Smart Cookie

Yesterday just before dinner, Andrew turned off the tv not using the remote, but instead pushed the totally reachable on/off button.  Sacha only had to see this once.  The tv was turned on and off about 10 times after dinner.  The first time, the show on the Slice channel which I had been watching earlier was of the “help us with our sex life” variety and pretty explicit too. 

Today, after daycare we sat down to watch the daily taped Wiggles episode and he started pushing the button again.  This resulted in tears.  He liked it when he got to turn them on, but didn’t figure out that he had to stop pressing the button if he wanted them to stay on. 

Then he needed a bath before bed tonight, so Andrew started filling up the tub with water and while his back was turned Sacha climbed in – fully clothed!  Can’t really blame him though.  Baths are pretty fun. 

PS: Amy I didn’t even finish reading your blog before I downloaded that new Windows Live Write software… they had me at tilt photos!

King of Dinners

We haven't been up to much in the last couple days of my holiday. We did make it on the Christmas train in the end, it wasn't totally pitch black out yet and we had higher expectations than the halloween train, so in the end it was fun, but I was more impressed with the free lights that were just in the park itself.

We also had a Chinese dinner out with my cousin and his family and their friends. Sacha ate really really well. Who knew he would like Chinese food? We sure were surprised. His favourite was the filling to lettuce wrap. The actual lettuce was a no go, but he did eat a tiny piece of broccoli, which was a first. He was pretty good too all things considered, it was a long meal (we were there for 2 hours) and my cousin's son Jack was bouncing off the walls too.

Tonight I cooked a full turkey dinner for the family. This was kind of a make-up dinner for the Christmas lamb stew. We had everything - turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, sauted carrots, squash and can-shaped cranberry jelly. Margot and Max brought chocolate chip cookies and a strawberry and rhubarb pie for desert. We finished the evening with some Beatles Rock Band, which Andrew had got for Xmas from Santa. Sacha LOVES guitars now. They can be added to the list of things that gets him squealing and pointing when he sees them. The list now includes guitars, dogs, diggers, balloons, Canadian flags, busses and taxis.

Happy New Years

Happy New Year! Last night we took Sacha out to Coquitlam to see a house that has been set up with a 15 minute light show set to music. It is probably the best amateur light show I have ever seen.

Here is a video of it from Youtube. Most of the songs were christmas songs but this one was my favourite.


So I actually have thought of a couple of resolutions for this year. Last year they were:

• Read 30 books
• Cook almost all our meals at home
• Keep the house clean and tidy

And I ended up reading 31 and a half books. Have done pretty well with the keeping the house clean and tidy as possible when someone dumps books, toys, clothes every where the minute you get them picked up. Haven't done too well with the eating all meals at home. Have definately cooked more meals at home than ever before and have switched from probably eating most meals out to most meals at home, but this can still get better.

This year's list:

• Stop using the word "super" in my blog when I mean very or extremely
• Start swimming 1500m a week again (at least)
• Make a budget and try to keep to it

I think those are pretty do-able.

What a Busy Year

January: Was a whole lot of waiting for our documents to be registered and to get a court date. They had been delayed by a huge snow storm basically shut down Vancouver. As well, our friends Ciro and Raina got married. After waiting and waiting we found out that our documents were rejected, not over content but over technicalities which sent us scrambling into February.

February: If it had been hard to concentrate on anything work related before our mad dash to get all of our paper work redone before the end of the month, it was worse now. My last day of work was February 20, and with our updated papers in hand and no court date set, Andrew and I set out to Vladivostok to see if our presence and determination could persuade a judge to hear our case.

March: We left Vancouver on March 1st, arrived in Vladivostok on March 3rd and spent the entire month of March in Russia. We had to do in Russia medical exams (unheard of in our region), we panicked over whether we would have to leave the country to renew our visas if we didnt' get a court date. We made new friends at the Vlad Motor Inn. Picked up a little bit of Russian. Finally got our court date on lucky Friday March 13th and got custody of Sacha on March 24th. We had an epic flight home, rerouted first via Japan, then a two night stay in Seoul, all around the time that North Korea was practising launching rockets and "couldn't guarrentee the saftey of South Korean Planes".

April: was a month of meetings. We were introducing Sacha to family and friends and experiences that he had never had before, like the dogs, the beach, grass, haircuts. It was also the month that Mum fell off her horse and ended up in the hospital for a week and a family friend was murdered while jogging through the UBC endowment lands.

