Zoe

I've been through a bunch of entries on both blogs and have come to the conclusion that Zoe needs a little time in the spotlight.  I'm sure that as time goes on, my wee gal is not going to have any problem at all making herself heard.  Oher than her surgery, it may seem that she is easily overshadowed by her two brothers.  We were very concerned for her after Wyatt's diagnosis as we were afraid that exact thing would happen.  Allow me to set the record straight;  that is hardly the case.

I joke frequently about her screaming, but rest assured that is reality.   At first it was mainly due to colic, but now we are well into the second month or so of teething (we have yet to see a single one).  I swear I spend a good 1/2 to 2/3 of the day just on her alone.  Not all that time is spent being miserable tho';  a good portion of the time she is the funniest baby I have ever met.  Hands down.

I has shooz. (almost 6 mos)

To start with, she communicates in a series of sneezes.  I'm not kidding.  It started out with a real sneeze one day and I mimicked her.  She sneezed another time and I mimicked her again and she smiled.  I sneezed one day and she mimicked me back.  Now when she sees either Sean or myself, she snorts and sniffles, all the while grinning and giggling, thinking we are having the best of conversations.  It's really hard to explain to people.  Is she allergic?  No, she's just saying hi...

Two weekends ago we were at friends for a playdate and dinner.  Staying true to form, she became fussy in the late afternoon.  I've taken to dealing with her screaming any way I can;  in order to bring some levity to what was going to become very loud, very fast, I took my finger and tapped it on her mouth as she was whining, making a "wah-wah" sound.  She stopped.  I did it again.  We did this off and on for a good half hour, me laughing like crazy and her thinking it was the best game ever.  We went home that night and promtly forgot about it.  Two days later, she is sitting on my lap and "talking" (that little burbly throw in a consonant here and there babble that babies do).  Suddenly she grabs my hand and puts my finger in her mouth to make a "wah-wah" noise.  Then she giggled.  She hadn't forgotten about it.  She will do this at least once a day, when she's not trying to actually gnaw off one of my fingers.  Or eat my face.  Apparently she is part cannibal on her father's side.

Don't let her fool you...

Her smile is the best, hand down.  It is probably not all that great by baby standards, but since most of my day is either spent praying that my hearing finally goes or that she goes the f☠ck to sleep, it is a thing of beauty when it arrives.  I have yet to fully capture it's glory, but this is the closest I have come so far:

Whee!  (3 Mos)

It starts out crooked and then takes up most of her face as she scrunches her nose and snuffles at you.  I hope to immortalize it in all it's gummy glory before those (damn!) elusive teeth come in.

Now, this is the part where I nominate myself for Mother of the Year by admitting that I accidentally call her the wrong name all the time.  I'm not talking about the "Sean-Wyatt-Quinn...YOU!!" thing that all mothers do (I am sad to admit that I do it), but rather a totally different name all together.  Specifically, I accidentally call her "Fenchurch".  Other than Arthur Dent's girlfriend, Fenchurch is my cat.  My dead cat.  You can read all about that here.

I accidentally started calling her Fenchurch about the two or three month mark.  I really don't know how it started, but I'm betting the sleep deprivation had a LOT to do with it.  Fenchurch made a lot of weird noises over the years and I think could have contributed.  Zoe makes a lot of whining/whimpering/mewling noises that sound like kittens, puppies and occasionally piglets.  She is also super intense like Fen was [read:  nuts].  These are guesses at best but it took me two weeks of thinking about her as "Fenchurch" before I accidentally called her that one night at the bedtime feed.  Sean leveled his gaze for a moment (most likely assessing my level of crazy) and then remarked that "they might just be Sable and Fenchurch, you don't know". I'm pretty sure they are not and the cheese has just slid off my cracker a bit, but he gets uber bonus points for being such a sympathetic husband.

