Setting Up New Digs

We are moving house, blog-wise.

Find new stuff at http://honeybeesdeux.blogspot.com/

Ahh!!! I'm Outta Photo Room on this Blog!!!

I kept trying to upload a couple more pics last night but was repeatedly told, "You have exceeded your photo storage limit." I figured I'd deal with this in the morning and now it's the morning and it's true!



I'm at 99.98% capacity on 1024MB. I can upgrade or I can scootch over to a different blog address - which I think I'll try first cuz I don't wanna pay for storage space and I've already got other blogs with similar names set up...



So let's try here. I probably won't do much at wordpress cuz upoading photos there is a pain, you have to do it one-by-one.



To see my (unorganized) photo acct at Blogger/Picasa click here.

It's night nime and I have new pics of Ivo and Burl playing in their first snowfall - today, 11/11! I'm gonna set up another blogspot acct...

It's News to Me That's Not a Moose on the Quarter

Today was a nice day, not too bad.

Gail is visiting Joanne and so we're all missing her and it's all rainy, but still we were able to play outside a little ball-tag, swinging and a little baseball. At Ivo's suggestion, the boys took a bubble bath when we came inside this afternoon, which was a very good idea. Ivo has been pointing out ideas and claiming any and all good ones as his own, true or not, with all seriousness. "Dat was my idea."

Ivo had hot almond-milk chocolate-ovaltine and some noodles for lunch. Burl had zucchini, broccoli, a piece of carrot, noodles, veggie hotdog, dip...He ate everything.

We played a lot in the basement today, vacuumed, did some laundry and dishes, ate left-overs for dinner, colored in coloring books with Papa, whom Burl and Ivo have taken to calling "Daddy." In fact, Burl said "Papa" to me - shaking his head - "Papa." ... "Daaaddy." Very cute.





Pictures are from tonight.










I wish I were going to this concert Tuesday night. Dirt Star.






















Speaking of Daddy, Burl BabelOn;

• 100's of times, during the days that Ryan is at work, Burl raises his outstretched palms-turned-upward, shrugs and says, "Daddy?" When told Daddy's at work-school, Burl asks, "Why?" I have to get this on video - it's hilarious! The why? is sooo sincere and high-pitched, so well-intended and curious. Even though he asks this exact same "question"100's of times - a day. I usually tell him that Daddy has to teach the kids or what day of the week it is, that it's a school day or some such. Burl often follows-up with "why?" culminating in a nod, a serious turn of the head, a knowing look in his eyes, "Oh," he says.
• "ta-da!!!" sometimes just "daaa!" - which is a little more subtle and takes a lot more intuitive listening. He says this after he does most things as though his whole life were some sort of performance.
• Burl says "rice crispees." Yes, he does.
• Also, Burl likes to get his hands on change, he calls it "money." He says this in a way that sounds an awful lot like, "mommy." Anyway, on a morning he had a shiny quarter in his hands and was saying "money" so I taught him that one side had a moose on it - Burl said, "moo(se)." I told him the other side had the queen on it, he said, "keen." Burl likes animals. He was interested and excited to keep repeating these 3 words while pointing said thing out. Anyway, days later, I find out, that's not a moose at all. It's a caribou or something.

Ivo Overheard:

• "Obama. Barack Obama."
• As it was raining, while making a fire, "Is the water coming down the chimney?”
• "I'm gonna dream about being awake."
• "That's a good idea."
• "That was my idea."
• "I'm a super hero."

Burlslide1

Burlslide1
Video sent by thehoneybees

20081106 Burl says "WEE!!!" when he slides (and swings)!

Video Fix Testing

I've been having sooo much trouble with Google video that I've set up a DailyMotion acct. Daily Motion has an option to post directly to yr blog - but this option worked only once, I am now gonna try to embed a video of Ivo and Burl on the tireswing at Connell Park, Thursday 6 Nov - the last outside play-day - it's been raining ever since!

Ivo & Burl Tireswinging
Uploaded by thehoneybees

Burlsays

Burlsays
Video sent by thehoneybees

20081028 Burl on his 20-month bday talking. He says Ivo which he pronounces "(W/V)oe-wee." Burl says "Burl," a bunchof other stuff and then some animals, which he indicates by making the sound; "nee" for horse's neigh, "noo" for cow's moo, "eee" for elepant's whinny, etc.

