Just in case you are feeling hungry for a frosty, snowy treat with just a hint of salt and a dash of dirt thought that we should pass on their newly released commercial. Gotta support those small business incentives right?
Category: Katrine
Some photos for you
Welcome to the Year of the Dragon! xin nian kuai le
This new year feels especially sweet as it is the first that we have shared as a family of four. We actually started the celebration yesterday at my parents when they gave the girls hong bao. Grandparents know their grandchildren so well. Katrine got her money in toonies while Elspeth got her’s in nickels and dimes because she absolutely loves to put money into her piggie bank. Then when we got home we finished putting up the decorations with 3M squares because the tape was just not cutting it. Katrine donated her two stuffed dragons/dinosaurs to the cause and they are proudly sitting underneath our flower vase in the livingroom.
Usually on New Year’s day I cook a big meal, even making the dumplings from scratch. With a new two year old I was not sure how abundant food preparation would go so we simplified things by buying pre-made dumplings (Mama’s still taste better and I have been instructed that I need to make them again next year) and wonton soup. We also cut out the noodles (horror – guess we might be short on long life this year) and the fish. Even with the cuts there was still a lot of yummy food and the house smells of chinese food. I did get creative with dessert. We had some of the traditional candied vegetables (acquired taste but boy do the girls love the coconut) and cookies arranged to look like a dragon. We also got dressed up for dinner which thrilled Katrine. Elspeth could’ve cared less what she was wearing, she just wanted to colour the new year’s pictures. The celebration ended with more hong bao and piggie bank feeding. Then Elspeth went to bed and Katrine to the arena. Our new year’s festivities will not be over until our annual FCC chapter banquet in two weeks. Katrine can hardly contain her excitement at being able to share a meal with some of her China sisters.
To all of our family and friends, we wish you prosperity and happiness in the coming year.
Happy Robbie Burns Day!
Actually, it is a bit early as his birthday is not until Wednesday but we celebrated yesterday so I am typing this up tonight. We did our usual thing and drove up to my parents house so that we could all go the party at the Midland Legion. Katrine was so excited about going to dance and hear the pipes that she even had me put a bun in her doll Lily’s hair (anyone know how to get bobby pins to stick into fake hair? Mine kept falling out). Elspeth was a bit over whelmed and spent most of the night in someone’s arms clutching her penguin Meme and her sheep Aleigh. That said, she looked super cute in tartan, bounced along when the pipes played (vs crying), waved enthusiastically when Katrine and I danced AND not only tried haggis but gobbled up a large serving. Guess we will make a Scots out of her yet! She also learned a new word which will come in immensely handy this summer but little else…piper. Our other girl? Glowed from all of the praise about her dancing. I think that she particularly enjoyed hearing from the lady who told her, “I remember the very first time you danced and jumped side to side. Now look at how big you are and you were wonderful.” By about 9:00 poor Elspeth was hanging on to wakefullness by sheer will power so we started to pack her up. Well, Katrine would have none of that because the pipe band had yet to play. So, I drove Elspeth back to my parents house and ended up with a whole hour to myself…happy sigh.
This morning we enjoyed the snow. Elspeth got to go sledding for the first time sitting on my lap. It was only a wee hill but she was clapping at the bottom. She was also much more willing to actually walk in the snow and touch it. After tobogganing she pulled the sled around and when she got tired she put Glenn to work pulling her all around the yard until a dog barked, scared her and she insisted on going inside. Katrine has fun trying to coax Elspeth into walking on the snow but lost interest after tobogganing for a bit. Then the neighbour kids came out and she was off. More sledding followed as well as using riding on their ATV. I thought that she would find it scary but not her, “Awesome” was her description. Her only disappointment about the visit was that the ice was too thin to go ice fishing with Grandpa and we weren’t staying long enough to go skiing. Guess we will simply have to head back up soon.
As the Year of the Rabbit draws to a close, I will finish off with one of Burns’ graces (kindof symbollic of the melding of cultures in our family – Burns one day, New Years the next):
| SOME hae meat, and canna eat, | |
| And some wad eat that want it ; | |
| But we hae meat, and we can eat, | |
| And sae the Lord be thankit.