Zoe is exactly like me.  Now, I know a lot of Moms say this about their kids and they might be right... and I do believe I said this about Quinn.  Believe me now when I say she is exactly like me.  Exactly.  From the "want" line on her forehead to the mole on her hip, she is a carbon copy, miniature me.  That scares me a bit, but other times it's hilarious.  Like this morning, when she couldn't seem to get her eyes open...

She needs her coffee too.

By the way, not 3 minutes later...

And the day usually goes from there.  She refuses to nap other than in 5 minute bursts.  By the way, when that unlikely event does happen, a bomb going off will not wake her up.  My eyelids closing?  Loudest sound on earth.

So there you have it... up close and personal with who I think is the most personable baby on the planet.    Daily she makes me laugh (and cry).  She may be the only girl and she may be the "youngest", but we have no delusions about who will eventually be the Alpha in our little brood. 

God help us when she learns to crawl.

Big and Little

I really have to give my head a shake sometimes.

Sometimes I have these ideas that are fantastic in theory, but totally suck when  I try to implement them.  Yesterday I thought "I haven't taken any pics of the kids lately... I should do that".  Later it was "Oooh!  when the sun comes around, I'll shoot them in natural light in the living room!  In front of the antique cabinet!  On the wood floor!  It will be all warm and natural!  We'll do jeans and bare feet!  AWESOME!"  [Enter other random squees here!  And more exclamation marks!!!!]

F☠ck no.

I started after lunch.  I cleared the playpen and the myriad of baby toys and equipment away, swept the floor and opened the blinds to let the sunlight in.  In the afternoon, there is a magic time where the light is just perfect, so this was going to work.  I was going to have happy full babies.  I was going to have a full 5 year old. This was gonna be good.

What I didn't allow for was the random spin of the Life wheel which came up "Five Year Old Freakout". I laid out Quinn's clothes on his bed and sent him upstairs to get changed.  When I was pregnant, I bought him a T-Shirt that says "I'm the Big Brother!";  I had laid it out with a pair of jeans.  He came down moments later in his shirt and Batman underwear.  When I asked what had happened to the jeans, he totally lost his sh☠t!  He screamed something about jeans being "boring" and "hot" and then stormed upstairs, crying all the way and slammed his door like a 14 year old girl.  WTF?

It took me half an hour to coax [threaten] him downstairs, get him changed and deal with the baby pukefest that had ensued after Dynamo:  The Kid Dramatic had his closeup.  All was well, I set him up in front of the cabinet... and he freaks out again.  "I'm not ready!  I'm not ready!", he cries, collapsing to the floor.  "And the Oscar goes to..."  Don't go storming back to your trailer either.

It's the end of the world...

Not less than two minutes later, he was back ON.  Here is the photographic proof:

I'm ready for my close up...

I'm not happy with the light as the dramatics had eaten up the perfect light time and the pics are a bit too dark for me... but that is just me.  Wyatt also is getting better with his head, but he also has a limited amount of time before he gets tired and he starts to droop.  We did get a good one of Quinn and Wyatt together:

My Boys

And a not too bad one of Quinn and Zoe...

Big Brother and Little Sister

Wyatt had definitely started to droop, but his pose makes it easy to explain away:

Hey, what's that outside?

I laid the babies on the floor and got a few things that I could play with later in Photoshop.  This is one of them:

Togetherness

Now that the smoke has cleared, I am going to revisit this spot again when the light is better and the little people are better at taking direction... who am I kidding?  That will never happen.

I think I'll just have my beer before, instead of after.  It and the session are a lot easier to enjoy when my eye isn't twitching like that.

---------------------------------

Big and Little

I really have to give my head a shake sometimes.

Sometimes I have these ideas that are fantastic in theory, but totally suck when  I try to implement them.  Yesterday I thought "I haven't taken any pics of the kids lately... I should do that".  Later it was "Oooh!  when the sun comes around, I'll shoot them in natural light in the living room!  In front of the antique cabinet!  On the wood floor!  It will be all warm and natural!  We'll do jeans and bare feet!  AWESOME!"  [Enter other random squees here!  And more exclamation marks!!!!]

