Wednesday, December 28

And here we are, edging further into our Christmas Holi-days. And 'What' do you ask, did we do today? Well, we did alot of lounging and hanging out. Mr.Mister took on another biiiig nap in the morning. and Lil' Miss watched the 'Tangled Rapunzel Show' with Auntie B. She snuggled right in there with Auntie and I think she almost sat for the whole way through! That's amazing. But then Mr.Mister woke up and the afternoon came and it was definately time to get out of the house. It was time for Lil' Miss to put on her new skates that she got for Christmas and give them a try. So we headed up to the Ledge for some skating, some sliding, and some sight-seeing. Sight-seeing that I didn't really know existed (in the underground.....*insert ominous music here!!!! With a little Christmas jingle bells added in!!!!!*)

First thing was first. Both Lil' Miss and Mr.Mister got all bundled up (although it wasn't that cold, but it's still good to bundle up) and we headed for the little ice rink by the parliament buildings.

(Don't kid yourself....Mr.Mister isn't always THIS happy when he's trapped in the stroller. Someone must have got him on an 'off' moment....before he realized that he kind of got deserted in the stroller while everyone else was watching Lil'Miss strut her stuff on the skating rink.)
Lil'Miss got all excited when she learned she was about to try ice dance skating on real ice with her new skates!!! So skates went on, Mommy kept her boots on so she could hold Lil' Miss up, and away we went!

The first wobbly loop around the rink was just that...spaghetti like and very very wobbly. But little by little she started to get the hang and the point of what she was supposed to do. She fell, she rolled over, she got on her hands and knees, and she got back up. Of course Mommy's job was to make sure she didn't hit her head (forgot her helmut.....didn't even think about it...) AND to make it FUN!

 Lots of smiles ensued. I think she did pretty darn good. By the end of the 20 minutes or so she was getting up without help and she wanted to try skating by herself. But Mommy stayed near her to catch her head if she fell...so she used my hand as a steady prop. Which was fine with me. She kept on skating, did a little toe point here and a little swirl/toe point/ fall down there.

Then she saw Gramma pushing Mr.Mister down a slight decline on the new red saucer slider....And it was time to take the skates off because there was something else potentially more fun to do. And it was slide on the new red saucer slider, dooooown the hill.

Mr.Mister went down a couple times...

Lil'Miss went down a couple times...

 Mommy went down with Mr.Mister once....then Lil'Miss went down.....and did a bum over tea kettle crash. So ended our sliding session.

On to some sight seeing!!!!!
We made a walking trip around the parliament buildings with the hopes of seeing the millions of multitudes of lights that are strung from tree to tree to tree to tree (and on and on and on and on...) around the building. But we didn't see anything. We weren't sure when they came on exactly, so we headed underground...(there's that ominus music again...with some hark the harold angels sing thrown in for good measure..). And lo and behold we found the underground pedway that weaves in and about the parliament buildings, lined with christmas trees. Then we found an interpretive center that showed displays of nativity, mock-ups of the house of commons, and a lego model of the actual parliament buildings! Throw in a gift shop and a couple of pop machines and here's a part of the Ledge that I totally didn't know existed. And here I thought I'd only come to see the lights. I learned a few things....like....
1.) the house doesn't sit at their meetings without the 'special' mace of office (which Auntie B pointed out was originally used to bludgeon people to death....hey, a mace is a war weapon! Let's not kid ourselves!)
2.) the provincial gov't encourages a healthy lifestyle by providing information plaques about the walking loop(s) that are mapped out in this underground maze....measured by km and approx. times it takes to walk each loop
3.) gift shops occur in places you would never think
4.) people are really amazing with Lego....and there is such a thing as an unofficial lego users group...
And then at about 4:45pm the twinkle lights came on!

And as expected, they looked pretty darn spectacular. At this point, it was time to head home. Mr.Mister was protesting....loudly at once again being stuck in his stroller, and Lil'Missus mind was wandering.....to thoughts of defiance and tantrums.....definately time to hit the trail home. But a fun outing, nonetheless!

Getting ready for golf season....

