Happy 95th Birthday Grandma!

On July 18, we celebrated my grandmother's 95th birthday.

Her actual birthday isn't until next month, but this party was planned to celebrate her birthday, my great aunt's (her sister) 80th birthday and my great uncle's (her brother-in-law) 85th birthday since they're all within the same short time period.

My grandmother is an amazing woman, who, at almost 95 years of age, still lives on her own in Montreal. And travels here by train by herself (albeit with assistance getting to and from the train station) to visit our family several times a year. She is a very busy woman when at home, always out and about to the store, to church, to the Scottish Centre, with friends and even to dancing classes! We can all only hope to be as vibrant and active as she is when we get to be her age. She has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with a fourth on the way.

It was a wonderful party, with tons of people. And my grandmother had two of her great-grandchildren (Austin and Alexandra) there to celebrate with her (her youngest great grandchild (my cousin's son) is just a few weeks old and lives in California).

Here's a few pictures from the party:

Austin polishing off his second cupcake (before then having some chocolate cake)

Alexandra was a little wary of the dog

The birthday group (Uncle Chris, Grandma, Aunt Joan) and Austin (who helped his great-grandma blow out her candles.)

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An impromtu trip to African Lion Safari

I've been so busy lately now that my freelance writing business is picking up that I have spent almost every nap time and every evening for the last three weeks doing work -- hence I've been slacking on updates. But at this very moment, I don't have any work on the go (although there's some more coming in the next few days) so, hopefully, they'll be a slew of new posts here as I catch up.

Two weeks ago, we were all up early on a Sunday morning when we realized we didn't have any plans that day and there was nothing we needed to get done. So, because we'd be talking about it for about a year but had never found the time to do it, we packed the kids up and went to African Lion Safari for the day.

And it was pretty awesome. I'd never been there and Ryan hadn't been since he was a kid.

We saw the elephants go for their afternoon swim and then we took our car through the safari to see the animals. It's amazing just how close you can get to some of the animals.
No baboons jumped on our car -- but this was definitely Austin's favourite part.

That and this ostritch, who, right after this photo was snapped, walked over to our car and bent down to look in the window at me and Austin.
Austin sat on my lap in the front seat for most of the time so he could see. We kept Alex in her seat because we knew if we let her out, she'd spend all her time pushing buttons up front instead of looking at the animals. She seemed to have fun and liked the animals she could see but after awhile she got bored and was happier to just sit and snack. As it took an hour and a half to drive through the safari, Austin too got a little tired of it after awhile and kept asking to go to the waterpark.

So, after seeing all the animals, we took the kids to the splash pad -- even though it wasn't that warm out -- and then walked around the rest of the park for awhile.

It was definitely a fun day, but we definitely had two tired kids by the time we headed home!

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Strawberry picking

On a complete whim this morning, I decided to take the kids strawberry picking.

With all the farmers markets on city property temporarily shut down because of the strike and our local groceries stores -- as usual -- doing a poor job of stocking local produce, I decided I really wanted some local strawberries before the strawberry season ended.

So, we headed out to Whittamore's Farm, which is only 20 minutes from our house, but so completely in the middle of nowhere that you don't realize how close to home you are. I brought some Ziplock containers with us, because I figured the small containers would be easier than the buckets the farm sells you. And I could also cover them when we were done for easier transportation while holding hands with two kids.

And the kids loved picking berries.

Austin was very serious the whole time, making sure each one was perfect and informing me every time he found a mushy one. Eventually, he filled his container (with a little help from me).
Alexandra on the other hand, picked one off the bush and put it in the container before realizing that it was a strawberry. The second one she picked whet right into her mouth. As did the third one. By the fourth one, she realized that rather than going to all the work of picking them off the bush just to eat them, it was far easier to simply take the ones from the container that I had already picked. And eat them.
So Austin and I spent about 30 minutes or so picking berries and Alex spent those same 30 minutes eating berries, regardless of how many times I tried to stop her.

You have to pay for your strawberries by weight when you leave -- it's a good thing they don't weigh your kids on the way in and then again on the way out!

