Brendans 6th Birthday

Brendan turned 6 today in high style - starting with presents on Mom and Dad's bed (a Lock tradition). He was very happy with all his toys - a Star Wars Lego AT-RT Walker with Yoda minifigure, a fishing rod with tackle box, Transformers Optimus Prime and Bumblebee (whom he sadly has already had to share with his baby brother who followed him around the house sobbing "Bubble, Bubble" until he was allowed a turn with Bumblebee) and a small plastic ball that expands into a creature called a Zooble. I don't get it, but he was thrilled.

We then headed off to the Museum of Aviation in Ottawa to see the special Star Wars exhibit (I booked the day off work). It was blissfully empty on a Tuesday and everyone had a great time. In addition to the large collection of Star Wars memorabilia, the Museum had a few cockpit cutouts for kids to sit in, an ejector seat demonstration that Brendan was chosen as volunteer for, and an innumerable array of planes spread around a football field sized airplane hangar. As museums go, it was pretty much perfect for the babies, who were able to wander while we held on to their backpack handles (leashes essentially), and even for a long while wandered while they held on to each other's leashes. This was great, since they slowed each other down quite a bit. Eventually Harrison lost interest, but Heidi took on the role with rather worrisome gusto, yanking on Harrison's line everytime he tried to stop to look around. I fear this one may be a little bossy.

I apologize that these photos are out of order, an eccentricity of my phone, I guess...



Fighter Pilot Brendan tries on a helmet and air mask for size - He looks just like Maverick from Top Gun!



The kids pose with Anakin's podracer from the Star Wars movies



Brendan with C3PO and R2D2 - Did you know there was actually a guy in each of those suits in the movie!?


Part of Brendan's birthday - we told him he could eat anything he wanted all day long - this is him eating a Tim Horton's sprinkle donut for breakfast



Arriving at the museum of aviation



Brendan loved watching Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield in the Space Station this spring, so we took the photo opportunity of a lifetime! With a cardboard cutout.



Harrison. Frolicking.



Brendan considers his future as a grown up air traffic controller on his first day being 6.



Harrison behind the controls of a Cessna



Brendan attempts to eject himself out of an rocket ejection seat.



The Lock brothers take the Cessna controls together. Pilot and Co - Pilot. Awwwwww.



Brendan was quite excited that he is taller than Yoda.

Happy Birthday to Brendan

Well, we survived. The children survived. The school survived. So we'll chalk that up as a win (after all, as our motto goes; set low enough standards and you'll succeed every time!)

We hosted 19 children for Brendan's 6th birthday party (his actual birthday isn't till next Tuesday) at his school gymnasium this past Sunday. He chose a Lego theme, and I've spent a rather ungodly amount of time wandering around on the internet picking up cool ideas for homemade decorations, goodie bag activities, games etc. so that was fun for me AND the kids.

All the planning in the world however did not prepare me for surprises like -
     #1. Most parents drop their kids off at a party, even if it's not been designated "a drop off party". What a neat surprise that was!
     #2. Most kindergarteners are too distractible to play tag. This little nugget of wisdom was passed on to me by our neighbour, the kindergarten teacher, after I told her what a gong show all my various tag games had been at the party.
     #3. A table of fairly random treats picked up at the bulk barn will turn into the highlight of the party for most of the kids. One child will be overheard at the Candy Buffet saying "Woah! I've never seen so much candy in my whole life!"

So, with respect to the "whole class party" concept - we've now been there, done that and don't feel any need to do it again. Phew!

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole month since I posted last. Rob and I got away on our own while Bob and Gail looked after the 3 kids and 1 dog in Lonsdale for the first weekend in June. We had chosen to go tent camping to our own secret free camping spot in the Adirondacks to celebrate our 11th anniversary and it was total bliss. Highlight - afternoon naps in a hot tent. Lowlight - thunderstorms in a wet tent. Can't win em all!

