Cottage -Week 2

I am beginning to realize that the clock is ticking, marking the days until our return to real life. Getting Sophia readjusted to life without the lake is going to be a pain! Oh well, might as well put that thought out of my mind until I actually have to deal with it! Denial, denial, denial.

The last week has been great. The weather has ranged from absolutely fabulous to miserable. At least we commented that it felt like autumn was making it's presence felt. Yikes. Seasons swing quickly in this neck of the woods.

Sophia has been happily exploring every inch of the cottage and as much of the
grounds as we will let her. She has moved from timidly walking on the grass and rocky terrain while grasping the nearest adult digit, to confidently striding along the shore line all by herself. She practically runs while she is in the house! And her favorite way to do this is without any clothes on. Seems to be we have a streaker in the making.

One morning, Sophia was exploring the bedroom while I was catching up on Facebook and Reginamoms . As I was typing I heard a wee whine and a little grunting coming from behind me. As I turned to find out what the trouble was I spotted a little pjyama-ed bum sticking out from under the bed. Turns out Sophia wanted the floating thing that was under there.

I just gotta... damn I'm stuck.

just checking out the world from under the bed.

Sophia has figured her grandma out. Every time Diane puts her shoes on, Sophia runs straight to her and puts her arms out to be picked up. This is what goes through Sophia's mind: "This is the lady who will take me to the water. It doesn't matter what else she was planning to do, now she is going outside." Usually this works. Which is great because Sophia LOVES the water and the beach. She wanders into the water fully clothed when she gets the chance. Often she is in the water, even when the adults don't want to be because it's "cold". :)

Anyway, Sophia has spent a lot of time soaking up the sun and splashing in the water...
Look at me!

Splashing with Grandma Gerhard



Oh look, a Seagull! Sophia loves the seagulls around the cottage. She laughs and laughs as they fly by or as they float in the water.

Haley only swims when she thinks we are going to leave her behind! Otherwise, she stays as far from the water as possible, but not out of eye site of her family.

We had a beautiful, calm day so we packed up a picnic lunch and loaded up the boat (AKA Ed) and headed out to Timber Beach --a lovely, long, sandy beach. It's about a half an hour away from the cottage, and Sophia loved the ride. She played in sand, and splashed in the water. It was a fun afternoon for everyone.

Everyone's at the beach! Even Haley, who kept to the shade of the boat, until she decided to take a swim because she saw David, Sophie and I on the boat. She looked a bit like a drowned rat.


Sophia being flung around by Daddy. He's more of a risk taker with her than I am. Seems that she has inherited this risky behaviour.

Post beach shenanigans...yesh, that is a bathing suit on her head. She thought it quite funny.

More boating happened this week. The weather cooperated to the point that we could make the trip to Northern Harbour and take a sail on Shadowfax. It takes me a little bit of time to get used to sailing...it is not unusual for the boat to move along at a serious list, which is completely normal. For this landlubber, having part of the deck of the boat dip into the water (and stay that way) will elicit loud and somewhat panicked prayers (along the lines of "oh God, oh God, we're all going to die"). If you add to this unease the souls of a beloved child and four footed creature, (David doesn't register here because he is used to the boat and knows what to expect) you pretty much have a very anxious, somewhat unhappy Tricia. To ease my tension, Grandma Gerhard took Sophia below deck, where she was very happy to discard the unwieldy life jacket and play to her hearts content. Haley, well...she was a different story ---shaking below deck and braced for the worse above. Sophia had a great time, watching the water go along and checking out the birds and such. By the end of the sail, I was very happily dangling my feet in the water and enjoying the movement. After the sail, we headed into Kenora for dinner and then drove back to the cottage.





I think that Sophia would have happily hung over the edge of boat to drag her fingers through the water. We, the responsible adults, decided to squash this plan.

Just popping up through the hatch!

A Canadian Plum orchard has been discovered on one of the pathways. So this morning, Diane, David and Arthur headed out and picked a hoard of plums for making preserves and jams.



The haul...

Sophia and I went to check out the orchard later in the day.

Finally, we let Sophia's inner artist out again. This time, Mommy got smart and let the art happen in more easily cleaned tub!


Body and tub art...

The final piece de resistance