I'm kind of a Pioneer.

We have a really small hot water tank in our new house. It is so small that whoever gets in the shower second has to have a really quick one otherwise it runs cold. Usually this is me, and I consider it a small price to pay for sleeping in an extra 20 minutes in the morning while Matthew showers & Elizabeth plays in the bathroom. (Her new fave toys are the squeegee to 'clean' with, and the toothbrushes to chew.)

I don't know if you can tell, but she is chewing on a toothbrush in this shot. Honest.

Anyways, the other problem with small hot water tanks is that you sometimes don't have hot water for dishes - and I hate doing dishes in cool water. SICK. It just feels like you're not actually cleaning anything, and afterward you have cold hands which I also hate. So I usually have to pioneer-up, and boil water for dishes . . . in my electric kettle.


I'm practically a homesteader.

The Pressure of Dinners

We are making friends here in Cambridge. It is pretty fun and (not gonna lie) a little bit like couple-dating. Two couples have invited us to their houses for dinner, and so far, everything has gone really, really well. We have left feeling great - we made new friends!! Look at us go!

I find the first half of the evenings a little bit stressful - What if they don't like me? What if I have nothing interesting to talk about? What if all I talk about is Elizabeth, and they don't like babies? What if Elizabeth is fussy all evening? What if, what if, what if...

But everything works out, and the conversation flows nicely, and I calm down. (And I've usually had a glass of wine...) And then for the second half of the evening, I start freaking out about what I can make for dinner for them when they come over. So much pressure!!

On a completely unrelated note: Elizabeth has her own baby now, and she carries it around and gives it kisses. So sweet!

Wagamama? No, Wagababy.

Matthew & I love this noodle house chain called Wagamama. (www.wagamama.com) Everyone sits at communal picnic-style tables, and the menu is your standard noodle house fare. We love it.

Lucky for us there is one in Cambridge! And doubly lucky for us: Elizabeth also loves it.

Chopsticks = not the greatest toy option, but great to chew on when your gums are sore.

Cramming noodles in her mouth.

Haha, tilty-head eater!!

"More Please!!"

They have the same kind of 'high-chair' that we have - the Phil & Ted MeToo chair. It has 2 c-clamps to attach it to any table or counter, and then your baby is at the same height as the table without the separation or footprint of a traditional high chair. Elizabeth loves to swing her legs while they dangle. Or cross her ankles - she's a lady.

A Holiday in Kent

Elizabeth & I went to visit my cousin Emma for a few days last week. Emma is married to Paul James, and they have two lovely children, Millie & Henry. I am certain they have the British-est names ever. They live in this delightful little village called Lower Halstow, in Kent. (For those of you who wonder: the travel to her place was wonderfully easy: bus to Cambridge Rail station, non-stop train to Kings Cross, cross the road to St Pancras International train station, and onto a high speed train there. It was 4 hours and fine. Elizabeth tried to crawl/walk on the train, which was kind of funny, in a baby-looks-drunk kind of way.)

When I say this village is 'delightful', I mean it - it is totally delightful. In the mornings, all the Mums walk their children to school, and wait until the bell rings, and then wave as the kids go inside - and I mean, all  the Mums. It's so nice feeling. And the nursery (aka pre-school) is just around the corner (for real, not in the British sense), and both schools are on School Lane. :) Hee hee hee, that is just too quaint. Emma says hello to every single dog-walker, and knows all their names - everyone says good morning to each other, and "how was blah-dee-blah last week?" "Oh, it was lovely! Everyone had a great time!", or "Did you manage to get your fence fixed?", or "It's going to be a beautiful day, isn't it?" It's kind of like living in a musical - so positive-feeling.

Emma lives on Lapwing Drive - hello, Harry Potter could live in this neighbourhood!!! But the best, best, best part about Lower Halstow is that Emma's neighbour has ducks that live in their front garden. No jokes. Emma says there are about 30 ducks that live in this front garden, and they lay their eggs there. Then when they hatch, the Mummy Ducks take their little Baby Ducklings on a walk to the pond nearby, and they have a little swim, and then all walk back together in a line. I am going to have to go back when the babies are born - right now they are just laying their eggs.

There is a nest of egg just by the bird feeder. One Mummy Duck never left her little nest. :)

Who doesn't want to live on Lapwing Drive???? I am officially jealous of the James family.

A Nice Day in Cambridge

 I'm a bit behind in my bloggedy blog because Matthew was away for a week, and I was (let's be honest) really not enjoying the single parenting gig. This was one of our 'best' conversations while he was gone:
Me: "I hate this. I am exhausted. No one comes home in the evening when you're gone."
Matthew: "I know, it must be so tiring."
Me: "Seriously, this is not what I signed up for. You can't go away for this long again."
Matthew: "Okay."
Me: "No, I'm being serious. And don't die. Because then you would never come home."
Matthew: "I'm not going to die."
Me: "Yeah, well just don't, because if you do, I am going to remarry right away - probably the next week. And it won't be a marriage for love, it will be a marriage for co-parenting."

That is pretty much how rational I was all week.

