  I could see him think he would like to be part of that game.  He launched out in front of the boys as they came running up and started shooting with his hands.  They ran past and he looked crest fallen.  

After this we had yet another talk about how you make friends and I couldn't help being worried that he would terrorize all his new potential friends before he had made it in to the classroom.  He nodded earnestly as he listened to my lecture and then I sent him off to line up with the other children headed to kindergarten.  

I stood beside all the other parents watching their children.  I could feel their pride and their nerves.  I shared the story of Max roaring at his fellow classmates with a nervous mother standing beside me. She laughed and said "he will get along well with my son then" and it occurred to me that perhaps Max had stumbled on the perfect technique for self-selecting his friends early.  

As I wandered away into my thoughts, the teacher got ready to take all the kids inside.  Max looked at me insistently from the line.  "Mom, you need to hug me before I go into the classroom."

ME: Of course, you aren't allowed to go in without hugging your mom first!

MAX: Yes, because I love you a lot, but I will love you less and less as I get older.  

Sigh....such prescience in a four-year-old!  He is definitely ready for school. I thought 'Go get 'em batman!  But do try to introduce yourself with something resembling the English language.'

Still, I had to fight the urge to push my way into the classroom with him (and I had to fight Darwyn to keep her from actually doing this).  I felt like I was sending him into a black box...a place I hoped was good, but knew nothing about.  The whole way home Darwyn begged to be taken back and allowed to go to kindergarten.  We told her she was still too young, but she insisted that she had just now grown older and we hadn't noticed.  I almost believed her.  That certainly seems to be what happened to Max.

My precioussss

I started reading The Hobbit to Max in the expectation that he's too young for it and that we'd need to abandon the book almost immediately.  It was a desperate attempt to sneak in some reading that also interests me, and hey, he's really good at sitting and listening to stories, so who knows what'll happen, right?

Delightfully, Max has latched onto the story with more vigour than I'd ever dared hope.  We're presently in the middle of Riddles in the dark (chapter 5) and he hangs off my every word.  Bilbo has just defeated Gollum with a riddle of questionable legality and Max and I tested each other with riddles of our own before bed tonight.

It's been twenty years since I read The Hobbit, so the book is quite fresh for me and I enjoy our reading time immensely.  I'm surprised how well suited the book is for children (so far, at least).  It moves very quickly; straight off the bat we meet a wizard, dwarves, trolls, and special swords with writing on them that no one can read.  Just as Max was starting to fidget during the visit to Elrond's house, bam!---suddenly we were inside a mountain and goblins were everywhere.

Max is very excited to see the dragon.  Here's hoping we make it all the way to the end, but even if we don't it's already been a resounding victory.

In the eye of the beholder

Tonight we went on an adventure.  We had planned to go explore a new mysterious path we saw last night on the way to the library, but we didn't make it that far.  We had just arrived at the intersection of two busy roads and we paused to admire a little section of laurel creek tucked into a gully beside the roads.  We lamented how it would have been a pretty spot, if only it weren't for the tainting influence of the busy streets. But Max instantly requested to go down and play in the creek.  I was going to say no, but Gus convinced me to show a little wonder in the world and we trekked down into the Gully "for a second".  No sooner had we arrived at the creek then my kids were both waste deep in water and mud.  Gus hurried in too and soon he had everyone chasing after a minnow.  I watched amused, but wrinkled my nose at the mud.

We happened to have some buckets along and Max begged Gus to try to catch the minnow in a bucket.  Quite to both our surprise, Gus succeeded in this endevour and soon the kids were "petting" the poor fish and looking at it through a magnifying glass.  This I could get excited about and I went into a long description of fish gills.  I looked up to discover that Darwyn had wandered off, with Gus trailing behind, towards the huge ugly street Gus and I hated.  To Darwyn, this street was the reason for the best attraction of all: two huge tunnels making a path for the water underneath the road.  Of course, she wanted to go in.

