Tag Archives: boys


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I may have gone too far.

In addition to everything else I’ve been working on lately, I had the idea for a new project, a little something for the boys.  In preparation for an eventual post about it, I needed a simple picture.  Both boys, side by side, looking sad.  Easy right?

Apparently not.

 photo 1Ok… Jakob, that’s not bad… I guess.  But Henri, what are you doing?  Open your eyes.photo 1(1)Geez… what?  No.

Jakob, you’re good, kinda.  Stay like that.  Henri, please.  Could you try to look a little less bored?photo 2(1)LESS bored.  I said LESS bored.  Jakob… you look like the eagle from the Muppets.photo 2(2)Um… okay?  Fine.  Henri, that’s the best I’m gonna get.  You just freeze like that.  Don’t move.  Ready and- uh Jakob?  What are you doing with your face?photo 3(1)That’s… not much better.  And Henri- I can see you starting to smile.  You’re not fooling anyone.photo 4Whaa?  Jakob- now you look… I dunno… nauseous or something.  And Henri, come ON!  Now you look both bored AND moderately amused.  SAD.  We’re going for ‘sad’… okay?  photo 5AH!  No!  Henri, you look like the poster kid from some horror movie.  And Jakob- that’s ‘m’ad.  We want ‘s’ad.  Wrong emotion.

*glances at clock and decides to exaggerate slightly*

Ok forget it.  We’ll try another time.  You guys took way too long, now there’s not gonna be any time for dessert. 

*starts to get up, then looks back when the wails start*

What are you two… hey… are those tears??

photo 4(1)

I’m sorry!  *click* I didn’t mean it! *click* You’ll still get to have dessert. *click* Look outside, how bright it is.  There’s plenty of time, silly boys… *click, click, click*

photo 5(1)The downside?  I’ll be hearing about this for years.  Jakob still reminds me about the time when he was about 2 and ‘you were gonna leave me in the park, and you started walking away because I wouldn’t get out of the swing, and you were gonna leave me there forever and I’d never see you again, and that really wasn’t… you really shouldn’t…’.  (The story tends to end when he starts choking back heavy, guilt-inducing sobs).

The upside?  I got my shot.


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more of the same

Not much new to report today.  Still coughing, still spending daytime hours sleeping because I’m not getting very much of it done at night.

Jakob asked me to share this photo of him and Snoopy…it was an old McDonald’s toy that had stickers for the eyes but we lost them, so today he told me he was going to draw on eyes.  I don’t know why he used red, but we used washable markers so now he can change Snoopy’s look whenever he wants.

Thank goodness I’ve got well-behaved kids, who are especially observant when someone isn’t well, and are really sweet and considerate.  They know I haven’t been feeling well and have been really good about playing quietly in the small amount of time between supper and bed.  Tonight they ignored the tv in favor of reading books.

I know these pics aren’t anything extraordinary, but there’s just something about cute kids in turtlenecks and jeans that gets me- it’s like they’re 2 little beatniks or something.

I got a bit more knitting done today.  Since the socks won’t actually be finished in February, at least I know that I should be finishing the socks tomorrow.  A day or two into March isn’t bad, and that’s my first pair of socks of the year, done.  If I keep up this KAL I should at least end up with 6 pairs of socks knit this year.


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cool shades, man

I kept Henri home from swimming this morning…even though he’s on the antibiotics, he’s still got a bit of a cough and more than not wanting to make anyone else sick, I don’t want him to catch anything else.  (Does that make me a bad person?  Maybe…but a good mom).

When Yannick and Jakob got back they picked us up and we went into town for brunch with my family.  My brother just moved in with a friend and some of us weren’t able to make it to his housewarming party, so we all went for brunch at a place near their condo and then got to go take a tour.

I managed to snap these pics of the boys during the car-ride home.  They were getting sleepy and silly, but were cute as always.

Henri, just chillin’.

Jakob, my little ham.


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self-portrait and sparkles

Was home with the kids today and luckily they were super-well behaved.  They were pretending to be superheroes today, and I caught this cute pic:

Later in the afternoon my sister came by and needed me to draw for her for a school assignment (she’s become an art teacher).  First I had to draw a self portrait:

I copied my current favorite photo, though looking back on it now I made the hair too poofy on the right, and my cheek isn’t big enough on the left (of the picture).  My left eye really isn’t that wonky in person, but I’d erased it too many times and wore out the paper a bit.

