Our Family Web Log - Selena + Tim

Two week old flowers

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:09:15 -0400

One of the many adventures we had on our busy Thanksgiving weekend was a trip to the Royal Botanical Gardens near Hamilton. Those fruit growing on trees to the right are pomegranates. Pomegranate trees in Canada! How crazy is that? The tree is in an indoor, climate controlled, Mediteranian arboritum.

Besides the plants and flowers, many of the gardens were smattered with art installations.

It was all pretty nice.

Wytchwood Market

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:34:41 -0400

Haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

There is another new farmer's market in Toronto this year. It turns out to be just a few blocks from our old apartment in the Vaughan/St Clair area. Which is not too terribly far from where we are now. We hitched up the bike today to go check it out. (As usual, click the picture to see more pictures.)

The actual intended location for this market is currently under construction/renovation, so it they just set up on the lawn of a large church right on on St Clair (St Matthew's United, if i recall correctly). It was a fairly small market. It is early in the year. But despite this the people there apparently had a wide variety of things to offer: eggs, honey, rhubarb, wool, fresh milled flours of various kinds, mushrooms, breads, and more. A mandolin and banjo was played.

Afterwards we went to a park we know of nearby, intending to let the kids splash in the wading pool there. Turns out the water has not yet been turned on for that pool. So the kids just got filthy dirty playing in the sand instead. Wheeee. We eventually rode home through the cedarvale ravine. Baths and much washing up was required.

A walk

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:01:50 -0400

Autumn in the city. Emeth and I had a doctor's appointment today. Selena and Istra took us. North of Bathurst & Wilson. We decided, gradually, to walk home.

We picked up some interesting pizza at King David's along the way. Lunch. Took it to a nearby park. Both kids zonked on the way. We didn't let it stop us. (They awoke later, still at park, both got fed: no children starved during the making of this posting.)

It was a fairly long walk. So we had to stop at another park. Swinging and sliding ensued. Happy birthday cake was baked.

From there to here, funny things sometimes appear.

Recharge

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:55:40 -0400

This is a picture of my laptop a few nights ago. It's resurrected now---at long last---a new lease on life. I'm posting from it now. Yeeha.

Monkeys on it

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 01:13:44 -0400

Istra sings a lot these days. She has been for some time. She sings the bits she remembers from songs she's heard. And she improvises her own songs. She started making up her own songs before she learned any ready made ones. It's pretty cool. She made up one that amused me greatly the other day, but I've sadly forgotten it now. So I wanted to record what I think was her first real improvised song, before I forget it; though it will be hard to forget this one, as we still sing it not infrequently. It's a sort of anthem, even! Behold...

Istra likes sticky mud,

sticky mud, sticky mud,

Istra likes sticky mud,

sticky mud, sticky mud;

Istra likes sticky mud,

sticky mud, sticky mud;

Poor little horseys

Monkeys on it.

And, repeat.

And, repeat.

Lovely, ain't it?

We have no idea what "sticky mud" is, or where it came from. It may well be a mispronunciation of something else that we couldn't figure out. Istra was certainly into it, whatever it is.

Mommy was pretty bewildered by the last two lines of the verse. "What?!!!" I think i've allowed her to exist in her amused bewilderment all this time, thinking the collisions of images random (or otherwise inexplicable), to amuse myself. Besides that, I think the lines do have some sort of weird abstract depth to them! But I was there when the tune was forged... and I will now reveal the secret.

It was those trains she was playing with. And her short attention span. And her propensity to announce all of her observations. All preceded by her liking to modify beings with the word "poor" in front of them (which she obviously picked up from us -- but that would make the story to long to get into). There were horseys on the trains: they become, poor little horseys, for no particular reason I know. And then there was another train car with "monkeys on it", as Istra immediately observed in song. The two images seamlessly blended on top of each other, as the verses hitched up to one another. And it makes sense... it makes a lot of sense... I for one feel exactly the same way.

Poor little horseys, monkeys on it.

But let us not get mired down with this one image. Let us not forget the joyous rest:

Istra likes sticky mud, sticky mud, sticky mud!

Sing along! You know you like it too.

