The dear little one

Wee Lily is growing up fast. She's got quite the motor mouth... obviously got that from me.

I've long been narrating to her what I'm doing. Now she does it for me, like my own little Facebook status updater. "Dad walking!" "Dad eating!" "Dad's shirt!" Okay, the last one's less of a status update and more of one of the bazillion astute observations she makes throughout the day.

She's been talking for quite a while now. Her abilities have kind of snuck up on us. Earlier in the spring we were driving along when we heard from the back seat "bok bok ere, bok bok air". She didn't know the rest of Old MacDonald but it was pretty cute (once we figured out what she was saying). Then a few weeks ago, it really hit home when she walked onto the very sunny deck and exclaimed, "Oh! Bright! I need a hat on."

(Just now I went up to get her out of bed. After "Dad!", her first words were "Hear a different sound." She was hearing some maintenance guys clanging ladders outside. A few minutes later: "Hear another sound again.")

Some random exploits in the last few months:

• She got some practice doing her ABCs during our Vegas trip, but then we dropped the ball for a bit. Now she still messes up the first half (h-i-j-b-c and such), but q-z are old hat by now. Maybe not ready for grade 1 yet, but she does know a bunch of letters by sight, which hopefully means she can forgo junior kindergarten and senior kindergarten and whatever other babysitting grades our provincial government comes up with.
• Yay for Netflix. And for 5-minute attention spans to anything on the screen. She loves Clifford, Dora, and "TV George monkey".
• She loves her bread with "peebuh chockit" for lunch. What, that's totally healthy.
• We watched some World Cup soccer, which she enjoyed. "Hahaha lots mans running... fall grass... big kick! Yaaaaa!"
• Being in the city allows her to experience a lot of different vehicle sounds. She can distinguish--by sight and sound--planes, helicopters, "mobikes", large trucks (especially with the backing-up beep), city buses, and fire trucks. If only she didn't want to be held up to a window to see them every single time she hears one. "Help please Dad, look truck?" never gets old. No. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Ad infinitum. Sigh.
• She likes to reminisce. "Remember geese bike ride?" Yep, we saw lots of geese. "Remember fall down stairs?" This one surprised me; she mentioned it at the site where, a month before, she had done a swan dive from the 5th step. That one looked/sounded like it hurt. And looked like it should have caused memory loss.
• One night Lily was in bed when she started hollering very loudly indeed. Carrie went up to have a look. The kid had somehow managed to put both her legs up inside her pyjama shirt and through the neck, trussing her up good! Little weirdo.
• Earlier this week: "oh! egg in diaper." Sure enough, she'd laid an egg-shaped egg-sized turd. TMI, eh? Too late; you can't unread it.
• She knows the sound of my Tassimo coffee maker, and thus knows when to exclaim "Dad's making balloon coffee!". Obviously; just look at the logo.
  

Lily hasn't been out of her rear-facing car seat for too long yet. Unfortunately her new seat doesn't seem very comfy to sleep in. I find it difficult--possible but difficult--to reach back and hold her head up as I drive. No, it's not particularly wise; what a silly question.

During our spring garage sale blitz, we happened upon a very sturdy doll stroller. Its wheels aren't about to fall off and it's very manoeuvrable, unlike every other doll stroller we've come across.

We've gone biking a number of times after supper, usually about 20km each time. Ottawa has many miles of great bike paths, so there's lots to choose from near our place. We were using the big bike seat on the bike rack behind the rider, but now we each have a setup so she can sit between the rider and the handlebars; it's a much easier load to balance, and she can see a lot more. And we can hear her yammering. Nonstop. On and on. Forever.

Walked to the market and bought some strawberries. Summer hasn't been terribly hot yet, but Daisy needed a ride by the end, along with all the other stuff.

Summer also means ice cream bars, some of which ends up in her tummy.

Lily loves the "paygound". And she loves the swing, a ride in which, though she looks like she takes it seriously, she dutifully says "whee whee" the whole time.

Okay, just two more.

Tomorrow, at some ridiculous hour, we get up and head to BC for two weeks. Other than some hanging around and some backpacking, not much is planned.

July long weekend

Happy mid-2014! And Canada Day.

I hereby present my obligatory post on our annual "bring-more-kids-than-last-year" camping trip. We went to Sharbot Lake again, same as last year. Our crowd this time was 11 adults and 6 kids. And a dog.

We stayed four nights. The weather was mostly great, with just a spatter of rain... just enough to justify putting up a gazillion tarps. It even cooled down most nights, which was a pleasant change from most years.

Lily loves the beach. She doesn't even mind the water. This is obviously all Carrie's doing, genetically speaking. I will have to resign myself to many years of visiting beaches *shudders*.

Cry baby. She occasionally realized she had sand all over herself. "Dirty! Wahh!"

In the "lawluh" with Mom. She can say "water" but doesn't make the effort.

Taking in the view.

Lily really enjoyed herself, despite the odd time she balked at being sandy. She could endlessly go back and forth to the water and throw toys in, much to the chagrin of her young friends.

There's nothing else to say, so I'll just dump a few photos. See you next year.

Our crowd of 17 took up a good chunk of the beach.

Last year's girls, all growed up.

Lily and her friend, of whom she's a little bit scared.

Bath time! Almost getting too big for the ol' kitchen sink.

Ladies' man and his admirers.

Couple of geezers.

Lads wrestling, each with a coach in his corner. These two are the new kids on the block.

Hammock friends.

Happy camper.

