What Am I? Round 14 #8

Well, I did say yesterday that I would show you the item in use today, but I found that I had one more picture that shows it in it's entirety without showing it in use (which obviously gives it away!)

So this is your last chance!

We know it's not any of these things:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
7. Pen! Complete with pocket protector clip.
8. Laser pointer
9. eyeglass repair kit
10. some kind of tri-pod...but there seems to be 4 leggies, so it's a quad-pod
11. teacher's chalkboard pointer
12. flashlight
13. pointer
14. travel case with small make-up brushes inside
15. pair of knitting needles along with their carrying case

Who's going to get it first?

What Am I? round 14 # 7

Well, I had to break out the camera to take another picture! Let's hope this one tips someones off.

We know it's not any of these things:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
7. Pen! Complete with pocket protector clip.
8. Laser pointer
9. eyeglass repair kit
10. some kind of tri-pod...but there seems to be 4 leggies, so it's a quad-pod
11. teacher's chalkboard pointer
12. flashlight

If no one guesses right today, the next picture will be this item in use. If you don't get it then, I'm not sure what we'll do!

Liam's haircut

From this:

To this:

What Am I? Round 14 #6

Hopefully this one ties it all together for you:


You can eliminate these ideas from your guesses today as they've already been tried:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
7. Pen! Complete with pocket protector clip.
8. Laser pointer
9. eyeglass repair kit
10. some kind of tri-pod...but there seems to be 4 leggies, so it's a quad-pod?

What Am I? Round 14 #5

I might have to take some more pictures of this one!

so far we know that it is NOT:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
7. Pen! Complete with pocket protector clip.
8. Laser pointer
9. eyeglass repair kit

Good Luck!

What Am I? Round 14 #4

I seem to be able to stump you longer with the last couple of "What Am I?" Good luck with today's picture. I hope it helps.

It is not a:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
7. Pen! Complete with pocket protector clip.
8. Laser pointer

These are all great guesses though.

What Am I? Round 14 #3

Some more guesses came in yesterday. No right one yet!

It is not a:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget
5. TV antenna
6. Spacer post thingy used in scrap booking
   

Here is today's picture:

What Am I? Round 14 #2

First day in and 4 incorrect guesses!

So fare we know that it isn't:

1. Top of a bottle
2. Bottom of a chair leg
3. Top of a spice Jar
4. Kitchen Gadget

Here is today's picture:


Happy guessing!

What Am I? Round 14

On to the next round! How many pictures will it take before someone guess what this is?

Adoption thoughts

I have a lot of adoption thoughts swirling about right now:

• The last email I got from Iris was in February. Feb 10th to be exact. For some reason I have not been able to bring myself to call her. Sure I have lots of reasons - I'm busy, work is crazy, I can only call in the morning and it's always too late by the time I think to pick up the phone. But they are just excuses. I'm not really sure what is stopping me.

• I'm still torn about what to do about finding my father's family.

• Thinking about my father's family makes me think about Liam's father. I wonder if we should try to find him before too much time passes and it gets that much harder. But do I want to find him for me or for Liam?

• We still don't have any communication with Liam's mother "K". It's coming up on the time that we would send an update letter. I will continue to honour my commitment to do that. I wonder though if I should touch on the topic of communication or just continue with updates on Liam and leave out the hard stuff?

and so it goes......

English

Some of you may be surprised (at least I would hope so!) to hear that I don't always consider English to be my first language.

It is my first spoken language, and the only spoken language we used at home. My father is from a French speaking family. He didn't learn to speak English until he was five when the English public school kicked him out of Kindergarten so that he could play with kids in the neighbourhood and learn English that way. My mom comes from an English speaking family, but did take some French in high school.

My parents decided that my being bilingual would greatly benefit me in life, so I went to a French school. Not French Immersion, but an actual French school. Not a word of English was spoken from my first day until my first English class in grade five. I was so far behind in English Grammar that I ended up taking ESL (English as a Second Language) during summer school one year.

Right now Liam is struggling with learning to read. We've tried a bunch of different strategies (including homework in the bathtub) and are currently starting down the path of a new teaching strategy that we got from the psychologist, who just so happens to specialize in teaching people to read.

So while the psychologist was going over the reading program with Hilary and I, a huge light bulb must have started flashing over my head! For the first time EVER I understood how to read English. Sounds a bit odd doesn't it? Especially since I seem to be able to read all the blogs and forums and Facebook pages that take up so much of my time. I've been reading in English since I was 6 and taught myself to read Nancy Drew books. I've just never understood how reading works. For the most part I sight read- I see the word, I recognize the word therefore I "read" the word. Present me with a new, never seen before word and chances are that I'm going to "read" it using French pronunciation rules.

The only English "rule" I've ever known is "I before E except after C but not in some other words like....." Okay, I guess I don't even know that one very well.

Dr. Psych guy gave us 3 rules of reading to teach Liam. And to my non-English thinking brain they are genius!

1. When a vowel is by itself it has it's short sound.
2. When 2 vowels walk together, the first introduces itself and the second just listens.
3. When 2 vowels talk over a fence (consonant), the first introduces itself and the second just listens

BRILLIANT! I spent all day looking at words and realizing that these 3 little rules really work. I understand why CAN and CANE are pronounced the way they are. I never understood before, I just knew.

Of course I'm struggling with remembering how a short A sounds versus a long A. But if I can figure that out I'll be well on my way to teaching Liam to read. Until then, we are passing the program off to his teachers!

Flying!

