The lion sleeps tonight!

Yesterday Mark surprised me with flowers and Ali and I sat and looked..and smelled in their beauty. Upon teaching her that the big orange ones were daisies (gerbra daisies), she caught onto their names quick. When we got to the pink daisy she yelled out that it was "Mickey!". See the connection. Daisy Duck must surely mean Mickey is around! Hehehehe

After two weeks of bliss, the sleep situation got much worse. I've now moved a futon mattress into Ali's room....and we sleep. Ahhhhh

The computer is in for some much needed TLC leaving me with the iPad...so this is gonna be short, but I could't resist telling the daisy story!

Outside!

Inside's a bore,
who wants to watch Momma do chores?
Finally outside! I'm NOT going in
Despite my tummy rumbling.
Outside! Outside!
I must stay and play!
Four hours later, what a nice day!

Yep, four hours outside today...doing not much of anything...visiting Meow Meow, walking, shovelling, swinging and saying hello to a few neighbors. The temperature has been hovering above 0 and with the sun it's been quiet toasty.

I've got the sniffles, my hips are killing me....now to enjoy a lemongrass tea, an episode of Fringe and I'm calling it a day.

I SAID...

She's sooo cute sometimes! Last night she was trying to say something and I just wasn't getting it. I have a habit of repeating back what she says, when she doesn't get mad... I know I've got it right. Well, didn't the lil bugger look away and roll her eyes! And a few days ago, she was saying what I thought was fork.. turns out it was frog, she corrected me after a few "frog" "fork?", "frog", "fork?".... "RIBBIT!". I guess she got her point across. lol.

Ali's making me laugh more and more these days, her personality is really coming out and she's been such a big girl sleep wise that we're both getting more sleep! The trick was letting her fall asleep in her bed instead of with me! Who would've known! Here I am cataloging the temperature, which blanket she used, what she ate, what jammies she wore, even making notes of tucked in vs non-tucked in shirts, when all along it was about her being disoriented waking in bed when she knew she fell asleep on me! We've had a few rough nights and she's usually up once, but that's a far cry from being up two or three times each night. I tell ya, sleep does something for a mood and patience!

The weather has been sooo beautiful, we've been hovering just over 0 and with the sun shine it's pretty toasty. I'm running out of bribes to get her to come inside!

Me: "Toast?"
Ali: "No toast"
Me: "Melon?"
Ali: "No melon"
Me: "Hot dog?"
Ali: "No hot dog"
Me: "Hot juice?"
Ali: "No juice"
Ali: "NO HUNGRY!!"
Me: "Watch Kipper?"
Ali: "No Kipper"
Me: "Wanna show Rex your rock?"
Ali: "No Rex"
Me: "Come on Ali, Momma's gotta pee and I'm hungry."
Ali: "No hungry"
...so I cross my legs and wait for her, she quickly realizes with all the suggestions, that she really is hungry.
20 min later...
Me: "You ready?"
Ali: "Bologna Sandwich?"
Me: "SURE!!!" with a big smile

Mark, Ali and I attempted geo-caching this past weekend. It must be a case of cabin fever and looking for something to do outside, the problem is... the snow! I wasn't feeling much like digging in snow to find it, so our outing turned into a walk instead. Here's Ali looking like a pro with the GPS

Alberta isn't the best packing snow for snowmen, but today we managed to make a few small snowmen!

The first one, Ali declared "Daddy", then we had to make "Momma", then of course, "Ati". Meow-Meow (pronounced mow-mow) was following us around and we almost had to make a Meow Meow snowman too. He's a neighborhood cat that loves company and is super sweet and social. He lives in a house in the neighborhood, well, in the heated garage, his owner isn't home much and he comes out for pets and cuddles often. His real name is Gumba, but Olive started calling him Meow Meow, and it's stuck.

Here's some favorite pics from a trip home. Copies are being printed out and sent to Nana, Gramma and Papa and Oma and Opa...and probably more too!

and you know what I've learned in the last week? Nothing beats a good tickle to get us both laughing together!