3 Fordes walk into a photo booth

Happy Halloween

Some photos of Queen Mabs and her cousins on Halloween. She had fun at Grandma and Grandpa's in the afternoon. And she enjoyed trick or treating in the morning at school to the other businesses around the daycare. But after going to a few neighbours that night she just wanted to go home. All the other kids running around in scary costumes in the dark was just too much for her.

We don't give Maeve candy, so G&G got her a lovely baby doll with accoutrements such as powder and wipes. She was in heaven!

The Queen with her favourite Jedi knight and favourite Count.

They really got in to character!

Showing off her skirt swirling abilities.

The Queen and her royal throne/high chair.

Trick or treat!

Whoops, what happened to October?

It has been a busy autumn so I haven't found any time to blog this month. I've got a bit of catching up to do!

Maeve is growing like a weed. At 30 months old, she's about 35 inches tall and weighs around 30 lbs. She's a solid little girl.

She chats constantly at home and I think at preschool, but not so much with anyone else. She's even shy when she sees the same friends that she sees at school everyday in another context, like Chapters. Suddenly, she clams up and won't say anything. She does like to talk to her Popo on the phone, telling her "you come see me".

She has quite an imagination. Her dolls and stuffed guys get treated to all kinds of discussions and adventures. They often get tea parties, birthday parties, soup dinners, shopping trips in the stroller, diaper changes, storytime, boat trips down the hallway/river, train rides to Popo's house on the couch, time outs for misbehaving and much more. Pretty much anything we do with her or say to her gets repeated with them-a mirror which I don't always like to see. "I don't say that do I?"

She tries really hard to be independent; putting on shoes and boots by herself; picking out her pretty dress for the day; pulling on her pullups and pants herself; feeding herself with her chopsticks; brushing her own teeth (after mommy has already brushed them); but at the end of the day, she's still daddy's little girl and only wants him for the bedtime story and prayers.

When she is "reading" a familiar book to herself, she basically gives a synopsis of each page based on the picture and what she can remember of the story. She's pretty accurate, even though it is a little abridged, "long ago, far way, happy kingdom, castle, king, princess Leora."

If she doesn't know the story, she sings this kind of familiar tune and says "wee wah, wee wah, whattawa". We thought it was pretty cute. Today, when I was dropping her off at daycare, I finally clued in to what it is. All the kids were running around playing pretend guitars singing, "We will. We will. Wok you!" Ah ha! I knew that tune was kind of familiar.

Anyways, here are our October adventures.

Celebrating mom's 41st birthday
Some of the deer who have been visiting our backyard each morning this month.

The Friday before Thanksgiving, we took Maeve to the Toronto Zoo. She liked the animals, but tired of them after a while. Seen one big, wild animal, ya seen em all. She was more interested in running all over the park.
Maeve checks out the white rhino
The orangutang checks out Maeve
And to the tiger in the zoo, Maevey just says "Pooh, pooh"
When you ask her to smile for the camera, this is what you get.
The elephants were frisky that day
The hippo's over der mum
Sharing her snack with the concrete hippo. I think it was a hippo animal cookie.
Uh oh, this giant boulder is going to fall on us.
Maeve runs away before she gets crushed by the big rock.
Pretending to be dinosaurs...
Relaxing by the giraffes
I think they were snubbing us.
Maeve's favourite animal was the stuffed monkey from the zoo store. She named him Monkey King.

This past weekend, we took advantage of a temporary lull in the rain to go to the Yee Haw Adventure farm. Maeve had a hoot. Her favourite parts were the pig races and feeding the goats.

At the entrance
I don't look like this big orange thing, so why do you call me "pumpkin"?
Maeve's first tractor ride
"Ooooo baby chicks!"
What should I do next? Check out the lady dressed as a cow in the background.
The goats have this crazy climbing apparatus up in the air.
You put feed in the blue cups and use the pulley system to get it up there to feed them.
I guess goats like to climb
She LOVED the sand box, which was filled with soy beans instead of sand.
Bye bye Yee Haw Farm. See you next year.

Hope this long post makes up for being off the radar for so long.

A Visit to PP & GG

Daddy was busy a few weekends ago at a writer's retreat so Maeve and Mama took the train to visit Popo and GungGung. It was a long ride for her so we probably won't do that again for a while. Changing a diaper for a toddler on a moving train is a bit tricky. As was getting our luggage (my BIG backpack), snacks, diaper bag and Maeve's carseat all on board. Naturally she wouldn't walk by herself and I had to carry her too.

But despite missing daddy lots, she had a wonderful visit with her grandparents and she actually slept on the train going home.

Maeve's favourite garden friend
Come on Mama
Blowing bubbles with Popo
I got it!
My turn
Not bad, eh?
Gung gung and Popo's flower child
Maeve's cheesy smile
Don't worry Eli, I'll put flowers in your hair too
Do doggies eat flowers?
"Doggie did you do that?" Ack, I wonder where she learned that pose from...
A rare smile for the camera.
Sometimes Maeve gets this beautiful soft look on her face.
For some reason Maeve likes to walk with her hands behind her back, just like my grandmother did. Even though they never got a chance to meet, I'm sure my grandmother would have loved Maeve very much.

Beach Babe

I thought I'd share some of the beautiful photos that Pat's sister (Aunty Sheshe) took when we went to visit them in Southampton.

Maeve loved spending the day at the beach with her cousins.

Mother and daughter, as it was meant to be
What should I play with first?
Ridin' the 'gators with Miller and Bram
Beach Babe
Queen Maeve in her sand castle
Weeeee!
Oh joy!
Oh Bliss!
My best pal 'Milla'
'Bam' had a long day
Zia jian