Dexter's Balls

Got your attention with that one, didn't I?

Well, I finished Dexter's walls. Here are the two next steps:

After blocking out the shapes, as per my last post, I then started to do the first couple coats of colour and the balls began to take shape.

Soccer ball and hockey puck.


Basketball and football.


Baseball.


Turn your head 90 degrees counter clockwise and you'll see the start of the tennis ball and golf ball.


Now, the next step involved the details (and later some shading to the best of my non-artist abilities) that made the balls look more obvious.

This was my first attempt at the golf ball. This was before I had actually gone on the internet to look at some images of golf balls to assist me. I thought I could just put a bunch of circles on there. What was I thinking?

At this point, my sister saw and agreed that this must be redone. She also informed me that I was missing a volleyball in all of my images. I may feel the need to still do a volleyball.

And then, I redid the golf ball.

The golf ball... she's not bad, eh? It's like a quote from one of my favourite movies of all time... "Clueless" when Cher, reassuring her friend of another girl's not-so-great-looks, says, "She's like a full on Monet.... From far away it looks good, see? But up close, it's a big ol' mess."

That's my golf ball. I venture to say it looks almost real in this pic. I was really quite proud. But if you were to walk up close, you'd be thinking, "What the @#$%## is that?'

There's some highlighting on the tennis ball, but I'm thinking it's not really showing up in the photo.


The soccer ball. Again, some attempts at some highlighting. S'alright.

The basketball, and only a portion of the finished football. And it's too bad because the shading on the football was one of my faves.

The baseball.


So, it's out with the babyish room for Dexter and in with the 'boyish room'. This won't need to be repainted until Dexter says, "Mommy, I want to have _____ on my walls now".






Tuesday -

You know the routine. I have Erica's kids on Tuesdays.
I guess I didn't take any pics of AJ and Jack that day, but here's a funny snipit of convo from AJ and Jack that day.

Now, I need to give you the background information. Whilst at the dollar store the day before, I picked up AJ and Dexter these little helicopters whose propellery things spin when you ride the copter along a surface, and a guitar each. AJ and Dex had a ball with these toys. I had warned AJ to remember that these are dollar store toys and they break really easily and to not be upset if they don't even last until the end of the day.

Dexter broke one of the guitars in about an hour. He went a little 'metal' on it if you know what I mean.

So, the next day, when Jack arrived and AJ was eager to show his pal his new toys, he said, "But Jack.... these are dollar store toys and they will probably break soon. So don't be sad."

Oh they had so much fun with those helicopters.

And then...

So funny.

Jack comes to me, looking a little worried, and he's holding one of my brother's old toys which is a "Venom" (the bad Spiderman) motorcycle, and the windshield is broken. He's holding the bike in one hand and the windshield in the other. He brings them to me and says, "Ummmm, Auntie Sonja. Is this a dollar store toy?"

lol.

I said, "No, but don't you worry about that. It was old. Really old. That was just an accident."

Here are a few pics of later that evening when the boys were 'riding' their hockey sticks and yelling, "Yee haw" down the hall.


I'm always amazed at how shiny my floors look in pictures. You'd think I was scrubbing them down every day or something. I'm not. Believe me, I'm not.


AJ reaching to turn on the bathroom light that he still cannot reach.


This next pic... I had asked AJ to grab me something from the diaper bag. I meant the little camo one that I take out daily when I'm with the boys on outings. But he heaved on the 'daycare or overnight' diaper bag which probably weighs more than he does!









Wednesday

This was my work day. I had a great day, as usual. Working one day a week will do that to you. :)

Kim had watched the kids all day after staying over the night before. She's so nice, she even stays for bath time to help out. Thanks Kim!!!!

This was the result of AJ calling me over to see the 'castle' he made. Those are my pink polka-dot boots, by the way, not his.




