There's a first Time for Everything

We've had some interesting firsts recently: fry-pan oil fire, Vicks smeared through Aiden's hair...

But there have been some good ones in the last few days too - ones that we'd like there to be a second and third and fourth time...

 

Following our Magi theme this Christmas, we dressed up and took cookies and chocolates to our neighbours along with a Christmas Eve service invitation... singing We Three Kings and giving a gift each.  Such fun!

We hosted a campfire cook out in our livingroom Christmas party... hotdogs and s'mores and loud silly fun games. When can we do it again?

Little boys and little cups = loads of giggles and serious play

Block stacking

Cut and serve chocolate with ski gloves on

Cookie from forehead to mouth (or off the floor with no hands)

Jumbled puzzle race

Get a floating pompom stuck on your nose

 

 

 

 

 

 

And an unfortunate first: 2 sick kids for Christmas Eve....

marshmallow bucket toss

Winter Wanderings

Discovering Canada

Yet again

is a strange mix of emotions

Working on 

Grasping the excitement and enjoyment

and

Pouring out the longing aches and uncomfortableness

Community Fun

Along with friends:

ATV hay rides and hot chocolate

An outdoor concert

In freezing cold weather 

(at least for us with Asian-thinned blood)

Childhood memories stirred

With Maritime music

Kids included in the fun

A free skate at the rink

Where the girls have to re-learn to skate

while kids 1/2 their size 

and twice their size

whiz and glide around them.

 A Christmas concert

for our school goer

This school has learned well:

only 4 class goups

sing this evening

short and sweet

and it's really all about

"My parents showed up and I saw them seeing me"

 A proper hard freeze

for discovering puddle ice

the joy of sliding

the delight in crunching

splintering

smashing

grinding

and

The pain of cold fingers and toes

 Discovering after-storm wilderness beauty

the relief of sun and blue skies

stretching legs outdoors again

Learning not to be too picky

with where you step

what you push past

The thrill 

of a bald eagle soaring close

deer hoof prints on the trail

 The patience of Imma

waiting while we explore some more

The long-suffering of tired Aiden

A long walk for little legs!

 An Undesired discovery

of Canadian flu

Jasmin laid low

3 days off school

wrapped in a blanket

celebrating Dad's birthday

from the couch

The misery of

good food undesired

always cold

sleepy and sick

The Beginnings of Christmas

 Christmas tree decorating - not at our house yet - and no, the ponies are not the decorations; they just went to see them up close and personal :o)

 It's a Wise Men Christmas for us this year.  Our three-paned front window just perfect for the Three!

 Mom outlined them and Grace and Jasmin painted them.

 And a season-long project of glittery paper chains....

asked for, cause for excitement, down-time filler, out of the way decoration.  Perhaps this time we'll manage to keep them for next year... gets tedious redoing them every year!

Better Late Than Never

Back in October, while we were helping prepare the family home for renting, Grace composed a song.  Since it was about Fall, Mom suggested that she film Fall trees while singing in and then we could post it here.  It took more than a few attempts to get it recorded smoothly, so Mom had to do some editing... and it sat waiting for said editing for over a month. 
Now, after winter has long shaken the Fall colors off the trees, and bright cheerful sunny days are much farther and fewer between cold, grey, wet days... enjoy Grace's happy little song of Fall!

In Between Naps

 

Aiden is in the in between stage of napping. He sort of needs one and sort of doesn't. So the default day now holds no nap for him, but if the day is full, or we're in the car at the right time, he will fall asleep.  Wherever he happens to be.

This last weekend was particularly busy, so by Sunday he was pretty all-round tired. That morning, after a hard morning's play at church, he fell asleep in the stroller on the way home. A bit later, he woke enough to get out and lie on the floor by Jasmin (Mommy not in sight). But the next time he woke a bit, Mommy was in the room so he crawled over to her and promptly fell asleep at her feet nearly under her chair... too tired to even bother getting into her lap.

