February Daily Life

Phineas is on the move and has the quickest army crawl ever. He is also skooching (?) his knees forward when he is on all four. He spends most of his time in his diaper because I really can't bear to cover the baby cuteness. He also has an easier time moving without the clothes. And he started sampling solids. He has been a hit and miss experience. Sweet potato has been a hit. Banana came back up. And oats just didn't have a great outcome. He loves sitting at the table with us though! I will write more on him once I get his 7 month pictures up. 

Milayla has had a growth spurt in more ways than just physically. She shot up a bit in height, and she has made very dramatic improvements in her speaking vocabulary, memorization, and imagination. She is also making great strides in beginning to read, writing her letters and dancing. I love the songs that she makes up and sings for us all. And I adore hearing the way she has reasoned through different situations. She gets it. It's brilliant. Her dancing is fabulous and she will ask me if her and I can have a little dance party just so she can dance (and spend time with me). And she recruits us all in to this incredible land of make believe with her imagination. We have tea parties and picnics in the middle of the forest and on a boat. We have explored mountain tops and we have tried to catch her bear eating up his breakfast. She exudes happiness and creativity. I love getting to sit down with her and create art; she gets so focused and you can see she really enjoys it.

Atticus has reached the fun part of reading. He reads everything. Absolutely everything. If there are words he will read them. He will find chapter books at the library and start reading. He can read a beginner chapter book in just a couple days. I find him reading throughout the apartment. And if he is ever delaying in responding it is usually because he is off somewhere reading. The challenge has been finding chapter books that are at his reading level that aren't above his maturity level. Homeschool is going really well with him which is nice as a travail unchartered territory with him on that front. Then there is the pretend play that he is exploring for the first time. I think books helped to open this world for him. He loves to use it to create parties for people. He has also started creating his own little books.

Both he and Milayla loved putting their creativity together to make their own wrapping paper to wrap their birthday gifts for their friend, Amelia (from church). We all went to her birthday and the kids succeeded in welcoming the other children into the joy of 'don't let the balloon drop'

 And Jason and I are diligently searching for a home, trying to keep our goals of book reading and making date night a priority (mini golf and a movie night this month). The kids have been in love with the adventure of looking for a house. Jason and I have felt a bit more of a growing experience with the search. There are so many factors to take into consideration and we just want to make sure that we get the right house in the right location. Oh, and I just want to say that I love when Sunday afternoon nap happens and I get to come into the bedroom to see Phineas asleep on Jason and Jason completely asleep himself. Neither of them even budged when I came into the room which is saying something because our floors are incredibly loud. I sure love my cuddles with my children and have a hard time giving them up, but seeing something like this feels just about as good.

Phinny's First Swim

In February, Phineas had his first swim. He had been to the pool plenty of times for the bigger kids' swim lessons and was pretty mesmerized by the environment; all those reflections off the water are pretty soothing. We met up with a couple families from church who also have young children (one with a baby girl only a week older than Phineas). The big kids loved having water that was shallow enough that they could touch the bottom (the pool they take their classes at is not). And after Milayla braved the water slide on her own, we ended up splitting off from the others and playing a little family game of crocodile by the water umbrella. I think it was a pretty overstimulating experience for Phinny's first time but he has sure started splashing a lot more in the tub for bath time since his swimming experience. And, of course, the big kids are already asking when we can go to the 'family pool' again so that Phinny can swim with us, too. I'm kind of in love with their sibling bond. 

Swim Classes 2015

Had a little awards ceremony to wrap up this last swim season. Milayla successfully completed her transition class where she had to start going into the pool without a parent for class. And Atticus is well on his way to swimming the required distance in the pool unaided. So proud of all the hard work these kids put into their classes. I made some certificates of excellence for each of the kids and Jason helped me decide what they did the best on. Then we had some cheese, crackers and fruit. The kids loved it and felt loved which is what I was going for so I was happy. So proud of their determination and hard work. 

February Snow

I'm almost afraid to say this for fear that we will have eternal winter, but I think I may actually like winter. When I hear people make comments against winter and snow there is a part of me that feels they might be missing out. We've really enjoyed ourselves. I think having children who love the snow has helped big time. I really don't care for the cold, but I am even doing better at handling the colder temperatures. I think that is in large part to the fact that I have a real winter coat for the first time in a very looooong time. I love feeling warm in winter. The kids get pulled on the sled to swim class (on the weeks that we have time to walk), we make playgrounds in our front yard out of snow, we go on expeditions over the terrain of our 6 foot snow banks and the kids ooze about their love of sweeping and shovelling snow. I'm quite serious about that last one, too. Milayla even insists on trying to pull her brothers in the sled as well. That girl has some serious determination that will serve her well in life I have no doubt. I have enjoyed winter well enough that I am actually concerned about trying to make the most of it before it disappears. And that is a rather big step because I used to anxiously wait for it to be gone! It may be time to start budgeting for some winter sporting gear for next year. In the mean time, we have planned a few surprises for the kids of a traditional Quebec winter outing variety. This province is starting to grow on me. The hills, the autumn, the warm summers, the shorter winters (in contrast to Alberta..), maple. In true-to-me form a song from Annie is now playing in my head. "I think I'm gonna like it here...". Ha! We will see. For now, I definitely am loving winter time with this family of mine.

