Happy Birthday Isaac

Dear Isaac,

Happy (belated) birthday Isaac! I am so blessed to call you my son. I feel so lucky that I got to be home with you four about three and a half years of your life before heading back to work. You grow and change before my eyes almost daily and I love that I get the best seat in the house for the play of your life.

You have energy from sunup to sundown and then some. You wake up anywhere from 5:30 to 6:45, more often than not around 6:00. You start the day off by coming into our bedroom and leaping on the bed. Mommy demands morning cuddles before we head downstairs and turn on the lights together.

You head to bed at 7 pm but some nights, like tonight, you are up and looking at books in your room until well past 8. It's hard to get mad at your for that when your mommy did the exact same thing growing up and still stays up too late reading some nights! You love books: owning them, looking at them, reading along on the books you have memorized and listening as we read to you. You go in phases for your favourites but some of your classics are Richard Scarry books, any car / truck books and Cars (the movie) stories, Dumpy the Dump Truck, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, firetruck books and a stack of maybe 20 more that you rotate through.

You love to be around me and are usually happiest when either I'm playing with you or at least nearby. Even though we've always had a tight bond, your need to be with me became much more desperate when I went back to work and added school in the mix. You and I both feel our time together is precious. Grandma is still one of your favourite people but I think if you had to pick right now, it'd be your mommy and I'm happy with that!

You are an awesome helper in the kitchen. You love to help with any sort of baking, especially when you get to lick the beaters at the end. You are a super helper to Daddy on pizza movie night. You like to help set the table, clear dishes and empty the dishwasher and sweep. You also like to vacuum the living room and actually do such a good job, I rarely go over it again myself when you're done.










This year we went raspberry and blackberry picking and you were a great helper. You actually picked a decent amount to add to our total and you obeyed when I told you not to eat any until we had paid for them. You didn't put a single one in your mouth until I told you it was OK to try one because we had to test them!

You like music but your favourite songs are the Popcorn Song, Life Could Be a Dream and Do Everything You Do. You like to sing Down By the Bay, ABC's and a couple other kid songs. And you love to bust a move on the dance floor (aka kitchen floor) for impromptu dance parties during breakfast. You sometimes make up new words for songs. "That's a silly song," you say as you compose new lyrics.

You are so smart Isaac. You are a great puzzle solver and enjoy doing the same ones over and over as well as new ones as they come along. We watch you pick up memory verses in a matter of minutes and repeat them to us flawlessly. You solve puzzles quickly and work diligently through them. You understand so much and can explain back to us things like some story lines or math-type questions.

You love to play cars and can entertain yourself for hours with as many or as few cars as you have around. Your play is starting to get more involved. The cars now "break" and go to the mechanic. They crash, they open up a little chickadee toy we have, they interact with each other, they go to the beach and, of course, go for drives along our playmat. They sometimes fly or line up at the car dealership too. I love watching you come up with new ways to play with your toys and watch your creativity flourish with time and minimal distractions from other toys, people or activities.

You are also getting into lego now. Last Saturday on your birthday you got several new sets of "big kid" lego. Every day we've had the bin out and you can actually break apart and put back together the junior lego car we gave you. It's really cool to watch.

You like playing board games. Candyland, Hungry Hippo, Bob the Builder Uno or Uno Moo and Memory are our usual go-to's. You and I will quite often play a round of Candyland while Promise has her nap.

You've been riding your Strider bike since you were two years old. You picked it up quickly and enjoyed it. This past summer, we decided it was time to move you to a big kid's bike with pedals and training wheels. You did well figuring out how to do the pedalling but got frustrated because the training wheels made the bike ride high and get stuck quite often. On Sept. 28 you asked to have the training wheels taken off.

You lasted about 15 minutes outside trying and, hampered by lots of cars in the parking lot and frustration, you came inside. But on Sept. 29, we went to the parking lot up the road. Within about 10 minutes, you were pedalling around the parking lot with no trouble. By the end of that day, you could sometimes get the bike going yourself, pedal, turn and stop without any problems. Now, just over a month later, you don't need any help starting off, going over bumps etc. It is awesome to watch you and we are so proud of this big step for you!







Your favourite spot in the world is definitely Purden. Almost every day you either fly, drive or take a train there. You pretend we are there in either summer or winter and remember details about the place and what we've done there. It's already a special spot for you and we pray your memories build over many years of going there.

You usually enjoy playing with Promise and can often be very sweet to her. Sometimes if we're on the hunt for Owl, you will find him, run up to Promise and say "Here you go Promise, I found Owl." It warms this momma's heart to see you treat her so kindly. I do wish you treated her nicely all the time but we're working on that one.

You are not straightforward to classify and that makes you a mystery to me in ways your sister is not. I try every day to understand your inner workings and I love the complexity and uniqueness that makes you YOU.

