The Arndt Gardams

Sarah's birthday and Hallowe'en

2010-01-11T11:00:00.007-06:00

Sarah had a pirate themed party this year - to celebrate the fact that she's wearing a patch. We had 6 of her friends here and we made a pirate hat and decorated it, had a treasure hunt and played some games.

Pirate cake. I was trying for blue-ish water but it just didn't work out. So we went with green...more Caribbean-like anyway.

Sarah and her stack of presents. What a lucky girl!

Some fall pictures...

Sarah got a doctor's kit from Grandma and Grandpa Holm for her birthday. We're all a little tired of getting shots for everything (that's what I get for vaccinating her against H1N1!) but she sure loves that kit and doctoring!

Daddy and Margot

For Hallowe'en Sarah had three different costumes. At school she was a princess. Here she is with two of her school friends:

For ballet class she was a cat...

and for trick or treating she was a firefighter.

Grandma and Grandpa handed out candy at our house so Dale and I could take the kids out around the neighbourhood. Margot was a beaver and wasn't all that impressed with what was going on. She didn't scream her head off like Sarah did though. True to her personality she suffers quietly and rarely registers a complaint.

Pumpkin carving with Grandma

Bummpa and Nana's visit

2009-10-15T21:11:00.005-05:00

Nana and Bummpa came for a visit for Dale's birthday and Thanksgiving. They have the worst luck - every time they come to visit the weather is crappy!

Between the weather and the fact that I was feeling dragged out from my cold and Margot spiked a fever while they were here (bladder infection) we didn't get out to do much. We did make it to the Forks which has fun. Nana bought a pumpkin at the food market and she had Sarah make a jack 'o lantern together. We roasted the seeds as well. Yum!

Isn't he beautiful?

Dale cutting his cake. It was a chocolate cake with Grandma Pahl's caramel icing (his request). Unfortunately the cake stuck to the bottom of the pan so it was probably the worst cake I've ever made. I'm making Sarah's pirate cake for her party this weekend so I sure hope I have better luck!

For Thanksgiving dinner we put Margot in her high chair. She's getting very interested in what we do at the table!

Margot's still smiling despite the fact that she's spiking a fever of 38.8. I took her to the doctor and he sent me to Children's Emerg for a urine and blood test. It sure wasn't easy to watch her scream as they put in the catheter and the IV. Poor little tyke. They diagnosed it as a bladder infection and she's on antibiotics now. We haven't been sleeping for 2 weeks and now we know why - ever time she pees she must wakes up from the pain. The antibiotics seem to be working so let's hope that's the end of this whole saga and we start getting some sleep!

Sunny September

2009-09-24T22:10:00.003-05:00

Sarah's been wearing her patch for over a week now and she's generally quite good natured about it. Well - tolerant anyway. Here she is modeling it.

Sarah started a dance class (pre-ballet) last week. I took a couple of pictures before she started and afterward. She thought it was a lot of fun. The teacher is my former boss (my CO at HMCS CHIPPAWA), Heather Heuthorst. She does a great job with those kids!

We went to our favourite haunt last weekend - Assiniboine Park. We went for a swing, a walk and an ice cream on the other side of the river. The weather is so beautiful these days.

Margot turns 3 months old tomorrow. How times flies when you're not getting any sleep! She's laughing now - and full of smiles. She's at her happiest when someone is talking to her. Mind you - she's in the dog house right now. GO TO SLEEP MARGOT! Its a good thing she's cute!

Daddy and Sarah 'horsing' around. Sarah's drinking pretend milk from her kitchen in the picture below.

Daddy makes a terrific horse! :o)

The summer days of September

2009-09-15T21:29:00.003-05:00

We had a crappy summer but now its arrived. It was 28 degrees today! Unfortunately the mosquitoes have now arrived in full force...sigh...

Sarah started school last week. Today she flew solo. There were a few tears, but she did well and I was able to leave and I think it was a very positive experience for her. Hopefully she continues to like it there.

Sarah's first day of school - HUGE backpack on her back and a big grin on her face.

Sisterly love... Sarah is a great big sister - perhaps a bit enthusiastic sometimes... :o) She likes to put the soother in Margot's mouth constantly, whether M needs it or not! I've had to ban her from it for a while.

Margot at 10 weeks. She's starting to tolerate tummy time for about 5 minutes. She's such a happy little chappy, really. The only time she cries is when she's hungry or tired. I can't complain. She's also starting to go for 7 hours at a stretch at night. Not every night, but enough times in a week to get my hopes up!

We went to the base fall fair last weekend. Sarah got to ride on a pony and she had a butterfly painted on her face. The bouncy castle was a lot of fun as well!

September 2009

2009-09-07T16:26:00.003-05:00

A bunch of random pictures that all tell a story...

Here's Sarah's picture for her pre-school. Sarah will be going to 'school' two mornings a week and she's also enrolled in a dance class that my former boss at Chippawa is teaching. Its mostly a movement class (pre-ballet) so we'll see how she likes it.

Here's one of Sarah's artistic creations that she did with Granddaddie while we were in BC. I've printed off 3 of them and they're going to be framed in her room.

Margot took a bottle of breast milk last weekend without even an argument! Hurray! That means Daddy gets to feed her sometimes and it also means that I can go do photo shoots on the weekends (did my first since Margot was born today and it went well).

Sarah started on a big girl bike 2 weeks ago and she's doing very well!

Margot's smiling up a storm these days - here's one of them. She has dimples on her cheeks like me but so far we can't see a dimple on her chin.

M also loves being bathed.

Sarah in her sandbox. Best $10 I've ever spent (+ the sand!).

Our backyard

West coast visit August part 1

2009-09-05T22:26:00.007-05:00

Mom - queen of the kitchen - working very hard putting the contents of her garden in the freezer and in jars

Gwyn and her newest niece - Margot

Gwyn's daughter, Clara

Margot's strange hair - she had a couple of light coloured stripes around her head since birth

More Clara

Sarah 'pianoing' (her verb)

Margot having a bath

Sarah in her 'car'

We went to stay with my sister, Elaine, for a couple of days. Sarah and her cousin, Katie, had a great time together.

We went to the beach at Parksville one day

Both girls are big sisters, so we did a bit of a photo shoot at the park one day with their big sister shirts on

Some flower shots from Mom and Dad's garden

West coast visit in August part 2

2009-09-05T21:22:00.012-05:00

The super swing at Grammie and Granddaddie's (and Sarah on it, of course!)

I've got to get this thing untwisted!

Grammie and Margot

Some pictures from a hike at the Indian Reserve on Salt Spring. Sarah ran (no stroller on this trip!) for the better part of 2 hours.

Arbutus branch...

Grammie with Margot on her front

A walk at Ruckle Park

the long stairs...

Last day on SSI - waiting for the ferry (Sarah calls it the ferry boat) to come in.

a shot from the dock up Fulford Harbour

Granddaddie and Margot trying out the modified colic hold

Jonny and Margaret's wedding - the few pictures that I managed to take...

our wee family - pictures taken by Steph McFarlane. Margot's 7 weeks in these pictures

long after everyone else were finished blowing bubbles, Sarah was still at it

the happy couple as they exit the church

On the beach at the Esquimalt Lagoon. What a beautiful day it was!

Sarah with a crab

Dale and Margot share a moment (probably trying to keep her out of the sun)

end of July

2009-07-28T20:14:00.002-05:00

Daddy and his girls - a little cuddle on the couch. Sarah's now sure of her role of big sister - she's all hugs and kisses for Margot (and everyone else). So far so good...

Our neighbours a couple of doors down must be cleaning out their closets (they have three girls who are much older than Sarah - the youngest is probably 5). They brought the cool costumes that Sarah has been using so much and now - shoes and some winter hats and a scarf. The shoes will fit Sarah next year (they're sizes 10-13) and the winter stuff will work for this winter. In keeping with her dress-up theme, here she is sporting as much of what came in the bag as she can. :o) She's either funny or frustrating - the mantra of a 2 and 3 year old.

Sarah's new glasses

2009-07-24T20:47:00.002-05:00

Sarah got her new glasses today. Dale took her to the doctor this morning while I took Margot to her 4 week appointment with her pediatrician.

Sarah's very excited about wearing glasses and we think she looks pretty terrific in them. Now if we could just convince her to keep her fingers off the lenses! :o) When she's wearing them her eye is barely crossed at all and it looks like she's using the eye, so that's very exciting. I sure hope this works so we don't have to go to patching the good eye or surgery. Fingers crossed.

Small Margot update - she's now 8 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long (she was 7 lbs 4oz and 19 inches at birth) - that's more than an ounce a day for the past 2 weeks. To think that weight loss was a problem when she was born! She's working on her third chin right now and slept for a 6 hour stretch last night. Sweet! Let that continue, please! She's still suffering a lot from gas, though. I guess I better start that food journal to see if I can pin point what it is that I'm eating that's bothering her. Chocolate? Maybe. It would sure suck if I have to ditch that.

Life after Margot arrived

2009-07-20T21:20:00.005-05:00

Sorry its been a few weeks since the last post. Life's been a bit hectic around here. Imagine that, eh? :o)

Margot has already graced us with a few smiles and once (while she was awake!) she did a deep laugh for me. Hilarious!

She's now starting to track light and dark and movement and is enthralled with her big sister (no surprise there!) who loves to get too close to her, touch her constantly, wake her up when she's sleeping - you know, the usual excited to be a big sister stuff!

Below is a picture of Sarah and Dale watching Margot get some stimulation (she only lasts 5 minutes before she loses it).

Sarah's been full of accidents lately. This could be due to a growth spurt and because she does everything at a dead run, but mostly because she's developed a lazy eye over the past month or so. We took her to the eye doctor last Friday and we have glasses on order for her. Her eyes are both farsighted (no surprise considering both her parents are as well) but there is a major difference between the sight in both eyes so her brain has 'dumped' the weaker eye because its too much work to get it to work properly. So - she has lost her straight ahead vision but still have some peripheral vision in her left eye. The hope with the glasses is that it will correct the problem (she'll wear them until she's 7 years old or so) and we won't have to go to patching her good eye or surgery.

Below is a picture of Sarah soaking a sore toe (stubbed it) and eating her dessert at the same time. As far as she's concerned she's in heaven! :o)

One of the terrific gifts that we received for Sarah (thanks to everyone who has sent such wonderfully thoughtful gifts - a thank you card with pictures will be the mail soon!) from Yves and Amanda is sidewalk chalk and paint. Below is an original Sarah Arndt called 'Storm'. It disappeared in the next thunderstorm (how appropriately named!) but we saved it forever in a picture.

The day that I went into labour I found the outdoor patio set that I was looking for - wood and it folds down to store in the winter - it took us another week to get back to the store, but we have it now!! Now we just need to find an umbrella!

Sarah loves to play 'Dr. Steve' (our chiropractor) with her Daddy. Her newest thing, though, is hairdresser. Below Dale is washing her hair before her haircut. In case you're wondering, I have hidden the kid scissors in case she gets any ideas!

Sarah loves veggies from the garden (raw!) but won't eat them cooked. Here's a picture of her eating a new carrot straight from the garden (with a bit of a wash). She eats strawberries with the tops on them too. Yuck!

Dale's sister, Kelly, jetted in from Calgary to visit for two days last week. My mom left on the day Kelly arrived! We were so blessed with visitors (aka helpers!). Thank you. Thank you!

Kelly and two of her many nieces. Can you see a resemblance between Sarah and Kelly? I can! Can't tell about Margot yet!

On Saturday we went to see the Marine Museum of Manitoba in Selkirk. The pictures below are from that little jaunt. Margot travels like a dream - car seat or sling, she's a sleeper!

Sarah's giving out food and taking money - that's her thing these days. Must get her a cash register at the next yard sale that I get to.

Sarah loves fishing!

