On the move, letter to Asher at 8 months

You've got a spark in your eye and place in your mind to go. And grubby fingers too.
You're going to be a heart throb, there's not really a question about that. (You already are!)

From Asher on the Move

I must say, Asher, you have come a long way these past 8 months. 8 MONTHS!!! I can't believe it.

I was sitting down to write in Josie's baby journal and I realized that I don't even have a baby journal for Asher yet. First of all, I hadn't gotten one as a gift like I had for Josie, and secondly, I have been planning all along to create a book on-line for your first year. However, I was writing in Josie's 24th month and realized I haven't gotten to the first 8 of your months yet. All this to say, I can't believe how fast time has flown this year. I can barely catch my breath (or my sleep, for that matter!) Well, at least I have a blog that I can go back to. So, here we are, over 8 months old. You are Mr. Giggles.

You have such a fun personality, you try and mimic your sister all the time, including her cackleing laugh. And you are catching up to her in leaps and bounds.

Sure, you find yourself wrestled to the floor a time or 2 (per day), but you aren't really bothered and you have the hair pulling ability to fight back!

You have 6 teeth and 2 that I can see pushing their way though the gums. You pull yourself up on the crib when you wake up or when you don't want to go to sleep. You think everything is meant for climbing or exploring or taking apart. Today you successfully got all the pans out of the drawer under the oven and happily clanked them around. Everyone who knows you loves you because you smile at everyone and make them feel special. You are generally a hit at the nursery and neighborhood. You are eating almost everything.

I even discovered Josie giving you her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and you didn't appear to have any adverse reactions so I hope that sticks. You desperately want to walk, even though you've only been crawling about a month. You run if I hold your hands and give you the chance. I'm sure that you'll be walking before your first birthday. You love your sister, mamma and Dada and we generally wake up to you laughing in our face and trying to give sloppy wet kisses on our cheeks in the morning when you join us. You are completely tickled by the whole thing and crack yourself up when you get a fistful of hair or a cheek to nibble on. I am going to have to keep an eye on you. For a lot of reasons!!!

The Day Job

Or, the weekend job.

From strawberry activity

Loving the fresh fruit here!

And hanging with the kids. Look familiar?

From strawberry activity

We had some serious strawberry decorating action going on today.

From strawberry activity

From strawberry activity

Not a bad (day) job I'd say!

Gardens and Kitchens

From Gardens Kitchens

Fresh from the garden to the kitchen. Definitely the best option. We have been spending lots of time outside lately in our garden/kitchen-- Josie's friends gave her their little wooden kitchen and she's been loving it. Multiple times a day I'll hear "I'm making dinner outside" and then watch Josie proceed to do just that.

From Gardens Kitchens

It's fun to watch her vocabulary and know how increase. She even "cleans" her kitchen on occasion!

Beside the kitchen that is on our patio, we do have a little garden producing lettuce, garlic and strawberries for us at the moment.

From Gardens Kitchens

Josie made the connection that the strawberry she was eating was the same thing growing next to her kitchen, and she also had a strawberry in her kitchen (plastic one) so I then found the matching "real ones" to the rest of her vegetables to put together a little naming lesson.

From Gardens Kitchens

I was surprised how much Josie got into it.

From Gardens Kitchens

A nice surprise.

Our other garden is growing ok.

From Gardens Kitchens

Now that the sun is out it's making a difference-- thankfully.

From Gardens Kitchens

We're enjoying salad directly from it most nights and waiting anxiously to see if anything else grows! It's been a good practice in cultivating something.

From Gardens Kitchens

I've also been reflecting on the many metaphors gardening has for life. Like even if your garden is full of compost, if that compost was made from the wrong kind of materials, it's not going to be healthy compost and the vegetables aren't going to thrive in an acidic environment no matter how much you water them. Sounds similar to the parable of the soils, doesn't it? Likewise, I doubt that a human being can grow strong and healthy in an acidic environment unless there is something added to the soil of their lives to give nutrients and well being. See-- there is something to be learned about parenting in the garden! The phenom of slugs, squirrels and crows and their ability to steal and eat my poor little plants has had an aggravating effect on my gardening attempt as well. I can imagine there are lots of ways I could understand that metaphor! But, it sure is gratifying to go out to the garden, pick a couple things, and then cook them!

From Gardens Kitchens

The smells coming from the spaghetti sauce in which Dave used this "local" (from the back yard) garlic, oregano and basil was definitely yumalicious as was sauce itself.

