They came, they ate, they gave her presents.

We had Ella's birthday party on Saturday - we kept it pretty small - grandparents, a great-grandma, and uncle/aunt/cousin. It was really nice! They all gave Ella such nice things for her 2nd birthday - clothes, toys, books... We all ate and had cake and played a little Rock Band. Good times!

The cake was a garden:


Lots of yummy candies!

Cousin time on the couch:


Uh...the book is upside down...


Sari is just soooooo cute!


Futile candle-blowing attempt # 102:


Time to call in the big guns:


Rabid present opening:



(Not really, it just sounds better than "long, drawn-out, get-distracted-by-shoes present opening.)

Sporting the beautiful pink feather boa from Uncle Chris, Auntie Sheri and Sari:


Who wouldn't love this face?


Sunday, we went to Assiniboine Park to enjoy the sun (but it was kinda cool/windy). We took the soccer ball to give Ben some practice for this coming Friday - his first night of soccer!






Eating strawberries...I loved Ella's fashion statement in this one...monster shirt, cap on backwards...very haute couture in the toddler circle these days...

Happy Birthday Ella!

Ella, you’re 2!

Wow. The time is flying by. It’s been this way since the start of your life – it just feels like it’s moving so much quicker than it did with your big brother. I’m sure that it has to do with the fact that now we’re busy with two crazy kids instead of just one, but still, it’s a little hard to take.

How would I describe your relationship with Ben right now? Love/hate, for sure. With more hate than love. Keep in mind, I don’t really mean “hate”; but you two do drive each other crazy. Ben roars at you, you get upset. Two minutes later, you roar at him and he gets upset. Seriously, you two thrive on making the other mad. I honestly don’t know why your dad and I don’t send you two to live in the wilds of our backyard, so that peace is restored in the house, but you’re both still around, so we must make it through somehow. And then comes bedtime, and you and your brother love to give each other hugs and kisses on the cheek as you say goodnight. All the love/hate stuff aside, you completely idolize your brother and want to do everything he does – from marching around the house to Hap Palmer’s music, to tearing off your bathrobe to be NakedGirl to Ben’s NakedBoy.

These days, your nicknames range from Ella-bee, Beeper and Miss Bee, to Stink-o. I love it when Ben refers to you as “Miss Bee”, or “Ella Beeper”. So cute to hear him say, “Good Morning Miss Bee”, or “What’s wrong Beeper?” Don’t ask me why you’re Ella-Bee…you just are. Have been for a long time, really. You're our Bee and that's that.

In the talking department, you've been a little slower than what we anticipated. Not that it's a bad thing! You are certainly picking up on a lot of words now, which is great. But Daddy just told me that he thinks you're cuter because of your lack of words. I have to agree, but only sometimes. Hearing you say "Hi Daddy" or "Ay Mommy" or "Hi Guys" is just sweet music to our ears! Probably the cutest thing you say is "Warwee" - you love Charlie!

And now here is a list of your current favorite things:
Food: You eat pretty much anything we give you, but a couple things we NEVER have to worry about are cheese, rice, cheese, berries (of any variety), cheese, any other fruit, really. Oh, have I mentioned CHEESE?
TV show: Blues Clues, Curious George or maybe Elmo
Toy: A doll in a stroller or the shopping cart
Book: Blankie (Leslie Patricelli) or Little Pea (Amy Krause Rosenthal)
Song: Wiggy Wiggles Freeze Dance (Hap Palmer)
Activity: Wearing shoes, any shoes (not just yours), sometimes yours and then someone else’s, if they’re big enough to fit over yours. And you also like to color/draw and you usually want us to draw a stick person and you’ll draw the face.
Person: Mommy

You don't like milk nearly as much as Ben does. You're a better eater than he is though! You love to listen to music and dance. We do not mention bathtime until we're about to pour the water - you would bath 10 times a day, I think!

And finally, the last year in pictures:


















You melt our hearts and make us laugh with your funny faces, crazy hair and your love of life. Life wouldn't be as beautiful without you. We love you to the moon and back.

Mommy, Daddy and Ben

It's M-r F-ing Haiku Time!

Alas, rue Gareau
your traffic light makes me mad:
It is always red.

