Fun at the cottage

We spent a few lovely hours at a friend's cottage today and Carolyn and Rebecca came along too... can you guess one of Emma's fave things to do??lol

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4 - Rinse and repeat!lol

Rebecca, not so much into getting dirty, more into lounging on the dock!lol

Well, we did it...

Finally, Emma got a haircut, really more like a trim. She handled it really well. :-)

This and that and what were we thinking!!!

When I say it's about 300 degrees today, I'm only slightly exaggerating! It was so hot yesterday that I picked Thomas up from camp a few hours early. He's doing a sports camp which is all outdoors and those kids were practically melting!! Today, he's got an hour of indoor swimming so that should help by both getting them inside and cooling them off.

A few months ago, Gary and I had an idea. We thought it was a wonderful idea. Thomas is learning French at school - wouldn't it be cool to immerse him in French culture and language for a few weeks, have him really get a feel for it. So, if you live on the East Coast and can't quite manage to put a trip to France together, what do you do?? Well, Montreal, Quebec, Canada will do the trick, and for a fraction of the cost!lol Not to mention that DHs firm has an office there so it's easy as pie... well, we thought it would be. But now, as I'm trying to get us all ready, it doesn't seem like such a good idea. We have a diabetic cat who needs insulin shots twice a day so both cats need to come along. The two kids of course are coming too!lol Our neighbour's house is being extensively renovated over the next few weeks and they'll be using our house - it's great for us since it means the house won't be empty, but it means I have to leave it in usable shape for them and that means a major tidying blitz is going to have to happen. So, I'm getting everything ready to allow 2 adults, 2 kids, 2 cats and 2 cars, 3 bikes to make it through a month in Montreal... just the idea of a day in the car with 2 cats and 2 kids is making me want to call it all off, especially since DH and I are driving separately. So if you see a frazzled woman in a minivan on the highway this weekend, that'll be me!!lol And next time I tell you DH and I had a great idea, please hit me with a good dose of reality!!lol

Actually, I'm quite looking forward to being there, just not looking forward to preparing and getting there!!lol So over the next few weeks, look for lots of Montreal pics as we explore the city (assuming I can get my laptop to work at the rental house of course). Now, off to practice my rusty French...un croissant s'il-vous-plait!! :-)

Walking on air...literally!

We were at friends' for dinner last night and they set up a bubble blowing machine. Emma loves bubbles and of course was chasing them all over the driveway...but look at her, her feet are literally not on the ground!lol

A day at the beach

A gorgeous day today and much to DHs dismay, we all wanted to go to the beach...a nature boy, he is not!! But, he knows we love the beach so off we went.

Our little fish!

Since Emma and I are just hanging out for a couple of weeks, I thought I'd try some private swim lessons for her and see how she does. She's been doing a "Parent and Tot" class which she enjoys, but we thought we'd see if she can actually understand and follow instructions well enough to make a class worthwhile. Anyhow, she did GREAT! She loved it and she followed all instructions perfectly and by the end of the lesson, was going from one end of the pool to the other by herself, just holding on to a noodle and kicking away. The instructor said she's sure she'll be swimming by the time she's 3 - she understands and she has no fear! In the pics, you can see her going underwater, doing a starfish and "swimming" with the noodle.

5.4.3.2.1...Blastoff

Thomas went to Space Camp this week. Each child built a rocket and families were invited to watch them launch their rockets. Here are pics of Emma running/rolling around as we awaited the rocket scientists, a pic of Thomas and his friend Derrick showing off their rockets and then the boys setting up their rockets for launch. These things really blasted off and went 100s of feet up in the air, very cool to watch!

Princess Emma

Here's Emma wearing a tiara she got in a loot bag. I have to admit, we're not much of a "princess" household. No Cindereallas and Sleeping Beauties and all that waiting for my prince to come stuff. Yes, Emma does have girly stuff, but not "princessy" stuff. While I don't care for the message most of these characters send to girls, that's not really why we don't have these things, I just object to the "Disneyfication" of the world... I don't like clothing with characters on them overall, although Emma does rock out in her fave shirt - a Beatles shirt we got in Vegas. It's just too funny to have your 2 and a half year old point to the pictures and say Paul, John, George and RINGO!lol As she gets older, if she goes through a Disney princess phase, I'll have to live with it, but while I pick her toys and clothing, I'm avoiding the whole princess thing, although she does wear her tiara well!lol

Necklace update...plus a new addition...