We had a great May 2-4 up at the cottage too, and tried out hiking and biking as a family unit. It went great! The babies loved sitting in the bike trailer side by side and lasted 45 minutes... until someone took a toy from someone else. That is certainly the stage of life we're in right now; take-cry-cry-take-take-cry-share-stop crying-take something else-cry again... you get the idea. Brendan also loved his trail a bike (an extra bike wheel and seat that attatches on the back of an adult bike), but complained each time Rob coasted "Dad, you can't make me do ALL the work!" Hiking was a great success too. The babies walked for almost a full kilometer until they got tired and we put them up into the hiking backpacks. Honestly, it was a hot enough day, I think Brendan would have been glad to go up in a hiking backpack if one had been available!

We had family photos done, thanks to a gift certificate I won back at last falls Firefighters Ball. As soon as I get them back I'll be sure to post them. The photographer posted proofs to Facebook and they look great. It's very affirming to know however, that even a professional finds it nearly impossible to get a picture of all three of my kids looking at the camera and smiling!

We had a fun visit with Mom and Dad who were back from 5 weeks cruising and travelling in Denmark and Iceland. They collected up their dog Dougald who we successfully converted into a hardy country dog while he was here and who dug a smaller but matching hole beside Blaze's in the front lawn to lie in all day while he stayed with us. Heidi and Harrison missed him dearly after he went. Heidi kept going to the front window and asking Dog? Dog? for days after his departure. We tried to bring Blaze in to point out that we actually have a dog of our own, but she seemed unsatisfied, and Blaze seemed deeply pained by having to interact with someone, so we let him back out each time.

I'm laughing that I had planned to stop doing blog posts and turn this into a Baby Book of sorts for the twins on their first birthday. The updates certainly come less frequently now, but hopefully it lets you keep up to date on some of the happenings here at "the zoo". If nothing else, maybe I will be able to look back at this in 15 years when I can't remember any of these early days (not hard to believe they will be nothing more than a blur) and resurrect these long forgotten stories in my memory. Either that, or I'll have converted all those past memories into those rosy versions that develop over time where the children were calm and happy all the time and Rob and I were carefree and struggled to fill our oodles of free time. In that case, rereading this blog will be terribly demoralizing!!

Another Lost Tooth

A big day for Brendan - Harrison learned how to say "Brendan" today. He was carrying Brendans sweater around saying the same thing over and over, and I finally realized he was calling his brother's name - Mehmehm. We confirmed by asking him to say Brendan (her previously always answered Noooo), and he said confidently "Mehmehm". I'm excited for Brendan but also worried about how confusing this is going to get since I'm "Mahmahm". Life would be so boring if it was easy...

As Brendan rockets towards his sixth birthday, we continue to be reminded how fast he is growing - he came upstairs thus evening holding another list tooth! He's getting smarter by the day too - he told me tonight that he "loves me to the edge of the galaxy and back, and mars too". We should perhaps cut back on the discovery channel before bed...

If you can't thrive, you can at least survive!

Not much to report from our camp these days, work continues daily on the playground, an area the neighbors have begun to refer to as "the park", as in, "ok Michael, do you want to go to the park now?" It's become a real gathering place already. Once we open the pool, which the neighbors already use as a community spot, Rob wants to start calling it the Lonsdale YMCA. Once I open a canteen we can start turning a profit on the whole project...

We haven't done much in this glorious summer weather cause I've been hammered with a sinus/chest infection that just won't quit. We did get up to the cottage last weekend and it went great. It was the first time we'd been up since last fall, and didn't turn out to be as much work as we'd worried it could be. There's still no such thing as relaxing though; note the picture of Rob trying to relax on the couch.

Other than that, it's been just getting through each day. We have a new member of the zoo, my parents dog Dougald, who is staying with us for 5 weeks while they are off on vacation. He's getting used to a very different lifestyle (he is used to sleeping in late, 4 walks a day and not having Heidi try to hug him every time he sits still). The pictures below are just slice of life pics: Heidi playing with her monster trucks and Harrison playing with music books and Dougald watching for intruders!

Changing the landscape

There are days, it is said, which change the entire landscape of your life. Today was one of those days. 

We spent a long week doing the prep work to get our big treehouse/play fort up today (a job nicknamed by our neighbours as The Great Erection), and with the help of a lot of neighbours and a lot of backhoe skill it's up! Like, waaaay up. I had wanted it up high, but it wasn't until it was hoisted in the air hanging precariously from a chain that I realized that I had perhaps overshot my vision for what was needed for a really epic treehouse. But, we were past the point of no return, so I present to you, a truly epic playhouse and a towering monument to the motto Go Big or Go Home!

