Grundens

Here are the last of the photos from our trip up to the cabin last weekend. You'll notice the rain gear which the boys also wore for Halloween. Those pants are Grundens which is what commercial fishermen wear. I wish I had discovered them a few years ago because they have given us a new and wonderful sense of freedom in our rainy weather. Seriously, the boys last so much longer outside, they stay dry, warm, and clean. I love it! Also, I bought all three kids neck gaiters which have made a big difference as well and yesterday at REI we got waterproof gloves for them. Isn't it great? Now we can be outside and be comfortable all year long! I had a boyfriend a long time ago that said, "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes."

Beck catches some air as he launches his stick.

The boys just can't stay out of the water!

Yogi and I are talking about something and it must be good!

Beautiful Ember.

Ember tries out a stick.

A Weekend Away

It's Sunday night, late and I should be in bed, but Chris and I wanted to get this done while the photos are still so fresh! We just returned from a weekend at the cabin. (It feels like I'm always writing that!). Another wonderful time. We spent one day at the Vancouver Aquarium and one day staying closer to home except for the trip to the beach in our rain gear.

The best part of the aquarium trip was that the place was not at all busy and we didn't get rained on. The worst part was when Chris handed me Ember so he could go use the bathroom. I'm not even sure why he was carrying her, but when he left for a few minutes, she went completely crazy screaming and writhing around. People were looking at us so I put her down and she did this weird sort of elbow crawl between two garbage cans still screaming. So I picked her back up. Chris returned and then she looked over at him, gripped me tighter and said Mama. I don't get toddlers. The rational part of me knows this is just a phase, she'll be fine, blah, blah, blah, but the emotional side of me always feels a little hurt when she's so fierce in her rejection of me. It passes and then we have all kinds of wonderful, sweet moments too. But when she wants to, she can be really awful.

Here are some shots from our aquarium trip:

Now, would you believe that out of all the fabulous sea animals we see at the aquarium - like Beluga whales and their small grey, comma shaped babies, like white-sided dolphins jumping in perfect unison, like bizarre gigantic river fish from the Amazon. Out of all the amazing things we see there, Beck and Yogi have decided their absolute favorite is the Garden Eel. These little guys are about the size of #2 pencil.


Beck and Yogi spent a long time giggling at these blue jellies.

I'm in there somewhere.

Beck watching the dolphins from below.

Yogi.

Ember.

Food

I never anticipated that food would be such an issue when I became a mom. It takes up so much time: breakfast, second breakfast, cleaning up from breakfast, snack packing, lunch (three ways), cleaning up from lunch, dinner planning and prep, dinner which is often met with, "I'm not eating that!" And then there's dinner clean-up, and loading and unloading the dishwasher. And the various food accidents that occur throughout the day. There's all that and then there's all the conversation around it, the whining, begging, refusing, complaining -- the negotiating!

So, I had to laugh the other day when the first words I heard for the day which came from Beck who was laying next to me in bed were,

"Let's start eating!"

Same Song, Second Verse

Time is flying by these days. Each morning I lay in bed and think, well here we go again! My planner is heavy with classes, field trips, new friends, dental appointments, leaf raking, home managment tasks and EMBER which I wrote in all caps since she is SO MUCH WORK right now.

She's learning to feed herself and is pretty determined to do it all by herself (!) so the floor, the table, her chair, and her clothes are all a disaster every time she eats. Today, after I had her all cleaned up, she found Beck's unfinished peanut butter and jelly sandwich and made a second giant smeared mess everywhere. It reminds me of a song we used to sing at camp: Same song, second verse, could get better, but it's gonna get worse!

I guess the most important news right now is that we've met so many wonderful, interesting, fun, and welcoming families in the homeschooling community. It's been a joy. I've planned a little gathering at my house with many of the new moms I'm getting to know and I'm really looking forward to it!

Halloween 2009

And here they are (trick-or-treating at Infospace)! We had two perfectly dressed little fishermen and one beautiful garden fairy. The boys just added the authentic fishing nets to their new rain gear (purchased from a marine and fishing supply store)and they looked like they just got off a fishing boat. Ember didn't really know what we were doing, but she got right into it and had a great time carefully placing candy into her bucket. Later when she noticed the boys actually eating candy, she gave them the funniest look and starting making complaining noises like, "Hey, no fair! Where did they get that candy?!!" Funny!

Beck carved the small pumpkin all by himself and added the details on Yogi's pumpkin on the left. I carved Beck's (the one in the middle which had an impossibly hard rind on it. My wrist still hurts!) I used Beck's drawing as a guide.

Yogi and Beck just before neighborhood trick-or-treating.
Ember peeks out the mail slot while Beck and Yogi ask her for candy!


Trick-or-treating with Chris at work.