our little adventurer

Can you believe it!  One already.  I wish I had a pause button.  And a rewind.  Oh, and a fast forward one for when she has a tantrum or a fever.   I wish I could capture her smell, the soft fuzziness of her corkscrew curls and the feel of her sloppy kisses on my cheek.

She is such a mischievous little thing and is always making us laugh at her antics.....

rummaging in the cereal cupboard

posting stuff out of the letterbox

climbing on (and in) the dishwasher

unravelling all the toilet tissue (and throwing toys and clothes in the toilet!)

pulling all her clothes out of the cupboard

trying to climb out of her high chair when she's had enough food

climbing in the oven drawer

climbing in the fridge (she does a lot of climbing!)

helping herself to food from the fridge

As you can see, she keeps us on our toes!  There's never a dull moment when she's around :-)

Birthday pics to follow.......

Jasmine

My oh my, 7 years young.  

early morning wake up call on birth day!

mmmm, CAKE

So, here's the deal with Jasmine.  She is not your fluffy, pink, ballet dancing girl.  I tried and failed to get her to be cutesy and girly.  She likes to climb trees, is athletic and likes getting muddy.  She's more street dance than ballet and would rather kick a football than play with dolls.  She LOVES dressing up in costumes and painting and drawing.  She has a fantastic memory (never forgets a face or a name, remembers phone numbers and directions, learnt ASL alphabet in just 3 lessons and could count in Mandarin after just 1 lesson).  She's such a great big sister and is always watching out for Sofia and can change a nappy better than most adults. But above all, she is just so effortlessly cool.  If I were 7 years old I would want to be her friend.  Especially because, at 7, I was definitely not particularly cool.

city girl

just chillin'

budding artist

I just love this girl to bits, even when she is driving me crazy with her messy bedroom and little girl strops.  My feisty, headstrong, unique little girl - who still loves to suck her two middle fingers and curl up against mummy for a cuddle.  *sigh*.

Update part 2: Lake Ontario

We are lucky to have the largest park in Toronto right on our doorstep.  And even luckier that a beautiful walk through it leads us right to the shores of Lake Ontario.  We spent last weekend on different shores of this beautiful stretch of water (which Ben is convinced is actually the sea and not a lake!).  Saturday from our side, and then on Sunday from the beaches of the Toronto Islands.

view from the ferry

Sofia loved looking out at the water

mmmm, lunch!

look at me!

Update: part 1

Wow, where do I start?  We've done so much and been so busy over the last 5 weeks since we arrived that I can't even begin to put it all into a cohesive post.  So I'm going to tell the story in pictures.  And to hold your interest, I'll split the post up into a few parts.  Here is our canadian life so far......

Our apartment:

no, we don't live in the station - things haven't gone Pete Tong!

First day at school......

looking a bit apprehensive?

Enjoying the great outdoors: