little yellow coat

Some babies get attached to blankies. Or a special teddy bear. But not our Evy. She has more of a love for outerwear.

It used to be her green frog rubber boots. For a while, she had to wear them for every waking hour. Lately, it's her new yellow raincoat. It doesn't matter if the sun is out, or if it's -2 or +15 degrees. She is determined to wear her lil' coat outside.

And rain or shine, she looks pretty darn cute wearing it.

Racing to greet the Canada Geese
(good exercise for mom to catch her before she reaches the pond)

Dancin' girl

If you're going to have a dance party, you want to make sure you're wearing appropriate shoes.

Fun with chums

I hit the big city last night to catch up with some old school chums. I hadn't seen some of them since 2004 - which is almost unbelievable. But, as with all true friends, we picked up where we left off and had a lovely visit.

Me, Amber, Trevor, Elena, Tyler and Jordie

A little older, a little wiser (?)

It was actually great fun to be out in Toronto after work for drinks. I had forgotten about that particular social scene. We went to a fancy vodka bar and then hit C'est What for some post-martini feasting.

We have promised to try to meet up at least once a year (we figured after 6 years, we wouldn't try to get too ambitious) so I'm already looking forward to Corp Comm Reunion, 2011!

Gas pains

Distillery Street is still a hive of activity with the natural gas lines
going in. Currently, our front lawn is having some reconstructive
surgery.

Evy's my name and colouring's my game

Miss E likes to sit down a couple of times a day for an intensive colouring session. Mostly, she likes putting the lids back on the markers, but she also quite enjoys colouring herself. I thought she had jaundice on Wednesday but it turns out she had just coloured her face and neck with the yellow marker. It was a good look.

Here she is making time in her busy colouring schedule to chat with mommy:

A very fun day

What a lovely day!

I had the day off work ('cause I worked Sat. at the Sportsman Show) and we definitely made the most of it!

The laundry was hanging out on the line by 8:00am and we had a dance party and full out colouring session by the time our first visitors arrived around 10. And from then on it was a revolving door of friends, neighbours, kiddies, and excitement.

We had guests for lunch and then different guests for dinner and Evy had a blast playing with all of her buddies, including Auntie Tanya and her beautiful 3-month old baby, Ali.

A glass of wine on the porch in the afternoon sun... glorious

One way to make Evy look big is to put her next to a wee baby!

One way to make Evy look small is to have her sit
(very comfortably)in the tiny baby chair!

And perhaps the most exciting part of the day was the fact that ENBRIDGE was here! Yes, for those of you who know about our multi-year drama to get natural gas on our street, you'll appreciate that this was a wonderous event.

Bright and early there was a whole team of workmen with a backhoe, giant drilling rig and a bunch of trucks. Very exciting for the kiddies to watch! From what I can tell, they are done the drilling part and the pipes will go in tomorrow. Just in time to get our new gas furnace in for... um... summer. Oh well, we're just glad it's finally happening.

So, after a very long and busy day, I think it's time for bed. And at least I'm back to work tomorrow for a rest!

Can someone tell me...

... how a 20-month old can already be a master of the withering desparaging gaze?



Oh, wait... she's 'daughter of Rob'. That makes sense.

This is why I love my job

While the cat's away....

Miss Evy just had a lovely overnight visit with Granny and Poppa while I was at the Sportsman Show in Toronto (working, not shopping... it's not really my thing).

Here she is with Great Granny, then in the tubbadub!

The almost 2 year old and almost 92-yeard old have some post-dinner chitchat

Bathtub = favourite time of the day!

Scrub under your chin Miss Evy!

Sunny stroll

As much as the clocks changing has been tiring, it was wonderful to get home from work and still feel like there was lots of time to go for a nice family walk.

Today was the nicest day yet this month. The forecast may be calling for snow on Monday but I'll embrace Spring while it's here.

Millbrook is snow-free and looking lovely and we had a great time playing outside.

Evy and Mommy and butt of random dog

Feeling fancy free without the weight of the winter coat!

Having a nice stroll with Daddy along the creek

Kisses from Mommy cause the sun hurts her eyes

Throwing rocks down the drain hole in the bridge....

nothing more fun than that when you're almost two!

Little cute troll on the bridge

I hope everyone else got some sunshine and Vitamin D today!

Diary of a delinquent blogger

Sometimes, the reason for not updating your blog can be as simple as your laptop is upstairs and the camera is in the kitchen drawer. So goes the life of the full-time working mommy, occasional blogger.

We've been having lots of fun, and are enjoying this premature (but very welcome) spring. That said, the time change yesterday has caused us some mega jetlag... Evy slept until 9:30 today which made Rob more than a little tardy in getting to work.

We had a great weekend in Haliburton with our neighbours. Evy loved being with her daycare buddies, and we had lots of fun. Here's the cottage we rented. Pretty cool, though the website doesn't mention the mud luge track to get down to the cottage, nor the 300 odd steps to get down to the lake. With the weather the way it was, we were glad to stay cocooned inside and watch Rob masterfully tend the fire.

And since I forgot my camera (doh!) you shall have to be content to see some photos from the previous weekend, when we were celebrating Jimmy's 64th birthday.

Granny and her fabulous grand-kiddies

The crazies

Evelyn wonders if she should call 911 or the psych ward about her aunt and uncle

The cousins shake on it.
(I can't tell if Jack is really excited or just pooped his pants. Probably both.)

Ben's new workout routine.
Sadly for Evy (and scarily for Jack) they weigh about the same.
How cute is that brother of mine? And his adorable bebe.

Evy checks to see if Jack will actually eat her finger.

The answer? Most definitely.

So, not much else to report. Rob's going away AGAIN this week. He leaves for Dallas on Thursday and is back Sunday. He assures me this is the last work trip until June, and he'd better be right. I'm sick of him jetting off.

Happy (early) St Paddy's Day to all my irish and non-irish friends. May the green beer flow freely for you on Wednesday, and may you have limited to no contact with screaming banshees or angry leprechauns in the year ahead.

Culinary Delights

One of the less delightful phases (other than the especially injurious phase of late) that Evy is in now is called, "Don't you dare come near me with a spoon or any food or I will karate chop said spoon and go boneless and fall to the floor and cry an amount not in proportion with the situation."

It's a lovely time, and I'll cherish these memories of food wars. I probably wouldn't care as much if she was bigger than 3 apples tall, but as it is, I get a bit crazed when she won't eat. And, she does TRULY love feeding herself, but that causes its own slew of problems, e.g. breakfast takes 4 hours and requires a sandblasting of the dining room afterwards.

That said, she eats like a pig at daycare (and even deigns to let them feed her) and she does have a whoppin' appetite once settled down. She goes back for her next weigh-in in April and dare I say she might even weigh 20 lbs? Woot woot!

Here is the madam herself enjoying breakfast at Millbrook's fine dining establishment (no, not the gas station restaurant, the other one).

I will eat this muffin one crumb at a time, so there.

Yesh, I know I'm adorable even with a mouth full of food

And here she is in the dining room, enjoying her own special "built by daddy" table and chair. She won't sit in her highchair anymore because, "duh, mom, they are for babies and I'm 20 months old now!".

And speaking of daddy, Rob's been in Vegas for yet another conference since Tues, so we've been hangin' solo again. Heck, we're old pros at it by now. Will be nice to have him back on Saturday. And then he's gone again to Dallas later in March. Hard to keep up with that jet-settin man.

Hey, it's supposed to be TEN degrees this weekend, folks. Make sure you get outside and enjoy it!

Remember when?

Remember summer? Remember when babies were just a little bit smaller and a whole lot naked-er? Ahhhh. Spring is just around the corner, right?