A Present From Santa

Last month, David and I got new chairs for our living room (see earlier post for picture). Meghan and Princess (the cat) got the boxes. Unfortunately, when Meghan went to visit with her grandparents, David recycled the boxes. Meghan was less than impressed. To this day, Meghan is still on the look out for "the garbage man" to give him a piece of her mind.

With only days to go before Christmas, someone gave Meghan the idea to ask Santa for a new box. Mommy and Daddy steered her away from this thought as best they could. Especially since Sears had already performed miracles to get in a back-order toy for her only weeks before.

On Christmas morning Meghan opened her "present from Santa" first, excitedly anticipating a BBQ "just like Daddy's" ...

Suddenly she remembered some nonsense about a box ...

Happiness was restored when David opened the box

Because that's just what you do ...

In the spirit of the (somewhat imaginary in our house) rule of "a place for everything and everything in its place", I found Meghan's "cell phone" in the keys-n-things basket this morning. Very Cute!

Making Christmas Presents

One of these could be for you ...

A Future in Acting?

A Visit With Santa

Aunt Ruth is on the Internet

With Meghan off at Grammie and Grandpa Walker's for the past week (and for another week to come) Marcie and I have had time to get some other things done. Such as finally finishing Meghan's book cases that we started sometime in 2006.

Today we assisted my soon to be 83 year old Great Aunt Ruth purchase her first ever computer and get her set up on the internet. The purchasing part was fairly easy - after establishing that she was comfortable working with a laptop we took her to BestBuy (must say that the lack of pushy sales people makes this a nice place to shop.) By the time we'd left we had a laptop, mouse, keyboard, LCD monitor (not sure why, but they bundled this with the laptop for free), a printer and one of the new Bell Internet in a box deals. Once back at her place it took us a couple of hours to get things opened and set-up (there were some initial problems with the "easy-three-step-configuration" of the Bell Internet in a box...) However, by the time we'd left Aunt Ruth had received her first e-mail, conducted a Google search and was comfortable turning the computer on and off. We'll undoubtedly assist her some more in the coming weeks, but it was an exciting first step.

For those interested, her first Google search on her new computer was for "ruth dettmer" which brought up a surprising number of hits, including item number six which was actually about her!

Also for those wishing to send her an e-mail, her address is rdettmer at sympatico dot ca. Be warned that replying to e-mail was something we didn't get a chance to review, so it might be a while before she responds.

I'm A Big Kid Now ...

Christmas Wish Lists

By popular demand, here are links to our Christmas Wish Lists:

Meghan's Wishlist
David's Wishlist
Marcie's Wishlist

I'm still in the process of consolidating all of our wish lists from various sites into this one place. It may take a few days. Thanks for your patience.

Consider making your own list at www.thethingsiwant.com so we know what you would like too.

New Chairs

This morning we raced to Home Depot to take advantage of a 4 day sale on these chairs. When we got there the store had only been open for an hour, and they were already down to their last 2 (there was a rather large pile yesterday).

Happy Halloween

We've been a bit lax in our photography duties as of late. We did go all out with the decorating this Halloween and received many excited compliments. However, we didn't take any pictures.

Meghan had a great time Trick-or-Treating. She even did almost 3/4 of the block. Earlier that day she had been sick (fever and throwing up) but as soon as the first Trick-or-Treater rang our doorbell, she made a miraculous recovery (the fever and everything just vanished!) Funny how that happens sometimes.

David and I attended a Halloween party for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun! Thanks to Mom & Dad Schwindt for taking Meghan so we could attend. By popular request, we've posted the picture above.

Presentation is Everything

Even though we are blessed with a "good-eater", Meghan's list of likes and dislikes often baffles me. During her last visit, my mother told me that, as a child, I would only eat chilli (now one of my favourite foods by the way) if she told me it was "camping chilli". She'd just make a large batch of plain, old, regular chilli and store it in fancy jars. That gave me an idea.

For the last 2 nights, under the guise of "Halloween food", I've gotten Meghan to eat things from her dislikes list. Last night she ate mashed-potato ghosts (shaped with a cookie cutter). Tonight, it was sloppy joes (arranged to look like a snake). Tomorrow, I'm going to try "pumpkin fries" (sweet potatoes shaped by a pumpkin cookie cutter)...

Parade of Costumes

As Halloween approaches, Meghan continues to accumulate costumes. Now we have to figure out how to tell her that she's going out for Trick-or-Treat in last year's (extremely warm) unicorn costume. Wish us luck!

(top: Little Mermaid, bottom: Fairy)

Thanksgiving on the Bruce

The London Children's Museum

And so it begins...

Pianist in Training

Surgery Update

Just a quick post to let everyone know that David and I are alive and well and resting comfortably at home.

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us

12-Sep-2003	12-Sep-2008

Congrats Shauna & Brian

Weekend at Muldrew

Fun at the Zoo

Meghan here with an exclusive report on last week's Toronto Zoo visit. Mommy was a bit slow with the camera so there are only a couple pictures.

After a really long wait to get in the zoo, we finally met up with baby Matty and baby Rhys. Their mommies pushed them in strollers while I, being a big girl now, got to "walk" by myself. I had so much fun running from animal to animal. There were lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! The giraffes were especially magnificent. I got to see one really close up as she ate her lunch right beside the fence!

I had ketchup (with french fries) for lunch, then protected the babies from gulls while the rest of our party ate. Shortly afterwards, the babies had to go home for a nap so I spent the rest of the afternoon having fun with Mommy.

First we went to the kids area where I learned about smaller animals like bunny rabbits and turtles. I also had fun digging in the sand for dinosaur bones. I didn't have any luck with the bones, but I did find a shoe.

Next I got to pet some stingrays! Both slimy and soft, they're so cool! Every time I put my fingers in the water one would come right up to me.

Then, after hours in the water park followed by a zoomobile ride, it was time to go. In the gift shop, on the way out, Mommy picked out a couple souvenirs for me and I picked out a large lollipop. Mommy tells me that I didn't even make it out of the parking lot before I fell asleep!

Niagara Road Trip

For our last free weekend of the summer, we embarked on our annual road trip to the Niagara Region.

Usually we do the trip in the fall when the crowds have thinned out. But, this year (since we didn't have the option of a later trip), we instead chose to drive (slowly) by the Falls and Clifton Hill area in favour of spending time in the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory.

A Weekend in Exeter

Thanks to Grandma Schwindt for the picture and "Meghan-isms":

In the garden-

Grandma: “Meghan, don’t eat those tomatoes until I wash them, please.”
Meghan: “It’s okay, grandma, I licked them with my tongue first.”

After swimming-

Grandma: “Here is my comb, Meghan. Can you comb your hair?”
Meghan: “I have hair on my legs like my daddy, grandma. I comb my hair on my legs, too.”

In the tub-

Meghan: “What is that hole in baby whale’s back?”
Grandma: “That is how the baby whale breathes, Meghan-it is called a ‘blowhole’.”
Meghan: “JILL! MIKE! You wanna see a baby whale’s ‘whore-hole’!”

Potty Training Success

People kept telling me that one day this would happen and I was hesitant to believe it until I saw it myself. Late last week Meghan decided that she had had enough of diapers and potty trained herself. She just up and went herself and continues to even now, no transition needed. Really, that's the whole truth!

Surgery Date

We have now received our transplant date in mid September. Wish us luck!

The Sprinkler Dance

We discovered a loop-hole in the water law that allows for sprinklers for children's recreation so during yesterday's scorching heat Meghan danced her way through the wiggly sprayers.

Congrats Jill & Mike

This past weekend, I gained my first sister! The wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun for all. I wish we had more pictures.