Archives for Family Life category
Posted on Dec 10th, 09 at
9:20 am under Family Life, The Boys
10
Dec
Colin is truly the little artist in the family. He draws pretty much every day and when he starts he doesn’t stop…
He loves white paper and because I don’t print much we don’t have much scrap paper so I found some 100% recycled paper at the local “Bureau en Gros” (Staples)… It is a bit off white, but perfect for printing for me and drawing for him…
He doesn’t like crayons much, nor wood pencils… his favourite are markers and every few months I need to buy more because he uses them so much… I found out early on not to skimp with the markers. When he draws, he gets the hands of an artist. Crayola is the best washable marker 
Sometimes his drawing are inspired by things he has seen or watched but more often they are straight out of his imagination…
Like this Lava Monster…
Or Harry Potter next to a Tornado Monster…
This one here is a Clone Game, the clones have targets that the Droid needs to shoot…
Often his drawings are a bit hard to make out because once he draws something, he often then animates it with a marker. So the magic coming from Harry Potters wand will literally wipe out the Dementor…
At the end of most days our kitchen table looks like this… Drawings from the day scattered all over…
(the pile in the back was from the day before)
When Simon gets home, he often spends a few minutes explaining his favourite drawings of the day…
a little time to touch base for both of them…
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Posted on Dec 9th, 09 at
3:56 pm under Family Life, The Boys
9
Dec
Though DH and I are both Atheists we do celebrate the holidays. For us, Xmas is 100% secular having roots in pagan traditions… though technically we could find another name for it, or not do it the same day etc… we like what we have made it for us…
For me, the magic is the holidays is the lights glittering in the long dark nights, the crisp white snow, getting cozy in our home, sharing time with each other, baking and making the house smell good, watching holiday cartoons and listening to music, sharing gifts and seeing the magic of the holidays reflect in our children’s faces.
On Xmas eve we have a long standing tradition of having people over for a Fondue supper… Often it is my mom, Simon’s mom, sometimes Simon’s Sister and sometimes various other people. What is great about a fondue supper is that there is little preparation and a long time at the table talking and sharing a meal.
The boys are getting so excited… in the last years we have had Playmobil calendars counting down the days to Xmas, everyday you get a little box to open which completes a scene…
(OK, OK, I added the mom with the sling )
last year one of them became part of our playmobil toys while the other got put away again for this year. Instead of buying another this year since each of the boys wants to do something, I found a tree that is perfect for the occasion. Though I could have made one easily, the price was good and I just don’t have the energy for such a project at the moment…
So we have been gearing up towards the holidays, counting down the days… The lights are up outside, and Sunday we trimmed the tree…
Holiday Cartoons in the background, and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows…
All done up…
I love the ornaments in our tree… most have a story… all make me smile…
You can see a closeup of my some favourites on Flickr if you click on the pictures below…
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Posted on Nov 30th, 09 at
7:22 pm under Family Life
30
Nov
Well, we are the 30th, and today was the day that my oven was supposed to be fixed…
However, I got a call last Friday saying that they just received the parts and they would only get to the repair service next week, so they changed the date to the 8th of December. That will be a full 4 weeks without an reliable oven. Yes, I say reliable because we tried it out a few times since it went out and it has worked and cycled off when it should. However, the problem reoccurred twice so I am quite nervous when I use it so I will be be waiting and will get it fixed before it gives out again.
The new toaster oven is also proving to be a good buy. At the moment I have a chicken on the rotisserie in it and I took a chance to use the oven for potatoes. (since one costs a lot more than the other, I didn’t mind ruining the potatoes as much as ruining a chicken)
So I am still waiting and I can’t wait to have it back to a reliable appliance and make a good batch of bread along with other treats especially with the holidays coming up…
The 30th of November of course also ends NaBloPoMo ‘09 and my 30 days of posting are up… I didn’t find this year as hard as I found last year, mostly because I was around home more, but I am happy that I won’t “have” to post every day and instead post when I want to… it did do what I wanted it to do though and gave me back the routine of posting on a more regular basis…
So… Yay!!
