The Trip to the Distillery and the Market that DIDN'T happen on my birthday!

A few years ago we started a tradition of going to the St. Lawrence Market and the Distillery District on my birthday.  It has been interrupted by the little people but this year I interrupted it myself.  It was cold(ish), or at least it is often quite cool when we go in April and I thought let's push the trip into warmer weather.  We did have a fun trip today, but there were so many people everywhere.  I think perhaps that going in April is a good thing - let's see what happens next year?!

So, we made a very late start to the day... but we did finally leave the house!  (Obviously) We drove to Downsview station because it is a wheelchair accessible station which means we can take the stroller in the elevator.  We decided to take just the single stroller and carry/cajole whichever girlie would be walking!  Alice and Kate enjoyed the subway ride.  Someday I'll stop taking pictures when we ride the subway, maybe.  At least Ken was only moderately embarrassed.

Oh and word to the wise - bring cash on the subway... we didn't have cash so the dude let us go on without paying - knowing we'd have to pay on the other end.  We got off the train at Union - walked up to TD, got cash, Ken went into the King station to buy a family day pass so that we could take the street car across King and of course the subway north again!

We went to the distillery first.  We walked around a little, had some food and bought some chocolate.

And what do you do when the 3 year old won't eat the yummy sandwich you bought her?  You buy a box of Gorilla Munch cereal and a box of baggies and give her dry cereal. 

And this one got fed some yummy berries.

On our way to the St. Lawrence Market we stopped at a fountain.

And we stopped at a fun little park.

We finished our day with a quick in and out at the market to get mustard.  I'm not sure that we bought enough to last a year though.  We then walked back to Union Station and took the subway back to Downsview.  It was a fun day.  I love my little family. (Next year I think I'll push for the April trip because I missed the cupcakes!  I suppose we could have gotten cupcakes anyway... but we didn't.)

Alice is 16 Months Old

First of all, thank goodness for camera phone technology!  This is Alice sitting in a chair at the doctor's office.  She was an angel during her check-up and only slightly flinched when she got her needle.  From there we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner and play.  I love my busy little girl.  Her language is really starting to take off.  Her words aren't fully formed but she's using more and more sounds to convey meaning which is pretty fun.

Day of Dad - part two

 Feeding the fish in York Central Hospital - July 2011.

It was (insert appropriate word) to think about taking food to my Dad a year ago.  A year ago he finally passed his swallow test.  Things were slowly coming together.  He's been home since August 31, 2011 and it's amazing how much progress he's made.

A few weeks ago he had a physical at the doctor's and he passed with flying colours.  Again, I'm not sure what the right words are to express what I feel.  I'm grateful that he's so tenacious, but I wish I didn't have to see him suffer so much.  I'm thankful that the suffering, the hospital stuff that all of it gets further and further away as time keeps moving forward.

I'm thankful that I was raised with so much love.  Below is an excerpt from my talk that I gave in church on Father's Day:

Happy Father’s Day.  I feel so blessed to have been raised by a wonderful father.  I love my Dad so much.  He and my Mom live in Thornhill still and we make an effort to see them regularly.  My Dad loves his family – we are his whole world.  Growing up he spent time with us – he took the day off work when we had days off from school and we would go do something fun as a family.  He read to us, he played with us, he listened to us.  He was there.  I grew up secure in the knowledge that my father loved me unconditionally and I am thankful to him for that.   It is often said that the greatest thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.  My parents marriage wasn’t perfect – what marriage is!  But through the ups and downs we always knew how much Dad loved Mom.

Last year we had a special Day-before-Father’s Day celebration of sorts for my Dad.  In November of 2010 my father went into the hospital for hip replacement surgery.  It seemed to go well and his recovery was right on schedule.  That changed the day he was supposed to go home and he couldn’t stand up.  X-rays showed that he had a broken femur.  This meant a second surgery to repair and redo the first.  He was weak and in a lot of pain after the second surgery and things went downhill.  He spent the next nine months in hospital and a rehabilitation centre getting strong enough to go home.  This time last year he was still in hospital.  The following is an entry from my blog from father’s day last year.

