Jacob's First Goal

Jacob's last hockey before Christmas included a surprise - a "real" game! So here's a video of his very first hockey goal (and if he has his father's genes, it may be awhile until the next one). Check out the sweet moves.

Being Bave

Yesterday the kids came home from school explaining how Molly had gone up on stage at the school assembly because she's "bave", which is brave in twinspeak. I couldn't get much more out of them, but last night a few of the other dads from school said they'd heard Molly had been singled out in front of the school. And today we got the certificate home and an explanation from the teacher that Molly had received an award for Courage, related to how well she handled being in casts. I think two kids per class are singled out at each assembly for demonstrating some admirable quality. I hope she can continue to be bave for the upcoming surgery!

- Here we are at Zoë's nursery school Christmas party this morning. Kate holding the present Zoë made for us. And Zoë wearing a princess cape. Yes, the boys were given batman capes. Ah well.

And for a bit of artistic content. The lake tried to freeze on the weekend, but melted again on Monday (note: it was solid by December 7th last year). The remaining ice chunks all swept close to our shoreline and the wind blew them together all afternoon. It sounded like a massive xylophone or a symphony of triangles. So turn your sound up loud and see if you can hear it. I thought it was beautiful, but Kate is so angry that there is no snow or ice that she seemed quite unimpressed. So, you be the judge.

Gingerbread House

I'd say our quiet Saturday was quite productive. Jacob and I watched the Habs win this afternoon. And Kate made a Christmas gingerbread house with the kids.

Sickness, Hockey, and Hugo

We missed Chinese this morning as Jacob was up most of the night with a funny tummy, Kate has to work today, and I was too tired to contemplate driving to and from Toronto. Ah well, our mastery of the language will have to be delayed by a week. So we're having a quiet Saturday at home instead.

We took the girls to the family skating while Jacob was playing hockey last night. Zoë skated for the first time without a push-aid. And Molly is getting stronger on her feet, both on the ice and walking. She should be fully mobile just in time for her surgery and re-casting.

We also had a babysitter last night and saw Hugo in 3D. All the award nominees are yet to be released, but if there's a better movie this year it'll have to be great. We enjoyed reading the book with the kids last year, and were impressed with its format as much as anything (part graphic novel, part novel, relying on beautiful art to set the mood). The movie is magical though, and it's the first time I've seen 3D actually add to the viewing experience, not just as a gimmick. Big recommendation.

My Favourite Thing Today

Molly has been having difficulty walking or running since her casts came off, which apparently is to be expected given that she didn't use any of those muscles for a month. But we still took all the kids skating on Saturday night and Molly was moving faster on ice than on land. And she was really excited and proud of herself.

At dinner or before bed we often take turns telling each other our "favourite thing today". That night, Jacob spontaneously said "You know what my favourite thing was today? Seeing Molly skating."

That boy is my favourite thing on so many days.

Molly's Feet Again

We returned to Sick Kids again yesterday and the verdict is that the casts weren't doing enough to stretch Molly's achilles tendons. So she's scheduled for surgery on January 25th.

Bad News:
- Surgery isn't ever fun
- She'll need casts for 4-5 weeks after surgery, and they might have to be the long ones
- She'll need to wear AFO braces until she's about 6 or so. They would look something like this. They would fit inside her shoes, wouldn't prevent any activity and can be easily removed for something like swimming.

Good News:
- Her prognosis is excellent. He expects to get her ankles to 10 degrees past 90 degrees and doesn't expect that future surgeries will be necessary
- No casts from now until late January. Great for swimming in St. Lucia. Great for winter sports until then.
- Better to deal with all this stuff while she's 4 years old instead of later.
- As always, she's completely calm about all this stuff.

Visit With Santa

We had our annual visit with Santa at Mariposa this morning, complete with cookie decorating, face painting, hot chocolate and marshmallows, and looks of wonder at the arrival of the bearded guy.

Requests to Santa:

Jacob - a pirate, a castle, and a zamboni

Molly - a princess and a fairy (yes, she's still a feminist work in progress)

Zoë - a pirate and 2 zambonis (later amended to a dinosaur and snowshoes)

What Passes For Excitement Around Here

I should lead with answers to some questions I've received on recent posts.

• While Molly is undoubtedly a genius, I may have misrepresented her talents a little. She did write that "story" and came up with the words herself, but we helped with the spelling of almost every word. She knows maybe 20-30 words (and just as many Chinese symbols!), but would not have been able to make "dispatcher" a recognizable word.
• Kids passports arrived in the mail today. Why passports you asked? St. Lucia with my sister's family for the first week of January. And hopefully a visit to Tiff and Eric in upstate New York in 2012 (if I write it then hopefully I'll make it happen).

