I haven’t been writing lately…It is summer and that seems to happen on my blog…

we have been sick and making the most of the days that we can… The boys got sick about 3 weeks ago and it seems to have made its rounds a few times now… fevers, runny noses, coughs and headaches. Just the run of the mill cold that won’t go away…we have had car trouble and pool problems and things seem to be breaking all at the same time but we have been able to keep up and get things done…

We have been to the cabin to see my mom…. the boys love going there, especially the ferry ride over…

It is not a long ride on the ferry, but we go across the St-Laurent River and the view is nice…

and the cabin is beautiful….

the boys have so much fun exploring and walking around and going for rides on the four wheeler with my mom…

One thing that I love about our home is the fact that we have a pool… Quebec weather is so extreme, in the winter we get very cold temps and lots of snow and in the summer we get very hot weather and humidity that makes it unbearable at times…So on nice days we mostly stay at home and we hang out in the pool…

Colin loves to swim underwater and since having taken this pic he can swim without the aide of the balloon… he is such a little fish!

Xavier is a little more conservative in the water but just recently (after seeing his little brother can do it) he has been putting his head underwater… but he still hasn’t figured out how to keep the water out of his nose… he is really trying though!

Khéna loves being in the water… when we are not in the pool he hangs out on the stairs and watches his brothers…. When we are in the pool though he is always in our arms and loves to swim with us… he is just starting to wear his balloon and has been getting more comfortable letting us show his how to move in the water..

.

The last two weeks have also felt a bit shorter because we had the Quebec “national” holiday last week on Wednesday so Simon was off in the middle of the week and the same thing is going to happen tomorrow for Canada day… I really wish it was like that more often! Now only two weeks left until he is on vacation for 2 weeks! I can’t wait!

I’ll try to update a little more often…

The last few days have been cold here… my hands were even freezing when I went on my bike last night…  but today the weather turned and it was hot! I mean yesterday it was about 12-13 and today it was 30!

I did some things around the house this morning and by the afternoon I was hot and the boys were driving me a bit crazy… I am realizing that I have been so less patient these last few days and I am not liking it…

So, I went outside and dragged out the kiddie pool for the boys… they were so excited and I was able to get a few pics…

Colin never stops jumping…

and is a bit crazy… (ok… a lot)

but he is a cutie…

Xavier is looking so much older lately and is outgrowing everything… the pool is so small for him and he can o longer fit in the little car that the boys have…

Khéna had a blast! he was so excited when he saw the pool and played in it the longest….

(I have to admit I love the motion in the above pic… I wanted to get him pouring the water out, but it is cool to see the water still coming from the bottom holes… )

Anyway… we stayed and played until the boys wanted to come back inside… and after that the house was a bit calmer and my patience came back a bit…

I looking forward to having the big pool ready for swimming so that I can jump in too!

Yesterday , the boys and I headed to the Electrium...

The Electrium is in Ste-Julie on the south shore of Montreal and is a place run by Hydro-Quebec to learn all about electricity…

The tour starts out with a few minute long films that were fun and held all of the kids attentions…

then they learned about safety,

then electricity/magnetism in Nature with electric eels and other fish, the human body, static electricity, power and circuitry…

It was really quite informative and most of all it was a lot of fun…

The boys loved it especially because everything can be touched and tried…

Xavier learning about how a circuit works….

This of course was a big hit…

But I think that this was Colin’s favourite part… the guy who was showing the tour let him go up even though he was a bit small… he told Colin not to take his hand of the ball and Colin listened so well that it was hard for him to hear when it was safe to do so… he just stayed so still and didn’t move…

If you are near or in Montreal the Electrium is on the south shore not too far away from the Island. It is free and though it is not a big place it is a lot of fun and even for little kids…

I have been thinking about showing the progression of Khéna’s haemangioma for a while now and after a conversation with Annie the other day, I thought it would be a good time…  ( I know that I would have liked to see something simular when I saw that he had one)

First… what is it? (you might not imagine how many times I have had to answer this out in public)

Infantile haemangioma (American spelling ‘hemangioma’) describes a benign (non-cancerous) condition affecting cutaneous blood vessels. It is also known as proliferative haemangioma because it is due to proliferating endothelial cells; these are the cells that line blood vessels.

