13
September
2007
The computer has been an invaluable tool for us of late. It’s amazing to think about the electronic culture our boys are growing up in, when I never used a computer until I went to university. We’ve been using the computer mostly for two things (in addition to playing music and watching videos). The first is to look up musical instruments and listen to their sounds, and watch animals via live or recorded feeds from National Geographic. And more recently we’ve been doing iChat with the grandparents and aunts and uncles. Using my new MAC with the built in camera makes it so much easier!
When the boys started being able to point out the sounds of instruments in music I thought they might want to see what the instruments looked like and what they sounded like. So off we went to Google images to find trumpets, drums, clarinets, flutes, oboes and violins. Then I found a few sites that also gave sounds for the instruments (although most were midi so they weren’t great), but I also found lots of ideas for specific pieces of music that highlight specific instruments that we could download and they could listen to. So from time to time when they’re listening to music the boys will ask to look at instruments on the computer.
About two weeks ago we started watching feeds from National Geographic from a watering hole in Botswana, Africa. There’s not always much to see and usually it’s antelope. But sometimes there are monkeys, warthogs, and elephants that we have seen. The other day the boys and I were watching an elephant drink and then wash himself. The boys were mesmerized. They still don’t quite understand what’s going on though. Soon Bran ran off down the stairs and came back with a sock, he wanted to help the elephant wash off by rubbing his sock over the elephant on the computer screen. He said “helping to clean”. I think he thought he was drying him off! They’ve also gotten to watch grizzly bears in Alaska and Elephant Seals in California. It’s so amazing! Although what they really want to see more than anything is a lion or tiger come to that watering hole. I think they have a tiny chance with the lion, but there are no tigers in that part of Botswana. I hope they get their wish. Although I’m sure I could just find a video somewhere else, like YouTube.
If you’re interested in the National Geographic site, you can check it out here.
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica
More recently the boys have been “emailing” the family and friends. My mom sent them this great email where she told them about things, like the fact that she works in a castle (this is true by the way), and that they should have their mommy help them look up those things, like what a castle is. And that there was a bat in the castle and that we should look up bats. So off we went to Google images for a look at castles. We actually got to look at the castle where Grandma works which was really neat. Then we went to the bats page. Brandon was so excited, he kept pointing at different pictures for me to enlarge and every time I would go back to the email he would get upset. So we spent a good half hour looking at bats, talking about what bats look like, what colors they are, what their faces look like, their wings, etc. Then he helped me reply to grandma’s email by telling me what colors the bats were that he saw, and other features that he could remember, like that they hang upside down, have eyes and ears, etc. We had lots of fun! Thanks Mom!
If you have any other suggestions of interesting images to look up, send them our way.
Posted: Drew & Bran, Family
12
September
2007
Okay, so I haven’t gotten to post any Mon/Fayette Expressways in awhile. I guess I was due.
Tonight Mike was trying to book a ticket back home for an event he has to attend. We decided it would be a good time to use our Northwest Miles since we can’t use them at Christmas or in the summer (that’s a whole other post!). He finally found some flights that he could use our miles on (all the better flights wanted 37,000 miles instead of the usual 25,000). He found a flight he thought was reasonable even though he already had to stop twice and leave and arrive at awful times, but that’s what you expect from airlines, right?
When he went to book his flight and typed in his address in Canada, the number of miles he had to use jumped from 25,000 miles to 32,000 miles! When he was booking the flight and they thought he was residing in the US it was 25,000, but when it became known that his address was in Canada, the cost jumped 7,000 miles! Now maybe I’m being rash or quick to get angry, but does this seem ridiculous to you? I fly on their airline several times a year. They’re happy to take my money and give me sub-par service, all of which I can actually live with, with only a small amount of complaining. But an exchange rate on miles? Really? Everything you read, says 25,000 Continental US and Canada. To make matters even more exasperating they won’t even take our credit card to pay the fees that they charge to process a ticket using Miles. It has to be a credit card issued to someone residing in the US! I’m just dumbfounded at the ridiculousness of this.
Friends who know me well, I’m sure can picture the frustration seething at the surface. Wouldn’t it be fun to sit and talk with me about this? Ha ha! This, my friends, may be the next Mon/Fayette Expressway. 
Posted: Miscellaneous, My Mon/Fayette Expressways, My Stuff
12
September
2007
or…when balloons make funny shadows.
