I've got brains

I get a real kick out of the perceptions the kids have of different things that are said, more appropriately stated the mis-perceptions they have. Today, Easter Sunday, we were at church singing hymns and I noticed Nadine belting out "I've got brains" which she substituted for "Our God Reigns." Now if I imagine she thinks this I've got brains song is a little...odd really. I'm expecting later to get questioned about that, but maybe not.
Shortly after school started I realized she was singing the Canadian anthem at school, or something resembling it.
"Oh, Canada, our home and naked land....Oh Canada we stand on cars for free, Oh CANADA we stand on CARS FOR FREE!!!!" passionate and exciting displays of patriotism for sure. Displays they often like to share with people at the top of their lungs while they sit in the cart and Costco. curious. But what a great nation where one can stand on cars without any monetary penalty. Good times.

Have a Happy and Blessed Easter everybody :)

The plague, the spirit of sibling love, and the consequences of being too good.

We've had the plague at our house for a few days. To hear Braeden tell it, croup sucks I totally agree with him. Poor guy sounds a bit impressive, but aside from being a barking baby he's still able to give me some dance moves, kisses (slimily fantastic) and thereby (among a few other things) I'm confident he's on the mend.
Today he has required some extra snuggling and loving, constant really (as I type with him on my lap). The house sort of looks like a bomb went off and I realize how much of my normal day is devoted to picking up stuff...wow...
Anywho. Nadine and Ryan have been gems today. GEMS. As I've been tied up with a sleeping and or crabby peep they've made minimal requests, played nicely without fighting, colored together, read to each other, made a tent upstairs and played in it together nicely. Not one battle that would have required my intervention. All the things you hope for your children to do for you, or not do for you, in your most ideal plan for a day. Thereby when Braeden arose from his nap and was willing to get off my hip for a split few seconds I did 2 things, fed them lunch, and dug out a couple age and gender appropriate toys we have in our impromptu-asked-to-a-birthday stash for them to enjoy and occupy themselves with. Ryan's new loader was a hit.
Ryan: Mom, look at my new loader. Isn't it SO cute!
Me: Absolutely son
Ryan: Lets give ourselves a big thumbs up
Me: smiles and nods speechlessly.

Nadine's new toy horse, also a big hit, but receiving it wasn't without a couple skeptical questions.
Nadine: Why are you giving these to us?
Me: Because you guys have been behaving so well today while Braeden has been feeling rotten and I've been tied up with him and I really appreciate it.
Nadine: Anyways (all of her sentences begin this way as of late)...do you expect us to keep behaving well?


Interesting question really. Ultimately no I don't expect them to keep behaving so well, I HOPE they will but I definitely don't anticipate that happening. How is one to convey that message though? I wouldn't want to say "no" but yes would lack in truth...hmmmm. So I just smiled at her speechlessly.

The truth hurts, well not really it more makes me smile and chuckle.

We wrapped up yesterday by playing in the driveway. Nadine walked Cleo, Ryan graded the ruts out of the driveway, and Braeden sat and ate some dirt. All in all everyone enjoyed the post supper being outside on a pretty darn nice spring evening.
Nadine really likes to walk the dogs. Probably a lot more than they like being walked but the dogs do really well with her...well not Oliver yet, he's just learning some leash manners which I maintain is an adult job. Nadine loves loves loves dogs, most animals of any kind fascinate her, but her LOVE and passion in life is dogs.
Ryan's passion in life is machines and yesterday he decided to take it upon himself to "grader these rocks off the road." He worked away very diligently trying to mash out some ruts not the least bit daunted by the enormity of the task. It's a LONG driveway and there's a LOT of spring ruts. He was up for the task.
Braeden's passion seems to be just plain old being outside. Who could blame him really? There's a lot of great stuff to experience out there, especially right now in mud season. Ahhh muddy mud season. Not just mud. Fantastically adhesive northern Alberta mud...good times and a good amount of laundry.
Coming in was relatively well received from my perception. There were no meltdowns, there was no bellyaching. It wasn't a fast progression in, but we were headed in the right direction. The lack of fast progression on the part of my second born was in fact irritating my first born.
Her...um...encouragements of "It's time to come in now Ryan hurry up and bring your grader" followed by "Mom he's not coming very fast." were not actually making him hurry or move any faster. Weird I know. Nadine was totally baffled as to why.
Me: "He is coming sweetheart"
Nadine: "But not fast enough" followed by more bellering at her brother.
Me: "You know darling it's Mom and Dad's job to make sure Ryan is doing as he's told, not yours"
Nadine (mildly exasperated): "But you're not doing a very good job of it!"

I love those kind of statements. I actually really do. They make me chuckle, and smile. Similar to Tim's experience of co-parenting with our 5 year old when changing Braeden's diaper.
Nadine: "I'll get you the cream"
Tim: "His bum looks fine honey he doesn't need any cream"
Nadine: "Here's the cream dad, he needs cream"
Tim: "I'm going to leave him without cream because his bum doesn't look red, it looks fine"
Nadine (again exasperated with the daftness of her parents): "DAD HE NEEDS CREAM...WHAT IN THE HECK!!!!"
Poor thing, oh how we parents can be so thick in the head.

