Tomorrow ...

we are back to work ... to daycare ... for 2 days!!!!
We are sad!

2 years ago today, we left for China!
Trying to keep the proverbial cup half full ... ;)

Big Foot

I should say ... big FEET! We took Cadence to get some new indoor shoes (her first pair!) and can I just say, this kid is growing like a weed. The store that measured her for shoes in the spring ( a size 7) have now determined she is an 8 1/2 - 9!!! No wonder I'm having a hard time getting the Reeboks on! And as luck would have it, the only pair in her size were basically the most expensive ones. Not that we worry about the cost of SHOES around here! Of course, now we also need to replace outside shoes and since $$$$ doesn't grow on trees and shoes don't seem to fit too long ... we're off to Payle$$ and Wallyworld!

Clinic and Car Trouble

Cadence woke up with a rash on her sides and a bit on her arms ... given that I'm about to go back to work, it was off to the clinic! Once there, she was scratching like crazy through her clothes. After an unnecessarily long wait we were given a Rx for some cream and the recommendation to give her some Benedryl. Once she wakes up ... we will follow those directions and see if it provides any relief!?

In the meantime, I had called home to ask Sean to bring a change of clothes (I wondered if this dress Cadence was wearing, that I hadn't prewashed was having some impact) and a snack. Ten minutes later he called to say my car wouldn't start ... GREAT!!! I had it detailed for over three hours yesterday ... they broke my CD holder and now ....???? I'm not in a very good mood right now!

On a positive note, I got some long awaited painting done, which I feel good about, but still ...

Mamma Mia!

Cadence has had a successful transition to her new daycare centre. The supervisor was kind enough to allow Cadence a few extended visits, a couple of half days (including lunch) and on Friday, a full day. She was her usual excited self when I picked her up ... which I will treasure ... I know my baby is growing up quickly and the days of her running to me with arms open wide, calling "Mommy!" will one day come to a sad end!
Afterwards we celebrated by making pizza ... Cadence even got to make her VERY OWN!

A touch of sauce:

Pepperoni piled high on top of the cheese:

And into the oven:

Is it done yet?

YES!!!!

Help in the kitchen is mostly appreciated ... most of the time. Help with painting ... that's another story!

Local Theatre ETC.

On Thursday, Cadence and I and friends took the opportunity to check out a local theatre group perform a modernized version of Peter Pan. I was highly impressed with the talent of these young people, one of whom is a student at my school. I have to say I laughed out loud, quite often ... Bravo TBTB!
We managed to have good seats ... on account of showing up early! The kids were front row and us moms just behind. Cadence was awesome ... she really gets into these kinds of things and we will certainly do as much of it as possible.

Here's Cadence, all dressed up and ready to go:

No photos allowed during the performance of course. Here's a shot of the kids with one of the actors following the show:

We followed up the show with a picnic lunch:

Someone's excited to get to the playground!

"Higher!"

"Cheese!"

Apparently making a cake:

It was a really great day ...
How sad that this summer is quickly coming to an end ... :(

Awesome!

Tonight I had the pleasure of participating in a celebration ... a beautiful celebration for a great friend.
It is something I will treasure for a long time and I am soooooo very thankful to have been included and
sooooo very proud!!!! If you happen to read this, know I think you are AWESOME, truly awesome!

Beyond Her Years?

There are times I believe Cadence is beyond her years ... a mere genius ... but doesn't every parent think that of their child?!!!
She is often able to verbally rationalize and negotiate with us ... sometimes we are stunned. I wish I could have run to the computer and recorded some of these conversations ... sadly by morning the words are forgotten.
I do remember last evening's bedtime 'negotiations' ... these are becoming an expected part of the routine.

Cadence: Mom, I want daddy to come and keep me company. (I've already done stories and am laying with her, 'keeping her company'.)
Me: Daddy's doing some work. It's mommy's turn tonight. Tomorrow will be daddy's turn.
She lays her head back down for approximately a minute and a half.
Cadence: Mom, I need to give daddy a goodnight hug and kiss.
Me: Hurry up ... you have one minute.
Cadence: (from the next room) I came to give you a goodnight kiss. Can you keep me company?

WHAT????? She's crafty!

I also darn near fell off my chair the other day, when Cadence came close to another 'meltdown' situation. She became quite upset:

Cadence: Mom, I have hair on my arms!

Me: That's okay, Moms have hair on their arms too.

Cadence: (She's looking at Sean's arms.) No ... BOYS have hair on their arms!

As I said ... beyond her years?

The Last 'Dance'

Today was Cadence's last dance class.
We started out as partners ...

Before long, she was flying solo ...


Check out the concentration ...



Receiving her certificate ...

Well Done Sweetheart!!!!

One Smart Cookie ...

Here's Cadence after completing her puzzle:


And this is a snippet of one of today's conversations:

Cadence: I want to go to the park.
Me: Sure. Let's get some pants on then.
Cadence: What's that? (She sees me put something in my mouth).
Me: It's medicine. (It's really a mini reeses peanut butter cup.)
Cadence: I don't want to go to the park. I feel sick. I have a cough. I need medicine.

