We also own this one.



Sophie.
Our first-born is now four and a half and she is a piece of work. just like her mother some might say (someone does say).
Searching for the right words to describe her and her unique sophie ways…
Emotionally high strung and sensitive. Linguistically gifted. Wild and silly, yet cerebral. A mastermind of imagination. She's quite skilled at inventing extravagant stories that leave you wondering if she hasn’t gotten a hold of some potent LSD, or quite possibly she’s just schizophrenic with multiple personalities. with all her imaginary toads and whatnot..

She loves furry animals, anything pink, doing crafts, and things her way.
While she can be cute, loving, and downright adorable,
she also has the ability to drive me to the brink of complete insanity.
Literally, one day I told her I was going to take her out to the woods and leave her there if she didn’t stop screaming.
Because her screams can shatter windows.
And her barking is even worse. Barking, I said.
My daughter has been a dog for almost half of her life.
Back when she was three it was kind of cute that she pretended to be a dog.
She would crawl around on all fours and ask us to buy her and give her a name. We'd have to groom her and throw her a stick. She'd bark out answers to us (in English and Spanish) and want to go pee outside like a dog.
But now that the dog phase has carried on well past four, it is no longer cute.
Just. freaking. annoying.
Her shrill, piercing barks are like breaking glass over my head.
For the love of god why does my child have to scream and bark at a level far beyond the normal range allowed before you are rendered completely deaf.
Can’t she pretend to be a tree or something? Trees don’t bark. Trees don’t insist on pooping in the grass.
I just wonder if we can have her kenneled so we can take a vacation…

beginning again

See this guy?



That’s our boy Holden.
After meeting Holden, one might describe him as a boy of high energy exploding and rebounding off all walls/tables/doors/people in the room at all hours of the day (and sometimes night).

He’s an imp who constantly seeks out trouble. If he’s not tearing into all forbidden items in the house, he’s perpetually practicing evil deeds on his sister and making her cry.
and all the while perfecting his sinister villain laugh. Ha ha ha ha ha

Don’t try and tell him differently. about anything. you will not win. he‘s two (almost three) and that’s how it goes.

Arising near dawn everyday, he has mastered the skills of secretly creeping from his room while we’re asleep. With flashlight in hand he heads downstairs scheming, plotting, arranging stools and chairs and whatnots, and then…
each day holds a new surprise as to what Holden has been into!

Some momentous discoveries-

all the Christmas presents holden unwrapped, before Christmas.
Tossing those aside he deemed unworthy (aka-all of sophie’s presents)
he gathered his favorites and lugged them upstairs. At 6am we awoke to holden dragging a giant truck around our room whispering, “please Mommy you open this?”


the candy fiesta holden hosted at 6am in Sophie’s room.
Shortly after Halloween, he retrieved the Halloween baskets high atop our mantle and a pair of scissors from the drawer. He ventured to Sophie’s room to wake her. then convinced her to cut open all the candies.
They were busted at 6:15 with their massive candy picnic- half devoured and half spread across the floor in colorful arrangements.

the masterpiece in our master bathroom.
Holden was quite proud of the world’s largest green-tea-bath-gel mosaic he’d created all across our bathtub, floors, and countertops. Overwhelmingly fragrant and sticky, at least the bathroom smelled fresh and pretty.

the list goes on and on.
and we are the proud owners of holden. full of creativity and boundless energy.

It was a birthday trip to North Carolina to visit one of my dearest friends, Lauren.

the pictures are here.

It was cool and sunny, the trees were beginning to change, and the scenery was astoundingly beautiful.
We tooted around the the city of Asheville. One day we took a gorgeous drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway through the Smoky Mountains. I met some rednecks and hippies and nice down-home people in between. We drank excellent beers from around the world.
The time with Lauren was nostalgic and I misses her.

OH CANADA

you can see our pics here .

We flew to Toronto and headed east to the quaint little town of Port Hope, where Dwayne's mum lives.
Our adventures included trips to the beach, getting naked and wet (that would be Holden and Sophie), outdoor barbeques, browsing shops downtown, splashing in the Ganaraska River, and lots of playing in the garden. Dwayne and I even escaped for two nights out!

After that we headed to the city to visit Dwayne's dad, his three cute younger brothers and Lori included. We visited a petting zoo, a splash park, had nice dinners together- including a mandatory trip to Swiss Chalet for french fries... mmmmm, and played a lot with Comso in the backyard.
We stayed in a sweet suite at the top of the Double Tree with windows all around, a giant bathtub in the bedroom with mirrored walls, and a private room for the kids.
nice:)


The Lummins were manageable and completely spoiled by their grandparents, allowing us all to have a good time. I give this trip two thumbs up!

still here.
you thought I'd gone away didn't you?

in my absence:

I've learned that crayon will come off leather chair, wooden cabinets, tv screens, and a sofa.

I've learned my children cannot be left alone for longer than 3 minutes without getting into mischief.
and now they plot together. I figure our house will be completely destroyed by 2009.

I had a root canal.
which was wonderful! I mean I actually got to recline in a chair for a couple of hours, singing in my head to the tunes on my ipod, without any screaming crying children running around wreaking havoc everywhere.
I just might break some of my other teeth so I can go back.

I've found 8 scorpions in our house over the last month or so. They were immediately annhilated.
Sophie is an excellent scorpion spotter. She spotted the world's smallest scorpion in Holden's room, looked like a speck of dirt, and no bigger than an ant.
The baby was suffocated in a jar so I could precisely measure it without fear of being stung. measured 5 mm.
shudder, shudder.

Along with scorpions, we clean up a lot of poop and pee in our house. Holden must remove his diaper whenever he deficates or urinates (i'm using my fifty cent words instead of shit and piss).
If he's in his own room he'll take off his diaper, then take all 100 wipes out of the wipey box to clean up, but he won't get nearly any of the poop wiped off. So then we have poop on the bed, on the floor, on the bookshelf, on the rocking chair, and other various places. I've got his closet doors tied up so at least he can't get to all the stuff in there.

I've gotten a little wiser though. I put the little potty in his room.
and after a few days, hooray! this morning he pooped in his little potty. then set it on top of his bed like a trophy
go Holden!

whilst I have many other lessons I'd like to share with you, my free time is up.

Don't Laugh...

after hearing an ad on the radio today, I wrote down the number to participate in a free research study.
for this product.

the funnies over breakfast

Our little conversation at the breakfast table this morning

I was lifting up my shirt to investigate the small cropping of reddish bumps that have made an appearance under my boobies.
Me: "Hm. wish these would go away."

Sophie, checking out my chest:
"Mommy! Your boobies are small! Tiny. They are so small! What happened?"

thanks.

Me: "But Sophie, were my boobies ever big?"

Soph: "Yes."

Me: "When?"

Soph: "When you were a mommy...even though you're still a mommy. They were big when you were a mommy. But now they're small. So small."

Besides her rambling explanation, I guess it doesn't take much more than a 3 yr old brain to figure out I've got small boobs.