Four Years

Maizey Maizey Maizey,

I know I have said it every other year, but this year I MEAN it, how can you possibly be FOUR years old??? FOUR? I can still picture the tiny little girl that preferred to be left alone on her mat and the sassy little two year old that slowly walked the streets with her pregnant mom, asking if I wanted to go get a latte. Sometimes I miss that little girl, but most days, I am just amazed to watch the little big girl you have become.

You are, without a doubt, one of my most favorite people to be around. You are easy to get a long with, you are (almost) always up for an adventure, you love doing and trying and seeing new things. You are so my daughter in that regard. You are generally happy, but you have started having a "witching hour" again - if you get too hungry before dinner, ohhhh man, does that make dinner a nightmare. A few weeks ago, it took you TWO HOURS to eat. Oh, the crying, the arguing, the sitting there in silence. It was painful. Also, in an attempt to make you just freaking eat your zucchini, I said what you didn't finish that night, you would be fed for breakfast. You, for some reason, thought that sounded like a way better option than eating it right then, so you took it. I tried to tell you that it was not a good choice, and that it was going to be worse the next morning but there was no arguing with you. So, you forced me to follow through, and the next morning, you sat for ANOTHER 45 minutes and ate those, I don't know, like 8 bites of yellow zucchini. Call me crazy, but I don't think you saw it as punishment and I think given the option again, you would totally take it. But you know what? We had yellow zucchini two nights ago, and you ate it without a single word, so maybe it worked!

You start three days a week pre-school in two weeks. I am going to miss you.

You are pretty much the best big sister ever. You are so kind to Buddy, you share with him, you razz him and when he cries you try to make it better. You share everything with him, you include him, you teach him things he totally shouldn't be doing, like jumping from the coffee table to the couch, you help him put his housecoat on every morning and open the door for him on the truck. You say sorry when you aren't that nice to him and you mean it. You shut his finger in the door of the closet the other day and you laughed and laughed until you saw how hurt he was, and then I was sure you were going to cry too. You talk gently to him and try to use your words with him rather than fighting/grabbing/taking/hitting. He, on the other hand, does not. Sorry. I think he will outgrow this, but thank you for being so patient with him.

Your favorite thing right now is the old cartoon Spiderman and His Amazing Friends. You could play Firestar, Iceman and Spiderman all day, every day. You hide  behind trees to turn into Firestar, you are honestly confused when people don't know what you are talking about or what game you want to play. You wanted a Spiderman birthday, so that's what we had. Daddy could not be more pleased with this - he would sit and watch Spiderman with you all day if he could. You don't just love the old cartoons either, you love the newest movie as well, The Amazing Spiderman, but you do prefer to start it after he's already become Spiderman, rather than watching all the "boring" part about how it all happened.

You are currently loving dresses. Every single day.

You still really love being around us too, you like when we get down on the floor and play games with you - go fish and memory, you love doing crafts, but I actually kind of hate the messes, so on the special days you get to do one, you are over the moon with excitement. Although, I have to admit, the older you get the better the messes are, so maybe I should lighten up! Also, you love having special things you get to do while Buddy naps - chew gum, play with your tiny little My Little Pony Stuff, use glitter glue.

I absolutely love the little girl you have grown into,. You are sweet, honest, kind and just fun to be around. You are polite and unintentionally hilarious. We love watching everything you are and everything you are becoming. I am a little sad about what you are no longer (a little baby), but I am thrilled to see what you are growing into - an amazing little big person who loves life, her family and friends.

We love you baby girl, more than you could possibly know.
I can't wait to see how another year unfolds.

Love, Mom and Daddy

Random Is How I Roll

Totally random thoughts and stories.... annnndddd.... GO.

We call blueberries 'bloobs" in this house. Jace is so close to getting it right. "Boobs" . It cracks me up every single time.

*****

Maizey turns FOUR in two days. Holy hell. I have been replaying this day from four years ago over in my head. At this exact second, I was napping on the couch, feeling crippled by the giant belly I was wearing and the fact that I had spent the morning hiking around on Mt. Revelstoke with some of my most favorite people. My water broke the next morning. It has been both the longest AND shortest four years of my life.


August 27th, 2009
Since this day, the number of kids between the three of us has more than doubled. There is so much less time and so many more messes and a LOOOT less drinking, but there is still this totally awesome friendship. I love these girls to pieces.

*****

Jace is exerting his independence. I forgot how amazing this stage is to watch. Also, how freaking frustrating it is. I mean, clearly I don't have 10 extra seconds to wait while he attempts to do up his own buckles in the carseat. NO, DO IT. I DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. NOOOOO. DOOOOO ITTTTTT. huh. stuck. help mom. The list is getting long of things he has to "do" first, before we actually do it in the end. Brush his teeth, open the truck door, cut his food, open his banana, pour his milk, undo the tape on his diaper, wipe his hands and face.


*****
_________________________________________________________________________________

I wrote that yesterday while Jace was napping. But then, of course, he woke up early and neither of them have stopped demanding my attention ever since. 

SO. Maizey turns four TOMORROW now. Tomorrow. Holy hell AGAIN. We had a little party/coffee and cake this morning.  She, slash me, slash we have the very best friends and family. They stuck it out while it rained on us, rather than heading inside my holy-shit-did-a-bomb-go-off-in-here house. This morning I was a wee bit behind in the organizing department. I'm better now.

