We had our family portraits done this weekend, for the first time since shortly after Goose was born.  I have a tonne of pictures of the lils, many with Willy, and even a couple with me, but only one of the four of us together.  It was time.

The entire process was very entertaining for the lils.  Sara, from Sara McConnell Photography, arrived early to set up.  They both peppered her with questions about everything that she was doing, and she patiently answered each one.  Having two lil people of her own must have prepared her for this.  They were fascinated by the lights, the stands, the hockey bag that she stows her gear in, the different noises that her camera made…  The newness of it all was SO INTERESTING.

Hands down the best part of the day (for them) was the square of the paper backdrop that she left behind taped to the floor. They have spent hours since she left happily drawing on the paper.  They’ve been allowed to leave the markers out and come and go as they please, which is a big step for all of us, especially me.  I mean leaving markers out for the lils to use when ever they wanted? In the livingroom?

It’s gone amazingly well.  We’ve only had one incident where they went off the paper, and had to be reminded of where to draw.  And where NOT to draw.

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I am that person. You know, the one who loves to cook and share what I make.  Friends sometimes even ask me to share recipes, I promise that I will, and rarely follow through.  I am sure that I have promised a recipe and failed to send it to most people that read this blog!  It’s not that I don’t want too share, or that the recipes are family secrets that must be kept in the vault, I’m just a wee bit forgetful, but keep resolving to get better.

A couple of months ago Rebecca S, who writes A Bit of Momsense, made a call for contributors to her new foodie blog, A Bit of Foodsense.  I thought about it for a while, and then let her know that I would love to contribute, if she’d have me. She said yes, and I saw it as an opportunity to share my recipes.

I am still not sure if my recipes fit with what she envisions for the site, or if they are good enough, but they keep getting posted.  That must be a good sign!  I have one up today, for our new family favourite banana blueberry bread!  So now is your chance, have I ever promised you a recipe and not followed through?  Let me know and I’ll get right on it…

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I wrote a review of the newest Starr Gymnastics on Kids in the Capital today.  We attended a party that they hosted for Kids in the Capital, and the whole family had a great time!

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From the time he was a wee baby, Woo has challenged us when getting dressed in the morning. We used to get him dressed as soon as he got up, but he started fighting that, so we would bring him downstairs and one of us would dress him while the other got breakfast ready, but that stop working too. These days, we pretty much have to cajole him into the clothes as we are putting on his outerwear and heading to daycare. He gets dressed, but barely.

This “works” for the days when we go to work. The rest of the time? There is no hope. He wakes on the days that we are home together, and the first thing out of his mouth is “today is a pajama day”. If we don’t have plans, he is very happy and carries on with the day. If I have dared to make plans for us, I need to assure him a half dozen times that he can return to his jammies the moment we return to the house, and only then will he get dressed, at the last possible moment.  He is back in them as soon as we return home, even if we are out several times a day!

It has gotten to the point where he is sneaking back into his jammies if I get him dressed too quickly before we go out. If there are a few free minutes, he’s back in the PJs. He even does it when we have company, regardless of whether it is his friends or ours. He just runs off to the “bathroom” and reappears in his loungewear.

Two weeks ago the lils came down with the plague, and Goose was so sad one day that I left her in her PJs so that she could be more comfortable. I think that a light went off in her head that day, and she realized that she doesn’t have to get dressed.  This week she started to tell me that she doesn’t want to get dressed before we go downstairs.  I know that it is just a matter of time…

Their dad, who my family has referred to a “Heff” for his love of wearing his robe all day, is very proud. If you are coming for a visit any time soon, don’t be surprised if I am the only one dressed. I’ll be in my yoga pants though. Those aren’t pajamas, right?

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Last night was my night to tuck Woo in. As we lay in the dark chatting, he told me he wanted to talk about sports. We spent pretty much the entire weekend outside doing vaguely sporty things, so I was pleased that he went there. I figured that we could talk about some new things to try, or some of the things that Willy and I like to play.

All he wanted to talk about was skating at first, but gradually we started to move to new winter sports, and I found out that he is not interested in skiing and does want to do some snowshoeing. He got to try it this weekend and had fun despite it being hard work. We moved on to summer sports, and I talked about soccer and T-Ball. He was lukewarm to soccer, but seemed interested in T-ball. I asked him if he wanted to try it this spring.

