Sunday Pictures: week 26

Asher - 2.5 years
Chancery - 6 months
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Asher: "Greetings, Ladies & Gents! Today we are
going to show you something very exciting!"


Chancery: "We are going to show you how to read a book!"

Chancery: "You don't have a book? How are we going
to show them if we don't have a book?"

Chancery: "That's right, off you go, & don't
forget to bring a book back!"

Chancery: "You take the book like so, & put it in your lap,
then you stick your fingers in it so you can open it!"

Chancery: "See, we've opened it! Isn't that so exciting?!
And Asher's going to read it now."

Asher: "That's how you read a book!"

Chancery: "I just LOVE books!"

Pay Attention!

When my nephew was about 2.5 years old, we went w/ him to see Spirit in the theatre. He sat alright through the movie (not having kids ourselves, we thought he could have done better). There was minimal shifting of laps, kicking of seats & he only put his feet on the lady in front about 3 times.

I just realized the other day that Asher is now the same age as my nephew was. I am a bit more understanding now about why he was so wiggly in the theatre. In fact it is VERY doubtful that Asher would do remotely as well.

Some people say that short attention spans are linked to a more TV watching, well if that's the case, we're in BIG trouble. We are trying to have Asher watch TV to increase his attention span! So far, the longest that he will sit & watch is about 15 minutes, if we are lucky. We haven't even attempted watching movies w/ him b/c there is no way he'll sit still that long. And as for going to the theatre w/ him? That won't be happening for a Looooooong time!

This Might Sum It Up......

Of course I prefer Cherry Vanilla, but Original is pretty good too.

There's Animals In My Oatmeal!

Over his bowl of oatmeal the other morning, I hear Asher say:

"I'm an elephant..... oops, the elephant's head fell off."

He had a glob of oatmeal on the spoon that apparently looked like a... well, now a decapitated elephant. He ate that bite, scooped up another & said:

"Here you go, Head, you better find the elephant's body, in my tummy!"

Free Books for Ministry Wives!

If you're a pastor's wife, head on over to the Preacher's Wife, she's having a book giveaway, all minister's wives (w/ a blog) get a free copy & all you have to do is read it & blog about it afterwards! Here's the link:

The Preachers Wife: Free Books for Ministry Wives!

A Strange Sight

As I was driving down the road today I saw something I thought I'd never see. A woman was perhaps suffering from a bloody nose, or maybe just got tired of constantly blowing her nose due to it being cold outside.... I'm not really sure of her reasoning, but I can assure you, you will never find me, walking down the street with a tampon shoved up my nose!

Perhaps she saw "She's the Man" one too many times.....

Sunday Pictures: week 25

Asher - 2.5 years
Chancery - 5.5 months
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Ok, kids, look up please!

Chancery: "Were you talking to ME?"

Asher: "Would you like me to read this book to you, Chancery?"

Chancery: "If you can read, then I can FLY!"

The Last 5 Minutes

I mentioned awhile ago that Chancery has definite sleep patterns, today I'd like to tell you about another one.

Usually I put Chancery down for bed at night around 7. She's usually quite tired & drifts off to sleep w/o any problems. She also has a bit of a different pattern to her night sleeps than her naps. Instead of waking up after 45 minutes, she sleeps quite well until about 9:52. She's a quick nurser, for that I am thankful. Usually I am in & out of her room in about 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops.

The problem is that when she wakes at 9:52, she has no patience. She wants to eat NOW. There will be no "just a minute (or 8)." Take for example what happened last night. There I was, down in the basement, watching "Bones." Booth had been taken by the "Grave Digger" killer. Brennan & Hodgens had just figured out who that was & they had caught her. Booth's brother had been elicited to help & they were just about to expose her to find out where Booth was, meanwhile Booth was just about to escape from where he was being held! Oh the suspense!

"Waaaaaah! Waaaaah! WAAAAAHHH!"

As far as I know, Booth died, & the Grave Digger hasn't said a word...... Thus, I miss the last 5 minutes & have no clue how the show wraps up.

We're Whirlin' And Twirlin'

A few weeks ago someone gave me a bunch of baby items. Among these items was a Twirlin' Whirlin' Garden. Unfortunately it only came w/ 3 accesories. Since there are 4 pegs, it would be a rather boring toy to play with, so I was on the lookout.

Yesterday I was at Value Village & noticed there was a Twirlin' Whirlin' Garden on the shelf, so I decided to have a look on the "Wall o' Stuff" to see if they had some flowers. I found a bag containing 11 flowers & picked them up. Sad to say, that was the only bag there, so someone else will now be stuck w/o flowers, but we'll be whirlin' & twirlin' here!

One Of Those Days..........

Why is it that when you are trying to get something done, THAT'S when the kids don't cooperate & everything seems to go wrong all at once?

This last week has been a strange one. I'm not a great cook, but I do my best. I have my repertoire of meals that I can make fairly well that we like, & occasionally I like to step outside that box & try something new, maybe find another one to add to the list of regulars. For some reason a pork chop dish that I made last week went bust. PChad said it had some weird metallic aftertaste & so we threw it out. I had made this particular dish before & really liked it, so I figured I'd try it again this week. Once again, he said it had the same flavour. He thinks maybe I'm doing something wrong when I'm browning the chops (pan too hot? Too cold?) I couldn't say.

Yesterday I decided to make an EASY chicken & pasta dish. I've made it before & it was really good. Last time I even took it out 10 minutes too early w/o realizing it, but it was cooked perfectly. This time..... Let's just say we had to stick it back in the oven for another 20 minutes, & rather than wait for it, we had baby corn, rolls & ice cream for dinner.

