He's the Boss

Shai loves seeing his picture up, he is still calling himself Baby Shai. I have to listen to the boy.

Happy Birthday Grampy!

Grampy's birthday is today! While we were down we decided to hit the BIG city of Toronto to celebrate at Medieval Times. None of us had ever been before, but the lure of eating without utensils, horses, jousting, sword battles, cheering for your sections knight was enough to get us there. My kids need no reason to dress as knights, in fact it is not rare to wear tunics to the grocery store, shields coming to the library and swords on hikes. Being the loving daughter I am, needed no nudging at all to gift Grampy with his very own tunic made of sparkling black and silver material with a bear paw coat of arms painted by Elias. Crown to accompany, I must say he look chivalrous yet daring. He is a good sport that Grampy!
Sunday we had breakfast together with cake and gifts. Ben and Aria was over the moon to put their corking together that they have been working on over the past 6 months and made him a mat.
We hope he has a fabulous day exploring the ROM, going to the movies and eating Turkish food with his fair lady!
pictures of grampy in costume are to come, my assistants are sending them to me from their cameras

A gift to cherish

Shai has been under the weather. Runny nose. Fever. Cranky. Dosey. Cuddly. He wants to be close to me all the time. This means the sling.

Oh how I cherish the sling. Now that he is just over the two year mark he rarely agrees to be in the sling, there is too much to explore on foot. It is a treat to have him there, snug against me. I have missed this special closeness. Feeling his warmth, his little jumps when there is something exciting, the heaviness of his body when he totally relaxes. Its a language all of its own, that the two of us share, like a secret code. I feel him tense if someone invades that space, letting me know to step back, without a word. The comfort it provides just nestling in close, moving our bodies together as one....again.

The gift of having my hands free to work, wipe noses and truly multitask, while also having him close to me where we both want him to be. This seems especially true when he is sick. But it was just as much a gift when he was a new born, the sling mimicking the womb. In the early months providing a cradle for those many naps. Then the growth spurt nursing sprees, which seemed to go on forever, could be given on 'the go'. The days when bravery of exploring quickly turned to uncertainty and in need of security, the sling never failed. So many days wearing my baby (babies) has been truly a saving grace.

Those sling days have slowly become more spread apart, the desire to explore on his own, or just needing a quick cuddle are becoming more common. We aren't done with the sling, but from past experience I know this is something we will seeing less and less of. Sigh. While I don't love seeing him sick, I do cherish these days where we spend it heart to heart, truly connected.

BIG NEWS

We have high speed! After three months without regular, convenient access to the Internet and then three months of painfully slow dial up Internet, we have finally been able to access high speed. How did we celebrate? We watched you tube videos, we looked at pictures on all your blogs, we found pod casts, we played on games, we checked out the Lego site, we listened to our favorite music on my space to which we danced. It has been sweet.

The Never ending Party

We promised the kids that they could each go back to 'thee city' to have their next birthday with their friends, this was part of the deal that was made when we moved. Saturday was Elias' day for his party. It made total sense that he would choose to go to one of his favorite conservation areas, where he wanted to play predator and prey, and roast hot dogs over the fire. It also makes complete sense for him , that the pouring down rain in cold temperatures and ice on the ground not be a deterrent in any way for completing these things. He is an outdoor guy.
Well we played a slippery game of predator and prey, tagging people when we could see them through the down pour. We did change the menu to boiled hot dogs but that meant visits with the in house residents. Two snakes and three rats paid the kids a visit.

It was a blast, bad weather and all.

Back for a visit

With itinerary in hand, we headed back to our forever special town for the weekend. On the Friday we joined the family coop for a trip to a local children's museum. There is currently an Andy Warhol exhibit, which was the primary reason the group planned on going. We have visited other exhibits which were very hands on, interactive and left us walking away having gotten something from it. Unfortunately this particular special exhibit didn't. It was more of a showing of work, than an exploration. It was also guided, as opposed to self exploratory, which the others had been, giving it a very different feel.

That said, we were still thrilled to be exploring this museum and the regular favorite spots with friends. Building very tall towers, negotiating the water table, trying to weigh down the nail bed, the plasma cars and water fountains. The new favorite spot being the photo booth, which was a hoot!

With Socks!

We have been busy tracking. Books in hand, our favorites being Animal Tracks of Ontario by Ian Sheldon and Wild Tracks ; A Guide To Nature's Footprints by Jim Arnosky, we set out to the perfect tracking conditions of hard crunchy snow. We have found mice, raccoon, rabbits, white tailed deer, chipmunk and fox. The thrill of finding a print and identifying it has been such a rush. Even more enjoyable has been joining the kids as they follow the tracks, seeing where they lead. As they follow, they chat, sharing their guesses as to what the animal was doing, where it was going, and why the tracks stop.

