Skull Splitter

I forgot to mention that our Scottish visitors brought me a bunch of this nasty 8.5% beer with the most apt label of any beverage I've tried. Isn't that just beautiful? It had an intense flavour and had to be consumed carefully...not a guzzler. Another random hodgepodge of photos from the last week or two:

• The view of Summerland from the trails on Rattlesnake Mountain, which are full of wildflowers
  
• When you ask Ella to do something she doesn't want to do, she now says, "Uuuuuhhhhmmmm....no." As if she's really considering it before rejecting it outright. She's also really into books these days.
  
• Seattlite Eric at the entrance to Bones in the Three Blind Mice trail system near Naramata. Aside from a merciful shuttle and the excellent company, this was a tough ride...complete with a broken frame (not mine), rain, and multiple flat tires.
  
• Ivy is a total girlie girl despite our best efforts to the contrary, choosing flowery pink dresses and setting up tea parties full time.

Ella Pearl

Ella has been a bit of a pain the past week, perhaps entering the "Terrible Twos" half a year early. Irrational demands, huge crying fits, inability to share anything...the usual suspects. I'm forcing myself to remember that she's also an angel much of the time, and changing so fast these days that it must be overwhelming for her. She's seeing the world in new ways every day, and trying to express how she's seeing it. Things are changing so much that I though I should record a few Ella-isms from the last while:

• She makes judicious use of "NO", but until a few weeks ago she hadn't learned to say "yes". The options then were either "NO!" or a very enthusiastic "Ooooooh!" with eyes wide in surprise and fascination, as if you had just offered her the most amazing thing. Then suddenly she learned "yeah" and the "oooooh!" is apparently forgotten.
  
• She hasn't figured out "thank you" yet, but she's quite polite. When you give her something she wants, you often hear the cutest little "welcome!".
  
• In the last few weeks she's been stringing words together into quasi-sentences like: "where Mommy go?", "Ivy Mommy sleep", "huggie Daddy ni-ni" (Daddy, I need a hug and my soother), "Daddy book read", "bye-bye Gamma Gampa"
  
• She identified herself as nameless for a few months. She'd go around the table pointing at each of us and saying our names, then point at herself and say "girl". In the last couple of weeks she started saying "Ella" with nice, clear L's, often as part of a demand: "Ella 'tside!" (learning on the screen door to the backyard).
  
• She loves to read with us, especially the same Richard Scarry "Big Book" that Ivy adored (thanks Greg and Sophie). We've tried to keep the rule that we'll never turn down a request to read, but our patience gets worn thin after reading the same book several times in an afternoon.
  
• For a while, we'd ask her around 8:30 if she was ready for bed, and she'd march up the stairs to wait to be put into her crib. Lately it's been more of a struggle, with her almost always bargaining for staying up later, and occasionally freaking out when she doesn't think she's ready for sleep (often after 9:30, when we can tell she's beat tired).

Invasion of the Scots

I was on holidays most of this week, which is making me oh-so-happy. Our friends from Scotland stayed with us for a couple of days last week, then we were in Merritt for a conference later in the week. In between there, Angelo met me for some more excellent riding and pubbing.

Dave is going to kill me for posting the photo at the top, but I thought it captured our second evening together in Summerland -- happy vibe, beer cans piling up in front of us, and lots of laughs. The first night he and Meri were out, we had wine and cheese up at Scherzinger, then supper at Zia's (thanks again to my folks, who took the girls for an overnighter). Tuesday we walked uptown for coffee, hiked up Giant's Head later on, and then just hung out on the patio and ate at home in the evening. Ivy adored Meri and Dave successfully absorbed the culture shock of dealing with our chaotic household. A great visit.

City of Glass

Fascinating article about Vancouver...