Yoda and Obi Wan vs Darth Vader

Since Sophie was going as Princess Leia for Halloween, we decided to have a Star Wars theme for our pumpkins this year. Janet joined us to create a dramatic Obi Wan Kenobi:


I made a wrinkly Yoda:


And Dean used the green pumpkin to create a Darth Vader pumpkin that actually opened the way his helmet does in the movie!


Here they are in action, note how Yoda and Obi Wan are side by side, fighting the evil of the Empire.

Happy Halloween!

Princess Leia wants to wish you a Happy Halloween! We'll have more pictures and even a special video (cross your fingers we can get this to work on Linux) later this weekend!


Here she is in 2007 at 7 months for comparison:

"Fun" at the pumpkin patch

Today, we visited the Richmond Country Farms Pumpkin Patch and had a "fun" time. Instead of letting Sophie explore the exciting world of pumpkin patch fun, it was more like subjecting her to pumpkin patch fun. At first, she merely looked around disdainfully:

and she was quite good natured when we tried navigating the furrowed pumpkin patch:

she even slogged through the mud of the corn maze for a few minutes in relatively good spirits:

but, when this happened:

well, you can see she wasn't pleased.


And I don't think she appreciated my laughter. What's so funny, Mommy?


We calmed her down a bit by pointing out the fact that at least she wasn't dressed up like a pumpkin like THOSE kids.

She calmed herself down by sucking her thumb.

We made another mistake by trying to get her to touch a pumpkin. "But they're dirty, Mama!"

So, we took the wagon away from the pumpkin fields and returned to dry land.

Sophie wasn't a huge fan of the hay and kept picking individual strands of hay off her sweater.

But all's well that ends with cinnamon mini donuts!

A post for Trisha

Here you go Trish, Sophie in her owl pjs. After our phone call, I picked up the camera and got a couple silly pictures in low light conditions.

This is one of Sophie's favourite things to do these days, her downward facing dog yoga pose.

And below you'll see our silly daughter fooling around and trying to delay her bedtime.

No way, chickens!

We took Sophie to the UBC Farm Market to pick up some local, organic produce and after we made our purchase, we took a little tour of the grounds. The highlight of the tour was the chicken coop with a couple dozen curious chickens who came over to visit Sophie. We must have exclaimed, "No way!" while we were describing the chickens, because Sophie has now got the two phrases inextricably entwined. If anyone happens to say "No way!" in her earshot, she immediately retorts, "No way, chickens!"

Happiness Is...

The other day, Sophie made one mess...



after another...



and both Sophie and I were getting frustrated, so I decided we'd go for a walk in the drizzle. We had a lovely time collecting leaves and exploring the neighbourhood and I was inspired to write a blog post in my head entitled "Happiness Is...".

It went something like this:
Happiness is...
- picking up a multicoloured bouquet of fall leaves



- puddle jumping with froggy boots

- walking at the speed of a toddler
- watching a spider climb around her web
- saying hi to the neighbourhood dogs

All was sweet and lovely, until ten minutes from home the happy toddler turned into a hungry, screaming 30-pound monster who wanted to be carried the whole way home. My ideal blog post crashed down around me, but Dean says this one is funnier anyway, so here you are!

A couple more random blurbs

- Sophie gave me a new pirate name the other day. She was pawing at my goatee and solemnly pronounced me to be "Chinbeard". Arrr...

- Coming home on the bus, Soph showed how parrot-like she's getting these days. The recorded voice on the bus was announcing our stops, and Sophie repeated two of them in a row: "Macdonald... Bayswater..." and then nuzzled into my arms and happily murmured "local bus". Goofy girl.