Easter Part 2: Lees, Pophams & Mooneys

On Saturday morning, we packed everyone up in the car and made the drive to London for the Lee-Popham Easter.  It was also an opportunity to celebrate Penny's birthday.  After a fun lunch, we all went to a park to enjoy the wonderful weather and open some gifts!  Unfortunately, Terry was not feeling well and couldn't attend, but it was still nice to be able to make the trip.  Samara had a great time running around the park, playing with Sean and Spence, and riding her bike.

The next day, it was off to North Drive for a final Mooney Easter meal at grandad's house.  I say final because the house was recently sold, so this was an opportunity for the family to have one final gathering there.  This is a house that Mer's grandad designed and had built over 50 years ago, so it was both a poignant and nostalgic day.

Everyone was in fine form and it was nice for Samara & Talia to hang out with their cousin Ethan.

Easter Part 1: Lees

Easter weekend was shaping up to be a busy one.  On Friday, we had plans to meet the Lee cousins for lunch.  Mer recently bought a family pass for the AGO, so we decided to take the girls there first, since lunch was going to be at Wah Sing in nearby Baldwin Village.

 

It was nice to rediscover the pleasure of visiting the gallery - with a family pass, we had the luxury of wandering around leisurely, without feeling time pressure or the need to see as many exhibits as we could.

After a yummy lunch we all went back to Sooky's house for some dessert and a little Easter egg hunt for the kids.  All in all, a fun day!

Bedtime Story

 

One morning this past week, Talia was lying down with Samara as Samara "read" a Robert Munsch story to Talia.  Of course Samara can't read, but she's heard the story enough that she can recite it from memory.

So she read the entire story, and by the end of it one cutie was fast asleep!  Check out the video evidence.

More Samara Quotes...

Samara LOVES to talk.  She is one of the chattiest kids I know.  When she thinks I'm sleeping, she'll continue talking to her imaginary friends.  I couldn't make up half the stuff she says, even if I tried....really hard.  So here is more of Samara in her own words.

"Fall Time"
While driving out to Scarborough this past fall to visit her Hammi and Habbi, Samara was listening and singing along to her CD of kids songs, when out of the blue, she stopped singing and said "Look at the beautiful colours Abpa" referring to the changing leaves of the trees along the Don Valley. She went on to explain "The leaves change colours, then they fall down. That's how we know it's fall time".

Meaning of "Damp"
We woke up yesterday to a rainy morning. As I normally do, I picked up Samara out of bed, had Samara in my arms, and was pulling open her curtains and opening the blinds to greet the day. Samara looked out and said "oh, it looks damp". I didn't respond, so she asked "Daddy, do you know damp?" I said, "I'm not sure, can you tell me what it means?" She said, "when something is grey and wet, it is damp."

Conversation in a Bathroom Stall
Samara had to use the bathroom during a recent visit to IKEA, so I took her to a family bathroom (with change table and couch for nursing) and into a stall and was crouching in front of her (in a supportive way, not preparing to pounce on her). There was not a whole lot of anything going on, so I asked "Samara, is anything coming out?" No answer. So I asked again "Samara, are you done or do you have anything coming out?" She replied, "Abpa, I need a minute - no, five minutes", so I waited. After about a minute of communal silence I asked again "Are you done?" to which she replied "Abpa - you are not supposed to tell me when I'm done, I tell you when I'm done, that's how going to potty works".

Having been put in my place, I humbly replied "you're right Samara, I'm sorry about that". Her reply? "That's okay, abpa - can you wait on the couch outside? I'll call you when I'm ready." So I did as she asked, and after another minute or so, she called out "did you hear my poo daddy?" to which I relied "yup", which prompted a "did you hear my pee daddy", which yielded another "yup". She concluded, "all done!"

Ice Cream What?
I was taking Samara to the park last weekend, when she saw the following billboard ad for Virgin Radio featuring Katy Perry.

She look at it and said, matter-of-factly, "Apba, that woman has ice cream nipples".  All I could do was laugh and give her a big hug.  "Those aren't ice cream nipples" I said, "but you're right, they look that way".