The Days Are Long

The days are long but the years are short, isn't that how the saying goes? This evening I am dipping into a state of near comatose fatigue, which usually alternates with my regular bouts of functional mania. Rob and I are told regularly "I don't know how you do it". We always agree, "Neither do I".

And yet, life goes on, at the same breakneck pace as always, affording lots of opportunity for fun and adventure. I always feel like the more news there is to tell, the less I post, but I wanted to send a few major updates out there. Harrison is talking up a storm, gaining almost a word a day. Today he said "me" and pointed to himself (in reference to him wanting it to be his turn to give Blaze a treat, not Heidi's). Yesterday he said "food" for the first time, and no great surprise this weekends new word, appropriate for the Easter holiday, was "chocolate" (pronounced "chok-lit???", followed by dazzling, hopeful smile, followed by deep scowl when you try to change the subject). He says "apple juice" which is a testament to how observant a listener he is, since he's never been given juice (he steals the dregs of Brendans abandoned glass though and thinks it's fantastic). Heidi is also talking too, at long last! As I say that I'm trying to think of what words she says, and they're more sounds with lots of meaning attatched, so maybe she's not quite talking, but she's communicating verbally much more.

We had a wonderful day trip to the Museum of Nature a few weekends ago. Brendan is certainly turning into quite a scientist and is expanding his love of natural disasters into a new interest in space recently, thanks to the overlapping topic of the recent meteor impact in Russia. The museum had a special exhibit on natural disasters that we thought Brendan would love, but he's been talking about Blue Whales and Geodes (crystal filled rocks) ever since instead of tsunamis and volcanoes. Apparently he is also working on a special individual project with his kindergarten teacher right now on meteors, I can't wait to hear what comes of that. He's certainly a confident little guy, too. He asked Rob and I recently why planes choose to fly above the clouds instead of below them. I guessed that maybe it was to catch the air currents up high like the jet stream that would help them go faster. He thought about that and then said "I don't think that's right, Mommy. I don't believe that." Confident, check. Slightly annoying, check. Great scientist, double check! Don't worry though, he hasn't outgrown his childhood yet. His favourite thing to do is still play Playstation Star Wars and walk around the house pretending to be "3-CPO" (sic).

Heidi and Harrison have both been sprouting a bunch of new teeth lately too, and have a fairly impressive mouthful. No molars yet, but the rest of the gaps at the front are filling in. Their eating habits have progressed in the last month too, they now feed themselves (if, heaven forbid, you should try to feed them, you will usually get the aforementioned Harrison scowl and a stern, nasal "Nooo"), they love spoons and forks (Heidi's more into spoons, Harrison's big into his forks. They begin each meal with a spoon and a fork each, and they must swap early, because Harrison always ends up with two forks and Heidi has always jettisoned the two spoons - she's a big food thrower). They are also eating from bowls now, which is a big step forward to Mom and Dad because is has really cut down on the finger painting with food. They're very adventurous eaters. Old habits die hard, and we're so accustomed to Brendan's plain tastes that we often make them up a plate of cheese, crackers and grapes etc. just like their big brother is having just to have them throw it on the floor and demand the fajitas we're having. The other day they devoured a lunch of kangaroo sausage and crackers with hummus (it's a long story, we don't eat like that on a daily basis)!

The babies have both learned to jump! And dance, oh my goodness. Harrison LOVES to dance. Loves it. When he hears music he lights up, and starts to groove. He's big into break dancing on the floor these days, after watching Brendan do it once. Heidi has a very delicate one footed prance that she uses as her signature move. We have dance parties when Mommy runs out of ideas on how to entertain all the kids at once.

Easter, the most epic holiday in the Cole family calendar was a blast again this year, with a train ride 3 easter egg hunts, numerous board games, overflowing baskets of chocolate and some very serious egg decorating. The kids also made an amazing blanket fort which flowed through 4 rooms, called Fluffy Town! I'll try and attatch some photos. Great memories! And it is those moments you remember, not the fatigued evenings at home, so here's to selective memories! Cheers!