May: I started with my local food kick. Reading all about it, visiting farmers markets and organizing my own vegetable garden. We celebrated mother's day for the first time and Mum, Margot and I shopped up a storm down in Seattle while Andrew had his first solo over night with Sacha.

June: Dad came from Australia to meet Sacha and visit. With a bunch of help my vegetable garden got planted. The whole family took a houseboating trip on Shuswap lake. We celebrated Andrew's first Father's day and said good-bye to Dad on the same day. I also got to witness my first green funeral, when a family friend of Andrew's passed away from Cancer.

July: From the snowiest January in Vancouver history to the hottest July in Vancouver history. It was stinking hot for most of the month. Siobhan, Sacha and I went to visit the Cullens in Forks, Washington and Andrew, Sacha and I visited family on Vancouver Island. Most of July was spent near the kiddy pool in the backyard and tending to the vegetables.

August: PIG (Pasley Island Games). Sacha, Mum and I spent nearly 3 weeks up at Pasley in August. The weather turned from the extreme heat to near constant rain though. This was the month, to our utter surprise, we found out that I was pregnant. We also spent some time up at Whistler for my cousin Steph's wedding.

September: Sold the house for way over asking, which we were extremely happy about, but also lost the baby. This was a very stressful month, which were also spent trying to find a new place to live that suited us and we could afford.

October: Packed up the house and moved to Richmond. Sacha started daycare on a trial basis and hated it. Found out that I didn't have to go back to work until December, a month later than I thought. Yipee! We took a week off to go to drive to Yellowstone National Park to see Yogi and his pals. Celebrated Sacha's first Halloween, including a great day at the pumpkin patch.

November: Mainly spent unpacking boxes and setting up the new house. Sacha was still in daycare on a part time basis. Andrew and I decided to take a trip together to the Mayan Riveria and Sacha stayed with his Baba. All four of us survived.

December: I started back to work, it felt like I never left. Celebrated Sacha's 2nd birthday with a big party at our house and less than a week later, Sacha's first Christmas with a family. Spent lots of time with friends and family and had lots of fun.

This year has been a life changing, busy whirlwind. This has been the biggest year of my life for sure. I wonder if now that we have Sacha that our lives are going to be this filled every year or if this one was particularly eventful.

With the Olympics just around the corner, the twenty-teens are already looking big.

2000s

I can't believe there are only 2 more days to go for this whole decade. I swear it was only a couple of years ago everyone was worrying that the world would end with the clock struck twelve on January 1st, 2000. Now we are just counting down to December 21, 2012 and for the hadron super collider to do us in.

Every January, I usually look back over the last year and reflect and think of New Year's resolutions, but this year I thought I should look back over what I have done in the past decade.

2000 - Was attending school to become an animator, was living in Marpole and found out I had a macro-adenoma in my pituitary gland. My maternal grandmother passed away this year as well.

2001 - Got married! Finished the animation programme and promptly decided that it was not for me and worked various odd jobs. Travelled to San Francisco with Mum, Dad and Margot, was in Klammath Falls, Oregon for September 11th, 2001. Andrew and I went on an Alaskan Cruise for our Honeymoon.

2002 - Had first surgery to remove what turned out to be a cyst on my pituitary gland. Started working at the job I currently have now. Went on a Carribean cruise and bought our apartment in Kitsilano.

2003 - Had second surgery to remove the cyst that grew back

2004 - Bought our house in East Vancouver. Was a bridesmaid in Devon's wedding.

2005 - Started my blog. Travelled to Germany. Did a big kitchen reno on the house. Was a bridesmaid for Siobhan's wedding. Travelled to Hawaii for Travis and Clare's wedding and got kicked in the face by a horse for my efforts.

2006 - Most of this year I spent dealing with anxiety as a result of the horse accident, but also Andrew's youngest brother was born. My last living grandparent, Nan, died.

2007 - We started our adoption process and homestudy. Spent most of the year as a vegetarian, until we went to Mazatlan for a vacation. And, even though we didn't know it - Sacha was born.

2008 - I turned 30. Dad came to Vancouver for a visit in the Summer. Andrew and I travelled to Vladivostok in October to meet Sacha! We also got a few days to check out Seoul, South Korea on the way home as well.

2009 - has been the busiest year of my life and I will do a full year recap for 2009 in its own entry.

