Island Life

We spent the better part of the last week out on a little travelled Gulf Island: Lasqueti, with good friends who have found their ways and paths there.

It was such a great week for all of us. For me, I reconnected with my longtime friend, Jenny, and her son Gryphon who are both so close to my heart.

For Adam, it was a time without a schedule or a bell ringing.

For Evan and Oliver it was a week of the outdoors and the unexpected.

For all of us, it was a week of open experiences and open people. I'm so glad that we all had the chance to get "out of the box" and feel how our friends are living.

Highlights: marimba intoxication, 9 on 9 and 3 on 3 ultimate, wheelbarrows of delight, forest wanderings, sleeping in the home that Jenny built and Evan's absolute trust of the people to whom we introduced him (within minutes he was peering into Peter's eyes, hanging between his knees - - - Ok, maybe you had to be there!).

It was also a great chance for us to jump ahead to spring. Though March 20th has come and gone in Calgary, the green is just peeping through. In contrast, on Lasqueti the flowers are in bloom and we were eating from Jenny's garden. I'll never forget the site of Evan hanging out in the garden and asking if he could eat more kale from the Jenny's plants. (Please let him ask for more kale at home!).

It is so so good to get an alternate perspective every so often. We live in such a consumer-oriented world here in the city that we need the retreat of the island life every so often - yes, maybe more often. It was touching to see how affected our kids were: Evan cryed his eyes out on the ferry when we left; wishing already for our next visit with our dear friends both old (Jenny and Gryphon), and new (Sue, Peter and Sheila).

Thanks to our hosts for their generosity. We hope to reciprocate in the not-so-distant-future.

Milestones

It seems that time is literally flying by with Oliver these days. Six months was an eternity of milestones with Evan, but now that we have two, six months has gone by in the blink of an eye.

Oliver is now eating some solids; so far avocado, sweet potatoes, apples, pears and bananas. He took to eating with vigor, literally ripping the spoon out of my hand and shoving it in his mouth! He also sits up with just some support from the back and rolls/wiggles around the room.

Last, but not least, he has a new tooth (bottom front) which broke through today. That explains his lack of sleep and slight fussiness as of late.
In some ways I just want it all to slow down - I want my little baby. In others, I'm excited to see this new little person growing up and getting ready for playtime with his brother. Everyday is definitely an adventure; I just need to take time to absorb all of the amazing changes our little Oli is going through before he's all grown up.

Winter Fun

Anyone who lives in Calgary, or anywhere "North" for that matter, certainly won't argue with the reality of global warming. There are too few days to get out and enjoy the snow in the city.


However, we were blessed with lots of snow and some mild weather last week - the perfect combination for outdoor activities. Evan got to try out his new skis and build a snowman.



We all had a blast tobogganing and playing outdoors. Evan Oliver got in on the adventure.
Thanks to Eric for the great pictures.

A Smile's Worth...

For those of you who are far away and wondering how things are going with our boys, let the pictures do the talking! Enjoy.

Skiing Young

We spent most of the week between Christmas and New Year's in Fernie - our favourite hangout.
All last year Evan was dying to try skiing. Whenever we'd go out he'd practice on our skis by laying them out in the front yard and pretending to ski. He would even bend his knees and pretend to be careening down the hill, and then fall over yelling, "crash!"
We figured that this year he would be old enough. Some friends with experience in this sort of thing recommended that we start by going down the hill with him standing on our skis.
Adam went out with him a few times and then I went down. We even braved the Deer chairlift which was a total thrill for him - at least the getting on and off parts. We spent most of the middle part of the trip discussing why the chairlift is so high up and how much longer it would be until we got to the top.
At any rate, skiing is a total hit with Evan. We definitely have to get his skis fitted for boots before we go out again; as long as we can convince him not to turn to snowboarding, that is. You see, our friend Joel has told Evan that snowboarding is much cooler than skiing so Evan is determined to be a snowboarder! I told him that once he is comfortable skiing, he can try boarding. Then, we'll move him on to the teles. He can follow in my snowprints, though I am guessing that he'll progress through the sports about twenty years faster than I did.
As for Oliver - I doubt he'll have much trouble keeping up with his big bro in a few years. He is jumping like a mad man - in my arms, in his exersaucer and in the jolly jumper. He'll have legs of steel by the time he's one!
"Peace in" (Evan's response to Peace out - and I like it) and all the best of the new year.
Jo Larson with Oliver, Finn and Meredith

Santa's Biggest Fan

We did the mall thing the other day - Evan is so excited about Santa that I can't help but go.

