A Melty March

Just as I was congratulating myself on a lack of sick kids this winter, we got slammed. I had been wondering what was different. Maybe the wood floors were behind it. Maybe I did a better job of making sure hands got washed. Or maybe the cold really does kill germs. I'm leaning toward that last one, actually, because when it started warming up early this month, everyone got sick. Ew. It's one of the bits I don't much enjoy about motherhood.

It didn't last forever though, and in the end, March shaped up into a pretty fun month. We had less going on for a change, as I didn't sign kids up for swimming and soccer and such, so it was a nice break. We spent more evenings home together and had some fun game nights and movie nights, plus a girls' night out and a boys' night out thrown into the mix. It gave Aaron and I a good opportunity to catch up with our kids on the exciting events in their little lives.

Theo's interests this month drifted from tops to outer-space. He can't wait to grow up and be an astronaut, and has memorized a zillion facts about the solar system in preparation. We also attended Theo's parent-teacher conference recently and were so pleased when his teacher reported that he's never seen a child advance so quickly in French in the time he's been teaching. Theo started the year with a bit of a handicap having not attended kindergarten in the French program, but now he's reading at the top of his class and speaking quite fluently. Of course, he also needs to use the bathroom about six times whenever it's time to work on printing and handwriting, but still. We're pretty proud of him, and we love his wonderful teacher.

Addy has blossomed into a delightful companion recently. I love taking her with me to the science center and the natural history museum. She's full of questions and curiosity, and loves figuring things out on her own. Unfortunately, her bedroom, which she used to keep so tidy, has taken a bit of a hit. I think it has something to do with the slumber parties she and Sera conduct nightly (we hear them giggling until an atrocious hour), which consist largely of throwing things around the room from Sera's bed. We should probably intervene, but in our years of parenting, we really haven't improved much at disciplining after the lights go out. It's like checking out after work. We basically feel like we're off duty unless someone requires an ambulance.

Emerson wins as my favorite three-year-old ever. Granted, he was not so much fun as a two-year-old with all the potty issues and needing to be carried everywhere while I had a new baby to tend to, but as a three-year-old, he's great. Both Theo and Addy went through a challenging phase when they turned three, but Emerson is all snuggles and kisses and says "thank-you" for everything and often tacks on "you're the best mommy in the world." He also smiles and dances on demand. One of the lovely benefits of having the boys share a room is that virtually anything Theo learns, he passes along to Emerson. Aaron overheard Theo quizzing Emerson on the numbers of moons and rings each of the planets have, and Emerson knew all the answers!

Sera, meanwhile, has become her daddy's little princess. She knows the word "mama," she just chooses not to use it. Instead, she gabs and blabs to her dad all day long, showing off and singing and shaking her little booty. She's also acquired a taste for accessories of late. Her favorite activity is hunting through our house for the vast variety of beaded necklaces the kids have made over the years and piling them one after the other on her neck—to adorable effect. As for walking, she cracks herself up too much to get very far. Every time she takes a step (she's taken up to three in a row), she is so pleased and delighted with herself that she doubles over with laughter. She also really enjoys falling—no kidding. We also recently discovered that she prefers the spicy foods. She'll toss food off her tray if it doesn't appeal to her, but if we "kick it up a notch" she's all over it

As for Aaron and I, we've become the stereotypical couple sitting in the same room in front of two different computer screens (take now for example). Aaron has been studying non-stop in preparation for his final doctoral exams. He has actually typed more pages of study notes than are in my entire novel, so that must be a good sign.

Which brings the circle back to me: I finished Max and Merlin! I have the manuscript with a couple of beta-readers right now, and then I plan another rewrite and submissions to agents! Although I haven't had a great deal of success in submitting picture books, I hope that this middle-grade stuff will open the doors to a good agency where I can have all my work represented. Here's to hoping!

February Adventures

Buddies

The lovely Sera amid one of her lovely messes

"Tobogganing"

Girls

Love is in the Air

We sure found lots to love this February! There were snuggles, some fun dates, and plenty of laughter along the way. And believe it or not, we actually enjoyed the cold and snow.

Sera topped our list of loveables with her stunning smile and enthusiastic attitude. She's started standing up, but she doesn't care much for walking unless she has someone's finger squeezed in her little fist. When she wants to get around, she scrambles at lightning speed on her hands and knees. But she knows other ways to move as well. When we're sitting at the dinner table, Sera likes to rock herself back and forth hard enough to move her high chair. More than once we've gone to check on Sera in the morning, only to find that she's moved her crib several feet from the wall. She hasn't abandoned her appreciation for applause either. She's figured out that she can get us to clap for her by clapping herself. We think this girl has a future in the performing arts!

Emerson has never cared for moving as much as his siblings. He still likes taking time to smell the roses . . . well, more like the snow . . . and the sidewalk . . . and the old piece of gum stuck on the sidewalk. Only Theo seems to have the ability to encourage him to get moving—at least sometimes. Along with everything else, Emerson's digestive system slowed down for a while this month . . . again. It took plenty of split pea soup and an excess of prune juice, but we finally got things moving in that arena as well (oops, I think we just lost all our non-parental readers). He has, however, convinced at least himself that he's fast at cleaning up. Unfortunately it's mostly just an illusion—he shakes his head back and forth while he works so that he feels like he's moving faster than he actually is. It's a riot to watch.

