Thanksgiving in Monterrey

We spent the weekend in Monterrey. I attended a conference- The Humanization of Birth- with Joshua. Andrew and the big kids swam their buns off and did some exploring in downtown Monterrey.

The weekend did have a couple of tough moments- crazy big kids refusing to fall asleep, Joshua crying for four hours, beginning the moment after we started eating an expensive meal. But while the weekend had some tough moments, overall it was quite amazing. Joshua was very good about letting me focus on the speakers and even take lots of notes. Eva and Micah were very well behaved for Andrew and they had some really fun times together. And the cherry on top of the sundae? A beautifully smooth bedtime tonight! It was really nice to shake up our routine and do something different. I feel good.

Good, and ready to jump into my own wonderful bed.

But first a short Thanksgiving list. I am thankful for:

- my husband who is incredibly supportive and loving. I am married to an AWESOME man.
- my smart, loving, beautiful, healthy children
- my body that brought forth those children- a miracle each time, and I got to be part of it!
- awesome parents and in-laws
- friends and extended family whom we love and love us so well in return
- our comfortable home and reliable, comfortable, perfect-for-our-needs vehicles
- the means to keep our fridge and pantry stocked with healthy and yummy food
- the opportunity to live and work abroad, to grow and stretch and learn through the experience
- the opportunity to attend a conference on a topic about which I am passionate
- much, much more. I am truly blessed.

Date Night

We had a wonderful date night yesterday! The kids were thrilled to have Bertha here and were playing balloon volleyball when we left. We started by doing a little shopping. It was very nice to freely browse around. Got a couple of things too. Then we headed to a restaurant that was recommended to us and were blown away by how awesome it was. Decor was beautiful, service was terrific- they even custom made fresh salsa at the table- and the food was delicious. Good prices too! And we finished up the evening with a movie. We went to see My Sister's Keeper and really enjoyed it. I thought the characters were really human. The acting was great.

Swimming and Tennis Update

We swam with the kids again today. It's so fun. Eva is fearless and would stay in the pool all day, I think. Her determination is awesome. I loved watching her practice her swimming by pushing out into deeper water and then working her way back to where she could touch. If she gets tired she asks for help and never panics. She is doing fantastic.

Micah has had a couple of scares in the pool in past, so while he enjoys the water he has been Mr. Clingy. Always needing to have some part of him wrapped tightly around some part of one of us. Well today he surprised me by letting go in deeper water for a few seconds at a time! He also loves to do "pole diving", where he uses the stairs handrail to dive down to the bottom of the pool.

The kids are doing really well at their tennis lessons. They both tell me they don't like it but it sure doesn't show while they're in their class. It's held in a squash court and they do all kinds of great drills to help their hand-eye coordination and to get them familiar with the game of tennis. Eva has a pretty good backhand! Andrew came to watch and took a few photos so you might find some posted on this blog or his photog blog in the next few days.

Already More Than a Week!

Can't believe we're more than halfway through our time here in Abbotsford. We have been keeping very busy and loving all the great times spent with family and friends.

We've had lots of fun times in Al & Alice's back yard: visiting, playing, splashing, eating... The kids are so comfortable here at Grandma & Grandpa's. They love their special beds that Grandma set up for them, and the special activities she does with them. One of their favorite parts about being here is spending time with their cousins. Eva keeps asking how many more sleeps til she sees Megan again. It is a delight to see them running around and playing together and loving each other.

We've also managed lots of local Nerd time (Melissa has written a comprehensive post explaining what and who the Nerds are). It has been awesome. Between four families there are nine kids!! It is mayhem. In a good way. When we all walked to the park the neighbors just kind of stood wide-eyed and watched the parade pass by. All the kids (ages 6 months through 6 years) play together sooo well. Us adults play together pretty well too ;)

Louise somehow ended up ferrying kids from three different families to the park. Her little guy Koen is in the baby carrier, and Torie's Addison is in the stroller with Micah.

Melissa

Eva pulling her weight... at least

Today we headed to Tsawwassen for to visit with a good portion of the B.C. Troniaks. It was so good to see everyone. We also really enjoyed having some time on the beach at Boundary Bay which is a short walk from my aunt and uncle's house.

Tuesday we'll head down to Seattle for the day to see another Nerd who is flying in from the Philippines for a conference. So great. Later in the week we're planning a day trip to Whistler. I've never been there so I'm really looking forward to it.

I know the rest of the trip is going to fly by!

Check out Andrew's blog to see more photos of our time here.

