just a few

I'm short on sleep, so photos is all there'll be for tonight... fingers crossed that the babies have a good night!

I love this girl! | closing in on 10 months...

Hendrik and I got home from a downtown errand trip and told his dad that we'd seen dinosaurs - true story!

she's deciding which page she'll eat

books books books!

from the library: Demolition (Sally Sutton), Just Ducks (Nicola Davies) and If I Built a Car (Chris Van Dusen)

and recently purchased: Extra Yarn (Mac Barnett), Roadwork (Sally Sutton) and The Boat Alphabet Book (Jerry Pallotta)

I'm in love with Extra Yarn - the story, the art (Jon Klassen), the girl in the story... all of it. Most of the time when I buy books for the kids (/for me), I tuck them away in the closet for future special treats or birthday or Christmas presents, but Extra Yarn is out on my desk and we gave Hendrik the alphabet book a few days ago, and he loves it. He's loved all of the Jerry Pallotta alphabet books, and though some of them are a little broad in terms of age appropriateness, they're winners. Plus, we've all learned muchissimo about dinosaurs, underwater creatures and construction vehicles, and I'm way more interested in all of the aforementioned things - a good thing, no? The library books - man, we must've read Demolition and Just Ducks at least 75 times in the week or so that we had them; the car book was great, but just a little too out of Hendrik's league age-wise. We'll look for it again next year!

reading in the garden | chocolate wars - recommended for chocolate fans!

I found some time to get through this book (recommended reading for chocolate lovers - I was sold as soon as I laid eyes on the cover) in Bowmanville, and just finished Half Broke Horses, the prequel to The Glass Castle. There's a good stack of books to be read here, and I'm not too sure what I'll start next - I have The Finkler Question and Born to Run on deck, so it'll likely be one of those.

Doesn't this all sound a little too idealistic? Time to read? And make dinner? And exercise? And blog? Yeah. No wonder most of my to-do lists are undone. Sigh... ah well! Time to go and hang out with my boy, who has been referring to himself as T-Rex, alllllll day. CUTE!

35!

I am now, officially, in my mid-thirties. Last week's big 3-5 celebration involved cake, family, gifts, sleep, a run - and then the following day, a birthday sandwich backseat drive from B-ville to Gatineau, with me gooing and cooing at Alana so as to not have her blow her top with tears. And upon our arrival there was more cake at the Lewis household, where Dan and Jess and William and Freddie and Shanti and Haldane were waiting with the best ice cream cake I've ever had - thanks to all aforementioned people and La Cigale... it was dee-licious. And since then, we've more or less settled in - I've gone grocery shopping, we've unpacked, and Steve is back to work. On that note, there's glass half-full glass half-empty news: he's not traveling to Finland and Japan to compete in the next two world league matches, but will stay here with us, training, working away and wondering, like I am, about what comes next (this fall, next summer, and beyond). Is this 16-year national team chapter coming to a close? Maybe, but maybe not.

a celebration of these two, coming up!

So our plans are to more or less stay in this swamp-pot (32 and humid today) until the big 50th wedding anniversary of Aunt and Unc, which is happening in a few weeks. Back to Bowmanville we'll go for a big family reunion, and while we're there, hopefully we'll get back into the city to see some friends. Oh, and hopefully Alana will sleep; she's had some really good nights (11 hours) and some baaaaad ones (Steve and I woke up this morning feeling like we'd had zero zzzzs), so even though I know that we need to just take what we can get (and go to bed early), I'll hope for consistency.

I've had a few amazing catch-up chats with my sisters, and I'm looking forward to our westward September visit like a donut looks for a deep fryer (donuts on the brain). The Original 6 Osbergs will all be there under one roof, with a few chillins added on for good measure. Plus, my most favourite girlfriend in the world is getting married (she has her dress! we have bridesmaids dresses!) and I can't wait to see her and see her marry the love of her life. I have to admit that I've been feeling a little too far away from friends here, and while I know that I can make new ones, it's been a bit challenging - our move-all-the-time life, the language barrier, and, you know, most people have their lives all bustling along, social circuit included; people aren't always looking to strike up new friendships, and I get that. Anyways, I'm beyond thankful for the good friends that we do have here, but miss all of the others that live so far away. Sheesh, I shouldn't (and don't want to) complain... but that regularity that will come with the roots that we'll put down one day will be refreshing. When? Where? TBD.

good set'o videos

Since I'm seriously overdue for a good solid blog, I'll give you some good, solid videos instead. Our girl sure does keep us entertained - at the dinner table, just before bed (yeah, right...) and everywhere before and after and in between....

a shortsy

babies! getting together on a sunday afternoon instead of a saturday night ... a few more years and we'll revert, right?

hanging with milka at the vb game... as good as it gets!

The weekend past was solid: Team Canada won both games vs Korea, we spent time with friends we don't get to see enough of, the sun (and hammock) came out, and Hendrik grew:

Is this not priceless? I love it. We also went to Jungle Cat World... and ? there's more, but it's sunny and books are piling up. I'll get a good blog in here one of these days, but right now, I've got to get outside! The kids are sleeping and the hammock is calling...

this et that

After a good, full, busy-with-kidstuff week, we're heading back into the city tomorrow - more games! More volleyball! Catch Team Canada vs Korea live on Sportsnet, 7pm eastern time. Steve won't be suiting up, but we'll be there to cheer them on nonetheless (obviously) and catch up with some friends - I can't wait! I'm hopeful that it won't be deluging (delugional?) - there has been a serious amount of rain in these here parts, and most of us are getting a little tired of it. But maybe, by the looks of the pictures I'm about to post, you wouldn't believe me...

this girl too, likes the construction site

gramps built a sand and water table, and the kids lllllove it!

