22
January
2008
Drew’s been having some sleeping problems lately. He seems to have a bit of insomnia. If he wakes up at night (which has been happening every night), he can’t get back to sleep. He wants us to stay and rub his back until he falls asleep, which can take FOREVER. So lately he’s been getting to come to bed with us. Not a habit we wanted to start but there you go, it happened. Probably in November it was happening pretty regularly and then when I was travelling with them and staying with different friends, Drew would usually climb into bed with me in the wee hours of the morning. Although he did really well at the grandparent’s house.
(Aside: If I were a single parent I think the boys would just be with me the whole time. It’s a lot of work to keep them in their own bed, when they’ll happily fall asleep with you.)
So now he seems to be having more issues with getting back to sleep and knows he can just come to bed with us. So we’re trying to break him of that. Last night we thought we were in for it again.
The boys have never really been attached to stuffed animals and having them in bed with them, and we haven’t pushed it. They have a couple of favorites that they like to take with them when we travel or they “rediscover’ now and then and carry around for a day or so. Last night Drewie wasn’t going to go back to sleep and he wasn’t going to let me leave. I was so tired from being awake the night before (same problem) and having an early morning that I’m not really sure how the thought came to me. Maybe it was one of those God-inspired moments, because I was certainly too tired to think clearly. But I realized that maybe he just needed something else to keep him company. I stumbled downstairs and got his favorite bear, named “Bear” and a gorilla my mom got him for Christmas. He tucked bear under his arm and “Jaba” the gorilla kept watch at the head of the bed. He also got a stern talking to about how his mommy needed to get to sleep and if she didn’t, she was going to yell a lot the next day. I left and we never heard a peep until 8am this morning! Halleluiah!!
Hopefully tonight will be as successful. 
Shayna 
Drew & Bran 
1 Comment »
22
January
2008
Often when two or more children are playing together they a make a bit of noise. It’s when it gets quiet that you start to worry.
Sometimes when it’s quiet the boys are actually, amazingly, just playing quietly so I try to give them the benefit of the doubt and not always go running. Yesterday they were a little too quiet in the bathroom. The room where the toilet is either being flushed or water being splashed in the sink (or more recently cups of water from the sink being dumped [read that as 'splashed'] into the bathtub). Checking on them I found that they had made themselves some flouride smoothies.
Here’s the recipe if you’re interested.
Fill the bottom of a cup with toothpaste.
Add water to the top.
Drink.
Yum!
At least I know that they can squeeze they’re own paste! I think I should be teaching them to swish and spit, just in case the need for a smoothie arises again.
Shayna Drew & Bran No Comments »
15
January
2008
We had some very important visitors at our house today. An Angel…and…God. First let me say, these were very welcome guests as the day for me wasn’t that great. In fact it was one of those crying days. Those days when you have two small boys who are bouncing off the walls (your own and the public ones, you know, those embarrassing ones). The boys were high energy, high maintenance today. There were lots of time outs, whining, and even a bloody lip. To top it all off, our van ends up in the shop and I’m supposed to go grocery shopping tonight! And…we’re potty training! Ugh!!
So…back to our guests. I was folding the sheets this afternoon when Bran looks up and exclaims, his face beaming, “Mommy! You’re an Angel!” And then he runs over and gives me a big hug. Awww…I felt like a million bucks. Then before I could get too caught up in the moment, he’s grabbing the sheet saying, “I wanna be an angel too!” Of course at this point, Drew runs in and wants to know what sounds like so much fun. After seeing Bran draped in a sheet, he wants to be an angel now too. Here’s how the rest of the dialogue went:
Me:”You want to be an angel too?”
A: “Yep…no…I wanna be God the Father” (Now we have been attending an Anglican church lately, but I was a little shocked).
Me:”You want to be God the Father?” (Just making sure I heard correctly)
A: “Yep…no…I wanna be Jesus!”
Me:”Okay, Bran’s an Angel, you can be Jesus”
A:”No…I’m God.”
So God and an Angel ran around our house this afternoon looking like two misfits at a toga party. But it sure gave me a much needed laugh. Where were they this evening, when I needed them? Maybe they’ll come back tomorrow.
Shayna Drew & Bran, Family 1 Comment »
7
January
2008
I think the boys are trying to tell me something…they want to go make a snow man. Where’s Papa when you need him!?
Yesterday the boys piled rice from dinner on the top of their sippy cups, making snowmen. I thought that was pretty creative actually.
