Because it has a collar.

While Phil was getting ready for Back to School Night (I ended up staying home)..... 

Lindsay:  PHIL!!!!!  You aren't allowed to dress up for the ladies!!!

Phil:  (shocked) THIS is NOT dressing up!

Lindsay:  For you it is!!!!!!

IF YOU WERE HERE FOR.......PANADOL COLD & FLU?

It's not as delicious as tea (way too sweet for my liking), but it has the same soothing and warm properties that make you feel instantly better (or at least SMILIER!).  I'm home from school today, hoping to make this cold disappear before parent night begins at 6 p.m.  I have my doubts in this very moment, but if we all keep our fingers crossed, I will be present for the top-notch fashion show that happens on campus tonight!  

In the meantime, let's get on with our warm beverage catch-up sesh.

*  Phil has been the after-school-club coordinator at our school for the past three years.  I have signed up to do a club in the past, but this year I decided against it.  The funny thing is, I somehow ended up as the "supervisor" of a "treasure hunt club" organized by a group of sixth graders.  It all started out innocently enough - with the girls in my classes asking which club I would be running.  When this question became a popular one, I told them that they were welcome to pursue the "make your own club" option and I would be willing to supervise.  Well, this "make your own club" idea hasn't gone in the past THREE YEARS (which is why I believed nothing would come of it).  HA!  All it took was the most popular little lady in middle school to round up the troops and VOILA: the "Treasure Hunt Club" was born.  The first session is tomorrow.  I will keep you posted on what the club entails exactly.  I told them that they were responsible for the planning behind it (which means we may be in for some spectacular treasure!). 

*  Is it just me, or has CRAZY CAT LADY NATION started to take over the world?  I mean, really.  I know more of these people than I have ever known before...

*  Today Phil had a certain VIP guest in his classroom!  A former NBA player, along with our Director, Principal, Deputy Principal, Athletic Director, the Public Relations Officer and Principals from other schools.  (So I suppose there was more than one VIP guest).  He says it went great and the students loved every minute of it.  Who doesn't love a good slam-dunk show?!  And how many people can say they've worked out with a PRO?! 

*  Life before my iPhone must have been trying.  I use my mobile for absolutely EVERYTHING!  My newest favourite app is called "flashcardlet" and it allows me to make flash cards for my students, which they can use on their own smartphones.  I think it's brilliant.  It's FREE, too!!!!

*  I love being the go-to person for Tim Horton's related questions.  A colleague messaged me last night asking if the Tim Horton's here sells coffee grounds.  Within seconds, I was able to respond with a "THEY SURE DO!!!!"

*  The basketball team has started to refer to me as "Mrs. Coach".  It's a term used in "Friday Night Lights" and I LOVE IT! 

*  You should see the brain breaks I have been using with my students this year.  They are HILARIOUS.  One of them is called "Bananas" and if I work up the nerve, I will post a super embarrassing video online to brighten your day.  Let's just say that by the end of this chant-and-repeat activity, all 23 of us are giggling uncontrollably.  The best part is that I rehearsed it at home with Phil and Nory before I debuted it in class!

*  I wish I was in my sister's art class.  She does the COOLEST things with her students and the final products are always outstanding.  People like her have a knack for bringing out creativity in others :)

* I have a lot of rules when it comes to what beverages are allowed in this house.  There is a firm rule against the purchase of any "punches", "drinks" or "nectars" (just ask Phil).  That being said, I always make a small exception for artificially flavoured strawberry milk.  I'm a sucker for it and I just can't help myself....

Okee dokee.  Time to rest.  My head feels like it is about to explode. 

Toodles!

SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!

And I caught it on video :) 

I love routine and so does my body.

That's why I was awake at 3:30 this morning.  And then stayed awake for the remainder of the morning.  This impossible hour has become more or less the new wake-up time for Miss Nory (which means it has become more or less the new wake-up time for us!).  This impossible hour is also the reasoning behind my 7ish o'clock bedtime.  (Ha!  Lies.  You know I used to go to bed SUPER early even before our darling came along!)

It is a rare event that she goes back to sleep before we leave for school at 6.  (Remember I told you she can go a full three hours or so before requiring a powerful, kitty-cat-nap).  However, with the cold train making its way through this house, she managed to sleep between 5 and 5:30 and is back to playing happily by my toes.  Thank goodness, too.  Little Einsteins was about to begin and we always watch it together at 5:30 (it involves super fun singing and movements).

