And We're Back....

This sad sad lonely blog has stood here neglected for far to long. With the solitary reason being, nothing exciting is happening... There's a lot of park, beach, splash pad, nap, back yard pool rinse repeat going on. For realz.

But this weekend we packed up and went to Toronto island for the morning. We had an excellent plan of getting up at our regular time, grabbing the 8:45 ferry and cruising around for a few hours. But our alarm didn't go off. And by alarm I mean the rooster that sleeps in the crib in the next room. Never fear, we made the 9:30 ferry. Which ended up being the wrong ferry, we accidently took the Hanlon's Point ferry. So we got a quick tour of the clothing optional beach. (Just kidding, nudie beaches are for Greece, and not Toronto where you could possibly run into some one you know).

Stella and Jeff at the site of Babe Ruth's first professional home run


We walked the entire length of the island from Hanlon's point to Ward's island, checked out the cottages and then stopped for a delicious picnic. Stella rode the carousel for the first time on a Zeb-ra, while we got dizzy.

We'll definitely be back for some more beach time and picnicing!



On the pier



Merry-Go-Round!



Ferry ride home

Bedtime thoughts

It started with just thinking about light fixtures, which led me to think about how much I like my ceiling fan which suddenly brought forward the idea of how much I love my house. My home full of all its quirks; raw naked light bulbs, floor boards that don't quite meet the wall and leave a lovely little gap where cheerios and screws accumulate and hundreds upon thousands of creaky floor boards that are much much much older than me.

And I love every.single.one of those quirks. When we bought this house we stretched ourselves to the max to get into it and as a million months pregnant me said as I directed the movers from my seat on the front porch "I'm never ever moving again". I love that this house was a blank slate and we could do every little bit ourselves. (Which I sometimes curse as I look for hours and days and weeks for the perfect light fixture to hang in the hallway). its going to take years to get there, but we've got all the time in the world. It's reassuring to know that if it doesn't all get done this year, there will be plenty of chores to keep us busy for many years.

Not only do we have a perfect house, it's in the perfect neighbourhood. The coffee shop where one of Jeff's favourite musicians used to go to, the ice cream shop where we're going to walk for after dinner cones when the munchkin is bigger.

But what I love the most is that this house will tell the story of our life as a family. Our future, and our children's future will take place in this home. We'll have talks around the kitchen table (hopefully someday I'll find a kitchen table that we didn't inherit with a house), play games in the backyard and have many many holidays here.




PS. In case you're wondering, the solution to gaps between floor boards and walls is white duct tape.

March Madness

One last blog for the month.

March has been insane. Pure madness. My schedule was bad. Real bad. Just the way that things were coming up, I had to work two weekends, have one off, then 2 more. So I was instead of working 2 shifts one week and 4 the next, I was working repeated weeks with 4 twelve hour shifts. That by itself would have been difficult, but we had much much more to deal with.

My wonderful father in law has been in the hospital for the last 24 days. Finally this week it feels like some of the strain is lifting. It was wonderful to walk in to his room this weekend and see him more awake, engaging with us and even smiling.

These challenges have shown us how good we are together. Jeff and I have both been doing considerable amounts of "solo-ing". Luckily we've had a lot of help so that Jeff can spend as much time as he needs at the hospital.

Over this month Stella's vocabulary has taken off, she's a little mimic monkey:

Up/Down, All done, Apple, pear, Boo Bee (blueberry), Banana (nanana and it has to be whispered), Happy, Bounce, hat, meeps (mittens), goat (coat), boots, socks, shoes, dog.

She can also tell us animal noises, moo, meow meow meow, bah.

Some days I feel like I have an echo!



Here we are on my birthday, my favourite picture for the month!

Learning Curve

Jeff gave me a gift card to Henry's so I could buy myself a new camera lens (Though, when I mentioned I wanted a new lens, he said "Another one?"). My Nikon 50mm F1.8 came this week. I'm madly in love. However, it's damn hard to use.

Shooting with such a large aperature leads to a very narrow field of focus and a moving target tends to move in and out of that very quickly. But look how pretty the colours look! And all the gorgeous details.





This young man is a good sport, he'll sit still for TWO SECONDS.











BUSY BUSY BUSY


Sometimes you just have to wait for this to happen. Night Night Friends.




Which is good, cause then this happens....

Hello?

Spring? Are you out there? We bought a new trike and desperately want to try it out. We promise we'll spend ridiculous amounts of time outside and jump in puddles and we won't take you for granted at all. Please. Please?



Maybe this will entice you...

I have a new obsession

And I'm a huge nerd. I'm obsessed with quilts. I spent my evening reading about quilts. I badly want/need a new walking foot to start doing more machine quilting.

