It's ok we can leave now...

No,no, no,no, no...NO

That's one of Calum's favorite things to say these days. He uses it for everything - and it usually involves me chasing him around the house trying to get him to stand still long enough to eat, to get changed, or to leave the poor cat alone. It's kind of cute when he says it but I wish he'd learn to say "Yes Mom, anything you say Mom."

We finished shopping for school supplies today. With the girls in high school they really just need to get the standard things. It's when school actually starts that we start getting the urgent requests like "I need X for Y. Oh and I need it tomorrow or I'll loose marks." The girls are taking some interesting electives this year so I expect we will have a few unusual requests next week.

No other news today. Dakota got fitted for some shoe supports - a very costly set of shoe supports. All I can say is the things had better work.

Calum just woke up so I'd better go settle him or I'll never get him back to sleep. Happy long weekend everyone.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bain

Wednesday was Grandpa's birthday. Calum had a nice long conversation with him tonight wishing him all of the best. Too bad we can't get him to say "Grandpa" again. He does know how to sign "Mom", I guess I get to be one of his favorite sign language words while "Dad" will always be his favorite word.

Happy Birthday Jen

Happy Birthday to my niece Jenny! It's hard to believe how quickly they grow.

Calum is really starting to pick things up. He said "grandpa", is starting to learn other words like "red", "green", "ok" and has really taken to swimming in the outdoor pool. He starts back at daycare on Tuesday - straight into the toddler section along with most of his friends from the infant side. There is only going to be 1 girl on the toddler side this year, well 1.5 as there will be one girl going part time. He's really going to love going back.

Today we spent about an hour at the playground and he was running away from me most of the time. I guess he want to be a bit more independent. I think that the terrible twos will arrive early with this one.

A trip to dinotown

A look back

Calum at play (he's starting to pick the movies)

Calum hard at work

Calum (and Buddy) at the new house

Move in Status

Finally getting closer to not having to live out of boxes. Still a bit to unpack including more of Calum's toys but we can at least find things in the kitchen now so we are all a lot happier. The girls were keen to unpack their rooms but were a little less enthusiastic about helping unpack the rest of the house. Calum loved to help - including repacking things as I put them away and messing up things that I had just organized. He likes the new location though. He's very interested when we go out for walks, seems to think we ought to be going to the 7-11 everytime we pass it and keeps pointing over at the daycare and jabbering about it.

Thanks to our Don, Rita, Rob, Kevin, Jody, Larry, Tabitha and Chris for all the help with the move. I hope that everyone is recovering and will forgive us for having so much stuff.

We will post pictures this weekend. We will have some visitors from Kamloops. Desiree and Dakota's aunt, uncle and cousins will be in town for the weekend and Dakota will be going for a visit to Kamloops with them when they leave. She's worked hard all summer taking care of Calum for me so I hope she has a good break. Desiree is going to take over watching him so that I can finish the small contract. She is finishing up at her job tomorrow. They are going camping tonight after a lunch bar-be-que that we are going to try to attend (pending Calum's nap schedule). Where did the summer go? Soon the kids will back at school and Calum back in daycare. He should be ready for the toddler side this year and I know we will see him change so much once he starts playing with the older kids.

Oh well, must get caught back up on work now. Plenty of time to worry about things later.

Our new house...we have a lot more work to do...especially on the yard.

This is our new house - before we moved in, we scrubbed the walls and the fireplace. You can see how much smoke build up was on the wall (the dirty side is on the far right) and the fireplace (clean side on the right side). Yuck!

Not long now

Well, we have almost finished the painting. Don and I decided to do a couple of accent walls in our bedroom. Last night Don put on the first coat of paint but we will need to do a second today. We also have to finish our smaller bathroom and I'm painting the interior of the kitchen cabinets and relining the shelves. We've still got some new light fixtures that we are going to get Grandpa Bain to install and we have to put up the remaining curtains and blinds. Then, it's a final clean and we are ready for the move in. Almost. There is the small matter of some packing to finish. It's going to be a busy few days. Our internet connection will go down on Sunday and hopefully back up on Monday or Tuesday. We want to go with a wireless network so Don will have to reconfigure things for us. Is anyone using the new Wireless N router? We are trying to decide if it really is faster than the Wireless G.

We will post some new pictures next week. Believe me, you don't want pictures of us this week. Besides, our paint speckled clothing would give away all the colours of the new house.

