Board Books

A question was posed to me by a friend last week. We were shopping in a thrift store and looking through the books. She paged through one and then put it down. She then asked, "How many books does a kid need, anyway?" Well, Chad & I are really into books. We'd much rather buy books (generally second-hand) than borrow. Simply because if you need to reference the book, or want to read it again, you can. Plus we tend to recommend many of the books we've read to friends, and then we can simply loan them out. We have found that if you recommend a book and leave it up to a person to find it on their own, most likely they will forget or not be able to find it, but if you own it you can simply hand it over to them so they can also enjoy it.
Today I was in Asher's room putting his books back on the shelf b/c he has a tendency to take all the books off the shelf if he's looking for a specific one. As I put them back I decided to count how many he has. There are over 100 board books on his shelf! I was astounded by the number, yet I find it interesting that we are already getting sick of reading many of the books b/c we seem to read them over & over again. I am very thankful that he has that many and not just a dozen or so! He must get his love for books from his parents. I can't wait until he can really start to read on his own though. I know that we'll still get asked to read books to him, but he's already starting to look at them on his own a bit. What I REALLY can't wait for is when he gets past the board book stage into the paper book stage, b/c I've been stocking up!

Fire is....... HOT!

Last week while we were at Chad's parents I figured we should build a fire in the fireplace, so I asked Asher to please ask Chad to make a fire in the fireplace. He walked across the room to where Chad was, looked him in the eye, said, "Sssss" (meaning Please) "Hot!" Because we always tell Asher that the fireplace is hot..... What a cutie, not that I'm partial or anything.

Mail Call!

Yesterday I got home from visiting a friend (we were supposed to go shopping in the States, but I forgot our passports!). I get pretty excited about getting the mail at this time of the year b/c more often than not I actually get something! I love getting mail, and Christmas brings it in by the boatload.....
Anyway, I went to get the mail, and there was a Christmas card from my brother (thanks Brian & Brenda) and a BROWN ENVELOPE! I'm going through the process to obtain Canadain citizenship right now, so brown envelopes are usually a long time in coming. I was pretty excited about that BROWN ENVELOPE, so of course I opened my Christmas card first and left the BROWN ENVELOPE for last. I opened the aforementioned BROWN ENVELOPE with trepidation saying "please let it be good news" under my breath. (I've already waited the appropriate amount of time as a Landed Immigrant, I applied for Citizenship in Aug of 2005, but since we lived outside of Canada b/c of Chad's schooling our situation is a bit abnormal, so I had to fill out a supplementary form. I've even taken the test for Citizenship (I scored 100%, thank you).) So I opened the BROWN ENVELOPE......
Inside was an appointment to appear before the Citizenship Judge next week. I am super excited! After this all that's left (if I'm approved) is to go back to take the Oath of Citizenship. This has been a long process. It all started when we got married 8 1/2 years ago. Needless to say I'll be really happy when it's all said and done and please pray that I answer all the Judge's questions satisfactorily so I can finally get my Citizenship b/c then it won't matter about if we have to leave the country for awhile, I'll always be able to come back, and I won't have to go through any more processes.

A Week in Paradise

We just got back from visiting Chad's family. We had a really good time.... or rather, I had a really good time, for the others it maybe wasn't so good. Our flight out wasn't so bad, we left around 8pm and got into Calgary around 1am. Asher slept for about 1/2 the flight, so he was pretty tired but not cranky when we got there. He settled into Alberta time pretty well. All was good until................
Day 2 (cue scary music). Asher started puking and well, lets just say it was the flu and it affected both ends. It wasn't pretty. The thing about a kid this age, is they don't tell you, or run to the loo when they have to barf. They just do it, on you, in the bed, it doesn't matter where they are. So, after numerous wardrobe changes, many loads of laundry, and a week of generally grumpiness, Asher was better...... But not before infecting Chad, Mum, Dad, Amber, Spencer, Paige, Owen, 2 Aunties, 2 Uncles, and apparently most the church. Somehow I managed to steer clear of it all!
So finally 2 days before we left everyone in the household was feeling pretty normal again. We played in the snow, we had a fire, watched movies, played games.... ahhhh good times.
The return flight was not so great. We flew out of Calgary at 1am. Asher stayed awake the whole time, running around and being cranky. Luckily there were extra seats so we could take the carseat aboard again (it's always nice to be able to bind your child into a seat). The main problem (I think) was there were about 5 babies on this flight and Asher wasn't too happy about being in his seat anyway, but once he'd fall asleep, a wail would pierce the silence and cue another child to start screeching. Asher would wake up and we'd have to try all over again to get him to go to sleep. We got into London around 6am, and home around 7:30. Luckily it was still dark out when we got home so we could just put Asher to bed, but he only slept for 3 hours, so we were all pretty tired.
Moral of the story??? Yes, travelling at night with little ones may work, but you have to try to get started a little earlier than midnight.

Playback

The other day I was thinking how cool it would be if life had a playback button. Not a REWIND button, as most people would prefer I'm sure, but just a playback. Like if your whole life were recorded, and you could just take an hour every now and then to review something. "That's what we have memories for!" I can hear you say, but they don't always stay true to how things were either. And I'm not just talking about WATCHING things in the past, but also to remember the feelings you had while you were in that moment. Ok, this would be nice for big things like your wedding, or the birth of your children (minus the painful parts), but also for some decisions you made. Sometimes I wonder what was going through my head when I made some decisions, not that I want to change them, I'm perfectly happy with where those choices have gotten me, but I just wonder what was going on in the snippets of memory that aren't there anymore, you know?
For instance, I'd like to see the part of my life where Katie and April and I made our club in the woods. Some of the times when our whole neighbourhood would get together in the evenings and play softball on the field across from our house. I'd like to relive some of the Cross Country races from highschool. I want to remember more of the times I spent with Theresa in junior high. The 8th grade camping trip to Oswald West state park. Camping with the youth group at Jesus Northwest & Creation. Clarissa and I shopping at Value Village. Dordt pit parties, and going to Twisters. Dancing with Ian & Fiona at Walkabout in London. Playing Dutch Blitz with the cousins at Christmas. Camping with Rubinos. I remember these times were fun, but I don't remember anything really specific about them. Maybe part of that comes with getting older, that your memory fails you more.... But I don't even just mean the good times. Sometimes I'd like to be able to remember the rotten times better too, maybe so I could see how far past that I've gotten......
I suppose in some ways this should also be a lesson to cherish the everyday times more right now so I DO remember more later in life..... and take lots of PICTURES!!
(and if any of you could help out with any of these memorable moments, I'd welcome your reminiscence.)