Howdy Partner

Isa's first ride on a horse!

I was the only unlucky one to not get to ride the horse because I did not bring appropriate foot wear...sucks to be me.

At times she kept yelling faster faster, only to get freaked out when the horse would actually go faster. We all had such a blast and we were pretty happy to be able to give her this special memory.

Roughening It in Quebec

Isa and I are in beautiful Wakefield Quebec visiting with the in-laws. We have been here since Saturday morning...1:00 am in the morning to be exact. And thankfully we are going home tomorrow.

I have learned something very very important while spending wayyyy too much time here...don't spend too much time here. Don't get me wrong a get along very well with my MIL and I LOVE her place but there is just so much that one can be away from one's bed, kitchen, routine, and blissfully quiet home. I could go on and on but I think it best to not.

The important thing is that both Isa and her 'Bella" have been having a blast. And she has been able to spend quite a great deal of time outdoors with nature (you should see the bites we have) and bond with her grandparents. As for myself, I have been getting pampered with awesome food, lots of free time to spend on the sunny deck with a book and a cold beer, but more importantly great company.

We have also had the opportunity to go twice to the lake, check out some beautiful horses, eat like it's winter and we don't have to try to look decent in a bathing suit and drink like only people in the country know how.

As soon as I can figure out how to upload the pictures onto our new computer I will post some up.

Well, I am off...there is a nice cold beer waiting for me :)

Back From the Dead

I guess that the title post is a little melodramatic but it sure has been some time since I last posted. I can honestly say that I have no idea where the previous week went. I was so busy with work that by the time I had a free moment to blog the last thing I wanted to do was write some more.

Well, today will be a short and sweet post. I am spending the day trying to get a hold of my toy suppliers and make all my purchase orders for the rest of the year. My brain right now is busy with BabyThoughts stuff that I have nothing interesting to blog about.

I am going to leave you with a few pictures of our trip to Ottawa for Thanksgiving. We were trying out our new fancy camera and so I will like to show them off. Just be aware that just because it is a fancy camera the photographers themselves may not be doing it justice.

We had an amazing time at my MIL's place but had an absolutely awful ride back home that just remembering makes me want to hurl.

I am sure that I have mentioned how much I loath long weekend traffic and now more so with a two year old who spends the entire time begging to get down. And how can you blame her when you too are wishing to get down as well. Not fun at all.

So, like I was saying, we had a blast. All the goals that I set out for myself to accomplish I did. Eat...check. Drink...check. Relax...check.

The view from my MIL's balcony

Isa, doing quality assurance on the pumpkins


The Wakefield Train...this was Isa's highlight of the trip as she is in LOVE with trains right now.

A Little Bit of Walking, A Little Bit of Partying and a Whole lot of Fun

This was a very busy weekend for me, we had two parties to go to, lots of work to be done on the site and had to head downtown to walk the 5K for a great cause.

It was a wonderful weekend full of family and friends, Saturday we went over to my in-laws to celebrate my father-in-laws' birthday. Isa was in her usual spirits and the grandparents were eating her up. I have been teaching her the words to Feliz Cumpleaños (Happy Birthday) for over a week now in order for her to sing it at her grandfather's birthday. But she got stage fright and was not able to perform. All in all it was a great Saturday, the food was finger-licking good, the conversation was easy-going and we ended the night watching my new favourite show, Entourage. Love it.

I had to turn in early on Saturday as I was going to pick up Her Bad Mother at the indecent hour of 7am, 'cause we had to be downtown to meet up with the others for 7:30. And because I always panic that I will miss the alarm and wake up really late, I kept waking up every hour before I really had to get up. So I was up at 4 am, 5 am, 6 am... you get the picture. Needless to say we got downtown fine and after a great deal of cell phone tag we were able to meet up with the other walking comrades.

For those who may not know, we were taking part in in The Scotiabank Toronto Marathon in support of Her Bad Mother's nephew Tanner who has Muscular Dystrophy. It was such an eye opening experience for me because I had never taken part in any of the walks and had noooo idea how big of a production it would be. I wish that I had brought my camera but like my cell phone I left the house without it.

It was an amazing experience for me and one that I hope to make a tradition off. I found those that were doing the half and full marathon awe-inspiring. It was also so much fun meeting the other fabulous blogger ladies and put a face to the blog. If you stop by let me say that it was very nice to meet everyone, hopefully we can get together again...but maybe not so early.

...On to the second part of Sunday.

I got home and was 'invited' by Isa to play with her, she likes to boss me around and tells me to sit down on the floor and play. She also tells me when she likes to nap and when she likes me to watch Dora with her. I was finally able to convince her to sleep and headed to bed myself. But my sleep never came, I lay in bed in the darkness for two hours willing sleep to come...it did not.

