Holiday Cheer

Christmas 2008

We had a lovely Christmas this year even if we were (as J. says) 'Missing a puzzle piece'. I was so busy trying to capture every moment for that puzzle piece that I didn't have time to get emotional about the whole thing.

On Christmas Eve, after Skyping with daddy and talking to Mamie on the phone, we went to my sister's place to (as J. put it) 'meet who we love'. As we were driving to my sister's place J. saw a truck driving in front of us (obviously going the same way). He told me that that truck couldn't be going to Aunty K's place. I asked him why not and he said, 'I no love it.' I guess only the people he loves were going to Aunty K's place. The day before that I asked him what he had bought me for a present. After a moment's thought he said very matter-of-factly, 'I not Santa, Mama.' O.K, only Santa gives presents. Good to know.

E. was thrilled about Christmas this year. She TOTALLY gets the whole thing now right from Santa down through Christmas morning. For some reason though she has suddenly developed a Boston accent for her 'a' sounds so 'Santa' has become 'Senta' and 'camera' (which she asked for for Christmas) has become a 'cemera'. Here's a glimpse:

So the kiddies made and threw the mandatory Reindeer food:










The cookies and milk for Santa:









Santa rounded out the evening with a quick visit! As J. saw the 'old' guy coming down the stairs, he ran to get his stocking. He certain knows what he's doing for a kid experiencing his first Christmas.









I started the 4th book in the Twilight series meaning that, thanks to my niece who got me started, I missed much of the socialization of the season :-)). Actually, I missed a lot of Wii-ing - the latest video addiction of our family. So, with that, we were off to bed....so we'd be all ready for the big day!

Why Do I Do It?

O.K. people, it is -30 here today. Yes, minus thirty. My kids haven't been outside for close to a week and they are getting.....to be frank......bad. They are into all the things they know they shouldn't be into. My son is telling me, 'No' when I ask him to stop.....let's see.....banging lego on the kitchen table, hitting my walls with K'nex sticks, banging the hardwood floor and bathroom counter tops with a rocking horse snowglobe, etc. My daughter is repeatedly turning on and off lights in the house, turning on our bedroom fan anytime she is within sight of it, screaming and crying when I turn off the TV so we can go eat breakfast (yes, I tried to get a little extra sleep this morning so I let them watch cartoons in my bed - hmmm... no, it didn't work. I mean I didn't get any extra sleep), and she hasn't fininshed a single meal over the past few days = no dessert = tantrumssss.

So, they really, really needed a change of scenery today, but, did I tell you....yep, it's -30 outside. I was so desperate, that we went out to do some errands anyway. I needed milk and dental floss (my teeth are really close together and if I can't floss it drives me crazy). Oh yeah, we also decided that we needed glittery confetti for the Reindeer Food that we put out Christmas Eve, so I thought we'd get that at the same time.

So, I get the kiddies all bundled up. I pull on my long-johns, tuque, gloves, etc. and we lumber over to the car. Carseats aren't really made for kids that are, now, this big so I have to struggle to get them buckled into the seats. Of course I can't wear gloves when I'm doing this - trust me, it just doesn't work to get the buckles snapped and the clips clipped. At this point having bare hands is no biggie because we're still in the garage, but....have I mentioned....yep, it's -30 out in the real world.

Anyway, off we go. It's about 10:30 am. and, as we're driving, I realize that it's Sunday and most places don't open until 11 or 12:00. Ummm.... I take a chance and hit the Work Warehouse to exchange a Christmas present (not even Christmas yet and I'm already taking gifts back that I bought) because I found out after the fact that a certain family member wants a furry cap with ears, not a fleecy cap with ears. It's OPEN! (not the cap, the store). We struggle out of the car. My hands are freezing by the time I get both kids unbuckled. We pause beside the car as Mama gets her gloves back on and then we make our way over the iced in parking lot and into the store. There is a very short line! Yeah! We make our exchange and we're out of there within 10 minutes (this is important because we don't want to have to take stuff off yet we don't want to get overheaded either or we'll be colder once we get outside again). We struggle back into the car and head over to Superstore. Why Superstore for milk and dental floss? Carts that have two seats. Cuts down on the arguing and crying.
Get there, haul the kidlets out of the car and drag them as fast as possible across the icy parking lot over to the dollar store. It is about a 2 minute walk to get there, but I just can't face hauling them out of and putting them back into those friggn' seats just to escape a 2 minute 'walk'. They can sure walk fast when you pull them by the arm :-)).

So were looking around the store for some Christmas type confetti when E. spies some palm tree confetti. Yes, palm trees....for Santa's reindeer....hmmmm. She really wants it and I figure, 'Hey, it's her thing, why not.' So we score the palm tree confetti and we're back out on the road.

