Bedtime Imaginations

Tonight at bedtime "Mami, there are s may imaginations in my head, they won't let me listen to your bedtime song"

And a correction, or addendum to a previous post - Samuel loves " . . . everyone, except aliens, monsters, ghosts and zombies".


All 3 kids have been sick this weekend. Matthew and Renee with diarrhea and Samuel with a fever, cough, cold bug. We stayed home all weekend, with a few key exceptions:
- "Mafw go shopin loblo with dady" (Mathew went shopping at Loblaws with Daddy)
- and Regi took Matthew and Renee to my grandmother's this afternoon while Samuel and I napped
- and then, for a heavenly 2 hours, everyone went out for dinner and I stayed home, ate matzah ball soup and relaxed :)

Birthday party

Decorating the birthday cake

Multi-generational licking of spatulas and spoons

The finished product

Don't blink of you'll miss the birthday boy . . . oops missed him

Easier to catch him sitting down


Matthew had a hard time getting used to the indoor playground at first, barely cracking a smile . . .
. . . but once he got on the slide, there was no stopping him.

A trunk full of gifts, pizza, fruit and cake eaten, fun had by all. And the best part of was bedtime when Samuel said "Mami, my whole day was my favourite".

Car dialogue

Here's a 2 minute snip it of the running commentary in our life, I typed thsi as we drive home from Samuel's birthday party:

Marc - what do you want for dinner?
Samuel - what we had for first Monday (not sure what first monday is)
Matthew - Tuesday
Renee - Monday, Tuesday
Matthew - train, i want it train, call baby (reference to calling my grandmother)
Renee - no Monday, no no no no, no Tuesday
Matthew singing - I want to move it, move it
Renee - no no Monday, wesday, tusday
Matthew singing - happy birthday Samuel, happy birthday Daddy
Samuel - my head hurts
Silvia - we'll get you medicine when we get home
Samuel - drinking medicine?
Matthew - achoo
Renee - more Samuel
Matthew - a a a a a a a a a ch o o o o o
Renee - acho
Samuel - acho, choc,cho, cho achoo choo (singing), when I get older I will be stronger
Renee singing - oh, oh, oh, oh, oh (tune of waving flag)
Samuel singing - Spiderman, spiderman, ta ta ta ta ta da, ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta ta da, look out here comes spider man.

And on and on. Two toddlers' trains of thought, out loud is hilarious, and add Samuel to the mix and I wish I could type fast enough to capture it, or that they keep going after the video camera came out.

Shabbat at Home

Our Shabbat dinners are at my parents' house, a lovely multi-generation celebration that marks the end of the week and beginning of the weekend. There's such wisdom in having a ritual for that demarcation and reason to pause, I can feel the tension leaving as we recite the blessings and sing the songs.

What we miss out on if hosting our own dinners. The time will come for that when we have a dining room (vs. playroom) and the kids are older. But the pride that Samuel took in setting his beautiful Shabbat table on Friday makes me think that I should do what I can to host Shabbat dinners to home in the near future.

Everything here was chosen and placed on the table by Samuel while Matthew and Renee sat in thier booster seats and watched.

When Marc got home, we light the candles, blessed the wine/grape juice, gave thanks for bread and ate the favourite "bagl smok sama" and "ke chee" (bagels with smoked salmon with cream cheese) meal. Singing Hinei Ma Tuv (how good it is to be amongst friends) between bites.

Shabbat Shalom!

Thanks for the birthday card Rachkael

Table setting

Last night, Renee opened the drawer with the plastic plates, took out 4 plates, 4 forks and set the table. BY HERSELF!!! (the empty place setting is in my spot, not sure what the message there is)

Samuel Speak

"I love everyone, in the whole wide world (arms outstretched). Except aliens and pirates"

My sister's keeper

In the car this morning:

Matthew: Mami, Renee want more pan (pan = bread)

Me: Renee do you want more bread?

Renee: Renee want more pan

I give Renee more bread

Matthew: tanku (thank-you) Mami

Renee: taku (thank-you) Mami

Tocayo, Baby and the Birthday Boy

Turning 5

Dear Samuel,

You beamed when you woke up this morning, smiling ear-to-ear, ready recipient to the hugs, kisses and "happy biday" greetings from Matthew and Renee.

At your birthday ceremony, you wore your crown with great pride and confidently walked around the "sun" (candle). You loved showing everyone the pictures you choose to bring to school. When your teacher asked you what you were going to do as a 5 year old that you couldn't do as a 4 year old, you told her you'd tell Matthew and Renee to stop jumping on the bed.

You served everyone fruit - pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon and grapes on your request. And sat with Jaeli and Ori to enjoy it.

We went for dinner at Terroni, again at your request. You were quite shaken when you arrived. Your Baby Rebeca (great grandmother) had fallen while crossing the street on her way to dinner, and you were right next to her when she fell. You asked why she fell, and if it hurt, and why she fell, and if she was ok and why she fell repeatedly. Thankfully, she seems to be ok, but true to your empathetic nature, you weren't so ok.

As you saw her look better, you perked up. Insisted on your own pizza, in addition to the one you were already sharing with Matthew and Renee. You loved the gifts from everyone.

You insisted on Happy Birthday in 4 languages, but weren't a big fan of the flourless chocolate cake. You did stop to talk to several tables and wait staff to share the news of your 5th birthday.

Matthew ate and ate and ate. Renee was wild. You tried to tell her to calm down and even pointed out that she shouldn't jump on pizza boxes. Unfortunately, your efforts were futile.

When we got home, we started to put together your fire truck Lego and you fell asleep with Daddy.
My guy, mi senor Samuel, thank-you for 5 years of the most fantastic journey. Your are a treasure and a joy to with.

XO

Birthday Candles

from the cupcakes we had for breakfast - yum!

He loved the mini Lego figures from Matthew, and silly bands from Renee, and Firetruck from us. All shared and opened before school/work.

The best bedtime book ever

We have a photo album of Samuel's first year, and he choose to read it as his bedtime book tonight, in full consciousness that he turns 5 tomorrow.

He asked all sorts of questions - why did I cry was a prominent one. He identified my Zaide who he really only met once at the age of 3 months. Vickie - he had lots of questions about T (was he my friend? Is he bigger? Where does he live?). He tried to put both fists in his mouth imitating a baby picture. He relished in the stories of who gave and made him clothes and blankets, and who came to visit, who gave him toys. And, he knew exactly what toys we still have, including the baby gund plush caterpillar I said we had given away already but found later tonight while looking for pictures to take to school tomorrow.

It was a lovely way to reflect on his first year. And so fitting, he is such an empathetic person, and reflective, with a great memory.

Next time I blog, I'll officially have 5 years of parenting under my belt. THANKS SAMUEL!!!!

Note the 'socks'

They may look like gloves (my gloves to be more precise) but they aren't. They are super jumpy socks that give soon-to-be 5 year olds the power to jump while counting backwards from 10.

Result of water colours

While I drank my coffee and read a cook book . . .

Renee loved what she did, until she saw it. She looked at the reflection in the mirror, saw the black water colour on her face, started to cry and said "Mafew did tis". When she cleaned the water colour off she proudly declared "I did it"

Dental Hygiene

The love, love, love brushing their teeth (bush teef). And call out the toothpaste(s) of choice by name "blue" = our adult toothpaste, "Dora" = the kids' toothpaste with Dora's picture (the marketing works brilliantly) and "bear"= toddler toothpaste which has a bear on it.

A kiss is just a kiss

The first kiss tonight was a full-on on the lips kiss (but I missed it).

For Renee's Aunt Racheal

Remember this sweat shirt? The look of indignation was due to my instance that I take the picture.

Yogurt mmmmmmm

Day-in-the-life: Dinner Time

Matthew, Renee and I got home before anyone else. We got the music going so they would dance while I changed. But, they had other plans - Renee draged a chair over to the counter to climb on it (the counter) to help herself to a pencil, and Matthew loudly announced "mami, mafew pooed" (Mami, Matthew pooped). He didn't he just peed but I'm guessing that his penis was outside his diaper (it often is, Matthew and his "pene" are close friends who spend as much time together as possible) because he was soaked.

