WILL'S PARTY TODAY

Today we celebrated Will's first birthday with our family and the George gong (godparents) at our home. Of course, Will slept a mere 20 minutes for his morning nap which meant he was ready for sleep at 2:00pm when the party started (you can see him sleeping in Aunti Juli's arms in the photos). This mommy is pooped and is off to bed, but here are some photos.  I love my boy.  To me, he is still is my little baby...

Our precious treasure

Clara and Sam helping me make the cake this morning.  

Clara is already wearing her party dress...Sam is in his Spidie jammies

Will offering me some icing

Double beater-ing it

Clara showing off our cake (she wanted me add a crown to this picture)

My friend Katie and music teacher extraordinaire 

entertaining the cousins with some songs 

 

The spread: Wholefoods yummy pizza and baguette sandwiches, veggies and dip, fruit skewers,

 Candiss' sugar cookies with butter icing, and kir royales!

My sleeping boy in Aunt Juli's arms

Gingerbread house making and decorating

Will is checking out his cake...Sam is helping him blow out his candles

Offering Grandma a lick

We love you William!  

SLEEP IN HEAVENLY PEACE

I love sneaking peeks at my babies/kids while they are sleeping.  Every night before I go to bed, I tip toe into each of their rooms, pull up their blankets, readjust their sidewise sleeping bodies and their pillows, say a little prayer over them and kiss them on the nose.

I always have to turn Clara's light off and am always amazed at HOW MANY things she takes to bed with her.  And I'm not just talking about dolls and books and such, but things like coins, pine cones, a pearl necklace, my dress, a half eaten granola bar, her entire snow globe collection, 12 barbies (yes, she has that many), a sparkly hair clip in a box, marbles, shells...and these are just SOME of the many, MANY things she collects, treasures and sleeps with.  Just last night I carried her asleep from our bed back into her bed, and her eyes still closed with sleep she mumbled something about a box.  "What did you say honey?" I asked.  "I need my brown box with the bracelets in it" she answered groggily.  And sure enough when I went back to look for the brown box, there it was  with 4 silver bracelets in it...and a purple smartie.

Speaking of sleep, Will is having a nap and Sam is looking for someone to play Princess Monopoly with.  I should go.  Oh...that would be Will awake already!

**Will slept from 9:00pm-2:00am 2 nights ago.   A new personal record!  Too bad I went to bed at midnight.

A RESOLUTION OF WARMTH

It is a familiar sight to drive by our house and see one, if not all three kids, running around, digging in the dirt or swinging from a tree branch in bare feet, flimsy dresses and t shirts.  And I'm not just talking about in the summer (they would probably be naked then), but in the cold dark of winter.  In fact, the Chalmers' kids and babies are notorious for being underdressed, without socks and shoes and cold to the touch.  This year, however, I made a resolution to buy weather appropriate gear and clothes for my kids.  Raincoats, boots, and umbrellas were bought in September (I'm so organized), and down jackets, hats, mitts and snow boots have almost been bought.  Check out Will below in his new little warm number.  Just arrived in the mail after winning it NWT on ebay.  It's a birthday present from YaYa, but we had to give it to him now.  We wouldn't want him to be cold, right?

GOING FOR COFFEE

One of our favourite things to do together is go for coffee.  Even when I didn't drink coffee (5 months ago) we still called it going for coffee and I would order a chai or matcha latte.  Our current favourite place to go to is Crema.  We always order the same thing:  me, a caramel macchiato with low fat milk (pretending it is healthy), the kids both get a hot chocolate with whip and we always have a selection of muffins which are shared.  Clara opts for the banana chocolate chip, Sam the apple cinnamon, and me the "Paddy" which is a vegan pumpkin thing (I am not vegan by the way).  Will likes all muffins, particularly the banana, and I'm sure the hot chocolate too.  To make a fun time even "more funner" (to quote my kids) Crema is a mere block from John Lawson Park to the west and a few stores down from Bears Toy Store to the east. We almost always end up at both places with some good hot chocolate mustaches and a little sugar (me...caffeine) high to keep us going.

GIRL DATE

Saturday, Clara and I had a "girl date."  Or actually it was a "girl double date" with my dear friend Annie and her daughter Sophie.  

Annie and I were pregnant at the same time with our girls. My due date was March 23rd and she was due later in April.  It has become well known that Annie budged and went into labour more than 3 weeks early.  Sophie was born March 29th, and I admit, I did cry when she phoned me from the hospital while holding her freshly born little bundle, and it wasn't just tears of happiness.  I was at that point, one week overdue, feeling HUGE, overcooked, swollen, hormonal and certain that I would be pregnant forever.  I was not pregnant forever, and Clara decided to make her appearance 3 days later.  

Since they were 2 years old we have done something extra special around Christmas time, just the mommies and their girls.  This year, we went to the princess spa at Granville Island.  The girls had their hair curled and swept up, nails done, eyeshadow and lip gloss applied, glitter sprayed all over...all while watching the "Princess and the Pauper" starring Barbie.  Could this get any better?!  Clara picked out an overpriced bejeweled tiara hair clip (which she probably won't wear, but will carry around in her purse with all her other treasures or she will sleep with it...more on this subject later). The girls also bought some sort of matching fairy/nymph figurine (which was also put into her purse).  Feeling very beautiful, we had a lovely lunch together at the Cat's Meow.  We finished up our date with a play outside by the pond and some pigeon feeding and then a delicious double chocolate gelato. It was a perfect date with a beautiful girl.  I would go out with her again in a sec.

