Okay, so the tooth faerie forgot to come last night - after posting, I got caught up on uploading photos to flickr then loading the dishwasher, folding laundry, getting to bed finally, and I totally forgot. OOPS!!! There was a moment when I first woke up and heard Kea excitedly checking under her pillow, and I went "Oh sh*&^(t" but by that point it was too late. Poor girl. We've decided that she was looking for teeth, and didn't see her note, so tonight it is on the window sill in plain sight. And I WILL remember!!!!!!!

Today Kea had art class, and the whole class drew a picture of the skeleton model. Only Kea added a tool belt to hers, and drew a big highrise building next to it - WITH A GARDEN ROOF ON TOP!!! She called it Mr. Bones the Engineer, and Jamie was very proud!

Yesterday the girls had a class about Fantastic Felines, during which the teacher played various sounds that cats made. When she played the purring, Kea's arm shot up straight and she answered with enthusiasm, "That's the sound of the cat farting" as if she knew it with certainty! Yup, we're all about class in this family!!!!!

Tiegan runs ahead of us all the time, and yells back, "I'm beating you up Mom, I'm beating you up!" She also tells us that she's "drinky" all the time when she wants water. I so love this stage for the usage of language, and find it sad when they stop using their own words - life is so boring once we all try so hard to talk the same!

Right now Ryland is slowly pulling out every single photo that I've sorted into various piles, so I guess that's my cue to get off the computer!!!! I need to sew some Halloween costumes anyways!!!!

Oh, and before I go, here's a link to some recent photos of us! The one of Tiegan laying on the ground is SOOOOOOOO typical of the day - the photographer really wanted to get a shot of her on a bench, and instead she was laying under the bench picking moss!!!! But it's my favourite shot of the lot!

help in the kitchen

help in the kitchen
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Anytime Ryland even hears the dishwasher door open, he comes tearing over on his hands and knees to "help" us unload/load/splash in any water! He LOVES to do dishes :-) Very sweet, in a somewhat annoying kind of way!!!!!

There's more photos up on Flickr if you want to check them out, including a set about last weekend (trip to Reifel Bird Sanctuary where my kids begged for bird food but were actually too afraid to feed them!, trip to another pumpkin patch to replace the pumpkins that were stolen off our deck - can you believe that?! And then some photos from our trip to Victoria to visit Clare and Alex, without any photos of Clare and Alex!!!! Next time......)

new kitchen floor

new kitchen floor
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Today was a grumpy day.

After a very busy weekend out and about, Kea went to sleep way too late lastnight and Tiegan woke up way too early this morning. I was woken by the sounds of them fighting, which in turn woke up Ryland too early - and that kind of set the tone for the whole day.

The highlight was definitely as we were wandering through the woods and Kea claimed to have won the race across the log, and Tiegan felt so frustrated that she flew at Kea with her fists raised.

And in doing so, she knocked Kea's (very loose) tooth out of her mouth. Which fell on the forest floor and promptly settled out of sight. Which brought about even MORE tears.

We finally settled on a letter to the tooth faerie with a drawing of the tooth. And after a few hugs and talks (once again) about non-violence, the humour of the situation shone through and everyone had a good laugh.

The kids are now fast asleep and I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day for them!!! Now off to find that box of tooth faerie charms I'd stashed away in a 'safe' place!!!

We're back from an action-packed weekend in Victoria with Aunty Clare and Uncle Alex - plus visits with friends! I'll upload photos soon, it was an incredibly sunny, beautiful autumn weekend :-) I took the three kids myself, and came home to more home improvements...which is always exciting! Jamie fixed up the brick in our kitchen, resanded and resealed our kitchen counters, and most exciting of all, lay our brand new marmoleum floor!!!!! Again, photos soon!!

While we were gone, Tiegan fell off the bed (and as I was groggily comforting her I asked where she had fallen, meaning where on her body, and she stopped crying long enough to look at me like I was the stupidest person ever, and said, "on the FLOOR"!), Kea learned how to play WII, and Ryland learned how to climb stairs VERY efficiently. I tell you, I can't take my eyes off this kid for ONE second. Today he's climbed up onto a stool, and was in the process of climbing onto the side arm of one of our rocking chairs when I lifted him up - crazy, crazy fool!!!!!!!

