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There is a two year-old running around my house!

September 6, 2010September 6, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

Flora turned two on Saturday. It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years. Sometimes the time goes quickly and sometimes it feels like the boring, lather-rinse-repeat parts will go on forever. (For the record, the boring, lather-rinse-repeat parts aren’t so much family-related as they are maintenance and logistics-related.)

The last few weeks leading up to Flora’s birthday have brought small, but noticeable shifts and progression in who this kid really is. She’s been talking quite well for a while now, but she’s really starting to talk in full sentences and answer questions clearly and in ways that make sense.

She has her own little jokes and remembers things someone said to her and repeats them when they talk to her next. An example: Sean’s mum was giving Flora some orange pieces for breakfast. Grandma started teasing her that they were peaches. Flora said “No, oranges” and the conversation quickly turned into giggly shouts of “Oranges!” and “Peaches!” at each other. (At least we know where Sean gets his sense of humour from.) Every time Flora talked to her grandma, the argument could be started again just by grandma saying “peaches”. Sean and I could also get her going ourselves if we started the conversation.

(Click on the pictures to view larger versions)

The birthday girl in her new princess dress and Daddy’s hat.

The imagination switch has also been turned on. It is so much fun to watch her play with her toys now. She’s talking to them and bossing them around. We did some helium balloons for the party and she (and our other young party guest) couldn’t get enough of them, even when they flew away to the ceiling.

Flora and Thomas get a big kick out of the balloons

I know that this stuff is perfectly ordinary and that all kids go through it. It’s still amazing to watch your own kid go through it for themselves. The changes are so big when they are so little.

Here are some more pictures from the party:

The birthday girl in the party dress that Grandma made. The winter boot accessorizing was all Flora’s idea.

Grandma really liked that present

The tricycle Sean picked out for her. It was a hit.

Thomas gets a turn on the tricycle

Flora wasn’t sure about what to do with the candles, but she had some helpers to show her what to do.

Flora now has her own (toy) laptop. No one is allowed to press her buttons (since she’s not allowed to press ours).

Tricycling with Grandma the next morning.

I don’t think they were arguing about oranges and peaches here, but you never know.

Picture Post: Easter Weekend 2010

April 8, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

We spent Easter visiting our famlies. The advantage of marrying your high school sweetheart is that it’s easy to visit both sides of the family during holidays. My parents and Sean’s mum live about 35 minutes apart, and since we all get along (our mums actually worked together when we were small), Sean’s mum usually comes down for family dinners.

The pictures really tell the story best though. The weather was perfect for taking colourful, vibrant pictures outside.

Flora and Sean’s mum check out the new abacus.

My stepdad makes my sister’s dogs sit for their treats (Leia and Flora are cropped out, but they’re sitting too.)

Say hello to the Easter Duck. My mother picked this costume up for next to nothing at a thrift shop. I’m hoping it makes it to Halloween. The tail is a little dinosaur-esque and it makes me giggle.

First go at my sister’s piano. We may have to invest someday.

That duck (stolen from the bathroom) got me soaked and taking it away caused a mini-meltdown.

Flora discovers that yardwork sucks, especially when your lawnmower only blows bubbles.

Flora is really starting to get attached to her dollies/babies. I can’t believe how early that starts.

Fun was had by all. It’s going to be a great spring!

Reaching Out

March 1, 2010March 1, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

March 2010 brings me to my 10th anniversary of blogging. My archives that you see on this site start at April 2000, but my first test posts that seem to be long gone were put up near the end of March 2000. I had a couple of Geocities websites before that, but they were more static in content. Blogging these last ten years has seen me through one free webspace provider, two self-hosted domains (and one domain for non-blog stuff), one blog-specific hosting service and now this site here. I’ve used three platforms (Blogger, Vox and now WordPress) and am now relieved that I don’t have to keep up with the bleeding edge of web design to create an attractive, functional website. When I coded my own pages, I used to spend hours just getting stuff to work – I have never been a professional web designer and I’ve never gotten my head around web programming. I’m grateful to so many people who have spent their time creating great things for other web users to use – and often for free. Thank you to each and every one of you.

I’m not telling you this to brag, to say “Look at me! I’m so cool! I’ve probably been doing this longer than you!” That is truly not my intent. I say this because I feel like after all this time, I am finally starting to come out of the woodwork and since few people realized I was here beforehand, I feel I have to mention my longevity in the medium to prove my legitimacy.

“Hey! I’m worth reading! I’ve been doing this forever! I’m not a flash in the pan!”

Lame, isn’t it? Especially since in all my years of doing this, I’ve never had much of an audience. I’ve always said ‘it’s not about the audience, it’s about me’ but I will freely admit that I would love to have a little bit more interaction. A few more readers that say something. A few more readers, frankly.

I’ve always had a hard time making friends. My mother always told me growing up that I had to reach out first. That people wouldn’t talk to me first. I always thought that if we’re all supposed to make the first move, how come no one is reaching out to me? Cue cycle of feeling lame and loserlike and not reaching out myself. That’s not to say I don’t have any friends. I do, and I love them all dearly. It’s just that none of them do this blogging thing, so it’s hard for them to relate. Some of them still don’t have high-speed internet access. I turned down an apartment when I moved to Toronto ten years ago specifically because it didn’t have high-speed internet, so clearly our priorities are a little different.

Now that I’ve explained myself as a longtime blogger who has a hard time making friends, let’s get to the point of this post.

Over the last few months, I have tried to reach out to the blogosphere at large. Making more replies on Twitter. Leaving comments on other people’s blogs. Going out to events where other bloggers will be – and actually being brave enough to speak up and say hi. These things have not come easy to me. I’m often shy around people I don’t know well, which can make meetups awkward. I also don’t like butting into established conversations, which makes commenting on blogs feel weird sometimes. Twitter has made some of this easier but I want to do better.

In the last two weeks, I’ve met some really great women at two events: PodCamp Toronto and the book launch for Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog. I was so glad that I gathered up my courage and went out to these events. I learned things I didn’t expect to at both places and the social interaction was a lovely bonus.

I’m not sure that I’ll be turning into a social butterfly any time soon, but it’s nice to do more than lurk and wish I had went somewhere after the event has already taken place. I look forward to reaching out to all of you more and more.

The last few weeks around here…

April 30, 2009January 28, 2009 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

January has been a busy month. Here are some highlights.

We met our 8.5 month-old cousin, Aiden (my cousin’s son). He is a sweet boy and looks a lot like my cousin did when she was young.

We met our new friend Thomas. Our good friends Jason and Amanda welcomed their son to the world on January 5th, four months and one day after Flora.

We got the hang of the Jolly Jumper:

We took some cute pictures – I’m finally starting to get smiley pictures that aren’t blurry!

I did try and pare it down to my favourite pictures, but sometimes I find it hard to narrow my favourites down. Of course, there’s more on my Flickr page. You wouldn’t think I’m a proud parent taking pictures of my only child, would you? 🙂

Baptism

April 30, 2009November 16, 2008 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

Flora was baptized back on November 9th. She slept through most of the service, but naturally started making noise during the moment of silence, so I had to step out of the church to settle her. I felt bad changing her diaper in the front seat of the car with the door open in early November, but I suppose that got me to change it faster.

My sister is a very proud auntie and godmother.

Flora and I stayed for a couple of days to visit with family after Sean left to go home. He was supposed to work, but ended up with a nasty cold so it was a good thing we didn’t see him for a few days. If I can avoid being sick this winter, that would be great. And it would be fabulous for Flora. We took lots of pictures, particularly on my mom’s spiffy new red couch.