Catch-Up Part 2

Here are some more. Blogger was fighting me -- maybe it didn't want so many pictures in one post? Or my pictures were just too good? Or my daughter is simply too cute? Yeah, that's probably it.At a Christmas photoshoot -- Aria was clowning around, and especially loved hiding behind her sippy cup. What an expressive face!
This is her first recorded 'put on' smile. It didn't take long for it to change to a real smile as her Mom and I lost it.
With these, I set up the lights in front of a Christmas tree. But with the way I shot these, you can hardly tell that that's what it is. And now that I'm posting these at the end of March, that's a good thing! :-)

Finally, Some Catch-Up!

Some Recent Stuff

I know that I promised some catch-up, but that isn't what this is about. This is more current stuff. Aria is still learning new stuff every day, and developing her own way of expressing herself (always welcome when it's more words than whining). Some of her phrases are hilarious, some of them are remarkably insightful -- often they're both.

Aria's best friend is a little (lot!) more adventurous and daring than she is. She's really uncertain with the swing, holding on carefully and needing some reassurance. He pretty much launches himself around like Superman. Here he's giving Deb a double high-five -- look Mom no hands!

As Aria would say...March Break is Awesome

It's been so good to have a break that doesn't have the school play looming once I get back to school! Christmas had this big "Jan 2 we start back with rehearsals" feeling the whole holiday. This time I could really just chill out - it's been wonderful!
What have we done?

I have seen The Incredibles and Wall-e at least 10 times each (not my choice),

Dealt with a sick baby for the whole first week (whining, watching movies, sleeping in our bed - which means hair in my face, and kicking Brad in the head or kidneys - her choice - eating very little and general unhappiness all around).

Went on a trip to Calgary & Red Deer (Aria was AWESOME on the plane - a big relief for me flying on my own with her).

Aria loves babies, and Silas

She's great at climbing up things, but not a huge fan of sliding down things at playgrounds

We found out someone is having a baby and are SUPER excited for them (no not me).

I learned what aperture is. And took some cool pictures. Now I just need to learn the new program we download them onto.

I love Aria's giggle, and now that she's better, we hear it more which is fun.

Watched Alice in Wonderland and have been challenged to rediscover my "muchness".

Learned about reconciliation, and practiced it. Not easy for me, but SO rewarding.

Went on a date with my husband. Can't remember the last time we did that. That is a bad thing.

Love my family. Love my friends. Love my husband and my daughter. Love God.

GOOD HOLIDAY
The end.

DONE!!!

And boy does it feel good. I'm just tired. And don't want to do report cards. That are due this week. SIGH!
Oh well, it'll all get done, because it has to.

And the show was amazing, despite a 12 hour flu devastating our cast. I've never had 3 kids missing from a scene before, and others wandering hallways carrying buckets. I felt so bad for everyone, but there wasn't much I could do about it!

Wow, what a show!

I cried at curtain call tonight - normally I can get caught up during a show, but tonight, the overall everything of the show just made me so proud that I cried! It was an amazing opening night. Not everything was perfect, but it was all so good.
Some highlights - one character not remembering his lines, and just sitting, rocking in his rocking chair not doing a thing...
When the witch kills Aslan (*oops, spoiler alert), and she laughed her evil witch laugh the entire audience took in a collective breath - amazing.
Mr. Tumnus' button came off in the final scene.
And my pride with how well everyone did when they were taking bows, and my feeling of utter relief knowing that my job was now basically over...YAY!

A great show! Come if you're in the area!

Aria during family portraits

We had a friend do family portraits for us a few months ago, and during a break I took my camera out. I particularly like this one.

We'll be doing picture catch-up soon

We've got a huge backlog of pics to post to this blog (autumn, Christmas, etc.). We're working on getting a faster computer and more hard-drive space to process all of these. In the meantime, here's some from today.

LWW

I've been spending a LOT of time recently preparing for our school's production of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I just wanted to invite you out if you're in the area - Feb 24-27 at 7:30 pm with a children's matinee Feb 27 at 2:00. Let me know you're coming, and I'll set aside some tickets for you.

Please come see it - it should be AMAZING (of course, I'm slightly biased), and it's been a huge time investment for me, and I'd hate to have small audience numbers!

Mathness

It was a long week (the play's coming up next week, so I'm in a state of perpetual "GO". I was talking to Brad after a particular incident - here's the conversation - somewhat paraphrased to protect the innocent (that's me of course).

Deb: Brad, sorry for over reacting earlier today - it was 15% manipulation, and 80% exhaustion and stress.

Brad: And what the other 5%?

*pause*

Brad: inability to do math-ness?




We both cracked up.
I'm glad I'm married to a guy who can make me laugh - even during my most stressful weeks!

Healthy Church Workshop

Our church just went through a great Healthy Church Workshop today. It was invigorating, clarifying and exhausting. (See pic below as evidence -- there's two girls ready for a nap!)


Now that I've experienced it, I highly recommend these sessions to any church. Especially before they get as stuck and chaotic as ours has been. If nothing else, it's given us some great words to describe how dysfunctional we are... :-)

I'm impressed with our church's level of commitment to this process. It's not easy to be asked to dream again, to have patience and to face a myriad of the practicalities -- all at the same time! But we know that it's important, we trust that it's worth it, and we're already feeling the benefits. It's exciting!

The Beginning of a Great Year

While at work, I got a call from Deb because Aria was asking for me. I could hear Aria in the background interjecting things as Deb and I talked. ("Daddy? Hi Daddy!") We had a rather extended conversation, whereupon Deb announced that they were going to have lunch ("Yeah!") and then Aria was going to have a nap ("No!"). When we were about to hang up, Deb said "Say bye-bye, Daddy." Aria tried, but stammered. It came out something like "Ba da bye da". Which prompted me to say "Bye-bye belly button." She wound up for a second go: "Bye-bye--" and then she interrupted herself laughing; it had suddenly dawned on her that what I said was silly. I think today marks the first day she's ever got a purely verbal joke. If this is an indication of where this year is going, it's going to be amazing!

Some big steps...

Well - it's a busy BUSY time of year, but in the midst of it, some pretty special stuff is happening with Aria. Monday we were at my Oma's house, and she said her first prayer "Tant chew, Ah-men" - Thank you, Amen for those of you who don't speak "Aria".

She has started, just this week, to string two thoughts together - putting a name and an action together "Mommy, sit down" or "Ev'eybody, where go?" On Tuesday or Wednesday she said "Luf chew, mommy" (I love you, Mommy) all on her own. She's been saying it for quite a while with prompting, but this was the first time it was volunteered by her - it just melted my heart!

She calls Brad's mom "Oma" right now, because all of her friends in BC have Oma's, and she's smart enough to make the connection that her "Grandma" is the same as their "Oma", so now that's her name. She's also been calling Brad's dad "Opa" as we visited her Opa & Nana first - it's funny listening to this little dutch baby calling Grandpa & Grandma Opa & Oma, and saying Ah-men, even when told to say "ay-men". That dutch blood runs deep!!

Love to you all, MERRY CHRISTMAS! Pictures coming...I promise.
Deb

Awia, Where-Go?

At our church's Christmas banquet tonight, Aria was out of my sight for a solid 20mins. Deb and I were spelling each other off throughout the evening, and because she was deep in conversation with some friends, I suddenly realised that neither of us had really been watching her for a while. I asked Deb where she'd seen her last, and she told me that she was playing the piano. That's where I found her.

She was playing the keyboard and singing all by herself, for at least 15 minutes. This despite the fact that the keyboard wasn't even switched on! She's quite the inventive musician -- I can't wait to hear like what all that music in her head actually sounds like!

When I got close, she gave me a big grin. She posed for the camera, hopped down off the bench to have me show her the pictures, and then hopped back up to play/pose some more. We're still kinda big fans of hers.

Precious Moment

Tonight we all went to the beach. It was a clear, chilly, wintry evening (which means it was probably about 3 degrees or so, but we're not rubbing that in to anyone). Aria was enjoying looking at the lights on the drive there (we didn't go a very direct route just for her sake). She used to call them "nitch" or "neech", but has graduated to calling them "nightsh". She loves them! She was excited to be seeing them up close as we got out of the car. "Nightsh? Nightsh? Nightsh!" We started off on the sidewalk, looking for a restaurant for supper -- the beach has a large selection of great ones -- when a sudden gust picked up. We all kind of gasped as it cut through our hoodies and fleeces, and even the blanket I was carrying Aria in.

When it hit its peak, pelting us with dust, dirt and very small rocks, she closed her eyes, ducked her head, and said "Bye-bye nightsh," and promptly buried her face into my shoulder, cuddling in tight. Priceless!