Evan loved "Santa's playland" and was totally attached to "Norman the Adorable Snowman" - he followed Norman everywhere. Luckily, Norman seemed to like Evan too. Evan told Norman that he wanted to go with him to the North Pole to help feed Santa's reindeer. Hmmm... I don't think I'm ready for him to go on such a big adventure quite yet.
Evan had no qualms about sitting on Santa's knee, in fact I think he was disappointed that he didn't get more time with the jolly fellow so that he could complete a thorough interrogation, Evan-style. (See the post on questions if you haven't yet experienced and Evan interrogation!)
Oliver loved seeing the kids at the playland. He is really delighted when he sees other kids playing these days.
All in all, not a bad trip though I'm glad it's only once a year. The best part was Santa's Storytime, during which Santa, Mrs. Claus and some of their friends (like Norman, the Sugarplum Fairy and the head Elf) told "the Night Before Christmas".
As for Evan's excitement, I think that this Christmas will be the best one in a long time. There's nothing like a totally excited almost-three-year-old to make Christmas morning an event to remember. We'll definitely have the camera out this year. In the meantime, his play involves loading up toys on his sled (a cardboard box) and distributing them to the children (usually Oliver and I, even Ali the cat gets a gift sometimes). Who is his helper you ask? Joel, of course. Thanks, Joel!
By the way - Evan doesn't think Christmas is only about Santa. When he was looking at his grandmother's Nativity scene the other day, he learned about all of the figures: Mary with her arms out to hold the baby, Baby Jesus, and Joseph with his hands together in prayer.
He looked at them briefly and then asked, "Why doesn't Joseph want to hold his baby too?"
Good question.

What a Funny Guy.

Oliver has his first laugh last week and it was inspired by none other than... his energetic brother Evan.
Evan had just completed building a baseball diamond (pretend) and he really wanted Oliver and I to come and see it. He was so excited: smiling and pleading with us to hurry up and come to see his invention. Oliver just stared at him for a minute and then he started laughing in a very cute, baby laugh. It was so fun to see and hear.
Ever since the first week of his life, Oliver has turned his head to hear when Evan is talking. Now that he can see and react well, he just can't keep his eyes off of his funny, energetic big brother. As for Evan - he gets upset when Oliver isn't looking at him. He's becoming very protective, caring and sweet to his "yiddle broder".

Hallowe'en

This year's Halloween was a lot of fun for Evan.We thought that he'd be into it, but we didn't realize to what extent!We took him out trick-or-treating to a few houses on our street and then to a few friends' houses. He didn't want us to come up to any of the the doors with him. He would command us, "Mom and Dad, you stay back there!" indicating the sidewalk. Then he'd tromp right up to the door and yell in his loudest voice, "Trick or Treat!" When the door opened he'd let the person know that he wanted "Candy please" in case there was any chance they had misinterpreted him. It was neat to see how independent he can be. He was also very enthusiastic about the candy!
Adam and I enjoyed the experience but we were commenting that Halloween seems to have changed a lot from our day. We remember gangs of kids on the streets, competing to see how much candy they could get.One of our friends, Bruce, told us that Evan was the only trick-or-treater to come by all night. Sad! (At least for us old folks).

Family Vacations

We discovered recently that a family "vacation" is indeed a departure from real life, but not necessarily a relaxing one.
We spent that last week of October visiting my uncle and his son in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. They have a gorgeous condo on the beach with three beautiful pools.
When we first arrived we spent a lot of time at the pool which was nice, but Adam and I couldn't help thinking that we were missing out on something. Shouldn't we be seeing the sights? Practicing our Spanish? Getting local with the locals? Hmmm... shouldn't we be seeing some Mexican people on our trip?
So we ventured forth on two different occasions. First we explored the streets of San Jose del Cabo with our two kids and our 4 year old cousin, Dawson. One local remarked: "Hmm...three kids and you're still on your honeymoon!" A couple of hours of that and we were all tired so we caught a taxi home.
The next outing we took was to Cabo San Lucas which is about a 1/2 hour bus ride. We just had Evan and Oliver that time. The ride there was great, but it seems we picked the hottest day of our trip to tour the streets of Cabo. We decided after a couple of hours of dodging the sun and keeping Evan away from the breakables (everything, that is) in the stores, that we would take the bus back to the condo. In the meantime, Evan and Adam did get local haircuts which gave us a break in the air conditioning and much needed trims for those two.
After that outing, we looked at each other and said, "What are we thinking, trying to get local with two small children in tow?" We quite enjoyed spending most of the rest of our trip by the pool and on the beach!
Thanks to my uncle Adam also had the chance to golf what he says is the most beautiful golf course he's ever been at. The picture is taken from the tee box and the green is the space in the distance. The cacti in between are out of bounds!
The moral of the story is that we plan to keep our "vacations" pretty simple until both kids are quite independant. Then we'll get back into the adventure travel we love so much.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Last night Evan told us what he wants to be when he grows up: a farmer.
He informed us that on his farm he'll have a tractor and he'll grow vegetables and he'll have hay. He'll also have two horses, one for him and one for his friend, Joel. We asked him if we were going to live at his farm and he said, "No, just me and Joel. Mom and Dad have to live at their own house with Oliver. I'm going to live with Joel!"
Hmmm... I'm not sure if Joel (Adam's friend) is totally prepared for these future plans.

