Amanda's Day 3 Interview

Amanda's Day 2 Interview

Amanda's Day 1 Interview

We took a short video of Amanda each evening, recounting the day's events...I'm going to try to post them here (even though it requires my editing the video, which I'm not very good at!).

Day 1 video:

Disneyland Day 3

Once again, our hopes for an earlier morning were dashed by our late night on Tuesday! It was about 9 am again by the time we got away from the hotel. But we knew we had a busy day planned so we were happy to let the kids sleep in a bit!

We started Wednesday out back at Disneyland park. By this point we had realized we weren't going to see everything we wanted to see, so we relaxed a bit and enjoyed our last day without rushing any more than necessary. We did want to fit in a few of the classics, so we started with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which we thought Amanda would love (and thankfully, the line-up was non-existent first thing in the morning!). However she wasn't so impressed! For some reason she wasn't feeling quite as daring this day and was a bit frightened by the fast rollercoaster. She was OK with it, but partway through she asked me if it was almost over. So needless to say, she decided not to ride for a second time with Jeff when we switched out the parent riders!

Next up was Peter Pan's Flight, which I'd never seen. I was quite impressed, actually, especially considering the ride has been around since the park opened in 1955. I thought the effects were pretty effective; my favourite part was the twinkling stars over the city.

Next we rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, another 1955 original. Even though it's kind of hokey, I always feel like I need to do this one. In name, at least, it has a special place in our family...my Dad is a super-fast walker and when he's in a rush, my Mom and I always have to jog to keep up with him. Whenever he leaves somewhere busy (like after Symphony of Fire fireworks in the summer), she says it's like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to follow him to the car! I guess that makes poor Dad Mr. Toad...but not really. We mean it very affectionately! Anyway, we all enjoyed this one although I think the craziness of it might have been a bit much for Mr. Sam.


Our next stop was Toon Town. Jeff and I saw this area when we last visited together (in 1997!!), just after it opened. It was fun to visit with Amanda since there are tons of fun little things to explore. It was really hot though, so we were all getting a little tired after awhile. We also went for a ride on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin; well, Amanda and I did – Sam was sleeping in the carrier and so we didn't want to wake him up!
In jail!

Meeting Goofy:

Cooling off by the fountain:


After Toon Town we were all feeling a bit grouchy and in need of nourishment and cold drinks...plus, we still had a few more things we wanted to see at California Adventure. So we headed over there and popped in for a quick show at MuppetVision 3D. Jeff and I are both big Muppets fans so we were looking forward to it...Amanda was a bit more reluctant but she really enjoyed the show. She hasn't seen too many 3D things (I remember going to a Christmas movie at IMAX once, but that's about it) so she was really intrigued by things flying out of the screen at her! There were a lot of inside jokes for people who know about the Muppets, but it was fun for everyone. And air-conditioned!!

By this point we were really hungry, so we had lunch at Pizza Oom Mow Mow (interesting name?!?), which had quite a few choices other than pizza and a nice cool inside to sit in! That got us all feeling better, and so we headed over to Toy Story Mania, one of the newest rides at the park. I think overall this was Jeff's and my favourite ride! You sit in a car that travels through the ride, and you have a toy gun that you use to shoot targets on the screens as you go by. There were lots of fun effects too – like on the screen that had water balloons as targets, you got sprayed by little jets of water whenever you popped a balloon. Once again, Jeff beat Amanda and me by a long shot, but fun was had by all!
Amanda in her 3D glasses:


After this we were starting to run out of steam, especially because it was sooo hot! Jeff really wanted to fit in a ride on the California Screamin' coaster, so we grabbed some Mickey ice cream sandwiches and relaxed while we waited for him to finish his ride.


Finally, we bid farewell to California Adventure and headed back to Disneyland for a few last hours. Sam needed a food break, so I fed him while Jeff and Amanda visited the Astro Orbitor (which Amanda desperately wanted to ride for some reason!) and then Star Tours. I was a bit disappointed as I would have liked to ride Star Tours as well!