We 'wander' back over to Superstore; stand in the freezing cold trying to find the &%#$ loonie that I need for a cart and then struggle to thread a 30+ pound kid (who now weighs about 50 pounds due to all the gear) into a hole that is just barely big enough for the winter boots and pants. As I'm doing the same with the other kid, I realize that there is only one center hole. They have to share it and their legs are at least 3 sizes bigger than normal! There is some whining and commenting on this, but they are both cold enough that they let it go so we can get inside. Actually, J.'s ears are starting to get pretty cold now because he's a gagger. You know those kids. They can't have anything tight around their necks without going into hysterics about how it chokes them, they can't breathe, etc. Yep, that's J. Because of that, his tuque isn't tied as tightly as his sister's (just an aside here, when we came out of the store, his gagginess seemed to have eased enough for me to tie his tuque on really tight..hmmmm...go figure).

Anyway, we get into the store, fill the cart with all our outdoor gear and head off to look for our dental floss and milk. My kids both have snotty noses by this point (and mine's not doing too good either), but I don't have any kleenex. I'm not talking gobs of the stuff coming out. No, just enough to give them that 'Nobody loves me' whiteness around the nose. So, 118 dollars later we're at the till and that's without any milk. They didn't have any milk, like NO milk at all. Can you believe that?

We load everything up, we get home and the kiddies.....wait for it....want to play outside. I figure we might as well go for it. E. loves playing outside and is rarely bothered by the cold. J., well let's just say he doesn't have ANY insulation (I'm talking really none at all here - he freezes at the pool) and it's close to lunchtime, and he hasn't figure out how to keep his thumb in the right place in his mittens, and it's close to lunchtime. So, he plays for about 3 minutes (in which time he has three short crying jaggs because things aren't working out the way he wants them too) before he decides that he is....FREEZING! He then proceeds to repeat, "I'm freezing!" while crying his head off standing in the garage as far away as possible from the door to the house. Any suggestion that he may walk himself over to the door, up the stairs and into the house are met with the phrase....wait for it......"I'm freezing Mama, I'm freezing, I'm freezing!" God forbid he actually solve his problem.

I go over to E. and tell her it's time to come in. She looks completely stunned that we would even think of leaving this winter paradise, but consents to going in for some lunch. Our adventure ends this way:

J. is lying on the stairs, still in the garage, crying and screaming that he's freezing while E. and I get our clothes off in the house. J. is so close to coming in the house that he can reach out with his fingertips and make sure that the door between the garage and the house stays open (he needs to be sure that we know what his problem is). I get E. undress, take the shopping bags to the kitchen and when I come back J. has transferred himself to the carpet in the entrance. The door is wide open and he is still having a meltdown about freezing. We've got a real Einstien on our hands here. I pick him up, praising him up for doing such an amazing job at solving his coldness problem by coming in the house. Wow, Wow! I just can't believe how wonderful of a job he did. His face is full of snot and he continues to cry a little all the while insisting that he's still a little cold. Ahhhhh.....I'm gonna miss these times one day.

A Year, A Year

At this time last year, I had just finished J.'s bedroom. We had been to a Christmas party with the Assist Center and E. had had her picture taken with Santa. We were waiting for news about J. and praying that we would get into and out of China before Chinese New Year. Now he lies sleeping upstairs after having spent the morning at his babysitter's place playing with his sister and a couple of other little boys.

Jean-Pierre is gone now. Everything went really well and we expect to hear something from him early next week.

Christmas and Romance, ahhh

Yesterday was a big day of firsts for all of us.

J.'s first was helping to decorate his first Christmas tree. Although I didn't realize it as we set up the tree yesterday, it was almost exactly a year ago yesterday that we finally received the call that said our LOA had arrived from China. That ended a 152 day (5 month) wait. I remember feeling so joyful, so incredibly relieved only to get ourselves psyched up for another wait for the TA.

Ahh, a year ago we waited and this year we decorated with our amazing little man. He loved it. At one point he pulled out his special ornament. It's a one of his referal pictures inside a frame that says 'Love'. It was so bitter-sweet creating and hanging that ornament last year, knowing that he was coming home, but never knowing when. This year J. hung that ornament himself as he proudly explained to E. that this picture was when he was in China and we were waiting for him to finish the puzzle of our family. He has definately done that....

Our other first yesterday was that we left the kids overnight. Yes, we spent our first night away from them! I surprised myself. I wasn't the least bit worried about them. It really felt like the time was right and I was leaving them with one of my sisters and my niece (her daughter obviously) so there really wasn't anything to worry about. The kids proved that they were really ready for it too. Neither of them cried when we explained it to them and they were totally 'fine' when we left. I say 'fine' because at one point in the afternoon my sister came over to drop some stuff off. It was a couple of hours before we needed to leave and my sister was just dropping the stuff and then she was coming back. As soon as she walked in the door, E. was literally pushing me out. She kept saying, 'Isn't it time for your meeting Mama? You'd better get going to your meeting Mama.' Umm.... I had just stepped out of the shower and was only wearing a towel. I don't think I was quite ready for my 'meeting' (as she put it).

So, off we finally went to DH's work Christmas party and then stayed in a hotel literally just down the street from our house. The kiddies made cookies, watched movies and ate popcorn with their (likely new favourite) Auntie and their (already well loved) cousin.

More News

Thanks for the advice about the ecinacha. I have been taking it, but not in such big doses. I've only been taking 2 pills every morning. Once this sucker is gone, I'll do that for the next one. In answer to Monica's question, yes, since I started working, I've gotten sick each time Jean-Pierre has gone away. It just takes me getting a little (I mean a very little) run down and boom it hits me again. It has always been like that whenever I start teaching at a new place. It will pass and (if history repeats itself) next year I should be as strong as a horse.

So, we got the official word yesterday. Jean-Pierre (well, and others) leaves for his trip in about two weeks. Hopefully it will only be for 4 months. The timing is actually not so bad. I mean, yes, he won't be here for Jay-Jay's first Christmas and his one year anniversary of being in our family, but he should be back for the really good parts of the year like summer holidays and the kids' birthdays. The birthdays part is likely going to be touch and go because Jean-Pierre will be one of the last guys to leave at the end as he'll have to do the hand-over to the guys coming after them.

So, as Jennifer mentioned, since we knew it was likely coming, we are not totally surprised. We thought they would have a month's notice before leaving, but after having been involved with the military for 14 years now, nothing surprises me and we pretty much know how to roll with it now. This is not nearly as stressful as being moved to a different province, totally out of the blue, when you are in the middle of an international adoption. Nope, this is a piece of cake compared to that. But, we know that this is Jean-Pierre's job, it's what puts food on our table and clothes on our backs so we have to take the good with the bad.

Jean-Pierre is happy to be getting the chance to put his skills to good use and he is looking forward to seeing for himself what is really going on over there without the spindoctoring we see in the media. Take just this mission for example. On the net, some articles give the impression that Canada is sending over the Griffon helicopter to attack targets. They have been called 'Gunships'. The mission for the Griffons is to protect the Chinook helicopters that will be carrying our guys and their equipment from place to place. The idea is to keep some of our people off the roads, where they are vulnerable to attack, by flying them through the air instead.

Here's the really ironic part..... Since Jean-Pierre will have access to the internet, I'll likely be updating the blog a lot more often so he can stay up-to-date with the kiddies :-)).

Newses Bullets

• Jean-Pierre went away for 4 days and, boom, I got sick again. Damn, I have the weakest immune system on the planet these days and it's driving me crazy. It always starts with a sore throat and then progresses. I didn't try to be a hero this time though. I took two days off work (no, my math curriculum is never going to get done) and am feeling better. Not 100%, but I don't think the cold is going to last a whole month like the last one.
• Speaking of being away. The government announced yesterday that the Canadian Griffon helicopters are going to Afganistan. It just happens to be Jean-Pierre's squadron's turn so he'll be going. No word at this point as to exactly when they'll leave, but we'll be very lucky if he's here for Christmas. The squadron in Quebec is supposed to take over in April so he may only be gone for 3 or 4 months. Of course as nothing is ever certain once the government gets involved he may easily be gone longer. There has been some talk of 9 month rotations. We'll see.
• Our babies are both happy and healthy these days. They are completely obsessed with Cinderella. They don't care about the 'princessy' part (so to speak). They CONSTANTLY (no, I really mean c.o.n.s.t.a.m.t.l.y.) replay the same scenes (I mean over and over and over):

Scene 1: The ugly step-sisters ruin the dress Cinderella made for the ball by ripping off the bead necklace and the ribbons. The required (yes, 'required') dialogue for this scene is always, "That's my ribbon! That's my bead (they aren't too good with plurals yet)!" They are ripping at your clothes as they say this, usually in unison. Then they gleefully shout, "You can't go to ball Cinderella!" Then they command, "Cry Mama/Daddy/Lao-Lao/Heather/or whoever they have talked into playing the scene".

Scene 2: A bit more infrequent than scenes 1, 3 & 4, but still nauseatingly often: Cinderella is crying in the garden and the Fairy Godmother cames and fixes her up. It's actually E. that acts out this scene the most often. In a very soft and gentle voice she says, "Don't cry Cinderella. I your Fairy Godmother." Then she waves whatever is in her hand at the moment (a pencil, a knex piece, a dish towel) at you and the scene ends. Alternately, at random moments she suddenly puts her head in her arms and you have to know the right dialogue (see above) to bring her out of that position.

