This IS Awesome!

"This is awesome!" Monkey exclaims as he walks down the sidewalk pushing his Fisher Price Bubble Lawn Mower.

"This is awesome?" I question, to verify that I heard correctly.

"My lawn mower is awesome," he replies.

If you say so, not-quite-23-month-old.

Plays well with others

I have been witnessing an exciting new stage in Monkey's development this week. I saw it on Tuesday when my La Leche League Leader came over with her 3 1/2 yr old daughter, F. I saw it last night when we went to visit his little friend A who is now a big sister. I even saw it with his "best" friend T last Friday when he was over for supper with his family.

Monkey has learned to play with other kids.

He has always gotten along with, and had fun with these kids, but they were always just playing near each other, not WITH each other. It is so neat to see him letting himself get bossed around by the girls and chase around with T. This opens up a whole new world for him. Well, and for me too. I won't have to be constantly refereeing when kids come over ("It's okay if she plays with that toy, Monkey, you have lots of others"). And T's mom and I can relax a bit when the boys are together. Good times.


This weekend is our town's "Random Food Item Festival" (you know, like Plum Fest, Corn and Apple Festival, Sunflower Festival, Pumpkin Fair, Honey Garlic & Maple Syrup Festival - is this just a Southern Manitoba thing or do you have food name festivals where you live?) We will try to get to the petting zoo this afternoon and take in the parade tomorrow morning. Monkey will be equally excited about the fire trucks as the pipe bands.

This boy has a vast knowledge of a variety of musical instruments (no surprise I guess.) Give him two sticks and one becomes a violin and the other a bow. He has three lengths of pipe insulating foam that make a remarkably convincing set of bagpipes. ('Poor boy,' you say, 'does he have no real toys to play with?') He even sets up a pretend gamelan to play. I'm not kidding. "Playing gamm-o-lans!" he exclaims. His creativity astounds me every day.

Wishing you all a great weekend. Here's hoping your kids are all as fun as mine!

ooohh, my side!

I came across a new blog. And it is the funniest thing in the history of hilarity.

If you have some time, read a whole bunch of posts. There's a cumulative effect with the funny.

I am not kidding. Very. Very. Funny.

Row, Row, Row your Boat

So, I should be posting about all the stuff we did on holidays this week, but there are more pressing matters. As I'm sure you are all aware, the Olympics will begin in 3 days. I'm not a huge Olympic follower (and will not be watching much of it at all this year, seeing as we don't get CBC on our TV.) The summer Olympics, especially, have never held much interest for me. But these Olympics, the 2008 Olympics, hold a special place for me. And for Bren.

It must have been during the 1996 Games in Atlanta that the two of us, enjoying our summer break between grades 11 and 12, got really excited about rowing. We watched all the races on TV. And somewhere in our research we discovered that rowers usually reach their peak at around 28 years of age. "Well", we said, "there will be summer Olympics in 2008. We'll be 28 and 29 then. We should TOTALLY become rowers."

Now, the two of us, I am not ashamed to say, were choir geeks. (The picture is from a photo of our high school choir executive committee, which we were both on, of course.) We were not jocks. Sooooo far from it. (well, Bren did play JV Basketball) But for whatever reason we thought we would be cut out for rowing. We decided that we would join a rowing club, learn to row, and compete in the 2008 Summer Games. (Then we could get tattoos with the Canada flag and the Olympic rings. Cool.)

Unfortunately, for all our enthusiasm we didn't get very far with our plan. We drove to Minnedosa one Saturday to watch one race. I seem to recall fashioning some sort of elaborate strength training gizmo out of rubber bands. And now it is 2008 and we are the farthest thing from rowers you could ever imagine.

However, we have had a stroke of luck! Because of the fact that the Olympics are in China this year, and, if we were actually Olympic caliber athletes, we would have boycotted the games anyway, we are able to say: The reason we are not rowing in the 2008 Olympic Games is officially NOT because we don't know how to row.

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity.

It's true. We hadn't used our air conditioner at all until yesterday, and it was only about 22 degrees (Celsius, of course.) Unfortunately the humidity was about 687% and out poor little dehumidifier couldn't keep up. Now, I know we didn't *have* to turn it on, but I was getting a little sick of the feeling of my feet sticking to the floor. Today it is supposed to be hotter, but still very humid, so the air is running again. Boo-urns.

The thing is, it really IS the humidity. We spent three weeks in a city in Central Asia in July, 2004 and it was HOT. We are talking 40 degrees, 50 downtown. But it wasn't humid. We certainly still felt the effects of the heat, but it was quite bearable. It is NEVER hot without being humid in Manitoba.

In other news, Monkey is quite taken with this chap these days. I'm afraid that's my influence. Did anyone else watch this when they were younger?

In other news, the Music Man has holidays this coming week. Yay! We have some small-ish plans. The Folk Fest in my home town, a couple days of tenting (we'll see how that goes. Otherwise known as a blog post waiting to happen...), and, hopefully, some time to just chill out.

Take care. Keep cool.

a cup of sugar, or two

Alack, posting has been slim once again. This despite the fact that we have been up to lots of exciting* stuff around here. (Grandma's Miniature Farm! New Sandbox! Strawberry picking! Resulting Jam! THE ZOO!) But something just happened that made me (almost) stop doing the dishes to come post about it immediately...

Our neighbour came over to BORROW TWO CUPS OF SUGAR. I thought that only happened on TV. But apparently, it also happens in Manitoba. Just thought you'd like to know. (His wife was making jam. That's how it would happen at our house too. Me: I'm out of sugar. Music Man: Go ask the neighbour for some. Me: No, you go.)

* in relation to our regular activities, such as Watching Bob the Builder and Walking to the Mailbox.

I was tagged by Bren and Beck for this meme. (tagged by Beck, I'm, like, a real blogger now!) This post will continue on the theme of me being boring. Enjoy.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

I was working two jobs while on summer break from university- (really crappy) waitress and toy store clerk. I was also mere months away from meeting my future husband.

2. What are five things on your "To Do" List?

1. Have more kids.
2. Pay off debt.
3. Learn to play the violin (my Grandpa was an old-time fiddle player and I now am in possession of one of his fiddles, but I can't play it. Well, technically I can play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
4. Perform in a musical, preferably Little Shop of Horrors.
5. finish hemming the curtains that have been sitting in my laundry room for weeks.

3. What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. chocolate chips.
2. chocolate chip cookies.
3. chocolate cake.
4. chocolate ice cream.
5. chocolate.

4. Name some things that you would do if you were a millionaire.

Pay off debt (see above). Give some money to my family. Set my kids up for university. Do a bit of traveling. Give the rest away. (Frankly, I don't think I would ever want to be a millionaire. Too much responsibility. A hundreds-of-thousands-aire, maybe.)

5. Name some places you've lived.

A whole bunch of places in Manitoba (including such metropolises as Grandview and Otterburne). Edinburgh, Scotland.


6.Name some bad habits you have.

N/A

7. Name some jobs you've had.

K-Mart Cashier. Toy Store clerk. Waitress (see above). Camp Counselor. Administrative Assistant. Educational Assistant. Piano Teacher. Voice Teacher. Cleaner.


8. Tag some people:

Heidi and Pieces

(help! I can't un-italicize this post!)