Did I say Happy New Year 2009?
I can't remember if I have or now, so best to say it twice. Kind of like it's good thing to eat more than one mince pie. Which ( btw) did you know represents a month of happiness....that is one mince pie = 1 month of happiness. I guess since this holiday season I ate 4 mini ones, that's 4 months! Yeah!
In any case, Happy New Year! and also Happy Birthday to my dad whose birthday it is today. There is something in the mail for you, something handmade ( of course) as that is my thing these days, but it is only part 1, there will be more on the way....maybe for Chinese New Year, when I get around to it.
So, Courtney is back to school. I'm betting that she is going to be wiped out when I pick her up. We've had a nice relaxing and fairly mindless holiday break....with some sleeping in, lots of visits from family, snacking on whatever and whenever and of course TV. The secret babysitter and ultimate mind numbing object. I usually only let her watch 20-1 hour of TV but occasionally, it dips over that point and I can always notice a difference. Back when I was growing up, I remember there was strict monitoring of TV. For the longest time, I remember watching TV ( and keep in mind this is blurred memories and memories of ages that blend into each other), but anyways, I remember TV on Saturdays, I remember watching the New Year flower parades, I remember maybe an hour of TV after dinner before bedtime with shows like Jeremy the bear, and some little animals in the forest, lunch hour there was maybe a half hour or so of Flinstones and Spider Man or Hercules if I was lucky. I do remember Sesame Street, then the Smurfs and then when we were much older, there was watching TV with our dinner ( on special occasions) to watch Disney shows and movies, and to watch the Bill Cosby Show, Family Ties, talk shows like Family Feud. I don't remember whatching MuchMusic or movies ...oh and of course, there was Y&R during the afternoons when I was sick from school - and during the summer holidays. But, I've lost my point, I remember only watching a bit of TV when I was little, never hours on end....and for Courtney, one hour is good for her brain - I can ask her to turn it off and she says OK, more than an hour and the drug effect kicks in and there is begging, whining, ignoring and complaining. Anybody else out there notice this effect? Oh, the other thing that she is starting to notice now too is advertisements....ok - maybe it's just me as we still stick to TVO or Treehouse here where there aren't all that many ads.
But, back to school. I'm guessing that Courtney will be exhausted and hungry and a bit grumpy. She will be back to set rules, having to wait her turn for attention and trying to figure out how to be the center of attention for the kids. She was telling me that she has been teaching the other kids some chinese words as well as the one chinese song that she knows. So far, apparantly, 2 kids sing along with her. I'm pretty impressed. I've also started to make sure that she understands that she is using a chinese word and to let her know the english word as I think she doesn't realize when she uses the chinese word in a sentence. It's probably my fault as that's what I do at home in an attempt to teach her some chinese, I cobble the two languages together...hopefully it will sort itself out. We've started to say a few more French words too as we'll be taking a trip to France in March and it'll be more fun for her if she has a few more words to converse with other with. It's such a fun age, this mix of being a know it all and wanting to know it all too.
But, on to some pictures. With 2 cameras, we sometimes forget to download the pictures, so here are some favorites leading up to the new year!
Bibs. Eating mush means more mess and wiping up. We go though probably a bib a day and probably in the weeks to come, I'll need to whip up a few more - I'd like to make some leather ones as I think I can just wipe them down, but for now, these bibs are super easy, fun and take not time at all. I can cut out the fabrics in front of the TV, stitch them up during the commercial breaks and pull out and tie off the seams at the TV. I've backed them with flannel or fleece.
My two cutie pies. Both are so good to each other. Although, times are changing. Courtney low pain threshold is not so good during Jer's grasping and grabbing phase. Although this morning at breakfast, they started to have too much fun and not enough eating...just what I need...tom foolery in the morning.
I gave little neck warmes are gifts and turns out that they are well designed ( hahah by me!) and will fit pretty much anyone's neck. I'm going to make one for myself. But, Courtney started to wear it immediately around her neck. It soon graduated to being worn on her head, and now flutters between it's proper use and that of a crown. Guess I better make a crown for her! It seems to work well for Jeremy too as there is always that little GAP at his neck.
Almost time to get CJ from school. Going to make some chamomile or hot chocolate to warm up with. It's snowing and wet here.
I can't remember if I have or now, so best to say it twice. Kind of like it's good thing to eat more than one mince pie. Which ( btw) did you know represents a month of happiness....that is one mince pie = 1 month of happiness. I guess since this holiday season I ate 4 mini ones, that's 4 months! Yeah!
