Alex and the Dogs

Alex with Otis. The newest member of the family.

Grandpa with Sydney, Sydney loves to sit up there with Grandpa.



Alex on the couch with Otis and Riley, always a fight for a spot on the couch.

Santa Baby

Too cute not to post!

Holiday Time

This is Alex doing one of his favourite things-cutting with a real knife!
Decorating our gingerbread house with Dad.
Cookie time!

The past few weeks have been a little crazy around the Gilson household. Having my shoulder operated on, trying to sell our house and keep it spotless all the time, Jay moving to Albuquerque, Thanksgiving, raising a toddler, trying to organize Christmas and trying to recover from having my shoulder operated on all have left very little time for anything let alone blogging. Here are a few pictures of us trying to keep things a little normal for Alex while everything around us is going crazy!! A very good crazy though and I would not have it any other way.

Alex the Viking

This is how Alex looks on any given day around the house. One of his favourite games right now is capture the dragon. Sydney plays the dragon, Alex is Stoikl the Viking and I am Hiccup. Our roles have changed a bit since the summer but the game play is still the same!

Turkey Trot

Instead of eating mounds of food this Thanksgiving Alex and I ran the Turkey Trot in downtown Austin with about 17,000 other Texans.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Alex has now been at Community Montessori School for about two months. I spent the first month bribing and begging him to get into the car every morning and feeling my heart break every time I had to leave my crying darling at school. He really did not like it. I think a big part of the reason was that he started about three weeks after most of the children so he felt like everyone knew each other and he didn't know anyone. He kept saying he had no friends (very hard for any mama to hear from their child) and that he didn't know anyone's name.

Well here we are two months into school and just the other morning he told me he loved school. He actually gets a hint of sadness on Saturdays because there is no school (he does not get that from his parents). He now has his little group of friends and according to his teacher a little girl who invites Alex to join her for tea everyday. Alex has told me about her and tells me that she loves to drink tea, but she talks too much. He also has the friend who he gets crazy with and has to be told not to work with him anymore. He loves tracing, table washing and the geometry cabinet. His teacher says he is not too interested in practical life anymore, but loves sensorial, he actually spent half an hour on the binomial cube trying to put it away, he got it upside down but managed to put it away.

Every day I am blown away with the things that he comes home with that he has clearly learned at school. There are a lot of thins that I can take credit for teaching him, but recently most of learning is definitely coming from Montessori. As a Montessori teacher I obviously wholeheartedly believe in the methodology but it wasn't until I had Alex that I got to see Montessori in practice in the home. I always saw things happening in the classroom, but it is reassuring to know that the lessons learned at school actually carry on over into practical use at home. I have many examples of this happening with Alex but a few of the ones that stick out in my mind are him helping with laundry and hanging clothes on hangers properly. The other night one of his shirts fell off the hanger and he actually went and fixed it. He has always loved to wash windows in our house but now he will notice that they are dirty and go get the squeegee to clean them. He loves to teach me lessons when he gets home from school and he always makes sure I have a mat to put my work on. He is so quick to correct any mistake that I make. He loves to do his homework which could be table washing or tracing numbers.

Toothless

With Jay away right now I am constantly looking for ways to entertain Alex. While shopping at Walmart yesterday I came across a Toothless (from How to Train a Dragon) costume on major sale -$2.99 - unfortunately they only had a 8-10 Robust (that is really what the package said) so I figured it would definitely not fit Alex but it would probably fit me-why not eh? I think I might be comparable to a robust eight year old??? Right???

Literally the first words out of Alex's mouth every morning are either "Can we play lost kitty?" or "Can we play Toothless and Hiccup and you be Toothless". There is no easing out of a deep sleep gently in this house, it is straight to the role playing games. So this morning it was the latter of the two morning questions and my costume idea gets to put into play. I sneak into the bathroom to change into my costume and as he is slaying dragons in the living room out comes Toothless aka Mama. I wish I had a camera to catch is expression-PRICELESS. He was completely floored that Toothless was standing in his living room. We had a ball playing this morning, just wish Daddy was here to play the part of the zippleback dragon.

Toothless is his absolutely favourite character right now and right before him there he was!! Bonus points for mum today. The costume was a little tight therefore no full body picture, that and my camera screen is broken so it is always a bit of a guesstimate when taking pictures.

Pluto

As I lay in bed beside Alex tonight he asked me if Pluto was very far away. I told him that it was VERY far away. He then told me that he loved me to Pluto and back. Just what I needed to hear after a very hard week with my shoulder. They never cease to amaze, surprise and delight...do they! And double bonus he is in bed and asleep before 6 o'clock, won't be so fun tomorrow morning but for now I will enjoy.

Halloween-Texas Style

David and Amy's Wedding Pictures

These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures that were taken. It was a beautiful Scottish wedding complete with rain and an overcast sky.

