Visitors

Hey there are bubbles in there!

I'm really far behind in my blogging but I'm finally getting some photos up.

March was incredibly busy with all our visitors, and a couple of surprise visitors, between our all our illnesses. Thankfully all the illnesses are gone and hopefully won't be back! We haven't been up to much due to being house-bound.


Grandma helping me on the snowy slide.

Opa was out for his return visit after his ski vacation and able to give us a hand by finishing our cedar shed in the front. Now we have four sides to it and can shut the door! What a novelty! I can also empty out the shed in the back and get rid of it!


I sat down at Beacon Hill Park and instantly had a new friend in my lap who decided to have a nap!


Hey! I remember you from last time, your Mark!

A distant cousin, Helene, was in town with a friend, Jessie, for a couple days. It was really nice to catch up with Helene since I haven't seems her for almost 20 years. They also got to see a little action in Victoria on the way to the duck pond. There was apparently a bank robbery that had just happened and the suspects decided to ditch their car at the pond. That meant that the last 15 feet that we needed to walk to the pond and the 1/2 hour total trip, turned into an extra 5 km and 2 hours before we made it back home. I don't think they were expecting so much excitement! Unfortunately Kian was really sick while they were visiting.


A very sick little Boo with Helene.


Introducing Helene and Jessie to my duck friends.

We had a surprise call from Tasha and Wayne, who were in town for a week. We were able to meet up and have a couple meals together and take in some sights in Victoria, namely Beacon Hill petting zoo, lieutenant governor's residence and the inner harbour. It was nice to see some familiar faces and catch up on the big city news.


Inner harbour with some surprise visitors.


At Barb's Diner with Auntie Tasha and Uncle Wayne.

Other than that the big accomplishment has been to get rid of the BIG pile of yard waste that has been decorating our front lawn since we moved in! Oh, and the freezer that has been decorating our back yard as well! The yard waste was three large pickup trucks full! Unfortunately that wasn't even a dent in the stuff we have to do in the garden and I'm sure we are going to have another big pile at the end of the driveway soon. I'm sure the neighbours will be really impressed.....


Octopus.....(not a great photo-taken through the window-but cute helping daddy garden)

Sick, Sick, Sick....

Sharing some chocolate milk with daddy.

Well March hasn't started off all that well. I think that we just aren't used to the new germs and bugs out here and have to build up an immunity.

The 2nd of March brought grandma out to Victoria for a visit. It started off well with a trip to the petting zoo to see the baby goats and to music class, which Kian loves. Unfortunately that didn't last long because the flu came to join us and slowly it leveled the household for over a week. Poor grandma got to see a lot of the inside of our house and not so much of the fun stuff that we usually do. Grandma and Kian were sick first and then I was followed by Mark and now Kian, again. I'm hoping March is over soon and so is all this sick stuff!


Kisses from the baby goats

New friend.

This week we have another house full of visitors. (Hopefully they don't all get to take our "gifts" home with them!) A distant relative of mine from Germany is here for a couple days with a friend, on her way across Canada and the States. It's really nice to see Helene after almost 20 years! Hopefully they are enjoying their time here and it looks like the weather has cleared up just for them today!

The end of the week brings Opa back to Victoria for a visit. It's hard to believe that two months have already gone by since he was here in January! He has spend the last two months skiing in Vernon and, I'm assuming, loving it! Guess it is almost time to get back to reality! I know we are going to have a list of "fix-it" projects when he arrives on Friday!

It looks like April might be back to normal for us before May brings that next bunch of visitors. We love seeing all of you out here!

Just a nice photo.

Photo Update

So I'm a little slow with the blogging lately. Things are busier now that I have two little munchkins during the day and photo taking seems to be the last thing on my mind.


Yeah! My favourite snack!


digging.....


What?


This is the best!

Kian is 18 months old today. ( Wow, that went by fast! ) As a special treat he got to go and get his 18 month shots today....he wasn't too impressed. He was really good and got some stickers and a temporary tattoo. He even got to skip the bath tonight so that his tattoo stayed on a little longer. Tomorrow daddy is home and we will take him swimming so it will make up for today. He is now 82.5 cm tall (that's 32.5 inches) and 26 lbs (12 kg). At the clinic there was a set of twins who also had their shots today so the mom and I were talking for a few minutes afterwards. It turns out the twins are 22 and 24 lbs and only 7 1/2 months old! I think I would be a body builder by now having to carry them around all day!

What's been happening here? Not all that much exciting. It has been really nice out lately. 10 degrees and sunny, gorgeous actually! Kian and I have been spending more and more time outside playing and gardening. Yes, gardening in February. Going for walks to the park. He loves the park and has started climbing on things that I thought were for much bigger kids. Guess I was wrong! Yesterday he spent about half an hour just running across the soccer fields. It wore him out nicely for a long afternoon nap.

A few weekends ago we finally managed to get the old dog house taken apart and the fence that was flapping in the wind taken down ( only to realize the the rest of it should also come down!). Now we are on the hunt for a utility trailer and a hitch, figuring that will probably be more useful to us in the long run than buying a truck we really don't want. We are thinking about all the things we want to do and the best place to start. Definitely insulation in the walls is a must this year!


Gardening with mom.


Helping daddy with the fence.

We did manage to make it down to Chinatown a few weekends ago to see the parade. Here are some photos.

Fishing for lions.

Sleeping lion.

Potholes, Potties, Policemen and Pianos

Magic suit! Keeps the mud off and wind out! Just plop child in and go!


My new favourite photo! Kian's new favourite snack Nutella with apples. I might have to start putting him in the magic suit BEFORE he eats this!