He was silent for a moment, and I thought that he was considering it. “Mommy”, he said very seriously, “will they pay me to play T-ball?”

After I laughed for a few minutes, I explained about recreational sports and how very few people get paid to play sports, but most like us, play for the fun and the exercise. At least I know that he’s thinking about his future, though the jury is still out on whether he’ll play T-ball for free this summer.

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Today is “Hockey Day in Canada”.  I know that this is a creation of the CBC, and can be pretty gimmicky, but it gets me every year.  I love hockey, have all of my life, so anything that glorifies it is OK with me. The fact that I get a solid ten hours of TV on hockey, dissecting hockey, showcasing hockey, with three one anthem games interspersed?  Icing on the cake.

This hockey day is a little more special to me, as Woo has started to get really into hockey, so I have someone new to share it with!  He insisted on dressing himself in his hockey themed clothing (including Senators socks), and playing indoor hockey during every spare minute of the morning – until we headed off to the rink.  He was at the rink for just over four hours this afternoon, and his skates were on/stick in hand the entire time he was there.  We couldn’t get him off, even if we tried.

I didn’t play hockey, or even skate as a child, but we had a local rink, and my dad and brother were active in the rec hockey league. We spent many a saturday hanging out there watching my brother and the other teams play.  I took up skating and playing hockey in my early thirties, and long for the time to get back at it.  I absolutely love to play hockey and want to improve my skills.  Skills like stopping, for example!

My house was a house divided.  My dad was a Leafs fan, my mom a Canadiens fan.  We all knew that the leafs just suck, but the week before my dad died, they played each other.  The Leafs somehow beat the Habs 7-4, and my dad managed to stay up for the entire game, ribbing me all along.  The hockey gods smiled on the Leafs, and that was the last time that I spent with my dad where he was happy and relaxed.  I stayed with the Habs faithfully until I became a Senators season ticket holder in 1996. My Habs jersey was the first that I ever got.  I was about six and it was 4 sizes too big for me, but I wore it with pride.  It still hangs in my closet, just in case one of the lils loses their way and ends up a Habs fan one day.

Some of my best memories are rooted in hockey, like the Canada-Russian Junior game that I went to with my siblings at the Civic centre in the mid?late? eighties, when the Russian team, who had clearly never seen the wave before, stopped playing for several minutes to watch it go around and around and around. The night that Gretzky made that pass to Lemieux to score the goal that won the 1987 Canada Cup, interrupted in our house by the mouse that chose to make a visit.  Watching the 67’s win the 1999 Memorial Cup, even though they were down and out in the game, and by the fact that they had been sitting waiting for the tourney to start for sixish weeks.  Willy was a newby hockey fan at this point, and I think this week of non-stop hockey hooked him.  The night that Steve Duchesne put the Sens into the playoffs stands out as one of the best and hands down the loudest Sens game that I have been to, and spawned a tradition of playoff tailgates hosted by my brother that continues to this day. The 2007 Stanley Cup finals, right after Woo was born, and the 2008-2009 WJHC right after Goose was born.  Both were awesome rides, and both marked the occasions that I left my new little babies with sitters for the first time.  Watching games with Goose and Woo, including the 2010 Gold medal game, when they were just as excited as we were.  Taking each of them to their first hockey games, and seeing the sparkle in their eyes.

So I’ll embrace hockey day, and continue to build on it with the family.  Today was a good start!

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My grandmother moved in with us when I was five or six. Glammy was my mom’s mother, and she stayed with us for about ten months. This was a temporary stay, as she was between homes. She lived with us after she sold the family home until she bought a new, smaller home.

I have few memories of that time. It was certainly a disruptive on some level, although I don’t recall that. My dad got along very well his mother-in-law, but I am not sure how well that played over this extended stay. I know that I could not live with my mom again, not for ten days, let alone ten months, but there was little friction. The three kids must have been somewhat inconvenienced too, but that didn’t have a lasting impression. I know that Glammy slept in my brother’s room, and he was clearly displaced, but I don’t know where he went, if he got the basement, or moved into Neeroc’s and my room and we went to the basement, or what happened. I am pretty sure that I got to stay in my room and my siblings had to move artound (I was the baby after all).

