pool party

There is a serious backlog of blogs going on in my brain, and not a whole lot of time to get them up here, so I'm just going to cut to the chase and start with what's fresh; namely, an afternoon pool party at Pam and Bob's. They have an AMAZING back yard - pool, trees, sunny spots, shady spots, and the whole lot of us went over to visit and enjoy a sunny afternoon on Tuesday. We pooled and then after some Bob BBQ action, had a delicious dinner on the deck. And then there was dessert (cheesecake - yummmm) and coffee (with the Keurig making it's way outside even - ooh la la) followed by ab-workout induced laughter at a few of the nicknames being thrown around (smelly, stinky, P.U.bus to name a few). Here are pics... and it's time to get off the computer and on with my day :).



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the new raffi and his one-man dance troupe

happy belated canada day to all ")

Okay, so this Canada Day post is a little late but hey, better late than never, right? Rewind two weeks.... We were planning on being up at the Brinkman-Tukker cottage on the first of July, but a change of plans too us to Dan's humble summer abode on the Gatineau river. It was a near perfect day spent with friends on, off and in the water, though Hendrik wasn't as big of a fan of the boat ride (in a not as humble fancy-ish fabulous speed boat) as we were. We boated and tubed and fell (/flew) off and into the water and it was super fun and such a perfect way to spend a day meant for celebrating our country. July 1st was also the first day we fed him solid food for breakfast and whether it was the result of three solid mushy meals or not, he started babbling in near full force in the afternoon. All eyes and ears were riveted on the little dude and he had everyone's attention for a solid 30 minutes. There's not too much else to report about the day - it was a great way to kick off our two weeks of vacay; here's to friends and food and our spectacular country!

more crowe cottaging!

There is WAY too much to blog about - way too much. So, since we're just back from cottage country and I don't want to overdo it on the time vortex that is the internet, I'm going to - once again - stick to pictures. Well, mostly. I have to update all of you readers... Hendrik is now babbling (as of July 1), crawling AND knows how to drink out of a sippy cup - kapow! How's that for a few milestones?! He also has two more teeth (see pic) and loves to show them off; we have one happy little babe. Okay, so pictures, and more words to come.

All ready for Hendrik's first bonfire, wearing a very Canadian moose shirt (hand-me down from Jayme and Hendrix and family - thanks!) - and Dad... nice hat!

Bonfire! And s'mores... mmmm mmm yums.

Campfire + family + s'mores = near perfection!

A big huge congrats to Paul and Steph and their families on the arrival of baby James on July 5, 2011!

at the crowe

Pam made this amazing birthday cake for Bob - he's 60 tomorrow! The Sunday surprise party was a success - the 75+ plus buns hidden in his closet didn't even tip him off... :)

cousins from near and far

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

It's July! And here are some pictures of the best month of the summer - so far. Uncle Ralph and I came into town to take care of some business, and I thought I'd try to squeeze in a blog; time is limited so it'll have to be mostly pics. They speak for themselves I think... and all of us - Hendrik included - are loving it up there; good food, family, sunshine, water... there's not much missing. Of course having all of our family up here would be great too, but like I said in a previous post, the country is too big and we'll have get our family time in bit by bit, in the east and later in the west. Some voila, here are just a few (pah!) pictures!

action shot! Kai and Steve playing volleyball

Kai spiked this ball into my head kaPOW!

family!

Hendrik is one happy little guy up at the cottage, hurray!

watermelon, yum yum!

the gallery at the washers tourney

bath time down by the water - he was LOVING it in the tub, splishing and splashing for the first time

teeth! books!

Okay, so last time I blogged I Sunday got the shaft; the weekend doesn't end on Saturday! And Sunday held some new things for - all of us? - well, for Hendrik and Heather it did anyways. I went to my very first Epicure party and felt like a suburban housewife as I sat there listening to all of the little quips and perfect-fors that accompanied each passed-around tin and jar of spice and seasoning. I had to buy something - or make that three things - and could have bought a lot more; I reeled in my self-restraint after I paid for the chocolate pudding. (Yum.) And Hendrik! Our little monkey got in a walker for the first time, and quickly figured out how to push himself backwards (though I'm not so sure how much he was actually trying to move). He loved the steering wheel on the contraband kiddie toy but after five minutes or so decided that it was not where he wanted to be. Was it because he somehow somewhere some-reason kept moving away from mommy? Perhaps. Anyways, he was not to be consoled and I had to pull him out of there.


Interested on the left, and not so sure on the right...

