Hello to everyone who has been diligently checking this to no avail! I am so sorry, not even sure what happened there. Somehow our lives went from really calm to really busy but, isn't that how it always happens!So lets see what is new in our land. Well, wedding plans are well on the way so stat tuned for that! That has been pretty consuming for me especially lately. Judd is doing the same old thing, taking care of his family and being a great dad and companion, so I guess he's pretty boring but we like him here! He is extremely busy at work lately but still manages to make it home for dinner every night so I get the best of both worlds!
Aidan is getting to be pretty busy. He attended a birthday party for one of his daycare friends and now we are getting requests for Aidan to come over for "play dates" at some of his friends homes. Judd gave our phone # out to a few of the parents so I guess we'll be doing some community mingling soon. We also registered Aidan for Kindergarten and I have to say it was definitely more than we expected. Judd came home with books full of information on how to prepare Aidan and what type of programs the school offers. They even make up welcome packages including a CD of all the french songs his teacher will sing with them so that he can learn them before he starts! We signed him up for the morning class as for some reason Judd and I both agree that we seem to have a greater attention span in the a.m. so we figure like father (and mother) like son right??? We also signed him up for the literacy program to get a start on early reading, it's really quite neat. A representative comes to the house 4 times over the summer and brings books and activities for Aidan to do with us and then they evaluate how well he took to it. The St.James school division is most focused on literacy, nutrition and physical activity which is good because I even remember when I was in school these programs started to lack in quantity and quality. We have to pay extra for the music program as they have cut funding in this area so that is unfortunate, but at least they've found a means to keep it and if we have to pay extra then so be it...music is VERY important!
He is also registered for swimming lessons at Pan Am Pool starting in April which he is so excited about I finally got around to signing him up! Today Judd went down to the community center to register him for soccer as well! I was so excited I kept calling him from work..."did you go yet, did you go yet?" finally at about noon he got sick of me and went down to our community center. They asked if he wanted to be the coach! I think it would be great for him to do! He told them if no one else wanted to he would do it so I have my fingers crossed! All the mom's there apparently (Judd's side of the story) smelt fresh meat and were all over the "hot new dad in the community" as he tells it......hmmmmm? Anyway don't exactly know when soccer starts up but we are so looking forward to it, hopefully some of you can make it out to a game, should be entertaining!New things Aidan is doing are: counting in spanish, counting to 60 in english (when he gets a stick on tattoo we make him count until he can take it off.) Saying "bonjour" to the teachers at his school and he has started to do some chores to earn money so that he can buy a new video game that he saw at Costco. He cleans his room, helps with dusting and helps put away groceries. He is quite happy to help us and we are enjoying it because we expect it doesn't last that long!
We figured out why Ichabod is getting so darn fat...he eats the "large breed" dog food now on top of his own food. Needless to say we now put a lid on the dog food container! Kneesaa is getting happy as the cold is letting up a little and she has been able to go on more walks!
I managed to make it out to St.Pierre for my doula workshop and it was so much fun! I learnt more than I could absorb and watch way to many videos of birth up close and personal. At the beginning I was watching the videos and in my mind I was like "not sure this is for me, this isn't too pretty" but by the end of the weekend I was tearing up every time I watched one so yes I think I am cut out for this after all! I signed up for an accelerated course in April which will allow me to get clients through and organization called MACFE and then after 3 births I will be certified and can start my own Doula business! I'm only planning on taking one client a month and see how that goes so it definitely will be more of a hobby than a career of any sort until I make the decision to really dedicate myself to it. So I am still reading the books and studying the birthing culture and surely beginning to become a "birth junkie" as they call it in the birth community. Other than that not too much going on with me, working living and loving is about all I do these days!
So I guess that is it we are all caught up now, again sorry for the delay...time got away from me there! I will ensure to update more frequently now that I am back in the groove! Hope everyone is happy & healthy. I've attached some candid shots of the fam...enjoy!Love Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneesaa & Ichabod
Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well and keeping warm!
