The Latest From Here

“What do you mean, you’re leaving in July?!?”

“We’re going home!” I exclaim to another Newfoundlander in the post office. She stares at me.

“Really? Can you please take me with you?” This was from a woman whose immediate family (children and grand-children) all live in the local area. Yet, she would still prefer to ‘go home’.

How many times have I heard similar sentiments from other Newfoundland/Labradorians? It’s sad really. So many of us live outside the province, generally due to needing employment, yet so many of us would choose to live ‘at home’ given the opportunity. Another lady I was speaking with described heaven as taking her friends and house from here and transplanting them/it all in Newfoundland. The fact that I am now returning is almost making me feel a bit guilty…almost!

We had our first house showing this week. Conveniently, Iain was up at 5:30 AM which meant he was tired enough to nap at 10:15, giving Mommy ample time to run around the house opening doors, turning on lights and generally spot cleaning anything that seemed out of order before 11:00 AM. Selling a house is very stressful and, unfortunately, being followed by a toddler bent on ‘helping’ is even more stressful. To compound things, DH was away (back now for a week) which means I got to do the nightly vacuuming, mopping, dusting, wiping, etc. The housing market in Middleton is not nearly as busy as it was in Ottawa so having half the house barred up and having to continue being anal with the cleaning could go on for some time. Sigh. I prefer our sloth-like, pre-house selling existence!

It has not been as hard as I expected to keep Iain in one part of the house. The kitchen and play room are our most accessible rooms during the day and, as long as it’s nice enough outside for Iain to also get outside (that means, anything less than torrential rain as he is thrilled by puddles and rain), he has usually been pretty content.

Spring is here and we are loving being outside. We had a 30 degree day last week (No, I’m not exaggerating. We set a new temperature record). The flowers are out, the grass has already been cut once and the birds are back in force. I love this time of year before it gets too hot!

A friend of mine keeps asking about our pets and how they are doing. Sadly, our pets are quite neglected these days.

Due to my bad hip, Para has not had her usual daily walk in ages and ages. That being said, her weakening back seems to be doing well with only exercising in the back yard (she and the neighbour’s dog run back and forth the back fence to play together) and she is rarely limping anymore. She is also doing well getting up and down the stairs. Her spring ‘elbows’ (incessant licking causing open sores on her elbows) are back so I have to find the jean jacket I made for her last year to both give her elbows some padding and to limit her licking access.

The cats, on the other hand, are able to get their needs met quite well. Demanding would likely be the right word.

I think Tobi is reacting to the move stress around here. Both she and Para have been through every move that DH and I have experienced as a couple (this is location number five) and, that cat in particular, seems to have a very upset tummy by the turmoil and ‘lock down’ on parts of the house. I think she knows exactly what is going on. Poor kitty!

Checkers, on the other hand, benefits from being oblivious to things like stress or understanding that there is another move coming, compounded by a new human for her to get used to. Her only complaint is that we will not let her outside (I'm sure you can tell how hard done by she is by her photograph!)! She keeps waiting by the door in hopes of getting out (and does, occasionally, make a run for it, which is a real pain in the arse as I cannot run to catch her). However, seeing a dead cat next to the road on Thursday (who looked alarmingly like Checkers) has only reconfirmed our decision that our cats remain indoor cats either A) forever or B) until we have a property big enough and out of the way enough to allow them to roam. Checkers’ lawyer is still fighting this part of her adoption contract….

In knitting news, I have been knitting (don’t faint!). I’ve chosen a project that fits in with my stress level (thus the need to get back to knitting!) and toddler induced/pregnancy influenced attention span: dish cloths. Iain is thrilled as I finished a predominantly ‘blue’ one for him (‘blue’ being his colour of choice, partially because it is one of two colours he can say and partially because he just seems to love blue). He still loves playing with dish cloths. AND, he said ‘knitting’ yesterday for the first time! I’m so proud! I’m working on number two now. Too bad I don’t like the colours (green, turquoise and yellow) as I went and bought a super-sized ball of dishcloth cotton for it. Luckily, I did the same with Iain’s blue so I can go back and forth between the balls with each dishcloth without causing too much eye twitching. I should go through my downloaded patterns for market bags as I’m pretty sure my friend Alisha over at Tales of a Self Taught Knitter has made a bunch of them using dish cloth yarn and they always look gorgeous. That would use up the colour I don’t like pretty quick…

In other news, Iain has gone from hardly any talking (two months ago) to talking up a blue streak! He is learning words daily and consistently surprises me by the words he mimics and then proceeds to remember days later! Wish I could learn a new language like a toddler. Here’s a video (warning: it’s a long one) of him and I reading Tails by Matthew van Fleet. Iain loves all of the animals and had just learned how to say one special animal on the day I videoed:



‘Bush baby’ in his wee voice sounds just adorable to me! Tails is a great book too, by the way. The variety of different animals is huge and I’m still looking up where some of the animals are from or what they are as there were a few I had never heard of such as a ‘pangolin’.