Only a few Days

This is what my mom pointed out to me tonight on the phone.

A few days ago we left and came home. In that time, one of our dogs was killed, all of my children have become sick, I have become sick, and my tooth has fallen apart.

This conversation happened after I told her not much was new in the last few days. Sometimes I have a short memory.

She's FOUR.

Dear she-whos-name-shall-not-be-spoken

She is not a witch, she is not a bitch, she is not manipulative, she is not driving me crazy, she is not the devil. SHE IS FOUR.

She is my daughter who I am raising to be herself. I don't want to quash her into submission. I want her to think about who she is and who she wants to be. I don't want her to just follow someone into trouble just because she isn't allowed to say no. I want her to be happy with herself and free to express an opinion. Just because that opinion isn't mine or isn't yours does not mean that it is not a valid opinion.

You have had your chance with your three children and now leave me alone to raise mine. I am NOT like you. I actually like being their Mom. I don't want to short change them because they are not perfect. I am not a perfect mom why would I expect them to be perfect chldren?

She is four. She is becoming more independant. She is four. She is trying to figure out this world and her place in it. She is four. She just needs to be loved and taught, not put down and made to feel worthless.

She is not a witch, she is just four.

signed your very ungrateful Grandaughter.

An Accident

I was watching the news yesterday and I can't get this off of my mind.

When I was in grade 10 in one weekend, one person in my class killed himself and another person was killed in a car accident. This happened right before we went on our band/choir trip for the year(yeah I know dork dork but we had about 400 people involved in the music program). It was devastating for our class. I just remember everywhere we would turn there would be people just sitting and crying.

This past weekend two young women were killed in a car accident and one young man is in the hospital. These young people went to Thom also. I can only imagine the pain that the class must be going through right now.

Thom is a non semestered school so the week before Christmas holidays there are Winter exams. I can't even imagine trying to keep my head in the exams while grieving.

My heart goes out to all the students at Thom during this time.

waiting waiting waiting waiting

I love Christmas, I love the lights and the snow and the anticipation of what is going to happen is almost too much for me to bear. Now that I have children it is even more exciting because I can see how excited they get. I can hardly wait for them to open their gifts. I have already gone out and purchased new batteries and have cleaned out my camera so I'm ready.

We only put up our little tree from last year, I was hoping that we could get a big tree (or just chop one down from outside) but we're afraid that Chez will pull it down or Waneeke will try and climb it so we stuck with our old one. I like it ok, but it isn't big enough for the kids Christmas ornaments to be on it. I have yet to be able to hang Waneeke's Baby's First Christmas ornament. Maybe next year???

So we have the stocking hung and the tree up and decorations made by Waneeke and Koivu, we're all ready to go. Now I just need to finish the last 40 Christmas cards by tomorrow.....

Gigesasooooors

stomp, roar, stomp, roar, stomp, roar, roar, roar.

Moooooom, I'm a gigasooooor. Umm ok honey.

He sort of looked like a cross between a chicken and a monster but he was a dinosaur. Then Waneeke joined in but I'm pretty sure that was just to scare, or at least pretend to scare Koivu.

IT was a wintery snowy day today, I love those days. We sat around filling out Thank-you cards, and some more Christmas cards. WE're a little late getting Waneeke's cards out for her birthday.

Enchanted Forest

Once again this week we ended up in Saskatoon. At 5:30ish we finished what we had to do there so I decide to take the kids to the Enchanted Forest. It is a Christmas light show display held at the zoo.

You can start to see the lights from the far road and one of the displays is fireworks. Waneeke yelled look mom there are fireworks. We only had to pay for Waneeke and me so I was really happy with that.

So you drive into the Enchanted Forest and change your radio so that you can hear the Christmas music, although I couldn't hear much over Waneeke's narations. She loved the fireworks and told me this on many occasions throughout the 10 minute drive. She also enjoyed any of the wild animals, there were wolves and rabbits and gophers and eagles.

Koivu didn't really have much to say. I asked him at one point if he was awake, he shouted out, "look snowman". The snowmen were having a snowball fight.

Flour Handprints

I decided that today would be a great day to start Christmas baking. I'm not sure why I'm doing Christmas baking but I am.

So Waneeke and Koivu love baking. I always make a double batch of whatever it is I'm making. That's the one thing that I know I got from my Mom and my Grandmother but it works out well when you have two kids helping.

Waneeke had to play with some of the flour, of course and Koivu broke and egg while I wasn't looking, but fortunetly it wass Koivu so he got up right away and cleaned it up. It wasn't until I saw there was an egg missing that I thought to ask what happened to it.

By the time we were done, we had two bowls of cookie dough, flour all over the table, egg on a chair, Chez covered in flour (and considering she wasn't at the table that was quite a feat), vanilla on another chair and handprints in flour on my floor. A great time was had by all. Now we just have to bake them.......stay tuned.

Sled Dogs

When El was little they had dogs on the reserve and they used to teach the dogs to pull them on a sleigh. So he figured this would be something neat for our kids. Today was pretty nice out so out he went.

I was watching from the window and as he was harnessing Curly, I could tell this wasn't going to be easy. Curly got his harness on and would have none of it. No amount of coaxing or pulling or calling would get him to move one little centimeter. I threw El some crackers and Curly decided that yes he could move for crackers.

So there they were, Waneeke and Koivu sitting on a snowboard, Curly tied to the snowboard and El ahead of them tossing crackers on the ground. Curly would run to the cracker, eat it, almost get hit by the snowboard, run to the next cracker.......