  
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Katrine’s Ice Show
As you may guess, much of this school vacation (aside from actual Christmas festivities) was spent on the ice. Partially that was because we went skating as a family on the local trail (good way to work off all of those goodies); and partly because Katrine was preparing for an ice show at the center where she skates mornings. The first week wasn’t so bad as Glenn was off as well so we were able to divide and conquer. Plus, who ever got the privelege of sitting in the cold also got the precious gift of an hour to themself!! This week was a different story. Try keeping a two year old entertained for an hour and a half, at an arena for four days running. At times it was good and at times…painful. No matter though as all of Katrine’s hard work, Elspeth’s ability to find interesting things in the mundane and my willingness to go crazy pointing out the mundane resulted in a wonderful evening spent with the grandparents.
The show itself was really well put together and ran almost exactly according to plan. All of the skaters knew what they were doing and ended up looking great on the ice (not surprising really as only dedicated skaters are on the ice five mornings a week before school and over their holidays). The parent volunteers (sadly, to my shame, I was not one of them as I figured I had already put in my time keeping the wee one from tearing everything apart all week) put together a lovely gallery with bios of each skater, a professional looking program and great costumes. The older skaters did the younger girls hair and make up. As a parent, you got to see all of these great up and coming skaters looking their best and skating their hearts out and there is your child, among them. It made us proud.
Elspeth lasted until just after Katrine skated her first time before she was done with seats, floors, candy, activities and grandparents (which is saying a lot as they are among her favourite people). She was also suffering from mommy-itis (yeah attachment) so I had to miss the end of the show to bring her home to bed. When he got home, Glenn told me that all of the kids in the dressing room were laughing and smiling when he went down to pick up Katrine at the end of the show. They were all so excited at having been part of it all. This morning Katrine told me that she loved doing the show with all of the stars (decorations), lights and clapping. “It was so awesome. I love, love, loved it.” Guess that says it all.
Oh ya, sorry about the photos but with them skating so fast, all I got were some blurs.
Christmas: Rounds 1 & 2
Happy Santa Day! Have you been good? The girls (aka Katrine worrying for both of them) are keeping their fingers crossed that they made it onto the nice list. We also spent the last two days baking cookies to make sure that we had enough sweet stuff to tempt the big guy. On the plus side, Katrine went to sleep super quickly tonight, or at least pretended to.
Round 1:
Last night was Elspeth’s first real taste of the Christmas tradition of celebrating family. Glenn’s side of the family got together at his sister’s house for a nice dinner, awesome cookies provided by the other Heather, gifts and family. The dinner and drinks were a hit with the grown ups, while Katrine loved her aunt’s white chocolate peppermint bark. Elspeth spent a good portion of the beginning of the evening fretting about their small shitzu. Now Casey is a sweetie who loves to play. The worst thing she could possibly do is lick you to death. Just the same Elspeth could not be far enough away from her. All through dinner she was checking under the table to make sure that she wasn’t lurking there or climbing into my lap for comfort at the hint of a bark (great for bonding though). Katrine is not a big fan of dogs as you all know. When she was younger she was quite scared of them, especially big ones but upon meeting Casey her fear has become managable. She can now tolerate most dogs and refuses to let them get in the way of her fun. Elspeth’s reaction to dogs makes young Katrine look like a dog lover. She loves the concept of dogs when they are wayyyyy down the block or squishy stuffed animals just not when they are alive and within a two house width radius of her. Then terror hits. Her eyes get huge, she tenses, scans the area, clings (yeah), uses us as physical barriers (yeah). We have a lot of family and friends with dogs so this presents a real problem. It is also quite remarkable given that there were free roaming small dogs at the orphanage. We have wondered if her little scar on her leg was the result of a burn but perhaps it was a dog bite. The later would explain her intense fear. Now the question becomes how to help her reach the place where Katrine is with regards to dogs. Suggestions?
Elspeth relaxed once the presents began to be handed out. Maybe because of the presents and maybe because she didn’t know that Casey was downstairs as she was so quiet. Both girls had a lot of fun tearing into the paper. Katrine was also thrilled to be able to hand out some gifts that she had purchased with her own allowance. This is the first year that she had money to spend on presents and was quite proud of herself.