It was starting to get late and we knew we needed to find a good spot in order to see the fireworks at 9:25 pm, so we decided to try for one last ride first. Walking past the Haunted Mansion we saw that there was no line-up, so Amanda and I headed in. I wasn't sure whether she would be OK with it, and I could tell a few parts were getting kind of scary for her. So I had to talk throughout the ride about how silly everything was so she wouldn't get too freaked out (or keep us up all night with nightmares!). She enjoyed it though, and ever since we returned from our trip, she uses the "this room has no windows and no doors" line at random intervals and in completely non-applicable situations (the other day she told me "this pasta has no windows and no doors", then burst into giggles).

We had decided to save the fireworks show for the last evening we were there – somehow it seemed like an appropriate way to round out a magical Disney vacation! But we also knew we needed to find spots early for the fireworks. This was OK as it turned out we were all pretty tired and happy to sit for awhile and rest. Amanda and Sam both napped, and Jeff went and brought us back food to eat while we waited. Overall we waited about 2 hours before the fireworks, but it was worth it. It was also fun soaking up the ambience, with people walking by and families enjoying being together.


Our spot for the fireworks was excellent – right by the Disney/Mickey statue in the middle. We were absolutely blown away by the show...Disneyland definitely never fails to amaze when it comes to fireworks! There were fiery cannons, laser beams shooting all around us, and even Tinkerbell flying through the sky to light off fireworks (Amanda saw the cables she was on, but told us they were there to keep her from flying away in the wind!).

After the fireworks we walked around for a little while longer, enjoying the atmosphere and taking a few more pictures. Then it was one last walk through the magical castle before heading home to our beds! What an end to our Disney adventures! We can hardly wait to go back!

Reason #214 That Amanda is Kind of Strange

Amanda loves fruit of all kinds - so much that her Grandpa (who is also a big fruit lover) always brings her little treats of different kinds of fruit. Recently he's been bringing over the little honey mandarin oranges and she loves them! But for some bizarre reason, whenever she eats one, she has a very strange ritual.

She peels the whole thing, then sticks her ring finger through the middle and wears it like a ring. Then she dances around the room singing/chanting "Mexican ring, Mexican ring" in a very odd voice, kind of like some preschooler thrash metal singer.

We have absolutely no idea where this little tradition came from, but she does it every single time.

Weird, yes, but man do we love that kid!

Disney Dreams

So, unbeknownst to Amanda, we have booked tickets for the four of us to go to Disneyland over Spring Break. Yahoo! Jeff and I are beyond excited, and it is so hard to keep the secret from Amanda. But we decided a month's notice was a bit too much for her, so we will tell her a week or so in advance (or as long as we can keep the secret!).

Amanda talks constantly about Disneyland - she has wanted to go for ages. For some reason they have been running tons of ads since the holidays, and every time she sees one she says how much she wants to go. We have talked about how we will go one day, but that it costs a lot of money so it's not something we can do whenever we want. A couple of weeks ago, as I was putting her to bed, she said "my only hope and dream is to go to Disneyland". So you can imagine how excited she will be!

Coincidentally, Jeff is also going to Anaheim this week for a conference, and his principal has allowed the group from his school to go down a day early (very nice of him!) so they will have a free day at Disneyland. (We have already decided that he will bring something back for Amanda, maybe an autograph book, that we can use to tell her we're going). Back to the point...Amanda knows that Daddy is going to Disneyland this week, and she is so envious!

The other day Jeff asked her what she would like him to bring back for her from Disneyland. Amanda thought for a moment, then, being the enterprising 4-year-old that she is, said "some money so I can go to Disneyland!".

Nipples and other body parts ...

The best part of Christmas holidays is hanging with Amanda and watching TV in front of the fire.

Amanda has been asking some really good questions lately. We're often fielding a barrage of questions. We also want to give her real answers and try not to defer a real answer later when she isn't as interested.

Today's question came when we were watching a commercial for hair removal. She asked why are the ladies legs on TV so skinny? And she hoped that the product was for kids. We had to explain that everyone's body parts are a little different and that everyone's legs are different. We also tried to explain that on TV they sometimes pick people who tend to look the same and that they look different than people in real life.

She thought for a moment and then seemed to absorb what we had told her. A commercial for orange juice came on with an older gentleman spouting the benefits of freshly squeezed orange juice. Amanda asked if he was a real person. I said that I'm pretty sure that he is real because he had his pants pulled up to his nipples. Amanda then asked what are nipples.

We thought that she knew what they were and asked her "What do mommies use nipples for?"

She answered "to breathe!"

Day 6: Buy Our Christmas Tree

On Saturday we headed out to Art Knapps to pick up a Christmas tree! As I've said before, we are definitely a "real tree" family even though they can be a huge pain in the you-know-what. We used to buy our tree from a grocery store, but the past few years we've been spending a few extra bucks to buy them from Art Knapps and they have been very nice trees.

Checking out the trees:


Amanda posing with the winner!


Sam looking unimpressed, as always:


I have to say that this year's tree may be our best yet! I think it's definitely the tallest...in fact, there's a branch that touches the ceiling, but it's just a weird bare branch that we need to cut off. (Yesterday Amanda told me that we needed to cut "that freaky branch off the tree" so we could put the angel on). Unfortunately, after 3 days it is still sitting in our living room completely naked. Maybe we will just go for the natural look this year! Kidding...hopefully we can get it decorated in the next couple of days. The biggest stumbling block is the lights, which I need to do but have been completely unmotivated to get started on.

Saturday Acquisitions

Newly acquired by Jen & Jeff: almost $300 worth of paint and paint accessories. Now we will really need to get moving on painting our kitchen and upstairs! Ack! (I should note that we will get 30% of the paint cost back, since Home Depot had a mail-in rebate...but we probably won't get it for 6 - 8 weeks). I hate buying paint - how does anyone ever know that what they're buying will work?? It gives me serious stress.

Newly acquired by Amanda: a serious case of whininess (is that a word?). She's been really great lately, but I guess we all have our bad days and today was not stellar. However, by evening she was in a great mood and chatting up a storm in the car on our way home from Home Depot.

Newly acquired by Sam: the ability to blow bubbles! Thanks Jeff for teaching him that one. Now his normal drooliness has been amplified by about 10X.

Newly acquired by Jeff: a MacBook, for school (yeah right, just for school). Jeff and Amanda have been having much fun playing with its cool features:



Newly acquired by Jen: sadly, not a new computer. However, I have inherited Jeff's old laptop and will finally have an upstairs computer of my own! Not that I couldn't use the laptops before, but they were never set up for me. Now I can sync my iPod and have all my programs installed upstairs! Whoo hoo! Yes, it's sad what makes me happy...

Crack Me Up

Today when we were leaving Amanda's preschool, she said something funny while we were walking to the car and I told her that she cracks me up.

"Hey," she said, "I have a shirt that says that!". (She had a shirt from Old Navy two Easters ago that was really cute, and that she wore for quite awhile.)



She suggested that maybe Sam would be able to wear it when he got bigger. I tried to explain that it's kind of a girly shirt and that he probably wouldn't want to wear it. But she was really upset that it was such a cute shirt, and she really wanted him to be able to wear it.

Finally I told her that it was kind of like the song from one of her favourite albums these days, Snacktime by the Barenaked Ladies. (Aside: if you don't have this album, you must buy it! It's great music for kids and highly listenable by adults too. Definitely a must-have.) The song is called My Big Sister:

I like my big sister.
But I don't want to wear her coat.
It may be black
It may fit perfect
But you and I both know it's a girl's coat

Now I can handle some hand me downs
But shirts and sandals are out of bounds
Balls and games and such I don't mind
But a coat is over the line.

This song is HILARIOUS. So we sang it together, substituting "shirt" for "coat", and by the end we were laughing hysterically together.

I think she got it - she hasn't mentioned it again!

And So It Begins!!

Over the past week or two I've visited with several friends who have recently undergone renovations to their houses, and finally I've been inspired to start some of the jobs that so desperately need doing around the house. It seems that since we moved in 5 years ago there's always been a long list of reasons/excuses why nothing gets done: lack of time, lack of money, and difficulty in prioritizing the long list of things that need doing being at the top of the list.

So I'm determined that we're going to get a couple of smallish jobs done before the holidays. I decided that the only way to make sure this happens is to take drastic action...so I started peeling wallpaper off our kitchen wall. :)

Yes, anyone who has been to our house can now rejoice - the ugly ivy wallpaper is gone! (I'm just in the process of taking off the backing paper, but it's going pretty smoothly). Now we just have to choose new paint, prep the walls, and paint, all before the holidays...umm, so now I know why I don't usually jump into these things so aggressively...

Keep yourself tuned in to see whether we can pull it off!!

A little blast from the past here...did we ever mention that we can now post short videos on Flickr?? When they added this feature we went back and added a few old favourites into our photostream. Here is a video of Amanda at about one-and-a-half, with the ivy wallpaper featured prominently:


ETA: I forgot to mention that Amanda was a bit distressed about the removal of the wallpaper. However, we managed to appease her by snipping a piece of it for her to keep in her photo album. It's hard for us to remember that as much as we hate the wallpaper, it's been there since before she was born and it's all she remembers!

The Morning Dew

Playing on the Deck
Originally uploaded by JenJeff

It has been awhile since I've posted (Jeff). I just thought that I'd share this story.

We were at a friend's cabin a few weeks back and Amanda had left her colouring stuff outside on the grass the previous night. The next morning, we asked her to go out and get it and told her that it might be a little wet. She asked the usual "why?". We tried to explain that it was because of the dew. She asked "what is dew?". We explained that in the fall when it gets colder at night that water sometimes forms on things because of the temperature.

Our 4 year old replied. "Oh, you mean condensation"

Snow!

As predicted, a snowstorm hit Vancouver last night and we woke up to a couple of centimetres of snow on the ground. Of course Amanda was extremely excited...on the monitor the first thing I heard out of her was "Huh? What's going on?" and then thump thump thump thump down the hall, followed by her jumping into bed with us and saying "Did you see the snow?!". Um, yes, pretty excited.

After breakfast we got bundled up and headed out for a walk in the neighbourhood. It was really quite beautiful (I may not still be saying that tomorrow morning when I will have to drive in the stuff). It was slow going as Amanda stopped every 3 steps to pick up snow and bunch it up in her mittens. Then she figured out she could throw "snowballs" (really just handfuls of snow) at her Dad...I managed to stay safe since I was carrying the camera and that couldn't possibly get wet!! She was having a great time "sneaking up" on Daddy...i.e., telling him to come back (yeah, that's really stealthy Amanda), then stomping up behind him in her boots, giggling, before throwing a handful of snow at his rear end. Quite funny to watch...especially for me, since I wasn't on the receiving end! :)

Whole Flickr set here; a few pics:




By the way, we are once again doing the 24 days of Christmas in our household. I managed to actually get organized in time and we started today! Amanda was quite excited to see the trusty mailbox out this morning. Will post pics soon.

Embarrassed Shrug...

Yes, it's been almost three months since we posted anything...but we're beyond being embarrassed about it. It's tough to keep up with stuff with two working parents and a busy 3-year-old. However, we are kind of sad that we've neglected to capture some of the hilarious and ee-diculous things coming out of Amanda's mouth these days. Some of her current favourites:

• "This is ee-diculous!!"
  
• "Well"...this usually said in response to what she obviously thinks is a dumb question, as in Me: So who was at daycare today? Amanda: Well (turning up hands and making an exasperated face) Anika and Ysa, like always.
  
• "Last Off" - as in: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, DON'T SAY 11 BECAUSE WE'RE ONLY COUNTING TO 10!!!, LAST OFF!!"
  
• "Or something", used as a modifier to just about anything (Jeff: Why do you think the fish are swimming like that? Amanda: Maybe they're cold or something)
  

One fun development in the past few weeks is that we've started music classes. I say "we" because I, too, go to music class every Tuesday evening...apparently the many years of music instruction weren't quite enough for me. We decided to go with the Music for Young Children program, and so far it's going great. I must admit that despite having tons of music around the house constantly, I was pretty dubious about how much music a 3-year-old could learn. But after only about half a dozen classes, Amanda can find 3 notes on the piano with no problem at all (D, F, and C), instantly calls out "piano" or "forte" for different volumes of music, and is learning the difference between quarter notes and half notes (we call them "hops" and "turtles"). The way everything is taught is really quite amazing. The most important thing is that she's really enjoying it and looks forward to class every week. We have to do a few minutes of "practice" each day, but often this is just cutting pictures out of magazines (like things that start with C, or people whispering) or singing songs. And since we started classes, Amanda has been singing even more than usual - she's always done a lot of singing, but now pretty much everything turns into a song. She sometimes uses tunes she knows, like Twinkle Twinkle or Rockabye Baby, and other times she makes up songs on her own. She's very good at getting words to fit into the rhythm, and sometimes they even rhyme! It's pretty amazing to us to watch how her language and music skills are developing.