88

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:41:06 -0400

Last weekend we went to visit my Grandmother. Her 88th birthday had been during the week prior. We don't get out there very often; but then we don't get anywhere very often. We took some cookies, which is something my mom says my Grandmother particularly likes. My mom helped her to a few, as she can't really control her hands very well herself anymore. She was pretty talkative, but very few of those words were comprehensible. She tried playing with Istra and her balloon. She even attempted to give Emeth a kiss (but ended up mostly getting her nose sucked). I saw this picture hanging on the hall, which made me think it looked not unlike what Istra may look like in the future. And this picture of what she may look like a few years after that. We hung out for a few hours, until Nana's dinner time. Got some nice pictures, I think. Collected a few more memories. Except, on visiting Alzheimer's, one can't help but wonder... the paradox is gloomy.

Anyhow, this is my favourite of the set. My mom has a few last words with her mom as we are leaving... and it looks almost as if my Nana is giving her an understanding look. If an illusion, at least one that I'd like to maintain.

Weekend Wandering

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 23:49:52 -0400

Low key weekend, hanging around home. Though Sunday we were out wandering all day. (We've lately discovered the utility of TTC day passes.) Our wandering included Quakers, burritos, Sandro, several libraries, Dominion, 100% tangerine juice, and more...

Towards the end of the day, we ended up in the neighbourhood of a pizza place I'd heard was interesting (from some vague source i can not remember), so we stopped in for a couple of slices and picnicked at a nearby park. The neighbourhood happens to be extremely Jewish, and the pizza place is called "King David's".

Selena waited outside while Istra and I went in. The first odd thing to discover was that of the 6 or so sliced pizzas behind the counter, zero of them had meat on it. Most were very plain pizzas, though most had the interesting embellishment of sesame seed crusts. One pizza however, was an intense pile of what looked like fried mushrooms and zucchini, onions and other veggies (along with green olives). Just to make doubly sure before ordering I asked the guy if that one had any meat on it. He laughed and said: "not only does it not have any meat, it doesn't even have any cheese!"

Okay! Got two slices. And a cheese, tomato, and zucchini slice that Istra chose. Well, the grilled veggies and mushroom pizza was really very, very nice. Probably easily the tastiest non-cheese pizza we've yet had. So there you go.

After eating, Istra and I hit the playground for some fun. Emeth and Selena, I guess, had their own sort of fun... as you can see in these pictures. The fun just never, ever, ever, ever stops.

A final piece of insignificant trivial: on our travels we got Istra some new runners. Her toes barely were fitting into her now-previous ones that had served her so long. You can the new show at the bottom of the big picture above... for those obsessive Istra stalkers here.

Some Biking, at least

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 10:00:28 -0400

I'm off work this week, and we have Selena's mom's car while she is away (and Istra is staying with her Gramma), so we've been attempting to get our bikes to some trails we can't normally easily access. It hasn't worked out worked out extremely well, but we've had some fun and found a few new places anyhow. The main problem is that we've tended to get going much later than planned, and then having to get somewhere else earlier than one would like. Such is life. And have had more wipe outs than planned.

Wipe outs. Yes, Selena had a big one, on a gravel rail trail, only about 4.5 km into our excursion to Paris. It was pretty scary, but luckily the injuries were mostly just scrapes, and a now-squeeky rear bike hub. After a bit of a rest and clean up, we actually continued on... but ran out of time (cursed time!) and had to turn back before the planned destination.

Today we're heading east, to reunite with Istra, and probably explore the waterfront trail from Whitby to Oshawa. My mom was telling me that Istra, who has been with her for (incredibly) nearly 5 days now, had not mentioned Mommy or Poppy really at all (though she did talk to us a couple of times briefly on the phone during this interval). However when Gramma mentioned to her yesterday that Mommy and Poppy might be coming to go bike riding tomorrow apparently she could not stop talking about it all evening, including while trying to be put to bed. "Ista, mommy, poppy, emie, go bike ride, cottage." My mom corrected her that we were going to come there, not go to the cottage. "Go bike ride, Gramma's! Ista, poppy, mommie, emie, bike ride, grammas..." and so on (including references to "the chariot", though she can't quite pronounce that word). Nice to know she likes the bike riding, anyhow.

