T-Ball begins.

Malcolm's first official step into organized baseball. He and Roger have actually been practising all week at the park. He's been smashing them off the tee at practice so it wasn't surprising to see that he did quite well at the plate at Sunday's game. He's got some of the fundamentals down, now he'll have to grasp some of the finer points regarding the rules of the game. Anyway, we very proud of him. He did very well. Thankfully the rain held off which wasn't the case for Opening Day at the park a day earlier.

Here's the Mayor of New Westminster, Wayne Wright throwing out the first pitch. As you can see it was a very wet day:

Busy start to activities for both Malcolm and Melody.

Friday marked the beginning of swimming lessons for Malcolm and Melody. Malcolm seems like the oldest in the class, we're all keeping our fingers crossed that he passes this time around. He's had some difficulty putting his head under the water, so let's hope he can overcome it this time. Melody is taking a parent and child class. She seemed pretty enthusiastic about swimming, much more than skating. The other good thing is that our friends Aaden and Wendy are also taking the class. Aaden is more than overjoyed about classes. Here are some pictures from Friday's class.

Sick...

So early last week Roger discovered some lumps and bumps on my body. At first everyone had thought that they were various sebaceous cysts that I've been dealing with for the past year, but this was different. The main difference is that they are all over the body, with a rather large mass behind my neck. Roger and Tracey took me to the veterinarian for a biopsy. The results were in today and luckily the doctor said that the results were negative. Whew what a relief. Andrew and Deana were nice enough to let me stay at the house in Whistler while I was recovering. I was really happy to be with so many people. I went from room to room to say hello to everyone. They were all so kind. Here are some pictures from our trip.
Whistler 2013 from Obiwanhavanese on Vimeo.
A great time was had by all. Certainly the kids got along so well. It's actually nice to see. As we get older we can share more experiences and memories.

Spring Break trip to Seattle.

So the family spent a few days in Seattle during Malcolm's spring break. They stayed in a very nice hotel in downtown Seattle called the Maxwell Hotel. The hotel had a pool, was conveniently located, and even served cupcakes in the lobby. It was a nice trip for the family. The kids got some new shoes, they got to see their cousin Vincent and were able to spend some family time together in another city. It was a busy few days, the Seattle Outlets, Chihuly Museum, Space Needle, Science Center, shopping,  Top Pot Doughnuts, Pike Place Market and some other Seattle sites. Here are some pictures from their trip, if you want to see the whole set click the link. (I think Tracey has been cured of her need to travel, maybe in a few more months):

Spring Break 2013.

Roger noticed another abscess in Malcolm's mouth yesterday and immediately called the dentist for an appointment. He managed to get one for this afternoon. Upon initial examination the Doctor said that it had to come out. Roger and Tracey weren't entirely surprised to hear this knowing the size of the inflammation. We're hoping that this will now quell some of the nightmares he's been having. So for almost a week straight he's been waking up periodically through the night crying and carrying on. He does have a bit of a cold, but the nights have been terrible in the last while. Everyone has been suspecting that the infection has had something to do with his sleep disruption. I guess it remains to be seen. So despite the crying and complaining about his tooth and the extraction, he managed to bounce back in a few hours and feel better, as evidenced by the picture below. Here's the one from last summer: Link Malcolm has been wanting to see some totem poles, so what better place to visit than the Museum of Anthropology at UBC. Today was Roger's day to take off with Malcolm (for Spring Break) and they decided to go to the museum. Not wanting to leave Melody out, they kept her home from daycare and had a good day out. They even managed to go to the beach and play in the sand for 20mins or so before heading out to lunch at Cactus Club. Here are some shots from the field trip.

Happy 8th birthday to me.

Whoa, 8 years old, they say that is 56 years by human accounts. I don't feel that old, perhaps it's true what they say, age is only a number and that you're only as old as you feel (and I still feel young). I've lived with this family for a long time, I've watched two wonderful children grow up from babies to toddlers and now to full fledged children. I've even seen different homes, travels to different places and have met people who are no more. In a dog's life many things change, but I'm glad that everyone here has always shown me love, respect and kindness. They have always treated me with care and consider me one of the family.

Student led conference for Grade 1.

Tracey and Roger attended Malcolm's first student-led conference this past Friday. They got to see first hand what's he's learning in school. Malcolm showed them both how he's reading, writing journal entries, performing science experiments and he even showed us some math skills. They were really proud of his achievement with respect to his reading, he's has really come a long way compared to the beginning of the year. He's able to read many of the books by himself. Certainly his sight word recognition has improved. Reading his journal entries, his drawing, sentence structure and even spelling have gotten so much better. Here are some pictures from the conference on Friday. We're all very proud of you Malcolm. Special thanks to your teacher Mrs. M, she's doing a great job.

Hate when the kids are sick.

So Malcolm and Melody missed a few days of school last week because they were sick. Most of all, it's been fevers and terrible coughs that have been really affecting their sleep. Tracey and Roger have been up multiple times a night dealing with the kids sickness. They even coughed so much that it caused them to vomit, not very nice. Suffice to say, the weekend hasn't been the greatest. We're all hoping they're on the mend and will be able to go back to school tomorrow. At least the weather was good on Sunday for the kids to go out and get some fresh air.

Also, I'm happy to report that I'm all better. The skin infection has cleared and I'm back to normal. I'm not sure what was going on, but I had developed multiple cysts on my body. The cysts have either burst and disappeared. Tracey thinks they may have been some sebaceous cysts, no one really knows. There was some significant chatter about whether they were cancer, but I'm relieved to know they were not.

35 Years later.

Roger was invited to make a presentation at the OURA conference this past weekend. He travelled to Niagara Falls early Saturday morning and made a whirlwind trip back to Vancouver the next day. Suffice to say the presentation was a success and Roger made it home safe and sound. While he was there, he was lucky enough to visit Niagara Falls, you know he was there in February 1978, exactly 35 years ago! Here's a dyptych with Grandma Janey and a self-portrait he shot.  In retrospect, Roger should have taken the picture with him to try and re-create the photo, he did his best with what he could remember. Here are some other shots from the trip.

Skating marches on...

Whew, we've had less guff about skating lately. Malcolm has actually been pretty good about it. Either he's resigned to going or perhaps he's having fun. He has gotten a lot better from Roger's accounts. He's gaining speed and definitely able to keep up better. Melody is doing well too, despite the couple of weeks of resistance, she's been very good about going. Here are some pictures from this week's session. She's doing a lot better than Malcolm did at the same age.