Disclaimer!!!!!* Yes, I am a bit in the 'behind in the times' club. But not to worry, I will catch up before the year is out. And there will be a story for every day. Sometimes life gets a little busy and computers/internet goes down - yeesh - I'll adjust the dates of each story to the best of my limited computer knowledge ability. And that'll just have to do. So. On with the stories!!!!*

Tuesday, December 27.

Yes, everyone here is getting ready for golf season...(????????) Golf clubs are out, golf balls are flying, and everyone is dressed the part.

She put this outfit together herself. She got out her golf book for instruction, and she's practicing her golf swing. With Daddy's encouragement of course.

Even Mr.Mister is decked out (by Lil' Miss of course!). Ok, he just has his 'golf hat' on. (You know, I think he has a real golf hat somewhere courtesy of an auntie...perhaps I should dig THAT out!)

Of course, we only allow plastic golf balls to be used for practice in the house now. Every since Lil'Miss decided that to be the most effective she must put all power into her swing, we've downgraded the real golf balls to play plastic ones. Saves my sanity....and the glass doors, the walls, the kitchen appliances....and anybody's body parts that might be in the line of fire.

Take a gander at those new shoes! They light up when you stomp really really hard! Bonus! Courtesy of Gramma of course. She's also got on her golfin' hat, and her golfin' glove.

And when you make an especially GREAT putt, a victory dance is in order. Just a little 'She shoots....SHE SCORES!'

And it was such a great putt that even Mr.Mister gave his stamp of approval! Thumbs up!

Boxing Day

Well, Boxing Day began as any other day off. Sleep in, mosy out of bed, hang out, have late breakfast. I asked if anyone was interested in doing a bit of shopping on this 'deal of a day'. But my question was met with hums and hos, and not reallys. I'm sure there were bargains to be had out there in consumer land, but in this day and age where boxing day shopping has turned into boxing week shopping and even 'week before Christmas day bargain shopping', why the rush to be part of the rush to spend all that hard earned Christmas cash on super duper deals.......when they will probably be there tomorrow, or the next day, or even for the next week, if I haven't already got them before Christmas? Confused yet? Ok, then just stay home and pig out on more Christmas treats. The diet re-starts tomorrow!

We decided to do a field trip on Boxing Day. We loaded up the vehicles and headed out to the Muttart Conservatory to get in a little plant life and just burn off some of those calories we'd been pigging out on. The conservatory consists of 4 different pyramids that represent the different climates present on the earth; temperate, arid, rainforesty and then a special pyramid where the display represents a theme of some sort. For this Christmas, the theme pyramid  was the Snow Queen's pyramid. Apparently there were 1000 pots of pointsettia displayed in the pyramid around the 'Snow Queen's castle'. For Lil' Miss it represented a really large stage for her to dance on.

It was a beautiful setting, and the entertainment was equally as beautiful and graceful (if you don't count the times she stumbled or fell into the pointsettias...oops...)

We even got the ballerina to take a break from her dancing for a quick pose by the Snow Queen's castle.

After about 15 minutes of watching and clapping at the appropriate times, we moved on to the next pyramid. The desert climate. I think Gramma thought she might be back in Arizona. The cacti might have looked familiar, but I'll bet she doesn't get to watch 'the swan dance' in the Arizona desert!

Such dramatics and variety in this particular performance.....

Oh the energy. Sure wish I could bottle that up and sell it. There was no stopping the Lil' Miss. And then......

Mr. Mister decided it was high time he got some action as well.

I mean, really. Why should he have to be stuck in the stroller the whole time while Lil'Miss gets to exercise her creative impulses....and her leggies and cardiovascular system as well???? He took off crawling as fast as his little leggies would take him. It was kind of dangerous to let him loose amoungst the cacti....But then it was kind of dangerous to let Lil'Miss pirouette in her clumpy boots amoungst the cacti as well...(as visions of her falling into the 'crown of thorns' plants whizzed through my mind....). But I let her! And I let him! Take note that he was crawling so fast he lost a boot. He didn't care.

But yes, even a ballerina needs her down time. Onto the next pyramid (the temperate one...so just like home in the spring/fall time!) and she decided to relax on the park bench.

