Jan 9

Ori got his hair cut today. I'm still mopping up my tears. I decided to do a montage of the NEW Ori - I just need to get used to him.





















Current mood: grateful.

Photoyear.

So Karen and Kathy are both committed to 365 photos in the coming year. So here's my start to the year!

Jan 1 2007
The sous chef

Jan 2
Pretty boy!

Jan 3
Queen Mamatifa

Jan 4
Conehead Daddy

Jan 5

Ori found mamas hat at bedtime

Jan 6

Boys sharing the big chair

Jan 7

New living room set up

Jan 8
Today Ori learned how to open and close the scissors. He's been using them as 'rippers' mostly. He practiced for a long time (and created quite a lot of recycling for next week!) very patiently. My little baby is sure growing up!

Jan 9 see above for the full rendition


Because this will get archived at the end of the month (no matter how hard I cry), I've moved the project to flickr. I'll post that address later on, but thanks to everyone for checking in!

Post holiday festivities

30th December 2006 First Night Albany has been turned into Winterfest! Beca ran in the jingle jog again, which was a blast as usual. She made a little friend - Amanda - and enjoyed the run. After the awards ceremony, which we won nothing at, there were a ton of activities for us to enjoy.

This tall fellow made his way just about everywhere! This is across from City Hall.

These fellows were AMAZING on dual trampolines.

Ori conked out for an hour or so...good thing, too! He was awake for the important bits!

We saw a wonderful circus show, which gave all the children a chance to try out plate spinning, juggling, and devil sticks! Beca thoroughly loved that, and we ran into loads of WHMS and FUUSA folks there! WAHOO!

Plate Spinning

Devil Sticks



We had a BLAST at the Pillay's New Year party! JAC was busy dancing the night away, and Ori made it until 11pm! Beca was dragged home at 1:30am much against her will. We popped poppers, drank tooters, and ate like bandits all the goodies everyone brought.

Since then, JAC and have enjoyed some meals with friends, and at Brig and Brian's, JAC and I made a pact. When I lose 20lbs, he will go for a colonoscopy! So I'm more motivated than ever to get on the bandwagon and begin to drop some weight. Vernie and I are going to try to work together on this - she's joined the YMCA, which I am considering whether we should do again. I feel I need to get my motivation levels higher, begin the process without committing that much money. But if I do find myself truly motivated and losing weight w/out having a better place to go to support my efforts, then I would consider re-joining. I'm pretty disapointed with myself for having left off my efforts there last year.

So no promises, but my goal is 20lbs, and a lot toner in the next little while. I'm excited - the warm weather is a wonderful way to keep active, and I've started using some of the tapes I've collected over the years. Yoga, aerobics and kickboxing, to name a few! Since I started trading with other mamas online, I've gotten mysefl a bunch of these kinds of things. So - Cheers! Here's to a happy and healthy 2007!!!

Current mood: remnants of festive mixed with a pinch of wistful.

Chanusolstimas with a birthday thrown in for fun.

I can't believe how lax I've been here. Man o man. I deserve a squanking! Well, all thoughts of s&m aside, it's been a really fun and busy holiday season. We also had some really nice, and much needed, down time.

We started out the holidays with Chanukah, a fun and bright holiday for us. We spent the first night stuffing ourselves full of latkes and playing dreydle, exchanging gelt and lighting candles. The kids each got one gift each night, just to keep the excess to a minimum. Because we moved so much around this fall, we lost track of the Chanukias (the menorah deadicated to Chanukah) so Beca and I made a new one out of clay. It worked perfectly until JAC located ours.

Second night of Chanukah was the anual Sasloff Holiday Party, which was a ton of fun, as usual! We all got to meet little August Doria, who is just as cute as a baby could possibly be! What fun! It was great to see everyone! We missed Arty Barnes, but enjoyed the visit of the Chanukah Mensch, the champagne punch, the latkes, the social stim.

Chanukah finished up with wonderful presents from Poppy and Nana, fun stuff from JAC and I, and another round of latkes on night 7.

Solstice on the 21st waxed bright and clear. We had a small candle lighting ceremony, and each sent off our wishes for the new, growing season. It was much downplayed from last year, from what I had sort of hoped we might be able to put together. It was a busy week; last week of school, JAC in and out of town, Ori and Beca briefly sick (Beca missed the last day of school). So mostly we were grateful for good health, each other, a decent night of sleep.

