David's new job

After about a month and a half of searching I finally found a job. I have become the only male staff member (apparently the second in it's history) at a Francophone daycare in Kitchener. Despite the early mornings and consequently waking up when it is still dark outside, I am rather enjoying it. It not only gives me the chance to work in French, it also gives me the opportunity to continue to work towards my goal of becoming a teacher. The daycare is attached to a Catholic elementary school (which is funded by the Ontario government...) which apparently is quite common. Both the daycare and the funding...
While I am quite comfortable with working with school aged children I have found it quite a bit different to work with 2 to 4 year olds. With older kids you can use rationality. With littler kids this concept does not yet exist. Saying, for example, throwing sand at someone will not only make a mess but will also get into your eyes and hurt, doesn't work. I found that a simple don't with a finger shake works better. Another technique is to get them to sweep up the mess themselves. On the one hand this works well in terms of teaching the idea of action-reaction. On the other hand man kids are terrible at sweeping. I mean, don't quit your day job kid. Stick to eating glue and shoving things into your mouth. Leave the sweeping to me.
In any case, this will be good practice.

The Ws

No, I am not talking about the current president of the U.S.A. Nor am I talking about the famous 5 Ws we all learn in school. I am talking about Winnipeg, Waterloo, Winter, and Wrong. Having left Winnipeg talking about how wonderful the fall is here in Ontario mother nature saw fit to prove me wrong. Today, upon my departure from home, and yes it is the 29th of October, we had a blanket of snow on the ground. Oh and out came the windshield scraper for the 3rd time! If disapointed or sad started with a W it would fit perfectly in here. Believe me frozen tears were shed. To further add to my sadness I saw that the weather in Winnipeg was about 13 degrees warmer than here in Waterloo. What gives mother nature? Have even you been affected by the financial crisis? Did you invest in those faulty mortgages too? Was there no more money warm weather?

Well, this bring me to my last W, wrong. It is just wrong to have snow in October. I am sure you will all agree.

20 WEEKS!

Here is the most updated pregnancy picture, and I am actually looking pregnant now. Last week I woke up and realized that my clothes no longer fit, so it was time for a trip to a maternity store. And I am so thankful for the new (comfortable!!) clothes. We have our next ultrasound on November 4, and we will find out whether "it" is a girl or a boy. But... we're not telling. :-)

A few more pics

A few pictures of Graeme's menagerie... (his pets all have wonderful names that I always mix up.)

The Gecko

Graeme and the Little Egg-Eater Snake

Me and the Big Egg-Eater Snake

Toben, who doesn't belong to Graeme, but provided amusement by getting stuck inside our lamp.

Thanksgiving weekend with Mom & Dad

And over Thanksgiving weekend, my parents came to visit... something I've been looking forward to since moving all the way out here. We had a wonderful time with them. We spent time outside taking walks in the beautiful autumn weather... the leaves stay on the trees longer in this part of the country. We made a trip to IKEA where we enjoyed Swedish furniture, fish & chips and wish lists. We also went to Stratford, where we saw Romeo & Juliet in the Festival Theatre. We also spent an evening in Guelph with Graeme, getting to know his magical animal kingdom. :-) The weather was dreamy... 30 degrees in October!! It was so good to spend time with my parents, showing them around our new home... we are looking forward to coming home to Winnipeg at Christmas to see everyone again!

Mom, pretending to enjoy a coffee on the flowery chaise longue.


Mr. Peanut comes for a visit

My parents enjoying the scenery on the Avon River in Stratford


The River Avon

The Festival Theatre in Stratford

October Update

The beginning of October meant visits from people from Winnipeg that we love... our doors are always open, and we love visitors!

First came Takashi, the most artistic sushi maker I know.

Our biggest adventure: grocery shopping at Sobey's.

Julia & Amy were in town because of Cara's wedding (Don't be blinded by Whitey in the middle there.)

Verbs and Nouns

Here we are....week 17 of pregnancy. There were some days, when Christine was cuddling cozily up with her porcelain friend Flushy, that I thought to myself that it is certainly amazing that the human race has made it this far. I mean, if every woman feels like this while pregnant (and yes not all do but for the sake of my point they all do) I can't imagine wanting to put yourself through this more than once. Perhaps it is like winter and summer in Winnipeg. Winter is kind of like the crappy parts of pregnancy; uncomfortable, long, and tiring. Once the summer arrives we all forget about how dumb of an idea it was to build a city in such a bitterly cold and ruthless environment and thus, the cycle continues. I guess in the end it is all worth it. I mean, I do like summer and especially summer in Winnipeg. It's just that when you feel like your eyeballs are freezing solid well it's not an experience one wants to repeat. I am sure once I see our little one working away in the wheat field I will want/need another to pick berries or something.

Anyways, the nausea has let up. I do not want to jinx it but we are quite happy about this. Our next ultrasound will be in a couple of weeks and at that point it should resemble a baby rather than an odd looking alien object. In other news, we have heard the heart twice and that was pretty neat.

Well, we hope everyone has a safe, relaxing, and family/friend filled Thanksgiving weekend.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

In the morning when I rise...

The sounds of geese getting ready for flight wake us up every morning. Well...they wake me up every morning. Christine has this superhuman ability to sleep through anything! This is a quality that, for people like me who find it difficult to sleep at the best of times, I wish I had. However...she can't clap with one hand! Point me.

