Although I have been rather lax on my posting I thought this warranted a post even if it is kind of old news. I’m knocked up J  My due date is October 30, though after the gong show of Amelia’s delivery this time I am being pre-scheduled for a c-section, woop woop! It is all book in our calendars, Oct 17^th child removal, Oct 18^th start of the sleepless nights, fun fun! 

Amelia is somewhat excited; she has named the mystery thing in my tummy that makes me feel like hell “Jellybean Smartie”. Although she usually refers to it as a “he”, if asked she is rather adamant that it is to be a girl. I felt pretty horrible for the first trimester but now I am getting over it though I still have wicked headaches.  I felt like abit of a delinquent mom yesterday when I was sitting on the stair messaging my temples and then I popped a couple Tylenol, Amelia came and sat beside me and put her hand on my leg and asked “ Mommy, is Jellybean Smartie making your head hurt again?”.

Amelia is doing well though the transition to “school” has been abit hard on all of us. I think it has been a big adjustment for Amelia and she has become much more attached to Hank (her blanket), she used to have him when she went to bed but now he is getting dragged around the house and even makes it into the car (though there is still a firm no Hank during meals or out in public). These days she demands much more snuggle time with us which I think is because she isn’t getting all the snuggles that she used to get at Heather’s L

In other news Amelia is pretty much accident free these days and she is in underwear fulltime during the day, woop woop. We started trying to potty train her a long time ago but it was abit of a disaster, and she got frustrated and stubborn about it. For the last 4 or 5 months we had pretty much put it on the backburner and would take her to the potty when she wanted but we didn’t harass her. Then shortly after she started school I was talking to her teacher and I explained what had happened when we tried potty training last time and she said well if you want to bring in underwear we can try them out during the day. We did that and we haven’t really looked back, she had one day with two accidents at school and has had a couple accidents at home but other than that she has been really good. I guess there is defiantly something too “they will do it when they are ready”.

Today Amelia turned 3, whoa!!! I must say I am very proud of my little three year old, although we have our regular battles and fights, she really is a fantastic kid.

Today we had her birthday party and had for the first time I actaully invited her friends as well (yea I know she isnt’ the only growing up There were seven kids in all and triple the number of adults, it was pretty much mayhem but I think it went pretty well. Amelia had a good time, loved her pressies and gobbled her cake. Here is some of the photographic proof that the party occured.

(Jeff and I are both exhausted and I am now wondering if Amelia would notice if she didn’t have a birthday next year…hmmm…..)

In other news this past week Amelia finished up at Heather’s after almost two years and has started preschool. We were all sad to say goodbye to Small world but Amelia kept us all brave. Amelia was kind enough to let Heather down easy by telling her that she was a big girl now and had to go to big girl school but that she would still come visit Hezzie sometimes. By all reports Heather was quite pleased that Amelia took the time to have this little chat with her They still do get to see each other quite abit…  Amelia is enjoying her new school and is all that much happier as her old from Ronan from our neighborhood fam and Small World Daycare fam is also at the same school.

This one is from a week ago, Amelia was sick and enjoying some Treehouse at Grandmama and Pake’s

This one is actaully from last weekend but I jsut really like this pic.

Hey I know I have been a huge slacker, but everything has been pretty good. We had a great Christmas holiday. Amelia tired skiing (emphasis on tried) Although she liked the speed she didn’t like much else about it, she settled for tubing instead.

While out west we also held the beer olympics again, I can’t really remember who own but we all had a beerilious good time.

Post Christmas we spent a few days over on Salt Spring with my dad, Sarah and the fam, we even got to spend some time with my grandparents. Oh and Amelia and Jeff got to help build the fence…

Now we are back and it is backto life, although we were all thrilled to be back in our own beds it was hard to get back to work. We saw Heather the night after we got back and Amelia couldn’t stop giving her kisses and huges, it was rather cute, she was happy to be back.

Eeeep a whole month has come and gone and I have not made a single post.  Although it may seem like I have given up on this site it is not the case, it is just that I have been so busy at work that the thought of getting home and sitting back down at a computer makes my eyes water.

Anyways, the other benefit of not having written for a month is I have lots of backlog, so now where to begin….

The one thing I kept meaning to write about but keep forgetting is Amelia’s obsession with her Princess/Cinderella Beauty Purse. Amelia has always been into purses and awhile ago Jeff’s Aunt Cindy got her this lovely pink purse all over her own.  She has always loved this purse but in the last month she has become obsessed. The purse goes EVERYWHERE with Amelia, she tells use she needs it to carry her “Stuff”, yup that’s right her STUFF. Her stuff usually is composed of her cell phone (old phone of John and Denise’s that have been donated to Amelia’s cause), her MardiGras beads care of Heather and usually a few puzzles pieces or blocks… Amelia will not leave home without her purse but I will say she does know now that she must always leave her purse in the car when we get wherever we are going, so it isn’t too bad. We do find rather interesting things in our little pack rats purse, I have found our WORKING cell phone, a fair amount of change and Jeff’s client card… At least we know where to look now.