Turning Four

Alex turned 4 on October 24th. What an event. Grandma even got to fly in all the way from Canada for the big event. This is Alex's How to Train Your Dragon cake, made by my good friend Sheila. She did a fantastic job, I know it took her a long time but Toothless' face came out so cute, it looked just like him. Alex loved it. We celebrated his birthday with his friends at The Cedar Rock Railroad in Leander. We had a bagel and donut breakfast and then all walked over to the train. I didn't realize that the train tunnel was decorated for Halloween with some pretty scary characters, I think some of the little ones got a fright!

Birthday Montessori Style

After 10 years of celebrating hundreds of my students' birthdays over the years with many walks around the sun it was finally my turn to watch as Alexander got to celebrate his fourth birthday in his Montessori Casa Room. We were lucky to have Grandma Annie and Daddy both here to witness Alex's walk. In a Montessori class a birthday celebration consists of the child bringing in pictures of themselves at each year of their life and then they do a walk around the sun which is in the middle of the room, one rotation for every year of life, just like how the earth really does rotate around the sun once a year. I always had the older children say one important event that took place for every year, but the younger ones show their pictures. Alex had one of the senior students guide him around the sun as it was his first time participating in the birthday celebration at school. These are pictures of Alex and I at his celebration holding the sandpaper globe.

My Marathon Delivered

On October 17th, 2010 I ran the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque in a very respectable 4 hours and 11 minutes exactly. I can now call myself a marathoner, I am a member of the club and it took me only about 12 hours after the race to put the sticker on my car. When you run that far (without stopping) you do get bragging rights. There is a saying that goes something like this...At mile 18 you wonder what the #%@# you were running for, but at mile 26.2 the answer is perfectly clear. That pretty much sums up my marathon experience.

I can't say that running a marathon had been a huge goal of mine for a long time since I only started running less than 2 years ago, but since i started running it has always been in the not so back of mind. I guess I kind of always thought that there is no possible way I could ever do something like that. Well after 6 half marathons, 3 10k, and probably about 20 5k's it became clear that I was ready to tackle the big one. It seemed fitting that the Duke City marathon would be the one, seeing as that is where my little family grew and since my first marathon was run for Jay and Alex the decision was clear.

I can't even begin to describe the overwhelming amount of emotions that I went through during those 26 miles. From tears of pain to tears of happiness sometimes all in a one mile distance. Despite running with thousands of people, it at times is an extremely lonely and quiet road. The first half everyone is talking and happy and some even singing, but when you reach that turn around and the pain starts to set in and the pace slows down...everyone's mood changes including mine...which is a big deal for me because everyone always comments on my smile when I run. I was not smiling after mile 18. Your body thinks you should be done but you know you still have over 8 miles to go. I just kept thinking one step in front of the other, one mile at a time, no walking, no walking, no walking. Although my mood did change I did manage to thank every single person that cheered me or gave me water. All the water stops were manned by military people, I told one young soldier that he rocked for giving me water and he replied "No, you rock mam".

Since it was an out and back course you could see the winners on their way back while I was still trudging to get to the turnaround. Yes, very impressive to see their pace, and stride etc. but what impressed me more was seeing the people who were obviously struggling for various reasons (some even puking on the side) but not giving up. Seeing people of all shapes, ages and sizes and running for ALL sorts of reasons. I was passed by people twice my age and conversely I passed people half my age. You just never know what someone is capable of. Sometimes I just wanted to ask them why they were running but they would probably think I was crazy.

I just looked at the marathon pictures took by the professional photographers on the courses and I look so happy, I always seek them out and pose, I think I actually stopped at one of the photography stops and asked him how the picture turned out. I wasn't going to run a mile and have a shitty picture to show for it. No, I am not vain at all :)

A Beautiful Scottish Wedding

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Complete with drizzle and an overcast sky, not to mention tears! David and Amy were married September 25th in London at Elsie Perrin Estates. It was an absolutely gorgeous ceremony and party afterward. Everything was perfect and truly fit their personality. The photographer is in the process of sending out the professional shots but in the meantime here are a few teasers. Unfortunately I don't have one of David and Amy together but they did look fantastic.

Hugh and Ina

No Ballingall wedding is complete without Uncle Hugh and Ina, who came all the way from Scotland!! Troos and all! On one morning outing Sarah and I took them to an Indian Village in London. Beautiful morning!

Rehearsal Dinner

Friday night my mum hosted the rehearsal dinner for Dave and Amy's wedding party. Lots of fun and great food!!

Hockey Night in London

It was very excited to be able to see an NHL game in little old London, Ontario. My mum graciously paid of all of us to go see the Philadelphia Flyers play the Toronto Maple Leafs at the John Labatt Center in London a couple of nights before the wedding. It was Hugh and Ina's first and probably last game and an exciting night for Alex to see his first NHL game (he has been to many other hockey games but not of this calibre). Sarah hosted dinner before hand and then we all walked down to the John. What a game it was too! Ended in shoot out and the Leafs won but very nail biting near the end, which I did not see because Alex wanted to explore!

Cousins at the Park

Gibbons Park! This is a favourite haunt for all of us. After the race we took the kids down to the park and they got to feed the ducks and play in their favourite tree. Can you see them in there??