Beary Scary

At 6:30 on Monday morning, Colin woke up because he thought he heard something in the backyard. Sounded like someone/something dragging our plastic stool across the concrete. He ran to the window and exclaimed, "Nance! There's a bear in our yard!"!

I thought he was kidding, so I didn't get out of bed right away. But I realized he was serious as he ran down the hall.
We tried to scare it from the kitchen door, but it just kinda stared at us, and sauntered around the yard for a few minutes. Eventually, it climbed up a tree to go into the neighbour's yard, after it realized the 6 foot tall fence was not strong enough to hold him.

Look at this great photo of him!
What? You don't see a bear?

CRAZY! We don't even have any forests nearby! And there aren't any new developments going up either. So I have no idea where it came from or where it went. But now I get to be an even more paranoid mother than before.

The Hatch

During our first summer living here, we were outside on the deck when all of a sudden, we were covered in flying ants. We looked up and saw a big black cloud of ants POURING from one of our trees! There were thousands! TENS of thousands, even. It was disgusting. We had to run inside and shut all the doors and windows.

It was obviously an insect hatch. I don't know how it happens but they all must mature at the same time, and all "fly the coop" together.
I thought it was a freak event, but it happened the next summer too. Needless to say, we were expecting it again this year, but we never can remember exactly when it happens (until now, because I'm blogging about it).

Well...

I got home from work yesterday after picking Nathan up from my Mom's. Both of us were soooo hot due to the heat wave we're having. I had planned for us to go out in the backyard and swim in the "cold tub" to escape the heat.
I opened the back door and thought, "that's odd. Why is the porch so dirty?".

Then I noticed that the dirt was moving.

"That's not dirt! Ohhh...it's hatch time".
So instead of cooling off in the refreshing water, we had to hole ourselves up in the 30 degree house with all the windows and doors shut until close to bedtime.

It only lasts for one day, and we don't even notice them at all after it happens, so I don't know where they all go. But we are left with the carnage of a thousand or so weak ones that don't survive on our porch. The spiders who make their webs on our porch love it though. There were two webs there yesterday. One had 7 ants all bundled up in silk and the other had 9! They get so fat from their yearly buffet.

So I guess I know when to expect it next year.

The Five Ring Circus

So far, the true north strong and free isn't showing their strength. Day 5 of the Olympics, and not a single Canadian foot has been on a podium. I understand how the States and China are winning so many medals. They've got such a huge mass of people to choose from to send to the Olympics (compared to Canada). And it sort of helps that China recruits its athletes when they are pre-tween and train them to be olympic robots. The half-million incentive doesn't hurt either.

I don't think Canada should do this, however. I don't want to pay more tax so the olympians could get a huge payout.

But I still wonder why countries I've never heard of like Azerbaijan, Georgia (I thought it was a US state until its recent conflict with Russia) and Togo (which I though was the "house brand" of The Bay) are getting on the podium and we are not.

I also wonder the rationalle behind deciding the events that are in the Olympics.

Shooting is a sport? I thought people went to jail for that.
Equestrian? The horses are doing most of the work.
Boxing? I thought the Olympics promote peace.

And where do you draw the line?

There's baseball, basketball, and football but not cricket.
There's tennis, table tennis and badminton but not squash and raquetball.
There's wrestling, judo and taekwondo but not karate.

What about more watersports? It IS the SUMMER Olympics afterall.
Surfing, wakeboarding, waterskiing?

My last beef is the coverage. You have to be a raccoon or a bat to watch it because all of the good stuff is on at 3am. All I get to see is basktball (yay, I can see that anytime[as if I'd want to]), and beach volleyball (which I only think is in there to boost amount of people watching it by making the girls wear tiny outfits).

Well, go Canada go! Let's not get skunked!

Happy 1st Birthday Nathan!

I can't believe it. One year ago at this very moment, I was screaming for an epidural. Today I am celebrating my little boy's first completed year on the earth!

It has been the best (although hardest) year of my life.

