Here are my contributions to the sixth month of Project 365.
Wow, 6 months down, 6 months to go! I am half way there!
It's been a month of pumpkins, hot drinks, beautiful fall colours and cupcakes. And the second last day of October brought snow. SNOW? In October? I am none too happy about that! Lilah Grace, on the other hand, was quite thrilled! I'll guarantee you, she'll be happy to see the end of it by the time March rolls around, that's for sure! Just as well we bought that nice warm winter coat this month. Now if only we could migrate to a warmer climate like the Canada Geese!
"I think winter came last night!"
- Lilah
Lilah and I have been enjoying a bit of artwork lately.
I really should make artwork a weekly habit, because Lilah enjoys it so much. She did the 'Fall Leaves' picture a couple of weeks ago and the 'Hand Prints' picture yesterday. Both projects were lots of fun and our sweet Lilah points at the fridge and continually asks us "Did you see my boo-te-ful peek-tures?"
Our funny girl uses the word 'Eh' now, like a true Canadian.
And bless her heart, she knows exactly what context to use it in. In fact, when I asked her to say it for Baba this evening, she, in the spur of the moment, made up a sentence about the hot apple cider she was in the middle of drinking. "You not drink my hot apple cider Baba, eh?"
Oh my, she cracks us up!
The day may not have looked it, with it's dull sky, but it was beautiful.
18 degrees celsius.
Nothing like a little trike ride to the river to feed a few ducks, swans, seagulls, ...Lilah isn't fussy who she feeds. I had to laugh at her when she showed the swans her empty hands. "See", she said "No bread. All done." And when some geese flew overhead, she asked me, "Are they going to Florida?" I've been telling her lately that geese don't like the cold winter. Join the club, right?!
And then we dropped into Timmies for a tea and timbit.
The man whispered, "God, speak to me!" And a chickadee sang.
But, the man did not hear.
So the man yelled, "God, speak to me!" And the thunder rolled across the sky.
But, the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you!" And a star shined brightly.
But, the man did not notice.
The man said, "God show me a miracle!" And a life was born.
But, the man did not know.
So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are here!"
Whereupon, God reached down and touched the man.
But, the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
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Don't miss out on a blessing, because it isn't packaged the way that you expected.
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"Pink is my favourite colour!"
It's the new statement we've been hearing from Lilah lately. It started a few weeks ago around Mid-Autumn Moon Festival: We were hanging our Chinese lanterns and I happened to ask her which was her favourite colour. "Pink!" was her response, and that was it. Now all I hear from her is how much she loves pink.
I like pink, don't get me wrong, I buy my fair share of pink. But I don't love *all* things pink. So because of that, I have to tread lightly on what I let her choose and what I choose, when buying. I know, I am one of *those* parents! But really, I don't want everything in her closet to be pink.
We went to the Bulk Barn a few days ago, I wanted to get some sprinkles for Halloween cupcakes we plan to make. While we were there I let Lilah choose the sprinkles she liked and wanted too.
Well, she was jumping for joy today when she found out we were going to make cupcakes and use the pink and purple sprinkles she'd picked out and scooped herself!
Talking about deodorant: "Some day when I have smelly arms, I'll use this stuff!"
She asked me one day: "Where's my buying dollars?"
After explaining to her that we tell everybody everything in our family, she said: "We don't have no secrets in our family!"
At the restaurant when we were asked by the waitress if we'd like to sit outside on the patio, Lilah looked up at me and said: "As long as there's no sketo bites!" (mosquitoes or sketo bites as she calls them!)
Lilah was telling me one day that she was sad because she wanted to go back to the hotel we were at when we were on our holidays. So I explained to her that we didn't have enough money to stay at the hotel and go on holidays all the time and that holidays were special and we had to save for them. Several days later it was Auntie Carol's birthday and Lilah 'wrote' a birthday card and gave it to her. That night during her bedtime prayer, she thanked God for Auntie Carol's birthday. After her prayer she opened her eyes and said to me... "Mama, why we not buy Auntie Carol a birthday present? Did we not have 'nuff (enough) money?"
A few days (after the above episode) she said to Colin, as he was heading out the door for work, "Baba, will you make us some money for the hotel?"
She woke up from her afternoon nap one day and said: "I'm all sweaty and hot, like Baba plays soccer!"
I was chopping up an onion one day and the tears were tripping me. Lilah looked at me and said "Are you sad Mama?" I said, "No I'm not sad, it's just the onion making me cry". And then she asked, "Are the onions making you sad?"
If I'm upset she comes over to me, rubs my arm and says "It's otay (okay) Mama, you can have everyfing (everything) you want".
She has a couple of imaginary friends now, Toopie & Binoo. They generally have a lot of fun together, but recently I overheard her saying "They're dead now". So I piped up, as I was a little concerned about this lastest tale, and asked her "What does dead mean Lilah?". She answered, "It's when your heart stops beating!".
Driving past The Beer Store one night, Lilah asked Colin "What's that shop Baba?" He replied something onto the lines that it was bad stuff. She exclaimed "Oh no! People should not be in there!"
"I can't wait for winter to get started!" were the exact words from my Lilah Grace today, when she tried on her new winter coat. I bit my tongue and smiled!
Onto a more pleasant note, we leave for Northern Ireland in 50 days! Yeahhh! Lilah is so excited. She's been telling anybody and everybody that'll give her an ear: "We're going 'home' for Chris-mas!"
Oh, and I'm also going to write soon about where I love to shop. I've had a few questions in the comments section and I've decided a blog post would be a good way of exposing where all Baba's hard earned money goes. Haha - kidding of course - kinda! And I love to talk about clothes and shopping almost as much as I love to talk about food and eating! A lot.
It's been a while since I did a flashback, 'then and now' picture. Today, when I took these pictures of Lilah in her new winter coat, I couldn't help being reminded about the first winter coat we put on our baby girl in China. We were heading to the Temple of Heaven (in Beijing) and our little Guangdong girl was quite obviously not to happy about having to wear layers and face the very chilly air. Pout and all, she's adorable!
One of the reasons I love this Project 365 is that it puts me in touch with God's creation. I take time to see the intricate detail He has put into everything on our earth. It amazes me and I think it amazes Lilah too.
She was adamant that I take a picture of the flower she is sitting (on her trike) gazing at, in the photo below!
