Simon says

Friday, November 28th, 2014 Yesterday we had the car, the freedom of the great open road and the wind on our sails. All that excitement led me to break out the good camera but it's so darn convoluted getting the photos onto this here blog that it been done yet. We celebrated our vehicular autonomy by heading north into the hills of Gatineau to join Catherine and baby Isaac for her birthday. It's just really nice to have someone to meet up with, something to do and a nice place to do it. I am wedded to the ideal of single car family status but there is no doubt that we would have a better time with a car at disposal. And I would spend a lot more money on drive through coffee and donuts. So that was a nice Thursday followed by a rubbish disturbed night to usher in our anniversary. Number six. Iron or candy. We were both very grumpy this morning. I'm now too tired to bore you with the details but we missed swimming as Toby slept through it in my arms, had a ...

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 My blog writing has been succinct of late.  I've been really tired.  I think it may be the lack of sun in the last few days or perhaps the treadmill of domestic chores that are never really finished.  Grumble, grumble.  We are in eager anticipation of the arrival of Grandpa Ian from Scotland next week and soon the excitement of the holiday season will lift our spirits. In the meantime we went on a top secret mission today related to Crystal's Christmas present.  She doesn't normally read my blog so she may well not see this anyway but hopefully this picture is not giving too much away.  Suffice to say what I thought would happen and what did happen were some worlds apart.  There will be a big reveal at some point around Christmas time. Satisfied bus customer.  Well he would be, he gets to ride for free and to take his own personal reclining seat along too.

Monday, November 24th, 2014 Having been cross country skiing on Saturday we went to the Children's Museum (which is amazingly excellent) on Sunday to escape the rain we then had temperatures of 18C today. This meant more rain for our bus to play group this morning and a visit to the park this afternoon.

Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 A whole week earlier than last year we took to the hills for our first cross country ski of the season.  This last week has been very wintery and the conditions were great.  However, as I write this on Sunday it is 7 degrees, most of the snow is gone and it is forecast to be 15 tomorrow.  It may be some time before we get out again.  All the more reason to be grateful for yesterday's wonder.

Friday, November 21st, 2014 Lots of words yesterday. The pictures tell the story today.

Thursday, November 20th, 2014 We struggled to get out of the house yesterday.  It was a grey, cold and really windy day and Felicity was not interested in leaving home.  She often isn't but that doesn't mean she won't enjoy it when she is out.  Plus Crystal was working at home and needed some peace.  I'm constantly thinking once for myself then once more as if I was a 2 year old with limited space-time perception and even less pre-frontal cortex emotional control.  Fortunately I give the little man zero autonomy so he just does what he's told. We did get out and they both promptly fell asleep in the car so I filled up with gas (petrol) and then drove around for about an hour.  Finally they woke up and we went to the farm.  I think there were about 5 other people in the whole place.  They got to pet the bunnies and then we went to the new Learning Centre.  I've been wanting to go in for a while, only slightly put off by the History of...

Tuesday, November 18th, 2014 Happy Birthday to Alistair and to Allison!  Anyone who accuses me of not doing my very best to raise my Canadian children in the British tradition, watch this.  When Grandma is coming around for her birthday tea what should we do Felicity?  Put on our very nicest Confiture dress (kindly donated by our friends the Anejas of B'lh'm, England), pull out our dog-earred copy of Good Housekeeping's "Cookery Book" and turn to scones.  Not an ounce of sugar goes into these little darlings (until of course you dollop half a jar or jam on each one) and they have a reassuring paucity of ingredients, relying on butter and salt to salve our taste buds.  My own Granny used to turn these things out in industrial quantities and although I did not approach her standard today, warm and fresh from the oven these were just great.  And by the way, technically the kids are dual nationality or they will be once I get around to ordering their passp...

Monday, November 17th, 2014 Look what arrived today!  No, not him.  He's been around for ages.  The snow!  The snow!  This is met by some with fear and trepidation and by others with unbridled excitement.  In all honesty there is an element of apprehension - winter is long and the cold gets painful at times and the snow and ice can be relentless and tiring.  But... it is spectacular and we live in a city that has access to one of the best cross country ski facilities in the world.  If you don't believe me I refer you to last season's photo of Shilly Shally hut .  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  This may be a flash in the pan.  In the meantime what has we been up to? I don't do the blog at weekends mainly because its purpose is somewhat negated.  I have Crystal around to share my experiences with in real time and that's how I prefer it.  The blog is to some extent my sounding board.  I've always...

Friday, November 14th, 2014 Another cold day so we decided to drop Crystal at school and head out to her parents for the day.  This meant we could do another forest walk, Felicity could see the horses, Sab could teach her all the names of the trees and she could indulge her favourite pastime, jumping off things.  We also got to enjoy Don Giovanni which fortunately is in Italian as the story seems quite inappropriate for the under-3s.   Week two draws to a close.  Lots still to work on.  I am reasonably satisfied with the mix of activities that we are doing.  Where I really want to improve is my relationship with Felicity and thus my ability to get her to want to co-operate.  It's time to do some reading.  We are both quite stubborn and I am not good at making things 'fun'.  My excuse is that I am a type 2 fun person.  This means that I derive my fun from the feeling that you get having done something, usually a long and ...

Thursday, November 13th, 2014 Yesterday we went swimming and visited the bank as a family to try to sort out their RESPs.  These are the education funds that should help pay for their post-secondary education.  What a thought, especially when you see the little man run about on the sofa in his sister's hand me down tights.  This outfit was in preparation for a chilly walk at Mud Lake. My latest challenge is dealing with Toby's new obsessive climbing tendency.  I can no longer take my eye off him for a second.  He is very sophisticated in that he will wheel his toy aeroplane over to the climbing problem that he has identified and then use it to get started on his way up.  Once on the sofa he loves to run from one end to the other but has already taken some head first dives at the carpet.  This means we have to train him not to.  Great gross motor skill development; moderate risk of brain injury. Mud Lake is very close to home and i...