Photo bomb!

 I've taken a ton of great photos over the past couple of weeks that I can't wait to share. As March approaches, we are about to transition into a new routine. Odin will be 18 months tomorrow, so he can finally start attending the daycare in Annapolis Royal. His current home-care situation turned out to be great, but having him in town will make my commute time, and life in general, so much easier. This is also where Caleb goes after school and he can't wait to get off the bus and have his little brother waiting for him. I'm sure Odie will be overjoyed when 'Caco' walks in the door!

I'm also finally feeling settled in this little town. Over the past few months I've been able to make some good friends, which isn't easy these days! But I'm beginning to build a great network of moms that I really enjoying spending time with. One of our good friends lives on a farm (where we lived the summer before Odin was born), and I'm learning how wonderful it is to have access to all the joys of farm life, without having to do all of the work! This week we were very excited to visit some chicks that had just hatched from their incubator. Odin, being the little animal lover that he is, couldn't get enough of them...and the cats, giant dog, chickens and horse. Great times, and great photo ops, ensued!

Hanging with the chicks:

Odin, my viking farmer. Such a fantastic homemade hat!!

Other February fun:

Alan's birthday - complete with a homemade t-shirt! He was away for the actual big day, but we made sure to celebrate early. 

Just chillin' at a playgroup he attended with his babysitter!

Indoor picnic with some friends. The 'make your own' salad bar was a big success!

We love going to the Family Fun Nights that are open to the public each Friday at the local school. Odin can't get enough of the balls and often sneaks into the equipment room looking for more (because there just are never quite enough for him to play with!)

Hiking in Kejimkujik National Park on an incredibly mild and sunny February day. We live only 40 km from Keji and we are hoping to spend lots of time there this summer. 

Taking a break during our hike. Caleb thought Odie looked camouflaged!

Although he only has a few words, Odin can definitely find ways to tell you what he wants. Like this morning (Monday) he was determined to have us eat breakfast by candelight, and he wouldn't sit down until all the candles were lit! It was actually a nice start to my week! 

Baby's got skills!

Our little one is growing up FAST! He has developed a new awareness of the world and he wants to be right in the middle of everything. He is discovering the joys of independence, which makes our life easier (and more hilarious) in many ways, but also has some challenges. 

The word 'no' has become a staple as he learns that he has control over his own mind and body. He first began asserting this new-found power at meal time, as he basically refused to eat anything we were serving for a few days - just because he could. He would push food items away or casually drop them on the floor. We won this battle by basically ignoring him for one meal and not offering him any food at all. The feeling of being excluded was enough for him to start asking for food almost immediately and now he is back to being a voracious eater at mealtimes! 

He is also very quick on his feet these days and I often get that 'pit in my stomach feeling' when I've lost sight of him for a few minutes and hear only silence. Most of the time, I find him deeply engaged in playing with a toy, but sometimes I'll find him climbing up on the back of the couch, or he'll be causing trouble in his favourite room in the house - yes, this would be the bathroom! Sometimes he is innocently brushing his hair, but more often than not, I'll hear a familiar flushing sound and know exactly where to find him. Thankfully, he is pretty good about not flushing our items down the toilet, but he sure gets a kick out of watching the water swirl into the abyss!  Here are a few of his other new skills:

Odie - just being adorable!

Master of Utensils!

Odin has progressed from playing peek-a-boo to playing hide and seek. He can be quite hard to find at times (as you can see!). Caleb plays along so well - really hamming up the 'where is Odin' role!  

Hanging out on his bathroom stool, hoping someone will turn on the water. 

Having fun the snow

Goofing around with big brother

Talk of the Town

All grown up!

We officially have a 6 year old, and we spent the entire week celebrating how happy we are to have him in our lives. And it was a big, big week beginning on the Saturday before Cale's actual birthday. Our little town is one of many across Canada who have stepped up and formed a local committee to assist with the relocation of Syrian refugees. The town has been raising money, collecting donations and even renovated a beautiful old home and filled it with furniture and firewood in anticipation our new family's arrival. There has been a lot of discussion about refugees in our household because the house that has been purchased for the refugee family is directly across the street from us. This means, sometime in the coming weeks, we will be welcoming new neighbours who (hopefully) have a couple of children for my boys to play with.