Last Few Days in Winnipeg

Now that the kids and I have finally beat our colds, on Monday we dropped in for a visit with baby Seylah. My first time holding her! She is a beautiful little peanut. (She was 7lbs 8oz or so when we saw her and therefore smaller than either of my newborn children.) Tara's struggling a bit with breastfeeding and I'm praying that she is able to resolve her issues and breastfeed successfully. Here are mama and babe:


Monday evening good friend Catherine came over for supper (thanks Mom for doing all the work!) and then we went out to see the building site of her new home. I was interested in the design of the house and Cathy's garden... the kids were interested in the hole to the basement, the mound of dirt in the back yard, and the bobcat. Oh how they loved the bobcat! Note their cool new Winnipeg t-shirts, gifts from Auntie Cathy. Very cute and the kids love them.


Ha, ha! I really like this photo of Cath, but I just noticed the roll of toilet paper in her hand! Not exactly an ideal prop. Moments after we arrived at the house Micah declared his need to "willy, willy have to go pooh". The house doesn't have facilities to support that sort of need at this time. We were prepared to find him a quiet spot in the field and bury the evidence. As it turned out, he managed to hold it until morning.

Hm. Perhaps I've shared a little too much information.




We kept Tuesday low key. I did laundry, packed, and had a wonderful nap. My mom and the kids and I walked to the park. Dad treated us to Tony Roma's and it was a unique dining experience because the kids actually spent the whole time eating. There was no rushing, no chasing, no shenanigans. It was a very relaxing meal! And yummy.

This morning we flew to Abbotsford and right now the kids are out cold in their special beds. They were terrific on both flights but the layover in Calgary was kind of messy. We picked up some Subway for lunch and the kids got a toy in their meals. It was two parts that snapped together. Well, when Micah threw out his trash, the garbage can flap ate half his toy. I went so far as to open the big door to the garbage and poke around a little but didn't find it. Poor kid- who would normally have been napping by this time of day- was devastated. And re-devastated every time he thought of it for an hour afterward.

When it was getting close to time to board we headed to the gate. There was a brightly coloured play area so I grabbed some Starbucks and settled in to enjoy the free wi-fi while they played. I heard the lady beside me say, "Oh, no, don't-" and then the bells started going off. Yes, our dear son had pulled the fire alarm, conveniently painted the exact shade of primary red as the play area, and conveniently placed one foot from the play area and within easy reaching height of a curious toddler. Delightful. That alarm wasn't so bad, and they got it turned off fairly quickly. But then another, louder, much more annoying and persistent alarm started, and continued for about 15 minutes. The entire multi-gate crowd cheered when they finally turned that one off. Add this one to Micah's catalogue of stories we'll tell for years to come...

More Recent Activities

Friday we laid low and it was good to have that down time. This morning all of us had brunch with good friends DebnRobnAshe, Marcy & Ryan & sweet new baby Elise, and Shawn & Vivian. Of course I forgot my camera. I also forgot my backpack which could have been disaster because Micah had some tummy troubles today and his spare undies were in there. It was a really fun time, so good to see those guys and to meet Elise. The kids were great until the end when they ran amok. I actually had to run Eva down in the parking lot. Took me a while to catch her, too. I thought about canceling the planned bowling outing as a consequence but after consulting with Andrew decided to cut them some slack since they are probably feeling somewhat tired out and overwhelmed from all the activity and stimulation.

The kids LOVED bowling. It was like Eva was on a game show. After every ball we would cheer and she would grin madly, jump up and down and windmill her arms.

I'm not sure that Micah's balls could have rolled any slower. I was impressed that he only lofted the ball a few times, and never into another lane.

Us adults were terrrible bowlers. Let's just say the bumpers got their fair share of use.







Do you see what I see?? Yes, Nana is bitter. Burning up inside.

Photos from Sunday's Park Outing

Micah with Auntie Shelley.

Maria with Caleb

Visual proof for Eva that indeed she needed to clean out her nostril. Who needs a mirror when you have a digital camera with macro setting?

This Week's Fun

Having another great week here.

I had my debriefing meetings with our midwives from Eva & Micah's births on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday morning we also had a super fun playdate with Heidi and Anna Sophia. So fun that the leaving was a horrible train wreck. I threatened to cancel all future playdates if the end was going to be like that.

Wednesday was filled with wonderful visiting. I had coffee in the morning with a friend and spiritual mentor. In the afternoon we had a playdate with a friend whose kids are all the same age as mine, within months. She had her third in February so I got to see first hand what that is like. She makes it look easy :) Of course, the kids didn't really get full into playing together until it was time to leave, so we probably overstayed our welcome and again it was not fun getting the kids out to the car. In the evening I went out with the girls from church. All but one were able to come which was great considering the level of busyness in everyone's lives right now. I loved hanging out with them.


