Pictures!

Some pics of our finished front yard, there are sitll some odds and ends to do but for the most part all done!!  yipee!!! 

A pic from our trip to teh zoo this past weekend!!  Amelia liked the elephants, as usual I liked the hippos and this time low and be hold I actaully saw them MOVE!!!

Amelia ready for her day at daycare, the purse is a requirement every morning but she knows now that it must stay in that car when we get to Heather’s, this was a battle that I FINALLY won.

Happy Daddy’s Day!!!

Hello all! With summer here life has been busy and our days and nights are packed (something I think my husband thinks I go over board on this but well must make the most of it seeing as we live in Canada and don’t get that much summer). This past week has been hectic.  Last Friday night we intended to have a nice quiet family night but instead turned into a family night of pulling crab grass from our front dirt pile (aka our front lawn) in preparation for our sod delivery the next day. That’s right!! Saturday was sod day, and we now have grass!!!! yipeee!!!  Saturday morning we started bright and early getting the rest of the crab grass that had explode on our front yard over the last couple weeks, while Amelia was given free rein in the car…  yes, for all of you who are picking up the phone and preparing to dial child services right now, let me give you the full list of parental offences so you can make a complete report…. Amelia got to go in the car, with some of her toys, at first there was just some innocent playing on the front seat then she got in the drivers seat and there was many trips to the grape store and the cookie store, then she discovered the maps and the change drawer and that is when things started to fall apart, this morning Jeff discovered a dime in one of our vents…. She was actually VERY good in the car for about an hour, we were right there so she gave us a running dialogue on what she was up to.  All the fun ended though then I looked in on her and she had managed to get into the back seat and was picking up the windshield washer fluid, EEEPPPP!!! 

Anyways, our sod arrived and Amelia had her traditional Saturday morning nap (Saturday’s she always seems alittle wiped so she frequently crashes in the morning) and Jeff and I got all the sod in by about 2ish. I have pictures on the camera but I haven’t uploaded them yet. Saturday afternoon/evening our friends Dave and Fiona came over for dinner and stayed over.  It was great seeing them and so exciting to hear about all their baby plans, Fiona is due in December.

The next morning we all went out for a Father’s Day breakie/brunch and then Jeff headed off to an FC soccer game, while Meals and I headed home and I did some planting in the front while Amelia napped. Sunday late afternoon we all headed out to John and Denise’s for a swim and a lovely father’s day dinner. 

This week has continued to be busy but not as crazy as past weeks. Last night Jeff had work soccer and I had spinning (last class before the summer) so Adam agreed to watch Amelia for me for the hour while Mom, Deep, Heather and I went off to spinning. Adam and Amelia seemed to have a great time cause when they met up with us after the class she had a HUGE grin on her face and she announced to us all that she had a “Bar-Fly” cookie, my mom was abit taken aback (because her mind was already on the cold beer waiting at home) but we did sort her out with the correct Amelia translation of “butterfly” cookie.

Amelia quirky sense of humour continues to keep us entertained but the morning debates over clothing continue to drive me up the wall, I am not even trying to enforce my outfits, I put on what she asks most of the time and I still catch sh*t for it. Ugh!!! This morning was tantrumless thank goodness, she was even very happy with me because as I was putting her shoes on I called her Cinderella, which she thought was pretty fantastic she pranced around for 10mins going “Cinderella, Cinderella”. The other morning was not so good and Amelia was mad at me for something and was in full blown hysterics which I was ignoring, after a couple minutes she calmed down and came over to me and patted me on the leg and said “That’s okay mommy, I’m okay”, I wasn’t really worried but I did have a good grin to myself on the inside when she said it.

A few weeks ago we were driving and Amelia wanted a song so I threw in the her Raffi CD and put on this one song, since that day Amelia has decided that is her song and every time we get in the car she requests “my song mommy, my song”. 

Amelia favourite phrases these days (or at least the ones she uses frequently and we get a kick out of) are “kind like”, “or something” eg. “hmm daddy can I have a graham cracker hmm… or something…”, “sooo cute” eg. “Lucas, the baby at the park, so cute mommy, so cute”, “love it” eg. flipping though a magazine pointing at random things going “love it, love it”… yeah.

Oh Amelia also has an overwhelming fear of Jeff “starting” the wheelbarrow, seems she seems to have the wheelbarrow and the lawnmower abit mixed up…

Can’t think of much else, she still has an addiction to play doh of which making pancakes is her favourite play doh past time. She is a big fan of going pretend shopping, frequently for grapes or cookies. The sandbox is a pretty big hit this summer, she likes making “oatmeal coffees” for us in this mini plastic flowerpot she has. She has recently learned that she doesn’t have to stand around the edge of her sandbox and she can actually sit in it, which she now takes full advantage of…

Recovering…

Well I am back from my weekend away and I returned to a happy Amelia and Jeff, both seemed quite happy to seem me, which is always nice, but none the worse for wear. I had a great time at my cousin’s wedding, related wedding events and then doing some site-seeing with the fam. The drive down was quite long but there were lots of good sites. On the way down we stopped in Gettysburg which was quite a site and on the Sunday before we headed home we went into Washington and checked out the capital.

