A Spoonful of Sugar

Molly the dog might be on leave without pay but Christine and Dash have given her temporary housing in their tent - comes complete with unsolicited hugs, blankets, pillows and sanctuary from hostile owners.

Other than housing refugees we are all still on the mend from our cold and are sticking close to home still, so to keep busy we've been.... Staring out in the big wide world and wishing we were out there. While Ben and Christine raked out front yard again this morning the Dash Man and I stayed inside to watch from afar, as usual Christine was quite a big help.We've also been fulfilling our life long dreams of becoming an architect - the next Art Vandelay if you will. However Christine and I have decided to solely create in the form of sugar and gingerbread - delicious! Above you'll see Christine helping me create our gingerbread house and her posing with the finish product (note the drool and sugar on her face - she had just been caught with the icing bag in her mouth).
And lastly Dash has been keeping busy by growing some teeth. After months of anticipation I think they are finally breaking through - you can see the tooth bumps in his mouth in the big grin below.

Welcome and Unwelcome Visitors

We had three visitors this past weekend. First of all we had a visit from the laundry Fairy who left us these two cute kids in exchange for all of our dirty socks - what a deal!

Then we had Uncle Geof and his dog Bear (one of Christine's favourites) drop by for a visit Sunday afternoon. As you can see above Dash and Geof got along like wildfire and Christine entertained us all by making long distance phone calls and running away with the phone.
And our third visitor? Why another family cold - that makes three since Thanksgiving. You would think we are going around licking the door handles into the mall at the rate we are getting sick around here (just for the record we're not). So we are spending more time at home (and less time than I would like out doing Christmas stuff) for recovery - I wonder how many times we'll watch Finding Nemo before we're all better again?

Ways to entertain yourselves when stuck inside on a cold wintery day...

A good tickle fight is always a good way to kill twenty minutes - this one ended up in draw.
Of course you can always try to catch snowflakes on your tongue - ideally it helps if you are outside at the time.
You can take up amateur photography - this was shot by an up and coming two year old artist, I believe it's a shot of her sweater (there were 12 such shots discovered on my camera before I could reclaim it).
And lastly there's always a good game of Duck on the Head to keep you busy.

BFF Monthly Meeting Minutes - November 2007

The meeting was called to order at 1:36 pm by President-for-life Christine, also in attendance were Vice-President Dashiell and Security Officer Molly.

A motion was brought forth on behalf of two anonymous parental constituents that Security Officer Molly's commission be suspended without pay until the results from Internal Affairs investigation are presented. The investigation concerns an alleged theft of baby cereal and subsequent consumption, there was also a charge of AWOL levied against S.O. Molly that occurred on the previous evening. The motion was passed by a vote of 2-1. S.O. Molly was suspended and she was asked to leave the meeting.

Another motion was brought forth on behalf of two anonymous parental constituents that all toddlers should refrain from putting food (namely cheese) into any other orifices (namely ears) other than mouths. The motion did not pass.

A motion was brought forth by President-for-life Christine that her doggy be hired as Acting Security Officer in Molly's absence, Doggy accepted with a vacant stuffed-animal gleam in it's eye.

A motion was brought forth by President-for-life Christine that a shopping expedition for "cheer-up cheese" be set upon immediately, the motion was passed unanimously and the meeting was adjourned.

President-for-life Christine and Vice-President Dashiell presented the cheese to Molly-the-regular-dog and all was well.

Day Tripping to Picton

Yesterday Ben, Uncle Pat, Christine, Dash and I jumped in the family roadster for a day trip to Picton (hometown of Ben's mother and all around cool place). I sat in the back with kids for most of the day and got to have fun pointing out farm animals, trains, trees and anything else interesting to Christine while listening to her tell me endlessly the names of everyone in the car.

Christine and Dash got along great in the car and decided (well, Christine decided) to hold hands across their carseats for part of the day as you can see above.

Dash was in a pretty good mood most of the day and was quite content to nap, look at Christine and of course give his Mom big smiles - what a cutie!
We had lunch in Picton then stopped by the cemetery for awhile - there were piles of leaves everywhere and Christine had a blast playing in them together.

