HFMD

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  It's been ruling our lives for the last couple weeks.  We're not sure where Helena picked it up but she sure got it.  And then John.

It starts with a sudden high fever, then the fever disappears but a rash appears on your feet, your hands, your bum, your elbows, and your knees. Anytime there is pressure put on the rash, it's quite painful. Lesions form in your mouth so it's extremely painful to eat.  You're contagious through all of this, and continue to be so 3-4 days after the rash stops continuing to appear in new places. How it's spread is not entirely known, so you do everything in your power to not spread it.

So you stay at home, away from other people.  That's a long time for you and for an 18 month old to be away from people.  Once your husband starts displaying the signs, you stop all touch between the two of you.  No more sharing a bed, no more hugs, no more having your legs touch while you watch the Olympics.  It surprisingly makes you feel less like a team.

But we only have 36 more hours of our quarantine.  We've almost made it.  I am so glad we're reaching the end.

Stroller

We gave Helena a doll stroller a few weeks ago, and wow, has it ever been a hit.  

She was so excited.

So excited that it warranted an impromptu hug just to say thank you.

The construction of the stroller, however, took a little longer than Helena had hoped for.  As you can see, eventually she just wouldn't let go!

The finished product and one very happy girl!

Barbara Reid

We recently came across Barbara Reid's children's books.  Her illustrations are all made with plasticine clay, so they really stand out.  Here's my favorite page from her book "Two by Two".  Take a close look at it and you'll see Noah's wife collecting the chicken's eggs while standing on a turtle's shell and then handing them to a kangaroo.  There's just so much going on in the pages!

While reading her book "Zoe's Year", the illustrations just seemed a bit too familiar.  Turns out the author is from Toronto and so are her scenes! 

I was showing John the above picture and he named the location - High Park!  The nut seller, the trail, the trees, the black squirrels.  Here's the real spot:

Helena is 1 1/2!

When I think of the last 18 months with Helena, I can't believe how much a child changes in such a short time!  She's gone from being absolutely dependent on us to now wanting to be independent absolutely as much as possible!

Here are some details of her life:

1) She's talking!  Her current words are mommy, daddy, no, baby, me, taxi, uh-oh, please, hi, bye, home, Nani and Papa.  Plus a bunch of random animal noises like baa(sheep), tee taw (donkey), ah ah ah (monkey), ssss (snake), arf (dog), oooo (owl), moo (cow), and a sound that reminds us of constipation (elephant).
2) She loves reading.  She loves reading.  She loves reading.  I can't repeat that enough.
3) Bikes are her favorite thing in the world.  We went for an afternoon in the park yesterday, and much of the afternoon was spent pointing at bikes, waving at bikes, watching people get on or off their bikes, or walking with her tricycle.  
4) She loves playing with rocks.  She'll get off her trike to pick up a rock, hold it while steering, bring it inside and then play with it once inside.
5) She is quite the little mommy.  She pushes her baby in her stroller, she sleeps with her baby, she kisses her baby, she reads books to her baby, she reminds me to change her baby's diaper.
6) Helena is just about recovered from hand, foot & mouth disease.  What a horrible virus to catch!
7) With regards to art, she's much more interested in playing with the materials than making art.  So when using watercolors, she likes to play with the water.  If you put the brush in the paint, she gets frustrated :)  Or with markers, it's much more fun to take caps on & off than it is to put color on the paper.  At the library, however, she colors.

Play Me, I'm Yours

The Pan Am Games are being held in Toronto in 2015, and to get people thinking about the games, 41 pianos have been placed throughout the city.  Each piano has been painted by a different artist from a different Pan Am country.  Then the pianos were placed in strategic places to get neighbors out to talk and to play.

We came across one on the University of Toronto campus.  John sat down and played a beautiful Chopin piece.  I love it when my husband plays!