Anyways, it was a long couple of days of solo parenting, and now I'm going to go run myself a long hot bath and read a good book!!!!

Cosleeping. I'm not sure we ever intended to have an ever-evolving form of family bed, but that's definitely what we have. There are times when I have to admit I really resent having so many little bodies in my bed, especially when I have one foot shoved down my pyjama bottoms and another in my left eye. However, those moments are far outweighed by the very sweet memories of two sisters curled up together in sleep, by the extra sleep of just having to turn over to put a little one back to sleep, and the happy mornings of slowly waking up to conversations, stories and cuddles. And there is nothing sweeter than having a baby stir, roll over to find your warmth and then curl up against your armpit to fall back to sleep - lulling you to sleep with his rhythmic breathing. Especially when, like Jamie, you're away from said baby all day long.

Okay, and I've just uploaded photos from our field trip out to the Apple Barn - which was more of a pumpking patch trip for us than an apple trip, but fun nonetheless! It started out very wet and very cold, but then warmed up nicely making for lots of muddy fun!!!!!! Enjoy the photos!

Wow, three posts in one day - must be procrastinating on housework :-)

Oh, and I just got off the phone with Joan at St. Giles Preschool. We're now officially drop-outs of preschool. I know it's the right decision for Tiegan, and really for our whole family, but I was a little stressed out about having to call Joan and her as I have created a friendship over the past few years. And, on a more selfish level, I'll kind of miss my bits of time off!!! Perhaps this is the kick in the butt I've needed to start lining up bits of childcare during the day?!!

Busy weekend here - Mom arrived on Friday and stayed until Sat afternoon, then Dad arrived and is here until Monday. Great to see them again and to catch up a lot on visiting....and we've been treated to two great meals out! Friday night, we had Kea's favourite, Thai food (yummy pad thai, chicken satay, spring rolls, curry and soup!!!!) and Saturday night we had one of my favourite's, East is East where we had Eggplant rotis, platters of curries and lentil soup. Kea loves the lentil soup, and also ate much of the Moghul chicken roti, but Tiegan only liked her lentil rice. We tried the squash mango topping for her, to which she made the most disgusting face and then offered it to Kea. Kea took a very dainty bite and then proclaimed, "Hmmm, I would not choose to order it, but if I absolutely had to eat it, I could manage to." I take it she did not like it?!!!!

I love that our kids are growing up loving such a variety of foods, and I'm really looking forward to traveling more internationally with them. One of the top places on Kea's list (beat only by Disneyland!!!) is Thailand - we could live with that!!!!

I'm sooooooooooooo tired.....I really wish my kids would sleep more. I think Tiegan is getting a cold, so she's definitely out of sorts, Kea's been waking up at the crack of dawn and Ryland is working on various new skills. Meaning Jamie and I are up numerous times at night.....and probably going to sleep way too late at night to deal with all this nocturnal activity!

We have Emma and Ollie over for a sleepover tonight. I imagine that means we'll get more sleep tonight, ha ha! But the kids have fun playing, I get a chance to hide out in the basement on the computer for a little bit, and tomorrow we're going to wake up and eat pumpkin waffles and whip cream - and then a fun field trip in the rain out to the Apple Barn!

Today was pyjama day at Tiegan's preschool, and since Jamie was on duty he had to wear his pyjama's to school. I wish our camera battery was charged up as I was saying good-bye to them at the door.

When Tiegan got home, she informed us that she loves preschool, when one of her parents can go with her. "Tonight I am going to call Joan (the teacher) and tell her that I'm not going to go to preschool anymore. And Joan is going to say, 'okay Tiegan, you should spend more time with your family.'" Okay then. I think preschool may not work out this year.

Clare and Tiegan are sitting on the couch talking about big bellies and having babies. Tiegan asked what three babies at once were called? And six? What about ten? Clare said, "Oh, I don't know what that is called - Erica do you know?" To which Tiegan announced, "Silly - that's called just silly!" I love this age :-)

It's a rainy day here in Vancouver, we're still extremely sleep-deprived due to restless kids, surviving on coffee alone and finding everything HILARIOUS. I'm also trying to set up a homeschooling blog for Kea and I'm getting lost in the 'new-to-me' facebook world.  