I can not over-emphasize how much Hendrik loves Watsons, the farm behind the house here. These pics are from yesterday's trip; we went again today, and Hendrik must have told me 25+ times, "I love Watsons. I like Watsons. I like it here." So cute!

Steve was on CBC morning radio a few days ago, and was great. I wasn't up to listen (at 6:24am), but Marg and Bob found it online later that day; if you're interested, you can listen here.

I got my hair cut today and have worn it down for a record amount of time... mmmm maybe five hours? Like I said, it's record setting. On that note, I find it quite admirable/amazing/incredible when I see moms of young kids with their hair down... and styled. How women come up with the time to do that is beyond me - or maybe they don't have thick, heavy, Hudson's Bay blanket hair like I do. Meh, whatever.

To finish, here are a few pics and vids: Alana pulling herself up to standing (ooh, and she's figured out how to crawl without her belly slip sliding on the floor) and Hendrik skating, - oh! and check out the goodies I found roadside yesterday: a lawnmower and a mini-wheelbarrow! It was the cherry on top of my outing last night: I went for an evening swim (8:30-9:30 - the pool was empty!) and took the long way home.

from b-ville

So how is it that I didn't know anything about National Donut Day? I mean, sure, okay, it's not "celebrated" in Canada (officially), but south of the border there's a fair bit of hoopla for donut aficianados - see this article that I have yet to read. (I could SO write an entire blog on this.) Anyways, it was on Friday (the first Friday in June) and by some weird outside my-stars-are-in-line-with-the-donut-stars, I ate my first donut of the year - wait, of the year? - at least, the first one since we've been back in Canada, post-Beijing... on Friday. (Did I eat any donuts whilst in China? I don't think so.) And I've been drooling over the Top Pot Donut Cookbook ever since I received it in the mail; I need a candy thermometer and a regular exercise routine going before I can tackle any of those recettes. Man, they look good.

Okay, more importantly - volleyball. The guys split with the Netherlands last weekend (did I write about that at all? Read about it here) and then again with Portugal this past Friday and Saturday in Mississauga (story here and here). The whole family caught the game on Friday and the kids were SO well behaved... I was so very pleasantly surprised that Alana didn't lose her cool and that they both had pretty decent sleeps despite no car-nap on the way home. The Friday game was good - Canada won in three and set the tempo, pace etc - there wasn't much light for Team Iberia. Saturday night, however, was a different story altogether: I only caught the last 10 points of set four in the 1-3 loss, and the recap was that the home team just couldn't get into a rhythm and there were way too many unforced errors. Next weekend they'll face Korea at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga once again; here's to a 2-0 record for the next series. (And here's to hoping that Steve gets to don a jersey - he traveled, but remained one of two guys that had to sit out.)

We've been in Bowmanville chez les grandparents B since Wednesday, and it's so great to be here. (I only wish we were so close to everyone we want to see on a regular basis - my family and friends, the rest of Steve's fam.) What wasn't so great at all was the trip out here, oh and that's because Alana cried for three hours of a near six-hour trip, and... I got a speeding ticket. The cop didn't seem to mind that Alana was crying or that I was crying (mostly because she was crying - and she cried even harder while the cop took 15+ minutes to write up my traffic offense) or that I was driving by myself with two little kids. He took such a long time that I had to get out of the car and tend to her - by some timing-miracle he showed up beside the car just as I was taking her out of her seat (red eyes, crazy puffy face) and I couldn't help asking him if he had kids ("that has nothing to do with anything," he said) and then saying, "well I hope you feel bad about this". I nursed the girl there beside the highway (I took Highway 7) with trucks careening by - and, get this: the officer stayed in his car for at least 15 minutes while I calmed her down and fed her. I was halfway wondering if he did feel bad about it and if he was going to come up to the window and say something (he didn't). Anyways, I'm going to contest the ticket.

Photos from our last few days here follow. I'm going to make myself a drink and read a magazine - hup!

outside activities galore - love!

watching Steve beat Bob in a washer home opener

hendrik rocking a housecoat/bath robe (cutest ever) and up in the tree

short + etc.

There's too much to write about, and no time. After Hendrik's last gymnastics class tomorrow morning we'll drive to Bowmanville, trailing Steve and the rest of Team Canada; they're busing to Mississauga for weekend #2 of World League play after an early 8:00 run in the weight room. Quickly: Alana is nine months old (!) and pulled herself to standing in the crib yesterday for the first time - she had no idea what to do with herself. I finally went running (for the first time since race weekend) and it felt great. Um. Um... Ummm... For now, that's all... too much to! do!

(The following five minute vid is of Hendrik reading the Construction Alphabet book to himself. After reading Dinosnores (library book) eight times, I convinced him to read on his own so that I could get through a bit of my book (Moominpappa). He's throwing around some serious vocabulary and intonation... it's fabulous.)