The Birthdays

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of birthdays, starting with last weekend, when Bobbin's friend Miss E! turned 5 years old.

Many more photos from the event can be seen here.

Then this past weekend there were three more parties, one of which was Bobbin's own.

First up: On Saturday morning Bobbin attended the party of a school friend turning 5 as well. The party was at Pony Paradise and featured... you guessed it... pony rides and also a bouncy house!

Check out the rest of the festivities here.

Saturday afternoon we headed over to D&B's for Zed's 3rd birthday.

Lots more pictures of her super fun party here.

And finally on Sunday Bobbin had her 4 year birthday party with all of her best friends in attendance.

The morning started off with present discovery and gift unwrapping:

and then at noon, the guests arrived and the celebration really got underway :-)

And today... I'm taking the day off work and recovering from it all.

More pictures from Bobbin's party here

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Father's Day school picnic

The Piggyback Race:

The Three Legged Race:

The Balloon Head Race:

The Over and Under Race:

No preschoolers were (intentionally) harmed during filming of this event.

There was a pretty serious crash in the Piggyback race, resulting in some pretty gory blood on both knees and both elbows on the Dad and some traumatized hysteric crying by the preschooler who had been launched from the Dad's shoulders in the fall. And during the balloon head race, one of the girls' balloons popped while it was on her head. But thankfully neither of those involved Tim and Bobbin :-)

Sent from my mobile phone

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Translation for Grandma Anne and Grandpa Jerry

What follows is the typed version of the letter that Bobbin sent to Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. First I had her dictate to me and I took her words down verbatim in large printing with a yellow pencil crayon. Next she very maticulously traced over the words with a bunch of brightly coloured markets. The result is actually quite legible... As legible as my Grandpa Tom's handwriting was to his closest family members :-). In other words, Tim and I can read it no problem, but others may require just a smudge of help :-)

Anyway, it's on its way to you, Mom and Dad. The only two words I wrote for her were 'Dear' and 'Flower'. The rest is all her.

Dear Grandpa
and Grandma,

Thank you for
the dollars that
you did to me
and the flowers.
It made us glad.
Happy Easter.

Love, Robyn

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Because he can, is what the note said :-)

I love you, Tim and Bobbin! (oh, and hi back atcha, Chris! :-))

Sent from my mobile phone

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The Big Bash

Our friend Dave took some great photos at our New Year's Eve party that really captured the fun. Enjoy his slide show!

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Northwest Jr Pipe Band

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Merry Christmas!

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Santa's been here! Santa's been here!

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Grand Opening!

Ok friends and family, the guest room is NOW OPEN! Inaugural visit will be by my Mom and Dad, arriving on Monday. The rest of y'all are welcome to plan a visit any time after January 5th :)

See you soon, Mom and Dad!

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Close to done!

The construction of the guest bedroom downstairs is complete. 100%. All that remains is mud&tape, and then painting. Tim did the entire thing himself. Framed, constructed and erected the walls; installed the electrical - lights, switches; ran cable for TV, computer; cut and installed all of the sheet rock to the walls and ceiling and around the windows and doors; hung the doors; Added insulation in the couple of nooks that were missing it (most of the basement walls were insulated during original house construction, knowing that we'd be finishing out the basement later). The end result is a spacious, yet warm and cozy and well lit guest bedroom with lots of natural light coming in from the windows and french doors that open to the back yard. All in all, I think it's going to be quite lovely and comortable.

Tim and I each had a king size bed when we were dating and living in our separate abodes. After we got married, we never bothered to get rid of the extra one; just put it in storage. Now it'll go in the guest bedroom along with the 2nd set of bedroom furniture that we never bothered to get rid of either - a pine dresser and matching bedside table, a glider with footrest that I used to have in Robyn's room, our extra TV, carpeting, and the art that we still need to hang that didn't fit upstairs :-)

The mud & tape guy comes on Monday. By the end of next week it should be ready to start painting. It'll be done and ready in time for Mom and Dad's arrival Dec 22nd.

Don't worry Dad. We've got tonnes of other stuff to keep you busy even if we manage to finish up the painting before you get here. Have you ever reupholstered dining room chairs? I hear it's almost as much fun as painting ;-) And our house plants need some tender loving care after 3 years of neglect - pruning, fresh soil, bigger pots. And of course I'm looking forward to seeing what you can concoct in this kitchen of ours - as long as it isn't hotdogs, frozen meatballs, chicken nuggets, or mac & cheese :-)

Ok so for all our other friends and relatives out there - the room opens up for you after January 5th. Don't be shy - let us know when you're comin'!

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My first tag! Friendship Meme

Heard about it, read some of them, hoped for one. And now Cate at 18 Years and Counting has just granted my wish and tagged ME in her first meme. And so I, like her, I feel obligated to do make sure I do it. :)

1. Have you had the same friends since childhood?

No. That would be challenging. Being an "army brat", I moved around every 2-4 years since birth through to university, and then again from university to the grown up world of full time employment. I had one or two good friends every place I lived, but always lost touch. My one consistent friendship over the years has been with Eileen, with whom I went to high school for 4 years, then university for 4 years, and then she moved to Vancouver and I moved to Seattle so we see and call each other every so often (ok, like a couple times a year :-)). When we get together it's like lots around us has changed but we are still who we are. I still know her. She still knows me. True friendship. It's been 23 years, we've known each other. That's amazing. Since starting to blog and hang out on various social networking sites I've also been able to connect with some of my very closest high school friends that I had lost touch with after graduating. It's been nice to reconnect and hear about what's been happening in their lives, and see them succeeding with their careers, dreams, families!

2. What do you value most about your friends?

That they accept me for who I am, and that they are the most tolerant, respectful, open minded people that I know. And that they each have their own passions, interest and knowledge. Some of them overlap with mine, and some are different and it's fun to learn about those things. And I value that we're able to share experiences and issues and that they're there for me to listen to me and care about me, and would never think to judge me.

3. Are your friends your sounding boards?

Yes, most definitely. I try and spread the pain grief wealth around so as not to make anyone person completely insane. And I have a therapist for that really truly icky you're-damnedno-matter-what-you-say-or-dont-say stuff (y'all should definitely thank me for that ;-). And a husband, my very best friend, for when that stuff is even too much for me to say to my therapist (and he still loves me and wants to stay married to me :-)).

4. What is your favorite activity to share with your friends?

Eating, drinking wine, watching our kids play relatively indepedantly with each other with only occasional intervention needed.

So, here are my tags.... you're it, dorks!

My sis, Sarah, at saedigh.com. She knows my good, bad, and ugly. Oh boy, does she know my ugly. And hasn't used any of it against me. I love her so much!

Jen at Jen Frankel's Zugunruhe, My best friend in 9th grade, who got me hooked on Sci Fi and Fantasy books, and David Bowie, and got me through my worst year of high school ever: the first year. I did NOT want to move that summer, and she is the reason why. I connected up with her again just this year over the internet. Gotta love the internet!

Janel, at BugginYou.org where Buggin is Lovin'. A bouquet of flowers and a shit-for-brains ex-boyfriend brought us together. Our friendship lasted many years longer than the ex-boyfriend ever did. So did the Jesus Candle and the frozen Strawberry Daquari mixes. She's also the one who first introduced me to Tim, so I owe her my gratitude there :-)

DAE at noise-to-signal for being the friend that keeps the rest of us all coming together on Friday nights and for his beautiful art - both food and photography.

and of course, my husband Tim at crappymusic, for being my very best friend in the whole entire world, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, forever.