This picture illustrates Sarah perfectly at this stage of her life. She loves adventures and throws herself wholeheartedly into them. Boats are so much fun! Staying at home, however, isn't exciting enough and we end up in tantrum land. Below she's curled up on a bunk of a ship, pretending to sleep (and sucking her thumb). Note the spill from lunch on her sweatshirt and the band aids and various scars and bumps on her knees. :o)

I'm telling you, she's a natural at the helm! She's throws it around like she's been doing it all her life!

Margot's first week

2009-07-03T22:24:00.005-05:00

When we brought Margot home from the hospital last Sunday we had just learned that she was jaundiced and had lost a lot of weight (8% of her birth weight). We were lucky to be able to bring her home. We decided that we'd supplement with formula that night because my milk hadn't come in. So - we fed her about 1/2 an oz every feeding with a little egg cup. It was painful but we thought we were doing the right thing. On Monday the public health nurse came to visit and it turned out that she'd now lost 9% and we were close to having to take her back to the hospital. Yikes. So - the finger/syringe feeding began. We stuffed her full for the next twenty four hours. She was so full that even after burping she'd ooze milk out of the side of her mouth!

We lost a lot of milk down inside the folds of her neck and in the shot below, apparently down her back as well!

She was such a sleepy baby from having lost so much weight that we had to strip her down, burp her a lot and use all the nasty tricks like cold wet wash cloths to keep her awake. Sometimes it was a lost cause.

First bath. Sarah's being super helpful by squeaking Sophie le giraffe constantly.

Have you ever met a baby who liked being bathed? Margot certainly didn't appreciate it!

Back to sleep after the bath. She's been trying very hard to get a thumb or two fingers into her mouth all week. I think she'll be able to manage it soon.

Margot and her big sister Sarah having a cuddle. There are many of these every day at Sarah's request.

Grammie taking her turn at finger feeding. We were all exhausted after a few nights of doing this routine, let me tell you!

On Canada Day we went for a walk in the Corydon Village area. Dale got a book called Winnipeg Walks for Father's Day so we tried out one of the suggested walks. Its a book of walks with the historical information of the area in it. It was great fun! About an hour of walking was the right amount of me right now with baby Margot in a sling. We found a park for Sarah with swings and a slide so everyone was happy.

Sarah was given a couple of costumes by a neighbourhood family and this is her favourite - the cat.

Sarah likes to do some rearranging in her bedroom in the wee hours of the morning when she gets up earlier than us. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of cleaning up - this morning it was pretty tame - just some shoes lined up in a row. She'll be all set for basic military training when we ship her off on her 18th birthday! (kidding!)

Our visit with the public health nurse yesterday went well. My milk was in and Margot had gained 2 oz of weight back and she now has some fat on her. No more supplementing! Hooray! Unfortunately she spits up a lot, but I guess you can't have everything. The few summer newborn clothes that we have are being pressed into service. I guess its time to get to the second hand store and get more clothes for her.

Margot with a double chin!

Margot Elaine Arndt

2009-06-29T17:05:00.004-05:00

Margot Elaine Arndt born 10:30 pm 26 June 2009. 7 lbs 4 oz, 19 inches.

Minutes old.

Our very hotel-like digs. This is what a labour and delivery room looks like in St. Boniface hospital. We had the room for our entire stay.

Big sister Sarah with Margot and Mommy.

On our way home. The sock monkey is Sarah's gift to baby Margot.

When Grandma and Grandpa Holm came to town

2009-06-07T16:53:00.007-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa arrived last Friday and on Saturday we went to the Mennonite Heritage Village out in Steinbach. http://www.mennoniteheritagevillage.com/

It was freezing cold but Sarah was very happy to find a swing there...getting her off was a bit tricky but there was the promise of animals to see so she was off and running!

Grandma showing her some animals

Sarah's into donkeys right now, so it was fun to see one in person. However, the thought was better than the actual experience. She wasn't so sure about the donkey after all.

Biggest bunnies you've ever seen. Sarah had to be convinced not to stick that stick through the chicken wire.

Sarah having her snack in the old schoolhouse.

There's the old windmill. Pretty cool inside too.

Ah - Sarah and Grandpa's favourite part - a building full of tractors! She got up on as many as she was allowed and drove them all.

They have a huge old steam tractor too.

Sarah and Grandpa speaking from the pulpit of the church.

Sarah loves picking dandelions.

When Sarah got down from visiting with the statue of the lady she said, 'bye, lady.'

On Sunday we went to the Teddy Bear's Picnic at Assiniboine Park. Another cold cloudy day. Sigh. When will spring ever come?

Sarah at the medic station. Not sure about the whole thing where you give up your precious Manni Bear to be 'fixed up' by the medic.

Sarah eventually gave the Shaw bear a high five. Later she asked to go back to find him to give him another high five.

The highlight of the Picnic was the BASH. By that point Sarah understood that it was just for pretend and was a willing participant in the bear hospital experience. We decided that it was Manni Bear's foot that was hurt. We waited for a little while in line (thank god we went at 9 am when it opened).

Dale was smart enough to ask for the 'fast track' line when they were doing the registration.

Manni Bear had an MRI done and Sarah received a piece of paper with the print out on it.

Manni Bear going through the MRI machine.

Time for a weigh in

and a measure

and finally his whole leg was bandaged.

Apparently shots were in order as well. Sarah didn't even flinch. Amazing! All these people handling her bear!

At the end, Sarah received final care instructions for Manni Bear. Very serious stuff you know.

After the picnic was Sarah's swimming lessons (Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa went along) and I went to do a photo shoot. Whew. Quite the day.

Sarah's May antics and activities

2009-05-24T12:03:00.005-05:00

When Dale came home at the beginning of May after being away in Ontario for 2 weeks he noticed that Sarah's activity level and non-stop chatter had reached a new level! Its amazing what you notice when you don't see your child everyday! Indeed - Sarah is a go go go incessant chatterer who is full of energy and life these days. She's also has a pretty amazing imagination and is full of imaginative play - saving animals, driving cars made from a baby stroller, a ride-on toy and a towel. Of course there are always lots of boats as well. :o) That'll make her Granddaddie happy. Very funny to watch!

Have you ever had a rice cake with peanut butter and nutella on it before? Neither had Sarah until a few weeks ago. It suddenly got very quiet and it disappeared very quickly. :o)

My friend Christina from Newfoundland has a habit of sending these amazing care packages for Sarah - completely out of the blue. Sarah's wearing one of the dresses that Auntie Tina sent in the picture above. It was a bit difficult to get her out of it at the end of the day. Thank you, Tina!

Dale's Dad and his wife, Jan (Nana and Bummpa to Sarah) came for a visit last week. They all had a great time together - Sarah loved all the attention and people to read to her and chase her around!

When you open two small packages of steaks from our butcher, this is what you get. Enough meat to feed at least 7 people!

Sarah LOVES steak!

Sarah the gardener. We put dirt and seeds into her little pots. They're on the window sill so she can watch them germinate.

A yoghurt face.

Sarah LOVES yoghurt!

Sarah wearing new pjs from Nana and Bummpa. There are monkeys on them, which Sarah thinks is pretty marvelous. She had a great sleep in them last night. I asked her if she'd yawn for the camera...and she did. You can sure tell she's the daughter of a couple of photographers!

We've got the baby room pretty much sorted out and done. We just need a laundry hamper, a lamp for on top of the dresser and a few other things and we're ready. We made a mobile out of sailboats and airplanes to go over the bed as well.

View from the door. The crib is to the left.

Baby Clara

2009-04-24T15:02:00.002-05:00

4 pictures of my sister Gwyn's baby girl, Clara. Which one do you like best?

Easter weekend

2009-04-12T19:40:00.009-05:00

Sarah's caught her parents' love of taking pictures. So we got her an instant camera so she could take pictures whenever she wants and she spends a good deal of every day doing just that.

On Friday we went for a walk in Assiniboine Park. Here's a picture of the Assiniboine River which is only flooded just a bit.

Our little climber. She's climbing on a sculpture that is on the other side of the bridge over the river. We think they're supposed to be icebergs.

a wee little house in the park - its actually a gardener's shed but they've made it all fancy so it goes with the English Garden theme.

A good deal of the Leo Mol gardens is flooded - below are some dancing bears in the ice.

Dale took Sarah on a bike ride for the first time of the season on Friday afternoon when she wouldn't nap. She loved it and was so excited to put her helmet on.

I'm so tired but I'm not going to let on...

The rig...

Sarah made an Easter bag for craft at Indigo on Thurs...she's showing it off here. She wasn't happy at Indigo because there were so many people and kids there. She's not one for crowds. Dale took this set of pictures.

On Saturday morning Sarah opened her Easter present from Gramma and Grandpa Holm. She was thrilled with the dress (from the Philippines), window stickers, colouring books and crayons. Thanks!

I had to do a watch on Saturday at Chippawa for flood preps. We aren't officially called out but we're just getting ready in case we are.

Dale took Sarah to Costco to do some shopping and then they went to the Officer's mess for the Easter Egg hunt. But all accounts Sarah had a great time. Her buddy Sonia was there so they iced cupcakes together - icing, gummy bears, etc and then ate it. The Easter bunny was interesting but she didn't want to go within 3 feet of him - just like Santa Claus at Christmas. Sarah fell asleep in the car on the way home.

These pictures were taken by my friend Janet (Sonia's mom).

Decorating a cupcake...

Easter egg hunting

Chocolate everywhere - in her mouth, on her hands...yummy! She loved her bunny rabbit face and was very sad when I washed it off that night.

On Easter Sunday morning Sarah had a little Easter hunt. The Easter bunny brought her a little Melissa and Doug cart with letters/animals blocks, an Eric Carle book called 'the little seed' and some Easter eggs filled with things like hair clips, hairbands, balloons and chocolate eggs and the requisite chocolate Easter bunny. She ate some of her cereal for breakfast and drank her milk under protest - she wasn't getting the chocolate until she was done breakfast!

Did she eat part of of the chocolate bunny and save the rest? Not a chance! She ate the entire thing!

Sarah in her hairband. We're at the hair band stage of growing out her hair. Clips won't stay in her fine hair unless there's also pigtails in them so in order to keep the hair out of her eyes and the food she's now wearing the hairband. Looks cute, eh?

Sarah has decided that she's going to have a little brother, not a sister. When Dale asked her what his name should be she thought that it should be either Jet or Dick. Where in God's name did she get those two names?

Wee missy has quite the vocabulary these days - lots of sentences and complex thoughts and ideas. She's taken to my habit of saying 'hey' after sentences...a habit I didn't realise that I had until she started doing it. Its amazing what you learn about yourself when you become a parent. The tantrums have also kicked it up a notch - we think its a combination of the next phase (tantrum threes) and the fact that she isn't napping reliably anymore. It certainly makes for an interesting dinner and apres dinner time before bed. She's usually a screaming, crying mess.

Potty training continues but its certainly not a linear process. Sigh. Well - she won't be going to school in diapers!

Royal Winter Fair in Brandon

2009-04-02T08:42:00.006-05:00

Dale had the day off on Monday so we drove to Brandon for the Royal Winter Fair. 4 hours in the car and about 3 1/2 at the Fair - only in North America would people do that kind of driving!

Sarah loved it all - the tractors - or anything with wheels including a golf cart - were a lot of fun. She had to get up to drive all of them.

There was a clown which we found annoying but Sarah thought was kind of interesting. She didn't last very long because she was pretty tired by that point. She's on Dale's shoulders watching the clown here.

There was a whole section called 'Thru the Farm Gate' which was a lot of fun. We got to see some Belgian and Percheron horses in their stalls (what huge horses!) and there was a petting zoo part so we got to touch rabbits, sheep, goats, puppies, etc.

The sow and her 12 new baby piglets were very popular. It was hard to get in close enough to see. In the picture above you can see Dale with Sarah behind the crowd.

