I *really* wanted to read something other than the second Warriors book to Linden at night, so Juniper happily took over the Warrior-related duties. Win-win-win.
I also realize that I didn't post last week. This was not because of any dire or particularly good reason (as my mother feared, when she called to see why there was no post), but rather because... well, to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot to post about. Or, at least, there weren't all that many photos to help tell a story. I've been laying pretty low over the last - oh, 19 weeks or so - which means that even when I do feel up to joining in on adventures, I often do not also also have the hutzpah to lug the camera along. All this is by way of saying that these posts may switch to every two weeks for awhile - at least until my energy level goes up a bit.
Anyway, I do have a bit of a hodge-podge to offer today, with some of the ways we've been weathering the shortest, dreariest month.
1. Dates
We reinstated an old favourite that had fallen by the wayside: date days! This particular time around, it was a mama/daughter, father/son divide, but next time we'll switch it up. The kid gets to choose the activities, and gets a parent all to themselves. We might as well cram as many in while it is still feasible! Clark didn't take any photos of the boys' adventure, but I have a couple from our day. It involved lunch at Subway, some knitting instruction, a game of open-handed cribbage (Juniper is only just learning, but will hold her own soon), some general library hangouts, and then a snack at Pete's Frootique. It was all pretty great, except that we were forced to sit beside a guy at the library who snored loudly the whole time. Ah well.
Knitting concentration
Pete's snack!
2. Outdoor activities
We are, obviously, a very outdoor-oriented family. February, however, makes it VERY tough to be enthusiastic about our outdoor options. This is especially true around here, where the weather is constantly in dramatic flux. One day, it is warm and rainy, the next it is freeze-your-face-off cold, and it is basically just always break-neck icy in between times. But when possible, we persevere. This past weekend, for instance, we gathered up all the gear and headed to the skating Oval at the Commons. I did not skate (in fact, I didn't even hang around long, as the wind chill was something ridiculous, like -25 C), but Clark and the kids sure did!
Gearing up
This makes it look like they had the Oval to themselves, but it was packed!
Happy little skater
Linden, rocking the hand assists that were available
3. Indoor Activities
There are way more indoor-oriented activities in February than there are other times of the year. Luckily, there are many thing to keep us occupied. We've started accumulating some great family board games, and there are always toys and books and cards, and any other number of things to fall back on. In addition, this weekend we put on a huge push to start clearing out the tiny little office downstairs, so as to move Linden down asap. The plan is to turn his room into the nursery, and the office will become his. We have already purchased a loft bed from IKEA (so as to make it fun AND to maximize space), so once the room is really and truly empty, bed construction will be the next big event. Hopefully it all works out! Anyway, I have no pictures of that labour-intensive project, but I snapped a couple of random shots from when I found the kids happily being quiet and industrious:
Mid-floor, PJ-ed Crazy 8s
Linden is becoming a Mechano aficionado!
Alright folks - that's it! See you (most likely) in a couple weeks!
Today I offer a brief glimpse into the past week, which was dominated (in my little world), by two main events: my birthday, and the much anticipated arrival of some honest-to-goodness proper winter snow.
Birthday
My actual birthday (the 15th - ie, a week ago today), was a little strange and bittersweet, but pretty satisfying when all was said and done. To begin with, the day was spent with Clark and Juniper -- Clark because he had taken the day off of work, and Juniper because she was home sick. While this might otherwise have limited our activities, this sickness of Juniper's was the tail end of some odd bug that had resulted in headache, sore throat and fever. Though she mostly felt fine by the time Monday rolled around, the fever had still been present the night before, so we kept her home from school.
Consequently, the day played out as follows:
1) we went (as a family of four) to a local coffee shop bright and early, to drink some drinks and play some charades.
2) we dropped Linden off at school (nice and late, to his delight), and the three remaining adventurers spent a bit of time at IKEA, picking out a cheap but functional bookshelf that I had been wanting for ages, in order to take care of all the books that had been piling and multiplying on various surfaces around the house.
