Why I don't want to be a boy

Faith declared last night that she's very happy she's not a boy. Why, you might ask?

"I don't want to be a priest. Not a Catholic priest. Because I want to get MARRIED."

Dr's appointments

The last two days held dr's appointments for Faith and I. Faith saw our family doc on Thursday morning as a follow-up check on her diagnosis of pneumonia last week. Yes, pneumonia. She is fine now, other than a lingering cough, but the week before Christmas was really interesting. I got a kidney stone on Monday night and we found out Faith had pneumonia on Tuesday. This was a great double-whammy of sick women in the house for George, but luckily my mom came up for a few days to help us out, and then George's parents arrived a day early to spell her off. (Having family to help out is a huge bonus.)

My doctor's appointment was with my OB yesterday to do the normal check on the baby and get the results from my most recent ultrasound. All good news. My blood pressure is down (thanks to being off work I suspect), my ultrasound showed NO MORE KIDNEY STONES!, the baby weighs about 3.3 lbs and his head down, and the OB thinks I'll get to about 35 weeks before I have junior b. And the best part...I had only gained 2.5 lbs since my last visit! And that's with plenty of Christmas gorging!

Oh yes, and if anyone is ever interested, kidney stones are worse than labour. First off, intense, sudden pain, second, you "give birth" to a kidney stone and not a warm, snuggly baby. I was very happy to hear that I don't need to expect any more of those suckers. I don't want another midnight trip the hospital! (Well I can handle it if it's a baby.)

Experimenting with the new camera

Boxing Day hangover

Christmas was hard on Faith and George. They flaked out the next afternoon after a visit from Uncle Duncan and Deanna and caught some zzzzzs. This was really just a late Christmas present for George, who still misses when Faith would fall asleep on his chest as a baby.

Merry Christmas!

Santa traveled through foggy weather to land on our roof, slide down the chimney and leave lots of presents under our tree. The unseasonably warm weather definitely didn't hamper Santa's Christmas spirit as he left many shiny, wrapped presents and lots of stocking stuffers for us, Nana and Papa, and even Junior B.

Faith's big present from Santa was a Barbie RV. Unlike Papa's, this one is pink and has a hot tub that holds real water (although we haven't mentioned this to her yet). Actually, the toy is technically called a "Barbie Hot Tub Party Bus", but we're happy that she calls it an RV. Papa, Nana, and Mom all helped put the RV together, which gives you some idea about the number of pieces that came with this pink party on wheels. (Papa discovered yesterday that all Barbie toys come with a million little wires and plastic parts to test the IQ and patience of the person opening the toy.)


Faith was very festive for Santa's arrival with the help of her Great-Aunt Donna. The traditional gift of a hat for Christmas may have reached it's pinnacle with this light-up Christmas tree hat. We're not sure how she can top this one. Faith thought it was pretty cool, and ran to the mirror when she opened it to see what it looked like on her head. She likes to wear it and jiggle her head so that the tree bounces.

Christmas morning was definitely fun for all of us!
Merry Christmas!

Another artist in the family

We have all of Faith's Christmas books sitting in a basket in the living room. Each night she picks out a book to read, in the spirit of the season.

Tonight she picked the book that Nana and Papa gave her . It's one of those books that you can get personalized for a child, so it has her name in it, along with ours, her address, and so on. She gets a real kick out of it.

What I didn't know was how much she attributed the book to her Nana and Papa.

Tonight, she was looking at the pictures of the reindeer in the book, when she said, "Nana is a really good artist."

Apparently Nana not only wrote the book, but was also the illustrator.

A new dresser

We have been busily getting the baby's room ready the last couple of weeks. Mom helpfully painted the room for us...a boy color called Camouflage. (OK, really just another shade of tan.) Faith actually helped quite a bit with the painting too. I painted the change table top that Paul built for us the same color so everything coordinates.

Part of the getting the room ready means switching Faith's dresser over to the baby's room (the change table goes on top of it), and giving her a new dresser. Mom and Dad have about 20 dressers at their house, so they sacrificed one for us. Mom found a small, three drawer dresser in one of her closets that's a perfect fit for kid. The only problem is that it needed a coat of paint.

So, we painted it white, and then Faith picked out "Sweet Taffy" pink for the dresser drawers. Faith helped paint it yesterday and as we were painting she noticed that part of the wood is split on the bottom of one side. She pointed this out to me and then said, "Gramma gave me this dresser because it's broken!"