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Third annual Canada Day camping trip

On Wednesday morning, we left town for our annual four-day, three-night camping trip. This year, we went to Balsam Lake Provincial Park (near Lindsay) and our group of families shrunk considerably to only three. (It was supposed to be four but the Jimmos had to bail out with sick kids at the last minute.) So, in all we were 6 adults and 6 kids between the ages 14 months and 9.

And, for the third year in a row, it rained.

Wednesday wasn't too bad weather-wise and, since we got there fairly early in the afternoon, the moms had time to walk over to the beach with the kids. All six of them loved being in the water and playing in the sand. And Alex was hilarious -- even though her teeth were chattering, she kept running back in and splashing in the water!

That night, as we slept, the rains came. Unfortunately, when we woke the next morning, there was a bit of water in our tent -- but nothing like last year and nothing that couldn't be solved by using our beach towels to soak it up.

But all day Thursday, it rained and rained and rained. Every time we thought it might let up, it just started to rain harder. Thankfully, the Emersons had a 20x10 shade tent to help keep us dry and we attached a large tarp to it to give the kids some space to run around.

We managed to ride out the rainy day by dressing the kids in raincoats and rainboots (poor Alex's were both too big), letting them splash in the puddles, play under the tarp and, by brining out a portable DVD player around noon to keep them from going crazy.

By bedtime, the rain slowed down enough that we could light a fire and let the kids roast marshmallows before bed. And then us adults had a chance to sit by the fire, even if it was still drizzling.

Friday morning started out much of the same -- but it soon cleared up enough that we could take the kids over to the playground before lunch. And then again, after nap time, we took them to the beach. To be honest, it was too cold for swimming. But they went in for a little bit anyway.
The next morning, we packed up as the sun was shining and drove home to sunny Toronto where we spent the rest of the weekend unpacking, drying out and catching up on some sleep.

Despite the weather, we had a really great time and I think that this year was one of the best trips yet. We survived yet another rainy camping trip, ate good food (bacon-wrapped trout one night and stuffed pork chops another night -- who says camping food has to be boring), spent time with good company and managed not to get too many mosquito bites.

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Canada's Wonderland, here we come!

On Saturday, we took the kids to Canada's Wonderland for the PCL family picnic.

We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and immediately made our way to Hanna Barberaland for the kids rides. We had time to wait in line and ride just one (Swan Lake) before it was time to head to the group area for lunch. That was the great thing about this being a PCL day -- not only were our admission tickets paid for, but lunch was provided as well (as long as we went to the group area at a designated time).After lunch, we walked back to the kids area and hit a few more rides before stopping for sno cones and ice cream. By this point it was about 2:30, and we figured we'd probably last about another hour. But as the afternoon wore on, Alex dozed off for about 45 minutes in the stroller, and Austin's energy never seemed to run out. He was having so much fun, he was running on pure adreneline. (It helped that we brought the extra stroller for Austin. He didn't use it much when we were in the kids area, but it meant he didn't have to walk from one end of the park to the other and he had somewhere to sit down when he wanted to.)

So, after going on the kids roller coaster (twice), the swings, a few other rides and saving time to run around the playground, we finally decided it was time to go home -- at 6 p.m.! At which point, we realized maybe we should get the kids something to eat for dinner, because by the time we'd get home, they'll be too tired to eat.

Like the good parents we are...we decided to get them something we'd know they'd eat, rather than spending a lot of money just to get them something they'd only pick at because they were too tired and too wound up to eat. So, we bought them mega ice cream sandwiches for dinner! Hey, it's better to have something in your stomach than nothing at all. And let me tell you, neither of them complained about getting to eat cookies and ice cream for dinner! Although, they were both kind enough to share with mom and dad!

By the time we got home, just before 8 p.m., it was pretty easy to get them both into bed -- at which point, they both passed out for almost 12 hours.