At 4:30 this morning Mike and I woke up to Noah barking and growling like crazy. We weren’t quite sure what to do. So Mike crept downstairs with me following close behind. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he turns to me and says, “you’ve got to see this.” “This” was Noah barking and growling at one of the boy’s balloons. There must have been some change in the air that caused the balloon to move slightly and Noah just freaked. After chuckling over Noah’s seeming distress and moving the balloon out of sight, we had a chance to think about how we responded to Noah’s barking. Should we have taken a baseball bat with us? What if there had been someone in the house? We decided that Mike, upon seeing them first would have peed his pants and turned around to run upstairs but because I was following so close behind he would have crashed into me and we probably would have gone tumbling down the stairs. Maybe that alone would have scared them away! Or at least caught them off guard. I guess maybe we have to come up with a plan. Although hopefully the only people breaking into our house from now on will be balloons. 
Posted: Edmonton, Family, Miscellaneous
8
September
2007
In one afternoon even! They boys were tired out from swimming, so I’ve had a super long naptime to write. Yay! And since I’ve been a bit behind I thought I would get these out. I have one more I’m working on, but I usually like to go back and re-read them (which is usually the hold up in getting them posted). Anyway, be thankful with me for long naptimes and the energy to hopefully write something coherent!
Posted: Drew & Bran, My Stuff
8
September
2007
Lately the boys have been doing some fun things that have made both Mike and I proud, mostly because they are things that we are interested in!
A few weeks ago when Mike was putting Drew to bed, Bran and I were doing puzzles. Bran gathered up all the puzzles and then started tapping on them. He told me it was his computer. He was working like daddy. So we’ve been sending off pretend emails to grandma, nana and papa. Eventually we’ll get to the real thing, but I’m not quite ready to confuse them over when they’re allowed to touch the computer and when they’re not.
Mike started teaching the boys to play Carcasonne not too long ago. The version of the game is very basic. The boys have to take turns taking tiles out of the bag, they have to lay a tile next to another tile, they may not pick up any of the tiles already on the table! This was been working fairly well, although it’s not a simple as you would think! But it’s music to his ears when his little boys run up to him asking “play a game daddy?”
For my part the boys have taken a real interest in music. They love to listen to music and whenever I have Itunes running on the computer they want to come to the table and just watch the screen and listen to the music (even though the only thing on the screen is a photo album cover). Getting to watch the visualizer is a real treat. They especially like listening to Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Appalachian Spring, and Hoe Down. During Fanfare, whenever the trumpets start playing they yell “trumpets, yay!” Bran is always asking where the flutes are so we wait for the next song to hear the flutes. They also like listening for the elbow (aka the oboe, they even point to their elbows!) Sometimes when I’m trying to get them into the kitchen (either from watching a video or just being distracted with play) all I have to do is put on Fanfare for the Common man, and they literally come running! Dan got the boys the CDs, “Classics for Children with Arthur Fiedler” and Peter and the Wolf. They’re awesome and the boys are starting to listen to those as well.
The other day Drew learned how to play a note on his plastic flutaphone. He can put his right finger over the first hole and take it on and off. He gets so excited that he starts jumping up and down and running for a high five. I wish I could get a video of it!
The boys are also starting to really enjoy swimming. Drew is especially taking to it (although Bran did awesome at lessons today). And often doesn’t mind going under when he jumps off the wall. The boys throw their boats out into the water then jump off into our arms and swim to the boat. Drew really gets his legs going and I think he could almost swim without me holding him if he didn’t panic a little bit when his head goes under. We’ve had fun going to the pool in Becky’s building. This Saturday we start another round of swim lessons. I’ve noticed one problem that Bran might have with moving to the next level which is where they really start to put their faces under and that’s that he can never keep his mouth closed! The boy is a mouth breather and I can’t get him to hold his breath, or even keep his lips together to go under. The instructor suggested that we practice humming. I think he’ll get there pretty soon.
Becky if you read this…when we were telling the boys about going to swim lessons Bran kept saying, “going swimming with Becky!” So now they are learning that our Saturday lessons are with other kids in a class so to distinguish in their minds, Bran keeps saying “going swimming with other kids”. Now hear around the house, “going swimming with Becky” and “going swimming with other kids” usually made in the form of a question so we will tell them which one they are doing!
Posted: Drew & Bran, Edmonton, Family, Friends
8
September
2007
Yesterday I took the boys to this really cool morning of play at the North East Edmonton Gymnastics Club. I met another wife from the department who has been taking her girls to this drop-in morning so I decided to meet up with her and check it out. Basically it a giant room of gymnastics equipment and the kids run around and play on whatever they want. I like that’s it’s not organized because I don’t think the boys could handle, “now we’re going to practice our tumbling…” when there’s a room full of other fun things to play on. Especially when I have them both together by myself! So the boys got to swing on rings and high bars, balance on balance beams, jump on trampolines and run, hop and roll down this long trampoline like run with obstacles for them to run/hop over or around (it probably has an official name). Everything was their height and when it wasn’t (maybe a bigger kid was on it) someone would change the height for us. We haven’t yet got to try the rope swing, the horse, or much of the tumbling mat. But we’ll try that next week. I’ve been getting really anxious about how bad this winter is going to be with them in the house, but now we can look forward to Gymnastics Fridays!
