The week of 'no no'

Sarah kept asking 'up' again this week (or 'uppy' as she calls it) and to that she added 'no no' as an answer to everything. It's pretty funny when she does something she knows she's not supposed to do (like climb up on her chair to get at the stereo) and while she's doing it, she's shaking her head and saying, 'no, no, no, no', etc. :o)

She also discovered that she has lint in her bellybutton. I've been putting her in t-shirts instead of diaper shirts, so she's starting to spend a lot of time digging around in her bellybutton during the day. When she found the lint, she showed it to us, and then she tried to put it back. She was so confused when it wouldn't go back in her little bellybutton. Very funny. 

She's also added 'hot' and 'ta' to her spoken vocabulary. It's pretty cute when she says 'ta' when you give her something, I must say.

Otherwise, not much went on this week. I was sick with a very sore throat so it was hard to manage getting through the days. I finally went to the walk in clinic on Friday night. I don't think it was strep - it may have been viral tonsillitis. I'm feeling a lot better now, though, so I'm glad I didn't take the penicillin the doctor prescribed.

The weekend was mostly spent indoors - we had a big storm come through on Sat night. The power flickered a few times, but it stayed on. We've been working on our pantry for the past few weeks. We've been spending a lot of money on glass jars for all our bulk stuff, and we finished the project this weekend. Yeah. I wish I'd remembered to do a before picture, but here's the after pic.

Sarah likes it in the pantry too. Her favourite thing to do is to push the buttons on the bread maker. The next best thing is to take the cans off the shelves. She hasn't actually dropped one on her foot yet. It's only a matter of time and when she does, I sure hope she doesn't break her foot or a toe.

Sarah with her Daddy's work hat on (Air Force wedge). Ta Da! I'm secretly hoping she'll be more interested in black and white (Navy), but because she's the daughter of military folk, she'll probably want to be a hippy instead.

Caught on camera eating a snack while sitting on her duck.

She was back in the cupboard again. I have no idea why she likes it in there so much, but she's lucky we're around to rescue her because she can't get herself back out once she's in there.

Easter Weekend

Sarah has started to use the kitchen stool as a boat. She has a great time in it. If only she had a paddle...she'd be trying to paddle to the sea.

Late Wednesday night, Dale arrived home and our Easter weekend started. He had Thursday off from work because he worked the previous weekend. Florida, by all reports, was great - not tropical, but nice and warm. He brought home lots of gifts for Sarah and I...and the gift giving for Sarah began. For some reason, we bought tons of Easter gifts for her. Grandma and Grandpa Holm sent a package along as well, so we spread the gift giving out over the weekend.

On Friday we gave Sarah a John Deere book - all about Johnnie Tractor and his buddies going on an Easter egg hunt. Sarah's a big fan of all things John Deere. It was mild and sunny so we went for a walk in Assiniboine Park. Sarah loves the park - lots of dogs to pet and people to see. In the picture below she peering over the fence and I think she's contemplating if she can get over it or not.

On Saturday we started off the day by giving Sarah a little plastic gardening set with gardening tools, a watering can and 3 little containers for planting. Spring isn't for a while, but it's something fun to play with inside before it become useful. She also made some tea for some of her many stuffed animals, and stopped to have some water with them. The stairs are her favourite place to set up her tea set - unfortunately she's fallen down them a few times this past week. She gets so involved in the tea ceremony that she forgets that she's quite precariously perched on the edge of the stairs. One of these days she'll get the hang of it. 

We went to the Officer's mess around noon to the Easter egg hunt. Sarah got to meet the Easter bunny! She really enjoyed him, as long as he kept at least 2 feet away from her. She did some crafts (ok, so Mommy and Daddy did a lot of helping with that part) and spent some time with our (over the back) neighbours - Mike, Lisa and Sophia. She watched the cupcake walk but didn't want to actually do it. We didn't actually make it to the Easter egg hunt - it was at 1:30, which is WAY past Sarah's nap time. She napped in the car on the way home.

  

Later in the afternoon Sarah actually got to play with the gardening set.

On Sunday morning we did an Easter egg hunt - she found those 6 plastic eggs lightning fast! Wow. She caught on very quickly to egg hunting. 

She jumped for joy when Daddy helped her unwrap the chicken and candy from Grandma and Grandpa Holm. 

After the hunt we went to the Fort Whyte centre for a beautiful brunch and a walk around. It was a bit colder than it has been lately (about -6 for a high), but it was a sunny day and really nice out. Dale went for a slide down the Richardson run but we decided it was just too fast for a little Sarah...next year she's going to have a riot going down it. In the afternoon she cruised around in the kitchen on the towel - an activity we do in Kindermusik to the tune 'Going on a hayride.' She pulled the towel with her baby on it a few times as well.

 

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Sarah wanted to say Happy St. Paddy's Day to everyone. It's not every day that she gets to dress up in a green shirt and have Mommy take pictures of her! Ok - so Mommy takes pictures everyday...it's the green shirt that's new.

