Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Yesterday I cleaned the spare room/office. It was long overdue and I didn't just tidy, I washed windows, curtains, baseboards etc. I called Justin to come up and take a look when I was done and of course Jude raced to see what was happening. Jude stepped into the room, looked around and yelled, "Oh! Clean!"
This room was so messy that a 21 month old noticed a difference. While Justin admired my handiwork, Jude and I Windexed the mirrored closet doors. Probably the biggest disappointment in this boy's life occurred during this process. When I squirted the Windex and handed him a paper towel, he happily went to cleaning the door. It wasn't until all the Windex was wiped away and I refused him the bottle that he collapsed in a heap on the floor, crying, sobbing, "Clean, clean, clean" through his tears.

Friday, August 24, 2007

Colour Your World

I bought Jude a few colouring books to go along with the crayons he is no longer eating. We sit at the table, pull Sophie's high chair up close and load it up with toys and colour colour colour. I'm not sure I ever enjoyed colouring as much as I have this past week. In fact between you and me, I colour when the kids are sleeping.
Jude can be a bit trying at times to colour with. He's a bit of a crayon Nazi. He hands out the crayons one by one and I have to hand back the one I've finished with before he gives me a new one. And he likes to re-colour the pages I've already coloured. Which honestly, I don't mind. He looks so proud when he's doing it. And he holds up the book, still clutching the crayon in his hand and yells, "Mama! Look!" I mean, how sweet is that? I just wish he'd wait until I'm done.
I introduced pencil crayons into the mix yesterday (I was colouring a page that was a bit more intricate than the others, okay?) and apparently the pencil crayons have a drug problem. They have to keep running off to the washroom (okay, it's to be sharpened). The last thing a crayon Nazi needs is a sharpener, you know?

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Play me a song

A few years ago there was supposed to be a concert in Toronto featuring Elton John and Billy Joel. The show ended up being cancelled before the tickets went on sale even (I think - at least, we hadn't bought our tickets yet) but man, were we ever looking forward to that show.




And then last night, an impromtu gig with two of my most favourite people in the world. Sorry Elton and Billy, but these two rocked.









Wednesday, August 15, 2007

ch-ch-ch-changes




One of the things on my Things To Do List is to get a bunch of pictures printed of both of the kids for their own respective baby albums. Of course Jude has changed - you'd expect him to as he is almost 2 years older than he was when he was... ahem... born.


But Sophie!


Man, has she ever changed.

Take a look here at pictures of her when she was about three weeks old.




And now look at her, 4 months later.




I wonder what the next 4 months will bring...






pictures at last


Hanging out, watching tv


"The gang" - Jude, Sophie, Hannah and Marcus


My son is a lunatic



Pretty girl

Not enough for their own post

A few anecdotes:

On Saturday we had some business to attend to in America and got stuck waiting at the border. We had left fairly early (so before breakfast) hoping that the kids would sleep in the car until we could get across and get something to eat... But we brought emergency supplies just in case. Jude and Sophie slept right up to the Queenston/Lewiston bridge and then woke up. Jude hammed it up for people in the cars around us (I kept seeing people drive past us smiling and waving at my backseat and hearing Jude yelling, "Hi!"). Sophie woke up and started crying and it was like, suddenly, she stopped. I turned around to make sure she was still breathing and I noticed that Jude was holding her hand. What a nice brother. And then I noticed all the cheerios on Sophie's lap. And that he wasn't holding her hand; he was passing her a cheerio. (Sophie is still strictly breast milk).

We are trying to give Sophie more tummy time, to get her ready for crawling. She doesn't like it so much. Especially when a certain older brother climbs on her back and yells, "Horsey!"

In this heat I am always afraid that Jude isn't drinking enough water. Especially since we are reluctant to give him a sippy cup and let him carry it around with him. He has a habit of shaking the water out into the least desirable places like the telephone charger, the hardwood floors, his books etc. I've started giving him half an inch or so of water at a time in a big plastic cup that he can drink like a big boy, and that I can make him drink in front of me. Yesterday I was drinking water from one of those cups and Jude came over for a sip. It was probably about half full and Jude took a sip or two of his own and then wandered over to where Sophie was sitting in the exersaucer. And he gave her a sip. And the water splashed all down the front of her shirt. The cold cold water fresh from the Brita jug. And she screamed bloody murder. Jude panicked and I grabbed the water before he could drop it and he started banging poor Sophie on the back saying, "O-kay! O-Kay! O-kay!"

I guess I have new pictures on the camera, but then I would have to go all the way downstairs to get the card. So maybe later today or tomorrow I will do a picture post.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Is the honeymoon over?

I couldn't believe it. This afternoon we were watching 4 Square and I was singing along to the French Canadian dance troupe and Jude shushed me. I looked over at him in astonishment, like, he just shushed me? And because I couldn't believe that my loving son, the very same boy who came down from a bath with his father and immediately climbed into my arms and kissed me about a thousand times while his father told me that he kept asking for me when they were upstairs, the little boy who called "Night night, honey," to me when he went to sleep last night, could be that very same boy to actually shush his own mother - well, I kept singing.
That's when he started shaking his head sternly, "No no no!"
So I stopped. And I sat there on the couch, holding my other baby, the one who likes my singing and sang quietly, defiantly, into her ear. And she smiled.