Finding Peace

Sweet bean, you have just turned four, and it feels like you have become a grown up, on many levels. That sounds absolutely crazy, as you still have meltdowns, naps, and trouble wiping your bum sometimes, but in some ways, my darling, you are so far past four. Your mind never stops. You are curious about everything, and you always have been. You spend more time at events (Raptors games, Charlottle Diamond, and ANY other new place we go) trying to figure out how the lights work, or where the exits are, or how they are making the show go smoothly than you do actually watching the show. Naturally, you are four now, so you have to do things four times now. Like take four bites of food in a row before taking a break, or brush your teeth up and down four times before switching directions. And, of course, Christmas is exciting when you are four because when you turn four, you are now old enough to cut down your own Christmas tree. How exciting for you! Darling girl, you have come to the...

Riley Robert, this has been the busiest month for that brain of yours! You have learned SOOOO much! You have many favourite things right now, with your top two being balls and balloons! Your whole body just lights up when you see a balloon enter a room, and you can pick up a ball, throw it, and crawl after it for a good few minutes. We even caught you the other day playing this game with a piece of garbage! You like reading books, and are always eager to turn the pages and to lift the flaps. When Mommy reads you "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," you laugh every time I say, "and the doctor said, NO MORE MONKEYS jumping on the bed!" You have started drinking water from a sippy cup, and you think it is the MOST fun to lift your water bottle up over  your hand, and slam it back down into your lap. You often spill water all over your head, but you never seem to notice! You think you are so very funny when you pull your socks off when you are in you...

Where the time goes, I will just never know. Everyone tells you to enjoy them when they are small, because the time just goes so quickly, but I suppose you don't see it going quickly when you are in the thick of it. But my darling girl, we actually just blinked, and you are turning for, in just one blink. Amazing. I did my best this year to keep up with the letters to you, but had a little bit of trouble managing my time with both you and your brother!  We did, however, need to include a book titled "my quotable kid" for you this year, because you say THE funniest things that we just never want to forget. Ava, there are so many things that we love about you. Your Humor. Baby girl, my gosh, you are funny, and every day you just get more and more funny. I said something to you, about 6 months ago, that was just thick with sarcasm, and you didn't quite get it. You were trying, but you didn't get it. Your Daddy said to me, "she's only 3, she doesn...

Sweet bean, what a beautiful thing summer vacation with you is. Your Mommy likes the heat, and you like being outdoors, and combined, we get to spend a whole summer outside, playing in the forest, rivers, lakes, puttering in the garden and in your fairy garden...life is beautiful always, but especially in the summertime. Our goal for you this summer was to get you into swimming lessons, as you hadn't done any since you were about 2, and it was time! For your first set of lessons (2 weeks) at Ferny Coombe, you had a wonderful, wonderful teacher who had patience but also pushed you gently. You had a wonderful first couple of days, and then a very difficult 5 days or so. For many lessons, each time you were asked to do something you would say, "I don't want to do that" or "I don't want to go under the water," etc, etc. For one lesson, your Mommy even had to pull you gently out from behind me and towards your teacher, and once you were in the water you ...

Sweet Riley, darling boy, what a love you are. When I was pregnant and we found out that we were having a boy, I have to admit that I was nervous that I wouldn't know how to love a little boy right; as though there was some different way to love a little boy, and I wouldn't know how to do it. Darling boy, I was wrong. I could not even have imagined a love like we have. Not a greater love than the one we have with your sister, but an undescribable one nonetheless. Darling boy, I missed writing about you when you were 7 months old, but boy have you been changing! At 6.5 months, you learned how to sit up by yourself, with only a tumble or two here and there. When we are in the car you sit so that when Mommy or Daddy turn around you can turn around and see us, and give us that sweet smile. Your sister likes to sit right in the middle beside you, and if we put her car seat back in the car, and accidentally put it on the other side, she gets upset that shes not close enough to...