On with the exciting events of our lives:

1. Beaver attack. A decent-sized tree fell down outside our house on Halloween. Possibly aided by a beaver's gnawing. We axed it into about 4 logs and limbed it. The next two nights the beaver(s) dragged the logs away. A few nights later it(they) took down 4 saplings right outside the back door. The beavers seem to be building a lodge (surely not a dam?!) in the little waterway that separates our "island" from the mainland. None of the lost trees were favourites and our view is quite improved so no major loss (yet).

2. Sleep habits. Zoë has always had sporadic but regular difficulty getting to sleep. For the past few months this has involved temper tantrums, jumping out of bed, raging for 5-60 minutes. This was driving us crazy because there was nothing we could do to calm her down or prevent the problem or help fix it. During our recent visit to Priya and David's they suggested a reward program. Mild skepticism was vastly outweighed by helpless frustration so we gave it a shot. Every night of going to sleep with no tantrum earned her a star and a Melissa & Doug stamp. Six stars meant she earned a night sleeping in Molly and Jacob's room. She succeeded 6 out of the first 7 nights! And in the subsequent two weeks, there have only been one or two minor incidents. A set of six stamps cost $11. So now we're kicking ourselves for not doing something like this earlier! And Priya and David are our new heroes! Problem solved, until the next problem.

3. Books. We seem to have caught up on our tv shows (Downton Abbey, Justified, Mad Men, Treme, and two vampire shows that I'm probably too embarrassed to mention by name). So I've been reading more books.

• The Sisters Brothers, Patrick DeWitt. Very rare (for me at least) for a book to garner so many awards and still be a great read. This is old fashioned western. True Grit meets Lonesome Dove. With just enough literary stuff to justify a bunch of masters theses (and apparently enough to satisfy the stuffy bunch who give out awards). The brothers themselves are great, unforgettable characters.
• The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes. Julian Barnes is smarter than you. And he'll smugly remind you of this on every page. That's my usual opinion anyway. I thought his A History of the World contained 2 1/2 brilliant chapters and 8 going-through-the-motions ones. Arthur and George was too clever for its own good too. And Flaubert's Parrot got the throw-across-the-room treatment. So, I'm not a fan but he can write so well that I gave him another chance. And The Sense of An Ending has some really thought-provoking passages and messages about memory and perception and perspective. I can see why it won the Booker. But I can't really recommend it, unless you're into that kind of thing.
• Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon. Loved it. If the crime/detective genre had more books like this I'd be all over them. Great set-up. Imagine Israel lost the 1948 war and the Jews are given a 60 year lease for Sitka, Alaska. That lease is coming to an end so the community is in disarray. And our drunken, detective protagonist is working his last case. It's brilliant and funny.

And if you're looking for book recommendations, my other 2011 great reads were:

• City of Thieves, David Benioff. During the siege of Leningrad, two young men are arrested for looting and face a "choice" of death for treason or completion of an impossible mission - to find a dozen eggs for the army colonel's daughter's wedding cake. Best page-turner I've read in a long time. Just a great story.
• Hunger Games trilogy. Can't wait for the upcoming movie. This isn't just Young Adult Fiction, it's gripping, imaginative, powerful stuff. And yes I do channel my inner Katniss Everdeen every time I'm struggling on a long run.

Two New Casts

Here are a couple of photos of Molly at Sick Kids with her new casts on. Check out the stylish pastels!

Her feet/ankles seem to be responding to the casting but it's still 50-50 as to whether she'll need surgery. We go back again in two weeks. As always she's being a trooper about the whole thing - quite unfazed. It helped that the kids (and Kate) had a fun morning with Alison, Dan and the cousins, while I went to the passport office (new passports for all the kids, including Zoë's first Canadian one).

Halloween Photo

Oops, forgot to post this at Halloween. A cowboy on horseback, a flower fairy and an alligator. Other Halloween iterations included Jacob as a pirate and Zoë as a dog, unicorn and lion.

And in case you're thinking that Junior Kindergarten doesn't involve any real learning, here's Molly's latest writing sample.

Jacob Hockey Video

On Wednesday, Jacob had his first hockey session with sticks. Molly had to stop playing this year because of her casts (this point may seem obvious but Kate keeps trying to concoct crazy schemes for her to be able to skate in her casts).

Here's a video to show where Jacob's at - already a big improvement from the start of the year. And he LOVES hockey.

Remembrance Day for 4 Year Olds

I was a little nervous that the school's version of November 11th might differ significantly from my pacifist tendencies. For example, there is a Canadian Forces poster on the Remembrance Day bulletin board that looks like a recruiting poster to me. But, from what I can gather, the school assembly focused mostly on peace, the impact of war on families, etc. The twins even came home with the story of Sadako Sasaki and her origami cranes.

Two exceptions (and the school is probably responsible for the first, but definitely not for the second!):

1. The kids are insisting that Canadian soldiers are always the good guys and their job is to tell everyone to "drop their guns". Wouldn't that be nice.

2. Jacob: "There's one good thing about war. Poppies grow when there's a war."

EDIT:

Subsequent to this post, the twins came into the kitchen where I was making a coffee.

M&J: We learned a song at school about the soldiers
Me: How did it go?
M&J: The soldiers went to war, the soldiers went to war, they went to war and died for us, the soldiers went to war
J: But they didn't die for us. We didn't tell them to go to war
M: We should make a better song
M: How about, "The soldiers went to war, and they didn't die." That's a better song.
J: It would be better if it was "The soldiers didn't go to war, they didn't go to war, they didn't go so they didn't die, they didn't go to war"

We appear to have survived the school system for another day!

Building Blocks

In a rare calm moment, Kate and the kids constructed a Kapla Blocks extravaganza. Definitely our best, most consistently-enjoyed toy purchase.

Short Cast Video

Here's the little video showing Molly in action on her new short casts.

We had a fabulous weekend at David and Priya's. Not many friends will host a family with 3 young kids, knowing that everyone is going to wake up an hour earlier than normal because of the time change. And we don't sleep on good days! But fun was had by all.

New Casts

We were back to Sick Kids yesterday, and, earlier than expected, Molly is out of the long cast. The doctor was happy with the "tweaking" of the positioning of her right foot. So now the focus is on stretching her achilles in both ankles. Here's a picture of her in the two new short casts. Check out the hot new colours:





And see what she can do in them. Quite a difference.

Video will have to wait...oops

Zoë's Dragon Day

On Sunday we celebrated Dragon Day, marking two years since Zoë joined our family. Alison and the cousins were up from Toronto to join in the fun.

- Dragon Day breakfast of pancakes, fruit and ice cream!?

- Presents!! Warm pj's and housecoat as Winter Is Coming. Plus a sign for her door.

- Kate's masterpiece: a dragon for Dragon Day

- A Great Wall of China, castle-cake, being decorated by the cousins

- The full dragon, on parade. The Chinese dragon is believed to live underground, with the mountains being his scales and the wind his breath. So, for a Chinese-Canadian dragon, each piece shows a different part of the Canadian landscape, with mountains, prairies, forests and ocean. Yes, Kate is going for the "best Chinese mother" award.

- And here's a rousing rendition of "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain", which we sing every Dragon Day, inspired by Anne Tyler's hilarious adoption novel - Digging to America.

Molly the Indomitable Force

On Friday we went to Sick Kids for a second opinion on Molly's feet (actually about a sixth opinion if you count all the health professionals we've consulted in the past few months). Our new ortho guy seems fantastic and under his advice we decided to proceed with re-casting Molly's feet. The only issue with her left foot is the stiffness of her ankle, so she is in a short cast (hot pink!) whose only purpose is to stretch her achilles. The positioning of her right foot needs a little tweaking in addition to the achilles stretching, so unfortunately her right leg is in a full leg cast. We'll be going back to the hospital every week or so to have the casts changed (she can pick different colours each week) and she should be into two short casts after about 3 weeks and out of the casts entirely after about 8-10 weeks (depending on how they respond). And at some point during or after the casting, it will become apparent whether she requires surgery (which would mean more casts during the recovery period).

We're confident that we've made the right long term decision, but it is not going to be much fun for her over the coming months. She isn't in any pain, just some discomfort, but the logistics are quite staggering. The full leg cast is bent at the knee and her foot is positioned outwards at quite a dramatic angle. The hospital staff all said that kids figure out a way to be mobile, but we didn't really see how it would be possible. But within two days she is walking, climbing stairs, riding the push-bike and even playing soccer (see video below!!). I went to school with Molly this morning just to talk with her teacher, who seemed nicely unfazed and very supportive. So Molly is spending today at home but the plan is for her to return to school tomorrow. Her attitude has been fantastic but she is definitely scared about the social side of returning to the classroom.

Unicorn-Aligator Pie

I think Dennis Lee would approve of this unitelligible yet adorable version...

Christmas Wishes Already

Jacob: My Tom Brady shirt is too small for me
Me: That's right. Zoë wears it now.
Jacob: I should get a new one. Do we have enough money?
Me: Maybe you should ask for one for Christmas
Jacob: No. I've been really wishing for something else for Christmas
Me: What's that
Jacob: I think I'm really ready for it now. I'm big enough.
Me: What is it Jacob?
Jacob: A zamboni
Me: Umm, how big would this zamboni be?
Jacob: The same size as the one in the hockey arena
Me: What would you use it for?
Jacob: Cleaning the ice at the hockey arena (thinking: duhh, what are you dumb?)

But despite elaborate Christmas wishes, here's an example of why there is only one Jacob. Last Wednesday night, after Molly had a rough first night of hockey, she had a minor meltdown at bedtime because she wanted to be the first in her pajamas and Jacob had already put his on. So, he says "it's okay Molly" and rips his pajamas off and waits for her to get hers on first.

We've been to public skating three times since last Wednesday to try to ensure that this week's hockey goes a little better for Molly (and because Kate has signed up for a women's hockey league and is very nervous!). Molly hadn't skated in full hockey gear before, and fell over right away and couldn't get back up, and then just got overwhelmed by the whole thing. But she's improving already and I'm hoping it will be happier this time. Her attitude has been amazing though - she wants to keep going to the rink and keep practicing. Jacob did great at the first hockey practice and doesn't want to get off the ice when we're ready to leave the free skate.

Kate and I did a half marathon yesterday in beautiful but windy conditions. I finished in 1hr 44min, which is a 4 1/2 minute personal best, and more importantly was "only" 4 minutes behind my lovely wife. I'm gunning for her!

Hockey Time!!

We hit the free skate yesterday. Molly and Jacob looked good, getting ready for their hockey season which starts next week. By the end, they were both making forward progress without an aide. But the star of the show was Zoë - this was her first time ever on skates. She's a natural...

We spent Saturday down in the city. Chinese school in the morning, High Park in the afternoon, and dinner with the cousins plus Mike & Joanna and their guys. Loving our weekly forays into the big city.

The twins didn't go to school Friday so while Zoë was at nursery school, the 3 of us went for a hike at Scout Valley (a little wooded reserve on the edge of town).

And Friday night we had a babysitter and made it down to Toronto to see David Francey with Kate's brothers. He's always been one of our favourite acts but it seems like he hasn't written a good song since he got famous. But we still enjoyed his old stuff and the night out.

Picture Day

Today was picture day at M&J's school, but which of the kids looked the coolest.

This one...

We bought hockey equipment and sticks for the twins yesterday afternoon. Yes their on-ice careers begin right after thanksgiving! We're going to try everything on for some road hockey this afternoon, so I'll see if I can get some photos of the little warriors.

Biking and Chinese

Our theory is that with twins you only have to teach one of them how to do something. Inevitably, the other catches up within a week. Note: this theory may only apply if you teach the laid-back twin first. Teaching the intense twin first may have the opposite effect.

When my parents were visiting last weekend, Kate and I got away to Stratford for a night. When we got home, Jacob had learned to ride his bike. He was so matter of fact about it that my folks assumed he had been doing it for months. Molly seemed to retreat from her bike and chose to go by tricycle for a few sessions. But she couldn't stand it for long and as of today she can ride too.

So here is a video of the two of them riding their two-wheelers.

Molly is quite proud to be the eldest twin (by a minute or so) and loves to tell people that Zoë is the youngest while she is the oldest. She has taken to declaring that Jacob is therefore the Mediumest. Which is my favourite new word this month.

Jacob is also the mediumest by height as Molly seems to have a noticeable advantage. But Molly is the mediumest by weight as Jacob has crossed the 40lb threshold a pound ahead of her.

Chinese lessons are going great. The twins' teacher took me aside after class to say that they're doing well, "and Molly, she is really good" (said while tapping her head with an impressed look). Kate is laying claim to Molly's brain, and it's hard to argue when the two of them can memorize a Chinese song like it's nothing.

And Zoë seems to be having a "Chinese-ness" awakening, coinciding with the beginning of Chinese school. There is a lot of talk from her about the rest of the family being "xiao Chinese" (a little) while she is "da Chinese" (big).

We turned our Saturday Toronto excursion into a visit to the Botanical Gardens with Dan & Al & cousins and then dinner down at their place. So our Chinese school plan seems to be working on all fronts.

Last of the Summer Photos

Here are three photos that didn't get posted previously.

They pretty much sum up our 1st fabulous summer on the lake

- Messing around in boats

- Bumming around on the dock

- Dissecting our triathlon performances

Ni Hao Lao Shi (Hello teacher!)

As if JK wasn't enough schooling, we started Chinese school on Saturday. Molly and Jacob have 2 hours in a 4-5 year-olds class. Enroute to North York we told the kids to say Ni Hao when they met their teacher. Jacob said, "but then she'll think we're Chinese" and Molly retorted "no Jacob, we have blond hair". So the kids go to the classroom and say ni hao, then the teacher launches into a 5 sentence monologue in speedy Chinese. Jacob shoots me an "I told you so" look, but the two of them marched right in and apparently had a really fun time.

Kate and I joined Zoë in the parent & tot class, which is going to be more than enough learning ... for the two adults. We were the only whiteys in that class, though there were a few in the twins'.

I think it's going to be a great family experience, learning something new all together, while embracing Zoë's original language and culture. Plus it will get us down to the big smoke every weekend, which should mean that we'll see much more of our friends and family in Toronto.

School Time

Molly and Jacob started Junior Kindergarten last week. They met their teacher on Wednesday and began school for real on Thursday. JK is full time every day at their school, but I'm pulling them out every day at 1pm (except they go full days on Mondays). They are exhausted but loving it. They've been excited to go to school every day so far. Two of their best buddies, Julian and Silas, are in their class. Their teacher and ECE both seem really nice. No drama at all yet.

Except for Zoë, who couldn't believe she wasn't going to school with M&J. Thankfully her nursery school started yesterday, because until then there was a constant stream of "where's my school, where's my backpack, where's my teacher, where's my gymnastics (started today)". On Friday, she insisted on wearing her own backpack right into the playground to drop the twins off at school. Then once they filed into the building with their class, Zoë went up to the door to try to get in too. She's seriously going to have a fit when she finds out that she doesn't get to start big-kid-school next September either.

- Here are Molly and Jacob getting ready to go meet Miss Burt on Wednesday. The boy has his game face on.

Late Summer in Thunder Bay

I'll post some photos from our trip to Kate's parents before getting into the 1st week of school...


- For the first time since the twins were babies we decided to drive to Thunder Bay. Fifteen hours straight through. And it was... uneventful, fun and easy... seriously! We did cave in and buy a DVD player for the minivan, but didn't even need it much. Kate organized a million activities for the kids and they were great. Amazing what a difference a year makes - it was so much easier than our drive to Maine last summer.

-We spent most of the week out at camp and camped down on the beach every night (Zoë's first camping experience, and first for the twins that they can remember). And everyone slept well. Although the city boy (me) did complain about getting rained on, being frozen, not having a chocolate on my pillow, etc.

- The kids did their first ever canoe trip, in Quetico Park, down to The Pines. It was a few hours of paddling in either direction, with a play on the beach at the destination.

- And Kate and I got in lots of running and biking (which paid off with a half marathon PB for Kate last weekend in Wasaga!)

I managed to forget to bring my camera on the trip, but here are some iPhone shots...

- one of the eagerly anticipated highlights of any T-Bay trip is the tractor pull

- Kate exploring camp with the kids

- Check out the red and yellow shrooms!!

- She is only 2 1/2 so we're not completely drama-free just yet

- Shortly after returning home, Jacob was waxing rhapsodically about how he doesn't like anything "spensive" so he'll never need a job. Then after a few beats, a concerned look came over his face - "are boats spensive?"

- If you're Molly and Jacob, the only thing better being in a boat is jumping out of a boat






- We don't travel light!

- Back in Thunder Bay, we did some hiking

- Jacob trying to look intimidating?

- And the inevitable amethyst mine trip

Fun Photos

We don't just do triathlons around here.

- Jacob swinging on the dock

- Chad and Meegan came by with a boat and took the kids out for rides. Molly and Jacob in the tube.

- Me trying not to crush Molly

- Zoë on the run

- Sean and Levon

- Kate and Jacob getting bounced

- Erin and Zoë and Molly

- On the tour ferryboat. The big twins and the little twins.

-  Zoë having a bit of a tantrum. Her parents wouldn't provide her with limitless potato chips - the horror!

- Two strong men digging up the garden

- Kate takes the 5 cousins out for a canoe around the Island