Xiaoniu 小妞

Happy Father’s Day to myself and all the dads out there!

I don’t know how your day was, but mine was pretty good. We didn’t do anything wild, but we did get to spend a nice day together as a family. Last weekend Sue brought me out for Red Robin (a first for both of us) lunch in honor of Father’s Day. That way we got to go out on our schedule and not have to deal with crowded restaurants. The girls made me gifts at daycare.

A cute foot print hat from Caitlin:

A handmade card hand print shirt from Emelia:

Sue picked me up a nice addition to the bike; a wireless speedometer and odometer. Sweet! Now I get to see how fast and how far I ride. I generally have no idea how far I ride, I just know how long it took. This nice addition to the bike will make the rides a bit more interesting. I can’t wait to put it on and take Emelia out for a ride. The weather hasn’t been accommodating lately so we haven’t been out for a ride in days.

Sue started off today by stuffing me full of very, very tasty breakfast foods. I gobbled up more than my share. Thankfully, we don’t eat this rich of foods often. In fact these were mostly her first time making them. A small omelet with tomatoes, ham and cheese sided with a piece of baked French toast casserole and a couple of slices of brown sugar bacon. I washed it down with a piping hot cup of Starbucks, black. I’m drooling just thinking about this food.

The French toast were the best dish by far. Canadian white bread soaked over night in French toast mixture (eggs, evaporated milk, spices, etc.) that is baked and then topped with sliced almonds, brown sugar and more spices and butter. On top of that a drizzle of real maple syrup. Yummy! I could have eaten the whole pan. It was rich, sweet, but still retained a delicate French toast flavor.

The omelet and bacon were both good too. I can usually pack away some bacon, but I only had three slices of this stuff. It was quite rich, but sticky and full of flavor. I look forward to slurping up the remnants Monday morning before work.

I spent most of the morning playing with the girls while Sue cleaned the house. Around lunch time Amy, Mike and James stopped over for a visit. The kids were wild and practically climbing the walls. I’ve been delighting in all the good finds on craigslist lately and finally found a barely used bumbo for Caitlin. So, I took the girls out for a trip to pick it up. It’s lilac and after a quick cleaning Caitlin was enjoying her new seat. I wish we got one for Emelia when she was younger, but Caitlin will get to enjoy it for both of them.

James helped entertain Caitlin for a while.

Sue whipped up a nice dinner of fresh chives and edamame beans mixed with various other foods. After that we all scrubbed up and got ready to head to bed. Of course the girls are all sleeping while I write this post. In the end it was a nice, peaceful day. I wouldn’t trade these kinds of days for the busy run around kind. At least not for now.

Saturday was pretty laid back as well. I started off the day by running out to meet a guy to buy a nice double-stroller he had for sale on craigslist. I ended up getting it pretty cheap and it’s in nice shape. Now, we can push both kids around the mall when we go out. No more holding one and pushing the other. It wasn’t worth it to me to buy a double stroller new since we’ll only use it for a year or two tops. By then Emelia will be too big to push around and we’ll be back to a single stroller again.

While I was out Sue and Amy brought the older kids to do some strawberry picking at the local farm. This is the same place we went to last year to pick apples and pumpkins. From what I hear the kids had a great time picking a few strawberries and stuffing their faces with fruit. We got a lot of strawberries out of our garden, but we plan to take a shot at canning some strawberry jam this week so we need a lot more strawberries than we can get out of our backyard (at least for now).

Emelia helping out mommy by holding the quart container.

Emelia’s other job of eating as many strawberries as possible so that we get our money’s worth.

Going further back in time on Thursday Emelia had her stitches removed. She did an excellent job at the doctor’s office. Emelia did so well that the doctor gave Sue a sticker. The doctor was so impressed by Emelia and Sue since Emelia just sat on Sue’s lap while the doctor yanked and cut the stitches out. She was sure that she would have to call a nurse in to hold Emelia. Our little one is very strong and she just sat there while the doctor took them out. Amazing.

Her finger doesn’t look bad at all. This picture shows her finger without the stitches. Most of what you see is scab.

Now that it is four days later much of the scab has already fallen/worn off. The skin underneath is amazing looking. It is not likely to show much of a scar, if any. I figure by the end of this week you won’t even know she was injured.