 Caleb, being the incredibly empathetic and generous little fella that he is, was quite concerned when he heard about why the family needed to leave their home country and how they would be arriving here with very little. He thought it was exciting that a local group had come together to help them settle into a new life in Canada, and he wanted to help out to. So the idea of a fundraiser was born - and after recruiting a couple of his friends, we held a 'Hot Chocolate and Cookie Cale' at the new outdoor skating rink in Annapolis Royal. Caleb personally began collecting money around our house (we have no more loose change anywhere!) and donated money he received as Christmas gifts and even the toonie left to him by the tooth fairy.

Caleb and his friends, the Froese sisters, were hoping to make 10 or 20$ from the sale, but after spreading the word around town, people came out in droves to support the cause. People donated cookies to sell, the local coffee roaster turned up with pots of coffee to share and even the fire department was out working late the previous night to flood the rink and make sure it was ready for the big event. I was utterly blow away by the support. The kids ended up making $769 in 2 hours, and the local paper was there to report on the event. The article captures the spirit of the day, and Caleb was delighted to be interviewed. His week continued to get better as his teacher read the article to his class and people commented to him that he was the 'talk of the town'! It was wonderful to feel we did a little something to contribute to this nation-wide effort, but the real work will begin once the family arrives and we are given the opportunity to be the best neighbours we can be in order to help the family settle into their new life in our community.

Here's the article link!

Photo by Annapolis County Spectator

And unbelievably, the birthday week fun was only beginning. On Caleb's request, we decided to head to Fredericton to celebrate with  friends, family and most importantly COUSINS!! We spent 4 days and nights playing outside, watching Aly and Ava play basketball, seeing the new Star Wars in the theatre (!!) and squeezing in as much fun as we could. Here are some photos and our annual birthday interview!

Birthday party fun

Birthday party sliding at O'Dell Park (photos by Greggy)

And our other very grown up fella!! He doesn't want to miss out on any of the fun. 

Mama!

For my birthday, I asked for something homemade. I was delighted to receive this beautiful bouquet of flowers!

We've been trying to beat the winter blues by staying active and enjoying the great outdoors as much as possible. Having some wonderful Christmas gifts, and two January birthdays in our family, sure helps a lot, as well. We can't wait to head home to Freddy to celebrate Cale's 6th birthday on the 29th.

Some of my friends have been posting an 'All About Mom' interview on facebook lately, so I thought I'd give it a try with Caleb. The idea is to ask the questions and let the kids respond completely unprompted. Haha! What a great memory. I'll have to try this again in a couple of years. 

Caleb's 'All About Mom' interview: 

1. What is something Mom always says to you? 'Caleb'

2. What makes mom happy? When Odin sits down on his bum

3. What makes mom sad? Odin hitting

4. How does your mom make you laugh? When I act silly like a penguin (not sure when I've ever done this, but after a quick discussion he said he would love if I did!!)

5. What was your mom like as a child? Cute

6. How old is your mom? 37

7. How tall is your Mom? 4 ft

8. What is her favourite thing to do? Go for a walk

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? work

10. If your mom became famous, what would it be for? helping the fish!

11. What is your mom really good at? swimming

12. What is your mom not very good at? Not taking care of Odin  (ie- I am very good at taking care of Odin)

13. What does your mom do for a job? her job is to work for the Apartment of Fisheries!!

14. What is your mom's favorite food? pasta

15. What makes you proud of your mom? cooking a really good supper

16. If your mom was a character, who would she be? Elsa (Princess from Frozen)

17. What do you and your mom do together? Play together
18. How are you and your mom the same? Both have blue eyes

19. How are you and your mom different? She is older than me

20. How do you know your mom loves you? because she hugs me

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Africa

22. How old was your mom when you born? (takes a second to do the math and ...) 31

And a few photos of our January fun:

Winter hiking with friends. We stopped for a snack and even built a fire on the snowy beach.

Somebody likes to rock!

Drum circle with dad!

Holidays in review

We've been so busy enjoying our holidays and building amazing toy sets that I haven't had a second to update the blog! But I did take lots of photos to share. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here is our holiday in review!

Pulling out all of our decorations for a special Christmas breakfast! This was our advent activity for the first day of our holidays - complete with a kids menu and all. 

Christmas Eve cuddles. So excited for the big day! We had a brunch with friends then cooked our own turkey. Needless to say, we are still working on the leftovers!

For Odin, it was the Christmas of the Dog! Much to his delight he received 3 little dogs to go along with the 1 he already sleeps with every night. The love was immediate.

