Summer chaos

I love Summer. I am wondering when it will reach Toronto though. It has been raining and it has been chilly. It is June and my boiler still kicks in at night. What's up with that??!! Granted, there are the nice days in between where impromptu BBQs are in order..





When the outdoor toys are in use..



And when we are able to feel the grass between our toes...



Hopefully there will be more of those days to come.

I haven't been blogging for a while. Almost impossible to find the time. When the weather is nice we immediately head out to the backyard, the park, the anywhere outside. When the weather is crappy, I am racking my brains trying to figure out how to keep the kids entertained. It is much more difficult now as Dylan is far more active than he was a month ago, pulling himself up, coasting and wanting to be and doing what his sister is doing. He has also dropped his morning nap but takes a longer afternoon nap. Whatever free time I have is taken up by mundane things like weeding, dealing with landscaping quotes, arranging for raccoon removals (we had two trapped last night and we are setting up a few more traps just in case..the service will remove them and relocate them humanely..) and other home related issues. Dylan, like Sash, stopped eating his baby food at 9 months. So he has for the past 3 weeks been experimenting with finger foods. We are able to get some cereal into him maybe once every 3 days..but so far he is surviving on milk and Cheerios. He has since his 8 month birthday been on whole milk after getting the OK from his pediatrician, but as he is on his hunger strike, he is back on formula. Frustrating to say the least. Having said that he is as alert as ever and extremely active, so I guess lack of food is bothering me more than him.

To deal with his reactive lung, I decided to bite the bullet and get a Dyson with the hepa-filter. We have had a few vacuums and yes, they do lose suction power over time. I told D when we were in San Diego for our 4th wedding anniversary that I didnt want jewelry. I wanted a Dyson. He thought it was a sick joke I was playing. I was serious and this morning I dragged him down the street to get my present. He still thinks its a joke and soon every woman on the block will be taking the piss about the cliche "vacuum" present. I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled with my new vacuum. I have been doing a bit of research about asthma and reactive lungs and by God I will do all I can to make sure Dylan or Sash dont get it. I was reading this article in the Economist about the link between eczema and asthma the other day and have chucked all non-organic bath and body washes. Dylan has always used organic but Sasha has for a while used more generic Johnsons or the like. They will both share body washes and shampoos now. I may be paranoid, but hey, just because you are not paranoid it doesnt mean no one is watching you.