But one morning - was it Tuesday? Maybe Wednesday? (They all blended together in my sleep-deprived mind. Elizabeth has a gift for forgetting how to sleep through the night when her Dad is out of town.) Anyways, one morning we were on our way somewhere, and I had to stop and get off the bike to take a moment to remind myself that I live in a beautiful city, and that I have a pretty sweet life these days. Evidence:

Awesome green bike. I saw 4 green bikes that morning. Best day ever? I think so too.

The entire city is covered in daffodils. They are such a happy flower, I love them.

The river Cam. All the trees are beautiful and green. Sorry Canadians, if this is making you kind of hate me.

Elizabeth points at ducks and swans now. She points a lot when we ride along the river.

And on an unrelated note: bike theft in Cambridge is really high - something crazy like 6 out of 10 bikes get stolen. (Okay, I totally made up that statistic, but it's pretty high.) But I had to laugh out loud when I saw this when I got home:

 

This bike owner is taking no chances! Love it!

Sleepy Reading

Matthew is away at a work retreat this week. He left yesterday morning and isn't back until Saturday evening, and I miss him already.

This morning, I missed him a really lot, because first thing in the morning is his time with Elizabeth. He gets her at 6:45 when she wakes up, and either brings her into our bed for family cuddles (on the weekends or later-start work days) or into the bathroom and she plays while he showers. So I get an extra 15 minutes or so of snoozing. But this morning, with no Matthew around, I went and got Elizabeauty, and brought her into our bed. I just wasn't ready for the day yet. I reached for the first book of hers I could find. It was (of course) Noisy Cars. With a button that goes "beep beep beep".

Whatever, as long as I could lie down. Then she let me know she wanted me to read it to her, by doing the sign for 'more' (in this case, 'more' means 'read this to me now, Mum') and pushing the book into my face. I didn't have my glasses on, so I did some 'contextual reading' via the pictures. Here were the best parts of the book, for your enjoyment:

"This is a red car. Red cars go really fast. Nanny has a red car. She drives really fast. This is called a 'family four-door' car."

"This is a police car. They have sirens that go 'nee-naw-nee-naw'. Police officers stop bad guys from doing bad stuff. They also stop you when you are driving your car too fast. If this happens to you, be like Auntie Suzie, and lie to the police officer about how your car is making a funny sound and you just want to get home safely, and they will escort you home. Or be like Uncle Chris, and get a speeding ticket, but pay it off before Mummy & Daddy find out about it."

"These are race cars, and sometimes they're called Nascar, or maybe the race itself is called Nascar, or something. Nascar is really popular in the United States. Maybe in Canada too, but not in our house. Race cars don't honk when they pass you. In fact, I wonder if they even have horns. They do make really loud sounds when they race, and there is a race in Edmonton every year called The Indy, and it is held at the old airport downtown. I wonder if there will be a race this year because the airport was closing. I wonder if anyone in Edmonton will really care. Nobody in our house will care."

"This is a convertible car. See how the lady driver has grey hair? That is because you can only afford a convertible car when you're retired and you use up all your savings to buy it. See how there is a sailboat in the background? This must be the old lady's retirement cottage by the sea, and her husband is sailing their boat while she drives to the little town for groceries at the market. When you're rich and retired, you will only buy groceries at 'markets' not 'grocery stores', and you will have a convertible too, if you want one."

She loved it.

Stair Master

Elizabeth lo-o-o-o-oves stairs. Here is evidence:

She's getting pretty quick at it, and has this very efficient technique of only using one knee - and she always leads with her left, so you have to start her at the very far right of the staircase otherwise she climbs into the wall on the left. (Lack of spatial awareness = totally from my side of the gene pool.) The other day I was awarded the Parent of the Year 2011 for forgetting to close the baby gate at the bottom of the staircase, and by the time I realized she was out of the room, she was half-way up the second flight of stairs... whoopsies... we don't forget to do the gates up anymore.

We took Elizabeth to this International Lunch that was held by the Newcomer's Society (aka the Old Ladies). Elizabeth's favourite part was the huge staircase in the church where the lunch was held. My favourite part was the entertainment. First, a trio of Israelis playing English flutes (aka recorders):

In true Old Lady form, after their piece, someone stood up and asked (with her eyes closed), "Can you tell us, please, who is the composer, and from what century was your piece?" (Seriously.)

Second on the program: A kind of installation art, where the artist wondered what it was like to experience visual art independently, with no impact from the other audience members. And so, she brought in this black box-type thing with a hole cut in the bottom of it, and volunteers sat in the middle of the room while the 'artists' moved this box around the volunteer, who looked at the inside of the box while listening to a recording through a headset. (I said, 'artists' because we couldn't figure out if this was intended as art, or if it was her research project for her PhD or something.)

See the square part resting on the table? That was where the hole was, and then the girl in red held one end, and her assistant held the other end and they circled the volunteer. Oh, and the whole rest of the audience had to stay quiet for them to 'truly experience' the art. It was a bit of an elaborate set up. 

 

 

Neither Matthew nor I volunteered, and so we will never truly experience art, I guess. This is what Elizabeth looked like during the entire 'entertainment' section:

And that is how I know she loved the stairs best.