Scene 3: The infamous 'Cinderella Running from the Ball' scene. This one is acted out at least 10 times a day (not kidding here).

And finally, Scene 4: 'Trying on the Glass Slipper' scene. You have to try the slipper on them, they have to try it on you; sometimes they are the ugly step-sisters, sometimes you're the ugly step-sisters (you are never Cinderella though); sometimes one slipper gets broken by the wicked step-mother and Cinderella pulls the other one out from her pocket, sometimes not; sometimes Mama and Daddy have to act out the whole 'running from the ball, losing the slipper, searching for Cinderella and getting married' scene - that is the top of the top for them.

The Running Game

There's a game that we used to play with E. after she had been home a few months. Since she was really attached to me, but didn't want to have much to do with Jean-Pierre, we used to play the 'I'm Gonna Get You' game. I would run towards her to tickle her and J.-P. would save her by grabbing her and running away from me. This game actually really helped her develop a stronger bond to J.-P. because she got used to feeling safe in his arms.

I'd forgotten about that game until this evening. After supper J-P was playing 'Scary Monster' with J. and E. At one point J was startled to tears when J-P jumped out unexpectedly. J. ran over to me for comfort (unusual when daddy is around). So, we started to play 'Mama saves J. from the Scary Monster' game. We both loved it. He would go close to J-P and then beatle back to my arms as fast as his little legs would carry him as daddy chased him. I scooped him up and we ran around the kitchen as daddy tried to catch us. He held on to me so tight, laughing all the way. A great bonding experience for us that didn't take anything away from his bond with daddy.

Here are the two kiddies running back in forth in the house during the summer. J. is much more stable as he runs now. It's incredible how his muscles and coordination have developed since he's been home.

Arguments - Part 2

My son had another argument with me last evening after supper. I'm astounded by his tenacity (a trait that has served him well and will likely be very useful in his future).

So, he's sitting on my knee at the table after supper. He's playing with a little computer type game that has a saxophone on it. Here's the conversation:

J.: This is a trumpet hey mom?

M: That's a saxophone J., like the one the turtles on the school bus have (the animals in the school bus are actually frogs, but he insists they are turtles so I go along with it).

J.: Hmmmm, mom, it's a trumpet.

M: Look J. it's curved. A trumpet is straight. Remember we saw it in the book we have. (I now know that he is not going to give this up until I agree that it's a trumpet, so I continue just to see how far he'll go).

J.: Ummm, mom....maybe it's a trumpet. Yah, it's a trumpet.

M: Ummmm, J. it's a saxophone.

J.: Maybe a trumpet mom. A trumpet.

M: Go get the book and I'll show you the difference.

J: It's really a trumpet mom.

I go and get the book and show him the difference between a trumpet and a saxophone. We talk about the different looks and sounds of the instruments. He nodds in agreement and names the instruments correctly in the book. We close the book and begin to play with the computer game again.

J: Ummm, mom.....look, that's a trumpet.

I GAVE UP!

Remembrance Day Ceremony

Today we went to the Remembrance Day Ceremony here in town. You may be asking yourselves why we would subject ourselves to one hour of public solemness... in a public place...with two three year olds and you would be right. What were we thinking?

Jean-Pierre was required by work to do something 'offical' to mark today. He was lucky enough to get permission to do something close to home so we could spend the day together. So, we got all dressed up and away we went.

Actually, we have great confidence in our kiddies and they did not disappoint. Yes, they got a little restless during the laying of the wreaths, but otherwise they were very respectful and attentive. The bagpipes at the beginning really got their attention. J. was also enthralled whenever daddy would salute - like during the National Anthem, etc. At one point he saluted along with papa. It was so adorable. I'm not too sure I want him to get too enthusiastic about the military though. I think having a husband in the forces is enough. I don't really need my children to join up too.

The ceremony was quite religious actually. At the beginning the minister said something about how we were all in the 'presence' of god. Next thing I know J. looking all around and repeating, 'Presents? Presents?' He just couldn't figure out where the 'presents' were that the guy was talking about and, more importantly, if any of those 'presents' were for him.

More Nursery Rhymes

Here's E.'s version of 'Ring Around the Rosie'.

There is a second verse to this song (who knew?) that goes:

Cows are in the meadow,

eating buttercups

Husha, husah,

we all jump up.

Yeah.... here's what E. sings:

And J., well.... let's just say... everything he sings ends up sounding like 'The Farmer in the Dell'.