I explained that Gramma gave us the dresser because she knew it was the right size and that the drawers open easily (unlike her current one), and that we could paint it to match her room. She seemed satisfied with this.

The next day we watched Cordelia and William (Rob threw his back out and Karen was working). Faith brought Cordelia down to see her dresser just as I was finishing the second coat. As I was painting, I heard Faith lean over to Cordelia and whisper, "My gramma gave me a broken dresser." OK. So maybe she's not over this yet. :)

The festive season

We've had a busy month so far, and it began with our annual tree trimming party. Although this year it was a much smaller affair, mostly due to my enlarging waistline and general lack of energy for entertaining large groups of people.

The decorating was fun, with excellent food provided by Curtis (catered not cooked:). The kids had fun decorating the tree, but had even more fun getting decorated. Mom brought her face painting kit...she's a walking theme park now. The girls all got princess faces, and Nathan got was the Christmas devil.

He chased the girls around for a bit, prompting Ava to say in a somewhat tremulous voice, "Nathan is scaring me."

The adult girls all got their faces done as well, but the boys mysteriously snuck downstairs to play pool and foosball before they could have a turn.

The next day, we exchanged Christmas gifts with Nathan, Dave, and Tracy as we aren't doing any travelling at Christmas (that baby thing again). Nathan like Battleship, and Faith loved her new Polly Pocket car. George was very happy with his liquid gift of Scotch.


That night, Faith got to ride the float with Sparks in the Santa Claus Parade. This was the highlight of her Sparks career so far...although darn cold! We froze watching the parade, but she was nice and toasty under a blanket and all bundled up.

Bigger and bigger

Tomorrow I hit 26 weeks, and I'm just getting bigger and bigger. Or rather, my stomach just keeps getting bigger and bigger...Yesterday I had another ultrasound to check on the position and growth of the baby.

First off, this one is definitely a boy. As I was watching the screen, he was cooperative enough to flash the ultrasound tech and I. That was about all the cooperating he did as he did not like getting poked and spent the better part of 45 minutes kicking like a horse. (He does a lot more kicking than Faith ever did.) He is also not cooperating in his position. He's decided to stay in the breech position, which explains why my ribs have been killing me. His little head is pushing up, up, up.

And, he is a very big boy...about 1 kg or 2.2 lbs right now. This in the 80th percentile according to the dr. Woohoo. Already a high achiever. :)

This morning Faith and I were eating breakfast when I showed her where the baby's head is sitting. I gave him a little poke and then he kicked me. Faith looked at me very seriously and said, "Mom. You shouldn't push the baby in the head." Sure, he can kick me in the cervix all day long, but I can't give him a little poke now and then.

Tonight I told her that we have to talk to the baby and tell him to turn around so he's facing head down. I explained that if he stays in the current position I have to have an operation to get the baby out.

Normally, when I put her to bed, we have a ritual of her saying goodnight to my tummy. Tonight, instead of her normal "goodnight baby", she said, "Turn around baby. My mommy's already had an operation and she doesn't need another one."

You got that right.

Putting your best face forward

Mom is developing another artistic business to keep her even busier (retirement...what's that?). She has started a face painting business. But this is no ordinary face painting...none of those simple, one or two color butterflies and hearts you see on kid's cheeks at local fairs. Instead, the faces are works of art. When she pulled out a red suitcase (!) full of different colors, brushes, and tools, I couldn't believe it!

Faith thought this turn of events was awesome! And, since Halloween was yesterday, and she wanted to be a bunny princess, Mom showed me how to do a bunny face for her costume. (Note...my attempt at the bunny face did not look nearly as good as the picture below.)
Next, Faith wanted to have a "princess" face. So she went through the many pictures that Mom has of different ideas to choose the face she wanted. The result is below, with Mom's special flare for color of course.


...and from the other side...
Faith discovered with this face painting design what most women have learned. There is no possible way to keep your lips painted and actually eat or drink anything. Mom retouched her about three times before we had to wash off the masterpiece.

I even got into the act with a pumpkin for Halloween on my cheek.


I told Mom that her house has officially become a kid's idea of the circus, complete with horse rides from Grampa and face painting by Gramma.

Wise words

George's Grandma Squire passed away last week. This was a sad time for the whole family, but also a time for us to celebrate Grandma's 92 years of life. Seeing her 10 great-grandchildren running around the funeral home was testament enough to that.