Things in Waterloo are settling down. We, by we I mean I, no longer go the grocery store every day, classes are now a month into the semester, and the leaves are changing colours. This was something I missed dearly when I moved to Winnipeg. Since it becomes cold so quickly the leaves don't have the chance to die a slow colourful death, which I guess is more humane if you are a leaf activist but by golly I like the reds, yellows, and shades in between. Anyways, things here are going quite well.

Speaking of well, that would be the opposite of how Christine has been feeling lately. Nausea or when will it stop I am at sixteen weeks enough is enough already, as we call it, has become the fourth member of the house. It is kind of like one of those house guests who never tells you when it is going to arrive or when it is going to leave and, on top of it all, stays long enough just to make it's presence felt even in it's absence. At this point, as I am sure many pregnant women are apt to say, one is enough. In any case, as far as the pregnancy goes, things are going quite well. Nausea is apparently a sign that the pregnancy is strong and healthy. For that we are thankful.

Well, I think that is all for now. We enjoy getting calls from people so please feel free to call us. It is always nice to have a call from home.

Toben

The wonderful adventures of Toben!

Playing hide and seek at the hotel in Thunder Bay

Fun with blankets

Helping Christine do some work

Goin' out clubbin'

Playing with the camera

Another game of hide and go seek

Playing with his Golden Compass bucket

I love dress up

Autumn's beginnings

Autumn's beginnings...

David's wilderness adventure OR I saw three deer and all I got was a picture of their bums

Since my life is not terribly exciting right now i.e. no job and house-husbanding, I tend to find certain things, that some people would think mundane, very exciting. Take today for example. I just walked out of the door (to do my third activity grocery shopping) and there was a deer standing about 20 feet away from me giving me a stare down. I immediately ran back to get the camera to capture this unbelievable event for Christine and those of you who read these posts. Dashing out of the door with the camera, it looked like it had disappeared but ohhhh no. There were, in fact, 3 of them! In my attempts to get closer I kind of scared them off. It was probably because of my blindingly white skin and goofy excited look on my face. I mean, who wouldn't be excited to see 3 deer directly behind their house? After a few attempts of getting a decent shot I just watched them hop away. And as quickly as they had come they disappeared. Thus, all I got was a picture of their bums jumping away.

I wonder why they didn't find me as interesting?

We made it 3 months!

The ultrasound picture is now a couple of weeks old. In the past few days I have what in pregnant-lingo is called "popped." So it feels like I am actually pregnant right in time for the morning/all-day sickness to begin to dissipate. Thank goodness for our wonderful midwife and her access to anti-nausea drugs!! Countdown: 6 more months to go!

Ultrasound # 1

Here is the first of our little ultrasound blob...in other words our little bundle of cells.

Sorry about the blurriness the baby was moving around like a jumping jellybean

A labour day visit

We took a nice trip to Oshawa yesterday to visit with my brother Jason, his fiancée Michelle, our nieces, Brittany, and Lorisa, and our nephew Lucas. Here are some pictures.

Lucas chewing on his safety glasses

Pretty much my favourite picture

Lorisa smiling because she is so excited to see her favourite aunt and uncle

Brittany on one of her random tangents

A delicious dinner which was also fun to play with

From prune to plum

Welcome to this weeks update!

Our little prune has now achieved good sized plum status! I am not sure why pregnancy websites and books compare developing fetus'/developing babies to fruit and vegetables but I guess it is a much more pleasant thought to think of a plum than say a rock, or a soft ball (which in case you didn't know isn't exactly "soft"). "Your baby is now the size of a good sized rock" doesn't sound as appealing I guess.
In any case, we are hoping in the next few weeks to hear the lub dub of our little plum's heart. This is something I am rather excited about. While the first ultrasound was pretty impressive, it was quite difficult to visualize this tiny object turning into a full-on talking, walking, somersaulting, watermelon....I mean baby. Ultrasound number two comes with stereo sound. This makes it so much more real...

Inside our new place

At long last... pictures from inside our home. Well, at least the inside of some of it. Some parts of it are not ready yet... we are still deciding where things go, etc.

Main floor: Our living room

Kitchen Angle #1

Kitchen Angle #2 (Notice lovely view of dumpster out the window...)

Front hall: to the left are stairs leading down into the basement

Upstairs: bathroom

That's all for now. Check back soon to see more. :-) Enjoy what's left of the long weekend before school starts back next week.

More Camping Trip Photos

Boots, the teething puppy

Roasting marshmallows

Karen & Patricia

Will's attempt at climbing trees in Algonquin Park

Family Camping Trip

Although a week has already passed since we returned home, I thought it would be worth it to post some pictures of our camping trip to Algonquin Park last weekend. David and I picked up Will and Vinna in Toronto (after some detouring in search of the QEW, which does not have an exit on the 401), and then met Gord, Ellen, cousin Vickie, Uncle Ed and cousins Patricia and Karen for a weekend of swimming, sunbathing, marshmallow roasting, reading, eating and relaxing. Highlights for the weekend included all the s'mores, Patricia and Karen's puppy Boots, who is just so cute (!!), enjoying the floaty chairs in the water, Vinna using her secret weapon to scare the bears away at night, and hanging out around the campfire.

Frisbee on Pog Lake

Sunbathing: Patricia, Vickie, Vinna

Relaxing by the fire... is this breakfast or lunch? (Will, Dave, Vickie)

This picture is the only one of me, so this is to prove I was actually on the camping trip. :-)

Johnny 5, Gord & Ellen's dog