First Project of 2011

Here is my first finished project of the year! One of my New Year's resolutions was to make sure I finished a project before I started a new one. So I've been working very hard to finish up this sweater for Stella. The wool and pattern were a gift from Auntie Alicia, nicer wool that I would normally buy, and perfect for a new colour that Stella hasn't worn before.

What's up next? I'm hoping to try my hand at real quilting!

Things I Love

My Love


My Little Love

My Home


My Family















I heard a lovely little quote the other day.
"Valentine's Day isn't about I love you, it's about I love Us".

That pretty much sums up how I feel this year!

Welcome to the Toddlerdome.

For a slow starter in the moving department, this kid has taken off.

And by taken off I mean she's moving like the title character in "Night of the Living Baby", aka "Bride of Frankenbaby".

But she's into every thing, running with scissors, wearing plastic bags like hats. Today I found a big pile of toys in the bathroom garbage. Jeff and I were washing dishes and in two seconds she'd flown upstairs. She's a wild woman.

And we're loving every second. I swear she said Yaba Daba Doo tonight.

Mexico

There's nothing like a vacation when you know it's going to be a long long time before you get another one. This vacation involved doing almost nothing except reading trashy novels, drinking pina coladas (out of straws to avoid too much heading tipping) and enjoying each other's company.

There's not really anything else to say cause we really did absolutely nothing. Just came home feeling refreshed and renewed.

They call it work for a reason

Work sucks.

Well sometimes.

I guess it would be called fun if it was great all the time. Today was just one.of.those.days. The kind that are frustrating, and inconvenient, and the kind where I call from the OR waiting room at 5pm cause I haven't eaten lunch and I've just gotten another dirty look from a fancy pants surgeon because he's annoyed that I/the collective nursing brain have not done something that should have been done(and should have been done on the weekend while I was still lying on a beach in Mexico), and I'm threatening to quit (jokingly). And I'm dragged into the OR to help, my most hated place in the world.

Argh.

Good thing tomorrows a home day and we're going to swimming lessons!

PS. This little picture buzzed my pockets at 6pm when steam started coming out my ears like a little tea kettle.

Book Worm.

We currently have an obsession with reading at this house. Little books spread far and wide across every room. We pile them up in stacks on the shelves and in corners of the room. You turn your back and they've magically been thrown across the floor again. A little person brings you a little book to read, only to get 3 pages in and the hunt continues for another book. She pretends to read them, speaking out loud and pointing at each page and using her special language. But she'd be way more convinicing if the book wasn't upside down.


PS. The poor child sprouted 3 teeth this week. Poor babes.

Hello Reno.

After a lot of hard work, our attic space is finally done!

Here's a little before:




This is the way the previous owners had it.

The reno's involved:
*Jeff tearing down all the wall and having insulation snow down on him.
*Snow shovelling all the insulation and busted particle board/cardboard walls into 50 garbage bags
*Kirsten negotiate with a man to take them away and then getting a phone call that it would cost us an extra $100 because they were radioactive.
*Arranging for some one to drywall, going on vacation, and coming back to find they had drywalled a wall that was supposed to be, and several built-in shelves thusly getting a deal.
*Painting. Then having the drywall tape peel, and then repainting after it got fixed.
*Wall papering (the funnest part, seriously)
*Buying non-toxic, super baby friendly corn carpet
*New fireplace, side table, lamp, and comfy chair
*New baseboards
*New curtains and pillow sewn.



And the stripping was finally done.



All for you baby!





Jeff being humble about his hard work!




Ridiculous family self portrait

Busy busy....

I guess one of my New Year's resolutions is going to have to be keeping the blog updated. Life is going by so quickly that it's nice to be able to look back at our little moments.

Christmas was a whirlwind around here. I worked nights over the holiday so there was a lot of coffee and naps to get through. We had a blast though. Stella wasn`t into opening presents, but she`s definitly enjoying the new toys. Nanna and Poppy got her a new play kitchen and she has a blast putting ALL her toys in the play oven. Stella`s in a really big putting things inside other things phase. Yesterday afternoon she tried to stuff her sock in Jeff`s mouth. I think she was trying to tell him something.

We`re also in an anyday kind of mode for walking. She`s been cruising like mad around the furniture and sometimes even has steps along without holding on. She`s basically walking, but just doesn`t quite realize it yet.




Our new favourite word is UhOh, which we hear about 10 thousand times a day. Other words this week are Da-da, baby, buh-bye and Esh (which must be something cause she says it all the time, but we have yet to figure out its meaning).

So Happy New Year from the Lewis`!

PS. I looked back and realized I accomplished all my resolutions for 2010!