Cubbie Bear

Arran and Bryttain both attend AWANAs on Thursday nights and love it. Every few months, Bryttain who is in Cubbies, gets to bring home Cubbie bear for a week, and last week was her second time. She was so excited and all three kids ended up fighting over who would get to cuddle with Cubbie at bed times.

I think Arran and Bryttain had him each for a night and the rest of the time he somehow ended up with Asia. Brttain wanted a quick photo with Cubbie, before he had to be returned tonight to go home with another child.

He is very loved and will most certainly be missed in the Cannan household.

A week of firsts!

It seems to be feast or famine around here. I posted every day in February, thanks to my photography challenge, then we had a little breather and now the last few days I'm a crazy woman again.

Work for James has been a little scarce the last couple of weeks, so he has been around more, which we love. He picked up Arran from school at lunchtime today. Arran came running into the kitchen closely followed by James who asked

"Did you smile at Mommy?"

I knew immediately that that could mean only one thing.

"Arran! Did you lose your tooth? Let me see!"

At six years, one month and seven days old, on St. Patrick's Day, Arran lost his first tooth! My boy is growing up.

So grown up?

We eat a lot of pasta in our house, often with a tomato-based sauce, sometimes a pesto sauce, occasionally a creamy one. The meat gets varied too and the shape of the pasta, so that we can avoid boredom. Last night was a fettuccine night and as we sat there twisting our pasta, Bryttain announced proudly

"This is how I twinkle my pasta"

I love to hear the things kids come up with; so cute and priceless. These are the little things I want to be able to remember in years to come.

It's worse than it looks

Whilst I realize that childhood injuries are inevitable, never in a million years did I think that Arran would be our first child to receive this honor. He is so careful and cautious and does not take risks easily. His sisters on the other hand are little spitfires, with no care or concern for danger (or their mother's heart), they will climb and jump and crash with the best of them...often the ringleaders in said activities.

On Saturday evening James and the kids were wrestling, which really means they take turns jumping on Daddy (or even jump on him all at once), when all of a sudden there was a loud thud and Arran started wailing. He cried and fussed for quite a while as we tried to figure out what had happened and how badly hurt he was. As we debated whether or not a trip to the Emergency Room was in order, he regained control of himself and we decided that things were not as bad as he had been making out. He has his moments and has perfected the art of drama-queen over the years.

He was a little subdued the rest of the evening, but really not too bad. The next morning though, he woke up yelling for us, obviously in pain and unable to even get out of his bed on his own. It was then that James decided that we really did need to get things checked out further. Off they went to the hospital, as I got the girls ready for church.

A sad little boy walked into church a couple of hours later, arm in a sling, tears streaming down his face (not because he was in pain, but because he did not want to wear the uncomfortable sling). My first thought was that it must have been a sprain, but I was wrong, he had a broken collar bone! My poor little boy.

I had to talk him into letting me take his photograph, to document the event. At first he was very reluctant, telling me that I like him to smile for photos and that he did not feel like smiling. So here is the mug shot, I mean all he needs is to be holding up a board with his name and number on it, to complete the look, don't you think?

Here is a photo of his x-ray, showing his broken collar bone, which we hope will heal, uneventfully. He has to wear the sling for three to four weeks and is pretty impaired as it is his right arm in the sling and he is right-handed. But we will all survive.

 You can see his collar bone, which should have a soft downward curve, broken and pointing up :(

Thoughts of a six year old

James relayed to me another of Arran's classic contemplations from yesterday.

"Daddy, I'm glad you're bald... Everybody should have a bald person in their family... Bald people are good at predicting the weather, they are the best at predicting the weather...they can feel it with their head!"

I love that boy and his little mind.

A cause for celebration!

It was a big day today. My little Asia did her very first wee-wee in her potty! You may be wondering, what has this blog come to...but such is the life of a mother...and I would not have it any other way.

Daddy bought Asia her very own pink potty last Summer and she would occasionally sit on it, while I would sing "If you're happy and you know it..." or "Jingle Bells" or whatever else took her fancy, in the hopes that if the songs lasted long enough she might accidentally deposit something in the potty and would get the idea. No such luck. Since her second birthday I have tried to more actively encourage her to sit on it, but it got more use as a footstool or a stepping stone, that she would tote around the house to aid her in reaching whatever was out of her reach, in most cases deliberately out of her reach, I might add.

Well the last few days, of her own accord, and probably with the encouragement of Bryttain, she has been taking off her nappy/diaper (with Bryttain's expert four-year-old help) and sitting on her potty whilst Bryttain was doing her business.

Today at precisely, 1:28pm Bryttain came running out excitedly to tell me

"Mommy! Mommy! Asia did a real wee in her potty!"

Yup, I wasn't even there to witness the event...such is the fate of a third child I guess.

I went racing in to corroborate the facts and was overjoyed. Asia was looking a little bemused but I clapped and gave her high-fives and did a little song and dance and showered her with kisses and she suddenly lit up. Hopefully that was a light bulb moment for her...we shall see. We washed her hands and emptied the potty, then gave her an m & m to seal the deal and further encourage more successful potty encounters (with a promise that poo-poos would result in two m & ms). We called daddy on his cell phone to join in the celebrations and then she decided to take her nappy off again and sit on the potty for another five minutes, after all this was all fun and games.

Of course her empty bladder yielded no further fruit, but I hope that this is but the start of a short, successful journey :)

I recommend...

If you want to be inspired and humbled (and maybe brought to tears) check out this post on Me Ra Koh's blog, for March 3rd (in case you're reading this later).

She is a wonderful lady, sharing her photography skills and heart with so many. At the moment she and her family are on an extended trip to Thailand and have been visiting a ministry in Cambodia. Give her a read.

Too cute not to post

So as it was Bryttain's birthday yesterday I really wanted to post photos of her for my last day of the photo challenge (I was having all sorts of problems with the formatting on here yesterday and now can't go back and fix it, but oh well).

I managed to get some cute ones of Asia too, so I'm posting them today. It is SO hard to capture Asia on film and truly represent her personality. She is such a fun, fun-loving little girl, just full of life...but she really does not like me pointing a camera at her. I have maybe a couple of photos which show her genuinely smiling, most of the time she just looks serious, or moody and that is so not her. She is precious and charming and loves to make others laugh. She is my little sweetheart.

...and no she is not an amputee, she has full use of both hands, just her left was swinging round behind her as she ran towards me :)