A head full of ideas

Brea is turning into quite the sassy little lady. The other day when Craig wanted to ask her about her frequent wake-ups the previous night, she responded by walking away while saying:
"Daddy, I don't want to talk about that right now."
What are we going to do when she reaches her teen years?

We have noticed that she says the funniest things, mostly we wonder where she gets it from since we don't often use the sayings she comes up with. Lately, whenever something goes wrong, she's been exclaiming:
"Oh nuts! Not again!"

Tonight as soon as I stepped through the door, it started.
Brea had a head full of thoughts and it was all coming out of her mouth non-stop. She had comments about the snow, comments about her books, how I had to be quiet because Rhys was sleeping, she wanted to know what was in the shopping bags.

Then Craig stepped in and mentioned he could take Brea to a game with him tonight.
"Is there a bench Daddy?"
"Can I sit on the bench? Not the big bench, just a little one for me."

I said I could pack a snack to go with her so she would stay put on the bleachers.
"In my new lunch box Mommy?"
"Then I will sit and not move but after I eat my snack I can play and I will run, run run!"

I handed her the lunch box as Craig helped her with her coat.
"Oh MY! It's SO heavy!" (complete with the emphasis)

They came home early because the game was forfeited. I asked what happened.
"We had to come home, the game wasn't there!"
"Daddy asked his friend but there was no game so Daddy asked another friend."
"We went to another school, not Daddy's school, another one."

Then she said she was hungry... this was within an hour of eating dinner.
She proceeded to eat 4 cookies, two sunflower butter sandwiches, a glass of soy milk.

Finally, after a bath it was time for bed.
She wanted "Puff the Magic Dragon" for her song. I started to sing.
"You can sing without the book." - we have the song in picture book form
"Do you use your brain? I need a book to sing songs, when I am this big (indicating four fingers) I will sing with my brain too but not yet."
"Where did Jackie go? Does Puff have a new girlfriend?" - at the end of the picture book, a grown-up Jackie returns with his daughter
"Is that like me? I am Daddy's daughter."
"Where's the mommy? Is Jack the daddy? Does he have a son? Did they have a baby and a daughter and a son? Is the mommy in another book?"
It was a REALLY long version of the song.

Meanwhile for those of you who are wondering...
Rhys was along for all of this just without all the words.
He had dinner and a snuggle with me. When Brea came home he ate 3 cookies and a quarter of a sandwich, he had milk. He splashed in the bath and attempted to drink the water numerous times. He hugged Brea while she had her hair blow-dried. Brea went to get a clip for her hair afterwards, he returned with two bow in his hair as well which he kept patting to make sure they were staying put.
I was holding him and dancing while I tried to sing "Puff" for Brea. And now while his sister is sleeping, he's playing with Daddy's iphone. He had a late nap but it's off to bed for him too.

Now you see why it takes so long sometimes for me to get a blog up :o)

Through Brea's eyes

Brea got a camera from Santa for Christmas, here are some of her shots:

December colours

A friend inspired me.

Ending off 2011

It has been a whirlwind going from 2011 to 2012. We had plenty of guests and celebrations over the holidays and then we rushed back into work. It was so wonderful to have those special moments but I have to admit having a few more days post-celebration to actually relax without being on the go of organizing the next event would have been great.

Nana, Grumpa, Po-Po, the Kau-Kaus, Grauntie G and Gruncle Jim were here for a veritable Christmas feast and much spoiling of the kids (and us). I think Brea and Rhys were a tad overwhelmed by it all but the morning was nice as the kids are still a bit too young to really understand Christmas so we had a nice little lay-in before presents.

We had fresh blueberry muffins as is our family tradition and dressed in our house-coats we opened our stockings and presents. Brea was really excited with her present from Santa - a camera of her very own. She is still learning about aiming before pushing clicking the shutter but overall she has had some good success. I will be putting up a post of her work. The rest of the day was then spent roasting turkeys, baking a ham and making various other scrumptious goodies.

There were some very cute and special moments during the holidays. I especially loved Brea helping Grumpa pick bread. Grumpa spent quite some time getting the bread for the dressing ready and Brea and Rhys were so happy to help. Rhys spent most of his time eating the bread bits but Brea really got into it. She had a wonderful conversation with Grumpa about how they were picking bread for the stuffing and how it was full of love and magic, just like "fairy dust". Brea must have sat next to her Grumpa for nearly an hour working with him.

I had my camera ready but only snapped a few shots before being pulled away so here are a few of our December moments:

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful and joyful holidays and looking forward to all new adventures in 2012!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We made it out for photos with the jolly man in red. It was a long wait but well worth it when I saw Brea and Rhys rush up to his chair. Brea was all ready with her practiced talk of questions and answers for Santa and Rhys was so excited to be there.

The kids have been really loving December with all the bright lights to look at on our drives and putting up the decorations on the tree in our home. We are lucky to have a couple of really special houses in our neighbourhood who go out of their way each year to make fantastic displays. One collects for the food bank each year and we are always sure to make a visit early on to make a donation and take in the show. Brea calls it the "Crazy Christmas House" because it is so beyond belief.

Brea has been non-stop with her conversations these days while Rhys has added "bird" to his repertoire of two words. Last night while we were driving home from watching Daddy's basketball game - he won the tournament! Brea was exclaiming from the backseat - "goodness", "holy gracious", "that's so amazing"! as we passed by lit houses. We also drove past an auto shop. Here are some snippets of conversation on the 10 minute drive home.

"Where is Daddy going?"
"He's just going out to the bar to celebrate his win. He'll be back soon."
"Why is he going to the bar?"
"Because he's happy his boys won, he's going with his friends."
"I'm happy too, can I go to the bar with Daddy?"
"No honey, you're too little still, when you're older."
"When I'm this old?" (Showing me fingers that I couldn't see.)
"Mommy can't see your hand, can you tell me how many fingers you are holding up?"
"One, two, three, four, five!"
"No, honey, when you're really old like 19."
"Oh... then I can go with Daddy and his friends?"
"Sure."

"Why is the car not running?"
"What are you talking about Brea?"
"That car is not running, is it sick?"
Me realizing, she saw a car in the auto shop we had just past by. "Yes, it's getting fixed."
"Is he waiting for the car doctor?"
"Sure Brea."

Splish Splash!

Brea's well on her way to her next level of swimming. She was very successful with her first foray into the wet all by herself. After doing the parent and tot classes we felt she was ready to take things on her own and it has been so fun to watch her splash about each week. She was quite excited to have a male teacher unlike one of her classmates which is why she seems to be alone in her class. These pictures were taken on her first day when the other little girl refused to get into the water with a "boy" teacher. She has been great at listening to instruction and not afraid at all of plunging down into the water to retrieve rings.

Rhys is really taken with the pool as well. After watching her sister in her class he was very vocal about wanting a try so we put him in the following week and he had a ball.