Our DOROTHY Darling :)

TA-DA! Nory's first Halloween costume revealed! The one we spent FOUR HOURS looking for at the mall yesterday. (You really don't understand how difficult it is to find a BLUE dress for girlies until you're on the hunt for one!)

Dorothy from OZ.  And a TOTO to boot!

The last picture is especially CLASSIC.  Thank you "AUNTIE EM! AUNTIE EM!" for capturing the outfit.  I think Phil and I were far too close to having an adorable-overdose to function a camera on our own.......

OH I LOVE THIS GIRL.  SO MUCH.  SO, SO MUCH! 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYBODY! xoxo

More from the A&C DEPT.....

Introducing.....Nory's BABY-SIZE RAIN STICK! 

We're into NOISE in this house.  All kinds of 'em!  Come on over and I bet you'll want to go home feel right at home in no time ;)

SOMETIMES housework makes me HAPPY :)

Sophie, Halloween tins, and Halloween cookie cutters.  All make for a spectacular-looking drying rack ;)

There's nothing like "TWO MONTHS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!" to bring you back to the blogging world....

Another week has come and gone.  MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS - it's almost NOVEMBER!  Which means it's almost DECEMBER!  Which means it's almost CHRISTMAS!  Baby's FIRST CHRISTMAS!  (And my 28th).  Haha.

This week seemed long and stressful.  Stressful because of many things: work, home, friends, family, personal stuff.  It just seemed drawn out and exhausting.  Every night that I could, I was in bed by 7 p.m.....trying to catch a few extra Zzzzz's to survive until the weekend.  Of course, instead of sleeping, my mind took those extra hours as a chance to race around the same scenarios, over and over until that in itself exhausted me sleep ;)  I wonder what life is like for those who are anti-worry-warts.......

N-E-WAYS.  Let's catch up.  What's fun?

I have a favourite student (don't lie - you have one too!), and yesterday she said:

"Miss!  I have come up with a new name for myself.  It's (name), (name) The Fabulous!!!"  It was amazing.  Complete with a little shoulder shimmy.  And her enthusiasm makes me believe that we were actually sisters in another life. 

In other student news, I had one of my darlings say:

"Miss!  I have a talent.  I can write on my paper with no eyes!"  He continued to showcase this"talent" and after checking out the final product, he looked back at me and said, "but the problem is that my pencil goes wherever it wants on the page!"  If things like this qualify as a talent, our world is bursting with talented individuals ;)

What else?

THIS video made my life.  Thank you to Ms. Sophia for posting it on Facebook and giving me a much-needed smile at work this week!  I LOVE IT.

Other things that are making my life.  Halloween.  I am not usually a huge fan of the holiday.  I don't like scary things.  I hate it when people use eggs for reasons beyond food or Easter.  And I'm not really big on bags of candy.  To be perfectly honest, I see this holiday as a means to an end (the end being Christmas!) and I half-pretend to enjoy it for the sake of my own optimistic, happy spirit.  HOWEVER, THIS YEAR, I'm diggin' it.  Turns out Halloween is a pretty O.K. thing when you're dressing up a little one!  Today we spent 4 hours searching for Nory's costume and she gets to wear it at the Autumn fair tomorrow!!!  I can't wait.  Like - I can't even STAND how adorable she's going to look.  I have her costume laid out in the living room and it's taking everything I have not to wake her up, put it on, and start an early trick-or-treating ritual ;)

Also, tomorrow is Phil's first soccer game with the U14 team.  As well, we have a first year birthday party to attend at 5 p.m. 

Mmmmmm hmmmm....busy people, I tell ya!  Schedules like ours are how it's almost November.  Yep, THIS IS HOW it is almost November. 

Enough rambling.  Let's call this a post ;)

XOXO

WHY SO SERIOUS?

She tried plums for the first time today.  Didn't seem to pleased about the whole thing either....

What resulted was a wasted serving of pureed plums, a stained bib, a hard-to-get-clean face, and a JOKER of a baby ;)

Hmmm....I think I will be freezing the rest of the batch and saving it for a later date.  Perhaps the taste will grow on her ;)

IF YOU WERE HERE FOR TEA.

*  You haven't seen a disappointed face until you've seen an 8 month old mistaken her exer-saucer for her "jumperoo".

*  Today is the last day of holidays.  We have quite a few things to get done - marking, food prep, laundry, etc.  I suppose this is what happens when you procrastinate choose to spend time with your adorable baby girl instead.  (NO REGRETS EITHER!)

*  If you aren't already, you need to start following "HUMANS OF NY" on Instagram.  Don't ask, just DO!

* Nory slept from 6:30 last night until 3:30 this morning.  It's clear she was EXHAUSTED from three nights of little sleep, but it's also clear that these beautiful nine hours of rest were unfamiliar enough to seem ADEQUATE.  BIG MISTAKE, NORY!!!!  Haha.  The joys of parenting ;)

*  Does talking to loved ones on the phone make you MORE homesick at times?  Happens to me sometimes.  Like this week.  I talked to both my Nan and my Dad and I hung up both calls feeling blue :(  The good news is that our busy schedule makes days fly by and we'll be having tea in person in no time!

*  Speaking of blue (the colour, though!), yesterday we watched "Smurfs 2".  I have the BIGGEST soft spot for these guys and I can't help but giggle every time I hear a word with the endearing "smurf" worked into it.  Examples:  happy SMURFDAY, OH MY SMURF, SMURFTASTIC, etc.  Cheesy just WORKS for these creatures :)

*  The laundry basket has become somewhat of a new BFF around here.  Just throw in a fuzzy blanket, a pillow, some toys, and a NORY, and you've got one heck of a controlled entertainment center!  We had lots of fun yesterday because I tied a skipping rope to the basket and was pulling Nory around the house.  She was on cloud nine!

