Updates from July, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Tamara 10:31 pm on July 31, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    adventure day 

    Today, our friends Dan and Pauwlina joined us for a tour of the organic garden where we have our farm share. It was supposed to be a nice sunny day… but those weather forecasters can’t seem to get it right lately! We got a little wet on the tour, but everyone made out alright. At least it kept the mosquitos down.

    Marshall ate some fresh brocolli right from the ground! And tried a ground cherry (but he didn’t care for that).

    Next we headed for the Bouctouche Dunes. You’d think it would be easier to find. Apparently it’s called the Irving EcoCenter or something, in case you’re out looking for them. We stopped at a little Poutine place that had a line up out the door, thinking it must be good! I think most of us had a hankering for seafood. Marshall wanted chicken noodle soup. Turned out it really was just a poutine place. Poutine Rape and Rapi Pie that is. We decided to head to another restaurant and got what we wanted: clams, shrimp, fish… mmm

    However, it was then that I realized I left the formula on the counter at home. Luckily there was a pharmacy across the street! Ella wasn’t too interested in the stuff I bought, but she didn’t mind the trip, just didn’t eat much.

    Finally we arrived at the Dunes, and it was worth it. The rain stopped while we were having lunch, and the sun came out. There was a beautiful breeze off the water and we had a lovely walk.

    To cap off the day we headed to the Buffalo Safari. We were too late in the day for the actual Safari part, but we bought some meat and Marshall got to play and see roosters, goats, bunnies and miniature horses. Now at least we know where it is so we can do the tour sometime. Unfortunately on our way there I took us down a dirt road and something in Dan’s car started rattling! eep!

    On our way home we stopped at Tim’s to get Marshall his soup, since all he’d had were granola bars, bananas, buns with butter and pie… but they didn’t have it. We picked up pizza on the way home and made him the soup at home.

    Marshall hit the overtired wall around … 1pm I think. He was acting all crazy and driving me nuts. I can’t speak for anyone else!

    Of course yesterday he hit that wall around 4 while we were at the Shoe Company, Ella had a big messy poop while we were there and I just about lost it! I seem to have a low tolerance for it this weekend.

    Having a little downtime tonight while Rick is visiting with the neighbours and the kids are in bed. I developped a bit of a LoST habit whilst in Calgary so I’ve got an episode to watch! (I’m only in Season 3 and I already know what happens at the end of the series :P )

     

    • lana 5:41 pm on August 1, 2010 Permalink

      ” I watched 6 seasons of Lost and all I got was a lousy ending” – Just saying:)

    • Tamara 9:18 pm on August 1, 2010 Permalink

      LOL I know! I heard! But … I got sucked in, and I’m enjoying the ride! :)

  • Tamara 12:38 pm on July 29, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Random 

    Started Ella on rice cereal yesterday. She seems to like it! She grinned and grinned. Must feel funny in her mouth!

    Marshall has been swimming like a fish! While I was away he had some kind of breakthrough at swimming lessons and started swimming without his wings. This week I saw him in action. He can swim the width of the pool without his wings! When he puts his goggles on, he goes right under the water and keeps on swimming. I am so proud! :D

    We brought Ella with us to swimming lessons this week. The water felt a bit cold to me since it was warm out, so I figured I’d hear a good scream out of her but nope!

     

  • Tamara 11:08 pm on July 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    It’s harder than you might think! 

    I know I’m at home with the baby, but updating daily is harder than you might think (that is just for those of you who have never stayed home with the baby – those who have know what I’m talking about! ;) )

    Ella is 19 weeks today. We arrived back yesterday evening from a busy weekend at Gram’s.

    Friday was mom’s birthday so although we tried to get there for early afternoon, we arrived sometime around 4 and made her a special dinner.

    Saturday we all went to the market and walked around downtown. We checked out Science East which was actually pretty cool – lots of science stuff reminiscent of the Ontario Science & Technology Centre we were at recently in Ottawa. The old York County Jail has been converted into this kids science centre and they did a great job. And from 10-1 on Saturdays, it’s only $2 to go in.

    Saturday night mom watched the kids for us to go out for dinner and a movie for our anniversary (7 years yesterday). Our service was so fast at Dimitri’s that we had time to hit the early show. Inception was sold out so we saw Salt. Then Rick had the brilliant idea to go see a 2nd movie since we were there, and we were able to get in to Inception. Wow! We usually go to about 2 movies a year, so there you go.

    Sunday we hit the road to Sussex and had a visit with Uncle Jamie. We stopped at the Big Pumpkin on the way and Marshall fed the animals and we got ice creams.