Lil'Miss: 'Mommy, I'm tired.' You are?????????? And she proceeded to stretch out on the bench to rest. Of course, that doesn't last all that long and we ended up back in the Snow Queen's pyramid watching her act out several different princess stories. All of them somewhat related to Sleeping Beauty. With some confusion about 'falling in love' and 'falling asleep'. (Apparently the two parts of the story are interchangeable. I was told to 'fall in love' several times and then instructed to lie down and fall asleep. Ok.)

Here comes the dragon/prince to either blow flames at me or kiss me to make me wake up. It's too bad he didn't really care about his part of the story. He just wanted to motor around and bat at the pointsettia leaves. Then he found the dirt and thought he should start gardening. At that point it was time to head home.

All in all, a good Boxing Day outing!

Christmas Day

Christmas Day is like Christmas Supper. It takes all day to prepare, and within minutes of sitting down....it's gone......

Christmas Day. We start preparing, decorating, shopping, plotting, at the beginning of December. Some even before. It takes me/us all of December, right up until well into the night of the 24th and perhaps into the wee morning hours of the 25th to prepare, plan and execute plans for the actual day of Christmas. And within the span of 12-24 hours, it's done. Over. Finished. Or is it? I had a small discussion about this with Auntie B. How long does the Christmas spirit last? For her, it lasts from Christmas and for about a week beyond. Pretty much until after New Years Day. I think I'll agree. Because even though the actual Christmas event has come and gone. It still feels holiday-ish. Perhaps because we will still have company (all the Aunties!!!!!) for the next week and that in itself is still special. So let's go with that and keep that Christmas spirit alive until the New Year.

On that note, Christmas kind of started on Christmas Eve at Gramma's house.

We got some gift-opening practice under our belts.
Then home and the task of getting everyone asleep so Santa could do his job.

And his job he did! Of course Lil'Miss and Mr.Mister don't really fully understand the excitement of Santa. There was no getting up at ungodly hours of the morning (6am or 7am....), everyone slept in until at least 8am. And there was no racing downstairs to see what Santa had brought. Mommy went into Lil'Missus room to say 'Good Morning!' and calmly led her downstairs to see if she could figure out the excitement for herself. Of course Mr.Mister is oblivious to it all...he just wants out of his crib in the morning!!!!
Santa had come! Presents were under the tree. Milk, cookies, and carrot sticks had been eaten by respective parties...plus a note was left behind, written by Santa, telling Lil'Miss to enjoy the last cookie on the plate....for breakfast!

Cookies for breakfast! Woot!
And then it's time to get down to business.

As per tradition, the stockings get opened first. It gives everyone something to do while waiting for all the parties to assemble and organize themselves. At this point we were still waiting for Gramma and Auntie B to walk through the door. It was enough to keep a little mind occupied. Once everyone had arrived, it was time to get to business. Auntie B was our elf, along with Lil'Miss, who delivered and offered her expertise in unwrapping if so needed.

And as such mornings go, moved along at a snail's pace. So much so, that we broke for intermission and enjoyed a great Christmas morning breakfast prepared by the Big Guy.
And then back to the acts of giving and getting.
Lil' Miss was spoiled. She was spoiled rotten. Does she realize that? No, all she knows is that she got skirts that twirled, babies that cried, blocks that strung (and stacked!) and new princess dresses to play dress-up in. There was a little confusion as some presents showed up under the tree unwrapped. Well, Lil' Miss got herself busy and tried to rectify that problem.

Problem solved by re-using spent christmas paper and a little bit of tape...and voila! Present wrapped!!!
Of course there is always a surprise at the end. The Big Guy went outside for something and found another little something left behind by Santa. Lil' Miss was told that she'd better have a little look out the window......

And there waiting for her was the coveted pink bike! In no time at all she grabbed her purse, put her boots on, and was out the door in a flash to try out her new pink bike. And in the balmy December weather (think the temperature was about +4 degrees C) she rode that bike in circles around the cement patio. And no, she wouldn't come back inside. As Mommy stood shivering in her slippers, Lil'Miss just kept on riding and riding.
Meanwhile, inside the cozy house.....

