Family Life – Page 34 – a hippie with a minivan

may be weird to say…

but after 6 1/2 years of non-stop nursing I am realizing that I am venturing into unchartered territory…

I have never nursed a 2 year old by himself… (or in this case with only his older brother and not a new babe)… both Xavier and Colin were 2 years and 2 months when their brother was born… both of them had experienced the change of my milk in pregnancy and were nursing a bit less at the end because of the belly and the milk…

but this time, there is no belly, no change in milk and no change in nursing habits… nursing often and for longer periods of time than his brothers at the same age…

and it is not only the nursing that is different, but the fact that he is still the baby of the family. That at 2, he is not becoming a big brother so he doesn’t have any of the “responsibilities” that big brothers have… he still has first dibs on nursing or having his needs met… especially now that his brothers are getting older and can do more things for themselves…

I do want another little one… but I am happy that we are waiting… I am enjoying having the kids get older and having things get “easier”… there are challenges of course but doing things as a family and getting out the door is getting easier and when the baby that we have now is doing things more for himself I will be ready to have a baby again…

So for now I am enjoying the uncharted territory of the 2 year old whose only role is being little brother and the baby of the family…

having fun…

We had a great x-mas eve and x-mas day… the boys woke up with big smiles at the gifts under the tree…

Khéna was ready to dive right in so he opened the first gift while the boys watched…and then each took their turn…

Colin saw the big box under the tree and said without hesitation… “That is my big box of Star Wars “bonhommes””…

It was the only thing that he had been asking for for months now and was really confident that he would get it… Thankfully… Simon had picked out a bunch of star wars figurines and we put them in a big box and it was exactly what he was expecting…

As per our tradition.. the fondue from the night before became leftovers for x-mas day which meant that there was nothing to do for supper… and we could just relax and play…

Our family gift was a big hit also… we got a Wii !

We have been having so much fun with it… along with the wii Sports and wii Play that came with the game and the extra remote, I got Zelda and the boys got Star wars Lego and then Mario Cart from their Aunt… Xavier was a bit hesitant to try the sport games but they have quickly become a favourite… especially bowling and boxing…

Simon is going back to work tomorrow for 2 days and then he is only going back on the following Monday… it is feeling great having family time and just having fun with the kids and relaxing…

ahh… the holidays…

I used to hate the holidays because of all the expectations that were placed on me… I used to hate going to my grandmothers only for everyone to watch TV in silence, having to stay in places that I had trouble breathing in because of the smoke…

There are still many things I hate about the holidays… the crowds, the rush… and even all of the religious stuff and debates about political correctness in a multi-cultural setting like Montreal when it comes to the traditions of the holiday season…

But in the last few years we have been making the holidays more of our own and this year we are getting pretty excited about it… we are celebrating alone… Simon, the kids and I… we will see Simon’s family on the 26th and we will have a simple supper with not too much preparation… The eve and the day of x-mas will be spent alone… something that we are cherishing…

Simon has been on vacation since Thursday and on that day we went out to the homeschooling group’s x-mas party at an indoor playground…and that was a lot of fun… the boys enjoyed their time there and then we went out for supper afterwards.. and though Simon will have to work 2 days in the week of the new year, he will be home until the 4th…which means that I am getting some vacation time also…

So now, we have been getting into the spirit of x-mas…I did the groceries yesterday and we should be good for a while… Today we are having a turkey and the next days will be meals with leftovers and I just made a batch of eggnog and we have been listening to music, watching the classics with the kids and staying snuggled inside because of the -20 to -30 (with windchill) cold that we are having…

The holidays are now becoming our own… and we are feeling it…

Work party…

Yesterday we went to Simon’s work party for families… It turned out to be pretty nice…

Last year wasn’t the best because of the location… it took a long time to get in, the space was small and dark and it just felt crowded… this year though the space was nice and everything turned out great…we got there early so we found a table and the boys went on the bouncy structures and didn’t have to wait too long for a few turns…

I wonder what Colin was thinking…

Then the santa clause arrived and the boys got all excited but had no problem waiting until we could get in line (it was by last name) and while we waited we helped ourselves to the buffet… and it was quite good also…

There were a few things that we couldn’t eat, but the boys had no problem with that and it wasn’t even mentioned on our part or on thiers… though I do know that Xavier noticed…

When they could go see the Santa…Xavier and Colin went to him and Khéna stayed in Simon’s arms…

The gifts are bought by age and are different for boys and girls and this year the gift were pretty cool… (last year we were not so lucky)

Khéna got a set of Crayons (the ones that are big and easy for kids to hold and can go on fingers) along with a colouring book and a wooden puzzle.

Colin got a wooden pirate themed “tock” game (simular to sorry!)

Xavier got a wooden model biplane to put together…

Anyway… the party was from 10am-1pm but since we got there before 10 and the structures were getting crowded we decided to leave at about 12… we were pretty close to the MEC which I had been wanting to go to for a while now so we stopped by there and then Best Buy for another set of controllers for the Wii that we are giving as a gift for the family at x-mas and then headed home…

We were home by 2:30 which was pretty good for having had a full day already and we ate leftovers so we were able to relax…

It ended up being a pretty nice day…

Playing outside…

We got snow yesterday… and during the night…

enough that a friend of mine that was supposed to come over cancelled because of the road conditions…

The boys were really excited to go out and play this morning… so after Xavier got up, we ate breakfast and the played a bit we all got dressed to go outside…I did some shovelling a bit and played for a few minutes and then came back in while the boys continued to have fun…