Remember the post a week or two ago where I asked for opinions on a necklace. I ended up choosing the original necklace with the 3 stones. While I was there, I thought I'd look for a ring to wear as my wedding ring. Yes, I do have a wedding ring but I must admit it's just not my favourite anymore, it was picked out many, many, many years ago in my youth!lol First of all, it's yellow gold which I never wear anymore (I have an allergy to metal and yellow gold is more aggravating than white gold or platinum). I had my engagement ring redone a couple of years ago in white gold so now it doesn't go with the wedding ring anymore. Most of the time I just don't wear a wedding ring at all. So, today I found something just light and simple which would go really well on its own or with my engagement ring...I guess that means I'm married again. :-)

Baby Emma

This is a picture of Emma, taken on September 6, 2005, just a few days after we got our referral, and a few weeks before we would meet her on October 30, 2005. She was just over 8 months old.

We sent a camera to Emma's SWI. We got it back the day we met her. The pictures are of her and other babies from our travel group. The pictures were probably taken sometime in October. We also received updated pics of Emma before we met her, also taken in October. So, other than the finding ad, this is the earliest picture of Emma we have. It's the only picture of her in the SWI - the updated pics and the camera pics aren't taken in the baby room. Some are in an office, some are outside. This is the first time we've seen her where she would have spent her days. I've cropped this picture since I don't want to post other other babies' pictures without parental permission, but in some of the pics, we see that her little friend Rebecca is right beside her and her little friend Jade is in front of her, all within touching distance. For what it's worth, Rebecca will talk about her time in China with Emma... now that we see that they were side by side, it doesn't sound quite as far fetched! They are the only constant in each other's lives... I can't say thank you enough to Janice and Marilyn for these pictures, they really are priceless. If anyone else has pictures of the babies at Yangxi taken anytime between January and October 2005, please let me know. It would be so amazing to find more pictures of our sweet girl. BTW, we are extremely fortunate to have these pics, most SWIs do not allow interior shots to be taken, many don't even allow visitors.

Such a hoot!

Emma has this habit of asking the same question numerous times. I answer numerous times. Today we were in the car heading home from grocery shopping and she kept asking if we'd bought milk. I kept answering that yes, indeed we had. Over, and over and over. I guess my YES was starting to sound a little less cheerful on the 5th or 6th time because she then pipes up with "Mommy, have we discussed this already?" I just burst out laughing, really, what can you do! It just sounded so funny to hear that coming from her! I just love this time when their vocabulary grows by leaps and bounds and some words or expressions just sound so funny coming out of the mouth of a not quite 2 and a half year old child!

Emma "singing"

Here's Emma screaming singing rather exuberantly!lol

Saturday fun

It was a lovely day today and DH ended up having to work all day so the kids and I headed off to the zoo and then to a splash park. Both kids loved seeing the animals, Emma especially since it's still pretty new to her. The funniest thing was when a peacock walked up to us and Thomas made these funny bird-like sounds and the peacock talked right back, loudly too - the look on the kids' faces was priceless!lol Since it was a hot day, after walking in the heat for a few hours at the zoo, we headed for a water splash park. Emma adores water but she's never been a big fan of splash parks - she doesn't like the water coming at her. Anyhow, she kept asking Thomas to pick her up and between him carrying her through various water features and me and him holding her hand and running together through water, she got over her fear pretty quickly and next thing you knew, she was right there with Thomas going down the giant water slides.

Don't mess with Emma!

Pool fun!

Here's Emma playing in the pool. This child loves water! She's going to start swimming lessons next week.

BTW, I am still planning on moving the blog. I've just decided to move to another provider and I'm trying to figure out their way of doing things before moving. With all the end of school year stuff going on, I just haven't had much time to sit down and figure it out... but I will... in time!

Puddles!

We had another one of those thunder, lightning, heavy rains and wind storms last night... funny how they come and go so quickly. After the storm, the humidity had disappeared and it was a lovely evening, well, except for the downed power lines that left us without electricity for a few hours and the fallen tree limbs blocking the streets which didn't allow us to drive too far out of the neighbourhood! So, what was left to do other than go walk around and jump through a few puddles!! The quality of these pictures is awful since I just had my mini pocked sized camera, but you can still tell from her height off the ground that Emma puddle jumped quite exuberantly!lol She even got Thomas into it and between the two of them, they got me nice and wet too. And see, Crocs do come in handy sometimes!lol

"Hair" we go again!