Dec. 23 2006 We jumped in the car right after befest and drove straight to Manhattan. Mary's Birthday was fun! We went over to Bryant Park to see the skaters, ride the carousel, and check out the funky stalls of goodies (bought some deeeeelish chocolate santas and some fairy lights) and enjoyed the mild weather.

Mary, Beca, JAC and Ori at the skating rink

The carousel at Bryant Park

We enjoyed a few good NYC meals before everyone split up and did their night time activities. Beca, Mom and Mark went to see Alvin Ailey's wonderful composit performance. Beca had an awesome time, and Mom seemed to enjoy the performance, and her time w/her youngest child and oldest grandchild.

Beca and the Birthday Girl

Jerry and I went to see Erragon; fun, but mostly great to have some QT with my sweetie.

Dad and Ori hung out at the apartment. O not being in the mood for sleeping (huh?!) they played well together. The next day he was a bit grumpy, but it was worth it to have the 24th at home with JAC and the kids (for me anyway!).

Christmas eve day was nice and mellow. We got the gifts all wrapped after the kids went to bed, and stuffed them under our tree.

Christmas Tree 2006


Christmas morning brought excitement and enjoyment - the thrill of the search for the stocking (I was last this year!), and the excitement of discovery. Everyone got stuff they asked for, and some they didn't!

Ori enjoying the 'Stocking Experience'


Beca checking out a funky dinosaur

Christmas Day was spent delivering goodies to our neighbors, opening gifts, lazing around watching movies, and taking leisurly walks around the neighborhood. Oh, and PLAYING! We got fun games to play, clothes to try on, make-up to figure out, and tool boxes to fill! Yay for Christmas! It's like a big birthday that we all get to share! We had a lovely big ham for dinner with all the trimmings. JAC enjoyed it the most, I think, but we ALL had a very merry (if a bit rainy and NOT white) Christmas.

Beca got walkie talkies from Uncle Ken and Didi!

And Ori got a Bob the Builder tool belt and hard hat!

Orin in his new Red Dirt Shirt from Uncle Ken and Didi's trip to Hawaii

Santa left us with some 'bangers' - little clay balls that sparkle and POP when you bang them together. FUN!

Beca is always up for dress up stuff! And this chef's hat is just what our budding sous chef wanted!

Audrey Roes brought the children funny face books that Ori just LOOOVES!



JAC took off the 26th, Boxing Day, which gave him (and us all) a nice long 4 day break. All in all, we survived the Holiday season without a hitch, although it was all too short.

Hopng for health

Nearly 10 days later, and we are now having a healthier time of it. Ori and Beca both woke in the night Monday/Tuesday night puking and crying and needing mamamamamamamamamamama. Ugh. I tell ya, the benes for this job are seriously not cutting it. I need some vacation time! So, by this afternoon, Beca had slept a lot and was feeling better, and O...well, he was still whiney and complainey but seemed to be feeling ok. We'll see. He missed art class on Tues. (again), which was sad, but hopefully we can make the next week ones and catch up by one class. Tomorrow we get to go talk with the orthodontist and see how much her brace/expander work is going to hurt us. UGH! Friday I'm getting snow tires put onto the Honda - hopefully that will make the slippage problem nonexistent. That was SCARY last year, coming back from Jimminy and sliding around on those narrow roads...YIKES! Getting the Blizzaks, so hopefully not to be an issue. Of course this means we'll get next to no snow this year lol!

This weekend we've got the holiday party at Jackie and Mike's place on Saturday, which we've all been looking forward to a ton! We've got our gifts, though three of them still need wrapping lol! The weekend after we're going down to manhattan for mom's birthday - hopefully we'll get to squeeze in a movie and some window shopping!

We've finally got our own tree up, and I'm really liking it this year. A true fir, it smells divine and is very full and beautiful. Pictures will, once again, not do it justice, but I will take them as we move along in our tree-decorating.

