Andrea Goes Skating

This afternoon, our school board had a free skate at Tecumseh Arena for staff and their families. It was a nice party; we had the rink to ourselves, and they provided us with chips, pizza, and drinks.
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We had bought Andrea her first pair of ice skates back in November, but hadn't yet had a chance to take her out to skate. Today was the perfect opportunity, with Mommy and Daddy off work for Christmas Break. It was a funny coincidence that just this morning, she was sliding around on our kitchen floor, pretending to be skating! She was so excited when she found out we were going skating this afternoon that I had a hard time getting her to nap.
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First Time on the Ice!

Kevin was amused by Andrea's attempts to stand alone on the ice. (Give it a year or two, Buddy, and Andrea will be the one laughing!)

Andrea had a great time skating with Daddy. She didn't want to stop for a rest very often; it was a good thing there was chips and juice, or Daddy would never have gotten a break!
Hi, Mama! Look at me!Daddy is helping Andrea stand up straight, and balance on her skates, by resting against the boards. Daddy is so proud of his little skater!

Every once in a while, they'd go off the ice and sit on the team benches for a bit of a break. I think Andrea really enjoyed having this special time with her Daddy. :))

I got a short video of Andrea and Daddy skating toward me. Daddy is still doing 90% of the work, but they're both having a great time, and that's what counts!

A Day of Rest, then A Day of Visitors

A Day of Rest: On Saturday, the 27th, the kids and I had a day of rest, while Daddy went to play in the Gagnon Euchre tournament. We had a relaxing day in our pjs, and enjoyed all the new toys. I took some pictures of Kevin on his new Bounce and Spin Tigger he got from Santa. Kevin doesn't have the leg strength to bounce yet, but he likes to sit on the Tigger and watch TV, or play with the music and slide toys on the Tigger. Andrea is too big to ride Tigger, so she got out her pony, and everyone was content.




A Day of Visitors: Sunday was the day we had our party (well, parties, I guess) at home. In the morning, we invited our close friends (who all have children about the same age as ours) over to play together. Talk about bunch of busy little bodies! They had so much fun playing together (although Kevin, once again, was overwhelmed and miserable almost the whole time--which was too bad, because his two friends, born within the same week as he was, were over). I didn't even bother getting out the camera; who could get those bundles of energy to hold still for a minute?! Actually, we managed to get a few group photos just before everyone went home for lunches and naps. I think the kids had tired themselves out enough that we were able to get them to sit on the couch together for a few minutes.

Parker, Aiden, Kade, Maeve, Finn, Andrea, Izzy, and Kevin

Maeve and Finn (and parents Matt and Susan) were visiting from Kitchener. It was so great to see you guys!

Evening Visitors from Afar :))

We also had a party in the evening. Many of Rod's poker buddies and their wives/girlfriends came later in the evening for a few drinks and a couple games of poker. But our special guests were Scott, Marta, and Chloe Robinet, and Marta's mother. We hadn't seen them in over two years, because they live in California. In March (if all goes well!), they will be moving to a new home in Oakville, Ontario.

New Best Friends

Andrea is only 3 weeks older than Chloe. I told Andrea Chloe was coming over to play with her, and she was so excited. We weren't sure how they would react to each other, since they hadn't seen each other since they were babies. Well, the instant Chloe came upstairs, she and Andrea took one look at each other, and became Best Buddies. I have never seen Andrea take to another child so instantly, and so completely! They played together all by themselves from about 7:30 until 10:30 at night, and even then, they didn't want to be parted! They shared toys, entertained themselves, and barely had a disagreement. It was adorable and amazing. I dearly hope that the Robinet family can move to Canada, so we can see each other at least a few times a year.

Andrea and Chloe

Andrea got a kiddie digital camera from Mommy and Daddy for Christmas. She got some cute pictures of Chloe, and Chloe tried to take a few of Andrea. These are the ones that turned out well:

Boxing Day with The Gagnons

On Boxing Day, we headed out to Aunt Petesy's (a.k.a. Gagnon Hall) for our traditional get-together and dinner. Andrea got to wear her new outfit from Grama Marty and Grampa Rick.


Dinner/Desserts: Gram and Papa helped us feed the kids at dinner time. Of course, the kids preferred chips and desserts over eating any actual dinner!



Kevin, once again, was very unhappy with all the new people. Daddy discovered that only one thing would make Kevin stop crying: his cousin Emily's chocolate chip cookies! As long as he was eating a cookie, he was fine.

Andrea and Izzy have been joined at the hip this Christmas season. Whenever they are together somewhere, they have so much fun, and find interesting ways to amuse themselves (such as crawling under Aunt Petesy's area rug, and using it like a blanket!).

Santa's Visit
Santa always makes a special Boxing Day visit to the Gagnon family, seeing as there are so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This year, Santa gave everyone a present and a little goodie bag. Kevin was okay with Santa; he sat on Santa's lap, accepted a gift, and then started to cry a little. Andrea, on the other hand, ran right up to Santa when her name was called; however, once she was on his lap, she was too timid too look him in the eye! Izzy went right up to him, too; we thought she'd be scared, but she smiled. :))

Daddy helped Kevin open his gift from Santa: a farm sounds fridge-magnet toy.

