Helena waited very patiently for us last Sunday as we prepared for church.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Riverdale Farm
Living in the city means we see lots of buildings, lots of cars, and lots of people. There's never nothing to look at! However, we do try to get out to the parks regularly so Helena can see trees (and grass this winter). We're super blessed to have a farm right downtown too!
That's right - a farm. Riverdale Farm is part of Toronto's Park & Recreation Facilities. It is great. There are lots of farm animals to watch and when Helena is older, activities to participate in.
Helena always loves the pigs - maybe because they are consistently the most-talkative? This time she found a new wonder to watch. The windmill! That's what she's pointing to in the above picture.
It has been so nice to have John around a bit more this week.
Sadly, there's only one day left.
That's right - a farm. Riverdale Farm is part of Toronto's Park & Recreation Facilities. It is great. There are lots of farm animals to watch and when Helena is older, activities to participate in.
Helena always loves the pigs - maybe because they are consistently the most-talkative? This time she found a new wonder to watch. The windmill! That's what she's pointing to in the above picture.
It has been so nice to have John around a bit more this week.
Sadly, there's only one day left.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
The Passing of Time for Parents
When you have a baby, almost every parent that you come into contact with tells you, "Enjoy this as the time goes so fast."
It's true. I feel like it was only a couple weeks ago that Helena & I would lie on the bed and just look at each other, me because I was mesmerized and her because she couldn't get away from me if she wanted. She used to hold onto the dresser handles to help hold herself in a standing position, but now she stands in front of an open dresser drawer and pulls all the clothes out. Time does goes by quickly.
But nobody tells you how it also creeps by.
Like when your daughter has a fever for 5 days. The doctors say it's just a virus, nothing to be concerned about, but you can't help but be concerned the entire time. Those 5 days are very long. Or when she's supposed to be drinking cow's milk but nothing you do will entice her to take a sip. For days your mom mind is postulating that she'll never drink milk and she'll have weak bones and teeth and...suddenly she decides to drink the milk if you heat it so it's really good and warm.
So the time actually goes by quickly and slowly, but it doesn't matter which one it is at the time, in the end you wish you had that time back.
It's true. I feel like it was only a couple weeks ago that Helena & I would lie on the bed and just look at each other, me because I was mesmerized and her because she couldn't get away from me if she wanted. She used to hold onto the dresser handles to help hold herself in a standing position, but now she stands in front of an open dresser drawer and pulls all the clothes out. Time does goes by quickly.
But nobody tells you how it also creeps by.
Like when your daughter has a fever for 5 days. The doctors say it's just a virus, nothing to be concerned about, but you can't help but be concerned the entire time. Those 5 days are very long. Or when she's supposed to be drinking cow's milk but nothing you do will entice her to take a sip. For days your mom mind is postulating that she'll never drink milk and she'll have weak bones and teeth and...suddenly she decides to drink the milk if you heat it so it's really good and warm.
So the time actually goes by quickly and slowly, but it doesn't matter which one it is at the time, in the end you wish you had that time back.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
A Morning Date
Dates seem almost more important now that we are parents than before. So this morning a friend babysat and John & I headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame. This was definitely a date chosen with John in mind and he loved it, so it was good for me too.
Standing with the Stanley Cup TrophyBut let me just say being in this museum is hilarious. It is basically room after room of glassed-in displays of clothes (hockey jerseys) and there are men taking pictures everywhere. Then in the museum store there are more clothes and the men are the ones taking them off the racks and talking about how great they are. Just observing all of that may have been the best part of the museum for me.
Photos dealing with hockey below - I tried to pick only the somewhat interesting ones!
Remember that grocery store we visited a few days ago? Well, the above trophy has that same building right on it - when it was the hockey arena!
Sadly there were only two Vancouver Canucks jerseys in the entire museum - one in the franchise section and then this one, found in the Fan Favorite section. As the Canucks created a fan in me, I had to get my picture with it!
Do you recognize this guy? I remember the day after the Olympic Gold Medal game I went into work and was asked "Charlotte, who is this guy?" while pointing at her computer. I had no idea. It was Sidney Crosby, the player who scored the winning goal. According to my hockey lover of a co-worker, every Canadian will know who he is for the next 20 years.
The only college team jerseys to be found in the entire museum?
One from Wisconsin and one from Minnesota.
That's right.
One from Wisconsin and one from Minnesota.
That's right.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Decorating the home from the home
We've been making our home little by little since October. Projects have included sewing curtains for the two bedrooms, painting Helena's room, selling and buying a few things on Craigslist, getting a shelf for the big closet, putting our CDs on iTunes and then getting rid of them, and putting up decor.
For Helena's room I recovered a photo memory board with the same fabric as her quilt from her Nani.
The old look from my college days:
Some of the fabric in the quilt:
The new board:
One household item we did need to buy was another lamp so John & I could both read in bed. We walked out of our apartment one day and what was sitting next to the recyclables but a Tiffany lamp! John quickly placed it inside our door and we went off to church, but when we got home he scrubbed it up and look how beautiful it is now:
For Helena's room I recovered a photo memory board with the same fabric as her quilt from her Nani.