3) I got to open some very sweet, well-chosen gifts from the kids (who had been allowed to peruse the dollar store to their heart's content): a plant-starting kit for our 2018 garden; a frame (in which Juniper plans to draw a picture of our family, which will include mystery baby); and a blank book from Linden, in which we are meant to write to each other, journal-style. Juniper and I have had such a thing for awhile now, but Linden was SUPER excited to get in on it as well. He is just thrilled every time there is a new entry, and is getting very good at reading all the words himself. He also writes his replies completely on his own, by sounding out the words as he sees fit - a fact that makes it sometimes very difficult to decipher the message (especially because he sounds out the words the way he has been taught in French Immersion, and he also often mixes up "b" and "d". For instance, if he is trying to write "a book", it might look something like "et deuc"). But I am learning, and so is he... it will be incredibly interesting to flip back through the entries as the year progresses.
4) We got thai take-out and superstore cupcakes, and sang happy birthday:
Thai and cupcakes
The day ended, unfortunately, with Clark hopping a plane to Ottawa for a week of meetings (the main reason the day was bittersweet, rather than just sweet). Everyone knows how I feel about solo parenting (especially this time of year), but to leave ON my birthday, with one kid who had just been sick, while I'm pregnant and feeling crappy? Bitter, indeed.
ANYWAY, after making it through the subsequent week (which involved me catching a variation of Juniper's sickness), Clark returned, and plans were made for the real birthday celebrations: a day of decadence for me and Zsofi (while the men entertained the kids), followed by dinner and cake with the two combined families. Of course, this didn't exactly go according to plan, either - Linden came home from school Friday with this same strange head/throat/fever illness. So in the end, I still got a super fun afternoon with Zsofi (which included lunch, pedicures, and shopping!), Will took the girls out for some adventure (sushi and the Discovery Centre), and Clark and Linden got to have a little father-son time. And I still got the delicious supper and cake, albeit a day later than planned, and with just the four of us:
The kids were in charge of strawberry preparation, which meant they BOTH got to use sharp knives. This was more exciting than you'd think
The finished product: a homemade chocolate-vanilla ice cream cake with cookie crumb crust and fresh (frozen) strawberries. SUPER delicious.
Winter
Just as Clark's plane left Halifax on my birthday eve, the snow began to fall in Nova Scotia. This may not seem significant, except that we have so far had a very, very snow-free winter around these parts. When we woke the next morning, it was to an honest-to-goodness winter wonderland. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. I was awoken at 6:45am to Linden bellowing: "LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!!!! LOOK!" I therefore offer a few pictures of the ways we have all been enjoying said snow (which is, may I add, still around, a whole week later - a small miracle for Halifax):
No one even bothered coming inside after school on Tuesday: Juniper, Linden, and Liam (from across the street)
Magical solo winter walk through Shubie park...
... with snowflakes that stayed on my nose and eyelashes!
Family woods walk
Quiz: how many people pay attention when I suggest that the lake may not be safe to walk on? Answer: zero
And that about sums it up! I'll leave you with a little magical-looking scene I stumbled across the other night: the kids nestled in Juniper's bed while Clark reads Fellowship of the Ring. See you next week!
Having survived an aptly-named "weather-bomb", and being forced to unearth and don all our warmest under-and-outerwear, it is safe to say that we are fully in the throes of winter. Today I offer some of the first winter scenes of the season: first from a New Year's trip to the farm, and second from a winter hike through Hemlock Ravine.
The Farm
As I alluded to in my last post, Clark and the kids spent a few glorious days at the Richards' family farm: a favourite spot no matter what the season. It was cold, of course, but boasted a good healthy layer of snow, which is something we have not yet been treated to in Halifax. I was sad to miss out this time around, but luckily Clark took his photographing duties seriously, and captured some lovely moments.
Crisp walk to the river
Bundled and sun-blinded on the ice
Deep in conversation, mid-woods walk
Wood shop time with grandpa: Newly constructed mallet!
