Time flies when you are having fun....

Clarissa turned 20 months old recently. Now, that means that in less than four months she will turn two years old....but more than that it means that she has now been with us longer than she wasn't!!! That is awesome to Mommy and Daddy. It may not seem like much, but it means very much to us. It means that nobody has loved and cared for her as long as we have. We feel so blessed to have this priceless little girl part of our family. We had four years of waiting for her to think about what it would be like and imagine the whole experience, and as wonderful as I thought it would be....it is a million times better. Probably a million times more exhausting than I figured on also...but so worth it. Watching her change and grow each day, doing new things, coming up with new ways to trick Daddy, new dances, new words (well sort of words...), louder crying, bigger fits.....errrrrr where was I going with this again????? Anyhow, when I think back to the tiny little girl that we first saw across the room sitting on her Nanny's lap, just looking around wondering what was going on when pretty much all the other babies were crying away. She had no idea how much her world was about to change. However, she is doing so well. She is such a happy little girl (well...most of the time...except when mean ole Daddy is trying to get her to do something that she doesn't particularly want to do at that moment), and so smart....and so ours!!!!! Life is grand!


My girls on day one:


My girls now:



Yep.....I am blessed. Life is grand.

A couple days late, but here are some pictures.....

Ok...where to begin????

Well last night (exactly 10 months since we got home from China...) was our first "date"!!!!! We left Clarissa with Grandma and Grandpa while we went to see the Rush concert at Bluesfest! It was a fantastic show...and we even managed to resist call home to check on how things were going.















What's that???? You don't care about my stupid Rush pictures????? You want pictures of Clarissa????? Oh! Does this link back to the whole "it's not about me" thing???? Oh....ok. Let's see what I can do about that....

Soooo what has been going on with Clarissa? Oh I know...we had a great dinner with some friends that we travelled to China with. It was so wonderful to see all of them and the girls.















We went to the Papanack Zoo and Clarissa loved the animals















Grandma and Grandpa came for dinner on Father's Day, and Clarissa loooooooved it.













She has grown so much that we could finally turn her car seat around to face the front. She was very, very happy about it.

















It has been so hot that we have been having lots of freezies.














I am growing some herbs...well sort of....















No need to say anything about this

Arrgghhhhhh more than a month since my last post!!!!

Wow, I realized today that it has been more than a month since I have posted. Then I told myself "Self, you have some good reasons for not posting for so long. Let's see, there's C, and L, and A, oh and don't forget R, and I, then there's S, of course there is S, ummmmmm....uhhhhh.....errrrr.....what else???? Ya!!! How could I almost forget A.

But wait, there are some other reasons also....most of which I won't bother to share because let's face it....you don't really care why....you are just devastated that I haven't posted. But wait again.....who ARE you anyways????? Maybe there is no "You". Maybe there is only me. Heck I don't even think Carolyn reads my ramblings. Then I told myself "Self, you don't really care about that do you???? I mean it IS really all just about me isn't it????? Hmmmmmm good question. Is it really just all about me???? Could it be???? Do I care???? Am I just all about enteraining myself????? If it is just all about me then why do I correct tpyos$$?%? Aspacially wheen I an tiping on this liittlee keybard??? (more about that later). Well then if it is not all about me then who could it be about?????? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?????? (he wonders as he looks at his beautiful little girl). HEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY WAIT A SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!! Could it be??????? Could it really be???????? Maybe.....just maybe.....I think that there is a possibility that it ISN'T allllll about me. Maybe in some small way it might also be about Clarissa!!!!! Could it be that I see this as something that she can look back at and see her story??? I suppose it could. It could also be partly about you. Errrrrrr......if there actually is a you.

I have a bunch of pictures to post, and lots of stories to tell about them....my first Father's Day, visits with Grandma and Grandpa, the Family Outreach picnic at the Valleyview farm....and lots of other stuff that I can't remember at the moment...but I can't post them now because I am too lazy to go upstairs to post them on the computer. My laptop died....so I am using Carolyn's little pink notebook computer to type this, and it's a pain to do pictures. So I will hopefully get to pictures for you tomorrow or the next day. If there is a you......

The pool, the sandbox, Daddy and Grandpa, apple blossoms, getting the mail....and more....

Ok, I just downloaded so many pictures I can't even remember which ones. Sooooooo, I hope that you enjoy whatever they are. No doubt there will be some cuteness in there because Clarissa is just pure cuteness. As you will see she has been having tons of fun. Visits from Grandma and Grandpa always go over big with Clarissa. What doesn't go over so well is visits to CHEO. We had a (planned) appointment at CHEO to get a hearing test. Well a certain little girl seemed to remember all to well her recent stay at CHEO, and as nice as they were...she did not like the ladies who were doing the testing at all. She was a very unhappy camper....until we walked out the door...and she immediately started singing away.....go figure.

Anyhow, lots of other things have been going on, but as usual these days I'm too tired to think about it.....hey, be happy that I had the energy to download all these pictures as I dealt with my internet connection going in and out.

Ok I have since added some comments to the pictures.

More to come soon....I hope.....