Chanukah starts on Friday night - very exciting! I still have a ton of wrapping to do for that, but I've decided that it's only going to be one gift per kid per night, no exceptions. Christmas will be more, but not a TON (since they already got a bunch!), plus their stocking. And I'm looking forward to getting to use my pretty new candle holder thingee for solstice. :D So the holidays are looking up! Tomorrow I'm going to the butcher to see whether we can't get a nice chunk of ham for christmas. Not sure about solstice, but I'll get a nice big roast chicken for Chanukah - and LATKES!!! YUMMMMM! And this year I'm going to make the applesauce ahead of time, so it's nice and cold for the latkes. :-)

Still sick after all these weeks

Well, we're into the 1st week of December, and the first snow has flown (though admitedly not a heck of a lot of it), the boys are sick here, and have been for a long time! Poor O has had a cough pretty steadily since mid November. And JAC has stayed home 2 days now - unprecedented, really. He's been sick since last Thursday! I have one photo of the two of them together, sick as dogs. I'll post that up when there's more than 30 seconds to make a post. Hopefully the winter turns around a bit and people get and stay healthy around here! Luckily Beca and I have both held our own in the healthy department.

Decadently December

December is just around the corner now, Thanksgiving weekend come and gone. JAC and Dad suffered in the rain, but the kids LOVE that parade! Beca was especially pleased to see the big fat sponge bob balloon, while Ori seemed to just take it all in. Sweet!

The Corns are looking good, Saraine has gained some weight and looks very healthy. Bernie was really awesome with O, playing happily with him while the rest of us rolled our eyes. :D

Also finally got a decent picture of Beca in her gi - though I'd have liked something a little less DRAMATIC! They do a lot of these release type moves.



I passed out trying to put Ori to sleep (who did eventually capitulate, out of boredom, I think), so now I'm up at 1am. Mad face. Well, there isn't really a BETTER time to update blogs, is there?!

Leaving Fall

Today we had chinook winds...or hurricane weather...or Indian Summer with high humidity and periodic rain. Funny weather. We've got the raking almost done, the gutters cleaned, the patio furniture put up (other than the table, which splintered in a big wind last week :( ), so other than the actual weather, it feels like we're leaving fall!

Ori is taking a new class this fall - imaginart! He really is digging it!

Here he is, hamming it up for us at the camera.

The first week we did hand prints, turning them into funny little turkeys. Ori LOVED painting on his hand. I actually got the impression that he's somehow paint deprived or something. The other children were equally enthralled.



Cartwheels also has a sensory table that the children can use. Last week it was full of corn.



And some gratuitous pictures of my georgeous children. :D





Aren't they pretty!




Orin is very fond of playing games these days - peek a boo is certainly one of his favorites!

We're well into the swing of life now, with school and Aikido forming the major pattern, Girl Scouts (and my Service Unit responsibilities), Sunday School, Ori's art class and toddler montessori classes, babysits in the coop, and the occasional meet up with Brig, Lori, or Lynn filling out the schedule. I've joined (well, gone twice, but intend to continue going) a writer's gropu that I like very much. Sometimes I even remember to get from the library and read the book club book, sometimes not. JAC still likes meetups with his fella friends on Thursdays, especially during football season.

I'm enjoying my writing a lot, working on and thinking of the depth of the characters and the twists of the plot, an enjoyable way to fill out my time. I made some big leaps last Tuesday with the group, and look forward to working on their work. The group is usually pretty small, but thoughtful and intelligent. Can't ask for much more than that!

Beca is doing very well at Aikido. She passed her first stripe test a few weeks ago, and is enjoying the movement, contact, and challenge that it offers. Censai Rick is really wonderful with the kids, they learn well from him and respect him a lot. I hope to take some pictures of them soon - she is quite sweet looking in her Gi.

Ori is starting to communicate better - words and sentances intermixed with Orinish - a mixture of ancient Mandarin and angel speak. We've been doing lots of babysits lately, enjoying having other children his own age over for a play date. Josh is still his best buddy, but these other children are fun for him as well. Today he beat up on Maggie a bit too much, but accidentally. He was very generous with his time, toys, high chair and food. So nice to see.

Falling Back

Since the swing of life has turned into a rather fast paced routine, I thought I'd hit upon some highlights, and then try to post in some pictures. Wish me luck with that!

