A Blue Christmas

As hard as we tried, this Christmas really turned out to be a bit of a blue one for our family.
It started out alright. On the weekend of the 20th and the 21st we had two family gatherings that were fun. Ellie and my niece Regan are at that wonderful age where they go off and play well together, so Rob and I had a lot of time to reconnect with relatives and eat lots of delicious food.

Story time with Uncle Nathan.

Regan quickly inhaled three cookies before anyone could stop her. :)

Sharing a picnic lunch.

Nana and Josh enjoying a game of Peekaboo.

Monday the 22nd Joshua began doing little gagging coughs in the car while we were running errands. In the night I woke up 3 or 4 times to hear him gagging on his throw-up...tiny little pukes that didn't really make any sense. We were hoping he had just eating something a little off.

Well in the morning, without thinking, I gave him his bottle of milk like usual, and it didn't stay down for more than 3 minutes. So that day was filled with random projectile vomit all over the place. Not anything too surprising or disturbing. Been there done that.

Christmas Eve we all woke up feeling pretty good. When I went into Ellie's room I told her it was Christmas Eve. "Christmas EVE!?!?" she repeated, "I hab to gib Santa a BIIIIG hug and gib him a candy cane!" I found this rather surprising, seeing as Ellie's been terrified of Santa her whole short life. "We need to go to the mall and see Santa at his workshop!" Ellie begged. I didn't promise her anything seeing as Rob and I were both working all day, and she and Josh were going to my parents' for the day. Well it didn't take much twisting for Ellie to convince her Auntie Leila to take her to the mall. Apparently it took three tries, and on the third try Santa noticed Ellie shyly watching him from a distance, and he waved and told her she had nice boots. WELL! If there's any way to win over a little girl like Ellie, it's to talk about her apple boots. She was 100% sold. I happened to peek out the window of the Hallmark store where I work just then, and saw her sitting on his lap! I quickly ran out just in time to see them get this photo of her:
She yacked his ear off about her fuzzy socks and how she was staying at Nana's that day, and he was very Santa-like and did a great job of feigning interest. Every time she sees the photo of her on Santa's lap she declares enthusiastically, "I'm not AFRAID ANYMORRRRE!" Santa has never played any part in my childhood Christmas's, but I've got to say, it was pretty neat to see Ellie overcome her fear and enjoy this aspect of Christmas for the first time.
Christmas Eve dinner with my family also started off alright, and was very yummy!! After we headed downstairs to read the story of the first Christmas and have the kids open their gifts. My dad valiantly tried to keep the girls attention with a children's version of Jesus birth, but they were just too excited to sit still. Their legs and arms were flailing all over the place the entire time.I don't need to mention how much fun the girls had unwrapping their gifts (as well as their little brothers' gifts):
Joshua seemed confused by this whole 'ripping off the paper' concept and kept trying to put it back on the present:
Well we only lasted until about 7:15pm and Rob and I both felt really gross and tired, and decided to cut our favourite night of the year short and go home. When we got home Rob just lay down on the couch and didn't move again for a looong time. I put Joshua to bed and then decided to do Ellie's new puzzle with her before putting her down. She was having a great old time when suddenly she sat back, put her fingers in her mouth and said, "My mouth hurts. No. My throat hurts. No. My tummy hurts!" And I said, "Ellie, do you have to puke?" And she said, "YES!" So we ran to the bathroom where she deposited pretty much all of her Christmas Eve dinner, and then she said, "Let's do the puzzle again, Mommy!" So we did, and then took another intermission to deposit her dessert...and then the rest of the night went downhill from there. Rob was making bathroom trips from 8 pm till 4 am and I was up with Ellie for most of the night. She was such a trooper. Every time I ran to her room to hold a bowl under her mouth, she'd curl back up in bed and say, "Thanks, mommy. I love you. See you tomorrow!"

Needless to say, Christmas morning we were all exhausted, except for Joshua who was now over the flu but had begun teething again. My mom graciously took him for the day while Rob slept, Ellie watched videos and slept, and I did mounds of yucky laundry and cleaned the bathrooms. Rob and Ellie recuperating together (he's tickling her hand...hence the hypnotized look on her face:)

Ellie and I managed to put together her new Playmobil house together on our own while Rob napped.

My flu never manifested itself aside from feeling nauseous ...and it's still kinda stuck in there (there are benefits and disadvantages to not being a puker!) So needless to say, we forfeited the gifts on Christmas day, and never got around to baking the birthday cake for Jesus that we had intended to.