You have big emotions for such a little guy. You can be incredibly happy, content and outgoing. But you can also feel deeply saddened and frustrated when things don't go your way. We're trying to teach you perspective, about saving tears for things that really matter. But you feel what you feel and we don't want to belittle your emotions either. We love you so deeply Isaac and we are trying to help you find a balance for the big, conflicting emotions you feel each day. I think in you there is great potential for a life filled with compassion and empathy and I pray that I can help to shape you into using your depth of emotion to love Jesus and love others.

What else can I say about you my boy? It's hard to summarize who you are in a post. You are calm and crazy, sometimes quiet in crowds and loud alone. You can sometimes sit and listen and sometimes you close your ears. You are hard to put into a box and I think in the long run that will be a strong attribute.

You have so many people who love you Isaac. And we all love you for who you are to us, not for anything you have or haven't done. I love you more deeply than I ever could have imagined loving a child. The moment I met you, I understood the love God has for us. It is deeper than the ocean and is not connected to anything you do, have done or will do. It is a love for you because you are my son and because I am your mommy.

I can't wait to see what this year has in store for you Isaac. Happy birthday my amazing, wonderful, energetic boy!

Love Mommy

Blogging again

I don't take a lot of selfies. Probably because they turn out like this.

Looks like I'm blogging again, seeing as how I went eight or so months without writing anything and now two within a week. Whoa, crazy writer!

I'm in the middle of writing a cover letter. It's due tomorrow. The good news is I thought I was working today and had completely the wrong schedule. So instead of starting my cover letter at 11 tonight, I started an hour and a half ago. That doesn't mean I'm anywhere close to done. It's hard to write a letter when you want to look good but aren't sure you really want the job.

I also just got a new position at my current job. Instead of being casual, I'll be part time which means steady hours, with the option to top up to full time if I want / need.

What I really want to do is stay home with my kids. Make crafts, play cars, squish playdough. How do I get paid for that? Unfortunately, the only way I can think of is to get enough hours at work for mat leave, have another baby and get reduced pay for one year. But that doesn't really work in our books right now seeing as how Justin is still unemployed. And I have health issues. And those two munchkins we already have cause us to run around until we're dizzy from the rush of raising them.

On top of all that, I've got just over a month left of my math class and I might murder someone with a sharpened pencil if they quiz me on it right now. It's tough for me. Really tough. I mean, math and chemistry and geology and whatnot were never my forte even when I was in "school mode." Now I'd rather be in mommy mode but am student, employee, wife and mother, each pulling at me for time and talents.

I keep telling myself in the grand scheme of things, these days will seem short and regardless of the path I choose / have chosen for me, it'll all work out in the end. I thank God that He knows my ending even if the middle part of my life is fuzzy to me. He knows the best steps for me too but has been terribly silent about it all. So I'm just praying, moving forward day by day, wiping bums and cooking oatmeal, working with individuals who see the joy in small things and remind me not to take my blessings for granted, thankful that I was raised with a perspective that I can do anything I set my mind to and glad for the opportunity to take the math class because in many countries I would be unable or not allowed to pursue higher education. I'm blessed.

Happy birthday Promise

My darling daughter,

I can hardly believe you are two years old today. Time is flying by with you. I blink and you've reached another milestone. I close my eyes for a second and you have learned something new. What a joy it has been to watch you grow these last two years. You have transformed from a tiny baby, held in my arms for the first time with overwhelming joy, to the precious little girl before me today.

You are spunky and happy and have a twinkle in your eye when you laugh. You smile and giggle easily and when you laugh it's infectious. You also get angry easily but cool off quickly. I see so much of myself in you, personality and features. I marvel that you are my daughter, it is such a strange sensation to see myself in another person as I see myself in you.

You like to help me with whatever I'm doing, especially baking and putting away laundry. You mimic my facial expressions and follow me like a shadow quite often. You're always checking to make sure Mommy is nearby. But when it comes to laughs, it's all about Daddy. He gives you rides, makes you giggle with hardly a pinkie finger's tickle, and brings out your wild side. Mommy is best for cuddles and Daddy is best for play and it's a good balance for our family.

You like to sing, dance, listen to music and move around like the house is your personal jungle gym. You push your physical boundaries and emulate Isaac. You've recently learned to jump and it's just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. You bend way down and almost leap then quickly step down. If you jump on flat ground, you bend down and lean up quickly on your toes. You're practicing walking up and down the stairs holding the railing or Mommy or Daddy's hand. You also sometimes scoot down the stairs on your bum, faster than we're comfortable with but you definitely have fun doing it!

You love to play with Isaac and like to take part in whatever activity he's doing. But you also have a say in what toys you want out for playtimes. Your favourites right now are your big red car, Mr. Potato Heads and various puzzles. But you'll pretty much play with any toys around you. You can be found playing cars, trains, buses or firetrucks. The other day Isaac was upstairs and you were pushing Mack Truck around the kitchen, making various car sounds as you went. You like to stack blocks, pretend with play food and dress up whenever I bring the dress-up box out.

You are becoming a great little artist. While I try not to compare you and Isaac for many things, in this area there is such a big difference. Isaac liked playdough when he was two but really had no interest in colouring, painting, doing crafts etc. You, on the other hand, already love doing all those things. At Strong Start you always do the craft (especially the gluing part!) and you like to paint. You are finally starting to play more with the playdough and eat less of it. And you like putting stickers into your sticker book. We did a painting activity a couple weeks ago. You leaned as far forward in your chair as you could to make sure a small patch of paper that was blank was covered with paint. I was impressed you were aware of it and worked to cover it with colour!

You definitely have opinions on what you want to or don't want to wear. We noticed it when you were about 16 months old I think. You had to pick out your coat. Now you tend to pick out your own shoes, your coat and your pjs. Some days you need to pick your own shirt too. Sundays are especially trying as you have strong opinions about what church clothes you do not want to wear but don't always provide us with an alternative you're happy with! You love wearing necklaces and have a few strewn around the house already at the tender age of two. Teenage years with you will be interesting.





You're a great eater. There's not much you don't like other than mushrooms. But if you had your way, we'd eat a huge bowl of blueberries with every meal. Or cheese. Or tomatoes. You like lasagna and hot dogs and cheesy noodles and anything with dip. You love pizza movie night (we all do!) and want to help with pizza prep, or at least to help test out the cheese, meat, veggies and olives.

You like to walk places now so we are using the stroller less and less, though it's still very convenient. We'd love you to start riding your Strider but you've only sat on it a couple times and we finally got you to walk forward with it a bit last week when Grandma and Grandpa and their special friends were over for a visit. You love your rocking horse on the back deck and will occasionally motor around in Isaac's big deck car too. You enjoy nature and are a good little walker when we're out and about.

Your absolute favourite thing in the world is Owl. Nothing compares to the love between you two. That little stuffie immediately calms you and we don't go anywhere without him. On Tuesday we had a scare we'd lost him and we searched diligently until he was found. You do have a backup owl "Fuzzy Owl," but he's just not the same as "Special Owl." You've even laughed when you've asked for Owl and we've given you Fuzzy instead of Special. What a joke that is! You also love Teddy and he makes a great pillow / cuddly toy for bedtimes and just after you wake up. He's special but not to the same degree as Owl.

You're wonderful with bedtimes. You know your evening routine by heart but you work well if we mix it up too, like read with Isaac and then no personal storytime. Sometimes we sit outside of your room and sing a few songs to reassure you before you'll settle for sleep but mostly you're easygoing and just stick your two fingers in your mouth, cuddle Owl and Teddy and go to sleep on your own. You still have a naptime every afternoon for about an hour to an hour and a half. You have missed your nap on occasion when we've been out of the house and you manage splendidly. But I'm glad you still have an afternoon snooze. It gives me a chance to relax or spend time with your brother.

You and Isaac are becoming fast friends. It makes me so happy to see you two play together. Two days ago was the first time I saw you two happily roughhouse together (tamely). You both had so much fun, chasing each other and giggling as you would grab Isaac's shirt and he would turn away, pulling you with him. Lots of times you fight over toys but lots of times you play together too and I love that.

Well my daughter, this is a long letter already. I could keep going but I could write all night and still not capture the wonder it is watching you grow. I feel incredibly blessed to be your mother and call you my daughter. I love the personality you have shining through already, I love watching you learn and grow and become the girl God made you to be. And I love being your mommy and caring for you through all the moments that make up our days and lives.

Happy birthday Promise!
Much love,
Mommy





This is one of my favourite moments with you recently. We were standing above a marshy area. There was a tiny path leading into the marshes. You decided to just walk right into the thick reeds, heading off on a grand adventure without worrying about what anyone else was doing. It showed me your adventurous spirit and your willingness to try new things, both wonderful qualities to have.

It's a boat

Almost every meal, Isaac grabs a piece of food from his plate and starts to move it across the table. It's a guarantee he'll ask us, "What's that?" He waits for us to ask what it is and then gleefully tells us what it is - either a boat or occasionally a car. Then he points out where we all are in the vehicle as he slides it across the table, a trail of buttery bread in the wake of the boat or crumbles behind the car.

Today at lunch we ate leftover chilli and cornbread. Isaac started to push a piece of cornbread around the table.

"Momma, what is it?" he asks me.

I say, "I don't know, what is it Isaac?" and whisper to Justin that his answer will be a boat.

"It's bread," he says with a straight face. I love that kid.