While I was in Kelowna this past weekend Jen and her friend Shirley took the kids to the corn maze, which apparently has a petting zoo. The kids had a blast, chasing bunnies, petting goats, Scarlett even got bitten by a turkey!

I posted the pictures on the facebook and my brother — the one who lives in Montreal and hasn't been home since Christmas — remarked that she was becomeing a little person. Initially I rolled my eyes, like I do with most of the things Aaron says, but for whatever reason, the comment stayed with me.

Mulling her personhood over in my mind, I started to think about how much Scarlett has changed since Christmas 2008. Then, friends and family applauded when she sat up on her own and pointed to things. This morning I pointed to my face and asked Scarlett "what are these?" Clear as day she said "eyes" and started to giggle. She has such a personality, even a sense of humour. Truly remarkable.

The kid is learning to "feed" herself.

 
 
 
 

Long time since the last entry, thought some pictures would be a good excuse.

Scarlett enjoying some time outside.

What am I thinking.

After Scarlett was born I couldn't imagine ever having another kid. The crying, the getting up, the general madness. Also I was pretty happy with what we had, a happy, healthy girl.

Now I find myself looking at newborn babies longingly...thinking "I miss that." What is wrong with me...I don't miss having a newborn...newborns are cute yes...but they are totally dependent on their parents...I like the fact that Scarlett is starting to be more independent...

Maybe this is why humans reproduce...maybe this is why parents have more than one child...maybe there is some hormone in my brain that causes me to think "I want one" when I see a newborn. I guess that's why humans are so successful...cuz we have silly hormones which make us think irrational things.

Teething sucks.

Why aren't kids born with teeth...let this horrible time happen in the womb!

Dear god, when will it end!?!?!

What a difference two weeks make. 7 days ago the kid started crawling, and now she is a carpet crawling expert. She's a little slow on our wood floors, but still makes great progress.

Last night I was watching a presentation at a local community centre with Jen and Scarlett, and moved to one side to get a better view, and the kid starts crawling toward me. She would have made it all the way across the auditorium too had an obviously infant-starved woman not plucked her up.

Here is a youtube vid of the kid in action, mind you this was taken about a week ago. The sit stretch contract technique here has been refined into a more traditional crawl in the past few days.

Been a while since I posted anything. You would think I would have tonnes of time, considering the weather is either -40c or +3c and raining.

Kid is growing up fast, she's had a few words now (dada being one of them, much to Jen's chagrin)and is moving around like a mofo. Still no rolling or crawling, but she is sitting on her own, and can even move up to a sit from lying down. On top of this, she is also pulling herself up to a stand. Won't be long now till she is walking and talking faster than we can keep up.

On the work front, I have a weekly gig writing for the Manitoban as a Science contributor, it doesn't pay anything, but the exposure and credibility more than make up for that. I'm also hoping that it gives me that much needed confidence, which is lacking slightly, and preventing me from sending queries to paying magazines.

 
Against all logic I love winter, however I have never been able to reconcile this rationally. It's cold, it's dark and people in this city of mine can't seem to drive on ice, despite a lifetime of practice. Tonight though, I think I figured it out.

Spring, Summer and Fall are fine and all have their share of strikingly beautiful days, so much so that I think a lot of us take them for granted...They blend together into a beautiful season. Winter, on the other hand, may only have a few really beautiful days, where the precipitation, light and temperature all conspire together to give you a strikingly beautiful experience.

Tonight was one such night. After a disappointingly tight night at the pizza place I got home with more than a little chip on my shoulder, however I was struck by the fact that it was a perfectly beautiful night...perhaps the first of the season, and most definitely the first of 2009. Ignoring my husbandly and fatherly duties I strapped the skis to the roof of the car and went for the first ski of the year. The picture above sums up the experience rather nicely I think.

Even the tunes were perfect...My iPod was playing Grant Laurence's top 10 picks of 2008, which were all wicked, but the song below stuck out in my mind...as Grant said on one of the commentary tracks, it nicely sums up a commonality among Canadians...something which is pretty rare in this diverse country of ours.

*A note on the photograph; perhaps if I'm gonna take a picture, where I have to slog through a snowbank, I should leave the evidence of my slogging out of frame.

 

My New Year's resolution this year is to ski every day. Not exactly a difficult one, but one which has many consequences, all good. However Family and Mother Nature aren't exactly cooperating with me on this one.

Yesterday I had to go out and clear away Thursday night's snowfall, followed by a shopping trip with the family, the preparing of a gourmet meal, and the weekly family swim at the St. James Civic Centre.

Today there is simply too much new snow for my little narrow touring skis to handle...since the trails almost certainly won't be groomed yet. And I will be too busy clearing away today's snow from my properties to be able to ski then either...even if there were time I'm sure I'm gonna be bagged.

I do suppose this is all my fault though, since I spent a good chunk of November and almost all of December lamenting the fact that I could still see the grass on the ground. And I did tempt fate by agreeing to take over Bobby's snow removal properties while he is in Alberta...thinking it would be a breeze.

 

What a cute baby.