The old look from my college days:
Some of the fabric in the quilt:
The new board:
One household item we did need to buy was another lamp so John & I could both read in bed. We walked out of our apartment one day and what was sitting next to the recyclables but a Tiffany lamp! John quickly placed it inside our door and we went off to church, but when we got home he scrubbed it up and look how beautiful it is now:
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Maple Leaf Gardens
A couple weeks ago, we were walking down Yonge Street and John said, "Wow, I've never seen this place in the daytime." My response: "How can that be? We've lived right next to it for 4 1/2 months now!" It just showed how busy John has been and how he hasn't been able to take part in exploring Toronto like Helena & I have. Thus, our mission over John's reading break is to really take in and explore Toronto, specifically our area.
Yesterday we went to the
and then down to
In case you're not a hockey fan, Maple Leaf Gardens is where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play. Since then, it was bought by Loblaw's, a grocery store, and has been completely redone.
We went for the tourist sights, not the food, at the grocery store. Almost everything from the arena is gone, but there are a few things left, like the original arena seats that make up the Maple Leaf below. Notice the zigzags on the wall to the left of the leaf? That's where some of the arena stairs used to be!
We also made our way to centre ice, found in Aisle 25 next to the SPAM. See the Leafs fan that we took with us?
It was fun to overhear people's conversations, which included "Where can I find Ranch dressing?" and "Where is centre ice?" And even though our focus was on the sights, it was impossible to not be impressed with the store. Here was John's second favorite part of the trip:
An entire wall of cheese.
But the best part was introducing Helena to donuts. After her first bite, she kept pulling the donut back to her mouth for more!
Yesterday we went to the
and then down to
In case you're not a hockey fan, Maple Leaf Gardens is where the Toronto Maple Leafs used to play. Since then, it was bought by Loblaw's, a grocery store, and has been completely redone.
We went for the tourist sights, not the food, at the grocery store. Almost everything from the arena is gone, but there are a few things left, like the original arena seats that make up the Maple Leaf below. Notice the zigzags on the wall to the left of the leaf? That's where some of the arena stairs used to be!
We also made our way to centre ice, found in Aisle 25 next to the SPAM. See the Leafs fan that we took with us?
It was fun to overhear people's conversations, which included "Where can I find Ranch dressing?" and "Where is centre ice?" And even though our focus was on the sights, it was impossible to not be impressed with the store. Here was John's second favorite part of the trip:
An entire wall of cheese.
But the best part was introducing Helena to donuts. After her first bite, she kept pulling the donut back to her mouth for more!
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Shadow the Cat
As it's reading break around here, our neighbors are gone on a trip and asked us if we'd take care of their cat while they were gone. So we're making daily visits across the hall to visit Shadow the cat.
Helena's funny. When the cat is on the couch, she's interested in being close to him for maybe 30 seconds. Maybe. But when the cat is underneath the couch, she can stay in this position for minutes on end!
She knows what his toys are, so she will bring them over to Shadow to play with. It's really so sweet!
But this toy, one of those that hangs from a door frame to get the cat to jump up and paw at it, well, Helena has decided it's now her toy!
Helena's funny. When the cat is on the couch, she's interested in being close to him for maybe 30 seconds. Maybe. But when the cat is underneath the couch, she can stay in this position for minutes on end!
She knows what his toys are, so she will bring them over to Shadow to play with. It's really so sweet!
But this toy, one of those that hangs from a door frame to get the cat to jump up and paw at it, well, Helena has decided it's now her toy!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
The Emergency Room
The Canadian health care system is a major topic of interest when we go south of the border. As we just had a new experience with it, I thought I'd share. [Again, please understand that I am saying nothing - good or bad - about the American health care system. I am simply sharing a part of our life in Canada.]
Friday evening John & I decided to take Helena to the ER. She'd been acting unlike herself for days, had had a fever for almost 48 hours, and seemed to be getting less relief with each new dose of Tylenol.
We walked in the ER doors at 6:40. The triage nurse checked Helena's vitals, gave her more Tylenol, and told us it would be a 1 to 3 hour wait. The first 2 hours went by quickly. The third stretched on and on while we started to recognize the different characters from the Disney Junior commercials, as we'd already watched their shows. At exactly 3 hours, John went up and asked how much longer we'd be waiting. The answer, "Helena's name is next in her area."
What did "her area" mean? After 50 minutes of waiting to find out, I asked how much longer it would be. "Her name should be called soon."
And so it was ten minutes later. We saw a doctor within a couple minutes of being put in a room, Helena was checked out, it was determined she just had a virus, and we were sent into an in-progress waiting room to rehydrate her with Pedialyte for the next hour so that her vitals could be checked again. By the time she was discharged, it was 12:15.
If you do the math, that means we were at the ER for 5.5 hours.
