My Funny Valentines

Oh my stars - I remember when. I love coming across old photos like these. This used to be how I shopped each week:

She used to tweak his toes gently, all through the store.
He often fell asleep while shopping.

Breakfast became amusing ...

Tea time has never been the same.

Friday Morning Wonder

We got an early start this morning, taking James to summer school across town. Good thing we were early, look what we saw:


We got closer:


Hot diggity! It was the warm up for the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival!

(I think this one is a flying chicken fish, but it's really called "Sushi")

We pulled over and went "Woah!!!" as they flew right over our car in the parking lot:








We had to get closer. James was literally jumping up and down with delight, flapping his hands and yelling "Look at *that*, Mommy!":












James' favourite one:



Aaaaand one followed us over to his school, where it thrilled the kids by almost landing in the parking lot and then the school roof:



These are my favourite times with the kids. Starting out on a normal summer day and running across something wonderful, random, and exciting.

Special Exp. / Wordless Weds: Walking Home

One thing I remember looking forward to doing, upon our move up here, was being able to walk our children to and from the local K-1 school. It's only about 4 blocks away, and the walk seemed like it would be so sweet.

Little did I know the frustration I'd have to wait through. The years of kids in preschoool (so long while it lasted, so short looking backward). The heartache of finding new daycare every 6 months. Having to rush some of the dropoffs due to conference calls with the east coast for work from the home office. The bitterness of not being able to walk my daughter as much as I wanted to because too often I had to be at home, waiting with her brother for the bus to show up. The focus on having to drive everyone for one whole school year because the bus lost James his first afternoon for over an hour and I wouldn't trust them with him again. Encouraging my daughter to make the walk with me and not let her whine about it being too far.

Now at last I am enjoying that walk with James. It's even sweeter because for a while I did not know if he'd be able to attend this school, let alone be in a regular class. James is a morning guy, loves meeting new people, and adores Kindergarten. He can hardly wait to get to school in the morning, and chatters about the day to come.

Walking home is an adventure ...

Because we get to walk through a bigger playground where he actually gets to play during the school day!

And who knows what we will see on our way home? We always love to take the "short cut" through this country corner:

One Friday the F-18 was buzzing us all the way from school to home in preparation for the local Air Show ...

And already the trees are changing colour, and dropping leaves for us to kick and crunch:

So the world is a bigger and more exciting place for James right now, and his excitement matches mine on our walks home together.

For more great images or to share your own, Visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.



and ... Wordless Wednesday

Summer Finale

I was looking back at pictures taken over the summer. I had trouble realizing we had a summer, it went by so fast. A nice little summary is a trio of pictures his sister took one day

...  more on that, below.

Taking pictures pretty much sums up this summer for me. Both kids have latched on to the novelty that is digital photography. My daughter has a fabulous eye for composition and my son loves to push buttons. My daughter likes to create things and her brother likes to create energy. They both love being able to do something they see both parents doing, with "grownup" technology.

Also, I am getting older, and time keeps picking up speed and racing by me. If I don't take pictures, I totally blank out on what happened last week. My calendar fixes me to the future and my camera has become my diary and my memory. Just call my Mommy Mnemonic. Heh. Remember that movie? Aaaaaancient history! This also reminds me to step it up on the blog posts. Too often I see James doing something I think is very recent, only to look back here and realize he's been doing it for longer than I thought.

Add to that the fact that James' Dad has a killer commute/work schedule, and is on the road and/or working for way too many hours in the day. Pictures are a great way to keep us more in touch.

This summer, James had needed a little more interaction and reassurance at bedtime, before he can drop off to sleep. He's traditionally been a hands-off baby and preschooler after jammie change time, as in the more I tried to rock/hold him and sing/tell stories,  the fussier he'd get and longer he'd stay up. Now he wants his sister to tell him Teletubby stories and me to sing him to sleep. So I made him a quick watercolour drawing from one of his favourite Laurie Berkner songs about a Magic Box:

He loves it!

Finally, with James' verbal and social skills increasing, he has become more fun to his sister, and they play together more and more. That were they playing with together a few weeks ago?