Nathan has gone from a 7 lb 4 oz cute lump that can't do anything for himself, to a 20 lb toddler who walks along furniture, feeds himself anything on the table (or the floor), plays rather independantly, speaks a few English words (bye bye, Dada), and many in his own language.
We've seen his perferences develop. As a newborn we knew he liked milk. Now we know he loves adventure, being outdoors, swimming, going fast, music, Daddy's singing voice, balloons, yogurt...the list goes on and on.

We've seen his adversions develop too. Peas, going to bed (although he still is a trooper in this department), coming in from outside, diaper changes, the church nursery and getting his nails clipped are all things he could do without.

The personality traits were the most rewarding to watch form. Yes, he gets so mad when you take something away from him, and he is known to pinch when you're doing something he does NOT want to do (we're working on that), but the goods FAR outweighed the bads.

He's so happy most of the time. There is no way to describe the feeling you get when your little child smiles at you. He sings and dances for anyone who will listen or watch. He gives hugs by putting his forehead on yours. He gets excited when he sees a familiar face. He laughs, giggles and squeals when we play certain games with him. He claps his hands when he's proud of himself.

I am so proud of my adorable little boy and all he's learned in his first year of life. He has made us so happy! I've heard that on a child's birthday, it's the MOM who should be recieving the gifts because of all she went through on the day the baby was born. I did recieve a gift! It was from God. He let me be the mother of this precious child.

Happy first Birthday Nathan! I love you more than I can express! May God bless you today and every day for the rest of your life!

Love, Mommy

Back to Reality?

Some of my readers have been waiting for this post, because they know that something drastic has changed in my life.

My maternity leave is over and I'm back at work.

I haven't posted yet because I have SO MUCH I want to say, yet I don't think a blog is where I should be saying it. I'm very overt with my thoughts and don't want that to get me into trouble.

Monday was a terrific day. Colin and I spent the day on the water in his boat I haven't yet been in. The weather was perfect, and the surroundings were completely relaxing.

On Tuesday I had a detailed self-examination. It was my last day of mat leave and I couldn't help but look at the past year and grade myself on how I spent it. It was emotional. I was upset about some things I wish I would have done, and upset about the great things that I'll miss. I'll focus here on the great things I'll miss and ignore the regrets:

• brunches with friends
• playdates with Nathan and his teeny friends
• spending so much time with our family of 3 in the past 2 months
• walking/window shopping with my Mom
• watching my son grow
• sushi dates with Mom, and whoever else could come
• spending time with both my parents
• spending time with my 3 year old nephew
• seeing my sister more
• getting more sleep (Nathan, you ROCK!)
• after nap cuddles (oh MAN am I gonna miss THOSE!)
• going on vacation whenever I wanted to
• trips to the States (went 8 times?)

The list goes on and on. I'd be here forever.

Sigh.

Last Wednesday was my 1st day back to the high-paced land of lattes and coach bags.

The West Coast Express hit a deer and it broke the train as we ran over it (I actually thought we were derailing). A woman pointed to me and said, "this is your fault. Isn't it your first day back from your maternity leave?". Wow. Do I live under a microscope? I was 45 minutes late for work.

I'm not gonna lie, it was a tough day to get through. Not really because I "missed" Nathan, because I've left him with people countless times in order to help me with this transition back to work. It was more because I feel like I'm going to miss out on the important parts of his life. I'll likely miss his first steps, I won't be there to wipe his tears away after a tumble, and most disturbingly, I won't be the primary caregiver anymore.

I know he's in good, no... excellent hands though. Look up "Mr. Mom" in the dictionary and Colin's face will appear! We've had some time off together as a family and he's become just as familiar with Nathan's "schedule" as I am.

And when he goes back to work, my mom will care for him full time. She's raised more children than Mother Teresa, so I don't have to worry about him AT ALL! He'll probably get better care from her than me, because she's been raising young kids consistantly for 33 years. He'll get to play with his 3 year old cousin all day too.

It's good to be back in some ways though. Maybe I'll elaborate at another time. But for now, my break is over.

Thanks for listening.