So long...

Oh, I KNOW it has been so long since my last post, there's the mommy guilt right there! Currently we are in the tail end of the January snow that we always seem to get here in the lower mainland, and the kids and I had a blast. The hill behind the house is a perfect hill for the girls although poor little Charley can't even stand up with her snow suit on. She looks like a little star puff! They are both just getting over a little cold, but it didn't seem to slow them down any. Frankie does SO much better now with her inhalers and colds only seem to last a week instead of the months they were taking to clear up. Charley is a little trooper and doesn't complain about much of anything. I have ignored her for the last two night while she cries and it seems to be doing the trick, she only is crying for a few minutes. She is however, getting up at around 9 pm for a quick feed and to check out what mom and dad are doing. It seems to be an ever revolving door with the sleep issues and kids, and I have decided to just let the anger go. If she wants to play from 9-11 while we relax then fine-as long as she sleeps through the night!! (that is the trick!!)
Frankie is really emerging as a little person. She is starting to realize that she can do a lot of things and no longer shys away from new adventures as much. With her I feel it is a fear a failure rather then an actual fear, because I often see her trying the things she just shunned, when no one else is looking. She is so stubborn, I can see her only wanted to be the best at something.
Charley is hilarious!! She is sort of saying more, meaning she can get her point across better, without actually using words. She is a little IMP who is in EVERYTHING! For the longest time the only converstaions Quag had with her was growls. As she dumps the recycling-he picks it up and growls, as she removes the dishes from the dishwasher and walks away with them, he growls, as she dumps the umpteenth glass of water, he growls. So now when something happens, instead of Oh-Uh, or Oops, Charley growls!! Hilarious!!
The girls really play well together and Charley loves it when Frankie chases her around the house. Charley will dogpile on Frankie and sherbert her while Frankie screams.
Frankie loves her dollhouse and will spend forever putting her dolls to bed, reading stories, and walking them up the stairs.
Charley is FINALLY starting to get into books and will bring us a dozen at a time and wants to read them all, mind you she only has patience for three pages out of each book, but it is a start.
Mom and Dad are coming for a week on Wednesday, and I start a three week schooling period on Monday. Then it will be "get to work" for me. I hope I can make a go at this business, but I certainly have fears.
Anyway that is all in a nutshell that we have going on right now, more later (soon rather then laterI hope)

December!

Well it is here! Another December! Ok, I have to admit I love December. Well the last 6 days of it. The kids are both pretty snoggy now. Charley, it seems, is getting (or has) her first cold. Poor lil monkey. She holds still for us and lets us blow her nose and she will even try to blow on her own. She was trying to copy me sneezing this morning which brought on a fit of giggles as I sneezed again and again with her.
Frankie has been boycotting sleep and food for the last few days. Well unless we are eating subway meatball subs.....I hope she sleeps in a little bit today. Her dad made the mistake the other night when I was out grocery shopping letting her come back upstairs to watch some TV because "she just wasn't sleepy" so that has been her catch phrase since then!
I bought them an advent calendar and Frankie is already reminding me to not forget to give her a chocolate EVERYDAY! That kid has a memory like an Elephant!
Today I go and sign some paperwork for school. And so begins a new chapter for me. Well sort of a new revamped chapter......I hope to get some knowledge about business ownership from this.
So I am almost done my Christmas shopping which makes me a bit sad-I love Christmas shopping. Seems that you have start earlier and earlier each year because of the deals. Especially with kids. If not you miss the IT present for the year.
So bring it on December. A month of rushing, parties, baking and family. Oh, lets not forget the most awesome day of the year!!!