We had a smashing halloween party on 10/28. The majority of revellers came disguised, the rum punch got finished (BIG bowl!), and there was more food than we - a small army - could eat! We played games, had a nice little parade, gave out lots of prizes (all the kids and a lot of adults, too), and shared a lot of laughs. It was nice to see so many neighbors over, and their kids. Beca was the real queen of the party - all the kids deferred to her. Nice to see her fill her hostess roll so well! She had a blast! Ori was in full swing with his partner Josh, the two of them stumbling along and when his name was called for a costume prize - he threw his hands up into the air and laughed and danced jubilently! What a sight...



We've had some other fun weekends, but mostly we spend Saturday doing house/yard work, Aikido in the morning, and maybe a bit of shopping sans toddler in the p.m. Sunday we are going pretty regularly to FUUSA, I am teaching twice a month. We did our first session on Sukkot, which was great fun! JAC came in and helped, and we built a sukkah! The kids loved it. Tons of people came after the services/classes were over and shared a snack with us inside. It was lousy weather so we did it inside the classroom, which took some inguinity! Thanks to JAC and Dee for their incredible help!

This past Sunday we celebrated Diwali with Indian Pudding, Rangoli painting, dice games and making clay pots for tea lights. I'm enjoying think of creative and hands on ways of teaching the kids about these foreign and sometimes difficult to grasp holi/holydays. Next month is Chanukah! I get all the good ones LOL!

Next weekend we're going camping if the weather holds - we found an AWESOME camping spot along a lake in the 'Daks, very quiet tho only metres from the road. Pit latrine and excellent camp spot, plus built in hiking trail. It'll be awesome to take Ori on his next camping (in a tent and sleeping bag) expdition. Although he's not so easy to get to sleep in the tent (on the air mattress, of course!), once he's asleep he sleeps well. All that outdoor time and fresh air do him justice!

Well, I think that's it for now. Smaller highlights, like Beca's excellent sleepover at Gabby's, Star Lab with Brownies (our hike is tomorrow) and our less than fun relations w/the D's are worth a honerary mention, but we'll get on to posting pictures (before the internet connection breaks lol).

Return to Routine

Wow - Summer 2006 is GONE!!! Unbelievable. It was a fabulous summer, I gotta say, but all too fast we are back into homework, regular meals, and the STUFF of everyday life. Beca's new teacher is Tim, who, along with Sandy, seem to have a great class this year. I'm the parent liason once again, which other than the Friends meetings is fine with me. Sue West Evans is my co-parent liason, and she's wonderful. I'm hoping to get in touch asap and start to gel into a unit.

Summer kicked off with swim/dive lessons. Beca really did well, and has the rudiments of both the front flip and back dive. She worked hard, and seems to feel confident with them both. Hopefully she'll hang onto that feeling and next summer won't be start from scratch!

After her swim/dive lessons were done, she had a week of Girl Scout Camp at Is-Sho-Da. She enjoyed the activities, and had fun at the sleepover, but again the social issues were not easy for her and she wasn't exactly looking forward to her 2nd week. Luckily she had a nice long week at home with O and I in between. We bored her sufficiently that she WAS looking forward to the week come Sunday! The sleepover on the 2nd week didn't go as well, and somehow she and A. got into some kind of grr-err on the first or second day and never really got over it. So it was not a great experience. Oh my. Well, next summer perhaps something different ALTOGETHER! I'm actually considering 2 weeks of Undirondack camp. I'd like to visit it and also talk to other parents who sent their young-ish girls there. It's not a decision I will make lightly, or alone.

Remind me to come back here before NEXT summer and put in some new pictures.

A few days after camp ended, we left for RUBY CREEK!!!

The flights out were ok, not great, but I nursed O almost the entire way there, and he seemed to sleep well. Renting the car through Budget was a MISTAKE of grand proportion. Although it didn't cost us our entire savings, it was NOT cheap, and it took over THREE HOURS to even GET a car! Anyway, it worked the entire trip, so I shall stop complaining. It was just a rough start. Once we got to RC things really took off for us, and we all had a nice chill session.



Jerry had a meeting with the sibs and lawyers the next day, so we worked around that, and really it was fine. It put a bit of a bitter taste on his chill time, but he was back before dinner and got in a swim and stuff. I think Jerry really enjoyed his time up there - kite flying, exploring with the kids, swimming, watching CBC news. Since we only got the one channel, it was easy to decide what to watch!

We had a load of visitors there, including cousins and second cousins, friends like Joanne, Lukas and Jacob,

Tasha, Loreena, and old family friends.