And so, I got up and got things ready for the Big Birthday Bash. Just like the Summer Birthday Bash, we were all getting together to celebrate the birthday of all the fall babies. It was a huge success with everyone coming and having a fun time. The kids played, ate, danced, ran around, fought and made up. We adults ate and drank and got caught up on our lives. By the end I was ready to pass out from exhaustion but was still able to watch the end of the Season Two of Entourage.

Traditions: The Good, The Bad and The Scary

I can't believe that September is almost coming to an end. I really thought that I would not be able to get through the month, what with birthday parties almost every weekend, getting prepared for the two upcoming trade shows that we will be taking part in (more on this to come) and all the work that had to be done on the business.

I am looking forward to October, it is one of my favourite months because we always head over to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and celebrate the Husband's b-day with them. October is also what I consider the beginning of Fall, all the trees change their colours and begin to loose their leaves, the air is crisp, and everywhere you walk there is a blanket of multicoloured leaves that crinkle under your feet.

I also love Halloween, which is interesting because I did not get to experience Halloween until I was 11 years old when we came to Canada. I remember one year when I was about 8 living in Nicaragua all the parents of the neighborhood that we lived in put together a big Halloween celebration for us. What this entailed what that we could get dressed up and go to certain houses and they would have candy for us. In reality we ended up going to each other's houses to Trick or Treat but it was a great deal of fun and we sure where not going to complain about whom we got candy from. Candy is Candy.

In Nicaragua when I was a child we obviously did not celebrate many of the 'holidays' that are celebrated here. Certainly we don't have Halloween, Thanksgiving, the Easter bunny, and even Valentines' Day. What we do have are Pagan-Christian celebrations and one in particular puts Halloween to shame. Also our celebrations are certainly not PC (politically correct), they can be racist and sexist.

One of the celebrations that I remember with fear and I think is the reason why I sometimes have nightmares of being chased, is a pagan celebration that we have where young people, mostly young guys and kids would paint themselves with black paint or even tar and attempt to paint people black. I can't really remember the purpose behind the festival, I don't really know why they have to paint people black, all I know is that it is quite scary to have a mob of black bodies run after you in order to overtake you and cover you in black paint. What you usually do is stay close to your house and as you see the mob coming you quickly run inside and protect yourself. This is what happened one year when we went with the family to visit friends and took 'part' in the festival. I was terrified. The house that we were are had a balcony on the second floor and we would go out there and watch the people running for cover. Needless to say I never ever took part in this again.

There is one celebration that I absolutely love and miss, it is called 'La Purisima' and it is held in December and it is the day in honour of the Virgin Mary. It is mostly women and children who take part in this celebration, and to children it is like Halloween because we go from door to door and get candy and presents. In reality what happens is that everyone on this day opens up their homes and invites anyone and everyone to come in and sing wonderful, beautiful song to the Virgin Mary. At every house you are given something sweet to eat usually made with rum. After you have sung a few songs you leave and as you leave you get a candy, or a fruit and off you go to the next house. My mother would usually go and sing in a different friend's neighborhood every year, we would go in a big group from house to house with candles, singing and laughing, full of sugar (and rum for the adults). I went to one 'Purisima' here in Canada when we first arrived and it was such a sad affair because it was cold and we could not go out walking and so it was held in a gymnasium where we all just sat around signing in a huge brick box. My mother and I never went again.

This sure has been a long post, it has brought back lost of memories and made me a little homesick. I am a little sadden that Isa will not be able to experience the same wonderful celebrations that I did, the ones that made me feel so full inside. Even today in Nicaragua things are no longer the same. Many traditions and celebrations have gone or changed but new ones have been created as well. I keep telling myself that our family will create new celebrations, take part in new festivals but there are times when I find it hard not to look back.

Bienvenida amiga

Welcome back to my good friend Spandex Woman from touring her home country of the Philippines and other parts of Asia. She was greatly misses by all of us and we are glad that she is back, specially since she brought us gifts.

Yesterday I stayed home with La Preciosa because she had a fever the day before and we wanted to make sure that she was feeling okay. Thankfully she was totally fine and we got to enjoy a beautiful day together and meet up with Spandex Woman. Though as sick as this may sound, I actually missed work ( I know that I am a terrible mother). But really I did, I can honestly say that three weeks ago I was crying to my husband about not wanting to go back to work and leaving the baby. Feeling guilty about putting her in day care and not being with her 24/7 to witness all of the incredible things that she does all day long.

But I can tell you now, after being back at work for 2 weeks that its really not that bad. In fact I admitted to a good friend that I was happy that La Preciosa was in day care because she is at a stage where she needs so much stimulation and though as her mother she can totally get it from me, she can also get it from others. Especially the wonderful women at her day care who care a great deal for all of their "kids".

La Preciosa has so much fun at day care and we have quality time together as a family after work and during the weekends. Its incredible how we appreciate the time that the three of us have together. Weekends are sacred and we take advantage of them. The one thing that we have to figure out is the housework. How I hate housework!