Dark Lashes

Frankie hasn't been feeling well for the last few days. She has been getting a cold. It seems that when Frankie gets sick, she turns into an Angel Child. Please, thank-you, yes mommy, no daddy, I love you SOO much are just about the only words out of her poor sick little mouth. It has been a LOONG time since Frankie has been sick, about a year, which is an eternity in kids standards. So the other night she asked me to lay with her until she fell asleep. How could I say no.
As she directed my hand to the 'correct' tickling spot (if you stay too long on one place or don't use your finger nails, she'll let you know) I watched her little face in the moments before pre-sleep. Her eyes were closed and flickering, her lips pursed and a look of concentrations was on her face. As we progressed her breath regulated and her lips relaxed, then parted ever so slightly. Her eyes stopped flickering and hand relaxed its grip on  mine. I looked at my daughter. My truly beautiful daughter. Her lashes, so dark and long against her pale skin, her full pink lips, her smooth porcelain skin. She has a little faint scar from when her fingernail scraped her skin on her nose. Her lower left lip is fuller then her right.

I began to think what will Frankie make of herself? Will she accomplish the things she sets out to do? I hope her father and I give her the confidence in herself to take no prisoners, to live her dreams and  to include others in her life. I want to give her everything she needs and the tools to work for everything she wants. Will we succeed? Will she?

My thoughts traveled to her beauty. Everyone is beautiful, in their own way. Frankie is no exception. Will she be a stunner, or the 'girl-next-door', will she be athletic or the dramatically pretty? As I lay with my sleeping daughter all I wanted for her in that time and that place was for someone, anyone in her life to lay with her and look at her like I am doing. If they marvel at the gentle slope of her nose, the puffy pout of her lips while she sleeps, the strand of hair tangled in her ear and the exotic darkness of her lashes like I am doing right now, then someone loves her like I love her. They love her for being Frankie, and that is all I can hope for.........

The Wizard of Oz

Oh my little Dorothy was so happy! As a gift Nana and Poppa bought us tickets to go see a theater production of the Wizard of Oz. Frankie donned her Dorthy dress and her Ruby red shoes. I put her hair in hot rollers and put a bit of mascara on her amazing long eyelashes and my little Frankie was transformed! The entire time in the car on the way to the theater she kept asking if we were there yet and although she didnt quite understand "theater" is different then "movie" she kept asking if the real actors would be on the screen. Once we arrived it was clear that Dorothy had arrived! She grabbed her dress skirt and skipped through the lobby as every person in the joint looked longingly at her Ruby Red slippers!
She was a little put off that the Slippers portrayed in the Program had Ruby Red 'Ribbings' (Bows on the toes-aka, ribbons) and hers didn't, but she didn't let that slow her down. Instead she said that SHE had the right shoes and they were wrong!
She sat in rapture for the entire show. She had to make a move from her own seat to sit on Quags lap because she couldn't see one little corner of the stage, but after that is was ALL GOOD! So good in fact that at intermission she paraded up and down the concourse skipping, dancing and twirling her way to entertaining the crowd. After the show, she asked her dad if she could go up and stage and bow with the cast!
All in all a wonderful first experience with Theater! She loved every minute of it. Lets hope that the Nutcracker Ballet is as warmly received next weekend!

Forever and a Day

Oh it has been so long since I have written anything. I often think about it, then get caught up in my vicious circle of guilt. You know the one, it is the same with my pictures. I wait too long to do anything with them then I feel bad, then I can't get caught up and so and so forth. Well here it goes. I guess I will just have to ump in to it.
Charley, at 13 months is practically running everywhere. She climbs on everything and rides her trike and anything that moves. Where Frankie was verbally driven Charley is very tactically driven. She loves to put things in a bag and take them out, play with screw drivers and hammers, press buttons and touch the touchy feel books. Frankie was and still is very into her books and pretend play. She is always 'someone' whether she be Dorothy, Willy Wonka, Rapunzel or another one of her favorites.
For Halloween Frankie dressed as Dorothy and Charley was a strawberry. We went trick or treating around Gran's house and Frankie had a great time. Charley was in the back pack and loved looking at all the lights and decorations. She did not, however, like the fireworks!

Frankie is taking swimming lessons and is becoming more comfortable with putting her head under the water and what not. She is, however, a little frustrated at the process. When asked how her lessons are going she replies "Well I can't swim yet!"
They had a joint birthday party this year and it worked out really well. Mom and dad were here, we made scary cupcakes and the weather was nice enough to do it all outside. The kids went on tractor rides, and played on a bouncy castle. It was really a lot of fun and of course the kids got spoiled. Charley was walking before her birthday, and her actual first steps were at 11 months.