Yesterday we got to do a really fun thing.  Dad has been in the hospital for going on six months... too long.  Between December and February he was in and out of the ICU four times.  Four times he nearly died.  Four times he had to be intubated with a breathing tube.  He went down to 130 lbs.  Getting his throat to recover to the point where he can have water and real food has been a struggle.  He's had numerous failed swallowing tests.  On Friday he finally passed the test.  Dad has been aching for a cheeseburger.  Yesterday we took him a cheeseburger, fries and a coke.  Mom says she wished I'd gotten a photograph of Dad's face, he was so happy.  I'm so glad we could do this... such a ridiculously simple thing, but it meant so much to him.  He should be getting out of the hospital in the next month or so.   The hospital part will soon be behind him.  Watching Mom and Dad through this crazy time has been at times devastating, but at other times it has been tremendously inspiring.  Mom has been there for Dad everyday (save one or two).  And Dad has endured with a positive attitude (almost every day!).  I'm so glad he's my Dad.     

Dad has been home now for 10 months now and although he still hasn’t regained all of his mobility and independence, he is home and he is happy.  Throughout his hospital ordeal his tenacity, his patience and his positive attitude inspired me.  He had good days and bad days but through it all, he endured.  His nurses all loved him.  Some of them fought over him.  I am so thankful that he is my Dad.

 Alice and Grandpa - June 21, 2012

The Day of Dad

Next year I really need to do better.  Really.  We had a fun, busy day yesterday.  Today I had to write a talk, that's right today.  I started writing it yesterday but I didn't have much.  I suppose I had some framing of ideas done, but that was it.

Our Happy Father's Day tribute to Ken started with him making breakfast with Kate.  He played with his girls ALL morning while I wrote my talk.  He made lunch/snacks for church.  He drove to church.  He had to look after the girls during church when I gave my talk - had to carry out Alice when she started screaming during my talk.  We came home and he cooked dinner.  My contribution - I bought cupcakes which I think he ate to be polite.  (I like grocery store cupcakes, but I don't really have discerning taste buds.) 

During my talk I wanted to speak about Ken - which I did a little, but I didn't really.  If I would have spoken about him I would have ended up bragging which really wasn't the point of my speaking.  This is what I wanted to say about Ken.

When we were dating I thought about Ken as a Dad.  I assumed he'd be a good father because he was such an attentive, caring, selfless person.  He loved me and took care of me, but it's more than that.  We've always been such good partners and I hoped the qualities that I loved about him would make him a great Dad. 

Ken is such a great Dad.  He loves his daughters unconditionally.  He plays with them, he teaches them, he reads to them.  I am so grateful to him.  I am grateful that he works so hard to make all of us so happy.  Kate and Alice are so blessed to have Ken for a Dad.  I love my sweet Ken.

Happy Father's Day!

Report Cards are DONE so we did a lot of stuff to celebrate!

We started our day at the zoo.

We left the zoo and drove our sleeping children to Thornhill where Ken went to Cayne's and purchased some new pots.  He bought his first ever cast-iron skillet, a really awesome typhoon wok and a new non-stick egg pan.  After he finished his fun in Cayne's he stopped in at another kitchen store to pick up a silicone spatula.  I drove around both times to keep our sleeping babies sleeping.  We then proceeded north on Yonge Street.  We drove to Newmarket.  We stopped in at Upper Canada Mall where I bought some capri pants.  We had subs in the food court and bumped into a friend from Orangeville.  After the mall closed we hung out a bit...

 Then were were off to the McDonald's play place for snacks and play.

Then it was off to Schomberg for a little grocery shopping and donuts (timbits from Tim Horton's).  We had such a fun full day!  Saturdays are the best!

Sleeping Sisters

Alice's Nursery Rhymes #2

There were four in the bed and the little one said "Roll over, roll over!"

So they all rolled over and Dad fell out!  THUD!

There were three in the bed and the little one said "Roll over, roll over!"

 So they all rolled over and Mom fell out!  SPLAT!

 There were two in the bed and the little one said "Roll over, roll over!"

 So they all rolled over and Kate fell out!  BONK!

 There was one in the bed and the little one said...

 "YAY!"

Downey's Farm Trip

The first time we went to Downey's with Kate we were stuck with these AWFUL phone pictures because we forgot the camera.  Today we took Alice and Kate to Downey's Farm - yay.  But guess what we did, we forgot the camera so we're stuck with these AWFUL phone pictures, AGAIN!!! ARGH!  We had fun even though it was really cold - the wind was crazy.  We were the only ones there though, so that was kind of fun.  Alice loved walking around with the goats and sheep, Kate did too.  I will count Alice's first trip to the farm a partial success.  Hopefully next time we'll remember the camera.  But next time will there be a goat standing on a sheep?