Thank You...

a more hopeful view of downtown today...This is one of many pictures of people picking up the chaos caused from last evening's hockey game loss and riots. We are proud of you Jamie and Becker. Now there's something to show how special this place is.

winners and losers

The Mavs won. The Canucks lost.

It's been a crazy week. I'm hardly a sports fan, but this basketball season has been rather exciting. And I'm proud to say that "my" team won this year! Way to go Mavs!! A gracious and well deserved team of champions. And watching the playoffs, game by game was an exciting thrill to see the Rick coach the Mavs to comeback by comeback. Anyway, way to go!

And then there's hockey. Since living here, we've become followers and fans of the Canucks, and watched this playoff season with great interest and hope for a win. We were here in Vancouver last year during the Olympics and goodness me, I've never experienced such a national sweep of pride over a sports game victory. But as radio commentators have said themselves, hockey is the national religion of Canada. And so what happens when your gods disappoint you?

Crazy.

Glad we didn't go downtown this time to share in the festivities! Really glad.

**By no means am I condemning my wonderful Vancouver city and friends. But the behavior of the rioters last night after losing the hockey game is really really sad. There is no excuse for that kind of reaction to losing a hockey game.

weeping endures for the night

but teeth come in the morning.

Oh what a night. A long, painful night of screaming. I had forgotten how awful those nights can be. Especially since painkillers and nursing have seemed to do the trick.

Here we are up at 10 pm wanting to walk. I thought maybe after this Asher would like to sleep.

But not last night. I think the whole family is recovering today.

Especially this little guy. With 5 teeth, 2 of which made an appearance sometime in the last 12 hours.

Whew. Only 15 to go.

Go Mavs

I took that picture.

Just kidding. But that's my cousin right there in the middle, the coach, Rick Carlisle. And he just coached a team that is on their way to (hopefully) winning the NBA title this year.

Hopefully.

We'll see.

Go Rick.

Go Mavs.

Portrait of a Two year old

Two is the new five these days. I think I got a bike for my fifth birthday, but Josie wanted one for this birthday. And she got one, thanks to Vancovuer's abundant Craig's list offers. And she loves being such a big girl. And loves her flower hat. She wore it all night at the play ground.

I cannot believe that it's been two whole years since I popped out (it only took 30 hours) a little Jojobean. And since then life has never been the same. There's no turning back now.

We love you Josie! Happy Birthday to you!

*that's our new playground in the background-- pretty nice eh? Every night is a gathering for the whole community there!

crafty

I might have mentioned before how in China I went to the fabric market and felt overwhelmed that I couldn't just take it all home with me. If I took all this home, well, it wouldn't fit in my suitcase. This is what the fabric market experience in China looks like..

Jenn is the fabric market pro. She's modeling here how to squeeze into tight spaces and find fabrics. I think she helped me find the red fabric that is now on my pillows on my bed!

Yeah. Pretty amazing. I bought 2 meters of the flower fabric for under $3 a meter and was able to make 6 pillow covers and still have scraps for a couple bibs.

Did I mention that I got a sewing machine? (don't look too closely, I don't have a rotary cutter or measuring equipment yet!) But these are the fabrics of my bed-- this pillow is one I made from the scraps.

And these are Dave's handiwork. Pretty impressive eh? The top two are journals he MADE for me from old books (he's a book repair man in the library now for 10 hours a week so he's become quite handy)and the brown one on the bottom is a Bible he put together for himself out of a cheap paperback Bible he bought because he didn't want to spend money on a real one. Here's the dilemna though, I BOUGHT him a Bible for his birthday, but it seems that it will be taking quite a long time to arrive with the Canada Post strike threatening at the moment... so now he's really proud of what he made for himself. He says he likes it even more than a "real" Bible. So.... should I just keep the other one for myself when it comes? A real dilemma. But, regardless, I'm impressed by his new found craftiness indeed. There's just something so satisfying when you finish something you made with your hands. Especially when you have time to make it!

I was able to get this done this morning as a gift for a friend who recently had a baby. I even figured out how to make buttonholes on my machine. Next time I'll have to get some real embroidery thread, but for now, regular thread was cute for this owl... (I must be into owls lately!)

** Even though I couldn't take the fabric market home with me, I did have the opportunity to take lots of fabric that Jenn had in her storage along with me for which I'm thankful and have quite a stock to keep going on small things like journal covers and bibs!