The Big Melt is on…for now…

Oh it was a lovely day here in the ‘Peg yesterday. I was sitting on the bus, looking around at everyone wearing their spring jackets instead of their bulky parkas, and I smiled. Inwardly, of course…I wouldn’t want some of the riff-raff on particular bus getting the wrong idea!

It was just so lovely that we just had to grab the dog and head to the dog park. And get this…we didn’t even wear mittens. Ha! Well, Ben did and that is a good thing, because he insisted on making a snowball to give to Charlie to “eat”, and when she wouldn’t, he did. So he carried around this snowball, munching away on it, offering it to Ella and other random dogs as well. And no, it was NOT made of yellow snow. And we did advise him not to eat it, just in case. This is, after all, snow that dogs have done lord-knows-what on. But he’s 4 and what can you do?

Ella and I didn’t so much walk around the dog park, as stand around the entrance and say hi to all the dogs coming in. Gord and Ben took Charlie around for a real walk. And Ben had to pee. I guess it’s easier for guys, eh gals?

And when we got home, we made sure to call Ruby & Fiona, ‘cause they turned 2 YEARS OLD yesterday! Ben keeps asking when we can go to their birthday party…man, it sucks that they live so far away!

Tonight, it’s Ben & Ella & Mommy night, wherein Mommy just puts the kids in the bathtub after supper because she’s ready to sell them on eBay. Cheap. Oh, I’m just kidding grandparents! The reason we’re alone is that Gord has his weekly bridge night tonight, with his 3 surrogate mothers (no offense to his real mother, of course!).

I always kind of look forward to these nights, and not just because Gord’s out of the house (love ya lots hon!) but because I can usually make something different for supper. You know, something that Gord doesn’t mind missing. Like chili, for instance, which is what is in my crockpot at home right now. Yum. Ben was excitedly telling Gord this morning about how we were going to have chili for supper and how he was going to eat it without me having to plead/beg/fight him on it. And if Ben *actually* eats any chili, I’ll…well, it doesn’t matter, ‘cause he’ll hate it. ‘Cause it’s spicy. Where spicy means “having any flavor whatsoever”. Sigh.

Bring on Ben & Ella & Mommy night!

A Number 1 and another Number 2!

A pee and another poop. A celebration ensued. The end.

She pooped!

She pooped, people. ON THE TOILET. Wow.

She started doing a little squat/grunt, so I asked her if she would like to go sit on the toilet. She nodded, so I walked her to the bathroom and even had time to get the little seat out of Ben's closet for the toilet. I undressed her, and she hadn't pooped yet, so I put her on there and after about a minute, had pooped! Cool. I don't really think she's too into it yet, but hey, the first time she actually does something on the toilet was a poop! Woot!

Dancing fools!

Look in our windows at around 7:30 most nights, and you will see the dance spectacle of the millenium. Trust me, it is a sight to behold! The kids...they love to dance...and it is the cutest, funniest, most interesting show around. It is great to watch, but at the same time, my heart just hurts because it's so cute.

There's a lot of booty-shakin', spinning, and screaming. Oh, the screaming. But they think it's hilarious, so what are we supposed to do?

The current favorites are:

Pretty much anything Hap Palmer - but Ella's fave is "Open Shut Them" and they both absolutely adore "Wiggy Wiggy Wiggles" - this is the ultimate song for them - the music slows down, stops, and start back up again and this is when they are at their best. (I have some video of it, but I just have to figure out how to get video on the interweb...)
Ben loves "Walkie Talkie Man" by Steriogram. Ella will pretty much dance to anything, although she has a recent love for The Beastie Boys, where she sort of purses her lips and nods her head up and down.

Seriously, it's a riot to see!

Birthday party rundown...

OK folks, I'm finally getting down to posting about Ben's birthday party. We decided to take everyone bowling, and then back to our house for lunch/cake/presents. The bowling alley does glow-bowling so I had given all the kids some glow bracelets to wear, and with all the black lights and glowy stuff, it was pretty cool!

I think everyone had a good time, except for Ella, who decided that no matter what I did, she was going to be grouchy. I wish she'd sent me a memo on that so that I could have stayed home! About 10 minutes before we were all done, she finally fell asleep in my arms. So I guess she was tired.