All the funny and quirky and cute stories I had to tell yesterday are gone from the front of my brain. I'm sure they will come back to me, but for now all I can think about is the upcoming birthday reunion this weekend in Kamloops with (a lot of) my old college friends and the fact that there was an incident on the couch this morning that wasn't professionally dealt with in a timely manner, that reallllllly needed to be dealt with and now I have to suffer the consequences of that. Also, there is a lot of leftover chocolate cake sitting on the counter just begging me to eat it.

I can hardly believe I have a four year old.
I need a drink.

A Morning With Friends

This morning was a really great morning.

It's Only Gross To Him

For Jaces whole talking career his favorite word has been 'no'. Sometimes it was a nice, polite no. Other times it was a loud and with conviction NO!! Most times it was a long drawn out nooooooo, with just a hint of sarcasm to it.

Is your name Jace? 
    Nooooooo

Are you ready to have lunch?
    Nooooooo

Are you going to drink the rest of your milk?
    NO!!!!

Do you want to get dressed and go to the park? 
     No. (while nodding yes and running down to his room)

Anyways, it's been a lot of no's for the last year. A few weeks ago, with the help of Maizey, he changed his mind. He decided his new favorite word would be.... wait for it.... Ewwwwww.

It's ewwwwww everything.

See's a piece of trash on the ground? ewwwww

Picks up something wet? ewwwwww

I'm changing his diaper? ewwwww

Throws his food on the floor? Points to the mess - ewwwww

My *ahem* favorite is when I put him in the high chair and set his dinner down in front of him and he likes to combine his two favorites - ewwwww, NO!!!

Summer Is Flying By

This summer is freaking fly by. It's the middle of August, how did that happen?
It's been hot, a wee bit humid and packed with action. Between company coming, trips to the lake, a weekend at Ang's cabin, two trips to my parents new house, a night in Kamloops, going to pick up our new vehicle, throw in a few impromptu bbq's with friend and then just stuff around home, we have been busy.


driving the ferry. no big deal.  

Like, lay down on the couch at 8:00pm and wake up to go to bed at 10:00pm. With the exception of this last week, it's been early to bed and early to rise ALL summer.







For some reason my kids internal alarm clocks go off at 6:30am with out fail. It's cool, I am usually a morning person anyways. Besides, even if I wasn't, they totally don't give a shit, so whatever.



cinnamon buns to die for. 

 
don't be fooled, this is as big as your face.

Truthfully, the only way to beat this heat is be near the water. It's hot. We have powered through 2 bottles of sunscreen so far. Maybe thats the reason my kids are always wet? Because otherwise they are too sweaty??






she's desperate to be like Merida from Brave. Asked her Papa to make her the bow and arrow and likes to pull her one strand of hair over her eye. I couldn't be happier with her choice of princesses to want to be like. 



I had one flower pot on our front steps. It's totally dead. Apparently it needed water on the regular.





My garden is awesome. Full of delicious food. I think I need to expand next year though. Variety - we need more it. We can only eat carrots, beats and green beans for so many days in a row.







Finally, today, a zuchinni was ready which is great timing since Brian is at work - he hates them, so we enjoyed it in peace without having to listen to him fake gag over every bite. 







I got a new camera a few months ago and suddenly I am afraid to take it anywhere good. Like, the beach. Or the Salmon Arm waterslides.





We had Shanon and her family here for a few days this week and  we hit up the waterslides one afternoon. The kids had so much fun. Unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence of us actually there, because, well, like I said, too chicken to take my camera anywhere.

Shanon was supposed to come out way back in the fall, but suddenly, the day she and Cait were supposed to come, winter blew in and they couldn't come. It has taken this long to work out another time.








It was totally worth the wait. Thanks for coming Shan, for introducing me to Twisted Tea's and changing my life. I'm nine episodes into season 2 of The Big C and when I cried a few episodes ago, I was thinking I wouldn't feel so silly if I weren't here alone.







You and your little family are welcome here any time!


Things don't seem to be slowing down this month. It looks like August will be as fun filled as July.
Making summer 2013 memorable, thats what we are doing.

Old Friends = The Best

I have an old friend named Russell.
He was my only friend when I moved to Kamloops (11 years ago!!!).
Russell was good friends with Ryan.
Ryans girlfriend (at the time) was Ang.
Ang became part of my left hip that without, I would not be able to walk properly.
Ang had a childhood summer friend named Andrea. Andrea and Ang's grandmas lived beside each other on the Shuswap.
Andrea moved to Kamloops having one friend - Ang.
No one shared a love of Coors Light and county music with me quite like Andrea did.
Some of my craziest and most hilarious memories involve Andrea.
The best.

Fast forward all these years.




 
This girl and her four kids.
I desperately wish they lived closer than a million miles away.









Until then, we will settle on yearly (or so) visits where it feels like not a single day has passed since our last hug or laugh or cheers of a Coors Light.







Thank you Andrea for making the trip down. For coming to visit. For sharing your family with us. For reminding me that no matter how many miles, months, week or days separate us, we will still be able to sit on the couch well into the night, drinking cold beer and laughing like we are still college kids. I wish we could do it every month, or better - every week, but I will settle for every year.