Hmm, what else is new...Amanda is also starting swimming lessons in a few weeks, after spending quite awhile on the waiting list. What's up with the rec centres that they offer a million classes during the middle of weekdays, but hardly any during evenings or weekends (except for, like, 12:30 pm on Saturday - just what I wanted, to waste my entire Saturday with a swimming lesson in the middle of the day)? For those 5 weeks things will be crazy, as we have swimming on Mondays and Wednesdays and music class on Tuesdays, but it's worth it to keep weekends more or less free. It's also a good thing, since our weekends seem to be filling up faster than we can keep track these days. I always expect December to be hectic, but this year that's extended right back to mid-September. It's taking a lot more coordination to keep things organized these days! I must say, my Mom Agenda is helping considerably - I love it!!

As for us, we're just barely keeping heads above water, as usual. I'm not sure how other people do the two-working-parents thing, but I'd say we are perpetually in a state of chaos and three steps behind everything that needs doing. One of these days I'll turn into one of those organized moms who always has nutritious meals and snacks planned and a well-stocked fridge, has an immaculate house, and is universally adored at work...OK, probably not. (Anyone who knows me even a little would have been snickering from at least the immaculate house part.) How people do it with 2 or more kids is beyond me!! We can't even manage the one well-behaved kid we have. Oh well, we keep plugging along as always.

Photos...lots!! Although we've slowed down considerably in our photo-taking in recent months. Here are a couple of recent favourites:

Only the Beginning...

We are way behind on blog posting again...ack! This summer just seems to be disappearing before we know it!

We will try to catch the blog up soon, but in the meantime I had to post something that happened in the car today. We were driving and listening to some of Amanda's music on my iPod. When the song Evermore by Alison Kraus came on, I immediately said to Jeff "Oh no, this song always makes me cry". It is such a beautiful song and every time I hear it I dissolve into a puddle.

The forests of April awaken from sleep,
And flowers unfold through the snow,
And the wind rushes high, and the river runs deep,
And it sings what you already know, you already know:

(Refrain) Evermore I will love you, evermore I will stay,
Ever right here to hold you, never so far away,
And though I know sometimes you go to find your way alone,
Evermore I will love you, you are ever my own.

Though nothing's as certain as seasons and time,
Though nothing will be as before,
Still every way and always it's certain that I'm
With you forever, evermore.

So, as I sat in the front seat thankful for my sunglasses that hid my embarrassing flood of tears from Amanda, she must have picked up on how I was feeling. She asked several questions along the lines of "why is she going away?", which were interesting to try to explain.

Then, just after the song ended, she suddenly said "Mommy? You know why I'm sad? Because I won't see Baby Tristan anymore." Her little lip started to quiver and the next thing we knew, she was full-on crying in the back seat. Of course we reassured her that of course she will see Baby Tristan soon - probably even tomorrow - and I tried to explain that sometimes songs can make us feel strong emotions. After a few minutes she calmed back down and was back to her regular self.

But Jeff? Was not. I think this was the point at which he fully understood what it sometimes means to be the only guy in a sea of women. A few minutes later, he turned to me and said "Please, please, if we have another child, let it be a boy."

If he thinks that was bad, I can't wait to see how he deals with having two hormonal women in the house in another 10 years or so!!

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

Yes, we're in San Jose! (Well, technically we're in Santa Clara, which is where our hotel is, but everything is very close together down here.)

On Tuesday evening (yes, Amanda's birthday) we drove down from Vancouver to Seattle. It was a bit of a marathon trip - we didn't get away until almost 7 pm, then we stopped for dinner in Bellingham so Amanda would at least have something reasonable to eat for her "birthday dinner". We ate at Red Robin's and they gave Amanda an ice cream sundae and sang to her, which she found quite thrilling. We also had a few small gifts for her to open in the restaurant. After all that, we didn't arrive in Seattle until very late - probably around 11 pm - so it was a long night.



