Spring is here!

Hi all, the snow is finally gone and weed season has begun! Here are a few photos of the girls and you'll see in the background some shots of our recently finished basement (yay, my main floor no longer looks like the toy aisle in a department store after a Boxing Day sale! Now my basement looks like the toy aisle in a department store after a Boxing Day sale).

Below are the girls after picking them up from daycare last night (usually I need to start the DVD player before I can get them into the van). Last night I showed them how to blow the seeds off a dandelion - A managed to ingest a few before she got the hang of it). When we got home, I found the remnants of the stem in E's mouth, A confirmed she ate hers as well - apparently dandelions are a tasty toy.















The girlies putting their shoes on this morning - notice E's intense focus in getting the job done and A waiting for Daddy to do it.
















A dialing for pizza while shopping with her dolly in the basement.
















E plays "peek-a-boo". Meanwhile note A in the background in the next shot calling Grandma M.
















Thing 1 (A) with bus and Thing 2 (E) with plane















A hides behind her umbrella while rabbit-ear E opens hers. A working in the construction zone.
















E takes a picture of Dad (thankfully she can't post hers - yet).
















A (left) and E enjoy their new flutes a little too much (Ah Tylenol work your magic....)

















The girls in their Sunday dresses (not so easy to get them to sit still for pictures anymore).

E wearing her lovely robe from Great-Aunts in NB (not so easy getting them both to wear robes at the same time - "no want it" is a phrase I hear a lot these days, usually followed by the flinging of whatever item they "no want" across the room).

A has also mastered logic at age almost-three. One day at the table she pronounced "I no push E, I no sit naughty chair, I be happy!" If only she took to her own advice. A is a bit of an agitator - if she is bored she will tap E to get something started. E will occasionally start something but mostly it is A. Sounds a bit like my mom and her older sister...

Happy Referral Day

Hi all,

Last Monday was the 2nd anniversary of the date that DoT and I received our referral for E and A. So, as a tradition that I hope to carry on yearly, I took their pictures holding one of their referral photos.

Uh, yeah, so for those of you who remember last year's post on the anniversary of the day we got them (See the July 2nd post in the archives - http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html) you may remember that I wasn't clued in enough to comb their hair for the photo. Let's just say, some things never change....

K..

Signs of Spring

A couple of weeks ago I thought spring would never get here. We had more snow in Ottawa this winter, than I remember ever having. Not enough to set a record, apparently, but we were close. (Incidentally, I don't feel the need to break the current snowfall record.) Here are some pictures I took a few weeks ago when we all went out for a walk...

This is A and DoT walking down our street...

And this was the front of our house...

Finally, this was what we saw when we looked out our front door...

But, happily, the snow is now starting to melt. Today we went for another walk, and the streets were bare enough that we could pull the girls in the wagon. (That lasted for about five minutes, and then E had to get out and stomp through all the puddles.)

Here is a picture of our front yard today...

And look!!!...

In the strip of flowerbed that is exposed (right beside our driveway) we have a lot of spring bulbs that are up. I wonder if we'll have flowers before all the snow is gone.

So, since our last post, we've had a couple of holidays... St. Patrick's Day and Easter. On St. Patrick's Day, our caregiver had told us to dress the girls in green. That morning I discovered that I don't have a lot of green clothes for the girls. E ended up in an outfit that I'd saved from last year (since it was a bit big and I thought she might still fit into it this spring and summer). Clearly she's grown (usually it is A whose belly is hanging out, but not this time) ...

And here, finally, are a few picks from Easter weekend. The girls were fortunate enough to be at two Easter egg hunts. The first one was in Shakespeare (grandma and grandpa G. are in-the-know when it comes to fun social outings). A got right into it...

But E wanted to be carried around most of the time. Here is her favourite position...

The second egg hunt took place at grandma and grandpa G's house...

Here are E and A collecting up their eggs ...

And here they are discovering that there were M&Ms or skittles inside them!!

Well, that's it for today. Happy spring everyone!

When Will Winter End?

