Originally uploaded by grattwood
An old but good picture of Katrine take shortly after we met in China. Please ignore her dirty face 🙂 I did some work on the picture to remove the nicotine coloured carpet and make her stand out more.
Category: Katrine
Happy Halloween!
Katrine was really excited about Halloween. She had us decorating pumpkins, cutting out ghosts, icing cookies, the works. We went to Boo at the zoo with one of Katrine’s friends on Sunday and she had a blast. I think that watching the otters swim around like lunatics with her friend was the highlight of our visit. Last night she went to her Grandfather’s nursing home in her costume and came home with some goodies. Today at school they ate cake, wore costumes and went trick or treating around the room. We thought that she would be all gung-ho for tonight. Well, the main event was a bit anti-climactic. She went to four houses and declared it too scary. Then she spent the rest of the night watching TV while munching orange popcorn.
At least she looked cute. This past summer we went to see Surf’s Up in the theater. She didn’t move at all during the movie and insisted that we stay until the last credit had rolled off the screen. So, she was a surfing penguin. She tolerated the costume but loved the surf board that Glenn made for her. I think that it will get a lot of use before it crumbles to bits.
Happy Halloween everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving
The fall has been full of changes…some pleasant and others not. Glenn began a new job the first full week of September. It has been a good move and he is enjoying the new challenges. The second week of September, my Nana passed away at 95. Her funeral was lovely and the support of family and friends was overwhelming. September also saw Katrine return to gymnastics, me to dance and Glenn to hockey (he has already scored a goal this time around!!), Katrine also started to take Highland dance lessons. Thus far she has mastered most of the basic positions and highcuts. We are worked on bowing. Most important though, she is having fun and burning off steam. October has dawned with unseasonably high temperatures and beautiful sunshine.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!
First day of School!
Katrine began preschool on Monday. She loves it. Every morning she puts on her little Strawberry Shortcake backpack and heads out to the car. She talks about her nameless friends, the blocks and bikes. Today she even told us about making cupcakes…and not the gluten-free kind that we have to make at home but real gooey, gluteny things that they will eat tomorrow. She had her first school injury yesterday when she fell down going outside for a fire drill and bit her lip. She really surprised all of the teachers when she didn’t cry too long but dusted herself off instead. I have to tell you that the school’s lack of freezies to treat mouth booboos troubled her deeply. It was all that she could talk about last night. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this love affair continues.
The summer draws to a close
August has been a very busy but fun month for all of us.
We traveled to Ottawa over the long weekend for the Children’s Bridge Picnic. While there we visited a few museums. Our favourite was the display of Chinese artifacts at the Museum of Civilization. It was extremely interesting. Katrine however, was not impressed. She much prefered the children’s section of the museum and had to be pried away at naptime. We also explored the Museum of Technology. We actually had a wee ride on a steam engine which was pretty cool. During our visit we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with one of the families who adopted from the same orphanage. The girls had a wonderful time playing together.
A calligraphy brush. This was displayed alongside some scrolls. It was really interesting to look at the product capable of being produced with such a utensil.
We were also lucky enough to be invited to spend a weekend at Glenn’s sister’s cottage which was super relaxing. Katrine actually went in the lake this year, thanks to her floaty bathing suit. (It is a swimsuit that has pockets that hold blocks of foam which allow the child to float. It gave Katrine enough confidence to risk the lake and she ended up having a great time.) She also went fishing with her cousins. Both of them caught fish while Katrine enjoyed going through the motions.
This month has also seen us journey to the Lantern Festival, attend soccer games, picnic with friends and generally have a wonderful time. Katrine passed Preschool B swimming and was super proud of herself. She has also learned how to ride a two wheeler with training wheels. I guess that next year will see her with a few more scrapped knees as she works on not using training wheels…I think we will just enjoy this phase.
Katrine starts preschool tomorrow. She is both excited and nervous. I am setting up my classroom starting tomorrow and Glenn starts a new job next week!!!! Katrine will also have her first Highland Dance class in two weeks time (we will see how that goes, keep your fingers crossed) and will go back to Chinese and gymnastics. Hopefully it will help her sleep to be so active.
July arrives with sun and rain
Katrine and I have been enjoying our summer vacation thus far. We have been busy. Katrine finished her Preschool A swimming lessons the second week of July. She passed which surprised us because she was quite dependent on Glenn when they took the Parent-Tot class this past winter. Anyways, she was delighted with her badge and loves to show it off to everyone who comes into our house. We have enrolled her in one more swim class in August. We have also signed her up for Sportball soccer with a friend of hers. She LOVES it!! It is hilarious watching her chase after the ball like a mad-woman only to freeze when a beautiful(usually a dandelion) catches her eye.
I have also been using my vacation to take her to a variety of playdates and outings. We have been to the ROM to see the dinosaurs, the farm to pick strawberries, the zoo and Science Center. Katrine’s favourite outings have been the playdates, she really is a sociable child, and our visits to the park. Her favourite park is the one with the spider web of rope to climb on, but then again she is a monkey.
This coming week Glenn is off because we are laying laminate floor upstairs in the last three bedrooms. We are planning to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens next weekend as well as the Shriner’s circus. In honour of our 9th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, Katrine is going up to my parents in Victoria Harbour for two days. She is pretty excited about it.