Round 2: After a day of last minute jobs, we headed to church for family service. Katrine was an adorable star in the children’s play. She walked in, skipped around and then sat prettily until the end of the play. She told me that she was glad to be a star because she got to wear a yellow headband and do a little dance. The joys of being 7.
Three days left
I am going to take a step out of our crazy life and post a pre-Christmas update.
Glenn: Glenn has one final day of work and then he is off until the first Monday in January. He has also been busy getting a gift ready for Elspeth. He has built her a really cool, suitably short water table which she will love. He is geering up to brine and cook our traditional turkey.
Me: I finished picking all of the sequins and tape that I had originally sewn onto Katrine’s solo dress and am almost ready to start over. You see, I made a HUGE mistake…I forgot to have her try it on before doing all of the sewing so when everything was on it looked great but would no longer fit. Sigh. On the upside, finished embroidering the stocking that my mom made for Elspeth. I am also in the process of confirming or dismissing my previous diagnosis of asthma as well as my multiple food allergies. Wouldn’t that be a great gift. Katrine had her last gymnastics class yesterday and I am eagerly looking forward to the one night a week that will now be free. (Oh the joys of not having to be somewhere at a specific time)
Katrine: Katrine has a break from skating nights until the second of January. However, she volunteered to be part of the show that her morning skating school is putting on the first week of January so our “break from skating” will be spent….skating. (Bet you can’t say that you are surprised) It is nice to see how she lights up when she steps on the ice. She really does enjoy it. Tonight she did her first skating exam – the Dutch Waltz and, much to her relief, she passed.  She is also going to be something in the church’s Christmas Eve pagent but she won’t know what until Friday’s rehersal.
This week saw the dreaded family tree assignment arrive home. The amount of work was appropriate for a Grade 2 student but it made Katrine upset that there were not enough spaces for all of her family. Off we went to google translate to locate the French terms for birthparents, birthfamily and forever family. (Not sure we got them right but I should get points for navigating that with one child while keeping the two year old occupied) Then she began fretting again about where to write the information and we worked that out; only to have her begin to worry that her teacher would be upset that we altered the assignment. After working through that I thought to check the messages on the phone. Well, wasn’t there a message on the phone from Katrine’s Social Studies teacher explaining that the wrong sheet was sent home and she could make all of the changes that we had just made. Played the message for Katrine and all was right again. Guess that will teach me to check the phone for messages before beginning homework. Sigh.
Elspeth: Elspeth is fascinated with puzzles right now. She will do the same four puzzles multiple times in one afternoon and always get frustrated at the same parts. I have been wanting to bang my head against the wall by the fifth time doing the same four puzzles in a row so I took her and bought her two new puzzles. Sounds great right? Now she will do all four puzzles and then tidy them up, stop, take all of the pieces out of the two new puzzles before beginning again at the beginning leaving me to put the two new puzzles back together. Oh well, at least it is a new pattern.
She has dug her heels in with the potty training. Her stuffed animals frequently visit the toy potty but she tends to go when Katrine goes or she feels the need to hear “Upp-a-da” which is more commonly known as “Up on the Rooftop”. She will however, bardge into the bathroom whenever someone it is in use and cheer for you. You want to say, “Get out” but can’t because you are laughing at how darn cute she is.
She is also copying Katrine. When Katrine is up walking through her solo to the music, Miss Elspeth must be up to trying to mimic all of her moves. Our personal favourite is Elspeth’s version of the spiral. Please notice that she looks like a little puppy going to the bathroom when she does it independently. Her form is much more standard when someone helps. I am beginning to worry that we will have a second figure skater on our hands; in which case, we should just buy ourselves an arena.
And even more holiday fun
I hurt my back a few days ago doing …who knows what. It is slowly getting better but the fact that Elspeth is in a “carry me, hold me, hug me” phase is slowing the process. That aside, you all know how much I love Christmas so hurting or not it was outside for some holiday fun this weekend.
