Mini-Mountain Biker Boy

December 2014

We found a second-hand mountain bike for Tavish and we took it out for a spin on the trails....

MOMENT: Desert Dirt

Dirt. Sand. Dust. Rocks. Hills. He rode over it all and wore a smile at the end. Another way to enjoy our wheels has been discovered!

All I Want for Christmas...

December 28, 2014

And ... into our lives entered the Tooth Fairy...

MOMENT: Tooth Loss

Tavish's first wiggler was not long for this world. It wiggled for a short time and was gone to the Tooth Fairy in no time. It's vacancy was quickly filled by an eager adult tooth. Enter toothy grin...

Temporary Snaggletooth Tavish! 

Bye Tooth - Hello Hole!

Enter Tooth Fairy

Santa Claus Came to Town

December 2014

Getting ready for the big day - and what a day it was!

MOMENT: Ho! Ho! Ho!

In preparation for our meeting with Santa, Tavish composed his wish list. He also took older sibling liberties to outline suitable requests for Keva - she whole heartedly agreed with his choices. The letter was mailed directly to Santa after our visit. There was some wrapping and last minute preparing for the arrival of the Big Guy. With excitement and glee, Tavish and Keva woke to find themselves fortunate and grateful for all of the wonderful gifts the spirit of Christmas brought. Merry (belated) Christmas to all!

Randy Season 2014

Randy changed up his game a bit this year. He hid every morning but gave a theme for each week leading up to Christmas with activity and event suggestions. Fun for everyone, including Randy...

MOMENT: Seasonal Fun

DECORATE          CREATE          CELEBRATE          ANTICIPATE

We decorated the house and the tree. We went to see decorations at the Distillery Christmas Market with friends.

We created cards and made presents.

We celebrated the spirit of the season by shopping for our food donations. We attended Tavish's school concert as well as two Christmas plays in Arizona (Junie B. Jones and Christmas Carol).

We anticipated the big day with our letter to Santa, visiting with him at the mall, and baking cookies.

Randy is such a festive little fellow...

Peace on Earth

December 2014

Tavish sends his seasonal well-wishing with a bilingual twist...

Creating for Christmas

December 2014

'Tis the season to create, create, create!

MOMENT: Frames and Cards

The kids created a frame with colourful clay to play Santa this year. One for Grandpa Mike that was inspired by the fish tank he has and the kids enjoy - it had fish, plants and a sun. The other was for Grandpa Mel and Grandma that was inspired by their winter home in Arizona including a javelina, some cactus and, of course, the sun.

Card making has also become an annual holiday tradition. Tavish was busy making an individual card for every teacher at his school and both kids worked hard on their special card for Caeli.

Creating with Clay

Cards for Caeli

Seasonal Spirit for School

Grandpa Games

We were fortunate to receive two visits from Grandpa Mike before the holidays and as always, it was all fun and games!

MOMENT: Play with Us, Grandpa

There were games to be played, things to build, and gifts to share...

Christmas 2014

December 2014

It's a tradition ... the family photoshoot. This year made into a video. Enjoy and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Seasonal Set up

November 2014

'Twas that time of year again ... our house needed some indoor and outdoor decorations. We had just the team to make it happen...

MOMENT: Getting and Doing

First you go get the tree ... and accept all of the entertainment that provides. Then you decorate your house guided by a small set designer. Finally, you decorate the tree - it's important to note that there are no rules to this process ... pretty much anything goes in our crazy little life. We wouldn't change a thing...

Finding Fall Colours

I have a special adoration for the colours of fall. A strong internal desire to get out and find the colours of leaves. So, the whole family has to come with me and oh the places we went!

MOMENT: Hikes with Colours

Thanksgiving in Ottawa got our hiking season started with the bonus of feeding chickadees along the way. We also stayed more local at the Brickworks, the Rouge Rive and a section of the Don River as well. Everywhere we went, there was colour to explore and leaves to be found. I just love, love, love a colourful fall day!

Local Art

November 2014

We embrace all things local for these artistic shots...

MOMENT: Fine Art Everywhere

Waiting for gymnastics class, Keva and I found ourselves with a few minutes to spare so wandered though a nearby alley of art... Tavish and I created some art later in our home for others to admire...