Well now you are up-to-date with the family in Canada so here is some news on Elspeth in China. Our dossier is now in the review room. That means someone is looking at all of our paperwork to ensure that we meet China’s guidelines. Once they are done we move to the next phase….waiting…again. The backlog of dossiers is still quite extensive which means we still have a long time to wait until we will receive our referral. We are helping to make ourselves feel better by painting Elspeth’s room while we wait. Glenn has chosen a lovely pale, sage green paint. I think that once the floor is down in her room and the walls painted we will feel another step closer to her. Maybe I will even begin to unpack the baby stuff and set some of it up. Our wait? We are not expecting a referral until 2009 at the earliest but this is China and things change all the time.
Wild Toy Animal Hospital Visit
Today we went the the Wild Toy Animal Hospital at the Toronto Zoo. It seems that Monkey has collected a few boo-boos that needed look after, and he is sorely behind on his vaccinations.
At the splashpad
Originally uploaded by grattwood
Well I finally went and got a Digital SLR (a Nikon D200 if you’re wondering)… it’s a reward for all the work I’ve been doing, and will be doing especially on Father’s Day.
So we went for a walk with Katrine to the local splashpad. It was a good way to test the new camera, and a great way for Katrine to get cold 🙂
May in Review
May began with a trip to Niagara Falls for a reunion with Katrine’s orphanage “sisters”. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge; which is absolutely awesome! Katrine had a great time splashing around in the wave pool and playing with her friends. She also like the kiddie water slides once she saw some of her friends going down them. She was really impressed with the falls and just wanted to stay and watch them inspite of shivering. On our way back home we stopped at the Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory. Katrine loved the butterflies. I was actually able to get one to land on me!! Others got them to land on their hands while I had to settle for my shoulder…oh well. We had a lot of fun wandering through the gardens and looking at the spring flowers. One of the highlights was when Glenn and her found some frogs beside a wee pond.
Looking at frogs.
Perched amongst the cherry blossoms.
At the wave pool.
By the falls.
Glenn’s birthday was over Mother’s Day weekend and we were lucky enough to have my parents staying with us so we were able to go out with some friends to celebrate. On Sunday morning we went with my parents to visit my nana and enjoy some treats. Nana is doing quite well for 95. In the afternoon, we had Glenn’s family over for a barbeque. It was fun seeing everyone and a special way to combine the festivities of the weekend into one. I got a lovely card from Katrine that she made at daycare (it made me cry) and Glenn got my favourite photo of Katrine and I from last weekend blown up and framed. I have included it below.
This past weekend, we journeyed down to London to do the Tomlinson family birthday thing. We spent Saturday at Storybook Gardens. The kids had a great time playing together and climbing the various play structures. Katrine’s favourite part was riding the carrousel. On Sunday, we stopped to visit another one of her orphanage “sisters” and her adorable new baby sister. The girls had so much fun playing with Thomas and making necklaces, that Katrine didn’t want to leave and come home. Today, we planted our garden. The soil is excellent and it has us believing that this might acutally be the year that our vegetables grow (we never got much at our last house). We planted beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and cabbage. Katrine got to wear her cute Dora garending gloves and helped to plant the seedlings and then water them in. Hopefully our local wild bunnies won’t eat everything on us.
Katrine and her cousins
Helping Baba!
Katrine turns 3 tomorrow!
Can you believe that Katrine turns three tomorrow? Time has passed but she is ready to be three. Other than her birthday party this past Sunday, the most exciting thing about turning three is that you get to eat gum! I am not sure where we came up with that arbitrary rule but we did. So, as of tomorrow she can chew gum.
On Sunday we played host to 10 of Katrine’s friends and their respective parents. We decided to go with a pirate theme because there is a lot of fun things that you can do with pirates. We created “The Purple Pirate Tattoo Parlour” in the kitchen which was a big hit. I mean, every true pirate has a tattoo right? Katrine loves to show off her smiley face tattoo. That was about as piratey as she got. No wait, she briefly wore her hat. Some of the other guests came all decked out in lovely pirate costumes with hooks and swords but the most we could convince her to wear in terms of a costume was a white t-shirt, the hat and her tattoo. Oh well. Glenn made lovely paper hats for the two of us, so we were somewhat dressed up.
We set up a “Beanbag Booty” toss and “Pin the Pirate on the Island” games in the hallway. Both gained in popularity as the party wore on and the kids loosened up. The craft table was a pretty big hit. At least half of the guests sat down to glue and colour. That surprised me as they are a pretty active bunch and I thought that it would have been more chaotic. By far the most popular planned activity was the Treasure Hunt. Katrine’s cousin Dalia and I hide 48 little plastic eggs full of pirate booty around the main floor. Once the hunt started the kids let loose and were running here and there grabbing eggs and putting them in the communal treasure chest (I give a friend credit for suggesting that this might help avoid crying. As we told the kids, good pirates share their treasure). The most popular unplanned activity? The dress-up box and play kitchen. Our family room was full of kids serving food and trying on costumes. At one point and time, we actually had a pirate-princess-viking outfit created.
I have to say that I am quite proud of her cake. I give Glenn credit with suggesting I do something with cupcakes instead of cake because it would mean less work on party day. When I saw the Fisher Price pirate ship on a trip to Toys R Us one day, it was inspiration and I knew how it would all come together. The cupcakes provided the kids with just enough icing to lick off and an easily disposed of mound of cake residue. Katrine practically beamed when Glenn carried the cake to her.
I have to boast about how well she did having everyone over at our place playing with her toys. Aside from grabbing back her Sherman the Worman (she named him after the Backyardigans character) one time, she shared really well. Took it in stride more or less. She even greeted each guest at the door and handed them their craft project (Glenn folded a hat for each guest and I made each a toilet-roll telescope) before running off to something else. Then when they were leaving she handed each their loot bag and said “thank you for coming to my party. Happy birthday!”. It was pretty surprising.