Then I had to draw anything I wanted.

I drew a fairy and colored it in with some glitter nail polish 🙂

Once she left and the kids were in bed I go to work binding off part of my project using a bind off I think I created.  But I messed up and realized once I’d done the whole thing that I had to rip it back.  I have no patience to do that now, so I’m going to bed instead.


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still good

Even though I had to go back into work today, I still managed to get my rows done, which means that although I’m not further ahead, I’m still 12 rows ahead of the game.

Our daycare wants the kids’ valentines in this week, to prepare the kids to hand them out next week.  I had lucked out last year and found 2 packs of Valentine’s Day pencils on sale the day after Valentine’s Day, and kept them for this year.  Instead of buying cards I made little papers on the computer, and punched holes at two of the corners.  Yes, I didn’t have the kids sign them.  But I did this after they were in bed, and I honestly don’t think they or their friends will care if they are personally signed.


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getting all dressed up

Tonight I’m going to a party.  This NEVER happens.

Oh don’t get me wrong, I go to my fair share of kids’ birthday parties…but tonight is all about the grown ups.

One of my friends, my grad date, actually, is getting remarried, and we’ve been invited to his engagement party.  We weren’t in touch around the time of his first wedding, so it’s nice to get to share this event with him.  It’s his fiancé’s first marriage, so he gets to do all the celebrations all over again.

Before all the excitement, though, let me share a quick pic of the kids.  I’m home with them on Saturdays and I left them in the den to come and get a coffee.  When I came back they’d tucked themselves in like this to watch Art Pirates and Artzooka!.

Aren’t they adorable?  🙂

So back to tonight.  I had no idea what to wear.  My neighbor lent me some clothes to try on and a navy blue bubble dress that she’d made looked amazing, especially with a funky pair of suede bootie heels, but when Yannick got home and saw me all decked out we both quickly agreed that I looked more like I was going to a wedding, not an engagement party at a synagogue.

But…we were due to leave in 10 minutes.  Aaaa…

I threw this together.  What do you think?  White flowy shirt from H&M, black miniskirt from my sister, black tights and black high-heeled boots.  The silvery clutch was from a set of 3 (with a larger black one and a smaller copper one) from Jean Coutu.  A $12 purchase for breast cancer (they have a pink ribbon charm) that I get a ton of use out of.

Ok now we really do have to go, and I’ve just realized I’m only going to know about 4 people there, and haven’t even met the bride-to-be yet.  Let’s see how this goes…


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this new year is broken, i want a new one

I didn’t mean to let so much time go by between posts, but the (Jewish) new year has been rather unkind around here.  Starting the week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, health and other issues around here went haywire.

There were some good moments, though, and some bust-a-gut, laughing-out-loud moments, like the night I went to check on the boys and walked in to find Henri asleep like this:

He stayed that way while I took the requisite pictures (a mommy’s right) and even slept through me cracking up.

This weekend brought these smiles, when we had a rare day all together as a family and spent some time at the park.

I’ve finished the back and both fronts of my Linden, and that bit up at the top is my first sleeve-in-progress.  That was also all the yarn I had left, so I took a break while Maaike used her spinning wheel to spin up the single cakes into double-stranded skeins, and then hung them to dry.  They’re currently in my basement, nice and dry, and I plan to spin them up tonight.

The break in Linden came at an opportune time, though, as my aunt had a hernia operation last Monday and I wanted to make something for her, so I’ve spent the last week knitting her a pair of cushy slippers.  I’ve just got about 7 more rows on the cuff and weaving in a few ends to go, and I hope to finish that tonight.

I also hope to knit a swatch from one of these babies tonight too.  Next month’s Montreal Knitting Guild meeting is going to be a swatching challenge, and Veronik Avery graciously donated these two cones of Nordique (in Carrot) for our use.  I need to knit up a swatch to know how much yardage one would take, then wind off about 40 mini-cakes- one for each member at the meeting.

Luckily I’ve finished my studying for the night so I can devote the next few hours to knitting.