 The Friday night before the wedding was a reception for all the family in town at a local brew house.  My cousin Brian and I, as we tend to do when we get together, got into our usual mischief and end up closing the place at 2am, I didn’t get much done the next day
The start of the mischief…  

The wedding was tons of fun, Melissa looked beautiful and then venue and decorations etc were stunning. One of the highlights of the weekend for me was dancing to Boney M with all my aunts and cousins, Boney M was my grandmother’s fav and we have all heard on the Rivers of Babylon enough to know every word. Growing up my extend family were all very close and we used to all spend our summers together at my grandparents place on the lake outside of Montreal. Now that we have all kind of scattered over the continent we don’t see each other as much, so it was wonderful to all be together again!! 

Well as I was saying I came back to a happy family and a clean house, which was very nice. Last week was abit hectic with the usual sports on and such and we didn’t have much time to recoup cause our weekend was filled too. To add to the insanity Amelia decided to start biting her daycare mate Edward on Tuesday, bah!!! Her and Edward have kind of had it out for each other for the last while and Edward has given her some good chomps in the past but apparently Amelia decided to retaliate.  Not the nicest email to receive, Amelia is now in intensive biting therapy. She has been nicknamed “piranha”.

On Thursday, Saint Heather, Queen of the Toddlers, took the kids over to Centre Island for the day. Most of the other mom’s were going along but as I had just got back I couldn’t really take more time off. I felt kind of guilty cause Amelia wouldn’t have her own personal guardian for the day but in the end after a mention of the outing to John and Denise, Amelia ended up with two, a very attentive Grandmama and The Pakarazzi. From the sounds of it, although it was rather exhausting for all involved, the kids did love it, the highlight I think in Amelia’s mind was seeing “Franklin” and his house. Franklin was fed some woodchips and given many hugs.

Saturday morning Jeff and Rory took our friend Adam for a mini stag which involved a round a golf and a wet lunch (wetter for some than others). Amelia and I did some errands and had some playtime in the sand box. In the afternoon Jeff and I switched and I went to Heather’s shower and Jeff was on Mealie duty. In the evening we all met up again for a post shower BBQ and beers at Heather and Adam’s. Amelia came along and was pleased to have full reign over all the backyard daycare toys J

Sunday morning, Jeff, Amelia and I did our version of Sunday brunch (breakfast), which involves driving into Bloor west and parking, walking to one of the bakeries to pick up muffins and then hitting Starbucks for drinks.  We then take out goodies and go for a walk around High Park with stops at the playground and the little zoo, where Amelia says “Good Morning, ____” to all the animals.  Her current favourite animal in the Bison which Amelia and Jeff like to call by its Latin name “Bison Bison” (said with a faux French accent).  After wishing all the animals a good day we headed home while Meals had a nap and Jeff and I did chores. In the afternoon we headed back to Heather and Adam’s for a daycare party with all the other families.  Heather truly is a class act, not only did she willingly sacrifice her Sunday to entertain our monsters and us all but she also arranged to have her mom and Adam’s family come and all our extended families. It was really nice to see all the people that are important in all our friends lives. Another thing we got to see is Amelia and Edwards mini war first hand as they went and scrapped it out in the “alley” aka the path beside the fence, over some sunscreen. Bah!! Amelia is also showing some classic signs of only child-dom with some sharing issues, bah bah!! She is now in intensive biting AND sharing therapy J

After the daycare party we headed off to John and Denise’s for a relax by the pool and a swim for Amelia and I. John and Denise were away for the weekend in Embrun, so sat around with them and caught up on all the goings on with Jeff’s family in eastern Ontario.

This week has been another busy one with stuff on Monday night and soccer last night.

 Now in Amelia news, other than what was covered above…  Although she is showing some true signs of toddlerhood which is requiring some slightly more intensive parenting on our part, she is also getting much better at expressing herself and letting us know what she is after.  She is cracking out some huge sentences now and even using past and present tense. Her memory is what is amazing me these days, she recalls things from weeks before that I just don’t except her to remember. I told her on the weekend that Grandmama and Pake went to see Claude and Cindy and she ask “See big fishy?”, I wasn’t sure what she was talking about but after some probing she told me “Big fishy, stuck to the glass, going suck suck” Sure enough this was the big sucker fish that Claude and Cindy have in a fish tank at their place that Amelia was transfixed with when we were there a few months ago for Denise’s dad’s funeral. She also talks non-stop about Emma and Leah since their birthday party “Emma’s sippy is this ____colour, Leah’s is this___” “Went through the tube at Emma and Leah’s” and “Baby Claire cute, yeah very cute”.  She is also big on telling me that things are cute or that she “loves it”. My last Amelia story is this… so a couple of the other daycare mom’s are pregnant right now, quite pregnant, so at daycare Heather has been talking about the kids getting little baby brother and sisters. Amelia has informed me that she would like one too and she thinks she is getting one cause she pats my boobs and says “baby”, it is slightly embarrassing that my daughter is confusing my well endowedness with a preggo belly but when it comes from her it makes me laugh. I think Amelia is going to be abit disappointed when her daycare buddies babies arrive and she is still left patting my boobs J

