Chapleau Triplets Visit

Once again we have been fortunate to have the company of the Chapleau triplets aka The Martels over the weekend. They were in town assisting Tracy's sister move into her first home. They arrived around 11:30 am, and the hour & half seemed to fly by. All the babies look like they are flourishing. Evan is 17 lbs and is going to be a big boy. He has hands the size of pie-plates and practically a mouthful of teeth, he makes Everett look like a shrimp. Amber is the shy one, very subdude but cute as a button. Lauren, the smallest of the girls, is quite the little party girl, not wanting to miss a thing, kind of like someone I know. (Miss GiGi)
Tracy & Phil are doing a wonderful job raising 3 very outgoing, personable kids. I am glad you were able to visit, and look forward to visiting you up in Chapleau this summer.

We got a jumper here!!

Within the past 2-3 days Grace has finally discovered the jumperoo potential. They would always just sit there whenever they were put in. But now, hold the phone, this thing actually moves! Grace has discovered her inner jumper, and there is definitely no stopping her now. Have a look at a couple of videos 1 & 2 of her in motion.

Our budding intellect

I have recently discovered that unlike his sisters, Everett would rather sit down with a book than sing & dance. Don't get me wrong, he does enjoy a lively nursery rhyme sing-along, but he most certainly prefers a book. We should have known he would be our book-worm, because when he watches TV, his show of choice is Jeopardy.
Grandad & Grandma Simpson will most certainly be very pleased when they read this entry.

Auntie Michelle Visits

Over the past weekend, Auntie Michelle paid us a visit. She had been in Toronto on business, and decided to make the short trip north for the weekend. She arrived on Friday night only to be greeted by Everett's demands to be picked up. She fell right into the groove of things with feeding, changing, and everything else. But she is not a rookie either with having Gabriel about 3 years ago.
She attended our AquaTots class on Saturday morning, and went to the mall with us in the afternoon. On Sunday morning, her & Jason took them grocery shopping to give mommy a little break.
I hope she enjoyed herself and hopefully we will see you in the summer.

Update on AquaTots

We are now half way through the AquaTots swimming course, and already they are diving into the shallow end, swimming at least 3 laps of the pool, and treading water for the required 6 minutes. Its very demanding, but they are up for the challenge. 30 minutes is just not enough for these water babies. We are currently training for the last 3 spots on the Canadian National Swim Team. Wish us luck!

Their very own table & chairs

Yesterday Jason brought home a hand-crafted table & chair set for the kids. It was a gift from his old crew, and what a thoughtful idea it was. Thanks to all the contributors. Along with the table set was a gift certificate to Canadian Tire. Although they are still a little young we have set it up in the playroom. It will make a great art centre for drawing, painting or whatever. It is just small enough that the food fight doesn't have far to travel across the table.
I also want to thank Bob Ross & Zandra Zubac for the gift cards. Also thanks to the 175 OB crew for the gift certificate for The Parthenon, the Canadian Tire gift card, as well as the gift certificate to the Flower Shop.

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Kristen has permitted me to snipit into her post because I would also like to thank so many people at work for their kindness.........


Let's start with The Dirty Dozen (175 Crew). Last month Bob Brosseau informed me that I had to clear some time in my schedule because the crew had some 'issues' they wanted to discuss with me. Now I get this request quite often, but in two years this is the first time it came from the 175 crew. If they had issues they could not resolve themselves they had to be significant and I headed straight over.


So I walk into the lunchroom and they began bombarding me with questions of a new haulage truck and anything else they could construct until finally the fascade crumbled and they brought out a gift for Kristen and I.


Typical Dirty Dozen stuff, there simply isn't anything they can't handle.


Over and above handling their own business, they improve the world around them including mine. I was presented with a series of gift certificates with the intention of giving Kristen and I complete 'date night' before my mother went back to Nova Scotia and we would no longer be able to get out. It included among other things a $200 gift certificate to The Parthenon and certificate for flowers for Kristen.


Another crew of guys at the mine I have enormous respect for and care greatly about is my old Division 1 crew (old refers to my previous role as thier supervisor and not the average age of them although that is pretty high also). One Monday morning (Mondays are usually rough) I walked into my office, ready to face the onslaught and what do I find but the beautiful table and chairs you see in the picture above complete with card and the gift certificates Kristen mentioned. This is also typical of Div 1 - Crew 4, understated and honorable.


