Busy Monday

I work for a group at the University of Minnesota, and this week we're doing a bunch of events for graduate student appreciation week, so it's going to be a very busy week for me. This morning the girls accompanied me on a couple of trips up to St. Paul to deliver goodies to give out to the students, and in between those we had a trip to the park...

Fiona is funny sometimes. She wanted to climb a ladder that started out vertical, but then twisted to be sideways and horizontal. She began climbing and insisted she could do it because: "I'm a toddler Mummy, I'm so big!". Once the ladder began to twist she changed her mind and said "it's just too scary, I'm only a little girl". She makes me laugh.

On our way back from our 2nd St. Paul trip we stopped to have some lunch. Fiona loves to eat soup at the co-op, but Adele is quickly overtaking her in the amount that each girl eats at meal times.

After lunch we headed home for about 45 minutes, during which Fiona amazingly fell asleep on the couch. I think it's possible she is getting sick because she NEVER does this.

Sadly we were off for our next adventure - the car dealership. My car was in just last week for repairs but since then developed a weird squeak in the back. They have a playroom so the girls were entertained, but it was still a pretty boring 2 hours. Luckily they fixed it, and it's still under warranty so it was free!

Fiona loved rocking this bear in a cradle... she kept telling us to "shh" and that we'd get time outs for being noisy while her baby was sleeping. And this meant any noise whatsoever. So after 2 hours of that I was ready to be done!

Adele entertained herself by trying to chew on the metal windowsill. After 2 hours I was ready to be done with that too.

Then it was home time. Dinner. Then we went back to the park for a little play ebfore bed. Fiona played with Daddy while I pulled pieces of playground rubbery stuff out of Adele's mouth.

Then it was home to bed for the girls, and then I worked until 11 which explains the dullness of this post! And now I am off to bed.

Ben's new hobby

Remember Ben's new love? Well, he's already replaced her with a newer, younger model. Her clutch was pretty obviously dying, and she needed a LOT of fuel to get from A to B, so he traded her for a new Honda Civic Si. As usual, his taste is impeccable - she is a beauty...

However, he decided that the constant quest to find an even better car, and the endless car replacement (and implied expense) needed to be toned down.

Thus, I hereby proudly present... BEN'S CAR BLOG! Go, look, it's awesome.

Hopefully this will be a way for him to channel some of his love of cars into something less expensive. He even signed a real live contract stating that he won't buy another car for 5 years. I just need to get a frame for it to hang it on the wall.

Of course I have the utmost faith in his abilities to control his car purchase urges. But just in case, if he caves, let's just say I won't have to wash the dishes for a long time.

Ben's new love

I'm sorry I haven't written about our adventures in the last week, but I've been too busy sobbing into my pillow... you see, Ben has a new love in his life. She's curvy, sexy, and wears a lot of red. She hugs him tight and roars with excitement when he caresses her with his... um... foot. Yes, I should stop with the analogies there. She's a car. 

Isn't she lovely? She's a Mazda RX-8, and usually after Ben comes home from work, he'll pop out to the garage a couple of times in the evening to visit her. 

One of the reasons I was presented with for why she was the best choice of car was that she has back seats, and half back doors, so Fiona can fit in the back. And this is true, however, car seat manufacturers don't seem to have considered that you may want to fit your child in the back of a sports car, and the seat that we have for "my" car is much too big for the RX-8. 

So on Sunday, after some fruitless internet research (apparently providing dimensions for car seats is too much work for the manufacturers), we set off on an expedition to babies 'r' us, in search of a miniature car seat.

We found that interestingly, the more expensive a car seat is, generally, the larger it becomes. By the time you pay $369 for the Britax Advocate, it comes with 8 cup holders, and a troop of tiny circus clowns and elephants living inside it ready to pop up at a moment's notice and entertain your child. Of course, you do have to drive a car the size of a tank in order to accommodate it. Luckily, we wanted something small, and we're cheap, and the two seem to go hand in hand, so we went with this one:

It's the Evenflo Tribute V, and you can see it only has one cup holder. Which of course, we didn't attach, because just the thought of liquids being spilled in Ben's new love causes him to hyperventilate.  So here it is... a public service announcement for those who, like us, try to fit a giant car seat in a ridiculously tiny car. You can fit this one, rear facing, in the back of an RX-8, and still fit a 5'10" passenger in the seat in front. You're welcome for the help! :-)

Thus ends the new car excitement. For me anyway. Ben's out there right now, caressing her gentle curves. He claims to be sorting the recycling, but with a booty like this, how could he possibly resist?

We're back!

Well, we got back last week, but I been so busy washing all of the clothes that Ben saved up for me that I haven't had a chance to post anything. So here's what we've been up to...

Ben took a couple of days off work when we got back, and it was nice to have a mini-holiday with him. It was extra nice when he got up at 4.30am when Fiona decided it was morning! Luckily that only lasted a few days!

After we got back it suddenly got really warm here... it was wonderful! We took a walk and look at what we found...

It's proof!! Spring might still be on its way! Well, it was for a few days, until it got cold again... but I'm not losing hope! It'll happen! If the trees are convinced, so am I.

Fiona had some fun on the swings... 

And Brodie thought it was so warm that he had to have a rest in the shade.

At the weekend we went to the Autoshow. Ben has been going to the Autoshow since he was a little boy. The one here is not as elaborate as the one in Detroit, but it's still a lot of fun. One of my favourite parts is looking at the ridiculously large vehicles... here are a couple of pictures...

Cadillac Escalade. 6.2L V8. This monster is SIXTEEN feet long. This one is pretty good, but I think I'd need something a little bigger... 

Like this! Ford Super Duty. Nineteen feet long. Can tow a tractor. Just case you ever needed to do that... 

I think part of my fascination with the gigantic ones comes from my recent visit to Aberdeen, where the roads are super narrow and the cars are pretty small. I don't think you could fit either of these down the road in Aberdeen, never mind try to park them!

The other exciting part is of course, the sports cars. 

Ben and Fiona test out a Corvette.

Nissan GT-R. 485 hp, 3.8L twin turbocharged V6, top speed 193mph. This is the one I would choose. And it has back seats, so it's totally family friendly!! When I built one to my specifications on the webite, it was only $87,720... that's a pretty good deal! Maybe for my birthday...

We had a lovely weekend together, then Ben went back to work and Fiona and I went back to hanging around the house. Next week, we're having some very exciting visitors, so I'm sure we'll have more adventures to share then!