Ben had a good time, until Grandpa hit him in the mouth with a bowling ball. Don't worry...it was an accident, and it wasn't very hard. Ben was leaning over the ball dispenser (table? Wherever the balls sit waiting to be used.) and Dad grabbed a ball and sorta bonked it into Ben's lips. There was a teeny amount of blood, but Ben survived the physical trauma. The emotional trauma...we're not sure yet.

So we all came back here for lunch and then cake. Check out the birthday cake this year:



Gord thinks the VOLCANO looks like a BOOB. I think he's the BOOB.

Of course, we get around to doing the cake thing, and I realize that we don't have a lot of candles. As in, we only have 1. So Gord, the wonderful husband and dad he is, ran up to the dollar store to buy some. So we're set for, oh, 16 years now.

Presents...holy. It was an experience. Ben wanted to play with whatever he just unwrapped. So we had to talk him into unwrapping the next thing, and it ended up that he then migrated all over the living room. So there was wrapping paper all over the place. I would rather he have sat in one place and made a mess, but no, it was shredded EVERYWHERE. But he had fun and he got some great gifts. We gave him the Leap Frog ClickStart computer, and he loves to work on "his computer". Which is nice, 'cause now he's not bugging us to "do typing" on the laptop.

OK, here are some more pictures!

Ben showing his love for his little sister. You can see that she's enjoying it.


Getting ready to blow out the candles!


Mmmmmm...cake and ice cream!

All the kids, except for one who doesn't like cake and/or ice cream. (I KNOW! What is UP with that?


Opening his computer:


Ella's creation:


We had birthday cupcakes on his actual birthday...nice candle-blowing action shot here!

I'm not really into Valentine's Day that much, but...

I thought that the "The Way I See It" on the side on my Starbucks cup today (extra-hot non-fat no-whip grande cafe mocha, if ya were wonderin'!) was very fitting...not sure if it's intentional or not, given that it's Valentine's Day, but anyhoo:

"In a world where celebrity equals talent, and where make-believe is called reality, it is most important to have real love, truth and stability in your life."

A-men. Love to you all...you know who you are!

Holy 4 years old, Batman!

Our little bug turned 4 today! I think he understood the whole thing - last night he went to sleep and he was 3, and he woke up today and he was 4! He told us that he is "officially 4 years old now".

I need to go to bed (after I put the laundry in the dryer) but I want to put a placeholder here for birthday pics and a party rundown. I can' t promise it'll be tomorrow, but we'll work on it...

Catchin' up on two weeks of...life...

I know it's been a while, but once the Ottawagonians left, year-end was on...and then the kids got the flu...oy.

We had sent the kids to Morden so that I could go in to work on the weekend and Gord could get his work done too, and the kids ended up coming down with the flu. Thankfully, Mom & Dad kept them, despite our guilt, and we can't thank them enough. Their flu lasted until Wednesday/Thursday last week too, which is longer than I thought most flus lasted. We had two tired, lethargic kiddos who didn't want to eat or drink anything but milk. Even Ella, who we have a hard time getting to drink milk on a typical day. Unless it's chocolate...yummmm...

We've got to start blogging more regularly, 'cause I just can't remember all the stuff that's been going on...

So here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks!

Cousin bathtime! The boat goes "booooop, booooop!"


"You can have it if you want!"


The kids in front of the fire on Christmas morning:


Ben eatin' a lukken and chillaxin'...


Ella eatin' a lukken and posin':


Ben playing with the brand new rocket ship that Santa brought him:


All the gals, havin' a drink:


Snack time!


Fiona's cute face:


One of the rare times that all 4 kids were not moving:


A Ruby close-up:


Sick Ben, eating (or not) his lunch:


Ella's first ponytail, and a drippy milk chin:


Sometimes after a bath, I'll comb all her hair back and let it dry. This is the result for the next few days:


Gord thinks he sees a resemblance to David Bowie:


Whatever. Movin' on...

Mr. Incredible!


Licking off the beaters after Mommy made pudding!


Ella has had a little word explosion (I think the visit from her chatty cousins helped tremendously!). She now says:
- mama (Good god, finally, after almost 21 months of waiting, I get to hear it!)
- No, no, no (Gord's fave...)
- Mine (Nine, nine, nine, nine x 1,000,000,000,000)
- Water ("waawo")
- Living room ("weewee woo")
- Please ("peaz")
- Cheese ("cheeeeeeeeez")
- Cracker (tacter, tacter, tacter, tacter x 1,000,000,000,001)
- More ("moh?" always followed by "tacter?")