Moving Day

We will be moving next Sunday to our new place. We spent all weekend painting and still have more to do. Don and his dad replaced some light fixtures and patched some drywall. Dakota finished painting her room - Peacock Blue, and yes, it is as bright as it sounds but looks nice. Desiree is painting her room an almost neon green and blue. I think it looks great too. Our office and the rec room are now both a lovely warm shade of yellow with white trim. That's a big improvement over nondescript green, pink and putty.

The owners are putting carpet downstairs today so we had to get all the painting in the downstairs finished. We painted the ceiling in the rec room and it took almost all day to do it. It has that strange popcorn-like finish which makes it next to impossible to paint. We were going to rent a sprayer but ran out of time so just did the best we could with a big, big roller. It's definitely an improvement.

Today I did the first coat on the main bathroom. We will have to finish it tonight. It doesn't look like Don and I will have time to start our bedroom but it's fine as is. The owners had painted the whole house, we were just looking to change the colors a bit.

Calum has been a really patient boy. We've had numerous trips the hardware store. He has been shuttled back and forth between the old house and the new house. He has had to take long walks with grandma and eat pizza from a box. He even had the first nap in the new house, on a sleeping bag. It will be nice to get this move behind us!

Finally!

Calum can now properly drink from a straw. I know that seems like a small thing but we've been working on it for a long time. He just didn't get it until yesterday. He also tried to teach himself how to spit (thanks to Dad) but I've discouraged that. Mind you, when he blows on something he almost does the same thing anyway. It's the intent more than anything.

I've got another small project coming up - great timing as I'm sure it will all go to cover the back to school expenses. Yikes, almost that time already. As much as he likes being at home with us, I think Calum is going to be really excited about going back to daycare in the fall. We need to get him around more kids, only we don't really know many people with babies in Burnaby. He has taken to waving at every kid he sees and when we go to the park he stares at all of the other kids and we are constantly making new friends.

The results

are back and Dakota's bone scan showed no problems. It could be a soft tissue issue - ligaments or muscle. I think the doctor talked about orthopedic supports in her shoes.

As expected, we got the keys to our new place today and Don and I spent about an hour taking a closer look and taking measurements. The structure is great but it will require a bit of work to get it ready for move in. The owner's were tiling the kitchen today and the downstairs will be carpeted before we move it. It's just the walls really - some damage needing repair and perhaps some lighter colours. We took another trip to Rona for some cleaning supplies and to look for paint. We are looking for something called "Asian Pear". We used it on my office in the Stride Ave house and really loved it. Rona doesn't carry that brand of paint anymore so we will have to look around a bit.

Calum loved the hardware store and was busy picking things up for us to take home. Maybe he takes after my dad.

He can whistle

Calum has finally learned to whistle. When we see a dog, I've been trying to teach him the ASL sign for "dog" but have added the whistle too. On Saturday, Calum and I were helping Dakota deliver her papers. We saw a dog statue in a garden and Calum patted his leg and whistled! The sure pick things up.

Calum also thinks that every horn beep is Dad coming home from work. When Don gets home he sets the car alarm with a beep. Calum hears the horn and stops whatever he is doing to say "Dad". Sometimes he runs to the window or the door. I have to show him if it's someone else on the street or he will continue looking for his daddy.

We should get the keys to our new place tomorrow so we will go in to take a closer look and start taking measurements for the blinds, rugs, etc. It's always a challenge to see where you stuff will fit. We didn't do much packing on the weekend - we were pretty tired. On Friday, I took Calum downtown with me to do some banking and to drop off some work. We went to meet Don at his meeting but it was running a bit behind so we walked around my old neighborhood - Denman Street. We stopped for a cupcake at the cupcake store, went down to the beach to splash about and did some sightseeing. He loved it but was exhausted by the end.

Don has the day off tomorrow. He has to take Dakota to the doctor to get the results of her bone scan. She hasn't complained about her foot recently so hopefully it's healing or healed. It's hard to judge just how bad it is for her because Dakota tends to complain about the little injuries but not complain about the bigger ones. We'll see tomorrow I guess.

Playing in the Surf at White Rock

Packing up!

Finally received word tonight. We will be moving into a house on Rumble Street in mid-August. It's in a great location for us. The high school is across the street (and Calum's daycare too), there is an outdoor public pool next to the high school so Calum and I will spend the last couple of weeks of August splashing about. There is a market on the next block, and a 7-11, a grocery store, video store and bank just two blocks up. We will also be 5 blocks away from the skytrain station and can even walk to the mall.

