A new career path

You saw it here first. After much thought and deliberation, Monkey has decided to take things in a new direction. He used to want to be a commercial airline pilot. He knew that he wanted to fly planes, but it was important that the plane be big enough that he didn't need to wear his jacket. Priorities you know.

He announced to me this morning, while working on his letters "I don't know if I can remember how to make all of these letters, but when I do, I am going to be an illustrator"

Mommy: "pardon me???"

Monkey: "yep, I'm going to write children's books"

Too bad his chances of getting on The Reading Rainbow are shot: http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/my_living_nightmare_of?utm_source=facebook_1

The double sleepover

Friends of ours have two girls. The girls are about the same age as our two.

Saturday night, since we don't value our sanity, we offered to have the two of them over. WHAT A BLAST!! They both live at about the same speed as our two so they all just ran and screamed and had a great time. Big C was asleep shortly after I put him down at 7.

The rest of the crowd went to bed at around8:30 and the littlest girl was out almost instantly. There was some whispering and laughing in the room with the two older ones until around 9:15, of course!!
Everyone slept in until 7 with the stragglers getting up at 7:20. Come on back anytime ladies!!

reading time

Our boys love to read. Every week Dave takes them to the library (both a financially and environmentally wise decision) and they get a pile of new books. Big C gets to pick out all of the vehicle and emergency personnel books he can find and Monkey is choosing lots of books about learning how to draw.

They love the time spent reading and Daddy has figured out that it is a great way to get snuggle time.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with beets, carrots and green pepper

I've gotten in to a bit of a kick recently of pureeing up veggies and adding them to any food I can think to add them too. The newest victim was my classic chocolate chip cookies. I added beets, carrots and a very small amount of green peppers.

The boys thought that the pink cookies were yummy and so did the Tuesday night crowd at our house. Even after I told them what was in the cookies!!

I'm not tired

What parent has not gotten to enjoy this little performance? I missed the dropping to the ground part, but did my best to get what I could.

Guess who dressed himself today??

Normally I set the boy's clothes out for the week in a shoe organizer. I didn't get around to doing Monkey's so I asked him to go and pick his own clothes. He got dressed, went downstairs. Ate breakfast WITH HIS FATHER!! And just about made it out the door with this on. He had even picked out a t-shirt just in case it got warm. Imagine this shirt and pant combination. *shaking my head*. I tried explaining how seeing this combination would make some people's heads hurt so he would need to get changed. He belived me, but was not overly convinced.

The Answer

So what did I see through the window that made me call Big C over to join me??



Two firefighters standing on the front porch. I knew the house wasn't on fire so I was curious. I figured they were inspecting our smoke detectors.They wanted to know if we knew that we had smoke detectors (check, we have electrical ones and battery operated ones just in case of an electrical fire thanks to my old friend Roy Ginn from the Barrhaven firefighters who told me the importance of that)
Have we inspected them recently (check)
Do we have a fire escape plan (check)
That was all they wanted, I wanted to know if the boys could see the truck. The answer was yes and they were OFF

Are you kidding me???

The doorbell rings...at dinnertime...you KNOW what that means...groan. I walk around the long way to see through the window who it is with the full intention of ignoring them if I see a clipboard and a name tag.

What I saw through the window made me call Big C over to join me...I want to hear, in the comments section, what you think it could be...

New Skis and Boots

Monkey got new skis today. Best of all, they are new to him off of usedOttawa.com. Thanks for finding them Grandma!!

Andrew Hayden Park part deux-the frogs

We went again on the weekend. The water is still on in the water park area and the boys had a blast. If the canteen had been open, we would likely still be there. We didn't go home until hunger overtook us.

Of special note was our trip out to the water to harass, I mean CATCH frogs. The boys had never done this before. I searched back in my suburban girl brain and don't know that I ever have either. No matter, I am the mom of boys and more than happy to get my hands (and feet) dirty!
As we were searching Monkey said "they are being very careful to avoid their predators". I love it!
We missed a couple, I caught one and Dave and Monkey nabbed one poor unsuspecting fellow. We had a good look and then let him out. Only to have him scooped up by big C, then Monkey, then Big C...and so on. We finally decided that the poor fellow had had enough and we let him swim away.
The combination of water and sand made for two VERY dirty boys.

Bring it on pester.

Making Hummus

We're trying to find healthy options to send to school with Monkey that don't include nuts or packaging. Nuts because we attend a nut free school, packaging because we are trying to be kind to the environment, and healthy because we want him to be able to learn rather than riding the roller coaster of insulin highs and lows as he processes sugars and carbs.
We made hummus today. Super yummy hummus. I lined the boys up and we mixed it all together. They had a blast.
Next time you see one of them, ask them to say "tahini" it is hysterical!!
At the end, the moment of truth, we took off the lid to the cuisinart, dipped a carrot in for each boy and they all loved it! Phew! We served it with lunch and monkey has requested to have it in his lunch on Monday-yay!!!!!

Skating lessons

We've tried, we have. We are not coordinated people! We fall enough on our own without dragging the kids down with us. This year, we are leaving it to the professionals! We've signed the boys up for skating lessons.
We checked and the skates that Jeff has purchased for Monkey last year still fit. The ones that he bought for Monkey a couple (several) years ago fit Big C. Fantastic!!Here are the boys trying on the equipment.




Thanks Jeff!!

Reconstructingthe Train table

Several months ago Big C announced that he no longer liked Thomas.

Dave and I were stunned. After a couple of weeks of being ignored, I took down the train table. I briefly considered selling it, but opted to store it away instead, just in case.

Recently Big C is back to the trains and we offered to put his table back up. He was thrilled. We waited for him to be at G&Gs for a sleepover and Monkey and I put it together.

Monkey was great with the power drill and we were both very proud when the job was done.

A September update

Things are going well. At this point last year Monkey was already kicked off of the bus. So far he has had one incident at school in the yard. His teacher says that he is doing wonderfully in class. He is coming home with 30-40 minutes of homework per night. He has to sing songs that they are doing in class and recite things from class. He is spot on and it is clear that he is paying attention in school and enjoying what they are doing.

Big C is getting used to being at day care every day again. He is napping most days (arrgg) but having a good time.

The thing about dinosaur skin

A quote from Monkey

"dinosaurs have thick lizard skin. Blending in is important, polka dots are unlikely"

More hockey photos

To see even more photos of the Mike Fisher Chris Neil hockey game, check out this link.

Turpin Ball Hockey Fundraiser

A short while ago, I (Saje) dropped Monkey's name into a draw at Turpin in Kanata. It was a draw to play ball hockey with Chris Neil and Mike Fisher. These guys are players on the Ottawa Senators NHL team.
Well, taking after his Grandpa W, he won! So we borrowed the required equipment and Grandma and Rob picked him up from school, got him registered, and set him loose.
They needed someone to sing the national anthem. The announcer asked if anyone knew how to sing. Monkey, full of confidence, put up his hand. Grandma helped them to notice him and next thing you know, he's belting out O Canada to the entire group over the speaker system. Grandma is never allowed ANYWHERE WITHOUT THE VIDEO CAMERA AGAIN!!!
Photos with Mike Fisher and Chris Neil


Playing hockey...Monkey is easy to spot. He is the kid in the khaki cargo pants!



In the end, according to Monkey "our team won 4 goals and the black team won 5 goals."