Keely's Birthday and Father's Day

My birthday was pretty boring since everything in Ontario is on lockdown from COVID and there was nowhere to go for fun. Austin really wanted to take me out, but that wasn't going to happen unless it was takeout and all the kids were there. But I was pretty spoiled for my birthday. We made chocolate waffles for breakfast, I made my favorite dinner and my favorite chocolate chip cookies and we had a pretty relaxing day around the house. A friend brought over a cream pie she had made along with a big box of those yummy golden ball chocolates (one of my favorite treats while I was in Italy). Since we had already had quite a bit of sugar, Austin and I thought it would be funny for the kids if he smashed my face into the pie, so I pretended to be smelling it and he smashed my face down- the kids got a good laugh out of that, then they each ate some. The next day, another friend brought me a beautiful boquet of flowers (because I always complain that Austin doesn't get me flowers anymore ;) It was so nice of her and I'm still enjoying the sight and smell of them on the dining room table!
Father's day was pretty much like every other Sunday, except that Austin didn't have all of his usual church meetings. He spent a lot of the day puttering around with his tools which is something he loves.

 Trevor is pulling his grumpiest face- on Austin's request

 Some bonus shots of the kids enjoying watermelon. They finished the whole thing off in one sitting!

 And this is a terrible picture, from the reflection in Austin's glasses to the composition to Trevor's shirt being pulled up, but it shows the card the kids made for their Dad and shows them all together with Dad. (Leif recently rediscovered the baby blanket Austin's grandma made for him and has grown quite attached to it ;) (And isn't Natalie looking adorable!?)

3 1/2

Trevor marked his half birthday today. We don't do anything for half birthdays, but I thought it would be a good time to do an update. Trevor is a very independent and opinionated little fellow. He's constantly climbing up to reach anything he wants and is very persistent in pursuing his desires. One of my favorite things to do with Trevor is go on walks near some ponds in our neighborhood. Sometimes he rides his bike and shows me how fast he can go and other times he walks or rides on the back of Natalie's stroller. He always notices lots of things (especially birds) and loves to point them out. Trevor's favorite game is "I spy" which he often starts while we are eating dinner. He started playing it on our walk today and his first spy was "I spy something cute" (Natalie) and his next was "I spy something that makes us dinner" (Mom!) I thought that was hilarious. A key characteristic of Trevor right now is his huggles (a term he coined meaning hug and snuggle). He always has to huggle Natalie before her nap or bedtime and he comes into our room after his bedtime at least three times to give me huggles. He is a very loving and very intelligent little guy who knows what he wants out of life! And our life wouldn't be the same without him :)

Sixteen months

Our little Natalie is 16 months old! She finally walked a couple weeks ago (Trevor and I saw it- she was walking across the kitchen to Trevor) but she hasn't shown much interest in it since then. She's done a few steps here and there and will walk more if someone is holding her hand, but she'd much rather just crawl. Her favorite words right now are "Mom!" (said in a very particular voice, but I'm not sure how to explain it) and "No!" which she says to almost everything whether she means it or not. For the last couple weeks, she has been giving Austin very grumpy looks most of the time. Really, she gives them to everyone, but more to Daddy than anyone else. Its so cute to watch. He plays with her and tries to get her to smile and she really wants to, but she's good at keeping the grumpy look on. She doesn't say many more words consistently, but she often mimics the last word or two from a sentence she hears someone say. She is still quite the snuggler and gives these almost fiercely tight little hugs, especially as I'm holding her and singing to her before nap or bedtime. She is into everything she can possible get into even more than before and loves to color- so much so that she gets very upset if she sees someone else writing or coloring when she is not. She also loves to play with water or stick her hands under a running faucet and is very interested in books. She's still the beloved favorite of all her siblings and is a joy to have around.

 Here is a good example of her grumpy face: