Fun with kids

Hey I don't mind getting dirty but I hate a big mess. Like our garage, basement, and generally our life. No that isn't right, I like that kind of mess. Messy kids stuff is what I mean. Friday we celebrated Josie's 40th birthday, and I let her stay in bed of course. I fed the kids cream of wheat for breakfast, no problem for Will and MadB but CC was coated in what came down to basically glue by the time she was done. Remember, she has a cold too so add the snot for reinforcement. For lunch we had risotto, again babies love smearing soft goo into their hair and all available orifices. Then lasagna for dinner. Another smear able meal of primordial sludge to wear on your person. Luckily I was in good a physical state and and state of mind and simply cleaned. Yesterday it was home made play dough which leaves behind a big mess and seems to stick to everything. I will buy the dollar cans from now on as that cleans up much easier. The play dough does usually afford a space of time to accomplish grown up things, like read the business section of the globe and mail from may 15th. Anyway messes aren't really that bad I guess.
jh

Part two

I forgot this.

They call it Spring

Hey it is snowing wet and cold in Calgary. Finally I am back to fill everyone in on all the excitement around here. The week was OK family wise. We have all been sick and under rested, but I hope are all better now. Believe me it sure was a grumpy household. Madeleine was the only one to escape the malady and kept up a great attitude with all grumps here. As I mentioned last week we cancelled a party due to Bill puke, but it went off today without issue, apart from wet cold weather. I am sure all kids had fun, Moms too.
Josie turns 40 Saturday and our friend Mary Ellen as well. Happy Birthday to all and did you realize I am exactly six months from 40 as well. I look great too just like Mary Ellen and Josie, combined, with a beard muscles and other manly things. So not like them at all really except the beard. I am just joking, about some things there. See if you can spot the jokes from the truths and let me know the tally and the best will get a prize or a joke or maybe even a hug. No I am not drunk but did just have coffee and some wine too. Not mixed but in sequence.
So I am obsessed with getting little Bill riding bikes and scooters but cannot find a good ride. He loves bikes too, but his big bike doesn't quite fit and his kick bike is awkward still. I work myself into a lather over this stuff but he is happy and loves pushing them along anyway. I maintain composure 99% of the time and remind myself he is happy and I shouldn't worry. But I still do. Madeleine has no issues as we didn't start her on a bike until last year and she doesn't care, anyway I think we got Bill biking too young, but I will stay calm and deal with it. He has a lifetime ahead and so does MB and CC to bike, and bike they will as Revelstoke is a cycling paradise. The Photos will come soon.
The last picture is Mad B as a baby, try to guess the creature. Today's picture is for our freind down the street and has no real creatures.

jh

The lease

We are all set up in Revelstoke. Nice view of the mountains which I was going to photograph for this but I forgot. More on this later tonight.

Road trip

We have a place to live now, well for eight months at least. By then the plan is to have jobs and our own place. I will be signing Madeleine up for kindergarten, arranging our lease, getting a post office box, and going for ride with Tom or whoever else. Lisa tells me Thursday is a big bike ride night in the community so I hope I can keep up.
The two big kids had trips to the doctor, all is well. Madeleine is in the 75th percentile while little Bill is in the 50th. I don't really know the value of this except to, well I can't think of what. I guess as a gauge that they are relatively healthy. I don't know if Will will be a 6'4" 225lb. power forward for the Flames but we won't make him stop skating and focus on mathematics just yet. CeeCee is fine I think I bathed her myself for he first time today, no that isn't right, maybe in the big tub. I have used the baby tub and shower before. She is very funny. She has lots of big smiles and laughs, and always reaches to be picked up for hugs.
We are having a kid get together tomorrow, which I will miss part of. Josie's last count was 15 kids. Good luck I say and break out the chardonnay for the parents. Wouldn't that be fun. It will be Breakfast Blend and lemon grass tea all the way, don't worry .
We had a good trip to the Inglewood Bird sanctuary Saturday. Highlights were Redhead and Harlequin ducks. Madeleine has learned well about geese as a Canadian goose family of 13 climbed out of the pond about 12m ahead of us on a narrow trail. She has been told their wings are very strong and the dads are very protective so they might hurt a kid if they felt threatened. There is a of goose traffic in our parks and at the zoo especially so she is very aware. The way she reacted on the trail would have made a stranger think that we had been cut off by a momma grizzly and her cubs. There was a lot of patience and calming and crouching in the tall grass waiting for them to clear out but she insisted we stay back even hike back the other way to get home. Luckily a guy did walk by us and by the geese without either missing a beat thus reassuring Madeleine we were safe.

This week has been pretty uneventful, Josie's parents left so it is back to full on chores and duties. When the kids went to bed last night bed the urge for us to both go out was still there. A trip to the zoo, some friends over to the house and a bunch of bike rides were really the most adventurous things that happened. WE just finished pancakes for breakfast, and it was quite peaceful until Will would not stop touching me with sticky hands. I said I would sit beside Madeleine if he did not stop and of course he put them right on my nose. That was the end of peace at breakfast. Wailing and whining ensued and it came close to a cool down in his room, but luckily he got distracted by some sunglasses on the table. Madeleine started baby talking and more madness erupted. Time outs and most other ideas seem to have little affect on this. This may be another battle that must be abandoned and chalked up to normal unstoppable kid behavior. She says "I am just playing with MeeMoo not baby talking". This compounds things as this pet name is the most irritating.
Time to go play I have been up and down from this about seven times already and I think Josie is getting frustrated. She has decided to start to pack some boxes. Where is this, where is that. Will bring that back. Madeleine stop sassing. Cee Cee take that out of your mouth. Now Mad and Will are fighting. Oh what fun.