Target practice with paper airplanes (folded all by himself)

Soccer 2009

Soccer season has begun! We had our first of 6 indoor Spring tune-ups today. Turns out that 4 other kids from Liam's school are going as well so he has friends to play with and I have parents to hang out with! Win-Win!


I'm wondering if playing soccer will convince him that he needs a haircut... a mother can hope right?

What Am I? round 13 - Reveal

and the winner is Sassy!



Yup, It's Hilary's Swedish Chef doll. He watches over her cooking from his perch up on on the book shelf.

The other pictures were going to be:
I'll leave you with a clip of the Swedish Chef in all his glory:

What Am I? round 13 # 5

So far we know that it isn't:

1. a dish towel
2. jammies
3. my wall (hint, the white you see "behind" it, is part of "it")
4. my arm and shoulder encased in some type of flannel garment
5. a doll used as a doorstop
6. a leaning cry-baby doll
7. a puppet
8. a giant thumb with buttonholes
9. an octopus
10. a Scarecrow
11. Waldorf
12. Statler
13. a doll of Liam
14. Abbycadabby
15. A doll of either Hilary or I
16. some kind of person shaped body pillow
    

Keep the guesses coming!

The gays are gonna get you!

Be scared, very, very scared.... we are going to take away your freedom!



If you want to help fight this awful ad - currently playing across the states - you can check out the Courage Campaign website

What Am I? round 13 # 4

So far we know that it isn't:

1. a dish towel
2. jammies
3. my wall (hint, the white you see "behind" it, is part of "it")
4. my arm and shoulder encased in some type of flannel garment
5. a doll used as a doorstop
6. a leaning cry-baby doll
7. a puppet
8. a giant thumb with buttonholes
9. an octopus
10. a Scarecrow
11. Waldorf
12. Statler
13. a doll of Liam
14. Abbycadabby

So onward and upward to the next clue!

What Am I? round 13 # 3

So far we know that it isn't:

1. a dish towel
2. jammies
3. my wall (hint, the white you see "behind" it, is part of "it")
4. my arm and shoulder encased in some type of flannel garment
5. a doll used as a doorstop
6. a leaning cry-baby doll
7. a puppet
8. a giant thumb with buttonholes
9. an octopus
10. a Scarecrow
    

So here is today's picure:


I'm going to concede that yes, it is a doll. Now the trick is to tell me which doll! or a doll of whom I guess would be a better way to say that.

Good luck!

Perfect Moment Monday

I have 3 days that I'm calling my perfect moments from last week. We've been struggling with some behaviours from Liam that are challenging and hard and frustrating and emotionally draining. On him and on us. So my perfect moments are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We saw none of the negative behaviours. Liam was a treat and a joy to be around. He was helpful, he listened, he cleaned up after himself. He was polite to us and to others when we were out. Bedtimes were a pleasure and so were mornings when he woke up.

Now before you think he's been kidnapped and had some sort of mind altering intervention by the Stepford's, I will say that he was a perfect 6 year old boy. There was some whining. There was some tears. There was some frustrations and anger. The perfect moments were how he handled himself during these times. He did not completely disolve or shut down, or react in any sort of physical way. He did not get down on himself and "beat himself" up about things beyond his control.


And for me, that is a perfect moment. I hope that it keeps going this week too!

What Am I? round 13 # 2

So far we know that it isn't:

1. a dish towel
2. jammies
3. my wall (hint, the white you see "behind" it, is part of "it")
4. my arm and shoulder encased in some type of flannel garment

So on to today's clue:




Does that help?

What Am I? round 13

I don't have much time for blogging right now so I'm leaving you with a new "What Am I"? You've all gotten so good at guessing, that I've had to search the house for better and more obscure objects. I don't think anyone will guess this one right away:



As always, a new picture will go up each day until someone guesses it. I have 9 pictures planned for this one. Let's see how many it takes!

Quick updates

Wow, I am so busy these days that I don't know what is making me busy!

Work is crazy! We were a little company and now we are growing in leaps and bounds. Trust me, I know how amazing and lucky that is in today's economy. I'm very happy to have a secure job, but I would just like it to slow down long enough to catch my breath! I am interviewing for 2 new staff members next week, so that will help. I've gone from a department of ME to managing 3 other people. When I took this job 5 years ago (I can't believe it's been that long) one of the perks was that I was getting out of management. I guess I'm ready to get back into it.

To give you an idea of my work load, I have 2 and half weeks to complete 3-month schedules for 250+ people, in 3 different time zones, all working different jobs and shifts, and of course it all has to include everyone's summer vacations. Oy!

Home is good. Hilary has been working a lot of hours at her job too. In fact she's worked almost every Saturday since Christmas. It's nice because Liam and I get to hang out for the day, but I miss having Hilary here too.

We've been having some behaviour struggles with Liam, but the last 2 days have been FANTASTIC. He's listening, being polite, helping out and has just been a joy to be around. It makes the other times a lot easier to handle.

We missed the sign up date for summer camp by 24 hours so the locations we wanted were all full. We were able to get Liam into 5 weeks - 2 in July and 3 in August, at other sites, so all is not lost. We will do some combo of me working early, Hilary working evenings and weekends and having a baby sitter come in on the weeks that he doesn't have camp. Since Liam's school also finishes on the June 12th, we are going to spend 10 days in Guelph at that time, since the rest of Canada is still in school then.

Soccer starts next weekend too. There will be 6 weeks of Spring-tune up in doors and then they move outdoors. For Liam's age group this year they advance to playing 2 nights a week. So if we are busy now, it's only going to get busier!

Other wise life is moving along all tickaty-boo. We are healthy, happy and glad that the weather has finally turned.