The kids (including El) all came in soaking wet and ready for some soup and a nap.

Santa Pictures

I love the yearly Santa picture. I always leave it up to the kids as to whether or not it will happen, so if they are too scared I won't force them.

Today was the day. We went to Saskatoon hoping that we could them from Lawson Mall where they are free and the reprints are inexpensive. No such luck. We were there for the afternoon but Santa didn't arrive until the evening and there was no way I was sticking around for that long.

I had heard on the radio that Santa was at another mall starting at 2, so off we went. On the way there, after going the wrong way twice (you'd think I hadn't lived in that city for 5 years), the kids fell asleep. I figured we were a little early so I let them sleep, hoping that if they slept the man in the red suit wouldn't be so scary.

After waking them up, and realizing that Koivu spilled his drink on his pants and now looks like he peed himself, we went into the mall.

We had perfect timing. We were just walking up when Santa was coming out of his dressing room. Santa was great. He saw my kids and came up to us. Waneeke was beside herself she was so happy. He gave each of them a candy cane and then he had to go to his seat. Waneeke asked if she could still go get a picture taken.

We got to the area and it was a great area, lots of fake snow, lots of glitter. Waneeke went right up to get her picture taken. Chez sat on his lap no problem and just as they were getting ready to take the picture Koivu decided that he should go too. Yay!!! So we stood him in front, hoping that the drink spill wouldn't be too obvious.

I must say. I had to pay a lot more for the picture but it was worth it. All three were looking at the camera, Waneeke was smiling, Koivu was smiling and Chez looks like she was waving.

Beads & PomPoms & Stickers

Today I went down to the basement and found some of my old craft supplies. I looked at the beads and grabbed them. I looked at the pompoms and grabbed them. I looked at the glitter grabbed it, put it back, grabbed it.....put it back.

We cut out Christmas shapes and attached beads and pompoms to them using glue. It is great having younger children because they don't expect much out of you for creativity. First they made gingerbread men. Waneeke told me that it wasn't a gingerbread man it was Waneeke. Then it was onto the angels, Waneeke decided that her entire angel should be covered in stickers so while she was doing that Koivu finished an angel, an ornament, and two bells.

I put the reindeer aside to have some more structured craft time. We gave them red noses and then beads on the antlers.

The stockings had the pompoms on top and while I thought they should have the foam stickers to decorate them, they also were beaded.

After a short break we made stars. Waneeke was trying to make a design on her stars so she would pick and choose her beads very carefully. Koivu would get his stars covered in glue and grab a handfull of bead and slam them down. Koivu did 3 stars for everyone that Waneeke did. When we ran out he was a bit disappointed.

Right now our window is very decorated. They love being able to put their creations onto the window. When Elvis came home they could hardly wait to show him.

Christmas Party Day

Waneeke's in BECIP to help her with her speech delay. There was a Christmas party today for all the kids and their families who are in BECIP.

We arrived a little late, since El had to finish watching the movie. When we got there a number of people had already eaten, a lot of the kids were playing hockey in the gym. We ate our turkey dinner and it was really quite good. Part way through they brought out ice cream. Waneeke's dinner was now over and all she wanted was some "yucky stuff" as my husband so helpfully started calling it.

We finished that and went onto the gym area. El was slightly concerned for the safety of our children so he did not want them playing but fortunetly they set up some craft areas for the kids. Waneeke finished her gingerbread man in record time and then just in case they were going to take back the rest of the m&ms she scooped those up and stuck them in her bag. Koivu was having issues finishing his gingerbread man as it is difficult to craft when you are trying to eat as many m&ms as you can before you must put them onto the gingerbread man.

The Santa beard was a really cute idea. They had a picture of Santa with numbers all over his beard. Everyday before Christmas you add one cotton ball to the picture. So Waneeke put cotton balls on Santa's beard numbers 1-9. Koivu put some cotton balls on Santa's beard where he thought they looked good, and was none too impressed when we left without finishing Santa's beard.

We didn't stick around for Santa to come but we did find out that Santa left a goodie bag for the kids, so the kids got a bag each. Koivu was so pumped. He sat down on the floor right there to shout out exactly what he found in his bag. Waneeke had to pose for pictures and then she went running out to find her daddy. She ran the opposite direction until she realized there was a door infront of her and off she went again.

By the time we got home the exhaustion hit and off for naps we went.

Snowbanks and the Hill

Today when I came home from the post office I heard Koivu whining a bit. I thought, wow, he must be some upset if I can hear him out here.

As I walked into the house Mo went running by me with a mitten in his mouth. Ok so Koivu is not inside and there goes his mitten in the dog's mouth.

While I was inside feeding Chez and keeping one eye out for the kids I realized I hadn't seen them in awhile. I looked out the front window (most important, they haven't gone towards the highway yet but that doesn't make me feel better) then I looked out the kitchen window, still no kids. I opened the door and still couldn't see them, the dogs seemed to be missing too. As I looked out the bathroom window, I could see Curly going over the snowbank.

That's not a good sign.

So I grabbed El's coat and slipped on my runners. I got over to the snowbank just to see Koivu on his way down the hill. His partner in crime was already at the bottom. So after a few "aw mom"s they came up and we discussed the snowbank as a boundry rule again.

I got some really cute rosey cheek'd hot chocolate pictures.