board games, high park zoo and duck confit french toast

this weekend, as do all good weekends, went by too fast. but it was a good weekend indeed. the type i wish i could just put in a jar for a rainy day.

doug did have to work saturday, so that day was low key. chaeli and i took hobbes to the vet for a routine heart worm check-up. not fun for him since they had to put a needle in his hind thigh to draw some blood. the poor guy starts to shake whenever he’s on top of the examining table.

nothing special happened for the majority of the afternoon. chaeli had homework and i had housework. but then, being the amazing, domesticated mom that i am, i told her to put socks on because we were going to wendy’s. and not just eat food from wendy’s. but eat there.

which is fun for a kid. for me? it just means the garbage can be disposed of THERE and not at HOME. and the mess, should there be a mess would be THERE. and no, not at all at HOME.

i made up for my lack of domesticated skills after dinner though. well, sort of. my intent, in order to win mother of the year, was to just turn on netflix and veg out in front of the tv.

chaeli, however, wasn’t in the mood for tv. she asked, “can we play board games?”

i looked at her and replied back with a question, “really? with just the two of us? don’t you think it would be more fun if we did family game night with daddy home?”

“no… it can be fun with just two people.”

i will admit. i took a moment to think of all the excuses i could think of. i had my heart set on being lazy in my pj’s, lying in bed watching whatever netflix had to ofer, at least for kids. plus, do you know what it is like to play boardgames with kids? they either don’t follow the rules or they take a long time to decide on their move or they whine when they lose.

well, maybe not all of them and not all the time. the potential for any of these things to happen can very well happen.

but suddenly, i was in the mood to play myself. and i’m glad we did play that junior scrabble game, even though it forces you to limit your choices to the words already on the board. because it was a great way to spend the evening.

the next day was quite nice. we met up with ada and hoa at high park so doug could go for a run with them. while they ran, chaeli and i took hobbes to the off-leash trail to get some fresh air and move our muscles a bit.

i was not at all feeling guilty for the fact that i wasn’t joining them. in fact, i was rather happy to announce, “i don’t run. yoga, p90x and wimping out on gym cardio machines… that will do it for me!” they’re all marathon/triathlon types. or at least 10K types. and due to this, doug has been eating healthy and cutting back on the luxuries that happens to be beer. that’s why i don’t do marathons. i like to eat.

ada only did 30 minutes with them and then text-ed us to meet up with where ever we were. which was good. chaeli wanted to go to the zoo but with hobbes, i have to keep him away from the fenced in animals. ada was able to stick closer to her while i stood back whenever hobbes got overly excited from seeing an animal which he probably took as being a very, very large dog. except when he saw the turkeys and peacocks. then he just took them as very, very large birds.

we ended up at origin afterwards for an awesome brunch.

duck confit and french toast… heaven!

another year of ‘boo at the zoo’

it’s not the same as it use to be, really, but still, when i woke up this morning, i could tell it was going to be a sunny day. and while doug is at work, i do my best to make the day productive.

mind you, i brought work home from the office and i haven’t even touched it. a part of me wondered if i should just skip the halloween festivities at the zoo this year but then another part of me said, screw it! why should my kid suffer because of the crap from work? plus, a quick look at the upcoming weeks is proving to be quite grey and wet. it’s not a for sure thing that this rain will still stick around come halloween but just in case, at least we get to do something with chaeli on a nice day.

there was one very cool exhibit. they had this creepy crawly cave display where they pulled out the best of the best of creepy-crawlies. many of these species are from behind the scenes and only pulled out during special exhibits.

the artic animals were very active today and chaeli insisted on visiting her favourite animal – the polar bear cub. here are photos she took from today:

the rhino came right up to us

eating his kibble

finally – the owl came out to greet us!

sunday ‘ooz’, library and retro-judy blume books

ooz.

