Things to Remember

That one of Isaac's greatest insults to Sarah is that she will one day drive a Mercedes Jeep in a suburban neighbourhood because, horror of horrors, she will live there, too. 

Sarah recently bought some fake fall leaves from The Dollar Store.  A few weeks later, Simon and I were out walking and he found a real red maple leaf.  He gasped, ""It's actually real!!"

Simon:  "Matthew, how many years have we been in this bath?"

Simon:  "Why is you head bigger than mine?"

Simon:  "Why doesn't dad wear Pyjamas?"

Simon:  You could dress up as a goose.  But try not to get shot by grandpa."

Matthew to me wondering why I often have to ask Matthew what Simon has said:  When Simon talks, do you just hear, "Blah, blah, blah?"

Simon:  What is a honeymoon?

I try to explain.

Simon:  I will enjoy my honeymoon wth Isabella.  I will bring her to my house and show her around.

Simon is the youngest of nine and has watched his four oldest siblings leave and not come home for long periods of time.  Recently Sarah went away for a weekend to visit Ella in Peterborough.  Simon's reaction was heartbreaking:  I have a feeling that Rara is never coming back.

To remember with fondness:  Matthew and Simon caressing me as I cried and then making cards to help me feel better.

Simon and Isabella holding hands and rubbing noses during mass.

Jenna Craine seeing Joe arrive at a bbq:  It must hurt to be that cool.

Simon combing all the girls hair after a Sunday supper and then doing Jake's as well!

Matthew cuddling with Jake as Jake reads him a book.

Sarah:  I wish that people could be in yours and dad's shoes on a really good day and realise that they should really have more kids.

Simon suggesting Christmas gifts for me:  How about another sound machine?  Then you will have toe (so) good sleep.

Simon hlding my hand on every single walk and outing.  First child to do that ever.

Things to Remember

 Simon:  Soon I will give you your last hug as a three-year-old.

Me: And then hugs will be done?

Rest assured, those hugs aren't done and he still remembers almost every single morning to give me a monkey hug in which he wraps both his arms and legs tightly around me.  I especially love when he gives me one fresh from bed and he is still rosy-cheeked and toasty warm.

Simon:  Why can't I go wrap bales with Dad and Matthew?

Dave:  Because I can only handle one child around heavy machinery.

Me:  Maybe we will go to the park tomorrow.

Mathew:  The park?!

Simon:  Matthew, she can only handle one child at the park.

Touche.

Simon:  Did you have a good sleep?

Me:  I did but what would you do if I hadn't?

Simon:  I would give you a monkey hug.

Issac singing Amen super low and out of tune at mass and then whispering to me, "I really like the bass part."  Except bass rhymes with ass.

Simon:  Sneezes.  "I think I have a cold.  You'd better not come near me!"

Upon entering the Staples store:  This is gorgeous!  It's so neat and tidy!  Imagine if we lived here!

Often heard from Simon at the ned of any trip:  Thsi was a busy day.  I want to go home.  I like peaceful days when I can play at home.  

Ben and Hannah

 A big project on the deck right now is the attempt to become a sunflower grower.  We will see how this pans out, it might just be for my sanctification.  On Friday night, Hannah, Ben, Dave and I were attacking the tedious work of laying the landscaping paper, cutting holes in it and planting the sunflowers in each small hole.  (This was before we realised that the landscaping paper was doubled and we would have to undo almost all of our work the next morning in order to amend the situation; hence, the sanctification.)

Hannah remarked, "When I was 13, Aunt Julie told me that everyone wants to be a saint at that age.  I decided to prove her wrong, that this wasn't a passing fancy."

Ben responded, "Then why haven't you joined a convent?"

Hannah answered, "Because I haven't heard a call."

Ben quickly replied, "Have you turned on the ringer?"  Touche.  

More things to remember

 In May, Sarah, Ben and I took Simon to Ottawa for the March for Life.  Simon willingly followed along despite a sea of legs around him and no understanding of what we were doing for the day.  About halfway through the walk through downtown Ottawa, Simon asked, "When are we going home?  Are we walking there?" The sweetness and trust of a three-year-old.  He gripped my hand tightly throughout the entire experience - an island of security within a sea of unfamiliarity.