We Like to Move It Move It

Today Ryan, Ivo, Burl and I went to see Madagscar 2 - it was a gooooood time.

Burl is really into animals these days - he already knows and loves lions, giraffes and zebras. The other night he brought the lion toy into the bath with him - when Ivo indicates by word or grabbiness that he wants the lion, Burl shakes his head saying "No, no, Owee - Mine!" Burl knows hippos - but is not in love with them as evidenced by his dissenting opinion when all of us were taking on roles from the movie, Burl did not want me to be the hippo - no one else seemed to disagree with the casting, however, ahem.

Ivo laughed and giggled and ate a lot of pop corn. This was his second movie in Canada, the first was Wall-E, same theatre, back in August. Ivo got to sit on a booster chair that velcros onto the seat. He loved it.

Ivo's been having a difficult time lately - and I have only theories and guesses including; actual growing pains, flu, low-grade undiagnosed infection somewhere, appendicitis, giardia... It's a chicken and egg situation over here; is he acting out cuz he feels bad? is he feeling bad cuz of all the lectures he's getting for acting out? Am I an awful parent? Am I ruining his life and his chances for future happiness?

This afternoon, after the movie and the unnecessary trip to mcDevils - where I thought we could get Madagascar movie toys - but we couldn't and it was too late (maybe the ad I saw was on UStv...), Ivo had a possibly sugar induced meltdown/tantrum that took an hour to diffuse. I think it was ice-cream related, but, I'm not gonna lie, it seems like he's been tantrumming everyday over something (or things) fairly inconsequential for over a month. The most frustrating, because nothing can be done about it, is when he freaks out over something irreversible, ie, "I WANTED TO FLUSH THE TOILET!" "I WANTED TO BRING THE CAR IN THE GARAGE!" "I WANTED TO ANSWER THE PHONE!" He will not let whatever it is go. WILL NOT. Even when the situation is reproduced so he can do whatever it is, he refuses to accept/adapt, what he wanted is gone and we all have to suffer, for ever.

Poor guy. We actually took him to the emergency room/urgent care center at the hospital on Wednesday night because he was having severe abdominal pain... The dr found nothing. We're waiting for urine test - but not expecting anything. Ivo's got an appt to see a family physician on Nov 19th - this is something he needs anyway - and now that he doesn't have appendicitis, I'm pretty sure nothing is wrong, but g-d, I'll just leave it at that.

Otherwise Ivo is awesome. He's got amazing ideas, imagination, energy and heart. The boys and I went to the park on Wednesday after Ivo's preschool (which he's taken to loudly refusing to go to at the last minute at least once/week). It was a great time and some of these pics are from then. Ivo's schoolmate Lindsay and her mom and brother showed up which was great great fun. On the way home, Ivo asked me why Lindsay had come to the park. I told him she probably had asked her mom and thought, "maybe Ivo will be there." And that her little brother thought, "maybe Burl will be there." And then Ivo said, "...and Lindsay Mom thought, "hey, maybe Sandy will be there." Sweet.

Today while he was singing loudly at the kitchen table and had been asked twice to use an inside voice, Ivo told me "but I wanna sing 'yo gabba gabba' loud so everyone can hear me." There was something so cute and perverse about that... I don't know what it is...

This morning I went to my first yoga class in NB. There were only 2 other students today and here's how small the town is; when asked where I had relocated from, one woman said, "Oh, you're Ryan's wife?" and then the other told me that she grew up next door to Ryan. This seemed a little too much. Here's how small the world is, the teacher has recently moved to Canada (and is in the process of getting her perm res) after teaching English in Singapore.

How About Ladymans?

Pics from the last week of October

It's election day in the US - I voted by mail weeks ago - so I'm free all day...

If you have a spare hour watch Naomi Klein talking about the economic crisis or listen here.

This morning Burl will be getting meningitis C and varicella vaccinations.

Ivo and Burl just underwent their very first daylight saving time-standard time shift. We're trying to not adjust their bedtime b/c these guys are a bit night-owlish - so 9:30 converting to 8:30 seems wonderful.