Firsts We've Done Before

We've done this before

and it is a new one for us

Early to bed, early to rise

Starting school new

Out the door

Up the road

New friends

Routines

Lessons

Rules

Jasmin slipped into grade 2

with hardly a ripple

We've done this before

And it's a new one for us

Hats, mitts, coats, and boots

Kitting out kids for unaccustomed winter

Pestered with eager questions

Impatient longing

Improbable plans

 

A swirl of wet messy first snow

A whirlwind of giddy three

Hats, mitts, boots, and coats

(after the first aborted foray in barefeet and short sleeves!)

Giddy laughter and loud experimenting

trying of everything they know about snow

Catch a flake

 make a snowball

 Roll a ball, throw a ball

 Taste a ball

Soggy mittens

Tingly nose, fingers, toes

 Kids rediscovering snow!

Lists Revisited

Before we came, we compiled a post of what we'd miss of Penang and what we were looking forward to in Canada.

Now we've been here over a month, this is what our lists look like:

What we miss of Penang:

1. Visits to the beach
2. Multilingual, multi-ethnic environment
3. Hot weather
4. Fruit
5. Consistent sunshine
6. Cheap yummy street food
7. Roti
8. Chicken rice
9. Biking as our transport
10. Uncomplicated dressing - it's always hot!
11. Tropical insect and bird calls
12. daily runs
13. Swimming
14. Train travel
15. Chinese school
16. Cheap airfares
17. Our friends
18. Chinese church
19. Needing tile floors to keep you cool
20. Home

What we're enjoying in Canada:

1. Baths
2. Sharing life with grandparents and other family
3. nature walks
4. Fall: colors, smells, crisp air with blue skies
5. Backyard bird feeders
6. Bunk beds
7. More time to do things
8. Free babysitting from family
9. Always clean air
10. Wide open wild spaces
11. "Real" school (Jasmin)
12. Participating in our home churches
13. Community activities
14. Quiet
15. Star gazing
16. Better quality assurance on purchases
17. Cheerios
18. Imma's cooking
19. Real milk and affordable dairy
20. Home

We weren't that far off in our lists...

Timidly Bold

...the perfect oxymoron for the only visitor to our bird feeders that stays long enough to get a decent photo!

 

 What else can be described as timidly bold?

Aiden on the "big kid's playground" joining in after school play

Random kids asking for underducks from "Aiden's mom"

Sidewalk poppy sellers

Hockey team fundraising door-to-door chocolate carriers

Tiny costumed candy seekers

Scared girl at parents'  bedroom door

Greeting new yet old friends with real questions

Inviting new friends home for lunch

Young ones looking longingly at Timbit box

Jasmin on her first day of local school? (on the 10th)

Ourselves approaching the Throne of Grace with a request?

October Experiences

Discovering Canadian Wildlife:

A huge toad found under a window...  there was great excitement about a new pet, but it escaped less than an hour later, and no one even noticed until the next day.

Watching and feeding ducks on the pond at the beach...

and bird and squirrel watching from the kitchen window

 Learning about Nova Scotia beaches in Fall:

 

When it was first said we were going to the beach Jasmin exclaimed, "Oh good! Where's my bathing suit?" Proof we haven't been in Canada long!  They still had good fun in the sand and spotting and feeding the ducks.

Rediscovering toys that came with us

 Helping Imma repaint the family home for rental

 Discovering Canadian shopping:

 

  BulkBarn has replaced morning market breakfasts as the fun place to go with Mom. Yogurt covered raisins are a good substitute for roti. And the amazement of the huge stores and parking lots... so we had to commandeer a shopping cart to get between stores.
... and lots of surprise with the different Canadian vegetables...

 Finding playgrounds everywhere:

 Posing on a dinosaur!  This playground is at the Rec centre where the girls are in ballet (Jasmin) and drawing (Grace).  Their classes overlap by 1/2 an hour, so there is lots of time to play on the playground.

October actually began with us saying goodbye to Abba. It was rather a confusing time for the kids with 15-20 relatives in and out of our home (we're next door to Abba and Imma) on no set schedule at all with lots of high emotion.  We had about 10 days with Abba before he went home to heaven, and he was alert for most of that time, for which we are wonderfully thankful.  The girls coped rather well (other than being thoroughly confused with who is who!) but Aiden is still recovering.

Now we are focusing on finding our new normal for our family, and getting settled in with violin lessons, schooling, and play dates, etc. 