So I think all y'all that I listed have to something similar now on your blogs, if this is how it works. And spread the love and friendship even further!

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Gymnastics, Football, and Partying

That's what our weekend was all about.

Saturday morning gymnastics started out well enough but by the end, after having suffered several major bruises (to the ego and confidence moreso than the actual body, although that's bruised too :-)) she's decided she's going back to soccer. So good thing that I had my camera with me for what would end up being her last class (at least until she asks again ;-))

Then on Saturday we went to the football game

followed by Becky's Birthday Party (observed)

Lots more pictures of our weekend here!

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Zoo-mazing

We went to the Zoo today. We saw Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh BOY did we see bears!) Zebras, Gazelles, Tapirs, Elephants, Monkeys, Orangutans, Eagles, River Otters, Giraffes (we even fed them!) Elk, Mountain Goats, and a really big snake, among countless other animals. We started our adventure at 9:30am on a cool, overcast day - perfect time and weather for getting great glimpses of animals on the move, up close and personal. And Bobbin walked everywhere we went, which explains why she consumed the following throughout the day after having 6-pancakes (mini pancakes but still), 2-servings of oranges, a multi-vitamin gummi bear and 2 glasses of Watermelon juice for breakfast

- at least a dozen large strawberries
- 3 large slices of cheddar cheese
- 1 serving of watermelon
- half a baggie of cheese crackers
- 2 hotdogs (sans bun)
- 2 servings of large green seedless grapes
- half a dozen peeled baby carrots (raw)
- a serving of blueberries
- 1 and 1/2 cobs of corn
- 2 oz of "steak on a stick"
- several glasses of water

Talk about well balanced; I think we hit on all the food groups at least twice today and the only colour of the food rainbow we missed was purple.

She also had NO nap. At all. Up at 7am and didn't stop moving until 8pm. I ended up taking a nap but she opted to "play quietly in the living room with Daddy". Well, ok then.

So she's out like a light right now after having a bath, a story, and hitting the potty. Ooooh boy, I don't have to tell you that was not a pleasant aroma after all that stuff. I don't know if Bobbin did it or Tim did but I went back in a few minutes later and actually found the fan switched on!

I got my 30 minutes of exercise in on the elliptical; that's just the exercise I measured. I figure I got much more than that in actuality between the walk around the zoo, the rousing game of "EMERGENCY" Bobbin roped me into outside on her climber as we waited for dinner, and the breathless game of soccer we got into after that.

EMERGENCY was entirely of Bobbin's own making and entailed throwing Kitty off the top of her climber and yelling HELP HELP GET THE AMBULANCE CALL ONE ONE ONE" (she's still learning about 911 and doesn't always get the digits right). Then Bobbin would put her firefighter hat on (backwards; ie she'd wear it like a "baseball" hat) and slide down the slide yelling WOOOOoooooo WOOOOOooooo at the top of her lungs. Then she'd jump down from the bottom of the slide and, with hands making steering motions, would run at full speed around and around the climber and back field until she arrived at the injured party. She would scoop Kitty up and drive her back to the hospital at the top of the climber by climbing up the slide. There, she would take off her firefighter hat and become Doctor Bobbin and would get to work saving kitty's life by listening to her heart and breathing, giving her needles in her abdomen, checking her ears, and taking her temperature and blood pressure. Kitty was almost a goner there for a bit - her first temp reading on the Fisher-Price thermometer was 45, according to Doctor Bobbin. Her second one was thankfully, a much more reasonable 2 miles and Doctor Bobbin was visibly relieved to note the improvement. We're so glad Kitty finally came back to us. Alas, she'd recover only to get thrown off the top of the climber once again and have the whole scenario repeated. Sometimes the effort was a rescue attempt to get Kitty before the Dragons could breathe fire on her. Sometimes there was actually a fire and we all had to gather up at the top of the climber to escape the burning trees and destruction.

When the imagination games finally wound down, we played soccer up and down the hill, Bobbin doing most of the running as I was instructed not to try to take the ball away.

But it was all goodness. We had a great day. Zed and her parents joined us at the Zoo and Bobbin and Zed seemed to have so much fun together. Until we were in the cave in the Zoomazium and Bobbin was explaining to us that it was were Dinosaurs live; I asked without thinking, "Really? What sound do they make?" and Bobbin belted out a ROOOOAAAAARRRRRRRR that had me holding my ears in this enclosed little cavern, and that sent poor Zed into sobs of fright. Bobbin asked what happened when she saw Zed crying, and was quite concerned for her but I thought it best to just tell her that Zed was feeling tired and wanted to go home. Best not to reveal the fact to Bobbin that she has the power to scare other children with her monster scary godzilla voice. She doesn't need to have that knowledge yet.

After we got home and I napped, Uncle Rich arrived to help Tim with the wood that we finally got around to getting cut up into 2x4s from that tree that fell over 2 years ago. (We're a little slow :-), and he stayed for dinner. Then we had a rousing game of "Hungry Hungry Hippos". Bobbin explained the whole game to a patiently listening Uncle Rich, telling him which button to press when, and what you were supposed to do when the marbles were in the middle. Then Tim joined the fun, and I managed to catch a couple of pictures that I'll have to post later. She loves that game almost as much as her Elefun game from Aunt Patti and Uncle Les last year. What kid wouldn't love Elefun: a plastic elephant that blows little cloth butterflies out his plastic trunk as a fan spins in his butt. The kids run around with little butterfly nets trying to catch them. The one with the most butterflies wins, but we actually haven't gotten to the point of caring who wins. It's the act of playing that is the reward. Hungry Hungry Hippos has the same thing going on; who has the most marbles is not as much fun as all the silliness that ensues as your trying to get your hippo to make a grab for one, and pushing the buttons to release all the marbles at once!

Tomorrow it's back to work and back to school for all. Bobbin's supposed to move from "Early Preschool" to "Big Preschool". We'll see how it goes.

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Cousins

Jake, Stef and Baby K came to visit this weekend. The last time we saw them was back in mid January. Both K and Bobbin have grown since then. Here are a couple of photos of the two of them outside of one of Bobbin's favourite restaurants, courtesy of Stef!

Bobbin was great about sharing her toys; even offering up her very sacred and much-loved stuffed giraffe when she learned Cousin K shared her love of them.

Thanks for the visit, and for Bobbin's cool b-day gifts! Bobbin and I will be putting the cookbook to use in the coming weeks - we'll take photos of our creations when we do and post them here :-)

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Eye glasses and easter bunnies

Last week - exactly a week ago today - I was talking with my Dad, Bobbin's 'Grandpa Jerry', on the phone and he was telling me about how he had just spent 3 hours stuck in a storm in Port Dover. There's actually quite a bit more to that story, but it's not mine to tell :-) Bobbin was hearing only my side of the conversation but it was full of exclamations and she heard me say exciting words like "lightening" and "storm" and so she asked me what we were talking about. I summarized the story for her something like this:

"Well, Grandpa Jerry had to go to Port Dover. Do you remember Port Dover? It's the place that had the beach we went to, where Grandpa Jerry buried his feet in the sand" She nodded and added some detail to the memory, and then I went on "Well, Grandpa Jerry went there yesterday and a storm came in from the lake and it got really really windy and rainy and he was trapped there for a long time until the storm was over".

So today we're driving to the park this morning to have some fun and exercise, and out of the blue Bobbin asks "Mommy, why Grampa Jerry got stuck in the storm and he was trapped?"

