Photo of the Day May 14th

Our friend Rowan is here today, and has been following Sophie around like a puppy dog... Sophie is in turn charmed by how much he wants to be with her and do what she's doing, and then frustrated that she can't seem to get a moment to herself (hmmm... I can't possibly relate!) To be fair, she's been following him around today too - each time we've changed his diaper today she felt the need to lay right down next to him so they could play while I took care of business. I snapped this shot immediately following one of those diaper changes... clearly during one of the moments where they were both quite happy to be doing the same thing at the same time!

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Photo of the Day May 13th

... which isn't actually a photo at all, but a video. A first for our Photo-of-the-Day!

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Prior to closing two months ago, the Embassy Hotel in London's Old East Village was an alternative music hot spot, featuring both up-and-coming local and well established National and International punk and metal bandsAside from its long musical history, its exterior is well known to Londoners for an amazing collection of graffiti art and tile work, some of which was expected to be preserved when the building was demolished to make way for a new 150 unit high rise condo. It looks like that preservation isn't to be, as the Embassy hotel went up in flames last night... Chris was nearby and caught some of the action for posterity.

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Photo of the Day May 12th

Sophie is one happy kid. Now, I'm not trying to fool the world into thinking that she's all smiles and chuckles with not a drop of temper (believe me, the whole "fiery redhead" myth will not be dispelled by her) but she's got a smile on her face and an easy laugh most of the time. She's just so into whatever we're doing, whether its washing vegetables for dinner, working on a project or (more often than not) playing some creative imagination game where we're being bunnies... she really seems to be enjoying all the experiences that life has to offer. A good example - Sophie walking to a restaurant with her cousins Brandon and Courtney. They're not doing anything in particular, not playing a funny game or telling stories... they're just together, and that togetherness is so wonderful to Sophie that her smile lights up the whole parking lot. I hope she keeps finding joy in those little things... it's such a beautiful gift.

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Photo of the Day May 11th

I see you!

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When Sophie and I were playing around with the camera yesterday we snapped a couple of up-close shots of ourselves, including this rather cool (I think) photo of my eye. I've stared into Sophie's eyes many times since she was born and I know their facets inside-out... the same can be said of Chris's (what with that that loving gazing we've done at each other in the past 11 years.) But I don't think I've ever really looked closely at the iris of my own eye... it makes me smile to see much of Sophie's colour in that green-flecked blue.

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Photo(s) of the Day May 10th

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

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My daughter Sophie and I are spending the day together, just the two of us. We've done exactly nothing all day long. Ate breakfast and lunch, played some games, pretended to be bunnies and foxes, played some more games, took some photos. We're heading out to dinner tonight at Red Lobster with Chris, his mom and sisters... a nice mom's get-together to round out the day.

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I'm sending much love to my own mother... I wish we could be together today, but since we can't I hope she knows I'm thinking about her and sending love across the miles. Sophie and I have called her twice to leave messages on her answering machine and we look forward to chatting with her after dinner. I hope you all have a chance to wish a very happy Mother's Day to all the moms and mother figures in your life today!

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Photo of the Day May 9th

Wine has been on my mind lately. No, I'm not developing a "problem" or anything, its actually a combination of an upcoming class I've created called "Wine-y Wednesdays" (where participants will decorate wine glasses and make wine charms) and a couple of really good meals we've had lately that paired well with wine. This evening we're going casual, enjoying some home-made burgers with sweet potato fries and a glass of Merlot. The bottle we opened, with its beautiful lion and crest detail shown here, is a French wine from Yvon Mau - it's gentle and smooth with a nice berry finish... it should meld well with the slight spiciness of the fries, which we seasoned with sea salt and Tandoori Marsala. Cheers!

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Photo of the Day May 8th

At the end of our trip to the Children's Museum yesterday we made a stop in the gift shop. It's one of the few places that I really don't mind buying something to bring home because so many of their toys and games are both educational and reasonably priced. Sophie's choice today: Magic Bubbles, a very concentrated form of liquid that makes bubbles you can actually touch - they don't pop right away when they come in contact with surfaces. Naturally we broke them out this afternoon while playing in the backyard with our friend Rowan, and they were a hit! Here you see one of those very durable little bubbles resting on a blade of grass... pretty, and pretty cool!

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