*  Someone else you should follow on Instagram?  Charlotte Olympia.  MY GOSH.  She is the CUTEST designer, I swear to you!  She has some Halloween-inspired flats right now that I want so badly.  Not sure where you can purchase them, but Google and I are tight ;)

*  Remembering that the Olympics are happening this winter is really exciting.  I have so many happy memories watching the Olympics with my family (we're all OLYMPICS FANATICS!) and I can't wait to start the same around-the-clock-craziness with my own family.  During the London Oympics, I was pregnant with Nory and feeling terribly nauseous in our little Beaches apartment!  This year, Mom P will be visiting us during the games.  VERY EXCITING!

*  TWO MONTHS until my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

Learning about "THE KITCHEN".

The kitchen seems to be a bit of a discovery hotspot for Nory.  She gets into everything no matter where we are in the house, but it seems to me like she is especially excited while exploring the kitchen.  It's like "Getting Into Everything - 2.0" and we can't really look away....even for 0.2 seconds.  Perhaps it's due to the fact that we haven't so much baby proofed that area of the flat, or maybe the kitchen truly is the coolest.  Regardless, the other day we brought a little bit of the kitchen into the family room to make things SAFER.  It was a kitchen stuff field trip - safer AND lower maintenance for Ma and Pa than an honest-to-goodness kitchen experience.  

VOILA!  Minutes of fun ensued (let's be honest....no baby can stick to a single activity for HOURS...unless the secret of sustained play has not been told to me).  Watch her curiosity in action....

The lettuce dryer.  SUPER FUN!  It spins, makes noises, has a funny feeling part on the inside.  She was working really hard to turn the handle herself!

Hey!  Is that ME that I see?!  Other fun facts about pot lids?  They make REALLY fun sounds when banged with an ice cream scoop ;)

Oohh laa laa.  The strainer.  Another thing that feels really strange ;)

We whisk you were here with us ;)  If you recall, this is the same whisk that Phil brought home last year as a surprise for me!

The spatula.  A cool name.  A not-so-cool object if you hold it the other way and stick it too far into your mouth.

A CANADIAN AT LAST!!!!!!!!!!!!

This house is a HAPPY, HAPPY one! Yesterday the embassy called to tell us that "Eleanor Douglas" is OFFICIALLY a Canadian citizen!  We weren't expecting the paperwork to be finalized until next April, so we're assuming they expressed the application after taking Nory's sweetness into consideration ;)

This may be a minimal deal for some people, but I am just over-the-moon, full-of-happy-tears about the news.  For 8 months, our daughter has been a citizen of NOWHERE.  Although she was born in Kuwait, she was not granted citizenship here and it took the government of Canada some time before they would recognize her as legitimate.  NOW, though.  NOW she is a full-fledged, Maple Leaf Sporting Gal.  She IS Canadian.  She BELONGS.  And she's going to be showing off her Canadian pride at this year's World Junior Hockey Tournament in Malmo, Sweden.

Mmmm hmmm......Baby's First Christmas is going to be a really special one!

Can you even IMAGINE?!

We saw this "triplette" stroller at Toys 'R Us today.  I thought it was placed in the baby section as a joke at first.  Like, "hey - if you think ONE is bad, try managing THREE!"  But then I remembered that I've taught triplets two years in a row now and there are many other sets of triplets in our school community.  Therefore, this stroller was NOT placed here as a joke.  Three babies at a time ACTUALLY exists and a three-seater stroller is a legit item for some.  

SCARY!!!!!!!!!

God bless the women of multiples! YOU GO, GIRLS!

THE MAGNOLIA BAKERY!

Mmmmm hmmmm....all that New York goodness has finally come over to our area of the world!  The place is beautiful and it took me 0.2 seconds to realize I was head-over-heels in love...

I love the colour schemes. 

I love the service. 

I love the beautiful desserts. 

I love watching the cake artists in action. 

I love that they have a Halloween cake menu.

I love that they are sporting the pink ribbon this month. 

I love it, I love it, I love it!!!!!!  

Phil took Nory and I here after her big trip to the salon (what an amazing day, right?!) and even with a squirmy 8 month old babe we were able to enjoy the experience (and take lots of pictures)!  Check it out:

Pristine, right?  I really feel like this shop is more of a museum than a cafe...

I repeat.  A museum.  Not so much a cafe.  We were lucky to catch some of the cake-decorating in action.  The way they whip these suckers up is UNREAL.  I want a lesson.  Or at least the opportunity to set up camp right smack outside and non-awkwardly observe the process for days....

The manager was SO SWEET and delivered this mini cupcake to our table for Nory.  SO THOUGHTFUL!

Nory had a little taste of the icing but was much more interested in the texture than the taste...And just imagine ten Filipino men watching her with love in their eyes....(for real - they came over to our table and offered to BABYSIT HER while we were eating!!!). 

Phil's order:  red velvet cake crusted french toast (pictured here).  My order:  a roasted veggie wrap (with pumpkin, eff ya!).  It seems silly, but I didn't order (nor even really desire) a cupcake or other dessert.  I think the visuals were so sugar-infused that I couldn't handle the real deal!

I took a menu with me when we left.  They deliver.  And I'd love to have my own cupcake museum at the house.......