the cute baby

Here is Cecelia, or is she Cecilia. I can't spell my own kids name half the time. Anyway we love her very much and rarely call her Cecilia. She gets Peachy, Peaches, Peach, CeeCee, CeeBerryBee, and MeeMoo. This last one we give time outs for as both Josie and I find it very irritating. This will probably be her permanent handle as hard as we try to rid the vocabulary of it. She is just so cute and she is also very smart and funny. I hope I don't give her a complex about her name.
jh

Madeleine turns Five

As I seem to say every time, we have been busy. Madeleine turned Five, Mother's Day passed and there was a trip to Stars On Ice. I really did not do much for mother's day as I am a jerk, if you see my mom tell her I phoned. I did get tickets for Josie to take her Mom and for her kids to take her to see figure skating. William rejected the idea at first as he did not want to see figure skating but wanted to watch hockey. These were his words, no gendered influence from anyone about males not liking figure skating. He bought into the idea as going to a show and taking his Mommy out. Relating this to us moving, as I will probably do with most ideas or things discussed, we will miss the Inglewood ice. We are half a block away form three outdoor surfaces and we skated at least 60 times. Will got to be quite proficient and Madeleine was unbelievable and inspired. As far as I know there are no outdoor rinks in Revelstoke, but the Forum is quite a bit easier to access for public skating. Hopefully we don't miss much in skating this winter.
Madeleine turned five Saturday. She wanted to go to the carousel market, which is a local mall that happens to have a carousel. She loves this and always wants to go, but not being mall people she never gets to go. Well we had lunch out at Joey Tomato's and it was a good time for all us. Madeleine is obsessed with being a big girl and this suited her perfectly. Then we ventured into the mall. It was nuts, albeit a Saturday afternoon. The ride was fun then she had an ice cream, and was allowed to pick two books at Chapters. It was full full of people just sitting on the floor reading the books. It looked like a University library at crunch time for papers. I don't get it, there a billion beautiful places to go sit and read near by. Mommy made stir fry and chocolate cake at MB's request. We had some adult company and had fun. I guess we better have a kid party before we go as neither birthday had a wild mass of kids here. I will work on that.
Cecelia has four teeth through now so she is sleeping sounder and cuter than ever.
jh

Just trying to absorb the idea that we will be moving. A very daunting idea. I need to find a body to come help me move stuff as the kids will be of little use. Will can carry a box of cereal, Madeleine a jug of milk and CeeCee may be able to drag an empty bowl. If anyone reads this and wants to volunteer we can discuss airfare and transportation issues. I think we will send Josie and the kids out early pack a truck and drive, it could be fun. I am getting a beer. Tree hop head from Kelowna, good and hoppy I feel fresh and nicely preserved when I have some. Also try Wild Rose's IPA it is intense. Lets rediscover what this style should be, Keith's is fine but should drop the moniker, you need lots of hops to be IPA. I wonder if there are any genuine IPA available, it would probably disgusting and unmarketable. I like this style of beer.
Beer aside, we are going to rent for six months to a year running the trial, as Josie can keep her status with the Calgary board of education for a year. This way if we cannot afford to live in the mountains with three babes we can come back to the big city and pick up where we left off. I feel pretty confident in our plan and feel good about jobs. Today, I looked and saw some of interest, but don't have a resume. I am lazy in this regard but will shake it soon. I intend to be employed before I get there.
Good day here winter is back again, it is just miserable. We did crafts, read books and wrestled. I have become labelled by Josie and the kids as the craft guy. Lisa even got Will a book of cool animal crafts for his birthday. I was instructed later that it was really for me to play with the kids. I like crafts. They are fun, interactive, creative and a time eater. It does sometimes go wrong, where I do all of the work. It is incredibly hard not to get very frustrated at this or when the craft is to complicated for them. Then I get mad, but this only happens, lets say two per cent of the time. I really can't wait for them to get bigger and we can build more elaborate and crazy things, I guess we are training for later. We will see, hopefully in Revelstoke we have lots of time for making things like bike ramps and play structures and dog houses etc..
jh

Sold

I have just returned from work. The message light was blinking on the phone and the message was from Scott and the house is sold. Now the fun begins. I just put out the recycling. Walking through and past all the work done in that yard I saw the reality that we will leave this great place behind. I do feel sentiment for it but I will recreate the good parts, hopefully with the Columbia river as an edge to it and certainly with a veiw of glaciers,trees and mountains. Oddly enough most of the cedar on this Calgary house probably came from that valley so we will keep the connection. Bring on the insanity.
jh

I don't know what I didbut the post did not go up plus no picture was included. Here it is, the trip to the dump/ He is actually playing this daily. Will picks up all the toys nearby, puts them on the couch and pretends to go to the dump. I recall going to the dump near Langton with Bernie, and it was a highlight. I guess kids like the dump

Back to work tonight, we had some fun on nights I was off. We had a small Wii night for the kids an Wednesday, the Ironwood and Thursday and some hockey Friday.
Wednesday we tired out the kids with the new Wii games they got for birthdays and then visited our neighbours. They moved out the next morning so we took some wine and glasses over for a visit. Very interesting chatter about the neighbourhood we are both leaving. We will miss them as their three year old is a great play friend, as are Josie and the Mom. The dads are too busy. Thursday night out at the Ironwood to see Tom Phillips and Matt Masters as the Calgary Cowboys. Lots of fun some great cowboy songs and a great new location for the bar. If anyone ever visits it is a must see. Mike B in particular, you would move to our neighbourhood just for this place and these players. Anyway no real parenting issues this week just boys day Friday me and Will hung around the neighbourhood, had v visit with Spike and lots of play. Friday night I got Josie's dad out of the House for a WHL championship game at the Saddledome. All is well with all the kids, they are just enjoying visiting and playing I have a good break with Josie's folks here.