Fortunately, George and Faith were able to visit Grandma in the hospital the Sunday before she died. When it came time to actually tell Faith that Grandma had died, I thought that she would be able to understand it a little better because she knew that Grandma was having trouble breathing and that her heart was sick too. What I underestimated was how truly upset she would be to hear that Great-Grandma had died and was now in heaven.

But, in the way of five year olds, she was soon able to understand that Great-Grandma was in a better place. After sitting through Grandma's funeral on Monday, she told me, "I felt sad but I didn't cry because I knew Great-Grandma was feeling better now." (Strangely enough, she was also fascinated by Grandma's name as I don't think she'd ever actually heard her called by her "real" name before. She was obviously listening to the minister during the service.)

I think the most profound thing she said occurred at the actual cemetery. After the ceremony at the grave, we were waiting in the van for the cars ahead of us to return to the church. Faith asked, "Mom, what are all the flowers for?"

The cemetery was filled with flowers of all kinds on the different headstones...more than I had ever seen in one cemetery before. I explained that people brought them for their grandmas and grampas, aunts, and uncles.

"Then the flowers are for love," she said. Then she paused for a few seconds before saying, "There's lots of love here."

How do five-year-olds get so wise?

The call of the wild

Faith went to the Toronto Zoo today with her Sparks troop (think pre-Brownies). All the local Sparks, Brownies, and Guides piled on two buses this morning to head to the zoo.

When Faith got back tonight she had lots of stories to tell, along with complaining that she "walked all day long" and was too tired to do anything. Of course, she seemed to be bouncing of the walls too, so it was more of an over-tired/sugar high thing. She had many, many snacks provided by the troupe, included leftovers that she brought home! She still hasn't eaten them all. Apparently walking around the zoo required a backpack full of food.

She is also now full of very interesting animal facts and stories. Just two examples:

-One time somebody fed the orangutangs at the zoo and they got in a fight with the orangutang, and the orangutang fell into the water and died. Apparently Orangutangs can't swim. (My response to this story was "So, you're not supposed to feed the animals, right?" "No....but our leaders did.")
-Lions need lots of fur around their necks so if they get in fights they won't get their throats eaten and die.

Hey, they don't call them wild animals for nothing.

First baby pictures

Here's the first pictures of the baby, at 20 weeks. I had the ultrasound yesterday morning. The best part, aside from when they said I could pee, was seeing the baby moving around onscreen. I couldn't believe how active he was, and that I couldn't feel all that activity. Sure, I felt some of it, but at one point he moved from his front to his back and I didn't feel it at all!

And, yes, the Ultrasound tech let me know that the baby is likely a boy. It's not 100%, but apparently she saw the penis...or something that looked suspiciously like one. :)

George and I told Faith when we got home that night. When I told her the baby was a boy, she got a big smile on her face, so I think that's a good sign.
Although, she then went on to point out that sometimes they make mistakes and that it could still be a girl.

Later on, while we were sitting on our bed after her bath, I was braiding her hair. As I was doing this, I heard her whispering over and over, "Be a girl. Be a girl. Be a girl." When I asked what she was saying, she just smiled and said, "Nothing."

Good thing she has a few months to get used to the idea that she will be having a baby brother.


To translate the pictures

• the first is a shot of the baby's spine
• the second is the baby's feet
• the third is a face-on view
• the fourth is a side view

It snowed!

Today was our first snowfall. As I drove home from work, I started to see snow dusting the ground in shaded spots. When I got to the daycare, the kids were super excited that they got to see snow.

When Faith and I got home, we had snow on the front lawn so we ran inside to put on her boots and grab the camera. By the time we got back outside, the wind had whipped up and it was snowing again! We snapped a couple of pictures with Faith holding her hat down on her head.

My neighbour yelled out, "Robin, so this is all your fault!"

As we ran back into the garage to escape the blowing snow, I couldn't help thinking he was right. :)

When George came home later, he brought a snowball into the house to throw at Faith. She wanted to save it, so it's now sitting in hour freezer. The first taste of winter.

Family planning

Faith was sitting on the throne last week (she pulls this off really well as she enjoys making royal pronouncements from the bathroom) when she announced, "Mom, we should only have two kids in this family, otherwise it's too much work to care of them." In complete agreement. :)

This was after I did the typical response to "Mom, get me..."

I usually say, "What, am I your slave?"

This time, Faith said, "Yes. You're the mom and I'm the kid. I tell you to get me stuff and you do."

George laughing at times like this doesn't help.