Clare's starting to drop my baby, time to get back to parenting myself!!!!

Today we were all a little bit underslept and a wee bit cranky with each other, but after a breakfast of pumpkin waffles and then a long walk to M.E.C. to get Jamie a new backpack and Ryland a fleece outfit for the cooler weather, we were all in better spirits. Thank goodness for sunny autumn days and the pure joy of jumping in leaf piles!!!!!

Now we've enjoyed pasta and garlic bread for dinner, hot baths and while I upload photos Jamie is reading books to the kids so that we can cuddle in under our duvets to watch a movie - Fri it was my choice ("Painted Veil" - stunning photography, rather predictable storyline) so tonight it's Jamie's ("Inside Man" - Clare's recommendation, we'll see!!!!). I love Autumn days like today - I just wish it wasn't Sunday because that means Jamie goes back to work tomorrow :-(

I keep thinking that I will post more when life slows down and I have more time. But I think that today I have accepted that it will be a long time until life slows down, so I'm just going to carve out the time whenever I can and try to stay on the wave!!! And forget having a clean house - having us all well-fed, decently dressed, and busy doing much of what we want is far more important!!!!

Today we made a trip out to UBC for their annual Apple Festival where we bought many new varieties of delicious apples, wandered through the beautiful gardens and ate candied/caramel apples on a stick! Then we headed out to the New Westminster quay for a lovely afternoon in the sun, enjoying a visit with my grandparents over coffee (they had driven in for a family reunion this weekend). My brother Tyson also graced us with his presence - on his 22nd birthday nonetheless!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! We then drove home to eat sushi with Alex, Clare and a couple of their friends. And in between all these social visits, I managed to have a shower (first time in 3 days!!!!), practice piano for 20 minutes (I've started taking lessons again and am LOVING it), load the dishwasher twice, wash our sheets and hang them to dry, drop off AND pick up reprints from London Drugs (recent photos to be sent soon - I promise not to let them get lost under a pile of papers on the counter!!! For too long, anyways!!!!!), nurse Ryland numerous times and now update my blog a little!

And now that the kidlets are asleep and Jamie is upstairs on our laptop (probably browsing through cheap property listings and dreaming of retiring in his 30's! I think it's been tough to have to go back to work after a wonderful paternity leave.....) I think I may tackle a sewing project or two that I've been meaning to finish up. I'm loving this sunny, cold, autumn weather - I think I find it invigorating :-)

And I'd probably feel the effects of that invigoration a little more if Rye would let me get more than 5 hours of sleep a night these days!!! But until that day comes, I'm doing what I can! Have a good night!

Sorry for the long silences....

What can I say? Jamie is back to work after an incredible two months off, Ryland is a teething machine and is also finishing up a lovely little cold (read: NO SLEEP) and the girls are settling into their new busy routines and getting used to no dad around - it's been a bit unorganized and grumpy around these parts. But, we're enjoying a very quiet Thanksgiving weekend at home, hanging out and regrouping a little, and I'm anticipating a change for the better coming up!!!!! I hope so, anyways, I desperately need some decent sleep and some happier kids!!!!

In the meantime, I've uploaded a few photos from Tiegan's fun Muppet Show themed party. Unfortunately it was a gray rainy day (as it always is when it's time for her party!) so the quality of the photos is not too great - maybe one year we'll celebrate her birthday at the end of Aug so we can run around in a park and enjoy nice lighting?!!!! But until then, these will give you an idea of how we spent our afternoon!!!!

Rye showing off his skills!

Rye showing off his skills!
Originally uploaded by the five mckays

We took this photo this afternoon - Ryland now has 7 almost 8 teeth, he's a crawling machine (which just means that life has gotten sooooooooooooooooooo much busier for us all.....and more stressful as we try to keep everything out of his way! VERY difficult when your older two are currently obsessed with all things Playmobile aka choking hazards galore!!!!!) and over the past week has begun pulling himself up to standing wherever he can and practices stepping from one place to another - SLOW DOWN, we say!!!! And he loves to drum, we have discovered :-)