Today I decided to make some stew in the crock-pot. It's a fairly easy thing to do, right? Well, I'm not hugely into soups/stews, so I've never made one before. I was doing just fine chopping the vegetables & adding them in, I got to the meat part & realized I'd have to brown the beef before I added it. JUST as it's getting to the point where you have to watch it & turn it, Chancery woke up from her nap.

I ran upstairs trying to get her to go back to sleep b/c she hadn't slept very long and I needed finish up in the kitchen. Asher opened the door & asked me something just as I got her calmed down, so I told him to go out of her room so I could put her back to sleep (all the while I'm getting a bit worried about my meat on the stove). Asher starts yelling, "Are you putting Chancery to sleep?" THEN the doorbell starts ringing.

I knew PChad was outside clearing the snow & I figured he just wanted the side door unlocked, but I was otherwise engaged at the moment...... But he persisted (apparently he had locked himself out), so I gave up on Chancery, left her in her bed (in case by some small miracle she's stop crying & drift off to sleep on her own), stopped on the stairs & told Asher he needed to be quieter, ran down, opened the door for PChad, & took my beef from the pan & dumped it in the crock-pot.

I poured the beef broth on top of the mixture, got ready to add the garlic & Worcestershire sauce & read Add broth, garlic & Worcestershire sauce to beef in pan, simmer & scrape up bits from the bottom of the pan & add to crock-pot.

So I've made a meal that in 3 hours time we'll discover if it's edible. I already warned PChad that we might be having pizza pops for dinner. I tried to console myself w/ a latte, but my espresso maker started steaming where it's not supposed to steam from & it tasted really nasty. I think if I'm left to it, we just might become vegetarians out of necessity.

We've Got Some Explaining To Do

Yesterday PChad had a funeral to do for a member of the congregation. We didn't really talk about it much around the house, but Asher must have caught wind of it somehow. After Asher woke up from his nap as I was putting his jeans back on he said:

"I'm going to the cemetary today."

Ok, I thought, he's thinking that he's going to go there b/c his Daddy is there, but I figured I'd ask him why b/c you never know what you're going to get.

"I'm going to the cemetary because I'm dead."

So I informed him that he wasn't dead b/c he was breathing, & walking, & talking.

"Yes, and sometimes I trip & fall, but not with my slippers on!"

Paper Books

When I worked at Frontier, part of my job was to make sure all the stickers/labels/tags were off every item we shipped out. There were a few reasons for this. Sometimes it was b/c we didn't want the customer to see who our supplier was b/c they could cut us out. Sometimes it was b/c the pricing of an item had gone up or down since the catalogue & we didn't want there to be pricing disputes.

Still to this day, if there is something I won w/ a sticker that doesn't belong, I feel the need to remove it. Now, I don't remove labels from jars, but price stickers, other people's labels on books, anything of that nature MUST be removed.

Asher seems to have picked up my habit. I have to remind him when we are in stores that he may NOT remove any stickers or tags until we have purchased the item & taken it home. Unfortunately this also carries over into his books. If the edge of the cover is a little torn, he will finish the job. If the decal on a toy is starting to lift, he'll take it all the way off.

For this reason, he is still restricted to board books. We have lots of paper books waiting in the basement for when he can be trusted to just read them & not destroy them & I'm getting eager to read them! I decided that perhaps we should slowly integrate so that instead of all of a sudden having hundreds of new books, we'd have a few new every now & then.

So I sorted through a box & chose 3 books that I wouldn't be too sad about seeing wrecked. This was quite a difficult task, since I had purchased each of these books b/c they looked so fun & interesting. He's had these 3 books mixed in w/ the board books for about a month & there's been no indications that he couldn't handle them. Last night as I was cleaning up from dinner I heard him reading "Moosey Moose" by Chris Raschka.

"Moosey Moose is MAD..... Moosey Moose is REALLY mad!"

Then I heard:

"Uh oh, Mummy, I broke this page..... I'm breaking this book's page!"

He had ripped 2 pages clean out of the book. I'm not really sure why b/c "Moosey Moose" was in fine shape. I suppse we'll wait a few more months before we try again..... *sigh*

An Update On My Dad

Thank you for your prayers. My Dad was able to come home from the hospital Sat. afternoon. He is feeling fine and has not had any lightheadedness since. We are so thankful he is feeling much better now. I talked to him on the phone the other day & he sounded "chipper". I think he's feeling better than he has in quite awhile, so hopefully they've got things sorted out & he won't have any recurrences. Thanks again for all your thoughts & prayers.

God Works In Mysterious Ways

Asher has been a bit under the weather for the past week. He's had a cold & the last few days added a cough & fever to the mix. As we all know, when you have a cold, your nose can become tender & wiping your nose can really irritate, but needs to be done.

The other day Asher informed me that he had an owie in his nose. I told him that I'd get him some lotion as soon as we had put his jeans back on (since it was just after his nap). He kept yunking & complaining about it, so I asked if he wanted to pray about his nose.

Asher replied, "And then God will come in my house & put lotion in my nose."

Sunday Pictures: week 24

Asher - 2.5 years

Chancery - 5.5 months
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Chancery: "Can I pet Thanet too?"

Asher: "No you may not."

Asher, if you don't share, we'll take Thanet away.

Asher: "Ok, well, I'll just set him right here then."

Chancery: "Mum?"

That's not sharing, give him to Daddy.

Chancery: "Goodbye my Thanet!"


Asher: "Daddy took Thanet away, Chancery."


Chancery: "Maybe next time you should try sharing."