Once Again, Suckered In!

Noodles said something big was going down, but even she was caught off guard.  Kim came to take us for a walk.  We were pretty excited, but seriously, how often does Kim come to take us for a walk?  First.  Time.  Ever.

Completely oblivious to the fact that something might be happening, we go off in a blissful fog.  We just love our walks.

Guess what!  When we got home, Janet and Phil were gone.  There were lots of hugs and kisses before Kim took us for our walk.  Way more than normal.  Another clue!  WTF Noodles!   You told me you were on top of this kind of junk.

Turns out, they went to Toronto to visit Briana and Ted and their super cute kitties!

Look how cute their cuties are!  Keido and Winnie!  Winnie is the young, fast moving kitty in the blurry background and Keido is the older blurry kitty in the front.

They saw many beautiful gardens.

Janet decided to pull a few weeds and goes nuts!

They went to the local garden market, which is a very convenient wagon ride away.  All this started by Janet pulling out a few weeds in a little stone pathway and escalated from there - big time!  Next thing Briana knows - wagon full of new plants and paper bags full of old plants.  Janet kind of steamrolled ahead on this project.  She is
hoping they aren't saying things like "who the hell invited her?!?" or "let's wait until she's wheel chair bound before extending another invite".

All done.  See the cute little walk way?

They all piled into an Autoshare car and drove to the country for one night.  They went to Collingwood which is on the Georgian Bay.  It was a really cute town with tons of great brick houses.  Janet says there are also many fabulous brick houses in Toronto, as well.  Briana and Ted live in a very convenient location and Briana rides her bike to work everyday.

We really wish we could have gone to this puppy friendly coffee shop.

Incredible brick Victorian style home.

This cute sheep was one of several metal animals on a fence surrounding a patio where they all had lunch.  Outside the patio was a delivery truck that kept his really noisy motor running for most of the time the food didn't arrive - which was an incredibly long period of time.  They were unhappy campers!

Driver Extraordinaire!

On the last day, Ted, Phil and Janet went for a nice bike ride.  They had a great time riding up to a fabulous park.   Janet says the rail tracks were not the prettiest part of the ride...they were just on the way there!

 Last lunch, near Briana's office.  Oyshi Sushi.

Last but not least,  OUR  senior policy advisor for the Ontario Provincial Government!

Brad and Kim are taking really good care of us, and we love them!

We Are Losing Ground

This Mr. Baby business is killing us.  It was bad enough that everybody dropped whatever they were doing to watch his every move...even when he didn't have any moves.  Now, he is smiling and looking engaged!  This is such bad news for us.

Shocking to Janet that his Handlers actually put a matching outfit on!

You can see that Janet patiently teaching him how to fist bump might actually be paying off.

Noodles says something big is going on.  Nephew Brad and Girlfriend Kim came over yesterday to learn how to use the TV and the stove.  Wierd, right?

This will give you a small sample as to how amazing Janet's life is.  We were walking down to the beach and in the last block before the beach, a family is building a garage.  Cement being poured...what could be more exciting than that?

They had a lot of trees and shrubs removed before starting on the garage.  Janet says Meg's grade 5 teacher used to live in this house many years ago.

In any other part of the world, 24-28C would not be that hot.  In Victoria, it is pretty warm.

Wow!  Windows that actually open in a 99 year old house.  Janet and Phil say we are having a big party next year when our house turns 100 years old!

Noodles is melting as we speak.

I'm more worried about sliding down in the popularity department than Noodles is.  She thinks Mr. Baby is the greatest thing ever.  When they were here, Mr. Baby was sitting in his car seat in the living room.   Noodles ran in, licked his face once and ran out of the room.

Ouch! The Competition Comes Back

We were just becoming acquainted again with our previous "top dog" status and guess what happens?  Mr. Baby comes back!  Just like that - back to chopped liver!

His handlers were to go to Whitehorse (YXY, Mrs. Former Travel Agent says) for a wedding.  Mr. Baby had a fussy week, so they decided Mr. Handler would go to the wedding alone and Ms. Handler would come here with the Rock Star.

In order for Meg to get some sleep, Janet walked and walked and walked Mr. Baby.  Sometimes we got to tag along, but it was for a very short version.  Janet marvels at how nice baby strollers are now.
We went out in this mismatched outfit.  Mr. Baby actually has a red had which would have nicely complimented his outfit, but the handler couldn't find it.  Janet thinks this is sheer craziness as  Finley has at least 200 outfits.   Her Analness likes matching!  Meg wasn't too worried about it and told Janet to cover the top of the buggy with a blanket if it was a problem.

This is much more coordinated.

On todays walk, Mr. Baby fussed and fussed for some time.  Finally he fell asleep and Janet was too scared to adjust his hat, lest he wake up.  Sadly, Janet can't decide what's worse - Mr. Baby crying or Mr. Baby sleeping, in which case she has to check about every 10 seconds to make sure he is still breathing!

Mr. Baby does some flying exercises.

Sleeps like a baby.

And has his feet cleaned.

