Wildlife of the Suburbs

Recently, a family of robins made its home in front of William's bedroom window.  Adam set up his camera at the foot of Will's bed and one of the kids captured the above photo using the remote shutter. Note, no zoom required, they really are that close to the window.  Just two days later, the babies already look more robin-like, their down becoming feathers.

At around the same time we noticed the robins, we also saw a large rabbit in our backyard. It moseyed around the yard for several minutes while my whole family, including the dog, stood watch at the window and only hopped away when I started taking pictures of it.

I was just marveling at the beauty of nature right in my own backyard, when I heard about a black bear being spotted, and promptly shot dead, at Mountainside Park, not far from where we live.  While I don't relish the idea of meeting a bear while biking to the park with my kids, I'm saddened by the tragic loss of such a beautiful animal.  The bear didn't attack anyone, didn't do anything wrong except to wander into our small patch of paradise, where all kinds of creatures are welcome as long as they are less deadly and dangerous than we are.

Rain on my Parade

This weekend was the Sound of Music Festival, when almost all of Burlington gathers near the waterfront to watch a parade and various music acts in less-than-ideal weather.

It rained through Saturday's parade, thinning out the crowds to give us a front row seat. We enjoyed the marching bands well enough, but didn't bring enough warm clothes, so we decided not to stay for the kid's bands we had planned to see. We bought fudge to take home and decided that the Skor flavour was the best.

Today was better weather, so we headed down again and saw Tom Cochrane perform. He kept making gratuitous Canadian references and talking about how great it was to be back in the Golden Horseshoe. I think he was being an applause slut, but as long as he played "Life is a Highway" everyone was happy. William didn't want to stay for even one song, and finally dragged my parents away to take him to the park, where he got extra soaked.



Not that I blamed him. It was sweltering hot. That's Canada for you; cold and rainy one day, hot and sunny the next. Makes you value the good weather. Like Tom Cochrane said, "Nobody appreciates summer like Canadians."

My super long walk

This afternoon, in a lapse of sanity, I decided to walk to the Early Years Centre instead of driving. After all, I can't justify the purchase of a 900-dollar stroller without using it for at least one long walk.

I saw some things I wouldn't have noticed driving: a 2 shopping carts wedged into the grass, a field and a pile of rubble where a house had been. I also chatted with an older man about his children, and how he never had cool strollers like mine in his day. I took a few pictures that I might later post on my international photo tag blog. All very well, but nothing I'd give up a car for.

The trek (which according to Google Maps is 6.4 km) took me a little under an hour and a half. William and Jadzia fell asleep about 15 minutes in and woke up just as I was nearing our destination. The weather was great for it, overcast but not rainy, I felt neither too hot, nor too cool. I didn't feel sweaty at all until I stepped through the door to the Early Years. Without the breeze I became all too aware of how sticky I was.

Of course I bragged to all my Mommy friends about how I had walked from the ends of the Earth and they were all suitably impressed. (Completely unrelated: my friend Jessica had her new 7-day-old son with her. He made Jadzia look gigantic).

I had planned to have my husband pick me up after work (I couldn't walk back. It was uphill!) but instead Jessica convinced me to take the bus with her. Of course my gigantic stroller didn't fit on the bus until I removed the wheels (and the children). I could tell everyone (especially the driver) thought I was the supreme fool of the day for bringing an enormous buggy on public transit, but they helped me anyway. William was especially good on the bus, even singing a verse of wheels on the bus (the money on the bus goes ching ching ching).

So anyway, I'm glad I walked today. I'll never do it again, but now that I have once I can officially declare myself the Fittest Mom Ever, and permanently retire from any further exercise.

House Browsing

Every once in a while, my husband and I amuse ourselves by pretending that we can afford a house. Not just any house, mind you, I have standards:

1) The house must have at least one more bedroom than we have now. Moving into a place that is the same size as our condo just seems redundant. Also, William will one day need a sibling and that kid will want her or his own bedroom. (hypothetical children are so demanding!)

2) The house must be in Burlington. Sure, I know we can afford a house in Nunavut for six bucks and change, but then I'd have to learn a whole new city. I have such a bad sense of direction that even a quaint inuit village would be intimidating for me to navigate. I'll stick to the place I've lived since I was six, thank you very much. The housing is more, but both my parents and inlaws live here, so we'll save a bundle on babysitters.

3) The house must be just slightly less expensive than the cheapest house in Burlington. And without condo fees.

We've been eyeballing a few properties and even went to the bank this afternoon for a reality check/mortgage consultation. If we buy a house/any deals fall through, I'll post more details, but I'm pretty sure it's a bad carma to tell the entire internet which houses you're looking at. You have to pretend you're not really interested or they'll jack up the price. (I guess, but what do I know about buying and selling realestate? The only place I ever bought was off of my alzeimerish grandmother. Plus I always, always, lose at monopoly).

Just for fun, I looked up the most expensive house listed in Burlington. They're asking 8.5 million, but perhaps we can lowball them?

Best friends

William and I went down to St. Catharines today to hang out with Aedan and his Mom, Becca. Look at them being all chummy. Totally not posed. Really they just climbed up on the couch and put their arms around each other.

Anyway, going to St. Cath meant I had to drive Adam to work all the way in Mississauga then drive back the way I came and past Burlington to the end of the world. Then miss my exit and get lost in the worst city to get lost in in the universe (the streets are laid out in a diamond grid pattern). Then drive through torrential downpour and rush hour traffic at the end of the day to pick Adam up again. I have no concept of time whatsoever, but I would estimate that I did roughly 350 years of driving today.

But I had fun. Becca: move to Burlington!

Hiking with babies.

Yesterday Adam "worked" from home and so we (Adam and I and William) went hiking with Becca and Drew and Aedan. William and Aedan were strapped to their Daddies and enjoyed a nap while the rest of us enjoyed the fresh air and exercise. I must say the Snugli is a lot more comfortable when Adam is the one wearing it.

Anyway, it was a gorgeous day yesterday, if a bit nippy. We hiked around Mount Nimo. For those of you not from the Burlington area, Mount Nimo is a cliff with a bunch of caves and turkey vultures, where people from B-town go when they want a little nature. Pretty much everyone goes there, but very few actually get suckered into paying parking (sometimes there's an attendent, but usually they use the honour system. Ha!). The cliff offers a fabulous view of farms and stuff.

Noone dropped their baby and a good time was had by all.