The Plumpus and the Umpus

A few videos and a picture.....

First we have Iain (with a slightly stuffed nose), demonstrating the use of and describing his new hot glue gun instrument.

Next we have Ria playing the piano, one of those low-brow non-hot glue gun project instruments.

Finally, and most cutely, here is Iain as an Autumn leaf at his class's tree show. There's an overly long video too, and if you visit us here at our house i'll play it for you!

Sleeping, Hiking, Dancing

A few more cute pictures from January:

Ria falling asleep on the couch after a bath:

A family hike:
And Ria mid-twirl with her flashing slippers:

Some New Year Sibling Fun

Ria got a cool playdough octopus set, that both kids adore:

Iain built the full menagerie from the set:

Ria also enjoyed the box, of course:

And here they play with gifts from Christmases past.....Iain showing Ria how to color in the shapes.

Playing with Christmas gifts in the New Year

For Christmas, some of the special gifts Ria received from family and friends were a new dolly (this one is "Baby Dolly", to differentiate it from "Dolly"), and a stroller to push the dollies in. Oh, my, but she's a girl! (By the way, she refuses to wear a jacket outside unless it has a hood to pull up over her head. I don't know why. Our little red riding hood!)


Iain's big gift from William and I was a new bike, as he has outgrown his 12" frame bike. This one is a 16" frame, and we had it delivered with the chain/cranks/pedals removed so that he is starting with it as a balance bike. At first he was quite disturbed, but on his 2nd day trying, after a few adjustments to seat height, he started getting the hang of it.

At this point he's figured out the balancing bit, but he doesn't quite get the bit where you run along the ground, so he needs to start from a slight rise or hill. Have a look at our balancing boy!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year from the Aker-Ruck clan!


I have a single New Years Resolution: erm, instead of holding off on new posts until i finish up all my back dated posts....I will instead continue on in the present, and when i do a back-dated post i'll let you all know about it with a currently dated post. Eventually I'll get the half done post from Vancouver done, and the 2 birthday posts, and the 2 or 3 posts with really cute pictures and videos from Kindergarten, and the halloweeen posts done! ARGH!

On New Years Eve, I asked Iain what he liked best about 2008, and he said that he liked school best! (So far, so good ;-). He is very excited to be going back to school tomorrow.

Have a lovely 2009!