Perfect timing!

About a week ago, we were all set to put our property on the market, which would have been our first foot out of the door on our journey to Halifax!  I made an appointment for our realtor to come over during the week, and settled down to wait for the day.

On Sunday, Jonas decided that extreme splashing was the order of the day for his bath, and after we'd put him to bed, on coming downstairs we noticed the dining table was covered with water... many phone calls and a plumber visit later, it turns out our bathroom floor was poorly re-tiled and on top of that (literally) the toilet wasn't installed properly and has been leaking into the floor with every flush.

And so, our exodus is on hold until the bathroom floor is re-tiled, and the dining room ceiling is repaired.

Lesson learned: when buying a property, take notice if floors are different levels by inspecting thresholds!

My little protector

The little guy and I were hanging out in the basement today, and his baby monitor was picking up some guy speaking outside in the courtyard.

He looked concerned and I told him it was nothing to worry about, but he wasn't having it. He climbed down from Daddy's chair where he had been playing on Thomas the Tank Engine's website, and turned and pointed at me sternly, "Mummy wait.  Baby go see. Mummy WAIT.", and started for the stairs...

Dog walking and taiko

Walking the dog is the perfect opportunity to work on taiko songs in your head - your footsteps are a great backbeat!   Unless you need a swing beat which doesn't really work because that means you have to skip or lurch somehow and the dog thinks it's a game and tries to jump all over you...

Back to the World of Warcraft

What were the odds - the two other guys on the staff at my husband's new job also play WoW! Before long, we'd arranged to meet up online twice a week - and since then we've played with them every night!

Having a little one has meant that we're online erratically so it's never worked out when we've joined an existing guild because we don't level consistently with the other members. For a while now we've been in our own guilds, revelling in all the space in our guild bank tabs, but it's a welcome change now to be in a very small guild with people we already know.

Precious, not annoying!

As my husband pointed out today - we are both almost at the dreaded 40th birthday milestone; I have 7 months to go, and he has a couple of years.  We've thought and talked a great deal about age and aging since our son was born.  I became a mother for the first time at the ripe age of 37, that's six years past my mother's age when she had me, and I've always considered her to be an old parent.  My parents are in their seventies and obviously want to be part of their only grandson's life as much as they can, but it's hard not to let one's mind do the calculations and wonder if they will get to see their great-grandchildren.  What's worse - if our son follows our example and waits until his thirties to start a family, we will be even older grandparents!

People are always telling me to cherish the days of our son being little, and I don't know if it's possible to understand that without going through it first.  He's two years old now, and I already miss how he was when he was newborn and couldn't do anything for himself; when he was a little older and we were thrilled with every slightest indication that he would start walking soon - but now much easier it was not to worry whether everything in the house was baby-proof!  When he breezed through 18 months and headed for his second birthday without showing much inclination for speaking - not even "Mummy" or "Daddy" - we were impatient and telling ourselves that we should not worry, even while we sighed and calmly told anxious grandparents that he would speak when he was ready and that there was nothing wrong with him - and now he drives us crazy with calling us constantly, every few seconds.  When I find myself getting frustrated with the shrill barrage of "Mummy! Mummy!" I remind myself that there will come a time when he won't want to deal with us, will need his own space instead of constantly craving our interaction, and it makes each time he wants my attention precious, instead of annoying.

Leapfrog's Letter Factory

Our son has been watching the LeapFrog - Letter Factory DVD lately, after we saw it at my cousin's house.  He becomes so engrossed in it, he even forgets to sit down to watch it!   It's attractive and humourous, and goes through the alphabet at a good pace; the story goes that Tad, the main character, is travelling through the Letter Factory where each room is dedicated to teaching a letter how it sounds.  Each room is different and introduces each sound there is a lot of variety to keep his interest for the entire trip through the alphabet.

Knitting Project: Toddler Hoodie

I made this at the end of last year, but only just got around to sewing the buttons on.  This is the first cardigan I've knitted, and it's based on a free Bernat pattern - I just added the ridges (you can't see them in this photo, they're above and below the stripes on the chest), the stripes, and some extra length in the body so that the little one can wear it for slightly longer before growing out of it, and the same for the sleeves.

Had some trouble fitting the sleeves into the armholes, not sure about the cause of the problem but it turned out okay in the end.   This is the most pristine it will ever look though, as it will inevitably be covered in dog hair as soon as the little one starts wearing it!