Big Cow

Sarah: "You like my big cow, Mom?"
Me: "Sure do, Sarah."
Sarah: "Yeah? Thank you, Mom."

I'll file this one under "Unexpected Exchanges With The Kids".

Home Remedies

What do you do when you're under the weather?
Sarah finds herself a cozy stair to curl up on....


Liam develops an elaborate recipe turned business start-up that includes apple, orange and lemon juice, dehydrating machines and sharp knives. It'll all cost you $3. I did record a video of him detailing his cure, but the boy is long-winded. I don't think blogger can handle that kind of video. :)
Long story short, the kids picked up some kind of bug the first week of school. We're snuggling, drinkling lots of tepid honey/lemon water, watching movies and burning the midnight oil when Liam's cough starts raging at night time. And laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.
Next year I think we'll just skip the first week of school!

Tiny Tutu's

Imagine you're in a room full of adorable two year old girls. They're all wearing pink and purple tutus and parading around like little birds just hatched from an egg. They're chirping "tweet, tweet!" and flapping their arms and smiling and giggling and feeling oh-so-pretty.
Are you going to barf?
This was the scenario I found myself in this morning at Sarah's first ballet class. And because I'm her Mom and have been envisioning this moment from the instant we heard "it's a girl!" I couldn't stop grinning. Even though I knew the cuteness factor bordered on revolting.
So without further adieu, here she is! Our little ballerina....



That tummy! Those chubby fingers! The pigtails! Oh! Oh! Oh! I can't take it!!!!


Each girl had a little square mat to stand on. When Sarah saw them she shouted "Look Mom! iPads!" No, we do not typically dance on our iPad....


Ballerinas get itchy, too...


Sigh....


Learning some foot work (they call this one "rainbow")...

Plie...


Making a "pizza"...


Little birds hatching out of their shells....


Tickling toes....


Tickling the stars....


Her favorite part was whenever they got to run around in circles and "dance" to the music - especially when the silk scarves were involved! But I would say she loved the whole experience, from the outfit, to the teacher (who she knew from a summer program), to the dancing, and especially to having an audience.


And speaking of the audience...here is her biggest fan! Whenever Sarah would dance by us, Liam would chant "Go, Sarah, Go!" Not your typical ballet cheer, but it was nice to see him being so supportive.


I think I'm going to like Mondays. :)

"The World Is Your Oyster, You Are The Pearl"

Every now and then Matt and I like to play a round of "What Will They Be When They Grow Up?"
Sarah is still coming into her own - once she stops copying every little thing Liam does I think we'll get a better idea of her personality, but so far we think she will be a great athlete. If you could see her on the monkey bars, I think you would peg her for gymnastics. She pulls herself up and hangs upside down all by herself. She's never even seen anyone do that!
Liam, on the other hand....it's hard to narrow down! Early guesses had him playing in the NHL, but we're pretty sure that's been tabled. He's too cerebral for that. ;) So now we are toying with Engineer, Writer, Pediatrician (he still loves babies) Policeman or Architect. If you were to ask him the same question, he'd say all of the above and astronaut. Why limit yourself?
Here is the Boy Genius with his very own creation: a closed circuit tinker toy police camera / radar / laser system. He came up with the idea, built it all on his own, and asked me to take his picture with it. Much obliged, Dr./Sir/Officer, uh....Liam.

Goldilocks

I love her bedhead curls!

Dismissed

It was nothing like last year. There was no orientation week. Parents were not expected to stick around for a couple of days. There were no shortened sessions. Monday was just the first day of school.
Liam was a bit apprehensive about school that morning, but once I promised him an ice cream sundae after school to celebrate, he started to get on board. And once we pulled up and he saw all his friends running around his favorite playground there was no hesitation. We made our way inside, hung his backpack on the hook and he said "Bye!" That's it. Not that I wanted him to be clingy and hysterical....but a hug would have been nice!

A Rare Moment

These days, there could be chunks of hair and blood spatters on the walls before I can even fire up the coffee pot. The kids are not in a 'getting along' phase. But this morning I came downstairs to find this scene, and Liam giggling "Sarah's sittin' in my lap!"


I won't declare a turning point just yet, but it was a pleasant start to the day!

Shutterbug

Liam asked to take some photos while we rode the Peak 2 Peak gondola and explored the tops of Whistler and Blackcomb last week. I expected to delete most of the images once we got home - but it turns out he has an interesting perspective! Here is the Peak 2 Peak experience, through Liam's eyes....



I have to wonder if Sarah was cropped out intentionally?


Random friendly tourists (Liam thought the baby was cute)...


That's Poppa, as seen from behind Matt's legs...


And there's Poppa again, this time shown with a sampling of tourist bottoms. Some would argue that the mountain range is world class scenery. Perhaps Liam's framing could use a little work.


We wrestled the camera away for a couple of pictures. He wasn't happy about this and refused to give us a "normal" face. Although, now that I think about it, this might be considered normal these days!


Sarah hasn't reached that 100% goofy phase yet. All in good time...


They're dancing...


Back to Liam's masterpieces! Whenever he sees a Canadian flag he is always certain it has been put out in our honour, so I wasn't surprised to see he had captured this one...


On the gondola for the return trip...


Nan and Aunt Bridget...I like how he captured the gondola facts in this one!


This is me, taking a picture of him, taking a picture of me!


A self-portrait of today's artist...