Strawberries and Spiders

Karis has a Strawberry. 

In more technical terms her little strawberry is called a Hemangioma.  It wasn't always there though.  A few days after she was born she appeared to have a small patch of dry skin on the front of her arm near her elbow.  This small patch of dry skin didn't go away and in about 2 weeks it looked as thought she had a bunch of blood vessels that might have burst under her skin.  Over time we've watched her little Strawberry grow and raise up from her arm.  Its a small bump and is really warm to the touch.   Apparently about 1 in 100 babies is born with one, its more common for girls to have one and are more common on the head or neck of babies.  There is no known cause for them.  Interesting, eh? Hemangiomas tend to disappear on their own within 3-5 years.  Over time, we'll expect to watch it turn a grey-ish colour and then as it settles back into her skin it will likely lose its colour and Karis' time with her strawberry will all be a memory caught in some of our photos. 

Karis has never really noticed her Strawberry until recently.  She has found it on her arm and sometimes points to it.  Luckily its tough skin so we don't worry about it being scratched or bursting.  

her little strawberry

Kids love to ask about it.  Usually when she is around older kids, they stare and say "what' that?, pointing to her arm.   You gotta just love the forwardness of kids.  Just put it out there.  Ask.  If only getting an answer to thing that intrigued you stayed that comfortable and felt that easy.  Kamille loves to show it off to her friends.  She likes to tell everyone that its Karis' strawberry or sometimes she calls it a raspberry.   

I don't really have much else to say about it.  I just wanted to make sure that it had a special place in our memory of when Karis was small. 

And so let me tell you about our September Spiders.  

A year ago was our first September in this home.  I can remember that the best thing going on for Kamille was not necessarily her new baby sister Karis, but the number of spider webs and spiders that she could see from any of our windows.  They were everywhere!  Her favourite was "Gertrude", who was the biggest and most visible from our front hallway window.  

this is gertude.  she was a biggy. 

Look out its Gertrude! Attack of the giant spider! 

Gertude was in that window catching her food for nearly the entire month.  Over the month we also met and spied on "Spider Steve", who was in the window of her bedroom and "Jim the Spider", who was in our bathroom window.   Sometimes we would spend minutes watching the spiders catch their dinner or make repairs to their webs.  Sometimes their webs would be destroyed by high winds but we were always excited to wake up to a new elaborate web that was perfectly crafted in the wee hours of the night.  

This years spiders have come out to entertain us again!  

a good catch!

Its amazing how September brings out the spiders.  They are fun to watch and its neat to see where a spider web will appear next.  Just watch out for those long strands that stretch out from one random spot to another.  You are likely to feel those ones on the face as you take it down! 

Procrastination Post

Its official.  I am a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom) making no money.  No more maternity leave benefits.  I am in limbo.  Now on a leave from work and on the verge of being a student again.  The only real difference is that I have to curb my urges to buy clothes and buy textbooks instead, I handed over my Shaw On Demand box and remote (the first step in going cold turkey from cable) and Kamille is in preschool only 1 day a week instead of 2.  Small changes with our finances that create a whole new lifestyle.  

There are big changes on the horizon - I mean like the big fat horizon at the end of this week.  Eeeeeekkkk!  I am freaking out.  I have a brand new text book sitting beside me on the table and I choose to compose a post full of photos instead of diving right into it - I might be in trouble already.  Procrastination and I are really good friends.
So let me just get this procrastination out of the way to give this weeks activities some time in the spotlight.  A random selection of photos if you will.
I love being outside with my girls.  The hours and minutes seem to pass by with more excitement and adventure in them.  I introduced Kamille to the fine art of rubbing art.  You know when you rub a crayon on a paper to capture the texture of whatever the paper is on?  That.  She loved it.

On the way home from our walk to the grocery store, Karis fell asleep while I was carrying her in the Ergo.  She was so asleep that I was able to lye her down on the carpet and she continued to sleep.  So so so delicious.  It reminded me of when she was a teeny tiny sleeping baby.  

I am definitely noticing the rainy, darker days of fall being upon us. Its amazing how much lighting makes a difference in my photography confidence.  I need to brush up on my indoor/lowlight photography skills and editing techniques in an effort to keep the flash off as much as possible.  

Bath time is so much fun lately.  Karis is a nut in the tub.  She moves her little nudie bum all over the place, crawling over Kamille's long and in the way legs.  They giggle together and it makes me smile.

Remember that Big Sister, Little Sister thing that I mentioned before?  Well, its so awesome lately. Karis is right in there, always wanting to do what Kamille is doing.  My little Miss LOVES crayons. She doesn't eat them, she doesn't break them, she draws with them - seriously.  She wants to do what Kamille does - draw with crayons.  They had their first really good "fight" over the crayon box.  It was so funny.  I had to intervene because they were both crying and pulling the crayon box towards themselves.  We settled for a middle position in the table.  

And watching them get all giddy together while they play in Kamille's room is priceless.  Way better than breaking up their "spats."

And how cute are they when they play in their jammies?  Just look at Karis loving up her big sis.  I just love it.  

Sometimes this girl just gives me the best faces.  

We found ourselves on a little family walk on the trail behind our home the other day.  Kevin actually grabbed my camera from me and got some photos of me.  Shocker, but I'll pose!

  

This is me loving up my girls this week.  Part SAHM, part student, 100% procrastinator. 

And I have no idea why Blogger is not working propery.  Its not letting me line up my vertical photos side by side and my font keeps changing too.  So at the risk of swearing excessively and modeling very poor anger management skills in front of my girls over this matter, I will let it go and hopefully Blogger will sort itself out before my next post. 
 