Pat and Jim were able to come up a few times, which was fabulous.


Ken and Di were there for our first few days, but Ken was out of vacation by the start of the next week, and we really didn't see a ton of them. The time we spent together was great, though!



Beca has some fun sleepovers at Loreena's and at Lucas's houses, then we all trooped off to Robert's Creek and stayed at D'Arcy's for 3 nights. WOW WOW WOW!!!

D'Arcy is living in a geodesic dome that is awesome to be in, and her property is amazing.


The cabins are so cute!






D'Arcy has recovered so well from the car accident, you'd never know she has had a major brain injury! Everything isn't back to perfect, but she's got her same flare and wonderful sense of humor, and she's running her B&B with only a bit of help, now.




And the beach is wonderful.






I'll have to process my thoughts and feelings about all that and write more on a diffferent day - time to go get dinner going here already! - but it was awesome to see D'Ar and a truly wonderful place. Sigh. I miss her and RC a lot.

Once we got back from our trip there were only a few days before school started. And that brings us back to homework and dinner and me skipping out on the rest of the afternoon! Bit embarrassing really. Ok, I'll try to get back later tonight and post up pictures. Hopefully everyone is REAAAAAALY tired. :D

Another year in the blink of my eye

A Life Reborin

Oh me, oh my, just another year of my life gone by!

Amazingly enough, I no longer count the years by my birthday, but by the birthday of my sweet little girl. EIGHT!!!!! Eight amazing years have come and gone in the blink of my eye. She is confident and agile, ferocious and sensitive. She has sense and is whimsical. She is my shadow and my future, brave and solemn. She cries at TV show drama, refuses to sit long enough to read, frightened of the dark, thrilled by thunder, enthralled by bugs. Good god, I don't think I could love anyone else this way - never again, I say. Never again. One amazing, georgeous girl is all this mama can handle!

End of School 2005-2006

Today is Beca's last day of school. She's had her dance recital (which went swimmingly - no broken legs hee hee), taken her standardized tests, and finished her workbooks. The paints and pencils have come home. She had a long year - full of ups and downs, lots of learning, and a few memorable moments. Her class play on the rainforest was terrific - she spoke clearly and loudly, and was one of the better speakers. She made her own costume from conception to paint. It wasn't the fanciest, but it sure was colorful! She was a Cock-of-the-Rock (not a chicken)! Her chorus efforts are rewarded today - she is part of a nice big group singing rainforest songs (think Jungle Book).

Ori has some new words, and new signs. He says night-night, car, bus, truck, dog, and ball (maybe some I'm forgetting?). Ok - not exactly Whitman yet, but he's getting there! He signs milk, ball, more, food, juice (a little bit), hot, cold, car, star, potty, and water (sort of). He's growing well, curious and adventuring all over the yard. He loves to eat, this kid! He eats his veggies better than his fruits. He is currently suffering from what I think is a high body pH, which means he isn't processing acidic foods well, and the acids remain in his excretia, burning his skin where they touch. He's always had fleece liners in his diapes, but the burns are bad, and it's very sore for him. I've taken him off the most acidic foods (meat, meat products, refined sugar) and we'll see how it goes. It doesn't change his diet all that much (for me), tho I know that JAC will not be happy. Poor little guy - we've got to get it cleared up soon though! He's screaming with every poop in the diape (you'd think this would be a perfect opportunity for him to get into using the potty, but when I ask if he wants to use it, he'll go find it, bring it to me, and then not want to sit on it at all. Just wants me to know he knows what it is. *roll eyes* ), and he wakes and cries about two or three times a night, too. We'll deal, and hopefully learn.

So as summer approaches, so does Beca's birthday! She is excited!!! This year we are having a crafting party - tie-dye, fabric painting, rainstick making etc. It's a nice bunch of girls coming, so I hope it is a success. We decided to do an evening event this year - 3:30 - 7:30. Dinner on the BBQ with some salads and snacks, cake/ice-cream, and drinks is easy enough for me. Daddy will be a big help with the bbq, and Jackie and Mike will be here with Max and Liana, so they can help a little too. I also asked Nesh if she would help, and I think she will. So that will give us 4 adults and 10 children, plus O and M. Should be INTERESTING!!!