BUSY WEEK!

It has definitely been a hectic but great week in Halifax. Grandma Cheryl and Aunt Amanda have been perfect house guests - Amanda hasn't even complained once about having to sleep on an inflatable mattress in the basement! Of course the biggest news of the visit is the fact that the Oilers are in the Stanley Cup finals, 0pps I mean that Dylan is now potty trained (shouts go up from across the land on both accounts). Grandma Cheryl was a big help and I can now proudly announce that Dylan has gone 5 days without an accident and has successfully mastered the art of #2 on the potty - good bye stinky diapers!

What else has been going on all week you ask - well lets see. There have been multiple trips made to pretty much every shopping establishment in the Halifax area (sorry about your credit card bills Dad and Jeremy), walks around Point Pleasant park, some serious cookie baking with Aunt Amanda, a road trip to Parrsboro to check out the highest tides in the world, home cooked lobster dinner, swimming and of course multiple ice creams and other wonderful assorted treats! I think it's safe to say that everyone has had a wonderful week and if you ask Mom and Amanda what the best part of the week was they'd probably just have to go with all the time they got to spend babysitting Dylan while Nardine and myself were off on our own. Oddly enough, Nard and I would also list this as our highlight - funny how that all worked out! With Mom and Amanda leaving tomorrow, we've only got 3 short days to rest Dylan up before Grandma Cas and Grandpa John get here - this is going to go down as one of the best months in Dylan's life so far with all these visitors!!

GRANDMA AND AMANDA ARE HERE!

Yep, Grandma and Amanda arrived safely last week much to Dylan's delight. The new airport setup in Halifax is great for watching people come down the escalator and I think it made Grandma's day to hear Dylan screaming out her name as she came down to the arrivals area - probably the best greating she's ever had in Halifax! Amanda would have got the same reception but by the time she arrived on Saturday potty training was in full swing so we didn't dare risk the accident. Potty training - if it wasn't for the overriding desire to never change a dirty diaper again I'm not sure that anyone would want to potty train their kid. Dylan is batting about .500 so far - we had a couple of really good visits to the potty (no #2 yet...) and a couple of "Daddy I pee'd" when we were nowhere near the potty! Anyways the books say that this is meant to be a quick or easy thing so I guess we'll keep at it - the reward at the end of this is definitely worth it.

Other than having to get used to using the potty, Dylan is in her prime! She loves having some one to play with 24/7 and the first words out of her mouth each morning is "where's Amanda/Grandma?" And so begins a day filled with tea parties, bubbles, hairdoos, potty, the park and generally anything Dylan want's to do. She's loving it and is good and exhausted at the end of the day, making bedtime a dream! As a result, Nardine and I are also in our prime as we get to sneak away and take advantage of sometime without Dylan - who knew a coffee at Starbucks could be so relaxing? Jeremy - we took your wife running with us yesterday - no wait, yes it's true! Amanda kept up with us for the entire 6km run - although I did have to offer her some encouragment a couple of times....she says she can't wait until the next run!

Grandpa - we're sorry that you couldn't make it out here with Grandma but we're sure that you're having fun hanging out with Dom and at least you don't have to stay up to 1am to watch the Oilers kick Anaheim's butt! Gotta go - time to try the potty again - wish us luck!

NOW SHOWING...

I signed up for yet another web service (YouTube) that allows us to host video online - here's one we shot of Dylan today throwing rocks at the park. I don't have a lot of other videos uploaded yet but I'm working on it!



We've had a pretty good week - I'm busy at work as I'm the acting boss with our Major out for the next month due to knee surgery. I'm starting to realize that the higher you go in the chain of command the busier your day is - hopefully things slow down next week but I doubt it! The weather this weekend has been great so it's nice to get outside and take advantage of it! Kirk, Laurie and Ethan came over to the house Friday night for a BBQ - it's amazing how fast two 2 year olds can destroy a house! Dylan then proceeded to stay up until 2am crying as she has come down with a cold and wasn't feeling to well. Thankfully SUPERMOM came to the rescue as SUPERDAD was fast asleep and not being any help....this did earn SUPERMOM two new pairs of shoes over the weekend so I think she figures it was worth it!

Good news from Australia - Alicia and Corey had their baby, a little girl named Pia Milan Gorander. Everyone is doing fine and I'm sure that Alicia and Corey are now just figuring out how busy life can be!