First Mate Frances

Last week was long. Or maybe it just felt long. Frankie's eye teeth are dancing in (two steps forward one step back) and seem to do their heaviest tapping at night. It was also the first week that required some adjustment to a newish work schedule while still trying to get done in a day all that was done before. Consequently there were a lot of rest and refresh expectations riding on this weekend. We faired okay. Just okay. Some to dos were done and some morning relaxation had but I'd gladly take a redo if anyone's mastered that time rewind sequence. 

This week should be easier - our new schedule is now scheduled and all the paperwork for this little guy is complete:

Meet David, our new Suzuki. Our not-so-trusty red one was eleven years old and it was a neon surely making it the holder of some sort of longevity record. 

This copper fella has lots of fancy features including no need to ever dig the key out from the bottom of your giant and full purse. So long as the key is with you (wedged somewhere between a baby sock and a cheque book) you just press a button to open the door and another to start the car. Although it may sound mundane, the next time you leave the house with a baby, a diaper bag, a fistful of toys, and a giant purse, it will feel revolutionary. Novelty aside, we all feel so very much safer when driving around town. And so very much braver when we venture more than thirty kilometers from home. 

Baby in the front seat (parked of course).

Also this. 

We had hoped to take Frances on her first boat ride this weekend but the wind and ever earlier sunsets had other ideas. Still she modeled her new life jacket (thank you great aunt ruth and great uncle robert) and it fit as snug as a bug in a rug. Hopefully she'll get a chance to try out her sea legs later this week. No sails, since it takes two of us to sail and at least one more of us to hold onto her, just a nice little motored putt around the harbour. I think she is going to love it.  

Nannas and Babies

Love Love

Tedx Bras d'Or

A few weeks ago a whole lovely Saturday was spent listening to ideas. Big ideas. New ideas. Inspiring ideas. Ideas that are changing the way we do things. For the better. Right now. Today.

In some ways it feels like ideas have been made into the problem child of the twenty-first century. They're unruly. They're all over the place. They're fond of upheaval. And so they've been tossed aside as being too cerebral or not leading to efficient and immediate and measurable change. But a world that shuns ideas is surely a grey and sterile place where old answers are continually applied to new questions and few problems are ever really solved. Ideas are the source of innovation and action. Especially impassioned action. The kind that accomplishes huge things with almost no money because it is fueled entirely by someone's belief in their idea.

The videos from this event haven't yet been released .Fortunately though, we were able to watch a few clips from other larger Ted Talks. These were two of my favourites. 

The first is by Temple Grandin. A few years ago there was a movie made about her life. I'm sure it is a fantastic enough movie, though I can't imagine it being nearly as moving as these twenty minutes. Temple is an animal rights activist and animal behaviour consultant who has changed the way that slaughter houses and the livestock industry operate. She is also autistic. In this talk she offers some pretty amazing insights into the autistic mind, types of autism and why all of these minds have so much to offer.

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This second video keeps creeping back into my head. I'll be driving somewhere or just about to fall asleep and find myself thinking of Robert Hammond. How this completely average person woke up one day with an idea and then made it happen. I bet it felt impossible. I bet almost everyone told him it was impossible. I bet that there were days and nights and weeks where it felt like it was finally time to give up. But he didn't. And so this completely average person built a park in the sky. Just like that.

For hundreds (like seven hundred) more great ideas check out Ted Talks. And watch for a Tedx event near you!

A September Slow Down

Last week when I realized that another month was almost through I started to feel a little nervous. A lot of nervous actually. Although unofficially, the first of September marks the start of autumn. The start of the very best and most fleeting season of all, with leaves to crunch, apples to pick, colours to admire, pies to bake and favourite sweaters to unpack. The thought of these cooler days passing us by as quickly as most of our days do now is almost unbearable. So here's to slower days and nights. To a long and warm fall. To evening walks with steaming cups of vanilla earl grey tea. To pumpkin pie french toast. To bundled up babies. To sunday dinners and apple cider and a holiday that doesn't ask to list what else we want but to remember how much we already have. 

The photos below are from our pretty perfect start to this loveliest of seasons: a night away, a hotel room with cartoons, a beach swim, a park, a bonfire, a baby with a marshmallowy face, and a sunset sail.  

Seashore.

Sand love. 

Slide love. 

A scottish golfer and his concerned swimmer.  

My favourite. 

Silent night.

Long Live Melmo

Over the last few weeks Frankie's word world has been on the up and up. Her first five words (mamma, dadda, uh oh, wow and woof) lasted her quite a while. But now? Now she's got a story to tell. A story about bubbles, hippos and nannas.

Her word world at fifteen months: 

Bawl (ball)

Bubboe (bubble) 

Baybay (baby)

Beep beep 

Nanna 

Gog (dog) 

Guck (duck) 

Apple and Hippo (although she doesn't really understand what either means)

Up (used for both getting picked up and put down)

And last but most definitely not least Melmo (Elmo). Her disposable diapers have Elmo on them and she loves pulling up her dress or down her pants and pointing to Melmo. Oh yes, time to switch brands. 

Her three favourite things in the universe are now balls, bubbles and Elmos. She was kind of indifferent to them until she learned to beamingly point to each and say its name. Now its bawls, bubboes and melmo all day long. With the exception of Melmo I've been really good about repeating the correct pronunciation of words back to her. But Melmo? I die of an instant cuteness attack. Long live Melmo!

She left this headband on for five minutes.

It was crazy adorable for the whole five minutes. 

Bare foot home depot baby. She is going to hate winter clothing.