Sarah's almost as tall as a Shetland pony - 10 hands high. We won't worry about the technicality that they measure height in horses to the whithers...

Sarah and I went into a little enclosure and we got to hold a few baby goats (kids)! She was sure excited to be able to do that. The sheep didn't really interest her.

a puppy dog

They had a mock-up of a silo there. The kids could fill their cups full of seeds, climb the stairs and dump the seeds down and watch them go down the silo. Pretty ingenious!

Sarah really wanted to touch this ram but the ram just didn't want to cooperate.

Sarah's very favourite part was watching the equestrian show jumping. We watched for a very long time. I enjoyed it as well - its been a long time since I used to do that! She told me that when she gets bigger she's going to ride horses. Gulp. Better start saving now!

the week of way too much snow!

2009-03-29T14:25:00.005-05:00

We were back into the cold weather and a lot of snow this week. They're talking about flooding in North Dakota which means we might be in for it in a couple of weeks. On Wednesday I had to go to meet my accountant so despite the horrible weather I dropped Sarah off at Miss Janet's house and made the trek downtown. It normally takes about 15-20 minutes and it took me almost an hour to get there.

On Thursday I decided we weren't going anywhere. There was so much snow and the wind was so strong that the drifting was such that it just wasn't safe to drive unless I had to, and I didn't. Sarah and I walked over to Lisa and Sophia's and had a play date instead. It took me the better part of 1 1/2 hours to shovel that day!

On Friday I still didn't want to drive, although it was sunny, not very windy and the roads were better, so Sarah and I walked to Safeway instead to buy milk. Here are some pictures of Sarah all decked out in her snow outfit for posterity sake.

Dale shoveled the back deck on Friday afternoon when he got home from work. I was just too tired to shovel anymore! We had to get the deck done because the snow was covering the back door...leaving only one exit in case of fire.

Sarah, like all kids, loves to eat snow...her Daddy taught her that trick. Here she is eating snow that came in from the back deck.

More snow in two or three days than we got all year it seems like!

On Saturday morning I ran a bunch of errands while Dale and Sarah went to Fort Whyte. Apparently she loves walking in the woods (out of the wind) and watching the birds. I found a bean bag chair at Home Sense that will be just perfect for Sarah's room. We're going to move the big chair out of her room and into the baby's room when we're closer to the due date. Sarah really likes the chair!

A couple of goofs being goofy - Sarah's wearing Dale's Air Force hat (which fits her head believe it or not!

Sarah loves all things to do with machinery - diggers, tractors, etc...that should warm her Bummpa's heart! Here she is reading the book inside Johnny Tractor (a John Deere, of course) which was a gift from Nana and Bummpa last year.

On Saturday night Dale and I did a major re-sort of all the bins of stuff that we have hanging around the house. We reorganised the closet in the guest room, took all the stuff out of the room that will become the new baby's, threw out a bunch of stuff and generally spent 3 hours working very hard and the result is great - far fewer things in a smaller area and empty totes! We should have done that sorting job before we left Nova Scotia, but when you're not moving yourself its hard to get the incentive to throw things out. Having a new baby and needing more room was the incentive we needed, I guess. Now the baby room is pretty much organised - it's already painted (blue) and we're going with a boat theme. I know - we're in the middle of the prairies so we should be doing something to do with tractors and crops, but we're bucking the trend. Besides, boat aren't gender specific.

a visit with the Hamptons and a Daddy's girl

2009-03-16T20:42:00.005-05:00

This weekend our friends the Hamptons came for lunch on Saturday. They live in Petawawa (Ontario) but they were in Winnipeg visiting with Geoff's grandma and the rest of his family. Next stop for them is Edmonton to visit with Maggie's family. Geoff just got back from Afghanistan and they had a baby (Jack) a couple of months ago. Whew. They are a busy family!

Maggie and Maddie. Maddie will be 2 next month.

Master Jack. What a cutie!

Maddie

Clean up time for the girls and their Daddies.

On Sunday morning Sarah and her Daddy did some dancing. They're both sick with a cold so it was cute to see them cuddling together.

Tonight Sarah turned the tables - she tucked her Daddy into bed and sang him Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep (her two favourite must have good night songs). It was so cute!

A night night kiss. She told him she was closing the door after her so he could sleep.

Sarah's potty training seems to be going well at the moment - at home anyway. We've decided to wait until the at home part of potty training is well established and successful before we try it outside the house. Why go looking for trouble? We're in no hurry!

a long weekend at Pinewood Lodge, Manitoba

2009-03-10T13:52:00.007-05:00

On Thursday night on the way home from work Dale was in an accident with his Altima. He's doing fine but the car may be a write off. We'll see what MPI has to say when they get to it. Luckily we had a bit of a holiday planned for the next week because I think we all needed a break from life.

We left Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon on the way East to the Whiteshell Prov. Park and Pinewood Lodge http://mypinewood.com which is on the south side of the lake from Pinawa. We booked a suite with a full kitchen so we brought our own food with us. Good thing too because other than a small convenience store that's part of the Lodge complex, there isn't much around for miles and miles! The facilities were beautiful and Sarah really enjoyed the pool. We were in there at least twice a day for the two days we were there. On Monday it was nice and mild (-10 or so) so we did some tobogganing down the hill and onto the lake. Sarah just wouldn't believe us that we were actually on the lake because it was frozen over and had about a foot of snow on it. Sarah had so much fun that she desperately didn't want to come home today. Of course, once she was home life was good - she was getting tired of the toys that we brought with us.

Sarah's vocabulary continues to expand and she just gets busier and busier. Her latest is her pronunciation of avocado (africado) which is hilarious.

Sarah is also starting to lose her afternoon nap (such a sad state of affairs for me) so some days she'll sleep and some days she won't but she still stays in her room for an hour and a half (I need the break) if she doesn't sleep.

The pool which was in the middle of the resort building. The rooms were set up around the outside of it. We were in one of the biggest rooms - our room was the one just above Dale's head. We had a view of the lake outside our kitchen window. Very nice. This is a very popular place during the summer. Its very much cottage country.

Super swimmer Sarah now has no fear in the water. What a change from 2 months ago when we started swimming lessons again. She'll launch herself out of your arms into the water. She's so sure that you're going to catch her...

Sunset from our kitchen window with the lake on the other side of the trees. I used an upside down pot on the window sill as a tripod. Too bad about the hydro pole - I couldn't avoid it.

newest baby pictures

2009-03-06T09:52:00.004-06:00

20 week ultrasound pictures. I'm at 24 weeks now but I just got these in the mail yesterday from the hospital.

Head down on the right side, and chest up in the upper left of the picture.

Acrobat?

Head down in the middle, belly/umbilical cord in the middle (I think).

The weekend of trains and a new TV (or treehouse as Sarah calls it)

2009-02-22T18:51:00.002-06:00

Sarah and I grabbed the bin of train tracks and Thomas and all his friends on Friday when we were at the MFRC for our weekly mom's group. When Dale got home after a very long week of work he was so excited. He wasn't sure who was enjoying building more - Sarah or Daddy!

By the time Sunday rolled around we'd moved the carpet and really got down to business!

Thomas on the track. Look out!

Dale worked on Saturday (he had to fly all day) so Sarah and I set out to buy her some plastic covered potty training pants at Toys 'r us. She's started to show a great interest in all things to do with potty training so I thought it was time to try it out. We bought a new toilet ring and the training pants. Oh - and some paints and a book that I've been looking everywhere for. Man - that's a dangerous store! Anyway - she did very well in the morning but had an accident after lunch. Apparently being pregnant makes me more likely to gag. Gross! First time for a poo in the panties. You'd think I wouldn't care because I'm used to cloth diapers but I still gagged. So - we washed them and they were back on again that night until bedtime. She's managing to remember to pee on the toilet but the poo part of things may take a while.

Today (Sunday) Dale took Sarah for swimming lessons. She now has absolutely no fear in the pool and can float on her back with hardly any support and can kick her feet and move her arms at the same time. What a difference from a couple of months ago when she was clinging on to a parent for dear life!

This afternoon Dale went to Costco for the big purchase - a 37" LG HDTV. He's going to finish setting it up tonight. Gone will be the days of waiting for the TV to warm up for 1/2 an hour before we can watch it! Dale's pretty happy about the 19 years that his old TV lived for, though. I bet this TV won't last that long!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-22T13:44:00.004-06:00

Grandma and Grandpa Holm sent a Valentine's day card for Sarah that had a crown and bracelet (paper) as part of the card. She also got a very nice necklace. She's modeling them in the pictures below. She picked out her outfit, by the way. She LOVES her fancy shoes (everything is 'fancy' since she got her Fancy Nancy book from Aunty Gwyn and Uncle Tim at Christmas). I better get a move on on my plan to get her a tickle trunk full of costumes! She's going to need it!

Nana and Bummpa also sent her a Valentine's Day card which she loves. Now whenever we stop to get the mail she's pretty sure there will be an envelope for her! Maybe at Easter time... :o)

Dale bought both Sarah and I a bouquet of flowers. How thoughtful. Sarah was so impressed that she has her very own flowers. She loves smelling them...

and eating them...

and being a clown. Nice teeth!

We have a piece of brown paper that came in a package and she's adopted it for her toy box right now. It has many roles - sometimes its a snake, or a snail or a boat. I was making dinner the other day and when I turned around she'd emptied the contents of her toy box onto it - and she was paddling that boat as hard as she could.

Skating on the river at the Forks in January

2009-02-22T13:33:00.004-06:00

We went skating a few times in January down at the Forks. The weather got too mild in February so I don't think they'll open all the trail again. They will break their record for the longest trail this year - they made it all the way from the Forks to Assiniboine Park on the river. Pretty impressive! We, however, certainly didn't skate that far. Last year Sarah was content to hang out in the stroller while we skated. Not so much this year - she wants to pull the sled just as much as she's willing to sit in it. So - that means 10 minutes of skating while pulling her on her sled and then I change into my boots and we walk on the walking trail right beside the skating trail while Dale takes off for a bit of a skate. Suits me just fine - I'm afraid of falling since I'm pregnant.

This is the band shell during the summer months - a small skating rink in the winter.

Sarah had a great time climbing up this 'mountain' of snow and sliding down it.

Sarah the snow penguin. She's really into penguins these days. We have a book that we read (yes, an Usborne one!) called 'How big is a Million?' that's all about a penguin named Pipkin who goes out into the great wide world to find out just how big a million is... So - every penguin is named Pipkin for Sarah.

They have a little playground built out of blocks of ice up by the market area. Sarah had some fun there!

There was even a tunnel - she loves tunnels!

Sarah pulling her sled on the slippery ice

Watching Daddy skate on the shinny rink on the river. On a mild weekend day this place is usually absolutely packed with people.

Anne's posse visit

2009-02-21T20:09:00.004-06:00

I managed to get to Vancouver (without Dale and Sarah) in between snow storms for my visit with my 'posse' of friends from teacher training. The last time we saw each other was at Dale and my wedding in 2005. We had a great catch up session! Nara came all the way from Williams Lake, Kirsty was on her way to Prince George for Christmas from Hawaii and Erin and I came over from the Island. Kirsty and Nara had a hard time getting their flights back up to Northern BC on the Sunday due to bad weather. I think it took them an extra day!

front row - Anne and Laura. Back row - Erin, Kirsty and Nara.

Laura and her husband Riel and their son, Liam. Liam loved the attention from the Aunties and Riel took having 4 extra women in his home extremely well!

Happy chappy Liam!

Halliday-Gunn's visit and New Year's

2009-02-21T19:50:00.009-06:00

We couldn't get to Vancouver in mid-December to visit our friends the Halliday-Gunns so they came over to Salt Spring to visit for a couple of days after Christmas. We went for a lovely walk at Ruckle Park while they were visiting.

Ian

Lee the intrepid photographer taking pictures of her kids on the logs by the ocean.

