I Can Do It...By Myself!

Skating in Sault Ste Marie over the Christmas holidays

Rock Star!

Meghan would like to thank Uncle Mike and Aunt Jill for the awesome guitar!

And Grandma & Grandpa for the piano, Santa for the drum set, and Grammy & Grandpa for the violin.

Meghan is one lucky girl. I plan to start teaching her music concepts this week. I hope she sticks with it.

It's Raining (Gingerbread) Men

Drummer Girl

Why is Santa bringing Meghan a (fake) drum set instead of the pink guitar she asked for?

Because the water cooler & toy BBQ can't continue to take the abuse.

Is this your gift?

If you don't want to know then don't ask Meghan.

Fashion Sense

How do you argue with "but it matches Mommy"?

Dance Recital - Ribbon Routine

What's Up Doc?

Super Girl

Christmas Wishlists

Back by popular demand are our online Christmas wish lists. A reminder of how they work: To claim an item on the list, click the Buy It button and tell the program you purchased it (whether true or not). The item will then show as reserved (it can be unreserved later if need be). Also, check to see that someone else has not reserved an item before buying it. You can sort the items by price, priority, or item type. I've place any additional information in the notes section of the item details. The list will be updated frequently.

Meghan (4 this year)
Favourite Colour: Purple
Likes to wear: dresses and skirts, nightgowns

Academics: knows colours, shapes, letters, numbers under 20, patterns, great with puzzles
- working on reading, writing, telling time, tying shoes, money, numbers 20 and over, simple math (addition, subtraction), social skills, life skills

Favourite Animals: originally had a list here but basically she's yet to come across a stuffed or toy animal she didn't like

Favourite Characters: Thomas the Tank Engine, My Little Pony, Dora the Explorer & Diego, Strawberry Shortcake, Bob The Builder, classic Disney Characters (Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, etc.), Handy Manny

We don't recommend buying computer games for her as we have recently upgraded our computer and several of the games we had don't work on the new PC.

Meghan has super puzzle abilities. 60-100 pieces is the ideal size for her to put together herself.

NaNoWriMo Progress

If you want to try too, I'm listed as marcie8. Add me as a buddy.

Progress:
Nov 01: 1,668 words (3%)		Nov 16: 17,205 words (34%)
Nov 02: 3,472 words (6%)		Nov 17: 19,052 words (38%)
Nov 03: 5,270 words (10%)		Nov 18: 21,322 words (42%)
Nov 04: 6,881 words (13%)		Nov 19: 23,571 words (47%)
Nov 05: 8,102 words (16%)		Nov 23: 31,223 words (60%)
Nov 06: lots of screaming*		Nov 24: 37,624 words (75%)
Nov 07: lots of sleeping		Nov 25: 39,920 words (79%)
Nov 08: 11,686 words (23%)		Nov 26: 40,486 words (80%)
Nov 14: 13,216 words (26%)		Nov 28: 47,372 words (94%)
Nov 15: 15,113 words (30%)		Nov 29: 48,903 words (97%)

* computer died on Nov 5 + bad reaction to a vaccine has made my right arm unusable; Nov 7 new computer up and running and arm has limited function (much alcohol and pain relievers required)

Happy Halloween

We had such a busy day yesterday that I was a bit slow with the camera. We spent much of the day at the Snyder Family Farm. We picked through the dregs of the pumpkin patch for an hour but still managed to find some perfect pumpkins. Meghan rode a pony, but the highlight for her was the tractor/wagon ride because it was dressed up as a train.

We returned home around 4:30, which gave us just enough time to decorate before the real madness began. We live on the quiet part of the street so we probably only got half the kids. I heard the other side was just crazy. We still had somewhere around 300-350 kids though. I turned off the light at 9:00 so I could save a few of "the good treats" for David and I.

Mostly these are aftermath pictures but you get the idea...

The original plan was for a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde lab but the wind wasn't cooperating. This is how we improvised at the last minute. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

The funniest part of the night for me was watching a little girl, about Meghan's age, talk to the inflatable tree we had on the lawn (for at least 10 minutes). She was quite concerned that it didn't respond to her and she told me so.

David tells me that Meghan was a model trick-or-treater. The strangest/saddest part was realizing that she knows more people in the area than we do.

Can you do the boneyard dance?

Name my Snobby girl

Please help me name this character. She is 10 years old, elitist, snobby, and Queen of her class.

School Pictures Are In

printed copies will be distributed in the coming months

NaNoWriMo

I've signed up for NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. It's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. This is a test of the progress meter I intend to use...

If you want to try too, I'm listed as marcie8. Add me as a buddy.

One Last Hurrah on Lake Muldrew

Ontario Place

Some pictures from our day at Ontario Place

At the 680 News "Traffic School" kids drove around a track set up like a real system of roads, complete with road signs and traffic lights.

Without instruction, each drove exclusively on the right-hand side of the road, stopped at every stop sign, looked both ways before crossing or turning onto a street, and obeyed the traffic lights.

Some, like Meghan, didn't know which set of lights to obey when turning, so they treated the intersection like a four-way stop. During the 10 or so minutes that Meghan was on the course there was only one accident: one kid playing bumper cars. The rest took the experience very seriously.

Another memorable experience was navigating this kid-sized maze.






Meghan crawled through the clear-bottom tubes slowly, but eventually did make it without help. Perhaps next year we'll try her on the glass floor in the CN tower.

Meghan also loved the ATVs. She picked a dragon bike with a mouth she could open and close.

Other favourites included the FreeFall (that tall tower that drops) and the really big slide.

First Day of School

Meghan joined the ranks of schoolbound kids on Sept 17. The morning started out rough.

Those on Facebook can view the video here

(Blogger doesn't allow me to embed videos in the posts anymore)

She felt a bit better when we put the backpack on her and started to leave.

By the end of the driveway she was all smiles.

The bus barely stopped before she jumped on.

Meghan sat with "the girl in the red coat" and made her first new friend.

Fast forward seven hours to when David and I met the after-school bus. All the other kids get off the bus. David and I wait. Meghan is still in her seat with "the girl in the red coat". The driver looks like he's about to pull away. Finally, Meghan realizes that she should get off and does. (She had been looking across the street where the morning bus picked her up. Since she didn't see us there, she didn't think it was her stop).

"What did you do at school today, Meghan?

"I played and played and played and I didn't kick any boys."

There was a note from her teacher in Meghan's backpack: Meghan kicked a boy today and had a time out...I'm sure it won't happen again.

Too Big for that Baby Stuff

Earlier this week I naively put on a former favourite music disk of Meghan's to listen to while we cleaned up. Upon hearing the first couple notes of the very first song (The Wheels on the Bus I believe), Meghan turned to me, put her hand on her hip and said (snarled really) in her most 'I'm annoyed and insulted' voice "Mommy (pronounced mom-may), I'm too big for that Baby Stuff!"

Apparently, my 4 year old has a more sophisticated ear. Her current favourites are mostly by Canadian Indie artists:

1. Help I'm Alive by Metric
2. The Truck Got Stuck by Corb Lund
3. So What by P!nk (not so happy about this one)

Perhaps we should have named her Vanna

Summer Has Finally Arrived

Going to School Haircut

Big Girl Bike

Santa's Village