Mom Has Been Busy

I have not written for months because my mom has been ultra busy. The only thing that can slow my mom down is for her to get sick. It is unusual for her to be ill and when she does, it generally hits her hard. She came down with the flu over a week ago and she is still suffering from it. Despite her high pain tolerance, she takes Tylenol everyday to cope with bone and muscle aching. Her throat feels raw and she has taken more lozenges this past week than her entire life time. As she gets better gradually, the bug is going around in our household. Both Peter and Grandma are not feeling well. Hopefully, Adelaide, Emily and myself can remain healthy.

My mom went to Vancouver in July to attend a cousin's wedding. She stayed at Emily and Peter's apartment to help with baby care and packing. Initially, the packing was extremely organized and donation runs helped in reducing the moving load. As time ran out, everything went into boxes for moving. Under Peter's supervision, box contents were to be organized and not random. Nonetheless, finding things can still be a challenge at times. They rented a big U-Haul truck and moved back to Edmonton at the end of August.

When our family moved from the westend home to Millwoods and then from Millwoods to our current address, the experience was similar to Emily's move . . . only it was much, much worse. My mom did make attempts to sort our belongings. She couldn't possibly cope with the workload, so there were random stuffs packed in same box and there were "untoouched" boxes being moved from one location to the other. Having been in our home for over a decade, there has been more additions to our garage/basement when other extended family members moved and needed storage space.

Emily and Peter's moving home marked the beginning of a frenzy of cleaning house, IKEA trips for shelving units, organizing accumulated messes, and donation/ECO station runs. The job is endless and work is still in progress. My mom appreciates Emily and Peter's help in this horrendous task of getting our home in order. A lot more work is needed to be done yet.

Camping Trip

My mom and I left for Clearwater, British Columbia, at 5 am. Thursday morning. It was so early that it took my mom a long time to get me out of bed. I was sleepy and quiet most of the morning. I don't generally sleep while traveling in the car. By the afternoon, I was so tired that I was giggly. After 9 hours of driving, we arrived at our destination. My mom checked into a motel and started to unload the car. I refused to stay in the room and got back into the car. A 9-hour drive was not long enough for me! Shortly afterwards, Emily, Peter and Adelaide arrived.



We visited three waterfalls in Wells Gray Provincial Park the next day - the Helmcken Falls, Dawson Falls and Spahat Falls. The Helmcken Falls is very pretty and it is considered as the Park's main tourist draw. Due to my love for water, I enjoyed watching the rushing water and listening to the roaring sounds. Sometimes I refused to leave the area. While on the trails, I walked slowly or came to a complete stop due to distractions by my surroundings. My mom engaged me in a game of hide and seek by getting behind a tree. I had a lot of fun running toward the tree to find her. That was very effective in getting me to go from point A to point B.

We came across three bears in different locations of the park. My mom, Emily and Peter were happy to be able to see them in such close proximity. We were in our car, of course. Otherwise, the encounter would not be described as "happy".

In order to expose me to a new experience (tenting), we checked into a camp site on Saturday. I have camped many times before in our van. However, the last time I slept in a tent was when I was 2-year-old.

My mom and I slept in a big tent with a fly over it. I called out, "mommy" and pointed to the top of the tent. A big bug (an inch long) got trapped between the tent and the fly. I laughed out loud as I watched the bug flew back and forth frantically. That kept me entertained for a long time before I fell asleep.

It started to rain at dawn and I was probably waken up by the sound of raindrops on our tent. My mom noticed that I was staring at the top of the tent. She asked me, "What do you see?" I said, "滴滴" (meaning drip, drip). I love water and I thought it was so funny having water dripping onto our bed. We planned to camp for 2 nights, but the rain cut our stay short and we came home on Sunday.

Ice Cream

Yesterday when my mom proposed to take me out on my buddy bike, I said to her, "Ice cream". Her response was, "Sorry, mommy does not have ice cream in the freezer." Well, if she wants me to go on my bike daily, she needs to come up with something more appealing to me than grapes. . . . . Guess what my mom bought today. :)

We have ice cream now, but I haven't got any yet because we didn't go out on my bike today. This afternoon, my mom was struggling with making up her mind. In the end, she decides not to go out due to the extremely hot weather. The heat really gets to her. Tonight, we have a thunder storm and it helps to cool down the house for a good night sleep.

Emily and Peter are going on a camping trip in BC. They have invited my mom to join them for a couple of days. Last night, I was over at my mom's home to sleep over. I was so good that my charm won her over. My mom told me I will be going on a long car ride. She is not sure if I understand what this is all about yet. I will when I see her packing.

Buddy Bike

The weather is gorgeous today, so my mom decided to take me out on my buddy bike this afternoon. She was not sure if I would resist, so she didn't tell me what we were going to do. She handed me a favorite snack as we walked out of the house. Having that to distract my attention, she got me on the bike with no problem.

This is the first time we go out on my bike this year. My mom remembered how reluctant I was last year and that she had to use ice cream to entice me. To her surprise, I actually enjoyed the bike ride today. I giggled as our bike sailed out onto the street. I helped in peddling from time to time.

I saw a small squirrel ran across the street in front of us. My mom stopped peddling so that I could watch the squirrel climb up a tree. One time when we were in Jasper National Park, I saw a squirrel came out from under a rock a few feet from where I was sitting. I jumped up, screamed and ran away. Today, I wasn't afraid because I was sitting high up on my bike and I felt safe.

Leaps and Bounds

Adelaide is sure growing fast. Her weigh-in at the midwife's office around mid-May was 7 lbs. 14 oz. We didn't have a scale at home to weigh her accurately while they were here to visit. She was getting heavier to carry, but we had to wait till her next midwife appointment back in Vancouver to know her exact weight. On May 31, we found out that she weighed 9 lbs. 5 oz. The next thing I know, she has gained more weight and was 10 lbs. 5 oz. on June 10. Baby gifts of clothing are coming in and my mom is worried that Adelaide may outgrow some of them before she goes to Vancouver to visit them at the end of July. She hopes that there will be someone we know going to Vancouver soon, so that she can forward the smaller sizes to Adelaide.

My mom went on a shopping spree buying pretty dresses for Adelaide. She took me along one time and I imitated how she looked through the dresses one by one on the rack. Then I started to take some clothes off the rack and restock them on other racks. Instead of stopping me, my mom allowed me the time to hang the clothes back up. That was a very good practice of eye-hand coordination for me. My mom followed me around and placed the clothes back to where they should belong.

Meeting Adelaide

I have finally met Adelaide in person last week. I call her "baby", as Adelaide is too difficult for me to say at this time. I am sure Adelaide's name is on my mom's "to teach" list.



I shy from getting close to Adelaide. I have not shown much interest in her for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I don't know how to interact with babies. I have not had such experience in the past. Secondly, I am a lot more interested in Peter . . . actually, I am more interested in Peter's computer. When I see Peter, I don't call him "Peter". I say "computer" instead. Peter and computer are not separable anyway.

Peter let me watch music videos on his computer. He teaches me how to use a digital camera. And, he sets up Wii Mario Kart for me to play. How can I not be attracted to Peter when I get so much attention from him! I hope he will visit again soon.

Adelaide

Adelaide is sure growing fast and she looks different from the time she was born. I am going to meet her in person soon. My folks are going to leave Vancouver Friday afternoon. They plan to split the driving into 2 1/2 days so that they can have frequent stops to take Adelaide out of her car seat. They will arrive Edmonton Sunday night. I may not see them until Monday depending on the time they get home. Emily, Peter and Adelaide will stay till the following Saturday. I am sure the week will go by really fast.