Dash-a-roo

I've told many people that I wouldn't know what I would do without our jolly-jumper. While Christine had very little interest in it when she was a baby our Dash Man loves it and will contently jump, swing, dangle, reach and bump in it for an hour at a time.

Here's a video I shot of the guy in action this evening - I love how he's trying to grab the camera with each swing back to me. If you put on the sound and listen you'll hear him jumping and breathing (of course) but you'll also hear Christine saying "All done" over and over again - this is her way of telling me (aka her handmaiden) she wants down from her booster seat. Also note a ever vigilant Molly in the background waiting for the last morsel of food from Christine.

Autumn at the Zoo

Christine, Dash, Ben, Uncle Luke, Amber and I all headed to the Toronto Zoo today for a great walk in the fall sunshine and some viewings of the the animals. For those of you considering the zoo in cooler weather I highly recommend it - fewer crowds, free parking, milder odors and the animals were quite frisky. Here's a shot of Ben, Dash and Luke (aka "the guys") looking at the tigers.
Then we headed to the Elephants to get a good look, above you'll see Amber, Christine and I (aka "the girls") and some unknown elephant (albeit female and therefore admitted into our all girls gang) hanging out. This elephant then gave us all a great show by showing us exactly how much and for how long an elephant can pee (all I can is wow).
Here's a shot of Amber, Christine and Luke watching the Rhino - just after this picture he decided a rock looked at him the wrong way and he head butted it (very cool).
And here is the Dash Man hanging out by the Rhino as well (you can see the Rhino in the distance with his rear end towards you). I think the Rhino may have been a little put off by the sight of the cute little blue bear watching him.

Still Raking

A month ago exactly we begun raking the many, many leaves in our yard - only back then we were doing it in short sleeves instead of bundled up in sweaters. The leaves are still falling and gathering in our yard and the task seems endless at this point - although don't get me wrong we all love the great variety of big trees in our neighbourhood.
Anyhoo, the kids, Ben and I spent a better part of our afternoon today raking, sweeping, mowing and posing for pictures. Ben pointed out that it's always neat to see shots of cars when you are looking at pictures years from now so we posed the kids on top of our Grand AM (425 000 kms and counting thank you very much). They both seemed a little confused to be on top of the car instead of inside of one but they were both cooperative. After our work was done it was back inside for some playtime and clock-setting-back (although Molly the dog's internal clock could not be reset and she started telling us she was hungry an hour before her scheduled dinnertime).

Happy Halloween

Well another Halloween has come and gone and today in Walmart I heard my first Christmas carol - and so another holiday season begins. Our little Kangaroo (or 'Roo as she referred to herself) and our own Bumblebee had a wickedly good time last night trick or treating and hanging out with family.
First of all Uncle Geof and Aunt Brenda came by to pick up Bear the dog and their car after their enviable trip to Barcelona, while they were here the kids got into their costumes early to show off their stuff (Christine was originally a little uncooperative about putting her costume so we had to bribe her with candy - you can see in the picture below she's showing the candy on her tongue off to the camera). Although Christine was sad to see Bear go it was great that she got to see Geof and Brenda incognito.

At trick or treating time Uncle Luke and Pirate Amber came by to hang out with the kids and eat some candy. Luke graciously stayed at our place to hand out candy while Ben, Christine, Dash, Pirate Amber and I went around our street trick or treating - although Christine initially thought you had to eat the candy you got right away she quickly got the hang of things and got quite a haul considering we only did about six houses.
While Luke and Amber were at our house a very rare, endangered animal was spotted. Native to Mississauga the High-Heeled Pygmy Kangaroo is considered on of the few remaining high-heeled mammals in existence. Their diet consists many of fruits, veggies and smarties although they have been known to enjoy chips and cheeses as well. They generally get along with other animals although they have been know to exhibit possessive behaviour when it comes to their stuff animals. They are demonstrative with affection and prone to tickle attacks. This rare specimen will be on display until the end of November.