.........you DO realize I was going to watch the show either way, right?  Nory or not?  HA!

I LOVE ROUTINE.

Time to get ready for work ;)  

GIVE US COFFEE!!!!! (with vitamin C?)

First day of the work week.

Nory was up all night.  Phillip was up all night.  I was up all night. 

Phil is still recovering from a cold.  I got one yesterday.  Nory is likely next.  She's also teething. 

Did I mention that we have Back to School Night on Wednesday?  And that this is the first day of the week?  Or that I will be working all night long tonight, too?

Ha!  Should be a good one ;)

The X Factor is BACK!!!!!!!

And these two darlings have hooked me for the whole season!  

The BEST PERSON to have around :)

I wish there was one word that described the EXTRA-AWESOME, WARM-FUZZY, GIDDY-HAPPY, LIKE-NOTHING-ELSE, OVER-THE-TOP LOVE we have for this little lady.  I really don't know what we did before her (besides sleep more).  She's our Little Miss Can't Live Without Her. 

Weekends are TOPS!  Family time, ALL DAY LONG!!!

Let's talk about this sweet chicken some more....

Yesterday both of her bottom teeth officially said HELLO!  You should have seen how much fun it was for her to use those suckers for breaking up a Mum-Mum cracker.  It was like a whole new eating experience!  (I, of course, was panicked...terrified she would choke on the pieces she broke off into her mouth).  I wonder when those top ones will appear.  The doctor believes they are close to ready! 

She's getting quite good at getting around, especially if you consider the fact that she can't crawl in the forward direction.  She has a few key moves:  bum or tummy 360's, the backwards slide, and a momentum-driven, forward hop on all fours.  She's also starting to pull herself up on random objects - laundry baskets, her jumperoo, the couch, your legs, her crib, her pack 'n play.  Oh yes, she's eager to stand up and do everything on her own. 

One of her new favourite games has got to be dropping her toys on the floor and having you pick them up for her.  Once you retrieve them, they last a whole two seconds in her grasp before returning to their place on the ground.  And if you pause for longer than 2 seconds to pick them up, she looks at you like, "Umm.....can you get that for me, please?!"  It's infant manipulation and I'm perfectly okay with it.

Playing with her favourite tupperware ;)

During the weekday mornings (which have become REALLY EARLY mornings, like 4 o'clock mornings), we love to cuddle, play, and watch Disney Junior before Kumari arrives.  "Special Agent Oso" and "Little Einsteins" are a real hit around this place.  I not-so-secretly adore them more than she does.  The voices of the characters just KILL me and I'm not shy to say I'd love to do a voice-over at one point during my lifetime.  On the weekend mornings, we usually do some tidying up and then partake in a family outing.  Yesterday morning we went out for breakfast with friends.  Today we watched some volleyball at the school and picked up groceries for the week.

We have giggled so much in the last month.  A few times a day, Nory will participate in an all-out giggle fest with one of us.  It is SO MUCH FUN.  She is ticklish under her chin and arms, and she goes hysterical when you blow on her belly.  The "eating the toes" trick and "peek-a-boo" are some other go-to giggle-inducers.  Often times, she will hear a silly word and will be laughing hysterically as you repeat it.  Yesterday's word of the day was "BUDAPEST".  I am happy that Auntie Gem was here to experience the NORY HYSTERIA! 

Taking pictures has become quite the challenge at age 7 months.  The pictures I snap are almost-always blurry and if they aren't burry, Nory is often on the verge of a nap and seems totally fazed out!  Hence, the lack of many recent photographs.  Yesterday, Emily came over for a 7-month photoshoot and she experienced some of the same problems.  Nory is a mover and a shaker.  Sitting still is just not an option, unless she's pre-nap, like I said. 

She absolutely ADORES being in the water.  We have started to bath her everyday because she has a ball in the bathtub.  Phil got her some colourful, numbered cups that she plays with and she has become a pro at filling them up with water and drinking the water that pours out of them. 

In other TOY NEWS, empty water bottles are runner-up in the category of FAVE TOYS (with the bath cups taking first place).  She LOVES them - banging them, shaking them, chewing on them, licking the sides, squeezing the bottle........it's a whole new kind of entertainment that the true and expensive toys can't offer. 