Although Alex wasn't able to go on as many rides as Austin, she had a lot of fun on the ones she could go on. And even though the most exciting ride Ryan and I went on barely went over 10 miles an hour, it was still one of the best times I've ever had a Wonderland.

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Pictures from the last few weeks

My last post didn't include any pictures because I hadn't had a chance to download the camera and sort through the photos. So, here's a quick look at some of the things we've been up to lately:

Ryan took the kids to a nearby fun fair on June 6 (while I was in Ottawa) and Austin had his face painted. Even the bandana is painted on!

Alex checking out the ponies at the fun fair.

Austin hanging out with Dora.


Austin started soccer at the beginning of the month. He's really into it this year and is doing really well.
He shoots....
One morning, I stripped the kids down to their underwear (or diaper), rolled paper across the kitchen floor and let them go wild with finger paint. Alex spent more time painting herself than the paper. Needless to say, when the painting was done, they both went straight from the kitchen to the bath!

Because it's been super-hot this week, I set up our splash pad (it hooks up to the garden hose) in the front yard. This is Alex sititng in the puddle of water. Do you think she likes it?

One last thing I forgot to mention in my last post: now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, I've also decided to go into business for myself. I am now officially a part-time freelance writer and I already have two clients (both who need me to write the copy for corporate websites)! I'm pretty excited about this new venture and am hopeful that I'll get some business. I don't need a lot of business, because afterall, my days are pretty busy with the kids, but I'm looking forward to getting back into writing again.

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What we've all been up to lately

It's been a busy few weeks.

At the beginning of the month, I travelled to Ottawa by myself for the weekend -- leaving Ryan with the kids -- to see my sister who, in her 24th week of pregnancy was put on strict hospital bed rest. I stayed for three days and when things started to look up, I came home on Monday night. She's doing ok for now, and, thankfully, still pregnant. But she's still hospitalized and will be for the remainder of her pregnancy (however long that may be).

While I was off in Ottawa -- Ryan took the kids to a nearby fun fair where the kids apparently had a blast.

The next weekend, we all hung out close to home -- getting stuff done around the house. And this weekend, Ryan has been playing in a baseball tournament all weekend. It rained yesterday, so I kept the kids at home, but today, I brought the kids out to watch two of the three games.

Austin is done spring swimming lessons and he passed the level! He did amazing, and can now (among other things) swim with a lifejacket, unassisted across the width of the pool. I have signed him up for a summer swimming session in July. And, I managed to find a pool not too far away that has a guardian swim class (mom and tot in the water together) at the same time as Austin's swim level, so Alexandra will be taking her first swimming lessons this summer too. She loves the bath, so I'm hopeful that she'll love being in the pool too.

The swim classes are every morning for a two-week period in mid-July. It should be fun, and it'll give us something to do every morning.

Austin is also 'playing' soccer again this summer. We signed him up in the same league as last summer -- a session only for two and three year olds -- and he is really enjoying it again. This time, he has a far better attention span and is really getting into it. It also helps that the league limited the registration to about 20 kids this year -- instead of the 60 to 70 they had last year.

A few things about Alexandra:

• She still doesn't really speak, and although she has a few words, she rarely even uses them. However, I'm amazed at how well she can communicate with us without needing words. When she's hungry, she shakes her high chair; when she wants to go outside, she gets her shoes and tries to put them on; when she's tired she often points to her bed or asks for her blanket (her very special blanket that she can't sleep without).
• Her understanding of language is also very good. If you tell her that it's bath time, she'll drop everything and walks to the bathroom, if you ask her to give her what she's holding, she'll bring it to you. The only thing she doesn't listen to is the word 'no'.
• She's the sweetest girl, but has one heck of a temper -- already. I have a feeling she's going to be trouble!
• She has a shoe fettish right now. She is constantly going to the front door, picking up shoes (anyone's shoes) and carrying them around the house until she finds their owner. Or, she'll throw them in her shopping cart and push them around. The downside to this, is everytime we want to go out, we spend 5 to 1o minutes looking for shoes!
• She's a klutz and at any given time has no less than three bruises or scratches on her face. But almost every time she falls, she gets right back up and keeps going and so, I often don't even know when the newest bruise came from.

I guess that's about it for now.

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New photos

I don't have much to write right now, but I just wanted to point out that I put a new slideshow in the sidebar.

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Mr. 'How come?'

Austin has officially entered a new phase -- the 'how come?' phase.

How come is his version of why. I don't know why he says how come instead of why, but he does. And he says it for EVERYTHING.

A typical conversation with Austin these days, goes something like this:

Me: Austin, put on your shoes please it's time to go.

Austin: How come?

Me: Because we're going to the Early Years Centre now. (Me knowing full well that I told him this three times already.)

Austin: How come?

Me: Because we're going to go play with the kids there.

Austin: How come?

Me: Because you like playing with the kids and it's fun.

Austin: How come?

Me: (Frustrated at this point) Just put on your shoes and let's go!

Austin: How come?

Not all conversations are as circular as that. In many cases he's asking very intelligent 'how come' questions. The other day, he asked me how come there was thunder when it was raining and how come the fire truck was driving fast with its sirens on. The problem with these intelligent questions, is sometimes I can answer them, and other times I realize I have no idea! Seriously, I can't remember what makes thunder and someone please tell me the simplest way to explain to him why airplanes don't fall out of the sky. They're classic, 'why is the sky blue? questions'.

My typical answer to the I don't know questions, are "Let's go look it up".

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Hail storm

I just wanted to share some crazy pictures with you.

On Saturday morning, around 9:30 a.m., we were all standing at the front window watching the storm because Austin was curious about the noise he heard (thunder) and we were trying to explain it to him. Suddenly, this started happening:

It's hard to get a grasp on the size from these pictures, but they started out at about the size of peas, and then suddenly there was loonie-sized hail falling from the sky. Thankfully, the only thing that was damaged were my tulips.

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A quick update on what we're all up to

Alexandra

My little girl is practically running around the house now. She loves playing chase with her brother, or for that matter, doing anything her brother is doing, and her favourite thing to do is to go outside and play. At least three times a day, she'll walk to the front door, pick up her shoes and bring them to me in hopes that I'll put them on her and take her out!

She now has 7 teeth and I think she's working on the eighth. The funny thing is that she is getting them all out of order. Because her 7 teeth are the two top front teeth, the two bottom front teeth and three of her four molars. Yup, that's right, she's still missing four front teeth -- but she's got her molars! The molars have been popping out at an amazingly fast rate -- as she only got the first one around her first birthday. And now she has three.

At her 12 month doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, she weighed in at 19 lbs, 15 oz -- which is in the 50th percentile. And she was 29.5 inches in length -- which is in the 75th percentile. So, she's tall and skinny for her age. Which doesn't surprise me really, because all her 6 to 12 month pants are too short, but she's just swimming in anything that is 12 to 18 month size because she doesn't come close to meeting the weight range on them.

And finally, she has three words in her vocabulary right now. They are: hi (which sounds like haaa and is always accompanied with waving), nana (which is banana and is her favourite food -- she'd eat nothing but bananas at every meal if I let her), and mmmm (which is what she usually says when she eats bananas, but since she loves most foods, it refers to anything tasty).

Austin

There isn't as much new to report about Austin right now. He's still taking swimming lessons -- which he loves and asks almost every evening if he can go swimming tonight. This time, he's taking evening sessions (since I was supposed to be back at work) and he's in a class instead of in private lessons. He's doing really well, even though I think he's the youngest in the class.

Next month, he'll also be starting soccer again. We've signed him up for the same league as last year because he had so much fun, so hopefully it'll work out again as well.

Mom and dad

Why not? Might as well put all the updates out here. Ryan and I are both playing softball again this summer, although we're no longer playing on the same team. Ryan is playing in a men's league and I'm playing in a co-ed league on Tuesday nights. At least we (hopefully) won't be playing on the same nights so we won't need to get sitters for the kids.

