Sunday, August 27, 2006
Niblet 2.0 Contest
With the upcoming baby, we're going to do a repeat of the contest we held for Fionna's due date. Whoever guesses closest to the correct date/sex/weight of the newcomer gets a PRIZE...the cheesy Tim Horton's T-Shirt shown below. (We bought it in Bancroft during our holiday)
To register a guess, click on the # comments link just below this entry (before the shirt picture). Please include:
Your name
predicted birth date
predicted sex
predicted weight in pounds
For the record, Sheryl's LMP was May 2nd/2005, Sheryl is 5'10", James is 5'6" (!!), Fionna was born at 7lbs12oz and the ultrasound is posted below in case anyone thinks they can tell gender.
The scoring system is:
+5 points if you get the sex WRONG
+1 point for every day OFF the delivery date you are (either way)
+1 point for every pound OFF the correct weight you are (either way)
lowest score wins
Best of luck!
To register a guess, click on the # comments link just below this entry (before the shirt picture). Please include:
Your name
predicted birth date
predicted sex
predicted weight in pounds
For the record, Sheryl's LMP was May 2nd/2005, Sheryl is 5'10", James is 5'6" (!!), Fionna was born at 7lbs12oz and the ultrasound is posted below in case anyone thinks they can tell gender.
The scoring system is:
+5 points if you get the sex WRONG
+1 point for every day OFF the delivery date you are (either way)
+1 point for every pound OFF the correct weight you are (either way)
lowest score wins
Best of luck!
Vacation with the niblet
We took our summer vacation last week and just got home yesterday. Vacation "styles" have definitely changed since having a kid. It's fun...but not so, er, spontaneous. So it's good that I'm hooked up with Sheryl, because I'm not exactly what you would call Planning Guy.
Sheryl's family owns land up near Bancroft, surrounding part of Vance Lake up there. She and her family used to vacation up there all the time when she was a kid. During the times when they were visiting but NOT camping at the land (ie winter), they would stay at a place called Birch Cliff lodge. So that's where we decided to go for holiday. We hornswaggled Amanda and Derrick and their 6mo daughter Emily to come with us for a few days as well. They came and stayed in a horse trailer (it's much more luxurious than it sounds...) and we spent the days feeding kids, napping kids, going on the occasional dip or hike and playing some games.
Fionna has gotten to an age now where she (temporarily, we hope) HATES canoes (too unstable? too weird?) but LOVES (permanently, we hope) beaches, sandboxes and playground equipment. I spent a long time sliding down slides with her, provoking squeals of delight and requests for more. I have discovered that playground slides: (1) work best in adventure pants and worst in pyjama pants (2) are covered in dew in the morning but your daughter doesn't care because it's not her butt touching the slide and (3) work REALLY well in the afternoon, after all the other kids have greased it up with the sunscreen from the backs of their thighs.
It initially felt a bit funny to be packing up all our stuff and travelling a few hundred kms to pay money to live in a cabin near a lake when...we already live in a big 'ole mansion right ON a lake. But there really is something to be said for having no phone, no chance of being interrupted by others or caught up in daily chores and having a bit of a change in routine. It was nice, in the end. Sheryl and I are also planning a possible vacation further into Oct/Nov, perhaps just the two of us, for a quick Last-Fling-Getaway prior to Niblet 2.0 being released. Maybe we'll go see the 3 Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas...
Sheryl's family owns land up near Bancroft, surrounding part of Vance Lake up there. She and her family used to vacation up there all the time when she was a kid. During the times when they were visiting but NOT camping at the land (ie winter), they would stay at a place called Birch Cliff lodge. So that's where we decided to go for holiday. We hornswaggled Amanda and Derrick and their 6mo daughter Emily to come with us for a few days as well. They came and stayed in a horse trailer (it's much more luxurious than it sounds...) and we spent the days feeding kids, napping kids, going on the occasional dip or hike and playing some games.
Fionna has gotten to an age now where she (temporarily, we hope) HATES canoes (too unstable? too weird?) but LOVES (permanently, we hope) beaches, sandboxes and playground equipment. I spent a long time sliding down slides with her, provoking squeals of delight and requests for more. I have discovered that playground slides: (1) work best in adventure pants and worst in pyjama pants (2) are covered in dew in the morning but your daughter doesn't care because it's not her butt touching the slide and (3) work REALLY well in the afternoon, after all the other kids have greased it up with the sunscreen from the backs of their thighs.
It initially felt a bit funny to be packing up all our stuff and travelling a few hundred kms to pay money to live in a cabin near a lake when...we already live in a big 'ole mansion right ON a lake. But there really is something to be said for having no phone, no chance of being interrupted by others or caught up in daily chores and having a bit of a change in routine. It was nice, in the end. Sheryl and I are also planning a possible vacation further into Oct/Nov, perhaps just the two of us, for a quick Last-Fling-Getaway prior to Niblet 2.0 being released. Maybe we'll go see the 3 Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas...
Castles in the sand...
Early morning archaeological dig...
Sandcastle # 27 about to fail it's quality control inspection...
Helping mom build castle #28
She likes swing sets more than this, honest!
Sandcastle # 27 about to fail it's quality control inspection...
Helping mom build castle #28
She likes swing sets more than this, honest!
Birch Cliff Lodge Holiday in Bancroft
Ontario peaches are in season. And so are newspaper hats...
OMG! Emily came to the party with the same hat as Fionna!
Does this look dignified?
OMG! Emily came to the party with the same hat as Fionna!
Does this look dignified?
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Ortho in Deerhurst
We're staying in Huntsville this week, just about 2 hours south of home, doing an Office Orthopedics conference at Deerhurst. The format of the course is kind of nice with Fionna in tow; we only do half-days in the classroom, and after that, we're free to hang out with Fi or whatever. Dorothy has been good enough to be around to provide babysitting during the mornings.
Sadly, Fionna was having trouble settling down for sleeps while visiting here. I think it might have been a bit overwhelming to be in the new spot with an odd-smelling room etc. (we have her sleeping in the laundry room). Still, the upshot is that she's become MUCH better settling herself down for sleeps without having to be rocked etc. Also, she's become much more comfy around dogs (our hosts overlapped with us for two days, and they have a lab) and getting much more used to Dorothy. We have to think hard, though, about what we want to do with the upcoming recruitment fair and whether we want Fionna to come on the road with us this time.
Fionna LOVES Ontario peaches...BTW
Sadly, Fionna was having trouble settling down for sleeps while visiting here. I think it might have been a bit overwhelming to be in the new spot with an odd-smelling room etc. (we have her sleeping in the laundry room). Still, the upshot is that she's become MUCH better settling herself down for sleeps without having to be rocked etc. Also, she's become much more comfy around dogs (our hosts overlapped with us for two days, and they have a lab) and getting much more used to Dorothy. We have to think hard, though, about what we want to do with the upcoming recruitment fair and whether we want Fionna to come on the road with us this time.
Fionna LOVES Ontario peaches...BTW
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Niblet 2.0
Figure it out yourself:
(BTW, the snail counter at the top of the page tells you where we're at)
(BTW, the snail counter at the top of the page tells you where we're at)
