Fleeting Baby Days

"For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands."
Psalm 92:4

My baby is a little girl now. 18 months old already. Sniff. A little girl who talks in sentences, tries my will to the breaking point in many areas, takes the outside stairs with ease(Dolly was just slightly older, than Emma is, when she fell off the outside stairs), vaults over crib rails and baby gates (our baby gate happens to be blocking the inside stairs), bosses and terrorizes her siblings, can do very amazing things to a computer in under 10 seconds, can get to the top bunk three different ways - using the ladder, climbing up the back, or by pulling herself over the railing after hopping from the top of the rocking chair back, she loves to dance to nearly anything and sings almost all the words to many of the children's hymns.

There is so much more too. Emma has always been my snuggly one - thankfully, she hasn't grown out of that cuddly-ness. I would miss it dreadfully. She is my second lefty - so much for the 7 to 10% chance of left handedness when it comes to our family!, she learns her memory verse right along with the other kids and thankfully, she eats just about anything. Sometimes I get so tired of dinner-time battles. But there are other things too... like how Sir or I have to check on her every three minutes or less every time we put her to bed. Or how it's the thrill of strategizing and manipulating to get a certain spot on the couch, a chair or kitchen counter space. Emma is our calculator - she's littler than everyone else, so she has to figure out how to get them to do what she wants without them realizing it. But on the other hand, she can play by herself for long periods of time which is pretty nice.

I love these pictures of her. Just three days before her scheduled pictures, she tripped over a mattress and crashed into the corner of a dresser. The result was a vertical split and a massive egg on the right side of her forehead. If I'd had butterfly stitches handy that night, I would have used them, but we had to settle with a band-aid. We were not going to wait hours in an ER just to find out that the cut had been open too long for anything other than a band-aid anyway.

So, I had to figure out how to hide the band-aid in her pictures. In the end I settled for the hat - after all, she still doesn't have much hair, so it would add a little change to her appearance than the standard bald feel. Sir said she looks like a little French Paratrooper in the pictures. Below is the extra pose. You can see the band-aid peeking out under her hat.

And I need to go make lunch before my munchkins decide that I'm never going to and start raiding the refrigerator - you can just guess who'd be the mastermind behind the crime!

Being Nice

Scene 1

EMMA sitting on my bed hoping Daddy will let her watch something on his computer.
DOLLY enters and hops up onto the bed beside Emma.

EMMA (speaking sharply)
Dolly! No! GO A-WAY!!!

SIR
Emma, you be nice.

EMMA (in a much softer tone)
Pease?, GO A-way!


Let's just say, I don't think she's quite grasped the concept of BEING nice.

4 Years Old...

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
John 10:27-28

Of course I'm late again when it comes to getting pictures up here, but I guess late is better than never. Time is ever marching on, and it seems so unreal that Dolly is already on her way to 4½. It wasn't that long ago that she was just a helpless little thing - so different from the very independent and capable little girl that she's become.

5 days old

3½weeks old

Now Dolly is learning to read and write. She reads by sight over 50 words now, and with a little effort she can sound out a lot more. When she fills a line with painfully printed letters, the pride she beams while I pick 'the best one' is just priceless. Her memory is incredible whether it's memorizing long passages or just remembering what I said at a certain time about nearly any topic.

She is such a help to me in so many ways and I'm so thankful for her willingness. That said we do have days where the willingness is not so prominent, but she does obey even when she would rather not. Naptime is almost a thing of the past - we skip it about half the time in favor of 'doing schoolwork' or 'quiet time'.

More and more I find her picking her way across the piano keys and its so much fun to watch her begin to understand the instrument. I wish I could teach her how to play it properly. I love to hear her sing 'Jesus Loves Me' to the melody of a scale - do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do-ti-la-so-fa-mi-re-do: Je-sus-loves-me-this-I-know-for-the-bi-ble-tells-me-so!

Dolly has always been the easiest kid to photograph - as in she's been the most cooperative, but much to my surprise this last session was the hardest picture we've done yet. I think that maybe she's finally becoming conscious of her smile and was just trying too hard. It was hard to get a smile that didn't look slightly forced. It's always hard when you're the mom and you know what a bubbly happy smile looks like on your kid and you have to choose one that may be 'nice' when you know she's capable of sparkling.

Anyway, below are the original professional pictures we had taken when Dolly turned 4. Sir edited the main package picture for me above - I could have paid an extra arm and leg to get the photo lab to do the same thing, but the package prices are getting bad enough as it is when it comes to the number of pictures and assortment of photo sizes available now.

The package shot.


The extra free pose our picture card wins us.

Hockey

I should put this into my 'Little things they say' post that I've been working on for forever, but it would be a rather long section, and that post is getting long enough as it is.

Some of you may know that the Hockey Playoffs are going strong right now. Sir occasionally listens to the radio broadcasts for the games during the regular season, so our kids have slowly been introduced to the sport. But for the Playoffs, Sir spoils them and downloads actual video versions of the games and as a special Daddy/kidlet time, they watch the game or part of a game on his laptop.

That said, Dolly has really gotten into it. She has an incredible memory and quickly learns the names of the teams and who they've beaten or lost to. She's also learned the name, logo and colors of our local Vancouver team. It's very cute to watch. Until we're driving. Or unless she expects me to intelligently discuss whether the Penguins should have beat the Flyers or if I thought the Capitals or the Blackhawks or the Canucks or the Flames or the Sharks or the Ducks or whatever other team she has buzzing around in her head should win or lose this game or that.