Today Bran was helping me put laundry into the laundry room. He grabbed a sheet and rolled it into a ball. He told me it was in a ball to make a snowman. He brought in two ‘balls’ of sheets for his snowman, and as I was closing the door he came running with two balloons he said were the snowman’s eyes! We stuck the balloons into the sheets and closed the door on our snowman. Hopefully he doesn’t melt on my floor.
Anyone have any creative ideas for making ‘indoor’ snowmen? It looks like the temps are dropping around here and the snow isn’t always good for rolling.
Shayna Drew & Bran 2 Comments »
30
December
2007
I’m generally not into writing the Christmas letter thing. But since I put my blog address on all my Christmas cards, I thought maybe I should write something about what’s been happening in the Bowling family. Mostly it’s a review since I’ve written about much of our lives in this blog already.
As with most years, this one has been filled with its ups and downs. Drew and Bran have really grown this year and are turning into little boys. As of last January the boys were out of their cribs. At 18 months this wasn’t our ideal situation, but they were climbing out of their cribs so often and so well that they were starting to do dangerous things and getting hurt. So out went the beds. We tried mattresses on the floor for several months, but we just couldn’t keep them in bed. We got to the point where we were actually laying in between with our arms over each one holding them down! It was taking hours to get them to sleep. It takes Bran a while to settle in bed at night and he had a lot of trouble with this. So we tried putting them in their room and letting them run around until they were ready to sleep. This only resulted in a torn up bedroom with destroyed drawers and wallpaper. So back we went to staying beside them until they fell asleep. Around their 2nd birthday they got toddler beds which actually helped a lot. But we still have to stay in the room with them. Bedtime has gone down to 15-20 minutes most nights and 1 hour on really bad nights. Drew really likes to be patted on his back and it’s often best to leave Bran alone to roll around, chew his soother and settle down. We’re still working on being able to leave them alone and having them not get up and follow us out. But it will come.
In April the boys spent a week in Ohio with their Grandma Scott, and Nana and Papa Bowling while we went on a vacation (a belated trip for our 10th anniversary. We had our 11th one this September!). It was really nice to get away and nice for the boys to have some one-on-one time with their grandparents. We also threw a little early birthday party for them while we were there, which was lots of fun for the family.
Since we were back home in April we decided not to go back over the summer, so Mike’s parents came out in June and my brother and sister-in-law, Jeffery and Holly came out that month as well. My mom came out during her summer vacation in July. We didn’t do a lot of traveling because it was so hard with the boys sleeping. This was really hard on us because we had been so used to taking them everywhere. But we decided to try one weekend away in Calgary in August. We spent one day at the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum, stayed overnight in a hotel in Calgary and spent the next day at the Calgary Zoo. The boys did great! Our hotel had a pool which the boys absolutely loved! There was a waterslide and every time someone went down it splashed water everywhere. I thought this would especially freak Drew out but he just giggled and giggled every time he got splashed. The boys even slept well. So it was a great trip.
This fall the boys started in a playschool. They go every Wednesday from 9:15-11:45. It took Bran a few weeks to get used to it, but now he’s doing great. In January they will move up to the next class and may go 2 days a week. It’s been a big help to me. I’ve been able to get some much needed cleaning done around the house and run some errands. It’s become really difficult to run errands with the boys. Grocery shopping has become a nightmare, unless it’s a quick trip, and you can forget about going anywhere else. So this gives me time to do much of that.
Many Fridays the boys have been going to a drop-in gymnastics program. It’s really great. It’s a big room filled with gymnastics equipment, all at toddler height. And they can run around and use any of the equipment that they want. It really helps them burn off some energy. The boys also had their 2nd set of swimming lessons this fall. They were in the Duck class. They love swimming! By the end they were doing really well floating, blowing bubbles, and even putting their heads under from time to time. The boys really like to try and swim with their arms and legs going. But aren’t so keen on putting their heads under more than once a class. We went to a new facility this time which was great for the boys. Our class was in a shallow teaching pool where the water was up to the boys’ chest. It’s great for them because they can move around without us having to hold on to them. They enjoy having the freedom to move on their own. Our classes have ended and we have decided to wait a bit for the next class (Sea Turtle). We would like to have our Saturday mornings back for a little while.
