One month

One month from today, I will be flashing my I.D. card at security and starting back at work. I have mixed emotions about this. Poppa D is quite ill at the moment and I think there will be a lot of additional upheaval in the months to come, in addition to the regular baggage of starting work and dropping off Master T with Jeannette, his daycare provider. He's been taking small separations in a stride. When we see Jeannette at the drop-in centre she takes him off my hands and he's been fine with it. Another caregiver at the drop-in centre calls him Mr. Independent. He's just so chill. He's fine just sitting and hanging out and he doesn't really notice that I'm not within eyesight unless I happen to pass into his field of vision. I'm sure it'll be different once he realizes that this is his new reality, but all told, he really is a very unclingy baby.

Yesterday, in addition to it being the 10th Anniversary of the First Time Americans Realized That Their Foreign Policies Make The Rest Of The World Hate Them, it was the Big Yam's 11 month birthday. How crazy is that? Super crazy, that's what.

Despite the ongoing stress of Poppa D's sickness, we had a pretty good weekend. Dr. Rei came by on Friday and we feasted on pizza pide:

We also had some serious talks and big laughs at the same time. Big laughs about the weird sexual proclivities of one of my exes, which we call "the thing" and periodically, when we're hanging out, Dr. Rei will remember "the thing" and lose her mind. Big laughs about how any time conversation turns to the gifted program, I will sit an quietly whisper "I'm gifted" until someone notices. Big laughs making up lyrics to Chocolate Rain.

How cute are these two? Especially the Big Yam in his striped jim-jams.

Saturday morning we woke up and I made the family a fat baby with cinnamon apples. We did a bunch of errands and the Dotytron spent some time with his da' at the hospital and then we girded our loins to attend our friend L's pig roast. Ummm...pig roasts are amazing. I'm totally all fired up to invest in the pig roast infrastructure. Basically, they cooked a 50lb pig over a split drum charcoal bbq on a big spit. L's friend bought the whole rig for $400 and rents it out for $100 a pop and it's booked solid every weekend!!! Amazing!!! I'm totally going to do that. I was considering doing a pig roast for T's 1st birthday, but with all the stuff happening with work and Poppa D, I figured we'd hold off until next year. Hopefully we can get our yard fenced in and our deck done and then do it up proper. The rig is going to come in handy for lobster fest and pig roasts and lamb roasts and all the rest. Hooooeeeee...I'm already so pumped for this I can't even talk about it.

It was a pretty ideal evening. We didn't think we'd get there in time to even eat the pig (L is notorious for running late) - but the pig was ready for 7:30pm - we got there just after that, ate some pig, visited with peeps, drank some beers that weren't ours, and got home by 9:30pm with our bellies full of pig, and our beers AND our dessert accidentally brought home with us. What what!

Sunday was a damn near perfect day. Ate breakfast, did some reorganizing, labelled a bunch of bins for storage, cleaned and reorganized our vestibule, cleaned up the back deck area, went to the Farmer's Market, took the Big Yam and biked to the Leslie Spit and back, finished quilting my quilt, hung with the neighbours, had the roomie over for dinner, watched an FNL and we were still in bed by 9:30pm. I love those weekends that have that balance of socializing, crossing things off your to-do list, and lots of fun family time.

I made us chicken Milanese for dinner, on top of a salad of arugala tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, and grated parm. Fresh farmer's market corn on the cob on the side.

The Big Yam likes to do this thing with the lid of his silicone storage containers where he holds it in his mouth and he looks like a demented clown. It's pretty hilarious.

We've been listening to this mix that we grabbed off The Rub's page pretty consistently. It's slick. It starts off with some pure early 90s girl group awesomeness, which inspired the Dotytron to ask me, "Who does that 'No Scrubs' song?" "TLC" "...it's a pretty good tune!" DUHHHHH. That is a jam, son! RIP Left-Eye! Then the mix goes into some new stuff and ends with a remix of Prince's 7, which is SOOOO GOOD. Here's a refresher in case you need to remember the original:

The mix has a bit too much Lauryn Hill into Fugees for me, but other than that, it's freakin' amazing. The mix also has Mary J's Real Love, which has inspired me to want to learn how to play it on the piano. HOW AMAZING WOULD THAT BE??? Like, if you could just roll up into any hotel lobby and start banging out Real Love on a baby grand? I feel like my ticket to popularity lies therin.

Fin.