Stuffed with turkey and other tidbits

We survived Thanksgiving weekend...likely the last really nice weekend until winter sets in.

The highlights from the weekend can be summarized by:

Happy Birthday to Mom
Flat tire on George's car
DQ Blizzard for me (while waiting for tire to get fixed)
Really good Chinese food in Harrow (who knew?)
Too much food...
Sweet potatoes with marshmallows!
Too much dessert...ok...maybe not
Plane fogged out for my Aunt from Edmonton
Nathan and Faith making a pile of leaves in Uncle Lloyd's yard
Leftovers!
Happy 35th Anniversary to Mom and Dad

Sister and brother

My favourite picture of Ava and Wyatt. (August 2006)
Posted by Picasa

Kind of cowgirl

Faith in our back yard, wearing her special hat from Gramma and Grampa's trip to Australia.
Posted by Picasa

Artistic bubble blowing

Cordelia blowing bubbles in our backyard.
Posted by Picasa

Not just a hobby...

Dad and his new victoria carriage for doing weddings and the tux to go with it! The picture was taken at a wedding show in Windsor at the Caboto Club.

Discovering hell...

I have discovered hell, and it's having a cold when you're pregnant. The only medicine you can take is Tylenol, which we all know is soooo effective against a stuffed up nose. This meant I was off work for 2 1/2 days this week, and missed Faith's field trip to a cider mill. I'm finally recovered/ing and am just down to a cough now.

On Monday, I had my second OB appointment. This time I got a very nice intern. So, I've gained 4 lbs, have slightly elevated blood pressure (although he's not worried about it and neither am I as I have white coat syndrome), and the baby was so uncooperative that she couldn't get a heart rate. She'd catch the kid for a few seconds and then the baby would move away. This one is very active compared with Faith.

Monday night I started getting the cold, so I was out of commission for Tuesday evening when Faith went to her first Sparks meeting (pre-Brownies). She was very excited when she came home. "I get to go in a parade and sell coooookies!" I'm not sure why selling cookies is so exciting to a five year old. Actually, she gets to go in two parades...Remembrance Day and Santa Claus. And, she has a field trip to Toronto planned, as well as a New Year's Sleepover but not on New Year's. So, Sparks so far sounds like a good investment (not a cheap activity!).

We survived the rest of the week. And today we're going to my 10-year class reunion for university. (I think this means I'm getting old. :) It's homecoming football day, so we're going with friends and hoping not to get rained on. George, of course, thinks I'm crazy as I'm still coughing, but your 10 year reunion only happens once!

Fashion sense

Back to school season means the painful process of finding clothes and shoes (oh lord, the shoes!). For a kid who wants to wear skirts and dresses every day, this is particularly difficult.

This year, the clothes part was actually pretty easy. The shoes, however, have been an ongoing saga. Faith picked out light-up (!) Barbie (!) shoes. But, part of the sole ripped off the second time she wore them. They just don't make the Barbie-wear like they used to.

So, I took those runners back to the store, and picked up two different pairs. One very cute silver pair for indoor shoes, and another light-up (!) pair, although plain this time (yippee!). The light-up ones passed muster, but the cute silver ones didn't. So another trip back to the store.
Finally, we hit Payless and found a cross between runners and Mary Janes...a winner!

Why all these problems with shoes? Well, we need inside shoes for school, and outside shoes for home/schoolyard/daycare playground, plus inside shoes for daycare.

And, Faith has one foot that's a full size bigger than the other (inherited from her dad). So, at most I can only get shoes a half size bigger than her biggest foot, because the smaller foot just swims in the shoes otherwise. This means buying shoes even more often.

Clothes, on the other hand, were easier this year. We went low key. Although, we did go on Saturday to pick out a dress for school. In the store, I asked if she liked it and she said yes. When she put it on for church the next day, however, she didn't want to wear it!

Me: "Faith, you said you liked this dress!"
Faith: "I do like it. I just don't like it on me."

OK...how can you argue with that? So, yet another thing to return to the store. Better than hanging in the closet unused.

You definitely can't say that she doesn't know her own mind.

Catching up....

OK...now that I'm starting to feel somewhat normal again, I may actually be able to keep up with my blogging now. :)

Faith started her first day of senior kindergarten today. It was just 5 kids for today and then she starts in every day next week. It went pretty well. The parents got to stick around for the first 20 minutes or so, which meant she didn't say too much. Luckily she knew a couple of the kids, so this helped. She told me that she cried after I left, but I'm not sure I believed this as she was fine when I left the room. She was happy when I picked her up, and she said that she liked her teacher. I, on the other hand, have more homework to do than I had on a bad night in university. I have a packet of papers to read, fill out, and return. The pressure!

It was actually a pretty crazy weekend for us. Faith was sick on Friday...and the germs leaped to George and I. Luckily it was a quick thing. Saturday night, Duncan visited with his girlfriend, Deanna. This was the first time we met, but we'd had previous glowing reports from the parents. And, yes, she lived up to them! :)

Sunday was dinner with Paul and Kim and the kids. This meant that Ava and Faith went off and played for three hours and we basically had to monitor the squeals.

Monday was a playdate with our old baby sitter and kids, and a visit with an old co-workers kids. Tuesday was the first day of school, a doctor's appointment for Faith (including 2 needles!), and a little shopping for me so i can leave the house in something that does not resemble a tent.

So...essentially we're all exhausted and now I have to go back to work. Uggh. And, of course, my morning sickness has decided to come back during the last couple of days! This is supposed to be over with and now I can just gestate and get bigger!

Oh well. On the plus side, I think I actually felt the baby last night for the first time. Of course, it was at 3:30 am when I couldn't sleep, but at least it was something to think about through the insomnia.

The crazy month of June, and a little chocolate on the side

June was a crazy month...hence not too many blog posts. The month started off with me getting shingles (not fun), then the middle of the month was crazy, crazy time at work. Finally the second last week of the month was a trip to Belgium!

The Belgium trip was amazing. Lots of hard work, but also some sight seeing for me as I had to stay over the weekend until Sunday morning. I spent two nights in Brussels in the city center, wandering the streets and seeing some fascinating architecture and culture. Saturday, I hopped the train to Brugges where everywhere you turn it looks like a postcard.

I also did some souvenir shopping...mostly lots of Belgium chocolate. Karen and Rob helped out with Faith the week I was gone, so I brought them back some chocolate from Brugges. Although I didn't witness the eating of the chocolate, they assured me it tasted great. They also sent me a picture of one of the chocolates from the box. I didn't realize I was getting them the risque chocolates! I wonder if that meant they tasted better.?

Belgian chocolate?
Posted by Picasa

Daddy's little girl

A father's day photo
Posted by Picasa

More bedtime musings...

Tonight was my turn to run the bedtime ritual. This invariably takes me about 20 minutes while it only takes George about 5.

So, I asked Faith, "Why do you go to bed quickly for Daddy but it takes a long time for me?"

Her reply, "Because I want to give you more love."

Man, does she ever know how to give the right answers.

Psychic predictions

George got to put Faith to bed tonight (since tonight is the season finale of 24!! and I'm completely addicted). So, he got to experience her normal flights of conversational fancy that tend to happen just before she goes to bed, usually when she's sitting on the toilet. She apparently does her best thinking there...similar to George.

Tonight she informed George that he was going to die a week after she got married. OK.
He said he'd like to see his grandchildren. She thought this would be alright. Then she wanted to know if he would like to be Grampa or Papa. He wasn't sure, so she informed he should think about it and tell her in the morning.

Today, we also visited Faith's old babysitter who gave her a My Little Pony memory game. This afternoon I worked upstairs while George and Faith played downstairs. When I came down, she wanted to play the game with me. When I asked George if they had played it as well, he said about 30 times. Seriously. I played it four times myself. We have definitely redeemed the value off this gift in playing hours, and in just one afternoon.

No means yes...

We were playing "tickle machine" tonight and Faith suddenly said, "Ok Mom. No means yes and stop means keep going." Mmmm... I'm sure the women's movement would love to hear this one.

Accountants vs. fire fighters

Faith and her daycare class visited the Fire Department in town on yesterday. This was quite the thrilling experience. George picked her up from daycare and heard all about it. (I was at a work event.) Apparently she thought fire fighters were so cool that she wants George to be one. I guess accountants just aren't interesting enough . :)

The birthday parade...

We have so far survived the birthday parade that is the May. Faith, as usual, had multiple parties...one at Gramma's house, one on her birthday at our house, and a "princess party" with her friends from daycare and school.

The princess party was on Saturday and it actually went really well. All the girls (7 in total) were very cute in their princess dresses and play jewellery. George and I had the whole event planned, including a craft to make a tiara which we thought would take about half an hour. No way! These kids were power crafters! They were done in 15 minutes tops and ready to go.