The boys in general are doing really well. They’re ornery, they’re tiring, they make us angrier than we ever thought we could be. But they also make us laugh, and they’re great snugglers, and it’s so much fun to watch them grow and learn. They say the funniest things which I’ll write more about later. Bran is going through a separation anxiety phase which is really hard for our extroverted child. He always wants to be in the middle of things but he wants one of us to be there with him. He is very creative and often keeps himself entertained with make believe scenarios using dinosaurs, banana peel rockets, styrofoam cups, etc. He’s also talks with authority and likes to tell us what to do, “come here, no talking, no singing, move over…” Drew is more introverted, although he’s quite happy to jump into new activities without much fear. He’s definitely an intense child. One minute he’s smiling and giggling and as cute as can be, the next he’s whining, crying and generally an unhappy boy. We enjoy the giggling Drew better. Drew loves music; listening to it, playing his recorder, guitar, piano or drums. We often also find him dancing to the music we’re listening to.
One of the things that we have started to enjoy doing with the boys is playing games. Finally! Our favorite game until recently has been Carcassonne. Before you think we’ve got geniuses or something…we play a very simple version. Here are our rules. 1. You have to take turns drawing a tile. 2. You have to place a tile on the table next to another tile. 3. You may not pick up any pieces from the table. Very simple. Drew is starting to understand that roads can touch roads and cities are part of bigger cities, so soon we will add another rule which is that the tiles must touch appropriately. The boys are getting several games for Christmas from family members so I’ll have more to write about games later.
Mike decided to do some consulting work this summer. He’ll have to tell you more about what he’s doing. It made his summer a little more busy, but manageable. It really got rough though in September when he started teaching two classes. He dropped his consulting back by half after that. It’s definitely been nice having the extra income (it helps with the cost of bringing us all home ). Mike taught 2 classes this term, a robotics class for graduate students and an undergraduate class on computer game development. I think he really liked both classes, but they’re a lot of work. He’s also been busy writing papers and advising his students. But he does a great job of being home for the boys in the evening and putting them to bed every night. We even spend some time together every night, and then he’s back on the computer doing the work he couldn’t get done at school.
I’ve been playing with a new camera that Mike got for me, it’s the new Canon 40D. I’m really enjoying the better pics I’m getting of the boys. I’ve even been out with some friends and learning from those better than I am. I mostly enjoy taking pictures of kids, especially non-posed shots. If anyone is interested in having me take some photos of their family, it would be a free way to get some pictures and give me some practice. I’ve taken a few courses and am hoping to take another one this Spring.
A friend and I are also hoping to start a mom’s play group at our local community centre, for neighborhood moms. I’m really excited about this and hope we can get it going by mid-January. I’m finally starting to feel like I’m climbing out of hibernation. I have more energy and feel more able to take the lead on some activities. Previously I’ve just been so tired by the time the boys go to bed that I don’t get much done. I’m looking forward to getting some projects done this winter. But we’ll see what happens as the months roll along.
This year I decided to bring the boys back to the States earlier than usual. I have some friends that I haven’t seen in awhile that I wanted to visit and the holidays are just too hectic to fit a trip in. Plus Mike has a week-long conference every December and then there’s the end of the semester, which is always busy. My mother-in-law came up to celebrate Second Thanksgiving with us, a.k.a. American Thanksgiving. She helped us with the boys and getting the food ready, which was such a great help. Then on the 28th of November she boarded a plane with the boys and I and headed back to Ohio. The boys did a great job! It helps now that they have their own seats. It gives us so much more room. A day after getting into Ohio and visiting with their Papa and also Grandma Scott, we went to Pittsburgh and spent part of the day with Jodi Walsh and her 2 kids. Then our friend Toby drove with the boys and I out to central Pennsylvania to see the Groshes in Mount Joy and the Brandts in Manheim. It was so great to connect with old friends again and see how their kids are growing. It’s was good to reminisce about our days in the ‘Burgh when we met 10 years ago!
Mike came in on the 18th and we’ve now been spending our days with family. The boys have been playing in the snow, building snowmen, visiting great-grandparents, aunts and uncles. And the grandparents are getting lots of one-on-one time with the boys. The boys have been changing so much in the time we have been away. They are talking so much more and are becoming very articulate. It’s neat to watch how the boys interact with their extended family and to have all the extra hands around. It will definitely be a hard adjustment getting back to just the four of us and Mike going back to work. But I’m also looking forward to getting back in touch with Edmonton friends and our normal routines, as well spending quality time with puppy again.
That’s about all the non-exciting happenings in our life these days. I’m hoping that in this next year we will be out of church flux and have decided on a place of worship. I also anticipate getting our garden going again and doing some more clean up of the backyard. My other big project is to get our desk cleaned and organized and throw things out! It’s actually a very big job! We’re really thankful for the ability we have to travel home and spend quality time with family and friends. It’s sometimes hard to be so far away, but it’s nice to have the freedom to come home for so long.
We hope that anyone who is reading this has gotten a little glimpse into our crazy lives. We hope that you have a joyful holiday season and blessed 2008.