Deep in concentration: designing a wooden airplane
Snuggles and reading with grandma
Moonlit hockey
Warming up by the firepit
The best group shot of the bunch: at least Bill and Barb are looking at the camera!
Hemlock Ravine
Back home, we spent a nice bit of time this weekend exploring one of our favourite local hiking spots: Bedford's Hemlock Ravine. It was actually colder than I had anticipated (Clark and I were a bit underdressed in the end), but the kids were properly bundled, and it was a necessary antidote to the cabin fever we all developed from the many storm days we spent cooped up inside the house.
*(side note: the storm manifested itself here as extremely high winds and driving rain, and resulted in the kids being off school both Thursday and Friday. It was far too miserable to do anything outside. We were some of the very lucky ones that only lost power briefly, and only in in the middle of the night)*
Frolicking on the frozen heart pond
Thoughtful hiking dinosaur
Another, smaller pond, post-twirl
Winter woods walks can be completely gorgeous, and rewarding - there are little frozen pools everywhere you turn
A couple of random extras:
Finally, I offer two random additions. The first is self-explanatory:
Yearly family Christmas Tree shot!
The second however, is something pretty neat, and deserves some explanation. Last Friday, we watched a movie called Kubo and the Two Strings. It was one of the most beautiful movies I've seen in some time. Part of the magic, I would argue, came from the style in which it was filmed: stop motion animation. After watching the movie, we youtubed a little "making-of" documentary, which we all thought was super cool. Linden, however, was particularly inspired: he has been talking for a long time about making movies when he grows up (in particular, he plans to write and produce a series centred around his trademarked super hero, "Dino-man"), but it had never occurred to him that he could start practicing now. So, he quickly got to work doing some set construction, and came up with a little story line. Then, with Clark's help, he made his very first stop-motion vignette. He has big plans for future endeavours (where he will, for instance, add some audio over top), but he was pretty pleased with his first try:
I promised pictures from Christmas, and I will, indeed get to those in good time. But I thought I might as well start things off with a bang. As you may now have guessed, we had one very gargantuan, unexpected, life-altering piece of news come our way in November: I am currently pregnant with Richards/Simmonds baby #3.
You can take a minute to digest this news, if you want - it has now been almost two months, and I can barely wrap my head around it. Perhaps some facts will help:
1. Yes, this baby was a (very large) surprise. I have dubbed it the baby that really wants to be born, and I wholeheartedly believe this to be true. For context: Clark and I have been together for almost 20 years. TWENTY YEARS. And in that 20 years (up until this point, that is), I have only ever gotten pregnant twice, and both times were completely on purpose. So - this is... anomalous, to say the least.
2. Seeing as I am now 37, I was put on a "high risk" list, and therefore got an early ultrasound. That ultrasound happened a little over a week ago, and everything looks completely fine. I am therefore no longer considered high risk, which is great! (Though it also means I no longer get the royal treatment on the high risk floor of the IWK, which was completely lovely while it lasted).
3. I have been feeling pretty miserable for the last couple of months - mostly nausea (especially at night), and exhaustion. Today, however, marks the official beginning of my 2nd trimester, so I'm very hopeful that the grossness will soon abate. New Year = New Me. That's my mantra.
4. Due date has been set at June 29th. Another summer baby! This is almost exactly two weeks later than my sister Andrea, who is currently ALSO pregnant. When I start to panic about the fact that we left baby-parenting behind many years ago (and will have to therefore start from scratch, and find a way to fit a fifth person into our perfectly-sized 4-person dwelling, and likely buy a freaking mini van, etc, etc etc), I just remember that Andrea will be mothering a newborn and a barely-one-year-old at the same time. Sooooo... relatively speaking, I have nothing to panic about, right? Plus, I've got two very excited helpers rarin' to go.