*

picnic time again!

We've been trying to get outside as much as we can lately-- the sun is out, the rain has stopped, and we've gotten some more practical wheels for our new stroller. We can now fit it on the bus.

Last week we took it to Stanley Park which was -- gorgeous--- and this week, we walked to Church, then took a bus to the beach for a picnic before walking home. Yep, we're putting in the miles but it's so nice to be able to do.

And who can argue when the place you get to walk around looks like this

From Jun 5, 2011

not a bad place to fellowship with your congregation is it? Especially when there are other wonderful people to watch your kids run around while you enjoy your food!

This is Jamie, and boy is she great fun! She often watches our children in the nursery, and they are delighted to spend time with her any day.

and of course, her dog Becker too!

Asher wonders if Becker will challenge him to a push up contest

He get that from his Dada.

So yes, Vancouver summers are a real treat. We are so thankful to live in such a beautiful place. And hang out with such cool people.

Fans

It's an exciting time if you are a sports fan. Particularly if you #1, live in Vancouver while the Canucks are winning final games in overtime, and #2, if you cousin (or first cousin once removed to be exact) is the coach of one of the 2 teams playing in the NBA finals. Yep, with this combo it seems that every night is a playoff game to remember. Last night Vancouver went wild (well, we heard it walking outside) when their beloved hocked team won. Tonight, we winced when Dirk Nowitski missed the final shot and the Mavs lost their second game. Sorry to say, it's probably true that we are not the worlds most loyal sports fans, but it sure is exciting to be a part of the frenzy watching the games unfold. We aren't the most loyal, but there is someone who is.This lady. She's the aunt of the head coach of the Mavs. (She's also my grandmother). She never misses a game if she can help it. We watched three games during her visit here a couple weeks ago and remembered that we liked basketball. (When you don't live in the US, you do have to remember that from time to time-- especially when hockey playoffs are concurrent with basketball and "the game" always refers to watching those who wear hockey skates). Yep, besides Rick's parents (Rick Carlisle, that is) Gram is most definitely his most loyal fan. Impressive eh? We all could learn a thing or two about basketball from this silver savy artist. :)

teaching again

Once upon a time, back when I was young and free, I had a job that required my to spend hours and hours playing with art supplies. And when I had figured out something to do with them, I'd spend hours prepping art projects and then helping kids 5-19 years old have the same kind of fun I was having. I'm missed those days. I've squeezed in art fun when the kids are asleep, and sometimes come up with some projects, only to feel like I've failed miserably or just get frustrated with the mess of it all trying to include a 2 year old in on the fun. (Almost 2 year old, she'll turn 2 on June 9th!)

But today I just returned from have a JOB that required me to come up with a craft, and then teach it to 5-12 year old and their parents. And this is what I came up with.

It was so fun, really really fun. The kids listened, did what I told them to do, enjoyed it and helped clean up. (They actually vacuumed the floor when we were done and helped me put all the supplies away!) They thanked me for doing this for them and said it was so much fun. Yeah! I had 10 year old boys using a needle and thread. Seriously, I loved being an art teacher for those very reasons. Now we'll have a craft day once a month, and probably a couple other hands on projects for fun. Basically, I coordinate children's activities and can put together what I'd like. It's like being a camp counselor for a community of a couple hundred families who come from around the world. I think I had at least 5 different nationalities of kids and parents come to my craft day and there are countless others involved in the various activities. So far I'm really enjoying interacting here and being a more involved community member. It's neat to see how God has continued to place us in different places, with different people.

Speaking of being placed... it looks like another move is coming up soon (GROAN!). That will make 5 moves in less than 3 years. The buildings that we live in now are 45 years old and coming down next summer so they can be replaced with high density housing-high rises. (Double groan). We'll have to move again sometime before that-- that is, if we choose to stay here until Dave finishes his degree in Dec. 2012. I was just getting settled in here, loving my neighbors, cultivating my flowers... and getting my craft/jewelry/sewing room all in working order. I am choosing to see this as another opportunity to de-clutter and be open to developing more community. We don't yet know when we'll have to move or where (luckily we'll be in the same student family housing complex). I guess time will tell.

For now though, it looks like we're going to have a summer full of fun with kids and community here!

**THANK YOU to everyone who gave ideas for crafts to do. I've got them bookmarked and will be using them throughout this year!