F☠ck no.

I started after lunch.  I cleared the playpen and the myriad of baby toys and equipment away, swept the floor and opened the blinds to let the sunlight in.  In the afternoon, there is a magic time where the light is just perfect, so this was going to work.  I was going to have happy full babies.  I was going to have a full 5 year old. This was gonna be good.

What I didn't allow for was the random spin of the Life wheel which came up "Five Year Old Freakout". I laid out Quinn's clothes on his bed and sent him upstairs to get changed.  When I was pregnant, I bought him a T-Shirt that says "I'm the Big Brother!";  I had laid it out with a pair of jeans.  He came down moments later in his shirt and Batman underwear.  When I asked what had happened to the jeans, he totally lost his sh☠t!  He screamed something about jeans being "boring" and "hot" and then stormed upstairs, crying all the way and slammed his door like a 14 year old girl.  WTF?

It took me half an hour to coax [threaten] him downstairs, get him changed and deal with the baby pukefest that had ensued after Dynamo:  The Kid Dramatic had his closeup.  All was well, I set him up in front of the cabinet... and he freaks out again.  "I'm not ready!  I'm not ready!", he cries, collapsing to the floor.  "And the Oscar goes to..."  Don't go storming back to your trailer either.

It's the end of the world...

Not less than two minutes later, he was back ON.  Here is the photographic proof:

I'm ready for my close up...

I'm not happy with the light as the dramatics had eaten up the perfect light time and the pics are a bit too dark for me... but that is just me.  Wyatt also is getting better with his head, but he also has a limited amount of time before he gets tired and he starts to droop.  We did get a good one of Quinn and Wyatt together:

My Boys

And a not too bad one of Quinn and Zoe...

Big Brother and Little Sister

Wyatt had definately started to droop, but his pose makes it easy to explain away:

Hey, what's that outside?

I laid the babies on the floor and got a few things that I could play with later in Photoshop.  This is one of them:

Togetherness

Now that the smoke has cleared, I am going to revisit this spot again when the light is better and the little people are better at taking direction... who am I kidding?  That will never happen.

I think I'll just have my beer before, instead of after.  It and the session are a lot easier to enjoy when my eye isn't twitching like that.

Photo Catch-Up Friday, Part 2.

To say that the garden is neglected this year would be a gross understatement.  With the babies and whatnot, puh-leeze!  The garden's suffering started last year when I found out I was pregnant.  Once the nausea set in, I didn't have the time or the energy to do anything.  Then the weather turned bad and I was unable to save my bulbs from the pots before they froze.  :(  Thankfully, perennials are like good friends; no matter how rough things get, they are always there to brighten your day. 

By the end of April, I had a few spring bulbs flowering, including some jonquils.

Yellow jonquil covered in pollen

On Mother's Day, my family bought me two hanging baskets of fuchsias.

Dewy Fuchsias

But, the yard as a whole needed a LOT of TLC.

Froggy Mama is lost in the weeds [in more ways than one :( ]

It was wonderful to welcome some new additions that my Mom had sent home with us the summer before.

Dwarf Iris

Sweet Violets

Trillium

I love peonies... always have. I love the look, I love the smell. I was very pleased to see that the peonies that I had planted last year came back and bloomed. I have a lovely ruffly pink one that has the classic scent, and a scentless white one. Both are magnificent. I hope to add more as time goes on.

Pink ruffly peony

White ruffled peony

The rosebush has really come back after last year's disaster. The flowers this year vary from the very bright, almost fuschia pink of years past, to a pale pastel.

Pale rosebud

The weigela did very well this spring, although I recently had to give it a [very bad] haircut as it was growing all over the little garden.  I have to get a hedge trimmer to take care of it, along with the dogwood and a few other things.

Weigela Bloom Macro

Just in time for Canada Day, my yellow daylilies bloomed. I love daylilies... you don't have to do much to them and they are immune to the red lily beetle that plagues/destroys my Asian lilies.

Yellow Daylilies

I've planted a small vegetable garden this year:  peppers, two kinds of tomatoes, carrots, peas and cucumbers.  I bought most of the plants (except for the carrots and the peas) and just stuck them in the garden.  I remember to water it occasionally.  :S  That is about the best I can do this year...  I'll post pics of that as I get them.  I also have a pot of calla lilies that is just about to bloom and a few more things that should delight the eye in the weeks to come.

By next year I should be back in gardening mode.  But, for now, I'll enjoy my few ventures outside to wiggle my toes in the [overgrown] grass.  I'm sure there will be something new and pretty to look at.

Photo Catch-Up Friday, Part 1.

Every so often I have to take some time out and catch up on my photos.  The babies are growing and changing so fast and so much has happened in the last couple of weeks... it was either try to catch up now or lose track.

A little over two weeks ago, we went to Sean's Aunt's to meet up with his Grandma and introduce Wyatt and Zoe (and we could wish her a happy 90th birthday).  Wyatt and Grandma made quite a pair, while Zoe... wasn't so amiable. I couldn't get a decent picture of all three of them, but here is a good one of Grandma.

Wyatt and his Great-Grandma

A few days later, I was in the kitchen washing up all the bottles...

How to kill half an hour...

...and I went to check on the babies.  They were napping on a blanket on the living room floor.  I had put them down side by side and they had wiggled around and fallen asleep with Zoe on her side and Wyatt's head in her lap.  It was too much.

So happy together...

I got to sneak around them and take a few more pics as they woke up.  So very cute.  So badly lit, but so very cute.

Little Boy Blue and Pretty in Pink

Canada Day was a lot of fun.  After my Please Mum score of a few days before, I had the kids outfitted in patriotic cuteness.

This of course, was only outdone by Zoe's latest milestone:

Oooh!  Look what I can do!

There was a giant pile of meat and good friends to help us eat:

Giant Meat Pile... *drool*

Good food, good friends

There were two sets of twins (and only one Quinn):

Two sets of twins... and a Quinn

Then, as dusk crept in, they made the night sparkle!

Ty, Erin and Quinn.  The Terror Trio, now with fire!

Fun for all the kids... from 4 months to 40.

My garden, such as it is this year, has a few new friends and a few beautiful old ones.  I will post those later.

Until then... Jxox

He's Growing up Fast

I can't believe how much Quinn has grown, especially in the last little while.

I know, I know... he's four. Daily he still shocks me with how much he has developed and how fast he is learning new things. Right now, we can:

- Read over 50+ words (It's probably a lot more)
- Count to infinity by ones
- Count to 100 by tens
- Recite most of Dr. Suess by heart
- Understand number relations (Ie: 3+3, 4+2 and 5+1 all equal six)
- Run, jump, skip, hop, catch a ball, kick a ball
- Listen for the "music" in everything (and make music with everything)
- Sing a multitude of songs a capella
- Recognize, spell and try to write his name

...and the list goes on and on and on. I forgot to mention his counting in Spanish and Manderin as well. French just upsets him, for some reason and German he just laughs at. All in due time.

Hot, happy and hydrating after a week with gastro (4 yrs)

One of the skills we are currently working on is learning to ride a bike. He will do it for a little while, but he gets tired. Slowly, he is getting it; he just has to learn to keep going!

I has a bike! (4yrs)

The biggest milestone occurred May 27, when we visited his new school for Kindergarten orientation. My baby? Going to school in September? How the hell is that possible??

He had a fantastic time whilst Mommy clicked away on the camera and tried not to cry. We got to meet all the teachers and went around to a few stations to see what the activities and learning style areall about. So far, so good. He responded well to his teachers (they all seem to gravitate towards him, which is nice) and helped the other kids where he was clearly ahead. My biggest challenge, I am sorry to say, will be keeping him engaged as I know he will bore easily. Since French Immersion is not an option until Grade 1, I'm going to have to fill his time with music lessons and activities.

Because that's how I roll... Quinn workin' the playdough.

Sigh... this summer will be a bittersweet time, methinks. On one hand, I am overjoyed that he will be moving on to other things. On the other, my little Frog isn't a baby any longer.

"While we try to teach our children all about life,
Our children teach us what life is all about." ~Angela Schwindt

September Garden Update

You know, I really did mean to update more often regarding the garden. Those of you that have access to my Facebook page have been kept a little more up to date photographically. But, time being what it is, eternally in short supply, here we are in the first week of September rehashing most of the growing season.

In my last update, June saw the recent creation of the new garden and many seedlings. July was a good growing month, despite all the rain and lack of sunshine. One of my favourite discoveries in July was my Himalayan Lilies... they were an intoxicating addition to the garden, if only for a short time. Red lily beetles became a real problem and I lost the battle with that one. If they (and the rest of my lilies) come up next year, I am well prepared to battle the little red buggers.

Himalayan Lilies

Once I got the twirly animal deterrants up, the corn had a chance to grow. In July, the garden made leaps and bounds with all the humidity.

Yummy greenery

Corn as high as a preschoolers eye...

You can see my crazy dasies there in the foreground. I will either have to remove them all together or dial them back significantly next year as they threatened to take over the whole flower garden.

Crazy Daisies

My pots on the front porch also took off in July. The nicotiana, slow to start, did catch up and offered up some breathtaking colours (and scents!).

Nicotiana

August brought some sunshine and some sorrow. The sun finally did come out and we had many warm sunny days to advance our growing. By August 14, the corn was as high as an elephant's eye, we had eaten two "taster" cobs already, the cucumbers had produced half a dozen full size cucumbers (yum!) and the tomato plants needed more support as they were just laden with green tomatoes. You can also see the addition of the Echinacea, which as of this writing are still blooming, albeit near the end of their time.

The corn is higher than the fence!

The sunflowers began to bloom shortly after this. They are simply gorgeous, although a shorter variety than I was anticipating. Next year I plan to plant a taller variety as a backdrop to some of the flower gardens. Who knows... maybe I'll surround the front porch in them. The bees will keep away unwanted salespeople while friends and family can use the side door. Ok... maybe not...

Jerusalem Gold Sunflower

Near the end of August, I went outside to harvest a few cobs of corn for dinner and found all my hard work destroyed. It seems raccoons (or possibly squirrels) got to the corn first and stripped it clean. I was devestated as I had to pull out all the broken stalks and clean up the mess that they had made. I planted carrots in their stead and transplanted a few black cherry tomato plants that my Mother had sent home; hopefully there will be enough time for them before the first frost. I had to redo my chive/onion trick to keep the animals from digging up the carrot seeds. Needless to say, "varmint" may be on the menu soon.

The flies add that extra sense of pathos...

In the meantime, I've harvested quite a few cherry tomatoes, both Ildi and Tiny Tim. Aside from munching on them whenever I pass the bowl, I've made two small tomato vinegrette and feta salads with them. They are sweet and fantasitc. I also have two green peppers on my counter awating my tastebuds... I may just slice those up and eat them raw.

Next on the garden menu? Hopefully my beefsteak tomatoes will ripen in time for us to have a true Tomatopia (I love them fried for breakfast!). I have quite a few peppers on the vine and my Butternut squash vines seem to have finally taken off. Peeping under the leaves yesterday, I was delighted to see two tiny squash starting to grow! There are a few more cherry tomatoes left to go and the cucumbers may give up a few more before completely shutting down. I'm also looking for some morning glory blossoms... the vines have completely taken over the one side of the Zeebo, but alas, no blooms as of yet. My beans are also far from done yet, so I look forward to a few more of those.

There is still a lot of life in the garden yet before the first frost. Despite the little setbacks, I am still looking forward to what is yet to come.