I swear these are only from today!

We were outside coasting tonight & she was admiring her shadow before we came in. While she was telling me how BIG it was, I made a monster shape and growled, pretending to envelope her shadow:
"Oh MY GOD, Mamaidh! You just about scared the BeJeezus out of me!!!"


Then after her bath a little while ago, I braided her hair in preparation for swimming lessons tomorrow. Once I finished, she had to go to the bathroom to check them out in the full length mirror. While "checking them out", she stepped closer to the mirror, ran her fingers over a small section of hair & asked me:
"You don't think I'm getting any white hair there, do you?!"

Lol - that's 2 snippets of one day with Brenley ;)

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.

Randoms forgotten at the end of 2009

Kyle & Brenley are putting the nativity set together...

K: "Ok....Brenley, show me how this thing goes together... where do people belong in the set?"
B:"Wellllllllllllll............ ok"
K: "Like, what about the ass...."
B: "What the hell is an ass?"
K: " A donkey."
B: "Oh ok then..."

and it proceeded....

----------------------------------------------
Helly asks Brenley:

"Do you ever get sick of watching tv?"
"No... I get sick of lots of other things like breakfast & shopping,
but I never get sick of watching tv!"

the phone got passed to me... and Helly & I had a great chuckle!

-----------------------------------------

"Um, Mamaidh..."

while we're listening to some kind of music on the radio in the truck,

"If you listen closely, you can hear that that guy is NOT rockin'
out!" WTF!??!

(and there were some others to do with bathrooming... body parts, etc. but we're gonna keep those out of the public domain! LOL)

It's not always easy, but she can certainly find the silver lining... intentional or not

Well, the start of 2010 has been kind of trying for all of us.
Kyle's uncle, Wally, passed away from a short battle with cancer.
Brenley was pretty close to "Uncle Wally" -- they had a love of nature, especially berries. Every summer Wally would pick copious amounts of blueberries, strawberries and raspberries for Brenley; sometimes more than once a day!

So, although Brenley has been to wakes before, this was her first real experience with death.

Have no fear, though... her usual charm shone through!

When I got the call that Wally had died, I told Brenley right away.

"Brenley, Uncle Wally died today. He's gone to Heaven."
"What does that mean?"
Ma says, "He went to sleep forever"
Brenley: "Well, I guess Sandra is going to have to pick me berries
now!"

Later in the day, she asked me...

"Um, do you think anyone, like, checked with Wally to make sure he
wasn't going to wake up?"

Then, after the funeral, she was still trying to process things.
We explained that we were going to a "party" at the firehall after the funeral to help say goodbye to Wally.

"It's not another prayer party, is it?" (hee hee
hee)

Then, while laying in bed with me the afternoon after the funeral she asks:

"Um, Mamaidh, can I ask you something?"
"yeaah"
"Um... how the hell did they ever fit Wally in that little box?"
(he was cremated)

So then I was left trying to explain cremation to her and I tried to explain that Wally's heart & soul went to heaven, etc. She wasn't really understanding me or I wasn't making sense. So, annoyed she turns to me and says,

"Um, do you think if I asked that guy saying the prayers at the front of
the church [priest], he'd be able to tell me?!??!"

Nonetheless, the sting of Wally passing away is still here. Just tonight she popped outside without us seeing her. We only heard her come in. So, Kyle asked her what she was doing outside:

"I was feeling sad & missing Wally, so I went outside to see if I could
see any stars winking at me..." (Kyle told her that with Wally in heaven, a
blinking star would be him winking at her.)

Rest in peace, Wally.

and it continues...

While watching a cartoon where kids were being mean:
"If I was on there... I would have to get real mean and kick their arses right off... yeah, I would!"

==========================

Brenley & I were at Shoppers last night and I was looking all around for a very specific item; and I WAS taking a pretty long time, I'll admit. She kept wandering away from me picking things up (that were quite expensive) saying, "I wanna get this, I wanna get this" which was only prolonging the whole ordeal. So, anyway, I found her a Hannah Montana lip gloss to shut her up and keep her quiet & with me for the few more minutes I had to look. So, in the cosmetics section, I'm looking very carefully everywhere... and I hear from about 10 feet away: "UGH. WOULD YOU JUST PAY FOR THIS FWIGGIN' THING SO WE CAN GET OUT OF HERE?!?!?" LOL

================

And, today as I set up my new Little People Nativity set (YAY! I've always wanted one!) I was explaining to her the whole idea behind the Nativity set & Christmas (big religious moment -- LOL) and she says, "So one of these guys is Jesus Mary & Joseph that you say sometimes?" (oops)
http://www.viewpoints.com/images/review/2007/355/12/1198262901-31635_full.jpg

My letter to Santa this year:

3563 Long Island Rd.
Barrachois, NS, B1Y 3N3

December 1, 2009

Dear Santa,

It’s nice to see you when you come to my house. I am going to have cookies & chocolate milk and I hope you bring lots of toys for me.

I would like you to bring Hungry Hippos, if you still have them. (I got it last year, but didn’t play with it, so we gave it to a family who lost everything in a fire. Now I want it again.) And a Barbie. I want a Hannah Montana doll with a stage that lights up; you could probably steal that from a store, or even pay for it. I saw it in the store. And I even want a ring – not like a fake one, just a beautiful one, a sparkly one. And I want a key for my race car. Oh, and I want a race car… like a real race car. But I’m just kidding. (laughs)

Madden is my little guy, my brother. He’s a little guy who poops a lot. He wants a Hannah Montana doll, too. No, I’m just being a silly girl. Madden would probably like a race car, too.

I’m a good girl sometimes, will you get mad at me if I’m bad sometimes? It’s hard to be good all the time because my Mamaidh & Dadaidh get cross at me sometimes because I don’t listen. I will try so much to be good.

I don’t want anything else, that’s a lot of stuff… too much stuff. Some surprises would be nice, too, please. (He’ll be happy if I say ‘please’.) I’m going to go to bed at 8:30 on Christmas Eve.

You have a great journey, Santa. Thank you.

Love,




Brenley Gillis, 4 years old

If it's in the cat, it's in the kitten?

Just last night...

We caught Madden headin'er up the basement stairs... drivin'er climbing them. (His first time, too)

Anyway... I ran and got him & said "You little bugger" and Brenley says....

"Jesus Mary asked Joseph!"

LOL Thought I was going to pee my pants!

Hello out there, we're on the air...

It's no secret that we like hockey in this house. Brenley's been going to the Eagles games since she was 3 weeks old. (Same for Madden) So, while it was quite funny, I wasn't so surprised to hear this come out of her mouth:

"Those referees at the Eagles, they need your glasses sometimes, I think. and you know, I have my skates in the truck [when we're at the games], so I could go on the ice and show them. LIke I wouldn't give anyone ANY penalties!"

This season also marked Robert Slaney moving on to the AHL with the Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs farm team). So, Brenley has been pondering whether she should have a new favourite player or not.

One Saturday I surprised her by taking her to the library for a reading session some Screaming Eagles. She was quite shy at first (and pleasantly surprised) but by the end of the hour, she had made a new "buddy" in Francis Meilleur (who was so patient with her!) and she had a HUGE break through in allowing a high five from goalie, Chris Holden (she was scared of goalies up til this point) and even allowed a picture with him!