Graffiti Girl

Chalk and Talk

R2 Boy2

Evening Writer

November 2014

Without guidance, suggestion, direction, or requests - Tavish explores writing...

First night

Next night

MOMENT: Composing

Starting in the fall of 2014, Tavish really took to writing. He seems to enjoy copying things and writing his own words down. Now, almost a year later, he writes letters to us that he leaves in the hall. We really enjoy his authentic enjoyment for reading and writing...

Couch Jumpers

Phases come and go. This couch jumping phase really came in with a bounce and a thud!

MOMENT: Whee!

Tavish gets the cushions all set up and shows Keva the pile. She required little encouragement. They both like to dive right in!


* note: no child was harmed in this activity...on this particular day...

Squeaky Clean

October 15, 2015

Every adventure needs to be tidied up eventually ... these little adventurers even make splashing memorable.

MOMENT: Splash Time Ends With a Song

November 18, 2015

Royal Winter

Looks like we've unintentionally created a habit of checking out the Royal Winter Fair. I know that it's a neat thing, but this non-city native still thinks it's kind of entertaining that they turn an otherwise fancy place into a show farm for a week or so each year for city folk to not get out of the city! ha.

MOMENT: Animals Inside

It's a great venue for running around when it's cooling down outside, checking out some animals up close and personal, and getting a sample of the country without leaving the city...

Planting seeds to grow at home

Scale for two

Hello horse

Hello pig

And hello cow!

Gloves and Shoes

Tavish was really, really into soccer this spring. His after-school activity was playing in the "ball pit". It started innocently watching from a distance or sitting on the goalie net. He was, after all, in Junior Kindergarten. The only video I have of this 'scene' is from December when he was still a part of the action, but in an observer's role. He's in the foreground with his back to us in a black coat and toque...

The early days of watching soccer

MOMENT: Gloves Make the Goalie

Spring saw him step out of his observer role and into that of a player once the older kids starting inviting him to play. There was one boy who was an excellent goalie and, apparently, wore goalie gloves. We eventually discovered that Tavish's interest in wearing gloves came from this. At the end of the school day, he'd run out to Lucy so she could hand the gloves over. He loved it in there and he proudly wore his yellow gardening gloves to play soccer with them.  They were so well loved that they show their wear...

Best goalie gloves ever

One day, Tavish casually said "someday Mommy, I'd like a real pair of goalie gloves". To which I naively responded "I thought you have your yellow pair". Clearly, he'd made it awhile before someone made an obvious comment about his gloves because he came back with "but these aren't real gloves, these are gardening gloves" with a slightly sheepish voice. Aw. I sometime miss the innocence that minimal peer exposure allowed, but it was certain that the yellow gloves with the frogs had seen their final days. Grandma came to town and to his rescue. Here is our proud son in Canadian Tire with the real gloves already donned even before paying the bill. It was tough to find him without them for most of the summer...

Real goalie gloves

"Goalie" gloves, an very day accessory

One last story corresponding to Tavish's love of soccer and his sweetness. He stumbled upon a pair of hand-me-down dress shoes intended for Keva and tried them on. He liked the sound they made on our wood and tile floors. I consciously said nothing and drew no attention to them. He asked to wear them to school one day and although I'm perfectly comfortable with that, I know that our son likely wouldn't be (see above story of beloved gloves instantly abandoned after an uninvited comment) and they are several sizes too small for his feet. I replied by saying "they would be fun to have at school, honey, but I'm wondering how comfortable they'd be all day on your feet, let's have a look." Sure enough, he had bright red rings from squeezing his feet in there, so after a short deliberation, he opted to play with them at home instead. I proceeded to find him in our yard kicking the soccer ball all over the place (neighbours yard, alley) wearing these clicky shoes with his trusty gloves. Like all innocent and unexpected choices, it seemed all too short lived. I failed to capture this wonderful moment in time, but I took a photo to aid with the visual reminder of our sweet soccer player-who-could wearing whatever sounded and felt right at that moment...

The only uniform he needed at one time...

Century School

November 2014

Mommy got to do some Show & tell with my family at the School House I sometimes teach at. My kids are, hands down, the cutest early settlers EVER!

Gaelic Sing Along

My cousin, Andrew, discovered singing through his love of the Scottish Gaelic language of our ancestors. Turns out, there might be another family member who's drawn to the songs...

