Parlor tricks.

Geneva wants to suck her thumb so badly, but she's terrible at it. She open-palms herself in the side of the face, and then slides her hand along until her thumb slips into her mouth, at which point she makes a fist and gouges herself in the palate. Then she cries, then she starts again.

Every night for the past few nights, she's woken up every couple of hours to be like, Hey, what's that awesome thing I learned to do? Oh right. And then it's ten minutes of snorting and grunting while she tries to exercise dominion over her own hand, and then I feed her because while I don't want to get her used to eating all the time at night, I DO want her to shut up and go to sleep.

But she's napping now, and TWICE she's squawked, but before I've gotten down the hallway, she's subsided into silence. This may become a useful trick after all.

Snuggles has magic sleep powers.

We had brunch with Josie and her boys this morning

and then a picnic with Alexis and HER boy this evening

(whyyyyyyy do all of my friends have boys?)

so this afternoon, while Eleanor was napping, I really just needed to sit quietly and read my book and drink my coffee, so it became one of those afternoons where you let the baby nap in your lap. And she wouldn't go to sleep until I pressed her Snuggles to the side of her face

and then omg soooooooo tired.

And every time I tried to move it, she'd half wake up and I'd have to drape her head again.

It's a trade-off, really.

Joel worked all weekend, you may recall. And he worked yesterday, the afternoon/evening shift, and Geneva wouldn't nap and Eleanor was testy and I was like, This is dumb, we are going to the bakery for dinner.

Because a friend recommended the Night Oven, near to our house, and I got EXCITED for like a sandwich or a pastry or who are we kidding, BOTH, but the Night Oven is not open Mondays.

You know what ELSE wasn't open yesterday? Christie's Bakery. Also PickNic's. So we went to Super Donair because tasty, tasty lamb.

We ate dinner early, so when we got home and I let Eleanor read for a while, she thought she was staying up WAAAAAAY past her bedtime, and was Very, Very Good. 

The upside of Joel working all rainy weekend is that he had today off, and it was GLORIOUS so we went to Pike Lake.

Eleanor loves a lake.

Geneva is largely indifferent.

Good work, Tuesday. 

Limes are forever.

Eleanor's getting so big these days, with the Big Girl Bed and the potty training, and I want to never forget how little she still is. How she says 'cake' instead of 'kick' and pronounces 'warm' like 'werrrrm.'

What I love about little kids is how they just go for it, language-wise. Eleanor's in the lake at Waskesiu all THE IGUANAS ARE EATING MY TOES and I'm like, You mean piranhas but yes. And the other day she referred to a bunch of black-eyed susans as 'black-eyed princesses.'

I think what's sad about having your second baby is that doing so puts a pin in your first baby's babyhood. I mean, Eleanor was already a toddler, but she was also my baby. Now she's not my baby because I have a new baby.

Go ahead and get bigger, Eleanor. But never, ever stop love/hating a lime.



Ever.

If you're not getting dirty, you're not having fun.

You put your kid in overalls, you know they're going to look like little ragamuffins no matter how clean they are. It comes with the territory. You put your kid in overalls when they already haven't had a bath in a few days, let them roll around in sand, you are going to feel like you have some explaining to do if anyone with clean children sees yours.

Joel was working a lot of evenings the other week, and the one evening he had off he had a volleyball game, and I was like, ARGHHHHHH and he was like, Come with me. Bring the girls.

So we went, and I neglected to bring, like, toys or anything, but Eleanor is two and a half, so she was fine.

My friend Shari always talks about how amazed she is by her kids' abilities to play and to keep themselves amused. Eleanor found a discarded bangle and a screw, BASICALLY GARBAGE, and played with them for ages.

The bracelet was a pot of face paint, the screw was the 'painter,' and she painted my face for me. She also poked me with the screw a couple thousand times, hollering 'I'm screwing you!' Oh Eleanor.

Joel's second game ran late, and as the minutes past bedtime ticked by, Eleanor got filthier.

And hilariouser.

Growing up like gangbusters.

We are potty training up in here, which I won't go into except to say that things are a little tense. Also, we've been home for like four days. And the weather has been LOUSY, which is sort of GREAT and kind of why I picked this stretch of days, but then today when Eleanor was climbing the walls and I was like, LET'S GO TO THE PARK, it rained on us.

So but Eleanor really wanted to go to the park, rain be damned, so we went. And we were there late enough that the pool opened, and we had it to ourselves.

