Outdoor baby.
Dandelion puff collection.
A serious sunhat.
Missing hands and feet.
Freshly bloomed.
Dirty little hands.
Afternoon snacks.
Watermelon monster.
Garden investigating.
Beet greens.
Homegrown strawberries in progress.
Lawn rolling.
Pussywillow plucking.
A shoe full.
A teeny friend.
♥
After a morning teaching Kindergarten, I hurried home to spend my afternoon at the park with Bradley and our baby girl…
Doesn’t get much better.
♥
If only jumping in place always brought us this much unbridled joy…
♥
Taking this little monkey to her first ever swimming lessons this morning…
♥
A few photos from our beautiful Sunday morning at the beach…
Low tide.
Log driving.
Monkey.
A Sunday morning treat.
Grae’s idea of beach footwear.
Giggles.
In search of treasure.
Treasure collection.
Stuck.
Vancouver girl.
It was one of those days where you just never want to go inside. I truly love where we live.
♥
Have I mentioned how much I love taking Miss G to new parks and playgrounds? I don’t know what it is, because we have plenty of great favourites already, but I feel like I’m always driving around with my playground radar in full effect. I’ll spot one in the distance, take a quick survey (Saucer swing – score! FOUR slides – sweet! Check out that merry-go-round!), make note of the location, and add it to my mental list of places to visit soon. (Oh, the things that get you excited as a mommy!)
Anyways, I scoped out this beauty of a playground a few weeks ago, and we just got to visiting it this afternoon. It was well worth the wait, let me tell you. The school it belongs to (Dr. Annie B. Jamieson) doesn’t look like much. It’s not new or fancy, but its playground sure is! It’s actually two separate playgrounds – one that is geared more towards older kids, and one towards younger ones. There are multiple swing sets, a saucer swing, one of the safest seeming merry-go-rounds I’ve come across, FIVE slides, and some really cool climbing apparatuses. Not to mention that it’s located right in / next to a park with a giant green space, a walking path, and an outdoor fitness park much like the one in our favourite Kuwait park. (Oh, Kuwait… How I miss you sometimes…)
Of course I took about a million photographs while there. Here are a select “few”:
All about spinning.
Sliding.
Trying to balance like Papa.
Swinging froggy-style.
Wheee!
Mama’s turn.
Just chillin’.
Little climber.
‘I’d be much happier if I had some company on this cool merry-go-round’…
Somehow I got convinced. Barf.
Our favourite – a saucer swing!
Fun!
Riding on her “bell buh” (bellybutton), as she calls it.
Her favourite way to ride… While someone sang Rock a Bye Baby of course.
I think we nearly put her to sleep! Time for dinner, a bath, and bedtime.
♥
Morning snuggles.
♥
It was business as usual around here this afternoon… Lunch. Potty. Cloth diaper. Story. Snuggles and a song… Then I laid my munchkin down in her crib with her special blanket and bear family as I always do. I gave her kisses, told her how much I love her, and closed her door. As I did my usual quiet time tidy, I could hear her pre-nap time chatting and noise making coming from her corner of the house. It went on for a little while, but soon turned into squealing, giggling, and loud “Gi-GULL, Gi-GULL, Gi-Gull” noises. The girl sounded like she was having a crib party alone in her dark room!
For a dreaded moment, I thought to myself, Oh God, I hope this isn’t the beginning of her trying to drop her one and only daily nap… Thank goodness, she eventually did fall asleep. But it was not until an hour after the fact.
Once she woke, I went into her room to see exactly how she’d spent that hour…
Arranging her little bear family just so, of course!
She was quite unhappy that I came in only to dash out in search of my camera and return to take photographs rather than pick her up…
But once showered with Mama kisses and released from the confines of her crib, she was more than pleased with herself.
♥
I can hear the voices of my dad and brother already… Sure, the furniture probably isn’t the highest of quality, but seriously? We love IKEA. Grae and I headed to our giant, shiny new store this afternoon, just for fun. She adores the new kids’ play area so much that I think she’d stand and watch children play through the glass all afternoon long. Of course, she’d rather be on the other side of the glass, so after her countless requests to go “Nin!”, we put her up against the height chart just to see… 3 inches to go. (Sadly, those 3 inches will probably be gained much faster than I’ll want them to.) With that, we headed up to the showroom and made our way straight to the kids’ area. Gracen hugged stuffies, laid on beds, and touched/tried every toy available. 
Of course, we stopped in at the Swedish food market on the way out too. Although we still have plenty of elk-shaped pasta, we did take home some of the most delicious-smelling blueberry tea and a package of multigrain crispbread that Miss G picked out herself.
♥
This morning Grae and I headed out of the city to visit my old friend Cheri and her sweet little girl, Jaiden. The girls were amazing together. Jaiden showed Grae around, shared her toys, and was a gracious little host. Gracen read every book in the house, shared the tea set she chose to bring along, and happily followed Jaiden’s lead. And as Cheri and I sat at the table sipping hot coffee and catching up, I may have said, “You know, part of me thinks having two would be easier…” Oops.
Jaiden helping Gracen with her first ever fairy princess experience.
Trail strolling and snacking.
Departure hugs and kisses.
♥
Today Bradley turned 30 (I love the couple of months a year that we’re the same age). We’re pretty low-key about adult birthday celebrations around here, but to celebrate, Miss G got to stay up late to have a family dinner and open a couple of little presents once her Papa got home from work.
This may have happened too… Her first ever taste of a chip. *Gasp!*
Ridiculously cute while so wrong baby bikini #2. (Number one can be seen here.)
Everyone’s got to have a job, right?
Tonight we headed out with Grandma Charlotte and Uncle Brett for an early birthday dinner for Bradley (he’s celebrating a big one in just a couple of days). He decided upon a restaurant not too far from our house, called Burgoo. We’d tried to eat there a little while back, but with a half hour wait and an antsy, hungry munchkin in tow, it just wast our night. So this time we planned ahead… Although they don’t take reservations on weekends, we arrived early, put our name on the list, and took a little stroll down Main Street. And let me tell you – it was worth waiting for! In fact, it was so good, that if you live in Vancouver, live near Vancouver, or ever visit Vancouver, you need to visit this joint. With a cozy, rustic atmosphere, friendly servers, and an amazing menu filled with delicious comfort foods, you’ll be planning your next dinner out as you’re walking out the door. Here are a few {poor quality} photos from our dinner out…
Papa and his little lady.
Manmaw, Papa, and Grae.
Uncle Brett and Grandma Charlotte.
Miss G enjoying the most delicious-looking Gooey Cheese Griller and Sunset Corn and Chicken Soup.
Happy {almost} birthday to Bradley (a.k.a. Papa).
This morning we headed down to Kerrisdale for their annual Carnival Days. Not going to lie – what was supposed to be a fun, low-key morning turned out a little rough. On top of Grae waking up at 5:00 a.m. in a freezing cold room due to her window accidentally being left open overnight (parenting fail) and running very late (such is the case when 4 people are trying to get ready and get out the door in a teeny tiny one bathroom house), I was grumpy, Brad was grumpy, and Gracen was grumpy. Poor Grandma Charlotte was the only one in a good mood and she was stuck with us 3 crab trees.
Either way, Gracen enjoyed the parade. She plunked herself down on the street to watch the tame parts (like baseball teams walking by) and then jumped in someone’s arms when horses or a loud band marched past.
The good news is that our day, which got off to a rocky start, got better after some lunch and a nap… It’s amazing what some good food and rest can do.