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Posted on Nov 29th, 09 at
5:35 pm under Photos, The Boys
29
Nov
Making decorations the day before…
and birthday hats the morning of…
Grandmaman (Simon’s mom) brought over a game for the boys to play…
hungry, hungry frogs!
Two of the gifts that we gave Khéna are kitchen/food toys so we brought the toy kitchen in from outside and cleaned it up… both Khéna and Colin had a renewed interest in it and spent quite a bit of time making tea and other treats…
Here are some of the decorations that the boys made the day before… Paper chains are so easy to make and look so nice and festive around the house…
Cake time!! I made my favourite Chocolate cake recipe… (the corners got accidentally squished but no one cared but me)
Khéna was so excited at blowing out the candle and us all singing the birthday song…
Yay!!!!
The two Grandmas with the boys… (my mom is on the left)
Looking at one of the new gifts… (Xavier picked this one out)
Playing with his new Helicopter…
It was really a great day…
The boys played and had tons of fun with their two grandmothers here, we ordered Pizza and had cake and all the presents were perfect for Khéna and we know that he will enjoy them for a long time to come…
It was just a perfect day altogether…
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Posted on Nov 27th, 09 at
10:31 pm under Photos, The Boys
27
Nov
Today was the last day that Khéna is 2… tomorrow he will wake up a three year old!!
It’s amazing how time passes fast…
From this…
(10 days)
to this…
(1 year)
to this…
(2 years)
to this…
Love you little man… good night, and I’ll see you when you’re three!!
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Posted on Nov 24th, 09 at
4:33 pm under Alternative Parenting, Family Life
24
Nov
There are times that one of the greatest tools of parenting is a simple smile.
a smile to show that you are there, that you are all ears … A smile that welcomes.
one that shows that you are paying attention…
that shows that you are there and that though a situation may be tense, you accept that their feelings are real.
that shows that you are ready to listen without judgment.
that shows that you respect them and are interested in what they are doing.
There are times that moods can be tense and anger is building and words can only make things escalate but that small smile diffuses the situation, lets tears come though and brings a child to your arms and makes their feelings finally come through…
It is such a small gesture that can say so much…
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Posted on Nov 23rd, 09 at
12:56 pm under Alternative Parenting, Awareness, Medical Maladies
23
Nov
I listen to a local (Montreal) talk radio station on almost a daily basis… when I am cleaning or doing things around the kitchen or cooking…
The H1N1 coverage and all the hype has been really getting to me though so when I heard one of the hosts introducing her next guest to talk about vaccines I rolled my eyes but decided to listen in anyway… what I heard surprised me. Not what was being said of course, but that he was saying it on the air, on a show who’s host is completely vaccine crazy usually…
After hearing the interview, I needed to know more about this guy and I really want to get my hands on his book on of these days.
Dr. Shiv Chopra is a former Health Canada scientist and “whistleblower”. He has a M. Sc and PhD in Microbiology and a degree in veterinary medicine and has been the recipient of many academic rewards including a fellowship of the WHO…
The interview started as normal but then he took over explaining H1N1 and how not dangerous it is and then went on to talk about vaccination in general… pretty much stating how it is a 50-60 year human experiment, how they have never been proven safe or effective, how they cause autoimmune diseases and just don’t work…
Here is the interview… it is really worth the listen!
(I have to say that I love how she sets up the interview and then is completely blindsided… live radio at its finest) I wish I had the second part also but they didn’t put it up… but it was him answering questions from the host and callers…
If you are interested in hearing more of what he has to say, look around his website, there is a lot of great info, I especially like the interview video from the Pimento Report which explains a lot of what he has done and what happened with his career…
Since hearing him, I have definitely been keeping an eye on what he has been saying.
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Posted on Nov 20th, 09 at
3:07 pm under The Boys
20
Nov
Xavier: Everyone knows the ABC song right?
Me: no, but many do…
Xavier: I do… (sings the song)
Me: Colin do you know it?
Colin: Of course… a-b-c-o-l-i-n….
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