Laurel Creek runs under Bearinger Rd (pictured) and Westmount Rd (not pictured).  These tunnels are barely tall enough for an adult to walk comfortably (if you don't mind spider webs in your hair).  -Gus

Darwyn wanted to "bounce" in the water.  As you can see, she's wearing a dress that's soaked to the chest.  -Gus

Gus was a good sport, no sooner had they disappeared then Max followed after.  I went up and over, but when I met everyone on the other side of the road, they were so excited about the tunnel they convinced me to follow them back through it.  Inside was an amazing world all its own.  It didn't smell (for some reason I thought it would).  The edges were lined with spider webs all sporting huge and exciting spiders for the kids to examine.  Loads of little fish swam around our ankles and tickled our feet.  But halfway down the tunnel was the best part.  A bird's nest.  At our arrival the mother flew off and we lifted the kids up to look at tiny baby birds.  I was holding two buckets a magnifying glass and two extra pair of shoes, so the picture I took is not that great...but you get the idea.

Trek in the water under Bearinger Rd.

Bird's nest with babies in the tunnel under Bearinger Rd.  Don't ask me what species---it doesn't matter. -Gus

We also came across a small storm drain leading off the tunnel that was maybe 3 feet in diameter.  The kids, of course, wanted to follow it, but even Gus could not be convinced to go there.  I told them to wait until uncle Mike visits in July....  [Shoulda got a picture.  It looked really cool with the sunlight pouring in from a manhole 50 feet away in the drain. -Gus]

Alas, bedtime was coming and we dragged the kids out from under the busy road.  Back on the side walk Gus took off his shoes to remove a pebble and discovered a leech on his toe.  Disgusted he pulled it off and was about to squish it when I stayed his foot.  "Let the kids see it."

The leech provided the best entertainment of the whole night.  It writhed on the sidewalk and especially Max stared at it in fascination.  We explained that it had been on dad and that it liked to burrow into your skin and drink blood.  Max begged us to keep it as a "pet", so we filled our bucket with water and brought it home.  I don't know how to look after a leech....I imagine it won't last long in our care.

When we got home we cleaned the kids off in the shower before bed and discovered that Max too had been bitten by a leech.  The one on Max had gotten a much better hold.  We got some salt and shook it on the leech.  It withered and pulled off Max's skin where he discovered a minuscule red mark.  "Max!"  I said, doing my best to sound excited.  "You were the only one that actually got bitten by the leech.  That is so cool!  What did it feel like."

Max looked at me solemnly.  "It was excruciating."

I laughed.  "So excruciating you didn't feel it?"

"Mom," he said, excitement starting to show on his face, "it was a vampire leech....I need a band aid."

And so it came to pass that the highlight of Max's night was being bitten by a vampire leech.  I must say, I preferred the baby birds....

I'm too cute

Darwyn is cute.  I know I'm not exactly an impartial audience, but to me she seems objectively cute....and she knows it.  Tonight as I watched her staring at herself in the mirror while she chanted "and my hair is cute and my eyes are cute and my belly is cute and my nose is cute..." I was reminded of a story from a few months ago...one I really should have written down.

The first time Darwyn started on this "cute kick" I had picked her up to cart her off to bed.  She wasn't completely thrilled with the idea of going to bed and tried to resist, first by squirming and kicking and generally being obnoxious.  When that didn't work she turned on me with her cutest smile and said "you can't put me to bed mommy....I'm too cute."  It almost worked.

Tonight as we sat on the couch Darwyn decided to admire someone else for a change.  I was in the middle of reading to Max and Darwyn came up beside me and stuck her face right between me and the book.

Darwyn: Mommy, you're pretty.

Greta: Thank you Darwyn.

I attempted to start reading again, but Darwyn's head remained parked in my way.

Darwyn: Mommy is pretty!  Mommy is pretty!  Mommy is pretty!

Greta: (craning to see around Darwyn's head)  Darwyn, maybe you can go tell daddy how pretty he is instead.

At this, Darwyn launched herself across the couch into her daddy's arms.  She paused for a moment, looking at him and then said, "Daddy....Mommy's pretty."  Ouch!

Happy birthday to everyone

Well we better stop having so many kids with March and April birthdays.  We didn't even manage to get Darwyn's birthday posted before Max's birthday had also passed (and Annie's birthday, Viola's birthday, Anwyn's birthday, Sue's birthday and Jeff's birthday).   As such, we have a double birthday post.  Both kids had two parties (a family party and a friend party - they only had cake at one of the parties, but we improvised with pancakes and pie for the others.)  They also both got obscene numbers of gifts from their relatives.  Anyway, enjoy the photos and videos.

Darwyn gets birthday pancakes

She had a little trouble with the candles :)

The snow on Darwyn's birthday.  On this same date two-years-ago
Darwyn was born outside in + 27 degrees Celsius

Ella and Darwyn enjoy an erupting volcano

Max and Darwyn decorate Max's volcano cake.  They went
a little overboard on the candy lava.

Max erupting his pretend volcano in the sandbox.
Best party activity ever for toddlers :)

Annie pours vinegar into her volcano.

.

Random videos

Here are a couple cute ones from the past couple of months:


Max and Darwyn helped to paint Easter eggs before Easter.  I love this video because of the character of the two kids.  Can you tell who acts like mommy? (Hint: Look for the running monologue)

Max helps daddy with a construction project.  He loves when he gets to use the real tools!  He even helped me the other day when I was using the saw.  He was very excited by this, but he gave me a fright when I heard him turn the saw on himself.  So much for all the safety locks.

Photos Christmas 2013 and some extras

Nothing funny or interesting to report.  I just emptied the camera memory card and thought I would post some of the best photos.   Check out the web album here.

On the origins of gas

Max and I have been enjoying spending time together studying different science topics.  Right now we are reading about space at Max's request, and we have been talking about the different planets.  We started reading about Jupiter and learned that it was the biggest planet and composed entirely of gas.  Max listened patiently as he always does when I read to him, but I thought there was no way that this gas thing made any sense to him.

Greta: Max, do you know what gas is?

Max: Yup.  It comes out of daddy's bum.

I found this quite amusing, mostly because I wondered what he must think of Jupiter with this definition of gas in mind....

Greta: Well...yes, that is gas...one type of gas, but there are many types of gasses.  Do you want to do an experiment?

Max enthusiastically agreed to this because he loves doing experiments.  We went to the kitchen and measured a small amount of water into a measuring cup.  We took careful note of how much water we had and then we poured it into a pan and started heating it.  Soon it started to boil.  I asked Max what he thought the bubbles were, we felt the steam and noticed how we could put our hand through it and also things that were liquid, but we couldn't put our hand through solid things.  After we had boiled the water for awhile we put it back into the measuring cup and noticed that we had less water than before.

Greta:  Max, where did our water go?

Max: (to my great surprise) It turned into steam.

I was thrilled with his comprehension and started giving myself a nice pat on the back for being such a fabulous science teacher.  Then Max got a look of sheer delight as though all these ideas were finally falling in to place.

Max:  And our tummy is boiling too!

Greta: (confused) what?

Max:  We drink water and it goes into our tummy where it boils and makes gas.  Then the gas comes out our bum!

Hmmm...not quite.  But it was a fine piece of thinking and I didn't have the heart to shoot it down...so I just told Max what a smart idea that was and maybe we can think about it more when we start talking about how our bodies work.  So now my kid thinks our stomachs boil...so much for being a good science teacher.

Winter wonderland....and cows

This past weekend we dragged our children, aupair Angel and his girl friend Consuelo to the river to experience winter as it truly is...SNOWY.  This year we have had an incredible amount of snow in Waterloo and the snow is always even deeper near Gus's parent's river property.  Each year it is fun to go up to the river and see the mushrooms of snow on top of whatever furniture we forgot to put away before the snow came.  It is especially beautiful to look at the ice sculptures made from the millions of tiny waterfalls escaping from the rock cliffs into the river.

