It's cold outside...
Right now, it's very wintery in Halifax. There's been a "snow day" (when area schools are closed), most weeks for the past month, including one on my birthday (celebrated with a great new CD for the car and a nice, classic family dinner at Swiss chalet-- Clara standing up in her high chair and Ben wiggling in his seat while singing the sound of music). Hard to think back to pre-snow winter memories! In November, my friend Sarah came to visit for a long weekend. We hiked, chatted, and shopped (yeah for matching black boots!). It was nice to hear about her new husband, and I now know that a little soon-to-be-born baby was also visiting :)
We had a home-based Christmas this year. It was the first year Ben understood enough to be really excited. He and Clara got wonderful gifts from family (thanks everyone!). Santa brought Ben a big boy scooter and Clara a ride on lady bug. We've developing some nice Halifax Christmas traditions, including a musical nativity at a local church on Christmas Eve (Clara signed and said "more" after every song), and a sunny hike with turkey sandwiches on Boxing day. On Christmas day, our friends joined us for dinner-- one of my best Christmas gifts was mom taking on most of the cooking (one day, I may grow up enough to accomplish this myself).
Since Christmas, we've been getting back into regular weekly routines. Ben is loving swimming lessons with his friend Iris on Saturday nights, and has been to a lot of birthday parties lately. He will be starting school this coming September, so we've been trying to make decisions about that . Ben continues to love listening to music and learns new lyrics very quickly. His memory is quite amazing- he can "read" books now after only a few times hearing them. He continues to be very helpful and sweet, especially with his little sister, who you can tell he really loves. In the video below, I caught them playing nicely together. In one of the photos below, I think he's about to push her over…
Little Clara seems like a toddler now, and has suddenly started speaking in the occasional sentence. Mom brought a cake over a few days ago- we were talking about it in the dining room, and Clara suddenly said "I'll get it!" and ran off to the kitchen. She has a horrible habit of taking off her boots and socks in the car, despite the very cold temperatures. Yesterday, when I took her out of the car, she looked right at me and said "Oh no- cold feet!". She continues to love to climb, and has very good balance. She'd love to climb the ladder up to Ben's bunk bed, but can't quite make it yet.
Last weekend we had a few wintery days away with friends. The kids did very well sleeping away from home, and Ben was able to try out his first pair of snow shoes. Getting physically away was a helpful reminder not to be overly consumed with work and house tasks. Work-life balance had been especially off-kilter in early February, with my mom away and part one of some kitchen renovations happening (essentially, knocking things down, with no real plan about what will go in their place).
Tomorrow, we're off on a beach/cycling trip to Cuba. We feel very lucky to have this trip to look forward to. Cycling with 60 pounds of children behind us-- has to be fun, right? The question is, how many toys will we need to bring with us for them to sleep soundly?
We had a home-based Christmas this year. It was the first year Ben understood enough to be really excited. He and Clara got wonderful gifts from family (thanks everyone!). Santa brought Ben a big boy scooter and Clara a ride on lady bug. We've developing some nice Halifax Christmas traditions, including a musical nativity at a local church on Christmas Eve (Clara signed and said "more" after every song), and a sunny hike with turkey sandwiches on Boxing day. On Christmas day, our friends joined us for dinner-- one of my best Christmas gifts was mom taking on most of the cooking (one day, I may grow up enough to accomplish this myself).
Since Christmas, we've been getting back into regular weekly routines. Ben is loving swimming lessons with his friend Iris on Saturday nights, and has been to a lot of birthday parties lately. He will be starting school this coming September, so we've been trying to make decisions about that . Ben continues to love listening to music and learns new lyrics very quickly. His memory is quite amazing- he can "read" books now after only a few times hearing them. He continues to be very helpful and sweet, especially with his little sister, who you can tell he really loves. In the video below, I caught them playing nicely together. In one of the photos below, I think he's about to push her over…
Little Clara seems like a toddler now, and has suddenly started speaking in the occasional sentence. Mom brought a cake over a few days ago- we were talking about it in the dining room, and Clara suddenly said "I'll get it!" and ran off to the kitchen. She has a horrible habit of taking off her boots and socks in the car, despite the very cold temperatures. Yesterday, when I took her out of the car, she looked right at me and said "Oh no- cold feet!". She continues to love to climb, and has very good balance. She'd love to climb the ladder up to Ben's bunk bed, but can't quite make it yet.
Last weekend we had a few wintery days away with friends. The kids did very well sleeping away from home, and Ben was able to try out his first pair of snow shoes. Getting physically away was a helpful reminder not to be overly consumed with work and house tasks. Work-life balance had been especially off-kilter in early February, with my mom away and part one of some kitchen renovations happening (essentially, knocking things down, with no real plan about what will go in their place).
Tomorrow, we're off on a beach/cycling trip to Cuba. We feel very lucky to have this trip to look forward to. Cycling with 60 pounds of children behind us-- has to be fun, right? The question is, how many toys will we need to bring with us for them to sleep soundly?
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