The funny thing about the day was that when we arrived and found a very sketchy, dark and dank underground parking garage, Simon immediately had to pee.  So, I told him to pee against the wall of the garage just ahead of the car.  He willingly obeyed,  When we arrived back at the garage at end of day, he once again needed to relieve his bladder and peed in the exact same spot.  In his beautiful innocence, he probably believes we came to Ottawa for the day simply for him to pee in an underground parking garage.

Matthew recently got to compete in the intra-school floor hockey championship.  I took him aside before he left for school and warned him that he mustn't cry if things don't go his way.  He quickly responded, "Oh, Mrs. Cherry says that if we cry, we get a penalty."  A teacher who knows her audience well!

Shortly after the British student, John McCowan, left to go back home for the summer, John's sister, Jacinta, was over and sitting with us around the bonfire.  Mathew was cuddled in her lap and gazing at her face with love.  He suddenly remarked:  "You look a little like John."  Jacinta replied, 'That's because John is my brother."  Matthew with a little shock said, "He is?  I thought he wanted to marry you!"

And a little funny stuff:

Isaac was pretending to choke Simon and Simon cried out, "I'm not ready to die!"

I left a bottle of Advil out on the bathroom counter  and thought, this will be the one time that I don't put something away and a little person gets into it.  Sure enough, i arrived back to find a red Advil crushed and obviously spat out of a little mouth.  I approached Simon about it and he cried out, "Am I going to die?"

And the last Simonism for today:

Simon has a little girlfriend at church, an 18-month-old redhead called Isabella.  She is very forward and insists on hugging him when she arrives at mass while exclaiming either Boy!  or Nose!  Simon is determined that he will marry her one day.

"When I am married to Isabella, we will live in her little house."

"On the farm or in town?" I asked.

"On the farm because farm is better," he replied.

"Why?"  I queried.  "Because you are on farm, " he responded while breaking his mother's heart just a little.

Things to Remember

 A dump of things the kids have said that I don't want to forget:

Simon upon waking up after Matthew and being told that Ben had departed after Spring Break:  "No, Benny is sleeping."

Realising that Ben is actually gone back to college:  "Oh, I so sad."  I understand, little man.

Isaac:  "I woke up this morning and felt that something was wrong with the room.  Ben was gone."

At the end of February, Simon discovered some cedar mulch hiding underneath the snow at the base of the garage:  "  Mommy, Mommy!  I found tummer (summer) under the toe (snow)!"  How delightful to still be so young that every season is a surprise.  And what a wonderful testimony to the resilience and optimism of a three-year-old who keeps finding joy without the understanding that winter is not eternal.

The irony of Simon's map that he obsessed over for a week:  it's always lost.

Sarah wearing a penguin facial mask and genuinely scaring Matthew and Simon.

On the way home from mass, we spotted Mattea walking home alone.  Isaac was astonished that Jacob would let his girlfriend walk home unaccompanied. 

Isaac:  "I'd walk my girl home.  I wouldn't want to miss a minute with her."

Joe:  "C'mon, Isaac.  You'd leave her if a cow was in trouble."

Isaac:  "  No, I wouldn't!  I'd bring her with me.  The more hands the better."

Simon discovered a ladybug recently in his bedroom:  "Mare!  Mare!  There's something in our room what is red and black and walks!"

Simon asked me for a colouring sheet to be printed while I was typing this post. I told him to just wait.  He said, "Why does everybody say that, Just wait!  Just wait!  Just wait!"

And for things that touch my heart:  Joe inviting Matthew to walk up the mountain with him and have a bonfire.

Recently, Matthew got to go with Dave and Isaac to the annual farm show near Ottawa.  So sweet to see him bridging the gap between little boy and the men.

2025: A hopeful return to blogging

 I hate my iPhone.  There, I said it and I am very happy that it seems to be glitching, dying and otherwise signalling that it should be thrown into the nearest body of water.  Here I come, flip phone!  So, that's a near end to Instagram as well and a return to blogging in order to more privately and thoroughly log this family's life.  I still haven't managed to upload my photos to the computer, so blogging will be text for now.  And so we begin:

Things to remember:

1.  Joe to Matthew:   We can do this the hard way or the easy way!

Matthew:  What's the easy way?

