Coo-Coo Bananas

The title not only refers to our schedules but also a new addition to Amelia’s vocabulary. The other morning I said that “Jeff was going…” then I paused for a second and Amelia looked up at me and said “CooCoo Bananas?”, I laughed. 

Work has been very busy lately and so have weeknight evenings so I have been abit of a slacker on the posts recently, I know… Well in an attempt to turn over a new leaf here is a prompt Monday post.  

This past week was pretty good, Saturday Jeff had his annual half swing classic with the guys from waterloo so Amelia and I had the day together to prepare our family entry for the Pulled Pork Cook-off.  Yes that’s right the first annual pulled-pork cookoff, baby com’on! We have been talking about this since the winter when Heather and Adam first met my parents and they discovered a mutual love for smoking… Jeff and I became involved because well we are always up for a cooking challenge. There were 5 entants in all (my parents, ours, our friend Rob, aka the Funky Pigeon, Adam and Heather’s), we had a number of judges and it was a very close call but Jeff and I reigned supreme and are now proud owners of a plastic pink pig which is proudly (aka don’t know what else to do with it) displayed on our counter. We think the next cook off might be chilli. Amelia and Ronan also attended the cook-off and due to some very lax parenting actually enjoyed the party right up until about 11pm oops J Sunday was a quiet day after the excitement of the day before, we took Amelia for the Yuppie walk in the park after which she demanded to go home and go to bed (see previous sentence). In the afternoon John, Denise, Jeff, Amelia* and I helped my parents empty the contents of their main floor in preparation for the floor sanding and painting. For awhile there it looked like a really upscale yard sale…  

Friday night this weekend was quiet and the three of us had dinner out in the backyard and relaxed. Amelia loves dinners in the backyard as Jeff and I give up on rules and let her wander around while she eats checking out plants and just generally being a goof. Saturday was rainy and we went for a run, did some groceries and some cooking. Saturday morning I made play doh with her which she thought was pretty great, I took the time to make her three different colours, pink, purple and orange, by Sunday morning 90% of them were mixed together into one greyish ball, BAH!!!  oh well. In the evening Julie stayed with Amelia and Jeff and I went to our friends Dani and Rory’s for dinner followed by the Toronto FC game (soccer).  It was a ton of fun and much beer was consumed

Sunday we went down to Kennsington Market with Julie and sampled come tasty treats for her food challenge that she write for the Torontoist. There were many yummy savoury snacks consumed but the Trini Doubles and the Chinese BBQ pork bun were our favs, Amelia’s as well.

The rest of Sunday was spent canning tomatoes, it was abit of an experiment that I am not sure I would do again but it was fun to try.  We ended up with about 20 bottle of crushed tomatoes all ready for a winter of tomato sauce or nuclear war   (As I am now re-reading my post I realise what cooking/food losers were are… it isn’t usually like this we just seem to have gone through a run of food related activies and well yeah we are food geeks….)

 Amelia is doing well, she is very articulate these days, this morning when I put clothes on her that she thought less of she told me in a very clear voice “Mommy you are mean, don’t do that”, ah two year olds I frequently call her a goofball but she seemed to get it abit mixed up and started telling me she wasn’t a “gooseball” so now it is our family joke to see who the “gooseball” is, plus there are two levels of gooseball according to Amelia, there is a mini gooseball, which Amelia prefers and a giant gooseball which Amelia gets very offended if we call her. Jeff and I are usually deemed giant gooseball while she is a mini gooseball.  

Tomorrow night is the last night of soccer for this year L Amelia has come to almost all the games and she has been named the Superfan of the season.  I must say in past seasons, it was abit of pain bring her and in the first season it actually kind of stressed me out and I would constantly have half an eye on the sidelines and half on the game.  This year Amelia has been really good, she loves coming and plays on the sideline with whoever is off, even in the pouring rain she has been perfectly happy, Jeff and I have both been really proud of her. Amelia really wants to play soccer she has informed me that when she plays she wants red shoes.

 *maybe not so much help as set on the couch on the front lawn playing stickers.

THREE WEEKS OF ALARMING ABNORMALITY

Apparantly, my wife, who used to write this post (before she became a career-driven ladder-climber) just realized that nobody’s posted anything on the site in a while, so it lands in my lap, the lowly husband with the golden pen… er… keyboard.

