Two Messes Cleaned

So Justin has been demonstrating interest in pouring 'water' out of my bleach containers and other such bottles so I thought I NEED to get them up and out of his reach. As in as soon as possible!

Therefore yesterday I undertook to clean out the walk in closet. Reorganized it a bit so that I could put the cleaners up high. Took a few things out, added a couple of things to help with storage. Then I put away the summer shoes, got out the winter boots and voila.. A safe area. :) Also a clean organized area. Won't drive me nuts anymore. :)

Then I thought...hmm...been wanting to tackle the linen closet, why don't I do that as well? Found the knee braces for my hubbie.....knew I had put them some place safe. :) Rearranged and fitted things around a bit better, today I'm hoping to get the rest of my table clothes in there as well.

So two big jobs done and in-between I played with the boy child, made supper, read for 1/2 hour, went to physio appointment, did up all the dishes, got 1/2 the table cleaned off and got all the laundry done. WooHoo! I had a productive day. :) Nice to have those days. :)

This Summer

Not sure if I ever posted these. Justin and I went to visit Teo and Sieka from church one day this summer. Jim was not with us, not sure anymore what he was doing. Anyways, Teo took these pictures of our boy child. Teo had sent these to me as a reminder of Justin on the lawn mower. :) Thanks again Teo! :)

His Sense of Humour is Developing

So last night I was doing dishes, Justin came in to "help". I asked him instead to let the dog in the house.

Off he toddled. I hear him at the back door (just like two steps away). Sassy coming? Sassy he yells. Then I hear the door open, then a giggle as the door shuts.
Sassy coming? He giggles. I hear the door open, I poke my head around the corner asking if he needs help only to see a boyo closing a door carefully just as Sassy tries to get in the house. He did this again. Sassy was being very patient.

I said "Justin are you teasing the dog?" He looked up at me and chortled.

I opened the door and let the dog in. :)

Told Jim about it. His response... He must have learned it from his mommy who likes teasing her animals too. :)

Our vacation - November 2007

Plain and simple.... we had fun.

We stayed with Jen and Mark. I got to know these people when I started to work with their son Matt. Matt is a great young man who has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. Anyways, they moved off to the Greater Toronto Area, I got married and life somewhat changed. Anyways, Jen is one of my friends where it is easy to just pick up where we left off. Nice to have that.

Anyways, they were gracious enough to let us use their home as "home base". They have this HUGE dog named Bear (appropriately enough). Their daughter is off at University, and both boys are still at home. We arrived Monday night and just had a nice visit.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were off to the Royal Winter Fair. Justin slept in a bit late on the Tuesday so we got there a bit late. I had forgotten to pack his stroller so first off we picked up a cheapie one at Zellers. We made Tuesday Justin's day to just explore and play. We went through the various Children's exhibits -- the animals, the crafts, and the Hands on stuff. Justin had a blast. He saw pigs, chickens, lambs, cattle, goats, llamas and so forth. He tried very hard to climb into various exhibits.


I can climb up! Really I can!


Jim and I both thought it cute that Justin wanted to introduce his beloved Tagu to the various animals that he met.

The colouring was a huge hit as well. :) He had such fun organizing the crayons and markers and then choosing just the right picture to colour. The area that they did this in had all sorts of really nice posters that we could bring home as well. We spent a fair bit of time here. In the back part of this exhibit they had children painting horses. Justin wasn't quite old enough to do this and he probably would have wanted to just take everyone else's horses anyways. So we kept him away from that. :)

And then it was off to see some exhibits. Booths with food, free samples, interesting items and people. Just stuff to look at and sample, or in Justin's case...to play in. :) Here he's playing with farm equipment in a sandbox of canola seeds. While he played, Jim wandered booths and I chatted with the sales rep. Nice man, farms canola out in Alberta and is an elder in a Baptist church out there. He started to get tired 530 ish so we headed off 'home' again. It was a nice family day.

Day two. We got there fairly early in the day. Spent the morning walking through booths since we didn't see most of them the day before. Justin started off his day convincing his mommy that he really, really needed her to buy "Bertie". it was a bus at a british display....looked much like Bertie the bus from the Thomas the train show. A good day long amusement for a little boy.

I started getting a bit tired so we went over to the horse arena hoping to catch a show. We did! Justin enjoyed the horses...watched carefully until being a toddler caught up to him. He got away from me at one point -- crawled an entire row of seats and out the other end. I made people smile when I walked around the seats saying "looking for a toddler" and here he was little head grinning at me from under a seat. :) I took him up around the top so he had a good chance to run around like a crazy boy. Fun fun! we made four big loops until he started to walk a bit drunk like. So back down to our seats where I cuddled him in my lap and he promptly fell asleep. He had a good 2 hour nap.
And I got to watch a horse show in relative peace and quiet. :) We saw jumping, big horses pulling carriages, and carriage derby practice and much much more. Lots of fun.

Overall a very good day.

Home again, we all crashed after a visit with Jen and Mark.

Thursday we went to IKEA in the morning. had lunch there as well. Justin ate well, I was quite pleased. Home to our home to just relax a spell.

Friday off to London so Justin could visit gramma. We first stopped at the doctor because Justin's been saying owiee and crying and I wanted to know what was up with that. Plugged ears (too much ear wax) was the diagnosis. Not fun. So oil drops and see if it comes out. He missed our weekly gramma time so this was important to him. He had fun. Jim and I went out for a really nice dinner. Gramma brought Justin home for us so we could just take our time.

Saturday we had a nice supper at Judy and Henry's. Judy, my sister, is a good cook. Meatloaf with boiled egg in the middle, potatoes and various veggies. Becky was there but soon headed off with a friend to go shopping, and Shane had a friend over. Justin played with trucks and various small animals. A nice visit for all.

Sunday morning Justin was TIRED. He had a cold, and there was no way I was getting him out of the house. No, stay home day, stay home day? Was his plaintive request. So Daddy went to church. Mommy and Justin stayed home.

As An Aid to my Hubby

Jim told me that if he doesn't read and write it down he won't remember what Justin's chores are around the house.

1. Helps feed the fish ... does this twice a week or sometimes more often
2. Helps feed the baby bunnies
3. Helps to wash the cups (especially HIS sippy cups) while Mommy washes the dishes (or while he's playing in the sink)

So now my sweetheart has a ready and able list to go by. :)

Challies Contest

Jim, Camping with the Men

So Jim is an active part of the Pop Up Explorer group. Each year a bunch of men go camping up at Algonquin park the first weekend in November. A bunch of Canadians and Americans. They drink beer, burn Tiki huts, have conversations, and I'm assuming perhaps do some walking about.

Jim calls at least once a day to just say how things are going.
He's been rather disappointed by the "vileness" of some of the campers this year. Finds it discouraging. He's still having fun talking with some of the more "grown-up" of the men, and some of those men he is really enjoying getting to know better, but some of the rest overrides a bit. He is looking forward to coming home. :)

Our days are mostly outlined here and here and here. Go check them out if you desire.

What else did we do this week that I failed to mention?

1. Dug up my "not hardy for winter" bulbs. Planted daffodil bulbs leftover from Jim's mom.
2. Got the composter all dug out and our new garden all filled in.
3. Brought the baby bunnies inside to get tamed up a bit.
4. Cleaned the house, seemed like umpteen times, especially with a boy child following after..... I would like this house clean before we leave next week.
5. called Jen (a friend in Ontario), we can stay with her and the family next week. They are in Oakville which will make a daily drive into T.O. a bit shorter.

Basically managed to keep fairly busy. Good thing that.

Today I'm not sure where I"m going to church. Mom and Dad's anniversary as well. Have to pick up Justin. Part of me just wants to go to London now, find a church, then wait for Justin and Mom to come back from Woodstock and then come home, let Justin nap and wait for Jim to come home. But that doesn't seem efficient to me somehow ...and tempts me too much to do stuff on Sunday that I don't need to be doing. Anyways, first I have a dog to walk.

Boy.... is this house ever quiet...........