Lunch:  A little etch a sketch, glass of moolk and a lollipop

Notice "Mabel" the naked doll and the pink princess purse full o' treaures

CLARA'S LIST

Friday night Clara made an illustrated list of items that she needed to gather in preparation for our "girl date" the next morning.  I love her lists! The red u shaped marks are actually check marks.  Here is the list in written form: beautiful white dress that Nana got, purple knitted shrug,  tights with red flowers, eye shadow, lip gloss, pink ballet shoes with sequins, comb, water in the sink for hair combing, purple crown, pink headband, purple flower hair elastic, "Mabel" the doll and pink princess purse with beaded handle.

And here she is...looking beautiful and ready for our date!

MY HEART LEAPS UP

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began,

So is it now I am a man,

So be it when I shall grow old

Or let me die!

The child is father of the man:

And I could wish my days to be 

Bound to each by natural piety

                                   W. Wordsworth

Yesterday, the kids and I saw a rainbow.  We were driving in the car heading home, after spending more money than planned at Michaels, and I saw it first:  "Look guys, there is a rainbow." "I see it mom!!" yelled Clara from the back of that car.  "Where?" asked Sam.  "Up in the sky Sam, above that building." Sam immediately looked to the road as though that is where the sky naturally would be.  "Isn't it beautiful" sung Clara, "and it has my favourite colour, puuple."  "I don't see it."  Sam was getting frustrated.  But then we turned to the right and Sam finally had a perfect view through his window.  "I see it! [pause] But why is it broken?." It was cloudy at the time, so you couldn't see the full arc of the rainbow.  "Sa-am...it isn't broken," explained Clara giggling as though her brother just announced that he had 20 fingers.   She continued, "you know, if we could see the end of the rainbow, than we would find the pot of gold, and then it wouldn't be magical anymore."

I think Clara would of been a great poet in the Romantic tradition, like Wordsworth (one of my favourite writers). My hope is that she, nor her brothers, never takes for granted, the gift and beauty of nature and of life.

OBSERVATION

This morning, I got to sit on a little chair in Clara and Sam's Montessori classroom and "observe" for 30 minutes.  I got to see Sam sitting quietly at a table stretching elastic bands onto wooden posts and then stand up, push in his chair and return the materials back to the appropriate spot on the shelf (gasp!). I got to see Clara drawing a seed...the first panel of a 6 part germination sequence (wow!).  I got to see Sam walk over to Clara and he didn't poke or flick, but asked her kindly if she would take him to the bathroom.  And she said "yes" and they walked out the door and down the hall hand in hand (my heart could burst).  I love you my little munchkins, but please don't grow up too fast.

Pictures from their first day of school

ADULT DRINK

Today Sam and I had an "adult drink" together.  It's not what you might think, say a strong coffee, glass of wine, a scotch, etc.  For Sam, an "adult drink" is any drink with bubbles and he is obsessed.  He can spot a bubbly drink a mile away and is relentless in asking "is that an adult drink? Is it? Can I have some? Please?".  Sam thinks it is even better when a bubbly adult drink is mixed, like a club soda with cranberry juice, and even more better (as Sam would say) when it is poured into a fancy glass cup.  I love you Sam.  I enjoyed our adult drink today.

Sam having an adult drink straight up, but in a glass 

Sam mixing an adult drink in Hawaii...club soda and "guaba" juice

Sam mixing a club soda and grape juice

WILL'S BIRTHDAY INVITE IS IN THE MAIL

Not too bad...only 12 days until his party.

LOOK WHAT ARRIVED IN THE MAIL

doot do do dooo!

Our new bedding!  Ordered online from my all time favourite store Anthropologie.  It may seem indulgent, I mean I could of gone to the Linens and Thing's bankruptcy sale instead, but it really was well deserved.  

Bring it back almost 4 years ago when I was very pregnant with #2 and we were in Palm Springs with some friends.  I found the most beautiful Pottery Barn coverlet and pillow shams on a clearance shelf and somehow convinced my husband to buy it and bring it back home with us (which meant we had to check our luggage...something Jake does not do when he is flying business).

A couple months later, one wintery morning, I went into labour with Sam and I immediately prepared myself for at least 16 hours of contractions (Clara's birth experience had still not faded in my memory).  I kissed Jake goodbye as he left for work and told him I would phone him if contractions got more intense, closer together, etc. Fast forward to 1:45pm when I phoned Jake to come home NOW, to 2:40pm when the midwives arrived, to 2:50 when I was 10cm dilated and gave a big push which resulted in my bags of water and more (I'll spare the details) spraying all over...you guessed it, my new Pottery Barn coverlet.  Unbelievably, in the throws of child birth I was worried about my bedding.  And so was my friend Candiss, who was with me at the time.  I remember her saying as the head crowned, "we have to get some towels...the bedding!".  

OK, I'm getting off track completely.  Long story short, last year Will was also born at home, on my coverlet.  The shams were thrown in the garbage last January and we have slept with the huge holes, child birth stains and thinning appearance of the coverlet for over 10 months.  

So, a few weeks ago I somewhat reluctantly sold my road bike to Candiss.  I had bought the bike to train for a triathlon in 2007 which I did finish, but then got pregnant with Will, had Will and have since taken up running on the treadmill while watching America's Next Top Model (wow, that sounds really lame, but I have yet to figure out how to excercise outside of the house with 3 kids).  So, I deposited Candiss' cheque, went online and ordered up the bedding. And then it arrived, and naturally I had to wash and put it all together that same night. Thanks husband.  

BEDDING THEN

one of the holes

sorry Kirby...the bed is off limits now

(**Mom...are you reading this?)

WHO NEEDS A LITTLE SISTER

Who needs a little sister when you have a brother who will dress up and be your princess sidekick.  At least for now...

2008

2007