Family Life – Page 31 – a hippie with a minivan

New books…

We have a lot of books in our home, neither Xavier or Colin bring them out on a regular basis… we need to make some trips to Montreal more often and go to the library there because our local library just doesn’t cut it… there are no English books at all… it sucks because we could walk there…

Their interests are changing of course, and because they know our books, and the topics are not what are interesting them at the moment, books have just been collecting dust (except for a few of Simon’s that the boys love)… so a bit more than a week ago I asked the boys to each choose a book online… something that they would really like to read or look at…

Colin choose the “Star Wars Complete Visual Dictionary”

which is an amazing book that shows each character in full colour… there is so much detail on each page but it is not overwhelming… great book!

Xavier has been playing Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter nights and has been interested in learning more about the game of Dungeons & Dragons and has been looking through Simon’s old Monster manual for a while now… so he got “Monster Manual: A 4th Edition Core Rulebook”

He was a bit disappointed that some of the monsters that he likes got cut out of the book but that doesn’t stop him from loving it and looking at it often…

Though they were a bit on the more pricey side then I usually would buy, I love the choices that they made because I know that these books will grow with them for a long time…

And the greatest part was that they were so excited to get their books and when they came they were so enthralled with them that they spent the day just looking at them…

(I put this post up about an hour ago but I have to add this.. a few min ago)

Cabane à Sucre 2009…

Yesterday we went to the sugar shack for our annual sugar rush…

If you don’t know what the sugar shack is you are missing out on something… Sugar shacks are where maple syrup is made… the maple water flows from the trees for only a few short weeks a year…

last year was a bad year for the industry because of a long winter and late thaw… but this year is supposed to be an ideal year…

Some families have private sugar shacks ( my uncle is preparing his property for one so one day we will be able to go there one day) but for most a commercial sugar shack is the destination in the late winter/early spring…

We have been going to the same place for a few years now…

It is in a beautiful location, the staff is great, it has a playground and horse and cart ride and the food is amazing… The meal at a sugar shack of course is heavy, rich and full of maple syrup…(and pork… since traditionally the québecois eat a lot of pork)

it is about 15 min away so we headed out just before lunch time…

We walked around a bit and saw some of the animals that they have there….

Had a horse and cart ride…. which Khéna loved!

We went in the cabin to see how the syrup is made… it was the first day that they had lit the fire to start to process…

then… food time… (these pics are from last year because the lighting where we were sitting was not as good this year and the food is the same…)

Cretons (spread made of pork and spices)

Pea Soup (colin has grown so much!)

Lunch… Omlette made with maple syrup, small potatoes, sausages, maple bakes beans, and maple smoked ham… with a side of “oreilles de Crisse”…. (or “Christ’s ears… which is fried pork fat)

of course… Maple syrup….

then dessert…

Maple Syrup Pie

and my favourite… “Beignets” (fried doughnut) smothered in maple cream sauce….

The boys ate well…

then we headed back outside for the traditional Maple Taffy…

Syrup is heated to a certain temp.. then poured on cold snow…

It starts hardening and becomes taffy…

just poke….

and roll…

Delicious!!!!!

What a great day….

Progression of a strawberry mark…

I have been thinking about showing the progression of Khéna’s haemangioma for a while now and after a conversation with Annie the other day, I thought it would be a good time… ( I know that I would have liked to see something simular when I saw that he had one)

First… what is it? (you might not imagine how many times I have had to answer this out in public)

Infantile haemangioma (American spelling ‘hemangioma’) describes a benign (non-cancerous) condition affecting cutaneous blood vessels. It is also known as proliferative haemangioma because it is due to proliferating endothelial cells; these are the cells that line blood vessels.

Infantile haemangiomas are proliferative lesions that usually develop shortly after birth. They are distinct from vascular malformations, which are usually present at birth and are less common.

Over 80% of infantile haemangiomas occur on the head and neck area. They grow to 80% of maximum size in the first three months and most stop growing at about 5 months. However, they may keep growing for up to 18 months.

After that, they undergo regression or involution. This can take as long as 3-10 years. Nearly all flat infantile haemangiomas eventually involute and disappear without treatment. However, regression of bulky haemangiomas tends to be incomplete, and they may leave an irregular atrophic (thin) scar or anetoderma (a dented scar) in at least 50% of cases.

From here…

though you don’t see it, he had an even bigger one under his hair but it grew quicker and faded completely by 18 months…

(you can see all of his pics here)

3 days old (no sign of it)

2 weeks old (you start seeing it)

1 month

2 months

3 months

from 5 months to about 14 months it was at it’s most intense… it was really thick and looked like it could burst….

(this is at about a year… it was more raised than this for a few months)

From 13 months to 18 months it pinked up…

14 months

15 months

At 18 months the middle became flesh coloured and it was no longer as raised and squishy…

second birthday… you can see it is fading more…

2 years 3 months….

3 1/2 years (he now also has a scar right next to his mark after falling)

4 years old

4 1/2 (he is showing the bump he got on the playground)

5 years old

7 3/4 years

snow pics…

It was a beautiful day outside so we headed out in to the front yard to play for a few hours… our front yard is not big but in the winter the snow hill is high enough to slide on and off… (last year is was almost twice as high)

and they love to play there…

Sliding….

Colin is always Jumping… (I can’t believe how high he can jump up sometimes!)

Khéna had a lot of fun…

and just some more of the boys…

all tuckered out….

first reactions…

Today, there have been many times that Colin has come to me after getting hurt…

So when Colin came screaming and crying after being hurt saying that Xavier hurt him… we reacted by checking Colin out and asking Xavier what happened but he wouldn’t say… and Colin was too upset to be understood except for the mentions of Xavier hurting his head… we told Xavier that we were not too happy with what had gone on…

Because Colin was still so upset, Simon took him into the computer room alone so that he could calm down…. leaving Xavier with me, but of course Xavier wanted to follow his dad and brother so he stayed next to the door and listened to the conversation inside…

When they came out, Colin was calm and came to me and Xavier tried to explain to Simon what happened… Simon couldn’t understand so Xavier showed him…

The boys had taken a playmat that we have and had tied it to the railing of the top bunk… Xavier was in the play castle and was holding the other edge of the playmat and Colin tried to use it as a bridge… Xavier wasn’t strong enough to hold his brother’s weight and Colin fell to the ground and hit his head… so yes, Xavier “let go” and yes… Colin got hurt because of that…

But was anyone in the wrong? Not at all…

I feel bad that I presumed that Xavier had done something wrong but I am so glad that we don’t believe in punishments…

In the end we all laughed together and I am pretty sure that both of them learned their lesson…

It is called “gravity”…