Mieka and Graeme Halliday-Gunn

view towards Morseby Island

Dale and Sarah watching the sheep

We went over to stay with Stephanie and Brian McFarlane for New Year's. They had a big party for their friends with kids - started and ended early. We celebrated New Year's with Newfoundland. :o)

Steph and Rachel

All the kids at the party. Brian was playing guitar in the background so I could try to get the shot

Sarah 'pianoing' (her verb). She LOVES music and the piano especially

We went to the beach while we were in Victoria. It was a cold and windy day (but it wasn't raining!) so we didn't stay very long but Sarah got to throw some rocks in the ocean.

Christmas 2008

2009-02-21T15:57:00.010-06:00

We arrived on the West coast to find it a winter wonderland...the kind we were hoping the leave behind in Winnipeg! Its a good thing that we brought Sarah's snowsuit.

Sarah and Grammie out in the yard.

Sarah's transportation (other than being carried). The snow was too deep for her to walk in.

Snow angel time!

On Christmas Eve the grandkids opened one present - the top that Grammie found in an online store from England. The tops are the old fashioned ones and they're beautiful!

Clara (Gwyn and Tim's daughter - below with Gwyn) is a bit too young to really take advantage of it yet, but the spinning was mesmerising!

Katie and Sarah had a great time figuring them out!

Sarah was tuckered out by all the excitement so she curled up for a nap with wrapping paper as a blanket.

Sarah and Katie (her cousin)

Sarah and baby Clara

Gwyn, Tim and Clara opening stockings on Christmas Day.

Mike and Katie opening stockings

Sarah and Dale doing much the same thing

Mike, Elaine, Katie and Mom (Grammie)

Sarah and our Auntie Robyn's dog (mom and dad were dog sitting over Christmas)

Sarah the clown wearing her Christmas outfit (thanks to Auntie Tina for that - she sent it all the way from Newfoundland)

Sarah and Katie showing off their Christmas outfits...and squirming at having to sit still

Katie trying on her gift from Grammie - hat and mittens.

Nice modeling girls!

The two cousins getting art lessons from Granddaddie...it turned into a 'mine' session with the crayons. Not at all surprising from two two year olds!

a trip to the Children's Museum and a visit with Santa at the Aviation Museum

2008-11-30T22:59:00.005-06:00

Sarah (with her Daddy's help) climbing into a berth on the train at the Children's Museum.

Sarah ringing up our purchase of fruits and veggies at the museum.

We went to see Santa at the Aviation Museum before dinner tonight. They do up all the planes in the hanger with Christmas lights and Santa was all set up in the bush planes exhibit (fitting I think considering where he lives). Sarah had a great time screaming around, climbing in and out of planes and generally having an excellent adventure.

She was fascinated with the idea of Santa and she watched him with some other kids but when she got within a few feet of him she stopped dead. He was very good with kids and laughed and joked. He gave her a little candy cane which she was very excited about.

And that's as close as she got. It really is a weird tradition to take kids to see someone they don't know and expect them to get into their laps. This set up was just Sarah's speed for this year.

After another run around the hanger Sarah said she wanted to go back to see Santa. We were the only ones there this time. She just couldn't bring herself to get too close to him, however.

And then he asked her what she would like for Christmas. Of course she had no idea having never been introduced to the idea (her presents are already bought!). He talked about polly pockets, Hanna Montana but then he said 'Dora.' Well - he had her attention then! He even sang a few of the songs from Dora and she was absolutely transfixed. She couldn't talk, she couldn't move...she just stood there staring at him. Hilarious! Well worth the price of admission.

When we got home I called my sister Elaine's house where they were celebrating my Mom's, my sister Gwyn's and my niece Katie's birthdays all in one party. Happy birthday you guys. We wish we could have been there.

a big girl bed and a few other milestones

2008-11-30T22:43:00.003-06:00

I can't believe that it's almost been a month since my last post. Sorry about that you grandparents. I'm sure you know that life has been a bit crazy around here with my 3 or 4 jobs...

Sarah went to her first birthday party this month (since hers was cancelled in October). Her friend Sonia turned 3 and they made tiaras at the party. Sarah loves hers, however, she's stretched the back bit too much now so it doesn't fit.

Here's a picture of Sarah and her Daddy going for a walk around the block by our house. Sarah is feeling severely deprived of outside time these days. Her tantrums increase when she's cooped up, so we try as much as possible to get her outside every day.

Sarah wearing the robe and pjs that her Grammie made her for her birthday and eating yoghurt right after her bath.

We moved Sarah into a 'big girl' bed this month and painted her room green. Well - we took the side off the crib (which it's designed to do). She's done very well generally. We've had to tape the closet doors shut because one afternoon I heard all sorts of banging and carrying on when she was supposed to be going to sleep and went into her room to discover that she'd taken everything off her bed and deposited it in the closet. The noise I heard was her being frustrated that she couldn't get to sleep without a quilt or a pillow on her bed. Funny girl. She loves to read to herself at night and at nap time and often ends up falling asleep with a few books in her bed. Her favourite book is the Complete Book of Farmyard Tales (an Usborne book) that has 20 stories all about the adventures of one family on their farm. She could read it to us, I think! She knows it off by heart. We have to store it up high when she's supposed to be sleeping because she's going to ruin the pages if she sleeps with it.

You'll notice that there's a very large dog under her crib. Her name is Daisy and her Grandpa and Grandma Holm gave it to her. Daisy dog is a great protector for when the monster stage arrives (in 6 months or so I'm told) and when we pull her out at night she acts as a pillow in case Sarah falls out of bed (which hasn't happened yet).

Sarah's still loves her babies and dollies. She carts them around (in two strollers at the same time) and reads to them, sings to them and generally is working hard at being a good mommy to them all. She can count to 10 (sometimes 11), sing all sorts of songs and is getting very good at making herself understood with full sentences. She has a few toddler tantrums but generally she's a happy kid.

gifts from Newfoundland

2008-11-02T22:02:00.004-06:00

A few days after Sarah's birthday a package arrived from my friend Christina in Newfoundland. In the package was some clothes (thanks Tina!), a moose cookie and a beautiful handknit doll named Susie. Apparently an 87 year old lady makes these dolls. She even came with a little tag that said, 'my name is Susie, I like you'. How cute. Below is a picture of Sarah doing, 'zoom zoom zoom you're going the moon' with her. I think she's at the 'blast off' point is this picture.

A cuddle for Susie (Sarah's words)

and a kiss.

Sarah shared her moose cookie with her Daddy since I can't eat them. It sure looked good and by the sounds of the people devouring it, it was!

Sarah's birthday and Grandma's visit

2008-11-02T21:27:00.010-06:00

Grandma Holm (Dale's mom) arrived on Sarah's birthday so Sarah and I met her at the airport. When Dale got home from work we did some present unwrapping.

Could it be a baby and a stroller? Wow!

The first thing Sarah did with her new baby was feed her from a bottle. What a great present, Grandma!

The baby also came with a baby carrier that is also a backpack! There goes Sarah tearing around the corner of the island in the kitchen. She has probably asked someone to chase her. One of her favourite things to do.

We got her a kitchen, which is set up in our kitchen. She loves to make coffee and tea for us.

My parents, Grammie and Granddaddie, got her some wooden food for her kitchen along with some other things. The beauty about this food is that you can 'cut' it apart (the pieces are held together with velcro).

From Bummpa and Nana came a raccoon puppet and a John Deere tractor and bucket.

Some pieces to make bristle people from Auntie Elaine, Uncle Mike and Katie...

And a doodle pro from Auntie Gwyn, Uncle Tim and baby Clara (who was born 3 days before Sarah's birthday).

We took Grandma to the zoo and the Assiniboine park. We stopped for a snack on a bench in the Leo Moll gardens.

Grandma, Sarah and Winnie the bear in the zoo.

Sunday was the day of Sarah's birthday party and I woke up feeling very ill. I sent the gang off to Fort Whyte for the morning while I suffered. By early in the afternoon it was clear that I wasn't going to be any better so we called off the party. We did have cake, though. It had a bit of a zoo theme. Luckily Sarah didn't know what was in store, so she wasn't heartbroken about missing out on a party. A few of her friends were very sad, though.

This year Sarah enjoyed the party hat part of things. Last year the elastic was snapped (inadvertently) under her chin so she cried.

Cake? You don't have to ask me twice!

Sophia, Sarah's friend from over the back fence, was one of the girls that was invited to Sarah's party. They decided to send the gift over the fence which was very nice. We passed cake over their way. It was already dark out when we did the exchange so that's why the quality of the photo is so poor.

A castle? What a cool present. Sarah's favourite part is the dragon.

The week before Sarah turned two

2008-10-13T19:42:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since my last update so I thought I'd better get one out before the craziness of Sarah's birthday party, etc overtake me.

First of all I'd like to announce that Sarah now has another cousin. My sister Gwyn and her husband Tim had a baby girl today. I understand that after more than 24 hours in labour because the baby was posterior (sunny side up) she was delivered naturally with the help of forceps this afternoon in Victoria. No details yet, but I'm sure the proud parents will share them when they are rested from their long ordeal.

Now - on to the business of Super Sarah who has turned the corner with regards to her vocabulary during the past week or so and is now absolutely hilarious! Dale took Friday off before he went away last weekend (Yves and Amanda Soulard's wedding) so we took the bikes and the bike trailer and went to Fort Whyte park near our house for a coffee and a walk around. Sarah loves wearing her bike helmet and getting into the bike trailer.

Dale was home again on Monday and gone from Tuesday to Friday so Sarah and I were alone together for the better part of a week. We went to St. Vital park last weekend since it was so beautiful and we did some pictures of Sarah in the leaves. The best part of it all, as far as she was concerned, was piling the leaves.

I bought a lot of apples at the store to make applesauce so Sarah helped out with the washing part. Any chance to do some washing and you can be sure she's in there! She's also decided that clothing is optional. Sometimes it's a bit of a fight to convince her that she has to wear clothes to leave the house!

Wow! That is one extremely well washed apple! Washed with much love, I might add. Sarah still LOVES apples!

One German Chocolate cake with caramel icing by request.

On Saturday it was Dale's birthday so Sarah 'helped' him blow out the candles. A day or so before he got home she started talking about birthdays. I'm sure I didn't mention it first so I have no idea where the concept of birthday came from (maybe from a TV show?). Our friends from over the fence, Mike, Lisa and Sophia came over to help us celebrate.

Sarah wasn't so sure about all this blowing out of the candles part of things, but she LOVED the cake part. She calls it happy birthday cake which I think is a great name for it so that's what we're calling it in our house from now on.

Playdough is also a favourite at our house. Below is an animal that Sarah and I made together. She called it both a bunny and an elephant. Does that make it a bunphant or an eleunny? Not sure but I thought it was pretty funny looking. Any chance to take a picture!

Sarah fits into her Daddy's shirt with him in it.

She's also just perfected the cheesy smile.

As I mentioned earlier, Sarah's vocabulary is expanding exponentially these days. Last night she looked outside (it had been raining cats and dogs all day) and she said, 'look at the rain! What is happening?' We took this to mean that she was commenting on the fact that the rain just wouldn't stop!

Sarah can also reliably count to 4 and she can count to ten without the number 5 and the number 8. She's coming along, though! :o) Her great interest in numbers stems from the fact that she loves playing hide and seek. She's very good at seeking but she doesn't get the hiding part. Usually after you open your eyes from counting to ten and saying, 'ready or not, here I come' she's standing right in front of you. We also count the time before we go 'bump' over the railroad tracks. We go, '1, 2, 3, 4...bump!'

She's also become a Dora freak. She walks around saying 'swipper, no swipping' all day long. She's also into dolls, doll strollers, the doll bed that Dale brought back with him from Ikea in Edmonton and anything else that you can think of that has anything to do with dolls.