    Ella has started going to bed around 8pm or so, but is waking in the night again, around 1am usually and then 4 or so… I’m going to try giving her a “dream feed” before heading to bed tonight to see if that helps.

    Marshall has been all kinds of adorable, but of course now that I’m sitting at the computer, nothing is coming to me.

    We had Ella on the table in her bumbo chair while we had supper and I think she’ll be ready to start eating cereal soon. Marshall held her hand a bit while she was there.

    Well, time to hit the hay!

    He and Ella both put up a really good fight against the sleep tonight.

     

  • Tamara 10:51 pm on July 20, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Bloody boo-boo 

    Today I picked Marshall up from school for swimming lessons and he told me he had a “bloody boo boo”. yikes! He was running in the schoolyard and fell on the pavement so he got a nasty cut/scrape on his hand. He didn’t want to go swimming because his bandaid would fall off, and then it fell off right in the parking lot. I called to cancel the lesson anyway, because of the salt water pool …

    I’m going to try to write a little bit every day or every other day if I can because we are missing out on documenting the cutest things because we forget them weeks later when we finally get around to writing.

    Saturday night after we finally got a rambunctious birthday boy to bed, Rick had a shower and then came down and stared at me with such fury in his eyes! I didn’t know what could possibly be wrong… and then he turned on the light so I could get a good look at him… toothpaste all over his forehead! Apparently Marshall had been playing with the toothpaste when he was supposed to be going to the bathroom earlier… anyway, Rick was pissed, but we both couldn’t help but laugh. We didn’t want to punish him on his birthday, but I told him that it wasn’t a very nice thing to do, not to do it again etc. and later of course we told him he had to be supervised with the toothpaste from now on. hehe. He also made little toothpaste sandwiches with the bars of soap that I’d left out on the counter. I mean… how tempting is that??

     

  • Tamara 10:57 pm on July 19, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Birthday Marshall! 

    Marshall turned 4 yesterday! We had his party on Saturday at the Splash Park. We had a great time, though it was a lot of work (Rick made homemade hamburgers and potato salad, I made brocolli salad and did up the treat bags, lugging stuff to the park, chasing after children etc) and Marshall didn’t want to put his swimsuit on, or play with his friends (Jack, Connor, Jean, Evelyne, Marek, Greyson, Boris, Lucas) apparently. heh. They enjoyed the cake (Mickey) and pinata, and some of the kids enjoyed the splash park. We enjoyed the deilicious burgers and the company.

    Marshall received lots of really nice gifts. Aqua Sand, outdoor toys, a camping lantern, Trouble (the game) … He even received a gift from Julien and Alexandre today at school – Lincoln Logs – we built a fort with them tonight after supper.

    We gave him a wooden dragon for his castle that we picked up in Ottawa, a pirate puppet, some t-shirts, and some play kitchen things. Auntie Stacey sent down some sharper scissors and finger puppets. We made up a story with those and did a little play together. He used his new scissors to cut the tags off. Uncle Randy and Steve gave him a James megablocks train – he made a lighthouse, windmill and his favourite, the crane with the blocks!

    The Grampys did well this year: Grampy got him the coveted DSi (XL) and he’s going to use Grampa Bob’s birthday money to buy a game for it! And Uncle Jamie dropped by Saturday afternoon with a RC Car. Nana had sent a box on the bus that he opened on Friday with some nice clothes and a cool magnet/spelling book, and Gram gave him a water bottle and some outdoor/pool toys and will be seeing him next weekend with some other things from her Atlanta trip.

    Sunday we went to Greyson’s birthday party (across the street) – he turned 2! Marshall had fun playing wiht all Greyson’s toys and they had cupcakes. The adults enjoyed themselves as well with a fun guessing game and lots of good munchies. Must absolutely NOT get the recipe for Cathy’s nacho dip – deliciously deadly! Also: they had red velvet cake from the Cakebox. Yum!!

    ***

    Just to backtrack a bit, Ella and I had a great trip to Calgary and really enjoyed our visit with Stacey, Cris, Sam and Diego and Martha. We saw Lake Louise and lots of mountains, we went to the stampede, and a stampede breakfast! We got to see my uncles Brad and Ron, aunts Jeannie and Roberta, my cousin Lara and her son (who was due the same day as Ella but born 5 weeks early) Gage, and Jeannie’s son Connor.

    I made curtains for the boys room, and Cris got me hooked on Lost again. We had many nice meals and celebrated Stacey’s … 34th??!! birthday!

