Summer Travels - Part 1

Hello everyone, yes I know it has been a while since we updated - it has been a busy summer. Here are some of the photos we took while in NB:

DoT and Grandpa M with E...
















Great-Aunt L and Great-Uncle F visit the girls as they eat that nutritional snack - cheesies!

















E peeps out from the doorway...
















The girls model the hats Uncle J bought them (he is in Oklahoma).
















A family shot from Great Grandma's 90th birthday party (or as the girls called her - great big grandma).
















Walking down to the river....
















The traditional NB greeting - leis and ballet skirts

















A walking up the road towards Grandma M's house

















DoT and his brothers walk (swing) the girls down the road
















Uncle P with the girls...
















The girls enjoy KD on their new trays from Great-Aunt D

















Hard at work in Grandma's pool
















E waits for mom
















The girls entertain at the party
















Playing in the tunnel at McDonald's (or Ronald Donald's as they call it).
















E enjoys watching her new friend M play a game
















A hams it up for the camera

















DoT with Great Grandma and A

















The girls present Great Grandma with flowers (notice A's curtsie)
















Cousin J and Great-Aunt K

















Great-Grandma and the girls
















E hams it up for the camera
















The girls get a reprieve from the long van ride back to Ottawa (stopping at Tims of course).

















Uncle J and the girls
















DoT's Mom and Dad

Enjoying summer

Hi again all --

So, we've been busy enjoying summer now that it has finally arrived. We had a wet spring here and it feels like it has only warmed up and dried off in the last couple of weeks. So we've been taking full advantage.

Two weekends ago we returned to the Proulx family farm, but this time for strawberry picking. The girls enjoyed picking the strawberries, but even more so they liked eating them (as you can tell from E's shirt and A's mouth in this picture...

And of course while we were at the farm we had to go down the "big slide" a bunch of times too. Here are the girls and I trying to avoid the tree at the bottom of the slide. A's hat had just blown off so she was a bit distracted...

We've also enjoyed the slide and swings at our local parks...

The girls have graduated from the steps to climbing the ladder, or scaling the rock wall, to get to the slide. I'm a bit more nervous about this than they are...

We also bought them tricycles this year, and they love putting on their (too big) helmets and pedalling around the neighbourhood..

Finally, we spent Canada Day by a friend's pool (thanks CB!) enjoying the sun and their barbeque. It took a long time to coax the girls into the pool, but once they'd tried it out we had a hard time getting them out. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them in the pool, but here's one of E wearing her "cape" (they both thought it was fun wearing their towels like capes that afternoon).

Happy belated Canada Day, everyone. And happy 2nd Family Day (July 2nd), A & E!!!

K.

A New Addition to Our Family!!

Hello everyone some exciting news yesterday - K got the call from Children's Bridge that we have been matched up with a little boy from China - B. We hope to travel to pick him up this December or January. He is from Guangdong province -- see the map below (the island of Hong Kong is just a short distance away - so about as far south in China as you can get).



He has a cleft lip (repaired) and a cleft palate (to be repaired in Canada) and two wild older twin sisters (he hasn't met yet). He will be 14 months old at the end of this month. B was born on April 26, 2007.

We think some of these photos are older than others (certainly older than his 6.5 month old medical report - it said he had no teeth and in one photo, when you zoom in, it looks like he has a mouth full). The 6.5 month report said he weighed about 16-17 pounds (the girls only weighed that at a year old) and his height was 70 cm (apparently in the top 25% for height, at least for Chinese kids). It also said his sleep was moderate and that he goes to bed at 10 PM and gets up at 6 AM (K groaned at those). He is apparently "active, outgoing and has a ready smile" (perhaps he can survive his sisters yet). It said he was crawling and could support his weight if you helped him stand up - so he may be walking by the time we get him (he would be 20-21 months old by then).

We will keep you posted if anymore info becomes available (when travel plans firm up etc).

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...