Visitor #4

We finished the front garden this morning. It was de-Cedar'ed, weeded and had a strange, thorny rose-like bush cut right back. I say rose-like because it didn't appear to have any buds anywhere on it. So time will tell what it is. After planting all the new plants, Adam put some nice black mulch on top to finish it all off, mowed the lawn and then drove to a train station to pick up his brother, Kevin, who came to visit for the afternoon. He took the girls with him for the drive, leaving me by myself for an hour and a half. I hardly knew what to do with myself and my time. Time alone is rare for me...I should have had a nap, but instead I cleaned the house and had a shower. In the excitement of cleaning, I completely forgot to take a picture of the newly finished front gardens. So I will give you the before and after views tomorrow.

Kevin hadn't been out to our house to visit yet. He and his wife live in Ontario, but he has spent the last year in Montreal working for/at the University. (right Kev?) Living out West we rarely got to see them, although we had a few "surprise" visits here and there (which we repaid...)!! It's been nice to see him a number of times since we've been out here now. Now if we could just get a bit of time with Chelsea too...!!!!



Calli hardly had her shoes off before she "needed" to show Uncle Kevin her ballet dancing. Although she no longer takes lessons, she dances about 60% of the day. She even went as far as changing her outfit for him. She was quite concerned about her hair and clothes and whether Uncle Kevin would think she was beautiful. I think she's been watching too much Cinderella. It scares me that a 3 year old is that concerned about her looks. She spends a lot of time in front of the mirror now. In our old house, she wasn't able to see herself in the bathroom mirror, but now we have a huge wall mirror in the bathroom and hand-washing takes a good 5 + minutes. She also brushes her hair about 550 times a day and uses water to make it less fluffy....like I do for her in the morning. Oh dear.

Marin has been hanging on to furniture and walking around as much as she can. I brought up an old push toy of Callis' that Marin has since fallen in love with. She hangs on to the handle and walks back and forth in the living room, laughing her head off and wearing her silly little scrunched up grin! But she gets going a bit too fast and falls on the floor and then screams at the top of her lungs in frustration!!! She's such a LEO!