february, 2010

february 14

the figure skating practice on saturday was amazing. i didn't really have any expectations but it was a fabulous experience. we arrived towards the end of the pairs practice and then saw the men's practice. there was just something very magical about being in the arena and getting a glimpse behind the scenes of the olympic preparation. i've no idea how they manage not to collide with so many people flinging themselves in the air at once! unfortunately, sascha's dad has shingles and couldn't make it to the practice, but dani's friend marvin, who is a huge figure skating fan, was staying with us and came along instead.

sascha, dani, nikki and aly then headed off to watch the canadian women's hockey team beat slovakia 18-0 before going to the celebration site in yale town.

today, aly, dani and i headed back to the ozone in richmond to see what we missed at the opening on friday evening when aly's choir sang.

the cranberry filled olympic logo from the top of the ferris wheel

aly admiring the cranberries at city hall

february 11

phew...it's very very very busy. i'm usually pretty good about not over-scheduling the children, but was pushing my luck adding in some swimming classes twice a week [for both children] and a filmmaking class for aly [in addition to the ongoing hockey 2-3 times a week and guides once a week]. i had NOT factored in the mayhem of the olympics.

speaking of which, tonight, aly [and 3,500 of her fellow choir members] had a 4 hour rehearsal at the olympic celebration site in richmond and toby had a swim class. tonight, we needed to help toby assemble his 20 valentines, alter aly's Olympic choir uniform, prepare healthy snacks for 2 valentine's class parties tomorrow [cheese will have to do] and get red and white clothing out for aly and toby for their run with the olympic torch [which their lovely principal, al sakai, ran with earlier in the week].

tomorrow means early pickup for both children so we can take aly to the ozone again and we'll all stay at the site to watch the celebrations this time. saturday, zoe is in daycare while we watch a figure skating practice downtown, then toby is going to a hockey game with sascha's dad...and so on and so on. it's going to be fun, but quite possibly the busiest 2 weeks of my life!

february 7

it's been a very olympic weekend. it began with confirmation from VANOC that both sascha and dani have been selected to run with the paralympic torch in whistler in march. VERY exciting :-)

sascha's dad was over with us for the weekend and we spent the day exploring steveston on saturday - we started with the very unusual village of finn slough - a nearly untouched fishing village who's only access is a very rickety drawbridge [which comes complete with a cross-at-your-own-risk disclaimer!], then afternoon tea at the london heritage farm and some quick shopping in the village.

sunday we took the canada line to downtown vancouver to get a sneak peak at a couple of the country pavilions which had opened early. we took the new olympic tramline into granville island and ate at the house of switzerland [who had tradgically run out of chocolate the day before!] then took an aquabus over to the roundhouse in yaletown to see the italian pavillion. we finished off at the ice rink at robson square. a great [but exhausting] time was had by all!

house of switzerland

italy house

aly at robson square

there are some BIG olympic posters downtown!

i have a really nice baby signing kit called 'sign, sing, and play' by monica z. briant which includes some apparently indestructable [despite zoe's best efforts] flash cards. zoe likes to play with the cards and test me on my signs! it was while she was waving these cards at me the other day, that i started to wonder just how many signs she knew. i guessed around 30, but thought it would be interesting for me [and helpful for her childminder, jen] if i had a list of signs she knew and could sign. i used a list on a great site: www.signwithme.com and the words below are the ones she knows. [*means she doesn't yet sign them]

1. Airplane
2. Baby
3. Ball
4. Bath
5. Bear*
6. Bed
7. Bird
8. Blanket
9. Boat
10. Book
11. Bubbles*
12. Build
13. Butterfly
14. Car
15. Cat
16. Clean
17. Cold
18. Cookie
19. Cow
20. Dog
21. Down*
22. Drink
23. Duck
24. Eat
25. Fall Down
26. Fan
27. Finished
28. Fish
29. Flower
30. Gentle*
31. Goodbye/Hello
32. Hat
33. Hear
34. Help Me
35. Horse
36. Hot
37. I Love You*
38. Ice Cream
39. Lights Off
40. Milk* [actually she'll sign milk to other people, just not me - she prefers to launch herself at me!]
41. More
42. Mouse
43. Music
44. Pain*
45. Pig*
46. Please*
47. Read*
48. Sad*
49. Sheep*
50. Shoes
51. Socks
52. Soft*
53. Stars*
54. Sun
55. Swing*
56. Telephone
57. Thank You
58. Toothbrush
59. Up*
60. Water

it would appear that she knows quite a few more than 30!

february 1

 

now that zoe has got walking down, she's taken to walking/staggering around the house with the largest/heaviest items she can manage to carry. she's a strange little being. [she's signing 'plane' in the photo of her with the airplane by the way.]

how is it that babies can always find more and more imaginative ways to try and kill themselves? i turned around in the kitchen the other day to find that zoe had pushed our 2-step step stool across the room, over to the counter, climbed up and had her hand on a box of eggs [she has a thing for eggs - maybe because they look like balls?]. needless to say, the step stool now stays out of the way.

olympic fever is ramping up. only 2 weeks to go. i've never seen sascha so excited. aly is in the richmond olympic choir which means she performs at one of the 3 official olympic celebration sites. i haven't seen any of her rehearsals so i'm looking forward to finally seeing her in action.