I forgot a bathing suit, because I am not an organized person. Eleanor did not care. She was just so happy to be out of the house that she was chirping, and because the pool was empty, she had both lifeguards to herself as well.

Potty training is stressful, no matter how well your child communicates, and it's hard not to get frustrated with them. Staying at home all day is stressful, too. But Eleanor with an audience is a DELIGHT AND A TREASURE, and reminded me of how fantastic she is.

Your mothers both approve.

I will catch you, Logan!

I will catch you, Eleanor!

Get married, you two.

Coaxing.

Get in the...

You gotta get your head in the water, duck. That's where your water-hole is.

Gooooooo down.

Fine. I will come down with you.

Yes. Good.

[To the lifeguard]: THIS DUCK IS WERRRRRY HEAVY NOW.

I take back everything I said about the saskatoon being the blueberry's homely cousin.

We went berry picking this morning. I KNOW. We're living a crazy, debauched life right now. It's just, remember how long winter was? And how it just. wouldn't. end? We have to store up against that.

Eleanor was an excellent picker. Also, eater.

The ones you eat while you're picking are free.

The Berry Barn also has a playground, for when one of you needs to get away from the hoards of mosquitos for a minute.

Also, a garden.

Also, a garden store.

Also, puppies.

Also a restaurant.

Look at the hairs on that girl. We got the waffle again, and made good use of our sole permitted trip to the toppings bar.

All OVER the face, but none on the shirt.

Now we've got some serious pies to make.

Strike another one off the list.

(Forgot to put Geneva's car seat in the Space Pod. Draped blanket did nothing vis-a-vis mosquitos. She has, like, fifteen bites in her hair and ONLY THERE. Feeling grossly negligent.)

Food festivaling

We have tasted Saskatchewan and IT IS DELICIOUS.

(A lot of it is fried, also.)

Are you excited for your first food festival, Geneva? No? Ok, well, hold my walking snacks for me, though.

We got there well before Joel on Thursday.

We didn't mind the wait. There was live music, and Snuggles got a balloon.

Fly up into the air, Snuggles! (Don't worry, he isn't actually flying.)

We got the butter chicken and samosa, but with naan instead of rice because come on, I can make rice.

That samosa is for everyone, Eleanor.

We got the dry ribs, a repeat from last year, because it is a heap of lot of dry, salty, delicious meat.

'Are you dipping like me, daddy?' Eleanor just wants everyone to be doing everything together, all the time.

Fried green tomatoes, with shrimp remoulade. 'Don't eat the tail, dad. It is like a stem. We don't eat the stem of the shrimp.'

Fish and chips, yesssss, yessss.

Fried banana, of course.

You dip it in the ice cream.

'It's ok if you get a bit messy, dad.' It is, Eleanor. In fact, if you don't get a bit messy, you're probably doing it wrong.

Joel worked Saturday, so we had to wait til he got home before biking down because I can't fit both girls in the trailer. The agony. The baked potato pulled pork poutine was surprisingly disappointing for something that has so many words that I like in it.

The mushrooms stuffed with Cajun crab were better.

Cheers.

Eleanor ate the littlest one ('Because I am just little!') and the biggest one ('Because I am sooooo biiiiiiiig.').

The 'mini fried' is a selection of crispy cheese wontons and fried scallops. Obviously.

BBQ'd corn with lime butter? Yes'm.

Eleanor wouldn't touch the African lentils, and I let her not touch them because they were hella spicy (and fantastic).

The macarons, though.

Eat tiny bites, Eleanor, because we all have to share.

Joel got the saskatoon berry pie because when in Rome, etc, but I'm never all that jazzed about it. Saskatoons are like the blueberry's homely cousin.

All that fine dining got Eleanor's blood up.

Behave yourself, child.

Joel worked Sunday also, and we waffled about going but it was the last day. I went to get some souvlaki or something but got distracted by the coconut curry combo.

Get evvvvvery last rice, Eleanor.

Joel went to get the loaded poutine, but they ran OUT when he was, like, three people from the front of the line, so he got the spicy chicken combo instead.

'Do you like crispy things, mum? Because I like crispy things.'

We got the channa masala but they were out of samosas and had to give us rice on the side instead, which, OK FINE, Spicy Bite, you make amazing rice. Also, Sunday turned out unintentionally rice-heavy.

We ended with one more fried banana, as is fitting.

Dance us off, Eleanor.