Despite this beauty, we rarely visit the river in the winter, especially with kids.  We have to haul all our possessions in a kilometer from the road, dig out the cabin (there was 1 meter of snow blocking the doors) and light fires, all this with two toddlers in tow.  And then we are confined to the 100 square foot cabins for the rest of the weekend.  I always imagine hours spent outside building snow forts and tobogganing down the big hill to the river, but Darwyn starts crying the instant you set her in the snow and Max doesn't care for tobogganing because he might get snow in his face.  Not that it matters, the snow was so deep and fluffy that any toboggan would sink a foot deep into the snow the instant you sat on it.  And so it goes that we rarely get up to the river in the winter anymore.

Fortunately, we have made some new friends at the river that, this year and last, offered us the use of a beautiful extra house that they happen to have lying around.  They built it a couple of years ago as a retirement home and then forgot that they were going to retire.  Ah well, our gain.  So we've made it a yearly tradition to go up to the river once in the winter.  This year,we made a couple of trips to the barn to see the animals, climb on the hay bales and play in the tractors.  And we also got to visit the beautiful river oasis without having to backpack in two days worth of gear.

It was especially fun this year because we could show off winter, real winter, (not that..oh we have snow on a mountain in Spain stuff that Angel is always talking about) to our Spanish Au pair and his Chilean girl friend (although Chile apparently also gets real winter...but in the summer....they are all backwards there).  Also that gave us extra adults so we could stay up late playing board games.  The whole weekend would have been idyllic if our children had slept at all...oh well.

Anyway, this doesn't make much of a story, so I will stop talking now and just post some pictures from the trip.  Enjoy!

I just like this picture

Our total snow get up.  It is the rare stroller that would allow you to move
your kids around in 3 ft of snow!  It is hard to see, but the chariot is
outfitted with skis!

Angel's first attempt at snow shoes (and we stuck a chariot behind him).
It was a little tough getting started.

This picture would have been adorable if it weren't for that stupid
flap on his toque.   I promise his expression shows his thrill.

We got to ride the pony, Star.  Unfortunately, she refused to move.

Darwyn enjoying cheese and posing for the camera

More posing for the camera....

This is the entrance to the river property.  Can you find the gate?

Consuelo in front of the winter falls

And Angel in front of the winter falls

This picture isn't so fabulous...but I thought the snow on top of the
outdoor shower really demonstrates how the snow tends to
mushroom on top of everything.  Also you can see how deep the snow
is....note that the snow on the shower is farther away from the camera than
Angel, but it is about half his height.

Here I am behind a mound of snow that had piled up in front of
the kitchen overhang.... it made a great fort.

Consuelo and the kids attempting to warm up around the non-existent fire.

The mill in winter.  No one wanted to try diving through the chute.

Gus and the mill

Max with snow in his mitt.

Kittens....from a long time ago.

Note:  I wrote this post in the fall, but didn't post it because I hadn't gone through the photos.  I've added a few now!

Mom and dad (not so) recently came to visit Waterloo.  It was nice to see them, but even better was the litter of kittens they brought with them!  Max and Darwyn LOVED the kittens as did many of the neighbourhood kids.  They would come into visit the kittens and then call home to beg their parents for one.  Needless to say they were not successful. Max spent hours sitting next to the kitten box lovingly caressing (the kittens might have seen this activity slightly differently) the kittens.  He begged us for a kitten.  He also was not successful.  If we are lucky Pepper will have another batch of kittens in the spring before Mom and Dad get around to getting her spayed.  (Note: we were not lucky.)  Anyway, enjoy the photos.  You can see an entire album from mom and dad's visit here.

Pepper Cat (when she was quite a bit younger)

Darwyn and kitten

Grandma, Max and Kittens

Nice picture of Grandma

Nice picture of Grandpa

Darwyn and Grandpa at the Rockwood ruins

Grandma and Max at the Rockwood ruins

My children way too high up for my comfort.
 They apparently just had to see inside that cave.