Ryan carries on with his negotiations when a request falls short of his plan. We still unfortunately often provide an incorrect answer. "I'm sorry, that is not the correct answer...I need a different correct answer." Upon the same answer, "No a different correct answer. I'm sorry that is not the correct answer mom...mom I need a different correct answer." This exchange will remain strangely calm. I hope better things for him than a career in politics but I'll support him in whatever he would like to do :)

Braeden has become a dancing maniac who loves to throw things. Not only does he love to throw things, he's darn good at it. He's working on a few words, a few teeth, a few executions of making sure his opinion is well understood...he's darling :)
It fascinates me to watch their interests and personalities develop...fascinating.

And the random photo bombardment continues. Now I got a new book about my camera AND a new lens, it was like Christmas in April yesterday :)

The long task of gradering the driveway

My girl and her girl

Learning how to focus the foreground and also the background.

The four S response

*Scratches head, Shrugs, Smiles and Sighs*
Applicable in a multitude of situations and conversations both overheard and had with my kids. It's part of my new response policy. For example:

Nadine's prayer of "Dear God please make me a dog named Martha. Amen."
Insert four S response and I'm not sure I really have anything else to say about that. I believe I've thoroughly outlined our identity issues in previous posts.

This is Martha, a PBS kids sloth day favorite. That is occasionally we have a sloth day at our house where we are collectively unmotivated.  Confession time, there's often a sloth period of an hour or so to every day of the week here while I try and load up on coffee, but sometimes we deem pyjama sloth days if we're sick, tired, sick and tired, sick and tired of being sick and tired etc. Sloth days include a lot of PBS kids. I've learned to pay close attention to what the kids are watching. It helps with the questioning and quizzes that are part of the rest of the day.
While walking through Costco yesterday Ryan was belting out, and I do mean belting a PBS song. There's a guitar wielding optimistic do-gooder on PBS that comes on for brief interjections of positive thought embedded in a catchy tune. Ryan (a remarkably good singer) relives these often.

He's been singing this today also, his modified version of "I can be anything I want to be" ends with,
"hmmmm a cement truck, or a backhoe" and the occasional use of jazz hands at times during the serenade. There's also been an encouraging word to his big sister regarding her current desire to be a dog named Martha. She can be anything at all too you know. Why would I tell them any different?
Insert 4 S response here.

Braeden currently needs a penalty for high sticking so I suppose I'll leave the explanations at that. Really what else is there to say.

An assortment of things

While the kids are in the other room building a suspension bridge, or an arch bridge, or a highway or something, I sit with a cup of coffee and think about how our kids must perceive us. Sometimes helpful, sometimes frustrating, sometimes totally daft???
One things certain, my eldest is one to let us know how things should go to best suit her. I'm not certain she executes that in other areas of life. I'm happy for her to practice it at home, and hope she can find an appropriate amount of assertiveness to carry through life with her. It always interests me the guidelines she likes to lay out.
Nadine is a snuggler. One of her favorite things is to snuggle with her dad. She has some rules and guidelines about this...
"Dad, your air is getting on me." "Dad could you roll over so I can't smell your air."
She likes to be cozy, snugly, and draft free, and interestingly she's not much for the smell of coffee :)

This evening I had the interesting opportunity to talk with the oldest 2 kids about what they'd like to be when they grow up. Nadine's holding out to be a pink kitty, or a kangaroo, or maybe an animal doctor. "Did you know that kangaroos can not sweat and living in the hotness of Australia they lick their arms until they're so wet it cools them off?" She's a funny kid.
Ryan would like to be a backhoe, or a concrete truck. " I NEED to pour some concrete mom, I NEED to." Although with that said, he is presently set on being a steam roller, complete with mashing of anyone or anything in his path. He's a funny kid.
Without being able to outline exactly what he'd like to be, I'm thinking Braeden was trying to outline for me that he is planning to be a Major League pitcher or some other form of throwing occupation. I gleaned this as he whipped a piece of chicken past my head so there is a bit of assuming with that. It's also possible he might become a custodian. He loves to sweep the floor AND today I caught him washing the kitchen floor with about 1/2 litre of apple juice...Mommy's little helper ;)

Post supper Nadine informed me that she and Ryan were going to hide from us. "We're hiding and you're not going to be able to tell us what to do anymore. You can't tell us what to do but you still have to feed us, clean up after us, help me get ready for school. But you can't tell us what to do anymore."
Me: "How do you think that will work out"
Nadine: "Not very well, which is really irritating."