The way she was asking I knew she had some mental picture of Grandpa Jerry, standing on the beach in the rain, his feet and legs encased in sand up to his knees making him literally stuck and trapped in on the beach in the storm as lightening flashed overhead, and thunder rumbled, and waves broke over the rocks, and the rain poured down on Grandpa Jerry's drenched head. Because that's what "stuck" and "trapped" means to Bobbin. It means physically not being capable of moving.

I clarified that what I really meant was that Grandpa was forced to sit in his car in Port Dover until the rain and wind stopped so that he could get home safely. He couldn't drive the car because there was so much wind and rain that he couldn't see. Of course, "couldn't see" to Bobbin means physically not being capable of seeing what is in front of you. And so she asked

"Why Grampa Jerry could not see? Was Grampa Jerry wearing his eye glasses?"

She must think we're all a bunch of idiots sometimes, with the mental images that our words create for her. Like Grandpa Jerry going off to the beach and burying his feet in the sand and then being stuck while it rained on him and then not being able to drive home because he lost his glasses. Geez, Grandpa Jerry, what were you thinking? I mean really?

So I explained that Grandpa Jerry was wearing his glasses (it's interesting to note that she remembers that; she hasn't seen him in over a year) but that even with his glasses, there was so much rain fallng that it made it hard for him to see what was in front of him, like when it's really foggy outside and the fog makes it hard to see what's in front of us (we get a lot of fog in the spring).

That seemed to satisfy her but I'm pretty sure that all it did was add a pair of eye glasses to the mental picture of Grandpa Jerry standing in the sand up to his knees, drenched, and stuck waiting for the storm to blow over. But she had moved on and so did I.

Next up was the subject of Newfoundland. Not sure how we got on this topic, but I was telling her how maybe next summer she and Daddy and I should try and take a trip to Newfoundland. Of course she asked where Newfoundland is, and so I explained that "Newfoundland is the Eastern most province of Canada and.." I was about to go into the historic details of Newfoundland and our family connection to it, but she stopped me and said "And that's where the Eastern bunny likes to go and hide eggs for all the kids in Newfoundland! I want to go to Newfoundland!"

So now I have a mental picture in my head of my Uncle Tom, Uncle Jamie, and Uncle Gil standing at the St. John's airport arrival gate dressed up in giant bunny costumes waiting to greet Bobbin as she comes through the door.

Cause they'd do it, too. Y'all have met them. You know they would ;-)

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My Perfect Mother's Day!

My dream mother's day has me being able to sleep until at least 8am. And today, that was me - sleeping soundly in my kingsize bed to the sounds of silence until a bit past 8. Bonus: At 2:00am when she woke up needing to go potty, she called out for "Daddy" instead of "Mommy". The week of conditioning had worked :-) I have vague memories of Tim waking up, and no screaming ensuing so I assume the potty trip was successful. I was only slightly concious at 6:45am when the calls of "Good Morning!" rang through the baby monitor. I quickly resumed my slumber after Tim woke up, turned off the monitor, and went in to great the day with our little bright eyed bushy tailed munchkin. I slept blissfully until just after 8 when I was awakened by the sounds of someone desperately, but quietly, trying to open the door by herself. I remember her calling for help and then the next thing I knew, I was being gently (really!) awakened by my sweet little angel, smile on her face and two envelopes and a picture in her hand. A beautiful picture she had coloured herself, and two cards that she had helped decorate. (One had wax paper cleverly inserted inside to allow for the glitter glue to dry without sticking the pages together. Score a major arts and crafts point for Dad on that one!).

My perfect mother's day involves waking to aromas and sounds of bacon and eggs sizzling on the stove. And that's just what happened this morning. Bonus: Pancakes and warm maple syrup in addition to "spangled" (Bobbin's word for Scrambled) eggs and bacon. There was even cold orange juice to accompany the feast. AND... no dishes for me to clean up :-)

My perfect mother's day includes a nap at some point and I ended getting a nap shortly after breakfast when Bobbin decided to play "quiet time". See previous blog post. How cool is that?! I was thrilled :-)

My perfect mother's day has everyone using their polite voices and not having to remind about manners or admonish for tone of voice. And my mother's day was just that. Even while we were deep into glitter glue, scissors, scrap paper, and crayons during our rainy-day morning arts-and-crafts. It was absolutely amazing. And relaxing. And sooooo enjoyable. Thank you :-) Bonus: Bobbin even offered on her own to help clean up after we had finished our projects. Got out her little broom and everything. I went crazy and vacuumed, despite Tim's admonishment with questions of "What are you doing? Hello?" as he attempted to stare me down over the patch of carpet he was standing on that I desperately wanted to clean. It was totally sweet :-)

I was so rested from my playtime nap that when she went down for her real "quiet time" I found myself having ample energy and time to surf the internet, organize and upload photos, and just do stuff I generally don't have time for.

My perfect mother's day includes my favourite food for dinner. Tonight it was lasagna - my all time favourite. I actually felt so relaxed and full of time that I felt like cooking it myself! Bobbin and Tim helped - Bobbin was in charge of the ricotta and mozzerella. Tim got it all on video so expect some uploads soon. It was fabulous. I had two pieces and ate the mozzerella coated top off of a 3rd. Hey... it's Mother's day.

My perfect mother's day ends with me working out on my elliptical, burning 1000 calories. I'm way too lit from the 3 glasses of the fabulous red wine that we had with dinner to work out. It could be hazardous. Of course, I still sit here typing. Also potentially hazardous. However it is the lesser of the two evils. And as I said before, Hey... it's Mother's day.

Thank you Tim and Bobbin for the Mother's Day of my dreams. I love you both with all my heart :-)

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Santa appears to be slightly ahead of schedule

Appears he just finished up at our house:

He left a super market complete with cash register, shopping cart, and play food, in addition to the much asked for Ballerina Teddy Bear and Santa Teddy Bear. Should be an entertaining morning when the munchkin wakes up and sees this.

My money is on "Oh! My! Goodness!" as the first words out of her mouth when she enters the living room :-)

I suspect his early appearance is due to the copious quantities of cookies that Bobbin left for him next to our tree.

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Ok Aunt Sarah, we're ready for you

The house won't be pristine; we live with a 2 1/2 year old. But we do now have curtains in the guest bathroom so you don't have to worry about flashing our neighbours when you step out of the shower. And I have just finished cleaning and vacuuming my car so that when we pick you up at the airport you won't be sitting in a pile of moldy, wet cheese crackers mixed with fermented banana and smushed orange segments. Nothing but the best for my sister.

Yeah, I figured you'd appreciate that.

Bobbin has been talking about "Aunt Sawah" non stop. "Mommy and Daddy and Bobbin and Aunt Sawah go see space needle maybe for a little bit. Aunt Sawah and Bobbin and Mommy and Daddy go see dinosaurs togeder too!"

See ya thursday, Sis!

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Cousin cuteness

Last Sunday we celebrated Cousin B's second birthday! 2 birthdays in two weeks; Bobbin was practically giddy with glee! And cake anticipation.

Much cousin-bonding took place. Oh, and there was a lot of "mine!" "No, mine!" "no, MINE!" "NO! MINE!". And one pushing incident that I caught on video. Saving that one for the archives because I'm quite sure it'll come in handy when they're both older.

Many more photos here of the birthday boy and festivities!

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Going on an airplane; going on a BIG trip!

