11
July
2007
Mike’s brother Jeffery and his wife Holly have just left after spending the week with us. It was a great visit and we always enjoy getting to see them. Only now I think we’re all going through withdrawal. The boys are missing the constant attention and I’m missing the extra bodies to give them that attention. The boys are missing the acrobatics that ensued when uncle Jeffery played with them and looking up diggers and cars on auntie Holly’s computer. I’m missing extra hands to clean up after meals, make meals, hands to keep the boys occupied while I did some laundry, actually put up photos (I think I’ve finally caught up!) and even take a nap! Plus with all the extra people around we actually got to go do some fun things too! We took a walk to the Portuguese bakery (unfortunately they were out of custard tarts, sigh…), we took Noah to the puppy park and he got to swim in the river (the boys did a little swimming too! 
and Noah even got the mats cut out of his fur and several brushings), we went on a bike ride, and took the kids to the play zone at WEM where they ran up stairs and slid down slides. Anna and Joel watched the boys so the four adults could get a break and we went to an U-20 FIFA match (Canada vs. Austria and Chile vs. Congo) which was awesome, Becky came by on short notice and watched the boys while we went and played 18 holes of disc golf. The weather was horrible for golfing, but it was still a lot of fun. I haven’t gotten to play since Christmas and only a couple of times since the boys were born. We also stayed up way past our bedtimes and talked or played games.
So now, it’s time to get back to our normal lives but we’re all going through family withdrawal. At least we get to look forward to my mom’s visit in a few weeks!
Posted: Edmonton, Family
3
July
2007
…You might have 3 policemen and a CSI taking photos and fingerprints inside of it!
“I’m sorry, do you have to show the judge those photos of my bedroom?”
You are probably wondering what on earth I’m talking about and honestly I’m still feeling a little off kilter as I write and wanting to type faster than my brain is working. So here’s the story to the best of my ability.
Thursday night Bran had a rough night of sleep with molars cutting and a cold. So around 6am when I heard someone in my bedroom I told Bran to go back to bed. Then my brain turned on and I remembered that there’s a gate over their door and there was no way he could be in my room. Mike says the next thing he remembers is me shouting, “Who are you and why are you in my house!”. Upon realizing that is was not, in fact, Brandon, I put on my glasses and found a man, not 5 feet from me, pilfering through an empty suitcase in my bedroom! The first thought that went through my mind was, “what if he won’t leave?” Mike jumped over the bed and between the 2 of us we chased him down the stairs to the front door. (If you’re not familiar with Edmonton, 6am in June is bright daylight. So this was not a middle of the night break in, this was ‘Hi, I’m breaking into your house in the middle of the day with you in it.’) As we got to the door we both noticed that he had our laptops and power cables. We both shouted for him to drop them. He said he had a knife and would use it if we came any closer (we never saw one and his other hand was on the door), but it didn’t seem to be the wisest thing to push it. So when he ran out the door, Mike ran for the phone to call 911. I ran to the sidewalk to see which way he went and we were able to tell the police the direction he fled and what he was wearing/looked like.
While we were waiting for the police to come (which was all of about 5 minutes), we searched the house to see if we could figure out where he came in. All the doors and windows on the first floor were locked and I knew for certain I had locked the front door when we went to bed. The police did a search of the house and discovered that he had come in through a window in the basement which is underneath our deck! It also has bars on it, which he managed to bend until it broke (even stranger, we can’t actually find the bars he broke through, they are no where to be found!). He also left muddy footprints all over my carpets which is I am really annoyed about! The police brought a dog which was able to pick up the guy’s scent and found him a few blocks away, our laptops had been dumped in the mud. We got them back and they work just as well as they did before. Apparently ours wasn’t his only break in that morning so it seems they have a good case, plus they’re waiting to get back the info on the fingerprints they lifted from the window he came in through. Hopefully that will give them an open and shut case. They’re telling us it may be 6 months to 2 years before it goes to trial and we’ll have to testify.
It wasn’t until later in the day that the whole episode really started to filter through. Before that I was too busy being embarrassed about the state of my house (who expects to have police officers walking through your house and taking pictures?) and showing the boys the police cars, and keeping them out of the CSI guy’s dusting powder! They thought he was the coolest thing. They kept trying to open his kit and when they weren’t allowed to do that, they tried to carry it around the house for him.
