february, 2004

february 21

my mum arrived on thursday and, of course, it's wonderful to have her around. we had a pretty busy day yesterday. we went to join the new cambie library which is beautiful - it's set up just like a modern book store - big sofas, coffee available, a nice bright area for the kids. the family place is running a drop-in play session there so we stayed around for that. then we took out a load of children's books, a couple of movies and a theme box [i chose the mealtimes theme in the hope that it might encourage them to be a little less battle-ready for each meal] [the box contains lots of books, a puppet and a CD]. you can each take out 25 items at a time?! i've no idea how i'm even going to track down the ones we've got when it's time to take them all back.

after the library we went the le carnaval - a local version of a winter festival from quebec. it was fairly small, but cute. it was cold enough that the heap of snow they'd brought in wasn't melting too quickly. unfortunately the children had fallen asleep in the car and didn't really regain consciousness properly due to the cold!

after that, it was pizza and then my mum and i went to barb's [my creative memories consultant] for a catch up.

today we've just been to play at the local park. our alysha made friends with an elisha who was just a couple of weeks older than her. they were very cute together.

tomorrow, we're planning to tour the scrapbook stores of greater vancouver!

february 16

ok, my mum pointed out how miserable i sounded last update, so i thought i'd better mention that we're all finally on the mend. aly's mural is as finished as it's going to be until a proper artist adds his final touches. we've been out and about, so we're all a lot more sane than before!

sascha surprised me for valentine's day with lots of creative memories products which made me very happy :-) the family place website is going very well. in fact, they're the most appreciative client i've ever met [of course that could be something to do with the fact i'm doing it for free - if only i could afford to produce websites for free for the rest of my life!]

while i was out scrapbooking/at my website meeting yesterday afternoon sascha had a lovely time watching golf all afternoon because, by some miracle, he got both children to take a 2 hr nap. something which i have failed to do for quite some time - in fact i don't remember the last time even one of them napped for me. maybe i should go out more often.

sascha started work at a company called concursion today doing what he does best. [i'm not sure exactly what that is, but i know he'll be doing a lot of it!]. this means we're both very happy and sascha is looking excited about work for the first time in a long time :-) hooray. [btw. the process of recruitment is hideous. i think i might have to give up doing any HR work in the future as a protest!]

february 13

still all ill, so still doing nothing. aly's mural has progressed minimally, but hopefully we'll get the first wall sorted this weekend. i've made some progress on the richmond family place website and have another meeting on sunday afternoon.

the children are going slowly [no, make that quickly] insane being in the house all the time. they've found all sorts of new ways to wreak havoc. i went to the bathroom the other day and returned to find toby in the office downstairs poking holes in the white fabric chair with a black pen [and only later noticed the blue crayon all over the glass desk, monitor and mouse pad]. whilst cleaning this up, aly drew the most beautiful big black leaf on the carpet [?? - she's never drawn on anything but paper until now]. the following day, i once again made the mistake of going to the bathroom and returned to find that, as a team, they'd built a tower, climbed up the where the DVDs live. opened them all, and while aly played with her favourite one, toby had posted all the others carefully into the video player and jammed a video tape in the back for good measure. GET ME OUT OF HERE!! i'm sure by next week we'll all be pretty much back to normal. roll on monday..

february 10

we're all ill AGAIN. this damp weather - i hadn't fully appreciated california until now. actually toby's almost better and aly's onto the cough phase, but i seem to have caught it for the second time which really sucks.

anyway, had a nice visit from helga, colin and dani on sunday and monday. we've now officially settled into our new place since aly has a huge [almost finished] mural painted on her wall [the main reason for their trip here]. one wall down. 3 more to go. after that we can start to plan toby's. colin suggested that we paint the mural on boards this time [i get the impression he's getting a little tired of painting murals for the kids and then having us move out of the house the following month - funny that!] anyway, photos of the mural will follow once it's complete.

having spent more time in the house than normal, i'm officially sick to death of playing 'doctor' - a close second to the more annoying 'who i am' [don't ask why it's called 'who i am' rather than 'who am i?' - i had nothing to do with the naming. i just have to pretend to be aly everyday while she pretends to be me. this proves quite an insight into how i act at times!]. anyway, 'doctor' is, as you'd imagine, a game where i have to be the doctor and examine [very very carefully using every instrument in her medical kit] the many many many patients [some of whom are only the size of a small coin]. the nurse [aly] is helpful only in the sense that she goes to collect more armfuls of patients in the ambulance and deems the patients to still be sick even when the doctor [who really would like a tea break] declares them all better again!

toby is still, as always, fanatical about golf and has taken to tipping his hat and shouting 'thank you, thank you' each time he makes a good shot, but i've just noticed he's been playing more soccer since dani's been here [she plays a lot of soccer]. i also tragically noted that he's a much better soccer player than me already. [not that that was ever going to be difficult]

february 2

february 2nd. a day late. sorry aboot that ;-)

toby has finally been getting his top canines thru' [which means we only have the bottom 2 canines and 2-year molars left to go]. he's been gnawing on everything in sight [clothes, walls, tables, me etc.], dribbling [although he hasn't stopped dribbling throughout the 2 years it's taken him to finally get some teeth] and been a bit whiny. i'm just grateful it hasn't disturbed his sleep noticeably. his favourite word in playgroups at the moment is 'mine' but since he's always been next to perfect in group settings [he has a very non-confrontational nature] i guess it had to come sometime.

it's been a busy couple of days. yesterday i had a meeting at the family place re. their website. i spent the evening mapping out the ever increasing site :-) today, sascha took aly to skating and school while i went to my parent connections class. [today's theme was facilitator training which was wonderful - it was well taught and i know it will serve me well throughout life]. sascha being able to take her was wonderful because it meant that i didn't have keep running in and out of my class. this afternoon we had a playdate at renukha's [and once again had to drag aly and toby out kicking and screaming - they've obviously been suffering from playdate withdrawal recently]. i went straight from there to barb's [my CM consultant] to do a few hours of computer work for her. tomorrow, it's back to the family place to another class, then swimming / school for aly on wednesday and a police security check for me [required for facilitating family groups]. fortunately, the second half of our week is less hectic than the first.

aly's princess dress photos

aly was playing with tinker toy bits this afternoon and managed to make the most lovely object. i thought it was a multicoloured beautiful flower but she turned round and started shooting the 'bad guys' with it. [sigh] mental note to pay more attention to what she's watching on tv. no, never mind. i'll ban tv completely [i'm sure that resolve will last at least half a day].

apparently, while i was out this evening, toby bit his lip so aly shouted to sascha 'daddy, it's an EMERGENCY'. i've been working on trying to persuade her not to exaggerate the word 'emergency' [eg. when the swing in hamtaro's house won't stay up, or when she drop a piece of mac and cheese on the table]. anyway, a face full of blood pretty much fulfills my 'emergency' use criteria, so i'm very happy [toby barely noticed his injury incidentally].

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