sweet new year

We spent the day in an apple orchard on Sunday and had so much fun.
Lulu was ultra enthusiastic about picking the brightest juiciest apples on the trees.
She's quite the little harvester.
She even ate one straight from the tree without the usual demands of no peel and sliced just so..
We are turning a corner in the food department folks. ..



I am having so much fun with her these days. Three is such an awesome age.
We just hang out and chat.
And boy can my girl chat....Endless stories and questions.
But I love it, I wish I could just freeze time and she would stay three forever...well maybe not forever...
It is fun though, and so damned adorable.



On another note-it's the Jewish New year tonight and we are going to some friends for dinner.
Good timing re: spending the day in an apple orchard, as one of the traditions is to eat apples & honey to signify a sweet new year.
Sounds good to me.
Shona Tova!



Oh and if you want a good laugh, watch HGTV tomorrow night at 8:30 and see if you can spot me.

love at first bite

Over the summer I re-discovered my local bookstore.
I have to admit, big daddy & I usually end up at Chapters/Indigo (Barns & Noble of Canada) to get most of our books.
But there is something about shopping at a nice small neighbourhood bookstore.
Now it's the only place I buy my books.
Everything is edited down for you and you start to get to know the staff that works there.
They also don't mind if you camp out and check out the books before buying and are really enthusiastic about recommendations (all of which have been bang on)
I've managed to find some great reads there this summer and I even decided to go with the masses and pick up a copy of Twilight.
I am a big vampire genre fan, so when I saw this book it caught my eye.
I have to admit, I felt a bit hesitant buying it, because it's considered a young adult book.
But after just finish reading a bunch of heavy stuff (Gargoyle) I felt like something fun.
I really enjoyed it and found I could not put it down. This is a really great book with real emotions all wrapped up in a vampire story, a young woman's story of having to grow up faster then she maybe should have because of her parents, and also dealing with all the issues surrounding adolescence. All in all, a great book, glad I decided to overlook the age description and "sink my teeth into it" ;
Speaking of sinking teeth...

Lulu's first week of school went really well, with the exception of a nice big bite mark on her arm.
When I went to pick her up the teacher assured me that it was a pretty common occurrence....ummm hellllo-not for me!
I tried to be calm and not freak Lulu out, but I was pretty upset.
She has never been the type of kid to hoard toys or get into conflict.
She's fairly gentle and quite generous and really good at sharing- or at least as generous as a three year old can be.
They told me that fortunately the skin wasn't broken and they iced it so the swelling wasn't too bad, it happened really fast and that the parents of this little biter had been notified.
I fully expected a phone call from them to reassure me that A. it had never happened before and B. that they talked to their little vampire and explained that biting is NOT acceptable.
But I never got the call, and apparently they have been through a few different nanny's and are not very pro-active when it comes to their three boys. I asked around.
grrreat.
Anyhow, Lulu is okay which is the most important thing and she's not really bothered by the whole incident.
I think Big daddy & I were more distraught that she was.
My advice was to not go near him anymore and big daddy told her to karate chop him if he tried again.
ah...not exactly the approach I was thinking..I think (hope) he was kidding.
Anyhow it's a new week and I got a chance to check him out this morning and he's smaller than Lulu and I'm pretty sure that if push came to shove or in this case push came to "bite" I think she could easily take him.
HIYAH!!!

So back to the books.
In addition to my teen lit. here's a bunch of other stuff I just finished reading.
All excellent and worth checking out.
I'm currently reading Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay which is good so far.
Though I have to admit that I am anxious to read the sequel to Twilight- New Moon.
I'm sooo like 16.

new shoes

I suppose that's one way to accessorize....

he's my man

Yikes I just posted my first frontal photo of myself- and not the most flattering I might add.
But whatever- the real reason I picked this image is that I think big daddy looks good.
For the most part this blog seems to be all about Lulu.
But today it's all about Big daddy.
I often write about the challenges of marriage once you add kids to the mix.
or in our case- kid.
It takes work.
It's easy to fall into a routine where you become a well oiled machine as a couple, fulfilling domestic responsibilities.
I cook, clean, deal with the house etc. look after Lulu %90 of the time and take on the occasional freelance job.
Big daddy deals with all the rest.
Which is a hell of a lot.
Not to down play my role in our partnership, but the man is pretty awesome.
I'm pretty fortunate to have a guy who deals with all of the bills, mortgage, running his own business and still has the energy to get up every morning with Lulu and take her to school.
Not to mention he is always trying to get me to "treat myself" to facials, a massage or go out with the girls etc. though I rarely take him up on his offers- I love that he thinks of me, even though it's him that really needs the break.
But lately I think the stress of it all is taking it's toll.
He's pretty exhausted and starting to feel pretty burned out- yet he keeps on going.
He really works hard- very hard.
I probably don't thank him as much as I should or let him know how very proud I am of all his accomplishments and success.
I know he is doing this all for us.
Our little family of three.
I so appreciate the fact that he has such a strong work ethic and has made sacrifices so that I don't have to.
I am blessed that I can stay at home with Lulu and not have to worry about working for a while.
I'm so lucky that I get to spend as much time as possible with her while I can.
where the heck did the last three and a half years go?
I can do a few jobs each month and not stress about career etc. and just focus on our daughter- and try to wrap my head around maybe doing it all over again with a second ???? but that's another post....
I am so thankful and yes still very much in love.
After 11 years together it's so easy to forget.
Forget why you are together in the first place.
I'm super lucky to be married to a funny, loving, giving, as mentioned- very hard working, loyal, respectful, good lookin', intelligent, sometimes a bit- okay a lot-moody, but after 11 years I'm getting used to it, sweet, caring guy.
How did I get so lucky?