I was so impressed by the quality of the Edmonton Police Department. They arrived quickly, they got the dogs out and apprehended the suspect within 20 minutes. They were so nice to us and patient with the boys, and the CSI guy came within an hour and half (they told us it could be any time that day) and actually seemed to know what he was doing and found some prints (unlike CSI’s in other cities that I’ve heard about… wink, wink… Holly and Jeffery). I still have my moments of freaking out and it’s hard to remember everything that happened since I was woken out of sleep, which really kind of bothers me. But, we are super thankful that everyone is okay, and it helps that in the end we got everything back.
Now, for those of you who know me well, do you think I’ll be able to keep my house clean just in case? Probably not! And let’s pray it never happens again.
Mike: The whole story is much longer than this… and quite a bit funnier. It manages to involve a naked man (not in our house), a leather couch, women’s jeans, a red football jersey, someone else’s porch, and a photo lineup. Make sure you ask Shayna for the full details.
Posted: Edmonton
28
June
2007
Last night Mike and I went to see Kellylee Evans at the Yardbird during Jazzfest. I have to say this was an AMAZING performance! Kellylee is an incredible singer, her voice is beautiful and she exudes joy and life both during her performances and in person. I highly recommend listening to her. She even had us dancing at one point!
Kellylee was nominated for a 2007 Juno for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Someone else you might also be interested in is one of the members of her quintet. Guitar/trumpet/piano player Kevin Ramessar. Another awesome musician, originally from Alberta I might add. He opened for her and played intermission. I have never enjoyed watching someone play the guitar as much as I enjoyed him. It was mostly acoustical stuff and I was entranced by his music and his style. His performance of Kairos, was the best of the evening.
The night ended with the best cover of Imagine that I have ever heard. This was an AWESOME birthday present. Thanks honey! And thanks Lims for braving bedtime with the boys and giving us a late night out!
Here’s some websites to check out Kellylee and Kevin Ramessar.
Posted: Edmonton, My Stuff
25
June
2007
Not quite yet, but it’s fun to see how the boys respond to changing things around a bit.
The boys have been climbing over the gate that blocks off the upstairs. So we opened them up today and put some locks on the doors that are up there. They had so much fun going up and down. They even took their vacuum (their popper) up and cleaned their room! I have to say it’s soooo nice not to have to climb over that gate every time I want to go upstairs! My living room even feels a little bit bigger.
Tonight we put Drew to bed first, he goes down better when Bran’s still up than Bran does when Drew’s still up. But Brandon didn’t want to be downstairs without Drew so he kept trying to go up the stairs (and now he can with no gate), so I had to find activities to keep him busy until Drew fell asleep. Finally Drew was asleep and Bran just couldn’t wait any longer, so I started asking him some questions to make sure he really wanted to go to sleep and not just bother Drew. “Are you ready to go to sleep?”, he nods. “Are you ready to close your eyes and lay down?”, at which point Bran responds by closing his eyes and climbing the stairs with his eyes closed tight shut. It was so funny! We kept waiting for him to open his eyes but he never did until he reached the top! He had a little trouble at one point, but did pretty well getting up.
We have a new policy at the house that they can only have their soothers for nap and bedtime. They leave their soothers behind when they come downstairs and have been doing really well with it. Bran really has a hard time settling down to sleep and he was tossing and turning again tonight, but he eventually got to the point where I thought he was ready to fally asleep. At which point he looks at me, hands me his soother and says, “thank you, no bed” and tries to get out of bed and go back downstairs!
In general the boys are doing well with their increasing freedom and it’s interesting to watch how they react to the changes. It’s also nice to be reminded that I may get some of my house back again soon and that it really hasn’t been that long of a time living in our little “gated community” as it’s been called.
Posted: Drew & Bran
24
June
2007
Proud of myself that is…
The boys have been particularly difficult this week and I’ve been extra tired, so we’ve been having our “moments” of insanity. So on Friday I drew up all of my reserved energy (not sure from where) and took the boys on an LRT ride to the Library. We rode the LRT all the way to the end, so they could watch us go over the river and see where “daddy works” (the buildings somewhere on that hill over there…). Then we rode back to the library. The boys did really well in the library, there were only a few rough moments, like when Bran tried to take all of the DVDs off the shelf and Drew tried to run out of the library.
After we managed to get through the book check out, we went next door to Second Cup for a smoothie. They boys did so great; this is where I was really proud of them. They each sat in a chair and I put a table between them with some fishy crackers on it, and they had a snack and took turns sharing the smoothie. I was getting quite the credit from those around us who were so amazed at how good they were. Our only bad moment was when Drew decided he wanted to throw the straw wrapper away. I told him he had to wait until it was time to leave. So in Drew fashion, he got down off the chair, waved and said goodbye to Bran and I, and proceeded to walk out of Second Cup to find a garbage can.