She's NO dummy!
Luckily I had ONE chocolate left ...

Friends Always Go in Pairs

Ooops ... there was one wee conversation I didn't want to miss recording.

As usual, Cadence followed/accompanied me to the bathroom.

Cadence:   Mom, you want privacy?

Me:  Sure.

Cadence:  But mom, we're best friends!

She's learning the social laws quite early I'd say.

Company and Casualties

Cadence's latest request with respect to going to bed is having 'company'. This is usually daddy ... THANK YOU!!!!
Here's last evening's conversation ...

Cadence: Mom, who's going to keep me company tonight?
Me: Your puppy.
Cadence: No mom, I want a REAL person!

She certainly knows what she wants!

As far as casualties ...
This morning I found a dead bird out back ... I'm not good with that stuff. Again I say, "Thank you Sean!".
Then while I was in the pool with Cadence I noticed 'something' going round and round in the skimmer and for some reason I was pretty sure it wasn't a leaf. I was right ... it was mouse number 4!

AND then there was the near miss! Well, perhaps that's a bit dramatic. You be the judge!
Cadence was having a ball in the pool until ... she had to go pee! In we went, did the job and then headed back out. Sean was sitting on the deck and I was following Cadence, except she was running and I wasn't. Just as I hit the patio door I saw her ... ready to jump ... without her water wings! Unfortunately my shriek, I mean warning was a little too late and I ended up jumping in after her. Man did she scare herself silly! I was afraid we'd never get her back in the pool, but after dinner she was back to her old tricks.  It is certainly a warning to us all ... for Cadence, that she MUST, absolutely MUST not forget her water wings and to us, that we need to continue to be diligent with our supervision regardless of her skills and/or confidence.

Well ... I'm off to a conference for the next 3 days so ... there won't be much to see here ... do tune back in on the weekend!

Just 'cause ...

I kinda like this picture:

And 'cause I liked it so much, I played around a bit:


Besides enjoying my new toy yesterday, we also did a little shopping ... for paint, mostly. But we did make a couple of quick stops (Old Navy, Bonnie Toggs) to check out the sales. Cadence, however had no interest in shopping for clothes: "I don't need to buy clothes. I already have too many clothes." Right you are!
It wasn't long before she had a new attitude ... she discovered change rooms and announced that she wanted to "try her clothes on in there". I gave her the dress and let her loose! When we opened the door and asked her if she liked it, her response was, "YEAH, I love it!" I only wish I could've captured the intonation ... priceless! The dress, however was not ... but it ended up in the bag anyhow!

My Plan for the Day ...

Sand, Sun and ....

My sister and the girls came over for a little reprieve from the heat ... and just for the record ... WE.ARE.NOT.COMPLAINING!!!!
After an initial swim and lunch, the girls hung out in the sand box. They made cakes and pies and likely had sand embedded in every crevice of their little bodies.

I wasn't too keen on having to vacuum the pool following their next swim so we made sure they cleaned up. Here's Olivia's 1st impression of that plan:

Eventually, she 'warmed' up to it ... literally as well as figuratively:

Yup ... it was a good plan! It even allowed for a sneak drink for the lawn.



I think these girls will miss summer almost as much as me!

All In Good Time ...

In three days, Cadence went from not being able to get her face wet (not even in the bath) to this:


How exciting is that?!

Seriously, during our 3 sets of swimming lessons, not once was I able to submerge her ... she didn't want me to and I didn't have the guts! I watched another mom force her kid's head under a few times and it was clear that she did NOT enjoy it; quite frankly I think it terrified her and I just could not do that. It disappointed me ... with having our own pool, I really wanted Cadence to have the comfort and confidence ... but it wasn't to be. BUT, 3 days ago, on a whim, I got Cadence to close her eyes and mouth and just dip her face in ... she did it ... a number of times, and was quite proud of herself. The next day SHE decided she wanted to jump in and go "all under". I held her hands and let her jump ... again, she did this over and over. We were all excited! THEN we went to the birthday party and Cadence wanted to do EXACTLY what GWEN was doing, including wearing only one water wing, or no water wings at all ... we didn't even give that a chance! But when she went to jump in she told me, "I'm going to do it by myself. Don't you catch me. Move." The rest is history .... all in good time!

Party Time

The GBs hosted a little gathering to celebrate Grant's birthday (which is officially today!). It was a perfect day ... sunshine, beergaritas, food, friends!!! Oh yeah, and of course it was all about the kids!!!

Here are the girls enjoying the pool:

How sweet! Emma and Gwen helping Cadence at the 'park':

Cake time:

Cadence is VERY focused on her piece ... although she seems to be wearing some of it:

Cadence ... think you might like seconds?:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!!!!!!

Play Time

In play, Cadence loves to imitate life (sometimes it's an eye opener!). Her favourite 'game' is house ... she LOVES to cook, clean and take care of her baby. Usually Sean or I end up being the baby, but on this particular morning we were excused. I LOVE watching her ...

