January bits and pieces

Seeing that February is coming to a close, I figured I better get these pictures from little moments of our life of January that weren't on the blog yet. 

I'm hopeful that we are finally out of the deep, deep freeze, but at the same time we have been enjoying the extra art time at home. I so love having a double sided easel. So do the kids.

Milayla has become a very intensely focused artist. She gets very serious about which colors to use and what kind of shapes. It's all quite abstract still at this point, but shapes of different sorts and sizes are definitely the norm and she is starting to draw houses, faces and flowers. It's fun.

And when she decided to make a rainbow and couldn't quite reach the top of the board she promptly went and got a stool. No problem.

Meanwhile, Atticus is busy working on his spelling. He is getting a pretty good spelling bank at this point and has become very determined to sound out the words that he doesn't know.

He's pretty excited about the whole thing.

Atticus is also learning the piano. I'm pretty sure a bench with an adjustable height would do wonders for him but, at this point, a couple books will have to do the trick. He's pretty young to get started fully so we are taking a pretty leisurely pace but something that has really stood out to me is how much better he does when he doesn't worry about it being perfect. When he just simple gives it a try. Though I don't think that is something just exclusive to him around here; we all (especially me) seem to have a vein of perfectionism that holds us back probably more than it helps us.

And we got a special, surprise package from Great Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein. We were all pretty excited about that. They are always thinking of us and sending cards or phonecalls our way. It's a nice treat and the kids love getting to send cards to them as well.

The kids also loved the new hats that they got in the package as well. 

And we feel officially canadianized as we also got a moose statue. The kids are enamoured. It's pretty much the coolest thing ever.

And we finally, after many weeks of every possible strain of cold virus (or at least what felt like it), caught the full blown flu. Jason was the first one out, the rest followed. One morning after using a hefty amount of my persuasion skills I convinced the kids that they should at least eat a little bit of breakfast before retreating to the couch for what would end up being most of the day. After they ate a few bites, I helped them get set up with their blankets and a few books. Of course, a few books to these kids means a few piles of books so as soon as I headed back to clean up the kitchen Atticus brought over some more options.

They were pretty proud of their stash. I love those kiddos. 

And the kids were pretty excited to get to go to Chapters/Indigo to use there gift card from Great Grandpa and Grandma to buy some more books. Considering the children's book/toy section was bigger than any book store they had ever been in they were pretty excited about the whole thing. I'm pretty sure the kids were most surprised by how many Thomas engines there are. We ended up getting a nice, new stack of books that have been read seemingly endlessly since.

I love that Atticus and Milayla run to show us when they are all dressed for church. Such good looking kiddos!

And Atticus completed one of his goals for the year of learning to tie shoes. He's been furiously tying knots in everything possible for the last several months so I didn't expect he would have much difficulty in learning to tie a shoe bow, but I was still pretty taken by the fact it took him all of 5 minutes for me to show him and him to learn it on his own. He learned to tie on this threading lion but has practiced tying his shoes since. I think he still needs a bit of practice time to have it comfortably down, but over all, he's doing pretty awesome. 

Then both kids are in swim lessons for a couple more weeks. They have been loving the class. Milayla is really ready to move up to the next level but her birthday doesn't make the cutoff so we need to hold off for a while and just work with her on our family swim trips.

Atticus was in the big transition class and he now takes his classes solo (without a parent in the water with him). It was a pretty big step for him since the water is well over his head, but it's been the perfect challenge for him to get some confidence in his abilities. He really loves the fact that he did something hard.

And Milayla can usually be found making patterns and practicing her colors with her jar of pompoms.

Or climbing on top of our legs.

She has also learned to count to 10 and is nearly making it to 12/13 every time.

Then there is this picture, that just makes me smile. After we had all been sick for a while the kids had an adjustment time of starting to eat more food than they were. After one lunch time when Milayla hadn't eaten as much of her lunch as I would have liked Atticus sat down and helped her along while I tidied up the kitchen. It did the trick and Milayla ate up the rest of her lunch. Thankfully, we are all healthy now :).

January was a good month, and I am grateful that the flu bug is all gone now. February has been a busy one, but I will get to that another day. As for the upcoming March, we are looking forward to some spring cleaning, sugaring off season, and the first birthday of the year (Jason) that kicks off our spring/summer birthdays and holiday season. Good times ahead.

Game time with Atticus

Because things seem to have been more hectic than I would like around here, scheduling time with each of the kiddos seems to be a struggle. We are able to get in some family time, which is great, but it helps big time for Jason and I each to get some one to one time with each of the kids. To serve this purpose we have found it useful to split some duties up. For example, when one of us needs to head out for some errands we take one of the kids with us to get some quality chat time with them while the other one of us stays home with the other child for a little activity. It's been working pretty well. That time with each of the kids really does let us see who they are just a little bit clearer and they always seem to enjoy their Mommy/Daddy time a lot. 

The last time Atticus and I chilled at home we opted for some games after we finished tidying up. After this toy story game that we have it was on to Candy Land (which Atticus won, of course. Never fails) and then Atticus let me start teaching him Checkers. 

I wasn't too sure how well checkers would go, but Atticus did a great job learning the basics and being patient with his self as he made mistakes in the learning process. The result - he loves it.

Atticus definitely still has some learning and practice to go to learn to play the full game but he is excited to learn which makes the process a little bit easier and smoother. That time with just the two of us definitely allowed us a moment to explore something new just for him. It was nice.

I'm glad we get this time with the kiddos. They're still pretty young, but we sure love who they are and the new developments that they make each and every day. It's a pretty awesome part of parenting.

Winter 2014

So, in an attempt to really love winter, I am trying to tell myself how much I will miss it if we should ever live in a place that doesn't get snow like this. Strangely enough, it really does make the frozen nostrils a little more bearable. And, let's face it; kids bundled up in snow suits, peaceful snowfalls, bright snow covering everything you see, and delicious hot chocolate on days that are too cold to venture out; what's not to love? Oh right...it's cold. I think I could do quite well throughout winter if we got the same amount of snow, winter didn't last until the end of April (sometimes longer) and it never dipped below -10 celcius. Then winter wouldn't put my optimism to the test. Know of anywhere that fits the bill?

the kids have LOVED watching how they clear the snow here. They suck up all the snow into a truck and drag it away to a giant snow hill (which the kids were over the moon about getting to see when we were out one day). Taking the snow away is the only way that the roads remain driveable and with the ability to park. The road in this picture has about a foot of snow which isn't bad as it had been cleared of it's "mini mountains" (as the kids call it) twice already. 

In the meantime, I do find myself actually enjoying winter. Montreal gets some beautiful blue skies that contrast the crisp, bright snow and just put a smile on my face. And I adore seeing the kids get excited about the bits of beauty around them. Yes, there have been a few of those days where the kids have gotten stern-momma-warnings about taking off their gloves because I worry about those little fingers being exposed to the -27 (or worse) air outside, but, all-in-all, I think we have done quite well at trying to enjoy winter. We really need to add some more winter sports to our repertoire; snow shoeing and cross country skiing look like fun options to me! I learned both in school, it can't be that hard to pick it up again - can it? And since the winter olympics kicked off, I showed the kids a few highlights of the events and they are very keen on giving skating a try. They've been practicing their jumps, certain that they will step on the ice born naturals. 

I digress though, because this winter hasn't been about snow shoeing and cross country skiing. It's been about running in the snow, sledding, snow forts, snow slides, getting pulled in the sled down the snow covered sidewalks and a nice dose of hibernating. 

And boy, do I love seeing the joy in the faces of those little ones as they get to roll around in the snow completely oblivious to the cold wind blowing on their faces. And I can't help but love the snowsuit waddle - it is pure sweetness. And then there is the winter quiet that falls on the city in a snow storm. I know snow storms can be pretty awful if you have to venture out in them, but if you are lucky enough to stay in or just play in the snow in your yard, there is a beautiful, peaceful rest to the falling snow that really seems to magically fill my heart with appreciation for the beauty of winter and the time it blesses our family with. The snow also blesses our street with a stillness that is rare otherwise.

Milayla is still a hard sell to get pulled around in the sled and would much rather traipse through the snow herself, though Atticus is quite content to get pulled along. Granted, we can't journey very far in the snow by foot as Milayla tires our pretty quickly of walking in the snow yet she can play for hours in a snow fort. Go figure.

And for those days that we are inside, the kids have loved working on the workbooks that they got for Christmas, Milayla has had many puzzle marathons and will sit and work on puzzles for well over an hour (there are only a few puzzles that we have that are out of her current abilities right now, but at the rate she's going, I don't think it will be long) and Atticus has been making mosaic patterns and challenging his stacking/balancing skills with his equilibrio blocks (a seriously wonderful toy/game). And then the kids like getting to host playdates as well.

And those recorders of theirs get a lot of use. I really need to record Atticus and Milayla when they are playing a 'duet'. They've added some dance moves and they are just so happy when they get to make music together. And then there are the books. I really need to take a moment to write a bit more about these kiddos and their books. Atticus is trying to read every single word that he possibly can and has finally reached a point of being very keenly determined to sound out everything. And Milayla has decided she wants to learn her letter sounds and will just sit down and start reading the sounds from the pages of a book. I can't believe how much she has picked up from listening to Atticus learn to read; it's been my kick in the pants to get into gear and start working with her a bit more on those sounds while the interest is there.