      

Mad as a March hare

I bet the title for this post got your attention. No - not really mad, just wishing for spring. It's been quite mild, but that also means that when it's not melting, it's snowing. Oh well...it still feels like it might be spring eventually, especially since we ordered our seeds this week.

Sarah has always been quite mothering around younger kids, but lately she's really kicked it up a notch. It all started at Christmas when her Grandma Holm gave her a little baby and then my parents gave her a little baby while we were out in BC for Valentine's Day (any excuse to give a gift, I guess, eh?). She's been swaddling the baby in her fleece jumpers, giving it water from a sippy cup, changing her diaper (below) and generally practising her big sister skills.

  

And then...

At the beginning of March, our friend Maggie and her little girl Maddie came to visit from Petawawa, Ontario. Well - they came for a family thing but they dropped in to visit us for an afternoon and dinner. It was so good to see them! Did I mention that Maddie is about 11 months old? And what did she have but a bottle to drink water from. Well - as far as Sarah was concerned, that meant that she got to step in to help even though Maddie's perfectly capable of managing her own bottle. Luckily she was willing to go with Sarah's well meaning big sister plans!

Sarah and her Fundy dog...a very special friend. She's still pointing out every dog she sees when we're outside and saying 'oof, oof.'

Sarah still says Dadada a lot. Every once and a while she'll say Mama and mean me. Sometimes she'll go up to our bedroom when she's been saying Dadada a lot and she'll come back with Dale's fleece shirt that he wears after work when he changes out of his uniform. I guess the next best thing to Dadada being around is his shirt.

Festival du Voyageur

While Dale was at the Air Show in Whitehorse, Sarah and I went to the Festival du Voyageur in St. Boniface. It's a huge 2 week festival and we saw it for a couple of hours, but I guess that's better than nothing at all. It was very mild out (about -5) so it was quite pleasant. We went to look at the snow sculptures, went for a ride on a horse drawn hay rack ride and generally walked about. Sarah had a great time...and then it was time to go home for lunch and a nap. That's just the way things work these days. 

le patinage

and the dish ran away with the spoon

Sourdough Rendezvous and Air Show

The weekend after we got back from BC, Dale went to Whitehorse for an Air Show with work. He had a great time - full nights of sleep, sourdough cinnamon buns, a parade, snow sculptures... Here are a few pictures that he took while he was there.

a few West coast walks in the rain and throwing stones

Sarah is a big help these days. She loves to clean and here she's helping her Grammie sweep the floor.

When we went back to Salt Spring for a few days before we left, amongst other things we went for a walk in the rain down to the Indian Reserve beach, one of our favourite places. Sarah did some stomping through the waves. She was so enthusiastic that Dale had to stop her from just walking right in to the point that the water was above her boots.

We spent a day or so with my sister Gwyn in Victoria before we left. We went for a walk down to their beach as well.  

Sarah checks out the rhododendron flowers...what are these things? We don't have these in snowy Manitoba!

Sarah, her Mommy and an arbutus tree

Auntie G on the beach.

Look mom, I can throw stones!

A visit up to Parksville

My mom spends 3 days every second week at my sister Elaine's place in order to look after Elaine's little girl, Katie.So...Sarah and I went with her to have a visit. Dale stayed on Salt Spring with my Dad to chop wood. The two cousins got on quite well - by the time Sarah left they were stepping on each other's toes and pushing each other just like siblings. I have a feeling that the two of them are going to get up to all sorts of things during their lives together! Getting pictures with them together proved to be hard to do. They're just so busy that they don't stay in one spot for long.

Sarah thought Katie's cheese looked better than hers.

Here's we're at a great little play place in Parksville. They have tons of cool little play areas including a little kitchen, a canoe, a construction zone and all sorts of cars, trucks, etc... Sarah loved the John Deere stuff. I'm sure that will make her Bummpa a proud man.

We took them for a few walks.

Ah...tunnels. It doesn't get much more fun than that.

Katie and her mommy, Elaine

Our West coast visit

It's been a long time since I've had the time to doing any posts. I'm going to do some quick posts to get everyone caught up and then I should be able to keep up from now on.

We spent the first two weeks of February in BC visiting with friends and Anne's family.  We stayed with our friends Brian and Steph in their beautiful new house for the first few days. They had their house warming party and we went for a few walks and generally spent some time together. Brian and Steph's little girl, Rachel, is 6 months younger than Sarah and the two of them had a great time together.

  

I wonder who Rachel looks like right now? Daddy's little girl, for sure.

After that we went over to Salt Spring to visit with Anne's parents. We did lots of walking, and splashing in puddles. Sarah's Grammy made her some waterproof overalls to keep her dry and they worked very well! Dale and Sarah's Granddaddie cut 3 big trees down and did a lot of limbing and chopping wood while we were there. A small payback for all the work that my Dad did for us in our backyard while they were visiting in the fall!