Week 4

As I was putting Piper to bed tonight, she asked me, why did you and Dad get married? Because we loved each other, I said, thinking all the while how that answer seemed not to sum up the whole of that decision, the fullness, if you will. Then Piper says, but I love you too. Wish I could marry you if I would be a boy. Awwww, that's nice!

Piper is going really well. She did a 60-piece puzzle the other day, pretty much by herself. She and I had done it once before. Pretty good, eh! She loves dancing to music with a beat. She's pretty good at entertaining Jasper - they have some good laughs together, and can often spend say half an hour together playing in Piper's room. I am grateful that my sour moods seem, in general, to wash over Piper. Helps ease my mother-guilt!

Jasper is fantastic as well. He's cruising around the place on all fours, pulling himself up to hold onto the edge of the furniture, happy to hold on with one hand. He seems very physically capable. He eats pretty much whatever we're eating, except for some stuff - he's good at chewing, but hasn't got even the beginnings of teeth yet. He's just fun, great to interact with...

I was out for coffee with some of Darlene's friends this evening. Nourishing to sit with women and cover all the usual topics - children, birth experiences, weight, body image, recipes, etc! Dar taped the episode we were missing of a new show I'm interested in, called The Week the Women Went. As it sounds, it's a TV show where all the women take off and the men are left to deal with the domestic side of life. The people seem pretty real and honest, and I'm very interested in seeing how this experiment goes. Anyway, I'm gonna wind up here so I can watch it! Here's Week 4 in photos...

Turning 28

At the beginning of the week, I wasn't feeling so good about having my birthday here in Canada, with none of my family and friends around. By the middle of the week, I had a meltdown that would rival Chernobyl. But somehow by Friday, I was feeling restored, and actually had a very satisfying birthday. Here's how it started, with Gord buying me a dozen red roses. Indeed, one of his presents to me (yes, I got multiple gifts!) is to buy me some flowers each month for a year. Very cool, given it's not his forte, except for the fact that the flowers here are all flown in! He'll be doing lots of wildflower-picking in the summer!


Actually, I got eleven roses and Piper got one...


Inspired by my new Nigella cookbook, I was keen to cook a little feast for my birthday. It happened to be Winter Fun Day at South Oaks, the school were Cassie, Rae, Makenna and Zach go, and Sharon took Mason, Piper and Ty to join in the fun. Gord took the arvo off work and came with me to Jeff and Sharon's, so we looked after Taelyn and Jasper while Sharon and the kids were gone. I pottered around in the kitchen all afternoon. Gord knitted while the babies slept. Very domestic! This is me chatting on the phone to my parents, holding my un-iced (sunken!) sponge birthday cake...


My soul-satisfying feast... organic roast chicken with crispy roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, maple-smothered parsnips, fresh salad and grated beetroot, and, of course, gravy.




Happy Birthday to me! And the good old Moonee Vale addition, a happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you...!

Hat's off from Gord

Well, looks like my first knitting project is a success!!!

I had fun learning how to put this together (well, after I got through the initial ribbing around the base of the hat). I like how forgiving this sort of knitting can be. My stich count was all over the place I as slowly worked out how this stuff works. I believe I'm proof that one can make something out of nothing (in this case, extra stitches.

So now, when you're in the airport wondering who that suave guy is knitting away, be careful, cause it could be me... (who am I kidding - I'm the one with the kids straining to get away from the end of the leash...)

For those knitting friends of Bec's who want to see the actual quality will have to wait to see this in person - the best close-up you'll get is below... :)

Winter walk

Thought I'd take a few shots of this place that we're living in. Took the camera on a walk late one afternoon. Here's our house, 14 Poplar Cres.



This is the view down our street. The second evergreen from the right is in our front yard. I took the photo while pretty much standing in Pat and Dar's driveway - we're pretty close, eh!


It takes me a few minutes to get to this road - one of the kind of perimeters of Steinbach - and I love the spaciousness of the view...


Snow-mobile tracks in the ditch.


Now, let me introduce you to Hampton Village...



I'm intrigued by this residential arrangement: two rows of houses facing each other, surrounded by an expanse of open land. Obviously the initial part of further development sometime in the future, but an oddity right now. Wonder what it would feel like to live in this place. I like walking past it.

Week 3

I cheated this week. I kept forgetting to take a shot per day. So Gord took some of these - shock, horror! Oh well, big deal. Also, I have been reflecting on the inherent contradiction of creating a polaroid from a digital photograph. The beauty of a polaroid is how it captures a moment and replicates the image there and then. What you took is what you get. No chance to crop or add contrast or resize or all the other things I do to these shots. So yes, I'm aware of this paradox. However, one of the reasons I will continue with this little idea is that I want to print off the images and stick them on the wall, and I reckon they'll look good as polaroids. Better than they do on screen, anyway. Maybe I'll take a "polaroid" of our wall of "polaroids", once I get it up and running. (And then I could take a "polaroid" of our "polaroid" of our wall of "polaroids"! Man, this could go on forever!! Like mirrors...)

This week's been a bit all over the place, a bit pre-menstrual, shall we say! I finally caught up all our finances yesterday. What a frickin' achievement, seeing as I hadn't done it properly since September! Yes, I discovered how much I've overspent by! And yes, I'm the kind of honest person who is going to pay it all back! I love a challenge! Had Uncle Bill, Auntie Ev & Matthew over to watch (pansy, pillows-up-their-jumpers) gridiron yesterday afternoon (oooh, did that get anyone's goat?!) - very pleasant. Consumed some schnetki (like scones) that I'd made the night before when Jeff & Sharon & the kids dropped in. I'm looking forward to my birthday (coming up this Friday). Can't wait to cook a bit of a feast and a sumptuous cake from this book! I was also excited to hear this week that this book is finally, finally coming out - my friend and I have been waiting for it for maybe ten years!!

My Australian faux pas for the week was asking the checkout chick what time she was going to knock off. After an odd look, I clarified, and she said, eight-thirty, but I walked away thinking she probably thought I'd asked who'd knocked her up! Oh well. Gotta love this cross-cultural criss-crossing communication!

Oh, and in BREAKING NEWS! Gord is learning to knit!!!!! He's knitting himself a beanie. Doing very well, he did a tension square and everything. I've had to do a bit of saving, but I'm impressed all the same. He loves the reaction he gets from most people, ranging from disbelief to curiosity to enthusiasm. He's not entirely sure if he's doing it for himself, or to impress me (I thought our sex life was good enough, this is going to blow us away!), but the more he knits, I reckon he'll be doing it for the pure joy of creating something from nothing! Damn, I should have taken a photo of his efforts for this week. Oh well, there's always next week! Anyway, without further ado, here's our hodgepodge of images...

Afternoon walk

Went for a walk today in minus thirty something weather - freakin' cold but gorgeous outside - blue skies and sunshine. I'm slowly developing the knack of wrapping a scarf about myself without leaving any gaps, no chinks in my armour(!), for a frigid breeze to find! Meant to take the camera with me, but forgot, so you'll have to settle for this. (More photos here.)

Tea party

Found two pale blue tiny tea cups at the thrift shop today - ten cents each - couldn't walk past them! After sitting down with a hot chocolate and a freshly-iced gramma cookie, Piper says to me, "Thanks for not making my hot chocolate too hot, Mum. I really appreciate that." Cracked me up.

On the way to the thrift shop, she was talking to herself (or Jasper, or her tiger, most likely) in the chariot. "We're going to the thrift shop. I'm only allowed to get one toy. When I get there I walk around and look at them all and I don't know which one I will choose, But then I see a lovely one and I know that I love it."

And one last Piperism, from Christmas Day. It was the end of the (very long) day, and time to pack up all thetoys at Gramma and Grandpa's house. All the other kids obliged, but Piper cracked it. Later, in the car on the way home, we're talking about how, if you play with toys, you have to prepared to pack them up when you're done. Piper pipes up, "I only clean up toys in Australia." !!

Week 2

A week in polaroids

I was inspired by Nerissa Parker's art experiment of taking a polaroid every day for a year, so here's a taste of our first week of 2008...