...and back

Aves went into the face painting booth wanting
a butterfly and she came out as a clown
because she wanted "to make Josh laugh".
Love this kid!

Josh and Aves' Nana likes to tell them that she loves them 'to the moon and back'.  It always makes the kids smile to think their Nana loves them THAT much.

Tonight, I was tucking the kids into bed.  The kids went through their usual stalling dance where they call "Mommy" as I'm headed out the door.

"Mommy, you forgot to give me a hug."

"Mommy, can you rub my back?"

"Mommy, can you sing me a song?"

"Mommy, are you going to bed now too?"

"Mommy, I'll see you in the morning."

This was the dance with Aves tonight:

A: Mommy, wait!
Y: (Wearing my patient voice.) Yes, Aves?
A: I love you so, so, so, so, so, so much.
Y: I love you so, so, so, so, so, so much too, Aves.
A: Do you know how much I love you, Mommy?
Y: (sighing) How much do you love me, Aves?
A: I love you...to the...to the...
(I see her trying to figure out just how much she loves me.)
A: I love you to the wall and back! (She's pointing at the wall about 6 inches from her finger.)

Wow, Aves.  I'm feeling the love.  Ha.  FWIW, she got a big laugh from both Josh and I.

i dreamed a dream

You know when you dream and you know what happened in your dream but sometimes you try to describe it in words and it doesn’t make sense or it doesn’t sound as accurate as you dreamed it?  Well, I think this is Aves’ way of articulating this…

Last night, in the middle of the night, Aves came running into the room crying and crawled into bed beside me.  She said she had a bad dream.  She curled up close to me and I asked her if she could tell me about her bad dream (sometimes talking about it helps to get it out of your mind).  She said no, she couldn’t remember it.  

I’m not sure how much time went by because I was sleeping, but I was awoken by Aves’ distressed mumbling.  She was mumbling about how she didn’t want me to go back to work and that she just wanted me to stay with her (wow.  way to pull on the mommy-guilt strings!).  I asked her again if she could tell me about her dream but she said again that she couldn’t remember.

Finally, she woke me up one last time and this time she mumbled that she couldn’t sleep because she kept thinking about her bad dream.  She’s thinking about it!  Great!  Now, she can tell me about the dream.  Nope.  She STILL said she couldn’t remember the dream!  Huh?!

The next morning, I told her about the events of the night.  I told her that she told me she couldn’t fall back asleep because she kept thinking about her dream but when I asked about the dream she said she couldn’t remember!  The irony was not lost on her.  She explained to me, “Mommy, it’s because in my head, I remember the dream but my mouth, it doesn’t remember the dream!”.

Very well said, kid.

a Josh thing

I’m not sure if it’s a boy thing or if it’s a Josh thing, but the kid astounds me.

I know that there will be many things Josh will learn and do that I have never experienced, but at 7 years old, I guess I’m in denial that that he is starting already.

This first video, is Josh’s jump dive.  Yeah, I know, ‘it’s just a dive’.  But I don’t know how to dive.  And as far as dives go, it’s quite a lovely dive.  Well, the first one is.  The second one had more to do with trying to chat up a girl, I suspect.

This second video is Josh’s first jump off the 5 metre diving platform.  That’s right, I said first one.  And right again, I said 5 metres.  Did you see the expression of pure joy on his face?  Should I even mention that at the end of this swim session, Josh did a cannonball off the 5 metre platform?!  Yup, he did.  Crazy.  Fricking.  Kid.

big white

When I wrote this post, I hoped we wouldn't wait another 4 years for our next group ski trip.  Well, we didn't end up waiting 4 years - we waited 6 years instead!  This year, the trip was Big White in Kelowna.  I think all of us felt ready to get our kids independently on skis and, hopefully, get in a bit of skiing/riding ourselves.

We were slightly concerned as we drove through Abbotsford and the kids asked, ‘how much longer?’ and ‘are we closer to home or closer to Big White?’.  But the drive was fine, though snowy, and we managed to make it up with only 1 stop (plus a half stop to play a quick round of Simon Says in the the last hour as the kids started to get antsy!).

Skiing was great!  Josh has taken a lesson here and there since he was 3 and this year, when we started skiing in January, he didn’t want to do lessons.  We figured it was fair that he knows enough of the basics and now he just needs practice time.  He has been strictly skiing with either me or Bri or both of us; no lessons.  He recently graduated to the chair lift on one of our local mountains and he’s been pretty proficiently skiing down beginner green runs.

This trip, he went up his first high speed quad chair (i.e. longer runs).  I’m pretty amazed watching him go down a run.  When the runs get a bit steep, he does his turns strategically to maintain a slower speed.  When he hits flatter parts, he likes to point his skis down the hill (even doing a tuck here and there!).  It’s been a blast skiing with him this year.  He has put the fun back in green runs for me.  I can do that all day long.

view from the top of the bullet express

Aves got on skis for the first time in January.  This trip was her third (and fourth) time on skis.  After her lesson on the second day, her instructor told us she was ready for the chair lift.  Aves was up for it, so near the end of that day, Bri took her on her first chair lift.  She’s amazing!  She can ski quite confidently down the beginner green runs.  She seems pretty casual and comfortable as she talks her way down the run, even when she falls!  Unfortunately, we have no movies of her skiing on this trip because she spent most of her ski time in lessons.  I’m sure we will catch her on film soon!

On one of our final runs of the day, the four of us got to do a run together.  It was a pretty amazing feeling to be able to ski/ride with my family.  Up to now, a day of skiing involves various different levels of logistics, trying to coordinate lessons, lunch and other activities when one gets too tired to ski anymore.  The four of us have never skied/rode together.  I’m sure there will still be a bit more of lessons and logistics for the next few years, but I’m definitely looking forward to having good quality family time on the slopes. 

Big White is an amazing family resort and there were lots of other fun activities as well.  We got in some ice time as well as some sledding time.  All 4 kids got along famously and seemed to have fun, whether it was outside in the snow or hanging out in the chalet (bunk beds make great forts and hideouts from dragons!).  

i've never seen kids so enthusiastic about fruit salad

snow-bathing

kids in snow

this seems like a good idea

this still seems like a good idea

hmmm...this may be going sideways a bit

possibly not a good idea

no, that was definitely a good idea!

We also had good, quality time catching up with friends.  It was a nice mix of spending family time on the mountain coupled with ‘grown-up’ time with friends in the evenings (with the backdrop of the Olympics as a bonus!).

dinnertime!

I’m not going to jinx this by saying, ‘I hope it won’t be another 6 years before…”, but I’d like to believe that we all had a fabulous enough time to be pretty committed to do this again soon.  I know I did.

treacherous drive home on the coquihalla