The sun is still shining so you KNOW where we spent our day!

As I was snapping these pictures of Davey, I wondered why I was bothering. I absolutely love him in this toque and his ringer shirt/vest combo, but since we were heading to the beach I didn't know why I wasn't waiting to get the picture there (though I love how he was playing with little Doc and big Doc on our car. He had a whole little monologue going about them).

We drove the whole way to the beach, I pulled into the parking space, grabbed my camera, unlocked the doors, and....

he puked. All over his clothes. Poor kid. He insisted he was fine for playing at the beach though, so after we cleaned him off we tentatively set off for the sand and surf.

Every time I asked if he was okay, he'd give me a withering look and insist, "I'm great" so we ended up staying all afternoon. We had so much fun.

I peeled off my shoes and socks (mostly cause Davey charged through the water to a sandbank and I had to follow) while Andrew and Elisabeth stayed on shore.

Yah, isn't this gross?! Even David thought so.

Libby's getting better at standing by herself. And wants to do it all the time. Which reminds me, today she got from a sitting position to a crawling position and vice versa. Two separate incidents. Maybe she'll move yet.

On our way back to the village for lunch.

David started with a first course of Tiger Ice Cream. Blame his father.

Sooooooo good.

Then we had fish'n chips. Elisabeth watched me dip a fry into ketchup, reached over with her fry (which she'd previously stolen from off my plate) and dipped it into the ketchup by herself and ate it. She is way too clever. Dipping fries and not even 8 months old. I'm impressed.

Since Davey's socks were wet I insisted he ride in the stroller inside my fleece. He looks so little and vulnerable in this picture. I'm kind of glad - he's been looking too grown up lately for my liking. I want him to be my baby at least until school starts!

Learning to use a fork.

Lining up all his racing cars and trains to watch him eat his dinner. I love the look on Big Doc's face.

More Fun in the Sun: Friday

Hmn, I can't remember what exactly we were doing in this picture. I think maybe I told Davey to roar at the camera? What I do know is, this was not a tantrum. But Holey Hannah, does it ever look like one!

I have been most blessed through Davey's Second Year. He learned to communicate very well and very quickly, so he hasn't had the frustrations of not being able to make himself understood. He is a very peaceful and sweet boy, so none of the bratty freak outs. And he doesn't have a tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants. The worst we've had to suffer is whenever he's near a Thomas The Train Table (you know, like in Chapters in the kid's section, where they have the toddler-sized table with the full train tracks/village and all the trains). He's fine until you try to take him away from it, then he cries with all the passion he doesn't always let you know he's full of.

Speaking of passion, here's Elisabeth, mellowly munching on her fishy.

Jade refused to go home on Friday, who could blame her, they were only coming back again after Ashlie was picked up from school. I love when she's over because she's such a good helper with my kids. She totally mothers them and loves giving them pushes on the swing.


Elisabeth laughing:
I absolutely love this picture because she looks so big and so small at the same time.

Jade, making Davey laugh and giving him great pushes.

Thursday Evening:

So to continue the festivities of Andrew's birthday, we decided on Taco Bell for dinner, DQ for desert and to show daddy the new park we found. (as a small aside, when you haven't eaten in four days, and you're not sure if you're better or not, Taco Bell is NOT a smart choice for your first meal...)

Taco Bell is ALWAYS busy. But we finally secured provisions and ate them. And DQ now has single portion treats in their freezer section. So you can buy a "cupcake" or a slice of birthday cake. Great for us since if we buy a whole birthday cake we just have to eat it all.

At the park, Elisabeth headed straight for the trucks. She's really into driving these days.

While Davey headed for the big, six passenger truck. "Come on everybody! Let's go!"

This is the emergency escape route. There's also a little picnic area on the bed of the truck. cool.


Tinky just wants to stand these days. So here she is standing and playing with the stones on the bed of the truck. She can't quite balance to hold herself up (though she's getting better). I imagine all this standing she's doing is what made me dream she learned how to walk last night.

Daddy takes tinky down the slide. Wheeeeee!

A wee bit of catching up to do...