So there you have it. My children's present thoughts, irritations and future goals and aspirations. They're quite a group.
I carry on in my pursuits of photography and running. I'm on a learning curve with my new camera but I have a few great resources both book and human to help me through the many buttons and dials. These still look pretty wintery but it felt pretty springish at the time. There's a LOT of melting to be done.

stage one...digging

Braeden spends a lot of time like this when we're outside. He takes the time to peer between his feet after hitting the ground

it gives him hat troubles

which leaves him peering beneath his toque a lot

and sometimes he just relaxes this way for a while.

Perfect snowman weather. Though the big one is supposed to be scoop the backhoe and the one Nadine's beside is supposed to be a beautiful pink princess kitty.

I'm sorry, that is not the correct answer

This is Ryan's new politically correct form of disagreeing with me. Disagreeing about going home when he'd rather not, snack negotiations, bedtime. He also uses it when he's quizzing me about mighty machines, road construction, or the difference between various types of bridges. Lately we've had some heavy duty road construction under way at our house. The odd bridge is thrown in for good measure.
Bob the Builder has been teaching us about Roads and Bridges at our house. I hope to pay closer attention in hopes of doing better on the pop quizzes.
"Mom do you know what stage one is?" asked Ryan
Racking my brain, and trying to recall the song, I foolishly guessed making a plan.
"I'm sorry, that is not the correct answer. FIRST you make a plan nice and clear so everyone knows your brilliant idea, but STAGE ONE is digging" I was informed.

obviously.

Most of our roads are made of playdoh here. The great thing about playdoh roads is once you've with it for long enough it becomes perfect for stage 2, which as it was laid out to me, is building a foundation. Rocks, hard playdoh is perfect...perfect. It also seems to make a great snack for Braeden but I try and discourage that.
Thanks to a couple February boys birthdays, and an uncle who 'chose to de-clutter his office', we've recently developed an awesome arsenal of road construction equipment. Fantastic :)

and the little backhoe has seen better days.

The phrase "I'm sorry, that is not the correct answer" is most likely to be used when I'm failing at machinery quizzes, perhaps because I get a lot of these quizzes and I'm not evidently very good at them.
There's often a distressed form of "I'm sorry that is not the correct answer" when we're on our way home from Grandma's or Auntie Jo's house, then it's definitely not the correct answer :(
Bedtime is not usually the correct answer, lack of a snack in light of it being too close to supper...you get the idea.
Nadine isn't fond of being told she has uttered an incorrect answer. Prefaced with the 'I'm sorry' doesn't seem to make the 'that is not the correct answer' any more appealing when coming from her brother. Ultimately it just means he asked the wrong question.

With that said, it's a nice way to be disagreed with. It seems less defiant or oppositional when put that way. I think I'm going to apply it to my opportunities to disagree with people. We'll see what kind of responses I receive :)

Unrelated...I got a new camera, so here's what we look like today :)

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I could go on and on about how much I love this new camera, but I'll just leave it at the fact that I think it's fantastic!

Filtcher, the identity crisis continues.

Thankfully it was a beautiful day out today. Time to ditch the cabin fever and head outside. We've been a bit cooped up lately and that catches up to us. Our kids were made to be outside as much as possible. Though playing "video game playing puppies" can pass some time on a -35' indoor day.

The kids thoroughly enjoy any time they can spend outside and so do I (for both them and me), especially when all the appropriate factors align just so and Braeden and I can get outside as well.

And we gain the dogs attention by tempting them with cookies.

And we climb up the "snowy mountains"



After a few trips up the man made snow peaks in our yard and some time spent entertaining the dogs...and the human dogs...I was asked by my oldest child. "Mom, aren't you getting chilly?"
"Well a little bit but I'm not too bad." was my response.
"You should go inside and pour yourself a cup of coffee" she advised.
I agreed, given I was just thinking about topping up my caffination. "Stay in front of the house where I can see you guys through the window, ok?"
"um, you'll be watching though the window?" Nadine asked me.
"Yes" I replied
"Could you not?" she asked
"Why what are you planning to do?" I replied
"Nothing that we wouldn't be allowed to do." she tried to say convincingly
"Just stay in front by the house please."

After they came inside my apparent ineptitude at naming children continued to be apparent. After the great fiasco of not thinking of naming Ryan 'Helen' it has now been brought to my attention that Nadine was really destined to be called Filtcher.
Nadine: "Mom why didn't you name me Filtcher?"
Me: "I had never heard of the name Filtcher when we named you Nadine. I also really liked the name Nadine."
Nadine: "Can we name me Filtcher now?"
Me: "Well no, but you could pretend to be Filtcher. Then some day when you grow up and have a little girl you can name her Filtcher"
Nadine: "Well that would be just ridiculous!"
Me: "Yes I suppose you're right."

Filtcher, for those of you who are not aware, is Bob the Builders cat, well at our house anyway. Evidently his real name is Pilchard but try to tell them that.

So although our identity crisis continues, I'm sure of one thing, these kids are growing up really quickly and I am sure trying to enjoy the ride.