This morning my mom treated me to a pedicure. My feet look so pretty now. Quite the change from my usual unpainted sandpapery feeties. It was great. We did a few errands and rushed home to relax/nap before heading out to the fair. The next post is dedicated to that outing.

The Red River Exhibition

This afternoon all of us went to the Ex with Marcy, Pedro and Jacob. It was great! Very family friendly, and lots of free activities.

The farm. The kids got a bucket full of corn and they had to "feed" the fake animals and collect an item at each station. Here they are picking apples. At the end they got a small prize. They liked it so much we went through twice.

There was a farm display with real animals too! The kids got to hand feed the chickens, see and touch dairy and beef cows, sheep, and goats (ooh, are baby goats ever adorable).

Can you tell it was super hot today? I felt like I was back in Torreon!

There was a fire fighter display too. Eva was grumpy at first because she wanted to be back at the farm with the fake animals, but once she realized you got to shoot water out of a big hose she was on board. Micah impressed us with his hand over hand technique when he pulled up a coil of hose with a rope and some pulleys. At the end they got to "put out a fire" and received a firefighter hat.

Micah liked spraying the water so much that he snuck back and turned it on unsupervised. The volunteer was very understanding and helped Micah water the flowers instead.

The Canadian Armed Forces display was a big hit with both kids. Here they are in a tow truck with Nana.

They both got the camo facepaint.


Micah was big into the obstacle course. He did it many times. His favorite part was throwing the water balloon at the end. Eventually they had to cut him off. The guys working the display were awesome with the kids. Micah got a Kiddie Commando certificate. Here is video of Commando Micah (in a three short parts).

DebnRobnAshe's Place

The three kids together

Ashe taking her 50 for a boot

Ashe showing off her gymnastics skills

Rob trying to convince the kids to go for a ride. Even though they both had rides last summer, they were nervous to jump on again.

Once they were on, we couldn't get them off!

Whoohoo!! Rob would let them run the throttle and Eva keeps telling us she was practically driving the bike by herself.

Fast and furious cookie and hamburger making session

Rob showing Micah how to make a hamburger patty. Twelve second video clip below.

Awesome and Exhausting Four Days

Saturday morning at DebnRobnAshe's place. Micah nonchalantly drove Ashley's toy motorcycle straight into the fence. It did not cross his mind to do anything like, oh, try to steer, or take his foot off the gas.

Eva's new- previously enjoyed by Ashley- hat and sunglasses. Can't get them off of her.

Micah trying on a pair of shades.

More photos to come after I get permission from everyone...

On Thursday morning I got a call from Tara. I know her from church here and she invited me as a support person to her home birth this month. She was due on the 20th so we were crossing our fingers it would work out. She called to say her water had broken! She wasn't having regular contractions yet but I rearranged my schedule so I could be ready for her when she needed me. Around lunchtime she asked me to come be with her while her boyfriend went out to pick up her mom. So my mom dropped me off and took the kids with her to her salon appointments. I was so glad they were really good for her! I hung out with Tara until the late afternoon. Her contractions still weren't regular and I thought she needed some space. I got a chance to eat with the kids and tuck them in then I headed over there again for a couple of hours. Things kind of died off so I headed home and climbed into bed with my cell phone close at hand. Still no regular pattern so in the morning I was able to go to the park for a really fun playdate with some of my mom's friends that she had a playgroup with when I was young. Four of us daughters/daughters-in-law were able to be there with a total of eight little kids ranging from 4 months to 4.5 yo. So cool! We went to an awesome park.

Just as the playdate was ending I got the call that Tara was in active labour so Mom dropped me off and headed home with the kids. She laboured beautifully and had the birth she dreamed of in water, right in her own living room at 5pm. I was honoured and privileged to attend and support her, and it was very moving. Mom and baby are doing great! Seylah is perfect and content.

So that was VERY exciting! Also very tiring and my cold which was improving took a turn for the worse.

We had lots of fun plans for Saturday. In the morning we went to see 9-year-old Ashley's lacrosse game. I really enjoyed it! Good entertainment and so fun to see her out there. She is one of only two girls on her team and she holds her own. She is loving it. Now our kids want lacrosse sticks!

Afterward we were invited over for lunch and wow did we pack a lot of fun stuff into a short couple of hours. There was cookie making and trampoline jumping, swingset playing, treehouse playing, BBQ eating, motorcycle driving, and hand-me-down hand-me-downing. We had a blast and didn't want to leave. But we had a family BBQ we were also looking forward to in the afternoon.

