here we are

We're still out here. I swear it!

I realize that it has been nearly two months since we last updated. That time was filled with house hunting, family visits, trips, and last but not least a move! Come the end of the week we'll be leaving our not-quite-completely-unpacked new place and flying to Oklahoma to visit. Needless to say, fall has been a busy season for us!

Look for blog updates come the third week of October. With Signal in preschool two mornings a week, I am going to have more time to devote to the blog. See you then!

super undies!

Things have been crazy buys around here again! Sorry for the lag in blogging. Right now Signal is going through the process of potty learning, and that has required a lot of attention. He is doing great - he's wearing undies all the time during the day now, with a diaper at nap time and bed time. However, he's been waking up dry from his nap and almost always dry in the morning as well, so we're really encouraged. He still has the occasional accident in his undies, particularly with poop, but we can't complain. I am very hopeful that Signal will be accident-free by the time snowsuit season rolls around. I don't want to have to wash pee-soaked snow pants, thank you very much!

We're also in the process of enrolling Signal in a co-op preschool two mornings a week. I am looking forward to seeing him get to interact more with kids his own age. I think it will be a great opportunity for him to do different activities than he does with me, and to become more independent too. Ru will be sitting on the board of the preschool, and I will be doing some work to help in the classroom. Signal's first day of school will be September 17th. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

Oh, and if that wasn't enough, we also facing another move. We'll be moving out of this house later in the fall... don't know to where yet, but we're hoping to find something good soon. Please send us some housing vibes, okay? We need them.

And what would a post be without pictures? Take one potty learning boy, add a playsilk as a cape and some elbow pads, and you have "Super Undies!" Here to save the world from, ummm, sleep? Quiet time? I dunno. :)

actually NOT the worst blogger ever!

i would like to relieve m of the terrible burden of being the worst blogger ever. because of course, that distinction must fall to me, since i am the one who got this project started in the first place and then abandoned it to her when i went back to work after my four months' parental leave.

it's not that there hasn't been anything going on. au contraire. it's just that the weird simultaneous compression and stretching of time that occurs when one has a small child is so unusual and so unexpected that it really does take some time to get used to. i think i actually got used to the weeks upon weeks of sleep deprivation (which should not be understood as to be in the past, by the way, though it IS a lot better) long before i grew accustomed to the balance struck between the attention to minutiae that having a child entails (did you see that face?! did you hear what he said?! he is so amazing!) and the sweeping and incomprehensible passage of time (what's that you say? july is almost over? july of 2009? doesn't that mean i will be 33 years old this year?! WTH?!).

but now, three years into this parenthood project (and believe me, once he is potty-trained, i am sending him off to the ivy league - surely they have research projects in place where he will get loads of individualized care!), i am finally coming back to myself. we've got some interesting stuff going on - things that we came to by decision or by accident. things like this year we are hoping to do an entire (or almost entire) homemade/handmade/artisan christmas. and since we decided on it so early in the year, it has expanded to most of gift-giving so far this year. so there is a lot of knitting, some sewing being proposed, and a great deal of WAHM- and artisan-support shopping (thank goodness for Hyena Cart and Etsy!).

things have gotten a lot more interesting at work for me. i have been filling in a contract position for the past few months at a level up from where i was, and that is going permanent - which presents a great opportunity for me.

there is more reading going on (and not just of picture books, and not just by the two adults!). m has actually finished two books this year - i will let her tell you more about it!

signal has discovered a couple new loves - Fireman Sam (the hero next door!) and the Toronto Zoo ("mama, i saw NAKED MOLE RATS at the zoo!!").

and i have found a new project to try to stick with (HA!). it's called "101 Things in 1001 Days" - which is about 2.75 years. i inadvertently started my 1001 days yesterday, by doing something that i had put on my list (which is not complete, by the way). so now i better get a move on... i had actually put "finish this list" as one of the things on the list, but i had intended to replace it with something else when i actually finished the list. now it looks like it might be a legitimate directive! but the first task is done, which was to transfer our car payment from our old bank account to our new bank account. it doesn't sound nearly so difficult now that it's done! but trust me, that was a phone call eight months in the making!! so now it will save me a biweekly drive to two banks to transfer money and the $7/month the old account cost us in fees. (let us not think about how many double cheeseburgers i could have eaten for $7/month over eight months! GAH!)

anyway, there's a little update. hopefully m has been absolved of all responsibility of being the worst blogger ever, and i have been kickstarted back into involvement!

worst blogger ever?

Okay, so I realize that I am fully falling down on the job of blogging. Why? I don't really know the answer to that question. As E has gotten older, it seems like a combination of things has led be to blog less. First, I am taking less pictures of E now. So there is less visual fodder for the blog. Second, it seems that as he grows, the number of "new" things he does is lessening. So I feel that there is less to tell you all about as well. Third, I feel like I have less time to blog. I don't really know why - I still get lots of computer time. But somehow, the blog is not really what I am drawn to right now.

Being Mommy to Signal continues to be a blast though. He's getting SO big (in size 4T and 5T clothes), is always talking up a storm, and his interests are growing and changing too. Current favourites include cars and trains, play dough, and of course, puzzles. Here are some recent pics of him and Ru working on a new floor puzzle. Try to ignore the cat hair; Zeus loves to join in when we're doing puzzles, and sheds all over them as we try to move him out of the way.

swing toddler toddler, swing!

At least once a week, Ru takes Signal to the park before I even get up out of bed. It's nice time for them to spend together, allows me to sleep in a bit, and makes for a trip outside before it gets too hot under the summer sun. His very favourite things to do at the park is swing. And swing. AND swing. Ru tells me that there are mornings that they are at the park for an hour and all Signal does is swing.

I found these pictures on the camera yesterday when I was uploading pictures to the laptop. I'm guessing that this is Ru's view for about an hour, once or twice a week. Cute as heck, but I can also see why she brings a book!



Too bad we don't have a tree to hold a swing on our property. Signal would surely be in it all the time.

m's meal plan, june 22 through 28

Geez, how did it get so long between posts again? Life has been really busy around here. With warmer weather here to stay, it seems, we've been out and about more. While I am not fan of the heat by any means, I have to admit that I love leaving the house without worrying about coats and sweaters and all that cold weather bulk.

With temperatures hovering in the mid-30s this week with the humidity factored in, I'm trying to cook by using primarily the slow cooker or the grill. Neither method heats up the house much, and that's just what we need!

Monday - Chicken kebabs, couscous and veggie kebabs
Tuesday - Easy slow cooker chili and bread
Wednesday - Salmon and shrimp with rice and broccoli
Thursday - Takeout
Friday - Groundnut stew, rice and naan
Saturday - Thai peanut satays, noodles, and snow peas
Sunday - Grilled steak, potatoes and asparagus

I hope that wherever you are, you are all beating the heat in the kitchen and avoiding toiling over a hot stove!

junk mail

Signal sure loves it when the mail comes. He always hopes that there might be a little something for him. A package, a card, some stickers. The boy has definitely inherited his Mama's love of the postal service!

The mail he loves most of all, however, is flyers. Flyers for restaurants. For grocery stores, or department stores, or even for tourist attractions. Flyers are were it's at for him. We keep a small stash in the car for when we're driving around town, because Signal inevitably asks to "read a magazine" while we're out. He's so funny.





I think that he's pretty convincing too (except for the part where he wears the flyers on his head.) With his love of all things printed, I wonder how long before he'll be recognizing sight words.