Sporting her ONLY "Ralph Lauren" outfit - from her Auntie Gem (OBVS)!

It's so exciting to see her personality develop.  She hardly naps (Kumari seems SHOCKED by this reality), only needing 30-45 minutes (every 3+ hours!) before she is recharged and ready to go again.  Seems she's a bit like her parents - enjoying "life on the the go" rather than rest and relaxation.  She gets bored easily (like me!) and requires frequent stimulation to remain happy (like me!).  That being said, our baby is most often seen as an extremely happy one and she is adored by everyone we meet.  (You should have seen her steal the show at the volleyball games today!)

She's been having a tough time with the introduction of solids, but we're hoping her body gets used to REAL FOOD soon enough.  There are so many delicious foods waiting to be tried :)

Well, I think that about covers the latest.  We love you, Eleanor Douglas!  You make our home a happy, happy one. 

XOXO

CONFESSIONS.

1)  Nory is 7 months old today.  SEVEN.  Somebody press the pause button. 

2)  Have you ever heard of someone who filled up their computer hard drive COMPLETELY?  Like - with zero space to put ANYTHING ELSE on it?  Well - if you haven't before, you have NOW.  My entire computer is full.  With pictures.  And seasons of the Real Housewives.  And I'm not ashamed of either of those fillers.  The problem is, my iPhone has about 1100 pictures on it at the moment and I haven't had a spare second to revive my MacBook with an external.  SERIOUSLY - who knew hard drives ACTUALLY filled up?! 

3)  Today I wore a mullet dress to school.  As one of my former students said, it was "AMAZING!!!!!!"

4)  Most of the jewellery I own was introduced to me by students.  Cruciani bracelets from Italy are all the rage right now.  I see them decorating the wrists of my darling students and I WANT SOME!!!!!!  (Oh Phillip, I think we need to make our way to ITALIA!!!!) 

Today one of my student's said, "MISS! You're very much like a minion!"

I courtesy laughed and walked on because I had no idea what a minion was. Of course, Googling these so-called minions was the first thing I did when I got home from work (all I was thinking was:  compliment or insult?!).

If this article by Buzzfeed holds any legitimacy, I'm assuming this remark was actually a compliment?  Perhaps it's time I watch Despicable Me......

I used to think the "5 o'clock's" were too early.....

Then we moved to the desert and 5 a.m. became our usual wake-up time for school.  That made me think the "4 o'clock's" were bad news. 

Then we had Nory and this hour became a little less horrible and a little more understandable.  The odd day our darling woke up in the 4's, life was still manageable. 

Then there was this morning.  And I will tell you this with 100% confidence: the "3 o'clocks" are FOR REAL THE WORST!  Why, you ask?  Please consider all of the aforementioned wake-me-up's with the additon of a redirected/brand-spanking new (???) mosque speaker which blares the call to prayer into Nory's room at the wee hours of the morning.  

Ladies and Gents - this house has been awake since 3:30. 

You'd think that with that much time to get ready for work, you'd be SUPER PREPARED for another day at the "office".  It's all lies.  There seems to be something to that getting-enough-sleep thing. 

Things that happened today:

*  forgetting to brush my teeth.  BIG EW. 
*  putting on my night time moisturizer rather than my daytime one
*  turning off the lights upon entering the bathroom (rather than keeping them on!)
*  telling people that I had been up since 6:30 this morning with a look of exhaustion....then reacting to their "SO WHAT'S?!" with, "I MEAN 3:30 this morning!!!!!!!!"  (WHOOPS!)
*  starting conversations with colleagues and students and then losing my train of thought and walking away with a big WHAT-CAN-YOU-DO?! grin
*  pausing mid-lesson to............I forget....was I supposed to pause?....what are we doing today?

(Impressive I remember all of these slip-up's, ya?!)

Anyways, it wasn't pretty, folks. 

Tonight calls for a game plan.  We're waking Nory up mid-sleep to feed, then transferring her into the pack 'n play in the guest room.  Inshallah, this plan will facilitate some more Zzzzz's - or at least enough to get us to Thursday at 2:30 p.m.  Worst case scenario, we show up to school like absolute ZOMBIES, get fired for sleeping during class time, and are sent home to Canada to live in our cozy Lakefield abode.  Right?

She's sleeping now.  It's 6:55. 

GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!