Next were games, playing, decorating of cupcakes (a power sugar event), and then opening of presents and home. Faith said thank you to everyone (finally!) and was quite happy with her barbies, polly pockets, crafts, games, necklaces and so on.

All in all a successful event, but I never want to be a party planner! It was freakin' exhausting!

Birthday planning, etc.

Last night I spent the evening making birthday party invitations for Faith's 5th birthday. She is inviting 6 girls from school and/or daycare to a princess party. There is nothing like wading into the social minefield of kids' birthday parties. Who to invite, who not to invite, etc. etc. etc. It's in two weeks, so we'll see how it goes.

Today, I kept Faith home for the morning so we could both hit the doctor. I have red eyes again and a sore throat so I was suspicious that we might have the whole pink eye/strep throat thing again. Not something we want to repeat. According to the doctor, however, we have something viral and it will just go away on its own. Yippee.

While we were waiting to go to the doctor, Faith was sitting at the coffee table coloring when she exclaimed, "Look at all the chocolate Daddy ate without me!" George has been doing tax returns on the couch and nibbling away at Easter chocolate. Last night he left the evidence of his actitivies in the form of many crumpled, shiny wrappers sitting on the coffee table. Faith didn't care he was eating her chocolate, just that she missed out on the action. A lesson: never leave incriminating evidence!

At supper time, Faith and I were talking and I had forgotten to turn off the news. The last time this happened it was on City TV and the show "Fashion Television" came on. Faith was quite excited that people were "showing their privates" on TV. George and I clued in after glancing over at the TV and getting an eyeful of see-through shirts walking down the runway. Great.

Tonight, she said that she wanted to see the people showing their privates on TV again. I, of course, asked why.

"Because it was funny and rude," she replied.

The entire fashion industry summed up by a four-year-old.

Sunday musings...

Faith has been very concerned about her birthday lately. This morning while getting ready for church, we asked her what she would like for her birthday. She thought about it for a moment and then decided that she wanted a "boy Barbie". She also stated that "Daddy could buy it because he likes men."

After I stopped laughing, I told her that was a very good idea. :)

Faith looked very nice today for church in her new yellow dress with pink flowers. (An Easter present from Gramma.) She especially like the ruffles in the skirt. This was apparent when during the church service she started wiggling her butt to make the ruffles swing back and forth. Nice.

Other than that, we're all just waiting for tax season to end next Monday. yippee!

Dad called this morning at 7:00 to let us know the good news. He has a new filly. I woke up Faith so he could tell her personally. She was sleepy but happy to hear the news.
Posted by Picasa

Stream of consciousness

Virginia Wolfe must have talked to a four-year old before she developed her stream of consciousness style. Wolfe has nothing on the meandering mind of a kid.

I put Faith to bed tonight and then 15 minutes later heard the "Moooooooom" chant coming from her room. (Nowadays, she has to yell really loud to get us to hear since she has decided that her door must be closed when she goes to bed.)

I went upstairs to have her tell me she is scared of the sounds. (We have a pretty good wind storm/rain storm going on outside.) She wanted to get up, but when that didn't work she switched tactics and wanted me to stay with her for a few minutes to talk. The conversation went something like:

F: "Mom, what are those sounds?"
M: "It's just the wind, and little rain."
F: "Mom, I think you have a cold." She reaches up to feel my forehead, and then kisses it to test for a temperature (my standard solution to not wanting to trot downstairs in the middle of the night to find a thermometer).
F: "Yup. Mommy, you definitely have a cold."
M: "I don't think so."
F: "Why do I get like this?"
M: "Like what?"
F: "So scared that I want to be with you all the time." Big hug. (A good strategy to avoid me leaving...dial up the love.)
F: "Is this storm in Florida?"
M: "No. Florida is pretty far away and they don't have the same weather that we do. It's warmer there."
F: "Charlotte and Laaaaaura. Chinese. It's a long drive to Chinese."
M: "You mean China."
F: Laughter. "China. China is your privates." (Why does every conversation lead to body parts?)
M: "No China is a country. Vagina is part of your body."
F: Laughter. "Vagina. Vagina. Vagina is your privates."
M: "Time to go to sleep."

A plan for the future

Faith has decided that she is going to marry Daniel Cook because they look alike.

Daniel is an older man (about 9) on TV, with red hair. I haven't passed this by George yet, but I'm sure he's going to want her to wait until she's at least 30 before she considers any boys, red-haired or otherwise.

