halloween zoo

Maia and her friends brought a zoo to the nursery this morning! The three boys with her are all brothers, and the two on the ends are identical twins. (My brave friends Steph and Adam have 3 boys 2 and under... and one more on the way!)

playing chicken

Look who's all ready for Halloween in a couple of days!

I thought she might object to her costume (thank you, Krista!) so I tried it on her in advance. Well, it is a smashing hit! She loves having it on.

lending hope on youtube

"Lend Me Your Hope" has now been added to YouTube. If you haven't seen this slideshow put together by my sister-in-law, you really should. Sadly, no one has rated it yet. Can you help us out?

where's maia?

Yesterday we put up curtains that divide the kitchen from the entry room which helps keep some of the cold out of our living area in this old house. To everyone's delight, Maia has found another use for the curtains.

Click here until I figure out how to put video clips directly on my blog.

puppy

This morning, as I approached Maia in her crib, the first word out of her mouth was...

"PUPPY"!

Of course. Why say the name of the woman who stumbles out of bed multiple times to soothe your teething pain with tylenol and cuddling during the night and rises to give you milk and love and a fresh diaper in the morning? Who wouldn't begin the day by beckoning for their favourite furry friend?

In addition to wet kisses and quiet companionship, "puppy" doesn't open your mouth against your will to put local anesthetic on your swollen gums. "Puppy" doesn't make you put on the unwanted extra layers when it's time to go outside. Nor does "puppy" decide you've climbed and descended the stairs enough times in order to procrastinate the nap that awaits at the top. It seems that "puppy" has become her best friend.

She's oblivious to the fact that her furry friend has had a rough couple of weeks. Phil sliced the pad of his paw straight through two weeks ago and bled through his bandages for about a week and a half. He's sufficiently healed up now -- phew -- and we're relieved that we're on the other side of the 'please-don't-eat-this-bandage-off-too' days we've been having.

Our local vet calls Phil a "bourgeois"... always on an adventure regardless of the trouble it will get him into.

But Maia just calls him "puppy". Constantly.

talking... and now walking

Look who's both delighted and a wee apprehensive to be walking on her own. The most we've seen is about ten steps and then... panic!

It's one more small 'letting go' for mom and dad on Maia's road to independence. Then again, when we have to start running after her within the next couple of weeks, we might not think it so small.

By the way, the word of the week is LIGHT. It usually comes as an abrupt change of subject when she suddenly jolts her arm towards the ceiling and exclaims "ITE"!

the leaves next door

Our sweet neighbour girls next door practically pounce on Maia whenever she comes into view. It's darling really. They have a sister who is a few months younger so I think they find it engaging to see what their little sis will be doing in a short while.

Today Maia squealed in delight as she watched them toss piles of leaves over their heads, and it didn't take long before she began to imitate them. I think her love of autumn is helping me overcome my lament of the end of summer.

haliburton holiday 2

I've been having trouble uploading photos to the last post so I'm creating a new post instead. Here are some more of my favourite photos from the past week...

Our nephew Michael and Phil running up the road that leads to the cottage

haliburton holiday

We're home from five days in the beautiful north... and from a holiday that turned out to deviate quite far from what we planned. Now I'm not into complaining, but just to give you a taste, instead of handing our daughter to some loving family members and getting away for a few days, we cancelled our B&B plans and doggy motel plans when our daughter got a chest cold, our dog sliced through his paw quite deeply and bled all over the cottage grounds, and our family caregivers for Maia needed a little break from caregiving themselves. One afternoon, in an attempt to get away to a cafe to read for a couple of hours while Maia was sleeping, we drove to three different cafes in a 20k radius only to find that they were all closed on Wednesday... or closed until December, in one case. Our fish & chips lunch was so greasy we felt ill most of the afternoon. The recommendation to visit Buttermilk Falls turned out to be a slab of concrete with water running over it. The day we hoped to go boating on the water was too schleppy and cold. And wouldn't you know, it snowed on our way home. Hoping for a redeeming end to our holiday last night at home, we ordered in pizza and borrowed a movie from the library which turned out to be really unenjoyable and so Tim went to the video store instead where he rented RV -- a movie about someone else's vacation mishaps. A poetic ending indeed!

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not snap!

To be fair, our holiday had some redeeming points. We had some lovely moments with family, some gorgeous hours amidst the peak of autumn colours, we made it to an inspiring pottery studio for a few minutes, and got to enjoy watching Maia learn to smack kisses and discover the simple joy of walking through thickly fallen leaves as they crunch under your feet.


More photos to come...