Homeward Bound

Had a great weekend in Ottawa visiting my parents last weekend. It was amazing to see the exhibit at Carleton University and get to hear my mum speak about the collection. After almost 40 years, it's very special to see the result of their efforts being recognized. Trying to collect images and recordings that the curator pulled together so that I can archive it for our family.

And also trying to convince bill and babs to write a book about their time in Africa!
Great to have Andy and the kids in the house I grew up in. We spent a few hours on Monday just going through old photo albums and showing Conor pics of me as a kid...think he was a little thrown off by the whole thing. The weather was terrible so we didn't have a chance to do all the things I had imagined doing with the little man...skating on the canal and then hot chocolate and beaver tails, museum of civilization...
Thanks for a great weekend Mum and Dad!

New Fireplace Mantle

Slowly but surely we're putting our stamp on this house. The fireplace in our family room drove me crazy--I felt like it was made for a ski lodge--so I designed a very simple mantle to work with the existing gas fireplace and tile surround. We have a great carpenter who helps us with smaller projects around the house and here's the before and after. In the before, they'd already started pulling the mantle off. Also note that I moved the outlets from the front of the wall to the side (since we'll never put a tv up there) and painted the wall the same color as the rest of the room (accent wall had been a good idea in theory.)

Will Work for Food

Just out of reach thereby forcing a little hard work...

Note the mohawk that just won't go away.

M is finally getting a tooth on top so she'll have four on the bottom and one on top.

Picture In My Mind

There are little moments throughout my day that I just want to take a picture of and hold on to forever...
...walking in from work and seeing conor tear down the hall toward me with a huge smile
...sadie snoring on the couch
...conor and andy lying in bed reading books together at night
...madeleine crawling toward an outlet, stopping and then looking up with a mischievous little grin on her face
...conor yelling downstairs in the sweetest, most curious little voice: hey, guys, what are you doing? don't forget i'm up here.

They're just these fleeting moments, but each one is so special and I get these weird overwhelming feelings sometimes that my kids are going to grow up and I'm going to forget about all the wonderful things I get to see every day.

The other day I ran out to the car to grab some groceries, leaving conor and madeleine in the house together. When I came back, conor was rocking madeleine in her carseat singing "You Are My Sunshine" -- about the sweetest thing ever.

Date Day

Yesterday was President's Day so we did a flip and Jennie took Conor and Olivia for a special day that included the movies. Jennie sent me this pic:

Well of course I zero in on the humongous bag of popcorn in C's hands. He's always wanted to try popcorn and we've had a rule "not until you're five." So, the little guy gets home and I ask him how the movies were. Answer: "I had popcorn." (Cheeky smile spreads across his face.)

We also were lucky enough to have a mini burst of spring at the end of last week. Nothing like Carrie's pics of her kids at the beach in January but good enough for a trip to the park without eighty layers. Andy was traveling so I dragged two kids and a dog to the park twice on Friday just because I was so thrilled to get out of the house. Madeleine's first time on a swing...which I forgot, swung her too hard and she burst into tears. Conor also insisted on being in the baby swing...

What's My Name?

During story time tonight.
Me: Conor, this is a T. Who's name starts with a T?
Conor: I don't know.
Me: Think about it. What does Daddy call me?
Conor: Ummmmm...Get off your iPhone??
Bad sign, but so not fair. Conor says that to Andy all the time, not me!

Happy Feeling

It's been a great week. Conor went a full day without a freak out yesterday--huge!; work hasn't been insane (knock on wood now!); Andy has been home all week (although leaves tomorrow :( ) and the weather has warmed up (did they really say 55 for tomorrow?!). Two other things happened that have made it a happy week.
First, I volunteered at Conor's school Valentine's Day party. A quick back story on that. I told the room parents that I would bring a craft for the kids to do. So, in typical Tessa fashion, it was Sunday afternoon and I was running from Michael's, to Target, to Walgreen's looking for something with hearts on it that these kids could decorate Vday card bags. But, I swear, these suburban parents are insane...nary a heart to be found. Not even a red pen. Now, you would have thought I'd learned my lesson last Halloween when Andy warmed me in August: "Remember, this is different than the city...you can't wait until the week before Halloween and then expect to get a great costume at half price. Don't have Conor wearing a weird pseudo alien/monster fluorescent green number two sizes too big again this year." Nope, didn't heed his advice and the day before Halloween I was running from store to store trying to save my child from sure shame at the school concert. And hey, it worked out...a perfectly-sized dinosaur costume at half price! Yippee! So, of course I thought I'd wait until the day before to get all the Valentine's decor for my craft project and therefore get it all at half price (was actually hoping for 75% off!) Didn't work out this time. I've learned my lesson. Next time, I'll try two weeks out and hope for 30% off. :) Anyway, managed to find some random heart cookie cutters, some red glitter (not necessarily a smart choice for three year olds I later learned) and had Jennie cut hearts off wire garland for a good half hour.
Had a great time with the kids and Conor loved having me there. It was interesting to see how different they all were in their approach to the project. Some kids, would wait for me to help them draw a perfect heart, then they'd lay the glue around the edges and perfectly line up each heart. Conor was the opposite. He just start scribbling, dumping glitter, sticking random hearts. Hilarious.


The second thing that made me really happy this week was that Madeleine clearly said "Mama." Tonight when I was feeding her before bed, she looked up at me, touched my chin and said it! Complete love.

One last thing tonight. A special birthday wish to Nonna who celebrated yesterday!