Just a little ditty....

Faith and I were supposed to be in Hamilton last night and today at her cousin's house, but Aunt Kim got strep throat, we changed our plans. Faith was just a little disappointed, but bribery with McDonald's helped quite a bit.

Today was had a play date with one of her school friends. Emily has a tonne of Polly Pockets, which Faith is obsessed with (hint, hint...birthday is coming). They are tiny little dolls with teeny tiny clothes and teeny, teeny, teeny tiny shoes that are easily sucked up in the vacuum cleaner. Perfect for kids! :)

When we got home, Faith was sitting at her craft table when I hear her singing:

Does your penis hang low?
Does it wobble to and fro?
Can you tie it in a knot?
Can you tie it in a bow?
Does your penis hang low?

Yikes! So I ask where she learned this. Her response, "Janice."

Now, Janice is about 50 years old and is one of her daycare teachers, so I was highly skeptical at her answer. I probed further, and her response was, "I was just experimenting with the words."

Great. A creative kids. Just don't do it at school!

My new favorite picture of Faith

Duncan took this at Christmas. (I know, I know...get a digital camera!)

Who says TV isn't good for your kids?

Faith and I were having supper tonight when she looked at me and said, "Take chances. Make mistakes."

Thinking this was a pretty profound statement for a four-year old, I asked, "Where did you learn that from?"

"TV!" she replied.

OK...teachable moment, I think. She heard it on the Magic School Bus that morning. (Every morning she gets up and eats breakfast in our room while we get ready for work. This means watcing the Magic School Bus...which is actually a pretty educational show.)

So, we talked about why taking chances and making mistakes was a good idea.

I like TV. :)

Girl power...

Picture Faith dancing around in a pink t-shirt saying, "I'm a giiiirl. Giiiirl power."

Her favorite t-shirt is pink and says Girl Power. Is there something contradictory here? I haven't decided yet. :)

Mom, you don't have your listening ears on

What does it say about your parenting skills when your child says, "Mom, I saaaid, 'Pleeeease get me some milk.' You don't have your listening ears on!"

My stomach hurts...but I can have dessert

Faith decided that her stomach hurt at the end of supper. (Perhaps it was all those snacks before supper...I know, bad parenting.) The conversation went something like:

F: "Ohhh! My stomach hurts! Ohhh!"
M: "Well, you should go lay down."
F: "Ohhh! But I can still eat dessert. Ohhh!"

Apparently Smarties are medicinal.

Hey lady...our little speed demon

Faith has turned into a speed demon on her bike. We've been taking advantage of the great weather and extra light to walk (me) and ride (her) after supper. I actually have to jog to keep up...luckily she stops for snacks a lot. (She keeps a bag of cheerios on her bike at all times.)

But, not only is she fast now, she can do "tricks". Look ma, no hands! I can ride one-handed!

This leads to waving and saying hi! (I know, Faith saying hi to strangers!) Or, my personal favorite, one hand on the handlebars, one hand waving saying "Hey lady!"

Mmmmm...maple syrup

On Saturday, F--, C-- and I set out on an adventure to witness maple syrup production, pet baby farm animals, and eat pancakes. We travelled to McCullys Farm, just outside of St. Mary's, where we got to travel on a horse drawn wagon through the sugar bush. We saw all the buckets of sap being collected, as well as the huge, wood stove where they boiled the sap down to make the syrup. This was all quite interested to the girls, although even more interested was the cat that came along for the ride. He looked just like Boots (C--'s cat) but without a tail (a manx, as C-- informed me).

Then, we got to see a barn full of baby animals -- pigs goats, lambs, bunnies. There were also chickens, ducks, miniature ponies, and a rather sad looking donkey. Very Eeyore-like. The girls were most fascinated, however, by the new baby lambs that were born a couple hours before we got there. It was live and in-color, including the afterbirth, which they found mesmerizing. They got to pet the baby goat, lamb, horse, and the "favourite", a baby bunny. F-- was great because she went up and pet each animal.

Afterwards, we had pancakes, maple sausage and maple baked beans, drenched in maple syrup. Yummy.

Once the girls were suitably reved up on sugar, we went into Stratford to pick out W--'s first birthday present at Family and Company, a very cool toy store. They have selling down to an art there. The staff walk around demonstrating the toys, and anytime the kids touch something, the staff person shows them how to play with the toy. A fun place for kids, and I escaped by just buying the girls a 50 cent pink, stretchy lizard. :)

The funniest part of the day was the ride home. C-- states from teh back seat, "Countdown to a toot. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Toot. And a real stinker too. :) Her parents were suitably impressed by their daughter's talents when I recounted the incident.