Those were Bobbin's exact words as she lay her head down in her bed the night before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house. Little did she know at the time... :-)

I finally got around to uploading our photos from our "BIG trip". And BIG trip is what it was! Definitely formed a lasting memory in Bobbin's mind, of Grandma and Grandpa's house. From the airplane ride, to their house, the neighbour's cat Molly, Grandma and Grandpa's dog Suzie, the swing in the back yard, the playground down the street, the park full of geese and ducks, the water fountain, the clock tower, and the little red wagon we used to get just about everywhere :-). And that's just a 4 block radius around my parents' house in Simcoe! We also visited Niagara Falls ("BIG BIG waterfalls!"), Bobcaygeon (cottage on the water where we stayed for my sister's wedding), the airplane museum, the royal botanical gardens, the beach, and the pick-your-own strawberry farm.

The weather was beautiful our entire trip. Our daily routine, when we weren't making one of our big trips, was to wake up, have breakfast, get dressed, walk to the park to feed the baby geese and ducks, visit the water fountain across the street, play make-believe at the "little playground" where Bobbin would "cook" me a hotdog and we'd snack on bear paw cookies and juice, loop back to the "big playground" where we'd often catch up to Grandpa and Suzie out for their morning walk, watch Suzie go swimming in the river and then chase her around the baseball field while she dried off, swing and climb and slide, head back to Grandpa's house, play hide-n-seek with the neighbour cat Molly, watch a bit of Wizard of Oz while eating a hotdog for lunch, nap on pillows in the living room, and then wake up 2 hours later to do it all again (the geese need dinner too, after all). On occasion there'd even be a 3rd such outing before bed.

I uploaded about 330-some-odd photos (not yet captioned), but here are a few highlights. Although I recommend you peruse the whole photo album, cause the cuteness factor alone is worth it ;-)

At the airport in Toronto after clearing immigration, little world traveller extrodinaire is all business trying to find the way to baggage claim.

Bobbin checks out the swing that Grandpa put up in the back yard just for her. It's a hit! We swung in it every day :-)

Bobbin meets "Mean Goose" for the first time, on our first visit to the park the day after arriving. After that it was "No like Mean Goose. Mean Goose Bite you. Mean Goose bite fingers. Not nice" every time we headed to the park :-)

We had a tonne of fun in Bobcaygeon, playing with my sister's dog Dexter. One of the few dogs that Bobbin's ever met that can run like the wind and loves to play. Really play. Especially with tennis balls :-)

The town of Simcoe has a population of about 15,000 and a total of 34 parks. Acres and acres of parks. I can't remember the ratio of park acres to people but it's pretty impressive. And they are all within walking distance of my folks' house and all connected in various ways. The one we went to every day to feed the geese had a little lighthouse that Bobbin loved

The other one we visited daily had a water fountain

But Bobbin's favourite was the one with the windmill. She'd make me sing the Windmill Song every time we went :-)

Swinging at the playground across the street from my folks' house was another daily activity.

As was playing on the slide,

climbing,

chasing Suzie at the baseball field,

exploring the park,

feeding the geese,

watering Grandpa's garden, and learning about the plants and flowers and birdies,

playing on the deck in the pool,

playing baseball in the back yard with Grandpa,

and playing with Molly.

We'd do this routine at least twice a day, so it was no wonder that by the end of every day Bobbin was pretty tired :-)

The entire set of photos from our 2007 Vacation to Grandma & Grandpa's is here if you want to see much much more! And I'll add posts later that go into more detail on our special outings to Niagara Falls, the Royal Botanical Gardens, the airplane museum, the beach,the strawberry picking, and our very first corn on the cob. So stay tuned :-)

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Sis's Wedding

Well, I still have 3 weeks full of non-wedding photos to upload from our vacation, but here at least are the one's from Sarah & Mike's wedding! I haven't provided captions yet but I'll get there in time :-)

I don't have any of the actual ceremony, 'cause I thought it'd be a tad tacky for the matron of honour to be snapping pics while standing at the front of the church. But I got plenty after the ceremony and a few at the reception when my arms weren't full of Bobbin; she started coming down with a fever at the reception and we ended up leaving early; turned out to be the stomach flu, poor munchkin. She missed the ceremony itself, having fallen asleep just as the car arrived to take us to the church.

So Tim stayed at the cottage with her while I tended to my matron-of-honour-ly duties, which included crying a bucketful of tears and having to discretely reach back to the 2nd row to borrow some of my mom's kleenex :-)), and then we all went to the reception together.

All in all though, an absolutely beautiful ceremony and a rockin' reception! Even if we did miss my cousin Greg's sea shanty performanceHere's a few more of my personal favourites :-)

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Ding Dong, the Sis is Hitched!

Actually back on May 26th, but we've been a tad busy :-) The wedding was absolutely GORGEOUS, as of course, was my beautiful sister in her "princess dress", and Capt. Mike was dashing in his uniform. The reception was a tonne of fun - great food, great music, and great people :-)

I won't go into all the details of our trip here, but will sum it up as follows, from Bobbin's perspective:

Week 1: What a plane ride, that was fun! Can't we stay in the airport and play a bit? 2 hours in the car to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I'm done with sitting. Can we get out now? I said, OUT NOW!!!. Ah... that's better. What's this? Grandma and Grandpa have toys? And a little pink care bear chair. And a RED WAGON! That looks like fun! What's this? where are we going now? Where the heck is Bobcaygeon and why do I care? It's 4 hours away... can we stop already? I want OUT NOW!!! enough with the car rides! What's this... Another house? But I'm not even used to the first one yet. Oh, but this one has WATER out back! And PUPPIES next door! Who the heck are all these people coming and going? Which ones are staying and which aren't? Who can I trust? Who can I count on? What time zone is this? Get me outta this pink frilly dress thing. I'm feeling a tad feverish. Oooh... not doing so good. Grandpa, can you drive 45 minutes to the next town to get some infant tylenol cause there's no stores open here on Sunday and I need medicine. Another 4 hour car ride? This sucks, I'm sick and I'm grumpy. I want to go home. REAL home. Oh! Grandma and Grandpa's house! I remember this! Yahoo!

Week 2: Ooooh.... I'm going to be sick...well that was a nice little ride on the vomit comet. I'd like to go to the ER now mommy, please. My fever's reached 104F. Oh, they have TOYS in the ER here! Here's my ears, and my throat (aaaaah) and yup, here you go - listen to my breathing and heart. There, that was easy. Lets go back to grandma and grandpa's house cause I've got diarrhea and stomach cramps and I'm still feeling grumpy and I miss home. And now Daddy's gone too.

Week 3: Feeling GREAT! WOOHOO! No more diarrhea and vomiting; I'm adjusted to the time zone difference, and MAN I feel like PARTYING! Let's go to the playground! Let's feed the geese! Let's go to the beach and play in the sand and water! Let's go to the airplane museum! The Botanical gardens in Hamilton! Back to the Beach! Playground! Park! Geese! Water Fountain! Playground! Park! Geese! Water Fountain! Carrilon! Woohooo! And hot dogs. I LOVE hot dogs! I eat them for lunch and dinner and never get tired of them! And I had my first corn on the cob! Yummm! And Schnitzel! And more hot dogs! And Watermelon! And Bear Paw Cookies! And hot dogs! Now if you'll excuse me, I have some more walls to bounce off of, and skipping and running and jumping and climbing and singing and laughing and wizard-of-oz watching to do... gotta go! I'm so HAPPY!!!! this is GREAT!!!!

There you have it. I'm gonna go take a nap now. :-) Pictures to be posted sometime after we return and I've recovered (It's been a TONNE of fun, but it has also been exhausting... and it's not over yet ;-))

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Oh my gosh, is it really this close?

We leave for my parents in exactly 1 week. Well, just under 1 week now. May 23rd. Sarah gets married on the 26th. It hit me this morning when I checked the calendar.

And so this afternoon, on my "Mommy Wednesday" (a deal with Tim that I have - Wednesdays are Mommy's evenings to spend how I see fit, alone, outside the house while Tim and Bobbin enjoy some daddy-daughter time at home) instead of my usual walk, I:

- bought my shoes for the wedding

- bought my undergarments and hosery for the wedding

- bought myself some new clothes so that I'm not TOTALLY embarassed to go out in public at my folks' place but yet still am as comfortable as I am here in Tim's old t-shirts and sweats :-)

- bought myself some new makeup for the wedding - since it's not stuff I usually wear and the stuff I had is both out of style and crusty.

- scheduled a hair appointment for this weekend, Cut on saturday and colour on sunday. Because I have for some reason started sprouting grey hairs at an accelerated rate... I think it started about 21 1/2 months ago... wonder what the root (pun intended) cause is there. hmmm...

- scheduled a brow waxing for early next week

Man, I hope my sister's not quite the procrastinator I am, since she's the one actually getting hitched in just over a week ;-) (Don't worry sis, your table numbers were not on my list of "things to wait until the last minute to do"; they are well in hand. And I haven't forgotten your "something borrowed" either. ;-)).

My insomnia has been brought to you tonight by the letter "E" as in "excited", and the number 672 which is how many simultaneous thoughts I have racing throug my head of things I need to make sure I address, organize, purchase, prepare, or pack, prior to leaving.

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Mommy's Day Weekend and Grandma's Magic Garden

A fun filled weekend marked my 2nd Mommy's Day. Saturday started off with 2 belgian draft horses coming over to haul our cedar logs:

and ended with a BBQ at Jeni & Roger & Baby L's house, where Bobbin spent the afternoon in their back yard playing hide and seek with another little girl her age (just under a month older) and eating burgers while Mommy liesurely sipped wine on the deck and even occasionally went into the house to get munchies alone without Bobbin even batting an eyelash. Progress!

On Mommy's Day proper, I slept in until 7:30am (it sounds luxurious but it's actually a double-edged sword; she didn't go to sleep until 9:30 the night before), had a lovely breakfast with Tim and Bobbin, and then we headed over to Grandma's house for a visit. Grandma & Grandpa have visited here frequently, but this was Bobbin's first trip to Grandma's house, and she was absolutely enthralled.

First, Grandma has these really great bug-shaped cookies that were so nummy. And she has a whole pile of toys to play with. But the best part of all was Grandma's back yard!

Bobbin thought it was magical. She was enchanted from the moment she stepped out of the back door. There's a little pond with goldfish in it, and a tiny waterfall, and a little fish fountain spouting water. And there are flowers and plants everywhere - in the ground and in pots and planters, on the deck, and everywhere. And there's soft green grass to play on, and fun stepping stones to jump on. And there are little treasures hidden throughout that Bobbin delighted in finding - little statue of a kitty with a butterfly on his nose, and two little foxes, and bunnies, and mushrooms with fairies, and beautiful butterflies with metalic wings, and a snail with sparkly antennae, and a tiny bobbin-sized park bench for sitting on and soaking it all in. And there was even a pirate ship to play in! Bobbin didn't want to leave. It started sprinkling and getting chilly but she didn't care. It was past lunch time, but she didn't care. She was starting to get tired, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to "Go outside, Grandma's house?" Even we got home, "Grandma's house outside" was all she talked about. Grandma, hope you're ok with more frequent visits from us ;-)

After Grandma's house we went to Ruby's for lunch. Bobbin was way hungry and we narrowly avoided a hunger-related meltdown.

After lunch she fell asleep in the car ride home, and I thought for a moment I'd be able to pop her into her crib without her waking up when we arrived, but that was not to be. She was awake, tired, but having nothing to do with a nap. That didn't stop me from taking one though, while Tim gallantly tried to distract her for a couple of hours :-) Afterwards, we played outside and then came in for dinner. By that time she was thoroughly exhausted, and fell asleep in my arms at the dinner table not 2 minutes after we had sat down.

I put her in her crib and she slept for about an hour, woke up raring to go, and we finally got her back to bed at 10pm. She fought sleep with every fiber of her being. I'm pretty sure she was mostly concerned about missing out. She didn't start to relax until after I had gone through the names of every person and animal she knows, one by one, telling her they had gone to sleep.

All in all though, an absolutely beautiful mother's day. And to top it off, here are more photos from this weekend, which incidentally were taken with my brand new camera - my mommy's day gift!

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Happy National Child Care Provider Appreciation Day!

If you weren't already aware, the friday before Mother's day has been named "National Child Care Provider Appreciation Day". Bobbin and I brought muffins and a thank you card in for the staff at her daycare, and an orchid for her regular teacher.

I don't know what we'd do without the teachers and staff at her daycare. They're an absolutely amazing bunch of people, and Bobbin' is thriving in their care. I know first hand from spending a lot of time there in the mornings the quality of care and attention she receives, and the learning that she is exposed to. But I also see it more and more in Bobbin's pretend play. To be sure I see a lot of Tim and I in Bobbin's pretend play too, but there are some subtle things that I know come from school and it's both joyous and reassuring to watch her reinact them. It is like a little window into what happens in her world when I'm away from it. And it's all been goodness, kindness and gentleness, and safety.

Like how she cups my face in her hands and stares into my eyes and says softly, with a genuinely concerned look on her face, "Mommy, ah you ok?" when I've stubbed my toe on one of her toys or stepped on one of her crayons or legos. It makes me melt.

And how when she's pretending to put Millie Moo down for her nap, she lays her gently on her "bed" face down, covers her with a blanket, and then sits down next to her, pats her on the back in a soothing rhythm, and whispers "Ssss ssss... moo... ssss... nite-nite moo.... ssss sss..."

And how she admonishes her dolls and Tommy (and Tim and I) firmly but gently with "No. Not nice" and "Not ok" which are two phrases I hear pretty regularly in the morning when I'm dropping Bobbin off; invariably someone has just hit or pushed or taken something away and these two phrases are Bobbin's teacher's trademark admonishments.

And how she tells me with great enthusiasm and pride about how she "go Sudi's cass" when she spends most of the day in Miss Sudi's Toddler2 class, and how "Christopher go potty at school! Good boy Christopher! Hooray!", and how so-and-so hit, "not nice" and other-so-and-so pushed, "not ok", and how "stand on chair not ok".

And how she'll reach up to wipe my forehead with a tissue, while peering into my eyes and gently holding my chin up with her little hands and say "Bump head? Let me see".

We're very fortunate, and I remember that daily, whenever I'm dropping Bobbin off or picking her up.

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Sunday, bloody sunday?

In my email inbox this morning when I arrived in my office:

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From: Tim
To: Heather
Subject: Vet Appt for all
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2007 09:32:48 -0800

Tommy -
Ginger -
Spice -

10:20am Sunday. We will have to take two cars ....

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Oh yeah. This oughtta be interesting. Two angry cats, one nervous dog, one 19-month old toddler who loves chasing animals, two cars, two frazzled pet owner parents, and one exam room (that will probably look like a tornedo hit it by the time we're done).

