she says the darndest things.

Ignore the fact that I haven't been here for 3 & 1/2 months.

Life just keeps happening.

Warning you now that I'm about to do a blitz of the past few months to play catch up.
(it's another massive photo dump)
You've been warned.

We traveled to Japan at the end of May.
My tiny traveller.
She did so well.  Carried her own backpack any kept up with me the whole time.

Vacation attire.  Diva attitude.
Visiting temple with jiji and baba.
We were only there for 2 weeks and it wasn't enough time at all.

As of June, we have a two year old.
How that happened so fast, I have no idea…

 Who needs actual gifts when you can be SO excited over balloons?

The summer's going by too fast.
Is the memory of last winter still WAY too fresh in everyone's mind,
or is it just me?

 (she may be the tiniest tweenager but she's still my baby)

We spend a lot of time playing outside, which sometimes results in injuries…

Other summer activities including, but not limited to:
Bubble blowing

A little vacation.
Ah yes… I can just see our headaches in her teenage years all the way from here...

 

Loving the pool.

Trying to leave required minimal effort…

And just generally making the best of the good weather while it lasts.

 (H.A.M.)

It's been a good summer so far.
Just let this weather last until October… wishful thinking?

The so called "terrible twos".
There are definitely times when she gives us a run for our money,

but it's still my favourite stage so far.

Her vocabulary seems to grow by the minute, and it's amazing to watch her 

switch between English with Shaun, and Japanese with me.

Some recent highlights:

"mama, your shoes are cute today"

(me) "aw, thanks!"

"…ya, it's a little bit cute"

"mama I want to play (a game on the iPhone)"

(me) "no, we're not using the phone right now"

"…ok a little bit"

(me) "no, let's play something else"

"… ok just one time"

(me) "no really, we're not playing with the phone right now"

"… ok last time then"

Persistance…

(me) "are you a big baby?"
"no, I'm a little big girl"

To Drake's "Hold On, We're Going Home"

(Shaun) "just hold on we're going home"

(Bean) "going hooooooooome"

(Shaun) "it's hard to do these things along"

(Bean) "things alooooooooone"

Shaun's attempts at creating his own family band.

And the most frequent used phrases towards Shaun:

"no papa no!"

"stop it papa!"

So it begins already.

the little pony that (almost) can.

And this is why I shouldn't say these things out loud.

Yesterday 20+ degrees, today 17 degrees, tomorrow - SNOW.

Enough already.

Also, it's another feverish sick day at our house.
Haaappy Monday.

Like I said, ENOUGH ALREADY.
But this isn't what I was going to talk about today...

Once upon a time, she was a little baldy.

(she was probably equally concerned for her lack of hair)

But finally, after almost two years,
she has just enough hair, that's just long enough to tie into the littlest pony.

Just pulling her hair back made her suddenly seem so much older,
like a little girl… where is my baby?!
I'm so excited, and a tiny bit sad.
She was too busy playing to barely even notice.
And then yanked it right out when she eventually realized that something was in her hair.
And then complained to me that it came out, and told me to put it back in.
We played that "game" about 10 more times.
Oh the joys of having a girl.

mini michelin woman.

For a while it felt like it would never end…

but hello spring, although I say that with caution because I'm almost convinced

that the second I let my guard down, it's going to snow again.

But in the event that spring is really here to stay, let there be a record of this nugget in her snowsuit. 

On a day that was finally warm enough to play outside.

Of course she wanted nothing to do with the fluffy white snow that was in abundance since December,
but this grey, solid as a rock, left over ice with bits of garbage stuck in it?
Well let me at it.
(as mama stands behind the camera, trying not to freak out)

thirty…ish.

I had my thirty-ish birthday over Family Day weekend.

a woo… hoo.

Age aside, it was still a good day.

First thing's first - doughnut break.

"……"

"All of them."

Second stop - AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario).
Where we spent most of our time playing tag… it was still a good time.

More interested in creating her own art than looking at someone else's…

Actually, most interested in throwing pencil crayons.

Oh our mischievous monkey.

"who me?"
(The get-away-with-anything smile)

Thanks for the birthday calls, emails and messages!

family wash. cut. blow.

A family that haircuts together, stays together…?
Not because it was family day weekend or anything,

we all just really needed haircuts.

Curious minds want to know...

Watching papa get his hair did.

…but that didn't last long so thank goodness for stickers.

Mama's turn, then Bean's turn.

So serious, so still, so quiet, so good. 

Primping is no joke.

Hope you had a good long weekend!
(or a regular weekend if you have no idea what "family day" is)
Yay for short work weeks.

busy: an understatement.

Oh hi.

Happy end of January.

I've complained (a lot) about how busy 2013 had been for us. 

But then life threw us a curve ball and said

"busy? you haven't seen anything yet".

To summarize our December to January:

the ice storm that could probably freeze hell

followed by a 6 day power outage
during which time, Shaun still slept in our subzero house
in an attempt to prevent our pipes from freezing

only to wake up on christmas morning to a frozen leaking pipe in our bathroom

by the time we finally moved back into the house, Shaun had a cold
and I spent the next week trying to prevent the spread of his germs

Bean started daycare - she cried, mama cried, there was a lot of crying
also, trying to get ready, fed, and out the door in the morning should be an olympic sport

I went back to work, GAH... 'nough said

right of passage, the-never-ending-string-of-colds-from-daycare started and hasn't stopped

I learned the hard way that you can still catch the flu (I'm talkin the liver inflaming, never ending fever,
wicked body pain, rib cage damaging, cough til you vomit kind of flu) even after a flu shot

and to top it all off, how many extreme cold weather alerts have we had this season?
there's something wrong when I'm clearing snow off of the car without a jacket
because -15°C feels "warm"
needless to say, I have never looked forward to spring more.

I barely picked up the camera in January, but some highlights of December.

For the love of food.

 We're still working on the exit strategy.

How to dress up pajamas.

My baby with my "baby" - as in the dolly my grandma gave me for my 3rd birthday.
And yes, my mother keeps everything.

It wasn't much of a christmas for us with the power outage, but we still made it work.
And not that you're wondering, but with everything that happened, our christmas tree still stands.
Hopefully I find the motivation to put it away by the end of February.