Another lego creation by Darwyn

Darwyn recently made another Lego (TM) creation.  Unfortunately, I can no longer remember the back story.  But I did take some photos.  Behold.

Update on Ada

Ada is smiling and flirting like crazy now.  She loves to watch her mobile and she is starting to attempt to grab at toys hanging above her.  She also loves her baths.  She kicks like crazy in the tub and squeals in excitement.

So far Ada has turned out to be an amazing sleeper (knock on wood).  The other night she slept almost 10 hours without waking to eat.  She often sleeps 8 hours and almost always sleeps at least 6 hours.  As far as I know that is almost unheard of in a baby her age.  We are very fortunate.  If you are getting sleep, newborns are no work at all!

Max and Darwyn continue to be very interested in Ada.  They love to cuddle her and talk to her and she rewards them with huge smiles.  Ada is a very strong and tall baby, although not particularly chubby.  She holds her head up well now and really enjoys standing.  Because of her strength, she now has her own superhero persona and declares (narrated by mommy) that she is "hulk baby".  She threatens to spit up on bad guys, and she can suck their weapons away with her super sucking powers.  She also has banshee powers.  Ada is still easy, but she does not care particularly for her car seat.  When she wants out she can really scream.

Max loves to hold Ada.

Dar and Ada playing with Ada's toys

I just like the colour in this one.

Ada hanging out in her camp chair at the river.
Max also has a lovely expression.

Deck roof finally rebuilt

As many of you know, our beloved deck roof needed to come down due to problems caused by it's ridiculous backward-sloping design, which caused ice damming on our shingle roof and hence water leaking into our house in winter.  Since the deck roof is so valuable to us, I decided to take it apart and rebuild it again---this time sloping away from the house.

It was a monumental job.  I won't bore you with the technical details, of which there are many.  Grandpa Lee was kind enough to visit our house for a few days following our trip to Ottawa, during which time we put him to hard labour rebuilding our deck roof.  With his brain and brawn we came up with a new design and did all the heavy, tricky, two-person jobs while he was here.  He left for his home on Monday afternoon.  I've worked full-time since then with one day off.  Finally, late Friday afternoon (yesterday), the project was finished (again).

The old roof offered a huge, panoramic view of our lovely treed back yard, which is why we built it that way.  The new roof blocks a lot of the vertical view but at least it won't wreck our house (I hope).

Here's what the old deck roof looked like, courtesy of the Hopeless Homesteader:

And here is the new roof:

Trip to Ottawa

Our family recently made our annual trip to Ottawa to visit grandma and grandpa.  Max already remembers their house as the place with the frog pond.  As usual, Grandma's pond did not disappoint. This year Grandma had a huge frog living in the pond (unfortunately we did not capture it on camera), which she and dad had affectionately named Hannibal the cannibal - Hanna for short.  This was because mom claimed that the frog bit her and that it preyed on other frogs in the pond.  We were skeptical.  It sounded like a typically exaggerated James story.  Our disbelief was confirmed when mother called us over to watch Hanna "hunting".  Hanna was sitting in the proximity of another smaller frog.  We all sat quietly waiting for the kill.

Mother:  See how she is sitting perfectly still.  She is stalking.

Gus: The other frog is also sitting perfectly still.  Is it stalking too?

It turns out frogs spend a great deal of time sitting perfectly still.  Hanna made no move on the frog and we were convinced that she was harmless.  But Grandma and Hanna both had the last laugh.

The next day Max and Dad were hanging out around the pond catching frogs.  Max really enjoyed the frogs and he was standing at the edge with his toes hanging out over the edge of a rock.  Out of nowhere Hanna shot out of the pond and swallowed his entire big toe.  Max cried out in shock and Gus looked over to see him shake his foot with a huge frog hanging on for dear life.  Max shook her free, but he had deep red marks on his toe to prove that she had attacked.  Grandma was vindicated.

Max was very tough about the whole incident and spent a great deal of time showing off his battle wounds.  I suggested he may not want to admit that he came out the worse for wear in a battle with a frog.

Max holding a frog.  Obviously this one is not Hanna.

Max and Dar in front of the pond wearing ridiculously large flowers as hats.

Ada and Grandma relaxing at the pond.

Besides frogs the kids also spent a great deal of time with Karli cats new kittens.  Max was especially in love with them and spent his time chasing them around.  The little black and white kitten was his favorite.  Gus and I were harassed more than once to take the kitten home.  I would have caved but Gus's will was made of iron.

Max with his favorite kitten.

The only Calico in this litter

Max and Dar playing with the kittens...unfortunately you can't see the kittens,
but the kids looked cute.

 Darwyn really loved all of the flowers in Grandma Sandi's yard.  She would have picked every single one had she been allowed.  At the end of the visit she and Grandma went around the yard and picked a bouquet together to take home with us.  Darwyn looked after it the whole way home and even brought it out half way when we stopped to eat our picnic.

Dar's bouquet

Pond lilies on the way home.  This one is for you mom.

A random picture of Max and Dar's marble tower creation.

A few cute stories

Story 1

Grandpa Lee was helping Max and Darwyn over a railing.  Darwyn insisted that she wanted to try and do it herself.  Grandpa Lee watched as Darwyn struggled while muttering "I think I can...I think can....I think I can"  Then suddenly her hand shoots out towards Grandpa and she declares "Nope. I can't!"

Story 2
I heard Darwyn wailing at the side of the house.  We hurried outside to discover that she had been stung by a wasp twice.  We dragged her inside and administered all sorts of home remedies.  Finally, to make her feel better, we gave her two band aids.  Max was very supportive of Darwyn, but he looked at the bandaids with envy.

Max: (muttering to himself)  I don't want to get stung by a wasp....but its ok if I do something else to get wounded.

And a guest debut from cousin Annie: 
Max and Annie were playing "Go Fish" with Grandpa Tom.  One of the big problems for them is that when they pick up a new card, others always see what they pick up.  Anne went to pick up a card and Aunty Sue cautioned her to be careful.  Worried that Grandpa had seen her card Anne turned to Grandpa and asked "You didn't see my 3 did you Grandpa?"