I find myself getting sad that fall is over, it is such an amazing season especially where we live. The leave changing, the crispness in the air, the chill in the morning makes me feel like a new beginning is happening. I think that fall is my New Years, or even spring. When all over the place the vegetation is dying and becoming dormant, I always feel like a new rebirth is happening. It is probably ingrained in all of us from school, where it is a new year for school every September, but it seems to always be a rebirth for me in life too. I met and started dating Quag in October, I had both girls in October, the most beautiful season to me is autumn....just seems that it is 'my' time of year.
Now we find ourselves coming in to the Christmas Season. Don't get me wrong, I love Xmas but not as much as fall.
This year will mark a change for our family. Everyone on my side is driving out here. It will be interesting and fun, I am just starting to get excited as I start planning out gifts and what not. Frankie will be uncontrollable! It will be awesome! Anyway, enough for now, I have to upload some pictures before I get distracted again

Summers almost over!

Well the past few weeks have just flown by. We attended Scott and Hayley's wedding in Kelwona at Camp Owissi which was a really great weekend. We sure do have fun when we hook up with the McLean clan. Now we are prepping the house for Grammy and Poppa to come and visit with our NEW (old) Lawn Tractor!! I have been busy trying to finally organize the house and clean and purge everything, but it is hard with the kids around. Yesterday (Saturday0 they attended Daddie daycare and it was Lovely!! I got so much accomplished! I cleaned and organized Charley's room and she moved in last night. It was a bit of a rocky transition. It took a few tries to get down and when she woke up it was with a start, but I think she will settle in nicely ( I hope)!
Today we are getting ready to attend a birthday party and a Grammy Shower! So it will be a fun filled busy day.
In a few weeks I will really start having to put my nose to the grindstone and get job hunting, but being the procrastinator that I am, I am cleaning instead!
Charley is still furniture cruising but is starting to become more vocal and loves her Daddy!! She goes bananas whenever the phone rings or when she 'calls' him. "Hiya Dada, Hiya Dada" over and over again. Frankie is still a bit jealous and is taking all the 'baby' things back, but she is a show off and loves the attention so i can't see that changing anytime soon. He favorite thing now is "Look at me!" She is doing somersaults and is a bit more brave and independent at the playground.
Charley is eating everything and is going to bed around 11pm, till usually around 4 am for a quick feed then back to bed again till 7-8am. I haven't tried her on milk yet but think I will see if she reacts to it in the next few weeks.
Have to hurray now, we have a busy day ahead of us!!

Summer Days

Well we have been happily enjoying the lazy days of summer, seeing as we finally got some nice weather under our belt. Yesterday Diana and I went shopping and I was in shock as I found out that Frankie can fit in to some xsmall clothes! What! My almost 3 year old has completely jumped 4t sizes?!?! It gave me a bit of a shock and sent my head spinning. With all the back to school hype I got tho thinking what will be my train of thought in a few years time when my baby starts school? When she makes those first steps to her independence and will be left to fair the world without me to protect her? What if another kid makes fun of her, or the cool girls break her heart....
I know I cannot do anything about the inevitable, it still makes my head spin that my babies are growing so fast. The other day she put her backpack on and was running the driveway and looked back and said, "Look mom, looks like I am going to school." And it did......
This week we will go to Kelowna for a wedding and we are all looking forward to it. We will be staying in a cabin and there will be games and fun for all. We are trying to enjoy these final days of summer and I am hoping for a nice fall. I want to take advantage of all the nice weather and the time I get to spend with the girls all I can.
This week I am heading to Bowman employment resources to discuss resume options, which is another source of panic for me. I am trying to be optimistic and I hope something that will work for us as a family will come and smack me in the forehead! Until then I will remain hopelessly oblivious to my grown up responsibilities.