WHAT DOES THE COW SAY?

One of the things about me that my daughter in law Emily finds highly amusing is my awesome talent at making realistic animal sounds.  With nine grandchildren this talent is used a lot and is particularly handy when it comes to singing 'Old MacDonald Had a Farm".  I have no problem showing this talent off and I can be very dramatic when it comes to the animal sounds (you should hear my elephant).

Last week I took one of my little grandsons to the Early Years Centre (a government sponsored drop in centre for children up to age six) and met up with Brittany and her two kids. Just before lunch it was circle time and we gathered to sing some action songs.  The facilitator changed it up this week and added 'Old MacDonald' to the repertoire.  I was disappointed when the first animal chosen by one of the kids was a horse (I haven't got that one down yet).  As we sang the second round the facilitator paused as we came to the part "and on his farm he had a ......" a little girl next to me shouted out cow and the facilitator continued "E-I-E-I-O , with a... and that is when I bellowed out a loud, deep moooooooo while everyone else said "oink".

TRUE STORY

This morning my adorable little grandson Ammon, was trying to walk to me with his father's help and just as he reached me he slipped and hit his head on the arm of my chair. I picked him up to console him but he was pretty upset and nothing seemed to comfort him, I even offered him a bit of the granola  I was eating but he was having none of it.  I handed him over to his mother and noticed that I must have dropped a bit of oatmeal onto the back of my hand so I picked it up and popped it into my mouth and chewed on it.  The taste and texture wasn't quite what I was expecting so I spat it out into my hand to discover much to my horror that I was chewing on Ammon's crusty booger.  Now even hours later, I still feel sick at the thought.  They don't taste quite like I remember them.

SUGAR AND SPICE

From time to time about every two weeks or so I kidnap a grandkid or two for a few days.  Lilah seems to be the one that gets more than her fair share of visits mostly because her older brother and sister are now in school.  It doesn't hurt that I am her favourite person and she most times prefers to be with me than with her own parents.  I sometimes have to bribe her to get her to go home. (This in no way reflects on her parents who are kind and loving with all their children) As I was getting her out of the bath the other night she said "Mirror Nona." (the grandkids all call me Nona)

"Do you want to look in the mirror?" I asked.

"Yes" she replied.

"Who's that pretty girl in the mirror?"  I asked.

"Nona" was her answer.

Oh, she's good.

The very next morning she was up exceptionally early.

"What are you doing up so early little girl?"  I whispered as I took her down to the playroom.

"To see you Nona."she whispered back.

Well played Lilah, well played.

Here she is in her favourite coat and boots.  

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

The other day while visiting Matthew and Kere,  I was able to sneak in a few moments alone with William and Maia to plan a special Mother's Day treat for Kere.  They were so excited to answer a little questionnaire I had found on the internet and I had to stifle a chuckle or two at some of their answers.   I am sure you will too.

WILLIAM

My mom is 10 years old.
She weighs 20 pounds.
Her favourite colour is pink.
Her favourite food is pasta.
My mom always says "No."
She cooks the best scrambled eggs.
My mom's job is working upstairs.
She laughs when someone tells her something funny.
If my mom had time she would love to play games with me.
My mom and I like to clean up that's what we usually do all day.
She really loves chocolate.
I love my mom because she is nice.



MAIA

My mom is 5 years old.
She weighs 2 pounds.
Her favourite colour is purple.
Her favourite food is mushrooms.
My mom always says "clean up".
She cooks the best soup.
My mom's job is cleaning up.
She laughs when I climb in her bed.
If my mom had time she would love to work all the time.
My mom and I like to colour.
She really loves hugs and kisses.
I love my mom because she gives us play dough to play with.



William noticed that there was a list for grandma's so he wanted to answer those questions and of course Maia wanted in on the action too.

WILLIAM

My nona is 26 years old.
She weighs 13 pounds.
Her favourite colour is beige.
Her favourite food is pasta.
My nona always says "yes".
She cooks the best roast potatoes.
My nona's job is taking care of everything.
She laughs when people tell her jokes.
If my nona had time she would love to spend more time with us.
My nona and I like to do crafts.
She really loves hugs.
I love my nona because she does fun things with us.

MAIA

My nona is 26 years old.
She weighs 3 pounds.
Her favourite colour is purple.
Her favourite food is lasagna.
My nona always says "go downstairs to play."
She cooks the best buns and soup.
My nona's job is cooking.
She laughs when William dances funny.
If my nona had time she would love to play colouring.
She really loves hugs and kisses.
I love my nona because she plays fun games with us.






As you can see from their answers, both Kere and I are fulfilling our respective roles in a very stereotypical way.   As a mother, she always says "no" and as  grandmother I always say "yes".  Truer words were never spoken.  Well to be honest I do sometimes say "no" and Kere often says"yes".

I love that my grandkids think I am so young and skinny.  I knew there was a reason I loved them so much.  William's comment about cooking the best roast potatoes is pretty much true, I'll be making them tonight. I know exactly what you're thinking.....she has to cook on Mother's Day?  Well since we are having roast chicken and no one else in the house knows how to do that.... like WIlliam said, I take care of everything!

