april, 2004

happy birthday kellie!

april, 26

oops - a little lacking on the updates again. so what have we been up to? well, i'm managing to fit a trip to the clubhouse gym a couple of times a week. we'd finally given up all hope of ever going in the evening, since i'm out three nights a week and sascha works late the days when he doesn't have to be home to babysit. the new routine is that after we come home from preschool, we walk straight to the gym without going in the house. i read the children a book on the cycling machine until i'm too out of breath [ie. 3 minutes] and then they get to watch some spongebob. Since this is the only time they're really allowed to watch it, it holds their interest for long enough for me to do a 30-40 minute workout. i don't know how long the novelty will last but so far so good.

we got back from a long weekend in victoria last night. it was great to see peter and meet manami [his new girlfriend]. we got to play a very enjoyable 9 holes of golf and had an early joint birthday party for nikki and aly since the family was together. the highlight of my weekend was playing 'clean sweep' [america reality tv show where a professional organiser and interior designer get together to transform a couple of rooms in someone's house] in nikki's office. i also climbed a nice big tree which was obscuring the williams' beautiful view to trim it. the things which entertain me are sometimes worrying :-)

finally, i couldn't figure out what an earth toby was talking about the other day when he kept saying something was cold. i finally realised he was trying to say it was 'really cool' [as in trendy]. also, now the warm weather has hit, aly has started complaining about the sun getting in her mouth again ?! children - they really are completely mad.

april, 17

kellie called me last night and pointed out that i should really add a less traumatic unblog entry than the last - so here's a fluffy bunny photo taken of aly and toby after the hamilton community centre easter egg hunt on good friday:

today we've been to an annual richmond conference called learning and the brain. we went to a wonderful workshop on preparing children for kindergarten which was full of great ideas on entertaining children whilst teaching them [i love to add to my mental list of things to keep then busy with].

the key notes speech included some observations from a group of british educators who'd been over observing schools here for the last week. the first observation was that they were amazed all of the kids stood up and sang the national athem in assembly. the teacher commented that if you tried that at her school [in london] only 50% of the kids would stand up and only half of them would actually sing anything. now in my experience in assemblies, everyone would stand up if asked to and, prior to high school, everyone seemed to be fairly enthusiastic about singing as well. in fact, perhaps if anyone had ever taught me the national anthem at school i might even know the words now.

the final two comments entertained me much more because they were exactly the things i had been so amazed by here - first, the lack of security, and second, the fact that playgrounds are shared with the public. schools here don't have any fences. school playgrounds are always shared with families who might happen to be there whatever time of the day. in fact, on an almost daily basis i walk into a school - either elementary or high school - for some sort of program [all of the community centres are attached to schools]. i still feel very naughty every time i do it. i really feel the need to sign in and wear a name badge or something!

anyway, after the conference we dashed to white rock to see dani get the winning penalty in her soccer finals :-) good timing all around. we just had time to eat lunch together [i won't mention where or someone might tell her coach we went to mcdonalds ;-) ] and then she had to get the ferry back. hopefully we'll make it to victoria next weekend to see everyone again.

right, got to go, aly and i are writing a story together - she's illustrating. i'm transcribing. i might put a story or 2 on the website if i get a chance.

april, 8

well yesterday afternoon turned out to be just about the scariest of my life. there were a couple of guys over to fix the plumbing in our garage and as they were finishing one called me down to explain what they'd done [actually, to explain what they hadn't been able to do]. i stood at the doorway, but at one point i had to go look in a cupboard. the guys then left through to main garage door which i closed behind then, then came in and closed the front door which they'd left open.

i went upstairs to check on aly and toby and didn't hear them which was weird. after calling them for a minute, i started to look for them - assuming they were playing hide and seek or something. after way too much seeking and not enough obvious clues from the 2 [usually] hopeless hiders, i started to panic. i quickly called sascha to tell him i has misplaced them [or words to that effect!] and then went to check outside. i couldn't see them and was still convinced they must be in the house. i double checked every room and then went back outside to start knocking on doors. a couple of friends helped me start looking. i asked everyone who drove into the townhouse complex and eventually [after what felt like about a year, but was more like 10 minutes, someone pulled in and asked if i was looking for 2 blonde kids.] it turned out someone had found them 3 rows away on the side of the road [aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhh]. i have safely never been so relieved in my entire life. i'm eternally grateful to the lady who found them, stayed with them and called the police. i've been trying to find her today to give her some flowers but am having trouble.