When Gord picked them up at day care today, Ben had gone back into the babysitter's living room, so Gord called to him to ask him to come and get his boots on. He didn't come right away, so Ella went to the doorway, and said, "Beh!", waited, and when he still didn't come, she said, in a more demanding voice, "Behbehmeh!" which is Benjamin. Like we ever raise our voices and shout out Ben's full name. Ever. She'll also yell out something at Charlie (her name?) and again, like we ever yell at Charlie.

Ben made a trip with me to Old Navy last week to fetch our cell phone (yeah, yeah, I lost it there). So he knew why we had gone and such. And this weekend, I was looking for something and couldn't remember where it was, and he suggested that "maybe you left it at Old Nady!" Old Nady. What a hoot. A saucy hoot, but a hoot nonetheless.

Ben is slowly starting to get this letter thing. He can write a few and is learning the sounds they make more and more each day. Hopefully soon he can just read to himself so that we can go to bed early.

Speaking of bed, I should go to it.

Wow...happy new year!

Welcome to 2008!

I apologize for the lack of posts and pics and updates...Kathy, Greg and the cutest twinsies ever, Ruby and Fiona, are visiting and staying with us. It is non-stop cuteness and hilarity over here...much more than we hoped for! So much going on that I just don't have the time (or strength or energy) to download Christmas pics from the camera and recount our holiday season...maybe this weekend?

I just want to say that 2007 was a great year and we are so looking forward to 2008!

So much to update...

so little time to do it!

What's happened since we last blogged...

We went to see Walking With Dinosaurs. It was so totally cool, it's hard to describe. There was a man on the floor with the dinosaurs - the palaeontologist - and he talked about the environment and the types of dinosaurs and the like. Ben wasn't too scared, until the end. There were two herbivores out on the floor, wandering around, and the palaeontologist explained that the one thing that could break through the armour of the dinosaurs was the fiercest, most feared animal ever to roam the planet...the tyrannosaurus rex! And the screen lifted and out ran a little baby t-rex! So cute! But then momma rex came out, screaming, and that's when Ben hid his face in the seat! I brought him up on my lap for the last little bit, and he was fine. Gord and I thoroughly enjoyed the show, and we think Ben really did too! We didn't take the camera, 'cause we didn't think they'd let the audience take pictures, but they did. Even though there was a risk that the flashes would spook the dinos and cause a rampage! Ha ha ha!

This past Sunday, Chris, Sheri and I went to the Bon Jovi concert. OH MY GOD. So incredible. When we bought our tickets, we ended up in a section beside the stage (it was a 360 degree bowl). So we knew there was a chance our view would be obstructed. However, I guess when they actually set up the equipment, our view was completely blocked. So we were relocated up to 5th row, same section, but in front of the end of the stage! RIGHT WHERE JON BON JOVI CAME OUT THE DOOR ON THE STAGE. Like 15 feet from me. He is amazing! I was screaming my lungs out the whole concert. I swear, he looked at Sheri and I once! The girls at work were all jealous of our seat upgrade and laughing at my account of the evening! Can you tell I had a good time? Again though, no camera. I didn't want to bring our big digital SLR to the concert. I used my cell phone camera, but those pictures aren't that great. Oh well, I have the images seared onto my brain!

Ella is starting to say more stuff now (thank goodness!). Added to her repertoire now:

Pretty - sounds like pih-eeee - used to describe all things Christmas
Santa - sounds like data
Ho ho ho - yep, it sounds like it's supposed to!
Then she tries to say Merry Christmas, but it's just a bunch of syllables
And cheese for the camera!

BTW, I'm watching Love Actually right now. I love this movie. And it's all about Christmas. And it's funny. And it has Hugh Grant and Colin Firth and Liam Neeson and the yummy guy that Laura Linney likes. Whatever his name is. But it has Kiera Knightley in it. I don't get her appeal. She's way too skinny. But Hugh Grant is in it, so that pretty much makes up for anything!

Here are some pictures...enjoy!

Goofing around before bed:



Pinning down his little sister:


Here is the letter that Ben had me write to Santa (beyond cute!):


"Cheeeeeeeeeese!"


Hamming it up for the camera: