Two!!!

So just over a week ago Amelia tuned two!!! The actual day was spent at Jeff’s grandfather’s funeral and then in the car driving back to Toronto but Amelia was defiantly not forgotten. On Thursday night we went out for dinner and Grandmama and Pake ordered Amelia a bowl of ice cream with whip cream and chocolate sauce, a strawberry and a candle on top. Amelia was in her glory!  She still hasn’t stoped talking about everyone singing Happy Birthday to her. She did get an ice cream headache halfway through her shovelling and had to stop, I asked her if she wanted the strawberry instead to which she responded by getting mad at me for even suggesting it. I made the mistake of thinking she didn’t want the strawberry and I ate it, what a mistake that was the screams began as I started chewing and she tried to stick her finger in my mouth to retrieve it but I didn’t realise and I chopped her finger (just to add insult to injury).  It was all quite horrible (and more than alittle funny). The kind waitress was nice enough to bring Amelia a new little bowl full of strawberries, but I continued to get glares. The other day (almost a week after the incident) I was changing Amelia in the morning and Amelia looked at me frowned and said “Mommy, take my strawberry, bad mommy” I had a hard time not bursting out laughing.

Last Saturday afternoon we had Amelia’s birthday party. After only getting back on Friday night, it was abit nuts getting ready for it but everything got done. We had family and some friends over for a late lunch and Amelia had a great time opening her presents. I must admit this wasn’t really a real kids birthday party, she just had her one friend Ronan over (we also happen to be very good friends with his parents J After the present were opened and cake was served we all headed out to the backyard and sat in the sun drinking beer and enjoying one of the first beautiful weekends of the summer. Amelia and Ronan were treated to the first opening of the sand box. They both took full advantage of the lax rule and were both covered in sand. Amelia also ate enough sand to give her insides a good exfoliation. Everyone left around 7:30 and we decided to give Amelia a bath (due to the sandboxing) and we were treated to the biggest meltdown I have ever seen, she was screaming so much she was having trouble breathing. I think all the excitement and activity caught up with her.  After a good snuggle she calmed down and requested her bed, she was done before her head hit the pillow.

This past week has been pretty busy, Jeff was really busy at work and had to work late. I was trying to get some exercise and get some other little errands done. Friday night Heather and Adam hosted our soccer team “kick”-off party. It turned into quite the party and we didn’t get home till midnight. One of the great things about going to parties at Heather’s is we can go with no worries about Amelia, she had a playpen there, she has one of her Hanks and there are tons of toys, in fact when we get there she struts around like she owns the place.

Saturday, Amelia and I went up to Humber nurseries with John, Denise, Bill and Betty while Jeff and Damon went to the first home game for the Toronto FC soccer team.   Mia and Pake had a great time exploring the nursery while I wondered totally overwhelmed by all the plants, luckily we had green thumb Betty with us who gave me lots of advice. Saterday evening I had my gourmet group at my place for a South Pacific feast and more laughs and drinks. Andrea, Jess, Julie and I had lots of laughs but again it was a late night and I was exhausted. Amelia treated Jeff and I to a wonderful sleep in the next morning and we actually didn’t get woken up till 8am and didn’t get out of bed till 9am. Julie had stayed over the night before so we all had breakfast.  After breakfast Jeff and I started landscaping/gardening, it was a stunning day and we got a tons done. Sunday evening we went out for dinner with John and Denise when home. I intended to have a very early night but I was foiled by wet sheets to put in the dryer and the new instalment of ROME that Julie just gave us, so addicted.

 In other news, my bestfriend, Kath out in Vancouver had a baby girl on Sat evening. Her husband, Ahren, called Saturday with the good news.  SO EXCITING!!! Mackenzie Shea Britton weighted in at 7lbs 2oz.

COMING & GOING

Another crazy week going so far.  Monday, I went off to scenic London (the one in Ontario, not the good one) to present a paper at the WEAO conference.  Went just fine – I managed to stir up a bit of a “storm” over designing odour control systems to obtain chemical removal v. odour removal… yes, it was a ridiculous and lame as I make it out to be.  Nonetheless, I got a pretty good reception all told and am pretty chuffed with the whole thing.  So, I get home, Alicia greets me with a hug & kiss and says “your Grandpapa died”.

[blink]

Well, that sucks, he was a good guy and I loved him lots – this is my Mom’s dad, btw.  He joins my other blood-related Grandpa (the venerable SuperPake) on the sidelines, they have passed away within three weeks of each other.  Crazy.  We’re off to Cornwall/Embrun Thursday and Friday for the services – flying out on our $4 Air Canada flight to Ottawa.  I’m not all that broken up frankly, he had a good run (he was 90) and in fairness wasn’t engaged in much of a high-falutin’ lifestyle in recent years.  Lots of sitting and sleeping.  So, hopefully he’s in a better place, and our thoughts are with my Mom, Aunt Nicole and Uncle Claude who are surely hurting at this time.  I expect a good booze-up on Thursday night and Friday afternoon post/during lunch.

So, anyhow, we come back Friday evening, of course on Saturday afternoon, we have Amelia’s second birthday party to host.  I can’t think of a better way to shake off the bereavement blues than to do it up with a cake shaped like an ice cream cone and crêpe-paper decorations.  The last few nights Alicia and I have been sorting out as many of the details as we can in advance, should be fairly simple but its a fair logistical challenge given that we’re away the two days prior.  We don’t have many kids coming, I think only Ronan from down the street, but we still expect something like 20 peeps (ish) so there will need to be a full fridge of drinks and a bbq chock-a-block with salted cured meats.  Woop!

Anyways, if you need to reach us over the next few days, you’re essentially screwed.  Otherwise, we’ll be back with photos and tales of wild revelry (associated with the party, not the funeral) sometime next week.

The 30th Birthday Extravaganza!!

What a good but busy weekend.  I wasn’t really excited about anything birthday related this past week, I wasn’t upset about getting older or anything I was just in abit of a grumpy mood, I think it is the horribly crappy un-springy type weather. Anyways Danielle, my friend from work, decided to ignore/brave my foul mood and took me out for lunch on Friday.  We had a very yummy lunch at Baton Rouge, I indulged and had a burger and fries.  By the time we got back from lunch I had a smile on my face and by 3:30 with the help of some count down emails from friends I was doing a count down of my own and I was bouncing off the walls… 

 

My truly wonderful mom took Amelia for us for the night and Heather, Adam, Leigh, Rob, Jeff and I all trucked off to Roncie for an evening of drinkies and nibbles. We met up with Danielle and Rory at the pub and the drinks and beers started flowing.  After my big wine booze up and subsequent hangover from the weekend before I was abit hesitant to drink too, much to everyone’s shagrin. Lots of other friends trickled in as the evening went on and we all had lots of fun and laughs. Later in the evening, Heather and/or Leigh decided that we all MUST go to the extremely dodgy bar up the road for karaoke, for all of those that are groaning in their heads right now, yup it was painful and Adam was kind enough to capture it for posterity. OUCH! The bar was SUPER dodge!!  But it had its appeals, I bet my friend Andrea $3 to go and talk to this slightly dodgy looking guy at the bar but she also had to put her arm around him during the course of the conversation, hee hee hee. She did and she was even enticed (much to her chagrin, into a very full contact arm pulled out of the socket dance…) Yes I know we are going to hell but at least I will have lots of friends there to keep me company.

 

We got home around 3am, the next morning I was very tired but other wise not that bad.  We managed to get up, showered and picked Amelia up by 10am.

 

In the afternoon, Heather, mom and I went shopping at Sherway. I was hot and in the mood to actually buy myself some clothes. With the help of Mom, Heather and this very nice Banana Republic sales guy I ended up spending way too much but got a really nice outfit and a cute dress for my summer weddings, yippee!!!

 

Saturday night, again we were neglectful parents and again my mom and Deep stepped into the void, yippee for Mini and Topo. Jeff took me out to the UBER yummy restaurant, Rain, yumm yumm yumm. We had lots of yummy food and good chats, I have such a wonderful husband!

 

Sunday, after groceries we headed out to John and Jen’s for lunch and a catch up. I haven’t seen John, Jen or the girls in awhile and it was very nice to catch up.  While the guys went downstairs under the guise of watching the girls (really watching the hockey game), Jen and I stayed upstairs and “watched” the most chilled out baby ever, Claire.  As Jen said we had very deep and important conversations about the probability of another Big Brother season and what monsters our children are.

 

To polish the weekend off we had Sunday dinner at my mom’s with the usual suspects.  Daryl got a smoker and we had smoked chicken, it was SMOKIN’ J We headed home and I was in bed by 9pm.

 

Today Jeff is off to present a paper at a conference down in London and I am trying to get back into work although I am feeling light a few brain cells.

 

Now in Amelia news, my daughters latest is that when she is mad at me she tells me “Mommy, evil. Evil Mommy” this is rather disconcerting, and apparently it is only me that is evil cause Jeff never gets it… hrumph. This past week at daycare St. Heather, Patron saint of crazy two year olds, decided to do full on finger painting with the 5 monsters, I could explain but I think the pictures tell the story….

  

Not much else new in Amelia’s life but she is primed and ready with her “Happy Birffday to Mia!!!” I can’t believe she will be 2 on Friday!  I think she is going to grab hold of this birthday thing and run with it.

The Rules of Play Doh and Other Stories

So Amelia’s personality has been cruising along these days, this is mostly because she is constantly talking (except when strangers are over, then she clams up).  She is up to 5 and 6 word sentences (I never really thought about counting the number of words but one day it struck me what a missive sentence she just strung together and I counted). She is also picking up more French these days. After a couple days with Denise, I now wonder if she is speaking jiggerish or I am just not getting the French.  I asked her what I was wearing on my ears the other day and she looked at me smiled and said “boucles d’oreilles!”.

 

She also has a pretty good little memory, she will easily recount the rules of play doh when asked “Rule 1” – NO eating!!! “Rule 2” – Sit on your bum, YEAH for Heather and the Rules of Play Doh.  Heather has very strict Play Doh rules… Amelia was on the Play Doh black list for a couple days after a rather nasty incident where Amelia decided to sample her freshly made “pancake”…  

 

The other day I came home from a run, Amelia was playing away and ran over and said “good run mommy? Want water?” When I said yes, she ran off into the kitchen and goes “Daddy, mommy want water”, I thought it was pretty funny.

 

Oh Amelia has started this new thing that somewhat vexs me but I also find hard not to laugh when she does it, she stands on her books or toy, puts her arms out and shouts Ta-Da, I have no clue where this comes from…

 

Easter was nice, we didn’t do chocolate this year and for the most part the grandparents refrained as well and stuff to stuff bunnies and chicks, which works for me.  To make up for the lack of chocolates there was two nights of chocolate cake, first my birthday cake then Easter dessert, Amelia was abit buzzed J I must say I was abit of an Easter scrooge this year and didn’t do much for it, but Heather made up for it before she left and on Tuesday they decorated egg cookies, dyed eggs and had a little Easter egg hunt.

 This weekend is my official birthday celebration, with much mystery planning by my husband. The week after is Amelia’s birthday extravaganza! Ta-Da she is Two!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words… right???

OKay so I know I have been remise in my posts, and I even have lots to say just no time to write but well here are a bunch of pictures.

 This Saturday night my family had a suprise birthday party for me, 30 is almost here… My grandfather and my brother both came down to suprise me. I have such a wonderful family!!!! Amelia dressed for the occation with her new sunnies from Cindy and Claude and her ever present mardigras style necklaces.

Wednesday and Thursday Heather was away so Denise and John had Amelia.  This is John teaching Amelia to blow over the tower.

I’ll write more later…

Googly Goggles

Amelia took a liking to John’s special ballistic grade bike goggles last night. We are such proud parents.