I Don't Mean to Alarm You....

..... but someone told me this weekend there were only 40 days left until Christmas. Eep, eep, eep. That was enough to catapult our little family into full-on Christmas mode. On Saturday Daddy got the Christmas lights all set up with the timer and put good old Santa on guard by the front door. Saturday night saw us take in the Santa Claus parade for the first time as a family - I've walked in the parade before with the Girl Guides. It's way colder sitting and watching, even with this nice weather. After the parade we picked up some fast food, which Talia turned her nose up at. (She threw her Baby Burger over the edge of her highchair for the boys to enjoy, and tucked into her green beans, cheese, multigrain crackers, and raspberries while Mama & Daddy enjoyed their A&W.) On Sunday we got to see the lights in action, and tried to teach Talia who Santa was ("Danta!") and what he says ("Bo, bo bo!")

We've also been helping Santa with a little Christmas shopping, as we picked up a kitchen set & toddler bed to go in Talia's new Big Girl bedroom. We had a hard time finding a food set to go with the kitchen that included healthy options, since most of them come full of cake, pie, fries, nuggets, hotdogs etc. You know. All the delicious food I think is a treat, that m'girl spits out in disdain. We eventually got some nice fruits & veggies at Toys R Us.

Our Christmas preparations continued this morning when we went to Staples to purchase some Christmas paper for Grammie's annual holiday letter, and then scored the first box of Christmas organges of the season at Superstore. Holla.

Clearly, we went from 0 to 60 and exhausted Talia. She's going to have to pace herself if she's going to make it through the holidays!

We Love These Lazy Fridays

Talia and I are having a rare stay-at-home day today. When I decided to go back to work half-time, I thought I was going to have all kinds of time on my hands. As it turns out, Talia sleeps away the afternoon so I try to be home right after lunch most days, so that only leaves 2 or 3 mornings a week, depending on my work schedule. One of these mornings is usually taken up with Talia's preschool program and a grocery run. Another is usually spent at the Doc's office, since between me being pregnant & Talia picking up every germ that goes through her daycare, we are regulars there. I try to keep the third morning for playdates and visiting, although it only happens every second week, and often something comes up. Like today, for example, when we were expecting Shaw anytime between 8 and noon, and the cable guy finally rolled in at 11:55.

(I don't know why I felt the need to appear cool for the cable guy, but I did my best to assure him that "we used to have digital cable, it's just that we moved out of the city, you see, and digital cable just made it to our tiny town....." and "oh, no, you don't have to hook up the VCR; we don't really use it anymore....." Yep, we've really leapt back into the '90s with the installation of our new digital box this morning. Which is approximately 1/6 the size of the original digital box we had the last time we had digital cable, lol.)

So now I have diapers in the wash, a relatively clean house (at least until El Destructo wakes up from her nap), 2 snoozing puppies, and lots of time to get supper ready. I'm not gonna lie to you; I'm putting my feet up and enjoying my life of luxury. At least until the washing machine beeps.

She's a Lady....bug

Hallowe'en has come and gone and was a smashing success. Grandma & Grandpa came in for the festivities, since they usually only get 4 kids at their place, and we've been bragging about our 150+ trick-or-treaters for 3 years now. In a town that is supposedly home to 400 people, how do we get so many visitors on Hallowe'en night? I guess all those city kids know that the shorty-tally couple with the cute ladybug and 2 bad chugs in St. A. give out a bag of chips AND a huge handful of candy & chocolate bars.

Grandma & I took Talia to a few houses - our 2 closest neighbours, the new neighbours 2 doors down (I figured I should introduce myself as the proud owner of the 2 dogs that get their 2 dogs all worked up everyday) and another friend down the street. When we came back in, Talia cried, picked up her coat, crawled over to the front door and pointed outside - so Daddy and Grandpa took her out for a nice, long walk around the neighbourhood so she could see all the kids & pumpkins some more. We ended up getting only about half the kids we usually do, so we had lots of time for visiting & eating treats. What a great night.

Our favourite combination of costumes for the night were the 4 girls who came as a bottle of ketchup, a clown, and 2 Micheal Jacksons. And my personal favourite from last year was back in his crowd-pleasing costume - a huge gift box, beautifully wrapped, with a tag that said "To: The Ladies, From: God." Runners-up were the giant lego block and the puffy snowman. I'm so sad that I only have a few more Hallowe'ens to have my way with m'ladybug, before she wants to be a (yawn) princess or (groan) Spiderman.

Yesterday we all had chocolate hangovers as we said bye-bye to Grandma & Grandpa. Talia (clearly inspired by Skyler's presence at Book Club yesterday afternoon) took 3 wobbly steps last night. I fear it is too little, too late to stop The Big Appointment on Wednesday, where the Dr. will give us the official diagnosis as "Lazy, with an underlying case of So Cute People Don't Stop Picking Me Up."