I am proud of my both my daughter and daughter-in-law.  They are wonderful mom's who take the time to play with their children, teach them right from wrong, and love them unconditionally.  I know that Olivia will be an excellent mom come September when her little one arrives and I have no question at all that Emily will be a loving, patient mom when the time comes.

Happy Mother's Day

SWEET WILLIAM

One of the first things I did after my totally amazing  trip away, was to go see some of my little grandchildren.  They entertain me to no end and tonight was no exception.

William singing 'Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer' came to the point in the song where all of the other reindeer won't let poor rudolph join in any reindeer games "like mynipply" he added to the lyrics.

Later in the evening a guest was asking William if he he knew what we would be celebrating soon.  William filled him in on what Christmas was about including everything he knew about Jesus.
"Wow" replied the guest "you know as much about Jesus as I do."
William looked at him puzzled then held up four fingers and said in a matter of fact tone "I'm four."

I love that boy.

THANKSGIVING 2011

This past weekend we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving as well as Ava's first birthday.   Here are some of the highlights.


I made Avocado Shakes for the second time in two days.  So very, very, yummy!

I made this little cake for Ava (easy to do but a little time consuming).

Here she is enjoying it.

The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so summer like and yet we were into the second week of October. Lilah is in just her diaper here.  Maybe there is actually something to this global warming thing.

We had a little glitch over the weekend when we discovered that the sink was clogged just as we were about to do all the dishes from our big Thanksgiving dinner.  Ben figured he could clear it with the plunger so before he did,  I tied a tea towel around a pipe that has been known to leak slightly while being plunged. 

While Ben plunged the one side of the double sink, I held the plug down in the other.  We both felt our feet getting wet at the same time and looked down to see water running out onto the floor.  There was a panicked call for towels....

and a quick race downstairs to see if it was seeping through the floor onto the ceiling below...

...It was.

Long story short

• the whole drain is broken.
• we had to dishes in the laundry tub.
• we are still waiting for a plumber.
• I own about fifty towels.
• most were used to clean up the mess.
• I now know how fat my butt is (I need to lay off the Avocado Shakes).

After all the excitement, we went outside , sat around the fire, watched the moon come up and enjoyed some of these.

All in all, it was a nearly perfect weekend.   We just missed Daniel, Olivia, and Adam.

AT LONG LAST

Introducing......

                                                                            Athen Tane


He was born July 15 while I was away in California at a wedding.  I was a little disappointed that he didn't wait until his due date (tomorrow) because I was invited to be there for the delivery.  I told him that he was starting off on the wrong foot but then he snuggled up to me and smiled (it wasn't gas, I don't care what you say) so we're all good now.  It was probably a good thing that he arrived a little early because he weighed a healthy 7 pounds, 13 ounces.  He would have weighed well over 8 pounds had he baked two more weeks.

Mattew and Kere call him their little Maori baby.  I am not sure if it's because of his dark skin and flat nose or because he makes faces like this.

Do you see a resemblance? 

Athen loves his woombie and sleeps so well when he's wearing it.  I highly recommend it to any new mother.  Seriously, it's the absolute best.  I think this will be the gift I'll be giving at baby showers for years to come.

A baby (not Athen) snuggled up in a Woombie.

Yesterday Athen had a bath in the Spa Baby another highly recommended baby product.  He loved, loved, loved, it.  Did I mention he loved it?   I have never seen a baby so relaxed in the bath before and trust me, I have bathed a lot of babies in my lifetime.  He just lay there and didn't move or make a sound.  

He's a sweet little baby and is a welcome addition to our family.  

OH WHAT A NIGHT!

My day started before seven this morning when I heard two of my lovely grandchildren up running around.  How is it possible that a twenty five pound two year old and a thirty five pound four year old can manage to sound like a whole herd of elephants?  Apparently they were trying to be quiet.  FAIL

Soon after, I heard the one year old crying so I got her and discovered that she was not feeling well and wanted nothing to do with anybody but me. This can quite often be the case even when she is not sick and I usually find it endearing but after a weekend with eight adults in the house and four children under the age of four, I really wanted to get my home back in some semblance of order.  FAIL

I babysat all three of my grandkids today and despite the baby being sick, it went quite well especially while Nathan and Emily were here helping to entertain the older two while I tended to the baby, that is until tonight when all three of them decided they weren't going to bed without a fight. I went up two flights of stairs no less than seven times giving at least six stern warnings. FAIL

When it seemed that all the kids were settled I grabbed a spoon from the kitchen and a carton of Kit Kat ice cream from the freezer  and drowned my sorrows in the delicious taste Kit Kat suspended in creamy chocolate ice cream. There was no bowl involved, yes you read it right,  judge me if you must  and yes I know it has like a kijillion calories but at that point I couldn't have cared less and besides I had gone up two flights of stairs seven times...seven times people!  I guess now that I have eaten straight from the carton, I can't really allow anyone else to have any. WIN