the joy of love - the future

Big day today. Rehearsals started for the skating carnival and it was skating picture day.

Who knows if Ava's going to become an excellent skater. Who knows if she is going to continue this whole "taller than the whole class" thing she's got going on. Maybe one day she'll become a ballerina/teacher (gotta be some documented cases somewhere...) or maybe she won't.

As long as she has fun and she's doing something she loves, that's all that matters.



And that's a wrap on The Joy of Love. It was fun. I enjoyed it very much but I'm kind of glad it's over. It was hard finding the time for two blog posts every day and hard to get my shots taken on work days.

I missed a couple of days I might fill in at some point, but at this point I am going to say goodbye to The Joy of Love and keep plugging away on my Project 365.

In case it's of interest, Willette Designs is running another free course in March called "The Joy of Luck". Click here to learn more and to sign up.

the joy of love - what they say

Last weekend while I was cleaning the computer room, I stepped on a straight pin. It stuck right up into the boney part of my toe so far that it took some wiggling to get it out. It weirds me out just thinking about it. Anyway, Ava was with me when it happened.

She calmly said "I know exactly what to do!" and was gone. Two minutes later she was back with a bandaid, vaseline and a q-tip. She prepared the bandaid and had me all fixed up. She was like a little doctor. She was so impressed with herself and so was I. She is such a quick learner and she may only be four years old but she is the little mother of the house. She always looks out for all of us.

Today Ethan fell and scraped his foot. Once again Ava was gone in a flash and came back with everything she needed to fix him up.



I told her that she would make a wonderful doctor or nurse one day and she informed me that she isn't going to be a doctor or nurse. She is going to be a teacher during the day and a ballerina at night.

Who knows - maybe she'll become a Spanish teacher.

the joy of love - bromance

My boys are inseparable. When they were in the hospital we wrapped them like little burritos and tucked them in side by side in their basinette. When we brought them home they slept in the same basinette during the day and they slept in the same crib at night.

Then, once they started rolling around, things became a bit more challenging. One would kick the other in their sleep and wake them up and there would be hell to pay. At that point they were moved into cribs across the room from each other. They seemed okay with the move and didn't seem to mind not being in the same bed as long as you put them to bed at the same time. You can't put them to bed separately because they are lost without each other.

Once they were able to get out of their cribs, a big boy bed entered the picture and they were back to sleeping together. They now sleep at opposite ends of a twin bed.

Not sure what was up with them tonight, but they insisted on sleeping on the floor. Not sure who's decision it was, but the other was apparently on board because they are both fast asleep on the floor in this picture (Owen's closest to the camera and you can see part of Ethan's head just below the electrical plug in the background).

the joy of love - when you love them the most

Two weeks out of six I pick up the kids from Jen's house after work. It's so nice to hear them scream "MOM!" when I come into the house. The boys usually come running and give me a hug. I feel very loved and I love them so much, having missed them while I am at work.



I sit them on the step and put their coats on. Then I turn around to get their boots, turn back, and they are gone. The moment I realize they are gone, I love them slightly less.



I'm just kidding.

Well not really.

Fifteen minutes and a lot of wrestling and fighting later, we are on our way and Jen can finally eat dinner with her family.

I'll streamline the pick up process at some point. Gotta get through the terrible two/threes first.

the joy of love - where

8:03 am. Kitchen table.

Ava counts out a collection of 100 beads by 10s for her 100th day of school celebration.



3:03 pm. Boys' room. The boys (who are supposed to be sleeping) snap a number of their blind slats.



Counting to ten multiple times was also involved.

the joy of love - facebook

I don't change my Facebook profile all that often compared to some people. In fact checking it now, I have changed it 12 times in the past year and a half. Number of them that I am actually in? Two. I usually use recent favourites that I have taken of the kids and don't change to a new one until I take a shot of them that really speaks to me.

My current Facebook profile picture:



(Which oddly enough was taken on day 23 of my project 365.)

