A Week in the Life... July 19-25

Staring at the pool in trepidation...

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Sophie takes her first ride on her new "big girl bike", with Rowan and Mommy spotting her! To watch her discover her bike, check out the video posted at the bottom of this week's entry...

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Our neighbour's cat had kittens, and we enjoyed a little visit with them on the weekend... cute as cute can be.

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Chris, Sophie and I on our rather impromptu road trip to Niagara Falls - as you can tell, we had a blast!

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One of the many natural beauties we witnessed on our trip to Niagara - these grapes were growing on the edge of the Niagara Gorge, in the parking lot where we stopped for a picnic.

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Sophie poses outside Chateau des Charmes, a winery in the Niagara region that Chris and I both really enjoy, and where we found ourselves during our Sunday Drive.

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Sophie started swimming lessons this week - it's an interesting setup, as they offer the lessons daily instead of weekly, which was how she'd taken lessons before. It seems to be a bit much for her, and we've had several swimming-lesson-related meltdowns this week. Sophie is not a brave child - she's cautious, which in many ways has served her well. She was never the child climbing book cases or falling down stairs - in fact, she's the only child I've ever known who even when she was a baby would pick something up off the floor and show it to me for approval before putting it in her mouth. I've been thankful for her caution a number of times, but it's a double edged sword. Her lessons at The Little Gym were in many ways inspired by her fear of climbing up and jumping off things, and her swimming lessons have been a bit of a trial as a result of her cautious approach to life. She does not want to put her fact in the water, let alone dunk under - she does not want to attempt to float either on her front or her back, unless someone has a heck of a firm hold on her and even then it's a struggle - she does not want to jump into the pool from the side, but will slide in as long as it's into someone's arms. The swimming teacher at Thames Pool is a bit flummoxed by Sophie, because she gives every appearance of loving the water and having fun - until she's asked to try something that makes her uncomfortable and then the fight begins. That said, swimming is a vital skill to learn even if you are a cautious person... and I need to figure out a way to get her comfortable in the water even if it takes all summer.

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The actual day of Sophie's birth - the culmination of several days worth of celebrations - was this Tuesday. It was a busy day, with the aforementioned swimming lessons in the morning, an appointment with her Speech Pathologist Beth in the afternoon, and Gymnastics class in the evening. In amongst the classes and appointments Sophie opened lots of presents from Mom and Dad, including her "big gift" - her very first two-wheeler bike (check out the video below for her reaction). Before bed that evening we re-read her a story that we've had for years: Sophie's Wheels, which features a little red-haired girl named Sophie and all the different types of wheels she uses as she grows from an infant to a big girl - it culminates, as you may have guessed, in her riding around the neighborhood on her first two-wheeler bike. Not a dry eye in the house when that story was read this evening, I tell ya.

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Sunday marked one of the few days we've had this summer with no obligations, no appointments, no work that needed to be done, no... nothing. So we decided to go on a good old-fashioned family "Sunday Drive". We started out just saying we wanted to get out of London, and somehow that one guideline turned into a 12-hour journey to and around Niagara. Spontaneity at it's best! Although I prefer to experience our road trips fully prepared with snacks, Sophie's favourite toys and videos, a picnic basket and more - it turned out to be a great journey without the prep. We stopped at the Upper Canada Cheese Company in Jordan for some wonderful cheeses and fresh bread, took an impromptu (the word of the day, really) tour of Cave Spring Cellars where we picked up an amazing Riesling, and then picnicked in a park along the Niagara river on our way to see the Falls. We haven't been to the Falls in well over a year so it was a lot of fun bringing Sophie down there to check out one of the natural wonders of the world and showing her some of the classic tourist attractions (like Clifton Hill, the Floral Clock, and so on...) and we certainly enjoyed our time in the local wineries. I was surprised by how "into" the winery experience Sophie actually was - I thought she'd be interested as long as there was something in it for her (ie: a special grape juice to try), but she not only was the one who insisted that we take part in the Cave Springs underground tour, but asked several really good questions of our tour guide along the way. I'm beaming in pride - you just can't see it from here!

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