Throwing her weight around

When Morgen is bored with her toys (more normal than not, these days), she runs over to the nearest parent, makes a pretend scream that sounds like a quiet "Aaaaaah!", and pushes the person until they give in and "fall over." She then rolls off us, pulls at our shirt, and says "Up! Up!" We used to get kisses from Morgen when we fell over, but now she simply demands to do it again. If you want her to really giggle, you have to pretend to almost fall over, but then correct yourself at the last minute...Is this the sort of story that you have to be there for? Sorry. Sometimes I wonder if she's terrorizing the kids at daycare with this game. Hopefully her teachers will let me know if she starts randomly screaming and pushing her friends around...

Pumpkin Love

You might have noticed that we're posting a bit less than usual these days. We're finding ourselves a bit overwhelmed by nothing in particular, and one specific thing which will be the subject of a future post.

This week we arrived back from the holiday to a house empty of groceries, with a few hours in which to finish a grant application, prepare a celebratory dinner for some newly married friends, complete various scholarly/student activities, and convince the cat that we haven't abandoned him despite all appearances. It doesn't sound like a long list of duties, when I see the list typed out so simply, but circumstances conspired against me - I locked my keys in the car the morning of the party, loosing precious grant-writing and food-preparation time...a doctor's appointment spiralled into a three-hour odyssey for no good reason (and no bad reason either)...I fell asleep over a six-chapter reading assignment instead of reading it - and before I knew it the week was over, I was describing the week as "stupid, stupid, stupid week" and I still hadn't posted to say: Happy Thanksgiving. Turkzilla is dead. Long live Turkzilla.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend away with the Lovetts and two of our adopted cousins from the Heffernan-Gugel family.

One of these pumpkins is priceless. Can you guess which one?

And, if filling a bucket with toys is fun, moving pumpkins from one barrel to another is even better. If you look closely, you can see the extreme satisfaction on Morgen's face...

But nothing compares to having company in the bath. Note: this picture has been modified to preserve a certain gentleman's modesty.

Helloooo, is anybody there?

Why eat it when you have important calls to place? From french fries (er, I mean potatoes, that's right...potatoes...) to buns, it all becomes a telephone at the dinner table. Do you think she's attempting to get some decent takeout? When we ask her who she's talking to, she pushes the "buttons," and replies "Gramma," or "Grandpa," or sometimes her favourite caregiver at daycare. She knows it's pretty funny....and if we're lucky she'll eat part of the phone when the conversation is over.

Morgen and Daddy

Last weekend, enjoying pancakes and sausages at the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival, Morgen sat with her daddy while I ate and snapped pictures...she was a sleepy girl. We've been having some interrupted nights and early early mornings. But I'm beginning to understand that life is just like that when you have a toddler. Last year Morgen was small enough to be carried around the festival in her baby carrier. It was so cold that she needed her wool pumpkin hat and booties (you can see the pictures in this previous post)...this year she wanted to walk about herself as much as possible, and tore off her snail hat after just a few minutes in her stroller. What a difference in just a short little while.

Balloons

After months of watching her point to balloons in window displays and various favourite books, we let Morgen have her very first helium-filled balloon last weekend. And within about five minutes, it flew mysteriously into the sky, up, up and away ("bye loon, bye loon"). A passer-by remarked that she was very good-natured not to scream or cry about it, but I noticed that Morgen seemed a bit jaded and less pleased with balloons in general after that.

Morgen's very second helium-filled balloon (pictured here), didn't cost me anything but the shame of being the oldest one in a line of very little girls. Morgen accepted balloon number two, but she didn't seem to love it as much as she had the first...when it started to deflate the next day, I waited until no one was looking and then quietly put the thing out of its misery. Morgen didn't ask where the balloon went - perhaps she thought it went "up up up" to join its sibling on an airy adventure.