What we've been up to

It's spring! Now that we've settled into our new house, and into this city in general, we're trying to get out and explore as much as we can. I can't say I'm a fan of the city yet, but I did love the distinct lack of snow this winter. I've had flowers in my front yard for a good month now! Having grown up in a northern community where -50C wasn't unusual during the winter, I am wholly appreciating the mild weather here - rain and all.

If the boy had been a bit older, we would have taken advantage of all the Olympics had to offer here. Instead...we ran for the hills. We spent two very nice weeks with my in-laws, avoiding the craziness of the city during the events. We did, however, take in a game of sledge hockey at the Paralympics when we got back. I'm only a hockey fan in the sense that hey, I'm Canadian, I have to be (*ahem* GOLD!!! *ahem*), but it was pretty neat to watch anyway.

On Wednesday we met up with some new friends to enjoy the warm weather while visiting the animals at Maplewood Farm. We love this place. Absolutely love it. The boy always heads straight for the goat pens first, where he climbs all over the rock mountains and through the tunnels and runs around the grass and, of course, pets the goats. Lately most of our playdates have been with girls, so it was neat to see four boys running around in endless circles and laughing hysterically over goat poop (yes, we've reached the potty humour stage). There's really no denying that, however much you try to avoid gender stereotypes, boys simply do play differently than girls (generally speaking, of course). We also fed carrots to the rabbits, chased the poor ducks and chickens, and watched a cow milking demonstration (how perfectly appropriate was it that two of us took the opportunity to nurse our own babies while watching the cow be milked!).

We picked his Daddy up after the farm and decided we'd all head to Fatburger (mmmfatburger) since hey, we had a coupon for a free burger and clearly we couldn't let it go to waste, right? (Right?) I managed to enjoy one bite of my burger with two hands (!!!) before the baby started crying and I had to pick him up and attempt to eat the rest of my messy drippy burger with one hand. The outing ended with the baby and Daddy covered in spit up, the boy and I covered in an entire cup of lemonade that he accidently spilled, and me heading home to have a nap.

A wonderful wonderful nap.

On Friday, I did something spectacular. I went out. By myself. For two whole hours.

*jawdrop*

I put the baby down for a nap, settled the boy into his room for rest time, and fairly ran to the door for my escape before anyone started crying or protesting or asking to come along.

I went to a thrift store and an antique store without worrying that my toddler my knock something down, my baby might start fussing, or my husband might start throwing longing glaces towards the door after only a few short minutes of browsing. I went to Tim Horton's and didn't have to share my fritter. I walked at my own pace.

Delightful.

Then - spoiled woman that I am - my husband took me to Ikea today! I would have gone by myself, but it's a bit of a drive, plus, well, it's Ikea, and chances are very good that I'd get lost in a happy daze of browsing and come back a few hours later to a screaming hungry baby and a displeased husband. So. They all came along instead. I placated the man and the boy with 50 cent hotdogs. What can I say, I'm awesome like that.

Anyway, I came home with lots of fabric with which to make all sorts of wonderful things. I don't know what, yet, exactly, but something will be made. My wonderful mother-in-law is out of the country doing missions work (along with my FIL) for the next seven weeks, and so she lent me her sewing machine for that time! I'm so excited. Seven lovely weeks of sewing. So far I've done an adorable pair of dinosaur pj's for the boy (it's so satisfying to see him wear them), a set of multi-textured bean bags, and a dish drying mat to sit beside the sink. Pictures will come eventually, yes. Now I just have to decide which of my fifty thousand planned projects to tackle next, before MIL returns and I have to surrender the machine!

One day I'll have my own. Ah, what a lovely day that shall be.

One last recent observation to share with you, and then I'll be off to start cutting squares for fabric blocks or some such project. Last night, the husband and I were going to play our favourite game, the Settlers of Catan card game. In our house, you can't play Catan without a plate of freshly baked cookies on the table. It's, like, in the rule book or something. Anyway. We were out of butter (sad), so I Googled vegan chocolate chip cookies, because hey, vegans don't eat butter, right? Success! I found a butter-free chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it had tons of positive reviews from happy vegans below it.

Well. I've decided that vegans must simply be very nice people.

Because those cookies? Were awful.

Now on allrecipes.com (my usual go-to recipe site), people are pretty brutal. If your vegan chocolate chip cookies suck, they will let you know. In no uncertain terms. But on happy hippie vegan site, everyone tells you your disgusting cookies are the best thing they've ever tasted! Thus, my conclusion - vegans must be very nice people.

So go hug a vegan...just don't eat their cookies.