Boxing day we all felt much better, so we decided to let the kids open their gifts from us and Grandpa and Grandma Balfour then. But as you'll soon tell from the photos, everyone was still really wiped, and there wasn't much enthusiasm to be found about anything:

Our humble little 12 inch tree.

Ellie and I sporting her new head bands. I bought her three girlie things (headbands, a necklace, and a princess crown) from a store called Ardene for $5 and they were her some of her favourite presents! Christmas sure doesn't have to be expensive at this age.

Joshua doesn't look that enthused, but these matchbox cars from Grandpa and Grandma are a BIG hit! This was the only gift he didn't try to re-wrap! :)

Ellie and I reading a book given to her from our landlords.

Feeling beautiful.

Josh and Rob wrestling once Josh lost interest in the gifts.

He decided to go off and explore instead.

Ellie was PUMPED to get some new Veggie Tales movies and CDs from Grandma and Grandpa. We've already spent a considerable amount of time dancing to the new songs (working off our Christmas goodies. Oh wait. Those all got puked out.)

We've all been kinda sleepy and groggy ever since. The biggest blessing of it all is that the kids have been sleeping some 13 hour nights, and Rob and I are getting lotttts of much needed rest!

So anyhow, this wasn't the Christmas I had envisioned for our little family - at all. And I would LOVE to be able to tell you that my attitude was great through the whole thing. But it wasn't. I did alright while everyone was puking as we were all in survival mode, but the next day the disappointment of it all really hit me, and I found myself actually getting angry about it. As much as I would have liked to believe that Jesus was the reason I was excited about Christmas, the truth was exposed when my favourite traditions went down the tubes (or shall we say, the toilet?) and I got grumpy about it. Already looking back I can see it was good that I was forced to turn to Jesus in a big way this Christmas and realize again how great my need for Him really is. I am speechless that he came to earth so he could die for a sinner like me. What a wonderful Saviour. There was no hype for us this Christmas. But Jesus was in the house. What more could I ask for?

p.s. Stay tuned for (hopefully) a more upbeat post at the end of this week. Rob is still on holidays and we plan on having a dang good time with our little family. :)

A Christmas to remember!?

So far I'm the only one who hasn't been throwing up all over the place...

I will post all our happier Christmas memories once this beast of a flu has left our house!

p.s. Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends and family who read this!

Prayer and Band-aids

I think this week was my initiation into what it means be the mommy of a little BOY. Let me tell you about it. :)

Saturday morning we were getting ready to go to a friend's birthday party. As I was combing Ellie's hair, I moved a chair that normally helps to guard our space heater from being touched by a certain curious individual of our family...Joshua. Because we were leaving almost immediately and were in quite a rush, I didn't think to move the chair back.

Big mistake.

As Rob and I rushed about getting our things ready, we suddenly heard a piercing cry from Joshua in the living room. At the same time we realized exactly what was happening: Joshua had walked along the furniture towards this 'new' thing to be discovered, had grabbed on, and didn't know to let go when it started hurting. Rob grabbed Joshua and ran to the bathroom to run his hand under cold water. Josh was absolutely freaking out and fighting us like crazy...he did NOT want anything to touch his hand, not even a cold cloth. Finally we pried his hand open to survey the damage: lots of white, loose skin. So we very quickly changed our destination from birthday party to Emergency Room!

Josh screamed the entire car ride there, but thankfully we were seen immediately because of the volume of his cries. The nurses wrapped his hand up in layers of gooey stuff (Kristi might know what it's called :) but it was next to impossible to keep it on him...he was still fighting us tooth and nail. Slowly Joshua began to fall asleep, exhausted from fighting and crying. The nurse came in with codeine and advil, and then Josh passed out completely. We sat and waited to see a doctor for a loong time with Josh snoozing on my lap. Another little boy came in with a bloody cloth held to his eye - he'd been stabbed by the horn of a goat! I was almost in tears (mostly from the emotion of what we'd just been through) as I listened to the nurses wash his eye out and then declare with a sigh of relief, "It's just the eyelid!" I couldn't stop thanking Jesus for how minor Joshua's wound really was (turns out he got second-degree burns).

Finally Joshua was seen by the doctor, and he woke up and smiled a very cute, drug-induced smile and lay perfectly still while they wrapped up his hand into what I affectionately called, "The club". When we arrived home, I put Joshua on the couch and he looked at his toes, wiggled them, and smirked. Hehe..I have to say, it was quite amusing to watch him on codeine!

(Josh and 'the club'...woozy from codeine)

For the next four days we had to go in and get his burns re-wrapped every day. He was a trooper and always sat very still and gave his 'flirty eyes' to the nurses, but it really stunk to have to go out each day in our minus gazillion degree weather. Not nice... especially for the kids. Yesterday I convinced the wound care clinic nurse to let me change his dressings myself from now on, so she packed me a big goody-bag full of supplies, and I'm officially earning my title as 'nurse' of the family (I think that's part of a mom's job description, no?)

