Bye bye, Baby; OR How I got a little choked up after bath time.

Earlier this evening, Claire and I were hanging out while Rachel was gone to work.

It was bath night, and it went as any other bath time would. Splashing. Playing. Tickling. Standard bath-time antics. As with most things, she's been more and more independent in the tub, attempting to wash herself and so on.

After we were done, picked her up as she made exaggerated "Brrrr!" sounds. Baby laid her head on my shoulder as we turned around to walk out of the bathroom.

"Baby" she said, catching our reflection in the mirror. Her hair was soaked as she rested in my arms, smiling with her legs hanging out of the baby-sized towel she once neatly fit in.

"Claire," I said, "I wish I could take our picture right now." She smiled back.

"Buh bye!" Baby announced.

I stared back. "Not yet?" I asked, "Maybe stay a little longer?"

"Buh bye!" she declared again.

I stood there, wondering how eighteen months could go by so fast.

"Bye bye, Baby" I said.

The Little Girl laughed and snuggled in close under the towel. I tickled her and she kicked her legs and laughed some more.

We left the mirror and went to get her ready for bed.

Orchard of dreams.

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We went apple picking in Cardigan on Thanksgiving weekend. Claire, a true apple enthusiast, was overjoyed with the infinite rows of fruit she found herself in. When we found the row were going to pick in, she asked for an apple, took it from me (after I peeled half with my teeth), and sat on the ground and got to work.

Oh right. We bought a house.

We actually bought it quite a while ago: our closing date was September 19th. We've been pretty busy and slack with the blog the last little while, so we haven't had much of a chance to write about it at all. So here's a bit of an attempt to do so.

Here's how it went down. 

Our real estate agent (the lovely and professional Kelly Lantz) came across the property whilst taking her dog for a walk. It was a private sale, which made us a little nervous for some reason, but we gladly took a look at it. The seller had actually posted it on Kijiji, which is where we saw the first photos of it, and later set up a time to see it in person. We had a look at it, thought about it, saw it again, thought about it some more, and eventually made an offer with the help of Kelly (it was posted as a private sale, but we felt much more comfortable having a pro along for the ride). Offer accepted. Papers signed. Yay us.

As mentioned, we were to close on September 19th, and managed to give notice to our landlord that we'd be out of our apartment by October 1st. This gave us a twelve day overlap. Twelve days, we decided, that would be best utilized smashing walls and tearing apart floors and painting before we moved in. We conscripted Rachel's brother in law to come in and help us with the process. More on these adventures—on a project by project basis—in future blog posts (don't worry, we took a lot of "before" pictures).

It was a busy twelve days. We'd get up at 6:30 or 7:00 every day, and work until about 1:00 or 1:30 the next morning. We managed to wrap up quite a bit , and are glad we did. Trying to do what we did while living in the house would have been torture, and really, we probably wouldn't have done most of it.

So now, here we are. Fairly settled. A month after moving in, all but one of our rooms is unpacked (and even it is usable).

We still have big plans for the little house (who doesn't) and plan to share the process and experiences on the blog as we go. It may not be in a timely fashion, but we'll post.

This stuff is harder to clean than you probably realize.

Last weekend, we decided to take advantage of one of the last nice evenings of the summer and head to the beach for a little picnic. We packed some food for Claire in her lunch bag, and then tossed a few easy snacks in her diaper bag for us (crackers, a banana, etc.).

We left our apartment, driving towards Stratford's Tea Hill Park (prime picnic local and home of PEI's only cricket pitch). As we approached the water, we could start to smell a faint stench. "Great," we thought, "the tide's out and the beach should be niiiiice and stinky just in time for our picnic."

We carried on towards the park, all the while the smell growing stronger and stronger. The stench started to change, to a slightly sweeter smell. A familiar sweet smell. The beach was starting to smell like... banana?

"Is she eating... a banana?" I asked Rachel.

"Oh... Claire."

She had managed to grab the banana from the top of the diaper bag, and being the resourceful child she is, squeezed the fruit until the peeling popped open. She then proceeded to squeeze its contents through the newly formed hole and attempted to lick it up. A nice little road trip snack.

We didn't quite understand the severity of the situation until we got to the park and looked in the back.

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