In Memorial

On a fall morning of
Warm sun in
Blue skies over
Bright trees
Waving in the breeze

In a quiet room of
Steadfast love in
Long vigil
Sacred space
Holy place

Under watchful eyes and
Compassionate arms
Words of sacrifice
The love of years
Defying tears

The gallant man
Precious soul
Father, Abba, husband, shepherd
With last breath
Passed through death

Breath to breathe again
Legs strong to run
Fingers supple again
Voice to sing
Praises to the risen King

4 Days on the Other Side

The other side
of the move
of the world
of day and night
of weather...

Bags are unpacked
Jetlag almost conquered
Cold hands and feet
Educating kids how to dress for Fall
Admiration for our wonderful 3 coping
I'm-here-now-I-can-crash sickness finally on the mend
Semblance of routine emerging out of the chaos
Inventory of lost in transit
A need for shopping lists to finish set up
Oops discoveries: driver's license expired
First doctor trip proving health insurance holds

Erie unsettling unsureness
What did we just do?
Still feels like a visit
This seems too easy
Shouldn't we feel differently -
A monumental move from the other side of the world
should have more effect?

And then, a storm of tears over a tiny thing
Toddler retesting of every limit
Desire for screen time amplified
Attention spans at times maddeningly shortened
Sibling relations gone awry in a flash of nothing
Yep. Four days on the other side

Four day muse

Four days left here
And I'm finally feeling the last-days-scramble panic
To empty this house
While fielding 3 kids feeling cut loose and unsure
Pack concisely and sensibly
This we need yet
That will be picked up tomorrow
This we can pack
What about that thing?
How many bags?
How heavy are they?
All that mind whirling mess.
And tonight's goodbyes to a late looming friendship
Have opened the door
And leaving time emotions swirl and want to push their way in
I don't want to let them yet
Not ready
No time
And yet, if I don't listen to me,
how can I be the guide for my young ones
Uncomfortable
With surprising reactions
Of unnamed feelings
Within their own skins?

Transition Again

What we'll miss about Penang:

1. Impromptu suppers on the beach - year round
2. Multilingual, multi-ethnic environment
3. Mountain to hike right behind our place
4. Afternoons at Dalat school: library, friends, playground
5. Unchanging sunrise and sunset times year round
6. Cheap yummy street food
7. Roti
8. Chicken rice
9. Weekly wet market shopping
10. Cheap delicious fruit and vegetables year round
11. 1 ringgit (about 30 cents) ice creams
12. flowering trees in the park
13. free access to a swimming pool - with a slide!
14. Train travel
15. Biking everywhere
16. Chinese school
17. "Wet" bathrooms - splash all you like: drain in the floor
18. Cheap airfares
19. Tile floors
20. Home

What we're looking forward to in Canada:

1. Snow landscapes
2. Sharing life with grandparents and other family
3. Reconnecting with friends
4. glow in the dark golf
5. nature walks
6. Fall: colors, smells, crisp air with blue skies
7. Building snowmen
8. Free babysitting from family
9. Always clean air
10. Wide open wild spaces
11. Living in a house not an apartment
12. Participating in our home churches
13. Greater weather variations
14. Spring
15. Community activities
16. Quiet
17. Better quality assurance on purchases
18. Cheerios
19. Real milk and affordable dairy
20. Home

Hike additions

Mommy and Grace went back up the mountain all the way to the waterfall this time.  Grace had gone with Daddy up a different trail on a much awaited hike a few weeks ago. They lost the trail, ran out of water, got bee stings and spikey tree scratches hunting for the way down.  So she was rather nervous to be going again.  But we took the "easy" trail and found the waterfall.  Grace certainly recovered her joy of hiking and exploring - she readily agreed to follow the stream back down instead of the trail... and did it in bare feet!!

We met three young men camping/living by the waterfall. One of them offered mommy a small cup of coffee. She who doesn't drink coffee because of the jitters it gives her and doesn't like the taste... drank it and really enjoyed it!  Perhaps brewed-on-a-rock-in-the-middle-of-a-stream-waterfall coffee is a different drink all together :)

Monday Morning Visitor

Accompanied by lots of laughter, shrieking, chasing, and pleas to keep it as a pet!