Thursday

Erica had my boys today. I headed in to work in the morning to finish making my Science test for my microscope unit. In the afternoon, I went grocery shopping, kidless, which, in my opinion, is the only way to grocery shop.

Not much to say except that the boys and I played hard this night. There was some major wrestling going on (Gotta make up for Richard being away right now).



Friday

I went out to hit some sales to pick up a couple Christmas gifts, and once we were home, we were real homebodies the rest of the day. I was determined to finish the painting of the balls.

That night, I had somewhat of a " girls' night in ". I was talking that evening to my job-share partner, Andrea, who only lives a couple blocks away. We were talking about the painting of Dexter's room, I had mentioned she could pop by anytime to see (as she's thinking it might be fun to paint some polka-dots on her daughters' walls), and our conversation (which was now nearing an hour long) turned into Andrea heading over to my place at around 10:30pm.

At about 12:45am, Andrea and I finally finished our girls' night in, and she headed home. It was like I had just come home from a party! How exciting!




Saturday - Today

Mom, Kim, and Paul came over today. Just for a nice hang out. Well, of course, my mom washed down my counters while she was here too. Thanks mom!

The boys got some major playtime in with everyone.

After naps, Kim and Paul watched the boys while my mom and I headed to Costco to pick up some jeans for Richard and then to pick him up some pretzels. Thanks Kin and Paul!

Another thank you to my dad who 'braved' a Christmas-present-purchasing errand to Canadian Tire for me today to pick up the toys that shockingly weren't in stock at my local Canadian Tire the first day of the sale! Thanks Grand-Dan!




Sunday - Tomorrow

The plan tomorrow is to have the boys and I visit with Richard at my dad's house. I'll let the boys have their nap in the car, we'll pick up Richard from the Cancer Lodge, head to my dad's, visit, order in some dinner, and then I'll drop Richard back off at the Cancer Lodge as the boys fall asleep for bedtime in the car. I'll transfer them to bed once I get home, and all should be good. We can't wait to see Daddy!



Richard

Well, there's no sense in telling you about how Richard's doing because he's been writing all the details every day in his blog .

But I will you tell you this. I miss him. The boys miss him too. But, it's all good. Richard is hopefully going to benefit from being away from any illnesses we may be bringing into the house. I talk to Richard anywhere from twice to five times a day depending. Today we talked a few times to set up our plans for tomorrow and so he could give me his 'list' of things he wanted me to bring with me tomorrow.

He's sounding pretty good. The hemmorhoids are only just beginning. I so hope that they aren't as bad as last time. That was just horrible. He was in so much pain and so uncomfortable. Poor guy.

I'll give him lots of hugs and kisses tomorrow.




I had stuff to write about the boys today, but it's 11pm and I'm getting tired. So, I'll stop here, and hopefully update again tomorrow, maybe with pics of Richard and the boys if I remember to bring the camera.

Down One, Up Two, and Painting

I called Jen last night to say that I really didn't feel like taking AJ to gymnastics Monday (today). I just wanted to schlump around the house. I offered that in trade for her taking AJ, I could take her two, Emerson and Jaxon. While the three babies played, I got a little bit of my kitchen tidied up and some laundry done.






When Jen came back to get Emerson and Jaxon, she offered to take AJ for a playdate. Woo hoo! Okay! That meant that I could really get some stuff done and spend some good time with just Dexter too.

While Dexter ate his lunch, I got out the power sander and started sanding down the 'babyish-and-too-much-pink' pictures on his walls. After he was done lunch, he came and joined me.



We read some stories and played some 'horsey', and then I started the next step....

Painting over the crazy farm animals.

I've been trying to think of what I could paint on the walls that would enable me to keep the grass and the sky. I wasn't interested in totally redoing Dexter's room. I didn't want to do anything too big as I'm hoping in a year or so, he may have an opinion about what his room theme is, like maybe,.... dinosaurs. Which I would've done now except that he's really been afraid of 'scary' things lately.

While walking through Winners last week, I found a growth chart with footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, and baseballs flying through the air. I had already been thinking about a sports theme anyhow.

When Dexter woke from his nap, I finished painting blue over the animals, a second coat. Then, later, after picking up AJ from Jen's house, when the boys were eating dinner, I escaped down the hall to start drawing and then 'blocking out' the ball images that I'll paint on the walls, probably on Thursday.

This picture will be a tennis ball and a golf ball.



This will be a puck. Hence the non-perfect circle. It'll be a little 3-D. But it's not really 'feeling' quite right.

This will be a football on the left and a soccer ball on the right.
And finally, on the left will be baseball and on the right will be a basketball.

So, that's what we did today.



But more importantly!!!!

Richard had his last day of chemo today! He's been keeping the blog up to date. He seemed not-too-bad when I talked to him earlier. And when I got off the phone with him around 7:45pm tonight, he seemed not-too-bad and in pretty good spirits!

I'll talk to him again tonight and let you know if anything's changed.

Tomorrow, AJ had preschool and Rya and Jack will be here for the day.

Bye Bye Daddy, Hello Grand-Dan

What a beautiful day! And for so many reasons!

Firstly, it was gorgeous.
Secondly, I got to go out and get my coffee all by myself this morning.
Thirdly, Richard was feeling better this morning (but not 'good') than he was last night.
Fourthly, we had a great time at an awesome park with Grand-Dan (my dad).
Fifthly, the boys went to bed at their normal old times now that the time change has happened. 7pm and 8pm. Nice!!!! I've got to be a good mommy and not keep AJ up too late.

However, sadly, we drove Daddy back to the Cancer Lodge to drop off his stuff, and then we dropped him off at the hospital. We miss you already, Richard/Daddy!

After dropping off Richard, the boys and I headed to Richmond to meet my dad at the playground beside the South Arm Comm. Centre. I had never taken the boys there before, but it's the park at which my dad and AJ went bike riding a few months ago.

We realized my dad hadn't seen the boys in over a month and a half. When he came back from his super long business trip and he took Richard and I for lunch, my mom had the kids overnight, so he didn't see them. And that was about a month ago! Time flies.



So, this great playground...


There was this playground that was a giant sandbox. The boys only stepped in here momentarily.


There was this little structure.
Dexter had some fun on that.

There was this little train.
Both the boys enjoyed this.
And these ride on thingies.
He was going nuts on the motorbike!




There was this AWESOME castle.


The had a great time in the castle, and returned later for more fun in there. Although, the fun was put on hold when AJ bonked his head inside the cement tube when he stood up too fast.



There was this great playstructure.


They had lots of fun over here.
Especially above this tunnel that AJ and my dad are about to walk through. It's somewhat of a bridge that's attached to the playstructure. It's also beside a giant hill that has a winding path around it that the boys kept wanting to run down.

The playstructure is also beside this set of crazy monkey bars that the boys had their afternoon snack next too.As you can see, AJ didn't want to stay for the snack. He must've seen something more exciting.

We brought Grand-Dan some Hallowe'en treats. This picture was taken right before Dexter accidentally dumped his snacks on the ground. I scooped them back up, much to my father's horror. Evidently, he's never heard of the "5 second rule".

Seriously. He said, "What's the five second rule?"

Can you believe that?


Of course, there were swings.






Now yes, this one was blurry, but it just looked neat. And it and the one below this, really show how much Dexter just likes to hang off the front of the swing.


Mmmmmm, public swings...... tasty!
Now where's that H1N1 vaccine?


And the piece de resistance? (is that how I should spell it?)



This mommy-era metal airplane. Imaginations can go wild. I love structures like this. I want this in my backyard so badly.



Funny stuff.
AJ said some funny stuff today, but it's 10:30pm and I just don't feel like typing anymore. I just wanted to get these playground pics up for Daddy (Richard), and Grand-Dan.