this is what doug started to say for ‘zoo’ when chaeli was young. it was a way to say, “hey, think we should go to the zoo this weekend?” while around her so that she didn’t pick up on the word ‘zoo’ and get her hopes up in case we weren’t able to go.

of course, in the past couple of years, she knows that ‘ooz’ is just ‘zoo’ pronounced backwards. and now calling it ‘ooz’ has just become our thing.

while doug worked his sunday shift, that’s exactly where chaeli and i found ourselves yesterday morning. she came up just after 8:30am to wake me up. the zoo opens now at 9:30am (shorter hours past the summer season) so it was just enough time for us to get ready and head over for breakfast.

chaeli brought her digital camera and spent the hour and a half taking as many photos as possible, spending most of her time taking shots of the polar bear cub. he’s grown a bit but still so small compared to the three adults. and very cute with a whimsical, playful temperament.

of course, of the 100 or so photos, most of them came out too dark or blurry but i told her not to worry. we can weed them out later. so she took a few shots of certain animals or scenes to be on the safe side. in the end, about a third were actually quite good. so i opened up a flickr account for her and uploaded the photos to share with family.

here are some of the highlights:

cub swimming

cub was enjoying deep dives

a mid-morning snack – picking at the flowers

one starfish and one sea anemone-mone-mone…

hobbes would object to the word ‘dog’ in their names

the bunnies were all still sleeping when we visited them

just chillin’ out on the rocks

we came home for a couple of hours before heading out to a library in our area – one of the many main ones in the city that happened to be open on sunday’s.

for chaeli’s grade 3 leading log, she went through four chapter books in two weeks. we do have a lot of books at home but with the rate she’s going, they won’t last her the school year. nor do we have that much space to continue purchasing books (and we don’t want to get carried away with how much we spend either). i will continue to buy some books from scholastics but going to the library is a great way to balance things out.

the usual library we usually go to does not open on sunday – this gave us an opportunity to try a different location. i’m glad we did. the entire first floor is dedicated to children and young readers with one section dedicated to early readers. it pretty much carried all chapter books and contained the perfect selection for grade 3 and 4 level reading.

chaeli chose three books which i think should last her for the next two weeks. she was quite excited – especially as she got to use her own library card and check out the books at the self-checkout area.

the rest of the day was spent with her reading and playing while i uploaded her zoo photos (and camping photos). as well, i read two chapters of tales of a fourth grade nothing (my own copy from when i was 9 – and i still have superfudge, too) before dinner plus another chapter of it before bed. we were also able to get in one UNO game done before bedtime.

it was a great mother-daughter day!

vancouver 2012 – day 2

underwater viewing on this magnificent white creature

The only tourist trap (other than Granville Island) we wanted to visit was the Vancouver Aquarium. I was thoroughly impressed with the BC Coast exhibit and completely put into a trance while watching the beluga whales swim underwater. It was a bit crowded but that’s to be expected in the summer time, let alone a weekend day (it was a Sunday during our visit). Still, it was one of those things I wanted Chaeli to experience since she’s never been to an aquarium before.

chaeli playing with the dolphin

Chaeli had a very special moment with the dolphin while stopping by the underwater viewing area.  She used a killer whale stuffed toy to ‘play’ with the dolphin. It was one of those rare oppurtunities to witness and Chaeli drew quite a crowd during that 15 minutes of play time. Where ever she moved the stuffed toy, the dolphin was sure to follow. It went up for air but without skipping a beat, would head straight back down to Chaeli. A short video footage of this below:

She doesn’t quite realize it just yet but this will be one of those things she will look back and cherish something so rare of this moment.  View more still photos of this moment here.

overlooking lions gate bridge while having a pint

After several hours at the aqurium, I asked Hoa if we could do a quick break for a snack and some local draft beer. We actually tried various types of BC and local beer – pretty much all on tap – during our visit. I’m not a big beer drinker but had one about once a day. The above photo was taken at Prospect Point Cafe. We were lucky to get a table with a view.

chaeli’s and hoa’s mid-air pose

chaeli and ada doing… something…

We stopped by this old hallow tree trunk and Chaeli insisted on posing with her godparents again. Hoa was first and suggested they get their photos taken while in a mid-air jump. When it was Ada’s turn, Chaeli told her what to do. I stood next to Hoa and I heard him laugh, “lol! Glad I didn’t have to do that!”

