do you want to live with us?

mom and dad have been asking around amongst our friends recently to see if anyone wanted to move into our basement suite. despite promising that ollie now sleeps through the night, we haven't had any takers. i can't imagine why not - who wouldn't want to live with me?

finally mom resorted to posting an ad on craigslist and suddenly EVERYONE wants to live here. she posted the ad at 11pm and had four replies before 6am. by dinnertime there were more than i could count......considering i can only count up to 11 that's not overly surprising, i guess.

mom picked out a few of the replies and emailed them a few more details about us. if any of them still want to live with us after they've heard how early i get up in the morning then we'll meet them next week.

new room, new bed

we've finally moved enough things upstairs so that we can sleep up here. somehow downstairs still looks pretty full though. i get the feeling this is going to be a long job.

i've got bunk beds in my new room although i can't climb up onto the top bed as there doesn't seem to be a ladder. perhaps that's why they were cheap? there's enough space under my bed for me to keep my marble tracks and my train set, which means ollie won't be able to get at them. i've got a great new border with trucks and boats and planes on, and all my books and bears have come upstairs too, as well as my rainbow tent. i'm a bit disturbed by the noises the fridge makes through the wall, and it is kind of hot. after a few moments thought, mom and dad realised installing a ceiling fan in my room wasn't the greatest of ideas (it would have made a fantastic moving target though) so i've got a fan on a table just by the door.

one of the best things about being upstairs is that i can watch the squirrels out the window while i'm eating my breakfast, and we've finally got somewhere for me to have my sandbox. it's out on the front porch so that it's under cover when it's raining, and in the shade when it's sunny. isn't that brilliant! mom and dad have discovered that they can just see the mountains from the front porch too, so they're happy to sit out there for a while with me.

the pink has to go

it's not that i have anything against pink exactly, but blue is far more appropriate for ollie's new room and matches his funky new curtains far better. ol's new curtains have a rock star and a footballer on them, whilst mine have a digger. mom and dad don't have any curtains just yet, but i expect they'll get some eventually - it's not like they sleep long enough for the dawn to wake them.


having practised in ollie's room yesterday, today i got to help mom and dad paint our new playroom. after some debate about what colour to use, we've settled on 'sandy lane' - the same colour we used in our playroom downstairs.

the youth group came round this evening to lend us a hand. Kris did a great job of putting our new BBQ together. at least it looks great. we won't know if it actually works until we try it!

our first two house guests: Yoshi and his mom (also called Yoshi) are enjoying our hospitality. they're here until the weekend. Yoshi (mom) is sleeping in my new room and she keeps bringing me little presents when she comes in from her day's adventures. she doesn't speak much english, but i can tell she thinks ollie and i are pretty cute.

Canada Day

we had a strange kind of canada day this year. it was on a sunday so we had church outside in jericho park. people brought lunch with them, and the weather was great, so we hung out for a while waiting for ollie to wake up from his nap. i was pretty tired and in need of a nap myself by the time we finally left for home. by the time i was awake again it was a bit late to be thinking about going out somewhere.

mostly we spent the holiday weekend putting a few things into boxes ready to go upstairs, and waiting for the guys upstairs to move out. a big storage container arrived on the back of a truck for all their stuff, with a mini crane to lift it off. i got to watch from mom and dad's bedroom windowsill, but i think dad was hiding in case he had to move some furniture or something.

talking of windowsills, arun came back on canada day to discuss the designs for our new windows and then someone came in to measure today. it'll be a little while to make them, but by the end of the month we should have double glazing upstairs and down.

my first report

having successfully completed every class in my swimming course, i got my end of term report at my last lesson. I've now graduated from the 'duck' class and next time i will be a 'sea turtle'. as these classes will be an hour long, i really hope mom finds somewhere with warmer water - but since mom won't actually have to get into the water next time, her motivation to find a new teacher isn't all that high.

anyway......christine said i was very brave in the water, and to keep practising blowing bubbles. mom made me a little short straw to practise with in the bath and after a few days i've really got the hang of it.

adventures with liz

despite less than perfect weather, we managed to get out and about a bit showing liz some of the sights of vancouver.

we braved the suspension bridge across lynn canyon:

spotted a raccoon:

took in the waterpark at granville island:
































planned a hike up mt seymour (but hadn't banked on there still being snow!):

took in cates park in north van instead:

ate nachos on the beach:
hiked in lighthouse park:

drove up to shannon falls in squamish via the construction on the sea to sky highway:














and made the obligatory visit to the aquarium of course.

liz also ended up doing for more babysitting than is good for a girl on vacation, both planned (so mom, dad and ollie could go to a wedding) and unplanned (lots of tense, stressful adult conversations about the house - the less said about that the better). for all those times, and so much more, we THANK YOU.

nanaimo for lunch

i suppose it could be considered a little extreme catching the ferry to Nanaimo for the sole purpose of having lunch - and we didn't even have a particular restaurant in mind - but our day trip was more about the journey than the destination.

unfortunately the weather forecast wasn't entirely accurate. we did see some sun while we were on the ferry, but it was raining both in horseshoe bay and nanaimo, so we went into the shopping mall rather than the park as we'd planned.

mom, dad and liz found a great little mexican restaurant on the water, and thoroughly enjoyed their meal despite the fact they were eating outside in the rain. i woke up in time to have a little taste, too.

we didn't see a spectacular sunset from the ferry, or any orca, but the mountains and islands were as impressive as ever and i DID get to drive a racing car

picnic in the park

we got a special invitation to the Wesbrook preschool end of year picnic this evening. i think the idea was for mom and dad to meet some of the other parents, and for me to play with the other kids. frankly i found the whole thing a bit overwhelming, even just playing soccer with a few of the boys and girls. the snacks were pretty good though, and they gave me a great T-shirt which i intend to wear day and night - at least for a few days.