Love love love the UBC Farmer's market

Every Saturday. It is like going to the country except it is only a 7 minute drive away. Seriously. We don't really even buy much. We see the chickens. We walk around. We eat bread and jam then go home. You can see from the pictures that it really is gorgeous. Here's the link.

Outdoor finger/feet painting... the best :-)

Another beautiful sunny Vancouver day. Set the girls up in the backyard with some finger painting which ended up being feet painting. See our tent in the background? 

Clean up was fun too when I filled the kitchen sinks with water. They loved the novelty.

I remember when Coco was a baby I always put her in the sink but I don't do that so much with Hazel.

Happy sunny summer to everyone out there.

I can't take it anymore!

Stop making such a mess guys. It is super annoying. 

bizarre link

Geriatric investors in Germany stick it to their incompetent investment advisor...

the story

One of those days...

The power was out on Broadway and in my neighbourhood for 3 or 4 hours today. I came home from the park and had no solid plan for dinner. My standby, toast, with a few peas on the side was not happening. So we had strawberries, yogurt, and cut up veggies... cucumber, carrot and yellow pepper. Actually read the popcorn package and it had fibre, protein, and iron. 

Hazel was very, very tired as she woke up on the transfer from the car to bed earlier today. So her nap was short. 30 mins or so.

I decided to put her to bed a 1/2 hour early. She was "tired crying" in the bedroom while Coco was yelling at her imaginary friends in the living room. Then silence on both fronts. I guess Coco and her friends came to an understanding. Hazel just zonked out.

Coco went to sleep a half hour later.

Crowds

I didn't always find crowds and ques annoying but now I do. Today at the aquarium, we had to que to get in, we had to que to get a coffee and we had to que to see the new baby baluga whale. The aquarium is amazing. I'm a member. But stay away over the summer. I repeat, stay away over the summer. It is mayhem over there. 

Or maybe it just seemed that way as I was trying to keep an 18 month old in check. The umbrella stroller doesn't have a 5 point harness so she was standing up and trying to jump out then running all over the place. The other one knows to hold my hand when I tell her to but not the toddler. 

Resilience

"Resilience begins with the capacity to sustain disappointment, to feel sadness, to accept the futility of wishing that we can ultimately control the course of events. It means adapting to circumstances that we cannot change."

Basically we need to have an inner core of self-esteem to be resilient.

I am interested in this topic as it pertains to raising my two daughters.

I am finding now that Coco is starting to want things more and more, particularly something a friend has (ie a kiddie camera, Barbie doll). I don't want her to measure herself against what other kids have. 

As her birthday is in August, I am telling her to write these things down that she really wants. It seems to change daily so we'll see what she wants closer to the date.

Also, working on nurturing her talents and relationships with people.