Everybody made it and it was great to have a chance to see and catch up a little with everyone. I loved seeing the kids together. Eva and Micah really really enjoyed playing with seven year old Ben and nine year old Jamie.

We got home way past the kids bedtime and by then I was completely out of gas and just went to bed with them. I was thrilled to open my eyes to a clock that reported 7:08am! At least a full hour later than Micah's recent usual.

Today we went to church. This time Eva trotted right into her class and had a great time, and Micah dissolved into tears at the thought of leaving me. So I took him into church for a while where he actually did sit quietly for a while. I knew it was time to try taking him to class again when he crawled under the chairs all the way back to the sanctuary. And he went right in and was ok with me leaving. When he came out he declared, "That was fun!". Maybe next week they'll both go to their classes for the whole time and I'll get a chance to focus on church.

After church a few of us had a picnic lunch at the park. It was great to hang with my friends, see their kids, see them with my kids, and to see the kids together. It was finally really sunny and hot today, whoohoo!

When we got back, all three of us took a super long nap. I actually had to wake Eva up. I'm looking forward to getting back into bed and hopefully sleeping this cold away. Lots more visiting planned for this week!

Recent Activities

Here are some snaps from Tuesday. Nothing too fancy but they show what we were up to.

Deb

Debbie joined us for a visit to the Manitoba Childrens Museum. The kids had so much fun!! They warmed up to Debbie right away and we all loved having her along. I thought that Deb and I might have a chance to sit and chat while we watched the kids, but they were in too much of a fun frenzy for that.

I thought that this construction/waterplay area would be a big draw but it didn't have their attention for long at all.

They spent a lot of time in the tree area. The slide of course was fun. There is a cool tunnel area that ends "underwater" in a beaver lodge.

Chillin' his way down the slide....

Up inside the beaver lodge. It is very dark and at first they were scared to climb up inside but of course once they'd done it they loved it.

In the afternoon, it was finally not raining so we visited the local park. Eva tells me this is the best park ever.

(I'm embarassed that I have to ask you to turn your head to watch these clips. At least they're only 3 and 2 seconds long). Of all the things in the museum, the favorite was running down the ramp from the train engine. This is A/V proof.

Other recent activities, of which I have no photos to post, include church, a very fun visit with Marcy and Jacob, a semi-useless appointment at the bank, a chiropractor appointment, a pregnancy massage, two two hour naps (sweet!), and a grrreat girls night out with Marcy and Catherine.

Church didn't go quite the way I expected. Last year Eva went to Sunday School no problem and Micah refused. This year it was the opposite. Eva wouldn't let me leave her there so she spent most of the service with me. During the sermon we went upstairs to see what was going on and she consented to stay. Micah, on the other hand, marched right into his classroom and started to play. At the end everything was reversed. Eva wanted to stay and play! Micah on the other hand was more than ready. He did well but was a little weepy and the poor kid also had an accident. He's been talking himself into going again this week. He is excited to be a big kid like Eva and go to school, but it's hard to leave mom for a new situation. I think now that they know what to expect it should go well. They both call Sunday School "English School".

"Chillin" in Winnipeg

I found this on my camera card. Eva must have taken it before we left!

The kids and I arrived in Winnipeg on Tuesday. We left home at 7:30am, and by the time we got to my parents' house it was about 9:30pm. Yep, long day. The kids were good travellers as usual, but not GREAT. They were both either sick or fighting sickness (Micah went full blown with his own cold the next morning) and had very little focus. So it was hard to keep them busy and to get them to listen to me. The poor people in front of Micah's seat were probably grinding their teeth as he opened and closed the tray table for the millionth time, despite my repeated admonishments. Anyway apart from the fatigue everything went smoothly. No missed flights, delays or other problems. All luggage arrived together with us. Yesss! I thought maybe we'd brought the warm weather with us, because on Wednesday it was pleasant. But by Thursday it was raining, and Friday and Saturday were downright COLD. We're talking frost warning. In June. Unbelievable. These first few days have been busy and productive. Crossing things off my to-do list left and right. The kids had grown out of all their shoes except flipflops so closed shoes were a priority, especially considering the weather. Got some supercute runners for both of them. Here's our little wannabe skater...


Yesterday we did the 5km ALS walk at Assiniboine Park. Micah walked about the first 2kms! He was happy to just walk and hold his 9 year old cousin Jamie's hand. He was pretty pooped by the end! The kids caught some zzz's in the car while we dropped Dad and Sudz off at home, then Mom & I took the kids to the Winnipeg Children's Festival. It was pretty fun. We only stayed for two hours and that was plenty for our two tired little ones. We watched two shows and the kids got their faces painted.