Greetings from snowy Ottawa. We have been outdoors a lot lately but always with shovel in hand, so most of these pics are from inside. That being said, every night when we get home, the girls ask to "shovel driveway?" That wouldn't be so bad except their definition of shovelling is taking snow off the driveway and dumping it into the garage. We are also in the midst of having our basement finished, so there is a "before" picture listed for comparison. The girls also ask at least once a night to see the basement, to make sure they haven't missed anything. Well that's it for now, hopefully next time we post the snow will be melting. Bye for now - DoT

Chinese New Year and other events

Hi again,

So, it's been over a month since our last blog update. And we've been social butterflies. This year we went to two Lunar New Year parties. The truly wonderful thing about the parties this year is the fact that the girls had great times playing with all their little friends, and not clinging to DoT or I. That was a nice change from parties of the past.

Here are a few pictures from one of the parties. (I know I took my camera to the second party, too, but I can't seem to find any of my pictures from it.)

First, A climbing through a tunnel...

Next, both girls riding a toy horse...

And finally, the couch shot that needs to be taken anytime we have a get together...

Also this month, we had a visit from DoT's cousin Devan. The girls took to him right away, and were sorry to see him go. For the next couple of days they kept asking where Devan was and didn't really seem to understand why he'd want to go off back to school instead of staying to live with them. :-)

The other big news around here is that we are finishing our basement (or at least part of it). We've been wanting to do that for awhile, but haven't gotten to it. But push finally came to shove and we decided that it really is time to reclaim the house from all the toys that seem to have taken over it. So we're building (well I guess actually our contractors are building) a playroom, washroom and guest bedroom in the basement.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'll close off with the photo that went out on our Chinese New Year cards this year (which some of you have therefore already seen)..

Happy Year of the Rat!

K..

Happy New Year!

We're back. We had a great Christmas in southern Ontario this year. And, of course, the girls made out like bandits in the gift haul. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, caregivers, and friends from the daycare all had gifts for the girls (and, yes, DoT and I got a few gifts too). E and A had a fabulous time opening their gifts. It was really fun listening to them exclaim "wow!" when opening the presents, and they seemed to want to play with them all right away. And here we are two and a half weeks later and the gifts haven't lost their charm yet.

The following photos show the girls with one of their favourite gifts this year. Grandma and grandpa G bought them little, glittzy shoes and purses. There were three pairs of shoes and three matching bags. They just love putting on the shoes and clonking around the kitchen in them. Oh yes, the sunglasses were a popular gift, too.

Over the holidays, DoT also took the girls out sledding on the huge pile of snow we had from shovelling the driveway (we have a lot less snow now, after getting several days of rain). Here they are getting ready to tackle the hill (note: the concentration on DoT's face, evident from the tell-tale tongue)...

Then, at the bottom of the hill, where your ride comes to an abrupt end by running into the bank on the opposite side of the driveway. The girls seem to have enjoyed the ride... not so sure about DoT. :-)

And finally, one last shot of the happy family (without the photographer)...

Wishing you all a year of peace, health and happiness.

K...

Feliz Navidad!

Hi again all,

Another snow-filled day for us in eastern Ontario, but I understand it has hit southern Ontario pretty hard too. DoT was outside and shovelled our driveway earlier today (there was a lot of snow then), but as it was still snowing, and will continue through the night, it seems we'll be up early shovelling before work again tomorrow. Hopefully (probably), DoT will do it. I've been up with E for about 1.5 hours each night, in the middle of the night, the past two nights. I'm hoping tonight is better, but given that it is now after 10:00 p.m. and she is still up, it's not looking too good. So I'm feeling somewhat sleep deprived these days.

I've finally gotten around to uploading the video I took of A and E singing the ABCs. (Blogger now lets you upload a video directly (goodbye YouTube!). Just click on the video box below, and then click the "play" button.

Tonight after giving the girls a bath, I decided to cut their hair. I'm not sure why I thought that was a good idea. It might have had something to do with the fact that it cost me $10 per kid to have a hairdresser cut their hair the last time we did it, and it took her less than a minute to do it. So, I thought, how hard can it be. Well, it turns out A and E don't care much for sitting still, no matter how much I beg, plead, or threaten. So, I cut their hair in less than a minute too. And I don't think it turned out too badly. Maybe tomorrow I'll take a couple pictures of them and let you be the judge.

Given my posting history of late, it's doubtful I'm going to get another blog update here before Christmas. So, I'll leave you with this picture and wish all of you a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy 2008!