RIP Bunny

We had some interesting adventures in traveling as we flew through Cairo to Barcelona and then spent an overnight in Barcelona and then flew to Malaga {it's in the south of Spain} and then took a bus to Nerja where our conference was. Our first time flying as a family of 5. Overall we did okay. But there was a casualty. Somewhere between Cairo and Barcelona {either in the plane or at the Barcelona airport} Jude lost his bunny.
The bunny we gave him when he was 9 months old.

It's truly the end of an era.
Once we realized what happened we felt bad but Jude didn't really seem to fathom what had happened. It's a bit frustrating because we've been working with him to help him remember what he does with things and stop being so haphazard with his toys. There were a few sad moments later on in the day when he said, "I miss bunny." or "I want bunny." but nothing major. We bought him a new snuggle toy and life went on in Spain. He was often up and out of his bed a bit more than usual, but because of the late nights in Spain it wasn't so big a deal as he was pretty tired out by the end of the day.

But tonight's bedtime was rough. It was like a mourning for bunny had begun in earnest. Jude was in and out of bed and being disobedient and defiant and we tried everything with him. Finally he started sniffing and crying saying that he missed bunny and he wanted bunny and the sobs began. Poor guy.

I let him have one of the loveys that was given to Blaise and obviously he's not bunny {said in between sobs; but he doesn't have ears and he's not green. so he can't make me happy.}, but...maybe he'll form a new attachment.
The above picture is a classic for Jude; bunny in arms, fingers in the mouth. But I've noticed lately that he hasn't really sucked on his fingers since losing bunny.

Bunny was always around and always loved on. We checked each time we went to the Barcelona airport and with multiple desks/personnel. No bunny. RIP Bunny. You will be missed.

our christmas favourites: toys and decorations

we've been keeping ourselves busy around here. we had some fantastic visitors for the past 4 days and had a blast eating out and enjoying some good conversation together. 

but it is december first {already!} and i think most of our decorations are up so i thought i'd share with you what we're doing this year in terms of christmas decoration.

we bought all the christmas decorations/tree/ornaments last year while here in africa, so there hasn't been a need to buy any more this year. i've kept things pretty simple and used what i already had to christmasify things here.

we're doing our advent envelopes again {stay tuned for my post on our favourite traditions} so i hung them up this year with red yarn and clothes pins. i also used red yarn to hang some christmas cards that we've received. our stockings are hung and our tree is up. i let the boys decorate however they wanted this year although after repeatedly dropping some of the glass ornaments, i had to direct jude's ornament-hanging to the plastic/non-breakable ones. 

we purchased some ornament sets that we'll likely sell before we leave here {that are lovely, but generic}, but there are some beautiful and unique handmade ornaments that i'll hang onto for our future christmas trees.

i've set up our wood-carved nativity set on top of the bookshelf in the living room and my new soap stone nativity on the buffet in the dining room. 

tomorrow's advent activity is to pick out a nativity set from the christmas market we'll be going to - i have my eye on a sweet banana fiber one but we'll see what's there. 

the boys loved when i pulled out their little people nativity set a couple weeks ago and have played with it pretty much every day since. i've also let them play with the santa hat we have here as well. noah insisted on wearing it for the first few days. 

and they were so excited when i pulled out all the christmas books they have forgotten about. 

so we've kept things simple and even though the house is in a perpetual state of mess, at least it's a christmasey mess. right?

learning 2 things

1. how to hold things.

