New teeth and other Milestones

Not sure if I was asleep, or time just went by slowly the first time around, but our little Z is flying through these milestones and getting big WAY too fast. Today - at almost five months old she got her very first tooth. The bottom on the left. She is almost crawling, but can get around even without that ability, she is starting to make all sorts if different noises, the most prevalent being the Mumumumummmaamaa sound I get all the time.

I am sure she is saying momma, at least I hope so.

She is a happy little bean and I am so blessed to be her momma.

The summer is flying by and we now have high speed internet, so life is improving. Renovations are coming along and the nights are getting cooler. Life is good and busy, I could not ask for more

The days of summer

...are flying by. I am glad I made the decision to keep Mo home too, we've been having great fun. He has learned to swim, we've picked a googleplex (his words) of berries, beans and other treats, we've played with friends, visited with family and enjoyed many days of unstructured adventure.

He is an inventor - the latest invention being the AUTOMATIC BUG SWATTER. He sits down and draws a blueprint, then we use recycling, aluminum foil, old wires and random objects to make each one. Up until this point he hasn't minded that there is no 'real' motor, but now he is insistent that we build one. We have a lot of these 'inventions' around the house. You'll see this one has a ladybug dial so the machine knows not to swat those bugs.

Zaley is seriously the sweetest kid ever, and the happiest baby I have ever seen. I am not sure what we did to deserve this, but I feel very lucky. She is a riot, has started nibbling on baby mummums and is LOVING them. Naps are getting more predictable, I am getting a bit better at managing my time - which is good, cause I am BUSY!

Work with Scholastic again, another book and five book covers... and the brain cells are firing again because I am writing, I really really am...

Exciting news!

SO, I have just found out BOTH In the Garden and In the Snow are listed in the TOP books for 2010 by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. This is a huge honour for me and I am so thrilled.

Things are so busy these days, with both kids home, visiting family, working into the wee hours of the morning - but it is also fulfilling. My wish is everyone could be so lucky - never a dull moment and lots of people to share those moments with. Z is sitting up and starting to crawl a bit, more of a slither - but she can move, Mo and I are finding our groove, slowly. Our renovations are looking awesome, Shawn has been working his butt off and it looks so great we may not want to leave here when he is done...

Spent the weekend with family and BABIES. I got to cuddle my wee niece - Clara, she is soo sweet, I got to meet my new nephew and spend time with my step sister and her super sweet daughter who entertained Mo the entire time they were there... got to see my cousin - who is also due very soon and we had a very matriarchal party with almost all the women in our family. It was great.

Hello to the Caymen Islands!

I remember my dad wanting to move to the Caymen Islands when we were kids... it was a lark, but it was fun to dream about living at the beach, and swimming with the turtles... so anyone who visits my site over 100 times should at least drop me a line - don't you think?

SO please say hi, or I am going to continue to be afraid that something strange is going on.

Cheers.

Happy Canada Day!

Today is a day to celebrate all things Canadian... and so we took to Sandbanks with our buds despite the crummy weather forecast - it was lovely! We had lots of fun, it was restful, slower-paced and just really nice. We started out the day at the Napanee car show - complete with fire trucks and at least 150 classic cars. Mo was in heaven. Z was great the whole day and now we can't wait to go back again... have a feeling we'll be there a lot this summer.

More news -  Fatou Fetch the Water will be out soon, this is my fourth book with Red Robin Books UK and is set in Gambia. Here is the info sheet. Written by Neil Griffiths and a portion of all sales will go to Project Gambia to promote literacy.

We've started out our summer holidays at full tilt, Tuesday we went for a nature hike and met a family of these critters:

Then we got home and Mo felt sick - he slept for 3 hours and woke up with a fever, was listless for the whole day - then suddenly felt like playing and eating again - fever gone. Wierdest thing.

On Wednesday we headed to City Park in Kingston and to Murney Tower. Shawn took Mo there a few weeks ago and he'd been talking about it non-stop since, so we went with our buds. History and Architecture with 4-year olds is a whole other experience. It was awesome.

And today... Sandbanks. I think tomorrow we may just lay low and clean up a bit. Then again, maybe not.

Just when you think no one is looking...

Some more very nice reviews I have stumbled across:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/booklights/archives/pam/2010/02/

http://booksforkidsblog.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

http://blog.mawbooks.com/2010/06/07/in-the-garden-by-peggy-collins-plus-more-of-my-garden-photos/

just make me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Thanks.

4 more school days to go

Until Mo's last day of school. This year I have decided not to put him in daycare for the summer. Sometimes it feels foolhardy, but mostly it feels right. I am doing this for a variety of reasons - most of all though, is the fact that this may be the only time we get to do this - have the whole summer together, no camps, no 'work', no commitments, just open time for play and fun.

I have a few big contracts though, and this does concern me a bit. How will I get them done while looking after 2 kids full time? Well, Mo loves to paint and draw beside me. So the plan is to have him either do that with me for an allotted time every day - or have play time by himself in his room. The challenge will be to make sure this happens while Zaley is sleeping so I can actually work in this time. We shall see. I also have a lovely young woman up the road who is available to just come and play with mo for the afternoon if I need it. I also have great friends who happen to love my kid - and our kids get on so well together it is almost less work to have another around - so there may be some swapping happening. I always manage to get things done - so I am not too worried.

I am looking forward to it. I have plans, and I really happen to like my kids - and hey, my mom did it for YEARS, and so do lots of others. I will miss this quiet I have today though, sleeping baby, radio on - no chatter, just me and my cold coffee. It is only 8 weeks till Kindergarten starts - so I say YEAH for summer.

Bring it on.

Here is a character sketch for a new book I am working on... it is going to be FUN (and something Mo will be very happy to be drawing beside me!)

Just when you think your kid is a genius...

... that very same kid swallows a dime. Is really upset cause he swallowed a dime - so you call telehealth and they tell you it will either pass or will be stuck and to ask said Genius questions about how it feels. Genious then tell you it does in fact feel stuck. So you pack the whole family in the car and head to the emergency room and wait for 3 hours - finally get X-ray from very nice doctor saying there is nothing in there. Could have passed or was never there... Genius then says he swallowed it yesterday or maybe the day before but definitely swallowed the dime. Deciding whether to be a little bit angry, or just happy dime is gone.

Zaley rolled over today.