Pics from Puerto Vallarta

Mexico

We survived the marathon travel and arrived in Mexico on Dec 25. It was a long, long journey but the kids were amazing. Not a trip I want to do often I must say! We are almost adjusted to Mexican time and waking up at 5:30 am which is only half an hour off our normal wake up time.

The resort is beautiful and our apartment clean, modern and well stocked. We are taking advantage of all the activity resources here. Goal is to try everything on offer at least once. So far we have checked off tennis, ping pong, boogie boarding, running, reading on the new kindle, gorging at the buffet, playing in the waves, making sand castles, spins and jumps into the pool and the very best helping baby sea turtles hatch from the nest and make it down to the ocean. Amazing!

Really enjoying our time with the Walton's (Kevin's mom's side of the family). The rest of the crowd arrives today and we will have 21 people all together. So always someone to play with!

My family arrives on Jan 8 so still lots more family fun to come.

Pearson is very large...

And there is plenty of open space.

Trains planes and automobiles

Christmas eve dinner 2011

Terminal 3 @ YYZ, Pizza by the slice, ba-bum!

Prejudice

Ellis gave my scar three big kisses today and said "does that feel better mummy? Its all healed up now." Then he touched it so softly and said " I like the red". To me it was twisted angry tissue and to him it was pretty. Oh to have all my prejudices about beauty erased!

Four year old logic

Bryn: santa is too big to fit down the chimney so how will he get in?
Lucinda: uh...kev? Any ideas?
Kev: we can leave the back door unlocked like when grandma and grandpa stay in the guest house.
Bryn: where will the reindeer land?
Lucinda: on the roof.
Bryn: but the roof isn't flat!
Lucinda: oh right. Well maybe they can land on the deck.
Bryn: will santas ho ho ho be very loud?
Lucinda: are you worried he will wake you up?
Bryn: yeah.
Lucinda: if you hear santa at night you can get up and say hi. wow bryn! You ask a lot of questions. Try and clear your mind and go to sleep. [Because I still have a lot of presents to wrap!]

Thomas's 4th bday!

Thomas' birthday

The mornings selection

Ellis's first day at playgroup

... Like a duck to water. :). Having fun!

Candy Land Champ!

Bryn won last night in our first ever family Candy Land game - by a narrow margin. Lucinda unfortunately has a bad habit of sliding backwards down the board and Ellis came in strong with several double cards!

Its nice to get out for a long run!

It was Bryna nd Ellis's idea. Really!

Deep Thoughts by Bryn De Vere

( just as he was falling asleep)

Bryn: Mom, tag is no fun with only one person.

Mom: That's true. Did someone tell you that or did you think of that yourself?

Bryn: No. That thought was just in my head. My head is full of thoughts. I've had that thought ever since I was a baby.

Update

As you can see we've had a busy few weeks. The day after Bryn's birthday (Nov 14) we noticed some spots. We felt bad as that meant he was contagious at his party as well as at playgroup so we inadvertently exposed a lot of other kids. But that is the nature of chicken pox. It can take up to 21 days to show itself so who knows where Bryn got it from? We then had almost two weeks of confinement waiting for the pox to clear (Ellis' spots appeared about 3 days after Bryn's). My friend's Linda and Mirjam were very kind and had us over as their kids have already had the pox. A kindness I will definitely offer to other moms in the future if I can. Kevin had to go to Germany during this time as well which was a challenge as sleep was severely interrupted by bouts of stratching and fever. But we are through it now which is a relief. Am glad to have it over and done with actually as you are not allowed to fly with chicken pox and now there is no danger to our trip to Mexico.

The pox had just cleared the day before my surgery so we've gone from one reason to stay at home to another. Am getting a bit sick of Kestrel Lodge actually (as wonderful as it is.) I was looking forward to relaxing, watching movies, reading and generally doing nothing. But I only lasted one day before I was complaining to Kevin about how bored and annoyed I was that I can't do anything but rest. Guess this is the universe teaching me that I have to slow down and just let myself be taken care of. It's quite hard to not try and help, especially with the kids. I am so programmed to care for them. Kevin keeps shooing me back to bed. So am working on accepting the need for stillness at this time.

Wound is healing very well and hardly have any pain. But have been plagued by terrible headaches and wooziness. The shoe finally dropped this morning as my throat is now sore too so think I have some sort of virus. Truly, the universe is contriving to make me slow down one way or another. I can hear my guardian spirits 'Honestly! You'd thinking carving a hunk out of her shoulder would make her stop. Ok, that's it! Send her a cold. That will finally get her to rest'.

Dimitri's b-day party

The restaurant is open

The patch and the broken glasses

I am not sure what is bothering Lucinda more- her shoulder or her broken glasses. We are taking action to try and fix both...

The last of the chicken pox

Kestrel orchard

Plums (Bryn), pears(Kevin), apricots(Ellis) and apples(Lucinda) on the menu for next fall. I couldn't find any mango trees :)

Surgery done

Surgery was 25 minutes long and Lucinda was scared witless but kept shaking to a minimum with the help of the meditation tracks on her mp3 player. Doctors were very helpful and kind. Lump is out entirely, and headed for pathology but expectations are that everything should be fine. The doctors are very sure it is a benign lypoma. We are off for recovery tea.