Addy has waxed so helpful recently. She learned how to sweep the kitchen (well, sort of), and she continues to be the best 4-year-old babysitter we've ever seen. She and Emerson both enjoyed Joy School this month as we covered the unit on interest and curiosity. We had the Joy School Valentine's Day party at our house this year, and the whole day was non-stop fun. We got to do all sorts of experiments and magic tricks, and wrapped it all up with a valentine exchange complete with some of the cutest valentines I've ever seen 3 and 4-year-olds make.

Theo, as always, was on the move this month. He has recently developed an obsession with tops of every kind. He makes tops out of Legos, ball-and-stick toys, coins, and virtually anything else you can think of. And they're pretty impressive—his lego top spins for well over a minute. He informs us that he spends a fair amount of time making and spinning tops at school as well, so we'll have to see how that is reflected on his upcoming report card. That's not the only thing he's informed us of recently. He had us all convinced for a couple of weeks that in addition to the swimming lessons at the YMCA, he was attending a hockey class at school and taking field trips to the local science center every week. Only when we began to question the lack of notes and such coming home did we realize that he made the whole thing up. Which resulted in the addition of "honesty" to our list of family rules. We're in trouble if he can already pull the wool over our eyes at six years old!

Aaron spent a weekend in Vancouver toward the end of the month for the Northwestern Division ACDA conference. He had the good fortune of meeting the Kings' Singers there when they performed, and making friends with their manager. Now he's in the process of scheduling them for a concert here in Regina (albeit not until October 2009)—we think this town made a good catch when they got ahold of our Aaron! Other than that, he's knee deep in rehearsals for a Carmina Burana concert this spring, and he's decided to forge ahead with trying to finish his doctoral exams by the end of the year. It's making for a stressful semester, but it won't be long before his students can call him Dr. Mitchell.

As for me, I'm loving feeling settled here in this city. Although I have been having doubts lately about how long we should stay in our current house, it's great to have friends and playgroups and especially time to write. I recently managed to submit a winning entry to a KidLit contest on a web forum I belong to. Although it's not the best thing I've ever written, it gave me confidence to have it appreciated by other writers, many of whom are published and agented. If you want to check it out, click on the link under "bloggin' around." But keep in mind I wrote and edited it in only an hour—every time I look at it now, I think of all the things I could have done to make it better.

January 2008

An Extended Holiday

On January 21, we finally took down our Christmas tree. I've always been one to get the tree down first thing on New Year's Day, but none of us were ready this year. It probably had something to do with being gone for much of December, and possibly a bit to do with our tree being artificial for the first time this year (it wasn't any deader on January 21 than January 1 after all), and of course it took several days to restage all the Christmas morning pictures with our new camera, but whatever the reason, having the tree up kept our home festive a bit longer this year. Now we're down to snowflakes on the front windows—but those can stay quite a bit longer if the reports we've received on Canadian winters hold true.

This month has been a full one and a fun one as well. Somehow we managed to clog January with two birthdays. For Sera's, just after the New Year, we loaded everyone up and hit Denny's. She also got her first birthday cake—chocolate with flowers. Since then, she knows what chocolate looks like. No chocolate cookie or brownie is safe when she's in the room—she crawls right over and begs. She also got a fun Little People train that the kids chose out for her and—wonder-of-wonders—she actually likes it more than the box it came in. She's showing such maturity these days.

Emerson's birthday included his first big birthday party—a "bug" party—with friends. By "big" we mean three friends. Emerson prefers smaller crowds and less noise, so it was a perfect match. Of course none of the two- and three-year-olds actually wanted to play any of the party games: "stick the dot on the lady-bug" involved a scary blind-fold, and "buzz, buzz, sting" (aka duck, duck, goose) went completely over their heads. They had fun digging around in a container of rice for plastic bugs though, and the rest of the time they just played with toys. That's what it's all about when you're that age anyway I guess. I, however, am beginning to see the allure of Chucky Cheese birthday parties.

Addy and Theo have enjoyed getting back into a routine after the holidays. I must be rubbing off on them or something. Addy almost got to start at a cute preschool I found, only they filled up right before I got her in—we're both disappointed by that, but hoping a spot opens up before long. She's still having fun in Joy School, especially since Emerson and another little girl joined the fun. It's great to have an extra week between teaching, and it's nice to be able to cancel so easily when it gets too cold. Meanwhile, Theo managed to talk his way into a sled recently (he paid half), and he rarely stops talking about how much he enjoys careening down the hill (or "tobogganing," as the Canadians say) with his friends at recess.

Of course recess has been cancelled a number of times this month because of the cold—they cancel whenever the temperature plunges below -20º C (-4º F), which has happened alarmingly frequently lately. We got down to -40º recently (that one's the same on either scale—FRIGID!), and found out how things work around here when it gets cold. They don't. Cars don't start, people don't go out much, and ice forms on the inside of the window-panes. To make up for it though, the school takes the kids to the YMCA for swimming lessons, which Theo has loved.

As for us, I have gotten down to writing a lot more recently. Once the kids go down for their naps, I plunk myself down at the computer with some hot cocoa and write away. I've completed another picture book and am in the midst of rewrites for a middle-grade novel I'm working on. Meanwhile, Aaron has a great concert season planned out, including a performance of Carmina Burana with the Wind Band—it'll be great!