Clarissa is great at helping Daddy get the mail. Just like she insists on helping bring the groceries in to the kitchen, she has to have a piece of mail to carry home.












Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........yogurt!!!!!!














Clarissa hopes that these turn into apples so that Daddy can make her some applesauce!!!!!
















Woo hoo!!!! A picnic with Grandpa and Daddy!!! .....errrrrrr.....and Grandma and Mommy of course......















I have got some great new summertime toys to play with!!!!!















Check out my new sandbox....but do it quietly...can't you see that I am concentrating?!?!?!
















Aaaaaannnnnnnnnnnndddddddddddddd THIS is my very own (errrrr except when Daddy tries to climb in....and the water all flies out.....) swimming pool!!!!!

Love the morning babbling....

No, no, no...not Mommy's...I mean Clarissa's...(errrrr...let's not tell Carolyn about that one....)

It is so much fun to listen to our wonderful little girl when she wakes up in the morning. She sings, she laughs, she explores with new sounds, it is priceless. We are so blessed to share our world with this incredibly special person. Every day is a new adventure. New expressions, new sounds, new dances, new tricks, and...errrrrr...new attitude..."I want this and I want it now!!!", or "I don't want this and you better not try to give it to me!". Ok, there shouldn't actually be quotes around those statements since she doesn't actually say it. It's more of a very clear demonstration. Oh, speaking of tricks, this morning after listening to her play, and laugh, and sing, and talk, I decided that it was time to go and see her. So I quietly walked to the door of her room and peaked in. There was this beautiful girl sitting with her dolly in one hand and her pjs in the other. Yep, sittin' in her diaper with her pjs completely off....and very proud of the whole thing. Like I said, priceless.

So, what else has been going on....well Daddy had a birthday, he's still going to physio 3 times a week with no real progress with the back pain (and becoming rather frustrated and annoyed with the whole thing), we celebrated our first Mother's day (It was very special, and Grandma came for dinner), Grandpa went to Costa Rica to visit Uncle Don, and probably lots of other stuff, but I am just too tired to remember. Oh how about the Flyers battling back from 3-0 in the series, and then from 3-0 in game 7 to win?!?!?!?! Beauty!!!! Now it's time to burst Halak's bubble!!!!

Ok, too tired to write more.....I'll let the pictures talk....

4 llllooooonnngggg days at CHEO...

The three of us are very, very happy to be home from CHEO after a scary bout with pneumonia.


Clarissa was thrilled to see her bedroom and all of her toys again. Mommy and Daddy were thrilled that their special little girl is so much better than she was just a few days ago when she was quite sick and had a fever of 39.9 celcuis. We are hoping that all continues to improve.















You know how when you go on vacation and then you get home and you say to yourself "Boy it is good to be home!!"? Well that statement will NEVER mean the same thing to me after a vacation. Today "IT WAS GOOD TO BE HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!". To see our girl smiling, playing, running around (well wobbling around a bit after not walking for 4 days) was priceless!
















I can live with less than 3 hours sleep in three nights, I can live with not eating right, I can live with feeling awful, but seeing my sweet little girl with a plethora of tubes and wires hooked up to her...and seeing her held down while she endured this poke and that prod....and seeing her cry for hours was......well pure torture for me and her Mommy.

I pray that we never have to go through anything like that again....knowing that at some point we probably will. The whole experience has me thinking alot about parents with really, really sick children. Where do they find the strength? I hope that I never need to find the answer to that question. Those parents will be in my thoughts and prayers.

Anyhow, I must say that we are hugely grateful for CHEO. We are very fortunate to have them and their staff. I have always supported CHEO, but I have never truly appreciated why until today. They really took good care of our girl.

We also are so very grateful to Grandma and Grandpa who (were always there even though we were in isolation) after a couple of days of crappy hospital food brought us a wonderful dinner last night that I believe really helped Clarissa to get over the hump to be ready to come home. After not eating very much for a couple of days she could not get enough of her dinner last night. Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa. You are theeeee best!!!! We all love you very much!!!


Anyhow, let's see some more of a happy girl....(in her Tigger shirt that Daddy and Grandpa got for her in Myrtle Beach!!)....don't forget to click on the pictures to see them bigger.....



















It is great to be home!!!! We love her soooooo much!!!

Clarissa will be very happy to see Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow.

A great Easter weekend!!!!

Here's hoping that everyone had a great Easter weekend from those of us in Clarissaville. As usual we had our two Easter bunnies (Benji and Lenny) inside the house.














We also had a visit from an Easter bunny in the backyard.

















The weather all weekend long was beautiful. Daddy golfed in shorts on Friday, Mommy, Daddy, and Clarissa played outside then we bbq'd on Saturday

















Sunday started with Clarissa doing a wonderful job of her first Easter egg hunt. She found all of her eggs that Mommy hid.




















Next was an excellent visit with Grandma and Grandpa that included Clarissa's second Easter egg hunt, a spectacular turkey lunch/dinner, and a visit with Uncle Don (who is in Costa Rica) on Skype.

















It rained a bit on Monday morning, but that was ok because it gave Daddy some time to put Clarissa new table and chairs together. She did not waste any time in using it to entertain with her best friend.