For dinner, we went to the Richmond night market and just strolled along from vendor to vendor – picking up food here and there. The nice thing with hanging out with Ada and Hoa – they were able to take us a bit off the beaten path and experience some of the sites and places not normally visited by tourists.

The rest of the our Vancouver Day 2 album can be found here.

more than halfway…

it’s amazing that summer is already passed the halfway mark. back to school ads and promotions are starting to hit the stores and my inbox. and yet, i feel like we only just started school break last week! sad. very, very sad.

summers like this – you have to make every bit count.

last saturday, we went to tko and B’s place for a delicious rib bbq – both pork and korean short ribs. we brought a spread of cheese and pate. di brought a smores pie. SMORES! PIE! the combination was deadly.

i’m very happy to have the chance to see my friends this summer – i was afraid our weekends were booked solid with our own things plus my family (plus doug’s family since chaeli was there for over a week). but i think in the end you find a way to make time for your friends because as important as doug and chaeli are to me – and the quality time we spend as a family  unit – the summer would not be complete with out a couple of get-togethers with good friends.

this past weekend was an easy weekend. doug worked saturday so chaeli and i went for brunch and some a.m. shopping. the rest of the day was devoted to the olympics (and laundry – never can i escape doing laundry on the weekend).

sunday, after doug came home from his shift, we went to the zoo. chaeli and were already there last sunday morning (while doug was working then as well). we definitely are not wasting our annual membership. anyway, she really wanted to see the sting rays and sharks (a special exhibit that’s only hear during the warmer months – and extra $2.50 per person but quite worth it if you’re adventurous enough to pet the species in the very large, shallow pool). i wanted, however, to wait for doug so we could all experience it together which is why we went back this sunday.

no worries – nurse sharks are the friendly type

$2 more bought me a three pieces of raw seafood to feed the rays. tip: keep fingers flat with the food sticking out between two fingers. i knew this but didn’t get the food in place in time. in other words, a couple of my fingers were sort of sticking up when one of the rays swam by. in went my finger – just sucked in like a vacuum!

it didn’t hurt, though. thank goodness they are toothless but the feeling was quite weird and took me by surprise.

worshiping the sun

this weekend was the perfect type of weather. not at all hot but with the right amount of sunlight to make it warm and beautiful. we found ourselves outdoors quite a bit – not wanting to miss the chance to worship the sun.

i started my saturday morning with yoga – a routine that included some very nice sun salutations for warm-up. quite fitting, if you ask me, for the type of weekend we had.

after doug came home from his shift and we had our breakfast, we headed over to the rouge to continue our love for the hiking trails and bio-diversity of nature. it was officially our first hike of the year. we saw many species of birds and butterflies, as well as a slithering gardner snake.

there was one part of the trail that divides into two paths – a lower one taking us to the bottom of the forest/valley and a higher one that continues along the ridge. we opted for the lower one and then found an area clear enough but off-path to exercise our legs as we made the steep climb up.

chaeli wasn’t exactly thrilled about this part but as she started to get use to her body and balance (and learned that on the really steep parts, it’s okay to use her hands on the ground – nature’s dirt, after all, isn’t as dirty as it looks), she started to enjoy herself. at the top, another valuable lesson was learned – pushing forward and positive thinking will get you through it. and yes, she CAN do it. she just had to try. on the way back, she twittered on about how she was able to climb such a steep hill.

as for me, it was just simply exhilarating. moments of feeling my feet about to give and slip away, only to catch my balance right at the last minute and climb my way out of the tricky area – yeah, that felt good. a winter-long period of strengthening my legs seemed to work. but until i had a chance to test it out, i really hadn’t see what my hard work amounted to.