Dale bought Sarah a big girl bed, quilt, bedding as well as the doll bed in Ikea in Edmonton while he was there last weekend. We also bought his brother's Altima and Dale drove it back to Winnipeg. Now we need to sell the Xterra...any takers? :o)

On Thanksgiving Day I did a 5 km road race in our neighbourhood (just getting back into the running thing) and Sarah and Dale came along to cheer me on. Apparently Sarah discovered worms on the walk back to the house. It had been raining all weekend here so there were lots of worms on the road. She thought they were really cool until they were wiggling around in her hand so she'd ask Dale to take it away. As soon as he took it, she'd ask for it to be back in her hand. Hilarious. I'm sorry I missed it.

A visit to the park and a first haircut

2008-09-30T09:24:00.005-05:00

Although we have a little slide in the backyard it doesn't compare to the 'slide' (her term for the playground). Here are a few pictures of Sarah at her favourite place - the park up the road from our house.

Sarah likes to do circles around objects like poles, trees, etc. I think she likes the dizzy feeling.

Sarah has an imaginary friend named Ella and Ella loves being pushed in the swing.

However, on this particular trip, her little baby (her name for it) came along for a ride and a swing. Little baby loves to take a bath with Sarah and gets to go to bed with her too. These days her bed is so full of her 'friends' that there's hardly any room for Sarah!

There was a pretty neat contrails 'x' in the sky that day. Look carefully and you can see the airplane that I put in for scale.

Sarah pretending to 'sleep' in the swing. She loves underducks these days - the higher the better. I think we have a dare devil on our hands!

Sarah's a big fan of helping make cookies. She gets up on her stool and empties the cutlery drawer beside the mixer... Very helpful. On the day that I took these pictures I put one of my aprons on her and she leaned over too far to look inside the mixer and she fell off her stool.

One of her favourite things to do is to push her friends around in her 'pop pop'.

This weekend, three weeks before her 2nd birthday, Sarah got her first haircut. It was a beautiful day so we took her out on the deck with her stool and a towel and off we went. She was very good at sitting still. A bit of work on the back and the bangs and viola, she's done.

It was very uneven in the back so it just needed a bit of layering and shaping. In case you're asking, the answer is no...I don't have any haircutting experience.

I know I'm very biased, but I happen to think that she's a beautiful little girl!

Corn maze at Boonstra farms

2008-09-22T14:30:00.005-05:00

Yesterday afternoon we went on an adventure to the corn maze. Its near Stonewall, about 3/4 hour North of our house. Sarah had a great time tripping through the kids maze!

She also had a lot of fun at the petting zoo too. She really wanted to pet the pony, but she wasn't so sure...

There were swings, slides a sand pile with toys as well. Sarah's really starting to enjoy making 'sandcastles' as she calls it.

Dale found the flying boat and had a bit of a rest.

We also went on a hayride behind the tractor (Sarah loves tractors!). We better sell up and buy a farm - Sarah loves them!

Sarah got to go on a bit of a ride as well.

To top it all off we had a picnic supper on a perfect summer/fall evening. Wow. We couldn't have had better weather or a better time. We're definitely going back next year.

Weekend of 12-14 September

2008-09-22T14:18:00.003-05:00

I went away for the weekend for the first time since Sarah was born a couple of weekends ago. No - I didn't go the spa with my girlfriends...I went on exercise with the Navy. I made a bit of money instead of spending it. Actually - it all went well. I was busy enough that I didn't think about Sarah and Dale too much and they did just fine without me.

They went to the annual base fall fair where Sarah went on a pony ride, went fishing (and caught a snake) and was given a firefighter's hat.

The exercise that I went on was Chippawa's annual September one. I didn't go last year because I was still nursing Sarah. The exercise was held at Falcon Lake which is near the border with Ontario in a provincial park.

I took a few pictures early in the morning on Saturday before we got started.

We had a crazy thunderstorm in the afternoon on Saturday and everyone had to come back in off the water. We had a few close calls - one or two people felt the static electricity run through them. Here's a picture of the divers coming back in to shore.

My boss, the XO, decided to take a boat out to see what the divers were doing...here he is.

The adventures of Manni Bear with Super Sarah and her wardrobe changes

2008-09-22T13:50:00.006-05:00

Sarah likes to be fair with her stuffed animals. She rotates who her 'favourite' is which is very magnanimous of her, really. One of her most favourite, though, is Manni Bear. He's a Gund and was given to her by my cousin Johnnie and his wife Mary. He has the most expressive face. He goes everywhere with Sarah and she puts him in the most interesting situations. Luckily he seems to be a 'go with the flow' kind of fellow.

There's the Ikea toy container. Sarah likes to climb in there with her Manni Bear.

We tied a towel to one of the toy containers in it's collapsed state and that made for some great fun for both Manni and Sarah. She took him on a hayride.

Sarah and Manni used the same toy container as a flying saucer.

Manni bear can sometime be seen on the potty. One of Sarah's (and Manni's) favourite books is a 'row row row your boat'. Here's a picture of Manni taking a moment with his favourite book.

One of Sarah's other favourite things is her green blankie (she pronounces it banky).

She plays the part of 'Super Sarah' with her blankie - it must give her extra special powers.

Sarah has become more and more involved in the decision making process with regards to what clothes she wears and how these days. It makes for some interesting and prolonged discussions ('you have to wear pants when you go outside', etc...).

One of her favourite get-ups is wearing her rubber boots without pants.

She's recently become quite attached to her sunglasses (she calls them sunglass).

I went shopping on Saturday at the second hand toy and clothing sale near here. I went alone, which was a good idea. It was held in an Elementary School gym and it was packed to the rafters with tables of clothes and toys. I can't imagine being able to get anything accomplished with Sarah along for the ride. Above is a picture of Sarah with her new (to her) boots and her sunnies.

Here's Sarah posing with her new (to her) shoes, and hat. Of course - no pants. Seeing a picture of her like this makes you realise just how skinny her legs are. Little miss chicken legs!

Below are a series of pictures I took of Sarah a couple of weeks ago with a winter sweater on. I thought they were cute enough to share.

Cody and Chelsea's wedding

2008-09-16T09:45:00.005-05:00

On Saturday afternoon (the day before we left) Cody and Chelsea got married (Cody is Dale's cousin on the Pahl side). We had to wake Sarah up in the middle of her nap in order to get her to the church on time for the ceremony. I did some pictures outside the church before the ceremony started.

Angie, William and Scott

Dale, Sarah, William and Scott

Sarah and her Daddy

I didn't get a chance to see the ceremony because Sarah couldn't sit still. Angie and William were in the same boat.

Sarah was in a foul mood when we arrived at the reception and she just couldn't sit still. What a little terror she was. We took her for a walk outside (it was at a golf course) and that still didn't help. She was tired, annoyed and generally a 2 year old. Note to self - don't take a 2 year old to a wedding.

Sarah on the lawn of the golf course sans shoes (which were too big for her).

a visit with the Steeles and Sir George

2008-09-16T09:37:00.004-05:00

Our friends Dave and Margot came to Dale's brother's house in Edmonton (where we were staying) to have a short visit the day before we left. We just didn't have time to get to their house this year. They brought their 5 month old Newfoundland dog named George. What a cutie!

We went for a walk around the park. Sarah was thrilled with George but not entirely sure about him because he's so darn big! Below are a couple of pictures of Georgie Porgie pudding and pie.

Margot may need to get one of those medal grates to divide the cargo areas from the back seat...George managed to climb between the seats. Mind you, he soon won't fit.

Fort Edmonton Park and a visit with the Zacharko's

2008-09-15T21:57:00.006-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa Holm treated us to a visit to Fort Edmonton Park. Sarah got to ride on a carousel with her Daddy...and then on her own.

Sarah loves 'orsey' as she calls them.

Is it possible for cousin William to like chickens more than Sarah? Yes it is!

You get in and I'll push you...don't worry about the hill. A glimpse of conversations to come.

Auntie Angie and baby William. Sarah just calls him baby. The William part is too hard at this stage.

The Zacharko's came to visit for supper and the kids (and adults) had a fabulous time. Alex, Owen and William digging in.

Same cast of characters but with Sarah as well.

Alberta in August

2008-09-05T06:46:00.004-05:00

I'm really behind in my posts. So sorry. I'm blaming it on the photography and Usborne Books businesses.

We stayed with Nana and Bummpa this time and Sarah had a ball with the various toys there. She particularly liked the water fountain on the deck (which is not a toy...of course she liked it the most!) and she was up to her elbows in water any chance she got!

When Dale and Scott left on their canoeing trip Sarah and I went down to Calgary to stay with Joc and Darryl and the kids for the night. It was Jen's wedding shower but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to attend although I was at the same house. After roughly 5 hours in the car Sarah wasn't at all interested in being inside. They have a play structure in their backyard with both a slide and a swing...you can just guess where she wanted to be, right? You got it.

Sarah had a fantastic time playing with her cousins and all their cool toys. She is so starved for social interaction with kids. Poor girl.

Nana with her three girls.

Rachel.

I took some photos of Rachel and Rylie, which I still to finish photo shopping and get to Joc. Sorry. I'll get to it soon.

Rylie

We went to the park before the drive home the next day. Sarah was excited to walk down by the lake (which is a swimming lake in Joc's subdivision - very nice). It was a windy day and it wasn't really all that warm, so we didn't bring swimming gear. That didn't stop Sarah, however. Rachel, who is a few months older than Sarah, dipped her feet in the water. Sarah did too...but she didn't stop there. She walked right in and would have kept going if I hadn't stopped her. I lead her out of the water onto the sand...and she promptly fell getting completely full of sand so I had to take her back in to wash her off. As soon as she was in the water she got down on all fours and started crawling deeper and deeper. I was taking pictures and then I realised that I better stop and get her out of there before she was up to her head. Joc and Jan had a great laugh. Unfortunately I didn't find it so funny... :o) I changed her diaper and we walked home with her on my shoulders sans pants. She was freezing!

Outlook, Saskatchewan

2008-08-22T21:52:00.005-05:00

We left for holidays in Alberta during the first week of August. We had to drive because Dale had to take the camping gear he needed for his 5 day canoe trip down the North Saskatchewan river with his brother, Scott. They went from Rocky Mountain House to Edmonton and had a great time and some sore muscles, apparently.

Before we left I loaded up on games and various things to entertain Sarah on the trip and off we went. We stopped at many playgrounds and schools on the way - about every 2 or 3 hours to satisfy her need to 'slide.'

We camped at Buffalo Pound Provincial Park on the first night. It's roughly between Regina where we stopped for dinner at the BP(Boston Pizza not British Petroleum) and Moose Jaw but a bit north. What a great place. The pool was closed when we got there but it looked great and the lake looked really nice as well. We didn't get into the tent until it was almost dark and Sarah was asleep with an hour or so. Yeah. She moves around a lot in her sleep (always sliding out from under her covers) so neither of us parents got a lot of sleep.

In Outlook, Saskatchewan we ended up at a school with a great playground. It was stinking hot because we were in the middle of a heat wave but this school had a proper merry go round. I haven't seen on of those in ages! Sarah loved it. The rest of the pictures are of a sliding girl and her Daddy.

August long weekend camping

2008-08-22T16:22:00.005-05:00

For the August long weekend we decided to try camping with Sarah for one night. We weren't sure how it was all going to work, so we thought if we didn't get any sleep that we could manage that for one night, but not for two!

We went to St. Malo Prov. park which is about an hours drive South of Winnipeg. Sarah was in 7th heaven because it had a great 'slide' (her word for a playground). She loved the circle slide and she's now quite proficient on the 'big girl' swing but she can't go as high in it as she can in a 'little girl' swing.

Setting up the tent was a novel experience for her. She loved it!

While Sarah waited for dinner to be ready she climbed into her booster seat and ate (and played with) some beans and peas from our garden.

Sausages are always great camping food especially when they're done over a fire.