(Joshua day 2...back to his old self)

(Joshua day 3..getting more comfortable with his bandage and starting to get it dirty faster...bites on it when he's bored)

Well, this story probably all sounds quite piddly to you more experienced moms out there, but you must understand that I have a three year old little girl who's only had TWO band-aids in her life, and only ONE of them involved a scratch. :) My life is about to change!!

(Joshua getting his burn re-dressed by my neighbour, a health nurse, one night when it started to unravel. It's hard to see but the whole palm is covered in blisters.)

Joshua's hand is healing really well. The blisters got huge, and then started to re-absorb without popping, which is the best case scenario - least chance of infection.

But that's not really the end of the story. The wipe-outs continue non-stop (at least 5 a day) as Josh has limited use of his right hand to hang onto furniture with it all wrapped up. (That, plus he's begun the darling habit of throwing his head back whenever you say 'no' to something, often resulting in some uncomfortable sounding 'smack' on the floor...or on your face, if you're not careful!)(Pumped to be able to use his hand again with a smaller bandage)

And as if all that's not bad enough, yesterday I was wiping Joshua's hands before taking him out of his booster seat, and turned to look at my sister. I was standing RIGHT THERE. Literally RIGHT THERE! And somehow (for whatever reason seemed fitting at the time) Joshua managed to throw himself over the side of his booster seat, landing on the floor and gouging his temple on the corner of our hope chest. Oh. Man. That horrible horrible feeling in the bottom of your gut when your child is hurt and you wish you could have prevented it.

(Joshua's temple gouge and bruise on his eyebrow)

Anyhow, the bump from that incident is already gone, and so far Joshua doesn't seem to be brain-damaged. :)

All this to say, I have become very accustomed to life with a girl like Ellie that has been mostly about singing, playing, and dress-up. I'm beginning to understand and accept that my life as mom to a little boy like Joshua might be more about prayer, vigilance, and BAND-AIDS!

Church Christmas Program

Last night was our church's annual Christmas celebration. Normally we don't actually do a program or anything, just get together to talk and sing and laugh and eat great junk. Well this year we did a program that included at least half the church...including our family. I thought I'd post a couple of videos to give you a glimpse.

The first one is of Rob. He had the only recurring role in the program, playing the church janitor. As always, he went above the call of duty and made his throat sore with his version of a 'janitor's voice'. The kids LOVED it. This was the only segment I got on tape:



At one point he did something super funny...so funny that he not only had the whole church in stitches, but HE couldn't stop laughing either. Kind of similar to what happened to me a little earlier. Josh just wouldn't stop grabbing the microphone. The second line I tried to read I just entirely lost my composure:



Ellie had her first ever stage appearance (along with three of her little friends) and decided she liked it just fine!



And then after the program was over, Ellie had her first dance "recital". It was pretty cute! Ellie is a year and a half younger than the rest of the girls in her class, and when she first started, I doubted my decision to put her in...she had no idea what a "class" was, and didn't follow instructions. She would simply go off and sit on a couch, or find a toy to play with. So I went with her for a couple of classes to remind her to listen to Michelle, her teacher, and she's loved it ever since!

(The two girls on the right are twins, and couldn't seem to decide whose bells were whose. :) And Ellie was a bit obsessive about getting back on her piece of tape after every jump. :)




P.S. Apparently Joshua CAN talk! Suddenly he says "Eh-YEE" for Ellie, Mama, Dada, "na na" (for night night), "bah" for bottle, and "YA!" to answer any question you ask him. He shakes his head vigorously when you tell him "NO!", waves goodbye like a mad man, and as of yesterday, does the sign language for 'more' (he thought he was prett-ee great when he finally did the sign back at me :). But really he does none of these things on command - only on his terms. He's not as eager for approval as Ellie is. He's taken me a bit off guard, as I had prepared myself for late language development. But I'm not complaining. No, quite the opposite. I think I'm quite pumped!

Featuring...Joshua

Well since all we blathered about last week was Ellie, it's only right to give Josh the spotlight this week. And it's not like there's a little to report - he's been a BUSY guy this month! On Tuesday Joshua turned 11 months, and suddenly he's leaving his "babydom" behind at the speed of light! And I'm being honest when I admit that I'm enjoying every moment of it. So far I have not found myself to be a mom who cries at every new stage my babies reach because of what's being left behind. Both my children have become happier and more content with each milestone they reach.

Happy baby = happy mom.