Emma joined our family in late 2005. Here we are, June 2007, and she has NEVER had a haircut, not even a trim. Her hair is getting really long and straggly so the time has really come to do something about it. I have no vision whatsoever with these things - any input? Bangs or not? I know I don't want her hair short, but that's about it... what do you see working well given the shape of her face?

Decisions, decisions...

Last year for my birthday, DH bought me this gorgeous necklace with 3 hanging gems. A few weeks ago, one of the gems went missing so I brought the necklace back to the store. They told me they can't fix it but are happy to replace it. Now, my dilemma is that since I got the necklace last year, another similar necklace has become available and I just can't decide if I want to replace the necklace with the exact one I had or choose the new model. I love the way my original necklace has the 3 hanging stones, but I love the colour of the 5 stones together... so, which would you pick? (and both is not an option!lol)

Real Estate

We've been seriously house hunting for about 6 months now - serious as opposed to me just going to open houses because I enjoy them!!lol A few days ago, our agent calls me and tells me she's found THE house and the selling agent is there now, can I run down to take a look. Sure, why not! A friend who is equally into real estate was visiting so off we go, me and my 2nd opinion! The house, oh my, it is gorgeous!! It's all I could want. It has DH's library and my big back yard, not to mention gorgeous, gorgeus, gorgeous, from the old original wood trim and leaded glass windows to the state of the art kitchen with a huge walk in pantry. It even has a 3rd floor loft...oh, I could so see it as MY space.

Well, of course things aren't that simple. Real estate is crazy here with most houses being sold above asking price. DH and I keep 2 amounts in our heads when in comes to buying a house. The first is how much we'd LIKE to spend, the 2nd is how much we're WILLING to spend. The 2nd amount is somewhat higher than the first, while still allowing us to eat more than Kraft Dinner for years to come. Anyhow, after this whirlwind tour, I call my agent and tell her I agree, the house is gorgeous (my friend agrees). Ah, but the dream house has a nightmare price!! The price is about 20% above our WILLING price which means it is not affordable. After I tell the agent that yes, it's lovely, it would be a dream to live there, but sorry, we can't afford it, she lets it drop. Then yesterday, she calls. She tells me she's been tossing and turning over this one and if this is my dream house, she thinks we should go for it (keep in mind that DH hasn't even seen this house yet!!!lol Since it's way out of the price range, I haven't bothered to take him to see it, see, I am a reasonable gal!lol) I was telling DH about this last night, it's just so funny to me. It's not like she called up and said hey, I've got money to spare, I'll cover that extra 20%, so you go for it. Really, I know she wants her commision, but we're the ones going to be stuck with that huge mortgage. It just struck me so funny that she'd call and say we should just "go for it"... without a concern in the world... oh, wait, she doesn't have a concern in the world, her name wouldn't be on the mortgage!!!lol So now we sit and cross our fingers that not only will this house not sell for asking or above asking price, but in the next few weeks the seller will decide to drastically slash the price... dream on!!lol So, the search continues, but perhaps the agent will no longer suggest I rush out to see beautiful homes we have no intention of buying!lol

That can't be right!!!

One of Thomas' friends had a birthday party today after school. The friend's mother asked if she could just take Thomas home with her from school and he'd go to the party place with her and his friend. I agreed that he'd go with them and I'd pick him up. This was a newly opened kids' party place which we'd never been to. I checked the address on the invitation before leaving home to get Thomas. I get a great parking spot right in front of the given address. I put money in the meter and head to the party place. I'm standing in front of the address on the invite (or as I remember it anyhow) and there's a problem - it's a cigar store!! I know kids are sophisticated these days but I'm pretty sure the party isn't being held in a cigar store/lounge!!lolol I'm starting to panic a bit and calling Directory Assistance when I see another parent from Thomas' class... apparently, it's not that I recalled the address incorrectly, it's that the address is wrong! The other parent tells me he's got the invitation in his car which has the phone number to the party place so we head down the block to his car - as we reach his car, we notice a new sign with the name of the party place - the birthday boy's mother had put the last two digits as 99 instead of 69... thank goodness we haven't reached the point where 9 year olds are having parties in cigar lounges!!lolol