And summer is quickly approaching and with that comes many summer plans. We have two camping trips booked (our annual Canada Day weekend camping trip and another one at the end of the summer) and we've also booked a week at a cottage on Lake Bernard. It's the same lake we've been to the last few years, but we're staying at a different cottage -- a bigger one than last year, which was a little too small for all us.

And finally, in September, Austin and Alex are going to have a cousin! My sister and brother-in-law are expecting their first baby and I'm just a little excited!

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Alexandra's big birthday party bash

Alex's first birthday party was this past Sunday morning at Mega Fun 4 Kids -- an indoor playground in Scarborough.

Because our friends' daughter, Isla, turned one eight days after Alex did, we decided to get all of our friends and families together for one big party -- hence we rented the space for the party.

In total, we were about 35 people (10 of those were kids) and we had a blast. We had the space for two hours (and at this playground, you get the whole place for your party, not just a single party room) and all the kids, regardless of their age, had a great time running around and playing with everything. I was surprised, however, that they did all stop to eat (and not just cake).

Alex was a little timid, and although she wanted to play, she wanted to be sure someone she knew was around her at all times. That's ok though, there were a lot of people who wanted to hang out with her anyway!

Her favourite part was, of course, the cake!

Here are a few pictures. There are more on the slideshow.

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My new full-time job

Many of you already know this, but for those who don't, I am now, officially, a stay-at-home mom. My maternity leave ended on Friday, April 10 and I signed my termination papers at the office on Monday, April 13.

But it wasn't as simple as I make it sound. Although I had been toying with the idea of quitting work and staying home for months -- I had decided to go back to work, even if it was only to see if I liked it vs being at home with the kids every day.

Then, I sort of got laid off. My position within my department was eliminated and I was given two choices -- take the severance package offered, or take a nine-month contract being offered in hopes that a full-time job would come available before the contract ended.

Although the job looked like it could be interesting, it wasn't really what I wanted to be doing. So, after a lot (and I mean A LOT) of debate, discussion, sleepless nights and support from Ryan -- I decided to take the severance package. But instead of immediately looking for a new job, I'm going to take on the full-time role as mom and spend this time with the kids -- at least until Austin goes to school in September 2010 and maybe even until Alex goes to school two years later. After all, they're only young once.

As a writer, I'm also going to try to pick up some freelance work, mainly to keep my skills up and to keep my resume from having a big black hole on it when I do go looking for work in a few years.

So, that's it. I'm now a full-time mom and I'm excited about it. I love being with the kids every day -- going on fun outings, watching them grow and learn and teaching them new things. Although I did warn Ryan that he'll know if I'm having a REALLY bad day with them, because he'll come home from work to find the kids in a box on the front lawn holding a sign that says "Free".

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Alexandra's First Birthday (Part 1)

Alexandra's first birthday celebration on April 10 was a very low-key affair since it was Good Friday and we had just arrived home from Vegas a few hours earlier. But the day did include a trip to the park and hanging out with mom, dad and Austin all day -- two things she loves doing.

And no birthday -- even a low-key one, is complete without cake, a rendition of 'happy birthday' and presents. The presents were opened mid-afternoon -- with a lot of help from Austin who was too eager to see what she got to let her open them herself. Thankfully, she's not yet old enough to really get the present concept. Next year though, Austin's in trouble. Now, don't think that we're letting her first birthday go by as a low-key affair. Her party is going to be this Sunday morning. It's a double-birthday party as the daughter of good friends of ours is also turning one this week. So, stay-tuned for more photos next week!

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How we spent our April vacations

Last week, Ryan and I jetted off to Las Vegas, leaving the kids with my parents.

The trip started with packing up and heading to Brampton on Saturday evening where we all spent the night so that on Sunday morning, Ryan and I could easily sneak out while the kids slept to catch our 8:30 a.m. flight. Luckily, it was a direct flight; so with the three-hour time change, we touched down in Vegas just before 10 a.m. local time and were in our hotel room by 11 a.m.

