New Challenge

Good news loyal readers. I've decided while Eric was on vacation this week I would blog everyday. I find that I don't capture the day to day goings on by posting monthly. I'm going to try it out and see what spills out.

Spring is finally here. We've been biking a lot. Vanessa and I bike to run errands and go to playgroup and Eric's been riding to work. He rode 4 out of 5 days this week. Thursday was gusting up to 75km/hour so it was actually dangerous to ride.
We bought new bikes and we both love them. I'm glad we have the summer ahead of us because I'm not looking forward to winter without the ease of bicycling.

I'm finding being car free enjoyable. Vanessa gets a kick out of the bike and taking public transit. I get a lot more exercise and every trip is an adventure. I would like to be a little more organised with my groceries and make fewer trips. We've been going to the grocery store on almost a daily basis. More planning would save us time and money.

This week Vanessa and I bicycled to the loft. I went with Vanessa on the bike seat and pulled a cargo trailer. I brought the trailer to haul lunch, booster seat, diaper bag and bolt cutters. I was happy to leave the heavy bolt cutters at the loft. The trailer is great to have but it fell off on the way there. It's clamped onto the bike and the rubber covering the clamp was worn through. My dad wrapped in rigging tape but by the time we got home it had worn through. We've got a new and improved system but more on that tomorrow.

Vanessa has been expanding her vocabulary. Last night at bed time I was reading her a book and she pointed out a hexagon. The police man in the book was holding a stop sign. She knows shapes but hasn't a clue with colour. Everything is green these days but funnily enough she seems to get brown right. Go figure. She sings the alphabet regularly along with a few classics like twinkle twinkle and itsy bitsy spider.

Vanessa's developing her own style. Last Saturday we celebrated Mother's day with Eric's mother and Tim and his family. After dinner Vanessa started small talk. She crossed her legs and said, "so. How's it going Grandma". I was in stitches. It was very serious and adult like. Vanessa asks me regulary How's it going.

She's starting to say hello to all sorts of strangers. Especially if they've given her ice cream or she's in the confort of her wrap on my back. It's quite adorable and makes people smile.

This week we had a milestone. Eric asked Vanessa what she did at playgroup and she remembered and responded.

Eric: What did you do at playgroup today?
Vanessa: I painted.
Eric: What did you paint?
Vanessa: Birdhouse.

Eric was thrilled that she remembered and could communicate what she did. I was surprised and she was quite proud. She loved painting and was very purposeful with the brush and paint and did a great job for the first time. She's been asking to paint ever since.

There's so much more to say but I'll leave it for tomorrow.