Perhaps it was a mama raccoon, and was searching for food for her babies. The mouse could have been eaten by a hawk since its tracks stop abruptly. Maybe it was a city mouse and didn't know to hide. The stories have been the real find.

Saturday morning Chris called us all to the window to watch this fox (with socks!) sniff around outside. It stayed for about 10 minutes, which was long enough for us to get a really good look.

Back out every went to follow the tracks, finding out they crossed with rabbit tracks. Perhaps it was time for tea?

Hear the Beat

It is a good week so far. I can feel a rhythm to life. We are moving in and out of our days with ease, a walk most afternoons, making lunch together, table time around the books, read aloud during nap time which happens to be when the sun hits the couch, lots of playing. Self chosen projects are on the go, old toys have come out, new games started, cooking happening in the kitchen. Day in, day out. A steady, enjoyable rhythm. Its good. It has been a long time- 6 months- where our days are scattered, rushed, unpredictable, unintentional and just crazy. I guess a move does that to you.

So, while not much exciting has been going on, it is kind of a new, welcomed, kind of week.

The Perks

Having the pond all to ourselves, hockey to play, routines to practice, trains to make. Some days, not sharing is nice.

Among Men

At the winter carnival, there were snowshoe races. Elias and Ben wanted to participate, but we had missed their age category. The coordinator invited them to join the 18+ age group, which to my total surprise they choose to do. So side by side other men, they raced the course. There was no pity given to them for their size or age. In fact, Elias was trampled at one point, completing the course in fourth place while carrying one snowshoe! Ben came in second place after being neck n' neck for awhile. It was quite the race.

Winter Carnival

We attended a really great and interesting winter carnival this weekend. There were all kinds of activities and not an overwhelming amount of people (small, small, village). There was a junkyard symphony Aria participated in, a 'wildlife caller' who came with all kinds of gadgets to call different kinds of animals (very cool), a karaoke, soap stone carving, log house building demos, clay sculpting, minnow (as in the fish) racing, chainsaw carving, llamas, free hot air balloon rides, skating and more! The kids loved the mini snowmobile rides. These were real gas powered snowmobiles, kids (even really really young kids) got a chance to drive them around a track. The volunteers had a tricky job of making sure the kids handled the vehicle properly and that they didn't get hit! My guys went twice!

Later on, Chris used the ATV to return the movie at the corner store. Starting to think we might be becoming 'country folk'.

Cranberry Festival

I was really very excited to find out that a small town near us has a Cranberry festival every year. The town is flocked by literally thousands of people (which I found out later!) to shop the craft booths, eat fries from chip trucks and tour Johnston's Cranberry Marsh. Had I know better, I would have just gone to the site of the Cranberry Bogs (I won't forget this for next year!) because the crowds, crafts and chip truck really weren't a draw for us-lol!

The Marsh is still run by the founding family and it is one of the only two cranberry marshes in Ontario. Cranberries are native only to North America and early settlers originally called them 'crane berry' because of the shape the flower takes.

The berries themselves are beautiful, the shades of deep reds in the autumn sun- stunning. Our tour first took us on a wagon through the marsh area where the berries grow. They explained how this perennial plant grows, the need to flood the marsh three times a year, the wildlife that visits there and the bears they keep out. It was interesting to learn cranberries don't grow in water. They are planted on a peat moss bog and it sits on top. It is then flooded for different reasons, at different times. At the end of the year the fields are filled with water so that the berries will float, allowing the raking machine to easily scoop them up without hurting the plants.

We then moved on to where the berries are processed. We watched the berries go through conveyor belts, where they were separated from any debris, graded and sorted into different bins for different purposes. They are then hand picked over and sorted again. Then they were packaged. We drank some cranberry cider, bought a twenty pound bag of berries with which we later cooked with and some we froze to string this Christmas.

It was a very interesting afternoon, its marked on the calendar for next fall.

Remembering

We got more snow today....and it is still snowing. It looks beautiful, and I am thankful to say I am not feeling the February blues, perhaps it was that beautiful sunshine that refreshed us, or the extra space. Regardless, the kids and I have been taking about plans for outside in nicer weather; tree house, garden, sculptures, chicken coop, chickens. We have also been talking about the outdoor spring/summer adventures we'll have. We loved the lake we stayed at, jumping off the dock, tubing with neighbours, digging in the sand, being in the sun all day.

Out of the Wood Work

The sunshine didn't just bring all the people outside, it brought out all the deer. The snow is currently crunchy and easy to walk on which helps them (and us) get around. Over the past few days we had a mama and baby come munch on our trees, two young deer sleep under our large pine, two large deer greet us at the mail box, and groups of 2-5 deer spotted in the woods on our hikes. Amazing.