Busy summer days.

You may have noticed (or not) that I have been posting updates less frequently these past few months.

In fact after Costa Rica I have been finding it more and more difficult to have time to sit down and write some bollocks. Its not all down to one reason, but the combination of work, summer and Hannah have gelled so tightly that every minute seems to be preparing for the next event, weekend trip or just tidying the house, garden or garage.
We went camping and had a tent drying in the basement for two weeks afterwards. We spent a weekend driving to and from Minneapolis. Two trips to the cabin took another few days. 5 of the last 7 days have been spent going to and from the Winnipeg folk fest and this coming weekend its Fringe fest. Then next Wednesday, I have a week off work and we are driving 4000 kms there and back to attend a friends wedding near Ottawa.

I'm not moaning about being busy - Its good to have things to do, but its so tiring. In fact we actually cam home a night early from Folk Fest to catch up on sleep, before going back for the day stages on the Sunday. I have time to sit down and write a bit of shite now, because Buffy and Hannah are taking a few midweek days off at the cabin, while I work and relax at home. (In between cleaning the floors, baby proofing the cupboard and seeding the front garden with clover, because the grass just wont bloody grow!)

One thing we realized with all this busy-ness is that we need to take time off, as adults, and sometimes put ourselves first - ahead of Half Pint Hannah, just for a little bit. Buffy is also getting more work coming in and needs to be able to plan more ahead for meetings and actual work time, so we decided to get ourselves a babysitter.

Now, getting a babysitter in the past would have been settled between mothers and friends and some kind of baby swap would probably have happened. But with today's busy lives, its stupidly hard to find anyone to look after your kids. In fact, daycare centres in Winnipeg are so busy that people sign up to get their 2 or 3 year old a place, before the kid is even born. Its ridiculous.

So we searched the Internet and as with most things nowadays, finding a babysitter has been monetized. Its impossible to find anyone on Facebook or anywhere else who hasn't already got a million people asking then to look after their kids, So we kept looking and found two places to search for babysitters.

One costs $150 and for that they will match you with a babysitter. If you don't like said babysitter, you just pay another $150 and the company matches you with another. FUCK OFF!! What a crock of shit. It actually pays the company MORE MONEY, if they do a bad job. So we didn't go for that one!

We found a different company that coats $40 a month to join. For this you get to advertise on their site and see the advertisements from babysitters who also advertise. You can message as many as you like and then arrange to meet and interview them. So that's what we did and found a lovely lady called Andreja, from Ecuador, who we immediately liked and more importantly, Hannah liked too! She has been babysitting for about 5 or 6 weeks now and as well as allowing Buffy to work, she is able to look after Hannah so that we, the adults of the home,  can actually go out and do adult things, like g watch a movie at the cinema or just go out for a date, a meal and a few drinks without chasing Hannah round the restaurant or coming home for 7pm so she can sleep.

Its a blessed  relief to be grown up again and have a night every now and then where we don't spend every minute waiting for a baby to cry.

I know there are a lot of parents out there that may read this and think 'Its all about the baby now' and will disagree with what I have written. But I actually agree with you. Hannah IS the most important thing, but we arent able to be at our best with her if we are tired out and pissed off with life. We need space and we need a rest evey now and then and at the moment we have the perfect arrangement to allow us to get some freedom and for Hannah to spend time with someone new and evel learn a litte Spanish in the process!

So what else has been happening?

Well, you may have seen a video a couple of weeks back showing a certain clever girl walking! Yes, Buffy can walk! Also, Hannah can now walk too. It was all very sudden. One day she could just stand and didnt want to let go of a hand, then 5 minutes laterm she discover the well know art of going off balance and stopping yourself falling over by placing the lump of meat at the end of your leg in the way. This miraculously, keeps you stood up and if you repeat the effect with the other lump of meat on your opposite let you propel yourself forward until you hit a wall, a dog or in Hannahs case a parent. She went from 2 or 3 steps, to 20 or 30 within a few minutes and at folk fest this past weekend must have walked miles. She spent 6 or 7 hours a day wandering around the festival or camp site, meandering into other peoples space and generally making herself the cutest nuisance you could imagine. Everyone was a little surprised to see a tiny person appear from nowhere, but no one complained and 99% of people were so taken aboack with her it was sometimes difficult to get her back!  Here are a few glimpses of  great weekend.

Helping to get things loaded

Between two garbage dumpsters - her favourite place apparently.

Learning drums with 4 year old River

Same earmuffs as last year

Enjoying a ride

Learning to clap

Exploring face

With mum

and Meg

Octopus head

Meeting Charlie

and trying on a strangers hat!

Laughing at her own smelly feet when we got home!

Having a wander around Folk Fest, just meeting people!

   So as well as Hannah attending her 2nd folk fest we also had a few spare minutes last week to do some gardening and create a baby trap!
Our front lawn has never grown well. It spends 6 months a year under snow and in summer gets a lot of shade and not enough sun, but is always dry because we don't get much rain. So we decided to try something different. Buffy had heard about planting clover. It apparently loves poor conditions and will grown green and lush anywhere. So last week, we spent a backbreaking 4 hours clearing weeds from the front, before seeding the clover and covering it in half an inch of soil as per the instructions. We really didn't expect much, but within a couple of days could see a whole huge difference!!

Here's what it looked like on Saturday last week, after we seeded and put down some soil....

Things started to grow...

And just 4 days later it looked like this!!!

Its not finished yet and i actually took some time to fill in the bits we missed tonight - But its such a big improvement, we are really happy with it.
It means that Hannah can play in the front now, kicking around her new football and falling onto soft lush green stuff.

You may also have noticed the wooden planks on the fence. They are the baby trap - built for ease of use and minimal work - they are designed to be pulled out quickly to prevent small people running out of the garden and under the wheels of a passing concrete mixer. They work well as you can see here....

Summer continues at pace for the newt week or two - As I said earlier, we have fringe fest coming up and one especially good show to see  - Cousin Will is in 'Commando - the radio play', which promises to be amazing! Then a week off and a wedding in Ottawa with a family adventure road trip there and back, before the August long weekend and the short hop to the end of summer. I cant believe its nearly August already!!

Anyway, I suppose id best get my arse to bed, its getting late and I have a long coupe of days work ahead with a rush install starting at 8.30 in the morning and needing to be done by 3pm Friday!
Busy busy busy -rest!