Boxing Day Soccer Game in PJs! We had a green Christmas in the Valley, but it didn't stay green for long.

By December 27th, we were building snowmen!

On New Years Day, we received the greatest gift of all - family! The final sunset of the year was a beauty, and made for a great ending to a very warm and magical winter day. 

For our NYE celebration, we started up our own Board Game Cafe. We played several different games and awarded tokens to the winners after each round. The kids set up a pretty impressive 'prize store' where the tokens could be cashed in every hour! Here we are in a heated game of Mustache Smash!

At the New Years Day Levee at the Annapolis Royal Legion. 

Meeting some local celebs at the Levee  (the Town Crier)

And Premier Stephen McNeil! 

And to wrap up a wonderful holiday - Alan and I escaped to Halifax for a night without the kids!! It was my first night ever without Odin, and I missed the little fella, but not for too long! We had an amazing dinner on the town, hit up Bearley's House of Blues for another New Years Day Levee (where Alan hopped on stage for a song) and made the most of our night together in the big city! And luckily for Greg and Linda, Odin slept through the night and all four kids were wonderful. It's looking like we just might get another night out sometime in 2016!! 

Big Brother

The matching Christmas PJ's have arrived! This may be my favourite new holiday tradition.

I've been so busy writing about all of the amazing things little brother can do these days, I almost forgot to write about Caleb's wonderful recent achievements. Caleb is loving school and is thriving in the classroom setting. He is one of those kids who can sit still all day while trying to apply everything he has to his work. Thankfully, the teachers do their best to keep the kids moving and as active as possible throughout the day. One tool they use is a great website called 'Go Noodle' where kids get to select silly videos that encourages them to dance, jump, try yoga positions and even practice meditative breathing. They also choose a cute character that grows bigger and stronger as they complete the videos. We now do this at home, too and we love it.

Cale recently brought home his wonderful first ever report card, and I had a great meeting with his teacher in my first ever parent-teacher interview. (It was a real 'I am officially an adult' moment for me!) His teacher confirmed everything I already knew - he is bright, thoughtful, polite, keen, kind and loves to play by the rules, of course! His teacher even used the word 'spectacular' when describing him and said she wished she could clone him! He is now diligently practicing for his upcoming Christmas concert which I can't wait to attend and take videos of to share with everyone.

Right now at home we are all wrapped  up in Christmas spirit! It is so much fun (and so easy) to create magic in the house at this time of year for a 5 year old. Alan and I put the gifts under the tree last night and when Caleb woke up, he spent 20 minutes oohing and awwing over every package. We have also started up our advent calendar again and I've added in a few new fun activities for us this year. The 'Build an Elf Village' day was a huge success. I left out a bag of mini marshmallows and a box of toothpicks and let Caleb's imagination run wild. He loved it. Today, Caleb is home sick and his activity is to write a Christmas song with his dad. Next week I'm going to let Caleb do some grocery shopping for the local food bank, bake some holiday treats to share with neighbours, take the boys to have Breakfast with Santa at the legion and build a gingerbread house. So much to look forward to!

Rooms for 2000 elves! 

Odin now prefers to feed himself breakfast and he doesn't care which end of the spoon he uses! This new step towards independence leads to another indication that you have a toddler in your home - the uncontrollable messes that seem to follow you everywhere! These messes are often lead to an extra load of laundry. 

Transitioning into toddlerhood

He's pretty cute, runny nose and all.

Now that I'm in the depths of it, I'm beginning to remember all the craziness that comes with having a toddler on the loose in your household. This is the stage where I find myself on high alert and unfortunately, saying 'No!' a lot. I don't think that it is because I'm an overly-cautious parent, it's just that there is a very real threat of danger at all times when there is a mobile and fearless 14 month in your midst. There seems to be an ever present possibility of:

 a.) falling - off of a chair, high chair, couch, bed, staircase...
 b.) jamming fingers  - into doors, dresser drawers, kitchen cupboards....
 or
c.) licking something gross -  a toy off the floor is the best you can hope for, a crumb in the corner, a tree branch, a shoe, a used spoon or a random toothbrush (yes, these have all happened) ... I don't fear him actually eating these items, but sneaking in a quick taste is pretty much a given.