Anyway.

The most exciting thing in Joshua's life this month was when he discovered how to walk along furniture. It seems as though one day he was just standing there...the next he was taking hesitant steps, and now he's nearly running along anything that's solid.

Like the window frame, for example:

Or the kitchen table (here he is on his way to beg Ellie for a piece of her bagel):

But as you all can guess, this means he also gets into a lot more trouble than he used to. I went downstairs to get something for Ellie one evening, and when I came back upstairs he had somehow managed to make it to our bookshelf...

...and he looked more than pleased with himself!! Some baby proofing is in definite order! We never really had to babyproof with Ellie because it took her so long to become mobile that she understood (and obeyed, amazingly) most verbal reminders. Joshua just tunes us out and goes for the gold. This could get interesting!

Well, another day I came upstairs and found Joshua like this:
And it totally warmed my heart because again, Ellie wasn't adventuresome enough to go into cupboards. I spent a lot of time enjoying Ellie's language development. With Josh, for some unknown reason, I am completely eating up his mischievous explorer side. Which makes it hard to know how to deal with him when he gets into trouble.

All that to say, Josh seems to be starting to say 3 or 4 words, though we always look at one another and go, "Did he just say what it sounded like he said?" Sort of like when you're pregnant and you begin to feel your baby kick, but you don't want to believe that's what it was, just in case it wasn't true. So we'll see.

Anyhow, other favorite new activies for Joshua include:
Climbing THROUGH the exersaucer instead of around it...

Scootching backwards on his scooter...

Eating (well, this has always been a favourite past time, which is probably why he looks like a four year old in this photo! :)...

And his newest hobby - playing with the Christmas decorations:

And after all that, this is one tuckered out little boy.

Happy 11 months, Joshua...I love you more every day you exist!

p.s. We tried to take a video of the boy, but the battery died at that moment. Woe to all the poor un-videotaped second-born children out there who can relate to Joshua! :(

Featuring...Ellie.

We've recently noticed that Ellie is beginning to morph into a 3 year old. It was around this time LAST year that we noticed her morph into a two year old (although her birthday is in March), so I guess we shouldn't be surprised. For instance, Ellie is learning the art of talking back to her parents(!) Again, I suppose I shouldn't be stunned or anything, seeing as words are Ellie's strength. But I am, because Ellie is primarily a sweet kid. In the car the other day, Ellie was going on and on about a certain book that she thought we should take back to the library (even though it's our own book) and I, not being in the mood to hear any more said with a sigh, "Ellie, please just hush." Which is what I say when I am at my "Ellie chatter" capacity. Ellie scowled her biggest scowl at me from the back seat and said, "YOU no tell ME to RUSH, MOMMY."
WHA...?!? I didn't even know what to say. I'm going to have to figure out a 'back-talk' un-training strategy (any ideas are welcome!)
But along with the more colorful sides of turning into a 3-year-old, there are also some perks. Like Ellie's new passion for story-telling, and listening intently to us making up stories, and most of all, playing 'school'. The other morning, still in our pajamas, we were playing school with Ellie when I pulled out the video camera. Surprisingly she decided to keep going and this was the story she told us (it's kinda long, but it's mostly for Grandma Balfour that we posted it, so feel free to skip if you're bored!):

Shortly after she decided to read/sing us one of her favourite books, "The Three Little Kittens", and we decided to post that one as well. Again, kinda long. Sorry. Didn't feel up to editing the footage.

But one of things I enjoy the most is when Ellie starts to talk about God. Obviously, it's a priority for us to live out and teach her about how incredible God is...but when it starts to come out of her lips, "3 year old" style, we can't help but smile. Here's a few of her recent thoughts about God:

This morning Ellie had Shreddies for breakfast. As always, she stopped eating them once they crossed the invisible 'too-soggy' line. So I tried feeding them to her myself. Suddenly she closes her mouth, lifts her face to the ceiling, and says, "God?.....God?...You feed me my Shreddies?" Then looks at me and says, "I'm talking to God, Mommy. God is going to bring me new toys for Christmas!" To which I say, "He IS?!? Well, that'll be fun!" And she says, "Yup! God is going to bring me new toys for Christmas and we're going to DANCE together. I'm SO excited!"