The next morning we were up bright and early to catch a 7 am shuttle to the airport. Our flight was at 9 am, and we made it on board without any problems. Amanda was excited beyond belief - so much so that people were commenting on it in the airport! She kept kind of dancing around, and she was really hyper. This was her first airplane ride and we'd been talking about it for several weeks, so she'd really been looking forward to it. She was absolutely perfect during the flight, sitting quietly with some books and toys and pointing to things outside the window. And, for those of you who are wondering, she did the whole trip (drive down to Seattle and flight) in "big girl underwear"! It was quite funny...I took her to the washroom on the plane as a preemptive measure, then she "had to go" another 2 times during the flight...the first time just to show Daddy the toilet that worked like a vacuum, and then I think another time just for fun. :) Hey, whatever works! Luckily we were only a few rows from the back so it wasn't a big deal for her to get up often.





After picking up our car at the airport (we got upgraded to a "luxury car" for free since they were out of our original request), we grabbed some lunch, then headed to our hotel and relaxed for a bit, including a dip in the hotel pool. Amanda was understandably very tired after the late night and early morning and all the excitement. Wednesday evening we met up with Thelma, Danny, Rosalie, and Miguel for dinner and had a very nice time chatting. True to her normal form, Amanda took a few minutes to get over her shyness, but then turned into a monkey and was very animated for the rest of the evening...but again, very well behaved. We do know how lucky we are to have a child who behaves herself in restaurants!!

Thursday morning after breakfast we hopped in the car and drove down to Santa Cruz. One of the things we wanted to do on this trip was take Amanda to a real beach. We had a really great time - Santa Cruz has a huge boardwalk that has been around for 100 years, and the atmosphere was a lot of fun. We did agree that it would probably be crazy in the summer, but this time of year (and on a weekday) it was about perfect. There are miles of beautiful beach, and tons of pelicans and seals play in the water - several times we saw seals within 10 or 12 feet of swimmers, which would freak me out but oh well! We did lots of walking, traveling the length of the pier and walking up and down the beach and boardwalk a few times. Amanda's favourite part of the day was walking in the water - she loved how the waves would come in and "move her body"...we think she was talking about how the sand swirls around your feet and almost turns into quicksand stuff. She would get the giggles every time a big wave would come up. A few times we got quite wet when I misjudged how big the waves would be, but for the most part we were relatively unscathed. In other big news, Amanda had a great time on the rides on the boardwalk. As soon as she saw them, she kept asking us to go on them, and it turned out there were lots of kiddie rides. Of course, she wanted to go on the big rides...she kept asking about the pirate ship thing and the ones that spin around really fast (i.e., the ones that make me sick). It's obvious she has no problems with rides, and Jeff is looking forward to when the two of them can ride together (since I never want to go on the big scary rides, except at Disneyland). We enjoyed a quick ice cream, then headed home. She zonked out in the car and had a good nap, after all the excitement!

One other funny thing...Jeff got a navigation system for our rental car (which is handy but has also sent us on a few wrong turns...a story for another day). It's not too obtrusive, but it does say things like "in 500 metres, turn right". Well, Amanda started repeating the instructions for us, like she doesn't think Jeff can understand them (which kind of makes sense, seeing as how we've had trouble following them sometimes if the truth be known!). So the navigation lady will say "Turn right, then keep right" and Amanda will repeat it..."Turn right, then right Dad!". What's really funny is that she can never remember which one is right vs. left, so she doesn't actually understand her own directions...in fact, sometimes she'll say "are you turning right, Dad?" just to make sure he's following her instructions.

We have taken about a million pictures (big surprise!), so check out the Flickr site. And it really is as hot as it looks - since we've arrived it's been around 30C. I think it's supposed to cool down by a few degrees for the weekend, which would be about perfect!

There are lots of photos linked above; here are a few more:

Thanks Be To God

Just had to get a quick post in to capture this story...

So today is Amanda's 3rd birthday. Yay Amanda! At church on Sunday, our priest Father Joseph asked us to come over to the rectory and gave Amanda a couple of beautiful art puzzles - one Noah's Ark, and the other David & Goliath. It was very nice of him, and Amanda was very good about saying her thank you's, etc.