Taxes...a kid's perspective

G-- was reading F-- her bedtime story on Friday night -- The Queen Who Stole the Sky. The Queen charges the people in the land taxes. F-- asked what taxes were. G-- explained that the we give money to the government for our hospitals, schools, to fix the roads and so on. F-- thought about it or a minute and then said, "So they steal it."

Out of the mouths of babes.

Sunday - in Lent but not of Lent

So, G-- and I have given up our various vices for Lent. He gave up alcohol and I gave up sweets (yes, chocolate too!). but, the silver lining in this for us is that Sundays are "in Lent not of of Lent". In other words, as G-- said, "I'm going to spend Sunday's completely blitzed." :)

Grandparents Day

It was Grandparents Day yesterday at F--'s JK class. Gramma and Grampa M-- came up for the event, which included crafts, a gift, and cupcakes made be the JKs. (F-- ate two...well one and a half and Grampa got the other half.)

Gramma stayed on at the class for the whole morning (F-- wouldn't let her leave). Then they got to go out to Tim Horton's for "the usual"--bagel with strawberry cream cheese, NOT toasted, chocolate milk, and a chocolate and a vanilla timbit. While sitting in Tim's, a guy with a shaved head, earrings, and lots of muscles sat down next to them. F-- thought this very strange and leaned over to whisper in Gramma's ear, "Gramma, that man has earrings!" At least she whispered.

They also hit the Dollar Store in town, where F-- "cuted" her way into a new doll, a bracelet, hair bands, and hair ties. When I asked why the new doll, Grampa said, "Well, she looked at the dolls and said 'How cute!', and what could I do?" Sucker! :)

We also had a nice fish dinner last night in honour of Ash Wednesday. I pretty much smothered the fish in cheese, tomatoes, onions, and garlic so they were well hidden, and G-- and I actually at them.

Mom and I got started on her Australia/New Zealand trip scrapbook. Soooo many pictures (and soooo many stories for Dad to tell). :)

The Apple Dumpling Gang

It's been a little crazy around here for awhile, so I've been woefully bad at keeping up with the blog.

Last weekend, F-- and I headed home to hear stories about Mom and dad's trip to Australia and New Zealand. We didn't hear all 60 hours of Dad's new stories, but we got a good start on it.

G-- survived the two days without us. He's totally swamped with work as TAX SEASON is now here. As F-- says, "Poor daddy."

This weekend, I introduced F-- to the movie "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (an old Disney movie with Don Knotts and Tim Conway). I remembered really liking this movie when I was a kid, so I picked it up from the library. At first she thought it was pretty boring. Then she asked to watch it again. :)

Today, we watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. At the point where they were talking about the summer Olympics in China, F-- smirked and said, "Mommy, they said a bad word on TV."

"What?" I asked.

"They said China!" she replied.

It took me a second to clue in. "No, they said China...that's a country. You're thinking of va-gina."

What a kid! :)

Jesus and easter eggs

Faith's latest thought: "If Jesus died at Easter, he didn't get any Easter eggs."

Mmmmmm.

A whirlwind holiday season

OK...we survived the holidays!

The big news for our holiday was the big trip to Florida to see G's parents with P and K, and the kids. Yes, we survived with 4 adults and 3 kids on a 29 hour road trip. Lots of DVDs, coloring, books, and frequent pit stops helped!

Florida itself was great. Mom stuffed us full of food (but we didn't gain 7 lbs this time, unlike our last trip!). Dad showed off his ability to blow up balloons using his air compressor. The girls also extracted a promise from him to bring up the RV in the summer to go camping again. They cornered him while he was trying to take a nap.

It was definitely strange having Christmas in Florida...no snow on the 25th, and walking around in shorts. And of course, swimming on Christmas Day. Strange but definitely nice.

The girls had a fun time playing with each other...there was much squealing and playing with dolls.

The kids even left out hay and carrots for the reindeer on Christmas Eve (thanks Dad!), and cookies for Santa. They got a huge kick out of this. Santa liked the cookies, and was good to everyone and showered the kids, as usual, with presents (as did mom and dad).

We had a great time and enjoyed the break from the normal cold, snowy Christmas.