Our 1st Winter Wonderland in O.S.

2 Dec 2010: It started snowing yesterday but most of the snow melted when the flakes touch the ground. By nightfall, with the drop in temperature, we had about 2 cm of snow on the ground. When morning came, everything was blanketed in white and our winter wonderland was right outside our window. It was still snowing at around 4.30 pm when we decided to go out and play with the snow. By then we had about 10 to 15 cm of snow in the garden. Dyl wasn't too thrilled getting into his winter jacket, splash pants, mitts, scarf, and hat - "No need, I tell you," he announces as he stands by the door with his "clompy" boots on. Fortunately mum's good sense prevailed and so here's a picture of him all "winterised" and ready to play in the snow.

Del showed Dyl how to make a snow angel and here he is doing one.

Ta-daaaa! Can you see Dylan's snow angel in the next picture?

Dyl had a fun time rolling around in the white stuff, crawling through it and just laying down in it. He can't really make snowballs so when he throws his "snowballs", they come down like confetti in his face'. Del on the other hand, made plenty of snowballs and had a fun time pulling at the snow-covered branches just so the snow would fall on her uncovered head.

Update on House "Renovation"

Here is a list of what hubby has done so far for 870, which was originally built in 1880 (as printed on the property assessment we received today):

1) Replaced the two wooden foundation posts with steel jack posts that now sit on level concrete platforms, whereas the wooden posts were sitting on original "herak-herok" concrete floors.

2) Added heating ducts to the back toilet, children's rooms and spare room (the "office"). We completed this job in the early hours of 3 Nov, whilst the children were sleeping but didn't dare turn on the furnace until daylight. New heating ducts work really fine and we are comfortably warm in the house. Picture shows the new heating ducts leading to the upstairs rooms. Hubby had to cut holes in the floor (really thick solid floors) and through one brick wall. By the way, setting the thermostat at 19 deg Celsius throughout the day is very comfortable. I set it to 20 deg in the morning because we shower at that time of the day.

3) Completed painting D2's room and the office. D1 is now sleeping there by herself, whilst D2 bunks in with mom and dad in the master bedroom. We are putting on the primer for D1's bedroom now.

4) Frame for our new fireplace is now in place (see picture).

5) Installing the table and cabinets in the office. Will post pictures when completed.

6) Set up the desktop computer for our use.

7) Replaced the clothes dryer duct and vents (it's the first thing he did so we could use the washing machine and dryer).

8) Oiled the pulley of our clothes line.

As for my contribution, I've

1) unpacked and put away all the kitchen stuff. Now can cook and clean house for children.

2) been taking care of the children - take D2 every Mon and Thurs mornings to Ontario Early Years Learning at Bayview (25 minutes brisk walking) for playgroup time, and every Tues and Wed mornings to the library (15 minutes "soh-soh") for storytime. Waiting for D1 to come home from school around 3.30 pm.

3) been doing the day-to-day maintenance of a home - preparing D1's packed lunch for school, going grocery shopping with D2 (he'll pull the basket with wheels for me or push his size trolley. He loves pulling and pushing trolleys, no matter how big they are, and he does a pretty good job of it too.), cleaning house, doing laundry (every weekend), raking the yard (we have 12 big bags of leaves, and there are still more leaves to rake up) ... pretty humdrum stuff.

Would like to help the hubby more but not possible ... help him as and when I can, most times when the children are sleeping or occupy the children so he can work in peace. Would be good if D1 would help out more, either with daddy or me, even if it means just playing with D2. But she is learning to slowly accommodate him and him her.

Our 1st Santa Claus Parade in O.S.

20 Nov 2010: The Parade started at 10 am and was held downtown, passing the City Hall. Although the weather was cold and windy, the parade route was packed with people all dressed warmly, some with blankets and thermos of hot chocolate. With over 52 "items" - floats, local celebrities, the mayor, the local firefighters, police etc., the parade lasted about 1.5 hours.

As D1 was part of her school's Art Team (not Art CLUB because anybody can be in a CLUB whereas, Art Team members are selected based on the sample art they submitted along with their application), she had the opportunity to participate in the parade. The Art Team members helped to design and decorate their school's float and their own elf costume. Their theme: Runaway Sleigh. So here's a picture of D1 in the elf costume, which she designed. The long-sleeved tee was bought (C$6.50), whilst the skirt was from Grandma, who made it when she was younger. We cut the skirt and took parts of it to trim the sleeves and the neckline. Then with some green remnant cloth from Grandma, we cut and tacked them to the skirt.


One more picture of our elf with Daddy's sleigh:


Here's another picture of her peeking out from the float. She stood up to wave and then quickly duck down again. I wasn't fast enough to catch her on the camera but still got that little bit of her.

D2's First Haircut WITHOUT Tears

14 Nov 2010: The day finally arrived! Here's D2 getting a haircut at Beaners in Newmarket. It's not his first haircut but his first WITHOUT tears. Back in S'pore he used to cry when we took him to the barber, who was a very patient man. So we stopped taking him there and my mother (he calls her, mama) patiently cut his hair whenever he took his nap, but that was a slow process and over a few days.

Then we moved to O.S. and after 3 months, his hair got longer and the bangs/fringe started bugging his eyes, but mama wasn't around to trim it. He was ready for a

haircut and we went to Beaners, picked out the seat (a Kawasaki bike much to Dad's pleasure ... my son) and got a haircut!

Here he is getting ready for a haircut.

... almost done (oops! picking his nose). That's daddy standing at the back watching.

Thank you Kandace.

D2's First Halloween

31 Oct 2010: My 3-year-old's first halloween and he went dressed as Skeleton Boy. He wore a Skeleton bones tee-shirt that 'showed' all the candies in his belly. I cut bone shapes from my hubby's old t-shirt and tack them on his navy blue sweat pants, gloves and hat. Took me about 5 hours (in the wee hours of the morning) to complete the stitching but it was worth it, when he wore it to the Library's Halloween Storytime, to show Grandma and Grandpa, and for Trick-or-treating.

He was fine getting dressed, practising his "Trick or treat, give me something good to eat," and going up to the door of the first house. Then he turned back to look at mom and got spooked out by the 4-year-old standing behind him. She was dressed as a black and pink cat and had her face all painted. He bawled and would only carry on the evening fun if mum carried him.

The funny thing is when we crossed the street and walked up a driveway to a dimly lit porch, the two 'witches' sitting there didn't frighten him at all. He even told one of them "... you look like a mermaid to me!" (Maybe because she had a blanket covering her feet). Anyway, they thought he was funny because they had heard him crying earlier.