Taking in the Washboard Hank show

Eva getting a sparkly sun painted on her face. She loved it.

Micah told the face painter he wanted pink and blue stripes. Later he told everyone he had a big circle on his face.

I got them each an outlandishly expensive balloon and they were tickled.

Micah took this photo!

Now that many of the errands have been taken care of, these next weeks will focus on visiting and getting the kids well. I started to sniffle last night too. I don't know whether I hope it's the cold or allergies. Allergies might actually make me more miserable. Well, just one extra excuse to have a nice long nap this afternoon :)

A Bust Outing

Today Eva's school had special family activities as a celebration for Day of the Child. We were all so excited about it! Once we got there, though, Eva was miserable. The first game she was a bit nervous but warming up, then we did volleyball with a great big ball, and it just wasn't making it down to her level. That's when she got really discouraged. She said, "I'm no good at these games". She refused to participate in anything after that. I couldn't seem to convince her keep pushing through, trying, and finding a way to enjoy herself.

Trying to hit the ball

Post-discouragement (and me with a weird-looking arm!)

We're just not sure how to handle this. In her defense, Eva by temperment is slow to adapt to new situations, there was a huge crowd of people, most of the games were new to her, she was one of the smallest kids, and there is still somewhat of a language barrier. However she was in a familiar setting with us right beside her, encouraging her and showing her by example. She just stood there arms at her sides, complained, and eventually cried. We felt so bad for her that she was missing out on the enjoyment of the day! Her attitude was especially frustrating when it came to the 'flag chase' activity, because she HAS played it before and she loves chase.

We thought about just leaving. Would that have sent the wrong message? We ended up staying to the end, and intentionally observing the last activity, which was spelling Montessori with our bodies.

I hate to see her missing out, and I was upset that she had no interest or appreciation for the effort and time the school put into this event.

Thoughts on how to handle this and future situations like this; how to best encourage her without pressuring or making her feel bad about herself?

Mazatlan

We are having a wonderful time here in Mazatlan. Check out our Photog Blog to see photographic evidence.

The kids' swimming skills have improved by leaps and bounds. It is incredibly fun to be with them in the pool. Eva can now swim on her own! She can even dive to the bottom of the pool by herself! Micah loves to dunk his head over and over. It is very cute because he counts down from three then slowly lowers his head under. He comes up with very red eyes and then starts the process all over again. He loves to dunk under in Andrew's arms as well. We will probably load some video yet.

Eva and I got our hair braided. I know, very nerdy and very touristy... but also VERY practical. I made a bad management decision and told her to leave my bangs out at first. I finally rectified it this afternoon and it looks much better.

Right now the kids are playing air hockey. Micah can barely see over the top of the table but he is holding his own. These kids just get more and more fun.

We are loving spending time with Al & Alice. The kids- especially Eva- are glowing with pleasure at having time with their grandma and grandpa.

Al & Alice had a one bedroom top floor ocean view for their first week here. Amazing! We camped out in their living room then this week we were to move to a two bedroom ocean view room. They informed us that there were no ocean view suites available this week. We were extremely disappointed and made a second trip to front desk to speak to someone else about it, who was also unhelpful. Then right after we got back up to our room we got a phone call informing us that they actually did have an ocean view two bedroom, but it was 'under maintenance' and wouldn't be available until the following day. So today we completed our third and final move, into a top floor ocean view two bedroom suite. It is so perfect for our needs, and the ocean view just caps it off. Gorgeous!!

I'm off to embarass myself at ping pong!

Weekend in Saltillo

text by Dana, photos by Andrew

This weekend we headed out to Saltillo for a (delicious!) Christmas dinner at Jim and Lorraine's with some other Palliser folks.



Crafting it up. Incidentally, they just moved into our favorite of the houses we looked at. We enjoyed seeing it with furniture and getting a chance to 'live' there.



Lorraine had all kinds of crafts ready for the kids... cookies to decorate and glue and paper and sparkles and scissors... a preschooler's dream! I think in this photo Micah is actually eating one of three yogurts he had in quick succession that morning.



Sunday morning we headed up to the town of Arteaga before going home. It's about 15 minutes from Saltillo and they have a market every Sunday. Very nice Sunday outing. The kids loved holding the 4 week old puppies and we loved seeing them enjoying themselves so much.





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The kids having a pony ride. They liked it but Micah was too ready for a nap to thoroughly get into it.



We stopped for supper at Tio Taco, right by our house. Yummy! Though the kids and I maybe indulged in a few too many cookies on the ride home. And chip appetizers. Our plates weren't exactly clean, though the food was very good.