The profile picture that shows me in peak physical condition? Me at my fittest?



This week I learned something really useful about Facebook. The new picture viewer that Facebook has implemented drives me crazy. It's slow and it just bothers me. Did you know that if you press F5 it will close the viewer window and let you view the photo album the old way?

the joy of love - face (a portrait)

The boys love horses. When they see them as we are driving down the road they freak out. And when I say horses, I mean cows and horses. They are all horses and trying to disagree with them will get you nowhere.

Today we didn't spot many horses on the way to the movies so in between sightings we had a little quiz.

Me: What lives in a barn, boys?
Owen: Horsies!
Ethan: Pigs!

Silence.

Me: What animal does milk come from?

Silence.

Me: Cows. Milk comes from cows.
Owen & Ethan in unison: Ohhhhhhh.
Me: Where do eggs come from?
Owen: The dollar store!

(This is Owen.)

the joy of love - hands

When I was born, one of the first things everyone noticed was my hands. I had long, bony little fingers. Twenty-nine years later I noticed the same thing when Ava was born.

She has the same hands as me. I have the same hands as my mom and my mom has the same hands as my grandmother. What I wouldn't give to still have my grandmother here to be a part of this picture. She had beautiful hands and she started it all.



It's one of those traits where I can look at Ava and specifically say that she got that from me and it makes me smile.

As much as I love discovering genes my kids inherited from me, I hope Ava doesn't get the chest. Where was the Rawlins gene there, Dad?!

the joy of love - when they're home

When my sister is home, she is all about her niece and nephews. If I ask her to pose with them wearing matching coconut bras, for example, she goes with it (we had a mini Hawaiian party theme going on).



Neither of us are above a good "nice rack" comment. And check out Ethan - he seems to be enjoying his:



The other thing my sister does when she's home? She lets her niece and nephews blow out her birthday candles. Happy birthday Mel! MWAH!

the joy of love - when they're gone

For those of you doing Project 365, please, please stick with it. And sit down and give some thought to how you want to display those pictures once the year is done. I do digital scrapbook layouts of my pictures which also allows me to capture the stories behind them. Last year I took all of my weekly layouts from 2009 and I published a coffee table book.

It was worth every penny and I am doing the same with my 2010 pictures.

Today's Joy of Love kind of stumped me a bit. The pictures are supposed to show your loved one but the prompt was "when they're gone". A rule violation maybe since I don't have a person in them, but here is my picture.

This afternoon the boys were asleep and Ava spent the day at Nana & Grandad's house. When the kids are asleep or out of the house, I like to blog and/or scrapbook. Today I chose scrapbooking as I am on a mission to finish my book in the next month.



The other thing I like to do? Catch up on my soap operas. Dear Sonny & Brenda - please come up with a new love song stat because the current one is KILLING me.



Anyway, confession time. There are nights where I think to myself "oh my god I can't wait until they go to sleep". The thing is I am waiting for them to go to bed so I can document their childhood. Kind of ironic, isn't it?

the joy of love - going out

Today was a mild day. Although still pretty windy, it was +4 when I got home and the boys got outside for a play before dinner.




I'm not sure why, but the boys didn't notice the big puddles outside until I called their attention to it. What parent in their right mind shows their kids where the puddles are and encourages them to jump in them? Usually the one holding a camera.



So they got a little wet. Five minutes later they were inside and into warm, dry clothes and a little bit of their energy was burned off. (I didn't get any earth shattering shots, but that's okay.)

the joy of love - staying in

Both times I was pregnant, everybody excitedly told me that the late winter/early spring was the best time to have a baby.

Whatever.

As nice as it was to not be as big as a house during the hottest months of the year and that I was ready to hit the pavement and walk those pounds off as soon as the snow melted, I have to disagree.

The late spring/early summer's where it's at baby.

Case in point:



You can't very well give two boys shiny new bicycles for their birthday and not let them ride them for a month and a half, now can you?



If this house is still standing by the time these kids move out, I'll be amazed.