I gotta hit the books tonight.  No more procrastinating. 

New Beginnings

September always marks a new beginning in the calendar year.  If its not Back-To-School for someone its the change in season, the change in colour outside and wearing warmer clothes that brings a feeling of newness to this time of year.  Last year we began our September with Karis' arrival - such a new beginning for our family.  It was such a time of happiness for us, yet at the same time we were also thinking about my sister and the change that September had brought for her.

Last year in September, around the same time that I was celebrating Karis' arrival into our world, my sister's world was being rocked.

My sister, who was pregnant, in her second trimester with her third child had recently found out that she was going to be having a son.  She had two gorgeous girls already and so having a son was a dream come true for her.    But that news was overshadowed by the news that followed only weeks later.  Her son was also going to be born with Spina Bifida, a birth defect that affects the spinal cord formation and leads to future physical disabilities.

Last September was the start of something incredible for myself, but it was the month that my sister's life as she knew it changed.  I felt for her.  I cried while I held my fresh baby Karis in my arms.  Life and having a healthy concern-free newborn was suddenly so so so precious and never to be taken for granted.  I ached for my sister and all that she had going on.  I was so far away from her but I also knew that my sister was strong and supported where she was and that this news would not hold her back from enjoying a new kind of life that she would start.

In the next few months there were so many questions that had to go unanswered until his birth.  Ironically, for a number of years in my mother's career as a physiotherapist she had worked directly with children with spina bifida and as an advocate for their families.  My sister and I had also spent time volunteering at events for these families.  We, to some degree more than that average, knew of people affected by spina bifida long before this time in our lives.  My mom's knowledge definitely helped me  to understand more about my little nephew on the way.  I was grateful for that.

On January 15th, Kinglsey Kieran came into our world.  He proved to us right away that he was a strong, heatlhy and happy boy.  The past 9 months have been a roller coaster ride for my sister and her family.  All of the unanswered questions that we had before Kingsley arrived are all starting to be answered as this first year continues.

This month marks the one year anniversary that my sister found out that she would have a child with spina bifida.  It has been a challenging year of change for her.   Last week my sister was told that Kingsley would likely not walk.   For the past year, my sister and all of us have held on to the hope that of all things, Kingsley would be able to walk on his own to some degree.  September continues to be a tough month for Jill.  

My sister has blogged her experiences over the past year.  The ups and the downs.  The milestones and the challenges.  Through sharing this experience she has linked into the most incredible support system going -  a blogging community of moms and dads who are also parenting a small person with spina bifida.  News that stings can be shared openly on her blog and met with the most thoughtful, empathetic and encouraging words of support.

My sister is an amazing mom.  She has three delicious babes that she loves incredibly.
Despite September being a month that delivers blows she has chosen to start fresh with the season's change.  She's moving forward with the support of her family, friends and online community.  Her strength is inspiring.

Kingsley is a gorgeous happy baby who will no doubt do amazing things in life.  Life will continue to go on for their little family. And as my sister put it best, walking or not, Kingsley is a rockstar.  Time to just let him rock out.  

I just love this little rockstar!

That's A Wrap

On the last official days of summer, I thought I should get one last post of our Days Of Summer in photos.
We had by far one of the best summers ever!   Karis' first summer, me on maternity leave, perfect sunny days, visiting family and lots of family adventures.  We've done it all.

I know that somewhere in the midst of all the summer heat I said to myself that I wished it would never end, but really the gradual change from season to season that we experience year round leads to a growing anticipation of what is to come.  I am not mourning the loss of tank tops, flip flops and hot days in the sun.  I really and truly love fall.  As the days get a bit cooler, I am reminded of all the comforts that this new season brings.  Apple pie, fire places, slow cooker dinners, pumpkin patches, jeans and sweaters, accessorizing with toques and scarves, colourful leaves and crunchy hikes through the forest.  How exciting!  So much to look forward to.

Here is how we enjoyed our last days of summer.

Bike rides to the outdoor market and park.....

rekindling the romance in the swing built for two

these two are pros, they've done it before.

Ticked off a box on our Summer To-Do list by biking around Stanley Park...

me and my girls getting geared up

pit stop at the lions gate bridge

another pit stop for some bike repairs

it was so awesome watching these two have such a great time together

snack time at third beach

this girl and her friends approached kamille because they thought she was so cute.  they asked if they could take their picture with her.  i love the fact that she attempted to teach kamille how to do the peace sign.  so classic!  love it!  kamille didn't quite get it.  

and she didn't even try to eat it!  ; )

while we were there kevin pointed out spray from the water.  sure enough, it was a grey whale out there.  

seriously, what are the chances

a sailing cruise ship

Kevin and Kamille did some blackberry picking and met a new friend....

poor girl got a fright when this little grasshopper jumped on her...

We also scored some free tickets to an amazing Labour Day weekend music festival, Live @ Squamish.  Great fun for all ages.  Three different stages offering music of all kinds for everyone to enjoy.  

kickin' it with dawn and ben

seriously, this was a great backdrop to one of the three stages.

Karis came into the stage where she loves to hang out and explore the kitchen.  We are two finger-caught-in-the-cupboard-door owies in at this point.  

she looks so much like me as a baby in these photos!

In the summer, bedtime was definitely later and there was time for a bit of pre-bed fun with Daddy on some nights...

i'm thinking that i want to make this fall season as comfy and fun as this bed shot!

This summer has ended with as much fun that we went into it with and there was never a dull moment along the way.  I am truly grateful for having this time with my girls and Kevin.  

We're wrapping up summer for another year, but welcoming fall with excitement for all that it brings.