Last night, we spent some time making thank you cards for everyone who gave Amanda birthday gifts. Again, she was great, helping me come up with the wording to go in each card and colouring in the pictures. After she was in bed I put them all in envelopes to pop into the mail today, and even remembered to put them in my purse so I'd remember to take them (a minor miracle in itself!).

This morning, she walked past the dining room table where we'd been doing our colouring and asked what happened to the cards, so I told her I was going to take them to work to mail them. Then her brow furrowed and she said "Hey! We didn't make a card for God!". I was a bit flustered, thinking maybe I'd misheard her, and trying to figure out how I was going to deal with a big theological discussion at 6:30 in the morning. Then again, "But what about God? We didn't make him a card!". Jeff and I looked at each other, puzzled, trying to decide how to even begin this conversation. Then the light bulb went on. "Do you mean Father Joseph?" I asked, and Amanda smiled and said yes. Aha! And yes, she was totally right - we did forget to write a thank you card for him. As I think I've said before, the girl has a memory like an elephant.

I can see where she was coming from with this, since we've told her that the church is God's house, but now I'm groaning inwardly as I think about all the misconceptions that probably need clearing up...oh well, to deal with another day I suppose!

Bad Bloggers

Once again, here we are woefully behind in posting. Such bad bloggers we are! (Why did I just get a mental "Yoda" image?!?). Will try to keep up better, really, we will!

Amanda has been quite the little monkey lately. She's going through a definite phase that I've been reading and hearing a lot about. Apparently lots of kids, like her, competely skip over the "terrible 2s", deluding their parents into believing they are perfect angels who are far better behaved than all those awful tantruming toddlers out there. And then, WHAM!!...they hit 3 and all hell breaks loose. That's pretty much where we're at these days. I exaggerate a bit, but it's true that Amanda is exerting her independence far more frequently and making things difficult for us in the process. She seems to constantly be putting us in our place - whether it's correcting our use of a word, or telling us off for remotely implying that she's "not big" or some such thing. A common phrase heard around here these days goes something like this: "Don't tell me I'm not big! I am big and you can't say I'm not! Don't tell me that!". Picture the sternly puckered brow and the wagging finger and...yep, you've got it.

Also making a frequent appearance at our house is super-clinginess and crying at the drop of a hat. Since it's a bit early for PMS, we're thinking she's just going through a very emotional phase. The flip side of this is that she's very affectionate as well, and wants lots of hugs and cuddles, and frequently tells me I'm her "best friend". No better feeling, I tell ya.

A story to illustrate recent happenings: this weekend she and I were out driving quite a bit in the car. As I've mentioned here before, I do tend to "talk" to other drivers quite frequently, but I am always very careful about what I say when she's in the car with me. Fast forward to evening, when she wants to play pretend. I get to be the kid (at least I've graduated from being a tid), so I sit in my seat (aka her Dora foam chair) and she carefully buckles me in for our trip. Then she gets in the front seat, buckles her own seatbelt (we're nothing if not safety-conscious in our make-believing), and drives us to our destination (picture a lot of hand waving in vague circles as she "drives"). "We're in the parking lot," she says, "but I can't find a parking spot." More circular hand waving as she searches for a spot. Then, "You must be kidding me!". Wracking my brain as I giggle from the "backseat", I realize that has become a favourite phrase of mine when exasperated by another driver and wanting to avoid saying something more rude, such as "Get the $&*% out of my way!". You hear it over and over again, but it's true - they are amazing little sponges, these preschoolers.

A few photos...we've been busy lately and taking fewer pictures, but these were from last weekend when we had a few brief minutes of sunshine and she was looking particularly springy in her cute yellow dress. (More on Flickr, as always.)

Good Day for a Swim

good day for a swim
Originally uploaded by dro!d.

Killer Jellyfish!!

Just a Few More...

Welcome to our home town!
Originally uploaded by roly poly fish heads.

Just because I've been sitting here for the last 10 minutes laughing until I'm crying at the Stick Figures in Peril pool on Flickr...

I sure hope Diane & Richard don't encounter any of these signs on their Hawaiian trip...