Other indicators that you have a toddler include:
-  a constantly runny nose
- picky eating (he now knows what a cracker is and will settle for nothing less)
- nighttime wake ups, and
- the uncanny ability to cling onto my leg at the exact moment when I need to take something hot out of the oven.

Thankfully, they make up for these slight deficiencies by managing to grow exponentially cuter everyday.

I think it will be much like having a kitten this Christmas. Tree ornaments are going to be hard to resist!

Despite all of this, I know how short this period of dependence is in the grand scheme of life. All I need to do is just look at how grown up Caleb now is. He can now make his own breakfast, jump in the shower completely on his own, start up the computer and call someone on skype (sorry about that call during work, Adam!!) and play independently for hours. Yes, at times, these days are trying and exhausting - but they are precious all the same. I know Odin won't always want be held in my arms, or sit in my lap, or be in the same room as me, or notice the second that I'm gone. Because of this, my moments of frustration tend to be short and followed by moments of intense love and appreciation. Yes, it can be hard, but wow, it is also amazing.

Practicing piano in pyjamas

Santa selfie! At least one of us looks happy!

Bonding

Hi guys! 

My little boys are bonding and it is one of the greatest thing I have ever witnessed. At 14 months, Odin is finally able to truly participate in our family fun. Actually, he is often the centre of the fun, making us all laugh with his words, sounds, games and hilarious actions/reactions. I don't think our home has ever been so filled with laughter. It feels like we actually have 2 kids now, as opposed to one kid and one baby, and it turns out that having two kids is great!! 

One of my favourite parts of my day is bringing Odin with me to pick Caleb up at his after-school program. Odin looks around the room filled with kids, wiggles to get out of my arms and literally runs over to give his brother 'Cay' a hug. Odin will cuddle up close with his head against Caleb's chest and start 'patting' his back. Cale loves the attention and especially loves that the other kids are watching this public display of affection from his baby brother. Even the teachers' hearts melt because they are just so darn cute! 

Odie also loves to wrestle with his big brother and Caleb absolutely delights in placing Odin on top of him so they can laugh and roll around together. I love moments when I catch sounds of their laughter from another room. Knowing they are on their own and having fun together. It's so wonderful, I can only hope this camaraderie lasts for another 10 years at least...hopefully it will last for an entire lifetime.

Action shot!

I also had a chance to bond with my significant other this week. With Alan about to embark on a 5 week tour, I decided to take a day off work to spend quality 1 on 1 time with my husband. It has been well over a year since we have had more than 2 hours alone together, so it was a long overdue date day. We tried to make the most of it  - kicking things off with a Bay of Fundy beach walk, breakfast and a Christmas shopping spree in the big city of Digby, followed by some home cooking and a nice long nap.  Ahhhhh, I'm relaxed just thinking about it. The day was not overly adventurous, but it felt wonderful to reconnect, and I didn't have even a single ounce of guilt about leaving the kids in childcare while we were having fun on our own.

Exploring the Natural History Museum in Halifax last week. Alan took the kids on a day around town while I was in meetings. 

And now for some video fun! I love saving my photos and videos on this blog so that I can share them with my friends and family, but also so I know where to look for them when I want to see them. We've recently gone back through some of Caleb's old videos on here, and it is so fun to see him learning to walk and talk. It's great to capture these amazing moments because they go by so incredibly quickly. Here is Odin saying a few new words, with his brother's help (of course):

Halloween

Our first Halloween with two little ones to dress up was a huge success. I know Odin came with us last year to a few houses, but I must not have had the energy to attempt a cute infant costume for him. I made up for it this year, though! Caleb insisted we all wear costumes and go trick-or-treating as a Star Wars family. I now believe the main reason for this family costume choice was because Cale wanted a lightsaber to play with - but I was fine with that. I found one that admittedly is very cool - it lights up and even makes the 'swooshing' sounds. Pretty sweet.

We kept the costumes very simple - I attempted the Princess Leia hair, Alan donned a Darth Vader mask, Caleb dressed as Luke Skywalker thanks to a 4$ Frenchy's costume find, and Odin was the show stopper dressed as baby Yoda. I clothes-pinned green cardboard ears to a green hoodie, put a bathrobe overtop, and voila! - baby Yoda was born. The only trick is that  Odin nowwants to walk up to houses and say 'hi' whenever we are outside! He loved the 'greeting your neighbours' part of the evening, and he even had a few Cheesies at the end of the night, so overall it was a pretty special holiday for him.

The force is strong with this one