Oliver continues to grow and smile and coo. I wonder what he wants to be when he grows up. Probably it'll have something to do with being bigger than his brother so he can hold his ground!

Half Marathon and training

Do you really need to training for a half marathon? I guess the answer depends on how much pain you enjoy. If you like mild tightness, then maybe you should run a bit before jumping into 21 km. However if you enjoy not really moving for the next 30 hours then you don't really need to train. Just buy some beers, chips get some movies and sit.

All jokes aside, it was a lot of fun. I, Adam ran the Harvest Half Marathon in 1:44 and really enjoyed myself. It was a beautiful run in Fish Creek on the warmest fall morning this year. Check out the web site.

http://www.harvesthalfmarathon.com/

Questions, Questions!

Responding to the never-ending questions of a 2 1/2 year old can be a daunting and tiring task.

Evan seems to have no shortage of questions, especially when we're in the car. A typical "interrogation" might go something like the following.
Evan: "How come we're going this way, Mom, and not that way?"
Mom: "Because this is the way to the store, Evan. That way would take us somewhere else."
Evan: "Where, Mom?"
Mom: "The other way, Evan. Then we wouldn't be able to get to the store."
Evan: "How come?"
Mom: "Because the store is this way and not that way."
Evan: "Why?"
Mom: "Because this is where someone decided to build the store."
Evan: "Why did they decide to build the store here, Mom?"
Mom: "I don't know, Evan. I guess they thought that this would be a good place to have a store."
Brief silence.
Evan: "And why are we slowing down now, Mom?"
Mom: "Because there's a red light, Evan. Do you remember what red means?"
Evan: "Red says 'stop!'. And what does green say, Mom?"
Mom: "You know what green says, Evan. What does it say?"
Evan: "Green says 'go!' and yellow says 'be careful!'"
Mom: "That's right, Evan. You remembered."
Evan: "But why does yellow say 'be careful', Mom?"
...
Ahhh...It's fun, challenging, frustrating and sometimes dumbfounding to try and answer all of those questions. I'll admit that after a while I sometimes tune out and then Evan has to ask several times. Sometimes I just say, honestly, "I really don't know."
Adam has a different strategy to deal with the questions. It's kind of a stream-of-conciousness monologue in which he anticipates and answers every possible question.
It goes something like this:
Evan: "Why are there workers there, Dad?"
Dad: "There are workers there because they're fixing the road. They're fixing the road because the City of Calgary Master Plan calls for better traffic circulation. That's because urban population continues to climb because people move to Calgary for the jobs. There are lots of jobs because we have a booming economy. The economy is good because it's based on natural resources which Alberta has lots of. Natural resources are things like gas and wheat. Gas is what makes our car go..."
The main advantage of Adam's approach is that Evan can't get a word in edgewise, but Adam eventually runs out of breath.
Sometimes, ususally in the early evening, I just tell Evan that I don't have any more answers today: I'm all out!

A Morning Laugh

It seems that TV programming is getting worse and worse these days. New sitcoms just aren't funny and otherwise it's reality (bites) TV or a show about someone murdering someone else.
I have found a great way to start the day though: Good Morning World. It's just the enough of a blend of ridiculous and humourous to actually make me laugh out loud.
I read about it in Macleans, and recognized one of the actors, Peter Oldring, from highschool days. I used to be into the drama scene in highschool and Peter Oldring was the king of the Calgary highschool theatre games competitions. He's even funnier now.
The added bonus is that you can watch Good Morning World anytime of the day you like! www.goodmorningworld.com

Two Year Old Fun!

I have to admit that I feel some pressure with this whole blogging thing. Everytime I open the internet, our blog is there to remind us that I haven't updated it for a while. Maybe as I get more used to being the mother of two I'll have more time for updates.

Anyhow - I wanted to share a fun photo from a really fun birthday. Our friend, Kate Lawes, is an amazing mom with the most creative ideas. For her son, Ari (the cute redhead in the center), she had the coolest birthday"cake" I've ever seen. As you can see by the pictures, the kids loved it.

Oliver's Filling Out

Oliver had his two week visit today. He weighed in at 7lb4oz: he has definitely mastered the eating thing! In the past few days he has had his first bath and his first shower.
He is eating up a storm and generally giving us lots of joy. Evan is enjoying his role as big brother and is ready to teach Oli all about life in the big world.
Tomorrow will mark two weeks in Oliver's life.
Time really does fly.

Evan eats corn

Taber corn is in and Evan loves it ! Not only does he eat the whole cob, he laughs as he eats it.

Evan also loves cutting the grass. Nana and Poppa got him this great lawnmower.

The proud parents

This was us 2 hours after Oliver's birth. Boy, we look happy !

The First Post

Well, We have decided to start the craze. We are so hip! Oliver and Evan are the main focus of this blog. Plus any rant we may have. Here is a picture of the latest Topp. Oliver !