Time with Milayla

In February Milayla was in need of a few new clothing items. So I promised her that it would be just a mommy and milayla outing. We picked a date on the calendar that we could sneak away once Jason was home and Milayla counted down the days. I love getting to take her on dates. I love the focus on time together that we have established in our home. It makes a big difference for everyone. You can tell how much better off we all are when we get some solid connection time with each other. Sometimes it is outings, sometimes it's just a matter of playing together or cuddling up to read a book together, or helping in the kitchen together. Since I am at home with the kids I get to spend a lot of time with them each and every day but I try my best to make sure that they are each getting multiple times a day where they are connecting with me on an individual basis. Sometimes it is only for a few minutes, sometimes longer. But I have really seen how it is starting to build conversational dialogue with them. Milayla delighted in telling me everything about her day (even though I had been with her all day) on the way to the mall and told me all about her preferences of colors and how she likes bright colors. Once we had our needed clothing we shared a smoothie which Milayla was over the moon about and Milayla finally got to check out all those little coin operated cars. She was spilling over with excitement about the time together when we got home to the boys. I love her passion, her smile and her overall enthusiasm about life and getting to have the time with her to really set the foundation for the years ahead. And then there is my favorite part of every day when I get to tuck my kids into bed one at a time and ask them questions about their day or thoughts on various topics. It's a special time, and some times I am a little tired for it but I push forward anyway and I am always glad that I did. It's a great finish to the day. So grateful for the time I get to spend with Milayla each and every day.

We Love to be a Family Day (aka Valentine's Day)

We celebrated our annual version of Valentine's Day this past weekend. These pictures make me smile. From the home depot stickers that Atticus used on his surprise valentines for everyone, to Phinny's big smile and sparkly blue eyes, to Milayla's excitement that she got to eat her chocolate before breakfast and just all the love that spilled over into this day. 

The kids began the day by running into our room with excitement that you would think was for Christmas. Actually, a few days earlier when the kids woke up to our kitchen decorated in all the hearts that we wrote for each other Atticus proclaimed it was a surprise as lovely as Christmas. Atticus had made some surprise valentines for us. And he and Milayla had made one together that was a proposal for Milayla to sleep on the top bunk. Very cute and very tempting to give in to their plea but Milayla is just a tad too young yet. Love notes from my children will never lose their place in my heart. Special beyond words. In fact, I am sure they will only get sweeter with time as our love and bond grows deeper and stands the test of time. 

From our bedroom it was off to find the first puzzle piece to place on our heart. The kids saw their valentine buckets brimming with love notes. So we took our buckets to the heart filled kitchen to enjoy a waffle breakfast together as our first task of the day. 

The tasks continued on from there. We made cookies, delivered cookies, heart attacked our neighbours and a couple sisters from church that we admire. Delivered flowers. Made pizza. Picked out a selection of fruit for fruit salad. And cuddled up for a family movie night. 

The kids loved getting to draw on the table at breakfast (I had put paper over the table the night before). And (Jason and) I loved hearing the children read all the love notes on the kitchen walls during the week leading up to the day. My heart seriously spills over with joy about it all. When we wrote the hearts for a family home evening I had suggested that we all write one for each person in our family, but everyone just kept going and going. We would have kept going, of that I am sure, had the time not begun getting late. 

It was just a happy day and I am so grateful for all these smiling faces. I loved it all and I get the feeling that everyone else was pretty happy with it all as well. At bed time the kids gushed that they loved the whole day because we spent it together as a family. Now that is a wonderful sentiment from my children to end the day on. 

Milayla opening her valentine from Atticus

Note to everyone from Atticus

Atticus works really hard to sound out words and I love reading his notes

That face. Heart melting.

Pyjamas - yes!

Valentine buckets filled, table ready for waffles, wall covered in hearts (all 4 walls had hearts on them, more than what you see) - ready!

looks like he may keep those blue eyes.

this is what our basement looks like - awesome, right? we decorated our neighbours basement door to keep the cookies out of the -35 temperatures. 

the river on a chilly day. It was breathtaking when we came upon it. the iphone picture just really doesn't do it justice. Beauty in winter is God's mercy, I'm sure. That, and warm homes and clothing and good people to spend the time with. Really, life is just full of God's mercy - that's a topic for another day though.

excited to make her own pizza

no movies for this little guy yet, so he gets to play with Me and Jason (trading off) in the background during family movies. I don't think he minds with a smile like that.

Atticus likes to take pictures for us. Take one.

take two

Yep, we do love to be a family.