Check, check!

Brand new pair of school shoes? Check.

Brand new school backpack? Check.

Two Ziploc bags, box of tissues and a cheque for 30 bucks? Check.

No, seriously. This was Meredith's school supplies list.



One five-year old so ready for Kindergarten she can already taste it?? Check, check!

The anticipation is palpable around here. I've got scads of posts to still catch up on to capture the last vestiges of summer, but it's all-Kindergarten, all-the-time here right now. After a beautiful long weekend at the lake Meredith started Tuesday in the Kinder group at daycare. That was adequate excitement for Tuesday.

Today was her chance to meet her teacher for a 10 minute 'interview'. We got a tour of the classroom, found her locker, located her spot at the table, checked out the mini-sized washroom, and ogled the fantastic assortment of toys and learning materials in the room. We moved on to test out the xylophones and drums in the Music room. That was adequate excitement for Wednesday.

Tomorrow she has A. Whole. Day. At. Daycare. With. Nothing. Kindergarten-y.

Friday is the big day. The plan is to take her to daycare so she can ride the bus to the school with her pals. Fortunately, the other ex-Monkey-now-Kinder moms are as loony as me, and are all for the plan of watching the kids get on the bus at daycare and racing (carefully, so as to not hit any schoolchildren) to the school to watch them get off. And be escorted by a Patrol to the playground. And line up when the bell rings to march into Kindergarten for the very first time.

That will be adequate excitement for Mommy for the next month or so.

Aaron self!

I love how toddlers talk about themselves in the third person. Aaron's most commonly uttered phrase over the past few weeks is easily "Aaron self!" Whether it's getting his shoes on, taking his diaper off, climbing onto the toilet, or getting himself dressed, he's suddenly very keen to do it himself. He'd love to be able to buckle himself into his carseat or pour his own glass of milk, or drive me to work, but we have to draw the line somewhere! I love letting him try to do something and watching him figure it out. Often it will end up half done, or not done at all and he'll look up at me and say "Mommy help. S'hard" (It's hard!)

I took these pictures a few weeks ago now, watching him try to get himself into his pyjamas.

Insert tiny two year old voice here: "Where's Aaron's toes?"

His trusty companion, blue puppy is standing by, ready to assist. Puppy often has to help ME get Aaron dressed, when he's refusing Mommy's help but is willing to have puppy help, so I guess Aaron figured he'd keep him close at hand for assistance.

"There's Aaron's toes!"

Trust me, it is a laborious process for a two year old to get both feet completely through the cuffs of their pyjamas. I think I might have dozed off between this picture and the next.

If you think the toes are hard, try pulling your pants up over your bum! Even puppy was no help with this step.

Halfway there! How hard can the shirt really be?

Progressing well, we've found the head hole.

But wait! Don't get too cocky! Why are the arms going up through the neck hole?

Uh oh. Houston, we have a problem. We stalled here for a good long time. The shirt went back up to the neck, back down to the bellybutton, back up to the neck.....then....."Mommy help. S'hard!"

And with a little rearranging of the pieces, ta da!

Random silliness

It seems like this summer is running away with us, with very few sunny moments to remember it by! We made it to the lake this weekend for a day of sun, but the weekend before was wall to wall grey skies. Well, except for a few short interludes of the blue sky we know and love! Clearly, we run a really tight ship around here. Meredith spent the day in her pyjamas, and by the look of things, Aaron spent the day in nothing!

It does cut down on laundry.

The two of them get along extraordinarily well. Shockingly well, actually. It's not all bubbles and sunshine, but they get along well more often than they squabble. In a way, I think Meredith thinks he is her little boy! It works in our favour more often than not. In true toddler fashion, he can be counted on to refuse to take part in any one of a number of essential daily functions like having his diaper changed, getting dressed, getting undressed, picking a spoon.....at the drop of a hat. In his struggle to exert control he'll refuse to let mom or dad help, but generally accepts it if we offer Mer-Mer (his name for Meredith), or she offers herself. And who can't help but smile when watching a five-year-old try to diaper a two-year-old. Not a match made in heaven if you're hoping to get out the door in 3 minutes, but plenty to make you laugh if you've got the time.

The proud 'mama' and her baby doll!

We're going to have no end of pictures to choose from on his wedding day.

The things kids say....

