Where has the time gone?

When I think over the last week, I ask myself what have we done with all our time?  Then I realize, well, we did a little of this...

Sleeping with Daddy

and a little of that...

napping alone

and a little more of this...

Falling asleep together while we wait for the doctor.

 That's right - a nasty bug hit our home once again.  Ugh.  I know kids get sick a lot in their first few years and it's good for them as it builds their immune systems, but John & I are really ready for the regular sickness to be over & done with.

With being sick, our social lives ended but we still had lots to do at home:

Like celebrate John's birthday with homemade donuts.  I know, they definitely don't look like donuts but they tasted like donuts!  It was my first attempt, and I learned many things, one being making donuts when it's 94 degrees is just not a good idea.

Making Gak.  Helena was very interested until it was time to touch the finished product.  Anybody have any good craft/project ideas to do with a 1 1/2 year old?

Having matching painted toenails is Helena's and my new thing.  She can barely manage to sit still long enough for one of her toes to partially dry but she loves to pretend to paint my fingernails and toenails.

Yes - a report on food!  It's been a LONG time since one of those.  Well, I've been cooking away even though there have been no posts.  I actually just finished my first Shutterfly cookbook of our favorite desserts, so there are lots of sweets to eat around here.

We're better now.  Anyone want to come over for dessert?

Strawberry Picking

Earlier this week Helena & I went strawberry picking with friends at Whittamore's Farm. It was fun to observe the girls in the new environment.  At first they were pretty uninterested in tasting the strawberries...

but once Helena started, it was hard to get her to stop!

Of course, once they were done eating berries, they were DONE.  No more berries for the rest of the day and their preference would have been no more picking too.

So one mom picked while the other mom read to the girls, gave the girls containers to put lids on, took the girls for walks, played in the straw with them...

and played with rocks.  Rocks are fun for all kids, but I realized out there that Helena almost never sees rocks, being the downtown city girl that she is.  Helena & Holly could have played in the rocks all day long.

Helena & Holly are two and a half months apart, so there still is a developmental difference between the them.  We observed one at the farm - Holly saw the rows of plants and would walk in a line down the straw paths.  Helena, on the other hand, had a really hard time seeing the rows of plants (to be fair, they were a little sparse in greenery!) and would charge right through them over and over and over again.

On the way to the car, Helena found a puddle when her Mom wasn't watching.  This picture was taken right BEFORE she sat down in it!

The girls' favorite part of the farm was definitely the painted animals.  Christa's and my favorite part - the berries and the jam that followed.  Oh, how I love strawberry picking!

Happy Father's Day John!

 

John, you are a great dad.  Thanks for wanting to do exactly what Helena wanted to do this morning.  We miss you lots and are excited to see you on Wednesday!

My observations on kids, especially my own

1) Kids like to sit on laps.  Let's say there are two kids and one adult reading.  If one of them is sitting on the adult's lap, the other kid feels like it is crucial for her to also sit on that lap.  The interesting thing is that "lap" can be loosely defined.  If the adult's legs are crossed pretzel style, then the lap is made up of any section of his legs.  If the adult's legs are spread out to form a v, the lap is constrained to the legs and any/all of the area between the legs.

2) Kids are tough.  We all know it - if you make a big deal out of a kid's fall, then the kid thinks it was a big terrible fall.  If you don't and haven't in the past, the kid is fine unless it was a terrible fall.  But really, have you ever thought about all the falls and bumps and hits they take?  Cement, pavement, table legs, doors, steps, metal floors, and so on.  And then have you thought about the number of all of those that they experience?  Really, if it were an adult who experienced that much in one day, I don't think that adult would get out of bed the next day.

3) Kids eat strange things.  As I've said before, Helena loves condiments.  If she has sour cream (or ketchup) on her plate, she will use her spoon to eat it.  She loves it.  Or if a kid's mouth is really full, he may spit out the food, look at it on his plate, and then pick it up and eat it.  It's like he had to make sure he wanted his mouth to be extremely full of that food.  (Now I haven't observed my kid doing this but...no, wait, this very accurately describes my child.)

4) Kids sometimes latch onto something and do it over and over and over again, and then suddenly never do it again.  One day Helena put her hand on her head and one of her parents said, "Oh no!"  Boy, did she dissolve into giggles.  She kept doing it all day long and when we said "Oh no", her laughter would ring through the apartment.  The next morning all fun & joy in that activity was gone.  She'd put her hand on her head, we'd say "Oh no" and she'd walk away.  It was over.