The house is older than the one we are in now (read as "a house with character needing a little TLC"). The owners live next door and will let us do some painting and we can have pets! We can move in on August 1st but don't have to be out of this house till August 15th. I don't know our moving date yet but we want to spend a little time painting the bedrooms and doing some touch ups.

So, now begins the packing. We've made a good start so far. Pictures are taken off the walls, Dakota and Don and I have packed up most of our bedroom stuff, our office is about half packed, all of our books are packed and I've sorted a load of stuff for donations already. Poor Calum has even had some of his toys and books packed. It's going to be a busy couple of weeks. Can you believe July is almost over?

At Spanish Banks with Henry

We stopped so uncle Henry could get a quick look at the city across the water. Next time we'll have to actually make it into town to show him the sights.

Visit to the Museum with Henry

Yesterday we took my great uncle Henry on a quick trip around Vancouver. Desiree invited us out to the Museum of Anthropology to be a part of her first tour group. It was Calum's first visit there too. We enjoyed the tour and uncle Henry got to learn a bit about Northwest Coast culture and art. Don was busy taking pictures and trying out the "bigger and better" flash that we just got for the camera.

Calum and Goldie

Finally got around to posting the photo of Calum on his first pony. Meet Goldie. She's a nice little pony but Calum wasn't too sure about it all. Notice all the girls around though!

Another month

Luckily, our current landlord has given us another month at the house. We have been looking at a few houses and haven't found anything suitable yet. We've found one with enough room but in an area that is too busy. We've found one in the right area but with less space than we'd like. Now, if only we could put them both together. At least we have another month and a half to find something. Don and I wanted to have some quiet time at the end of August to do something with the kids but it looks like we will be busy packing and moving.

Just going out the door for a family dinner for Dakota's birthday. Forgot to post on the blog - it was on the 13th and she is now 14. I remember when I first meet her and she was still getting kids meals and playing with Pokemon cards. How quickly they grow. Hope you are all enjoying your weekend.

Still House Hunting

Wow, I knew it would be hard but this is ridiculous. I've called over 50 places. A lot are rented before we even get to look at them. The ones still available are either just too horrible to contemplate living in or too far out of the catchment zone for the school and daycare. We are going to look at a place tonight. It didn't look bad from the outside but we'll see. The Rental Guide has been ok - you have to call in everyday (and the line is always busy) and they usually have only 2 or 3 new listings a day. The problem is that everything so far has been in North Burnaby.

Don's busy this week with AFN meetings. He's off next week so if we don't find anything soon we'll put in a concentrated effort then. Wish us luck!

Mr and Mrs Shuter

Des taking pictures

Des and Calum on the Trampoline

Dakota

Dad, Mom and Calum

The family having fun

Mom, Nicola and Jen

The family

Bonnie, Mom, Larry, Dad, Angie

The wedding party

Calum had a little help walking down the aisle

Mom had to be in the picture too

Calum ready for the wedding

He fell asleep just before the ceremony

House hunting...

Has begun. We looked at one place today - not great. We signed up with the Rental Guide. We drove around looking at places. It's going to take awhile to find something we like. It's a real pain trying to find something in the school catchment zone that allows cats or dogs. Calum and Dakota would love a dog but that's pretty impossible to do in the city. Oh well, the search continues. We may duck away from the wedding festivites to place calls and/or check the web for new listings this weekend. I'll be glad when we find something.

Smart Boy

Calum already knows how to get his way. He loves going outside and will do almost anything to get out. He brings me my sandles and tells me "more". He grabs his chalk bucket and tells me "more". He grabs his hat and tells me "more". He points to the bird feeder and tells me "more". He points up in the sky, as though the clouds are particularly interesting and will babble on about them as if trying to convince me that they are just the best things in the world and we need to go see them.

Smart boy!

Today Grandma, Grandpa, Buddy, Dad, Mom and I went to Rolley Lake Provincial Park in Mission. Buddy wasn't allowed on the beach and had to wait in the car.

I don't know Mom - it looks kind of wet out there

Wee! Ok the water is a bit cold

SHOES! I don't like sand between my toes! I am not going to touch that sand!

Time to dig

I'm not going back in - you go in DAD!

Hey this water ain't that bad

Splash! Splash!