Happy Valentine's Day

Hello again! Happy Valentine's Day! First thing yesterday morning, Jai won a radio contest sponsored by our local rock station - a one-week, all expenses paid trip to Mexico! We haven't figured out any of the logistics yet, but still it's pretty darn cool. I've never been anywhere tropical!

It's just too bad we have to wait until May. Every day, it seems, we get more snow. Oh, February, why are you so long?!?

We're doing a lot of colouring to counteract all the grey.

I even did some while Griffin was napping.

Griffin's enjoying his new pencil crayons, courtesy of Grandma. They're really great because the 'lead' is so thick that he can't break them easily, and they're not round so they don't roll off the table.

Plus, it turns out that it's super fun to dump them out of the bag, and put them back in again (and again, and again, and again.)

We're almost at the point in the winter when we just try and ignore whatever crazy weather is being thrown our way, and go out anyway. Today we got together with a bunch of friends to have a play day. It was snowy and ridiculous outside, but everyone made it. We're getting tougher. Our skins are getting thicker. Soon we'll be throwing our coats off and laughing in the face of the latest blizzard. Hah! You call that snow?!?

Finally some pictures!

Hello again! We've been having snowstorm after snowstorm it seems lately. This engenders a lot of reading of various stories on various couches,

with various footwear.

Some cuddling of cats on said couches,

and a lot of staring out the window, watching for tractors.

Although, to be honest, I think I'm the one that is going a little stir crazy! We did catch a momentary "snowbow" through the window the other day, which was pretty cool. And we've been enjoying the rainbows that crop up in our living room every time the sun comes out.

Today I made whole wheat raspberry white chocolate scones. Yum! The only problem with all this baking is that I'm the one who does most of the eating. Especially when we're stuck at home all day!

I did finally manage, though, to get some bath pictures with Griffin.

I'd been meaning to do it for a while, but kept forgetting. Jai and Griffin usually do bath time mostly on their own while I get the bedroom all ready for sleeping. They have elaborate games with ducks and boats and buckets, and a lot of splashing sounds and giggles tend to emanate from behind the bathroom door. What fun!

I can't post all the bathtub pictures, for obvious reasons, but here's a couple of my favourites, just for fun.

A Quiet Week

Hello again, it's been a little while, mostly because we've been staying inside most days, and not taking a lot of new pictures. The big story around here is snow snow snow! It's taller than Griffin out there. I bundled him all up and took him outside yesterday, and within minutes he was crying to go back in. One day it will be fun, but right now it's just cold! There is a plus side for him, though, in the form of multiple tractors and plows driving past the windows all day. I think he dreams of tractors - some nights he wakes up, calls out a little, then puts himself back to sleep saying "traaaactorrrr........"

I haven't been up to much. I spent a couple of days getting my resume together and writing a cover letter for a very exciting job opportunity that just opened up. More on that later, if anything should come of it. I wrote up my contract for photographing weddings, as I've gotten a couple of requests now. I've done a little knitting, here and there, and worked on some new pieces when I can. I made cheddar and bacon muffins for the first time (oh, YUM!) I spend a lot of time feeding the wood stove. I've been daydreaming about getting some backyard ducks. Griffin and I have read a lot of books, and done a lot of colouring. We try to get out at least once a day, even if it means battling through snow banks with the stroller. And that's what we've been up to this week!

Counting...

Brrrrr! Nothing like -30 weather to make you stay inside for a few days! Yesterday I used it as an excuse to put on a Bob the Builder video and bake some muffins. Today, we will probably have to bundle up and venture out. I say again, Brrrrrrr!

We've been keeping a pretty low profile since we got back to NS. Making yummy food, playing with tractors, watching shows on our giant screen with our brand new projector, oh, and counting. Seems we have a counting prodigy on our hands. So far he's up to eleven. He just likes to count things.

One...

Two....

Three....

Four....

Victoria 2011

Hello Again! We're home! (I knew it for sure when a green crayon dropped out of the cereal box and into my bowl this morning, amongst all the Cheerios.) We had such a good time, visiting with people and places.

Griffin did really great on the airplane. He loved the airport.

He was so excited about planes in general that it didn't even matter that he had to sit on our laps for the entire eight hours. Whew!

The hardest part of the whole trip was just trying to adjust to the four hour time change.

The first night we were there Griffin woke up at 3:30 in the morning and said "all done!" (and I thought "uh-oh.") I could easily have slept for four more hours, but I just couldn't quite make him see my side of things. Anyway, we both handled it pretty well, considering. Griffin was just in Heaven being surrounded by all those family members!

It was really wonderful - definitely the best part.

We were feeling a little lonely yesterday, when it was back to just the two of us. What a wonderful thing it was to have so many wonderful people around.

We did a couple of day trips - one to one of my favourite beaches, which was covered in lovely driftwood. (Yes, I begged an extra suitcase from my Dad, and carted a bunch of it home. Of course I did! I also borrowed a whole pile of photos from my grandparents' albums, so check back soon for some fun new pieces.)

We also fit in a day trip up to Duncan to visit my Dad and his family, and the family farm. Griffin loved everything about it. He met two more grandparents, two new uncles, another great-grandparent, and a whole lot of cows. There were tractors big and small!!!!! It was heaven for my little boy! (Although both tractors and cows, it turns out, are a lot bigger in person than you might think!) (Thus, there are no pictures of Griffin actually on a tractor.)

A day hasn't passed yet where he hasn't asked to go see cows.

We also fit in a trip to the Royal BC Museum, where I spent many happy hours as a young child.

Griffin got to see the Woolly Mammoth, and the sea cave and all sorts of dead animals. His favourites were the owls. He likes to say "whoo whoooo." And we all like the Long House, even though they closed off the coolest part.

OK, and it's taken me all day to get this far, so I'll just leave you with pictures of friends and relations galore!

Good times!

Connections

2011! So far, so good!

Only a few more days now of Jai's holiday. It's been so wonderful having him home - Griffin loves it, and I do, too. But, alas, such a state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. All good things, and such stuff.

We are trying to enjoy these last couple of days to the utmost, though :)

And later this week, Griffin and Grandma and I are hopping on a plane for an epic journey across the country, from coast to coast, and back again. My Grandparents treated us to plane tickets, so we can come out and visit all our friends and relations on the West Coast. Well, as many as we can manage, anyway! (There are a lot of them over there!) I'm excited about showing him some of the places that I loved (and, really, still do.) It's mostly bookstores and museums, so I guess that explains a lot about me!

Plus the place where our little family began - good old Yo Video. I've been thinking a lot about personal mythologies as they relate to place. I think it's important to feel connections to places and people, not just through the direct experience of meeting a particular person, or being in a place at a particular time, but also through the layered experience of having stories and histories surrounding that person or location. Because many of my personal histories remain on the West Coast, by extension, many of Griffin's personal mythologies will have connections to the West Coast as well.

It will be interesting, though, to see how time has changed things, because the people and places remain static in my memory, as though they've become mythologized - passed into story, if you will. There is so much I want to see and do in such a short period of time! Creating new stories to layer on top of the old.

Huh, I didn't sit down to write all this stuff down (I mean, really, who actually uses the word mythologized?!) but there it is, all the same. These are the kinds of things I think about.