Our campsite was full of gravel - great for Sarah to play with but not so great when you're sleeping. We took the 4 person tent that my cousin Dave and his wife Claire gave us but all that meant was that Sarah had more room to roll off of her camping mat...and onto the gravel which she didn't think much of!

We decided to go to bed around 8:30 - an hour after her bed time. We should have waited until it was dark. It took 2 hours to convince her to go to sleep! She got stuck in a loop of moving her stuffed animals from the head of her bed to the foot...Dale had to finally step in and stop it because she was starting to get frantic! I put a bag at the head of her bed to stop her from rolling onto the gravel and we just waited her out. She was up at oh-dark-stupid the next morning (ok - first light) and I took her to the 'slide' while Dale packed up the campsite. Not a huge success, but not bad either.

Sarah's not really all that fussed about veggies these days. She'd rather fill up on fruit - raspies (raspberries) and straws (strawberries) from our garden, grapes (she calls them gapes), booberries (blueberries) - you name it, as long as it's fruit, she loves it. The only way we can get her to eat a decent amount of veggies is to give her a carrot pulled straight from the garden and washed off with the garden hose.

End of July

2008-08-22T16:09:00.003-05:00

Sarah giving William a big hug (pron. biig ug)

Sarah's Auntie G (my sister Gwyn) send her a beautiful sun dress so I thought I'd take a few pictures to show everyone. In this picture she's rocking in her little chair.

Sarah has a nasty habit (in my opinion, not hers) of running away from me. She thinks it hilarious, but there are places like airports, supermarkets, etc where this just isn't a good idea. So - we copied my sister Elaine's idea and bought her a special puppy backpack with a long tail. Some would call it a leash. She loves it! In this pic she's a superhero - Super Sarah and her backpack with special powers!

Sarah's July firsts

2008-07-19T21:44:00.013-05:00

Sarah got a new-to-her tricycle at the beginning of July and she was excited. Despite the fact that Dale attached blocks of wood on either side of the pedals, its still too big for her...maybe by the end of the summer her legs will be long enough for it.

Sarah's favourite thing to do while we're going on walks is to collect rocks and put them in her orange car or her wagon. If they're small enough she likes to throw them down the grates on the road. We have to stop and inspect every single one...walks are very slow and painful these days!

Sarah also got a new slide for the backyard last week and she loves to spend hours outside in the yard going up the steps and down the slide.

Sarah's also perfected the art of bubble blowing in the past couple of weeks as well. Not only can she blow them, but she can say the word too.

Speaking of words - I've stopped keeping track of all the words that she's been saying. Her words have really exploded and she's saying things like, 'mama sleepy', 'shoes feet' and things like that. Tonight she said, 'call bummpa, bummpa sleepy'. We tried calling Bummpa but there wasn't anyone home. She often calls Bummpa on her phone and talks to both him and Nana as well. She was pretty sure tonight, though, that Bummpa must be sleepy because she was. Funny girl.

Sarah still loves her rubber boots. She puts them on at every opportunity - especially when I turn my back - she sneaks down to the entrance way closet and puts them on and parades around the house.

Sarah and her Daddy sharing chocolate ice cream. Sarah got her own spoon just this one time - she eats too fast with it and there wasn't enough left for her Daddy. Now they share the same spoon so Daddy can manage her intake a bit better.

She's also getting very good at drinking water out of a glass with a straw. When she drinks water from the monkey glass that Nana and Bummpa gave her though, she insists that its juice. Needless to say that we play along.

Angie and William are visiting this weekend for her family reunion. We all went to an organic farm about a 30 minute drive from here for their family day this morning. Sarah and William got to touch the animals, go on a pony ride, watch a goat being milked, a sheep being sheared and play in a sandbox (William) and go down a slide (for Sarah). Sarah had a bit of a traumatic experience, though. She was feeding a goat a bit of grass and the goat was a bit enthusiastic about eating and took a good nip of her finger. Oh the howls of pain. Poor thing.

Angie and William. William's working on walking a lot which is very hard on his mom's back!

William loved it on the horse at first and then he wanted off. After looking at his feet in the picture below we're wondering if it's because his legs were turned out at a very odd angle. It must have hurt!

July 1st - Canada Day

2008-07-12T21:41:00.009-05:00

On Canada Day we decided to go to the Mennonite Village in Steinbach (about an hour drive East of our house) in the morning. They really put on a show! Sarah's favourite part was the petting zoo. She was absolutely fascinated with the puppy. Dale thought the puppy was pretty special as well - almost enough to break our rule about not getting a dog when we're moving every couple of years. Luckily sense prevailed. The pigs, chickens, goats and the rabbit were a lot of fun as well.

Sarah's 'oh' as she follows the animals around.

Sarah can't say 'swing' yet like she can say 'slide', but she still loves them!

Sarah was very interested in this lady and was very keen to get up on the bench and sit beside her.

She wanted up on every single tractor displayed along the street of the village. She's nuts about them.

We'd planned to hop on our bikes after Sarah's afternoon nap and go up to Assiniboine Park for the festivities, but a huge thunderstorm was forecasted...so - we had our picnic dinner at home and we were asleep before the fireworks at 10 pm. We are sooo lame these days!
Here's a video of Sarah helping her Daddy put away dishes. It's very hard to get video of her these days because as soon as she notices that I'm filming she wants to 'see, see'.

the week that Aunty Kelly and Uncle Simon came to visit

2008-06-26T13:44:00.008-05:00

Last Tuesday (June 17th) Sarah and I joined a bunch of moms and kids from the Military Family Resource Centre for an outing at the zoo. I didn't bring the stroller because it's hard to run after Sarah while pushing a stroller. She did very well. She ran for a couple of hours straight with one ride on another kid's stroller for 10 minutes. We had a picnic lunch at the end. Fun was had by all.

On Wednesday night I had my first Usborne book party at home. Although 5 people had booked to come only one person actually came. Oh well. I guess building a business takes time.

On Thursday night Dale's sister Kelly and her husband Simon arrived at about 1115 pm. They drove straight from Calgary in one day. Good for them!

On Friday we went to the zoo with Kelly and Simon. Sarah showed them all her favourite animals and generally raced around and had a great time. They all had their pictures taken with Winnie the Bear. Winnie the Pooh is named after Winnie the Bear. It's no wonder that Sarah loves Winnie the Pooh so much - there's a Winnipeg connection (Winnie is named after Winnipeg for those who didn't know).

Sarah insisted that she should get the chance to climb into the egg in the Discovery Centre at the zoo. Once she was inside she didn't want to get out!

Sarah finally has a long enough attention span and motor control to enjoy colouring. She is so proud of herself!

She also said more than one word at a time this week. She loves to say, "I see" when she wants to be lifted up to see something or if she can see the birds from her high chair at the table. As Simon found out, she can also say 'you, sit'. She's turned into a bit of a TV addict over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I can't hear anything from her (always a bad sign) and I'll find her sitting on the couch in the basement in front of a TV that isn't even on. You know it's bad when... Anyway - back to Simon's story. He went down after her one time and found her on the couch. She immediately pointed at him and said, "you, sit." Bossy little girl!

She also said 'chair', 'nap', 'pool', 'towel' and 'slide' this week as well. Her favourite numbers are 2 and 8. When she counts she says, '2', '8'...

This weekend we put Sarah is a booster chair instead of her high chair. Generally it's been a success except she keeps rocking the chair back a bit...very worrying. Every time she does it, we put her back in the high chair. She'll learn eventually, I hope.

On Saturday Sarah and I went to Sophia's (neighbour over the back) 3rd birthday party at the Children's Museum. They did some face painting and then dressed the kids up in costumes and gave them instruments. Then they did a parade around the Museum. Very funny. I can't post pictures of any of the other kids because I didn't get any photo releases signed. Now that I'm a pro photographer I have to think of these things!

In the afternoon Dale, Kelly and Simon did some touristing stuff while Sarah and I came home for a nap. On Saturday evening we got a babysitter in and the 4 of us when to the Down Homer night at Dale's mess. Surf and turf. The lobster was amazing. I got through most of it before I just couldn't stuff any more food into me!

Sunday morning we went to Assiniboine Park and walked around. Dale and Sarah took off early to go their last swimming lesson. Dale reported at lunch that Sarah no longer has a fear of the water. She leapt off the side of the pool into his arms, had her head plunged underwater and no problems. He's concerned though because she has a complete lack of fear which is backed up by no skills whatsoever. We'll have to watch her very carefully this summer! While Simon, Kelly and I were walking around the Park Simon commissioned me to take a picture of a Poppy for him. One of their cats is named Poppy so they want a picture of one for their wall. Here it is...

Sunday afternoon after Sarah's nap Dale, Sarah and I went to our friends Ryan and Jen's house for a goodbye BBQ. They're being posted to Ottawa. There was a kiddie pool in the backyard so Sarah got to go swimming again. She was freezing - shivering like crazy - but she wouldn't get out. She had so much fun!

Monday morning we went to the Museum of Man and Nature with Kelly and Simon. Sarah and her Daddy ran all around the museum. She had a fantastic time! Then Sarah and I went home for lunch and a nap and Dale, Kelly and Simon went into the Exchange District and poked around a bit.

Tuesday Aunty Kelly and Uncle Simon pulled out to drive back to Alberta and Sarah and I were all alone because Dale was back to work. She wasn't a happy camper to be stuck with me all by herself!

To finish off the post, here are some pictures of Aunty Kelly and Uncle Simon with Sarah.

The week of 'yar!'

2008-06-15T19:40:00.004-05:00

Although I just posted a few days ago, there's still a lot of stories to tell this week.

For one thing, I forgot to tell you all about the first sweater that I've ever knitted. I sure learned a lot. It took forever to finish it, but it's done. I sent it off last week to a little girl named Mina Lockhart who lives in Dartmouth. She was born in December and she gets her gift in June. At least I knitted a sweater that's for a one year old so hopefully she'll get some wear out of it!

A picture of the Stella d'Oro daylily at the front of our house...in the rain. It sure has done a lot of raining over the past week or so. They say the mosquitoes will be upon us a week or so from now. Great.

One of Sarah's favourite things to do is to play with the static cling 'stickers' that we have for the door onto the deck. Here's a butterfly in the rain.

On one of the nice days this week Sarah and I had some fun on the deck with her hat and various expressions on her face. She's very interested in emotions and facial expressions these days.

Holy pout, batman.

Sarah the clown.

Sarah's having a lot of fun drinking out of the monkey glass that Nana and Bummpa gave her when they came to visit (see last post) but she's also branching out to drinking out of the container that I water inside plants with. What a clown.

Sarah is really enjoying the bird feeder on our deck and she can now identify two of the birds that spend the most time there. She's very good at saying 'grackle' and the red-winged blackbird she calls 'black.' She also said 'car' this week and calls a muffin, 'muffo.' I have one of those mini-muffin silicone muffin pans and she sure loves her mini-muffins! This weekend Dale taught her to talk like a pirate. She's very good at saying 'yar!' During the week Sarah and I had a great time saying 'buffalo'. It was like our code word. Every time she got a bit grouchy this week I would say 'buffalo' which would lead to her forgetting that she was grouchy in her hurry to say 'buffalo' and laugh...boy did we ever laugh!

Her favourite book this week is 'Good Night Moon'. She asks for it to be read to her at least 3 or 4 times a day. She's very good at saying 'night' and today she added 'moon' to her vocabulary. She can't say them together though. She's getting close to saying more than one word at a time, but she's not there yet. However, with a combination of signs and words she is generally talking in sentences. It's pretty neat to see.

On Saturday we got into our biking gear and although it was threatening rain we put Sarah into the bike carrier and took off for the Assiniboine Park and the Zoo! The trip took about 1/2 hour and Sarah had a great time in the carrier. I was having a hard time keeping up with speedy Dale on his new hybrid bike! Sarah ran around the zoo for over an hour, stopping for two quick snacks and tripping by the bears. The paths aren't very smooth and she doesn't look where she's going so naturally she tripped. However, this was a worse than usual tumble - it drew a bit of blood on her lip and I think she bit her tongue a tiny bit and she had a bump on her forehead. Luckily the red squirrels and the Markhors were right there so she was easily distracted. After the Markhors there's the slide, so, she was off again!

