Back to Real Life Part 2… and 3

As the weather gets colder (we saw our first snow flakes yesterday), we realize we should post the rest of our summer pictures. Will discovered a few new hiking/beach spots recently, and we had some nice weekday mornings visiting the sea. A nice chance for Ben to run, and run, and run… 

… And for some quality family photography. The weather was really nice in August and September, and has slowly gotten gusty and cool. 

 

Towards the end of the summer, my sister came for a few weeks. It was her first visit to Halifax in the summer, and it was nice to have her here at a time when restaurants were were open and the "horizontal rain" was limited. We had a windy day at the beach, some nice meals out in our neighbourhood, and even broke into a country club. It was so nice to have her as part of our hectic gang (and post-hectic gang evening were also lovely!).

 

 

Soon afterwards, we had a very nice visit from Maggie. She had lots of quality time with Ben and Clara, and some great Maritime adventures with Will. Will's highlights included a fire on the beach on his birthday and a road trip to PEI-- including off-season camping at a campground, and seeing the home of the original Anne Shirley.  

 

 

Thanks to Maggie's help with the Flanagan-crew, I was able to truly enjoy a weeklong done-nursing-babies trip to see Monica and Stephanie in San Fransisco (in the photo of me with the wine, below, I am miles away from the scene of the kids playing, above). It was our first time together for more than a few hours in years-- gorgeous weather and scenery, amazing super-healthy food, and a great chance to catch up. Before meeting up with the girls, I went to a Pivotal Response Treatment workshop that was very helpful for work.  

                     

  

At the end of September Ben turned 4! A perfect age for a party-- he really looked forward to it. We had a pirate party, where guests walked the plank and completed a scavenger hunt. Will made a wonderful pirate map (with actual burned edges!) and "Nana" made a delicious chocolate treasure chest cake. 

Soon afterwards it was Hallowe'en. Ben loved everything about it, and Clara enjoyed wandering around in random directions after bedtime. Other recent events included an open arts night where we had a family photo taken for a "pretend" magazine cover, and a nice Thanksgiving picnicking on the beach. 

  

Clara (aka "Maisy Maycaster") has changed remarkably in the last month of so. She is running around like crazy, showing us things all the time, and learning a new word everyday. She went from only saying"up", "no", "more", and "Mommy-Daddy" at 16 months to saying all sorts of things at 17 months-- the latest include "ball", "boy", "boots" (she went to sleep clutching a new favourite pink one yesterday), "hat", and "no tank-too". She absolutely LOVES to read right now. I think she would listen to "moo ba la la la" and "hands hands fingers thumb" over and over again for hours if we'd let her.

Ben (aka "Benjamin Teamaker") continues to enjoy being outside a lot. He is such a funny little guy-- very sweet, kind and full of energy. A few nights ago, Will was sitting outside his bedroom and heard him singing "I believe I can fly" to himself- followed soon thereafter "no you can't mate!" in a 4-year-old British accent. He's soaking up new knowledge every day, and looking forward to snow adventures starting soon. He still doesn't like sleeping alone at night, and has recently started to sneak sleeping mats and toys onto the well-lit landing to sleep there after we leave him upstairs. Very cute, if a bit of an added challenge. 

 

Will and I have both been quite busy at work over the last two months. We're mostly managing to keep work at work, which is nice. We're figuring out weekly routines that will work for us, like dividing and conquering for child management versus groceries (thanks soccer!), and trying to cook batches of food on the weekend to help us through the week (with even more help from my mom). It's been surprisingly rewarding to get everyday tasks complete. The last photo below is of Ben and Clara after team haircuts last weekend. In the photo, Clara seems quite proud of her slightly less unruly hair. In the future, I'm looking forward to starting back into hobbies that were harder with babies. Also looking forward to a better kid/work/Will&I balance… Slow and steady. This month's video is of a family song Ben and I wrote a few weeks ago.