tumble, jump and balance

We're back to gymnastics as of this week. Delaney has ONLY been begging us to let her go back for 6 months or so. :) She likes dance and will continue until the end but just loves to go to gymnastics. This is a photo of her from last spring doing her favourite activity - the trampoline. Back then I tried to convince Stephen that we should get one, it would be good exercise for us too but no go. Maybe this spring? :) Anyway, the coach called them in and Delaney didn't even turn to say goodbye, she was in there so fast. Totally in her element.

the adventures of superboy

Somehow tonight Dav's shirt ended up like this. He did it himself which made it even funnier I think.
Anyway he started running around the house and I thought he looked like a superhero, barechest and all. After running around for a while he stopped to knock on a door to see if any evil lurked behind it.

p.s. we are all feeling a lot better, except for Stephen...he has a dr. appt later this week.

I told you he's a monkey

Last night at dinner we glance over at Dav to find this.
I knew this day would come.
I knew it was only a matter of time before we had food in the hair.
Here we have 2 banana slices, one from each hand.
Think it was a bad idea to laugh and run and get the camera? :)

sick

We have all been really sick this week. I started feeling crummy last Saturday and I'm still not over it yet. Then Dav was fighting a high fever, then Delaney. Poor Stephen, now he is sick too. Whenever I get sick I always think a lot about things I take for granted. Like getting a good night's sleep, or being able to eat what I want, or just feeling well enough to do stuff. We've been talking a lot about how thankful we are that we don't get sick very often!

baby sign

Well I'm kind of late trying this with Davin since he's already 14 months old but I've been meaning to check out baby sign language for a while now and this week I did a little research. I don't want to teach him a whole bunch of signs, just a few that would make our lives easier and improve Dav's communication. My main concern was that using signs would cause speech delay (e.g. they can sign for what they want so they don't bother talking) but from what I've learned it's potentially the opposite. They actually learn more about language and understand more about how to communicate.

Anyhow, I went here www.signingbaby.com to check out a few signs. I mainly wanted him to learn MILK and MORE. I figured that learning MORE would avoid the usual banging on the highchair tray to tell me he needs more food! :) I wish I had done it earlier, because I think he thinks I'm a little crazy doing this sign all the time but here he is doing the sign for MORE (well, it's not quite right but at least we understand each other - ha ha) He is also doing the cheesy smile because, after all, that's what you do when mommy has the camera. 

cupcakes, mmmmm

So we decided to make valentine cupcakes for Daddy this afternoon. Delaney loves to bake and so she was quite excited. But what are we going to do with all these cupcakes? I guess "Daddy's guys" at work are going to have a treat tomorrow.

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

In honour of Valentine's day, here is a photo of Delaney today with her favourite friend... her pink blanket. :) We're not too sure how we're going to break it to her that pink blanket will have to stay home when she goes to school in the fall!

training him well

This boy is going to make a fine husband some day. :) 

stranger things have happened

Davin has shown a fondness for playing with the remote controls and lately has been experimenting with which things in the house will fit into this ball popper toy. So this is where we found a remote. Apparently the ball popper was not popping balls out because of the various non-ball items he had stuck in there. Later I caught him trying to shove a ring in there. Monkey.

a glimpse into history

I've been spending some time lately looking through old photographs and having them enlarged to put up around our home. I just love looking at them and decided it would make me happy to see them all the time. These are a few of my favourites. Aren't they amazing?

The first one is of my grandparents, my dad's mom and dad. I love how young they are and I love their hats. It was taken around 1932.
The second one is of my grandma Grace (my mom's mom) and her two brothers when they were children, around 1913. I love their clothes and the big bow in her hair.
The third one is of my great-great grandparents on my mom's side, taken around 1900. Their names were George and Jane Cotten.

When I look at these photos I have lots of questions. I wonder what their lives were like at the time. What were their dreams? What was their everyday life like? This is one of the reasons why I scrapbook. I want to remember the stories of what our lives were like. What a treasure it would be to find a scrapbook belonging to one of these people in my photos. I love history and personal history is so fascinating. I want to make sure these aren't nameless photos in a box. I want to make sure that my children know who these people were and that their family is important.

 

need help Daddy?

Dav's new favourite toy is his snow shovel that Grandma S. bought him. It's a close second to the toy broom! For several days he happily used it inside, dragging it along the carpet but now he has moved on to actually shovelling snow! He walks all around the driveway shovelling as he goes (he likes the driveway because he does an immediate face-plant if he tries to walk in the deeper snow in the yard.) For his next birthday we're thinking of buying him a snow-blower.
 

finally!

Davin is a rough and tumble boy through and through. He would much rather pull all the toys off a shelf than sit down and look at a book (much to my dismay). From 6 months old Delaney would sit and look at piles of books, but he is totally the opposite.

Until this week! Finally he's at least holding a book long enough that I can take his picture! I think his previous record was about 4 seconds. Now he's up to a few minutes if it's something really interesting.

And yes, it's February and he has bare feet. What is it with my kids and pulling off their socks all the time??? (but I love to see his little toes!)

the dress

Delaney has a few special dresses that have been worn by all three girls in the Osmond family (both of her older cousins and now D). This one is a cute little Gap dress. It's so cool to look back and see a photo of each girl at three years old wearing the same little dress. And don't ya just love the long braids? :)