This has been one of those kinds of days where the kids go from hopping up and down on my last nerve to doing the funniest things.

Meredith was helping me put Aaron down for his nap and he asked her to sing his "songs" for bedtime. She launched into a few of her own lullaby creations. One went something like this:
"Lullaby, lullaby, my sweet little Aaron
May you sleep and dream, may you have lots of joy.
I love my Aaron, and I love him so,
I love your smile and your lousy heart."

The first time I was sort of surprised and was thinking over the word lousy while listening to the next verse. The next verse was similar strings of loveliness, and then made reference to his "lousy eyes." I'd love to know what she thinks lousy means!

Then this afternoon when I was baking cookies I heard Aaron in the hallway lifting up the flap for the central vac outlet. Then I hear him say "Somebody?" , then whack the flap closes and he says "Nope."

We now return to our regularly scheduled bad listening and mommy freaking.

Our favourite summer food is....

Cousin magic!

We were lucky enough to have two of the cousins, Amy and Claire, with us for the weekend last weekend. It was an eagerly anticipated event around the Rose household, and I think it lived up to its anticipation! The weather didn't cooperate to head to the camper for the weekend, so we had fun in the city instead. Lots of time at the playground, four busy kids on the climmber and in the pool at the Y, a trip to the movies, fun making mini pizzas, and lots and lots of time to play. A bit of sleeping was added in, and the Tooth Fairy even flew by for a visit as Amy lost a tooth at the movies! As the girls left on Sunday night to head home, Meredith was crying, "It's just so hard to see them go!" We hope to make a more regular habit of seeing all the cousins for fun days through the fall and winter when everyone gets busy with school and activities.

Meredith was hard pressed to decide on a highlight for the weekend, it was a well-fought battle betweeen sharing her Tooth Fairy pillow (as yet unused for Meredith...) with Amy and finding money in it the next morning, and finally doing the full set of monkey bars at the playground!

Claire whipped up and down the monkey bars like she was made of air!

Amy played catcher for Aaron,

before schooling us all in just HOW easy the monkey bars are!

By late Sunday it was actually even warm enough to blow up the Splash Bomb in the backyard. We haven't had it out yet this summer, the weather has been so cool and rainy. Meredith has clearly grown over the winter, this year she was able to run and vault onto the slide portion of it with no problem!

And made lots of splash once she hit the pool!

Aaron was very skeptical of the whole thing and for the longest time would only crawl down the slide. Naked, of course.

Eventually he agreed to give the inflatable boogie board a try, and quite enjoyed the ride!

The week in review

We've been home from our week of holidays at Falcon Lake for a week now, and I'd better get my thoughts down before I lose them. I'm pretty sure the non-stop challenge of keeping track of Aaron at the lake has knocked out a few of my functioning brain cells!


Note to self: If ever planning a week at the lake again with a two year old whirlwind, bring a 20 foot piece of rope. Tie one end to my ankle. Tie one end to Aaron's ankle. Sit down with a glass of wine.

It was a fun week. The weather was a bit of a mixed bag, but on the whole some of nicer weather we've had in this strange summer. We were lucky enough to have all the Rose cousins together on the weekends, and two of the cousins there all week long. The girls spent a fun-filled afternoon doing this:



This:

and some of this:

while Dave did a whole lot of this:

Later in the weekend Aaron did have his first tube ride, but as the awesome parents that we are, we forgot to take pictures of that. So instead we got shots of him checking out the tube on dry land (surrounded by adoring cousins)


and being choked by his own lifejacket.



I got one phonecall on the Blackberry-of-Doom the whole week, yet this is the photographic evidence we have that I was indeed on this week of vacation too!

The best part of the time away was all that time to enjoy the goodness of our everyday!

Cuddles with auntie,

cousin time,

and hour upon hour at the playground.

I think Meredith's world reached a pinnacle of happiness in one 24 hour period. In that span of time, we took the training wheels off her second bike with bigger wheels, she managed to do three rungs of the monkey bars on her own, she had a sleepover at her cousins' camper, and she ate Lucky Charms for breakfast.

More goodness followed. We celebrated Uncle Darrell's birthday

and watched the cousins in a comedic bike rodeo akin to clowns in a Volkeswagen!




Even the cats had a good time!

At the end of it all though, there's no place like home.