Family Life – Page 27 – a hippie with a minivan

It's October…

I can’t believe it is already October… Fall is my favourite season and I think this is my favourite Month.

The leaves change and fall, the air is crisp but not too cold and the warm meals make their return and are new again… After the summer and the first month of pregnancy that nothing appealed to me and cooking was a bit more of a chore than a hobby, I am enjoying being in the kitchen again. Over the weekend I made Hot Pepper Jelly, Raspberry-Plum Jam with a hint of vanilla (recipe to come), apple-pie jam that didn’t set but has now been named apple pie syrup which Xavier has fallen in love with and I still have many apples and plums to cook with which will most likely because other treats along with apple sauce that will be a treat during the winter…

I have also been making roasted chicken, roasts, roasted veggies, soups, stews, pot pies, crumbles, apple-cinnamon oatmeal, apple pancake along with many other meals that warm you up…No heating needed yet, our oven and stove have been keeping the house warm lately…

Another fun thing is that Xavier has been commenting on my meals more instead of just saying that he likes it or not… he is interested in what goes in and what flavours come from where and has been commenting on little parts of the meal that he likes and not just the ensemble. He has also been a lot more interested in trying new things which is fun when you love experimenting..

Thanksgiving is coming up in two weeks and I am planning on a traditional meal with all the works… and hopefully we will have a few friends over to share the meal with us… Here in Quebec, especially on the French side, thanksgiving is just a day off and there are no special meals or anything.. growing up as a child, my mom never did anything either and I loved being invited over to friends’ homes for their traditional thanksgiving suppers… so it is a tradition that I love sharing with my children and I hope that later on when they have children of their own, I will be able to kep the tradition alive and have the family gathering that as a child I dreamt of having…

The end of October will also be the end of the second trimester for me… just a few short months and we will have a new baby in the house again. It is going so fast because in a way I have still not accepted 100% that I am pregnant… not like the other times… the loss just before has made this pregnancy different then the others. I am also carrying this baby very differently, my Uterus is long and I am carrying high… though I am definitely showing when I am standing up, when I am sitting or when I lay down it is hardly noticeable… and I can still get a few pairs of pants on and zipped up though they are too tight to wear like that…

Then of course is Halloween, one of my favourite days… hopefully it won’t be raining and we will be able to go for a long walk in the neighbourhood with the kids all dressed up and trick-or-treating…. Last year we went out early and then came back, put aside the candy that we could enjoy (not much) and then opened our lights and gave out all the candy that we can’t eat… the kids loved the idea and loved giving out the candy along with the glow sticks I bought at the dollar store..

Happy October to all of you that love fall as much as I do… I hope you are able to make a few memories…

(the leaves changing on one of the maples in my yard)

Apple picking…

Took a while to get this post up but I guess it is better late than never…

Last Thursday we went apple picking at an orchard on Mont-St-Gregoire, south of Montreal. It was an activity with the Homeschooling group but it was supposed to be on Wednesday and was cancelled because of rain and then put for Thursday as a non-official outing which ended up being nice because we were a smaller group then intended and it was nice to be able to talk to people more…

The day turned out to be gorgeous and the kids got to play in the park and eat their lunch while us mom talked and shared until we decided to buy our bags and head out to the Orchard on the tractor ride…

We were let off of the tractor in the orchard where there was another park and we were able to go pick apples and the kids played and we talked more…

Xavier didn’t stay long to pick apples.. but he did pick a few…

Colin and Khéna though loved it and I sat on the ground and they filled up the bag completely…

When it was time to go the kids didn’t mind at all because it meant another tractor ride and they were getting tired from a day full of playing and fresh air… a quick stop in the shop and a few purchases and we headed back home…

This is what we ended up with…

A BIG bag of apples… I don’t know how much exactly but at least 30 lbs, probably more… A few pounds of plums, Local Blueberry blossom honey and some Apple Ice Cider for Simon…

Over the weekend a few pounds of the plums and apples got made into some yummy treats… and I still have a lot to do…

My sweet Colin is 5…

5 years ago, on Sept 2nd 2004, surprising me at 38 weeks, Colin was born after 22 hours of labour…

He took to nursing right away and he was such an easy baby especially in the first weeks…

At 2 weeks old, he came down with a high fever and was lethargic and sick… we went to the ER and we were rushed through quickly… they did blood tests and other tests and worse of all they did a spinal tap… it was one of the hardest moments of my life to see my new little fragile baby go through so much pain… we ended up spending a few days there until he started opening his eyes and I decided that we would be better off at home…

Once we got home the fever broke and he was well again. We never knew what it was but after a similar (+ febrile seizures) incident when he was 18 months we realized that he had trouble controlling his body temperature… and still does to some extents…

When we got home, he was not the baby that he was before… it was very traumatizing to all of us…

Colin was/is such an amazing and smart kid… he is full of energy, full of life and doesn’t stop moving… he has never been scared of pushing his personal limits and is always active…

He has always been advanced for his age… he was very agile from a young age…

Sitting unassisted at 4 months… able to sit down from laying down at 5 months, crawling at 6 months, walking at 9 months and was talking in clear sentences by 18 months…

(11 months old)

His love affair with drawing started at a young age… and still continues to this day…

(about 13 months)

Another favourite passtime of his is jumping… if you have ever met him, you know that he can jump and hop and run and tumble… he never stops and seldom gets hurt… he has amazing agility and balance…

(25 months old)

He was born a little brother and then two years later become a big brother and he fills both rolls very well…When Khéna was born he stood next to the birthing pool and watched… he didn’t say word the whole time until he saw the new little baby in my arms and then his first words were “aww… he’s so cute!”