Around here, if the Canucks win a game, people go crazy. They honk their car horns for hours after the game and one out of every five... or is it three? cars proudly flies a flag (or in some cases up to 6 flags) bearing one of the team's logos.

So, we're out driving and the Canucks had won some momentous? game and people are honking at every intersection. Dolly pipes up from the back seat as the kids and I make our way home from the grocery store, "Mommy, why is everybody honking?" "I guess the Canucks won a game today or something." I replied. She thought about that for a few minutes. "But why do they want to honk their horns?" she pressed. "Probably because they're happy that we won the game." I said. "Are we glad they won the game?" Dolly asked "I guess." I absentmindedly returned. "Maybe we should honk our horn. Don't you think so, Mommy?" I'm sure I disappointed her by insisting that there were probably enough people honking that we didn't need to join in.

Every single time we're in the car, Dolly will point out vehicles with a hockey flag or flags on them. "That means that person likes hockey!! doesn't it Mommy?" she said one day. "Um hmm," I helpfully reply. "That person must REALLY like hockey!" She points out as a car with four flags drives by us." "Probably." I respond. You'd think this would get old, but she exclaims in excitement every time she sees a flag, and we often repeat the interchange above multiple times during each car ride.

Tonight I was ignoring the kids and speeding through a good book when Dolly announced her presence with a loud huff as she plopped herself down on the chair opposite me. "Well. I guess we really don't like hockey, Mommy." She sadly? dramatically? dejectedly? all of the abovely? stated. "Why is that?" I asked more curious about her mannerisms than her words. "Well," she began with a wave of her hands that ended up plopping into her lap "we don't have a hockey flag on our car." she finished very matter-of-factly. I had to go tell Sir about this latest conclusion our daughter had come to. When I came back, I told Dolly that she should talk to Grandpa C. because I suspected he might show her the collection of lost car flags that he's gathered from the sides of the roads. And that seemed to brighten her mood.

But to be fair, I should clarify that it isn't just Dolly that is completely engrossed in our Canadian sport. PC and Emma are almost as bad - they just can't talk about it as much. Daily PC will ask me if there's 'a ock-ey game oo'night?' and Emma will often barge her way into Sir's office and politely stand at his knee and say, "Pease, wah ockey?!"

This evening all three of them were fighting over a Bubble Tape container in the middle of the living room when they heard Sir start playing the latest downloaded game of hockey in our room. You should have seen the shock and excitement on all three faces as they realized that there was HOCKEY TO WATCH!!! And the stampede over each other in the race to get the best spot to watch the game was hilarious as well. Dolly immediately released the gum container that she was trying to wrench from Emma's tightly gripping hands, Emma completely forgot the container, dropped it and ran, PC bending to pick up the container got run over by Dolly who by then was running to the bedroom and then he too, dropped the container and ran to join his sisters. It was priceless. Now I'm going to bed.

Family Pictures

Maybe I should start with the exciting news that we got a new printer/scanner? I was going to write all about it the night Sir set it all up and I got to scan my own pile of stuff that I've wanted to get scanned for - well, I can't remember how long it's been now. But I got so wrapped up figuring out and playing with my new freedom (a networked machine!) that I never got to the writing part.

A couple months ago, I posted our 2009 family picture... but I had to 'doctor' it because our scanner was broken and left a big black line skewering our heads. Anyway, below is the un-doctored, properly scanned copy as well as the extra pose we got with that picture package.

2009 Family Picture


Extra 2009 pose

Then just for fun, and because they're all scanned now, I thought I'd toss in the rest of our professionally taken family pictures. It's neat to look back occasionally.

Family Picture - 2008
Dolly (almost 3) with a broken arm, Emma (2 months old) and PC (almost 18months)- his shirt turned out a darker green than I'd hoped.


Family Picture - 2007


Family Picture - 2006
Dolly was almost 1 year.

Ghost Writer

Once upon a time, I used to blog here. Sometimes it was even fairly regular - occasionally happening two to three times a week. Then I don't know what happened. Life got busier? Probably not, life is always busy around here. My mind went blank? Very likely, I have been known to fall asleep answering questions at the table after lunch.

But what hasn't happened is that I don't want to blog anymore. I really do, but some weeks I never even turn my computer on, and if I do, sometimes its on for a few days before I ever sit down and try to figure out where to begin. E-mail? Oh, you mean people are waiting to hear back from me? Read other blogs? I'm so far behind on my reading list it's like I have a brand new novel waiting for a rainy day and a cozy blanket.

Then there's the 'priority' to do list - like right now I should be making lunch before my kids start tearing each other apart, and I have until tonight to get the suite downstairs empty again so the new tenants downstairs can move in without colliding with all my conference guest paraphernalia. And then there's the sensibility of using a good day of weather to get stuff outside done before it rains again.

So, if we all get caught up on sleep from this past weekend and everyone gets over their colds (we're going through tissues like crazy), perhaps I'll blog again before another month has passed.

And now I'm off to rescue my diaper bag from Emma who has found the zip lock of medicines and is trying to figure out how to take her temperature (in her belly button).