The other day, I think also at the table, Ellie said (out of the blue), "Mommy, God will take care of you."
Me: "Thanks, Ellie. I needed to hear that."
Ellie: "Candy (that's one of her favourite stuffed sheep who was sitting nearby), God will take care of you too, and he lubs you VERY MUCH. Lord Jesus, please help Candy not to be afraid of Jesus. AyyyyyMEN.
Me: "That's a great thing to pray for Candy, Ellie."
Ellie: "God is eberywhere, Mommy. He's at church, at the hostible (hospital), in the sky, and in our house!" And ON Ellie's mind, I'd say! :)


A while back I was reading a stranger's blog (something I don't do often) and they wrote about a conversation they had with their 4 year old twins at the dinner table. They had been playing a little 'opposites' game with them and would say one word, like "cold" to which the twins would respond, "HOT!" Well the dad tried to stump the kids and asked them, "What's the opposite of heaven?" After a few moments of thinking the boy's face lit up and he responded, "NO COOKIES!" :) I told Rob this story, and a few days later we found ourselves baking a huge batch of white grandmother's cookies (my FAVOURITE!) to decorate for Christmas. We let Ellie help us for a little bit, and as she was squishing her little fingers in to the dough she suddenly pulled them out, folded them together and prayed emphatically, "THANK YOU, God for YUMMY COOKIES! AyyyyyyMEN!" Rob commented later that cookies must be one of the closest thing to Heaven on earth for children.

Probably on my top 30 list of closest things, too. :) That, and parenthood.

...Except for when the sass flies from the back seat.

A different sort of Christmas...

Miscellanea

Well, another pretty non-eventful week just passed. Unless, of course, you think a baby's first hair cut is exciting! Check it out:

Joshua BEFORE:

Joshua AFTER:

Doesn't he look OLD? And like he's from the 50s??

I thought he'd throw a big huge fit, but I am learning that Joshua responds really well to new situations (as opposed to his sister, who is more cautious at first) - he loved every minute of it!

In other news, we got snow! Ellie is in love, which makes it less depressing for everybody!

Speaking of Ellie, her crazy antics never cease. This afternoon she broke her own record for quietest quiet time (she doesn't nap, but has to quietly play in her room.) After an hour and a half I decided to go get her. I go into her room and find her sitting on top of her upside down toy box with a HUGE grin on her face. She proudly says, "I hab a quiet quiet time!!" (you see, she gets to watch a video and pick something from her treasure chest if she stays in her room quietly). There was only one thing amiss:
Vaseline. ALL. OVER. HER. FACE. And hair. And shirt. The picture doesn't do it justice at all! And then my camera battery died. Apparently I left the vaseline within her reach. The jar was smothered in this MASSIVE thick layer of slippery goo, but surprisingly that was the only damage that was done (that I know of). I had a goood laugh. Especially when she kept blinking as though she had a twitch (because of the vaseline in her eye) and repeating herself with this big fake smile, "I hab a quiet quiet time, Mommy!"

Speaking of making me laugh, the other day Ellie was flipping through a pile of Macleans magazines which she does from time to time. She likes to find the silliest pictures she can, fake laughs till her face turns red, and then looks for more. Well, I was playing with Josh when suddenly I hear Ellie gasp, "Mommy! It's YOU!!" Needless to say, I was very curious just who it was in Macleans that Ellie thought I looked like (she often says this about people and it really does look like them!) So the picture on the left is, according to my daughter, me:

HA! I can actually do that face!! But rest assured, I'm not a 'drunkorexic' like they say Lindsay Lohan is.

Another day Ellie came up behind me with Rob's measuring tape while I was doing my hair in the bathroom. She proceeded to measure my bottom.
"How big am I?" I asked.
"Three o'clock!" She declared! I'll go for that!

Ellie seems to be a bit perplexed by the fact that it gets dark so early now. One evening she asked to stick her head out the patio door. She took a loooong sniff and then asked, "How smells, Mommy?
Me, "How DOES it smell, Ellie?"
Ellie, "REAWY DARK!"

Okay one more. A few weeks ago I was going for a walk with Ellie and Josh and asked her, "What should we do tomorrow Ellie? We have no plans!"
Ellie: "No plants? No flowers?"
Me: "No, I mean we have nothing to do. No PLANS. What should we do?"
Ellie, all matter of fact: "Buy new plants and flowers!"
Some things just don't get through...:)

In other news, Rob was gone this past weekend to visit his Grandpa in Vancouver - a really quick, 2 day visit (not even enough time to call Jed and Elly!! Sorry guys!). Boy, did it ever make us all realize how much we love that guy. Ellie had an especially hard time with it, and manifested her emotions in all sorts of interesting ways (including potty ways). Here she is talking to him on the phone. She kept telling me that Daddy was at "MCC" (our local thrift store) with Grandma (confusing it with BC).

And Joshua got his first Christian history lesson this week, the first of many, I'm sure.

Other than that, nothing exciting happened here! I'll leave you all with the cuddliest sibling moment of the week: