Going

Things are going. I'm still working 2 or 3 shifts a week at Reitmans, Kara is getting better at talking every day, and we're having fun just being us.

Santa?

When Mark and I first realized that we were going to be parents, at some point we had a discussion about whether or not we would "have Santa" in our house. We decided no.

I'm realizing now, after going through a Christmas season with a 4-year-old, that this is easier said than done. Santa is everywhere on TV and in the stores, we can visit him in the mall, and all Chloe's friends have parents who promote Santa. Grandpa Barry also dressed up as Santa yesterday afternoon while we were over at Rose & Barry's for presents and dinner. Chloe thought it was SO awesome that she got to see Santa and that he gave her a present. (Kara not so much. She kept saying "No like it!" while Santa was there, and she cried a bit.)

After thinking about it a bit in bed last night, I have realized that there is nothing really wrong with Santa - its what we say about Santa that is important. What I find wrong with Santa is the "naughtY or nice" aspects, implying that you need to be good to get presents. This is why I think it is wrong:
1) You can't expect children to be good all the time. You can't expect adults to be good all the time either. We are all born as fallible humans, sinners. This is why God sent his son Jesus to save us, the reason we have Christmas in the first place.
2) Presents don't need to be "earned." Mark and I give presents because we like to, and because baby Jesus received gifts from the wise men. We will give our girls gifts whether they were "good" or not.
3) We are ultimately responsible to and judged by God, not Santa. If we are striving to be good, we should do so in an attempt to be closer to our Father and Maker, not to get presents from some fictional character based on a God-serving man from a few hundred years ago.

So next year, I think we'll make it simple, just like this year: a single visit to say hi to Santa (no photos), no presents from Santa on Christmas morning, a discussion about St. Nickolas on Dec. 6 (and likely later too), and maybe a visit from Santa at Rose & Barry's. No "Santa is pretend" from us, but no promotion of Santa either. I don't want to deny my girls the fun of pretend, but we want to keep Christmas focused on Christ.

Merry Christmas

Again we celebrate Jesus's coming to Earth to save us all. We are so thankful for this.

May you all have a wonderful Christmas, enjoying family and friends (and presents). We wish many blessings for you and yours.

Bathtime this morning.
Mark: "Chloe, hows the water?"
Chloe: "Perfect! My favorite temperature!"
Mark: "Yeah, perfect is my favorite temperature too."

Mommy! (So Cool!) and Happy Thanksgiving

Kara has just made the jump to calling me after nap and in the morning with "Mommy!" instead of with crying. Friday morning was the best example. I woke up to both of our girls calling Mommy from their beds :) Its cool! I love it!

I also wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We are thankful for family, friends and the fact that the sun appeared while we were in church and it is now shining brightly outside!

Life...

...is progressing as normal. Not much to report, but what there is to share I will do so now...

Mark is working 10 hour days (finally). We miss having him home at 4, but appreciate the extra money it brings in, so we can do fun things like go out for meals.

On Saturday we took our girls to the miniature railroad in North Burnaby. Its a small park with lots of track and 1/18th scale engines that pull bench cars. Lots of fun!

Kara just keeps on talking more and more. It's wonderful! She's also really interested in letters, though all she can say is "A" and "O".

Chloe has now had 2 weeks of preschool, and is enjoying it like last year. We have to wait one more week, and then she also gets to go to dance class. Both times we have dropped Chloe off, Kara also goes to the story-time rug and really wants to be a part of preschool. I am sure the same thing will happen with dance class.

I am starting a dance class of my own tomorrow night. I bet I will be super tired and super sore on Tuesday morning! It will be nice to do something I enjoy by myself for 2 hours though :)

18 months (plus a few days)

Kara turned 18 months old on September 10. Wow! A year and a half already. And its been filled with tons of smiles, laughs and cuddles, and general amazement at our beautiful baby girl! Kara, we love you very much.

Chloe starts preschool tomorrow, and is really looking forward to it. She's been asking every day "is it preschool day yet?" for at least a week... definitely excited!

Otherwise, we've had a few sicknesses in our house the past few weeks, but we're all doing good now. We've got Kara back on wheat so we can get her tested in a few weeks for celiac disease. We decided to do it now as we're tired of always second guessing what she's been eating. So far she hasn't been doing too badly, so I'm hoping that's a good sign.

Off to play with a new book Chloe got! Have a great day everyone.

Chloe's Birthday Party

Its a few days late, because I've been sick, but here are some pictures from Chloe's birthday party, which was on Saturday August 28 :D

Today's Walk

I've lined up a penpal for Chloe, and we had to walk to the mailbox this morning to mail the letter we wrote earlier this week. The mailbox is about 30 seconds from the park, so we stopped there after. The best part of the walk, though, was all the "look at this" we did between our house and the mailbox.

It rained for about 30 minutes this morning, so the first stop was the puddle on the road right next to our car for some jumping. Then we found a snail on the sidewalk, and I showed Chloe how it pulls its eyes in if we put a twig too close. I also asked if she remembered the name for the shape a snail's shell makes (she did!). Then we stopped and looked a huge devil's club plant growing by the sidewalk, and I explained that its a dangerous plant. Then we looked at a holly bush, and underneath discovered shamrocks (with the heart shaped leaves, as opposed to the clovers with circular leaves on our lawn). Then we looked at some rose bushes, and talked about how Grandma Rose is named after that flower.

By this time we were at the mailbox, and Chloe could reach to open it! Hooray!

At the park we helped Kara learn how to blow bubbles (we brought them along from home), jumped in some more puddles, went on the swings (where Chloe practiced pumping) and had lots of fun.

Happy Birthday Chloe!!!

Our little girl is 4!!! Wow!

Today was a great day for Chloe. Ruby came over to play at 9:30 and we did crafts - we made paper ring caterpillars and muffin cup butterflies. We played outside, sang silly songs and were just generally goofy. Aayla came over around 11, and all four girls (yes! 4!) played really nice until Kara's naptime at 11:30. Ruby went home at 12, and Chloe went with Aayla to her house for a cupcake tea party! Aayla's mom is a hair dresser, so she gave Chloe a pretty hairdo. They dressed up in princess dresses and did other girly things. It was a really nice treat for Chloe, and a great break for me.

I picked Chloe up from Aayla's house at 4:30 and we went to swim lessons. Of course Chloe told everyone that it was her birthday today, and that she was 4. When we were done getting changed after swim lessons, one of the pool supervisors was waiting at the front desk with balloons for Chloe. She was super excited! Then we came home, had dinner, ate cake and Chloe opened her present (a Dora toy and some new pants). Then Chloe watched an episode of Madeline, followed by me reading her two and a half books, and then about 10 minutes of goofing off with Dad.

All in all a wonderful, busy and happy day :D

(Look at those slightly sunburned cheeks!)

(Here you can see the remnants of Chloe's hairdo. We did go swimming...)

(And this is the cake I made right before swimming, and decorated in about 10 minutes between getting home and eating dinner.)