Happy one month until Christmas! A big thank you to all of Lily's fans who have been asking for an update! The past two weeks have been hectic for a number of reasons. I am applying to teacher's college and the application due date is Dec 1st and I have had to orchestrate the four institutions I
've attended to send transcripts to the three institutions I'm applying to (FYI - Western in London, OISE at UofT in Toronto and University of Ottawa in Ottawa)
My application has been sent (!) and I'm now doing the final touches on my personal profiles that will be sent off by Tuesday then life gets back to normal. I'm guessing each application took about four hours and when you only have about 2 hours a day in which to concentrate on the application, it has definitely taken some time to complete! So, onto the photos!
The photo of the newborn and the bear is the son of one of my closest friends. Join me in welcoming Kaiden John Patrick Beauchamp (son of Donna and Drew) to the world! He joined us on November 17th at 0h30! The next photo is one of a VERY pregnant Connie! She is doing well - counting down the days (19!) until she delivers. The little girl with great curly hair is Erynn and she belongs to Jeff and Michelle. We hung out there on Monday night and enjoyed a pretty intense game of connect four in the dark (power outage!) The good looking kid in the tub is 26 month old Whalen showing off his chicken pox! You got it folks, Whalen had the chicken pox. He was a great tyke about it and the worst is now over. The little girl on the horse is Anna and she came (with her parents Wendy and James) to visit us in Beeton all the way from Mississauga. It was a great visit. The Lily sandwich (17 month old Joey on one side and 26 month old Whalen on the other) was taken last week when we had the boys over for a visit. The lady in the purple cast is my mom, a.k.a Nana or Crazy Lady (courtousy of her sons-in-law). Mom has tennis elbow and after trying a plethora of techniques to cure it they have resorted to injecting it with a medication and immobilizing it for a period of two weeks. This Wednesday she goes back to the Doctors to see if it has improved. If it has, then she is cast free. If she hasn't, then it goes back into a cast. Her spirits are high but so is her frustration from not being able to do her normal daily tasks (like decorating her cakes!). And Lily. Yes, our little peanut is FAST approaching four months old! She is quite the little girl and loves hanging out, even to help Mike cook! She has a positive disposition and is a charming little tyke! She likes hanging out and is loving to coo - except when we call her grandparents in Saskatchewan - then she goes silent. Really John and Brenda - Lily is really quite the chatterbox!
All in all, life is good in Beeton. We're looking forward to some great family time in the next couple of weeks as we celebrate Christmas with my family then we're off to Saskatchewan in just under three weeks! Well it is now time for Lily's bath, so I hope you enjoyed the update! PPS

Lily has become a real little person now - it's very exciting to witness. She LOVES to giggle at her Daddy - especially when he's reading Mom's favourite book "The Monster at the end of this book" - it's absolutely hysterical to listen to Lily giggle when Mike is doing his Grover voice! She has now graduated to the human tub as I like to call it. She was getting too long for her baby tub and it definitely lacked kicking space - something Lily enjoys doing in the tub! She is a great baby and is very forgiving of the hectic schedule that Mike and I subject her to. On Friday we watched my 7 year old niece and soon to be three year old nephew so Lily really enjoyed her time with them. That night we celebrated my nephew Johnny's 9th birthday - with an ice cream cake - yippee!! Whalen is really enjoying his cake!

There is also a photo here just for Uncle Christopher - he knows which one it is :-)

This past weekend we were guests at Daniel and Jennifer Levine's chalet in Thornbury. It was awesome! Dan (now called Uncle Moose due to his moose impersonations that made Lily giggle with delight) and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary as it's been ten years since we first met at University (that's right all you Western and Huron grads - it's been TEN years since we landed there!!). We spent the weekend watching movies, going for walks along Georgian Bay (it was chilly yet truly beautiful!) and enjoying Jen's great cooking!

On Sunday we were able to visit with Lily's only Great-Grandpa Norman in Walter's Falls. It had been a while since our last visit so we took the opportunity while we were in the area to visit with him.

Today we're going to hang out with my younger sister and her family in Angus. Lily gets a lot of attention from her three cousins close to her age - David soon to be three, Whalen two and Joey 1. Joey can say some words - three of them being "my baby" and "Lily"!!!! The photo with the little boy behind Lily's car seat is Joey 'helping' me carry Lily's car seat. He was NOT happy that we were going, but delighted to help out!

The photo of Lily in the pink hat and sweater were made with love by Sylvia - they're great! It was great writing however Lily has decided it is time to wake up - yes folks, that's right it is now nearly 10 a.m. and Lily is getting up for the first time since we put her to bed at midnight! It's been since Thursday night that she sleeps until anywhere between 9h30 and 10h30 while going to sleep between 23h30 and 0h30. I'll let you know when her routine changes again! Have a great week!

7:30 a.m Good Morning! I woke up this morning to my mom whispering (very loudly!) "Pamela, Pamela, come look at this!" And so I get up out of bed, head to the back door and see THIS! Very quite, slow moving creature. But we're looking to identify him. Please, post a comment or email me if you know what s/he is. PPS (p.s. Photos of Lily will be up soon!)

10:30 a.m. - We have learned that what we have here is an opossum. A great big thanks to all who answered my request for identification! More can be learned about the opossum at http://opossum.craton.net/. PPS (p.s. I'm told their not nice and should not allow Lily to befriend them. I also learned from a co-Beetonian that they are common around these parts!)