Mr.Mister was also trying out his new wheels. A shiny, new, yellow camero. What little guy wouldn't be ecstatic to recieve that????? It's smooth ride and bright yellow colour....he and the car cruised all over the living room floor. Good choice Santa!!!
And of course there is always a present that becomes an unpredicted hit.

Lil'Miss got this fine little guy from Papa Bear. Press the button and he wags his tail, flops his ears, and woofs out a melody of Christmas tunes. The fact that he is soft and cuddly definately helps. He has a permanent place under the Christmas tree now.
And so ended Christmas morning/afternoon (is Lil'Miss STILL out there riding her bike?????). The day's events also included a quick spin around the park on the new bike, countless treats and snacks, a magnificent turkey supper, a little road hockey, and some time spent around a blazing fire in the backyard with Christmas tunes blaring. Pretty darn good if I do say so myself...

And Merry Christmas to all, from us, the Big Guy, Mommy, Lil' Miss, and Mr.Mister who is busy once again sawing logs in his comfy bed.

Christmas Eve

Do they really know Santa is coming?

It's sure taken a bit of reminding to Lil' Miss that Santa is watching. Must be tough when you're three and things just aren't going your way. Or things are just too fun and someone tells you it's time to stop. How is a little girl supposed to handle this, if not with protestings and some temper tantrums.

Mommy, in the new year....exercise patience and understanding.

We spent Christmas Eve at Gramma's house. It was just so exciting. So many secrets, so many things to 'wrap'...., so many tastee treats to sample, then so many people to help 'unwrap' all those presents.

Then home we went....we had 'stuff' to do before Santa came to visit! Cookies, milk and reindeer snacks (carrot sticks!) to put out.

Lil' Miss got a little confused about how many reindeer there are, and therefore how many carrot sticks we should be putting out....

Just how many reindeer are there???

'On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen, on Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen. And let's not forget Rudolph!' And Mommy thought there were eleven...hmmm there are nine. So there's some extra carrot sticks there (what was I thinking????).

Lil' Miss has picked out a nice red cup for Santa, and with Daddy's help, filled it up with milk!

And there is Santa's midnight snack!

 Gotta keep Santa's tummy replenished and the reindeer in fine form. Then the stockings were hung from the fireplace with care. In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Now the children are nestled all snug in their beds...

Mr.Mister hit the sack as soon as we got home from Gramma's ....it was a tough night on the little tyke. Staying up late is hard work! And Lil' Miss, well, as she lay in bed, everytime she heard jingle bells, she thought it might be reindeer in the neighborhood.

'Mommy! I hear somethin'!"

It took a little convincing that she needed to be fast asleep before Santa came to visit her house. He was going to all the houses were the kids were sleeping first (and we proceeded to list off all the names of her friends), then if Lil' Miss closed her eyes and went to sleep, he would come visit her Christmas tree. So she would tuck herself waaaay under the covers, and pretend to sleep. Then she would hear the jingle bells again...."Mommy! I hear somethin'!"

.....while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads (or maybe treats, candycanes and cookies are frolicking in there...not so sure about the sugarplums).

Mommy's in her kerchief and Daddy's in his cap....really need to settle their brains for a ..... shorter winter's nap.....

So Merry Christmas to all...and to all a Good Night!



Wrapping Christmas Presents

Some days you just have to let it roll. Throw caution to the wind. Let the pieces fall where they may. Let the little girl practice her skillz and give her imagination a work out.

I let her wrap some Christmas presents today. That may not sound ominous....but it should!

Ok, it's not that bad, and I enabled her. Like I said, I threw caution and my desire to be less wasteful to the wind. Besides....I've had that roll of wrapping paper for YEARS! How else am I supposed to use it up? When I bought that roll of wrapping paper, I don't think having children was even on the radar. So to think that the tail end of that roll got assaulted by a now 3-year old....is actually a satisfactory end to some age-old wrapping paper. Let's move on to the story, shall we?

I was busy doing dishes and Mr.Mister was busy sawing logs in his crib. I had been wrapping some presents to send out in the mail (dare I say we might actually get them to their destination on time? They may just make it there by Christmas Eve! And now I've jinxed us...) and I left the roll of paper and tape dispenser on the table. Lil' Miss kind of looked at it then ran off in a rush to the office and came back flailing her scissors.