MOMENT: An t-alltan Dubh

In the fall, I dusted off some cds for the kids to put into a small cd player in the living room. At their leisure, they could chose what music they wanted to play to promote independence and, of course, music. Both of Andrew's CDs that we have were hits. Tavish knows which numbers from which CD he most prefers to sing along with. Feel free to sing along with Tavish  by checking out Andrew's music: http://www.grianmcbuttons.ca/index.html. This is one of the sing alongs I captured...

Lucy

One of the toughest parts of being a parent is handing over the care of your children to someone else. Lucy lives on our street and we were introduced to her through another local friend. She had recently moved to Toronto from the US and had nanny experience. She took care of our children when I went back to work until school was out for the summer (March to June). It's always hard to let your kids go when you're used to being home, but it makes it more bearable when the kids have a good time with their caregiver. We were lucky that way...

MOMENT: From Lucy

"Plain old babysitting is expensive-
early childhood education is priceless."

I went through the photos and videos that Lucy sent to us during her time with our family and compiled them to share the story of Tavish, Keva, and Lucy. We've since parted ways, but this is a lovely reflection on the meaningful relationship they established in a reasonably short amount of time.

FLASHBACK: Nicole

When we were in Ottawa and I'd finally managed to line up some work, we hired Nicole to look after Tavish. She was lovely, patient, dependable and most importantly, she loved Tavish very much. We failed to capture any digital moments of these two together (blush), but there was a lot of playing, cooking, baking, singing, and cuddling. She was an excellent introduction to the childcare experience although our time with her was also short. She started in February (just before Tavish turned two) until the end of the school year on an as-needed basis. She moved to Toronto and Tavish headed off to Montessori school that fall. We don't have much, but we do have two photos of her with her nephew that were taken during the time she was with us. This is the perfect opportunity to celebrate our time with her. Thank you, Nicole. Tavish still remembers you fondly...

How Our Garden Grows

When Keva (and Mommy) woke up from a weekend nap, we discovered some gardening was happening to beautify our back'yard'...

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."

- Elizabeth Lawrence

MOMENT: Dirt Digging

Summer must be soon, Tom and Tavish made a trip to the garden centre with the red wagon. Tavish prepared his plot and Keva discovered that gardening involves some neat tools.

And On That Farm, He Had A...

Kids not only say the darndest things, sometimes they sing them too...

MOMENT: Old MacDonald

There's this old guy whose last name is MacDonald. He had a farm and Keva likes to sing the sound of the animals (and other random things) that live on his farm from the back seat. We were driving somewhere and while I did most of the singing, Keva made the sounds... cows went "moo", horses went "neigh", pinks went "oink" and the goats on this farm go "boo!". Wonder what the ghosts there would say? Thank you Halloween! E-I-E-I-O...

Face Games

There was a long stint in the fall where our entire family knew the specific rules for what to do with your face should a small human touch it in certain ways....

MOMENT: If You're Funny and You Know It...

Hours of entertainment all in one little face!

Undies!

Caeli, our childcare provider, was quite ill at the end of October leaving Mommy home from work for several days. It was an unexpected circumstance with an unexpected perk - we ditched Keva's daytime diaper for good!

A little lady and her undies!

MOMENT:  Undies

Sure, we raced the clock to get her to the potty when out and about, but she made it. We had no accidents for a long time. The road to diaper freedom was before us!

Halloween Haunt 2014

Being a full-time working Mommy this year left less time for creative costuming. This coincided well with Tavish's costume desire to be Luke Skywalker and a darling butterfly costume loaner from a co-worker!

MOMENT: Trickle Treating

Boy was it a rainy night this year! Tavish and a crew of his classroom buddies had a pre-party at a friend's place on the street. Then some donned rain gear while others opted for the full drippy costumes. The battery died in my camera but it was quite a site to see these kids keen to collect candy despite the cold rain pelting down on them! Drip, drip, BOO!

Trick or Treat on the Rainy Street!

Beauty Butterfly

First Candy Collection

A Rainy Blur of Excitement

Wet Bug Handing Out Candy

Luke Skywalker

The Force is Fierce with this One

MOMENT: Return of the Switch Witch

That awesome witch was up to her considerate antics again. Tavish sorted his candy the night before and left much for the Switch Witch to give to her naughty cat. In return, she left Tavish and Keva both with some new treats...