Aunt Stephanie helped Andrea open her gift from Santa: a new Dora book, with sound buttons and peek-a-boo flaps. Andrea was thrilled. She is still talking about how she saw Santa, and he gave her a new Dora book!

Aww . . . big hugs for Aunt Stephanie!

Christmas Day, 2008

Santa Came!: See, he drank all the chocolate milk we left him, and he ate most of the cookie we left him (Andrea later finished the rest of it).

Opening Gifts on Christmas Morning: The kids got up at a reasonable time (around 7:30 a.m.), and opened their gifts from Santa, Grama Marty and Grandpa Rick, and Mommy and Daddy.

BIG HUGS!

Andrea loves her Upsy Daisy doll, and Kevin constantly plays with the helicopter. Thanks, Grama Marty and Grandpa Rick!

Mommy's Rough 24 Hours . . .

As you can see, I mustered enough energy on Christmas morning to get the necessary pictures of the kids enjoying Christmas morning, but that was it. I had somehow contracted a nasty intestinal virus, which meant Mommy was up ALL NIGHT Christmas Eve, and into Christmas morning. Later in the morning, Daddy took Andrea and Kevin to Aunt Stephanie's for the annual Christmas Morning brunch, while Mommy stayed home in bed. In the afternoon, we went and visited at Aunt Angie and Uncle Rick's new house (they live right near us now), but Mommy and Kevin weren't feeling so great. (Kevin wasn't sick, he just needed to get upstairs and away from the people again--another meltdown). In the later afternoon, we went to Aunt Claire's for a visit, and Christmas Day dinner. The kids had a lot of fun; even Kevin did a little better there. Mommy was starting to feel better by then, but still not up to playing family photographer. C'est la vie. At least I was completely better by the next day.

Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas Eve was full of activity for us. In the morning, Mommy spent a few hours creating/decorating her contribution to dessert for Great-Gram Market's house: Cupcake Snowmen! Although the process was slow and painstaking, the result was very cute. It also didn't help that a certain 3-year-old kept begging for the candies, and once she wore Mommy down, she was all hopped up on sugar!


The Maurices

In the early afternoon, we went to Aunt Connie and Uncle Carmen's house to visit with the Maurice family before they left for Mass. The highlights of this visit were that Andrea discovered the pleasures of orange pop (thanks Uncle Carmen!), and Kevin (on all fours) chased the dog, and the kids, around the pool table most of the time we were there. We also got to see Great-Grandma Maurice, and exchange our Christmas gifts with Grandpa Vic.

Great-Gram Market's

We spent the rest of the evening with our Market family, at Great-Gram's house. There we had a finger-food feast, fun with the family, and opened gifts.

Kevin gets into EVERYONE's cupboards now.

Best Friends

Gifts: gifts from Great-Gram and kids' gift exchange
Pauline helping Baby Addie open her gift from Andrea


Andrea opening her gift from Jocelyn

Jocelyn opening her gift from Kevin

Kevin's Snuggle Time

Poor Kevin is NOT loving all the holiday excitement. Whenever people come over to visit, or we go somewhere to visit others, Kevin gets very upset, and cries. We noticed this first at the kids' Christmas shows earlier in the month, and thought it was just something to do with being at daycare at night, but I'm getting concerned that there's something more. Kevin is not handling the new people and places well. Every time, someone he is close to has to take him away to a quiet area to get him to relax. On Christmas Eve, he had an especially bad meltdown during the gift exchange. I took him upstairs to Great-Gram's spare room, and laid on the bed with him. He was too wound up to sleep, and when I tried to lay him down alone in the crib, he screamed. So, I spent the remainder of Christmas Eve in Gram's spare room, snuggling with Kevin. I took the picture above while we were cuddling. In a way, it was very sweet to have some snuggle time with my Buddy, but on the other hand, it kind of put a damper on my Christmas Eve festivities.

When Mommy's Not Looking . . .

Well, at least one little person certainly enjoyed Mommy's cupcakes! Uncle Pook was following her around with the broom, sweeping up the crumbs in her wake; you can see the little pile behind her, in the picture. Andrea WAS loving the Christmas festivities this year!

Christmas at Aunt Donna's

On Tuesday the 23rd, we made a voyage across the border to have a Christmas visit with Aunt Donna and Uncle Greg. The weather was dreadful--Winter Storm Warning--so it took us about 2 hours to make what should have been about a 45 minute trip. Thankfully, we eventually arrived safely, and got to enjoy some quality time with Aunt Donna, Uncle Greg, Caitlin, and Tyler; and Uncle Chuck and Brigitte.

Visiting







Eating Dinner: Aunt Donna made a yummy dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes. It was here that we discovered Kevin LOVES ham!


Opening Gifts




Helping Aunt Donna Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies: Mmm . . . dessert . . . fresh from the oven!



Picture Time!: We tried so hard to get a group picture of the kids for Grama Marty. You know how it is . . . I took about twenty shots, and here are the best ones.