I'm a super Mom, but I'm no Supermom!

Fun comparison

2011-05-14T13:43:00.001-04:00

Jonah & Bram
September 2008

Thad & Bram
May 2011

October/November 2010

2010-11-30T12:27:00.000-05:00

Jonah loves playing in the leaves
in autumn. Bram enjoyed it too.

Last veggie we harvested... Yes, there WAS
a nasty looking bug in there!

Glenn & Bram jamming over
the drying herbs from our garden
(rosemary & sage)

A bunch of DVDs went missing.
Eventually I convinced Glenn to take apart the VCR.
BINGO! I think there were 18 or so (and a VHS tape too)

Pumpkin carving!

Curious George & Batman

We checked out an early Christmas event at
City Hall. We met interesting characters and
saw a lot of great gingerbread house designs.

September 2010

2010-09-30T21:29:00.002-04:00

Our big announcement!

Jonah's first day of grade one
at a new school!

Jonah & Bram picking cherry tomatoes

Traveled to Tennessee & actually had a
band meeting with all four guys and
their significant others!

Traveled to New York!
(Us on the Brooklyn Bridge)

My guys posing amidst apple trees

Corn Maze!

I chopped my hair for a good cause

August 2010 Highlights

2010-08-31T22:53:00.003-04:00

Our friend Dusty gave us some monarch caterpillars that she found in the wild and we raised them in our living room. A very exciting process that we hope to repeat in 2011! We started with 3 caterpillars, and ended up with two monarch butterflies. Taylor (a female) emerged on August 21st. Jayden (a male) emerged on the 25th. Because of the timing, there is a good chance they made the journey to Mexico!

We separated these two after taking the
picture as there seemed to be some
sort of altercation taking place

These caterpillars ate a LOT of milk weed and
left a LOT of droppings on our table!

Getting ready to become a chrysalis.
So cool the boys and I got to see this happen!

Beautiful! Check out the sparkling gold dots!

Almost ready!

Wings almost ready to fly!

In our backyard before flying away!

Jonah finished his first piano book and
did a little recital for some friends and family.
He was a natural performer!

BRAM TURNED TWO!!!!

Tiger tail ice cream was his birthday request so
we went with a tiger theme for his party

July 2010

2010-07-31T22:31:00.002-04:00

Here are some highlights from July 2010...

Glenn wants to keep bees one day.
Here we are amongst thousands of bees!

Black raspberries growing in our yard

Freezing black raspberries individually
(picked these along the side of a nearby road)

Our flower garden in the backyard. You can kinda see
the fruit trees at the back growing along wires ("espalier")

The boys pumped about a family bike ride

Bram loved riding behind Glenn in the stroller/trailer last summer.

Finally, a video of us riding on a nearby trail. Note Jonah's lack of training wheels. Also, note the size of his bike and wheels... August sees a serious upgrade in bike size so stay tuned.

June 2010

2010-06-30T09:29:00.000-04:00

Jonah turned SIX and we hosted a batman birthday party. The boys did a great job decorating their own cupcakes as they arrived...

Aunt Krista made Jonah a batman cape and it was a hit!

What's an early summer birthday party without a water fight?

Within days of turning six, Jonah learned to ride a two-wheeler!

Had to get a picture of our front window before I cleaned it!

June brought lots of flowers in my garden that I cut and brought inside to enjoy...

Bram enjoyed painting!

Chin on hand. Doesn't get much cuter than that.

Okay, it DOES get cuter.
Here's Bram posing in a friend's garden.

The boys enjoying a rare treat

May 2010

2010-05-30T20:51:00.007-04:00

A very busy month for us! downhere opened for Michael W. Smith on a tour across Canada and the boys and I joined them! Way too many pictures and things happening for one blog entry. This trip was fun and exhausting and possibly a once in a lifetime event... well, MAYBE when all the boys are older we'd try it again. Now, I have officially been in all the Canadian provinces. Haven't seen the territories though.

Us by the bus!

Jonah's bunk

Bram asleep in his bunk

One church had skate-boarding in the basement!

We spent our 12th anniversary, which was also Mother's Day in Banff, Alberta on a day off. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!

Glenn & Bram in the gondola in Banff

Jonah and I, same gondola

Also in Banff

Ferry to Victoria, BC

Then is was on to spend time with my parents, Glenn's parents and my sister in her family. We all met up in Winthrop, WA.

My parents with all their grandchildren

Jed, Jonah & Jael enjoying time near the West Chewuch River.