So, I was complaining earlier that I couldn't get Blogger to upload my pictures. Tonight when I went to try there was suddenly this message telling me how much of my capacity I had used up in pictures. Well, I know that since I've had to switch computers, cameras and photo editing programs, as well as the method I've been using to post my pictures on Blogger, that my photos have been ginormous. So, I finally had the impetus to figure out how to edit my photos and make them a tad smaller. The only crummy part is now I have to edit the size on all my photos, then save them to their orientation before I can post them on here. SUCH a tedious process. Though you'll notice I still posted ten trillion pictures. It's actually about ten trillion less than I had planned on posting. Some of you are thanking God for small mercies.

MONDAY:
Well, Monday was the first day I was ill. The kids were both still pretty sick with their colds as well, so about half way through the day Andrew came home to help take care of us all. Here's a picture of tinky singing sometime Monday morning.

She has moved down from two naps a day to one long one. So here she is in the morning playing in her room. I think this is right before her nap. Tired little girlie.

After Andrew came home, I thought some fresh air might do us a little good. My plan was to sit on the grass with my camera while Andrew played. Unfortunately Davey has decided lately that he will not listen to the words, "Stop", "Wait", "come here" or anything like it. And he likes to run away. So I spent a lot of time that afternoon chasing him.

Jade on the other hand was good as gold. And absolutely gorgeous.

Here's Davey pushing Jade down the slide because she was taking too long getting down on her own.

And she shot right off the bottom on to the gravel. Luckily she thought that was funny.

She thought this was funny too.

Davey was terrified of the merry go round when I brought him and tink here last week. This week there were other kids plus daddy and Jade so he thought it was a lot more fun.

The other boys at the park were a bit naughty and were doing things I didn't want Davey doing. He was watching them with the cutest look of wonder and awe on his face. But when I told him I didn't want him throwing rocks (or some of the other things the boys were doing) they started throwing rocks at me! Even though I wasn't talking to or near them. He didn't seem to think that was particularly clever, but he was a little too impressed by them for my liking.

It's a hard road when you're trying to teach a toddler rules and limits and how to listen to mum and dad and there are other kids there playing who have no such boundaries themselves. This is when I want to move to Alaska and home school my kids. But they're going to have to learn how to listen despite peer pressure some time. I guess rock throwing at two is as good a place as any to start... ;oP


Earlier Jade had fallen while pushing the merry go round. That impressed Davey so much he decided to pantomime it later.



TUESDAY:
Another glorious day! We felt so blessed. And we grabbed the camera and some blankets and went outside for more fresh air.

By this time I was really sick and not eating anything - and too scared to drink either. Andrew came home to watch the kids while I tried to sleep off my flu.




WEDNESDAY:
I decided we would do a Jewish birthday for Andrew. From Sundown the night before till Sundown the day of his birthday. So yesterday I spent most of the day cooking. Here is Elisabeth helping with the baking. She held the bowls and tested the brownies.


THURSDAY:
Happy birthday to daddy!

Sometime this week Elisabeth decided it wasn't enough to cut out a nap, she was only going to nap for an hour a day! Poor mummy! Either she's teething or she's been having so much fun she doesn't want to waste any time in sleeping.

Here she is taking her big brother for a ride in her taxi-train.



Later we connected the two vehicles with a bungee cord and Davey drove up and down the driveway with Tink in the wagon.

She loved it, but Davey didn't like the extra effort of pulling her up the slight hill (well, she does weigh about 20 pounds, so I don't blame him!!)

This picture is for you mum. Tinky after I took the camera away to take a picture. I'm going to have to give her my old broken one to play with so I can use mine (erm, Dave's).

Popsicle time in the playground downstairs. YUM!


Andrew and his co-workers had a work lunch that happily coincided with his birthday. So we decided to go for our own power lunch in Cloverdale. This is the mural they've painted on the tack shop next to the McDonald's Drive Through.

We took our lunches to a nearby park I discovered this week and had a bit of a play.


Davey was terrified of this bridge, but Dante, another little boy there, soon had him walking quite proudly across the bridge, "wook at me! wook at me! I cwever boy!!"


Once we were all played out, we kidnapped Andrew to take him for coffee at the Chapters-Starbucks. He had this yummy chocolate-chocolate cupcake.
And davey finished his McDonalds.


Oh! There's more to post yet, but I think this'll do us all for now!