We were able to get a fantastic deal and therefore were staying at The Venetian -- a five-star resort hotel on The Strip. Let me tell you, this place was unbelieveable! All rooms there are suites, and our 'basic' suite was 650-square feet, had three LCD TVs, a king size bed, a sunken living room and a bathroom almost the size of Alex's room. We definitely lived in luxury for the four nights we were there.

So, that afternoon, we grabbed a beer to go (because you can drink while walking along The Strip) and headed out to wander around. It was a beautiful day and we just kind of wandered for awhile before heading back, gambling for awhile and then sitting down for dinner. We ended up heading back to the room early that night -- there was a time change after all, and we had been up since 6 a.m. Toronto time.

On the Monday, we were a little more rested and after breakfast, sat down and played some blackjack. We did this one morning on our last trip too, and there's something really fun about playing cards and drinking before 11 a.m. It's even more fun when you're winning, which we were at the time.

The afternoon was spent shopping and wandering around from hotel to hotel -- again, enjoying the beautiful day. That evening, we went for a nice dinner in one of the restaurants at our hotel and then we had tickets to the late show of Blue Man Group. I didn't know what to expect, but it was really good and really entertaining.

On Tuesday morning, we got up early, rented a car and drove out of town to Red Rock Canyon for a day of sightseeing and hiking. You'd never know you were just a few miles outside of Vegas when you're here. It was fun -- even if we did get a little lost while hiking.

From there, we drove to Fremont Street -- downtown Vegas, where all the older Casinos are. About 10 years ago, Fremont Street was transformed to be completely enclosed by an LCD screen and every evening there are these very weird (but kind of cool) light and music shows. We hung out there for a few hours and then had dinner at one of the diners in an old casino.

On Wednesday, we again took advantage of being able to drink while walking on The Strip and had a couple of beers while we wandered from casino to casino and pretty much just enjoyed the sunshine. That night, we saw Ka -- a Cirque du Soleil show. And wow, was it ever incredible!

And then, just because we could, and because we were leaving the next morning, we stayed up playing cards until 2 a.m.

We didn't gamble much while we were there -- and in fact, managed to not lose any money, coming out a whole $18 ahead of where we started.
We flew home on Thursday morning -- and with the time change, the stopover in Chicago and picking up the kids in Brampton, it was midnight before we got home.

The kids, as I understand it, had a great time with grandma and granddad. But I think they did tire their grandparents out just a little! And, while we were enjoying hot and sunny weather (20C to 27C every day), they were doing this:
Now it's back to reality for everyone.

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Happy Easter!

After a busy week of being on vacation (and the kids being spoiled at Grandma and Granddad's house), Easter weekend has been on the low-key side for us.

On Friday evening, my sister and brother-in-law came from Ottawa to spend the night. They arrived just in time to help us sing happy birthday to Alex and to eat cake!

On Saturday night, we headed out to my parents house for a family Easter dinner -- a fun evening with lots of yummy food. And instead of making an Easter-type dessert, my mom decided to make a chocolate birthday cake for Alex; so once again, we all sang to her and she got to eat cake! She's going to be a pro at this birthday thing by the time her party rolls around next weekend!

This morning, the Easter Bunny came! It took Austin a few mintues to understand the fact that after he found a few Easter eggs that there were likely still more. And that, yes, they were for him. After every find, he'd ask us if the egg was for him.

Alexandra, on the other hand, didn't quite get the concept of looking for eggs, but she enjoyed following Austin around the room with her basket in hand. And she did actually find a couple -- and when she did she stood, pointed and yelled until someone helped her get it and put it in her basket.
With such a busy week of Ryan's and my Vegas vacation, Alexandra's first birthday and other news, stay tuned for a slew of new posts and pictures in the coming hours and days!

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Alexandra is definitely a walker now

I finally managed to catch my walking monster on video. She's gotten really good at it in the last few days -- so good in fact, that she often just walks around the house, just because she can, not because she's trying to go anywhere.

Here are two videos of her. Enjoy.



(I have no idea why Austin felt the need to throw blankets at her while she walked by, but she thought it was pretty funny.)

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