Infantile haemangiomas are proliferative lesions that usually develop shortly after birth. They are distinct from vascular malformations, which are usually present at birth and are less common.

Over 80% of infantile haemangiomas occur on the head and neck area. They grow to 80% of maximum size in the first three months and most stop growing at about 5 months. However, they may keep growing for up to 18 months.

After that, they undergo regression or involution. This can take as long as 3-10 years. Nearly all flat infantile haemangiomas eventually involute and disappear without treatment. However, regression of bulky haemangiomas tends to be incomplete, and they may leave an irregular atrophic (thin) scar or anetoderma (a dented scar) in at least 50% of cases.

From here…

though you don’t see it, he had an even bigger one under his hair but it grew quicker and faded completely by 18 months…

(you can see all of his pics here)

3 days old (no sign of it)

2 weeks old (you start seeing it)

1 month

2 months

3 months

from 5 months to about 14 months it was at it’s most intense… it was really thick and looked like it could burst….

(this is at about a year… it was more raised than this for a few months)

From 13 months to 18 months it pinked up…

14 months

15 months

At 18 months the middle became flesh coloured and it was no longer as raised and squishy…

second birthday… you can see it is fading more…

now… 2 years 3 months….

It was a beautiful day outside so we headed out in to the front yard to play for a few hours… our front yard is not big but in the winter  the snow hill is high enough to slide on and off… (last year is was almost twice as high)

and they love to play there…

Sliding….

Colin is always Jumping… (I can’t believe how high he can jump up sometimes!)

Khéna had a lot of fun…

and just some more of the boys…

all tuckered out….

I finally gave two of the boys a haircut… everday I would think about it since their hair was getting in their eyes… Xavier didn’t want one so I’ll either get him another day…. or not if he chooses to have long hair again…

Here are some before and after pics…

Khéna’s hair is a bit shorter than I wanted because he kept on moving….

Xavier has had a few really loose teeth for a while now…

under his finger was a tooth that has been near to falling out for a few weeks now (he was showing me that it could bend completely over)…. and the top tooth which used to be on the left (he lost the right one a few years ago when he knocked it out on the kitchen floor) has been migrating to the middle of the space for a few weeks has been so loose also…

well… today while eating lunch the bottom one fell out and then while he was playing outside with Colin the top one get knocked out!

It fell in the hill of snow in the front yard… (about 6 feet of snow) and though he and Simon searched for it for a while it was no where to be found…hopefully we will find it in the spring…

anyway…

It just seems so weird at times when I realize that my kid is getting older…

old enough to be smiling at me like this now…

I realized that I haven’t shared new pics in a while…

Xavier won’t let me take many pics of him… so these are  from a few weeks ago….

He is a really cool kid and getting older and changing so much…

he loves video games and is really good at them… At the moment his favourites are Zelda for the wii and Spore…he is also a champ at wii boxing and he can beat pretty much anyone… He plays a lot with Lego’s and makes spaceships of all kinds…

He has lost a few teeth now and there are 2-3 that are loose and he should lose soon…his smile is so weird right now because of it…

the most amazing thing though is to see how all the information that he has been accumulating over the years is now coming together and making sense for him… and it just gets more amazing everyday…

I took these of Colin yesterday…

Colin is a such a sweetie… he is easygoing and fun… he is also a bundle of energy and agility… always running and jumping and tumbling and turning… I really would love to get him into gymnastics or circus or something because it is amazing what he can do with his body….

Here is a pic from a few weeks ago of him jumping up and down in the kitchen trying to see how high he could jump…

He is really into Star Wars and Indiana Jones… he loves his action figures and always has a few with him whatever he is doing… he also loves to play video games and his favs are Lego Star wars and Lego Indiana Jones…

and of course Khéna…

Khéna is a cutie… he is always cuddling and wanting to be with us… Like Colin, he sings almost all of the time… he is in a language boom and everyday he talks more and makes more sentences…

He looks up to his big brothers and follows them everywhere… he is very nurturing and very loving… and I love seeing the kid that he is becoming…