Still Here

Whaa!!!

I have no explanation for why I have less posting time now that I live in rural N.america. None.

Sure, I have theories. But, they're not satisfying.

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Ryan's brother, Andrew, was here for the long weekend. What a great visit! Ivo LOVES him like crazy, while Burly loves him a respectable amount;) In fact, Ivo was sad and not quite himself for a day and a half after Andrew left. We hope hope hope Andrew can come back for Xmas!!!

The weather was WET! It has been raining for at least a week - and how!!! Almost like tropical rain, at times. Flash flood warnings in the northeast of the province.

While Andrew was here, we mostly played at home but we did all go to a very soggy Connell Park and paid a visit to Richard & Marie, where we were treated to just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies and a little home improvement - both of which wowed Burl and Ivo. And special bonus, we got to meet Kari and Kevin:)

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Today was the first day w/o substantial rain. Ryan and I took Ivo into town while Burl stayed with Gail and Doug. It was nice for both of us to spend time with Ivo solo. Very rare.

Ivo's excited to go to Story Hour tomorrow at the library. Last week's story was composed and delivered by a young "Elder" of the Church of Latter Day Saints. He was fine - but, no beauty queen and I wondered the whole time about ulterior motives but the kid said nothing about his cosmology. Just weird. And his partner was there too, and it's just unnerving to have 18 year old missionaries from such a silly religion hanging around my kids. I wonder who'll be there tomorrow.

Ivo's been reading up a storm and learning new words by the score; disaster is a new one - I'll post more as soon as I can compile a list - my brain is get, umm... bad. Today, Doug asked Ivo if he was eating again, pronouncing "again" clearly Canadian - and Ivo said, "Eating a game? A computer game?" We tried to explain that /a-gane/ = /a-gin/ but Ivo thought we were crazy, so Doug went back into the kitchen to initiate a do-over, pronouncing everything in an Ivo-friendly way. Ivo got it the 2nd time, no problem - and acted like that question had nothing to do with the first.

Ivo has been doing lots of imagination play, role-play and narration. His toys talk to each other in complicated scenarios. He orders us to make comments or ask him questions which is pretty funny. Ivo often says things like, "I will save the day!!!"

Today we finally bought new kids' toothpaste - I'd bought them Colgate kids' toothpaste when we ran out of the tube-from-Taiwan-that-I-can't-remember-what-brand-it-was a week or so ago and the boys HATE it. Ivo gags so fiercely that he almost pukes. Burl doesn't like it either. It makes no difference that Spongebob is on the tube. A few nights ago, Ivo and his dinosaur were discussing whether or not the dino could borrow Ivo's toothbrush - "Yes, sure..." I tried the toothpaste agin, which set Ivo to retching and me to asking how he could hate the toothpaste so much. Ivo said, "'Because, I don't like it!' said the boy." That was hilarious and sweet and all things wondrously Ivo.

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In addition to the rain stoppage, the temperature has dropped - highs around 19C and tonight's low: 9C. Shiver!!!

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Burl is a dream come true. As if in tune with nature, his week-long teething jag has abated in the sunshine. His inflection and steady conversational babble is so close to the sound of real words, it feels like his verbal big break through is impending. So far he says - mama, baba, bao-bao, hi, bye-bye, up, hot, de. But, man, does he ever communicate, pointing people into their chairs, coercing people to read him stories, help him negotiate his toys, take him outside, etc.

Sweet sweet little B:) Anything Ivo does, Burl does too. This is funny and, often, noisy and naughty.

Burly's got a little teasy streak in him. He has for awhile, acting like he was gonna let you change his diaper or give you something and then turning tail at the last second. (Ivo did this too! and here's another Ivo-at-about-the-same-age- as-Burl is now inc Ivo speech) So now by the time I tell Ivo not to do something like hitting the table with his spoon, Burl is already in play and just giggles at me like I'm outnumbered, so I might as well give up!

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More pics and cath-up tomorrow. I hope.

Here we are in our excellent car driving home from the Hartland PO where we picked up a package that turned out not to be from us-Taiwan to us-Canada but, rather, some Xmas presents Gail had ordered!!! Ooops:)