May long

We've gone to a number of garage sales this year already, and it's always fun to see what kind of crap you end up with by the end of a Saturday. Fortunately, sometimes it's useful stuff. Last year it included a baby bike seat (pictured at the end of this post). Last week it was another bike seat, the kind that goes between you and the handle bars. It's now so much easier to balance the bike, and the front tire once again respects gravity... and my knees don't even hit the new seat because it's wonderfully narrow. The only downside is that I can't stand on the pedals like you sometimes need to during an uphill exertion. Good thing my bike has a bazillion gears so I can pretty much pedal straight up a cliff without leaving my seat. And the best part? This thing was only $10, and I knew I could sell it for much more if I didn't like it.

Since Monday was a holiday, we had the opportunity to go for a nice bike ride along the river and canal. I hadn't mounted the new bike seat yet, and my offroad-y tires were woefully underfilled. So while Carrie toodled along on her old bike, I lost a few years of my life trying to stay within croaking distance in case I needed to tell her my heart was giving out. I still don't understand how the trip could have been uphill both ways, but at no point did I feel like I was coasting.

Our destination was Hog's Back Falls (again). The park there happened to sport a few tulips, meaning we didn't have to go see the main tulip festival gong show being held elsewhere.

Matching. (Her mom sure makes a nice sweater!)

The next day I managed to get the bike seat mounted, so Lily and I took it for a test drive two days in a row. The second day we took the dog along... not so smart when you're out and about for 3 hours; that dog was beat well before the end. Picture me with a kid in the seat and a dog under one arm. I went straight to the river and let her go for a swim. After that she could make it the rest of the way home under her own steam.

The armrest in front of her doubles as a headrest.

She can even help me steer!

Today was the fourth day in a row that I went out and got some fresh air (I know, this is getting ridiculous). Lily and I went to visit some old folks who live an hour away, and while we were in the area we did some geocaching. (I'll admit that the excuse to go geocaching is partly how I could drag myself out the house the previous two days as well.) It's a fun activity (though I still need to convince Carrie of that), and I'm sure it'll get me exploring local places I otherwise wouldn't venture out to see.

I found some more photos on my phone from our visit to the family a few weeks back. Here's Lily with a tiny chair she initially tried to make her doll sit on. When that got old (i.e., failed) she proceeded to try and sit on it herself. She doth amuse us daily.

We're headed back down south tomorrow for the weekend. I thought we might take a scenic route through New York since we have all day to do it, but it looks like rain so that may not happen this time around.

May

Man, it was so stinkin' hot and sticky this week; can't wait for winter! Or at least fall. Who's with me?

Almost nobody? Pffft. Whatever.

So, not much has been going on since our last trip. Why, then, am I blogging? Guilt, I guess; don't complain.

We visited family over Easter weekend, and then had some of the same family come over the following week. We're planning a quick trip there again next weekend.

The girl turned 21 months recently. It's increasingly difficult to remember her age in months, so lately she's just been "almost two". Much easier.

She's still under 21 lbs, but over 20, so we finally got her a front-facing car seat. I must say it's a nice change for all of us... except anyone who sits beside her in the back, since there's even less space than there was before. And speaking of car seats...

So this morning we step outside to run some errands, and we notice that the car door is unlocked. And the trunk is popped open. And the hood. And all the contents in the car (mostly from the glove box) are strewn all over the seats. And the driver's seat is reclined. As far as we know, someone broke in, slept for a spell, rummaged through everything (thanks for the mess, yo) and stole nothing except maybe some loose change. Even my far-from-cheap sunglasses weren't taken. We can't fathom why such efforts were made to rifle through everything but no theft. And we feel a little violated. But no damage done, it seems. Plus, some homeless person got to sleep in a dry place. Anyway, just weird.

We haven't cut Lily's hair yet, so her ridiculous mop definitely needs restraints of some kind.

She talks a lot, and mostly you can tell what she's saying. Buttons are no longer "buppins". Cheerios are no longer "toos". A few words are still a challenge, like "water". She says "lawluh". And that makes a fly swatter a "fye lawluh".

She thinks she's a little big person, since there are no other kids around to remind her she's little. Even 6 months ago, she'd call any kid up to twice her size a baby. She also thinks she's mastered stairs, and sometimes goes down facing forward. That's great until her feet don't listen and she falls forward, faceplanting on the floor 5 steps down. We expected a pool of blood or a broken nose, but nope, not a scratch. Turns out they still make resilient kids these days.

Our little sweetheart has great manners. And the curiosity of, well, a little kid. When she's not sitting around doing wood puzzles and incessantly saying "help please Dad", she's apt to be hanging around asking "Mom doing? Dad doing?" This gets old real fast, especially when it's obvious what I'm doing and she just keeps asking. My response as of late has been "Whatever I want." We'll see how she likes them apples.

"Hold on neck!" Okay, penguin. (She's remarkable mobile in a sleepsack.)

"All the world's a stage..."

Last week's garage saling netted her a little truck with many buttons and sounds. The front deck makes a perfect roadway.

Boyish, but for the pink socks.

This one reminds me of a certain sister of mine... or maybe one of her girls.

The other day it was raining like crazy but she wanted to go outside anyway. So we found her little-used raincoat and took to the puddles. Rather, she did. And did she have a blast. I'd forgotten rain could be that much fun. Especially vicariously.

"Lily, turn around for the camera... <click>... uh, yeah let's maybe try a few hundred more takes." I'm charging her for the film.


Said raincoat.


Drat... another insurmountable curb!


Toes are fascinating. Or is the puddle? Toes and puddles are fascinating.