After our smoothie, we went down to look at the fountain at Churchill Square. The boys thought it was really neat and I let them touch it for a little bit. Then we got back on the LRT and went home. Whew, what a morning. But I’m so thankful that although it was so much work, we did it, and we survived. 
Posted: Drew & Bran, My Stuff
22
June
2007
I just wanted to say thanks to Mike and our friends (and neighbors) Jon and Connie Lim for giving me an awesome birthday this week! Jon and Connie made me a terrific dinner Tuesday night. Then we played a new game the boys got me, “Hey That’s My Fish!” until the boys fell asleep. Then we went next door and I got to play Guitar Hero for the first time. I have to say it’s VERY addicting and I didn’t do too bad for a first-timer. Hopefully their housemate, Andrew (it’s his game) will be around a while so I can get a chance to play some more. It’s definitely a great “spent the entire day with two, 2-year olds” stress reliever!
Next week, Mike and I will go to the Yardbird during Jazzfest. Oh, if only my friend Maggie could be here for that!
Thanks friends for a great birthday!
PS: Is 33 old? Because I didn’t feel old at 30, 31, or 32, but when my baby sister reminded me that she’s turning 25, I felt REALLY old! It didn’t bother me when she was turning 24, but I felt keenly aware that she’s just now entering her mid-20′s and I’m moving quickly into my mid-30′s! I think I might be entering an age crisis.
Posted: Friends, My Stuff
5
June
2007
The boys turned 2, two weeks ago. I was hoping to put up a post that day…but…well, honestly, I’m just tired. By the end of the day it’s all I can do to clean up the kitchen and the yard and help Mike put them to bed. Lately I’ve been veging out in front of the computer watching TV shows like Veronica Mars, House, Heroes, and Criminal Minds. But now the season is over, so I read all my friends Facebook pages instead. Several of my friends with twins say 3 is the magic age, which in some ways is depressing since the boys just turned 2, but at the same time I don’t want to rush them through because this is also a really exciting time for all of us. The boys are learning so much, their language is developing, they are testing their limits (both those imposed by us and their own physical limitations), they’re super curious, and it’s so fun to watch these things developing. I only wish I had more patience and that they could figure out how to listen. I feel like a broken record some days, “Come here please”, “I said, come here “, “Come here now!” “1…2…at three it’s a time out…”, “Do not pull things off of the counter”, “Are you listening to me?”,. “No climbing up the drawers”, “No biting!”, “Are you allowed to throw your toys?”, “Stop screaming, are you allowed to scream?”, “Use your inside voice please” …on and on and on all day long. So, yes I’m exhausted, mentally and physically. But there are also lots of good things that happen in our day and the boys are really adorable, so I thought I’d give a rundown of what we’ve been up to lately, and what’s happened in the past year. Even in my exhaustion, I feel super blessed to have these two little guys in my life. It’s so amazing to me that two years ago this time, they were still in the hospital and we were fighting to bring them home. That in those two short years they have learned to roll over, crawl, walk, run, talk, climb, do somersaults, make music, color and fingerpaint, hit a ball with a bat, kick a ball, swing on big kids swings, count to 10, help make daddy’s coffee, pretend…and so much more!
Highlights from the past year
Bran was in the ER twice, once for losing the tip of his fingernail when Drew closed a door on it (thankfullly it’s healed nicely) and with a bout of pneumonia.
The boys went camping for the first time. We went to Banff with Jeffery and Holly.
They had their 7, 8, 9 ,10, 11, 12, 13, and 14th plane rides.
Went to Washington DC, SanFrancisco, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Ontario.
Spent a week with their Nana and Papa Bowling and Grandma Scott while we had a vacation.
What they’re doing now
The boys like to turn their food into things. Bread, cheese, and fruit, become cars, boats, diggers, trains, and firetrucks. Today Drew’s bread was a digger and then he put some rice on it so it would be “digging” something.
They help me make Mike’s coffee in the morning. You’ll have to ask him how it is. And yes, we’ve had our share of messes in the process.
If the boys burp, they are learning to say “excuse me.” But whenever they do have a burp they’ll start making fake burps so they can keep saying “excuse me.”
They love to say our neighbor, Connie’s, name. They call everyone Connie and every time they see someone next door, they point and say “Connie.”
