Conversation with Sleeping-Beauty-Obsessed 3 Year Old:

Pumpkin: Sleeping Toody is in trouble!

Me: Why is she in trouble?

Pumpkin: 'Cause she touched the spinning wheel!

Me, impressed that she remembered the storyline: What happened when she did that?

Pumpkin: Her shoes got dirty!

This could be the plot for an entirely different kind of princess movie.

Baby Milestone

Today, Chichi rolled over for the first time! I can't see the majority of my readers finding this remotely interesting, but I wanted it documented somewhere, and I'm sure the odd family member who reads this might want to know. So there it is. Actually, the first thing I thought was, "Great, now learn to sit up so you can get crawling". I should smack myself for thinking such a thing as the next thing I know, she'll be three, kicking me out of her room, contradicting EVERYTHING that I say, and asking me to buy her every toy in existence. I'll be longing for the the simpler times where rolling over was the extent of her independence.

Hey, remember that family room renovation that was to be completed before Chichi was born? Although everyone stopped rushing once they missed that deadline, and although Chichi is almost ready to start college, this Friday will be the big day. Yes, the flooring guys will be coming in to put on the final coat of varnish, and then we will be able to move our furniture in! All the finishing touches will come later, but you have to understand that I did not feel motivated to buy end tables and art work seeing as we already had to pay over a year's worth of storage fees for the stuff that we actually did order. The physical construction took six months, but the plans were drawn up OVER TWO YEARS AGO! Longest one-room reno in history. Pictures coming soon!

November 18th

One year ago today, ...I probably threw up.

Two years ago today, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got married. This must have made someone throw up.

Three years ago today, I probably got thrown up on

Four years ago today, ...yeah, I probably threw up.

(Wow, this post is not developing the romantic sentiment that I initially intended. It gets better, I promise)

Six years ago today, we moved into our first house, and started our family.

Seven years ago today, our wedding day, you made me, and continue to make me happier than I ever thought possible.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

Bon Voyage!

We woke up yesterday and didn't have an out-of-town wedding to go to. It felt strange. Yes, wedding season is over. No more figuring out how to dress given that things don't fit right yet. The dress I wore a month ago to wedding #2 of the year fit fairly well at the time, but I've lost a little bit of the baby weight since then so when I wore it last week at wedding #4, I didn't look too svelte. Oh well. My regularly schleppy self will resume immediately. Bring on the elastic pants!

On an unrelated topic, many months ago, hubby and I talked my mom into taking a 35 day cruise with a friend of hers. The price was relatively good, and the opportunity was once-in-a-life-time, so she booked the trip, not entirely knowing if it was a good idea. Today was her day of departure. Seeing her for the last time for five weeks, I became a little verklempt as I watched her wheel her brand new luggage into the airport, hair perfectly coiffed, as she looked back at me somewhat nervously. I'm so happy for her that she is going on this adventure given that she hasn't been able to travel much throughout her life due to the whole single mom thing, coupled with financial constraints. That being said, boy am I screwed! My mom has pretty much been here five days a week helping me with the two kids since July, so I'm going from mom overdose to mom deprivation. Truthfully, I know I'll be able to hack it with the kids, but I'm not promising that I'll be getting that daily shower or preparing my usual gourmet meals. Hey, if you happen to be reading this, can you send over a casserole? Much appreciated.

Childhood Crush

The first time that I felt something for him was in grade three. I sent my friend over to tell this boy that I thought that he was cute. He told her to tell me that he hated my guts. I guess that he was still at the girls-are-icky stage. Either that or he really did hate me, but let's not smash my eight year old ego, mmmmkay? I wasn't overly fazed by his response at the time, and don't know what I expected him to do with that information anyways.

The next school year, I found myself staring at him a lot, and looked forward to the end of the year party where I might have a chance to dance with him. Slow dancing was new to our class, and it was as romantic as things got for us at that age. The boy with his hands on the girl's waist, the girl with her hands on the boy's shoulders, arms extended forward as far as possible while rocking back and forth from one foot to the other. Mike had danced with Shelly for most of the party, who I foolishly decided to confide in. When I told her that I was hoping to dance with Mike too, she though it hilarious and ran to laugh about it with Mike and his friends. Bitch. I remember hoping that her antennae-like, orthodontic head-gear would get caught in the door of the bus.

By grade five, my crush was in full gear. It had the kind of uncomplicated intensity that I believe that only a pre-teen girl can muster up. Shelly had already outed me the year before, so I felt free to talk about Mike to anyone who would listen. Apparently, I even confided in my teacher, who I recently learned was a good friend of Mike's mother. They had a good laugh at my expense when Mrs. Teacher told Mrs. Mike that I one day whined, "I like him soooo much and he doesn't even know that I'm alive!" I was pathetic on two levels; one for actually saying that; and two, for actually telling my teacher. Yup. I was cool. I also may have read too many Archie comics and identified myself with Betty.