Sugar Bushing at the Kortright Centre

We decided to play hooky a few weeks ago, and took the girls to the Kortright Centre to see how maple syrup was made. Samara was intrigued but true to form, was most interested in sampling the syrup and pancakes. It was a gorgeous blue-sky day and a great chance to walk in the woods.

Talia's Baek-il

Talia chills out a bit before her party...just takin' in a little reading. Y'know.

To celebrate Talia's 100th day (her baek-il), we had a small family gathering at home. After suggesting that she'd make just a few things, Mama Kim went all out and provided a huge feast of our favourite Korean delish dish-es.

Long Time No See!

Well it's been some time since we've updated the blog - feels like a litte bit of a catch up is in in order.  It's not that we haven't had anything to post - just haven't found the time!

So as we try to make a push to post things from February and March, we hope this little video will satiate your thirst for all things Samara & Talia, until we're all caught up.

Enjoy! 

Winter Fun

This has been a winter of firsts for Samara.

We went to Withrow Park for her first toboggan ride.  I think she was nervous at first, but all it took was one run for her to exclaim "Can we do it one more time daddy?"

Mer and I helped her to make her first snowman.  Admittedly, we used a less orthodox approach - rather than roll wet snow into large balls, we simply shoveled snow into a bid pile and gave it a face! 

Samara also tried skating for the first time.  We took a roadtrip to Guelph this past weekend to visit Dennis, Mary and their brood.  Turns out Dennis had built a small rink in his yard, and had a pair of those skates that you strap onto your shoes.  Samara was game so we slapped them on and put her on the ice.

She did well when she tried.  We walked around the rink and managed not to fall.  However, she was the soon asking "Apba, can I take the skates off now?" and seemed to enjoy spending her time mucking around in the snow, or hanging around the hockey net.

I've included some video for your entertainment.

Goofin' Around

Samara is showing her developing sense of humour.  She will often say "I like jokes".  I don't know whether she knows what jokes are, I just know she loves to laugh.

She is at her funniest, when she doesn't mean to be, and when she is speaking earnestly about something (e.g., while listening to CBC radio: "did you hear that?"...."what Samara?"..."they said what apba said when I don't go to sleep like apba asks"...."what did they say Samara?"....."consequences!").  But she is also funny when she goofs around.  Yesterday we were at Pizza Nova waiting to pick up dinner.  There was music playing over the speaker, so Samara just started doing some kind of wiggle dance by herself.  I started to laugh, which snapped her out of whatever head space she was in, and she stopped.  So I started dancing and she continued on, and soon we were doing all sorts of silly dances.

I took these shots one day when were just messing around the house.  I simply said, "when I count to 3, make a face" - and she did!

Samara's 3rd Birthday

Just as Samara was coming down off the high of the holidays, it was time to get ready for her birthday!  Samara had recently attended several birthday parties for friends and was curious to ask what her birthday would be like.

Mer and I had a bit of struggle.  On the rational side, it was hard for us to justify throwing $200 - $300 for a 3-year old's birthday.  On the emotional side, we wanted her to have a fun and special day and didn't want her to feel that she was somehow less loved because her birthday was not at a Gymboree, or had goodie bags, or was not like her friends' parties.

In the end, we decided to host the party at home.  We invited family and friends with kids, to drop in for a couple of hours.  The night before, Mer and I were getting things ready, re-arranging the house, cleaning, prepping food, and decorating.  Honestly, we were both wiped out by the time we went to bed (late!).

The next morning, Samara was up early (as she has been recently doing).  I carried her downstairs and asked her to close her eyes until we got down.  At the bottom of the stairs, I asked her to open her eyes and she was just thrilled! There were balloons and letters that read "Happy Birthday Samara" taped to the wall.  She said "I love you daddy" and I immediately felt silly for having doubts about whether she'd like her party.

Once Mer came down, we had a birthday hug and some breakfast before getting ready for the guests to arrive.  Here's a video snippet of her party.