SUBSTITUTE ZOOKEEPER

This past weekend, Alicia was out in scenic Washington, DC for the happyfun wedding of one of our favourite people of all time: Cousin Melissa.  As I am saving up my vacation time in order to stage a faux cross-country walk to bilk money from charitable morons, I was not able to go and thus was able to give Alicia a well-deserved weekend off from the rigours of Mealie-duty.  Wendy & Daryl’s beloved kitty Baz came to stay with us so there was thrice the feline joy for the entire weekend.  Greatsuccess!Friday afternoon, my parent’s picked Meals up and I joined them in Mississauga for dinner and max-relaxing with Juju.  I am just now getting over my massive sinus infection, this was in full swing on Friday though and thus I was pretty ginger about my antics.  Amelia had a great evening playing with playdoh and colouring with 100 crayons and generally being little missy artsycraftsy.   I followed Meals to bed sometime around 9.30ish (yes, late night).

We stayed overnight and Saturday morning enjoyed some world-famous* Pake’s Pannekoeken, the thin Dutch pancakes that are best known for being ideally consumed rolled-up with bacon, cheese and syrup.  Baby come on!  During the morning I went off to get my med’cine from the doctor and Meals had more playtime, followed by a swim with freshly-drugged-up Dad before lunch.  After lunch, Meals went for a nap and I joined up with Andy, Kiersten and Robin for some TFC action at venerable BMO Field.  For those who have yet to go experience this, do so.  It’s the goodness, I swear.  In addition to the good value there are these $12 beers that are the size of a small turkey and are great thirst quenchers.  A 2-1 sunsoaked win later, I trundled home, bundled Mealie up (after she’d been up, played and had dinner) and headed back home.   Meals played for a while while the hockey game got going and I had a bite, then it was bedtime for Meals and then for me (at 4-3 in the 2nd period).

Sunday was really the only full Daddy-Mealie day, we got up early, had a bit of a snooze in our bed (Meals was missing Mommy and asked several times where she was and why she had forsaken her).  Then, up for breakfast, then some happyfun gardening time out back for me and sandbox time for Mealie.  Early nap and then off to John & Jen’s house for the big Twin Birthday Extraveganza for Emma and Leah.  As per usual, John and Jen did it up proper with a big play house outside (complete with Great Escape Tunnel and trippable doorway) along with hers & hers (they are twins, remember) Dora cakes and a 10:1 camera-to-birthdaygirl ratio of Emma- and Leah-razzi.  Mealie was very shy at first, she clung for dear life to me for about 15min, then loosened up when she saw there were strawberries and then a switch flipped about 10min later and it was all “byebyeDaddy” and “Daddyhelpmewithmyshoooos” – lots of full-on playtime and carrying on.  Meals was pretty well behaved and only thrice requested in advance that Emma and Leah share their cake with her, which is very polite and frankly hillarious.  We had a lovely time and stumbled off about 3h later.  Then it was time for an early supper of bbq chops and yellow beans (which Mealie helped to clean, by trying to remove the tops and then chucking them into the pot out of frustration) and salad (for me) or couscous (for Meals).  Then it started to rain so we went inside, watched the rain with some serious interest for about 10 min and then it was time for a bath, some reading and puzzles, and then bed by 7.30.

Not having spent a ton of time with Meals just on my own, it was pretty fun to be around her, she’s really getting her politeness under control (once you remind her) and is also – I think – getting pretty manipulative with it.  Asking lots of things like:

- Daddy, wannaplease play with meeeeeeee
- Daddy, can you share with meeeee (usually if I am eating something she wants)
- Daddy, play puzzles with meeee, pleeeeease
Also, Mealie was quick to play the love card this weekend, among other things she j’accused me after I insisted upon her trying on her new bathing suit that “no love you anymore daddy” which would never actually hurt (as I have only a heart of low-grade steel) but its funny enough to see how much she didn’t like that swimsuit.

Otherwise, things were good.  Baz settled in nicely by about Saturday/Sunday and the cats are thick as thieves breaking rules and attacking inanimate objects like the diaper genie (a major Basil antagonist) and the play tent.  Having said all that, we’re all super glad to have Alicia home and are reminded just how wonderful and special she is. 

* – not world-famous, in fact, they are barely famous in all circles but John’s 1-man circle of fame; they are however still delicious