Warning: I think this is a 4+ minute clip ... likely one only a grandma would be interested in watching!

Weekly Round-up

Auntie Didi came to visit for a few more days and as luck would have it, we did not escape the rain!
It began as a light shower just as Cadence had laid her weary self upon the mat and drifted off to sleep.
We took a moment to GENTLY shift her under the canopy:

Unfortunately that only bought us a bit of time ... as the rain increased we pulled Cadence further under:

Despite our attempts, she was not keeping dry (goodness knows how she managed to sleep through it all!). As the rain hit the deck it splashed up and right into her little angelic face so ... there was only one other spot left to try:

I suppose we could have gone indoors ... but ... this is the summer of rain and we are embracing it!!!!

When Cadence asked if she could play my guitar, I was expecting some music, she had other ideas:



Despite the fact that we are well into August ... summer has finally arrived and it is cause for celebration ... don't you think?!


While mom and the girls enjoyed a poolside lunch, daddy took Cadence to splash around in the fountains and to have ice-cream ... chocolate no less! He sure knows how to spoil his girls!
Afterward, Cadence was taking a few moments to 'just relax' as she puts it on the lounge chair. Her 'brother' wanted to snuggle up, but she was having none of that and so began a few 'episodes'. The first was quite low key. Cadence pushed Winston off the chair causing him to squeal (he does have a bad hip). Daddy told her she needed to apologize, but she refused: "I don't!" He repeated his request and was told, "He doesn't even talk!" I don't even know what to say ........

Summer Vocabulary

One of Cadence's strengths, aside from her strong sense of independence, seems to be her vocabulary. I don't really have anything to compare it to ... I'm just going on gut. Some of this summer's BIG words so far:

• frustrated (as in she is frustrated when something doesn't work or she can't do something)
• humungous (as in the rhinocerous crossing the road)
• properly (as in, "Mom, you didn't pack the suitcase properly.")
• appropriate (as in, "spitting's not appropriate, right mom?" ... "Right kid!")
• responsibility (as in, "Brushing my teeth is my responsibility, right mom?" ... "Right, as long as I get the final polish."
• regular (as in, it's a regular night-books before bed, as opposed to a special night, where she gets to watch a DVD!)

Those are what I can remember at this moment ... which at this point, is quite impressive in itself!

Full Blown ...

She has had 'episodes' ... moments that were ALMOST tantrums ... until this weekend!
Cadence came upstairs wanting to know where the puppies were (we were dogsitting for uncle Jay). I told her that daddy had taken them for a walk. Well ... she wanted to go. She couldn't understand that it was too late, that daddy was already gone.
There were tears, there was laying on the floor, flailing arms and legs ... this was the REAL deal.
AND ... here's how it ended:

Current score:

Parents: 0 Cadence: 1

False Alarm

It's all good!
We basically ended up with a nice little storm passing through ... wind, rain and some good lightning. The colour of the sky early on was a cause for concern ... especially for Sean, whose family lived through the tornado some 20+ years ago ... I can appreciate that! As for Cadence ... she had no clue ... except that she got to get out of her 'hair bath' and got to see a movie!

Here's the before:
















After ... well after! You can see how dark the sky is over us and the clearing in the distance. From the front of the house, all was black, except for the flashes of lightning ... quite cool! Soon after there were layers of pink, purple and yellow ... so pretty!

















A photo taken with the flash.

Weather Alert!

We are updating from the depth of our basement ... we have some candles lit, the power box on hand, the cell phone charged and are ready for whatever comes!  An hour ago we were enjoying an after dinner swim ... now we sit out a severe storm (possible tornados).  The wind did kick up quite a bit so out I went to 'batten down the hatches' ... stacked the chairs at the side of the house, brought in all the 'stuff' and even turned the table over.  We'll see ... I don't think it will come to that ... I do see some clearing to the north ... regardless, we are prepared!

TWELVE!

That's the number of years Sean and I have been married as of today!
I think we are very lucky to continue to enjoy life together ... we are more fortunate in that we don't even seem to have to work very hard at it either. I suppose there were some difficult and trying times as we struggled to have children, but now that we have Cadence ... those days are forgotten!

A big change in this year ... our boy Winston, who was a wedding gift, and who, thankfully, is still part of our family has slept in our bed for almost the entire 12 years. It amazes and delights us that after this long he now chooses to sleep with his 'sister' each and every night. It is an incredible bond! 

Splash, Slide AND then ... Serenity!

Along with the great safari drive and shows there was a wonderful splash pad. Cadence was very adventurous and tried out all of the sprinklers and fountains. We even got her on the slide. She's such a big girl!


Funny 'bit' of the day.
Cadence came running in the midst of her enjoyment to announce she had to "poo". I told her, "Okay ... hold it!". She did ... literally! The two moms sharing our bench were howling ... She cracks us up like that everyday.



And to follow up after our lovely mini-cation, mom went on an overnighter to enjoy some peace and quiet ... slept in until TEN!!!! Ahhhhh ... total serenity!