And that's about it! We told the kids the day after we were given the all-clear ultrasound. Here is (rather poor-quality) video of their reaction:
To add a little back story to this: minutes before the video was taken, we told the kids: "come sit in the living room - we have some exciting news!" Juniper looked up from whatever she was reading, and asked, totally matter-of-factly, "are you having a baby?". We just kind of gaped at her, and responded "just... come sit in the living room". Then, before I turned the camera on, she kept trying to whisper to Linden "I think mom's having a baby!" I have no idea how she guessed so easily.
Then, her first question, after all the jumping up and down and celebrating that you saw: "was this planned?" She qualified this by adding "I've wanted another baby since Linden was FOUR, and you always said no".
Then: "This is even more exciting than a PET!"
Linden, meanwhile, was apparently listening quietly to this back and forth, and drawing his own conclusions. He reported that he went to school the next day, and told his teacher: "We are going to have a new baby, but mom and dad didn't make it. It just... happened". He couldn't understand why his teacher thought this was funny.
Anyway, I'm confident that everything will turn out as it should, in the end. Juniper has been busy making lists of possible name choices, and there has been much discussion about room reallocation and other such details. Juniper has also been saying "goodnight" and "good morning" to my tummy every day. It's all very sweet.
Whew! And finally, though it now seems like an afterthought, on to Christmas! This year, we were joined by Theresa and Scott (who stayed with us), and Clark's mom and stepdad (Deborah and Yvon), who stayed in a hotel, but joined in for all the festivities. It was fun, and jam-packed with activities (though there was basically no outdoor-based play, as Christmas itself was completely miserable, weather-wise). Considering all this, I actually have very few good pictures... I have not been completely on my game as official family photographer as of late, due to previously-discussed circumstances. Here's what I managed to capture, though:
Snuggles with aunt Theresa
Mid-Christmas Eve dinner - it was delicious, took most of the day to prepare, and I didn't lift one finger. Talk about awesome Christmas guests!
The whole gang!
Linden, being a goof, as usual. Doesn't he look old in this pic?
Be-crowned, and finally allowed to rip into stockings
New (handmade) Christmas PJs! Stockings! Presents! Christmas morning is SUCH a rush. Linden clearly can't even keep his tongue in his mouth.
Sporting their new cowls/head bling, before ripping into the gifts
Linden happily playing with his new car mat
OK, that's it! There may well be some good New Year's photos coming for the next post... Clark and the kids are currently at the farm, and will be there until New Year's day. I bowed out of the trip, as I am just not quite up to it yet (all this nausea, paired with long road-tripping was enough to turn me off the notion completely). So I'm just... relaxing at home, by myself. Or, rather, not completely by myself ;) Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you all!
As we gallantly battled to get the kids off to the bus stop on time this morning (for example: dealing with the heart-felt outpouring of tears when we told Juniper she wasn't allowed to wear the PJ pants that go up to her knees and the nightgown that has a huge rip down the side for PJ day), it dawned on me that not only was it Monday again, it is the last Monday before Christmas. What is more, I completely and utterly flaked out last week when it came time to do a blog post. So, instead of making a list of all the things I need to get accomplished in the next few days (the usual, of course - taking stock of what remains to procure, madly sewing and knitting, etc etc etc), I instead sat down to put together at least the barest of posts. It will include both the recent lead-up-to-Christmas activities, and it will go back in time a few weeks to play a little catch-up of some things that didn't get posted when they happened.
The Lead-up:
The last couple of weeks have been filled with all the important pre-Christmas/solstice activities: choosing and decorating a tree, making gingerbread cookies, making and decorating the gingerbread house, school concerts, keeping up with the solstice fairies... all the traditions that are both familiar and unique every year.
