hellomelissa.net » funny

All dressed up and everywhere to go

melissa — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:07:11 +0000

A few weeks ago, I bought a new dress to wear to a friend’s wedding that is happening this Friday. Flora saw the dress last night before it went to the washing machine and decided she had to try it on. I didn’t have a camera handy then, but I did have one tonight when I brought the dress up from the dryer.

(Click images for larger versions)

Once she spotted it tonight, she started saying “Pretty dress!” so I helped her put it on and she traipsed around the kitchen. While the skirt of the dress looked like a beautiful mermaid train, I’m pretty sure it did double duty as a floor mop. Hopefully I don’t have to wash it again before the wedding.

Then Flora decided she needed to finish beautifying herself:

She decided to do that by getting into my purse and stealing my lip balm. I don’t think she opened it.

Then, she decided enough was enough and wanted it off.

And finished her fashion show with a bag on her head.

I just hope I look as good in my dress as she does, or I’ll end up needed to borrow that bag to wear on my head.

All dressed up and everywhere to go © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Back Seat Driver

melissa — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:20:51 +0000

Flora and I were out and about yesterday. I needed to pick up my Maple Leaf prize pack from Emma (thanks again!), and since I met up with Emma in front of a grocery store, I decided to pick up a few things. (Full disclosure: I put the prize pack in the car, then went into the grocery store to do my shopping. I forgot that there were coupons in it – whatta bonehead!)

On the way there, I discovered that Flora is definitely listening to her father during their car rides together. On the way to the store, I was stopped at a light. The light must have taken its time to change, because I suddenly hear Flora say “MOOOVE!” in a surprisingly firm voice for a non-driving toddler. She sounded just like her father, who can get a little….impatient when he drives.

Fortunately, the light changed, and were able to continue on our trip without further incident or commentary from the peanut gallery in my back seat.

When the time comes for Flora to drive, I’m not sure which one of us should take her out. Sean and I have very different driving styles. It took me years of living here to get the courage up to drive in Toronto, and I still don’t do the 401 past the exit to our house when we’re traveling back from seeing the family in Prince Edward County. Sean on the other hand, was driving into the city (a two-and-a-half hour trip at the time) almost as soon as he could drive on his own and his mother would let him. (Buddy had concerts to see!) So needless to say, he’s a little braver than me, and does most of our driving when we are traveling as a family.

I think back to when I learned to drive. After a few bad outings with my mum where we both ended up crying thanks to nerves on both ends, we decided that she would not be my main experienced driver. So I went out with her friends and my soon-to-be-stepda and everyone’s nerves calmed down. I still drove with my mum, but not as much. It was a big moment for us when I was driving to the mall and she started cleaning out her purse.

Now my mum is just relieved that she doesn’t have to do all the city driving when she comes up to visit.

Being home on mat leave was what really got me driving in this city. It was either get brave and drive or be stuck at home. Yes, there’s public transit in Toronto and we used it too, but strollers in subways don’t always mix and doing errands is much easier with a car, especially with a young baby.

I can’t predict what kind of driver Flora will be at this age, but I do hope she takes the best habits from both of us, and we’ll do our best to teach her the rest (with the help of a capable driving instructor).

Back Seat Driver © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

That’s my bush!

melissa — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:00:26 +0000

For those of you reading this at work: this post isn’t as dirty as it sounds. But now that I’ve made you look…

I snapped this picture of the rosebush growing in my front yard on Wednesday morning (click picture to see a larger version). I’m shocked at how healthy this plant is this year. Normally, it grows a few leaves and stems, pops a bloom or two and that’s it. This year it’s beautiful and I’m glad that my previous efforts to dig it up were unsuccessful.

You see, I haven’t had a very good relationship with this bush. It was here when we moved into our house, and my less-than-green thumb and its scraggly appearance made me think I should just dig it up. I’ve tried several times over the last few gardening seasons. I cut it back, start digging and discover the root is as this as my wrist so I say forget it and curse at it for pricking me whenever I get too close.

I have done nothing special to make this bush bloom. I haven’t even watered the flower garden – I’ve just let nature take its course. The warm weather and humidity must have made it happy. Although, now that it’s been raining for the last couple days it’s looking a little droopy and rough for wear.