So that was our unorganized activity for the week. Our organized activity is that the boys are taking swimming lessons again. Saturday mornings at Londonderry Leisure Centre. It’s a huge pool with swim lessons going on all morning so the boys can watch the bigger kids having lessons too, which they seem mesmerized by. This place is really cool because they have a teaching pool for the little ones that’s only 2 feet high. The place we were last year didn’t have that. The boys can actually touch the bottom which they think is the greatest, and we don’t have to hold them the whole time which gives them some independence. Today was just getting used to everything so we practiced bubbles and front and back floating. Bran loves to back float and he’s getting very good at it! Drew is getting good at bubbles and will sometimes push off with his feet and semi-swim/float just a short distance, maybe 6 inches until he starts to go under and then comes up sputtering, but not upset. It’s a 10 week class and I think they’re really going to enjoy it.
Posted: Drew & Bran, Edmonton, Family
8
September
2007
The boys went for haircuts again last Tuesday. They whole way there they couldn’t stop talking about going to get a haircut. We go to this fun place where they get to watch cartoons and sit in fun chairs, like 4 wheelers, or jeeps. Once again they totally switched on us. Drew sat in his car, watched his video, and even let the woman put a cape on him. (They’ve never done capes or clippers, it’s always been cut with scissors.) So the first thing she did was put on the cape and the second was get out the clippers. Drew let her clip his entire hair with the clippers without one problem. Toward the end his neck was getting itchy and it was bothering him, but no problems with the cutting. Unlike before when he would have to be held while he was crying.
Unfortunately Bran was taking a tune from the old Drew and he just screamed and yelled “no” every time we tried to put him in chair. Finally I held him and he got a clipper cut too. He finally calmed down a bit when he got to hold a stuffed animal and a lolly pop. Unfortunately after a bit of trimming his lolly pop was covered in hair and then the inside of his mouth, so he screamed about that too. I was feeling really badly until the woman told me that recently she had had to chase a little girl all over the shop to trim the back of her hair! Bran’s a riot though, because after the haircut I asked him to say thank you and was expecting a brief, but nice thank you…maybe. Instead he says “thank you for my haircut”! It was so cute and I think it made the woman’s day after having such a difficult cut.
Now that the boys seem to be okay with the trimmers, I’m thinking about buying a set and just doing it at home. I tried with the scissors and I can’t do it with them, but maybe the trimmers will work and it doesn’t seem like you can mess it up as badly as with scissors. Then…maybe I can do Mike’s too. I bet he won’t notice if I add a little bit of color or gel, what do you think?!
Much thanks to Becky who bravely joined us on this expedition and who was such a great help!
Posted: Drew & Bran, Family
31
August
2007
Monday the boys had a visit to our local health clinic for a dental check-up. Ever since Bran’s teeth came in he’s had brown staining on the bottom ones. No one was able to give us a reasonable answer why until today. According to the pediatric dental hygienist we saw today it seems that both boys, but Bran especially, probably have some extra bacteria in their mouths (not unusual) and because there is a salivary gland just behind the bottom front teeth, that’s probably why Bran has so much staining on those teeth. After a good check in Bran’s mouth it was determined that what was on his teeth was tartar that had gotten discolored, from the excess bacteria in his mouth. She was able to scrape most of it off with her pick and now we’ll start using flouride toothpaste which should help over time clear up the rest. I was super excited! From what we had been told his teeth were just going to be brown until his adult teeth came in. And now they are as white as the rest of his teeth! It was also nice to be reassured once again that we didn’t do anything to cause the staining (not brushing enough, etc.). I also found it really cool and somewhat satisfying to watch them scrape Bran’s teeth and see the tarter pop off. You never get to watch your own teeth being cleaned, so it satisfied a bizarre curiosity I’ve often had. We go back in 6 months to see how things are doing.
Posted: Drew & Bran
13
July
2007
This evening Drew was sitting on my lap trying to tell us something that sounded like “ribbitt.” We were trying to figure out what it was when Bran started saying the word too. Then he ran over to the wall, pretended to take something off of it and give it to Drew. Every time he would hand it to Drew he would say “ribbit” and Drew would yell back “No, ribbit!” In the end we never figured out what it was or whether Bran knew what it was either! But it was lots of fun to watch their interaction and Brandon’s make believe play.