My best memories of this time are of cuddling in bed with Glammy. She would tuck me in at night, or I would sneak into her room in the morning. We would hide under the covers and laugh and tell silly stories, watch tv in her room, or just hang out together. My clearest memory is of one of our tuck-in cuddles. We were lying in the dark, and I was telling her all about the many stuffed animals that were piled all over my bed.

There were at least fifteen, and each had a name, a story, a blankie, and a special place in the bed. This night, as she had done before, Glammy patiently played along with me and listened to each story. The stories were going smashingly until we got to “Mousalita”, my little stuffed mouse*. At this point she started shrieking “there’s a mouse in the bed, there’s a mouse in the bed”. I laughed and tried to explain that it was a stuffed mouse, but every time that I said “mouse”, she started shrieking again, to my great amusement. It went on for a while, getting more and more giggly. My mom, finally came in and broke it up and I went to bed. This became our thing though, and was repeated on many a night.

I thought of this last night as I kissed and tucked Woo and Goose in before I went to sleep. Their beds, you see,

are piled high with stuffies and blankies, just like mine always was. Wonder when we will start to hear all about them at bedtime.

*I was very original with names, others included Liony, Beara, Leo (a leopard, of course), and my favourite, Rabbadoodazz.

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The lils had cameras stuffed in their faces since birth.  Their lives have been well documented, and they are very comfortable having cameras in their faces.  Both have gone through phases where they balk at having their pictures taken, but for the most part they play along by ignoring me or smiling occasionally.

For Christmas last year, Woo’s cousin gave him a small digital camera. She already had one, and he had been coveting it.  He loved it and still does, using it most days.  in some ways is is perfect for him.  Designed for little hands, and rugged enough to handle the inevitable drops from those same hands.  It takes pictures and video, and he has a blast with it.  There are two things that limit it though, it is fairly low resolution/low quality lens, and the pictures are erased when the batteries die.  He really loves it.

Woo is also becoming more interested in my photography.  He was always asking questions in the fall, when I took a photography class, wanting to know why I went and what I learned.  Then he started composing pictures for me, asking that I take a picture as a memento of something or because he found a particular scene “really beautiful”, like this one (taken under his direction):

While we were away last week, he started monkeying around with the underwater camera that we had borrowed from Uncle Matt. He took a couple of funny pictures of Willy, who was hamming it up for him. Here’s one:

Then the night before last Willy was taking pictures of the lils, and Woo asked to use his dSLR.  Willy was comfortable with that, so he was allowed to do so under Mommy’s careful watch.  After a couple of false starts, he produced some more passable pictures, including this one, which I like.

I am impressed with how well he framed it, considering he was looking through the viewfinder – no live view here!  The best part of these endeavours is that he really enjoyed both the responsibility and the act of taking pictures.

So yesterday I decided to give him our old point and shoot to use. I charged the battery, plugged in a memory card and sat him down educate him on taking care of the camera and to show him how everything works.  Then I let him go.  No hovering, guiding, coaching or unsolicited help.  He’s getting the hang of it!

As I tucked him in tonight, he wanted to talk about putting the pictures on the computer, so that he could look at them all the time, when he would get to take pictures again, and how he wanted to take pictures just like Mommy.  I am so excited and proud.

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When we got on the shuttle to the hotel upon arrival, there was a family of four sitting on the bench seat behind Goose and I.  It was a short  ride to the hotel, but all the children behind us did during that ride was cough.  Loud, phlegmy, cringe-inducing coughs.  With each one I cringed a little bit and leaned forward a titch more, thinking “please don’t give it to us, please don’t give it to us”.

Fast forward a week, and I felt like we were that family on the shuttle to the airport.  As much as I would like to blame the family from our arrival, there seemed to be a pretty widespread

So now they are sick, and have been since a day or so before we came home.  I know that they are sick because they have the normal signs; runny noses, red chapped noses, constant coughing and a fever that goes up and down like a yo-yo.  These things I can normal handle easily, but this week was a long week, compounded by a few extra, new symptoms that let me know that they are really feeling like crap.  Stuff like:

They now scream instead of talking.  To me, to each other, to Willy. Until we ask them to speak normally, and then they mumble incoherently.

They rarely fight with each other, yet this week they have been fighting all the time and picking at each other.

When they are not fighting, they are tattling.

They are clingy as all get out.  Normally sickness makes them subdued, but now they want to attached to me much of the time.