Burl is talking away and can ride Ivo's scooter! He must be teething cuz he's nursing like it's going outta style - which, it is - every hour and sometimes more throughout the night... Not so cute.

Ivo can somersault! Without further ado, a long overdue Ivo Overheard:

• "Why ladybugs are ladies?" That's a good question. After a moment, "How about this, 'ladymans'? - I mean ladyman bugs?"


• While Ivo and Burl were looking through a Sears Halloween costume flier, Ivo told Burl, "...Yea, a bear, dat's right. Yea, allbody dead on Halloween...


• After I told Ivo he's getting cuter and cuter he said, "Why I getting cuter and cuter?" So I told him it's b/c you're looking more and more like Papa. "When I grow bigger like Papa, will Grammie be my mom?"


• While Ivo was looking for his boots, I told him where they might be, he told me, "NO! I can't find my boots anywhere. I think you're a fool."


• While playing with Play-dough, Ivo made "medicine cookies" - and said, "I made deese cookies to feel you better."


• Ivo heard about the Boogieman on an episode of the Simpsons and decided that "The Boogieman is my Super Ivo enemy!"


• In what may be a healthy genetic distrust of the state, Ivo told me that "I will not let the police beat you and take you to jail. I will keep you with me and our whole family."
  

I have a long story about Ivo and his pretend rocket boots that I hope to post soon.

A Little Halloween Action

Trick o treated mostly by car.

Puppet show at library. Found out why Ivo has been refusing to view puppet shows at Buttercreek Festival and today - he thought they were all scary - like a Taiwan puppet show - this is what he said, I kinda didn't realize he didn't like puppet shows in Taiwan...

will expand tomorrow:)

I know, I know, I know...

It's been a long time. Obviously we've been busy. Everything's great.

Burl turned 20 months old! He is TALKING - he TALKS! A lot. Today I asked him if he wanted some goldfish crackers and he said, "Goldfish." Everything he says, he says in appropriate context - we are in the midst of a wonderful verbal explosion! So fun! - and so happy that Ryan's last day of classes is tomorrow - his workload and travel time will be (hopefully - much) lighter, than the current 24-hour clock he's on, cuz Ryan's gotta be around Burl during the talk-blossom!

Here are things Burl is saying in a super delux Burly BabelOn:

• "nummy" for yummy after drinking banana smoothie, eating goldfish, and mushroom tapenade...


• "Wye" for Ryan - also "Baba" & "Daddy" - which is what Ivo sometimes calls Ryan


• "I," "My," "Mine," "Me..." with great enthusiasm and energy. Tonight Burl was playing with a puzzle while we were cleaning up dishes, Ivo took some of the pieces causes Burl to yell, "Woe-wee, Woe-wee!" then turning tear-streaked toward the kitchen saying "My! My!" - "Woe-wee" and "O-wee" are how Burl pronounces Ivo


• "Nice" - upon receiving an ice-cream bar during a particularly awesome (and singular) trip the boys and I took to DQ


• "dat" and "dis"


• boot, shoe, dark, money (coins), shark, apple, banana, bowl, ball,


• Burl makes different noises for animals: squeals for pigs, "Nooo!" for moo-cow, "Nie!" for neigh-horse, roars for tigers, lions, dinosaurs, "Weeee!" for whinny-elephant


• Burl has 2x expressed anegative to me by stating the word and shaking his head; "Ha(t)" while shaking his head to tell me he hadn't a hat on his head and "Ho(t)" to tell me his food wasn't too hot to eat


• Burl likes to play with the plastic animals, he likes to group the doubles together and calls the smaller of the 2 same animals, "baby"


• He says "No(se)" for when he wants his nose wiped


• "Ready" as an affirmative answer

This isn't exactly exhaustive but it's as much as I can cobble together tonight. We are all sooo excited for Halloween! All day, Ivo has been wearing a superhero mask, wrist-cuffs, emblem and cape from the cool Superhero book Berton and Sasha gave him this summer. He's decided that he's (gonna be) "The Super Amazing Honeybee Kid" tomorrow instead of a bat. I've got a lot of Ivo Overheard to write up... tomorrow:)