Bryn's 4th Birthday

Thanks to Rick and Leanne for the special John Deere tractor for Ellis. He loves it!
One of Bryn's favourite presents was this circuit board from Jan and Lloyd. It is supposed to be for kids aged 10 and over but he loves it. I sat with him baffling over the instructions and when I looked up he had the motorized fan running! He'd only been shown once by Kevin. I tried to help him make a few other things and he kept saying 'No, no mom, you've got to make a circuit!'.

Bryn adores chocolate. For his birthday he wanted chocolate bars (not chopped up) inside a chocolate cake, with chocolate icing and chocolate chips on top with chocolate sauce and triple chocolate ice cream. Your wish is my command my dear boy!

This was making the cake the day before. Both he and Ellis were so helpful and delightful to work with. Knew it was too good to last. The crisis came when I smelled smoke. My springform pans were leaking all over the oven! We managed to salvage it and cake turned out quite well but my emergency stress valve just about burst right then. Good thing Kevin is calm in a crisis. :)

More pics from Jan and Lloyd's Visit

Our pumpkin carving party was a subdued affair this year. I had anticipated not being up for much after my surgery so had not planned much more than picking up a few pumpkins for the family to carve. Then my surgery was cancelled at the last minute so we ended up having a few people over. Kevin and I did manage to pull off some last minute costumes (a witch - so traditonal I know -and a wizard) but the kids hated them and started crying when we put them on so they didn't last long. Needless to say, they did not have any costumes of their own. I knew from my mistake last year so did not push them. Guess the love of Halloween is not genetic. :) My surgery has been rescheduled for the end of november. Hopefully it will not be cancelled again. Fingers crossed.

P.S. Those careful observers will notice the special pumpkin carved to look like Diesel 10, the longstanding favourite train engine around here.

Jan and Lloyd 'back' to England

Jan had been suffering with terrible pain from damage to her spinal nerve and column for over a year. It became clear that she needed surgery. After trying all the avenues available in Canada and much careful research they decided to have the surgery in England. We were delighted that they were coming back to the UK so soon after their last visit and that there was finally a solution to Jan's back problems.

It has not been an easy road but Jan has come through spectacularly. From barely being able to roll over at the beginning she progressed to 15 minute walks with a significant hill within three weeks. Of course, we have to qualify that by the fact that there was coffee shop at the end of that 15 minute walk. We know the lengths Jan will go to for a good coffee and a chance to read her book. :)

It was Lloyd's birthday while they were here so I baked a lemon cake and we took it down to the hospital for a celebration. The staff thought we were mad and commented that party hats were a first there. But they all enjoyed a piece and it endeared the staff to Jan. Any incentive to get the best care possible!

Jan's first walk! The boys were amazing being gentle and helpful with Jan. By the end Jan could have Ellis on her lap and read stories. Although she might have been pretty sick of 'Clifford Counts Bubbles' by the time she left. I'm sure you can appreciate a 2 year olds insatiable desire for repetition.

All Four Grandparents in Oxford!

Jan and Lloyd arrived back in England during the last few days of mom and dad's visit. This coincided with Canadian Thanksgiving so we decided to celebrate. I made pumpkin pie (from fresh pumpkins as they don't sell canned pumpkin here) as well as a raisen one, mmm my favourite! Used up the remaining bits of Jan-made pie dough that we had frozen from her last visit but it was worth it

Had fabulous unseasonably hot weather while Bean and JR were here so we ate our bedtime snack outside one evening. We noticed the moon coming up and hanging low in the sky and kevin realized we could probably 'jump over the moon' with some creative photography and the right angles. Had loads of fun as we all took a turn while the crowd sang the nursery rhyme. This was the best shot of the lot. Think its actually me jumping. :)

JR and Donna's Visit

My apologies that it has been so long between postings. Things have been a bit busy here. But I will try and post a few pics for those loyal readers who haven't given up hope...

My mom and dad visited us in the beginning of October. It was wonderful to have them here. Kevin had to go to Germany during their 10 day visit so I was very grateful for their support. I sure love my parents! (these pics are from our day out to the Cotswold Wildlife Park)

Wow!

Happy Equinox!

We are finally gender neutral

Lucinda was digging around under Ellis' bed and came across a previously unaccounted gender bender - so now we are officially gender neutral for the first time!
Diesel10, Diesel199, Thomas, Peter Sam, Clarabel and Handy are all chugging on a complete system, and I am very content!

NOTE FROM LUCINDA:
For those of you for whom this post makes no sense we are talking about wooden railway track. The 'destinations' or fun bits like bridges, tunnels, turntables etc. usually come with female connections so you need a lot of double ended knobby male pieces (i.e. gender benders) in order to complete the track.

Ellis learns to pun

Mom: Can I kiss your forhead?
Ellis: No, kiss my two head. (and then he laughed).

another funny thing...Ellis banged his head (not very hard) and came over to me crying a little and said 'mommy, I banged my little blond head'. (he can't say his l's, they come out like 'w' so 'little' came out 'widdle').

Two Headed Monster

Making Pies with Gramma Jan

Blackberry season is upon us and we have taken full advantage of it since the grandparents have been here. We like to clip our sand buckets to our belt loops and go out picking. Papa Lloyd is the master picker and is often requested to get specific juicy looking but high up berries. We think that perhaps the buckets have holes however as the buckets never seem to fill up but empty regularly. Telltale signs do exist that perhaps the berries are disappearing somewhere else...

The pie making was quite fun. I attempted to use my previous training (Jan has tried to teach me to make pies on several occasions) but quickly realized I could learn more by watching the master and turned instead to documenting the process on photos.

YUM!