july, 2004

happy birthday mum, happy birthday canada, happy birthday america [i think that's everyone covered]

july 28

i've done some photo updating - there are now pages for my mum's trip here, including the reifel bird sanctuary and aly's trip to california.

sascha and the kids hung out at the molson indy in vancouver last weekend which was wonderful for all of us - aly got to go to science world, toby got to drool over race cars for hours on end [apparently, according to toby "the boy's car caught on fire [i think it actually just crashed] and he cried"], sascha got to see the indy [well portions of it, in 100 degree temperatures with 2 kids to hold/keep happy] and i got to go scrapbooking on saturday night at long last. i've been trying to finish off my 2003 album. unfortunately all the pages i had left to do were the ones i'd left because the photos weren't very good or nothing inspired me. anyway, i managed to polish most of them off in the 4 hours i had. i also won $20 which should have offset the cost of the crop [also $20], but instead went on a nice present for moi [a new book by my scrapbooking hero faye morrow-bell].

all the parent connections volunteers after our meeting last week

this week we went to the family place on monday for arts and crafts but haven't done anything since because toby spent tuesday morning throwing up, much to my horror of course. having said that, i coped much better than ever before, which gives me a glimmer of hope that child-inflicted systematic desensitisation might just work to some extent [apparently it rarely does in emetophobes]. weirdly, he was just as chatty as ever between throwing up - even wanting to go to mcdonalds when he saw a commercial for it while we were watching the recording of the indy from sunday - for the second time.

tomorrow we're off to another splash park [they're everywhere, and best of all, free!] with some friends we haven't seen all summer. hopefully this weekend we'll make it to the festival of light for the first time - a huge fireworks competition, held at english bay in vancouver. the big problem is that aly's not that keen on loud noises so we'll be supplying her with headphones and music.

after asking aly where a pot of felt-tip pens had dissappeared to yesterday, she explained: "i checked for the coaster to be clear so we could sneak past you." fortunately, they don't seem to have found time to do anything too naughty. [now i've said that, i'll find a full-scale mural behind the door in toby's room tomorrow of course].

july 23

wow. what a week. where to begin? well, friday we had a very last minute appointment at 8.30 in the morning to get a notary public to witness a consent to travel document for aly to travel with my mum. we went straight from there to drop my mum and aly off at the airport for their california trip.

[just as an aside, whilst trying to find a travel consent document to print and fill out, i came across this bizarre page on the US dept of state website: "For information on how to proceed with an abduction in a particular country, please click on one of the links below". ?!. how helpful of them.]

we'd both had to sign the consent form, so from there, i drove into vancouver to drop sascha at work. on the way back home, someone very kindly ran a red light and swipped the front of my car in the process. the impact was pretty minor since we were both braking [me because i'd just seen him and him because he'd just seen 6 lanes of traffic headed straight for him]. he was an old guy and pretty shaken but toby and i were fine. when i asked toby if he was ok he said "'no'". i said "'do you have an owie?'" to which he replied in a feeble voice "'no, i just hungry'". this would be the one day i'd given my mum my cellphone to take to california. doh. anyway, the biggest problem was that when i took the car to get a quote the damage was worse than i'd thought since the plastic grill had cracked and the licence plate was missing - something which i had asutely missed! anyway, you need two licence plates in bc so this was a problem - especially since we were booked on a ferry to victoria at 7pm. i went back into vancouver on a licence plate hunt to no avail. this meant the licence plate needed reissuing but we didn't make it to the office in time. sascha, in the meantime, had had to report the licence plate lost - something which apparently, you can only do by calling 911. in doing so, he had security burst into his office to find out what the emergency was! definitely one of those days.

even longer story short, we made it to victoria. saw pete. and all stayed up later than we can take now that we're old! next day, we managed to get new plates issued, had an issue [in fact, still have an issue attaching them to the car properly], played mini golf [toby by this time was LOVING the fact that he was an only child for the weekend and everyone's attention was on him], then went for a very nice meal at montanas. we'll be going back there since they have paper table cloths which make great race tracks/parking lots/golf courses when coupled with some crayons.

sunday we just had time for toby to have a quick horse ride and some more family mini golf. aly, in the meantime, was hanging out in restaurants, beaches and parks in santa barbara with my mum, kellie and kenny before coming home on monday evening. very nice :-)

tuesday we had a nice day at queens park in new westminster at their petting zoo, playground and splash park, followed by lunch out. sascha worked from home and then he and i celebrated our anniversary a day early by going to techvibes [monthly geek party in vancouver!] and then for a quick meal before heading home. this, miraculously, was our second date in 2 weeks - the first being at the excellent, brand new, river rock casino in richmond which comes highly recommended.

snuggling at the mall on wednesday

thursday was brunch followed by the airport. we killed some time beforehand at a lovely beach near the airport watching the boats go by. i'd highly recommend it as a good alternative to hanging around the airport. thursday night i had a parent connections meeting and a chance to say goodbye to my friend carina who is returning to denmark after 3 years here. so finally it's friday and i'm determined today will be a day of rest - especially since i have lot of updating to do on the family place website.