But still, I’m thrilled that I finally got to see the bush bloom. I’ll probably be back to trying to yank it out of my garden next year.

That’s my bush! © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Video post: Goodnight Daddy

melissa — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:34:38 +0000

Sean is away tonight, and since I couldn’t catch him on the phone at Flora’s bedtime so they could say goodnight, I thought I’d shoot a little video and send it to him so he knew that his daughter was thinking of him. I ended up with some unexpected, lowbrow comedy.

The video quality is not-so-great, but I did shoot it with the camera on my iPhone in low light (it was bedtime after all). Sorry for the sniffling midway through – I’ve caught yet another cold.

If you get to the end of the video and can’t figure out what surprise was (it may be hard to hear), use your mouse to select the white text below this sentence.

After I tried one last time to get Flora to say “goodnight daddy” in one sentence, she looks up at me, farts, smiles and says “toot”. This kid announces her farts and everyone else’s every time she hears one. We laugh every time, but we probably shouldn’t. She’s going to give us away at the completely wrong time one of these days, and we’re going to be known as “The Fart Family” to everyone in a five-kilometer radius.

Goodnight Daddy from Melissa Price-Mitchell on Vimeo.

Flora says goodnight to Daddy (and tells him something else too). Shot with my iPhone right as she was going to bed, which explains the low light and general low-quality of the clip.

Turn your sound up for the surprise ending.

Video post: Goodnight Daddy © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Picture Post: Easter Weekend 2010

melissa — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:46:41 +0000

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!

Picture Post: Easter Weekend 2010 © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

This counts as spring cleaning, right?

melissa — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:53:42 +0000

I saw a soundbite last week about the average purse weighing in at 23 pounds. I didn’t read the article until just now, but the headline stuck in my head as a nagging reminder to clean out my purse.

Once I got home from my extra-long day (I had a dentist appointment after work), carrying a lot of extra stuff, I decided that it was finally time to clean it out.

Naturally I documented the event. (Click the images to take a closer look.)

I made Sean take this picture of me with my purse so you could get a sense of how big my purse is in relation to me. This is probably the biggest purse I’ve ever carried. I’ve been impressed at how well it’s held up in the last almost-year of daily use.

Holy crap indeed! Look at all the shit I was lugging around! (Note, no actual shit was carried around despite having a dog we have to pick up after and a kid in diapers.)

Highlights in that pile of stuff include:

several wrapped cough drops/empty wrappers from my cold/pneumonia back in December/January
Numerous pieces of paperwork, including the receipt from my last trip to the dentist three months ago, a massage receipt from July 2009, and a bloodwork requisition I was supposed to get after my physical last September
A crapton of receipts, mostly for the drugstore, grocery store and restaurants near my work
The magazine I bought today (I normally use one of the cloth bags I keep in my purpose to hold larger things, but it was the only larger thing and not worth getting the bag out for
A Dominican Republic flag I promised to mail to my best friend for her classroom. (Remember that I went in January)
One mitten belonging to Flora
An umbrella
Something beaded that I can’t remember, but broke and spilled when I dumped out my purse

Obviously there is lots of other stuff there too. I didn’t even touch the zippered pockets (inside and out), because I’m usually pretty good at keeping those under control.

After some pilemaking (keep in purse/keep in house/recycle/trash), I narrowed my purse contents to the following:

Wallet, sunglasses, iPhone cable, cloth bags, headphones, Flora’s immunization card, notebooks, flag (I promise I’ll mail it soon Stacey!), business cards, USB key and some other minor things.

Hopefully this lightens the load a little bit.

This counts as spring cleaning, right? © melissa price-mitchell, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.

Sneakin’ Around with You

melissa — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:19:02 +0000

While Sean was napping, Flora decided to do some sneaking.

Digging around.

Really digging.

Success! But I think she really wanted his iPhone.

Sean says he didn’t really wake up while this was going on, which surprised me. After all this pickpocketing, she spent time poking his face (I did stop her and tell her no every time, but she was quite intent on checking him out while she was sleeping.)