Some words

Hello! Hmmm... I thought I was busy BEFORE I was driving to Halifax every weekend to work! (Imagine what I'll be saying when the new baby arrives!) Griffin and I have been filling our days every which way we can. Now that the hot weather has arrived, we've been consuming a lot of popsicles (pink lemonade are the clear winner so far) and ice cream cones. Eating an ice cream cone is still a full-body experience for the little guy, but it does seem to add to the enjoyment. I haven't tried it yet, but it could happen, by the end of the summer... you never know!

Today we went raspberry picking for the first time this season, after hanging out in the playground for most of the morning. It's been so much fun watching people enjoy the playground, and use it as a gathering place. Next time I get around to sizing some photos, I'll do a playground update, as we've had some good developments there.

We've been sad to watch some good friends move away, but comforted by the knowledge that we will see them again (and we now have somewhere to stay in the Bahamas any time we like - guess where we're hoping to be some time next winter?) Griffin's other little best friend is moving to Lequille - about 25 minutes down the road. It seems far when we are used to just popping in to their house as we pass by on a walk. We'll just have to get in the car once in a while. And maybe try and meet some new friends. They're out there, I know they are!

We'll be spending the whole of next week in Halifax, visiting Griffin's Grandma and Grandpa, the beaches, a museum or two, and a bookstore or three. Plus, two weddings and a newborn session - busy times three!

Some other words to capture our last couple of weeks:

• strawberries (everywhere!)
• geocaching
• bug bites
• Happy Canada Day!
• sleep?
• cows
• farmer's market
• driving in the car
• ultrasound
• healthy baby!
• sleep?

Jam-Packed!

Hello! Another week has passed! It seems we are as busy as ever. The biggest news is our new roof. I haven't got any pictures of it yet, but really, it looks pretty much the same. Jai and I were saying we wish we had picked a different colour, at least, so it would at least look like we changed something. I mean, after you spend $11,000 on something (gasp!) it feels a little anti-climactic for it to be basically the same. I feel like it should be gilded in gold, or something. Oh well, it may look the same, but we know it's actually much, much better. Right? Right!

Griffin and I went strawberry picking with some friends, and then got together with them again to make strawberry jam. It was the first time I've ever made jam. Doing it with someone else made all the difference. I'd probably still be working on it, five days later. Anyway, it was actually pretty easy, once we got going, and the jam is DELICIOUS! And there were enough strawberries left over to make some fruit roll-ups, which are in the dehydrator as I type. We might have to go and pick some more, since there's never enough. I can't even imagine having to make everything to store and get through the winter. Next year I want to try for some more imaginative flavours, like maybe strawberry-lavender jelly. Yum!

We went to Frenchy's on Saturday, and I bought the first thing for the new baby. It's a little newborn onesie with a giraffe flying a helicopter on it. I figure Griffin will have to love any baby who's wearing a helicopter. When we were hanging the laundry he saw it and said, "that's for the baby!" Slowly but surely, he seems to be warming up to the idea.

Here's a couple more of the pieces I've been finishing up. I didn't get any great shots of the first one, I'll have to try again. But you get the idea :)

All the rest of the pics were taken a couple of nights ago in Jubilee Park, where I did a little photo session with Griffin and Jai. It was so fun, and I just love some of the photos. Okay, there's about 70 that I love. Does that qualify for some?

A Father's Day Update

Hello! Happy Father's Day! So far, we have done nothing but enjoy each other's company today. How lovely! Griffin gave Jai a sleep-in this morning (all the way to quarter after seven!) and woke up in a glorious, ridiculous, very playful mood.

He is absolutely loving being outside so much. We've been picking strawberries in our yard, and the yards of our friends. And slowly but surely, I've been getting some plants in the ground. We had drastic plans for our garden this year, and they are coming along nicely. Fingers crossed we'll be able to keep on top of it all (although I can't really say that I'm "on top of it" at the moment, still having not planted any of the corn. Sigh.)

And Griffin got his first haircut this week. These aren't the best pictures to show it off, I'll try and get some better ones. I'd been putting it off, not sure how he would feel about the whole thing, and truthfully he didn't really need it yet. But we were talking about it a couple of mornings ago, and he wanted to try it, so I ran and got the scissors. He loved it! He kept saying "more! more!" and crying when I tried to put the scissors away. Pretty cute. I don't know if he'll always feel that way - especially about the "mom cut" - but I hope he does! And ever since he got his hair cut, he's been much more curious about hair in general. He's starting to come up with some pretty outrageous sayings and words. Jai and I have had a few moments of staring at each other and saying, "did you teach him that?"

Also, fit in amongst all the other things, I managed to finish a couple of new pieces. My friend Sarah commissioned me to do some pieces using photographs of her Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather for her Grandmother's birthday. It was really fun to have an excuse to get out in the shop again, and I managed to finish up another couple of pieces that have been languishing since winter. I'll post more pics soon, but these are Sarah's:

As usual the To-Do list is about a mile long, but I hope that never stops me from doing the important things - spending time with friends and family, and making time for myself, too. Have a great week!

Water balloons = fun.

Hey! I just figured out how to do storyboards, but forgot that Blogger would shrink them to tiny. Sigh. I'll have to do it on the photography blog instead (speaking of which - just uploaded the latest session - engagement photos!) I've been spending some time revamping that site, and generally getting more organized.

The photos above are from the Spring Fling the elementary school put on last Saturday. Griffin loved it, although a lot of the things were a little too old for him. Water balloons, though? Too much fun! Plus, he got a car tattoo, which he has shown to almost everyone he has encountered in the past six days. He's getting a little worried, though, as it's almost all gone. He's keeping a close eye on it.

This has been a busy week! I did engagement photos, went to the accountant, and the doctor, got the garden somewhat started, redesigned my logo and started a photo marketing course, taught a yoga class, shopped at the farmer's market (first strawberries!!!!!!), took a field trip to Fort Anne, and got a bunch of people and a bunch of plants together to plant bushes into our natural playground. Whew! There's still two whole days! My immediate plan, however, is to put my feet up and read a book, at least until this nap time ends. Bye for now!

Finally!

Hello! Well, it took some time, and a lot of wrangling, but I finally got my new camera! And I should have it paid off by the end of summer, so soon it will be well and truly mine. I think I might name it. Griffin and I had to drive into the city this weekend to pick it up, so we took the opportunity the next morning to head to the beach with Grandma and her dog, Kaslo.

Griffin had super fun digging in the sand.

It was pretty cold and damp, but I'm happy with how the pics turned out.

Plus, I couldn't resist sneaking one of this little family. If anyone out there knows who they are, let me know, and I'll send them a copy!

When we got home we were finally treated to some nice weather. Finally! We celebrated with ice cream cones. This is Griffin's first ice cream cone ever.

He picked it up fast.

He even showed Daddy how to do it.

And we capped it all off with a trip to the park.

It was one of those days when you look around and say to yourself, "look where we live!"

Newborn Session Posted

Hey, just wanted to pop over and let anyone who's interested know, I posted a new session of newborn photos over on the Lauren Kaye Photography blog (www.laurenkayephotography.com)

Cute kids - I almost wish they were mine so I could hang some of these photos on my walls!

Playing Catch-Up (plus some Big News at the end, for those who read that far)

Oh, hello! What a lot there is to catch up on. Hmmm... It may be time to resort to numbered points...

1. Jai and I had a great time in Mexico. It's not the vacation we would have chosen for ourselves, but we did enjoy it thoroughly. The beaches were spectacular, and it was such a wonderful feeling to go swimming in an ocean that is warm. And full of giant fish. Okay, the first time the fish swarmed me, I was a little freaked, but we worked it out in the end.

2. Griffin turned two!!! Happy Birthday, little G! You light up our lives every single day. He had a great time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, and did just fine without the two of us - though I think we were all mutually glad to see each other when we got home!

This is the present he got from Jai and I - an awesome $2 Frenchy's find that we spent a day fixing up, just for him (scraping off the pink nail polish "Tina"s with hearts above the "i"s - as tempting as it was to leave those on!)

2b.) Oh yeah, and Easter happened (it has been a while, hasn't it?) Griffin loved the whole thing - bunnies and baskets and eggs.

3. Life has returned to it's usual, crazy, hectic-ness. The weather has been abysmal lately, but we did manage to sneak a day out to visit the public gardens in Annapolis Royal.

4. The Really Big News - for those who haven't guessed it. Baby #2 is on it's way! Oh yes, I knew there was a reason I couldn't find any extra energy for anything lately. There you go, the oldest excuse in the book. I'm feeling much better now, though, and so I'm slowly but surely returning to all the usual activities (i.e. blog posting!) I'm sure there will be lots more talk of this as time passes, so we'll just leave it at that for now. Till next time:)

ola!!!

Hello! We're in Mexico, and not stopping by for long, but we wanted to post this video for Griffin:

and while we're at it, here are some more photos from the trip so far (this is day 2.)

Off to Mexico...

Hello! Just a quick stopover tonight - tomorrow we head off to the city, and then to Mexico! I thought I might have time for a proper update before we head out, but now it looks like it will have to wait. (I know, the suspense is just killing you!)

This will be our first time apart from Griffin for an overnight, never mind a whole week. I'm sure he'll do great. I'm not so sure about me!

And Jai and I have one little suitcase each, but little G has an entire van full of things he needs to have with him. I think there could be a formula of some sort where the size of your suitcase is in direct inverse proportion to the size of you.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy yourselves for the next week and a bit. We plan on enjoying ourselves immensely. TTFN

Our Pre-Easter Update

Hello!

Oh, how terrible, to be leaving it so long between posts.

The problem, you see, is the time it takes to process the pictures. I've been leaving my camera on the RAW setting, so the pictures are gi-normous, and all need to be re-sized before posting. I just don't want to leave it on the smaller setting, and then forget when it actually counts. Hmph.

Anyway, that little problem will be solved when I get my NEW camera, which has multiple custom settings. Someone was thinking. But for the next month or so, I either have to suck it up or post pictures intermittently (and rather lazily.)

In the meantime, life continues along here rather much the same as usual. Griffin died his first Easter egg this morning at our family group. He loved it, but still refuses to actually eat egg, regardless of how it's cooked.

Jai fried some eggs up the other night, and I put a bit on Griffin's plate. There was a piece of yolk, which he kept insisting on calling a peach. We kept saying "No Griffin, it's an egg - try it, it's yummy," but he would put it back down and look disgusted. Finally when he tried to tell us for the tenth time in a row that that bit of yellow on the end of his fork was in fact a peach, I decided not to correct him and see what happened. "Peach, peach, peach" and into the mouth it went. I thought, maybe this way he'll at least try it and realize that it's good. Not so much. He spat it right out with the most amazing look of complete and total disgust, and declared in his loudest voice, while shaking his head from side to side, and grimacing, "It's an egg!!!" Nothing has ever been so disgusting in the history of the world (apparently.)

Other than turning his nose up at eggs in every form, Griffin has been pretty busy. We've been out and about, now that the weather is slowly improving, and Griffin has been bringing his wagon everywhere. It's a little plastic wagon that I pulled out of the Spring Clean-Up last year. It's just the right size for him, and he loves it. It might be his favourite thing, ever. And if there is anything cuter than a little boy, in gumboots and a winter coat, holding his Daddy's hand and pulling a wagon full of treasures down the street, I've certainly never encountered it. (Pictures forthcoming...)

We have a bunch of big weekends in a row coming up here. This weekend we're off to the city to celebrate Easter with Grandma and Grandpa, and the weekend after that we're off to Mexico, and the weekend after that we come home, and Griffin turns two. TWO! Wow. I'm sure I'll have more to say about that later! But for now... wow.

April Photos

Hello! Well, here are some of the photos, as promised. We visited the French Shore:

And a local farm:

And Hampton Beach:

And yes, we are all bundled up in snowsuits for our trips to the beach. Whatever it takes! Little fingers might turn blue, but at least they got the chance to throw some beach rocks in a passing stream. And on a sunny April day, what more could you ask for?

Also, if anyone's interested, I posted photos from a shoot we did with Dayliner (Jai's band) over at Lauren Kaye Photography (www.laurenkayephotography.com).

Peekaboo Being Two

Hello! Oh my, I've been slacking off around here! What can I say? Computer time has been in short supply these days, which will explain my lack of photos this post.

We've been to the beach and the farm and the playground, and I have carted my trusty camera around to all of these places, and even taken some pictures with it, but it's that next step. . . . Oh well, I've decided I can forgive myself. Hopefully I'll get them downloaded soon, and do a whole post of just photos, but I thought I should just sit down and write for a minute, since that's what I've got.

I haven't been feeling 100% these last couple days, but we've been busy all the same, during Griffin's waking hours. And completely UN-busy the rest of the time! So I have not too much to list in the way of accomplishments, at least personally.

Griffin's big accomplishment of late has been to decide that he doesn't always have to do what we say. Most of the time he's still pretty good, but with Being Two peeking at us from around the corner, sometimes it's just too funny to do the opposite of what Mommy and Daddy think is best. So far nothing dangerous or too infuriating, and I have to admit, I kind of enjoy seeing his little streaks of independence.

I may regret saying that!