2. a love for sophie the giraffe.

kibosh

a few days ago i decided enough was enough.
for whatever reason, i feel a lot of guilt when my kids watch too much tv. i think mostly it's because i know i put it on for them a lot of the time because i'm lazy or selfishly want to do my own thing instead of interacting with them.
so i put a kibosh on tv during the weekdays. except for a movie night a week there is no tv allowed. on the weekends they'll be allowed to watch saturday morning cartoons and that's probably going to be it.
i expected so much resistance from them, but for the most part...nothing.
they've asked a few times and when i've said no, we've thought of another alternative and they've been happy enough with that.
because today was rainy for most of the day, they did get to watch a veggietales movie while i biked on the stationary bike. but because of this, i've been engaging so much more with them and we've been so much more creative and things like this have happened:

lots and lots of reading. we've always been big readers, but lots of reading happens around here.

we play with cars. a lot.

we do a lot of crafts. this is the boys "car garage" that they built this morning and played with for so long this afternoon.

our very own cooking show, here in uganda! {here you can see jude stirring the popcorn and noah is cutting his stove with a plastic knife while thomas the tank engine is being fried up in a wok.}

music + crafts = dance party.

i read a quote a couple days ago that said, "the grass is always greener where you water it." and so that's exactly what i'm doing. here and now. i'm watering this grass that i've been given. and it's so good.

folding skills

the last day of march! good riddance, i say.
this year march has come in like a lion and gone out like one too.
last year it was in like a lamb and out like a lamb and that's the ways i likes 'em.

anyway, back to the GARAGE SALE...

blech. it's affecting my sleep. i can't get to sleep because my mind is going 90 miles an hour and then the boys wake up and i'm all - wait - no - please, just a few more minutes (oh heck, might as well make that 30 minutes or even an hour!). and then i'm groggy. and i want to sleep all day.
and then it's night and i think about all the things i need to get done and then i can't sleep. *complain, complain, complain*
it's a vicious circle, my friends.

but today my amazing friend Suzanne came over and watched the boys while i organized the garage and then we folded, categorized, priced and boxed all the children's clothing so that it's all ready to go.
she is amazing and i seriously could NOT have done it without her.

thank God for friends!

tomorrow my sister comes over for the day and is spending the night as well.
(heck YES i'm pumped!)

here is suz's amazing folding skills:

thank you, sweet friend!
(plus jude learned how to say suz's son's name: jacob. and it was the first word out of his mouth after his nap. really, ridiculously cute.)

puzzle

noah got a few really cool puzzles for christmas.

this one is a "map" of the world and then it has pictures of animals around the areas that they live in (ie. the brown bear in canada and the clown fish near the galapagos islands, etc.) but it also has slots to put in more animals in their appropriate regions.

i like the illustrations and colours.

noah thought it looked like an obstacle course for a car to drive through.

boys.

Purging Post One

Today was the day that I started what will forever be known as:

The Great Purge of 2010

That's right, folks. I'm purging. And it feels oh-so-good!

How is it that in a mere two and a half years we have accumulated so much STUFF related to kids and babies? It's overwhelming and almost sickening. Please don't get me wrong, I am thankful for all that God's provided through family and friends. But it's to the point where the level of toys in our house is excessive. It's taking over every room (yes, even the bathrooms!) like some sort of mutating toy monster. And the clothes (curse you tiny baby socks!)! Every single male in this household has come into the habit of taking off their socks and leaving them lying about. Not to mention the bibs, pajamas and dirty pants that are sitting on the stairs awaiting the journey upstairs to the laundry basket.

So what better place to start than with the toys that have taken over my house? (I can't think of any.)

So during Noah's nap today I grabbed a garbage bag and got rid of all the toys that fit the following criteria:

1. stuffed animals that don't get played with or are just too big for my liking

2. toys I don't like (generally loud, big, plastic toys)

3. cheap, crappy toys

4. all the McDonald's toys (or similar toys) we've accumulated

5. toys that are missing pieces or pieces of toys that don't belong to anything

6. toys that don't get played with (even if I like them)

I threw out a bunch of toys but some of them are sitting in the garage as I'll likely sort through them and offer them to other families who may like them or sell them in a garage sale or on Kijiji.

I'm going to keep at it and considerably pare down clothing and toys that belong to the boys. It's all just too much. And our house is bursting at the seams!

Less is definitely more.
More room. More appreciation for what we own. More enjoyment in the simple things. More quality. (Less quantity.)

Stay tuned for continued purging posts...