The Tree: we didn't quite have the hutzpah this year to go cut down our own tree, but we found a lovely one at a local garden centre none-the-less. After it was beautifully and lovingly decorated, and all the presents we have so far placed underneath, the four of us went to bed quite satisfied with ourselves (and no doubt filled with holiday spirit). That night, I was rudely awoken at 1:30 in the morning, by what sounded like a whole shelf of dishes crashing to the ground. Nope! It was, in fact, our beautiful tree, having unceremoniously toppled over, leaving crushed ornaments and rivers of water in its wake. Clark and I blearily sopped up the water (hoping that no presents were ruined in the process), cleaned up the ornaments (only a couple of true casualties, thank goodness), righted the tree, and tied it securely to the wall. Next year, we will get a much sturdier tree stand... this is one event I don't plan to turn into tradition.
hanging the decorations
Gingerbread Galore: I love gingerbread, but really only go to the trouble of baking it during this one small period of time. There is always at least one batch of cookies for eating, and one village for decorating. And, despite the amount of effort involved, we always do it from scratch - it seems wrong, otherwise. This year, we were joined by our awesome neighbours, and had a true decorating extravaganza:
patiently watching the cookies bake
assembling the gingerbread village
Joint village design and beautification: Liam and Linden
The whole decorating crew! Ruby, Juniper, Zoë, Liam and Linden (Ruby was happy to join the picture, despite only acting in a supervisory/cuteness-addition role)
Holiday Concerts: The school put on a holiday concert this year, which was a pretty big deal for Juniper and Linden, as there had been none last year (due to the work-to-rule craziness that was going on at the time). It was exactly as you would expect: a gym filled beyond capacity, and a seemingly endless stream of excited, sincere kids taking their place on the bleachers and singing their hearts out. Clark and I were in the very (VERY) back row, and despite bringing the telephoto lens, the pictures and videos we ended up procuring were... well, let's just say they won't win any prizes. I almost decided not to include any (especially since the videos were so shaky that I would have to put a nausea-warning in effect), but I decided at the very least I could include a snap of each of them on stage:
Linden and his grade 1 cohorts, singing about building a gingerbread house, or somesuch
Juniper's class (and another grade 3 class), singing about red birds and pine trees, I think
Unexpected other stuff: This past weekend we had a surprise visit from Clark's mom and stepdad, who made a very last-minute decision to come to Halifax to buy a new (used) van. It was such an unplanned, whirlwind visit that I didn't even have a chance to snap any pictures. I did take this one, though, which depicts the unexpected after-effects. After school on Friday, Deb and Yvon took the kids out on the town for a bit, including a stop at the dollar store, where they were allowed to spend $5.00 each on whatever they wanted. Juniper got a tabbed scribbler and two fancy pens, deciding that the tabs would each be for a different story that she was going to write. After giving Linden one of her new pens, he also got on board, and made his own book. They spent HOURS, quietly writing their stories, which I have yet to even read, as they are secret until finished. It was kind of magical.
Two devoted budding authors, hard at work
The Catch-up:
Matt and Anna visit: A few weeks ago, I posted about a short-but-sweet visit we had with our friends Matt and Anna. I only had one measly photo to share at the time, but Anna had diligently snapped lots of great shots throughout the day. With her permission, I lifted some of my favourites from her instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/a_miles_away/), and thought I should post them here as well:
Juniper and Linden made sure there was a warm welcome waiting when Matt and Anna arrived
At the Halifax Farmer's Market: both Juniper and Linden got treated to their favourite pretzels from the Cake Lady - an especially big treat, as Clark and I are rarely that generous. Does she look pleased, or what?
Market shenanigans with a craaaaazzzy Matt-monster
Adorable Anna/Linden selfie from the drive over (poor Anna had to squish in to the middle of the back seat!)
School Photos: I stumbled across this year's school photos a few days ago when I was tidying up, and realized I had never posted them here. For shame! Here they are, better late than never:
Grade 3, with missing teeth, and clad in velour
Grade 1: Fancy shirt, with no stains visible!
I will mostly likely not post next Monday, as it is, after all, Christmas Day. But there will be loads of pictures and stories to share, so stay tuned: I will likely get around to posting on Tuesday or Wednesday. Have a very happy solstice and Christmas!
