Long Time No Post

Dear Blog,
I'd like to apologize for not spending more time with you.  I've thought about you a lot but just haven't had the time to sit down with you.  Since my last post, my days have been packed with things like attending births as a doula, going on family summer outings, full time parenting while Kyle worked many hours at Bard on the Beach and went on several trips to LA, Toronto, and New York to meet with film folk, then in September increasing my work hours as a paramedic, shuttling Esme to piano and soccer practice, half-homeschooling Esme's first year of kindergarten, meeting the demands of my strong-willed yet highly sensitive toddler, and generally keeping the members of our household alive and semi-well fed.

And now go get yourself a snack and pull up a chair, here comes the epic photo and video dump...

In February Tyne learned to walk!

And dance.

Then grew longer hair...

 ... which means lots of bedhead.

We spent Mother's Day at the great-grandparent's house.

And celebrated Esmé's preschool graduation.

(Are you proud Auntie Gillian?)

Esmé learned how to bowl... kind of.

And we played Kiddie Pool Baseball in our front yard.

Along with some other front yard fun.

We also spent many summer days on the beach.

And went to the fair.

 (And Esmé lost her first tooth!!)

(Teacups!)

Esmé tried her hand at busking.

(Bach Minuet at Stanley Park)

And Tyne worked on her mud pies.

On rainy days we rehearsed "Frozen" scenes.

And caught up on our reading.

Then Esmé had her first day of Kindergarten.

 (And lost another tooth!)

And we started our home learning activities.

(Making geometric shapes with grapes and toothpicks.  

But Tyne ate a bunch of the grapes so we had to resort to kidney beans.)

Esmé started soccer.

And Tyne got potty trained and learned to insists on dressing herself.

(Potty training while discovering clothes means a new interest in underwear.)

(Tyne getting increasingly frustrated that she can't fit more than 3 coats on at one time.  

Toddler life is a roller coaster of emotions.)

Esmé became cultured and attended her first Shakespeare show at Bard on the Beach.  Of course it was A Midsummer Night's Dream starring her papa as Puck.

(She was totally enthralled and loved every minute of it.)

And the best part of it all has been watching these two lovelies become best friends.

(Brushing each other's teeth)

 (Esmé likes to read books to Tyne)

 (Tyne feeding Esmé an entire bowl of chilli while Esmé carries on as if it's normal.)

Okay, Blog, we are almost caught up.  I hope you feel loved again.  I have a birthday post coming in a few days so stay tuned.

Duet

Four tiny hands.

Esmé's little feet dangle high above the ground, each day stretching a little closer to the floor as she sits at her piano until one day a toe gently touches the hardwood.  And then she is big.

How to Confuse Canada Post

Esmé brought Kyle an envelope and asked him to write "hospital" across it.  And so he did, without asking why.

Later in the day when we went for a walk, Esmé told me she had a letter to mail.  She showed me the envelope, complete with her return address: Esmé.  When I asked her what was inside, she told me that she had drawn pictures of bones and she thought the hospital would be very happy to get it in case they needed any more bone pictures.  So thoughtful of her.

So we mailed it.

Sofiya the Snow-woman

Why is it that all snow figures are automatically men?  It wasn't until Esmé wanted to name her snowman Sofiya that I realized the only English word we have for this strictly implies that if we ever build a person out of snow, it must always be a man.  There is no other word in our language for it.

Sigh… the older my girls get, the more feminist I become.

Friends

When there are 3 kids playing in the bedroom and then there's nothing but silence for awhile, suspicions arise.  But instead of foul play, it was just 2 books and a soother keeping them quiet.