This plus that...

One bathtub full of water

+

One 2 1/2 year old

+

HALF A BOTTLE OF BABY OIL (!!!)

=

One slippery kid!!
(with the softest skin around)

ps. I did this post before I saw Angella's (didn't mean to copy the equation thing)-- it's true, great minds do think alike! scary!

A Bond family first.

Tonight, for dinner, we went for sushi.

Trust me, that is a first, and I can't believe that I'm even looking at that sentence right now.

We were out doing some errands, and intended to go to Lee's Overseas where they have sushi, other Japanese food, Mongolian grill -- basically a great variety of options for each of us and the kids too. But, as we drove up to it, it was closed (only in Penticton do places not open for a whole day).

So we back tracked and ended up at a Japanese place just down the street. Sarah loved the little booth, and wouldn't you know it, both kids liked miso soup. Ben loved it. And they each had a piece of avodado roll, and Ben couldn't get enough of the noodles that we got for the kids. Sarah was happy to break open chopsticks for all of us. It was a really fun dinner.

I think we might be on to something!!

:)

Remembering Fishy

Well, I have sort of, I mean totally avoided the discussion of death with Sarah.

When Rosco was going to be put down, we were at the vets hanging out with him for a bit before it happened, and, well, what do you say to a 2 year old? I didn't want to tell her that Rosco wasn't feeling good, because the next time Mommy is not feeling good I don't want her to think that I wouldn't be coming back. Didn't want to say that he's never coming back, because how does a 2 year old process that? Mostly we just told her that Rosco was in heaven, and left it at that with no further explanation.

And then Fishy died. She would go and say good morning to Fishy every day. And every afternoon after her nap. So she has noticed that Fishy is not there anymore.

The other day, she was asking about him, and as I fumbled for words, I said, "Sarah, Fishy is lost."

"Oh no!" she cried "Just like my suzie!" (cry, cry, cry)

Scrambling for a concept that I know she understands, I changed my story to, "Fishy is on holidays." (Nana and Opi were recently on holidays where we did not see them for a week, but then they came back).

But where?

Ah, at the pet store, of course, where we bought him.

Wouldn't you know it, as we drove by Total Pet on our way home today, I hear from the back seat, "Let's go visit Fishy!"

I can't get much past that girl!

May long weekend

After spending most of Saturday and Sunday camping with Travis' parents, this was overheard from the backseat as she talked to my mom on the cell:

"I was tramping at Grandma and Grandpa's trailer this weekend!"

Note to self, we will not step foot in a campground when she is a teenager.

R.I.P and other things

Well, darn it, I thought he'd last more than 3 weeks. This afternoon I went to say hi to Fishy, and there he was, belly up. Well, belly to the side, anyways, lying too still. I even tapped the glass with the small hope that he was just 'sleeping', but he was d.e.a.d. What exactly does a person have to do to keep a fish alive around here, anyways? I want a puppy so badly but obviously we are so not ready to move any further up the food chain. sigh. I wonder what Sarah will think.

I feel as thought the blog has sort of dried up lately, mostly, I guess due to the lack of 'bloggable' happenings around here. I've been spending alot of time at work lately training in the CT scanner, so that's been keeping my brain pretty full, and Travis was out of town on another conference for three days this week so just between those two things it's enough to keep a person off the computer except to check my regulars to the right there. -->

A funny story... in CT, we have to give injections of x-ray dye for some of the scans we do. As with anything you put into your body, there is a chance that you could be allergic to it, so we have a series of questions that we ask everyone getting the dye to assess their risk of a reaction, and also to know about other medical problems, etc. So, I bring this little old lady into the room, and my first question for her is, "Do you have any allergies to anything?"
She replies, "Yes, I'm allergic to, is it CODINE or COCAINE?!?! "
"Probably codine," I reply
"Oh right, I can never remember what I can't have."
:)
I love those little old ladies.

I can also tell you that the look of this blog is about to change -- we the Bonds are finally entering the world of digital photography. Yehaw! Once my camera arrives (Happy Mother's Day to me), you will all be innundated with daily photos of my children, and I may throw in one or two of myself if this camera is as magical with pictures as everyone claims it to be. We bought it off of ebay and got a pretty sweet deal with all the extras it came with so I'm pretty exctited to try it all out.

Is it just me, or is everyone either getting married or having babies? This is such a year of change. The thing that really excites me is that it's happening to everyone else, and I can take more of an observer's seat and enjoy the excitement around me for once.

And so, Travis has the kids down in Osoyoos tonight camping with his parents, and I was out at an 'adults only' dinner -- that sounds far more racy than it should -- with my grandparents, mom & dad, Jen & Ken and Aunt and Uncle in Peachland at the Gasthaus. I got to go grocery shopping (how fun) and now I'm going to bed to read my book. Hopefully I'll get my act together a bit more this week and post a bit, or maybe my kids need to be more interesting.

ha.

just kidding.