I helped Zoe throw rocks in!

My sister, her girls & Bram having fun with chalk

Me, my sister and our kidlets
in a VERY nice outdoor hot tub!

Then it was off to Seattle to spend some time with friends and see the city.

Even got hot chocolate at the original Starbucks!

Finally, spent some time in Vancouver with my Aunt and her family. Jonah truly fell in love with swimming while we were there! It was great to reconnect with my Aunt and we also spent a little time with some friends.

March/April 2010

2010-04-30T20:33:00.002-04:00

It's time for a little catch-up!

Spring fire!

"Indiana Jones"

Backyard bulldozing

A new favorite drawing by Jonah?! Sigh.
Too many good ones!

Tough guy

2010-03-16T22:44:00.003-04:00

Bram had a bit of a tough guy day today, at least according to some pictures and info from the day.

First of all, the kid ate a cricket (& a large booger, but that's a whole other story). Here's a picture of Glenn feeding it to him. We hit up BugFeast this morning.

Here he just looks MEAN!

Our church rented the skating rink in the mall today so Bram had his first try on bob-skates. Doesn't he just look like he could do some serious damage on the ice? Like, you could body-check the kid and he'd be unmoved.

In contrast, the little guy played outside wearing just sandals and a diaper today. I would say he's not ready to do too much damage just yet.

Bram update -> He's 18 months old!

2010-02-28T16:30:00.003-05:00

Here's an 18-month comparison of my boys. For sure, the similarity is there, but there are definite differences!

Bram at 18 months with big
brother Jonah

Jonah & cousin Miles when Jonah
was about 18 months old

Anyway, it's craziness as usual. I can't believe we've had Bramwell Timothy for 18 months!! He is talking up a storm and loves to copy his big brother. He loves coloring and duplo lego and challenging himself physically with climbing. If the house is quiet, I worry about where Bram is. It's so nice when I realize he is just sitting quietly somewhere looking at a book. I'm most impressed with his singing. It took FOREVER for Jonah to start singing. Bram sings already. He likes to play the piano too. Glenn and I looked at each other in disbelief recently when Bram played a note on the piano and then copied the correct pitch of the note he had played while singing "nano" (piano).

He really built this!

One of those quiet moments
putting pen to paper

The boys pose with their colorings

The kind of quiet moment I most appreciate

Jonah's drawing

2010-02-27T18:10:00.001-05:00

Glenn and I have been very impressed with Jonah and his printing and drawing. Here are some samples of his work from 2010 so far.

Money machine!

A toxic building

Lego Batman Level 4 Snappy Giant Thing

Jonah made this for me when I was sick

This one has got to be one of my absolute favorites. It's
another Lego Batman picture involving Batmobile crashes
and Batman & Robin building with the lego.

Jonah working on Valentine's Day cards
for his classmates. His hair was so crazy because
he had been wearing a bella clava aka Batman mask

Jonah did this one today. It's my
favorite Batman ever! Don't you just
love the muscles?

Duet

2010-02-27T12:01:00.003-05:00

Here are Jonah and Bram doing a duet on the old skool Batman theme song. Of course the camera threw a wrench into it because instead of singing "Batman" Bram inserted "cheese" a couple times instead.

Catch up

2010-01-16T04:35:00.002-05:00

Wow. I remember when I used to blog regularly and I really liked that. I feel like there's so much to catch up on that it's overwhelming. I mean.... Bram's first birthday... Halloween... Jonah's latest interests... Christmas... a downhere concert... a trip to Niagara Falls...

Where to start!?!?!?!?!?

Well, Bram is actually completely weaned now and drinking COW'S milk!! Exciting! I've been working a little (for pay, that is). Glenn has finished the recording stage of a project he and Kalyn have been working on - Hark the Herons, Under Skies. downhere bought a tour bus! Bram LOVES footwear of all kinds now. He has all his teeth and well over 50 words in his vocabulary. Jonah plays the piano. Bram is down to one long nap in the day. Jonah is really starting to say his "R"s right, which is so weird to hear, and I believe the R sound was the only missing pronunciation in his vocabulary (for the English language of course). Jonah is obsessed with Batman to the point that even Bram calls him Batman sometimes and recognizes Batman paraphernalia. That disturbs me.

Bram wearing Jonah's new shoes.
Jonah wearing half his Batman costume.

It doesn't get much cuter than this.

Bram has learned how to pretend play in
the toy kitchen and how to get himself
onto these little chairs that are a little
too big for him. Cute dangly feet.

