April fool?

I can't believe it's April and I haven't posted, but time flies when you're having fun! Catie is pulling up and standing for short periods of time. She now has a walker and enjoys getting around in it immensely. Robbie is starting baseball for the first time and seems to enjoy it. He's got the family hand/eye thing going, so he catches on pretty quick for a rookie. The yard sits waiting for attention, but right now the house is a priority, so that we can get it ready for...sale, possibly. Country life is wonderful, but we haven't made a true transition out here. Robbie's at school in town, and Catie will be too, so what's the point? We spend too much time on the road. Packing and house-hunting again.
Just to add to the insanity, I put my name in as a candidate for the 1st Vice president's job with the local union. Campaigning has been interesting and stressful. I'm reading A New Earth at the moment and, in some ways, it is helping place this campaign and union work in general into a right perspective. The most important thing is the now. Right now, I need to make lunch, so off I go.

Post Halloween

Yes - Halloween is over and life is supposed to slow down a little before it revs up for Christmas. My list of to-do's this year is just weird with planning the trip. As for Halloween - we had a cute bunny and a blonde Harry Potter. He was so surprised that everyone knew who he was even though he was blonde. It was very cute! Best of all, he always asked for a treat for his little sister, too. Decent trick or treating out here in the country! Most surprising and the community Halloween party was pretty decent, too. The only thing missing was a good fireworks display. Guess we'll have to organize that ourselves.

How many times can you listen to "Bananaphone" - the sped up version? We did at least 15 times in a row on YouTube listening to various versions. Yeah, Raffi!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vWm47yPLGc
If only we had video of the kids watching this - it was hilarious watching them dance to it.

Thinking of others...

Of late, Robbie has been challenging us with behaviour that is very self-focused and wild. Yesterday was particularly testing and we laid the old parental "you need to think of others before yourself" credo on him. This morning the wee boy decides that perhaps donating the money he got from organizing all our recyclable bottles/cans/tetra's could be given to the Food Bank and SPCA. This is the money he earned towards buying a big remote control truck he's wanted for awhile. He looked up at my husband and asked "Is that thinking of others before myself?" Sigh.....

How?

Lately, Catie's naps have begun to be very busy. She is trying some interesting sleeping positions.

Someone did it right!

Thanks to another on-line group I'm part of, I received a link to this amazing montage that completely speaks to how I feel about my daughter, Catie. If you'd like to check it out go to:


http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=88b31728ac885d830e7be&sou

Have tissues handy!

Puppy Love

Jazz has settled in and finally is over his diarrhea. The big problem right now is balancing Jazz's time inside with the family and Catie's time playing on the floor. As Catie does not walk, the floor his her domain. Jazz terrifies her by coming close, sniffing, licking and generally being puppy crazy. He also wants to steal all her toys. He spends time in his crate, then when Catie is in her high chair, he comes out of the crate. It's a tricky balance. I can't take him walking with her in the stroller yet, because he's too untrained. Fortunately, it's summer and we can find time to build all of these things in. Best moment of the week had to be Jazz's ungainly landing coming down a flight of steps with wet feet. It was like watching Bambi on ice - all four legs went out. He looked so surprised!