We'll let ya know how it goes.

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BUI

Fair warning... I'm under the influence of Ambien, Zoloft (having missed yesterday and 3/4 of my dose the day before. Not pretty), Flonase, and Chocolate Milk (with a straw). This either going to be bompletely boring, incoherent, or brilliant. Judging from the smelling mistakes I've alaready made, I think te last is effectively ruled out.

We're on Day 3 for Tim - Full body aches, constant headaches, non-stop sinus blockage, and sheer exhaustion. He hurts. He NEVER stays home sick from work. He stays home when Bobbin's sick or when we're both sick but not when it's just him.

We're on Day 5 for Bobbin - lord only knows what's going on in her tiny body. Tim at least tells me what's going on in his (sometimes I feel I know a little too much. But that's as far as I'll go there :-). Bobbin cries and writhes and then throws things at you or hits you or tries to cut off your oxygen supply at the neck. Asking her where the owie is is not something she's quite capable of articulating yet. I think though, that her ear or head is bothering her. Possibly sinus pain, sinus headache, or... a dreaded ear infection (which if it is, means in all likelihood one or both of her tubes fell out and will have to be reinserted). I'll be making a doctor appt for her tomorrow.

We're on about day 4 for me. Round 2 though, as I was out Mon and Tues of last week with my own full body aches, headaches, throat and sinus issues. I don't have the body aches or headaches this time around. I do have some severe sleep deprivation (oh, shut up; blogging relaxes me and then I'm going straight to bed) as a result of Bobbin not sleeping well at night and getting up for the day at very odd times. And I have a really annoying sinus confestion.

All she wants to do when she's sick is watch her "shows". that's what she calls them. "Elmo Kitty Show" - that's the one about cats. "Elmo Ernie Show" - that's either the one about bathtime or its the one where elmo sicks with ernie. "Elmo Potty show" is the one about Elmo talking about who to earn to use the potty. "Kitty show" (without mention of Elmo) is "Milo and Otis". she loves that. "Raaaah show" is Dinosaurs. "Cheese show" is Wallace & Grommit. So I'm constantly changing out DVDs. Or, as she calls them, "CeeDees". Because whether they're for music (which we use on the computer CD/DVD drive), or for computer games, or for tv shows, those little reflective disks all look the same to her and so they are all "CD"s. She says "City Bus" the same way. I wonder if the thinks its a bus full of shiny disks... nah. She's way smarter than that, our little Bobbin. But it will be intersting to see what laws of the universe she does uncover and what associations she makes. 3 of my (and my parents) favourites when I was under the age of 5 were:

Whitedress = Waitress. I actually thought they were called Whitedresses because they always wore white dresses.

Gasstop = Gasthoff; literal translatio is like a guest house, I think... but it was really just a restaurant. But every time we stopped at one we also had to go get gas. In reality, it was usually my father efficiently killing two birds with one exit of the autobahn. to the gas station, and then off to a local gasthoff for schniztel.

Brickfast = breakfast. I thought it was called brickfast because when I stepped out my bedroom every morning when we were living on the farm, the first thing I saw was a red brick interior wall. And I believe there was brick in parts of our kitchen.

Man - even without those last three tidbits from my childhood developing brain, this is one sloopy blog entry. I'm not going to correct any of them now though. I think they're a tad amusing. Of course, in all reality they are probably not. But it provides a different sort of interpretation to what I had intended to write.

Whatever. I'm going to bed now. I think that's my best plan.

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Over the river and through the woods...

and across the country and over the border... I just booked our flights for our trip to Canada in May for Sarah's wedding! Bobbin will get to meet a tonne of her extended family, watch her "Asa" get married in a beautiful princess dress, and spend a total of 3 whole weeks with Grandma and Grandpa!

Oh boy (or "Ah Bah-ee" as Bobbin says; come to think of it, she has a bit of a newfie twang to it when she says it) Grandma and Grandpa... are you gonna be POOPED by the time we leave :-)

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Uncanny

The photo on the left is my sister, Sarah. Taken when she was around 2 or 3, I believe. The photo on the right is Bobbin, taken at 17 months.

To me the resemblance has really been obvious since about 10 months. I'm not sure that anyone else in my family really saw it though, and Tim had never seen photos of Sarah when she was that age. But I knew. I have very vivid memories of Sarah at this age. I knew the similarity was there.

Bobbin, ya gots good genes in ya, kiddo!

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Teeth

Teeth. That's what's happening around here. Bobbin's got a mouthful - pretty much all of the rest of the 16 teeth that have been waiting to come in - sprouting and breaking through the gums all at once. Her fingers are constantly in her mouth and she's in most definite mouth discomfort. We're giving her motrin, but because of her bad experience with orajel the first time around when she was a baby, we're staying away from the numbing ointments.

As for me - I had my first dentist appointment in 2 years today. The last time I went to the dentist I was 6 months pregnant and thus had to forgo the x-rays that I had already forgone the visit 6 months prior on the chance that I was pregnant (which, unbeknownst to us all at the time, I was!).

I was not expecting good news. 2 years is a long time between visits. And literally since the day I gave birth to Bobbin my teeth have been ultra sensitive to cold, heat, and pressure. But one tooth in particular has been bothering me so much that I've been chewing on the other side of my mouth for the last few months (yes, I suck.)

The news, however, was quite good. All of the spots they had been monitoring two years ago had either cleared up, or not advanced. My gums and "pockets" are in excellent shape, much to the surprise of the dentist and her assistant, to whom I had 'fessed up in advance that I haven't been flossing in the last two years either. My mouth is apparently quite the marvel. You'd apparently never know I haven't flossed or visited the dentist. Cool.

On the bad news side, however, the tooth that has been ultra-sensitive has apparently fallen victim to "Cracked Tooth Syndrome". My dentist sent me down the street to a root canal specialist for a 2nd opinion (who happened to have a cancelled appt and was able to squeeze me in right then and there) and he confirmed that I need a crown. So apparently I'll be getting a crown for #3. The procedure as it was described to me didn't sound particularly fun, although I should be numb for its entirety, and it's a hell of a lot better than a root canal, which is what i'll need if the crown doesn't improve things.

So yeah, it's lots of fun at mealtimes around our house these days ;-)

I also came away with a perscription for extra-strength flouride toothpaste, which should help combat the sensitivity, which is likely a combination of hormones (apparently being pregnant and giving birth and the hormones involved can wreak havoc with your gums and teeth strength) and lack of flouride in the water (we're on a well).

So there you have it. Teeth. That's what it's all about over here. Chew on that!

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New Years Hopes

I've decided this year instead of coming up with a list of resolutions that around the middle of March I berate myself for not sticking to like glue, I'd come up with a list of New Years Hopes. they may or may not happen, and I'll do my part in fullfilling them, but I won't stress about any failure on my part if they don't come to complete fruition. And there's ample latitude for partial-fullfillment. The glass will be at least half full :-)

So here it is. For 2007, I hope:

1. that my therapist approves a 2-week extension for my medical leave of absence (done! I just have to fax him the paperwork :-)

2. that Bobbin, Tim and myself enjoy good.. no... make that GREAT health this year :-)

3. for safety, security, and happiness for my family and soon-to-be family

4. that I can come up with a workout schedule that lets me get more exercise than last year

5. I can find time to occasionally clean the floor so I don't stick to it as much

6. I can obtain a harmonious balance between work and home and family and "me-time" that we are all happier with.

7. for another year of friday nights with all our friends

8. for a relatively easy time of toilet training

9. that Sarah and Capt. Mike's wedding in May is perfect in all the ways that are important to them.