2.  Matthew after he found out that Joe is moving out next year and going to the college:

"You're moving out next year?"

Joe:  "Yup."

Matthew:  "I hope you come back nicer."

3.  Simon the day after an elderly gentleman came to fix our dishwasher:  "What did the repairman look like?  Was he sunshine?"

Mom:  "Sunshine?"

Simon, pointing to his skin:  "Sunshine!"  

Simon was asking if the repairman was white!

I notice that we often have a nickname for a child that I think will last forever, but a year later I suddenly realise that we haven't used that nickname in a while.  Interestingly it's usually the older kids that remind me of this as they come back home from college and use an "old" nickname.  I don't want to forget these nicknames; they are precious to me.  Matty-Boy has lasted with Matthew but Simon has gone through a few.  Simey has staying power but Simymo was my favourite and I haven't heard it used in a while.  Joe has tried to christen Simon Ish and uses it quite frequently, much to Simon's chagrin.  "Me not Ish!" he protests loudly.

This one is sort of gross but Simon names his bowel movements according to their size:  "This poo is big.  It's a mommy poo.  It's name is Waina (Elena)."

Simon also has an adorable way of using the t sound for s's and a few other consonants.  Thus, sorry becomes torry and sunshine is tunshine.  He also can't say the sound blend sn so snowing is knowing and I really don't mind know as much as I do snow.  Thanks, little man.

Things I don't want to forget

 Every night when I lie down for bed I begin to think of all the things that happened that day that I don't want to forget.  In the moment, forgetting them seems like an impossibility.  But, as the passage of time and the failing of my memory, prove, forgetting them is far more possible than it is the opposite.  And so I promise myself that I will write them down on the blog and then another day passes and I have failed to commit to print what remains so momentarily within my consciousness.  So, here is a short list of things I do not want to forget:

1.  Simon bites his nails.  I realize that this is a habit that one should dissuade but it is incredibly cute when it is done by a three-year-old.  He is genuinely biting his nails but he looks like he's been instructed by an acting coach to pretend he's scared by biting his nails.  I will have to make sure to get a photo of this.

2.  Sarah's bouquets:  Sarah loves to pick both wildflower bouquets and bundles from my garden.  She has an eye for beauty, proportion and form and I find lovely bouquets distributed throughout the house.  She also tells me that flowers never meant much to her but because of my flower garden, she doesn't think she could live without flowers.  Mission accomplished.

3.  Ben teaching Matthew to ride a bike.  Ben's great passion is long-distance biking and he grew understandably frustrated that we had yet to teach Matthew to bike especially as Matthew's 6th birthday is tomorrow.  So, this week Ben tuned up the remaining John Deere bike as Matthew and Simon watched avidly from the sidelines.  Then Ben, with the patience and gentleness of Ben, taught Matthew to bike night after night until we were finally summoned outside to watch as Matthew rode down the street with Ben yelling, "Look forward!  Look forward!"  I got home from Pembroke last night at around 9pm and Matthew and Ben were still outside working on bikes and practising with short trips down the driveway.

4.  Along the same lines, Ben rode in his first 97 km bike tour last Sunday.  Mathew has grown so used to watching Ben watch the Tour de France on the internet that Matthew asked Ben if he would be able to watch Ben on the computer and if there would be cameras along the route.

5.  Joe cutting Ben's hair.  This is just one of those memories that stirs my heart because cutting hair was always my task and it is both relieving and heartwarming to have someone else shoulder part of the burden.  It's also simply beautiful to watch brothers side by side joking with one another while performing a task.  Also, these two were little boys for so long and now they are undeniably young men, and particularly fine ones at that.

6.  Mariana's body movements.  How to describe these?  They are unexpected and make me laugh and reveal a drama within this little girl that I was unaware of.  She moves like my maternal grandmother and seems to have the same penchant for drama that comes down from the Thomas side.  I often feel like I'm watching a swan mature.

7.  Simon is in the stage where he doesn't use the pronoun I.  Instead he says me love dat instead of I love that.  My particular favourite is when he says, "Me want something to eat."  And then he asks for more, "Me want something other to eat."