 

 

Eighteen Months Old

Wow! 18 months! Insert cliche about how fast the time goes here. The twins had their 18 month checkup and amaze us at how fast they are growing! Well, at least some of them are. Harrison weighed in at a very respectable 26 pounds. His head is still disproportionately giant, but so was Brendans. Heidi on the other hand is a very petite 21 pounds (her head is more proportional)! That puts her on the 3rd percentile for growth, but if my memory serves me correctly we also spent most of Brendan's infancy bragging about how good he made the 4th percentil looked, so nobody is too worried.

Everyone we met in the mall, doctors office etc. who had twins said in the early days "Don't worry, it'll get easier..." They lied. Clearly. Every week feels busier and more scattered than than last, but the good news is that we've gotten so used to it that it barely bothers us anymore. Once your reference point for sanity has dissapeared, crazy feels normal! Just as predicted, the twins have starting to play with each other, in all sorts of endearing ways. They chase each other around the kitchen/dining room/living room loop in our house, they sort of-kind of share toys (until they really don't and scream bloody murder). They have begun to give each other random hugs, and kisses (so cute!), slap each other and hump each other (not so cute), share toothbrushes back and forth and put food they don't want on the other's high chair tray. It's a good relationship, one with a lot of give and take, figuratively and literally!

March has been a fairly quiet month, again, and we haven't strayed from home much. Bob and Gail came back from Texas and promptly took all the kids for a weekend, which was crazy, I mean amazing of them. Rob and I went to the cottage to sleep in late, read while sitting down (a real novelty when you live with Heidi, who loves to be held at all times), finish sentences, go to the bathroom in peace and all sorts of other high end luxuries.

The twins are sleeping through the night most nights these days. Yay!!! As a trade off, Harrison has begun to wake up an hour earlier (5:30 am) and wake his sister. He will fall back asleep if we bring him to bed, but Heidi is then up for the day. Not so yay. We've been trying some things, the most effective of which seems to be banishing Harrison to the basement. I feel bad. Until 5:30, that is.

So wish us luck, and wish us spring, just don't wish us peace; it would be far too disorienting at this stage!

Home Improvements

Since we've decided not to do a big trip this year, there's a bit of room in the budget for small (and I do mean small, if my father, who keeps trying to suggest massive additions on the house, is reading this) updates around home.

We started step one in "The Great Spruce Up" this weekend - lighting. After 10 years in our house we decided it's high time we replaced the last 3 original fixtures, and updated 2 that looked lovely in the IKEA show room, but are barely bright enough to bother turning on. Rob installed 2 tonight, and we're really quite pleased. Mostly we're pleased that Harrison didn't ingest any of the hardware while they were going up, not for lack of trying...

A calm February

A calm February, what bliss! I don't have many pictures to post or stories to tell since the Great Tree House Move since we've been staying close to home on the weekends. We've had a few nights and afternoons with friends, a family day at the local rec hall (complete with a "dig in the snow for loonies" event for the kids - Brendan came home with $6! - all charmed from grown ups who took pity on the fact that he hadn't found any), and a lovely weekend with my parents in Port Stanley. The picture below is of Dad showing Brendan the historical archive cupboard which has a vintage diving suit. Brendan announced Friday that when he's a grown up he and Rob will be rescue divers for dinosaurs caught in floods. Heck of an imagination on that kid! Heidi and Harrison really spoiled us this weekend, we had time to play a bunch of adult board games They've gotten to an age where they play quite well on their own given a pile of toys and more and more often we catch them giggling together, playing something on their own like "who can throw the hot wheels car higher" or "listen to the noise when I slap your back". This last one kept them roaring with laughter in the bath for 10 solid minutes!

