Photos – Page 4 – a hippie with a minivan

been quiet….

I haven’t been writing lately…It is summer and that seems to happen on my blog…

we have been sick and making the most of the days that we can… The boys got sick about 3 weeks ago and it seems to have made its rounds a few times now… fevers, runny noses, coughs and headaches. Just the run of the mill cold that won’t go away…we have had car trouble and pool problems and things seem to be breaking all at the same time but we have been able to keep up and get things done…

We have been to the cabin to see my mom…. the boys love going there, especially the ferry ride over…

It is not a long ride on the ferry, but we go across the St-Laurent River and the view is nice…

and the cabin is beautiful….

the boys have so much fun exploring and walking around and going for rides on the four wheeler with my mom…

One thing that I love about our home is the fact that we have a pool… Quebec weather is so extreme, in the winter we get very cold temps and lots of snow and in the summer we get very hot weather and humidity that makes it unbearable at times…So on nice days we mostly stay at home and we hang out in the pool…

Colin loves to swim underwater and since having taken this pic he can swim without the aide of the balloon… he is such a little fish!

Xavier is a little more conservative in the water but just recently (after seeing his little brother can do it) he has been putting his head underwater… but he still hasn’t figured out how to keep the water out of his nose… he is really trying though!

Khéna loves being in the water… when we are not in the pool he hangs out on the stairs and watches his brothers…. When we are in the pool though he is always in our arms and loves to swim with us… he is just starting to wear his balloon and has been getting more comfortable letting us show his how to move in the water..

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The last two weeks have also felt a bit shorter because we had the Quebec “national” holiday last week on Wednesday so Simon was off in the middle of the week and the same thing is going to happen tomorrow for Canada day… I really wish it was like that more often! Now only two weeks left until he is on vacation for 2 weeks! I can’t wait!

I’ll try to update a little more often… 🙂

Beautiful day…

The last few days have been cold here… my hands were even freezing when I went on my bike last night… but today the weather turned and it was hot! I mean yesterday it was about 12-13 and today it was 30!

I did some things around the house this morning and by the afternoon I was hot and the boys were driving me a bit crazy… I am realizing that I have been so less patient these last few days and I am not liking it…

So, I went outside and dragged out the kiddie pool for the boys… they were so excited and I was able to get a few pics…

Colin never stops jumping…

and is a bit crazy… (ok… a lot)

but he is a cutie…

Xavier is looking so much older lately and is outgrowing everything… the pool is so small for him and he can o longer fit in the little car that the boys have…

Khéna had a blast! he was so excited when he saw the pool and played in it the longest….

(I have to admit I love the motion in the above pic… I wanted to get him pouring the water out, but it is cool to see the water still coming from the bottom holes… )

Anyway… we stayed and played until the boys wanted to come back inside… and after that the house was a bit calmer and my patience came back a bit…

I looking forward to having the big pool ready for swimming so that I can jump in too!

Electrium…

Yesterday , the boys and I headed to the Electrium...

The Electrium is in Ste-Julie on the south shore of Montreal and is a place run by Hydro-Quebec to learn all about electricity…

The tour starts out with a few minute long films that were fun and held all of the kids attentions…

then they learned about safety,

then electricity/magnetism in Nature with electric eels and other fish, the human body, static electricity, power and circuitry…

It was really quite informative and most of all it was a lot of fun…

The boys loved it especially because everything can be touched and tried…

Xavier learning about how a circuit works….

This of course was a big hit…

But I think that this was Colin’s favourite part… the guy who was showing the tour let him go up even though he was a bit small… he told Colin not to take his hand of the ball and Colin listened so well that it was hard for him to hear when it was safe to do so… he just stayed so still and didn’t move…

If you are near or in Montreal the Electrium is on the south shore not too far away from the Island. It is free and though it is not a big place it is a lot of fun and even for little kids…

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…