Nostalgia

It's no breaking story that we're into the beginning of the Christmas Season. Elijah is now at the age where he's into Christmas shows (he loves the Charlie Brown one, but for some reason I can only find the case, not the tape...one of the secret vortexes ate it I guess). So I went looking for my favorite old show. The little un-known Bass/Rankin movie, The First Christmas or The Story of the First Christmas Snow. I love this show. And we had it. My Dad make a tape of all the old Christmas Specials when I was a kid and that was one of them. Do you think any of us could find that tape now? Not a chance. First I went looking on You Tube, because that's where I found Rudolph, but it wasn't there. So I went looking on Amazon. 2 sellers had it on VHS (yes, that's right this one hasn't made it to DVD yet) prices began at $40 CDN. Seriously. I guess I'm going to have to be nostalgic another way and hope this one makes it onto a Christmas Classics DVD sometime while my children are still young enough to enjoy it with me.

look out world, I'm learning how to sew (again)

In the spirit of being both economic and retro-homemaker, I've decided that I would like to make my boys their Christmas present this year. (Aside from the books I've already bought through Scholastic and their stockings that is). I've been slightly jealous, but mostly inspired by the cool things that my friend Jill makes for her boys and others (I especially love her toy robots). I've also been in love with the Ugly Dolls for years, but seriously could not justify actually buying one of them for the price. So I've decided that I really should take another more serious stab at sewing. This time I'm without the benefit of my mother's side by side lessons (and her sewing machine) as both are on the other side of the country. So I called upon my crafty friend to tutor me. Now if my life were perfect, I would have my teleporter handy to whisk me away to Jill's home for a few cozy evenings of sewing and tea while the boys played imaginative build and destroy games together. And although life has Jill and I living geographically closer than my mom and I, we are still 4 provinces and 2 timezones away from one another. Jill, being Jill and 2008 being 2008 makes for an online tutorial. Part one was posted today and you can follow it here . I will update you on my own progress as soon as I buy myself a nice pair of sewing scissors.

money, money, money

We've decided to put Elijah on an allowance to teach him about money. The allowance is only for extra jobs he does around the house (not ones he has to do anyways). We started this last night with the idea that he would be able to go to the dollar store at the end to buy something for himself (last night's wage being a dollar plus tax). He did his job and off we went.
Have you ever been to the dollar store with a 4 year old? Oh my goodness, we must have been there for 45 minutes by the time he made his final decision. We had to be sure that he bought what he really wanted because quite frankly I wasn't coming back to exchange anything.
He ended up with a metal airplane kit that we (being me) put together. I thought this was really a cool toy (esp. for the dollar store). What they don't tell you is the instructions are inadequate tiny pictures and that it's a fiddly little thing to put together(I know, I bought it at the dollar store not the science shop, so I shouldn't complain). But it's together now and he's happy now and looking forward saving more money to buy more things another time.

Proof I'm getting older...or why my brother will laugh at me

I had a sense of deja vu on Friday. The original people involved were my mom and my brother, this time it was me and Elijah. On Thursday I bought myself a couple of CDs. One of these is definately 'mom-music' as my brother would say. It was Josh Grobin's Awake CD. I listened to one track on the way home from the mall. I was looking forward to hearing more of the CD when I went out running errands on Friday.
Friday came and Elijah requested Elvis. No sorry, we're going to listen to this. Deep sigh from the backseat. But we always listen to this was the response. No, Mommy just bought this CD last night, I'd like to listen to it. More deep sighs. See we listened to it yesterday and now today and then it will be forever. Well, sorry about that son, but we're keeping it on. Even more sighing and a more adamant arguement, but mom, this music is giving me a headache and I can't listen to it. Okay then, I'll put it all up front and that's that. More sighing, but he knows when to quit (for now)

Toy Story

...a day in the life of the toys at our house


the morning zoo


dinosaurs looking for breakfast


mid-day rock show


construction zone in the cardboard house


night-time cuddles

Finds after the boys are in bed...aka what Mama saw while tidying up:

my favorite recent find, Dr. Dinosaur checking over Mr. Caribou


Firetruck parked in front of (where else?) the fire place


Thomas at the end of the line (quite literally, there's no where to go past the wood boxes)

We Remember

We've just returned home from the Remembrance Day service at Harbour Station. I was very pleased to see many students and their families there. In fact, the announcer said that this was the largest crowd they've had since moving the service indoors for the comfort of the veterans.
After the service the crowd was invited down on the parade floor to greet the veteran's if they wished. Elijah wanted to go, so we went. I was very proud of him as he said hi to a veteran that is about 90 years old. He shook his hand and said "thank you" to him. The gentleman was very kind and complimented Elijah on wearing his poppy to remember.
Another veteran came up to me looking at Jeremy sleeping in his stoller, he told me that looked like a good idea, he was about ready for a nap himself.
Whether or not you agree with current missions, or the notion of war itself, I believe that it is important to take the time to remember those who have offered themselves for the freedom that we currently enjoy. Those that are currently serving overseas in Afghanisan are there by request of the government of Afghanistan. Their presence has also enabled children to go to school, been able to deliver and administer vaccinations, and are letting the Afghanistan government to rule.
It's an odd paradox. We go to war in hopes of peace. It's a difficult concept to comprehend, but one that touches all of our lives.

All About Elijah

Elijah is my highly sensitive, highly determined, highly intelligent little guy. (sorry big boy - he's 4). I've watched him transition from baby to toddler to preschooler and right now he tells me he just wants to skip ahead to be a grownup so he can be a paramedic and help people (as his main job, in his off-time he wants to be a firefighter and help more people.). Well unfortunately for him he has to go to school first and yes that's coming soon. We've started the transition to school year with all the pre-kindergarten meetings and activities.
Yes, he still loves anything to do with firefighters and hockey. He's starting to get into the Rescue Heroes stuff too. Thank goodness for kijiji so that we can find out of date toys (he's getting a load of them for Christmas). What has struck me with Elijah lately is that he is transitioning from this pre-school oriented stuff to the next level of boy toys. More about action figures and rescuing and race cars and construction. He wants to know how things work and asks a lot of questions.
He has this knack for remembering everything and figuring things out quickly. Be careful when you pray for a smart child, you may just get one.
He's very clever. A couple of weekends ago he asked if we could go uptown and look around at the uptown mall. Sure. A little while later we found out his whole reason for wanting to go uptown was to go to the big library uptown to find the Rescue Heroes movie again.
I was reading the developmental stages of a 4 year old last week and had a giggle at one that described having less temper tantrums. We get into a power-stuggles at times with Elijah. He has no problem with the 'I messages' that label his feelings, they are just often accompanied by a feeling action too. "Mommy, I'm so frustrated with you right now" *stomp, stomp, stomp,* goes his feet.
He loves his friends and playing. And they are wonderful to watch play. Full out imaginations at work. I love it!
He can be very helpful too. He's starting to work with us doing the housework. He has his own set of rubber gloves to clean in the bathroom, he puts away his own laundry and yesterday helped his dad mop the floors. This is not to say that he loves to clean up all the time. That would be entirely misleading. Putting his toys away without a fuss is one of the goals we're working on right now. I'm trying to get him to realise that the toy mess would be less overwhelming if he would put away what he is playing with first before getting out something new. (I know, Mom if you are reading this, what goes around comes around right?)
Overall, he's a very intelligent, very loving little boy. He loves storytime at bed time and playing with his brother (so much more fun now that Jeremy is past the baby stage and will pretty much copy cat anything Elijah does). Alright, I can feel myself getting into gush mode now, so I'll stop.