Amelia is also really into her books.  Other than her purse and the occasional My Little Pony reference she isn’t in to one particular marketing type thing which suits me fine but she has recently really gotten into few lines of books, Charlie and Lola (the home fav), Skippy John Jones and Moldy Locks (the two daycare favs). Amelia now likes to quote these books, I can pick up on the Charlie and Lola references but the other two we are left clueless on sometimes. The funniest are the Skippy John Jones references cause Skippy is a Siamese cat who wants to be a Chihuahua and Heather reads the books in a Spanish accent. On Sat morning, we were at the bank and we were talking to the personal banker guy and Jeff was bugging Amelia and she turned to him and said “Your killin’ me, Dude”… my eyes widened and I think I saw the banks eyebrows raise a fraction of an inch… It was a Skippy John Jones quote.  

Amelia has been pretty good these days, although potty training goes in fits and bursts and she has her hellion days for the most part she is pretty happy. She is also starting to catch on to cause and affect which Jeff and I have been trying to instil in her. Recently we have been giving her juice in the morning as a treat (she refers to it as her “sweets and treats”), last week though she didn’t get her juice cause she was being very naughty while was trying to get her dressed, she got mad at us for a couple seconds then calmed down and told us that she would be good tomorrow morning and she would get her juice, and she was. This morning she was putting up a fuss about putting on her socks, she didn’t want them on she got mad at me and we agreed to discuss it further when we got downstairs, once she was up on Jeff’s lap eating her morning snack and saw the glass of juice she turned to me and said “I get good now Mommy, can I have my socks on please…” I put them on then sure enough she asked for some juice.

For Halloween this year Amelia was a yellow fairy princess, it was a costume that my friend Kath gave to Liv’s daughter Emma a few years ago them Amelia got it. I decided it would make a good Halloween costume for Amelia, Amelia was pretty set on being (her words) “a princess with a purse on my arm, like this…” By the time Halloween rolled around we managed to convince her that it would be cool to be a fairy princess with a purse on her arm. She had a good Halloween, though she was very shy at times once we hooked up with her friend Ronan, who’s Halloween spirit was infectious, she perked up.

Amelia is also showing much more interest in our cats these days, she likes giving them love and like to pet them, I must say she is pretty gentle with them.

All else has been good, Jeff and I have both been extremely busy at work so we are abit dead in the evenings, Amelia however has been a ball of energy and even if we put her to bed at 8pm she frequently stays up singing in her bed or looking at her books until 9/9:30 ish… I think we are at the end of the naps, eep how I will miss them…

News flash! Amelia now sleeps in a big girl bed. This may not be the most up-to-date news seeing as we made the switch a week and a half ago and I am just behind on my posts. So yeah two weeks ago we decided that maybe it was time to move Amelia, all her other friends had moved into real beds but seeing as Amelia had never tried to get out of her crib we never bothered moving her. I pumped up the big girl bed for a couple days then last Sat for naptime we made the switch with no issues, she hasn’t looked back. I think I need to explain something cause there seems to be quite abit of confusion about what most people picture when I say big girl bed and what it actual is… we didn’t actually go out and get Amelia a new kid bed, we moved her into the spare bedroom which has an antique iron/brass spool bed, this bed is abit on the high side at about 3ft off the ground, so yeah between the massive bed and the fact that I have about 10 pillows on it she really does look like a little pea in her bed. Amelia is quite proud of her new room and last night when my friend Andrea came over for dinner Amelia informed he when she came in the door that she had a new big girl bed and then ask Andrea if she wanted to see.

I was abit worried about moving Amelia into a big bed cause I always liked the fact that she was contained but I have now seen that this new bed has big advantages too…

Advantage the First: Although she technically can get out because the bed is so high she doesn’t (well except once when she dropped a book then I got called over the monitor to help her back up).

Advantage the Second: Now she gets story time in bed and Jeff and I can sit or lie in bed with her, also she can keep books on the side table and read and her pleasure without demands on us for a new book. 

Advantage the Third: Weekend mornings we can get in her bed and continue to snooze instead of bring her into our room at which point she thinks its party time, ugh! (not cool at 6:30 on Sat morning)

Okay so that is the big Amelia news. Other than that it has been life as normal although with more whining and tantrums from Amelia, which yeah very annoying. Amelia is big on testing her limits these days, the big parenting issues these days are yelling (mostly just for no reason or because excited but sometimes at us, not cool), not saying please (bah!! Although she is very efficient with no thank you, particularly in this instance “Amelia here is some salad” “No thag-cue mommy”) and finally baby talk, very frustrating. 