Fast forward 10 minutes, now everyone has dry / clean / dinner appropriate clothes. Matthew tries to get into his booster and gets stuck. Renee refuses her booster and insists on sitting in Samuel's chair which she has moved next to Matthew, and Samuel isn't home yet so this is fine. Diner is served, a weird left over combo of pea soup and quesadillas ("pizza" or "dilla") with guacamole ("mole") and salsa verde ("sok"). Renee asks for water, Matthew for "app jus". When I get the apple juice, Renee wants it instead of water and Matthew yells and cries, he wants the "ote appl jus" (other apple juice, also known as orange juice).

The each have their beverages, soups, dinners.

Renee takes Matthew's quesadilla and takes a bite. I give Matthew one of Renee's quesadillas, but he says no and Renee gives Matthew his quesadilla back. The also exchange guacamole and soup, and pour drinks in and out of each others cups and sound bowls. When Matthew does something Renee says "no matthew" and then does the same thing and then Matthew says "no renee". Liquids and sauces get spilled, they each take their napkins to clean their respective messes, which really just causes a bigger mess, but it's the activity and its intent that matter at age 2. They were hilarious and fascinating to watch. They have whole conversations with themselves and each other, laughing hysterically.

Marc gets home, and then Samuel. Dinner continues, and then ends with the eating of 3/4 of a pineapple largely by the kids and the fight over Halloween candy.

Post-dinner was a disaster of Samuel purposefully pouring a cup of water on Matthew and Renee's bedroom floor, biting himself while jumping on the bed, Matthew having a total breakdown when Marc read Samuel a book and I tried to take him to bed.

I expect to hear the nightly pitter-patter of feet with the "mami, daddy, come bed" call in a few hours.

Good night!

Matthew's Boots

Matthews choice of footwear on Sunday.

On Monday, he refused to put on pants or socks (or let me do it). he was successful in putting his shoes on, his own shoes, right foot in right shoe, Velcro and all. It just added insult to injury though when I took his shoes off so I could put his pants and socks on. And then, like a switch turned off, he stopped crying as soon as he was buckled in his car seat.

Shabbat shalom

"Samuel"

He was beaming at his monarch butterfly work on Thursday.

NaPoBloMo

For the third year in a row, here I come!! (late, yes, but I'm here).

Snippet of Life - Nov 3

Tocayo and Regi came by tonight. After a dinner of "pino" (pepino = cucumber), smok sama (smoked salmon) and bagels, the kids and grandparents danced the night away, at least until bedtime.

Matthew demonstrated his teethe brushing prowess, selecting every toothpaste at least once. Brushing, when reminded (vs. his preference to suck the tiny smear of toothpaste), he brshed font "front" and open. He's getting pretty good at the motion, but his aim with the bristles is still off.

Renee peed on the potty 2x at daycare, but said "no way" to the potty at home this morning (yes she say no way, it's a quote).

Samuel and I played rock, paper, scissors to bridge the gap between him being finished dinner and Matthew and Renee still eating.

A good night on all counts.

Equation in the Thousands

"Samuel's Mom & Dad,
Samuel learned addition with the stamp game today and completed an equation in the thousands! I am very proud of him.
Leslie"

Wow!!

Perfect fall day

And Renee on the swing

Matthew on the swing

Swings on a fall day

From the mouths of babes

Recently overheard:

Samuel, playing by himself grabs a toy phone "hello, regi, sh!t, you're stuck in traffic in your driveway, oh sh!t".
Me "what did you say"
Samuel "sh!t regi is stuck in traffic in her driveway"
Me "where did you learn that word"
Samuel "from daddy. If you don't like it I won't use it at home, just at school"

Matthew "nene, lou yu" (renee love you)
Renee "mathu, lov yu" (matthew love you)
Tickle each other
Nano seconds later
Renee "no mathu, no mathu, no" waving finger

And row days later, a perfectly clear Matthew and Samuel is no longer "memel" but "Saml"

Serving salad

At Shabbat dinner

(and she ate it oo)

A night apart

Monday night, for the first night in their entire lives, Matthew and Renee and I are apart. I was traveling for work and alone in a hotel. And it was hard, I missed them more than words can say, came close to tears a few times.