Now here's a video of a behavior she started doing yesterday and then didn't do again until she kissed us good night tonight.  Oh how I do hope she continues doing it!

St. Lawrence Market & Woofstock

 

St. Lawrence Market was named World's Best Food Market by National Geographic in April.  So, to state the obvious, we had to go.  Lucky for us & Helena, the largest festival for dogs & their owners in North America, Woofstock, was taking place right next door on the same weekend!

The dogs were almost as plentiful as the people.

Helena loved it when this little chihuahua licked her fingers.

The best part of Woofstock was this vizsla, a Hungarian hunting dog, who played fetch with anyone & everyone, but especially little girls.

After this, Helena fell asleep & we surrounded ourselves with delicious food.

Fruits & Vegetables

Fresh Pasta & Sauce

Meat from near & far

(In this picture, you see ostrich, emu, camel, kangaroo &Australian kangaroo - don't ask me the difference between the two!)

Olives galore

Bakeries that reminded us of Paris

Amazing Antipastos

We ate so much delicious food.  Here's the list: the above pasta, a chocolate lava muffin, a fresh fig, a peameal bacon sandwich, cherry bombs (cherry peppers stuffed with feta cheese), a chocolate croissant, a butter tart and samples.  Despite the fact that none of us love pasta, the dish shown above was the best food we had and it was amazing.  Fresh ravioli - and by fresh I mean rolled out and then immediately boiled - with a sauce made up of marinara, alfredo and pesto.  The sauces were not mixed, causing each bite to be a little different.  I will either eat this dish or purchase this dish to eat later every time I go to St. Lawrence Market.  OH SO GOOD.

A Day on Toronto Island, in pictures & captions

On the ferry

Enjoying the pier

So much sand!

Picnic

Just having fun with Grandma

Wading, walking, splashing in Lake Ontario

Tree Climbing

And look at all the grass - a real present for our city eyes.

Mother & Son

Drinking lots of water

Two tuckered out parents

Fanda, short for Fat Panda

Helena has a six year-old friend who is extremely generous and after a playdate always asks if Helena wants to borrow a toy.  Last time it was seven animal masks.  This time it was Fanda.

Small Group Friends

John & I have been incredibly fortunate to be involved in wonderful small groups ever since we got married.  For most of the last year we have been hosting one at our apartment every Wednesday night.  There are seven us, four being two engaged couples.  We were privileged to go to one of their weddings this past weekend and are going to the other's wedding this coming weekend!

Jesse, Andrew, Emma & Maria

I just love weddings, always will and always have.  They're such joyous occasions.  

 

Check out their wedding favors - M&Ms with not only words but their faces!

Photo taken by Christa

It was fun to be out all afternoon & evening with my hubby - brought us back to the good old days of college!  Helena got to spend the time with her good friend Holly.  Aren't they adorable hanging out in the ottoman together?  The day was full of giggles for the two of them!

Doors Open Toronto

Toronto has a wonderful weekend festival each year called Doors Open.  During that weekend around 100 architecturally interesting buildings or sites are open to the public and it's all free.  It definitely gets people - including us - to go out and about.

This year we visited four buildings - a museum, a church, an assurance company, and a judicial building.

1) Gardiner Museum - A large ceramics museum that is just a few blocks away from where we live.  Seemed like a great time to visit it as I don't think we'd ever pay to go in & having Helena with us meant we might have to leave after just 5 minutes!

A few fun things that we saw:

Suitcases.  Amazing that both are made of clay and yet one is SO REALISTIC and one isn't.

 An orchestra...

...made up of monkeys.  The sign said these were incredibly popular in the mid-1800s - strange.

My favorite view from the veranda on top :)

2) Church - nothing that amazing.

3) Canada Life building - The lobby was used in the movie "Cocktail" with Tom Cruise.  Nice.

But the draw of the building was the observation room on the 17th floor.  It supposedly had a great view of Toronto so we wanted to get up there.  After we got up there, we realized that it's not really much higher than we live.  Still not used to living in a highrise!  Anyways, the view was better than ours so it was worth it.

4) Osgoode Hall - This place has intrigued me from the first time we walked by.  It has a beautiful wrought iron fence surrounding it and the grounds make it look like a palace.  It actually houses a variety of judicial committees.

To be honest, it was a bit disappointing on the inside.  The below room was BEAUTIFUL with original mosaic floors but otherwise really just a big building.

Helena loved Osgoode Hall on the inside, however, as there were many staircases to walk up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down, up and - you get the point.

The grounds were great - shade and so much room outside for running around.

That's right - she's a runner now!