Visit to the aquarium

Our home school science group recently went on a field trip to the Toronto aquarium.  The kids absolutely loved the experience.  I have to admit, I found it pretty cool myself.  My favorite creature was the octopus and the colour changing jellyfish.  They had a lot of tanks where you could pet different animals, including a tank where you could pet a shark (albeit a small one)!  The kids favorite part of the aquarium was a glass crawling tunnel suspended in the middle of the shark tank (see video).  We spend a long time there.  Even Ada loved it.  They also had an adult version (see bottom picture) where you ride a moving side walk through a tunnel in the aquarium.

It was especially fun watching Ada at the aquarium.  She loved all the sights and tried desperately to eat every type of marine animal she found.  Fortunately, the glass was in the way, a fact she found very perplexing.

Ada couldn't figure out why she couldn't touch the jelly fish.

Colour changing jelly fish

Kid tunnel suspended in an aquarium

A more adult friendly tunnel through the aquarium

Ada's new moves

Here it is!  Ada is finally crawling.  Although her technique is more crawling with her arms and just dragging her lower half behind, but whatever works.  (Sorry about the camera angle.)

Ada has actually been moving for a few weeks now.  She was moving on her bum with some strange method that involved getting one leg behind her and pushing her self along.  It was terribly slow, but it got her to what she wanted.

Ada also sits, rolls, goes from sitting to her tummy and back again and stands holding on to furniture.  She is just starting to walk while you hold her hands, but has not figured out that she can walk holding onto furniture.

She continues to be sunny and wonderfully easy to look after.  She gives big smiles to anyone who will play with her.  She especially loves babies and will instantly zero in on any baby in the room and begin "talking" to it.   Her "talking" consists mostly of saying "da da da da", but she also does say "ma" and "ta" on occasion as well as a large variety of loud grunt noises.

Farmer Brown, by Darwyn

The other day Darwyn drew a picture of "Farmer Brown", the subject of a Calvin and Hobbes strip she saw.  I love it.  It's surprisingly detailed compared to her other art.

The person is Farmer Brown, of course.  (Observe the huge belly button.)  He's about to light his gas stove; he's striking a match held in his left hand.  Outside his house we see a derailed freight train (left) and an air plane about to crash (right).  The foreground is grey sidewalk.

Here's the original comic that inspired Darwyn's art:

The kids love Calvin and Hobbes, and I am very, very happy to read it to them.  Darwyn especially likes the story about the snow goons.

One big heart and lots of paper valentines

Darwyn has been beside herself with excitement about valentine's day.  In mid January she saw valentine's at the dollar store and that was the beginning of the end.  For the past month she has busied herself making valentines at home, at preschool, in library programs, with Jose.  She amassed so many valentines for her family and friends that she needed her own large bin in her bedroom to store them all.  Not only that, we needed to figure out how she was going to deliver all her love notes...we decided to host a valentine's day party.

The party was simple.  We were going to make valentine mail boxes at the party and the kids would deliver their valentine's to their friends.  Darwyn insisted that we also needed to decorate cupcakes....a signature event at all our parties.  Darwyn asked me every day for the week preceding the party if today was "valentine's day".  Finally, the party day arrived.  Dar painstakingly helped me set out all the materials for decorating boxes.  She also helped clean and prepare the food.  She dished out candies for cupcake decorating, organized veggies on a veggie tray, and helped me rip the bread to go with the spinach dip (the later she did while telling me in great detail everything she didn't like about pumpernickle bread).

Finally her guests arrived.  The party was a smashing success,  Dar had all her valentine's in a nice pink gift bag half as tall as is and she dutifully delivered them to everyone's mailbox.  Of course, she had made so many that all of the other children had delivered all their valentines and read all the one's they had received, before she was half done giving hers out.  But she loved it just the same.  When Darwyn was done everyone's box was overflowing with her  homemade valentines.  She's a small girl with one big heart!

First time on ice skates

We finally got Max and Darwyn out to an ice rink to try out the ice skates they got for xmas.  Both kids were enthusiastic and persistent and not at all discouraged by how hard it is to learn to skate.  We skated only for a short time, which was perfect for our first outing.  I suspect that Greta and I will eventually need to get ice skates of our own so we can do some real skating with the kids.

Christmas 2015

This year was another great Christmas, with not much out of the ordinary to report.  The kids got lots of presents and loved them all.  Grandma James made Darwyn her first nightgown and now she wears nothing but nightgowns if she can help it.  Aunty Lo visited this year and gave Max a stunt camera which has been a massive hit.  Max loves taking pictures and videos.  We may need to make a post dedicated to his work.  Max also got a Circuits Jr. kit from Aunt Sue which was a big success.  He has been going crazy wiring things himself and trying to connect the kit to odds and sods he finds around the house.  My most heartwarming Christmas moment, though, was when Max gave me a big hug and said "Mom, thanks for giving us baby Ada."

The kids were very excited this year about making gifts for others.  Darwyn especially went crazy making pictures everyday for someone new and wrapping them.  The best one was for Aunty Sue.  On Christmas morning she received an entire stack of papers from Darwyn, some with a line scribbled here or there.  "It's the materials for a paper house," Darwyn announced proudly as Sue stared at the papers in confusion.

It reminded me of when I was a kid and drew a picture for my dad of his childhood home.  I've recounted the story already in a previous Christmas post, but inevitably it always comes up at Christmas because it is so memorable for me...and because James girls like to tell the same stories again and again.  This year was no exception.

"I remember the picture." Dad said after we discussed the story yet again.  " I still have it.  It was a nice drawing."

"Not nice enough that you recognized it as your childhood home," I said sulkily.

"No...I didn't recognize it....especially because the picture you drew it from was actually a picture of the neighbor's barn."  It's been twenty years since that picture and only now do I learn that my father grew up in a barn.  It explains a lot of things.

Besides the usual Christmases with our families we also went to Gus's mom's extended family Christmas get together.  This is hosted each year by Max, Dar and Ada's great grandmother Kuntz.  This year's party was the first time she had met Ada.  She sat on a chair holding her while Max looked on proudly (he loves to show Ada off).  Great Grandma hugged Ada close and said "Oh I could just keep you."

Max looked at her solemnly.  "I don't think that is a good idea.  Soon you will be dead."

Errr... Merry Christmas!

Jose opening his "How to survive a Canadian Winter" kit

The kids playing with their gift from Jose.

Random photo of the kids at Christmas...note everybody has pink eye.

Grandma and baby Ada catching a nap

Jose's gift from the kids.  The shirt says "This is my Jose"

Not great lighting, but too cute to leave out.  

Grandma and Grandpa opening their Christmas Calendar

Baby Ada enjoying a bow

Darwyn with her nightgown from Grandma.

Grandma opening her gift from the kids

Dad with the shirt the kids made him.  It reads "this guy is my dad".

Daddy opening his gift from the kids.

Mom with a homemade gift from Darwyn

The Christmas feast, complete with a traditional and delicious Colombian dish.  Thanks Jose!

Max making Grandpa James' Christmas present

Darwyn making Grandma James' Christmas present

The kids posing for the annual Christmas photo....didn't turn out so well, hunh?

Gus and Max adding the star to the tree.

Birthdays as a measurement of time

Darwyn has been obsessed with her birthday since Max's birthday last year. She asked me daily how long it was until her birthday.  I told her that her birthday wouldn't happen until well after Christmas to stop her pestering me and that worked, but now that Christmas has passed she is back at it.  Today she started up again while we were in the car:

Darwyn: Mom, how many days is it until my birthday?

Me: Oh, I don't know Darwyn, two and a half months?

Darwyn: No mom, how many DAYS is it?

Me: I guess 70 or 80 days.

There was a long pause while Darwyn thought about this.  She must have concluded that this was far too long for me to be being serious.

Darwyn: NO MOM!  That's so long....we will be dead by then!


Hmmm....I was hoping to last a little longer than that.  Good thing the working of time is not left up to three-year-olds.