I am asking people why they got married over at Work It! Mom. Care to chime in?
When it first came out on video, Matthew and I rented Transformers. I am normally a fan of action films (Hello, Bourne Identity! (And Matt Damon))(Hello, S.W.A.T! (And Colin Farrell)), but Transformers ranked a little higher. The humor slayed me. Still does. So does Josh Duhamel.
Ahem.
This past spring, Transformers showed up on the movie channel included with our satellite subscription. My brother recorded it on the PVR for us. We then let the kids watch it.
There has been no. turning. back.
While driving anywhere, I hear the peanut gallery in the back when they see other vehicles.
There’s Optimus Prime! There’s Ratchet! There’s Bumblebee!
Transformers have taken over our life.
When I picked up a copy of the Sears Wish Book, Graham and Nathan zoned in on the Optimus Prime and Bumblebee costumes. They both had birthday money to burn, so I guaranteed them that they would get to have their costume of choice.
We managed to find an Optimus Prime costume at Target during our trip to the States. Bumblebee was elusive, however. Sears was sold out, Toys R’ Us was sold out…and, well, that’s about it for Canadian shopping.
Amazon.com had it, but did not ship to Canada. Kerrianne and Chris came to the rescue (Remember them?)
I shipped the Bumblebee costume to them and they sent it here. It arrived on Tuesday, and Nathan has thanked me approximately one hundred times EACH DAY.
Without further ado, I give you The Costumes.
I called that American Gothic, even though we are not American. Or Gothic.
Nathan made a pumpkin at school.
Is it me, or is it kind of sad?
Graham made a pumpkin too.
I am so loving the grill.
We (As in Honey. And also Uncle Lance) carved pumpkins. By “carving”, I mean “using a jigsaw”.
Lance carved the one on the right.
A few more of my munchkins for good measure.
Link to your little monkeys/monsters/whatchamacallits in the comments. Kids in costumes make my day.
Thanks to all of you for your amazing comments on my last post. They warmed this Momma’s heart. However. I am taking the advice of OMSH and Jessica and blowing that post to smithereens.
I do not want to leave anything on the Internet that might hurt my children.The cute photos are re-posted here for posterity.
Cute
Miss Emily
Hey!
Proud of her bad self
***
I (vaguely) remember the months before the birth of our first born child. We read books, we talked to people, WE HAD IT FIGURED OUT.
Then we gave birth to our son and started on the journey from baby-dom to toddler-hood.
Going in, we were convinced that our kids would be Good Eaters. The would eat what we ate, lick their plates clean, and bow in thanks to the hands that prepared their meals.
Reality is a bit of a skank, no?
For Graham (our first-born) was a great eater…until about the age of one. Then he spit out nearly anything and everything that we fed him.
Being the new and naive parent that I was, I would make a separate meal for him. I was so frightened that his little tummy would starve (Hello, we are not in Africa) that I would make a separate meal for him.
This trend continued after the arrival of Nathan. He was not just picky; he has a stellar gag reflex that kicks in at the most wonderful times.
Hi! Thanks for inviting us for dinner! Please excuse me while I wipe my son’s vomit off of your table and floor.
Sigh.
When we had Emily, we decided to make a change. One meal for the whole family. None of this “baby food” for the baby. She was in the second half of her first year. She could eat what we ate. As could the boys.
This is all great…in theory. But while Graham and Emily will eat fruit, meat and starches (potatoes, rice, bread), they eschew any and all vegetables. Nathan? He is a whole other level of food rejection. We are not sure how he manages to stay alive on what he eats. Seriously.
We have heard of people who serve their kids what they have for supper (as we do). If their meal is not eaten at dinner time, they serve it for breakfast. If it is not eaten for breakfast, they serve it for lunch.
Which is fine and good if that’s how you roll. Your house, your rules.
We, as a parenting couple, choose not to do the same. We feel that we spend the bulk of our day training our kids in the way they should go.
Clean up your toys. Say Sorry, Please, Thank you.
The dinner table is a place where we all come to eat together, to share our day. We do not want it to be yet another battleground.
In my desire to get my kids to have some vegetables in their system, I bought Deceptively Delicious (Don’t judge me). I don’t use many of the recipes, but I have managed to sneak some vegetable purees into dinners that I serve to my children.
(And also to my vegetable-avoiding nineteen-year-old brother. Shhhh.)
I put cauliflower in pancakes and bake zucchini and carrot muffins that go down the hatch without a problem. This is all great and fine for snacks, but we need meals. A large part of it is that the kids do not like the same flavours that I do. Our routine is that they have to take at least one bite of each item on their plate and then tell us if it is “Yummy or Yucky”. Sometimes they surprise us and say “Yummy”, but more often than not Graham will get an involuntary shiver and Nathan will spew forth what food he actually has eaten.
Barf. It’s what’s for dinner.
We give our kids vitamins to ensure they get the nutrients they need. However. I would like to cook balanced meals that the whole family can enjoy. We keep trying new recipes in the hopes that we can find a rotation that everyone enjoys. Or at least do not upchuck all over the dining room furniture.
Nathan’s gag reflex seems particularly active when meat is involved. I think he gets that from me; if my meat is in any way “off”, I will have nothing to do with it. Matthew is totally willing to eat vegetarian meals, but I don’t know where to start. Is there a good cookbook/Internet resources out there?
Do you have any kid (And adult!) friendly recipes that you can share?
I really do not want to resort to eating Kraft Dinner and grilled cheese every. single. night. for the sake of meal time harmony.
*If you know the song in this title you are as old (and dorky) as I am. My condolences.
Did you take your husband’s name? Would your husband take your last name?
Bethany is giving away trick-or-treat bags for free! Leave a comment for your chance to win.