That crush lasted through to the end of elementary school, but fizzled out when we moved on to Jr. High, where the world opened up a little bit more. Mike and I had all the same friends, so we hung out every now and then, but it wasn't like when we were younger and I stalked him well enough to know where he lived, his phone number, his birthday, and the fact that his mouth opened whenever anyone took a shot on net during the foot hockey games that he played at recess.

Our casual friendship carried on through high school, and even through university when we e-mailed each other every so often just to catch up. It wasn't until after university that we started talking more frequently, visiting each other, and forming what I would consider to be a true friendship. It was then that I gained an appreciation for his dry sense of humour, his intelligence, and the overall good person that he is.

My eyes welled up with tears at the wedding when I saw Mike standing at the altar. As I held my husband's hand, waiting for the bride to march down the aisle, I found myself feeling reflective. Despite the tuxedo, he still looked like the Mike that I knew from elementary school, and I could so vividly see him in his old yellow and green hockey jersey that he wore almost every day in grade five. Thinking about that, I wished that I could see the face on my eleven year old self if I could tell her that she will be there on Mike's wedding day, that she won't be the one getting married to him, and that she will be thrilled just to be a part of it. My eleven year old self would never see this as an acceptable scenario, but my thirty-something year old self knows that a friendship like this is rare, and all that all that pining is just a funny part of the history that Mike and I share.

Have Pumpkins; Will Travel

Last Saturday, we went to a pumpkin carving party (I am referring to those orange things filled with seeds, not my daughter, Pumpkin). I reluctantly carved up two pumpkins, only to discover that it was kind of fun. I have no faith in my creative abilities, but after whining about the task for ten minutes or so, I got into it. I think I did a pretty good job too!

My daughter, Pumpkin, wasn't at all interested, but later in the week, she asked me to carve up the tiny pumpkin that we picked up on a school field trip, so the idea must have sunk in at some point. Those jack-o-lanterns sat in my flower planters for the week, and were relocated to my mom's place on Friday since her's was the neighbourhood where we did our trick-or-treating. My street has only a few houses on it, and is a bit of a secret from the rest of the world, so it isn't a good area for all things Halloween. My brother actually had to argue with a cab driver about the location of my house as the cabbie was certain that there were no houses where my brother was telling him to go. Anyhow, trick-or-treating in Ma's neighbourhood was a hit once again. Pumpkin was dressed as a poodle, Chichi was stuffed in a sling, and Hubby and I took them out for some good, ol' fashioned begging. It is kind of rare that we ever do anything as a family of four, but I really enjoy it when we do. I am still amazed at how much candy one can get when one travels with cute children. As an added bonus, in true Pumpkin fashion, she has already moved onto the next activity and has forgotten about her candy.

Speaking of the next activity, on Saturday we packed up the jack-o-lanterns and headed to Kingston for a wedding. The wedding was on a farm, and the bride and groom used the jack-o-lanterns as decorations. This was not the kind of wedding that required a professional florist. We were outside for the entire time (read: cold!!!), and with the campfire, potluck, and meat on a spit, the wedding had more of a cook-out type of feel to it. I can't say that the suckling pig was my cup of tea, but neither would you if you had seen last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. We ate in the barn, which was also where the ceremony was held. As a cool aside, out of the dozens of jack-o-lanterns that furnished the ramp leading into the barn, two of the six that were chosen to adorn the altar were mine! I was so proud. Anyhow, although this was the strangest wedding I had ever been to, I thought it was very cool, and absolutely perfect for the bride, who has always been like a sister to me. The bride, let's call her JoJo, has never been one for following convention. The day had to be a relaxed event for her, which it totally was. Hours before the ceremony, she was wearing cargo pants, a hoodie, a blue Paddington Bear style hat, and was hangin' out with all the guest. She didn't have jitters. She wasn't worried about caterers, or anything like that. There was some order to the whole event, but they didn't follow the schedule perfectly, and didn't care. Children ran around, Pumpkin included, and added to the excitement. We sat on bales of hay during the ceremony, which was delayed due to the bride just not being ready to march yet. The music had already played, the groom was waiting, as were all the guests. I was starting to wonder if we had a runaway bride on our hands, but no one else seemed worried, and after 15 minutes or so, the music played yet again, and this time there was a bridal party to march to it. At one point, I had to drag Pumpkin out of the ceremony 'cause she wouldn't stop shouting. It was already passed her bedtime, and delirium was starting to set in, so I can't fault her too much. Nonetheless, we were able to re-join the service before that whole kissing of the bride thing that they do. Congrats to you both, JoJo and BoBo! We're so happy for you.

Anyhow, lots of driving and Pumpkin wrangling have rendered me extremely tired today. The end of daylight savings hasn't helped much either. For those of you with small children, was this not the longest day ever????