Jonah playing with moon sand. This stuff
is SUPER cool. It's kinda like sand, kinda like
playdough and it never dries out!

What's really neat is to see Jonah's and Bram's relationship developing. The play together and Bram will even hug and kiss Jonah, which, interestingly, Jonah really loves. Actually, as Jonah has gotten older, he has started to appreciate such things as hugging and kissing and cuddling. Always on his terms though.

Bram IS trouble!

2010-01-15T18:21:00.003-05:00

Bram loves to climb and is constantly trying to challenge himself. The last day or two he has managed with great effort to climb onto the kitchen chairs. I tried to get a video of him doing that tonight. I got more than I bargained for.

He also had found an interesting way of getting down from the chair when it was close to the table so I wanted to capture that as well. He basically tries to get himself down with what I'll call a reverse chin-up. So anyway, after making him get off the table after the first video, I captured this next video one. You'll see the reverse chin-up move in here as well as tears initially because I had just taken him off the table. Jonah (AKA Batman) actually tells him to get on the table in this video and laughs when he gets there. I wasn't impressed. I ended up cutting the video, taking Bram off the table, and he had such a melt-down / temper tantrum that I had to put him in his bed with his blanket and soother in order to calm him down. After that we cuddled and I brought him over to the table and tried to explain to him dramatically what could happen if he fell off. This type of thing recently worked really well but not tonight - instead, he seemed to think it would be funny - the whole part about falling off the table and banging on the floor and hurting his head, etc. I kinda wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Self-Feeding and Shoe Torture

2009-10-09T08:43:00.004-04:00

Bram has been wearing either nothing, socks, or robeez on his feet since birth, so when we finally tried real shoes this week, Bram was far less than impressed. We tried a couple of pairs on him at a store last night. Let's just say he cried a lot. We bought a pair anyway and started the day with them today. The following video is a two-in-one. You get to see Bram feeding himself with a spoon and you get to hear his thoughts about shoes.

After breakfast I supported and coached Bram until, finally, he's okay with his shoes...

Things may not be working out so well for Bram and dairy. . .

2009-09-03T22:30:00.004-04:00

Started adding homo milk to Bram's diet on Sunday, along with some milk products and things with milk ingredients... Doesn't look too promising. Let's just say there are been a dramatic change in the number and texture of bowels movements. Not in a good way.

Sigh.

Gonna try a few more days.

Harvesting

2009-09-03T10:11:00.002-04:00

Jonah doesn't mind posing with our garden goodies as long as he can make silly faces

Green beans from 'scarlet runner'

Cucumber and tomatoes. I think we'll end up with
about 8 cucumbers and 300 tomatoes. We don't
even really like tomatoes that much.

The watermelon plant has finally flowered. There's no way we're going to have a watermelon before fall! We have about 4 carrots growing too. Not sure when to harvest them.

A resemblance

2009-08-31T20:49:00.001-04:00

Anyone willing to say that Bram resembles me at least a little? I've been excited about me passing on my curls to him!

Bram = one year old = trouble!

2009-08-26T21:06:00.006-04:00

“How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
~Dr. Seuss

Just thought it was time to say how time flies when babies are growing up in a different way. It's definitely a shock that Bram is one already. I'm sure you're with me on that. Or maybe it feels like a year has passed to you.

We're celebrating Bram's birthday at a later date but Jonah wanted to give him his presents today. We had put away a chair that Jonah received (from Uncle Mark) and loved at his first birthday and Jonah gave it to Bram today. Bram really liked it, especially pointing at Elmo's face. However, he does NOT like to sit in it!

Jonah's drums are going away for a little while soon, but we thought we'd introduce Bram to the low tom first. He likes it a lot.

See this mischievous face? He has such an expression for good reason. He is getting into everything these days.

Yes. Wowzers! Bram has really picked it up a notch in the last couple of weeks. This little guy just doesn't stop.

(brought in the clean-up crew)

He has also already discovered the toilet.

As I said to Glenn last week, "Yes, we definitely had another boy!"

He is strong, very curious, determined, and persistent. And he's a climber. If he wants to see what's up on a table, he'll do a chin-up to find out. He definitely knows what he wants and doesn't want and fights about it. If he decides he no longer wants to be in my arms, he'll find a way out. If I'm sitting he'll dive or squirm. If I'm standing or walking he does this squirming thing with his hands really high - which makes it very easy for him to slide out of my arms.