and big d if you are reading this (and I hope you are) I think it's time for a little get away or a break at the very least.
you & I...and heck maybe Lulu too.
whatever you want.
we love & really appreciate you.
hang in there.
xo

first day

After a hard first day at nursery school Lulu was in need of a little warm Sake...kidding.
But she did beg to go for sushi for dinner as a special treat.
Fine by me.

above photo- Lulu working on her homework ;
but seriously.
Lulu was like and old pro this morning when big daddy & I dropped her off.
Same school as last year, but new class room and new teacher.
She gave us each a quick kiss and a hug and she was off.
sniff sniff.
My little gal- growing up so fast.
But after oh say about 15 seconds, all sentiments faded and big daddy and I were on a mission.
We practically sprinted to the car.
We got soooo much accomplished in one morning!
Bonus that he had the day off.
First I dragged his sorry ass to a gym in the neighbourhood and made him sign up and get a membership.
His old gym (diesel Fitness) went out of business in the spring and he hasn't really worked out since.
Not that he looks bad- but the man needs a stress buster.
Exercise works wonders for me, so I hope it helps him.
then after a tour of the gym etc. we managed to go to home depot (twice as we forgot something the first time)
such a pleasant experience without a three year old- yes that's how pathetic we are, getting excited by home depot....sigh.
We stopped for a celebratory latte at starbucks then zipped over to our storage locker- which was unfortunately flooded a month ago.
I had to assess the damage- nothing serious except a box of old photos.
Mostly from my twenties.
Kind of frustrating, but in some ways okay, especially considering that any evidence of all that bad hair in the nineties was destroyed.
we (as in big daddy) built some metal shelving racks for the storage locker while I was tripping down memory lane.
I can't believe I wore bright red lipstick at one point- What was I thinking?
So we organized and sorted (my favourite thing to do in life these days- I guess I already mentioned the part about me being pathetic)
then went back to pick lulu up- still having time to chat with some friends along the way.
It's amazing how much can be done in the span of two & a half hours.
After lunch and trying to coax info out of Lulu about her first day at school
"How was your first day sweetie? what did you do? who was in your class?"
"sorry mommy, it's a secret"
alrighty then...
we managed to get a ton of things crossed off the ol' to do list- feels so great.
But probably not as great as that green tea ice cream tasted by the looks of things..

sleepin in the rain

Well I'm still here, though I must admit I haven't been into blogging these past few weeks.
I actually started a new journal and find I'm writing in the evenings for myself rather than here on my blog.
Not sure why, other than now that certain ugh-um...family members know about this blog I guess I feel it's better if I keep certain things to myself.
A bit of self-censorship I suppose.
But things are really good these days.
Though I do find this transitional time of year a bit confusing.
One day you are wearing flip flops and turning on the A.C the next you are freezing your ass off and wondering if it's too early to turn on the furnace.
Normally I love this time of year, tired of the relentless heat and humidity and anxious for the beautiful fall colours and crisp fresh air, but I feel like we totally got ripped off this summer.
Not the best year to buy a boat, that's for sure.
rain rain go away.
So this year not so much.
But at least I'm not living in Texas...yikes.
I guess I have nothing to complain about on the grand scheme of things.
But as a result of all these grey days I can't seem to get enough sleep.
My inner mammal is definitely trying to remind me that the cold hibernating weather is on it's way.
I feel like I'm catching up on three+ years worth of lack of sleep.
Last night I slept for 10 hours!
mind you the night before I had maybe 5 hours.
so when you balance it out I guess that's still normal.
But Lulu is finally on a normal sleep pattern.
8-7ish.
alleluia!!!!
Hard to imagine that one day I will have to be dragging her out of bed in the morning, instead of the other way around.
So I've been a bit groggy to say the least, but I feel so relaxed.
For the first time in a very very long time.
If only I hadn't quit drinking coffee this summer, maybe then I would feel alert enough to actually write a decent post.
yawn.....

the view from here