So what does this mean to Kristen and I or more specifically me personally?


In the dark hours of the night when you have spent hours trying to sooth a crying baby you question yourself as a parent. During those long days at work when you begin to let thoughts which never existed before creep in like 'I can't do this'. When Kristen is on her 20th consecutive hour without a break.........then something wonderful like this happens, it shows you that there are people out there who sincerely care about you.


It is so uplifting that you wake at 4am (one of the few free hours left in the day) to make sure you write at least a humble thank you on a blog site and hope everyone hears that it comes from deep inside.


To all of you who have shown you care through cards of encouragement, certificates for diapers, visits to help with the feeding, and so many of you showing an interest in what it is we are trying to do here, THANK YOU.

Nanny Di heads home

As everyone knows for the past 3 months, Nanny Di has graciously given up her time, her paycheck and her friends to spend it with us helping out. But the time has come when she had to return to her real life. She departed on February 7th with some well deserved relief but also some sadness to leave the kiddies behind. They are at the age when so many changes are happening so fast, you blink and they are gone. We want to thank Nannyy Di for all her advice, her continuous rocking of Everett when everyone else had handed him off, her playtime in the morning, her cooking, her cleaning, her laundry duties and everything else she has contributed for the past 3 months.
All our love and many thanks Jason, Kristen, Grace, Avery & Everett, Riley, Presley, Daisy & Madie

The new high chairs

Well we are movin' on up, I recently purchased our new high chairs with hopes of moving mealtime to the kitchen. After Grandpa Howatt and myself assembled all 3 it was time to test them out. They looked like they were ready to take over the world situated behind the command centers. Still a little on the shrimpy side, as least the mess is contained.

This is how we keep Everett quiet

Every so often Everett feels the urge to cry non-stop for a few hours, so mommy has to strap on the carrier and walk him around the house like a pack-mule. One day he still wouldn't stop even after he was strapped in so in our travels around the house I found a little Nordic hat I purchased and plunked it on his head. We walked around the house like this for about an hour.
The things you gotta do to keep a kid quiet.

Auntie Shannon Visits

Over the past weekend, Auntie Shannon paid us another visit. She checks in with us every 5-6 weeks or so to get her baby fix. She arrived late Friday night after the kids had gone to bed, so early Saturday morning she was virtually hovering over them in their crib. 'Lets wake them up' she said crazily. She will never ask that foolish question again because once she did, it seemed as though they would never go back to sleep. Saturday appeared to be going well until for some unknown reason (I think Shannon pinched her) Avery set off into a crying frenzy which lasted until about Sunday night. Everett was no better, with his nightly ritual crying. Grace was the golden girl for the entire weekend, so Shannon clung to her like a fat kid on a Smartie.
I think we may have frightened her off for at least 6-8 weeks. But who can blame her even I wanted to run away.

Our First Word

One of our girl genuis' has said her first word, and no it was not mama or dada, but GiGi. Grace has been repeating this over and over for the past 2 weeks. For those who do not know this story will find it absolutely delightful.
Over the Christmas holidays, the kids were each sent a thoughtful card from Grandma Howatt. The signature at the bottom of the card was G.G. Howatt, however Grandma is far too young to be considered a Great-Grandmother. So she has requested the kids call her GiGi. I thought this was a fabulous idea, and fell instantly in love with it, and apparently so has Grace.
So even though it wasn't the magical moment when a baby says mama for the first time, but it always makes us laugh so I will certainly take it.

The Simpson Gut

Well it looks like Everett has inherited the infamous Simpson gut. For the past few weeks Everett has been experiencing some minor pain in his belly. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but after a trip to our pediatrician, it seems as though he has stomach-acid reflux. Without going into details, he had indigestion after most meals associated with quite a bit of discomfort. And anyone who has seen Jason eat and been around after the meal is over knows that he too has indigestion associated with a bit of discomfort.
Dr. Ogundimu has put him on medication for the next 3 months with hopes of relieving of poor little Everett.
I am not sure which is worse the Simpson gut or the Howatt stomach. But I am sure he will find that out when he reaches the legal drinking age.