mostly pictures of the kids, maybe some links, and probably some music.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pigeon Post Part Three

Life must be really hard for pigeons.

The one across the alleyway from me has disappeared. I am assuming she has met an unpleasant end. Why else would she sit on her eggs so diligently and then just up and vanish? Oh the brutal struggle that is life in this cold uncaring city.

A couple of other pairs of pigeons have stopped by to check the nest out, but haven’t taken up residence. I am guessing that the eggs are still in it, and are probably dead and nasty by now.

The pigeon corpse on the roof of the bathhouse is starting to show it’s age. It is decidedly unkempt and shriveled. I guess the warmer weather is having an effect.

If you ask me what I think of pigeons I would probably reply – unthinkingly – something along the lines of “rats with wings”. But once I start to think about it, they aren’t so bad. The purple sheen in their neck and on their head is beautiful. The way the males puff up their neck and then do their goofy looking mating dance is fun to watch. And anything that can prosper in as many unfriendly places as they do is worthy of a bit of respect. Sure, I don’t want them landing on my head, or cooing outside of my window at 5:30 AM, but I have decided I am going to cut them a bit more slack.

Toothpaste of the Month April 2007


Monkey Brand Black Toothpowder.

Close your eyes and imagine this. Charcoal, ground to a fine powder. Vicks Vapor Rub, in all it’s eye watering, nasal clearing goodness. Now imagine these two things together, in your mouth!

Monkey Brand Black Toothpowder – April 2007s Toothpaste of the Month.
Sure, at first imagining, Charcoal plus Vicks Vapor Rub may not sound too appetizing; and I will admit that it is an acquired taste. Once you have acquired the taste though, and the ability to stomach the gritty, dry, gagging texture, you have a toothpaste that gets your mouth clean like no other. It is a bit like sandblasting the gunk off your teeth. They are really squeaky clean after the rinse. And believe it or not, it is both a whitening toothpaste and an Ayurvedic Medicine! Oh Monkey Brand has it’s down side, the spatter of black dried spit that coats the sink and walls, the aforementioned texture and the container that is strangely hard to open. Don’t let that deter you though, sweep those negatives aside. Join the Monkey Crew and get your teeth clean in a way you never imagined before.

Monkey Brand Black Toothpowder - April 2007s Toothpaste of the Month

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Screaming with joy


actually, right here she is screaming with Isabelle while they enjoy a play date.



and here she is visiting with her great aunt Sue.

Pigeon Post Part Two


Here is a picture of a dead pigeon that has been lying on the roof of the bathhouse behind our building for at least a month. It blows around in the wind, but it is doing very little rotting. Even on warm days it seems unchanged. Its poor little feet are still a reddish colour. Even the gulls don’t seem interested. This is what happens when you live in a city in the northern latitudes, not enough life around. If we were in the tropics or on the equator that body wouldn’t have lasted a day.

Speaking of pigeons, the one outside my window is still there, sitting patiently on her nest. She leaves every once and a while, I guess to grab a bite to eat, and when she comes back she gets on the nest SO carefully. It is like watching an elephant try to balance on teacups.

Nicci is Gone


N has absconded on a school field trip for 4 days. She was freaking out about leaving Jemima for that long, and though I played all cool and “been there, done that,” I must admit to being a little nervous myself. So far (third day and counting) it is going flawlessly. Grandma is picking her up at daycare each afternoon, big sister or I hurry home and take over and the bedtime routine carries on as normal. The only big differences are that falling to sleep on a milk free stomach seems to take about 20 minutes longer, and each morning there has been a little screaming fit when she realizes her mom isn’t in bed with me. Both the daughters are troopers. I don’t think I could have handled it this well without the big one, she is a calming influence and it is way easier to walk the dog leaving the baby at home. The biggest issue for me is missing N. Who would think that not having a comforter hogging bossy pants at home would be a sad occasion, but it is. I am a sucker for that woman. I love her.

Socks, Lies, and Hoarding The Grapes.


So the wee one loves to say socks when you are putting them on. She also loves to say shoes, clock, cow and tons of other words. It is like she is adding an addition on to the word centre of her brain right now. She tries to learn about half the words you say to her. Most only get one or two tries, but some stick around. My parents just spent the weekend with us and their dog is named Xotchi (pronounced zahchee), and that one has stuck, probably because she really likes the dog. Clock is a hit too, and somehow she has managed to figure out that digital clocks, hand clocks and watches are all “clocks” which means it is a word you can use over and over.

Get this; the wiener has been caught lying twice now. Not bad given that despite the constant babble and parroting she is barely speaking. We were riding home in the car last week and I was feeding her fruit leather. She had a mouthful and a handful but turned to me and asked for more. I said, finish what you have and I will give you more, at which point she transfers the leather to her other hand, covers it with her fist and holds up the empty hand and tells me “all gone”. The nerve! Last night she came home from daycare with her grandma and pulled a fast one on her too. When her mom brings her home they have dinner in the high chair, then they have a bath and then they go into the bedroom to watch a little bit of TV, finish dinner and get into the pajamas. Well last night they are just in the door when her majesty takes her grandmother off to the bedroom and tells her “Dora Dora Dora”. No mention of the food or the bath, just the Dora. What a trickster.

I was making breakfast for everybody on Sunday morning and it was just the bairn and I in the kitchen. To keep her from getting underfoot I handed her a bowl full of green grapes and told her to sit. I got busy and when I next looked down she was standing there with an empty bowl it had been too fast for her to eat them all, so I figured the dogs got lucky. Imagine my surprise when about 3 minutes later she opened the cupboard door and pulled out a green grape. She took a bite, put the rest back in the cupboard and closed the door.