We just built the boys a swing set. It has been so nice for them. It has 2 swings and a sliding board with a climbing wall. I’ve been building up my arm muscles pushing. The boys love to swing, but when I push I always have to sing either The Wheels on the Bus song, or a version I made up that has the same tune. I think the neighbors are probably getting tired of hearing it. Lately they’ve been sliding down the slide into their little pool. It has been ridiculously hot here. But, really I’m not complaining.
Andrew
Drew really likes to help feed the dog in the morning and at suppertime.
Drew likes to say the word, “careful.” Often as he’s going up or down stairs he will say “carefull” or if he has had a wobbly moment climbing, sliding, or whatever, he’ll say “whoa, carefull.”
His favorite thing right now is trains. I will often find him in the playroom, in the dark, playing with his trains. He also likes to store them in the refridgerator of his kitchen. No idea why. He has a Thomas the Train birthday card that he keeps around and sometimes if he’s sad he’ll carry the card around with him.
Andrew often skirts the line of misbehaving and you can see him plotting out how far he’s willing to go. He’s definitely the tester.
Drew says “Upa Me” when we wants me to pick him up.
The other day Drew came to me whining with a bulging pant leg in his overalls. I pulled out one car, then another, then another, until I had 8 cars! Five minutes later he came back again with 10!
Brandon
Brandon really likes to help me put away groceries. He says “helping” over and over as we’re putting things away. He also does this with emptying the dishwasher.
Brandon loves cars. He especially loves his toy cars from the movie Cars. He has Luigi, Lightning McQueen, and The Sherrif. His favorite is Luigi or Weedgie, as he calls him. Sometimes Weedgie has to go away for awhile. I’m not sure what it is about Luigie that makes Bran like him so much but whenever we watch the movie, he’s always asking where Weedgie is, or pointing Weedgie out. And he always carries Weedgie around the house with him. We have a special place we put him at night because he’s not allowed to take him to bed.
The other day Lisa took the boys to the playground and they picked some lilacs. On the way, there was a little girl crying in one of the yards they passed. Bran wanted to go and take her the flowers. He kept saying, “crying”, “lilac,” or something to that effect.
Bran runs right across the line of misbehavior and often finds himself in time out. It doesn’t help that he becomes obsorbed in whatever he’s doing and can’t hear you to obey. Sometimes I have to get right in his face for him to pay attention.
Bran is always wanting me to “pay cars” with him. He’s constantly coming up to me, holding out his hand and saying “walk” which means walk with me to my toys and play. He only wants to play cars. Playing cars consists of getting all of their cars out and their road and doing something with them. I’m realizing I’m not so creative in this kind of play. How many things can a car do? We get gas, have the car washed, drive up and down the road…the firetruck puts out fires, the cement truck fixes the road. It’s all real life stuff. When Mike plays cars, they build ramps and other fun stuff that I never think of. When Drew plays cars, he lines them all up like a train and then moves cars in and out until he gets them the right way. But usually Bran steals one or two from the middle and fighting ensues…
Bedtime
Bedtime is still a challenge, but naptimes have been mostly a breeze. Often Andrew will ask to go up for his nap before I’m even thinking about it. He usually goes up 20 minutes or so before Brandon because Bran doesn’t seem to need as much sleep. They both usually go down well. Bedtime is more difficult. We’ve gotten to the point where we do our bedtime routine, then we close the door and let them go. At first it was okay, they stayed up too late, but eventually it got shorter so that they were asleep between 8:30-9:30 (we put them down around 8:00). But lately they’ve really been tearing the room up. Already all their clothes are in baskets in our room. But now they’ve taken to pulling out drawers and jumping in them until the bottoms fall out. Once we went up and Brandon had staples from the bottom of the drawer. They climb both dressers (yes they are bolted) and have gotten things off of the top that we didn’t think they could get to. Tonight they ripped some of the wallpaper border off of the wall. I’m pretty certain they don’t get this from me. But they are learning to go to sleep on their own and there is less fighting at bedtime (as in us fighting with them). I guess we’ll just keep trying until we find what works best. I really do wish they were still in their cribs though. Tonight Bran managed to throw Drew’s soother out of their room (there’s a gate across the door), down the stairs and into the living room, the other times he got them half way down the stairs or into our room. If only there was a soother throwing competition we could sign him up for…
So now begins the Terrible Two’s?…gulp.