And what was I doing on this momentous night? Watching Sex and The City 2, missing my kids, husband and pre-kid life all at the same time.

They met me at the airport and I walked so quickly to get to them, I walked into at least 2 people!

A few weeks ago, on the second day of Rosh Hashanna, Samuel and I had a day alone together, and it was fantastic. We started by waiting for the first garbage truck to come. It was collecting yard waste, but Samuel seemed a little nervous about the truck and wanted to stay in the entrance of the house when the it came by. By the time the second garbage truck came to pick up the regular garbage and organic waste, Samuel was completely enthralled by the garbage truck. We followed it to every townhouse in the complex. We ran around corners to see if we could beat it, watched as every bin be dumped into the hopper and very piece of garbage be crushed by the crushing panel (thanks to the garbage truck books Marc bought Samuel, I can name all the parts of a garbage truck). He asked the garbage collectors about the truck and the garbage and where it went and why it smelled. He also explained to them that the smell would go away when the truck went by the sprinkler because the sprinkler would clean the truck. We went home and made lunch, spaghetti with pasta sauce with peas and a huge amount of herbs de provence. He loved it. Making it, eating it, cleaning up after it, all of it. We went to the see a movie, and later “played” video games. All was great until he fell, hit his head really hard, hard enough that there was a silence before the panicked cries and after the cries a “mommy, I want to go home now and sleep on my bed”. To keep him awake and entertained, we bought some silly bands and legos to make a dump truck, and other trucks that we could pretend were garbage trucks. He perked up and I remembered that I love legos. A Shabbat dinner topped off the day. It was amazing.

Samuel, waiting for the garbage trucks

Matthew’s best day would be last Sunday when we went on the subway. He loved every minute of it and talked about it all week “Mahew like tren” “ah love subway” ‘mammy there tren” every day all week. Until yesterday, when Marc took the boys on the subway train again. He continues to love “ha ball” (high ball), “o-side” (outside) and “dacing” (dancing). He also loves singing the Shabbat blessings, any day of the week, any time of the day. I'm sure picking me up from the airport would be amongst his top days, not because he came to see me, but because he got to pull my bag and eat pizza while pulling the bag. We had pizza at the airport and as we were cleaning up the table, Matthew grabbed the last bits of 3 slices of pizza. He pulled my bag with one hand and held on to the 3 pieces of pizza with the other hand all the way to the car, about a 10 minute walk, eating along the way. He was in heaven!

Matthew on our way back from the train

(note the sunglasses, that's how he insists on putting them on)

Pizzas and a suitcase, what more can a boy want?

Renee wasn’t so impressed with the subway train, and had a similar reaction to the train as she does to animals – shakes at the introduction, jumps in my arms and stays there hanging on for dear life. She is working on potty training and loves her “pulla” (pull-ups). She holds her own when the boys play with each other, entertaining herself independently or by watching their shenanigans. She has been sick for a few days, but seems to be getting better. She's so tired, she has bags under her eyes.

Shana Tova

Rosh Hashana is a time of year to reflect, to take stock. A holiday of rituals - eating apples and honey, hearing the shofar, round challah, being with family and friends. It always sneaks up on me - schools starts, work gets busy after the summer and it's always at a bad time to take days off - but I'm always grateful that it's here. A built in break to reflect.

Samuel is in his 3rd year of Casa (SK equivalent) and is taking his role as one of the older kids in the class very seriously. He came home after the first day of school to show us how 3rd years "have to sit like this" with his back super straight, his face super proud. He is obsessed, and I mean obsessed with garbage and recycling. Not only does he count down the days for our garbage days, but it's one of the first questions he asks people. At bedtime, he requests that we read the garbage collection calendar - "Thursday September 9 there is no pick up, Friday September 10 there is green bin and garbage pick up . . . ". He continues to have a most visid imagination and had his camp counselors that he wasn't coming back to the last week of camp as he was going to be in Israel. He absolutely loved camp, made real strides in swimming, and came home singing all the old stand by camp songs. A particular favourite was "everywhere we go, people always ask us who we are, so we tell them, we are the LULKAs, the mighty mighty Lulkas" I loved it, not sure what Marc thought :)

