What Fall Means To Us

Well...chaos I suppose. Pure, unadulterated chaos.

Our apologies to the few lonely souls who follow our blog. Life at 21 Birchview is akin to visiting a zoo and finding out that all of the cage doors have been left open. You move quickly and quietly and strive to remain one step ahead of the animals while you seek an exit. Alas, they always get you in the end. It is difficult to blog when a lion, or 2 year old, has you by the throat.

This Fall has been, and remains, a blur. We are still here though and, each day, we square our shoulders and head out with dirt under our fingernails and coffee on our breath.

Some key points from our Fall to date:

• William and Bo began school. It was full day for both of them. William grade 1, Bo junior kindergarten
• Joshua began daycare with an awesome lady a block away (aka Donna School)
• Jill returned to work for the first time in 6 years (culture shock anyone??)
• We leased a new car for Jill
• William is in hockey (once a week), swimming (once a week), basketball (twice a week) and drama (once a week out of the house and every waking moment within the house)
• Bo is in skating (once a week) and swimming (once a week)
• Joshua is in skating (once a week)

The boys enjoy fighting, screaming, destroying the living room, sword fights with their $80 toothbrushes, fighting with sticks, hating dinner and ignoring our instructions. Their favourite words are: stupid, poopoo, hate and 'I never'. Door slamming and the stomping of feet are also gaining in popularity.

We have 'parent teacher interviews' this evening. We know the boys are clever and are not worried about school grades in the coming years.....but..... William's teacher used the word 'however' three times in her description on his report card. That meeting could be both interesting and entertaining.  She notes that he spends too much time chatting while tying his shoes and hence enters class late. Fair enough. I note that the majority of the kids in his class still require velcro on their shoes and that half of their father's choose to wear sleeveless undershirts to the school picnic. But who's to quibble?

Anyway, a few photos.....

Johsua sleeping at Donna's

Bo's back from playing in the basement

William on ice

The first day of school

Walking to daycare

Halloween

What We Look Like

With summer fast approaching the boys, especially William, have been making a lot of noise about seeing their 'Seattle Cousins'. Apparently they live in a different country and this means we can only see them at the cottage. To ensure that those pesky Americans recognize their cousins upon arrival, I'm adding some fairly recent photos....

A balancing act

Bo and William walking to Loblaws

Selecting a worm to smash

Bo at the park

Cruising home past the college

Joshie Missed His Nap

Not that anyone would notice....

Random Sayings

There are plenty of little stories that could be shared, but March is a hectic time at work and my brain isn't in blog mode. Sorry :)

However, I do stand in my home office all day and hear most of what goes on in the house. The boys occasionally come and knock on my door too, even though they know better. I've taken to jotting down the phrases that have made me chuckle at one point or another.  Here are a handful of them.

Daddy, Bo gave me two pieces of the van. I think they're extras.

Daddy, why does my bum hurt?

Joshua's drinking oil

That's not a toot. THAT'S a toot. And it means I have to go poo. NOW

No, It's not okay to look at someone's privates like it's a book.

Mommy, don't listen.

Die toilet paper! Die!

Boys, let William poo in peace

On your marks, get set GO!

Ohhhh….that's gonna hurt…

Daddy, if a crook breaks into our house I'm going to kick him in the crotch

Bo put a towel in the toilet again!

Helping is boring

I wonder what happens next…

I don't like spicy toothpaste. Don't buy soup. Buy soup for Mommy, but not for kids.

Daddy, show me your gold teeth.

I now know Karate

Joshua's drinking mouthwash

Why We Don't Blog Much

Our house is on toddler testosterone overload.....we are pretty much fried every evening, the time when I can blog. Bo is actually the biggest sh** disturber in our home, but here is Joshua two days shy of his 2nd birthday. Granted, he had taken a metal car to the temple about 25 minutes earlier courtesy of Bo. Regardless, you'll get sense of the volume in our house. It begins at 6 a.m, when they fight about who turned on the television or who opened a certain bedroom door, and continues through to dinner time with the 'place mat fights' or the fork duels. Bath time, which you will witness here, offers little respite.

Oh how we'll laugh and laugh years from now......many years from now;)

The Middle Child

At some point Bo decided to take what it means to be 3 to new heights. Loud, defiant and incredibly emotional, Bo is at the centre of just about everything that involves noise in our house. He finds it intolerable if one of his brothers is sitting quietly and quickly rectifies the situation.

We have probably put him into things like swimming, skating and skiing a bit too early, but he's a gamer and doesn't complain. This is largely because his greatest fear is that he will be left out of something. His most spoken words may be 'and me too?' or 'and I'm going too?'. He would rather cling to a ski instructor and fall on his face than not be included.

He is the straw that stirs the drink around here, but he's also our most affectionate boy. He loves his hugs and he really loves his mom. It's not easy being the Bo-man. Each day...each hour... is an emotional roller coaster. But the world seems to love him, so I'm confident it will also be his oyster.

I think everyone but Bo knows what's about to happen here

Bo has trouble sitting still when eating. This night he lost chair privileges and had to eat dinner while standing.

Before each lesson he asks if I remembered his swim shirt. Before each lesson I tell him I forgot.

Black Slalom

'Daddy', said William.

'Daddy, are there any Black Diamonds at Camp Fortune?'

'Ummm..yes, I think so' I said.

'Good. Today I'm going to ski a Black Diamond'.

'Why?' I asked. 'There are plenty of fun Blue runs'

As is his practice, he completely ignored my comment as we drove towards the ski hill.

'Are they complex runs?' he asked.

'Which?'

'The Black Diamonds. Are they complex?'

'I suppose. Why does it matter?'

'Because I want to ski a complex Black Diamond' he said.

On this holiday Monday William was looking forward to skiing with his grandparents AND, for some reason, skiing a Black Diamond.

As five year olds go William doesn't lack confidence. He gets that from his mother. As the morning progressed we tried to tell him that the hill may be too steep, that we should perhaps stick with some challenging blue runs, but I know my eldest boy and knew that the Black Diamond was likely inevitable.

An hour into the morning his grandfather took a turn trying to lightheartedly dissuade him as we headed back up the chairlift. I watched William and knew that we were wasting our breath. He crossed his hands on the bar in front of him, lay his chin on his hands and stared straight ahead. Grandpa had been tuned out. We had all been tuned out.

As we disembarked at the top I tried to trick him and tell him that a blue run was a black run. William however, has been tricked before. He stopped and stared at the list of ski runs and their corresponding colour symbols.

'Daddy' he said. 'The Black Diamond is the other way'. True 'dat....so off we went.

Thankfully, it was a sunny day. The snow was good and few people happened to be on that particular hill. As he does with most runs, William tucked right in behind me at the top. With Nanny and Grandpa skiing behind he zigged and zagged his way down the hill.

As I waited at the bottom, watching his final turns, I stuck out my hand to issue  a congratulatory 'high five'. He skied right by be.

'I told you I could do it' he said with a smile.

I was impressed and offended at the same time. I sure hope this confidence sticks with him.

I didn't manage to take any pictures that day. It was just nice to ski with  my parents and one of my sons. Here are a couple of William and Bo during their recent ski lessons though...

William, red jacket, with his class

William and his instructor

Bo with his young teacher Carolynn