Happy Father's Day!

Happy father's day, indeed!  I hope you all had as wonderful a Sunday as we did over here.  It involved a trip to Lunenburg to visit Zsofi, Will,  Eva and Sylvie, then an impromptu hike through Point Pleasant Park, and finished off nicely with supper at the Wooden Monkey (on Juniper's request).  But most of all, it involved Clark.  This was actually a real treat - it was the first time Clark has taken an entire day off in… oh, I don't even know.  Months, to be sure.  You see, Clark has been feverishly, feverishly trying to get his thesis finished for a very tight deadline.  For those of you who don't know, as of mid-September, Clark will be employed as a post-doc at Woods Hole Oceanographic institute (WHOI).  That's right - we're packing up and moving to Cape Cod in a just a couple of short months.  More than a little surreal!  (below, you can see Wood's Hole at the South-Western most tip)

There is no question that this is a wonderful opportunity for Clark - WHOI is one of the most prestigious places to have secured a post-doc in his field. But it has also meant that for the last three months or so, almost every waking hour of Clark's has been spent working, trying like mad to finish on time.  As such, I have also been on relentless not-quite-single-parenting duty. We're both at the very very end of our proverbial ropes. But the finish line is in sight!  This week, Clark has to hand in a complete draft of his thesis to his committee - it will still just be a draft, but the bulk of an entire thesis will have been written. Hurrah!

Anyway, therein lies the main reason I haven't been blogging in awhile - I mostly just run around like mad woman all day, and then collapse into bed at night.  But here is a little taste of what's been going on the last couple of months.

Lots of help!

We have pretty amazing family, many of whom have come up for a weekend or more to help me with the kids while Clark is tucked away somewhere with his computer. My mom, of course, has been up loads (enough that I have stopped thinking of taking pictures.  What a sin...), but we've also had some other helping hands:

Theresa and Scott

Grandma and Grandpa

Eating and Moving...

Two of Linden's very favourite things these days.  

OK, seriously - have you ever seen a kid this cute?

On the moving front, Linden STILL isn't crawling.  Well, not like Juniper did, anyway. This isn't to say he isn't getting around.  I'll leave the room momentarily, and then find he's managed to maneuver himself into various different corners of the room.  Case in point:

I had to look around a bit before I found him!

He is also very keen on practicing his moving skills, but he just ends up doing yoga.  I'm not even kidding.  He'll put himself into a perfect quintessential crawling position, and transfer immediately to a plank or a downward dog.

The plank.  Check out that core stability!

The downward dog.

He can scootch backwards and roll around like a pro; he can get from lying down back to sitting; he can pull himself up to standing and then hang out and stand around (holding onto something, of course); he can even pull himself forward on his tummy much like a slithering snake.  But for whatever reason, crawling continues to elude him.  My theory is that he doesn't actually want to crawl - he figures he should be walking.  As such, he is purposely trying to be on his feet rather than his knees.  So maybe he will just never crawl, and then one day I'll find him sauntering over to me.  We'll just have to see.

Here he is in action:

Some other random tidbits:

A wagon ride to the grocery store

Fancy day - I put Juniper's long gorgeous hair in a fancy up-do, and we painted our toenails.

Clark took a morning off and we hiked around Withrod lake.  Check out Juniper's  self-chosen outfit.

Juniper, "posing"

She wanted to "hang from the tree like a monkey", but I think it scared her more than she anticipated!

Mr. "ridiculously cute", hanging out in the carrier

Filling a home-made bird feeder.

Another morning clark managed to take off. Victoria day at Shubenacadie Wildlife Reserve with the Benjamins.  Or as Juniper called it, "Where the Wild Things Are".  

Juniper sporting the little bolero I made her, to keep the sun off.  I'm going to make a bunch more!

Bathtime!  I swear this is a sneak-peak of what Juniper will look like as a teen.  Scary thought!

Too cool for school.

I love this picture.  Clearly this was in the middle of a tutu phase.  In fact, one morning at breakfast, Juniper looked up from her cereal and said, "Oh, shoot!  I forgot to put on my tutu!"

Zsofi, Will and the girls stop by for lunch.  Sylvie wouldn't let go of Juniper's stroller for the world.

Honey has recently been potty training.  She's getting to be a big girl.  As a seasoned pro, Juniper is able to show her the ropes.  Good thing we have enough potties to go around!

Father's Day hike at Point Pleasant.

And, I guess that's all for now.  I've been toying with the idea of changing things around a bit... posting a little something each week, rather than waiting and doing these epic posts.  It would change the storyline aspect a bit, so I don't know.  Thoughts?

I'll leave you with some random videoclips!: