080808!!!

080808

Auspicious not only for the Chinese.

10 years strong!!!

Wedding pic - 080804

Story Hour

What a day! What a day!!!

No rain!

Library day! The theme was space - so the boys got to make construction paper rockets and decorate sugar cookies in stars and frosting - yumcity:)

Well, the guest story teller today was... the Mormon again. Here he is.

Nice enough guy - but what the hay? As most people know, Mormon missionaries travel in pairs. This pair seems to be setting up their operational HQ at the PUBLIC library. They wear their silly name tags proclaiming their names, "Elder Surname - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" the whole time - not to mention their ill-knotted ties, white button-down shirts and black pants. One tells a story - strangely enough, both weeks his stories have been set in a fictionalized version of our solar system. In the first, a spider harnessed the sun's light and brought it to the animals of a hitherto-for dark planet Earth. Today's story described a fantastical hunt for space aliens. Mayhap they're softening us up for the On the First Day... story?

The other missionary stands to the side, arms folded over his chest, surveying the scene. It's just weird. We'll see what happens next week...

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:)

It's All a Long Weekend

It's Tuesday morning. We've just finished banana pancakes at the lake. Yum!

The boys LOVE being at the lake. BIG thunder storm last night - electricity went out for a couple hours.

Ivo and I walked up to the community grange/lodge/center the other day to play at the playground. It probably takes 25 minutes - when a 3 year old is walking it - all gravel roads, evergreen canopy, wild daisies, wild carrots, bees and butterflies. Ivo said, "You SURE dis is da right way?"

Ivo and Burl made a fire and roasted hotdogs with Grammie Gail and Ryan. Ivo wants to know, "What smoke made of?" He was very interested in the whole procedure. He'd never seen a match before - not in real life, anyway - he has a book that compares the size of the smallest mammal in the world to that of a matchstick. Later he told Gail, "I a dragon. I shoot fire outta my mouth. Next time you don't have fire - you ask me."

A little more Ivo Overheard:

• "I don't like towels on chairs." He has said this several times, different days - it's getting funny. This house is 2 meters from the lake. There will be towels on chairs...


• "We all a flamily in da rocks."


• (To Burl) "Show me your funny face." - everyone laughs - (To everyone else) "Check my funny face - better dan Burly's"


• (While sitting on the toilet) "Papa, can you read me a story 'bout a boy walking in da forest?" While yr pooping? "Yea." No! "But... Grammie Gail did it." Well, grammies are very special people.

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Yesterday, Little Burly turned 17 months old!!!

Burl is a very happy boy. He loves his family and when one person is missing, he stretches his arms out and asks "deeeh?" in a very hi-pitched, rising tone, with a concerned look on his brow. Burl is sooo close to talking, his babbling has the inflection of real conversation, tho, so far, he only says, "uh oh," "no, no, no," "bao-bao," "up," "ba-ba," "mama" and a bunch of de's, duh's, da's. Amazingly, though, he makes himself understood. For example, when he wants milk in his cereal, he points at his bowl and says, "duh!" (rising pitch - command mode). Burl also can kiss:)

Click here for video of Ivo the Green Dragon and Burly the "10-year-old Dragon."

Fredericton & New Car

Here's our new car!!! Ivo took this pic just before dropping the camera on the cement - The camera was stunned for a few minutes but seems ok now.

Here's a better pic Doug took:)














Yay!!! Yayayayayayay!!!

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Ryan and I spent the day in Fredericton checking out STU, neighborhoods and housing options... Let's just say this - if ANYONE KNOWS ANYONE IN FREDERICTON who can give us a decent place/price PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us know:)

It's brutal. But we hold out hope - we do believe strongly in luck and magic and guanxi, baby, sweet sweet guanxi!

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Plus both Ryan* and my** horoscopes were very very encouraging today. Mine made me cry a little - all good stuff - somewhat related to finishing one year anniversary of Patty's death eulogy... which will be finished by 13 Aug.

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Tell me this guy doesn't look like Alex Trebek...








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This says "SHE'S OLD HOME WEEK" and it's not a typo:)


Colloquial.

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* In his book The Medusa and the Snail, science writer Lewis Thomas said that the English word "error" developed from a root meaning "to wander about, looking for something." That's why he liked Darwin's idea that error is the driving force in evolution. I think this wandering-about-looking-for-something approach should be the driving force in your personal evolution, Sagittarius. The coming weeks will be a great time to meander and get distracted and stumble upon unexpected opportunities. May all your mutations have a positive spin! (P.S. Lewis also wrote this: "The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.")

** Your life story is about to deepen and sweeten and get more interesting -- if, that is, you follow the trail of clues into the dark forest, and if, as you travel, you hum songs that are both sad and happy, and if you call on the spirit of your favorite dead person to accompany you. Of course, you're perfectly free to refuse the call of your destiny, and never even take a glance into the dark forest. But in my opinion, that would cheat you out of some profound fun that has the potential to teach you and tune you for many years to come.

Ivo & Burl at the Park

Ryan, Ivo, Burl and I spent the morning at Connell Park - which is such a great park - all the swings and jungle gyms are surrounded by tons of sand. We brought some of the kids' pails and shovels and built some castles and train tracks. Ivo and Burl mostly like to shovel and pour and stomp on anything with shape. Today Ivo made a mountain. Ivo LOVED swinging - especially underdoggin'!





























Afterwards we went to DQ - as part of our scientific sampling of N.america's junk food, purely research - oh, yea, and fun too! It was the first time Burl has ever liked ice cream - and boy, did he like it! Soft serve with chocolate sauce. Ivo had a little cup of chocolate - we'd ordered vanilla, but got choc instead. The server was very nice and offered to change it - but we just rolled with it. The girl was NUTTY! She told us waaay too much about herself, her spending habits, her living arrangement, how she doesn't get along with her mother and how she binge drinks and puts it on her credit cards... Well, we were happy to just get ice cream outta her, so we didn't wanna tax her any more than necessary.











Yikes.

Oh yea, a friendly customer at DQ asked us if our kids are always so well-behaved!!! Whoo-hoo!

It was a SUPER WINDY day! Ivo and Ryan went to an evening showing of Wall-E from which Ivo returned kinda sad and mopey. Burl, Gail and I worked in the garden, walked around, played ball and saw a huge rainbow!

Tomorrow Ryan and I are going to Fredericton to check out the housing market... Hopefully we can find something GREAT!