On Sunday (Father's day) Sarah gave her Daddy a card and a piece of artwork. When I was supervising her artistic endeavours yesterday I silently thanked the person who invented washable crayons. What a great invention! Anyway - in the morning Dale and Sarah went swimming and after her nap he took her to the park to fly a kite while I made dinner. Apparently Sarah is great at flying kites. She stood very still and held onto the string while Dale launched the kite. She loved letting out the string but after it was all out and there wasn't any very exciting going on (except the kite flying around) she gave the string back to Dale. When he wound the kite back down it got interesting again when she could touch the tail.

The week of stop

2008-06-11T13:51:00.003-05:00

Since Nana and Bummpa left I haven't taken many pictures of Sarah. I've been busy getting two businesses going - my photography business (I've had one photo shoot so far and a few more lined up) and I've become an Usborne Books consultant. I'm having two parties for that later on in the month. I've also been studying for a professional exam for the Navy as well. I took the test on Monday night and although I doubt I passed (95% to pass on the first section is hard to manage), I think I did better than I ever have before (I've written it a few times).

Last week I went in to check on Sarah before I went to bed (she is usually on the opposite side of the bed from where we put her down and in some kind of crazy position without any covers on) and much to my surprise she had pulled down her pajama pants and her diaper was mostly off. Whoops! I managed to get them both back on without waking her. The next morning when I went in to get her both pants and diaper were completely off. Luckily the bed was dry! So - for a couple of nights after that I put her diaper on backwards and that seems to have confounded her for the moment. We're back to a diaper on the correct way and she hasn't tried to get it off again.

Sarah has been adding vocabulary like crazy these days. Last week she surprised me by yelling 'stop' and making the sign (which for her was smashing one hand down onto the other arm...close enough). Wow. I guess I got my own back in spades. I do the 'stop' thing when she's having an out of control toddler moment (some call them a tantrum). It helps to jolt her out of the endless loop of tears, screaming and flailing arms and feet. I'm not sure what I was doing to warrant such an explosive 'stop' from her, but apparently it was something distasteful to her! I had to choke back my laughter because by the expression on her face she meant business!

She's also becoming more and more sure about what she wants to do and what she doesn't. In other words, she's becoming opinionated. I'm not sure which parent she got that from!

I took this video a few days ago. We don't normally wear boots inside, nor do we eat morning snack (or as Sarah calls it, sack) in our high chair, but no day when it's pouring so hard that you can't go outside is a 'normal' day so you just have to make do. As you may have already noticed, Sarah's boots are on the wrong feet because she put them on herself and made it very clear that she didn't need my help at all, thank you very much!

Dale has been away since Saturday morning and he gets back today. He went to the West coast with work so on Sunday he went to my sister Gwyn's house and had a visit with Gwyn and Tim and my parents. Sarah and I had a chat with them on Skype, which was fun. Sarah had fun climbing up on the desk so she could kiss Daddy (the monitor) but she couldn't understand that in order for Daddy to be able to see her that she needed to move away from the monitor (which has a built in camera). Too funny.

Sarah and I have been doing a lot of hanging out for the past few days. Not much different than normal except I don't get a Daddy break at the end of the day and Sarah doesn't have someone to race around the kitchen and jump into her tent with while I'm making dinner.

Last night she decided that instead of reading a story that she wanted to go straight into bed. Highly unusual. She said 'bed' for the first time and walked over to her crib and tried to climb into it. So I asked her if she wanted to read a story or get into bed and the answer was 'bed.' So - I followed her instructions and as soon as she was in bed and all tucked in she looked over at the reading chair and said 'book' with a very confused expression on her face. Sigh. I took her out of bed and read her a couple of books and then put her in bed and didn't hear a peep from her after that.

Another week of 'stuck'

2008-05-30T13:55:00.007-05:00

This week was another week of everything being 'stuck.' It's such a multifunctional word that it was apparently worth keeping around. She added 'blue', 'applesauce', 'nice house', and 'night night' to her vocabulary this week.

Nana and Bummpa came to visit from Alberta this week. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and they came bearing gifts. Clothing (which Sarah promptly asked to try on), a cool glass with monkeys, bananas and sparkles floating in between the two layers, and a magnetic butterfly. She loved all her gifts, but the most interesting one was the bag it came in, of course!

Sarah knew who they were, but she wasn't so sure of them at first. But within an hour or so they were playing with her and all was well. All it took was showing an interest in her stuffed animals and soon Bummpa had them all piled up on his lap. We all thought it would take longer than that. It just goes to show that you never know with kids!

On Thursday we went to the conservatory at Assiniboine Park. Sarah needed to run around and I needed to meet one of the people who works for me so she could sign her annual evaluation report.

Dale took Friday off from work and we went up to Lower Fort Garry. It was a beautiful day and Sarah ran around for a couple of hours without stopping. She had a great time going through all the buildings but she especially loved the cats who were wandering around outside. She followed them for at least 20 minutes.

Sarah enjoyed sitting on the little stool in the teepee.

A couple of artsy shots of the displays in the warehouse.

Dale, Sarah and a Red River cart.

We thought that Sarah would be tired from all the running that she did in the morning, but after our picnic lunch she was running around being chased by her Daddy again. There were a few school groups there having lunch as well and some of the Grade 5 girls were fascinated with Sarah. She even let one of the girls pick her up!

On Saturday we went to Fort Whyte in the morning and walked around the trails. Sarah always enjoys saying hello to the buffalo in the main building and this week she actually said the word! Dale and I went out to dinner that night with friends while Nana and Bummpa babysat. We had a huge thunderstorm that night and early Sunday morning. Surprisingly Sarah didn't wake up to either of them.

On Sunday we went down to the Forks in the morning and out for dinner that night. While we were out to dinner at Boston Pizza Sarah got her first taste of wrestling on the TV and she really enjoyed it. She told us all about how the man 'fall down' (she didn't seem to notice the blood on the mat which is a good thing). She also enjoyed watching hockey as well. She really liked drinking milk with a straw from a cup. She liked it so much that she drank about twice what she normally does.

On Monday morning Nana and Bummpa came to our last class of Kindermusik for the summer and then they left to drive home from there. Sarah is still (5 days after they left) asking for Bummpa as soon as she wakes up (sometimes she asks for Daddy). I think she really enjoyed their visit.

The week of 'stuck'

2008-05-19T19:58:00.007-05:00

This week Sarah constantly said 'stuck'. Everything that wouldn't work the way she wanted it to was 'stuck'. The other popular word of the week was 'snack' except she pronounces it more like 'sack'. She's also mad about rocks right now which makes for some pretty slow walks around the neighbourhood -she stops to pick them all up and then she has to put them all back. She's also decided that a chicken is called a 'bok bok' and a rooster is a 'cocko'.

Sarah enjoys anything that involves fruit these days. She's not all that interested in veggies, unfortunately. Below is a picture of her berry crumble face and the grimace I get when I ask her to smile.

On Tuesday when Dale was talking to his Dad she got to talk to her 'Bummpa'. Much to everyone's surprise she said 'Bummpa' on the first try. She also pointed at the wall of family pictures in the family room and she told me which one was Bummpa. How's that for a memory! She hasn't seen him since Christmas.

Sarah loves working with megabloks. Her castle building skills are really starting to improve! Sarah and Dale do some building when he gets home from work most evenings during the week.

We saw our first hummingbird at our feeder in the backyard this week. It must be spring! This weekend instead of going camping like we used to, we organised and planted our backyard. On Wednesday I bought over $500 of perennials. While I was buying plants Sarah ran around and pulled some tags out of the plants (whoops!) and filled a watering can with rocks (a little less of an impact). She was filthy by the time I was done - dirt all over her face but the biggest smile ever. We washed up in the bathroom at the plant nursery before we left. On Friday night after Sarah was in bed, I did the planting. Wow. I bought too many plants, so luckily the nursery will take the extras back. That should help bring the cost down. I didn't plan to spend quite so much!

During the week Dale and I also moved dirt from the backyard raised beds to the front lawn to do some top dressing. We had extra dirt, so it seemed like a good thing to do.

On Saturday morning at around 8 I looked up from the breakfast table to see a bunny rabbit in my perennial bed. Horrors! I went haring (pun intended) into the backyard in my PJ's to investigate. We found about 8 baby bunnies in behind the shed. It was worse than we thought! We weren't going to be able to plant until we got some rabbit proof fencing up. So...the neighbour over the back (Mike) had some extra chicken wire left over from when he proofed his yard, so Dale set to work. What a picky and painful job, but he got it done and it appears to be working. Dale also went to the store and bought some supplies. Busy day for him! Sarah and I went to get groceries and played in the backyard with the ball. Not surprisingly, she didn't really want to play with the ball - she wanted to plant and water.

On Sunday we planted out the tomato seedlings into pots. Sarah was a big help as you can see from the pictures below. Apparently dirt tastes good - something every kid knows.

While Sarah napped, Dale and I planted the veggies bed with beans, peas, cucumbers along the back and carrots, hot peppers, leeks, borage (just for fun), green onions, sweet peppers, and strawberries. We're going to plant watermelons, but we're just waiting for them to sprout inside first. We planted out the lettuce and radishes as well in a separate bed. I planted nasturtiums, morning glory and calendula in beds along the patio so we'll get some flowers growing up as well. In the picture below the veggies are in the bed in the foreground and the perennials are in the background.

An artsy shot of the lilies that we planted.

Sarah disappeared in the afternoon after her snack for at least 1/2 an hour. I could hear her talking away in her room so I didn't disturb her. When she came out to the kitchen I went into her room to see what she'd been doing. She had her Navy bear and her monkey set up on the chair so they could read a Curious George book. It is certainly not lost on her that Curious George and her monkey are the same kind of animal.

On Monday, after two beautiful sunny days, it rained. Yuck. Oh well - we now have a garden that can benefit from some rain! Free water as far as we're concerned. So we went down to the Forks in the morning for an outing. Sarah was pretty sure she was going to wear her Daddy's shoes - not her own!

Below is a video of Sarah trying to put on her new crocs that we bought while we were at the Forks.

the week of 'peese'

2008-05-11T20:28:00.009-05:00

Sarah continued to work on her words this week as well as her eyeteeth. They're all almost through but not quite. On Wednesday she said, 'book', 'bowl' and 'pooh' (as in bear). She's also gotten very good at saying 'please (pronounced 'peese') without prompting. Please has helped with the shrieking when she wants something. Now she points at it and then says please while she does the sign (rubs her chest) at the same time.

I had a nasty cold all week so we didn't do too much. Sarah and Dale haven't started with the cold yet and I'm crossing my fingers that they don't. I still have the remains of the cough. Yuck.

On Saturday I went to the spa. Dale and Sarah bought me a spa package a couple of months ago but I couldn't get in until this weekend. What a great Mother's day present! Dale and Sarah went to the zoo and apparently they spent most of the time there on the slides - Sarah's new favourite thing to do. When I take her up to the park she runs straight past the swings to the slide - the higher the better as far as she's concerned. I bought a stool for the bathroom so Sarah can wash her own hands and a little seat for the toilet for her as well. She's showing some interest in what goes on in the toilet these days so we thought we'd get a seat to make her more comfortable. I found a Winnie the Pooh one, which she likes very much.

When I got home from the spa, Sarah woke up from her nap and on the table was a bouquet of flowers and a homemade card with a piece of crumpled up paper inside. The extra piece of paper inside was especially from Sarah. For some reason she insisted that it had to be part of the package. Dale made dinner (salmon with a mole rub cooked on a cedar plank on the BBQ, salad and brown rice with berry crumble for dessert). Yummy!