Drew
It’s been so hot here lately and today when Drew got up from his nap he was confused about why there was water on his head. It was sweat. The kid sweats like crazy.
When I put him down for his nap this afternoon, he was pretending to snore. I wasn’t fooled since his eyes were still open!
Lately Drew seems to be suffering from a bit of insomnia when going down to bed or if he wakes up in the middle of the night. He will just lay there for an hour before he falls asleep, with his eyes open the whole time.
Now that we’ve opened the stairs going up, the boys have lots of opportunities for going up and down. The favorite way is to lay on their bellies and slide down, feet first. Drew is really fast! Sometimes I think they’ve fallen down the stairs and it’s just Drew wizzing down. Needless to say they’ve got lots of red knees and elbows and even a rug burn on the belly. But they think it’s great fun and I think it’s a lot safer than when they try to go down normally without holding on to anything.
We’ve been trying to teach the boys how to ask nicely for things using a sentence. Mostly we work on this at dinner. An example might be, “May I have some more broccoli please” (honestly that’s what he’s asking for!). He’ll repeat each word after us or he may remember two words in a row. When he’s finished he claps his hands and yells “Yay!” Sometimes he gets ahead of himself and it might sound like this, “MAY…may I, HAVE…have, please (clap), yay!” He gets so proud of himself. The only problem now is that he thinks if he uses this sentence he can have whatever he wants. Today he wanted a book I was reading, so he climbs onto my lap and says, “May I, please,(clap), yay!” and then tries to take my book!
Andrew is taking a nasocortocoid for the next month. At his 2-year check-up the Dr. noticed a lot of swelling in his nasal passages and that combined with the fact that his nose is small and always stuffy means there’s not a lot of room to breathe. So we’re supposed to watch him for a month and see if his snoring lessens (of course, when he’s faking it, it’s not going to be helpful!) and if he seems to be breathing better out of his nose. He’s always been a nose breather though, where Bran breathes out of his mouth like his dad.
Bran
Brandon has discovered deviled eggs and blueberries, not together of course. He ate 3 eggs yesterday at a friends house and 4 today. He also kept asking for extra servings of blueberries at lunch. They also both ate several pieces of cauliflower which amazed me. I tried giving it to them when they were babies and they refused it. Usually it’s been the other way around, all the food they liked as infants they’re starting to refuse.
The other day we were playing a game where I was asking the boys to touch different body parts. When I got to their cheeks, Bran stopped and said, “rosy cheeks!”
The boys started jumping really well the other day so they were kind of hopping around the house. Then Brandon found a new way to jump. He crouches down then leaps up and falls down on his bum. He thinks it’s the funniest thing ever! Amazingly, he’ll also do it off of the couch. I’m surprised he doesn’t have a sore tailbone, but I guess that’s where a diaper comes in handy.
Brandon still LOVES to play with his cars. He’s still constantly dragging me away from something that I’m doing to “pay cars.” He’s quite forceful in the dragging part too. He especially likes making tunnels with my legs.
I’ve let the boys have ice cream cones a couple of times. Brandon eats the side of his cone first, which is a little problematic, even with a small scoop on top. Drew is really good at licking them nicely until he gets to the cone and then he gets it all over his face.
Bran is having some trouble with his upper molars. They’ve been pretty painful coming in. The bottom ones didn’t seem to be as bad.
Today the boys were playing in the bathroom sink and Bran decided to put his head under the faucet and wash his hair. He also stood in the sprinkler for several minutes drinking the water. He didn’t seem to mind either time that his face was getting drenched.
Words
Both boys have done a pretty good job of pronunciation, but there are just a few words that have been causing us some trouble, a couple are cute and a couple are on the embarrassing side, especially when yelled in public!:-) Here they are:
Firetruck (they do fine with truck, there’s something about combining the words)
Frog (we’re working on calling it froggy)
Kepitch (ketchup). Brandon also thinks all bottles are kepitch so the other day uncle Jeffery was drinking a bottle of kepitch at dinner. We didn’t let him try it.
Tabo (potato). This is now morphing into tato.
Posted: Drew & Bran
13
July
2007
Hot, isn’t it!? This customary summer Japanese greeting seems most appropriate the past couple of days.
Considering we spend half of the year in winter with summers averaging 23 C, not many of us have air conditioning. So several days hovering around 30 C/90 F hasn’t been much fun. I was hoping I could be consoled by the fact that it’s so humid back East, but after checking the weather we’re all around 35%. As Connie would say, boo…!
Well, the pool is filled and ready for the kiddies and the basement has been relatively cleaned up thanks to Jeffery and Holly, so at least we have a few options for cooling off.
Atsui desu ne?!
So desu ne.
Posted: Edmonton
