Fort Knox!

So, I'm pulling clothes out of the dryer the other day and I turn around to see this:

"Oh, no, no little Grace," I say, "you can't go up there."  I gently bring her back down to the floor with me.
A little while later, I am putting away our coats and shoes and I see this:

"Oh, no, no little Grace, you can't go up there."  I gently bring her back down to the floor and continue putting away the diaper bag, etc

I look again and I see this:

"Grace,"  I say, a little more firmly this time, "you can't go on the stairs without Mommy.  Back down you go."  I gently bring her back to the floor.  And then.... she heads straight for the stairs again.  Apparently she can go up the stairs without Mommy!

In fact, somehow she has managed to learn this task so quickly she is at the top of the stairs before I can even get to her!!!  The best part of all was her smile as she turned around, all proud as a peacock of herself  (or maybe just to see if I was watching, that little monkey!)!!!


The next day, I am getting her lunch ready and I see this:

And this:

And this:

Hmm, I think.  Time for more baby gates!  In comes my good and industrious friend Karen to the rescue! She arrived Wednesday night and helped me install two more gates at the bottom of each set of stairs.  I myself could barely help her as Grace chose to stay up late and keep us company (insert fake smile with gritted teeth here!) So I now have a total of 6 baby gates installed and I feel like I live in Fort Knox!  And I'm once again thankful for good friends!

Autumn Continued

Some family photos, just because they turned out so well, and because my camera is broken so I don't have the pictures I wanted to add to my next post.  Will hopefully be buying a new cheap camera tomorrow, ugh

23 years worth of grandkids!

This one is going in a frame on the wall!

We try to just ignore him when he gets like this....

I don't even think you can see all of us, but we're all there, all 20 of us!

LOVE!!!

I swear I have the best looking nieces and nephews around!

Best looking, except maybe this one shot of D.  What's up with those eyes!!? 

Autumn Festivities

Just a few pics of all of the things Grace and I have been doing to enjoy this Autumn season.  It's been nice being off work and having the time to enjoy the season and take Grace out to places.  Thought I better get around to posting them before Autumn is over and the Christmas season is here!! Yikes! I think it's too late!!!!!

Grace with her new friends.

Decorating pumpkins

Wagon ride with friends

Blue Mountain with mom and my sister

Grace, not sure what to think of this sheep trying to eat her toes!!

Beautiful Blue Mountain, Collingwood

Giving Mommy a kiss on Thanksgiving weekend!

Let The Christmas Festivities Begin!!

Just as I finally got the Halloween bin put away in the crawl space for another year, Grace and I got the Christmas festivities started!  We attended the Santa Claus parade in our town this weekend.  I was thinking Grace might not take too much notice of the floats and bands, being that she really has no idea what Christmas is at this point, but she proved me wrong!  She loved the parade, bobbing to the music as it went by and watching the lights and people on the floats with fascination.  She especially liked the dogs being walked in the parade, which is quite interesting since she wants NOTHING to do with my parents' lovely gentle dog!!!  Won't let that dog get anywhere near her!  I don't have a photo of her as Santa went by because she had sort of had enough by then, but there's always next year! We met up with two groups of friends along the way so we enjoyed the parade with company which made it even better!
  

What's in the snack bag Mommy???

Halloween Festivities

I've put up a post about our Halloween festivities but have backdated it to Nov 1.  Scroll down a little to see the cutest little pumpkin!  (and a scary zombie!)

Feeling Lucky

Grace and I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony in my town today at the park.  I know she didn't  understand what was happening but it was important for me to go and bring her.  I don't usually promote the whole "she's so lucky" sentiment that I hear so often from people.  Honestly, I feel like the lucky one, and Grace, well she would have had an OK life in China too, I'm sure.  And frankly, as she gets older and starts to understand her life story,  I'm not sure "lucky" is how she will feel about being adopted into a different country and culture.  Time will tell and we'll deal with it as it arises.  However, as I listened to the speakers and thought about the meaning behind the names being read out, the sacrifices that were made so that I could stand freely in a park,  I will for once, agree with the lucky statements.  She is lucky.  Lucky that she will live in a country that will value her, regardless of gender, race or prosperity.  She will have choices and opportunities in our free country that she might not have had otherwise, and while she will always have Chinese ethnicity, I hope one day she is also proud to be Canadian, because it's a great place to live.

My BFFs!

Apparently Grandma and Grandpa are Grace's new BFFs!!!