april, 2009

april 26

well the debbies have done it. as soon as i told her i was pregnant, my friend, debbie r told me that i'd be needing a proper mini-van [instead of the mazda 5 which is more of a car with 6 seats]. i said we should be fine - i mean there were only going to be 5 of us and a stroller. anyway, after several visitors who either couldn't fit in the mazda with the 5 of us or could fit, but at the expense of having a stroller with us, things were getting a little tricky and we came to the conclusion that it was time to super-size.

bye bye mazda 5

due to my stubborn hatred of mini-vans we started looking into eco-friendlyish SUVs with 7 or 8 seats. they were hard to find, and those they did have were a little pricey for what we had in mind. after that we stalled for a few weeks. enter debbie p who had just bought a mini-van and was very excited about that whole thing and somehow, during the course of our conversation, managed to bring me around to the whole idea that maybe owning a mini-van was not the end of the universe but actually a really good idea. much as sascha is NOT a mini-van loving type of guy, i think he was extremely relived when i broke the news to him. unusually, we [specifically sascha] did lots of research and test driving and finally plumped for an ASTOUNDING deal on a dodge grand-caravan - probably due to the fact that we barely saw another soul in the dealership throughout the 5 long days of negotiations!

so i'm now the proud-ish owner of a gigantic mini-van which can swallow people whole. in fact there is a section in the manual about what to do if you find yourself trapped in the under floor storage bins! [a secret glow-in-the-dark lever will appear apparently - i'm just trying to persuade the children not to test it out]. it has a built-in dvd player with wireless headsets which i'm trying desperately not to let the children use on every journey - only long ones - although the blissful silence it affords me is very tempting. it also has cool swivel middle row seats with a table between the second and third rows for playing games. we may have to go to a drive-in restaurant just so the five of us can sit around our table in the back of the car.

i'm happy to once again be driving in something which is so high up. it's just a bit of a shock going back and forth between sascha's sporty RX8 and the huge-mobile!

finally, a couple of photos from easter...

april 15

zoe's latest achievements include sitting up [30 seconds or so before taking an amusing nose dive!] and finding some fascinating feet which, if you're very clever, you can catch and play with until they escape mysteriously.

we had a really nice easter weekend - fairly quiet but very enjoyable. we made a treasure hunt for the children and in return the children made a very impressive treasure hunt for us. one of the clues from us to the children involved knowing when world war II ended which toby knew without looking up. i was very impressed because it's one of those numbers i have difficulty remembering myself. the easter bunny left an egg hunt of course - he opted for an indoor one this year although everyone got their shoes and coats on because they didn't think the rain would have put him off.

i've noticed that it's very rare i quote the chidren any more - i guess they've got to the age where they mostly make sense these days - it's a good job we've got another one in training. having said that, there have been a couple of gems recently...

at around 6 or 7am, aly came into our bedroom and said to zoe:
"you're happy this morning"
"hmmm i'd rather she was sleepy this morning" [there had been very little sleeping that night and i was hoping we could both go back to sleep for a couple of hours]
"you should be happy she's happy because she has a good feeling inside instead of being all upset."
i guess she had a point.

from toby: "hey mom do you believe in the easter bunny and santa and the tooth fairy?"
"of course i do"
[next thing, i hear this conversation...]
" hey aly, do you believe in the easter bunny and santa and the tooth fairy?"
"yes yes and yes"
"well the tooth fairy is just someone dressed up with wings who stomps through your house and takes your teeth and leaves $2"
"it's a real fairy."
"fairies are SO not real"
"yes they are"
"well go and find one then"
"i'd have to go to a really big forest"
"like in brazil? you'd have to be a pretty silly explorer to go to brazil looking for fairies."

april 5

so sascha and i were browsing through our tivo/pvr season passes the other day and it's very depressing to see the number of shows we really like which have been cancelled. the list is pretty much endless but studio 60, las vegas and pushing daisies are a few recent victims. what drives me crazy about tv in north america is that they don't even bother to finish out the season. they just cancel the show at a random point [without mentioning it] regardless of whether they have made additional episodes or not. if they had already made them, you should at the very least be able to view the missing episodes online. in the uk if a show gets cancelled they at least have the decency to tie up the loose ends and finish the series. ok, moan over.

as promised, i took a few photos of zoe. i was getting the last 3 months of photos ready to be processed and i can't believe how much she's changes and especially how much her hair has grown in just 2 months.

yesterday we went to the annual 'eggstravaganza' at the local community centre. fun was had by all, although i think aly and toby have almost outgrown the tradition. fortunately, zoe will be waiting in the wings to take over when the novelty has worn off for them. in fact, there was a 0-3 years section there so she got to play with some baby toys and make some new friends!

on your marks, get set, RUN!

jump for it toby

april 1

happy birthday 'ickle sister! [and happy april fools to everyone else]

so disaster has struck - the dishwasher has broken. it is ASTOUNDING how much washing up our family can accumulate in just one day. and that's with me putting paper towel on my plate for breakfast so i can reuse it for at least lunch! god i'm lazy. i roped the children into helping and fortunately it was such a novelty that they were both more than happy to spend an hour very slowly and messily washing up. even zoe helped from her baby bjorn by grabbing the kitchen towel every time i tried to dry something. i called the plumber out yesterday and nearly $700 later, it seems the pump on the dishwasher has gone and we need to call the manufacturer.. aaarrgh. he did fix 2 toilets and 2 sinks while he was here, but if i'd known it was going to cost that much i think i would have made do with slow-draining, leaky sinks a bit longer. sort of leaves you with the feeling of having been robbed [or the feeling that we should have just had both bathrooms renovated!]

i finally went rollerblading on sunday for the first time since my first trimester last year. zoe was not as amused as i'd hoped she would be by the jog-stroller and toby was particularly whiny about being tired considering he usually ice skates 2-3 times a week [although he had just come home from his last ice hockey game of the season]. i might have to ditch the children next time! it's interesting how different the muscles groups are that you use when blading with a stroller - something to do with the shift in balance i guess. weirdly i hadn't noticed it so much when i was ice skating with a stroller.

i really have to take a new photo of zoe. she's changing so quickly. she seems to have doubled in size and i swear her eyes get bigger and bluer every day. she make a great frog croak sounds when she's happy [especially when aly and toby finish school], she's doing really well with grabbing and holding things and wants to stand up when you're holding her [excellent arm exercise for everyone involved!] shes's a drooling expert but given that her favourite hobby has always been to see how much of her fist she can shove in her mouth, the fact that she rarely spits up seems like quite a bonus.

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