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.

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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.