10. that it stops raining soon :-)

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Happy New Year, everybody!

Bobbin, Tim and I went over to our friends' Dave, Becky and Squeaky Zee (or Zed, as I like to call her, me being Canadian and all ;-)) last night for New Years. Bobbin had been asking all day to go see her friend Ella since we told her we'd be going to see Ella and Zed that night.

It was a potluck so our first stop was PCC for some salads and munchies and bananas (at Bobbin's insistence; she had been signing "banana" all day too and we were out of bananas at home).

Bobbin practically inhaled an entire banana in the car on the way, another at D&B's when we arrived, and was asking for a third but I managed to redirect her to some watermelon and grapes and cheese.

Later in the evening someone arrived with some chicken wings - half spicey and half regular - and Bobbin took great interest in my consumption of one. So much so that she snatched it out of my hand and proceeded to polish it off. It was a "drumstick" with just a single bone so I let her. The fact that it was a spicey one didn't deter her from asking for more. I gave her two more "drumsticks" and when she asked for another, we gave her the meat off of a wing section but it wasn't any fun if it wasn't on the bone so she lost interest.

Bobbin still had a blast though! She danced and twirled to the music that was playing in the background; she played with playdough; she coloured pictures; she watched movies. But most of all, she played with Ella. And shared. Anything that she could share with Ella she did. When they were playing with playdough, Bobbin would break off pieces of her dough and hand them to Ella. Who promptly would reply "Actually, no thank you. I already have some of that colour" and hand it politely back (she's exactly a year older than Bobbin). Bobbin would scoop up a handful of crayons and deposit them in Ella's lap, and Ella would reply "No thank you. Actually, I'm doing some different work" as she concentrated on making snakes out of playdough. Bobbin would go and get one of Dave's photo magazines and come over and set it down in front of Ella, exclaiming her name and Ella would respond "Actually, I'm watching a movie now. I don't want to read". It was pretty damn priceless and cute to watch it all.

Bobbin definitely seems to idolize Ella. She followed Ella around the house, and if she lost track of Ella she'd run around calling "Lala? Lala? Lala?" (Ella, Ella Ella) until she found her. They squished playdough, and coloured, and did stickers, and tossed ribbon and played hide and seek together, and watched "Wallace and Grommit" together and terrorized Edgar the cat together (it's good for him; pretty soon Zed will be chasing after him so this gives him a little advance practice :-)) and bounced on D&B's bed together (oh... um.... oops.... sorry D&B!) and Debra and I followed them around saying "shhhhhhh, Zed is sleeping" whenever they would run into the bedroom hallway screeching in delight, and tried to catch doors before they were slammed shut in excitement.

Bobbin went non-stop until 10pm, when she decided she was ready to go home and announced it to us by going over to the front door and reaching up to the doorknob and saying "Bye-bye". So Tim and I gathered up her things and then her, and headed home. She fell asleep about 5 minutes into the drive and when we got home we popped her in bed and sleepily watched the Space Needle fireworks on TV as they rang in the new year, and then headed to bed ourselves.

It was a wonderful way to ring out the old year and ring in the new! Here's hoping this year brings us, our family, and all of our friends, good health and happiness and lots of naps :-)

Click for more pictures

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Ah-sah bye-bye go :-(

Aunt Sarah went bye-bye tonight. She and Tim left for the airport at 9pm tonight for her 11:40pm flight. We had a wonderful visit and I am sad that she's not here anymore. But we'll be seeing her in May, and we have all the beautiful memories of her short stay here, and best of all, we got to watch Bobbin bond with her Ah-sah in a way that she hasn't yet with anyone else but Tim, myself, and her teachers.

We celebrated Ah-sah's last day here with a trip to the zoo. Bobbin had an absolute blast. We were there for about 3 hours. We spent about a third of it indoors in the Zoomazium. Bobbin just went absolutely goofy in there as soon as we got inside. She beelined for the toddler area and tried to climb over the little wall herself vs walking around the door to get in. She climbed "mountains" and banged on drums and threw cloth blocks everywhere and screamed in glee. The screaming was quite something. The kid has a set of lungs on her that even I had not heard in all its glory yet. She got so excited at one point as she ran around in circles waving her arms and bobbing her head and singing that she abruptly stopped, took a deep breath, tensed her entire body, opened her tiny mouth as wide as it would go, and let out a high-pitched scream of delight that was louder than an air-raid siren and went on and on and on. Her face actually turned red as she was screaming. But it was clearly a scream of happiness because she was all smiles as she was doing it and her eyes were twinkling with merriment. It was pretty hilarious.

After a good amount of time playing and running and climbing indoors we went outside for some fresh air and to see some of the animals. It was 40F outside but bright and sunny with clear blue skies. Perfect after nothing but rain and wind and storms for weeks on end. Bobbin insisted on walking most of the time. We saw the gorillas, some zebras and gazelles, lions (she roared at them as they sunned themselves on a rock within sight), and lots of farm animals in the family farm area. By the end of it she was exhausted and it took little time for her to fall asleep in the car on the ride home. I got her home at 3pm, still sleeping, tucked her into bed, and she stayed that way until 6:20pm, just after our dinner of pizza and salads arrived. 3 hours and 20 minutes. All that fresh air and running around and climbing and screaming had just plain tuckered her out.

After she woke she downed a slice and a half of pizza, 8 ounces of milk, and then was raring to go for "round 2" climbing and running around in the living room, watching hockey (she still calls it football), squealing with happiness as we rough-housed with her. And then Aunt Sarah got her very first kiss on the cheek from Bobbin. It was the sweetest thing to see: Bobbin toddling over to Aunt Sarah grinning, and then crouching down and leaning in and then "pah" with her lips on Aunt Sarah's cheek every so gently and softly. And then she was off again :-)

9pm came too quickly and it was time to say goodbye. I explained to Bobbin that Aunt Sarah was going bye-bye and that Daddy was taking her to the airport where she would get on a big airplane. That impressed Bobbin to no end. She insisted on standing at the glass door to wave bye-bye as the car drove away, and then for the next hour until she fell asleep it was "ah-sah" and then her sign and sound effect for "airplane" and "bye-bye" over and over again. As I sat rocking her to sleep in her bedroom just as I thought she was out she raised her little head off my shoulder, sleepily opened her eyes momentarily and stared cross-eyed at me, lifted her arm above her head and made her gesture for "airplane" and said "Kkkwwwkkkwkwwwwwhhh" (her airplane sound) and then banged her head back down on my shoulder and started snoring. During her last bottle of the evening she would sleepily do the same between slurps of milk. I'm willing to bet tonight her dreams are filled with Aunt Sarah and airplanes and Gorillas. But all in a good way :-)

I can't wait until May! I love you sis, and I miss you terribly already! We all do! But will talk to you again really soon.

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Ah-sah

"Ah-sah" is "Aunt Sarah". Bobbin pretty much warmed up to her right away when she arrived on the 23rd. We've been talking about Aunt Sarah, and we have pictures of Aunt Sarah that we look at a lot so Bobbin knows who she is. But I swear that she also understood right away when my sister arrived that Aunt Sarah is family, and more specifically, is related to Mommy. When Sarah first walked in the house, Bobbin didn't cry like she usually does when people she doesn't know or doesn't see on a regular basis come over. Instead she hid behind my legs and peered out from between them smiling and giggling. She has NEVER done that before. Then she looked at me and she pointed to me and said "mama" and then pointed to Sarah and said "mama toh" which I think is her way of forming a possessive because she always uses it in that context.