Just a quick post a little update on what our pride and joy Aidan is up to these days and a few snap shots of the kids!A few weeks ago Aidan was in his room drawing and he came out with a picture for me. Assuming this was going to be the regular array of colorful scribbles I was prepared for my proud yet somewhat repetitive reaction of "wow that's beautiful.....what is it?" To my surprise when I looked at the picture for the first time I knew what it was! It was PEOPLE!!!! I didn't know who and frankly didn't care I snatched the picture out of Aidan's hands and gave him a big hug, ran to show Judd what our son had accomplished! I was literally on the edge of tears with pride. As proud parents do, I have attached a single person drawing that he did that same evening...I think this one is his Papa Jim.
Today was one of my days off so Aidan stayed home for some quality one on one time with me. Little did he know that I had been eagerly awaiting time alone with him so that I could teach him to write his name (or get some practise with the letters anyways) Not to say that I don't have faith in how quickly he can learn but I figured this was going to be at least an hour long event and did not expect him to get it down but, rather make some good progress. I ensured to provide a nutritious lunch and some lined paper and we began. I promised him that when he could accomplish writing his name A-I-D-A-N in full without help from me I would give him $20.00 that he could use to purchase his first Game Boy game using his own money, we shook on it and began. I figured first I would get him to spell his name out loud....check, then maybe see if he knew how to draw an A....check o.k for sure he didn't remember the "i" I taught him about a week ago....check. Now he didn't know how to write a "d" so I told him (did not show him) draw a circle with a line going up from it....and so again check, then another A....check and now an "N" one line up, one line down, one line up....this one I had to show him...once, check. So I was pretty blown away and a little nervous considering I did not have a $20.00 bill on me as I was not expecting this type of progress. I asked him if he thought he could do it without any help from me and he said "o.k." and then like before A-i-d-A-N with no help at all! Then his little hand went out and I gave him five and he said "No, can I have my 20 dollars now please!" I had to give him an IOU, needless to say I'll be hitting the ATM tomorrow morning so I have it for him when he gets home from daycare! We called Judd and Aidan told him what he had done and then did it again 3 times for Judd when he first walked in the door. I started to wonder if maybe he had been practising at daycare and he said no only the "A" and he couldn't wait to show his leader what I had taught him today....hmmm o.k so I get to be the hero!
I was quite amazed with our little one as he is like a sponge lately more than he ever was before.
Aidan's vocabulary becomes more impressive each day as well. Some new words that he is saying lately are: Guilty, Meteor, Universe, Intelligent, Thousand and now always asks us if we "noticed" things. I am really happy with the Assiniboine Children's Centre and how much they are focused not only on academics but on healthy living as well. Aidan is learning a lot about exercise and eating healthy and knows what is "good for you" and what is not with foods. Today I made him crackers with peanut butter and he told me he only wanted the peanut butter because the crackers aren't good for your body. I guess it's a good thing Judd and I are back into our healthy eating and exercising because from the sounds of it the next thing they're going to teach him is about how "love handles" aren't good for your body either!
Judd and I are pretty boring lately, like I mentioned we are both trying to eat better and exercise daily to maintain a healthier attitude about life for Aidan and ourselves. We are gearing up for Aidan's kindergarten orientation and registration next week and looking into which activities we want to put Aidan into (music, swimming, martial arts...so many to choose from!) I am getting ready to go to my Doula workshop this weekend and get that started up again which should stimulating. That's about it for all of us, nothing fancy yet...hopefully our year will get a little more exciting soon otherwise this Blog is going to start fading away. I'm sure something will come up soon as we don't tend to stay low key for long!
Oh and Ichabod is really fat now as you can see from the picture....he maybe should also consider changing his eating habits!
Take care everyone,
Love Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneesaa & Ichabod
Well 2007 hasn't been the most exciting so far.....I had just finished reading a magazine and realized I hadn't posted in 16 days now simply because there has been nothing interesting to say really. Our lives seem to be at a stand still which is usually what I hope the most for, however not conducive to keeping up a weekly rant about your family life. Here goes nothing I will try to make the past few weeks as exciting as I can for your entertainment!