Colin is such an amazing kid. He is fun to be around, he is always making us laugh and is empathetic and and inquisitive. He loves to draw and to do puzzles, loves to hum and sing, loves the water and is a real fish, and especially loves to move and jump and just be free…

Colin is always willing to help and loves attention… he is very affectionate and easygoing… Whatever is happening, he just follows with a smile and is eager to please…

He always has a smile and always has a hug and a kiss to share. He talks constantly and asks questions all the time and once he gets an answer it only leads to more and more questions…

He has a vivid imagination and spends hours playing and making up stories… he also spends hours at the table filling up pages and pages of paper with drawings… but they are not only drawings , they are stories being played out and acted through his pen…

Though he can jump easily from the “5th stair” he is afraid to go get his underwear in his room after dark.

He is sensitive and easily has his feeling hurt so it is hard to be a younger brother a lot of the time…but he also sees that being a younger brother also has its advantages…

With Xavier’s interest in the world of D&D and the start of the role playing game with Simon, Colin has joined in and follows the game without a problem. If you know the game, you can see that this is not an easy talk for a a little boy who is just turning 5… His vivid imagination shines and it becomes a time that they can play and share a common interest without conflict…

I can’t believe that he is already 5… it seems that time passes so quickly but then again, there have been many times that I have to remind myself not to add a year or two to his age…. I am so thankful to have him in my life as my child.

Happy Birthday my Sweet Colin!

Back at the Cabin…

I visited my mom at the Cabin on Friday and we had such a great day…

A friend of ours from BC was visiting and he is someone who is just really nice to talk to… My uncle was also there, as he went for a visit last month and hasn’t went back home yet… it is just a really nice and calming place to be, so I don’t blame him for not wanting to leave…

Xavier and Colin have been spending the last days dressed as Knights and they didn’t hesitate brings their armour along…

Two times when we were there, the Deer came to visit… two mamas and two fawns…

This one was trying to get closer to eat some food just across the lake from the cabin.. the boys though were having trouble keeping quiet though and she went and met up with the others again and they headed back into the forest…

One of the boys favourite pass times at the cabin is playing in the dirt and rocks and just getting dirty…

Lilies on the lake…

Khéna was poking around in the water for bit…

and inspecting what he found very closely…

the deer came back again while we were there… this time getting a bit closer…

But the boys were also getting a bit closer… a little too close for comfort…

So off she went….

and off they went…

We headed back home just before dark and two of the boys were asleep within minutes…

I hope they remember their days at the cabin…

little update…

What a bad blogger I have been… I haven’t been posting much lately…

Summers seem to be a hard time to post for me and in the last week or so summer has really hit here… We had a mild and rainy June, July and begining of August but now it is hot and humid and unbearable at times… I am so happy we made the switch in Janurary and now have our rooms downstairs in the basement… At least we are able to sleep pretty well…

The pregnancy is going well, I am nearing 18 weeks now and I can’t believe how fast it is going… I felt the baby move a lot at about 12-13 weeks but now in the last three weeks I haven’t almost any movement… I feel distant thumps once in a while but not as much movement as I am used to feeling at this time in the pregnancy… I am pretty sure that the placenta is in front so that would explain the lack of feeling, I am just looking forward to getting the bigger kicks soon…

I was getting a bit confused about the dates and I felt that I was measuring bigger for a while so last week I went to see a midwife friend of mine and she gave me a second opinion and everything looks to be on track now… but neither of us can explain how I was able to hear the HB so soon and why I was able to hear it where I heard it…

I haven’t felt much nausea in the last week which feels great but I am not hungry for much either… I am still eating bagels with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly everyday and craving sour and sweet things… I found some yellow plums yesterday and there are only two left from the box… I can’t get enough of that combination…

The boys went with my mom again last week for two nights and it was a lot easier with Khéna this time around… we went blueberry picking and did a bit of shopping and he was a lot more content about not having his brothers around than last time… My mom brought them back on Friday afternoon and then on Saturday we went to a party with Simon’s Family… it was gorgeous and hot outside and the boys played and had a lot of fun… we also broke the news to his family about the babe…of course everyone’s reaction was that it was time to have a girl… but they seems genuinely happy for us which nice to see… I honestly wish that we saw more of that side of the family more often…

I can’t believe that we are mid August already… soon the temps will go down and I will start cooking more and sharing more here… well… hopefully… 🙂