Shauna's Birthday Party

Hello again! Here are some photos from our friend Shauna's birthday brunch. She celebrated her birthday on the 8th of February.

The second photo is with Maya, Shauna & Tyler. All 3 celebrated birthday's within a day of each other (7th, 8th & 9th).

Here is the host, Crista, with little Tyler.

Look at the sexy ladies all dressed in black tops & jeans! (photo below)

Maya's Birthday Week

Hello Everyone. I'm a little late with this, Maya's bday was only on the 9th of Feb. I've posted some photos from Maya's 3rd birthday. She had a wonderful birthday party or should I say parties (we celebrated her bday with 5 parties this year). As you can imagine she was thrilled with all the attention and the gifts, of course. More photos to come on my next posting. :)

better late than never

ok, so i'm really late on this posting...

what can i tell you? here are some highlights of the last month.

since i last posted to the blog, i ran my first peer review committee for research in Health Systems Improvement and then started a new job.

the kids started playing soccer on weekends. that was kind of a challenge, so i invited Amanda to get some help... so she came along with us on the second weekend. after which we promptly quit.

Amanda has (sort of) started back to the gym. i think she's going once a week. it is a struggle for her to find the time. i mean, i teach yoga almost every morning at 6 am and then i teach another two nights a week. that leaves amanda with 3 evenings and the weekends to try and schedule her massage, chiropractics and anything else she needs to do outside the house... it may sound do-able, but trust me, it's tough. we are trying to do a yoga class on the weekends together, whenever we can schedule a sitter... but that isn't too regular an occurrance either.

Maya has started Daycare. she loves it! although, she spends most of the time quietly observing everything there. but once she's at home, she loves talking about her school. i honestly can't wait to start her in more extra curricular activities. i think tap dancing would be a good start. Her Uncle Steve took her to see Happy Feet and ever since she's been doing her soft shoe routine in front of the mirror. talk about cute. she also got a toy electric guitar for an early b-day present. does she ever wail on that guitar!!! she sings REALLY loud and dances as she's strumming along... she can really put on a show. it's actually really funny when she gets into it.

And Ethan has found a new obsession (finally slowing down on the whole cars thing)... he's now into Star Wars. you don't know how nice it is to have 6 movies cycling through over and over again rather then the same one all the time... he's started to bring home homework and we've been able to have fun with it... well sort of. he's pretty good, but he can be stubborn too, when he doesn't want to do it. i can't imagine where he gets that from ;-) he's still mostly interested in fine motor skill development. he loves practicing his writing and drawing. he even plays school with mommy in order to get better at listening and following instructions...

dharma's pretty cool. he's already parroting some sounds. he likes to try to repeat "hello" and "hi". (it's actually eary to hear him sometimes... he really sounds like our old tonkaneese cat when he gets going). his neck and back muscles are pretty strong and he holds his weight pretty well. we just got him an exersaucer, he's pretty good with that too.

our nights continue to be a bit of a challenge. dharma is feeding about 2 to 3 times a night. ethan's still climbing in with us, too, normally around 3 or 4 am. and since i teach yoga at 6am most mornings, which means i get up at around 5 am. you can imagine that our nights are pretty short. luckily for Amanda, she can stay in bed until 8.30 or 9 am, most mornings... she wants me to say some mornings...

anyhoo, i gotta go... amanda needs some help putting the kids down for bed.

until next time, here are some pictures! most of which are from christmas. but with Maya's birthday tomorrow, i'm sure i'll have some new pictures to share with you soon...i will try to give you all some more updates this weekend. there's always tonnes to tell, as i'm sure you can also imagine... i'm just struggling to find the time... i'm sure you understand. :-)

peace and love,

todd

Xmas Post

Ok, so I'm a little - a lot - late posting to the blog... I wonder if anyone is even checking this I've taken so long to post... oh well.

Here's an update.

So our household has changed a mite. Maya is acting out more... dancing, yelling, bossing. She's also taking to painting her hands and face with marker.