Judd and Aidan did attend Ukrainian Christmas a few weeks ago with the Gawronsky's which proved to be a great time for both of them. I opted out of going as January 1st I caught the dreaded disease going around and have yet to fully recover from it and I also had to work on the Sunday as my work schedule is getting less and less favorable as my length of employment becomes longer. It worked out for the best as I was able to take down our Christmas decorations (far overdue) and it allowed Judd and Aidan to spend the whole weekend there as originally planned (before I had to work). They experienced the traditional 13 (I think) meatless dishes Judd saying the Borscht (spelling?) was his fave and Aidan helped make stuffing (or so I saw pictures) and had fun opening some more Christmas gifts. Later Josh and Joey had a contest to see who could lay in the snow in their underwear the longest which I was also privileged to see pictures of (and haven't had a good nights sleep since....) Apparently that was not tradition per say but may become one in the future considering how entertaining it turned out to be!
We also attended my God Daughters 2nd birthday party which was one of life's little pleasures to see such a beautiful darling finding her individuality. She was quite the hostess for the entire event and we loved sharing that day with her for sure! It is nice for Aidan too that more people we know have children now as apparently when we had him others were forbidden to have children??? He always enjoys a good birthday party and is still reaping the rewards with the infamous "goodie bag" he received!
As for Mr. Aidan he is doing well, however we have found him to be a little bratty lately and have had to resort to some of our old disciplinary tactics (counting to 3 and taking away a precious toy) It seems like so long that we've had to resort to these measures however it appears he is entering a stage where his independence is very important to him and he does not like to be told what to do (eating, sleeping, personal hygiene, manners, bed time). Hopefully it will not last too long as the rolling of the eyes, back talk and stomping of the feet is getting tiresome quickly. I don't think we can start the whole "Santa won't bring you presents" speech yet so I am unsure as to how much leverage we really have!
Yesterday Aidan became a target for abuse at his daycare and needless to say I picked him up only to find an "incident" report in his mail slot. He had been punched in the back hard enough to leave a mark and pushed into a bookshelf....poor little guy. He stuck to his guns though and did what we told him, told the bully he didn't like that (confront your attacker) and the 2nd time it happened went and told a leader (get the jerk in trouble!) Didn't hear anything today so it appears the bully has regressed for now.
And all that's left is that it is so frigging cold that I went grocery shopping today and forgot my mitts at home so I had to buy a new pair to load the groceries and then waited for Judd to come home to unload them as I was too big of a suck to do it myself...decided to put an attached garage on my to-do list, and mittens on a string! The sweet luxury I had of leaving 15 minutes before my shift at work and getting there 10 minutes early has come to a bitter end as they have moved to a building on Osborne St. Now I have a parking stall at my mom's new apartment on Corydon and then a 15 minute walk to the new place...better than taking 2 buses I guess but not if it stays this cold! My sister in-law says it's funny how when I started this job I was all gun-ho and now when someone asks me how work is going I say "it's work" it has officially become "just a job" however I am not complaining as it is indeed a job and a job is what I needed!
We are also in the beginning stages of planning a wedding, and no not for someone else, ours! It will be abroad somewhere undetermined and more information will be shared as it is known, however you can guess that we are very excited to be finally taking the steps towards making this thing "official". I think after a child, a cat, a dog, a mortgage, a car payment, joint loans and credit cards we are finally ready to commit and yet I don't think we left much of an option not to there!
Anyhow....there are no pictures, I checked the camera and only found New Years ones so that will be my resolution for 2007....to take more pictures! I can add that to the multitude of other resolutions I've made (I like to think if I have a lot of them the odds are better I can stick to 1!) I did however accomplish last year's which was to quit smoking and I celebrated my 1 year quit anniversary on January 9th and am only back up to a pack a day (Just kidding, haven't even touched one!) so a little pat on the back for me is in order and trust me I've given myself plenty already....feels good to breath!
Hope you are all happy and healthy in mind, body and spirit.....or on your way to getting there!
Love; Judd, Sarah, Aidan, Kneesaa & Ichabod
