With the intention of leaving the city end of the month (we darn well better!) we have been trying to see the people who live here. Saturday it was a playdate with the den Otter family. The kids absolutely love playing together and are a great crowd to watch. With Echo showing off her amazing sitting skills, how much she can eat and her intense cuteness factor and Izaac doing the 2 month old baby sweet thing we were a house full of baby loveliness.

We had a brunch, hung out, visited and generally just spent time with good friends. I have to say I always feel better after a good chat with a friend. And this time the kids were rather accommodating so Xinny and I got in lots of talking time. She is hoping to bring the family down to visit after we get settled. She has an aunt that runs a coffee house in the same city.

Friday we did get some very sad news. My mom has had to have her dog Phoebe put down. She was acting sickly so mom took her in to the vet who did some tests and found out she had a rare blood parasite. Two days later she took her back to be re-tested and the levels were twice as bad. That left mom with the choice to attempt to continue treatment which would be expensive and potentially unfair to the dog or let her go. The vet thought she potentially had this parasite even before mom got her. So they made the decision not to continue with treatment and mom is going to take a break from dogs for a while. It will be very different going to visit with no dog around. And the kids did love Phoebe.

Today was another busy day. We decided against taking the boys to Sunday School as we had Karyn and Victoria over and I wanted to go out with them. There was  tentative plans to take the kids to the park but it was just too windy.

We took Echo with us and went to a mall for lunch, shopped at Sephora and stopped in at my favourite small grocer to get red pepper dip and little pitas… something Karyn got me hooked on back when she lived a block away from the store and we were not in the city yet. It was one of my “to do before move” list.

We sent chocolate cookies and sugar cookies home with them this evening to take to work (Victoria works with Karyn) as a thank you for all the boxes – in fact they brought MORE boxes with them this weekend!!! Yay! Karyn also came with Fat Sheep’s new business cards! I picked out one to keep here with me… they are ADORABLE! You can read about there HERE. I am thinking of getting some for the kids… 20.00 for a hundred. Could be a neat Christmas thing.

Echo has found a new best friend in Victoria… I am so glad she is starting to branch out and be more sociable. She wowed everyone with her cuteness this entire weekend and was a busy busy girl. She even tried to WAVE GOOD BYE when Karyn and Victoria left!!! That was a definite first!

While I was gone Ted and Sean ran out to pick out a laptop for Ted. He is trying it out to see if it will work for him (he has some time to make that decision before it can’t be returned). We are working out the details to getting the twins their own laptop/netbook now that our funding is through for the second term. I want to have this decided BEFORE we move. I am also going to get a payment order at our favourite school supply store and get a few new items for the boys to enjoy when we have moved.

Mom and Mike stopped by on their way home from my brother’s to drop off their trailer. We are going to use it to move. It is large enough that we may even be able to fit almost EVERYTHING in it! Mike will have to drive it for us but we have ample volunteers for the lifting and emptying. Once we pick up a lock for the back it will make it WAY easier to finish packing as we can start filling the trailer right away.

Sitting with Grandma

Karyn brought with her some new Hello Kitty things for Trinity – the big hit – a hair clip! She is such a girly girl sometimes.

In fact, today she spent the whole day in costume. She calls it her butterfly costume as it has a butterfly on the front. We tried on her Tinkerbell costume but it is still too big.

With all the busy fun I HAVE found some time to stitch. The piece is well on its way and if I REALLY concentrated I think I COULD finish it right off… the next project is to start our god-daughter Anna’s stocking. I don’t want to be stitching it right up to Christmas after all!

Did I mention I weighed Echo here at home on her 9 month birthday??? She gained about a half a lb in around 3 weeks! That is HUGE for Echo. According to our scale here at home she is just over 11 1/2 lbs! The continuing gain (be it smaller than other kids) is so uplifting. She has a lovely large appetite and is not having any sort of excessive throwing up or pooping. All good signs that she is using what she is eating, maybe not for weight gain but for SOMETHING, perhaps the energy she has to sit, roll over, play and smile??

I think this week I am going to try and get some more photography done. I would love to have Trinity sit and pose in the window or Echo while she is playing on the floor. Right now the livingroom is so chaotic so if I can clear that out and take some lovely shots I would very happy.

So now my livingroom is cluttered up with flattened boxes, a large stack of laundry (we had an issue with the washer that took almost 2 weeks to fix so we are playing catch up)… back to work I go!

Butterfly in flight