Favourites

She got her face painted at a church picinic. She sat on the chair and told the clown what she wanted and where to put it. Such a little lady. Later, she wouldn't let us clean it off unless I took a picture, she loved it so much.

Noooooooo......not cards! Fine, if you insist on being the world's youngest cribbage player I will not discourage you. Just heed my warning Frances: DO NOT LEARN BRIDGE. You will be saner for it.

Five Months

Well Miss Frances, you are now five months old. Your favourite activities continue to be drooling, sucking on your fist, eating, and whining about how you cannot crawl, yet you continue to improve in all these things. I admire your tenacity, except about the whining thing, that is getting irritating. However, since you are cute, I forgive even that shortcoming.

After two weeks of consistent effort, you have finally perfected the art of toe sucking and you are pretty darned pleased with yourself.

There are a few things I have learned about you in our short time together. You are determined, and a happy, lovely child. You also have a keen sense of revenge, as demonstrated by several hair pulling incidents whose timing was too convenient to be coincidence. I cannot protect you from your sister forever, you will have to learn the fine art of subtly, should you choose to continue on this route. I have no doubt that you will eventually drive Teresa crazy, and my advice to you is this: run faster scared than she does angry. Or, pull out the innocent look you have been practicing.

The last thing I will say is this. Although I love every bit of you, my favouite thing is your flipper feet.

Or maybe your face...I can't decide.

Lucky

I've always known Ken and I were lucky, it seems we have always been able to either acheive or hang on to the things that are most dear to us. However, this picture really brought home for me how lucky our kids are.

You see, Mike plays the banjo, and Frances loved it. She was a little cranky one night, so Carolyn took her outside to dance and enjoy a good dose of banjo goodness. I remember seeing this and realizing in that moment, our children truly are surrounded by love, how lucky they are to be so blessed in this life. It is so true, Teresa and Frances are loved to death, not just by their parents, but grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and uncles, and friends. There is a very eclectic and wonderful force of kindness that will not only care for our children, but influence and guide them in areas Ken and I cannot. The cracks in Ken and I's parenting will be filled by those we associate with and care about in return. It boggles the mind sometimes, how blessed we are.

Time To Catch Up (III) - Children's Museum

Recently we went to the Children's Museum at the Forks, as we had been meaning to go for the last little while, but we got a kick in the pants when we got a free admission coupon on a Lucky Charms box.  As an aside, don't buy your child cereals with marshmallows, as they will pick out the marshmallows and leave the bland cereal behind.

We went to the children's museum in Minneapolis last year and if I was forced to compare I would say that on a scale of Suck to Minneapolis, Winnipeg sadly rates closer to suck.  They have a nice train that Teresa enjoyed, a vacuum tube system and a slide...  Beyond that they had a region on infrastructure that was, at best, okay, a display on Asia and a fake TV studio that Teresa was too young to enjoy.  

Here are the photographic highlights...

Is that old Francey-Pants being the train's engineer?

Teresa really enjoyed playing with the cash register in the train's passenger car.

Hey look a slide!  I've never seen one of thee before...  I shouldn't be so bitter as she really did enjoy the museum.  She would rate it much closer to Minneapolis I think.

Dancing up a storm on camera.

That is my face on a pin board.  Did you know that your pectoral muscles really look like boobs on one of these things?

Shoulder Rides (and my hair cut).

Look, a sandbox!  What fun!

Playing on the sign out front...

Seeing it again

One of the beautiful things about raising children is that everything to them is new, every outing is fun, there is always something to be excited about. As a parent, you truly can see it again, for the first time. At least, that's how going to the zoo felt for me. I had been to our zoo many times before, and as I grew older, the zoo seemed to become tired, worn down, the joy and excitement it once incurred seemed to disappear. Seeing it with Teresa and Frances, however, has brought it back to life. As I saw those once worn habitats, the seemingly tired animals through the eyes of my daughters, the magic of the zoo returned. This time, with them, it was a completely different experience. The animals were exotic, exciting, each habitat became a window into a world we may not personally experience. And there was joy, so much joy. Teresa's joy and excitement at each new cage renewed my theory that over the years I had begun to see things in the wrong light. While I was having fun on the dates and trips Ken and I took, I was never really experiencing them. Now, because of my daughters I have another chance to truly experience life, to see more joy than sorrow, to allow myself to be consumed by the excitement and beauty of life that we often let slip though our fingers.

Action shot of Teresa "sharing" Teddy with Frances

Black bears, the white one still has his winter coat

Check me out....I'm at the zoo Yo!

Frances checking out her first wallaby

The girls and I in an Australian Aviary  

Ken and Teresa by the monkey house. This particular monkey, obviously pandering to his audience, pooped in front of a large group of children, much to their delight.

Prairie dogs in love

Peacocks wander the zoo, we actually saw so many of them I started to call them the rats of the zoo. We managed to catch this one in full braggart mode.

llama llama, with nary a red pajama

Teresa, checking out some nice camel tush. We also saw a dromedary.

My girls, in their matching Canada Day Tees.

The Yosts are OBSESSED with pelicans. I put this one in simply because I do not want to be shunned. 

Goodness, ducklings are cute!

Things.....

you thought you'd never say until you became a parent.....

Honey, that's pudding, not sun screen.

You know you're getting old when...

Baby freakin' Blues is the most representative comic strip about your life.  Hopefully I never reach Mary Worth stage.  Anyhow, a week or so ago I found this particular Baby Blues to be my life to a T right now, at least during the waking hours of Teresa (especially).  While at the beach this weekend, I took some time to tweak it to be "Baby Blues - Yost Edition"

Time To Catch Up (II) - Father's Day Weekend (part ii)

After we got back from the lake on Sunday and cleaned the cottage up we left for Stonewall for dinner and dessert.  This year were to have a wiener roast and s'mores but the breeze was a little too strong for the fire so the wieners were done on the BBQ.  Fortunately though the wind died down so we could actually make some s'mores.  Myrna is a non-traditional kinds person, and bought cookies to use.  Fortunately though she asked ahead and learned that a s'more is not a s'more if graham wafers are not used.  Disaster averted!

Learning the art of roasting a marshmallow

It is grandfather's day too you know!

A great action shot of Ray reacting to Teresa's fall...  Speaking of which, Monday at the park she was actually dangling from her right foot as she slipped on a ladder.  It is only funny of course because she wasn't hurt :)

Teresa munching on her cookie (so-called) s'more.  She ate two bites, and returned to eating raw marshmallows.

Cara made this one and took a picture of the (self-professed) perfect s'more...

Mmmm...  A perfect way to end a perfect weekend!

Hormones=brain loss

So I'm pretty sure, not exactly sure, but pretty sure my hormones have melted my brain. You see, Frances has a new trick, which we call raspberries, but is really glorified spitting, and I laugh at this trick EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It has gotten to the point where she will raspberry, then look at me and smile in anticipation of my laughter. If I do not laugh, she just repeats the process, and it's just so darn cute I laugh anyway, and the vicious circle continues.

The Delightful Miss Olivia

Ken and I love it when our friends have babies. I think it may be because we are so happy with children, that we like to see others blessed in a similar fashion. Dear friends of ours, Russ and Meghan, have a daughter, Olivia, who is a little under a month younger than Frances. Meghan was in the city for a wedding and a visit, and we were delighted to host them at our house for a meet and greet. Although our visit was short (and sans Russ) it was great to finally see Olivia in the flesh. Near the end of the visit Frances and Olivia began a conversation, which, if you know Ken and Russ you will understand my trepidation. However, it will be nice to see another generation getting into trouble together. Although Frances should watch herself, from the looks of it, Olivia would be the hands down winner in the baby grudge match.

Olivia was sleeping when she got to our house.....but not for long!

It was nice to kiss a baby head and not get a mouthful of hair.

I love the look on Frances' face: "Whoa whoa, there's only enough room in this joint for one baby! GOT IT!" When Ken saw this he said "see Cara, wouldn't twins be great?" Whereby I curled up into the fetal position and cried.

Ken loves babies.

There's a lot of estrogen on this couch.....

Time To Catch Up (II) - Father's Day Weekend (part i)

A father's day tradition here in Casa Yost is to, no matter what, find ourselves at Grand Beach.  This year we were able to leave Winnipeg after lunch on Friday and stayed until we had to go to Ray & Myrna's (see Part II coming Friday) for dinner on Sunday.  As always the beach was perfectly perfect, but it was made more-so due to the first really nice weekend we finally got.

The highlights of the weekend for me include the half tent working to perfection, Teresa remembering how much she loved the lake, playing with Rowdy & Teresa on the hill and our family walk on Saturday.  Sunday we planned a family picnic by the lake which worked out OK, except for Teresa deciding she wasn't hungry.  In the future we have to figure out a way for her to always have a clean water cup by her so she doesn't get thirsty.  She had no problem with long walks for the potty and I introduced her to the dunes.  We also went for a long walk, and Teresa made it all the way to the channel on her own and most of the way back.

Here's our little ballerina wearing her belt...

I wonder who did this to our long-suffering pup?

Our fantastic girls playing together...

Story time with mommy.  Please note the literary classic that is being read (Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree).  Cara foolishly thought this was a story that taught you the importance of sharing.

At the lake and Teresa is rumbling in the water.

Cara and Frances enjoying the shade.  I guess I should mention that Frances actually got a rash from all the moisture that she sweated into her skin folds in her thighs.  That little girl had better get hardy quick so she enjoy the entire summer at the beach.

My girls & I at the beach...

Frances really didn't like the water that much.  The water was great on Friday and Saturday but for some reason on Sunday it was ice cold.

She's better now!

Part ii will roll out Friday...