We have gone through six boxes of kleenex in less than a week. I know that they haven’t been wasting it either, as they both yell “boogie” with increasing alarm every time their noses need blowing.  Until I blow their noses. if I ask them to do it, they tell me that they have forgotten how.

I left them alone in the kitchen drawing with markers one morning so that I could take a shower and they didn’t do anything, other than draw on their papers.  Not themselves, each other, the table, the walls, just the paper.  The fact that I left them like this is likely a good indication that I am now also sick.

We had a house guest this week too.  I hope he bring this home to his family, though he was warned and stayed here anyway.

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We just returned from a great vacation to the Turks and Caicos.  All four of us had a wonderful time.  Parts of it went really well, exceeding expectation, parts were just as predicted, and parts were downright crazy.  There will be more on the good later, but this post is about our trip home on Monday.

We booked our trip on so that we traveled on Mondays, as that was when the direct flights were offered.  We didn’t take direct flights last year, and quickly saw that as an error in judgement during the sixteen hour travel day that only included a little over three hours of flying time.  The direct flight and on-ground transfers were two of the big reasons that we chose the Beaches in Turks, a short 4 hour flight, followed by a 15 minute drive from the airport!

All was smooth on the way down, so we hoped for the best on the way home.  On departure day, we hopped in the shuttle just as the skies opened in a torrential downpour.  We got to the airport and it was chaos.  There were several flights departing within 30 minutes of each other, and many people were waiting.  The space was small, and there was limited counter space for each airline.  Air Canada had two counters, and it moved very slowly, especially after the agents noticed that they had mistagged all of the luggage that had been received prior to our arrival, and had to re-tag it all while we waited in line, a mere three groups from the front.

Given that our wait at the airport spanned Goose’s naptime, I had promised her she could have a nap in my arms when we got to the airport.  I meant after we had checked in, cleared security, and were sitting at the gate enjoying our last Turk’s Lager of the trip.  She took it to mean that she could sleep the minute we walked through the doors, and demanded to be picked it.  I did and she promptly fell asleep, all thirty-eight pounds of her!

We finally checked in, and wandered down to security, where we stood in a VERY long line that we quickly realized wasn’t moving.  It’s small airport that uses stairs for deplaning.  That rain I mentioned?  Apparently made the stairs too slippery for the people arriving and it slowed the boarding of of those ahead of us, so they stopped processing people.  While I was still carrying sleeping Goose.

We made it through in time for Goose to wake and to get called to board.  The plane took off on schedule, and we settled in for the flight.  About forty minutes into the flight they started meal service, Willy headed to the potty with Goose, and I chilled with Woo.  Shortly into the meal service an announcement came over the speakers letting us know that they were unable to serve hot meals as the ovens were broken.  Then I started hearing the attendants tell passengers that they were out of all the food, offering one of two lonely vegetarian sandwiches, some chips or some oatmeal. By the time they got to us, I snagged the last two sandwiches, leaving the rest of the plane with nothing to eat.  There were a good fourteen rows of hungry people behind us.

Willy and Goose had returned to our seats at this point, in time for another announcement, letting us know that the lavatories hadn’t been emptied, and we needed to land to empty them.  At this point they locked the doors on the washrooms, stopped “food” and beverage service, and started a fast decent into the Bahamas.

We landed in Nassau, and were on the ground for about 40 minutes. The crew was very forthcoming, letting us know where we were going, how we long we could anticipate being delayed, and what they were doing about connecting flights.   They truly tried to make the best of a bad situation, one that was clearly stressful for them too.

It got me wondering about how this could happen? And what else are they missing? It was a  regularly scheduled plane full of small children, flying over the dinner hour.  Did the delays, extra fuel and any other fees they incurred by an unscheduled landing not cost them a pile of money? Passengers and staff alike were inconvenienced and upset by the delays and lack of preparedness, and the disruption to their travel day.  They had many hungry passengers, who were given little choice for food at the airport, and would rely on getting something on the plane.  There must have also been disruption for the passengers on the flight that was held for connecting passengers on my flight.

I understand that delays are a fact of life when travelling, but this one seems to have been entirely avoidable.   A simple checklist that included the item “plane serviced and refreshed” would have saved us all the bother.  I had plane snacks on my list, so we (and the people I shared with in front of us) were actually OK foodwise.  good thing I’m a list-maker!

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