    Ella did really well on the plane both ways. I had lots of room on the planes on the way out to Calgary, but on the way back it was packed. We still managed! (even though on the way back they swabbed the baby bottles and got a red flag… everything had to go through xray again and they had to pat me – and Ella – down before they’d let us through!)

    I learned on this trip that Ella loves her Bjorn (baby carrier). I picked it up on Canada Day for $35 on Kijiji.

    I missed my boys though! It’s nice to be back home!
    ***

    I have updated pics but am still working on the Calgary ones … I’m a little behind!

    Did I mention I’m going back to work in September?? Eek!

     

  • Rick 10:34 pm on July 11, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Camping: check 

    We ended up splitting the difference: just one night at Murray Beach instead of the planned 2. This was due to the severe weather that was expected to roll into the area (and eventually did), so it all worked out really well. In fact, we didn’t even think we were going to be able to stay because the wind was initially so strong that I didn’t stand any chance of getting the tent up. Luckily, it died down a bit, and I managed to get it standing with a little help. Marshall and I had a really great time, and probably wouldn’t have lasted the second night anyway.

    One thing about this place was that the ‘camp cops’ seemed to be pretty intense. They don’t much like noise or conversation of any kind after the sun goes down. Regardless, we managed to have our marshmallows, some jiffy pop, and the boys sat around after the kids went to bed (the girls had their own fire). I was glad to have borrowed a Coleman stove, which allowed me to make coffee and some awesome bacon the next morning. I think I’ve also been crowned Jiffy Pop king, which means I’ll be responsible to make the popcorn every year.

    Today was a weird day, because I was both lazy and busy at different intervals. Managed to catch the final soccer game, got the floors washed, and penned some invitations for Marshall’s birthday. Pretty tired now though, so I better cap the weekend. Later!

     

  • Rick 10:34 pm on July 7, 2010 Permalink | Reply  

    Canada Day FUN! 

    I tell ‘ya, Riverview is the place to be during Canada Day. They have 4 days of what they call the “Sun Fest”, and it’s all for the kids. Marshall got his face painted for the first time ever – not once – but twice! On Thursday he was Spiderman, and Friday it was Batman. He got to go on the bouncy slides, had BBQ, free popsicles, cotton candy, popcorn, you name it. Friday was the Teddy Bear Picnic with vet consults for the plush toys, colouring, crafts, bubbles, and music. Friday night was Night 1 of camping on the front lawn… a ‘practice run’ for the ‘real’ camping yet to come. It turned out really well. Marshall loves the tent and loves to play games with his animals. We even slept in on Saturday (until after 9!) and then it was time for a pancake breakfast (really good and only $5 to boot!) and some shopping for a new lantern for camping. Night 2 of camping was more comfortable (not as chilly) and Sunday it was ‘Monster Machine’ day with tours of diggers and dump trucks and a ride on the mini fire truck. Then a quick visit with friends Dan and Pauwilna and some quiet time at Grampy’s before a super early bedtime after such a busy long weekend.

    While all of this was going on, Tamara and Ella were basking in the not-so-warm glow of Calgary (I’ll let her tell you that whole story). The week has been non-stop even after that craziness, as Marshall had his “3-year checkup”, though I guess the only thing they look for is ‘lazy eye’. They don’t check hearing or anything. You’d think the health care system would be more proactive with kids so they don’t have to lean on it so much later in life. Anyway, he also had another swimming lesson (I don’t get to take him to many!) and he’s doing so well! I can’t believe how comfortable he is in the water now and able to paddle his way around. Won’t be long and he’ll be doing lanes.

    Today I got the first of 18 ‘baskets’ (a box, actually) of fresh produce from a local organic farm called Amarosia. It’s a farm share program that guarantees fresh supply every week. While it’s a bit pricey, it’s kind of neat to try new things and see just how much better the fresh organic stuff really is. Check out the photo of my first haul in the new set of pictures.

    Marshall and I are supposed to be heading to Murray Beach this coming weekend, but there is some nasty rain in the forecast, so I’m not sure if we’ll make the trip. It’s a ton of work and not that close, so I’ll have a decision to make on that tomorrow.

    After tomorrow I’ll only have 4 more weeks before *I* get to go on parental leave for about 6 months! It’s kind of exciting. Tamara is heading back to her job, and hopes to get on permanently. Then we can maybe upgrade our vehicle! Hard to believe our Corolla is over 7 years old… still feels relatively new.

     

    • lana 7:27 pm on July 8, 2010 Permalink

      Sounds like you have been busy! We don`t even have a 3 year old appointment. It`s a… see you some time between 4 and 6 to get your vaccine… after the 18 month one. I guess we`re all healthy if there are no visible problems!

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