Wipe Out!!!

Our family bike ride today did not go so well. I wiped out with Eden on my bike!! We skidded across the pavement... ouch! Poor Eden was terrified and bleeding from her nose. Her lip was instantly swollen and her finger had a big chunk of skin hanging off of it. Thankfully Ronny was with us and biked home and grabbed the van. After a nap and some tylenol, she cheered up and is back to her cute little self. Not sure if she's going to let me take her on a bike ride any time soon!

Cracking the Fast Language Code:)

Last week we had a great visit to the town of Elora. We hiked a few trails and had a picnic. When we were heading to the little river, Eden repeatedly kept saying, "Bah-doe, Bah-doe". I finally realized that's her word for "water". We're constantly trying to crack the language code with her. "Book" is "Book" but it also means, "Milk"! She puts an "L" in front of a few words... "Head" is "Lead" and "Uppy" is "Luppy".
Elijah and Evie have a few funny words too.. Evie says "Thinger" instead of "finger" and Elijah says, "Dis" instead of "This".



This picture was taken in Elora. I saw a guy with a fancy camera walking around so I asked him to take our picture:) We're definitely going to head back to Elora in the near future and do some more exploring, I love it there!!

Easter

In preparation for Easter, I bought the Resurrection Eggs and a sweet book called, "Benjamin's Box" to go along with them.



The kids had so much fun opening the eggs! I'd borrowed my friend Teri's set a few years ago. It was so funny, Evie was about four years old and when we got to the last egg (which is empty to represent the empty tomb), Evie started looking around to see if something had fallen out. I explained to her that it was SUPPOSED to be empty, just like the empty tomb. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that and then exclaimed, "Don't worry mom! I'll find something to put in this egg!"

The kids are going to hear the Easter Story thousands of times by the time they are grown. In the constant repetition of it I hope that they never lose sight of how amazing it really is.

We had a great Easter weekend. The weather hit record highs... around 24 degrees! We were able to celebrate with Ronny's side on Saturday and my side on Sunday.



The bigger cousins collected a pail full of frogs at our family gathering on Sunday. They convinced Eden to kiss about four or five of them- right on the lips!


Ronny's Opa died on Easter Monday (yesterday). How beautiful that he died on a weekend full of promise. Because Jesus rose again, we will be reunited with Opa in heaven! Opa loved Jesus and now he is face to face with Him:)

Happy Easter!

Wink!

One of our daily homeschool drills is going over our A Beka "Special sounds" cards. When we get to "Ink in Wink", Eden never fails to give us her best wink!




(and yes, we do live in our pajamas!)

I didn't do it!!

This house had really nice, freshly painted walls when we moved here a couple of months ago. Eden has managed to colour on nearly all of them. This sort of thing never happened with the other two. Now having older kids WITH the toddler, things have changed. The older ones leave the pencils/markers within her reach.

All in one day last week, she managed to find a marker (after I put them all away) and coloured herself and her dolls while I was in the shower. She hid the kid's DS games. I found one so far. It was in the hamster cage (glad I found it before Timmy the hamster did!). She cried the entire time I cooked supper.


Two year olds are soooo much work. Soooo cute, but so much work!

Daredevil!

Last week we went sledding again (with much better success!).
Of all the kids, we weren't sure how Eden would like it... turns out that she loved it the most! The other two seemed to get bored of it quickly. Eden couldn't get enough.

Ronny even sent her down on her own! She kept letting go of the wheel and falling back. She wanted to do it over and over.




Mmmmm... hot chocolate:)

Snuggles

Found the younger two snuggling quietly like this while I was making breakfast yesterday. They often cuddle like this in the mornings... it's the time they get along the best.

"Mine"

When Eden points to each person in a family photo, she says our names so well- mommy, daddy, "lijah" (Elijah), and "ee" (Evie). When she points to herself, she says, "mine". I've tried to have her pronounce her name, she just won't do it.

So it shouldn't have been a surprise to me when for the first time, someone asked Eden what her name was.

Her response was, "Mine!"

Owl Eden Puke

Owl puke by day, EDEN puke by night... every 20 minutes .all. night. long.
Yawn.

Here she is doing her ever-so-fake pout. It's the best pout she has and it makes me giggle every time she shows it to me. I love my little girl!

Oh when...

will my hair grow???



Poor Miss Eden still has very little hair! My sister Beth says that this is due to my teasing of her little hairless girl a couple of years ago. Oh well. Brushing her hair is one less thing that I have to do on Sunday mornings, since she doesn't have any!

At the beginning of the week, I felt a strange virus coming on. My mom urged me to go to EMERG since I had pain in my chest. To make a long story short, I had some pneumonia just as my mom predicted. Mom's know best!