:)

Yippppeee

Well we just got the phone call, and it looks like my baby brother is getting married!!

Congratulations Donny and Tamara, we love you both!

 

Good girl

The other day, we were having a rough time.

By we, I mean, Sarah and I.

For whatever reason we had ended up in her room, and she was upset and bawling, things just not going her way, and I hear through the tears in a sobbing voice,

"I just want to be a good girl."

Some things just make you forget whatever the current issue is, and as I gathered my girl up into my arms for a big cuddle I was reminded of this little person who is growing and learning and makes mistakes and tries her best.

Just like me.

Introducing...

Fishy Bond.

We're going to try our hand at having 'pets' again and see just how long we can keep this fish alive. He already seems to be on a bit of a hunger strike, but I've heard these fish are pretty resiliant so hopefully (fingers crossed) we'll be fine.

Tomorrow will be a week, and he'll break the record for longest surviving pet of the Bond household.

So we've already got our money's worth! :)

 

Ben's new perspective

Waiting for Daddy to come home from work.
Ben has been pulling himself to standing for a while now, but yesterday when I got home from work, this is what I saw, only it was Ben and Abby. Apparently they enjoyed standing there all afternoon watching the world go by. He has been getting a bit braver and actually moving his feet and walking along the couch or coffee table, and once the walking starts and he gets his much needed haircut, I'll be saying good bye to my baby!

The breakfast of champions: banana bread with chocolate chips!

I think that Ben and Abby are in love. I've never seen so many lingering kisses between one year olds. Ben prefers to give lots of little pecks on the lips, but Abby likes to hang in there. As they were saying goodbye yesterday, kissing away, Ben was signing "more, please" in between kisses.

Such a little lover boy.

Death by exhaustion

That seems to be the theme of the month around here. I think that Ben and Sarah have gotten themselves together and are conspiring against Travis and me. It has been about a month of both of them waking up for some reason every night. Now Sarah has always been more difficult than Ben at night time, even when he was a baby, but now he has joined the fray. Other than our little get away day last weekend, we have had no more than, oh, 4 hours of sleep in a row. It's getting ridiculous. Sarah is having bad dreams -- "I scared of dragons, lions and birds" -- as anyone who crosses her path will find out. And Ben, well I think he's teething, and has been for a month, but so far, has nothing to show for it. So basically I feel like I'm making things up and making excuses for his miserable behavior. It really is contrary to his normal nature, so I'm really betting on the teething theory.

Anyhow, as far as solutions to our problems, Travis said last night at 3:17 after Ben had been crying for an hour, and I had already been in Sarah's room for a cuddle, "I think we need to go see the doctor". "What do you think is medically wrong with them?" I asked. "I don't know," he said, "but we need help."

But aside from going to see Dr Caskey, Ben just gets lots of Tylenol, and Sarah has been told that lions, dragons and birds are scared of pirates. (She had been pretending to be a pirate the other day). So when she sees said scary things in her dreams, she yells "AARRRGGHH" like a pirate, and I guess they all run away, scared. I should clarify that she yells at them in her dreams, we don't wake up to pirates yelling in the other room every night.

And another aid to our problems aside from the 4 day road trip Sarah took with Nana, was that we went down to the coast last weekend, and the kids stayed with Travis' mom for all of Saturday and into Sunday while Travis and I traipsed around Vancouver pretending that we still lived there and lived at UBC and had no kids. It was a pretty great day despite the pouring rain that reminded us why we don't live there anymore. A couple of stops at Carter motorcycle (for Travis' sake), lunch and Granville market, an uninterrupted nap at G & P's, shopping (Old Navy, anyone?), and dinner at 7:30 PM (!) with Grandma and Papa at a restaurant with no food being flung on the floor, and better yet, no whining!! Ahh, it was a good day. And apparently the kids were perfect angels and had a wonderful time with Grandma.

Which leads me to my last point, and thanks for sticking with me on this long one. It is so fun to see my kids with their grandmas. I remember so clearly (because I still sort of feel this way) how excited I would get when we would go to Grandma's house. Driving over the Portmann bridge and seeing the lights of Vancouver... it was a race for who could see the lights of Grouse mountain first. And the curly macaroni when we got there, no matter the time. Always curly mac. I still remember the smell of Vancouver, the rain, and then the sun, the shopping, and all the fun stuff we would do. And now my kids are experiencing the same things. The shout of Nana! when she comes over. Going on picnics, and getting basically whatever they want. Chanting "Grandma's house!! Grandma's house" in the car on the way to the coast. Being wired and running around the house all excited till 10:30 at night because we made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

It's pretty cool.

I guess it's the times like those that are the really rewarding times of parenting. Seeing your kids with your parents. Taking them to places that are old to you, but new to them. Giggling. Playing outside. Picnics at the park and walks on the beach.

Though, I have to admit, it's sort of hard to remember that at 3:30 in the morning.

But I'm working on it.