Oh, and in those few moments before I head to bed at night I have been verrrry slowly making bits of progress in my stack of books to read. I've started studying some speed reading tips on some spare moments here and there in an attempt to help things along.

Speaking of heading to bed, I need to do better at getting there earlier. We have a busy weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day which is also known as 'We Love to Be a Family Day' around here. The kids have been counting down the last couple weeks in anticipation for what could be in store. I'm pretty sure I am nearly as excited as they are. And we woke up to a nice, new blanket of snow this morning (about a foot and a half), so the excitement has mounted even more.

As for everything else that is going on around here; January and February have proven to be busy and eventful months - complete with an ambulance ride and a 2 week bout of the flu while we sat on the wait list to get vaccinated against the flu. Probably not wise to leave this post off there, but we have fresh piles of snow calling our name so just know that we are all good and healthy now and looking forward to some awesome family time this weekend. And, on a happy note, while there were some big cutbacks at the company that Jason works at, Jason still has a job (and a job that he loves, at that!) and, for that, we are truly grateful.

more updates to come soon!

Serving - December and the rest of the year

I am quite determined for these little kidlets of ours to have ways to help the community around us. I erroneously thought that we would have an easier time finding suitable volunteer opportunities in Canada than we were able to find in europe, but I was wrong. Jason and I put in a lot of work to find a volunteer opportunity for our family that was both suitable and where the folks running it would allow children to help out. We were very blessed to find this great group of folks who dedicated a lot of time to get a whole pile of toy donations to give out to families in Montreal that are struggling financially. The kids got to help us give out the toys for the children 10 and under. 

They were pretty excited about that responsibility. I was a little worried about my lack of french speaking ability, however, with a very large diversity in languages, it seemed that both Jason and I were needing to use smiles to communicate more than words. The kids really loved the opportunity and had warmed up to the other wonderful volunteers by the time we needed to head home. 

And, of course, because the kids and I couldn't be content with just one volunteer opportunity, we brainstormed a little list of other ideas that we could do to serve those around us. We put some of our stealthy helping ideas to work before Christmas, but we saved some of them to do throughout the year (with a goal of doing something each month that takes a little more planning to serve). Here are the kids all excited about going out and learning to be stealthy :).

Of course, there was also our church Christmas party that the kids helped out with a TON, as well as the sticker project that they always get excited about. We had also planned some caroling but needed to forego that on account of weather. However, we did get a nice surprise from the missionaries serving in our area (and a few members of the Mission President's family) and they braved the cold to come sing us some carols. The kids were pretty excited to still get to experience some caroling.

While, yes, we do want our kids to experience being able to serve in more unique ways so that they see families in different circumstances and situations we also have been working on helping them understand the ways that we serve our family, our neighbours and our friends. One of the things that we talked about is how we can help clean up our neighborhood and the next time we were at the grocery store (and every time following, actually) the kids have reminded us that the grocery store is part of our neighborhood as well and will pick up any products that may have fallen off the shelf or were clearly put in the wrong spot. And they are asking about our next volunteer project, so I had better start getting it in the works!

First sled ride

Blogging really hasn't been at the forefront of my mind lately, so there are definitely going to be some pictures that are a little delayed in getting up, but I'm just glad to be getting up. As I mentioned in the Christmas post, the kids got a sled for Christmas (from Grandma and Grandpa Hochstein). It was their first sled so, when the weather was in our favour we went in search of a hill and found the perfect beginner hill.

The kids were a little leery of going down from the very top so we did a slow buildup and started off with only going down a few feet and starting from a couple feet higher each time. And, when the time was right, Milayla finally said she was going from the top. I think once her and I were up there in the sled ready to go down she had a few second thoughts (as you can see in her facial expression of her and I in the sled, but we had fun.

We were able to get quite a bit of runs in before we were all adequately frozen. I've got to say though, we saw one family cross country skiing, with a young kid on skis and a smaller child getting pulled behind in a trailer with skis and the idea looked absolutely brilliant. Can't say I'm too keen on getting to pull both kids (not sure my cross country ski skills, and strength, are at that level) but pretty sure Atticus would be up for learning come next year. Maybe it would be a nice outdoor family sport to help us all embrace winter just a little bit more, which can only be a good thing. 

In the mean time, we will enjoy making snow forts, marching through snow piles, and sledding. And all the gorgeous blue sky days that we seem to get in winter here; we're really loving those! As for the kids' first sledding experience - they're fans.