Posted: Drew & Bran
5
June
2007
The oddest thing happened today. I was asking the boys if they wanted pizza for lunch and lo and behold…a piece of pizza crust fell from the sky! Noah was excited, Connie and I were a little bewildered until we saw the gull flying overhead trying to figure out how to get it back. Then we were pretty grossed out! I haven’t been able to stop chuckling about it all day though.
Posted: Edmonton, Miscellaneous
11
May
2007
The other day, Drew put a hat on his head and said, “cool.”
Today, Bran put his sunglasses on and said, “cute.”
Where do they get this stuff!?
Posted: Drew & Bran
10
May
2007
Bedtime
Not any better. Which is frustrating since they were such textbook sleepers as babies. In fact they still sleep fine, once they’re asleep. It’s not that they want us with them, or anything, they just don’t want to go to sleep and so they fight and fight and fight it. If one is super tired he might just go to sleep anyway, but if they’re both not wanting to go to sleep, then we’re in trouble. If I take away the afternoon nap we all go crazy and then they end up falling asleep really late in the afternoon on the couch and then bedtime is ruined again. I think it’s mostly a discipline issue and we just have to figure out the best way to help our boys realize that they have to go to bed at 8:00 and they have to stay in bed whether they like it or not. Stay tuned…
Eating
Drew is now in love with lettuce. Although the only dressings we can use are ranch, ceasar, or poppyseed. Bran is also starting to eat a little bit of lettuce too.
The new food of choice is kiwi, strawberries and grapes. Brandon still won’t eat french fries. Not that I’m upset, I just think it’s interesting, especially because we have to limit how many Drew can have.
The boys love noodles, doesn’t really matter what kind although spaghetti noodles are the best. With or without sauce.
Playing
Whenever Drew wants something that someone else has, he either says “share” or Anhew (which is his name for himself).
The boys got a toy kitchen that has been keeping them busy for hours. It has a coffee pot and Bran runs around the house saying “coffee” and trying to pour me some. The other day Mike was telling them that their oven is hot and when they take something out of it they should use a towel. Yesterday I walked in and saw Brandon pulling a pot out of the oven using the towel! I guess they are listening…to some things anyway.
Brandon and I spent some time in the yard the other day digging in the dirt and looking at bugs. He was really excited and at one point laid flat down on the grass to try and get a better look at the “bugs”. I tried to tell him their different names like this one is an ant and that’s a worm, and this one is…But he just kept looking for “bugs” and he would call out to them as if they would come when he yelled “bug, bug, bug” to them. It was really cute! He was also really good about holding the earth worms. He got a little aggressive and tried to squish it at one point though, so we put it back where we found it after that.
Talking
Bran calls Drew either Anhew or Dew. Today he was calling a puzzle piece of a zebra, Dew. We’re not really sure why…
Drew LOVES construction vehicles and calls them all “diggers”. Every time we get into the van he starts saying digger. He’s actually very good at spotting them and will call out when he sees one. There are lots of “diggers” in Edmonton.
Both boys love the movie Cars and it’s probably the video we’re watching the most right now. They say “queen” for Lightning McQueen and call out all the airplanes (or blimps or helicopters-they’re all airplanes) every time they see one. They’re now learning the name for Mater.
They both pluralize the word car so it’s always cars even if he’s only talking about one car. The other day Drew was riding his toy car and kept saying “cars, cars”
The boys have recently started saying “pop” randomly around the house and I couldn’t figure out why until I was reading Mr. Bown Can Moo. Mike had been reading that to them and they must have caught on to the word pop. The other day I was separating their yogurt containers and it made a popping sound. They yelled out pop. So now sometimes when they want yogurt, they say “pop.” and point to the fridge. They also yell out “pop!” when I put their toast in.
Speaking of toast. All bread regardless of wether it’s toasted or not, is called toast.
The other night Drew had been sick and went down without a bottle. Bran woke him up (long story) and then he seemed better and was wide awake. I was downstairs giving him some milk and a snack and he just started talking up a storm. He was rattling off all the words he knows, except that he was adding “a” in front of everything. A car, a bus, a train, a bottle, a snack…He just talked and talked and talked. It was really funny.
The boys’ favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus. They won’t let me sing anything else and if I try they keep saying “wheels, wheels, wheels on bus.” Drewie now sings “all through the town” with me.
Well…hopefully I’ll try and write more often so you don’t get so much at once. I tried putting it into the calendar, but the calendar…well…you know. 
Cheers!
Posted: Drew & Bran