Shayna Drew & Bran, Edmonton, Family, Friends No Comments »
17
December
2007
Funny things that we’ve been hearing around the house lately.
“I wanna cold one!”…What the boys say when they want cold milk before bed, instead of having it warmed.
“There’s a giraffe coming through the door!?”…In response to Mike and I talking about the ‘draft’ that was coming in through the front door.
“I want to knock knock”…What Bran says upon arriving at someone’s house when he wants to knock on the door.
“I see a mouse!!”…Said by Drew upon seeing a squirrel for the first time. (He squealed, pointed his little fingers, and ran excitedly over to the window to watch his mouse while the rest of us were wondering if we were going to have to put our feet up)
“Nana, I found you!”…Drew was asleep when we picked his Nana up from the airport. He said this when he woke up and saw her.
“Yeah, it’s grandma’s house! We’re here!”…The boys say this every time we arrive at my mom’s house.
“I ate a tylenol”…Said by Bran after being caught with a bottle of my folic acid. Thankfully he hadn’t actually eaten any, he was just stacking and organizing the pills. He also got into my mother-in-law’s pill box. He pulled out a caltrate, licked it, and put it back.
Shayna Drew & Bran No Comments »
17
December
2007
Mike was recently promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. Congrats honey!
Congratulations to Vadim Bulitko and Greg Kondrak for also being promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, as well as, Janelle Harms, Mike MacGregor, Ioanis Nikolaidis, and Eleni Stroulia for being promoted to Full Professor.
Shayna Edmonton, Family 3 Comments »
16
December
2007
Yesterday my friend Chloe and I were doing a little Christmas shopping, on Walnut street in Pittsburgh. We passed a man playing Christmas music on his clarinet and then we popped into a store. When we came out, more music was being played and it had started to snow. It was so neat to be walking down the street with other holiday shoppers listening to live music and watching the snow fall all around us. It kind of felt like we were in a holiday movie. Which is really corny. But it was really beautiful!
Happy Holidays!
Shayna Friends, Miscellaneous No Comments »
12
December
2007
Being an American that is.
A couple of weeks ago, I was going through immigration at the Edmonton Airport with my mother-in-law and the boys. The immigration agent was very gruff, as he asked how long we were going to be in the States for, until he found out that we were US citizens. He said,”oh, you’re American”, at which point he basically just stamped us through. Even my mother-in-law who is a Canadian Citizen, was stamped through without any questions.
On the flip side, Drew had to have stitches the other day. We had no problems with our insurance (our Canadian supplemental insurance covers us anywhere around the world) at the ER. But when I called my old Dr.’s office to make an appointment to have Drew’s stitches taken out we ran into some trouble. First my mother-in-law called and apparently it was taking me too long to get our card because the nurse told her to have me call them back and then hung up on her! She seemed pleasant enough when I called back but then we ran into the insurance issue. First she couldn’t put our address in the system because it wouldn’t take Canadian addresses (I’m guessing she just didn’t know how to change it). Then she asked me for my insurance info. We both knew it was out of country insurance, so I assumed she wanted it to contact the company. Instead she told me, in not so nice a way, that the office didn’t accept that insurance. No, really? I thought that was a given. The issue was how to get my insurance to cover it. I explained to her that my insurance would cover everything in full and then she got snotty with me and told me I had to call another number to get it approved. It would seem that we have to get approved before they will see Drew. I understand that the office itself probably doesn’t deal with billing and that there is another office to deal with that. But was the attitude really necessary? Last I checked I was still a human being even though I choose to reside outside of this country.
I was once again reminded how good we have it in Alberta…and how messed up the US system is. It’s actually not good enough just to have insurance, you have to have the right insurance. It’s just another way that the wealthy get better care. The better insurance you can afford or the better job you have (which provides better insurance to its employers), the better care you will get.
(Hey Toby and Chloe, let’s talk about this one when I visit!)
Shayna Family, My Mon/Fayette Expressways 4 Comments »
11
December
2007
The boys and I are back in the States visiting family for the holidays. Saturday night the boys were running around their Nana and Papa’s house (Mike’s parents) when Drew tripped and fell into the corner of a wall. He bit the inside of his lip and the wall cut the outside. We ended up taking him to the ER where he got 2 stitches. I was very impressed with the new Alliance hospital and they got us in right away. We were in and out in about an hour! And Drewie was such a trooper. He’s also done a great job of not picking at the stitches. We’re supposed to get them out on Friday, but that’s a story for another post.
Shayna Drew & Bran, Family 2 Comments »
