Long Time No Blog

Sorry it has been awhile since my last post. We leave for Thunder Bay tomorrow - ten days in the frozen tundra, and it couldn't possibly be any colder or snowier than here. Not sure what the odds are of our flight actually happening.

The kids are happy and back to full health. We're still going to the same coffee shop every morning for caffeine (Kate and I) and muffins (2nd breakfasts for the kids). And now, the twins spend about half an hour every morning charging around the place, getting underfoot, charming the old ladies, and generally burning off energy. One woman almost started crying this morning when Jacob tried to help Molly back to her feet. When they lose each other in the store, Jacob starts shouting, "Maya, Maya", which is what he calls Molly, and when they find each other they grin and squeal. We are quite the spectacle.

It's a good thing we live a block from the library, because we're probably reading over 100 books a day (or sometimes one book 100 times a day). For the first nine months I thought this reading to your kids thing was just propaganda, but now they insist on book after book - "More, more, more". Strangely, the current runaway favourite is about a girl who wakes up with a gator on her head. After each reading, the kids walk around saying (or trying to say) "how cool is that?!", one of the lines from the book.

I went in the second of the series of winter runs held here in town. Kate had to deliver twins, so I missed out on my chance to exact any revenge. I got my butt whupped by a guy pushing a stroller, a guy with one leg (although he does have the cool running prosthetic like Oscar Pistorius), and several kids under the age of 14. Then as I'm wheezing away from the finish line, a quite attractive woman comes right up to me and says, "ummm, you have snot on your face". Yup, I haven't lost my way with the ladies.

I will try to post from Thunder Bay. Happy holidays everyone!

When the weather outside is frightful...

...we fill the twins' sandbox with snow and bring the winter fun indoors?

Things I enjoy about this video:
1) It's mostly a video of Kate playing in the snow because the kids have no idea what she's going on about
2) Molly displays her wicked arm
3) Jacob prefers not to get his hands cold or mucky - chip off the old block


I wanted this to be our Christmas card photo, but Kate has temporarily lost her sense of humour. As is typical in our family I don't expect Christmas cards to actually be sent until the New Year, if at all.


And here's a preview of Christmas morning, where the highlights are sure to be boxes and wrapping paper.

Slowly Recovering

The kids are just about back to good health. Finally. There sleep is still a bit disrupted so we're all still a little on the exhausted side, but I think we've turned the corner. On Saturday night we chanced it, got a babysitter and went to friends for a dinner party. The kids didn't make a peep, so we might not even have frightened away the sitter.

We were gifted these toques by one of the women who frequents the coffee shop in the mornings.
- Molly in bear hat

- Jacob in Rudolf hat and Brady jersey

- Kate leading the twins in song and march

- My two favourite goofballs. Molly found this hat in the "too small" cupboard and insisted on wearing it all day. It and very little else. Jacob spent most of the day spinning, telling me that he can't be too sick anymore.

Kate Wins, Obviously

A while ago in this post, I described how I kicked Kate's butt on the running treadmill. A few people have since e-mailed me wondering if Kate exacted her revenge. All of these people, supposed fan's of my blog, were salivating at the prospect of me getting my comeuppance. You've all missed the point. I'm the underdog here. Kate always wins. Of course she got me back - it was so obvious and inevitable that I didn't even bother writing about it, but to set the record straight, here goes:

So two days after our initial run Kate gets on the treadmill, then refuses to tell me how fast she's gone. I tried telling her that I'd given up running - that I was retiring as the undisputed champ but she gave me one of those glares. So, that evening she watches me scarf down some baked goods and drink a tall glass of eggnog. As I down the last sip she says, "l'll watch the kids if you want to run". I had no choice so I went for a short run. Just to get her off my back. She ran so hard that she couldn't move the next day and hasn't felt healthy since, but she's the champ.

Then last weekend we entered the Snowflake 5 km run, here in town. Before the run Kate said we should just run together and that she wasn't feeling well so we should take it easy, and she was cold, and her nose was dripping, and she was tired, etc., etc. Wouldn't you know it, at the 3km mark she turns it on and leaves me in her dust. She finished in 6th place out of 40 plus women (alas only the top 5 got their names in our esteemed local paper), while I got outsprinted at the end by the 2nd ranked 12-year-old boy. So, Kate wins, obviously.

Political Farce

I'm enjoying the ongoing political farce. It's never bad for democracy for the populace to see that its self-serving politicians are wearing no clothes. And there's no leader without egg on his/her face right now:
- Harper's mean/pettiness streak is finally coming home to roost. Will he ever learn that a minority government means you have to compromise?
- Dion is laughable. His Youtube quality response to Harper last night was unsurprisingly amateurish. Can you have a PM who is this despised/ridiculed by his own party?
- Layton/Duceppe plotting behind the scenes for months to bring down the government no matter what course it takes? Also not very cool.
- Elizabeth May trying to turn the coalition takeover into a Senate seat. Pretty quick to abandon the Greens. Again, not very surprising.

I think the Liberals' best case scenario is for the GG to agree to prorogue parliament until January. And if Harper's January budget includes a lot of fiscal stimulus then they should support it, thus looking reasonable and not solely driven by a lust for power. Then, once they have a non-lame-duck leader in place in May, then they can look for a reason to re-engage the coalition. Right now they're overplaying a very weak hand.

Grandma Saves The Day

I've got two very sick twins and one very sick wife on my hands. This is the kids' second cold/flu of the winter and it's only December 2nd. Tell me the whole winter won't be like this.

Fortunately, Kate's mom was with us for the past five days, with seemingly endless energy, enthusiasm and ideas. She was so great I can't even make any mother-in-law jokes.

- Too cold for a sandbox. So here's the cornmeal tub instead.

- Jacob concentrating on a big spoonful on cornmeal

- Molly in the diaper box train

- We moved our comfy chair upstairs in the kids' play area - nice and bright for storytime

- Me pulling the kids in their new sled