Lil' Miss: Mommy, I'm going to wrap some presents. What should I wrap"

Mommy: I don't know. I shrug my shoulders.

She disappears again and shows up with 3 Fisher Price little people (plastic figurines).

Lil' Miss: Mommy, I'm going to wrap these for Mr.Mister. I'm going to wrap these dolls for Mr.Mister. These are Mr.Mister's dolls.

Ok. She gets into her chair at the table and kind of looks around.

Lil' Miss: Mommy, I'm going to cut a piece of wrapping paper.

Mommy: Oh Lil' Miss, I don't really want you to do that. I still need that wrapping paper to finish my presents.

Lil' Miss: That's ok Mommy. I'll still leave a piece for you.

Mommy: Oh, Lil' Miss, please don't.

She starts cutting anyhow, raving on how she'll save some for me in the end. At this point I could have just lost it because once again she didn't listen to a word I said. But I didn't. It's just wrapping paper.

 So she cuts and cuts and cuts and cuts. She gets what she deems a good size (right from the middle of the roll) and lays the 'dolls' in the middle of it. Then she attacks the tape dispenser. And Lord help me, I let her. She's kind of getting it, but having alot of trouble. So I buckle down and rip off about 10 strips and stick them to the side of her crayon basket so she can just grab and use.

Mommy: Now Lil' Miss, I have to go fold the laundry. You use these pieces of tape and wrap your present.

Lil' Miss: OK! (And you should hear her say 'ok'. It's actually kind of funny...like 'of course mom, I know that!")

I go fold my laundry. I'm gone for about 30 seconds and I hear the tape dispenser. I peek around the corner....she's blasted through the ten pieces of tape ALREADY!

 So I giver her some more...10 more pieces....and this time it gives me about 40 seconds of laundry folding time. I hear the tape dispenser again. How much friggin tape does this kid need????? I look. Yeah, she needs more. Holy smokes. I set her up with yet another round of 10 pieces. 30 more seconds of laundry folding.

Lil'Miss: MOM! HOW DO YOU SPELL MR.MISTER'S NAME? WHAT DOES IT START WITH?

I tell her it starts with an 'N'.

Lil' Miss: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRAW THAT!

Hmmmm, I go over and write Mr.Mister's name on the newly wrapped present. She's happy with that and does a little practicing. But ends up writing 'MOM' on a different piece of paper and is even happier with that. She figures she's done with that present. I tell her to go put it under the tree.

Lil' Miss: Ok! (there's that 'Ok' again)

She leaves with the wrapped present and comes back with a bracelet. And the whole process starts over again. Only this time I let her get her own tape.

So in the end there are now 3 presents wrapped by Lil' Miss under the tree (although I think one met it's demise earlier in the day...it was a car for Mr.Mister, and I just picked up all the toys and found said car....unwrapped.) and she keeps bringing one out, asking if she can open it. I keep telling her that we have to wait for Christmas now before we can open those presents. I don't think she's happy with the situation, but she has put them back under the tree. I told her that she should think of a present for Daddy and we could wrap that and put it under the tree. My line of thought was for her to come up with a gift, we'd go buy it, and that would be her present to Dad. But she hasn't come up with anything....until this evening....
Dad came home and she had to show him her wrapped presents! He was impressed and asked if there was one for him. She thought for a moment...
Lil' Miss: Daddy, what do you want for Christmas?
Big Guy: I don't know, what should I get?
More thought.....
Lil' Miss: I know, you should get a golf club with purple stripes and pink butterflies on it.
Daddy is definately impressed.
Big Guy: Oh that would be nice.
Lil' Miss takes off in a whirlwind again and disappears into the basement. She comes up with one of the Big Guy's putters (a belly putter people!!!!). She has full intentions of wrapping it for him. (I'm wondering if I'll have enough tape to get through another session of present wrapping...) But it's getting late already and I tell her we'll wrap it tomorrow. She goes and puts it in the corner with what remains of the roll of wrapping paper. She has a look of satisfaction on her face. She definately thinks she's going to wrap that tomorrow!
But don't tell the Big Guy what he's getting for Christmas! IT'S A SEC-ER-ET!

