Home sweet home!

After 8 days away from home Clara, Leo and I are back in our partially baby-proofed house. We spent a week in Toronto at Auntie Dorothy's house and then topped off the trip with a weekend at Danford Lake.

Auntie Patricia was my partner in crime in Toronto while Marc stayed home and worked. We had a great trip. It started off with a smooth drive to Toronto and then lots of fun at the Ontario Science Center, the zoo and several local parks. Oh, and we did fit in a bit of shopping as well!
I mentioned baby proofing before, this week has been an exercise in why baby proofing keeps you sane when you are a parent. Auntie Dorothy's house is a lovely, well decorated adult home. As you can imagine, Leo was a holy terror when it came to touching, grabbing, eating non-edible materials, knocking over stacks of magazines and making a bee-line for any of the THREE sets of stairs in Dorothy's house! The safest place we found for him (other than the high chair) was the kitchen.
Spending time with Auntie Dorothy was great. She and Patricia were so helpful and, despite the game of musical beds Clara had them playing, I think they enjoyed spending time with us too.

Clara loved the Toronto Zoo and, even though we only visited about a third of the zoo we did manage to see all the animals she asked for (most of them were in the movie Madagascar). I think the giraffes were the highlight for Miss Clara B, Leo liked the other visitors the best, and I liked watching the female lion groom the male. I never did ask Patricia what she liked best, Maybe she'll share it with us in a comment! Ok, Auntie Pusha?
Here are Clara and Patricia at the Ontario Science Center, I just love that place. There is so much cool stuff to do and I'm not even the age that the section is geared towards!
Marc met us in Ottawa on Saturday morning and we all went to Tom and Margaret's cottage on Danford Lake. Papa T, Cathy, Rachel, Patricia, and Ashley were also visiting. We had a great day swimming and boating on the lake.


What did I learn on my trip? That a 9 month old poops A LOT when they eat a lot of solid food, that a 3 year old can say "what did you say" without even thinking before speaking, that Leo is a really calm kid until his teeth start ripping through his gums, and that Clara has a sphinchter of steel! Yes, she had ZERO accidents all week, even overnight and during our many car trips, she always could "hold it" until a bathroom became available. Her only problem thus far... self flushing toilets, they freak her out in a serious way!