Friday evening John & I decided to take Helena to the ER. She'd been acting unlike herself for days, had had a fever for almost 48 hours, and seemed to be getting less relief with each new dose of Tylenol.
We walked in the ER doors at 6:40. The triage nurse checked Helena's vitals, gave her more Tylenol, and told us it would be a 1 to 3 hour wait. The first 2 hours went by quickly. The third stretched on and on while we started to recognize the different characters from the Disney Junior commercials, as we'd already watched their shows. At exactly 3 hours, John went up and asked how much longer we'd be waiting. The answer, "Helena's name is next in her area."
What did "her area" mean? After 50 minutes of waiting to find out, I asked how much longer it would be. "Her name should be called soon."
And so it was ten minutes later. We saw a doctor within a couple minutes of being put in a room, Helena was checked out, it was determined she just had a virus, and we were sent into an in-progress waiting room to rehydrate her with Pedialyte for the next hour so that her vitals could be checked again. By the time she was discharged, it was 12:15.
If you do the math, that means we were at the ER for 5.5 hours.
FIVE AND A HALF HOURS.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care in December 2011, our wait was only 45 minutes longer than the average ER visit to this hospital for a minor condition. And when we asked the nurse if the night was particularly busy, she looked at us with a quizzical look and answered, "No, actually tonight we're a bit slow."
It's not just here in Toronto. In 2008, a man died in a Manitoba ER after waiting 34 hours. In a quick google search, I found recent articles from Vancouver, Ottowa, and Toronto discussing the crowds in the ER. Perhaps my friend said it best in an email about our visit:
"That's Canada...sorry. ERs in Canada are the worst place to be in Canada... it's a huge Canadian issue and has been for quite some time...5 1/2 hours is actually pretty good. :("
According to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care in December 2011, our wait was only 45 minutes longer than the average ER visit to this hospital for a minor condition. And when we asked the nurse if the night was particularly busy, she looked at us with a quizzical look and answered, "No, actually tonight we're a bit slow."
It's not just here in Toronto. In 2008, a man died in a Manitoba ER after waiting 34 hours. In a quick google search, I found recent articles from Vancouver, Ottowa, and Toronto discussing the crowds in the ER. Perhaps my friend said it best in an email about our visit:
"That's Canada...sorry. ERs in Canada are the worst place to be in Canada... it's a huge Canadian issue and has been for quite some time...5 1/2 hours is actually pretty good. :("
Friday, February 10, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Helena's Birthday
As you probably figured out from the 525,600 minutes post,
Helena turned one last week.
ONE.
Can you believe it? John & I were talking tonight about Helena living in our house for the next 18 years, and then we realized, NO, IT'S NOW ONLY 17! How did that happen?
Anyways, we had a great birthday celebration. The plan was to have friends over for dinner but their kid got sick and so it was just the three of us. Turned out to be a good thing as Helena was pretty somber the whole day.
After breakfast we all had fun playing in the hallway with Helena's new car.
Thanks Uncle Rob!
Helena has become quite the little mommy around here. If her baby "cries", she will stop doing whatever she was doing and crawl to her baby and give her a hug. It's adorable. So we gave her a couple outfits for one of her dolls. Helena crawled around the rest of the evening with a tight hold on the hangers :)
We'd decided to have blueberry pie for Helena's dessert. (Please notice the smile above. It is the only picture we have from 1/31 with a smile!)
Once she figured out what it was, she really dug in!
Helena turned one last week.
ONE.
Can you believe it? John & I were talking tonight about Helena living in our house for the next 18 years, and then we realized, NO, IT'S NOW ONLY 17! How did that happen?
Anyways, we had a great birthday celebration. The plan was to have friends over for dinner but their kid got sick and so it was just the three of us. Turned out to be a good thing as Helena was pretty somber the whole day.
After breakfast we all had fun playing in the hallway with Helena's new car.
Thanks Uncle Rob!
Helena has become quite the little mommy around here. If her baby "cries", she will stop doing whatever she was doing and crawl to her baby and give her a hug. It's adorable. So we gave her a couple outfits for one of her dolls. Helena crawled around the rest of the evening with a tight hold on the hangers :)
We'd decided to have blueberry pie for Helena's dessert. (Please notice the smile above. It is the only picture we have from 1/31 with a smile!)
Once she figured out what it was, she really dug in!
Friday, February 3, 2012
New Table!
Here's our old table.
And here's our new.
We're now able to seat more company, so come on over!
And here's our new.
We're now able to seat more company, so come on over!
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Where our reliance goes these days
If you have a question, where do you go? The screen of a computer to go for internet.
Where did you used to go? An encyclopedia, a book, a library. Or a person that you know & trust.
Anybody else think this is sad?
Maybe I'm just a little sad as we decided today to get rid of our dictionary (the book).
Where did you used to go? An encyclopedia, a book, a library. Or a person that you know & trust.
Anybody else think this is sad?
Maybe I'm just a little sad as we decided today to get rid of our dictionary (the book).
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