Almost ever since though, Aunt Sarah has been "Ah-sah". Ah-sah is one of the very few people that Bobbin calls by "name". There's Mommy, Daddy, Ella, La-la (Alyssa her school friend), baby (her doll), meow (her kitty), moo (Millie Moo, her cow), Mo-mo (Elmo), and now Ah-sah.

Bobbin adores Ah-sah. She follows Ah-sah to the potty (although is puzzled as to why Ah-sah keeps the door closed when she's in there). She asks about where Ah-sah is. She shares her books, toys, and crayons with Ah-sah, and colours side by side with her. She even reads with Ah-sah, and plays hide-and-seek and giggles with her, and carries on whole conversations with her, gives her high-fives, lets her change Millie Moo's diaper, feed and hold baby, and play fisher-price "Little People" with her. It's been so much fun and just so incredibly cool to watch Bobbin interacting with my sister in this way!

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Christmas Bobbin

As mentioned, Bobbin had QUITE the Christmas this year. Santa was good to her, bringing her her very own Craftsman "Tata" (tractor). Complete with battery-powered engine and she's been riding around on it ever since. All the video we have is on the camcorder so it'll be a little while before we post it. But for now just picture the little grinning imp in the previous post seated on a moving tractor barrelling down the hall of our house towards Tim shouting "Daddy Daddy Daddy" between fits of giggles in her cute little high-pitched voice, steering for all she's worth (with Mommy running behind to "help" ensure she doesn't ram into any walls. She did however take out Tim's kneecaps while he was recording her with the camcorder; I can't wait to see that footage :-)).

The other thing that Santa brought that was a huge hit was her very own baby doll highchair, and a diaper bag full of baby doll accessories, including the infamous "disappearing juice" sippy cup and "disappearing milk" bottle (you know; the ones with the double plastic wall with the liquid sandwiched between them that pools at the bottom when you tip it upside down so it looks like the babydoll drank it all? I used to love those as a little girl), food bowl, spork (spoon + fork), bib, jar food, "bottle warmer", "lotion", "powder", diapers (cloth and "disposable"), and potty. The highchair has a little play-tray that lights up and plays music when you press a button, and a little velcro strap for baby doll so she doesn't slip or climb out :-). Bobbin had a grand time making her baby (that's her baby doll's name; she does the sign for "baby" when she wants to play with or find her baby doll) "sih" (sit) in the "cheh" (chair) and feeding her juice and milk and pretend food with the bowl and spork. She actually carries her baby doll like a baby now instead of in an ear-boxing grasp (one hand on either side of the head, held out at arms length) and will give it kisses. It's pretty cute. I did manage to get some of the feeding on video (click image to view).

The other big hit was the piano from Canada Grandma and Grandpa. She loves it! She didn't even wait for me to take it out of the box before she reached in and started playing it; she knew what it was from the picture on the box.

And the giant moose from Washington Grandma and Grandpa (in honour of her Canadian heritage ;-)) was another huge hit. The video of her hugging and kissing it is on the camcorder so we'll post it when we post the tractor video, but here's a couple of pictures of her riding it. She loves it!

Bobbin was the lucky recipient of very many other wonderful and thoughtful gifts, all of which are receiving rapt attention as well! We've got a tonne more photos that we need to upload but for now click here for a few more photos of her playing the piano and "building" with her Elmo Giggle Toolbench (we are doing our part to raise her without gender stereotypes! And she loves her toolbench. Especially the "saw" and, of course, the hammer! :-))

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! It's certainly been a merry one around our household! We all had quite a day, beginning at 5:30 this morning (Bobbin's idea, NOT mine, believe it or not), breaking for 3 hours at 10:30am when Bobbin just plum ran out of steam and conked out, and ending just now after a final bottle (she actually fell asleep at 6:45 this evening after everyone left and we had started winding down, but woke up at 8:45pm hungry and thirsty).

We have tonnes of pictures and video that will get posted shortly (after we all catch our breath!)

The tractor and babydoll highchair and diaper bag that Santa left were huge hits, as was the piano from Canada Grandma & Grandpa, and the moose from Washington Grandma and Grandpa. we have some great video of Bobbin motoring excitedly around the house on her 2-mile-per-hour automatic toddler-sized Craftsman tractor, happily banging out tunes on her new red toddler-sized piano, and hugging and kissing the giant moose (toddler-sized for riding :-)) that, rest assured Grandmas and Grandpas, you'll be getting copies of :-) we'll post them here too for all to enjoy.

Yup, it was quite a day. And Bobbin still has 2 presents to unwrap. It wasn't quite as nap-interrupted as last year, but this year it took all day because she needed ample time to thoroughly play with each and every toy and read each and every book as they were unwrapped.

By the end of the day though, after the turkey and fixings were long eaten and everyone had unwrapped their presents and digested their pumpkin pie, Bobbin was quite ready for things to return to normal. So much so she was pointing at everyone and pleading "bye, bye, bye"; it was clear as a bell that it was toddler-speak for "thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts, and it was so great to see you, but it's time for you all to go home now. Merry Christmas! Drive safely! And I look forward to having you over again soon!"

It was an absolutely magical Christmas for all of us, to be sure. I hope it was for all of you as well!

Pictures and video soon!

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Power to the People!

We have POWER!!!!

From the local power company: "All substations now have been re-energized for the area, . Crews are concentrating on restoring power to circuits in several additional neighbourhoods. Power here should be restored by late Friday or Saturday. Some pockets of customers in the east area may not have power restored until Sunday or Monday"

The power actually came on while Tim was sitting at the computer reading the latest power company report online which at that time, said to expect the area to come online Friday or Saturday. He was reading it aloud and when he finished he looked into the TV room and shouted "The Power's Back On"! "Yeah, right. Don't joke with me like that", I responded. "No really!" he replied. I still wasn't buying it. "Prove it!" I demanded. Then he told me to look out on the porch and I saw our light on. We went crazy with glee. Bobbin thought we were nuts, but she joined in the zaniness, and was giddy the rest of the evening.

We have already finished our first load of laundry (the soiled stuff from last night's events) and vacuumed the house. The house temperatures are returning to normal and to a consistent temp throughout the house.

Bobbin also had her first real bath in over a week. She thoroughly enjoyed it. She was a little hesitant, but she LOVED having me pour water over her body. Even her head. When I stopped she asked for more. I didn't check the colour of the bath water when we were finished, but I'm sure it wasn't clear ;-). She fell asleep while I was putting her lotion on and getting her into her PJs, just like "old times" :-)

All told our power was out for a total of 140 hours and 15 minutes. Not that we were keeping track!

I'm still very very very grateful it wasn't a lot worse. It certainly could have been. We were very fortunate, and were relatively unaffected by the power loss compared to those completely dependant upon electricity for hot water, cooking, refrigeration, and heat. There are still people within a 2 mile radius of us without power, and likely to remain so until Friday, Saturday or even Sunday.

Just to give you another idea of how hard our particular area was hit, here's an exerpt from the power company status report earlier:

"In the hardest-hit areas of the county where about 90 percent of the remaining outages exist the record-setting storm's damage was so extensive that we're literally having to rebuild the electric system from the ground up in much of that area. "

Hats off to all the tree and power crews working around the clock to get power restored. We're so grateful for their tireless and dedicated efforts!

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