Funny thing happened when I got the prescription. I was asking the Dr. if the antibiotic was safe for breastfeeding. He asked how old the baby. I said she was two. He said, "No, how old is the one that you're breastfeeding?". Um... that IS the one I'm breastfeeding! He just responded that I was brave. Doctors. You'd think he'd commend someone for breastfeeding, oh well.

I was thinking about what a blessing it is to have such supportive family. Not just relatives (such as my mom and siblings who all called and offered their help, and a mother in law who moved in to help for a few days) but a church family too! My dear friend babysat and cleaned my terribly messy house while another friend sat in EMERG until 2 am. The Pastor called and so did an elder, offering their help and support. I was overwhelmed with so much kindness!
Glad to say I'm feeling lots better!

Bye-bye thumb!

The first day of her life, Eden found her thumb. I noticed her sucking it while I was taking some pictures of her. I was so glad to have been taking pictures because she sucked for all of 30 seconds and that was it. It wasn't until Eden was just 3.5 months when she started sucking her thumb again. I was SO excited... I grabbed my camera as fast as I could, just in case it was another one time thing. It wasn't a one time thing. She was attached. I researched online to see if it was a habit I should discourage. My findings, and my instinct told me to let her be. More than that though, I just simply thought it was SO CUTE! It seriously melted my heart every time she put it her in mouth. She loved tugging my shirt with one hand and then popping her thumb in with the opposite.
She's had a series of colds over the last month and couldn't suck it with a stuffy nose. And now that her cold is over, she's still not sucking it! She keeps putting it near her mouth out of habit.



I know it's the best thing. I'm glad that I don't have an eight year old sucking her thumb. But I'm so sad that she's growing up and changing.

Maybe it's because she's my last baby.

Or because she looked darn cute with a thumb in her mouth.

But I am so sad.

Bye-bye thumb.

Fun with modeling clay!

When my parents were here yesterday, they took the kids to the dollar store. I was proud of the kids for choosing modeling clay instead of a silly toy. Modeling clay keeps them busy for hours! After they make their little creations, they play with them for days! I love the googly eyes:)







Eden was sick in the night again last night. Strange that she hadn't thrown up for two full days and a night prior to this episode. I can tell she's not herself though. She's been so clingy... and nursing around the clock like a newborn. Yep, I said nursing. My goal was to make it to age two. Now I have to start a plan for weaning her... not looking forward to that!

Homeschooling went well today. One of my recent purchases was English for a Thoughtful Child. We're really enjoying the lessons from it. It's a Charlotte Mason approach, using poetry, art, etc. originally published in 1900. Today's lesson was to memorize, "The Moon" by Robert Louis Stevenson. We learned the first stanza. We've been doing so much memorizing lately! The kids are now in Awana, memorizing lots of scriptures. They did so well with their verses the first week. When it was time to learn the next week's verses, Elijah said, "I can't learn a new one, then I'll forget the one I know!". He was relieved when I explained to him that our brains have the capacity to memorize lots!



Well, now that homeschooling is over for the day, I should get out of my pj's and tidy up this messy house of mine!

Eden's birthday: Part Two!

Today my parents came over to celebrate Eden's birthday. Everyone had the flu (including Eden- and my parents, siblings and their families) over the last few days... we finally felt that our stomachs could handle cake! Mom went to Dairy Queen and picked up an ice cream cake for us.

Eden got a new snowsuit from my mom and dad. I can't wait to go sledding with the kids. Can't believe we haven't had much snow here this winter. Usually Kitchener has so much! Eden also got some beautiful board books (mom knows what I love!) and new pjs today.
Well, I'm going to go snack on some Dutch cheese that my mom brought... bye for now:)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY....

Happy birthday to YOU
Can't believe you are TWO!
And we're sorry to say
That your present is THE FLU!



Poor Eden is spending her second birthday sick with the flu:( All three kids were up all night long. Ronny stayed with Evie and Elijah in their room and I was with Eden in our bed. Ronny had his hands full, they both were throwing up every half an hour. Eden was sick about 5 times, but she didn't start until 3 am.
Craziness.
Happy birthday Eden, we'll celebrate tomorrow. We love you soooooooo much!!!

Spring Baby!

Miss Eden is quite a character. She usually puts on a serious face and it's hard for people to get her to crack a smile. Once in awhile those who are closest to her get to see this silly side. She scrunches up her face and makes silly squeaky sounds:) People often ask if she has a cold because her voice has such a hoarse, scratchy sound. She's a unique little girl! She finally got off her knees and started walking a couple of weeks ago.... she'll be 16 months tomorrow! Pretty much the exact same age that Elijah started walking on his own. Evie started quite a bit earlier, at around 11 months.
Here's our goofy little Eden in the tulip garden...