saturday night, we went out for wings, fries and beer (beer is a definite treat – i rarely drink it and when i do, it’s just the occasional one to two on a weekend). chaeli enjoyed her plain wings and shared with us the poutine appetizer we bought. topped off which chocolate milk and eating all our carrot sticks, i say she was well fed.

sunday morning, doug woke up before us and headed to work. the weather continued to bless us and i refused to spend our time inside.

chaeli and i headed to the zoo (thank you zoo membership – once again, you serve us well) and enjoyed our breakfast at the peacock cafe just inside the entrance and then a leisurely stroll to see animals from both the indo malay and african safari areas.

i thought the zoo would be a bore to chaeli by now – what with our almost yearly, annual membership from the year she was born. but now that she is older, she’s more interested in animal facts and so as we stopped to take a look at the different types of species (anywhere from fish to snakes or from birds to lions), she had questions of which i was able to answer most of them (thanks to my own upbringing from my father – who taught me to respect animals, nature and to understand how everything works together).

she’s also much more sensitive to all the ones that are endangered. sadly, a lot of our stops had one of the following signs – endangered, vanishing species or high risk. what will become of our world?

we came back for lunch and some light house choirs (and chaeli had to study for a french spelling test) before heading out to a dog park in order to get hobbes some fresh air and a chance to stretch his legs.

hobbes is not at all worried about helping himself. all the other dog owners laughed at him as he continually came back to help himself with every single water dish that was available. compared to all the dogs there, he was running around the most – made sense that he needed the most water.

it was a great day with chaeli and hobbes – we missed doug, though. on such a beautiful day, of course we wished he could have spent it with us. that said, i’m glad that the reason he had to be away from us was because of his job. not just his job, not even just his career now, but his lifestyle.

boo at the zoo 2011

went to the annual boo at the zoo event with the little grovers family.

chaeli's minding the twins to not get nipped by goats

e. looks so little against the fake spider

m. can look very serious at times

visitors came to check out what's for lunch

three looking up and one being different

e. gave me a very quick hello (which i almost missed!)

magestic

chaeli & hobbes

chaeli & hobbes

hobbes (3.5 months old)

guilty pleasures no. 33

ever since we acquired hobbes into our life, i must say that i love the time between 9:30 and around 11pm. that’s the time where hobbes and i spread out on the master bed, watch ‘friends’ on dvd and pass out.

he takes awhile to settle but just having him curl up next to me every now and then is SUCH a stress-reliever that i actually fall asleep a lot faster. by the time he settles (usually against my leg where he uses it as a pillow for his head), i’m pretty much out as well.

doug then takes him out just before 11pm for his last potty trip. we let him settle down a bit on our bed before carrying him off to his crate for bedtime.

hobbes the magnificent

so yesterday, we left hobbes home in his play pen while we attended a 4 year old’s birthday party across the city – we were gone for about 3.5 hours.

when we came back a few hours later, i was surprised to see hobbes greeting me just on the other side of our glass, kitchen door – OUTSIDE OF HIS PEN!

i took him outside first to do his business but when i returned, i decided to put him back into the pen, leave the kitchen, close the door and just stand there and watch. i needed to know how he did it or else i wouldn’t have believed it myself.

doug and chaeli came upstairs just in time to see the little bugger climb up the pen and hop out of it. he looked like a hamster and how they typically climb – a big, fluffy, 6-lbs hamster!

and it wouldn’t have mattered if we had gotten a taller play pen though the one we bought should have been just fine – he was using the horizontal bars like a ladder.

so – after thinking we would have the rest of the sunday afternoon to chill out, we packed up the playpen, grabbed the receipt and went to exchange it for a large crate/kennel that will totally box him in.

doug though it was quite amusing. i, on the other hand, looked down at hobbes, calling him a little suger-honey-ice-tea.

if he escapes this one, i won’t know what to do next!