But not bad for 10 years.

First Noel

I am pretty burnt out today from all of the Christmas festivities yesterday. My family all came over for Chrismas breakfast and present unwarpping at our house. We cooked and ate breakfast before opening presents and I think this will be the only year we will get away with that, because other than a kids basketball hoop that we got for Sacha and didn't wrap (only made a bow for it), we didn't open any presents until about 11am. It was lots of fun seeing him open up presents. By the end of the day he was understanding that good things are in the packages and would help everyone open theirs up, but first thing in the morning, he would open one up and they only want to play with that toy, until I opened the next one for him, then he would want to play with that toy. He wasn't really getting the connection that all the packages had presents in them.

On Christmas eve, we had gone over to Andrew's parent's house for their annual Christmas open house and we didn't get home until late. However, we still left out chocolate milk, cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer.

As a carried over tradition from last year, the adults in the family put our names in hats, as well as a colour and a noun and this year we added an adjective. We would draw a word out of each of the hats and have to create the present. This year I think the results are so good and it is now my favourite part of Christmas. I hope we keep doing it every year, and hopefully soon Sacha will be adding his words to the hats.

Here is a collage of all the made gifts:

The words were:

For Margot by Kai - Teal, Nautical, Monarch
For Andrew by Max - Sage Green, Rustic, Boat
For Boo by Andrew - Purple, Fragile, Sailboat
For Lisa by Margot - Electric Blue, Hollow, Birdhouse
For Kai by Lisa - Yellow, Recycled, Magnet
For Steph by Boo - Pink, Inflatable, Tower
For Max by Steph - Fuschia, Cheeky, Lights

Last night we all headed back to Mum's house for dinner, where we opened another round of presents because Mum didnt' want to haul what she had bought over to our house in the morning and Steph cooked a very tasty Moroccan style lamb dish. It was very good, but we are planning to do the traditional turkey dinner on New Year's Eve because as Andrew has been saying: "Roast dinners are the king of dinners and turkey is the king of roast dinners." We can't miss out on our Turkey dinner!

Gus and Oliver in their Christmas Finery.

Chestnuts Roasting Over Open Fires

Last night we headed down to Stanley Park to try to see Bright Nights Christmas Train. The train was sold out for the night by the time we got there at 6:30pm but the park was still beautifully lit up and other than a donation to the firefighters, if you didn't ride the train, it was free! Always a good deal.

I knew they would have roasted chestnuts for sale, because it is where I first tried them back when I was about 13 years old. I absolutely love the smell of roasting chestnuts, but I have never liked the taste of them. I have been fighting this dilema for the past couple months when they have been roasting them down at Granville Island. I want to buy a bag so much but didn't want to waste them, not liking them. That said, I know my tastes have changed. I never used to like pumpkin pie and now I do, and I used to absolutely crave sweet things and now if offered the choice between say a latte or a mocha coffee, I would always pick the latte. So last night I cracked and had Andrew buy me a bag of chestnuts. I didn't hate them, but they are not as good as they smell. I ate about 4 off them and that was enough. I gave Sacha half of one and he shoved it in his mouth and chewed happily for about a minute and then just spat it all out.

Christmas is almost here. Sacha is spending the night at Mum's tonight because both Andrew and I had plans with friends. We head to Andrew's family's house on Christmas eve and then Christmas morning at our house (a first) and dinner at Mums. It is going to be busy, but should be lots of fun. I only have to wrap a couple more things, and go grocery shopping but other than that I am prepared for xmas.

Sacha Version 2.0

Yesterday was Sacha's 2nd birthday. We all got up early and went to Whitespot for breakfast. I think Sacha really enjoyed his pancake breakfast. I had to go to work, but I was able to go in an hour later than normal because of holiday hours, so it was really nice to do something special as a family in the morning.

By the end of opening all the presents, which we spread out over 3 days, Sacha was starting to get the concept of unwrapping. He would definatley start the unwrapping but I would usually finish it off. He got so much stuff, I don't know where I am going to put it all. I think I will have to have a sort through of the old toys to see what he is not really playing with, and it may have to visit the garage for a period. I did take a couple of the toys which were a bit older and have hidden them until the summer, not because he wouldn't like them now, but because I know he will still like them when he is older and some new toys in the summer might be fun too.

We didn't do too much in the evening, just hung out, watched the Wiggles, had a bath. A pretty much perfect evening for Sacha.