Mommy's little helper

He may be little, he may not be able to communicate all that well...but he can fling laundry like nobody's business!!!!

I had a helper today. Whether I needed or wanted help, or not. He's like my little shadow lately. Can't go anywhere without the little man tagging along. I'm ok with it....until I turn a corner and the crying starts.

"Mommy, if I can't see you, I'm gonna cry"

Oh Mr. Mister. What am I going to do with you?

So I got help with the laundry. He's really about taking items OUT of a bucket, or OUT of a basket. Hasn't learned how to put stuff BACK yet. But I think he's on his way to figuring that out. Today though, it was all about how fast he could get those clothes onto the dirty floor. Those are clean, wet clothes I was throwing in the dryer.

And these are clean, wet, now covered in dog hair clothes lying on the floor. And as fast as I was cleaning up after him, he was just as fast if not faster, taking them back out again.

Faster than the speed of my camera. Busy busy busy.

And pretty darn cute cute cute! And now for the 4 millionth time....back to flinging clothes out of the dryer!!



Today was a beautiful day. Not too cold out and the sun was bright and cheery. Since the Big Guy was home, Lil' Miss and I decided to leave him to babysit the snoring Mr.Mister during his morning nap and take a quick visit down to the park.

The park was deserted. But fortuneate for us, it had snowed about a cm the previous night and the playground was covered in untouched snow. FANTASTIC! That meant that Lil' Miss got to be the first person down the slides covered in snow. Nothing like snow bunching up in front of you while you whip down the slippery slide! Next, a little game of hide and seek.....but there really are only so many places to hide in a wide open playground. It kind of turned into a game of 'TAG! YOUR IT!', which is fine too. Then we turned our attention to the giant field that surrounds the playground....all pretty much filled with untouched snow!

HOHOHO!
I tried to intoduce Lil' Miss to the art of following each others' trails in the snow. She kept cutting corners. So I grabbed onto her and pushed her along in front of me until we made a GIANT HOHOHO!
But that quickly got boring, so we moved onto making snow angels.

 That is always a big hit. She made a snow angel family with her (she had curly hair), mommy, daddy, a little friend of hers AND his daddy.

 By this time Mommy's feet were getting cold, so I figured we should head back and check on the Mr.Mister AND the Big Guy. I assumed they were probably both still sleeping...
So we headed home and proceeded to roll around the front yard a bit. Tasted the snow to see if it was different from previous tastings...

And headed inside. To two sleeping boys.

There was a little man who lived in a shoe....

He had this big sister and he didn't know what to do.

She loved to play and play hard she did,

And then one day, the little man

Ended up with THIS lid......

But he's kind of an oblivious sort

And now I've run out of rhymes.

Yes, Lil' Miss insisted that he wear this hat. But he didn't really care. It kind of matched the shopping cart he was pushing around.

You really can't be fussy when you're trying to learn how to walk. And there is just something about this shopping cart that is so....appealing...(I think it's the wheels. Mr.Mister has a bit of an infatuation with wheels. Must be a boy thing)

And lucky for him, Lil' Miss moved onto Kona after Mr.Mister put up some resistance....



A Picnic.

Sometimes when mom doesn't feed you lunch, you have to take measures into your own hands. It was Lil' Missus turn to make lunch today and she decided it was high time we had a picnic. It was a big production.

The table was laid. Both Mr.Mister and I were invited. As you can see, Mr.Mister is beginning to just help himself. But at least he sitting nicely. Lil' Miss is preparing us peanut butter with a little bit of jam sandwiches.

Mr.Mister is enjoying his sandwich, but he also thinks the grass is greener on someone else's plate.

He has literally tossed his sandwich (and a multitude of other snack items) off his part of the table and has decided that cutlery is where it's at. Lil' Miss is being very patient with him, but he's not very cooperative.

Mr. Mister has moved on and now Lil' Miss is preparing her mommy some lunch. She believes a lunch should contain a tasty sandwich and colourful vegetables. A well balanced meal can get you through the day. Of course for dessert, there were cookies as well. Because every meal MUST end in a treat!