In any case, Happy New Year! and also Happy Birthday to my dad whose birthday it is today. There is something in the mail for you, something handmade ( of course) as that is my thing these days, but it is only part 1, there will be more on the way....maybe for Chinese New Year, when I get around to it.
So, Courtney is back to school. I'm betting that she is going to be wiped out when I pick her up. We've had a nice relaxing and fairly mindless holiday break....with some sleeping in, lots of visits from family, snacking on whatever and whenever and of course TV. The secret babysitter and ultimate mind numbing object. I usually only let her watch 20-1 hour of TV but occasionally, it dips over that point and I can always notice a difference. Back when I was growing up, I remember there was strict monitoring of TV. For the longest time, I remember watching TV ( and keep in mind this is blurred memories and memories of ages that blend into each other), but anyways, I remember TV on Saturdays, I remember watching the New Year flower parades, I remember maybe an hour of TV after dinner before bedtime with shows like Jeremy the bear, and some little animals in the forest, lunch hour there was maybe a half hour or so of Flinstones and Spider Man or Hercules if I was lucky. I do remember Sesame Street, then the Smurfs and then when we were much older, there was watching TV with our dinner ( on special occasions) to watch Disney shows and movies, and to watch the Bill Cosby Show, Family Ties, talk shows like Family Feud. I don't remember whatching MuchMusic or movies ...oh and of course, there was Y&R during the afternoons when I was sick from school - and during the summer holidays. But, I've lost my point, I remember only watching a bit of TV when I was little, never hours on end....and for Courtney, one hour is good for her brain - I can ask her to turn it off and she says OK, more than an hour and the drug effect kicks in and there is begging, whining, ignoring and complaining. Anybody else out there notice this effect? Oh, the other thing that she is starting to notice now too is advertisements....ok - maybe it's just me as we still stick to TVO or Treehouse here where there aren't all that many ads.
But, back to school. I'm guessing that Courtney will be exhausted and hungry and a bit grumpy. She will be back to set rules, having to wait her turn for attention and trying to figure out how to be the center of attention for the kids. She was telling me that she has been teaching the other kids some chinese words as well as the one chinese song that she knows. So far, apparantly, 2 kids sing along with her. I'm pretty impressed. I've also started to make sure that she understands that she is using a chinese word and to let her know the english word as I think she doesn't realize when she uses the chinese word in a sentence. It's probably my fault as that's what I do at home in an attempt to teach her some chinese, I cobble the two languages together...hopefully it will sort itself out. We've started to say a few more French words too as we'll be taking a trip to France in March and it'll be more fun for her if she has a few more words to converse with other with. It's such a fun age, this mix of being a know it all and wanting to know it all too.
But, on to some pictures. With 2 cameras, we sometimes forget to download the pictures, so here are some favorites leading up to the new year!
I gave this little covered mailbox to Courtney on New Year's Day because I forgot about it for X-mas. It is a little metal mailbox by Provocraft which I covered using Jenni Bowlin papers and some Heidi Swapp rubons. It didn't take me long, but it did take me a while to get around to doing it. I also made a few matching cards and tags to slip inside. By far, this has been Courtney's favorite toy. She loves the red flag that tells her that there is mail for her. We both leave her notes, and she leaves us notes too, cards, little scraps of paper. Yesterday, there was even a note to Harry the spider in the bathroom! How cute is that...so if you are looking for some for a 5 year old, you wouldn't know it it but a play mailbox gets a lot of use.
So, he's a litle scrunched, but Jeremy is almost sitting by himself. He can do it a few seconds at a time and Courtney was most impressed when he caught himself with his arm and held his own.
Bibs. Eating mush means more mess and wiping up. We go though probably a bib a day and probably in the weeks to come, I'll need to whip up a few more - I'd like to make some leather ones as I think I can just wipe them down, but for now, these bibs are super easy, fun and take not time at all. I can cut out the fabrics in front of the TV, stitch them up during the commercial breaks and pull out and tie off the seams at the TV. I've backed them with flannel or fleece.
My two cutie pies. Both are so good to each other. Although, times are changing. Courtney low pain threshold is not so good during Jer's grasping and grabbing phase. Although this morning at breakfast, they started to have too much fun and not enough eating...just what I need...tom foolery in the morning.I gave little neck warmes are gifts and turns out that they are well designed ( hahah by me!) and will fit pretty much anyone's neck. I'm going to make one for myself. But, Courtney started to wear it immediately around her neck. It soon graduated to being worn on her head, and now flutters between it's proper use and that of a crown. Guess I better make a crown for her! It seems to work well for Jeremy too as there is always that little GAP at his neck.
Almost time to get CJ from school. Going to make some chamomile or hot chocolate to warm up with. It's snowing and wet here. 
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