Maturing

I knew my little boy would grow up some day.

Today Brendan handed me a picture he'd drawn. He said "It's a train, farting!" then dissolved into uncontrollable giggling.

Sigh.

Togetherness

First of all, apologies to my mother, who received 10 essentially identical copies of this post in her email inbox before I was able to work out the kinks and post properly. Blogger has been refusing to post photos from my phone for a week, but I seem to have it sorted out now. Sorry, though, mom.

It's actually been a lovely January, with lots of endearing together-y moments. There's also been loads of moments of babies crying and 5 year olds yelling etc. etc. etc. but we've gotten quite used to those moments, so the endearing moments stand out because they're more unique!

Rob has had a productive month around the house, fixing fans that have been broken for months and installing baby latches on cupboards we've been fighting to keep the babies out of for twice as long. There's something about the start of a new year that gets you all fired up. I'm actually doing remarkably well at my obscene list of 28 New Years resolutions. I think I've only missed 6 at last check. Either that speaks volumes for my own productivity, or volumes for my ability to set easily attainable goals (ie. Read more. That was easy. I hadn't read in months, so reading one chapter of my new Stuart McLean book easily accomplished that. Done, and done!) As I always say, if you're not happy with your life, lower your standards (:

 

Harrison is showing more and more interest in trains every day. He continues to be absolutely fixated with anything Brendan does, and will now quite happily push a train around a wooden circle track making "brooom" noises. It fills me with joy to see the circle repeat itself. The sentimentality of it all seems totally lost on Brendan who only seems happy about it because it gives him one minute of respite from having to protect his other train tracks from his little brother.  Heidi also has joined the world of vehicular play and now enjoys driving hot wheels cars around just like her brothers. This will make buying toys for the children much simpler. Mom is pleased.

 

Brendan has made a huge leap forward in his spirit of sharing this month and decided that he wants the twins in his room (well, until he wants them out... RIGHT NOW!). They are thrilled to bits and seem to love being in his room. Here they are playing playstation together. Brendan is in charge of the controller. Harrison is in charge of falling off the toy box. Heidi is in charge of crying for no conceivable reason. They all do their jobs very well.

 

Brendan is now a big boy (just ask him, he'll confirm it) and so he has graduated out of the race car bed he's been in since he was almost 2 up to the top bunk in his room. My little boy!!

 

More sweet togethery moments; we were up to Barrie a couple of weeks ago to visit Uncle Mike and Uncle Tara's new house (don't ask, I have no idea how the double Uncle gambit started, but Tara and I find it hilarious, so it's stuck). While the rest of the crew worked hard at renovations the 4 kids had a "too precious for words" time playing restaurant. For an hour Brendan made up plates of healthy wooden sandwiches from a wooden food set with baby puffs on the side and then brought them over to the babies who devoured them (the puffs, not the wooden sandwiches). I asked if I should come in and order a sandwich to which he replied "No, you're the one who cleans the store". Hmmmmm.

 

 

Is there anything better than babies in a tub?

The twins still don't have many words.

For example, Heidi's massive vocabulary includes 

Da, meaning Dad,

Da, meaning Dog

Da, meaning Done

Da, meaning Doll

Da, meaning That

Ba, meaning Bottle

Ba, meaning Book

and Ba, meaning Sheep (smelly sheep, her favourite bedtime animal).

Their comprehension astounds me however; you can say to them "would you like to go have a bath?" and they will run down the hall and beat on the bathroom door. This afternoon Rob asked Heidi to go give Harrison a bottle of water he had handed her and she left the kitchen, ran down to Brendan's room and handed it to him. Nice! Now we just have to teach them how to get their own bottles out of the fridge and we'll be all set!

Christmas Photos

At last, I'm getting a few Christmas photos posted up. Harrison and Heidi were on their best behaviour this Christmas. I was daunted by having to chase the mischevious little munchkins around not 1, not 2 but 3 unbabyproofed homes (Ripley, Port Stanley and then the condo we rented for New Years), but they really didn't seem to search out the trouble they do at home. There was minimal climbing on tables, only the occasional stroll around the dining room with the formal silver (Harrison liked carrying it around and Heidi liked putting things in the sugar bowls - this went double for both parents places) and Heidi only slapped Grandads ground level flat screen TV a few times a day. We'll just say alls well that ends well, and the only damage done seems to be a mysteriously missing nutcracker at my Mom and Dad's that is most likely in the aforementioned silver sugar bowl.

Heidi and Harrison welcome another Christmas season with Aunt Debbie's Christmas Eve potluck dinner.

Annual Lock Family Portrait

The Lock Family Christmas Tree. With a few families absent this year, you would think the usually gargantuan pile of presents under the tree would be less gargantuan. You would think...

Brendan was thrilled with everything Christmas morning, including his Incredible Hulk Foam Smash Fists.

Heidi's bed head on Christmas morning was impressive. What product does she use? 3% milk, drizzled slowly into the roots throughout the night, try it for yourself!

Annual Cole Family Portrait

Harrison's first encounter with snow was... chilly. He got the hang of just sitting in the snow and not trying to walk around after this. Good choice.

 

The kids all had a great time playing in the huge snowfall we got on Boxing Day.

 

We kept the babies cozy. And immobile.

 

Wyatt (Brendan calls him Widgee), Rowan and Brendan carving up the toboggan slope. It was a wonderful year for cousins; Brendan still idolizes Wyatt, but is becoming great buddies with Rowan lately too!

About those pictures...

Home at last, after 11 nights on the road. What a wonderful Christmas and New Year's!

My goal for the night was to upload my christmas photos for posting. I have an issue though. One of my resolutions last year was to stop taking 6 pictures instead of just taking 1. It makes the uploading, editing, sorting, rotating process significantly more time consuming. So, how did I do? Epic fail. 300 pictures for Christmas alone. This is where we come to the dilemma. One of my resolutions for this year was to go to bed earlier. If I accomplish my goal of posting pictures I'll be starting the year off already failing badly at my resolutions again. So instead, goodnight, we'll catch up soon and I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years!