Seeing I missed the first week of this challenge I’m going to post photos from the last two weeks. I met my youngest granddaughter for the first time over the Christmas holidays. On January 8th our son, daughter-in-law and Sevin returned to London, England after spending two weeks with us. The first two photos show Sevin just before she left for the airport and sleeping on the plane.
Winnie showing off the outfit that Oma and Papa sent her for Christmas. Sadly they didn’t make it to Toronto this ChristmasAn exceptional meal that Kevin prepared for me on Saturday. I’m such a lucky girl.
Over the holidays our granddaughter from England came for a visit with her parents. When Winnie, our first granddaughter was very young I used to frequently see how much direction she would take when we did art together and I was always surprised at how much she would remember from one visit to the next. As she got older she wanted to be the one giving directions and we had to follow her lead when we did art together.
On this recent trip, Sevin’s parents asked me if I would do watercolour with her. It was a medium that up to this point they hadn’t tried with her. I wasn’t sure if she was old enough but I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained so after spending a week with us and becoming more and more comfortable with us we set up a painting station on the dining room table. Mama and Papa went out for a walk and Sevin and I started the painting process. We taped down the paper and I tried to teach her how to wet the brush and dip it into the paint. She loved making puddles on the paper and seeing how the colours reacted with each other. I talked about how red and blue make purple (two colours she gravitated to the most) and how we should clean the brushes between colours. It didn’t always work but when one painting was done I quickly removed it from the board and taped down a new piece of paper. We did this as least five times.
While we painted, her grandfather came along and joined us. It was a real family affair. After some of the paintings dried I showed Sevin how to add more marks to the painting, using crayons. She has a nice swirl technique that she added to one of the paintings and it ended up being the painting we matted and will probably frame. When her parents returned from their walk they were most impressed with what Sevin had accomplished and I think they may try this when they get back to London.
…last Tuesday, Brendan, Sevin and I decided to go to the AGO
When I booked the tickets I knew that Tuesday would be the last day before another lockdown here in Ontario. Frankly I was quite surprised at how many people had the same idea, especially since it was a Tuesday and many people were back to work, mostly remotely, but none the less there was a bit of a line-up to get in even with timed tickets.
I really wanted to see Picasso’s Blue Period but Sevin was not really into this show so we walked through quickly. Hopefully I can go back when the lockdown is lifted.
One of my favourite areas of the AGO is the Galleria Italia with its floor to ceiling windows and beautiful wooden arched beams. I thought Sevin would enjoy this more and of course she found a seat to sit in right away. Since COVID the cafe in the galleria is closed and the tables have been removed. In its place a number of bronze sculptures are prominently displayed.
Sunbird II by Soral Etrog, 1962Andrieu D’Andres by Auguste Rodin, 1888-89Eustache de Saint-Pierre by Auguste Rodin, 1887Fisher-boy Dancing the Tarantella by Francisique-Joseph Duret, 1883
…after a trip to the ROM I was delighted to find these trios
A Trio of Toy Teacups MiniaturesA Display of COVID MasksBonus – three t-shirts that my daughter in New Brunswick made for Winnie
If you have any photos of trios, why not join the fun and post some on your blog. Copy my link and post it into your blog and I will get a pingback. I promise I will get back to you. Apologies to those who posted over the holidays. I’ve been very busy with family and have not been on the computer as much as I normally am. I’ll get to your comments shortly. Happy New Year, everyone.
Last week my son and I, along with my granddaughter took a car ride to the Royal Ontario Museum. My son really wanted to see the Photography exhibit and I knew that Sevin would be less than impressed. I was, however quite surprised when I saw how easily she amused herself. It wasn’t the photos that caught her attention but the chairs that were placed throughout the exhibit.
When my kids were little they were allowed to watch Sesame Street. Not only was it educational but it also gave me a bit of time to myself while the kids were entertained. Things are not much different today except that there is way more variety and kids’ shows can be viewed on tablets and phones as well as TVs.
Now that our granddaughter from England is here visiting us we have discovered that she loves Peppa Pig (as did her older cousin at the same age) and Sarah and Duck. Whenever she gets a bit cranky, out comes the phone with the downloaded episodes that Mama and Papa preloaded before they arrived.
Last week when the family went out for a walk, Kevin went to his drawing table and drew Sarah and Duck and pasted it to the front door. When she returned home this is what she found.
…after waiting almost two years I finally got to meet my granddaughter
This Christmas was touch and go. As many of you know our sweet Frances had to be put down last week. If that wasn’t bad enough our daughter in New Brunswick, Gaelan, cancelled her trip to Toronto because of the Omicron variant. All the things I had planned to do with Winnie went out the window. I don’t blame them for not coming. Things got complicated with having to put their dog in a kennel and then they had to be back by December 31st because the kennel was closing down for a two week vacation.
That same day we found out the our daughter-in-law had tested positive for COVID so that meant that two more people were not coming to the house for Christmas. Luckily Josie didn’t have to be hospitalized and our daughter Andrea continues to test herself and the results regularly show negative for COVID. In the meantime on the east coast, Gaelan has been testing herself and she kept getting a faint positive result. Fortunately the last couple of tests have come up negative. On Christmas Eve, Kevin and I spent the evening together sans family.
Fingers crossed that Brendan and his family were going to get here from the U.K. Not only was the spread of the variant rampant there but the airlines were starting to cancel flights because they didn’t have the staff to man the flights. On Christmas Day I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I heard that they were on the plane. When they arrived it was raining but seeing my granddaughter for the first time was like a ray of sunshine.
Jet lag is tough for adults but particularly hard on toddlers. On Sevin’s first night she was up at 3:30 am. I normally sleep till 8:00 but I was in and out of sleep till about 7:00 and I finally decided to get up and actually get outside early and catch the sunrise. We all got warmly dressed. At the least the rain had stopped and we got a peak of the sun coming through the clouds. Seeing that we were up we walked over to the playground so that Sevin could explore.
Today it started to snow. We spent the morning playing with Play Dough and Sevin and I filled the bird feeder and watched the birds and squirrels come for breakfast.
We’re hoping to make some video calls to New Brunswick later today and hopefully we’ll be able to see Andrea and Josie in the next few days. Fingers crossed again.
Mama Cormier 