Seeing Double

I took advantage of a rare weekday afternoon at home and went out for a hike behind the house today with the whole family. We tried the twins out in hiking backpacks. I had a pivotal moment when we were pregnant when we found a hiking backpack on sale. I realized that we only had one, and just like everything else we would need a second. On the other hand I truly could not fathom ever getting the whole group of us geared up and out for a hike. But I made up my mind, right there in the store, and I remember telling myself "Dammit, I WILL leave the house someday" and buying on blind faith that we would find a way to keep up with our previous lifestyle. Well? We did it. We went for a hike. It wasn't a long hike, and we went out of our back door instead of to the conservation area to make it easier, but we did it, and the twins didn't fuss at all (until we got home and tried to have a conversation about where we're going to put the treehouse). Yes, it took longer to get everyone in and out of their gear than it did to do the hike, but, hey, focus on the donut, not the hole, right!

18 Months

The twins are 18 months old, it seems impossible!

 

 You would not believe me if I told you how hard it is to get a picture of two 1 1/2 year olds sitting on the couch, with a bear, smiling and looking at the camera. Well, maybe you would. I included outtake pictures just to help your imagination along in case. But at long last, finally this afternoon, a miracle occured and attempt number 5 at this particular photo shoot succeeded (hence the late post, I've been trying since a week ago to take the obligatory 18 month photo, to no avail).

 

We all have a cold (this will come as very unwelcome news to my parents who we are visiting next weekend, sorry Mom and Dad!). The sheer volume of... er... nasal secretion, that babies are able to produce is astounding to me. Seriously, if snot were valuable Rob and I would be millionaires! The vicious cycle I find is that the more Heidi cries, the more her nose runs. And the more you wipe her nose, the more she cries. It never, ever ends!

 

Mission Accomplished

Wow. Well, 9 hours, 7 guys and a 13 foot high load later, our new tree house arrived safely at our house. It sounds like it was an endeavour of Herculean proportions, but they pulled it off, and the playhouse that now sits in the snow in our back yard is in a surprisingly small number of pieces. We found this treehouse, roughly 10 x 10 and 8 feet up in the air, on Kijiji in Oshawa, for a song (the owner was severing the lot and needed it gone). Our guys managed to cut the top half of the house off, then slide it down into one of the trailers using a set of ramps they built on site (newfie ingenuity, Chris claims). They then cut off part of the deck and ramp and then built a different set of ramps to slide the bottom half of the house and the deck it was built into, into another trailer. The bigger portion was 13 feet high cruising down the highway and was a sight to behold as it pulled into the driveway!

Adventures in Bancroft

We are having a family adventure here in Bancroft tonight. I started coming up here for work once a day in January, but the last few weeks have been putting in very long days, so we decided to come up as a family and stay overnight at the best western here while u do two days of visits. It's been fun at times, a bit boring at times for Brendan, but will make for fun memories every time we drive through; remember that time we swam in the middle of an aqua fit class in that hotel? Remember the time Brendan got an entire large bacon pizza to himself? Remember the awful snow storm that was supposed to snow us in but didn't amount to more than 2 cm? Remember when Brendan learned to play pool in a decrepit hotel arcade room? Remember when we discovered the hotel had an equally decrepit "shop" area with old broken hot wheels cars in an ice bucket for 50 cents apiece?  Never a dull moment!

P.S. Late addition - the snow did amount to a lot more than 2 cm today (now Friday)! Talk about eating crow after scorning the lack of snow last night! We just got home after an awful ride home. Thank goodness for chauffeur husbands and Four wheel drive trucks. We did make it home safe Mom.

Heidis First Haircut

Heidi had her first hair cut last night! Just a quick bang trim, but still a momentous occasion. We had held off for as long as we could, trying to sweep her hair off to one side, but alas, it seems to want to grow straight down over her eyes. She was starting to look like a shaggy sheepdog. We just couldn't allow it any longer. So, we committed her to bangs. And they look very sweet, not at all sheepdog like!

Speaking of milestones, Harrisons vocabulary has gone through the roof. He's a tiny parrot, and repeats all sorts of things; choo choo, wapple (waffle), car, track, gogurt (yogurt), waba (water). Heidi is holding strong with her one multipurpose word; da.

Another milestone over the last month; the babies are playing more and more with wooden trains. As I write, Heidi and Harrison are both sitting on the floor of Brendans room driving trains around a tiny figure 8 track. Where is Brendan? Out at Junior Firefighters! His room really has morphed into what he calls his "playroom room". Now if I could just figure out how to KEEP all the toys in here...