Saturday afternoon saw us heading out to the Community Safety Village for their holiday celebration. Everything was going good until Elspeth saw the horses wearing Santa hats. I don’t know if it was the live horses or that they had the hats and she couldn’t reconcile horses with Santa, but she literally climbed up everytime they turned a corner near us. We are calling it good for bonding but bad for the back. Aside from that, the girls had a lot of fun decorating cookies, doing crafts and listening to choirs. We ended it by visiting with Santa. This visit was a landmark. It was the first time that Elspeth (who talks about Santa all day) did not freak out when she saw him. It is the first photo we have gotten where she is not in tears. If we can get our scanner working I will post it but until then you will have to take my word for it. We ended the day driving home into the sunset.
Today it was off to church. Katrine was thrilled because it was the Sunday school PJ party where they watched Little Drummer boy while eating cookies and hot chocolate with marshmallow (just one big one). Elspeth did not spend that much time with me in the baby room because we were in the bathroom. I had forgotten how much fun potty training can be for young ones but who am I to argue with a girl who is determined to be like her big sister and get into underwear (one less diaper is fine with me). Then while Elspeth was napping, Katrine went to decorate a gingerbread house with her Grammy at Longos. I think that they did a great job. Much more patience than I would’ve had. Katrine actually wants to save it, uneaten, until after Christmas day which is fine by me because we have mounds of candy canes to go through first.
I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. Two weeks today is Christmas Day. Can’t wait. Oh, I almost forgot. We had Elspeth out on single blades this week. She can stand! Then she tries to run and falls. I think that we may need to put the cage back on her helmet.
Off ice training fun
Here is what Katrine does for fun at the end of dryland training. This does not help our: she will never be a pairs skater because she is too ticklish argument. Suggestions?
Some Christmas fun
We played hooky from church today and went out with my parents to have breakfast with Santa. The highlight for Elspeth was ringing Santa’s bell (while hiding from Santa) and for Katrine it was getting her photo taken with Santa by a SNAP reporter. It is suppose to be in the paper in January and she is pretty excited about that. Both girls also got lovely gift bags with homemade cookies which were quickly devoured.
The last week has been full of Christmas prep. Katrine baked some cookies with her Grandma T as her sister looked on. They have both been crafting up a storm making both decorations and gifts (my apologies if you end up with one of their gifts; they are not useful and they do not necessarily reflect an understanding of your personal tastes but at least they have been crafted with love). I have been redoing Santa shopping because Katrine changed her mind. At first she wanted a Fijit and I found a pink one so picked it up. Then she decided that they were boring and she would rather have an mp3. Well, on Friday I was out shopping and found a really great deal on an ipod so I guess that Santa will be able to handle the last minute change in plans. Shopping for Elspeth was almost as stressful because she just had a birthday and really needs nothing. That said, we found a cool catch-the-bug magnet fishing game for her. She won’t acutally be able to play according to the rules but it should be fun watching her try to catch the bugs with the fishing rod.
Glenn and I have also been introducing our girls to the joys of non-chocolate containing advent calendars. You know the ones from our childhood which had little cardboard doors with pictures behind them. Well we found some on sale for only $2.oo and both girls are super excited to see what is behind the door each day. This is a pleasure that I remember from when I was little. My brother and I had a advent calendar in the shape of a Santa. Now he was super cool because it you pulled on his string his arms and legs moved and he stuck out his tongue. Anyways, every morning in December we would go to the front hall and open that day’s door. Him one day, me the next and so on. We had the same calendar for years but it never got old. I think that my brother has it hanging in his house now but it is one of those memories I treasure (pouring over the Sears Wish Book is another because Scott and I would lay side by side with it for hours). It is neat to share something so low tech with the kids that does not involve even more sugar…goodness knows that they will get more than enough sweets and candy canes.
Christmas aside today is a pretty big day for Elspeth. It is her first night in a big girl bed! She has been hooking her leg up on the top of the crib bars and has managed to hoist her little bum almost up to the top so we felt that a move might be a prudent choice. Converted the crib this afternoon and she was dancing with joy. You could see the wheels turning as she ran from Katrine’s bed to her new one laughing. When we added the Dora sheets and comforter she practically squeeled with excitement. Tonight she lay down, snuggled with her stuffies and went to sleep. I am sure that once she realises that she can actually get out of bed the real fun will begin. Hopefully it will be a few more days before that realisation hits.