He loves to be chased and loves to play rough. He loves books and soft toys. He is making some animal sounds (dog, cat, monkey, bird & a growling noise). He can say 'tree' and 'dada' but still doesn't seem to know who Mommy is by name. At least he's saying M sounds now. We haven't been too consistent with the baby sign thing. He can do the sign for more and milk but doesn't use them much.

Bram usually sleeps a 12-hour night plus a morning and afternoon nap. He can be pretty flexible with the timing of the naps if needed, which is nice. Bram has his 8 front teeth plus two top molars are almost completely through. He can walk but still tends to crawl more.

He still has some separation anxiety issues but it's not too bad. Just prefers me and prefers not to be in the nursery at church. I can leave him with several different people though and he's okay.

Bram eats a lot of different things now. His favorites are bread, broccoli and banana. He sure pitches a bunch of food on the floor though. (One of the joys of discovering gravity I suppose.) We started egg this week and will try whole milk next week. He hasn't had any dairy at all. We're hoping it will be tolerated well.

He is a generally sweet, pleasant, happy little boy and we LOVE HIM LOTS!!

Happy Birthday Bramwell Timothy!

Guess the favorite

2009-08-26T17:50:00.003-04:00

Jonah is a pretty good drawer, but check these out... Please leave your guesses about what his favorite animal, sport and food are, as drawn in the boxes below...

Recent backyard fun

2009-08-13T13:45:00.000-04:00

We finally got our sandbox up and running. Thanks Grandpa!

Bram had his first experience with sand just a couple weeks ago and he wasn't thrilled about it. It didn't take him long to warm up though. Now he loves it. I generally give him his pacifier while he's in there though, to discourage him from eating the sand and sand toys. Yesterday Bram even got in and out of the sandbox all by himself. I think we're going to add more sand though, because Jonah would like to be able to dig deeper. And there's definitely room for that.

Jonah and Daddy got haircuts last week. Can you tell?

The soccer fun continues.

First teeter totter experience for Bram!
He liked it but I had to stay close because
he would suddenly bail off.

Have any of you been following my blog long enough to know how/when we acquired this seesaw? It has been a LONG time!! Check here to find out the story behind it.

Also, check out one of Jonah's first sandbox experiences here. See a resemblance?

Early August garden pics

2009-08-12T21:04:00.001-04:00

I took these pictures at the beginning of August, or maybe it was late July. Anyway...

The newest additions to my garden. Don't know what the one on the left is called. The one on the right is a type of sedum that has a pink flower.

Our giant hosta always evokes a comment from someone.

Another clematis in bloom. This one is at the front of our house.

Our bean pole is definitely the most rewarding thing we've planted. Faster grower. Pretty orange flowers. It is now well over two meters tall and starting to grow green beans!

A rose by any other name is still a rose, yes? This one is little, pink & pretty.

Chess

2009-08-12T15:01:00.000-04:00

Jonah's newest love/obsession is chess. It all started at Poppy's house when he showed Jonah a bit about how to play. Then he went to soccer camp and they played several giant games of chess where they pretended they were various chess pieces. So we picked up "Chess for Children" from the library. I could believe how fascinated he was by the book, which goes into detail about the history of chess and how to play. Since we didn't have a chess board we made one and initially Jonah was using rocks labeled with letters (i.e., p=pawn) to play. Eventually, and thankfully, his grandparents brought their chess pieces over. When I found Jonah playing chess against his buses a couple weeks ago I told him I'd take a picture. He insisted on setting up the chess board all over again and posing with his book. Too funny. I wish I had a camera to have captured the silly/sad look he put on his face when he deposited the book into the library's return slot. We'll check it out again another time!

Some of Bram's first great steps...

2009-08-11T21:01:00.003-04:00

Walking toward me...

Walking away from me...

Developments

2009-07-13T22:23:00.002-04:00

Bram seems to be picking up on a few words/signs. He started sorta saying "Uh oh" today when he dropped things...

He also attempted the sign for water today while saying 'ata'. Listen to the first sound he makes at the beginning of this video. Here it sounds more like 'duh-duh' I suppose. You'll also see that frutrated/angry thing he has been doing, which initially made us laugh, but now I'm telling him 'no' and helping do a sign for an appropriate word like 'help' or 'please.'

Finally, Jonah realized today that he can climb up on top of our car. (He had been getting a real kick out of just looking up there the last week or so, so I suppose it was only a matter of time.) Jonah agreed to do a demonstration for you while Bram watched from Jonah's car seat.