Noodles just loves Mr. Baby and follows him from room to room.  She likes to think she is body dog for a V.I.P.

Guess what!  Karen and Janet went to a Modern Canning Class.  Janet makes tons and tons of jars of jam for the SPCA, but this was still really interesting.  They made Blackberry Jam, Pickled Peppers, Mango Chutney and Mustard!

Janet doesn't even like mustard and said it was delicious!

Livin' Large In Loser Land

Sometimes, Janet can be a bit of a snob.   Not sure where Mrs. Hoighty Toighty thinks she comes from, but someone needs to remind her she was born in Stettler, Alberta!  Not that there is anything wrong with that!   Mr. Burr finally got rid of Betsy (AKA piece of shit) and sparkled up the 'hood with his new truck, so she thought it was clear sailing.  Wrong!  For her entire life, she has dreamt of living in a neighbourhood where people don't park their cars on the lawn.  Now her husband has done so and she nearly had an atomic meltdown!

Phil explained he was going to wash the car so all the water could go on the lawn.  Bam!  Now it's a "green" project but it still can't get off the lawn fast enough to suit Janet.

Janet and Phil had to return the borrowed BOB stroller to Karen and Ken.  They practiced walking dogs and a fake baby at the same time.

In this case, the "baby" is Janets' blue Staub pot that Karen was going to borrow.

Phil took us to the vet yesterday to see if he can suggest what is wrong with us.  We sometimes fall coming up the stairs and yesterday, some people knocked at the door and I didn't want to get up to see who it was.  Unfortunately, he said we are just old and are now geriatric.  We don't know what geriatric means, but it doesn't have a joyful ring to it.  We both have some mobility issues which makes Janet really sad, so we try to hide them from her.

This is Noodles trying to make Janet turn us around at Willows Beach and go back home.  We are about 3 blocks from home and Noodles has had enough.

Janet is mopping all the floors and lets me lay where I am as she mops around me.

This is now Noodles favourite spot to lay down.  Right beside the garage in the shade with some cool soil underneath and a cool head rest.

We might be slowing down, but check out the birdie line up on the runway to the feeder!

And, check out Mr. Bee, busy, busy with some tiny flowers in our driveway.

Earlier this week, Janet made BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad from the California Kitchen Pizza cookbook.  Phil said it was delicious!

Mr. Baby Goes Home

If Finley could talk, he would say all good things must come to an end.  His handlers packed up the car, put Mr. Baby in his car seat and off they went to Pizzeria Prima Strada for lunch prior to catching the ferry home.

Bye Mr. Baby.  See you soon!  He had to go for another hearing test as he flunked the first one.  Meg says it's really important because if babies have hearing issues, they are outfitted with teensy weensy hearing aids so their development isn't affected.  Finley passed the last one with flying colours!  Go, Baby, go!

The Clampetts newly enlarged family pulls out of town.

Mr. Baby's handlers have packed the car to the rafters with all his stuff.  Janet says the only difference between their car and The Beverly Hillbillies is that Meg and Derek don't have any chickens with them.

Now that they have gone back to Squamish, Mr. and Mrs. Fickle are back to spending time with us. Don't think for one second guys, that we never noticed all of a sudden we were past our expiry date when Mr. Baby was here.  I hardly ever roll in the grass, but there was a large pile of leaves, so couldn't resist.

 Noodles is busy protecting her toy in case Finley makes a dash for it.  I don't think she needs to worry for awhile.  Janet says she and Phil have to stop using bad words before Mr. Baby learns how to talk.  That's probably not for a year or so, but we think it's best they get on top of this now.  Their learning curve is weak indeed!

Farmer Janet reaps the bounty from her Victory Garden.  Look!  It's spinach!

It's All About Mr. Baby

Sheesh!  Suddenly, we are chopped liver.  We live and breathe Mr. Baby 24/7.  We all sit around all day, every day watching his every move.  The sad part is, he doesn't have many moves yet.  Nevertheless, we still monitor it all.  It's all things Mr.  Baby.

Mr. Baby's mother is wearing her mothers' fleece jacket.  After she wears two of Janets'  fleece jackets, she takes them upstairs and puts them in her bedroom so Janet can't find them.

Finley doesn't know what's in store for him.

He just loves his bath time!  You can tell how excited he is by how tightly he has his teeny fists clenched.

 Janet is teaching him how to fist bump and high five.  Her Craziness seem to think these are pretty useful skills for a baby, but so far, Finley hasn't caught on.  He also has a teeny tiny little pony tail at the back of his neck, but Meg nixed Janet putting an elastic on it.

What he would really like are some of those 50% off brake pads he can see being advertised on TV.

Phil, myself and Mr. Baby are rockin' the real estate gig.

The combination of babies and dogs are taxing Janet's limited photographic skills.

Meg and Finley enjoy the nice sun on the deck.

Our Nephew Brad and Girlfriend Kim gave this super cute outfit to Mr. Baby.

This baby watching business is exhausting.

 Almost always, Noodles likes to be in the same room as Mr. Baby.  Here she is taking a break using the step down into Phils incredibly messy craphole office as a rest.