The other night, I had had a very bad day at work and we decided to go out for sushi after work. Amelia was up to lots of mischief decided to start signing “Twinkle Twinkle” at the top of her lungs, FRUSTERATION!!!!

I know I am touching on a lot of the issues we are having with Amelia just cause they are at the for front of my mind at the moment but she is also full of hilarity. She loves goof around and then we start laughing, she looks at us and says “Mommy, you laughing at me?”.  She has started to work a lot of fairly impressive words into her vocabulary such as, impressive, interesting, Oh and not really impressive vocabulary but more strange is she has picked up a couple of Jeff’s latest (he is reading the Hornblower series) such as Capital! (said with an arm swing) and “Yo-Ho Maties”.

Where did summer go?  Although we are still getting some of this nice summer weather the nights and morning are definitely brisk. As much as I love summer am excited for the fall. WOOP WOOP!

For us the end of summer and beginning of fall is marked by the Taste of the Kingsway. We go every year and this year we recruited Heather, Adam, Dani and Rory along with us. This year we also were abit more organised and we organised our first ever real babysitter, mom’s friend’s son. It was a pretty cushy job in my mind as it only started at 7:30 and I put Amelia to be and Rene just had to watch TV, listen for her and give us a call if there were problems, which their weren’t. After sorting out Meals I dropped by our friends Mark and Jess’s kitchen warming party then returned to my Beer fuelled husband and friends at the Taste. It was good times.

The next morning was abit slower than it should have been but it was helped along by Julie and the Mac and Cheese challenge… http://torontoist.com/2007/09/the_great_toron_3.php

In the afternoon Amelia and Jeff bonded while Danielle and I headed downtown for abit of shopping/browsing. By all accounts there was much play-doh, colouring and fun to be had. Saturday night was blissfully lazy, Amelia played we lazed around, then watched Babel then bed. 

Sunday was cooking and cleaning and visiting with friends. My friends from uni, Liv and Andrea, stopped by for a quick visit then in the evening we headed out for dinner with John and Jen, we were both without kids, Ahhhh!!!  It was good times and lots of laughs, as we all share a similar sense of humour when it comes to kids, parenting and life in general. While we were out, Amelia stayed at home with my mom and Deep.  Amelia loves hang out with her grandparents and Sunday night was no exception, Amelia didn’t even come to the door to say goodbye to us just waved and yelled bye from the kitchen.

This week Amelia has been going through some growing pains at daycare, Hez inquired if Amelia had gone through some sort of torture training course over the weekend.  Poor Edward and little Hanna Banana are taking the brunt of Amelia’s foul mood. The last couple days she has been improving though so maybe she is over whatever she had going on in that head of hers.

Wednesday night, Amelia had her first of three weeks of Daddy and Me soccer (I forgot about registration for swimming and Amelia missed out so I felt guilty and hence the soccer). I thought it was going to be a joke, kids just running wild or picking grass but they actually did stuff, to my surprise Amelia actually joined in!!  It was pretty cute and I think Amelia was pretty pleased with herself.

So it was one year ago today that the Manny handed over the Amelia reigns to Hezza and the Small World Daycare.  I can’t believe it has only been a year because Heather and Adam have become such a big part of our life and Amelia’s.  We feel so lucky to have found Heather because she really does go above and beyond for all the kids in her program and for their families. We could not have asked for a better person to be looking after Amelia.  She does all these great trips and activities with her that I would probably never have the guts to take on. Amelia has learned and grown so much in the last year and has made some great friends. I look back now at all the agony I went through when we chose to put Amelia in daycare, if only I had known then what a great experience it would be for Amelia.  This morning another little girl started at Heather’s and she is just over a year, it made me smile and think back. If you can’t tell I am feeling abit sentimental this morning about the whole thing, if I am feeling this way now I am going to be a puddle on the first day of school, eeep!

Now on to other news… Ah Labour day weekend, the last long weekend of the summer, weep weep.  Labour days still seem abit bittersweet for me, even if I am no longer in school and don’t have the dread of going back today. None the less, we had a great long weekend. Friday night, Amelia and Mini hung out while Heather, Adam, Jeff and I went out for dinner. Saturday, Jeff and John went golfing while Julie, Denise, Amelia and I went for a walk in Streetsville. Saturday afternoon/evening Julie, Jeff, Amelia and I relaxed at our place, made pizza and then were joined by Dani and Rory and we all (Amelia excluded) had some drinks. Sunday afternoon we had an end of soccer season picnic on High Park and then attempted to go see A Mid Summers night Dream in the Park but alas it being closing night it was PACKED and there was only “EXTREME EXTREME” bad seating left. Monday we hung out the family went for a couple walks and then all went out for the pub for dinner where Amelia devoured milk and yam fries.  There really aren’t too many crazy stories from the weekend but really it was a rather prefect weekend with a good mix of friends, family, chores accomplished and relaxation.