See:

She sort of gravitates towards being the center of attention in a loud and boisterous manner. She is endearing most of the time, especially when your energy can match hers. At other times, well, it can get difficult.

You know, I never imagined that the alpha of the children would be the middle girl in a family, but that seems to be the way it's shapping up...

Ethan, on the other hand, hasn't changed too much, at home at least. The teacher says he is acting out a little more in class and that he has a hard time focusing on what is going on in class... she has mentioned that she noticed some changes around the time that Dharma was born. I find it interesting. I mean, he has changed but he hasn't. The games he is gravitating towards are a little more physical and violent (to some degree...). He's all about Star Wars and lightsabers... every touch of the "saber" -rolled up newspaper or wrapping paper tubing - means you have to die. Yeah, it's violent. But he's also me 30 years ago... Man, did I just say 30 years ago!?... to some degree there has to be a "boys will be boys" aspect to this.

So, did this change just happen to coincide with the birth of the youngest or was the birth the catlyst... or was it the influence of peers... (now that he has peers...)

It doesn't matter, in my eyes. Bottom line, he has to develop. He has to explore death and dying in multiple different play and imagination settings. It's healthy. I feel that pushing this type of play back will lead to either repression or his hidding the play - which is way worse.

To some degree, Ethan is being bossed around a little by everyone, except for Dharma. But, at the same time, we all love him to bits and we show him that love at every opportunity...

With Amanda, although she isn't pulling her hair out, she is struggling to deal with the constant flow of demands from the children. She has also missed the adult relationships that explored different parts of her personality, especially the relationships she had with clients... always being the same "Amanda the Mom" is a hard way to pass day after day...

Dharma, well, he's good. Life is good for him. Goods eats, warm sleeps... what else could you want... oh yeah, a full service washroom.

Here's a few of the latest of Dharma:

I've got a little news too...

As most of you know I've been teaching a lot of yoga lately. Things have really taken off, too. I'm teaching 6 classes a week. 3 mornings and 3 nights... and as of now, no weekends, for a while. Soon, I'll be picking up a couple of lunch hours, which is pretty exciting too.

I absolutely love it!!! It's so much fun and it invigorates me for my day.

I also just received word yesterday, that I got a promotion at work... so now I'm a team lead - also fun stuff...

Anyway, that's all from our end for now... please email us, let us know you are reading this stuff... and fill us in our your lives.

With love, have a great holiday season.

OM Shanti!!

Todd

Pictures from Dharma's first week at home

So today I'll be posting those pictures I've been promising (b.t.w. this site is quite a challenge to post pictures on, but I'll get it, eventually)... there are lots of pix and stories of firsts from the first week Dharma spent with us at home. We have alot of pictures, so I'll see if the pictures help to tell the majority of the stories.
There are some pictures that Amanda has told me are redundant... but you know what, those pictures are here, because I couldn't decide which to keep and which to leave out.

I figured why be choosy?

The first set of pics are of us catching Dharma sucking his thumb for the first time and Maya holding Dharma for the first time.

In the next set below, the first of the"redundant" pictures... and then there's the kids loving Dharma and loving having their picture taken...

another "redundant" pic, but a better view of Dharma. These kids are some cute! :-)
Below we also catch the kids in one of their favorite play areas - Our Bed!

And the next 2 pictures are a whole different kind of first. The 2 pictures below are the first 2 pictures that Ethan took with Mommy's camera! I have to tell you that I was super impressed!












Also new this week, Ethan' been using one of my yoga mats as a hiding place, it was too cute to pass up. And I'm also including some cute pics of Shawna and Karine, from their visit. Also some pics that were too cute to leave out, and Dharma doesn't look bad either.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.
I gotta get back to the kids and stuff...
Next week I hope to answer some of the email questions we received... the one question that was asked and that's been on my mind the most is how the kids (and even the parents) have changed or adjusted to having a third child in the house -- I find this to be a very interesting question indeed.
Please email us if you are enjoying the site and the pictures. Thanks :-)