a view from above - and other fun

The day that falls right between the weekends is usually a tough one for us. The excitement of the upcoming weekend not yet upon us and any feelings of rest or refreshment from the previous weekend have faded, no longer days where my one and only thought is "When will Andrew be walking through the (fucking) door??" Wednesdays are still long, exhausting days - especially when they start too early and are populated by a crabby, teething toddler and a crabby, tired pregnant lady. Thank goodness for friends, coffee, and switching my laundry day to Friday.

This morning Sebastian and I met up with two other mamas and their kids - we had a coffee and then headed over to the insanity that was the kerrisdale play palace. Now that older kids are out of school this place is a freaking zoo, not that Sebastian minded one bit - he had a blast running from activity to activity and even managed to stand in line once for the giant slide. Smart boy that he is, though, he saw the waste of waiting 3 minutes for a 10 second ride and chose instead to frequent the smaller slide on the obstacle course. I didn't get a whole lot of social time in, what with chasing him all over a full-sized arena littered with toys and small people, but I did manage to briefly catch up with a dad I had met back in New Westminster before we moved to our new digs. Turns out they also just moved and we now live about a dozen blocks apart. I am looking forward to getting to know him and his son better - my impression from our first few meetings is that he is a really cool guy and an awesome parent.

Sebastian and I shared a lovely picnic lunch on a hill beside a running track (his pick), we had tiny pb&j sandwiches with grapes and oranges for him and carrots a hummus for me, we split a V8 and I got a chance to sit back and watch him roll down the hill before we left. His very brief nap was spent neglecting my duties (I thought I had more time, really) and cruising the net, I re-stumbled on a journal I had found shortly before our Apple switch* called Chronicles of Me, starring the lovely and multi-talented Boho Girl. I read her words and at once she is totally human and completely other-worldly. I lost myself in her world for about and hour and before I knew it my son was unhappily awake and I needed to get my "mom" on.

I got our two bedrooms cleaned up before the little guy started to lose it, quickly tidied everything else (leaving dishes, much to Andrew's disappointment - "Is that really *two* sinks full of dishes?" "No... uh... (looking over) yeah, it is."), made some tea and packed up the stroller for a trip to the playground. There my tiny two-year-old son amazed me by climbing a 5+ foot children's climbing wall to get to the big slide:


After mastering that feat he took on the amazing "invisible staircase"- a series of monkey bars that step up to the slide platform:


He was super chuffed about this feat and repeated it two more times before a tiny slip near the end freaked him out a bit and he decided he would rather hang out a little closer to solid ground:


Lastly, a photo of what I see when I look down these days (note my feet are already no-where in sight... in four months I will likely be as big as a beluga - note to self: avoid wearing white):


*my favourites are still stored in some digital void somewhere, I haven't bother finding them because it would mean sorting my too many links. After today, however, I think I might, there are many things i miss and I think Kelly Hogaboom (easy to find because of her memorable name) might begin to think I am stalking her (I am)