A new lemon tankini arrived in the mail on Wednesday past.
Lilah had her clothes off and her new tankini on in 10 seconds flat. She ran up to her bedroom to get her parasol and proceeded to have a picnic and read a book on the beach. I'd say she's ready for the summer! Last weekend she told me: "Winter is almost over Mama. I'm a wee bit upset about the wintertime, because it's a wee bit chilly. Isn't it?
5°C is warm enough to melt a bit of the never ending snow around here.
All it takes is a trike and a puddle to make this little girl exceptionally happy!
I'm thankful for my little purse camera to capture precious moments like these.
Lilah's quote of the day: "Can I throw a snowball at the ducks?" Ehh, NO!
[ the flickr set is here ]
My little shutterbug is constantly wanting to take photos lately. If I want to take pictures of her, she in return wants to take pictures of me.
For the most part, I don't mind her using my purse camera. But all sorts of scary thoughts go through my head when she is standing holding my slr. And the other day I had to use a pair of tweezers to pry the memory card out of my camera. Lilah has decided to push it in, far, even though it was upside down the wrong way round. No damage was done, thankfully! And I learned my lesson to keep my camera out of reach, at all times!
She captured this photo of me this morning - the majority of the time she'll capture my ear or my eyebrow or half my head. But today, today she did great - this one even looks artistic with the slight head chop! I remember my Mum taking pictures of my sister and I when we were little, she really enjoyed taking pictures and had a great Minolta camera that was her pride and joy. In fact, I'm pretty sure she still has it.
"The portrait I do best, is of the person I know best." - Nadar
We went on a little trip to Sweet Garden Farm today.
It's the season for soft cutsie baby lambs. So last night I searched the internet for a farm (with lambs) in our area, and found the 'Sweet Garden Farm' website. I had no idea what size of farm it was or anything about it, but I'm so glad I found it. I emailed the owners and they emailed me back saying indeed they had 13 lambs and to call before coming over, because they were in and out during the day. It probably should have, but it didn't dawn on me that it wasn't your regular big ole open-to-the-public farm, but rather a lovely little family run farm. So, when we arrived we were very kindly given a very personal tour of the farm, by Laurie and two of her children. They are the kindest and sweetest family you'll ever meet.
We saw the sheep with their lambs, along with the 'maternity ward', because some of the Mama sheep haven't given birth yet. The turkey. The clydesdale. The cows. The cats. And lastly, we got to see the sap being tapped from the maple trees - that's the first time we've seen the process and we've lived in Canada for just over 11 years now - shame on us!
It was a great farm outing. After seeing those little lambs, I'm really REALLY ready for spring!
When she's wearing her tie, like in the photo above, she says: "I'm the Baba and I'm wearing my Sunday tie!"
During bedtime prayers: "Thank you God for Mama's sore back, 'cause she can't bend over. Maybe she'll get better in the summer time!"
One day, while we were sitting in Tim Horton's, a policeman came in (for a coffee) and Lilah asked what was on his belt. A gun, of course! She asked the big "why?" question and I ended up having to explain why he carries a gun. So a few days later, at home, she came running up to me and announced: "I'm a police woman and I have guns on my belt - to save the good people!"
When I pray with Lilah I thank God for the people in China. (And then I go on to pray for her birth parents, her nannies, and the children that live in the orphanage that are waiting for families.) But when Lilah prays she doesn't say 'the' people in China anymore, she says: "Thank you God for MY people in China."
Lilah: It's time to go Mum.
Me: You haven't put your (pretend) laptop away yet.
Lilah: Oh. Well. You haven't put your laptop away yet.
Me: *Laughs* (In a guilty kinda way!)
Lilah: Oh ohhhhhhhhh. We have a problem!
"Know how much I love Baba? I love him when it's snowing and I love him when it's raining."
She repeats some of the things we tell her. One day she said: "You know what? It's not all about what wee girls want!"
Talking while doing her 'letter of the day': "I did write some uppercase letters and some downercase letters."
"I'm called Lilah Grace Xiao Tong. And my age is called 3 and a half."
As we were driving into Ottawa after our little trip to the US: "Oh, is this Canada now? 'Cause I don't see any flags with the leaf yet!"
All thanks to 'The Berenstain Bears', I overheard her saying this: "One two three four five six. Know what? I'm counting my blessings!"
Well we got that much appreciated (ahem!) snow. And now on top of that it's been raining all day. What messy weather! Phew, that snow weighed a tonne. All I can say is that I'm thankful for the person that invented the snowblower.
Lilah of course couldn't have cared less that is was raining and had as much fun as she normally does outside - climbing our "snow mountains" and rolling down them. I'm also thankful for a girl that doesn't seem to mind our crazy artic weather - in fact, I don't think I'd be exaggerating by saying she actually enjoys it. I think she enjoys eating the snow too.
Lilah got a new pair of frames at the dollar store today and I got a new lens for my camera - obviously not from the dollar store! My sweet hubby gave me a gift card at Christmas for a local photography store and I finally made up my mind what I wanted to buy.
The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 ll.
I was told this is a great indoor lens and I've only had it a few hours, but it is definitely proving to be exactly that - I'm very pleased with the results and I haven't even got right started yet! I love how sharp it is on the focal point, yet how soft and dreamy the rest of the image is. As with any lens, I have so much to learn yet. I'm very excited to try it out in the sunlight - I can imagine the bokeh lover in me is going to be ecstatic! Between tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to get another 15-20cms of snow, so I'm looking forward to putting it to the test outdoors!
I shot a few pictures of Lilah wearing her new frames today. She is cuteness personified.