Click for for more pictures from our adventures... if you so desire...

Towers of fun

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:10:12 -0400

This is a nice little amusement park we took Istra and Emeth to last weekend. Happy fun!

Istra's pants kept falling down though.

Ragamuffins

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sun, 06 May 2007 13:37:52 -0400

Check out these colourful ragamuffins. This appears to be taken shortly after a possibly not entirely successful yurt strategy session. Not entirely successful, because there is no yurt. Alas!

Actually Aunties Priscilla and Fiona came by to see the new family member. And the two year old one, too.

Here's another weird, intense Emeth look...

Broken Water Walk

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:32:32 -0400

So, Selena's water broke, unexpectedly, at around ten to six this morning. Contractions hadn't started yet. And when they did, they were fairly mild, and not regular or very close together. We alerted our Midwife, but nothing much was happening. So, what to do, what to do? Well, what a nice Earth Day here... so why not just head out for a nice long walk? It's Selena's way....

And maybe get a little last minute smooching in. (Just for the camera, of course.)

And so we leave you with Istra illustrating the situation as it currently remains....

For now.

Winter Festival: Kitonb

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 04:17:42 -0500

Next stop, Italian "extreme theatre". It had its moments. But mostly it cold, standing around (ask Selena if you don't believe me). Istra was not complaining however, so the shutter kept flapping...

The most dramatic scene with these guys, which almost made the rest worth it, was when they (having climbed to the top of the structure) started leaping into the air landing in middle of the cords at the top and to all appearances falling randomly through the strings. Quite nifty. Fun.

There was a gigantic crane by the stage. The ninjas flew... or at least wiggled on wires high above us. Here, framed in large cube frames, later winged and swinging. (Click the picture to get an idea of the scale... they were way up there...)

Afterwards, we skipped out on Sloan and hit up a chip truck for yummy, yummy (greasy) Yukon Gold. Istra approved. All good.

Winter Festival: Ice Art

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 16:00:59 -0500

Selena and I (and, as you can see, Istra) went downtown yesterday. After a lovely day at the mall, buying large quantities of underwear and bread pudding, we headed over to the Winter Festival at Nathan Phillips Square. One of the three spectacles scheduled for the evening is an "Ice Art" installation.

Besides the technical elements of the execution of the large piece (housed in a big tent), I didn't find the thing all that interesting. But it did make some nice pictures.

New Year Stuff

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:46:29 -0500

I really want to post highlights of some of my favourite pics from Xmas in Orillia... but there are so many. So for now I will skip ahead to New Years in Ajax, so I can scoop Selena on spreading the exciting news of Istra's new little bed! Behold the cuteness:

Click the pic to see Istra checking it out. We impulse-bought it from a second-hand children's shop in Ajax.

Speaking of getting Istra used to new things, as you can see here we're also trying to get her used to commuting to work on the train every day, so maybe eventually we can move out of the city. And she can take over our jobs. But one step at a time.

On our way home we stopped by to visit my grandmother. We call her Nana. It's a sweet sort of sad that when I was loading these pictures up onto my computer and Istra saw them, though she's only seen my grandmother a few times, she seems to have this time picked up the name from this short visit. She points to the screen and says: "Nana!" Cute. The sad part is that Nana, alas, (due to Alzheimer's) has pretty much no concept of who little Istra is; even as Istra timidly tries to share with her her doll.

Thumpathumpathumpa

nospam@example.com (Tim Middleton) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:58:34 -0500

At our last midwife appointment (about 5 weeks ago), we were not able to find the new baby's heart beat yet. It was a bit early to easily detect with the doppler. Elizabeth assured us that by next appointment we'd almost certainly be able to hear it...

And so, at our appointment today, I recorded it. You can hear it too if you hit that last link. It sounds like some scary hospital sound effects, more than anything. The little heart beats very fast. It was pumping away between 140 and 150 beats per minute (if I read the device correctly).

Something is in there!

(For the historical record, the pregnancy ticker at the top of the page reads 15 weeks and 4 days.)

[The photo is from after the appointment. Istra and I were hanging around outside the Robarts Library building leaf sculptures on the lawn while Selena was inside attempting to research...]