Playing Garbage

Matthew is a boy in every sense of the word. He kicks and throws a ball with uncanny skill. Most of the time, he's a happy-go-lucky guy, but when he gets mad, watch out - fists flail, neck vein pops, tears flow, body shakes. He love jumping on his mattress (despite repeated warnings, distractions, it's futile to dissuade him). A few weeks ago, he dove into the wall so hard he actually dented it. The cry that followed the first few seconds of silence was intense. I thought this was a teachable moment, so I took the opportunity to say "Matthew see the whole in the wall, see your the bump on your head, it hurts, so no more jumping on the bed" he looked at me, smiled, tears stopped and he said "jumping bed" and went right back at it. (if there was ever a lesson in telling kids what to do, not what not to do, this was it!). For weeks after, he'd say "head, wall, ou-y" pointing to the spot on his head and spot on the wall. This was replaced with "head, floor, ou-y" after he fell off the mattress and onto the hardwood floor. He loves fries ("papas"), hot dog dog, grapes ("yvas" = uvas), strawberries ("presa" = fresa), juice ("jus" or "ugo" = jugo). He has fallen in love with Amanda, Samuel's former teddy bear with a plastic doll's face. They cuddle and kiss all through bed time. He loves taking a bath, especially pouring water from containers ("watefa" = waterfall). He also loves brucshing his teeth and is partcular about which toothpaste he wants to eat, I mean use. True to his age, he often says "i do dis" (I'll do this), but not as often as his sister.

Bath time

Renee's favourite phrase is "I do dis". she loves to sing, particularly ABC, Twinkle Twinkle and Bah Bah Black sheep, and while that are the same tune her diction is good enough that you can differentiate which one she is singing. She is an avid and speedy "reader", she loves books but it's rare to actually be able to read one to her as she flips the pages so fast. She loves drawing and puzzles. She warms up to new people eventually, but when faced with a crowd her preferred place to be are my mom's, Marc's or my arms. She pinches, hard and purposefully, but then cries terribly when we respond with a firm "no pinching". She says thank-you (tak-u) and please (peas) in both languages (gasas = gracias, pofavo = porfavor). She's starting the toilet training process and takes great pride from using her potty and getting a "pula" (pull-up).

Drawing during Pictures at Nottawasaga

Matthew and Samuel get along famously and have really taken to playing together. Matthew and Renee still seem to have their own way of communicating with each other, although I haven't heard the "ewok" language in a while, they can look at each other and laugh hysterically. A few days ago, they woke up and despite our efforts to get them back to sleep, they decided that 5:30 was a beer time to tickled each other and that they did for about 10 minute, roaring with laughter. All three egg eachother on to do more things the shouldn't, like here when they moved the living room furniture around to be able to jump on it. The second picture shows Samuel helping Matthew over the back of the chair.

(no Matthews were harmed during the taking of this picture, he thought this was fantastic)

A few more pictures from Nottawasaga where we celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday:

4 generations

One great-grandmother, 11 great grandchildren

Its the end of (part of) the world as we know it and I feel fine

So this is Samuel's favourite song on the compilation CD my sister has in her car, its tune #10 and he now asks for #10 in any CD regardless of what CD or where he is. #10 is his song.

But this entry is about the nursing journey that Matthew, Renee and I just finished. 778 days of nursing have come to an end. It was at my doing, my body was telling me that it was time.

When I reflect on motherhood, the one thing that defined the experience for me above anything else was nursing. I never thought I'd do it as long as I did for any of the kids, I never thought I'd struggle with it as much as I did for all the kids, I never thought I'd love it as much as I did. Nursing, and my commitment to, it entrenched me in the world of attachment parenting with co-sleeping, slings. Nursing also brought me to the Milk Moms.

Here's what I always want to remember

- Samuel had a special excited sound he made when it was time to nurse

- napping with Samuel every afternoon for those first few months

- Matthew and Renee holding hands, at first haphazardly and then purposefully

- Matthew and Renee fighting over the same side

- the lovely triad we formed

- the sense of accomplishment and firmness of my convictions that I was doing the right thing with every milestone of our nursing journey.

And now my body is mine, and I feel fine.