I think Amelia enjoyed her weekend too.  On Sunday morning we pulled Amelia out of bed and attempted to have her nap with us, she had other plans and instead we ended up telling her stories which (as per her request) centre around a pink and a purple pony named Amelia and Macy (one too many My Little Pony books J). After she got bored with our stories she moved on to pulling everything out of her tickle trunk and giving us a show complete with tutu, curly blond wig and her fairy-okee wings and microphone, she was a sight.  On Saturday, we took Amelia swimming at John and Denise’s, she is getting more comfortable in the water, Jeff enjoyed throwing her in the air and catching her, sometimes he catches her before she goes under and sometimes not… she isn’t a big fan of going under but she doesn’t get upset with us when she does go under now.

This past week Amelia has also learned the act of teasing, mostly cause we tease her a lot. She used to get very upset with us and we would have to tell her we were joking and do a big sooth sooth, now though she looks at us and goes “Fibbing mommy, you fibbing”.

Okay one more Amelia story, this one is via Heather. Last Thursday, Hez and her new helper, Alicia, took the kids to High Park for the morning. Amelia did her traditional “Hi” to all the animals in the zoo, this time adding “Mister” too all the greeting.  After the zoo they did abit of a walk then they had to head up this big hill (agree I think it is a pretty massive hill for me too).  So Heather had them all walking up the hill and Amelia started up and shortly there after started huffing and puffing and going “WHY HEDDIE WHY!!!!” then turned around to her friend Macy and requested a hug… Apparently it took about 10 hugs to finally get Amelia up the hill. I think she is abit of a drama queen.

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.

 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.

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!

Hello people.  Sorry for the delays since the last post, it’s not a matter of disinterest, it’s more a reflection of the crazytimes that have gone on in the past while, namely the big two-week break for Adam & Heather, and the associated fun times that go with Small World Day Care being closed for business.

So, on the… 12th, Adam and Heather went off to Kenora, by car, with the doggiest of dogs Maddie, carting with them the prized frozen wedding cake layers.  That week, in lieu of shipping Meals off with them, Pake and Grandmaman stepped up and watched Meals for us during the day, with Patrick as bonus Mealie-peon.  I say that because Patrick and Mealie get on like peas and carrots, well, they would, if peas told carrots what to do and then carrots made a show of refusing for 10 seconds and then doing it anyhow.  Guess which one is Patrick in that arrangement.  Needless to say, Amelia had a great time - lots of swimming, a trip to the zoo, lots of play-doh and crayons and ice cream sharing.

This past weekend, Alicia and I were off in Kenora, with Grandmaman and Pake off to Europe for a well-deserved river cruise along with a hundred other retired couples, in the more traditional definition of “retired” (read: really really old).  As such, Mini and Topo stepped into the breach and watched Mealie while we went off carousing, causing 16-drink-minimum-esque trouble, and making fondant Inukshuks - big ups to Leigh & Rob and Rory & Dani for being marvelous travel companions.  By all accounts Mealie was a perfect little girl and was well behaved and enjoyed lots of playtime with Topo and Mini, as well as guest-spots by Jasper and Basil.  We came home to a well-rested and energetic monkey - we missed her lots.

 
This week is a bit more of a juggle, Meals got watched by Mr. Dad on Monday & Tuesday - we did lots of playing and a couple of nice trips, including a Bread & Roses excursion for a coffee w/ almond croissant for me and a ginger[bread] man for Meals.  Then off to the lake to look at the birds and play on the seesaw.  Fun times.  Larissa - Heather’s beloved Brazilian helper - is watch Meals today and tomorrow, before she goes back home to Brasilia (much to everyone’s dismay, we love Larissa and wish her and Rafael all the best).  Then Mrs. Mom takes over Friday and Monday of next week until Heather gets back from doing it up in Jamaica.

So far as Meal’s is going, not a whole heck of a lot is new.  She’s still trying to muscle everyone regarding her wants and generally will throw a bit of a spaz when you resist.  She and I have little talks now and then, it sometimes works but usually not.  That said, its generally confined to meal-time and dressing-time, we don’t have 14 pink dresses so she inevitable has a problem given that that’s all she wants to wear.  Its funny at times when you get her to admit that she’s breaking a rule or being a dork, but that doesn’t matter in terms of what she does the next time.  Alas!  She’s a cute as ever so that helps, probably makes it worse but what can you do.