july 14

we've had a busy few days. my mum arrived on friday night and i promptly left her standing at the airport for over an hour [sorry!]. it wouldn't have been so bad but i'd been desperately trying to kill time after aly's last ballet class before i could collect her. the flight was 45 mins early and then the 1.5hr customs/immigration line she had last time was more of a 5 minute stroll. DOH! she seems to have forgiven me anyway.

saturday we went to richmond's city centre celebration. we arrived pretty late on in the day so most of the free giveaways had gone, but there was still plenty for the children to do. it was really hot though so i'm glad we weren't there too long.

sunday we went on an 'adventure' - we drove to metrotown, got the skytrain to waterfront station in vancouver, then took the seabus over to lonsdale quay in north vancouver - all for free on sascha's travelpass [families travel free on sundays]. the quay and market were beautiful. it's a shame the children aren't into shopping really! they did, however, enjoy the big ballpool/slide. when we got back to the vancouver side we headed up the harbour tower for a nice cup of tea and a lovely view over the city. the children hadn't been up before so watching them in the elevators was really entertaining. they both jumped and grabbed hold of the railing as we started to shoot upwards, jumped when the glass section started and then jumped again when the glass section finished. they must have enjoyed it though - they kept wanting to get back in the elevators for the ride back down. toby of course, spent his time car and building-logo spotting. aly was bird and people spotting. i liked watching the sea planes take off and land myself.

monday wasn't so exciting - grocery shopping, haircuts for the children and arts & craft group. tuesday was ikea and the library - both of which are now in complete chaos since the school holidays started. there was a wait list to get the children into the ikea playroom - obviously parents get sick of having their kids at home so throw them in the playroom and then retreat to the restaurant for coffee because the checkouts were more deserted than i've even seen them!

today, my mum being even more of an avid organiser/clutter-free person than i am, we cleaned out the children's closets. this afternoon we went to reifel bird sanctuary bird sanctuary to feed more ducks and geese than i think i've ever seen in my life. we got lost and went on a long detour through the marshy/field bits which involved some very impressive butterflies/dragonflies and a few dead birds. the children were unimpressed and just wanted to get back to the ponds and to feeding the ducks with their birdseed. "my legs tired mommy. i need picky back."

tomorrow is the hamilton playgroup and then my mum takes aly to santa barbara for a long weekend while we take toby to victoria to see pete and the rest of the family.

july 7

i've managed to put up some more photos in the scrapbook section including this one of toby on a practice putting green:

i've also added some video clips to a few of the pages, so look out for the symbol on the scrapbook index page

toby has been busy as ever boring us with car makes and models. he's on the verge of a tantrum every time we have to go into a building because we have to leave the parking lot. the other night i took him out to do some shopping and we ended up sitting on a bench next to the mall parking lot for an hour watching cars drive by. of course we had to sit positioned so we could see the 2 bmws parked there. BORING!

'boo boos' is toby's latest phrase. it doesn't have a particular meaning but is apparently hilarious when used in every day situations. for example:
'hello mommy boo boos'
'twinkle, twinkle little boo boos'
'how are boo?'
'knock knock' 'who's there' 'boo boos'
'BOO BOOS' [in answer to anything he doesn't actually want to answer].
aly also thinks it's very funny which isn't helping it go away!

upon aly's request to go in a boat, we went canoeing at deer lake at the weekend which was good fun. trying to persuade the children not to stand up and walk around the canoe was a little tricky, but in general, they were pretty content watching the ducks diving and the dragonflies flying around thousands of lily pads. it was another one of those moments where it seemed really strange to be doing a proper family activity which we all enjoyed. of course it's kind of sad that they're getting so grown up but life certainly gets a lot easier :-)

aly started ballet this week. i'm convinced she's the cutest ballerina ever. i'll try to take some photos but the teacher scares me and with toby under one arm and a silence rule in the classroom (ie. the community centre's multipurpose room), it could be tricky! she loves it. although she seems to be concerned that the teacher's not asked them to spin around which was obviously her impression of what you're supposed to do in ballet.

had my first board meeting at the family place last night. i think it's the most formally run meeting i've ever been in - but formal in a very friendly way. i'm going to be the parent liaison board member which i'm really looking forward to. i should be able to fit it in around 2-3AM each day :-) i think this might have all come about from me asking why there weren't any parents on the board.

potty training is still going well - he still doesn't usually ask to go, but we're down to only 2 or so accidents a day so i'm definitely happier. i do realise how completely boring, and possibly dumbfounding, these updates are to anyone who doesn't have children so i do try to keep them brief!

july 1

canada day today so it should be action packed, but i think we're just going to take it easy at home. aly was sick yesterday so we're giving her a rest. we were in 2 minds whether to do anything anyway. we've had a bit of a chaotic few weeks and not much family time and canada day celebrations tend to be anything but restful :-) maybe we'll just go flag spotting later or something!

i'm working on putting a few recent video clips online, but for now here are a few stills from the family place penny carnival:

aly with one red and one yellow braid

toby very amused by his green and blue hair in the mirror

aly with fin - the canuck's mascot

toby showing off his hockey skills

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