The week has been busy - but with what? We've been going to mom groups, getting ready for time at the cottage, running errands, and more... there has to be more! And no, we're not going googoo for the royals and no, we're not heading to Parliament Hill for Canada Day; I went last year (for another royal visit - the Queen) and I will never ever go down there again if there's royalty in town. It was insanity, and all I wanted to do was get out of the sardine-packed mob of people. So, the plan is to either head for the Brinkman-Tukker cottage or wheel up to Dan's abode on the Gatineau River for the day.


And oh my goodness! I can't believe it's taken me so long to get this out but Hendrik now has FOUR teeth! FOUR!!! The second front tooth on the upside (how technical is that) has made its appearance - ! No pics, but they're coming soon - like, hopefully tomorrow. I'm hoping to finish my library book so I can get it back before we go (a Mme Ramotse gem), but I'm not sure that I can part just yet with the two Brainwaves books that I'm oggling (sp?) at: The Most Brilliant Boldly Going Book of Exploration Ever by the Brainwaves and The Greatest Intergalactic Guide to Space Ever by the Brainwaves. Yeah sure I know they're for kids, but the they're fabuloso and um, yeah, I'm just scouting books for Hendrik. And in case you were wondering what books he actually has, his digital bookshelf is here. Yum, books!!

brossing les dents + the weekend!

Hendrik has finally made the switch from brushing with washcloth to brushing with toothbrush - or, er, I guess we've made the switch for him. And this is what he does:

Hands open and out in a what is this new thing that's happening to me sort of way; it's adorable.

I've been meaning to blog about our weekend since, well, the weekend - and before another week flies off the shelf I'll get this business down and done. Okay, so there's no business really, just recounting, so here goes: Saturday was grrrrreat, and not just because there was greasy food, woolly mammoths, excitement over the woolly mammoths (we parked, I saw them, and like an over-exuberant sugar-highed five year-old I screamed "I want to see the woolies!"), but because this momma stayed out on Saturday night at ... wait for it wait for it... a party. Gasp! It's true. I stayed out until almost 1:00 and had fun and didn't wake up feeling too tired or sluggish or anything - ! Eek. So, after searching for sushi in downtown Ottawa on Saturday afternoon and finding two of our establishments of choice closed (doh), we decided to dine at the Elgin Street Diner, a famous little spot that I'd never been to. It was busy and buzzing, and all three of us enjoyed ourselves. I ate breakfast number two and Steve gobbled a delicious club sandwich while Hendrik wowed and smiled and spread cuteness around our corner of the restaurant. People were goo-goo over him, and he was absolutely loving it in there... the people, the noises, the lights, paper, food... you name it, he loved it. We might have to go back again; great ambiance and happy family food times = good good goodness.

Hendrik was being such a flirt with the girl on the far left of the photo; is her boyfriend telling him to back off? Hmmm...

After everything else fell on the floor...

And then we went back to the woolies!! There was also a baby wooly, and we considered pulling Hendrik out of the carrier to ride the wooly (ha!) but there were other people there and he wasn't as excited as I was, so we moved on to the museum. Believe it or not, but our trip the The Museum of Nature was our first Ottawa museum trip, and we've been living here for over a year - !! Woops. It was great, and not just because of the woolies. There were five (or seven?) exhibits: birds, extreme mammals, dinosaurs, ocean life, a geology-planet one, and hmmm... maybe that's it? Make that five. Our favourite was the ocean life one, and it made me excited about bringing Hendrik out west to check out tidal pools and ocean things; too bad we don't have that teleportation machine yet, or I'd be writing this at Thetis.


The bird exhibit was also neat; did you know that there are more than 10,000 different bird species on our planet? Or that the world's smallest bird is just 5cm tall?

There were a ton of other moms in there (an interesting visual) - note to self as a good place to meet other mothers. We came home and rested our feet for a few hours before heading to a friend's place for a little BBQ action and too, for a surprise kiddy visit for Hendrik. I open the door to our friend's place and who is there but one of the women that we played vball against last Tuesday night; a bit of a surprise, but not really I suppose... the volleyball universe is a small one. Anyways, Celine and Dave and Jasmine were there, and Hendrik was a bit of a novelty for her; she liked giving him kisses... and hugs... and my heart almost melted right out of my body it was so cute.


Cute cute cute! The rest of the night was good - mellow and easy - and I came home and passed out in a millisecond and slept like a dead person for seven hours, and that is exactly what I feel like doing right now. My day today was almost too productive, but it's going to feel good crossing things off of the to-do list; is it too late to add go to bed at 9:30? Nope!

7 months old!