It was only months ago that I marvelled at a simple "I wuv you, Mama." Yesterday, Anissa took her affection to a new level of sophistication when she hugged me and said (even though we had been together all day, as usual), "Oh, I longed for you all day, Mama."

She is growing up much, much too fast.

Sadly, Memere left yesterday after a fun-filled two weeks. We ended the week with a bang, though, by making a trip to York's Wild Kingdom, a zoo up in Maine. Anissa was thrilled to see all the animals, but the day didn't start off so well. Painful? For Anissa, a little. Humiliating? For me, a little.

After a quick lunch at the front gates, we convinced Anissa we needed a potty stop before entering the zoo. Of course, there was a ridiculously long line-up at the woman's bathroom, and Anissa started doing the gotta-go-bad-now dance, and whining that she couldn't wait. Mom urged me to go to the front of the line and ask to go first, so I did. The tiny bathroom was total chaos, and when I tried to announce that my little girl had to go urgently, a lady near the front of the line pointed to the men's bathroom just across the hall, the door of which was wide open. Everyone waiting in line could see right inside. "There's no one in there," she said. "Try the men's."

I hesitated, but when I looked down and saw Anissa clutching at her pants, I knew I had to just do it. We got into a stall, Anissa did her business, and I decided I might as well do the same rather than go through the long lineup. As is often the case, Anissa started fiddling with the lock on the door. I warned her not to open it. I had just stood up and barely pulled up my underwear, my pants still down around my ankles, when the door went flying open. I shrieked, "Anissa!". I caught a glimpse of a few shocked little boy faces near the sink area, and the faces from woman's lineup peering my way. I reached over and slammed the door back shut - and that's when Anissa let out a blood-curdling scream. Confused at first, I thought "why is she screaming when I'm the one that flashed half the zoo?" when I realized that her fingers were stuck in the door. I tried to calm her down and figure out the best way to get her out - opening the door would mean crushing her fingers even more. And besides, I still hadn't pulled up my pants. Her screaming escalated, and I could hear my Mom on the other side of the door, "Anissa? Trina? What's going on?"

I had to do it. I pulled, as gently as I could, and extracted those poor little fingers from the door. They had deep purple dents on the top, but otherwise I was pretty sure she was fine. I squeezed Anissa out through the door so Mom could take her and run cold water on her fingers while I got my pants back up in privacy. When I opened the door, the men's bathroom was full. I got a lot of confused looks, and some dirty looks from the women's lineup. I tried to gather my pride as I went to check on Anissa, still wailing.

And she cried and sniffled all the way to the elephant pen. She got a little happier when she saw the great wrinkly beast. By the time we got to the lineup for the paddle boats, she was getting excited. But she still didn't let it go. "Mama," she said, "You should tell me you're sorry." I had already, of course, but in her hysteria she hadn't heard me. I told her I didn't mean to hurt her, and asked her next time to please not open the door. We were on good terms.

An hour later, I had almost forgotten the whole embarrassing incident until I saw the woman from the bathroom lineup pointing to Anissa and telling another woman, in FRENCH, that this was the little girl who got her fingers stuck in the men's bathroom! I had to bite my tongue to keep from reminding her - in French, of course - that she was the one who told us to go in there in the first place. But instead I took Anissa's hand and lead her over to the sloth's cage.

After all, what's a day of parenting without a little pain and humiliation?

Memere is in town, and Anissa is living the good life. They've been playing restaurant, going for walks and bike rides, playing tag in the backyard until Memere is ready to drop, making crafts, reading books, dancing...I'm exhausted just writing about all they'e been up to. And today, a 90 degree scorcher, Memere inflated the pool and put on the sprinkler. Anissa splashed away to her heart's content.

Tomorrow? The beach!

Happy Belated Birthday, my sweet daughter! I can't believe three years have gone by since you came into this world. And every day since has been a gift.

Anissa was lucky enough to have a birthday party both in Montreal and here in Newmarket. Her real birthday night, though, was a quiet little soiree with Mehdi, the birthday girl and I. Anissa helped me make a brownie cake before the requested spaghetti dinner, and she insisted in getting dressed up before sitting down to dine. About ten minutes into the meal, we heard voices outside. Anissa ran to the living room and peeked out the window - there was a little girl out there! Mehdi mentioned that it was the girl who lived across the street. Anissa was looking longingly out the window, and asked if we could go meet her. We all headed outside to say hi to the neighbours, only to find a few more neighbours - also with a toddler girl - had stopped outside on their nightly stroll. Both girls had doll strollers, so of course Anissa asked for hers. Three little girls were having a blast pushing their carriages up and down the street, and soon enough another family with - guess, another girl with a stroller! - came along, and so on. We met a whole bunch of our neighbours, all very nice people, and six children had fun scampering about together.

Mehdi, Anissa and I came inside, all with big smiles, lit some candles and finished our birthday celebration. When Anissa was in bed, Mehdi came down the stairs and said exactly what I was thinking: "I think we're going to like it here."