after hug number 3,500 and lecture number 3, aly explained that toby had run out of the front door to find me and she had chased him [toby was wearing slippers and aly was in her bare feet] but when they tried to find me, they got lost.

i asked aly if i could hug her forever and ever and she said "erm.. i think that's too many hugs mommy" - but she was very patient. they also both pulled very funny faces at me to try to persuade me to stop crying once i'd got them home safe and sound.

sascha's doing a pretty good job of convincing me not to chain them to the house for the rest of their lives, but there is now a permanent stair gate at the top of the stairs since aly can unlock the front door if she really wants to. i'm also going to be making sure that any maintenance guys leave the front door locked. lesson learnt.

aly was a lot more worried at the time, but got over it very quickly. toby seemed to be oblivious to the whole thing. he just mentioned finding a big rock there when we passed the spot in the car later on! having said that, toby has been extremely clingy all day and i've been only too happy to carry him around :-) me? - i'm naturally traunmatized for life!

anyway, on the bright side, hopefully this makes lara feel much better about jody breaking a glass! right, i'm off to go hug the children some more.

[i've finally added some photos of our disneyland trip in december by the way.]

april, 7

toby and i went to our usual crafts program on monday morning. the kids made an easter basket and bunny ears to wear and then all went outside on an easter egg hunt - they looked very very cute. not bad for the $1 it costs per family!

aly's preschool had their easter party today which she seemed to enjoy. we [toby and i] didn't quite make it in time because i was busy playing systems administrator [?!!] at the family place. sys admin. me! wish them luck!

the rest of the week is an action packed, easter-eventful schedule. hamilton playgroup tomorrow - i suspect there may be the odd easter egg around. friday is the big hamilton easter egg hunt and then off to victoria for a long weekend on friday night - with another easter egg hunt planned. i had a quick look in walmart to see what the easter bunny might bring aly & toby which didn't contain chocolate! - there was a basketball basket which toby had his eye on, but the crayola baskets which i liked the look of had all disappeared.

april, 3

well, my parents have gone. worse than that, they're spending the day in disney to celebrate kellie's birthday.

i've added the photos of aly and toby's game of street hockey as promised.

the trip to whistler was great. we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day for the journey up the sea to sky highway, and whistler itself was as lovely as i expected.

the ski run just finishes in the middle of a town square which is very weird. every other person in town is walking around in ski boots and every restaurant and bar has a rack full of snowboards and skis outside. it's a very relaxed, cool place.

aly and toby got suitably cool shades bought for them by grammy and grandad. we originally went in for a pair for toby because the sun really bothers him, but after the guy in the shop found a pink pair of glasses for aly and told her she looked like a babe in them, we had to get both pairs. aly now tells everyone she's a babe when wearing the glasses.

i don't know what was funnier to observe - all the stretch limos coming up the highway with their snowboards on their roof racks or the number of people on crutches in the town!

anyway, they seem to have a good daycare facility there, so i'm looking forward to returning to do some skiing next year.

april, 1

OK, got to be quick because we're about to leave for a day trip to whistler. in brief - the family place website launched [hooray!] - just marketing etc. left to do. had my photo taken for the newspaper to promote it yesterday. since we don't get the newspaper delivered where we live, i'm hoping i never have to see my smiling face. i have a sneaking suspicion that the family place might plaster it all over their walls as they have every other time they appear in the paper! [eurgg].

went to the vancouver aquarium on tuesday which was lovely. toby liked the sharks and aly is undecided [she was a little distracted when i asked her because she was busy trying to teach grandad to speak canadian properly! - when he mentions her eating tea - she shouts at him - saying only grown-ups like tea and that even daddy only drinks coffee.

the children had their first game of street hockey the other day [much to my horror] - i hovered around on the side lines desperately trying to stop them running after wayward hockey pucks into the potential way of oncoming vehicles [not that there were any or anything!] i suppose i'd better get used to it. i did take some photos so hopefully they'll follow at some point.

kellie reclaims custody of my mum and dad tomorrow [boohoohoo].

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