On Sunday morning Dale went to get Sarah when she woke up (6:30...she's getting earlier!) and brought her up to our bed for a visit. She looked at me and said, 'hi, you'. A bit later in the conversation we thought she said 'bonk' because she hit her head, but no...she informed us that, 'I said book'. Her first phrase. We had pancakes and bacon (no bacon for Sarah, though!) for breakfast and while we finished breakfast Sarah did some stickering. We bought some static cling stickers from the dollar store and they're a big hit. It helps that they're Winnie the Pooh of course.

Once she was dressed for the day, Sarah showed off her newly found ability to rock in her rocking chair. When she's not rocking in it, the big white bear that we bought last week lives in it with a hat that was originally meant to be a warmer for the bottom of a casserole dish. It just goes to show that with a bit of imagination things can take on completely different jobs.

Then we went for a walk in Assiniboine Park. They've turned on the water fountain in the Leo Mol garden, which Sarah thought was pretty fun. The water lilies aren't out yet, though. When we got to the duck pond Sarah got very excited and pointed, 'ducks,' she said. When Sarah and I were at the duck pond a week ago she couldn't say 'duck,' but she remembered the place and could now say the word, so...she did!

After the park we went to the pool for Sarah's swimming lessons. Again she didn't want to do what the rest of the class was doing, but I was partly at fault. She kept looking at me instead of doing what the class was doing. Oops. I got some great pictures, though.

the week of bye bye

2008-05-04T19:38:00.007-05:00

It continued to be quite cool and windy this week so we didn't spend a lot of time outside.

Sarah learned to work one of her toys this week. It's one of those toys that has a bunch of balls inside and you can make them spin if you push down on the plunger on the top. Sarah can't operate it using her hands, so she found an innovative method - she sits on it.

Dale flew late two nights this week - Wednesday and Thursday - and Sarah missed him terribly. She kept wandering around saying,"Dada?" When I was doing the dishes after dinner on Wednesday she had to entertain herself, so she piled a bunch of her toys onto the couch and crawled up to hang out with them. She's getting louder and louder when she's playing - often she screeches and shrieks. When we tell her that she's too loud she shushes herself. It's pretty funny.

On Wednesday morning Sarah and I went to the gym. I got half way through my weights class when the sitter came to get me. Sarah had been crying on and off for 45 minutes and she just wasn't going to stop. We are now officially into separation anxiety. Great. She wasn't interested in being left at the daycare at the Military Family Resource Centre on Friday morning either. I sure hope this phase is short lived.

On Thursday night I had to work so we got a sitter in from the coop to bridge the time between when I had to leave and when Dale got home. Sarah met Sheri when she arrived and immediately went into shy mode so I put her to bed and then went to work. One of these days someone else is going to have to put her to bed but I'm not sure how we're going to get there.

Dale got some new uniform clothes this week, so Sarah tried on his toque...and played peekaboo.

On Saturday it was windy but sunny - nice when you're out of the wind. The Lindenwoods (our suburb) garage sale was on Saturday morning so Sarah and I took the wagon and went for a wander to see what we could see (and buy). I took $60 with me and we found a plastic picnic table for Sarah, the bear and chair in the picture below as well as some clothes and a few toys for Sarah. I got a hand grinder for tomatoes and apples, a pressure cooker and a box of canning jars.

Dale stayed at home and tried to sell a few things. He sold his old bike and almost sold my old sewing machine... He got all the yard work done in the front while he minded the store. Good concurrent activity! While Sarah slept in the afternoon Dale worked in the backyard and I transplanted a bunch of seedlings. I hope they're going to last in little pots inside for the next three weeks before we can plant them outside.

We bought a new folding clothes dryer for outside this weekend as well.It's called the Wallfix and we bought it at Canadian Tire for about $150. Here's their website if you're interested. http://www.brabantia.com

Sarah has now mastered hello and bye bye. So much so that she says bye bye continually! She also started saying 'okay' (sounds like oak-ee), 'pickle', 'duck', 'stuck' and 'hat' this weekend. It's hard to keep up with all the new words that she's trying out!

Today I went to Chippawa for the Battle of the Atlantic ceremony and parade. It was -3 and snowing when I left home and we did the entire parade outside (about an hour) while it snowed. It was so cold that I lost all feeling in my hands and I was getting shooting pains up my arms. Good times. I warmed up again after a few hours.

Dale and Sarah went swimming. She apparently wasn't interested in following the class at all - just like last week. She always wants to do her own thing. After Sarah's 2 1/2 hour nap (she always sleeps a lot after swimming) we went for a quick trip down to MEC so Dale could spend his gift certificate from Gwyn and Tim on freeze dried food for his canoe trip with Scott this August. It's amazing what they're coming up with in freeze dried food these days...he's looking forward to the ice cream, I think. :o)

The week winter came back

2008-04-27T19:08:00.005-05:00

I guess I spoke too soon about summer last week. We got the cold weather everyone West of us was talking about mid-week. We had snow on Thursday and very cold winds until today (Sunday). Sarah couldn't figure out why we weren't going outside like we did last week. I told her it was too cold outside to go out and she just looked at me like I was crazy. Certainly wimpy...I've gotten used to 20 degrees and I'm not prepared to freeze anymore!

Although Sarah was grumpy from teeth coming is (still) and perhaps some terrible twos, she did make some leaps and bounds in terms of words she can now say and things she can do.

I call this the week of 'yummy' because she says it all the time - particularly when food is involved. She doesn't just say 'yummy', though - she says, 'yummy, yummy, yummy' just like the Swedish chef on the Muppets. I'm not sure where she got it from, but it's sure funny.

She's also learned to pull a door closed using the handle (but still can't open it, luckily) and to blow bubbles in the bath. She also now says 'eyes', 'all done' (at the same time as she does the sign which is waving her hands around in the air) and she can now say 'apple' (which sounds like ah-puh). She has also added the number 'eight' to the other numbers she can already say ('two' and 'six'). Although she's been fascinated with my slippers for some time, she can now successfully wear them and walk in them - watch the video below.

On Saturday Sarah and I went grocery shopping and to the library. Dale went bike hunting. After 18 years it's time for a new one...besides - with the price of gas the way it is, he's decided to ride his bike to work as much as he can when the weather is decent for it.

On Sunday Dale and Sarah went swimming while I did the rpm class (cycling in a class for a hour) at the gym. Apparently Sarah wasn't very interested in following along with what the group was doing in the pool. She wanted to do the opposite. Not too surprising - that's the way she's been all week.

Sarah wanted to go out on the deck this morning to see what there was to see. Right beside Alice the goat was some left over ice so she picked some up...

...and took a bite. Apparently it was good because it got the 'ummm...yummy, yummy, yummy' designation. :o)

While Sarah napped this afternoon Dale went to buy his bike. They didn't have the right size yesterday so they built him one. When he got home, he took little Miss for a quick spin around the block. Here she is checking out the rooster that Auntie Connie and Uncle Ray gave her. When you press on the tail the beak opens and a light shines out of it's mouth and it does the cock-a-doodle-doo sound.

Just look at that flash cycling set up!

the week that summer came

2008-04-20T20:20:00.007-05:00

This week it's really felt like summer has arrived. It's been sunny with highs in the high teens and low 20s. Hooray! After dinner on Friday night Dale hooked up the bike trailer and we took Sarah on a quick spin around the neighbourhood to see what she thought of the whole thing. We put some toys in with her and strapped on her helmet which is slightly too big. It tends to fall to one side on her head, which looks pretty cute.

On Saturday morning, Dale and Sarah did some work on the little stacking toy that she has that is pictured below. She spends hours working on it. Her favourite thing is dumping them all off the stick to start again.

On Saturday morning we went to the local plant nursery to see what they have. We're going to plant out one of the beds in our backyard with perennials and the other to veggies. Now that it feels like summer we're just itching to plant, but we have to wait until the May long weekend. We've started some seeds inside - the borage and oregano are already pushing through the dirt.

After the nursery we went up to the base to the used clothing and toys sale. We got Sarah her summer wardrobe and some fun toys for outside. In the afternoon we went for another bike ride (to the Fort Whyte Centre).

On Sunday we went for a walk up to the swings and the slide in the wagon.

Sarah isn't the least bit afraid of the big kid slide. She even flips over half way down the slide and keeps asking for more. What a dare devil!

Sarah and Dale then went for swimming lessons while I went to the gym and to the grocery store. Sarah loves the slide at the swimming pool as well and she's starting to kick her legs and dog paddle as well. She almost puts her face in the water... :o)

While Sarah slept this afternoon, Dale got the fun job of emptying out the compost bin so we could move it behind the gardening shed onto the pavers. I aerated the lawn a bit.

Sarah just loves one of the new purchases - the popper machine. It's not quite as good as the neighbour's lawnmower, but we couldn't find one of those at the sale.

While she was in the tub tonight, Sarah showed me how her swimming is progressing.

Spring has sprung and the sugaring off has started

2008-04-13T20:00:00.007-05:00

On Monday Sarah stopped nursing. We were down to just one nurse a day and I must have run out of milk. Besides the 1/2 hour of crying after that happened, she hasn't looked back or asked for milk from me again. Weaning was quite painless for us, luckily.

Other than that, Sarah and I hosted a coffee/playgroup for my babysitting coop on Wednesday. Sarah wasn't at all pleased with the idea of having to share her toys with 5 or 6 other kids - she kept crying and asking 'up'. I thought we might get to skip that stage, but I guess not. On Friday we went to visit our neighbours over the back, Lisa and Sophia, for a playdate. Sophia is almost 3 and she and Sarah had a great time together. I guess Sarah doesn't have trouble sharing other people's toys, just her own. :o)

On Saturday I worked all day. We went to the range. The weather was really nice - a bit cold, but the ground was generally dry, so it made for a nice shoot. I shot C7 and Sig Sauer. It was my first time firing the Sig Sauer and it went well. I like it a lot better than the Browning, that's for sure. While I was working, Sarah and Dale went to the zoo in the morning and Sarah slept for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. She's been having really long naps for the past week or so and she's just so tired all the time. She's eating a lot too so she must be growing. She also started counting...well - she can reliably say the word '2' anyway. She's almost got '6' as well. She also added 'eat' to her vocabulary this weekend. Strangely enough she's stopped signing as she goes through this language explosion. She's done this before and then gone back to signing, but I wonder if this is it for signing for her... On Saturday night Sheri from the babysitting coop sat for us and Dale and I went to the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival. It was great!

On Sunday we took a drive down to St. Pierre de Jolys, about 3/4 of an hour South of Winnipeg to a sugaring off festival that they have at the museum there. What a great little town. We went for a ride on a horse-drawn wagon, had a look through the museum and looked around in the Goulet house. In the Goulet house there were women making butter, traditional Acadian sashes, pet- soeurs (little rolls made with pastry with brown sugar and cinnamon inside) and bread in the wood stove. We bought some locally made maple syrup and we also had some creme sucre and some taffy, which Sarah loved. What a look on her face - she's never had anything so sweet before!

In the afternoon Dale went to Costco and I got going on vacuuming and washing the cars. What a lot of work but you know it must be Spring if you're washing your car. Yeah!

In the picture below, Sarah is watching the river below from the bridge at St. Pierre. She's wearing her new (to her) shoes - size 7 and way too big but she loves them and manages to walk ok in them.

Buzz and Buck the horses at St. Pierre

Buckets to catch the sap from the trees. They're all over town.

The maison Goulet.

An artsy photo of the tree in front of the St. Pierre museum.

When Dale went to Costco today he found Sarah a helmet to go with the bike trailer we got a few weeks ago. Now she's set for biking with us this summer. In the picture below it almost looks like she's driving using her bowl as a steering wheel! We put it on her for a small wander around the neighbourhood in her car this afternoon and she didn't try to tear it off, so that's good.