fyi to the grandparents
The other day I overheard our two oldest kids having a conversation about a very, very old person. It went something like this:
G: But he was so old.
N: How old?
G: Weally, weally old.
N: Like a hundred?
G: No! Sixty-one-hundred old (side note: her life is brought to you by the number 6100. Pick a number between one and ten…6100! How many cookies do you want? 6100. And so on…).
N: He can’t be that old. It’s impossible!
G: Why?
N: Because once you are 61, you die.
Me: Ummmm, all of your grandparents are about that old.
N: Well, I guess they don’t have much time left!
slipping through my fingers
This is my daughter. I LOVE her.
She will tell you that she is four and a HALF. Don’t forget the half because it is very important.
She likes swimming until her lips turn blue, her teeth are chattering like chipmunks and her skin is prickled with millions of goosebumps. She loves to paint, spin like a beautiful ballerina, dress up and pretend that she is a “WEAL” fairy princess and not just a pretend one and then run outside and ride her bike so fast it makes my heart stall. Her hair is always in her eyes. She loves cheese but usually only the o-nnnnge kind. When she is afraid she whispers, “I a-skeered Mommy” and it makes me want to dip her in chocolate and eat her right up! She’s allergic to nuts and will tell you so fifty million times a day. My girl makes the best faces and has an inspired giggle. She bakes a mean carrot muffin and can open her own applesauce thank you very much! If you are 9 and you threaten to run her over with your bike, you better watch out because she will flatten you FIRST.
Last Friday my girl went to school for the first time.
She was so HAPPY! I was happy for her but after I turned to walk home I found silent tears sliding down my cheeks.
And then I heard this:
Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while…
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time…
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time…
(song by Abba)
You are LOVED baby girl. So loved.
hello september, remember me?
Did I forget to mention I was taking the summer off? There was just too much biking, swinging, puddle jumping, knee bandaging, picnicking, sun soaking and general holidaying to be done. We had a FABULOUS summer around here. One to go down in the record books. We are tanned, well traveled, exhausted and our toenails are still dirty. Good times!
Our summer kicked off on June 22 with a trip to Saskatchewan. We visited family, FINALLY met our adorable niece and then took off for a dream come true kind of week at a fishing lodge near Flin Flon. After we stuffed ourselves with bbq’d fish, laughed till we cried and inhaled WAY too much diesel exhaust and forest fire smoke, we headed back to the city for a family photo shoot and Grandma’s birthday party. Way fun! The next week Daddy had business in Calgary so we took a little road trip to Cowtown. We spent the week of stampede giddying it up with friends young and old. Such fun to hang out in our old stomping grounds. The only MAJOR bummer was that our FAVOURITE Belgian patisserie was closed for renovations. I’m still disappointed that I missed out on their dreamy vanilla croissants. Looks like I’ve got a trip west in my future! At the end of the week we drove back to the land of the living skies (stopping to check out the “points of interest” along the way) for some more family time. After three weeks of family and friends the good bye’s were hard. We’re thankful for our great memories and looking forward to the next time!
We came home from our western trek just long enough to unpack, do the laundry, get some groceries, visit the locals, see my Mom and Dad, tear up the front lawn, re-pack and get some more groceries before we took off to the cottage for 2 weeks. There is almost nothing I like better than summer at the cottage. This year did not disappoint. SERIOUS good times were had. The new “porch” rocked on rainy days and made sleeping in and napping possible. THANKS MOM AND DAD! The sunny days were a blur of swimming, boat rides, fishing, hammock swings, smores, laughs with friends and so, so much more. We did lots of exploring, attempted to perfect our Eastern fishing techniques (not so good so far), drank our fair share of rye and gingers on the dock (shout out for the ultra tasty and not expensive Forty Creek Whisky) and followed the kids on their photo adventures. We spent the last night with my parents and then had a brief birthday celebration for Not-so-baby J the last morning before making a mad dash for the marina in between rainstorms. Whew!
Poor baby J had the worst birthday ever. Good thing he won’t remember it! We were stuck in torrential rain, heavy, heavy traffic, we missed our exit and then got stuck in worse traffic going the LONG way home. To make matters worse, our little man got car sick and puked EVERYWHERE. It’s not fun to be stuck in a puke soaked carseat for hours on your first birthday. Not fun at all. We declared the next day his fake birthday and celebrated him in grand style all day long.
After a few nights in our own beds and 30 loads of laundry, we packed up our car for one more road trip. This time we went camping on the ridiculously beautiful Lake Huron. I can’t say enough about the endless sandy beach, the happy smiles on my kids faces as they body surfed the waves and the laughs we had with our good friends over the campfire. We all had such a great time it’s going to become an annual tradition. Yeah camping!
Over the last two weeks we’ve been trying to catch up on everything that piled up while we were gone. You know, small stuff like putting sod on our front lawn and installing the underground sprinklers. We’ve gone to Niagara Falls, picked 45 pounds of peaches, ate tomatoes from our garden by the pound, picnicked in the back yard and had a wicked first birthday party for Little J (now that everyone is back from their treks far and wide). On Labour Day we wrapped it all up with a sweet bbq and long day of swimming.
THANK YOU SUMMER! You rocked big time.
