Saturday, August 30, 2014

A festival of horses

We went to the farmer's market this morning because we have been, like, zero times this summer, because I can't fit both girls in the bike trailer right now and it is a hella long walk, and because Joel is in Regina for four days next week and we're trying to family-time the shit out of this weekend. Also, I wanted carrots.


Warren the Balloon Funn man was there, twisting balloons. For free. This is how he drums up business, I guess. Warren provides for his entire family SOLELY by twisting balloons at parties and things, and he is AMAZING at it. Making balloon animals is his calling. He's making koala bears, unicorns, sharks. ANYthing. He asks Eleanor what she wants, and she wants a horse. I am like, What about a giraffe. A monkey? I feel like I'm wasting his talent by asking him to make a horse. She wants a horse.


THAT IS AN INCREDIBLY REALISTIC AND INVOLVED BALLOON HORSE.


Colors aside, obviously (which he coordinated to her outfit omg this guy). He also makes it a bracelet so she can wear it, and won't lose it. Not content with blowing our minds, he tells us there's a festival preceding the fireworks that I fervently hope will not wake up my children tonight. So after nap time we bike over the river to Rotary Park.


OBviously we go to the face painting straight away, and look through the little booklet. Ooooh, I say, you could get a seahorse. Or a dragon. Or a ladybug. But she (immovably) wants to be a horse.


HORSE. So horsey. It's horses all the way down, today.


I feel like this is just A Weekend In Saskatoon now. Face painting, live music, bouncy castles.


Something fried (blow on it, it's hot).


Princesses? Sure. Hey Eleanor, look at your mum. She cannot, she is busy talking to a PRINCESS.


Geneva is awake during more stuff now, but she's just like, Gotta chew my lapels, ttyl.


We hop on our bikes to cycle home, but the bridge is closed because it is full of explosives. For the fireworks show. The next closest bridge has steps, and I cannot go up them with the trailer. We go to the next closest bridge after that, and get home late. Eleanor is RILED. She wants to talk to her balloon horse about how she is also a horse.


Do you have a mane, horse? Because I have a mane.


I AM HALF OF A HORSE.

Such a goof. Joel is taking the girls out tomorrow morning and I am going to clean this place down, because it is in shambles and I am literally doing nothing next week while he's gone. Solo parenting (not 'single parenting,' not at all, not anywhere near as hard) is so exhausting that every second the girls are asleep, I will probably also be asleep.


A horse for the road.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

They're gonna be proper besties one day.

Robyn and her family were on a whirlwind of visits in Saskatchewan before heading back to New York for the fall, and we were honored to be a stop on their tour. Robyn hadn't met Geneva (obviously) and I hadn't met Ben who is almost a year and a half. It was glorious chaos. Any time you double the number of children in your house, it is going to be MADNESS. And then it rained and we were like...heck.


But Ryan had a half-off coupon for the Western Development Museum and that is somewhere you can take children to RUN AROUND and look at tractors and shit, and I was like, Oh, I'm totally going to get an adorable photo of our many childrens together. HAHAHAHA.

Hey, Ben Ben.


Why that face, Eleanor?


Come on, children.


But the next day dawned sunny and warmish, and we went to the park and our daughters played on the seesaw.


Ugh, it's too adorable.

Juice box party.


Painting party.


Hula party.


These two know how to party. Hey, remember when they were just tiny squirrels, and Eleanor couldn't sit upright?


Sunrise, sunset you guys.


Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

It begins.

Our around-the-corner pool drained for the winter today. 


We are sad about it. 


Monday, August 25, 2014

Healthy competition.

At this point, it was just a game


to see who could cry the loudest.


I won, obviously.

(Three minutes later, though:

 
What am I going to do when we can't just take our mad selves outside? Summer, don't go.)

Friday, August 22, 2014

SOOOO handsy.

Geneva literally just figured her hands out about four days ago, so she spends all her time being like 

Work, damn you

and she was on her mat the other day and WITH GREAT FOCUS AND EFFORT she seized her giraffe's legs


and then spent like ten minutes being furious that she couldn't pull him down to her mouth 


and I sat there and laughed and laughed and finally took pity on her and detached him and she was like


YASSSSSSSSS. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

I refuse to use the word 'mombie' but we're all thinking it.

I kicked Geneva out of my bed and into her own room two nights ago, and sleeping alone is amazing. I lie right in the middle of the bed, like a starfish. HOWEVER. I recognized that there would be some loss of sleep in this transitional period, not least because I can't just roll over and stick a boob in her mouth and go back to sleep until she's done.


But we are getting NO SLEEP around here and it is no one's fault, it is just circumstance conspiring against me and it is the pits. The first night, Geneva woke up at midnight and again at 6, which is awesome, but I'm nervous about her being in her own room so I was awake for a while after I put her back down, just to make sure she actually went back to sleep.



About eight seconds after I went to sleep, Eleanor woke up with a leaky diaper and a wet bed, so I had to strip her bed and change her and then listen to her talk excitedly to herself for another half hour about her MIDNIGHT ADVENTURES.


Then last night, Geneva was up at midnight, 3, and 6. Eleanor was up at 1:30 because she couldn't find Snuggles, and then again at 3:30 because of the thunder. I had to leave the hall light on and her door open before she'd go back to sleep. (In her defense, it was some loud-ass thunder.)


When Geneva woke up at 6, I was so deranged with tired that I brought her back to bed with me just so I could get another half hour. But Eleanor woke up at 6:10, and, unable to resist the allure of an open door, came out of her room to hammer on MY door.


It has been a tired day over here. I had both girls in bed by 7, and if I didn't absolutely have to shower tonight, I'd be right behind them. Wish us all luck for tonight, my friends.


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

The world is full of delights.

This is the face of someone who just discovered splashing in the bath. 


You watch me splash, I'm gonna splash so hard. 


Monday, August 18, 2014

The best laid plans of moms and...moms.

Hey, let's get a picture of all three kids together. Eleanor, go stand by Tyler. 


No, Tyler, stay put. 


Ok, everybody up on the side then, let's jump in together. 


Ready?


Come on, Eleanor. 


Ok, sit on the edge and kick!


Where are you going, Logan. 


Ugh. Let's just go home. Wait, what are you...


Oh. Awwwwww.