July 22-28
The week following Adam & Heather’s wedding was good one.  As the newlywed were so selfishly enjoying each other’s company in the sunny happy land of Jamaïque, it fell to us to mind the wee one.  Thus, I took Monday and Tuesday off.  These were clearly the highlights of Amelia’s week, as she was left to roam virtually unsupervised while I sat partially comatose on the basement floor.  A great deal of effort was expended in pulling back the reins of discipline, left relatively loose after a weekend with Wendy & Daryl.  Beyond that, Mealie continued to be a good kid and continues the practice of pooping sunshine and sneezing wildflowers.  Wednesday and Thursday, Heather’s Brazilian helpe Larissa took the reins, chez nous, and did a great job of re-instilling some of the Small World songs and routines back into Mealie’s brain.  Friday, Alicia took over and the week came to a spectacular end, with Amelia re-pronounced as “our” kid and back to a normal life.

That weekend, our marvelous and lovely and supremely talented friend Dr. Jen Weeks from Adelaide, SA, Australia graced us with a weekend visit, fresh from the sunny confines of Minnesota (the “gee whiz it’s a gopher” state).  Alicia and JWee were like peas and carrots again, prompting much shopping and laughing and general mirth.  Amelia and JWee got on quite nicely and clearly JWee’s experiences with a marvelous child (Violet is ~2 weeks older than Meals) and mentally unstable husband (Cam (who is incidentally a super guy) can be seen here, fifth from the left with the beard http://www.bobneil.com/gallery.cfm?mode=viewImageMode&id=C442C6B4-9964-400C-B59D6B493614FA84).  We had a great time with Jen and it was genuinely sad to see her head off… actually I personally didn’t as I went to go check out TFC v. Chicago (boo to that game) but there was a great deal of ‘wasn’t that nice’ and ‘let’s move back’ talk in the days after her departure.

July 29-Aug 4
This week marked the Tuesday return of Hezzie and boy, she was Jamakin something crazy.  Tanned and looking marvelous as always, Adam and Heather were all smiles, and Hez was sporting the cornrow hairstyle which you don’t see much of at Kenora weddings.  That said, it was great to have her back – we have come to really love Adam and Heather and we miss when we don’t have our daily chitchats and weekend/weeknight boozeups.  We had lots of fun rehashing the joys of Table 10 and Kenora and generally getting caught up.  Meals was back in fine form from the off, and of course was a perfect angel and never once pulled any of her daycare mates’ eyelids. 

The long weekend, we did a few things.  One, we went up to scenic Honey Harbour to spend time on the boat of our English pallies Dave and Fiona.  Dave is notable in that he roots for Newcastle United (as do I) and being a marvelous guy with a fondness for mocking his wife (which I share).  We had a sweet day in the sun and Meals was on fire in the boat and in the water, swimming around in her little vest and enjoying the windy time on the boat.  She had a MASSIVE poo blow-out which was washed away in the cleansing waters of uh… lake Muskoka (?), heads up to the people near that uh… island, the one with the turtle.  It’s a bit less pristine.  Sunday, I went off again to see TFC (this time LA and Mr. Beckham) while Alicia did it up with Daryl & Wendy and Adam & Heather.

Aug 5-11
This was the week of the jubilant return of Grandmaman and Pake, fresh from their 3-week retired-persons-river-cruise of the Danube.  Excellent.  They were very missed especially by Mealie, but we were in constant touch via Pake’s Blackberry, in that regard we didn’t hear too many new stories.  The rough picture count was in the thousands, however.  Heads up those who visit – bring your looking eyes.  The return of Pake & Grandmaman prompted some serious make-up time, starting almost straight away with Meals going over Friday night while Alicia and I went with the crew (well crewS, actually) to Beerfest at Fort York.  Yay!  This was a tad hard to recall, for some reason, but suffice to say everyone was very responsible and there was talk of cabbies taking amazing routes and shortcuts from Fort York to Whelan’s Pub.  Oh, and Adam plays the spoons… he has the bruises to prove it.

Which bring us to this week, and so far so good, nothing major.

Mealie-specific updates:
- Amelia likes to eat cereal, in particular Whole Grain Cheerios (aka “Chilios” (yes that’s an L)).
- Amelia likes the “idea” of potty training, just not the execution.  She likes the wearing of underpants, the flushing of toilets and the praise associated with that whole thing, but alas, the holding and the scheduled releasing, less so.  The battle continues.
- Amelia’s eating habits continue to evolve, while JWee was over, she ate an entire lemon, which is amazing and mind-boggling and kinda scary.  I think she’s been born with a minor brain-wiring issue associated with taste.

- Amelia loves her some soccer.  Actually, Amelia likes to come watch our Tuesday night games, which involve loose parenting, fruits and snacks, attention from people she doesn’t really know, and late bedtimes.  What’s not to love.  That said, she behaves herself very well (last night was another good one) and deserves to come, except that she’s adan monster the next day, short of sleep.  Alas!

Otherwise, things are good and the world is settling down from peak summer craziness.  The temperature is more manageable and sleeping weather recently is back to ‘excellent’, which means we all wake up with happy faces for the mostpart.  Success!