Ada's one true love

I bet you are thinking Ada's one true love is a soother, a stuffed animal or perhaps a blanket?  Maybe a family memeber or at the very least a beloved toy?  No.  It is her shoes.  Ada loves her shoes.  She has 3 pair and she loves all of them, but she is especially fond of her "duckies" as she calls them.  These are robbies with a picture of a duck on the top.  When she can find them, Ada carries her shoes all over the house trying to find someone who will put them on her feet.  When she spots you, she follows you around declaring "soo, soo" over and over again.  If you sit down to oblige her, she will rush to your lap with delight and literally giggle out loud as you put on her shoes.  I've never seen anything like it.

Darwyn also loved shoes, but mostly she just enjoyed taking out everyone's shoes and making a mess... now that I think of it, her love of shoes probably had more to do with her love of making messes then with the shoes themselves.  With Ada, it is different.  She also takes out the shoes, but she holds each shoe lovingly and tells you who each shoe belongs to.  She holds up Gus's shoe and says "Daddy soo."  Then mine, "Mommy soo".  Then Max's, "mama soo" (she has not figured out how to say Max in a way that doesn't sound like mom.  She says mama for Max and mommy for me.) And of course she follows these with "Da'n soo" and "Say Soo" for Darwyn and Jose respectively.  It doesn't matter which of the many shoes in the house you give her, she knows who wears it.

Anyway, I have posted a video of Ada's love of shoes for your viewing pleasure and to prove I'm not making it up.

I also posted this cute video of Ada on the slide, a much more commen obsession.  Ada also loves slides and dives down them with absolutely no fear, no matter how big they are.

Back to School

September marked the beginning of school for everyone in the family (ok...well not Ada or Gus...and Jose technically never left school).  Darwyn was trying Junior kindergarten for the first time and was beside herself with excitement.  Max was going to try grade 1 in french immersion.  And I was returning to graduate studies full time, which I hadn't done in years.  Jose would be taking on Ada full time, as well as running errands, taking the kids to and from school and cooking dinners.  I was very nervous the whole thing would fall apart like a house of cards.

Darwyn's first day of school - JK

Max's first day of school - Grade 1

We are 3 weeks in now, and everyone is holding up nicely so far.  Darwyn has started to complain about going to school, which I admit surprised me.  She has mostly complained that she is not getting a sticker....I think that may be the root of the problem, although she is also showing some signs of fatigue.  Max has NOT started complaining about going to school....this also surpised me.  He seems stimulated and excited.  He tells me new french words everyday as well as new games he is learning at school.  Ada and Jose have managed well at home and boy am I loving arriving home to cooked meals!

Full time school has been a bit of a shock to my system too - mostly I'm finding it tough to sit at a desk for so much of the day.  But I am enjoying thinking and getting back into my research.  I also have not received any stickers.   Perhaps they will give me one after I defend :)

Summer Travels

Summer has been insanely busy.  (Gus keeps quipping that if we lived in a place that had nice weather all year round we wouldn't have to jam everything into the summer.  I keep thinking, good thing we have winter, otherwise we'd be tempted to maintain this pace year round.)  We have been playing frisbee every available weekday evening and travelling almost every weekend.  I think we have maybe been at home for a total of three weekends all summer.  We are exhausted, but we have many stories to tell.

We finally visited Saskatoon after a five year absence.  It was a pseudo reunion with all 4 sisters back in Saskatoon and all the James cousins to play with.  The kids had an absolute blast and we also staged an amazing photo shoot (I don't want to pass along the link because I am keeping some secret for the Christmas calendar, but I've posted a few that capture the events of the trip below - all of which are courtesy of Uncle Mike and Cousin Anwyn).

The whole extended family

Me and my three beautiful sisters

 The most noteworthy part of our trip to Saskatoon is that the city seems to be riddled with faeries, much to Darwyn's delight.  Both Wendy and Liz have set up fairy gardens in their homes which my kids discovered instantly upon arrival.  Darwyn immediately started leaving presents for the fairies and was thrilled to discover they were gone when she returned in the morning.  The fairies returned Darwyn's enthusiasm, leaving her notes and small gifts.   The fairies continued to build their homes and Darwyn, Leora (Dar's cousin) and Aunty Lizzy all spent time building a fairy tree house.

The fairy home at Aunty Wendy's

On the day we were leaving, the fairies left both Darwyn and Max glass bottles full of "fairy dust".  Aunty Lizzy told them that if they sprinkled the dust in a special spot at family camp (a trip occurring later in the summer, which I will return to momentarily)  the fairies would leave them a big present.  Darwyn was delighted and danced around the room hugging her fairy dust.  Max stared at his jar skeptically.

Max: (tilting his jar from side to side)  This fairy dust sure looks a lot like sparkles.

Aunty Lizzy:  Well...they are fairy sparkles...magic fairy sparkles.

Max:  Is that an empty sparkle package beside you?   (pause) And sparkles on your pants?

I reassured Max that regardless of the origin of the fairy dust, it was redeemable for a present.  He seemed satisfied with this and stored the jar safely away.  When we returned home, Darwyn quickly took up making homes for fairies in our yard.  She and Max made a nice house out of scrap wood and painted it bright colours.  Darwyn faithfully leaves gifts for the fairies that do disappear a remarkable amount of the time (many of the gifts are bits of food - I assume animals, or Ada, eats them, but perhaps it is fairies).  These fairies seem to be lazy and much less generous than the fairies in Saskatoon.  They usually forget to leave anything for Darwyn in return.

Fortunately, we soon departed for family camp.  Of course, we forgot the sparkles - erm, I mean fairy dust.   Darwyn despaired and told Aunty Lizzy that they would never get the gift now.  Aunty Lizzy assured her that if she worked hard to give gifts to the fairies all week, she might still earn her present.  Together they built a giant fairy tree house that earned the interest of many of the other children at family camp.  The fairies left chocolate covered strawberries and cupcakes which the kid's shared.  And on the final day Darwyn discovered a real porcelain mini tea set, complete with gorgeous fairies on every piece.  Needless to say, Darwyn adores this tea set.  She treats it with reverence and both kids enjoy harassing me to make them bedtime tea (another tradition they picked up from Aunty Lizzy in Saskatoon).

Besides fairies, family camp was also a haven for Max's new favorite game - magic the gathering.  Max's interest has been vigorously encouraged by Gus, who loves magic.  Gus even took Max out to buy his own deck so the two of them could play together.  They brought these decks to family camp on a whim, and boy was that the right move.  Max and Gus took out their decks to play and within seconds their table was flooded with 6-10-year-old boys.  From that moment on their was a small gaggle of boys following Gus around camp, eagerly awaiting a magic game.  One sweet and very dedicated boy even stood quietly behind Gus through his entire meal because Gus had mentioned offhand that he would play with him after lunch.  Fortunately, the older boys were quite solicitous of Max and played games with him as well, taking care to help him read all his cards.  It was quite endearing.

All and all it was a fun (and fairy) filled summer, but I am ready to relax and embrace fall.  Sadly that includes back to school for all of us except Ada and Gus.  Keep posted for the soon to come back to school blog post.

Most of the grandchildren with their beach day sand castle

Ada on beach day...sunscreen and sand make poor bed fellows.

A family photo from photo shoot day

A rare "couples" photo from family photo shoot day

Ada learned to walk while we were in Saskatoon.
She was so proud that any time whe was walking she was grinning from ear to ear.
She also always held one hand up as though she was carrying a serving platter.

Darwyn puts tailors out of business

Darwyn: I found a way to make my shorts fit.
Gus: Oh?
Darwyn: If they are too big you just keep adding pairs of underwear until they fit.
Gus:  (laughing) That's good.  How many pairs of underwear are you wearing under that pair of shorts?
Darwyn: (cheerfully) none!

Max loses his first teeth for fun and profit

Max has a pair of adult teeth coming in his lower jaw.  But instead of coming in directly under his baby teeth, they came in behind his baby teeth, giving him a shark-like second row of teeth.  The dentist warned us that this is bad news; those baby teeth need to come out ASAP so that the adult teeth can come in properly.  He (or was it she?) gave us three weeks to get those baby teeth out before they'd have to be pulled.