Ok, we start with Potholes....I have never in my life lived in a place that reports on which street the potholes are! CBC reports the weather (which is the same everyday...somewhere between 0 and 10 and partly cloudy) and then has the pothole report. Crazy! Can you imagine if they reported every pothole in Ottawa! I think people would be afraid to go out!

Kian has big news this week. Yesterday he has his first adventure on the potty and LOVED it! In fact, I had a hard time getting him off the pot once he was done! We have had a potty out for him since he was 11 months old because he has known how to take his diaper off since then. He usually would just play around it and occasionally I would find toys in there but yesterday he finally decided to use the big boy's toilet. Guess he isn't a little boy any more!



Mark and I decided to take Kian swimming together for a change this morning. We were a bit confused as to why half our road was shut off and took a bit of a detour to the pool. There was another section of road that was cut off and a cruiser waiting at the traffic light with a cop telling people something. It couldn't have been a murder or anything because the most violent year there has been in Victoria was last year with ONE homicide! We were shocked to hear that there was BLACK ICE...can you imagine? The cops here really have nothing to do I think.


All dressed up!


Who's that guy?

And so we come to pianos... I think we are going to be getting a piano sometime. We were invited to our first Victoria wedding today. For some reason (maybe regrettably!) children were welcome to come. Our little monster corrupted all the other children into playing the piano and then running around like a broken wind-up toy for three hours! People were wondering how the shy little boy who arrived could become SOOO crazy in so little time. He crashed pretty hard... particularly after the high chair fell on him.... What a nice early night for us to relax, read a book and finally get some more photos on the blog!


The monster and his new friends. Corrupted them he did!


Monster bums!


Important business to conduct at U Vic. Someone is going to be a little confused as to why they can't reach their voice mail since Kian saved some changes he made while conducting his business.


January 19th, yes those are flowers blooming and the rodos are blooming too.....


Those are golfers on Jan 17th.... they don't go away here!

First Haircut (and other photos)!

Well it looks as if our little boy is really growing up (sniff!). He was starting to look at me and blink non-stop because his hair was in his eyes all the time. Mark and I thought that we better get Kian a haircut before someone calls Child services! I decided to check with First Choice Haircuts because I was next door, and as much as they said the first cut was free, the boy leaving the place didn't look that great and he had to pay for his cut! Needless to say we did not go there but decided that Kian had to go to Jimmy's, a real barber shop - the kind with the spinney thing out front - for his first cut.


Waiting with dad









He did great! When we first walked in all the chairs were full but Kian got to watch all the other men get a haircut and get used to the idea. I think the other patrons were a little concerned that he would be crying and we got a lot of comments on how good he was when we were leaving. He sat on my lap during his cut, because he was too small for the chair, and was smiling and interested in everything the barber was doing. He even got the clippers, which I was sure was going to make him cry, but he sat incredibly still and did everything the barber asked him to do. The clippers at home don't get the same reaction...

Out in the snow!


Cara and Avery


Sledding with dad, and not liking it very much.

Christmas (and lead up to it)

Cooking up a storm!


Well we are a little behind in the blogging with the lead up to Christmas. It has been snowing here like crazy and that has changed some of our plans as we have had to go out to shovel instead of doing whatever it was that we had planned. It is most unusual that most people in Victoria do not own a snow shovel and do not have a scraper for their car. (I actually had to stop someone from pouring hot water on their windshield the other day! I thought everyone knew what would happen if you did that!) Our snow shovel is actually rented out at the moment. And Mark didn't want to move it...!

Shoveling snow


The dining room is not quite finished, as was hoped, due to the weather, but good enough to use for our first Christmas in the house. (Getting out to get supplies was a bit of a challenge with the snow and the fact that everything closes down when it snows.) This is the first white Christmas in Victoria since 1971.....we have been blamed for it by just about everyone now.

Sunrise outside our window


Kian and I baked cookies and then he went out with dad to chop down the tree. I think Jim and Shelagh next door thought we were kidding when we told them which tree we were going to use as a Christmas tree. (It did look a little better once Kian decorated it!) Santa did come to visit and Kian was thrilled with all the things he got. He loves his little horsey and the kitchen that he got from Renee and Darcy. He has been very busy lately. I think he knew Santa was coming!

Making cookies


Come on dad, lets go get our tree!


Will this fit on my sled?


And Cheryl thought their tree looked like a "Charlie Brown tree'....


Checking the decorations




Kian grew a centimeter in the last month and got two of his eye teeth. I think the other two are shortly on the way. He seems to be just shy of toilet training. He has started telling us now when he needs a new diaper and today he told us just before he needed one. I think we are making progress! He is also FINALLY sleeping the entire night in his own bed and going to bed on his own, although he has decided that his security blanket is my dressing gown!

Hope you are all well and got everything you asked for from Santa!

Santa brought me a horsey


Opening presents with dad


Opening presents with mom


Dinner at Auntie Renee's and Uncle Darcy's

Snow! ... and Santa!

Time continues to fly and Christmas is almost upon us. It was a big weekend here in Victoria. First we went to a breakfast with Santa at the Gordon Head Community Centre where there were lots of crafts. Santa was a bit late and when he arrived he was swarmed with kids (so we couldn't get a good photo). Then we ran into Santa again at Mayfair mall (and that Santa looked much more authentic...real beard and all).

Sunday we woke up to nearly 10 cm of snow! I know, I thought we were immune to that here but I guess someone thought those of us recently transplanted from Ontario needed a taste of home. Kian really enjoyed playing in the snow, and riding on his sled down the driveway. He got going so fast that he started to pass Mom and Dad (whoever was pulling him).

Doing crafts at the breakfast with Santa



Hi Santa...look Mom here's Santa.



I think that I know this story...



My snow suit still fits!



Faster Mommy faster!



Wheee!



Let's go again!



Down the hill with Daddy this time!