I was born almost thirty-four years ago in a small town in Ontario by the name of Brantford. My family lived in Paris (Ontario, not France) but as there was no maternity ward in Paris, I was born in Brantford.
(Home of Wayne Gretzky! Yay hockey!)
(For any American readers who have not a clue about Canadian geography, Ontario is on the EAST side of Canada.)
Mere months after I was born, my Mom and Dad moved us out to beautiful British Columbia (BC). Not just to BC; to the north coast. About as far west (and north) as you can go in Canada without diving into the ocean.
I grew up with all of my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins…clear across the country. We would see them, oh, every five years or so. I would hear tales from my friends of weekends spent with grandparents and extended family. Of large dinners with cousins running around and partaking in all sorts of shenanigans. I could not relate to it at all. It kind of sucked.
Matthew and I met and married each other in the big city of Vancouver. Shortly after our wedding we decided that the time had come to move back to his small hometown for a number of reasons:
1. Who wouldn’t want to live in a place called Summerland?
2. House prices here in 2001 were far cheaper here than at the Coast. That is not the case now, but it sure was then.
3. Matthew’s parents lived here. Hooray! Grandparents close by!
Those Grandparents then moved to the Coast almost two years ago, which means that my kids have been having the same extended-family experience that I had (or did not have). The upside is that they are only a four-hour drive away, as opposed to a five-hour flight away.
September 1st (a mere eight weeks ago), the extended-family situation changed for the better. Matthew’s brother, his wife, and their two small boys moved back here. Cousins! An Auntie! And Uncle! Added bonus: We like our in-laws! Hooray!
They have been busy getting their home set up and also having a steady stream of company coming to visit them here in the Promise Land. We have made an effort to get together with our two families when we can and Saturday afternoon was one of those times. They came out to our place in the sticks and we went for a walk down along the creek.
Let me introduce you to Daniel:
I have a bit of affinity for this kid because HE LOOKS LIKE ONE OF MINE.
He was wearing Graham’s (and also, Nathan’s) navy pea coat that they each wore at that age, along with that same hat. I feel like I am looking at a glimpse of Graham four years ago.
I WANT TO SMOOSH HIM.
Emily thinks he is pretty neat as well, though getting her to cooperate for a photo took a few frames.
Daniel is on the ball.
Then Emily was looking…
She’s so fierce. Heaven forbid that the two of them look at the camera AT THE SAME TIME.
The other cousin is a lad by the name of Caleb. He is three years younger than Graham (almost exactly), and is a rad little dude.
Caleb and Graham shared a ride for part of our walk.
Caleb looks up to his older cousin, and Graham loves kids that are smaller than him. I think they will be great friends as the years go on.
I almost forgot about Nathan! He was with us too. See?
Oh, for lashes like his. Sigh.
We are beyond excited for the opportunity that our kids will have. An Auntie and Uncle nearby, cousins to play with, family dinners.
Part of it may be me dreaming about the ideal put out there by Hollywood, but a bigger part of me just wants more of a family experience for my children.
I just want them to have so much more than I had. What I had was more than enough, but I want them to have more. To have an even fuller, richer life experience.
Complete with aunts and uncles, cousins and (Sometimes!) grandparents. For while we consider many of our close friends to be family, it will be nice for our kids to know their own kin.
You know?
*I should note that the only kissing done by the cousins is in a purely familial tone. The kids all like to hug each other and there is the occasional kiss on the head. Just wanted to clarify that we love our cousins but do not LOVE our cousins.
As I mentioned in my last post, Matthew was stuck on the other side of a road closure on Friday night. That road closure? STILL IN EFFECT.
I thought it was a rockslide, but I heard it wrong. There have been no rocks that have been sliding down the mountain.
Yet.
The real problem is that there is a very deep, very wide fissure in the mountainside. Click HERE for photos. Also: HERE.
There are homes down below that are in danger of being obliterated completely.
Not. Cool.
The highway is closed indefinitely. This would not normally affect my wee family, but Matthew is heading out on a business trip to Toronto tomorrow and is flying out of Kelowna. All of the travel he has been doing this past week is enough to wear out this fragile heart of mine.
He will be safe. He will be safe. He will be safe.
Amen.
There are many people who use that highway for both personal and business purposes. We thought it would be good to post the back-road route for those who want to get to Kelowna without having to make a four-hour detour.
***
Here is the map crafted by Matthew:
Here are his additional instructions:
ROUTE: Glen Lake Service Road
TIME: Faulder to Peachland, approximately 1 hour if you have back roads experience
RECOMMENDATIONS: To be driven by a truck. 4WD not necessary. If you do not have back roads experience, please drive in daylight hours.
COMMENTS: I drove the road on Friday, October 24th. There were good-sized potholes and washboard roads. If you are careful while driving you can maneuver them. It was a little muddy in some areas. There was a recent wind storm that blew down a number of trees. They had been cleared from the road, but if there is another storm please be advised that blockages may occur. There is no cell service, so make sure you are comfortable in driving a rougher road. I am not sure if the Glen Lake Forest Service Road (FSR) is an active FSR, but whenever traveling a FSR always use caution for logging trucks.
ROUTE: Trout Creek Service Road
TIME: My brother took this route on Friday October 24th and it took two hours from Peachland to Summerland.
RECOMMENDATIONS: This road is better, and can be done in a car or truck.
COMMENTS: The road was in good shape but there was snow on the summit.
I do recommend some back roads experience when driving on Forest Service Roads. Please remember that it could be a very long wait if you run into trouble, as there is no cell service.
***
If you need any other help, please feel free to email me: dutchblitzin AT gmail DOT com.
We’re just doing what we can to help our community. Peace out.