We diligently reminded Max many times each day to wiggle his two teeth to help get them out.  Each time he'd dutifully wiggle his teeth for a minute and then forget about it until the next time we reminded him.

After two weeks of getting nowhere I decided to conduct an experiment in economics.  I offered to pay Max $5 per tooth that he removes before the deadline.  After all, why should I be the only one to enjoy the surplus generated by not paying an expensive dentist to pull baby teeth?  Without the bribe, Max has no incentive to help me gain that surplus.

Max was fired up.  He stood to gain TEN WHOLE DOLLARS.  He wiggled those teeth with renewed ferocity... for a minute.  Then he forgot about it just like before.  We kept reminding him of how much money was on the line, but the tactic just wasn't working.

One night brushing teeth as the deadline approached, I noticed that one of his two offending baby teeth was very loose and ready to come out.  I half-jokingly implored him to just let me rip out the tooth then and there, expecting to be stonewalled.  But Max surprised me: "If I let you pull it now then I want both of the five dollars!"

My knee-jerk reaction was to refuse.  I'm boss around here, kid.  This is not a negotiation.  But I thought more about it while I brushed his teeth.  Time for a flip-flop, just to see what happens: "Okay, Max.  If you let me pull that tooth right now then I'll give you $10, and you can still earn $5 for the other one later."

Next thing I know, I'm now faced with the job of pulling a tooth from a willing six-year-old.  He stood there with his mouth open and his eyes shut tight, braced for impact.  I never thought it would get this far.  To be honest, I was getting cold feet.  What kind of six-year-old lets his dad pull a tooth for money?  When I was a kid there wasn't enough money in the world to convince me to let anyone pull out my teeth before they fell out on their own.

Anyway, the tooth came out quite easily.  Max was proud and fascinated by the new hole in his gums.  And boy oh boy was he happy with his $10.  But the story doesn't end yet.

The dentist's deadline approacheth.  So the very next night in the bathroom brushing teeth I said to Max, "Just let me pull that other one, too."  I thought for sure he'd refuse this time.  This second tooth was not as loose as the first; it would be harder to pull and might hurt a lot.

He didn't even bother to negotiate this time.  He was now an old hand at this tooth extraction thing.  It would be easy.

So once again I find myself tasked with pulling a tooth from a kid's mouth.  I think I was more nervous than he was.  What if it's harder to pull than I thought?  What if it really hurts?  Should I back out?

Never.  I'm not going to be upstaged by my six-year-old son.  So I pulled.  And pulled.  The tooth would not come.  It slid between my fingers and my nails were too short to get good purchase.  I grabbed a dry cloth for a better grip.  I pulled.  Again.  The tooth came out!

Max was solid as a rock the whole time.  Proud as a peach when it was done, and very happy with his additional $5.  I'm incredulous.  He is made of tougher stuff than I.

Hail damage up at the river

Looks like we'll need to re-do the kitchen roof.

Photo courtesy of Uncle Jeff.

Ada's new tricks

Baby Ada is growing quickly and is doted on by everyone in the house.  She says mama, dada and da dun (all done).  There has been some discussion about whether she also says "Hi!".  The rest of the time she babbles nonsense that no one can understand...but it sounds like we should be able to. She also waves goodbye, claps and dances.  Occasionally she will sign all done, but most of the time when you ask her if she is all done she just looks at the ceiling fan.  She crawls, climbs up on furniture and wrecks havoc around the house (although baby Darwyn still has her beat in that regard).   She is just starting to stand on her own unsupported, so she will probably walk in the next few months. She loves to play peekaboo and be tickled and she has also just started playing chase.  She self feeds and tries to feed others as well.  She finally got two teeth at ten and a half months.  She continues to be very sunny and easy going.  Anyway, enjoy a few cute videos I captured on my phone of her milestones (and a couple cute photos thrown in for good measure).

Video of Ada first learning to crawl (sorry it is sideways):

Ada plays wears the baby:

Two videos of Ada with Cats.  Ada loves animals.  The second video is mediocre but includes nice audio of Ada babbling.

Baby Ada reads to herself

Learning frisbee early

Failed baby proofing

Ada loves babies.

Ada's cousin Tommy moves home.  More babies!

Ada "helps" empty the dishwasher