Just got back from a week of blissful laziness at my parents' place. Anissa had a week off of school so the girls and I stayed in Wandering River after a family Easter weekend, sending Mehdi back to work in Calgary. We spent some time with friends and extended family but mostly filled the days with crafts, reading, puppet shows, dancing to Mexican mariachi music (don't ask) and, Elianne's absolute favorite: watching the small herds of deer that came to feed several times a day in the front yard. She even learned to say "deer" -sort of- and demanded many many times a day to be held up near the windows so she could check in the trees if they were back.

Eli and Memere.

A stroll with the big cousins.

Elianne also got to ride the tractor for the first time with Anissa, Pepere and I. Her eyes grew huge when we drove into the pasture to feed the buffalo their bales. The huge beasts, stamping and grunting just below the tractor door, never fail to impress me, so I can imagine what a sight it must have been for a one-year old. She didn't learn to say "buffalo" but she did continually point and make the sound for what she thought they were - "eeee"ing in her best elephant impression.

Anissa, other than a few days fighting a stomach bug, also enjoyed some new experiences. At my friend Ramona's parents' farm, she got to feed a baby calf a bottle of milk. And she discovered a new favorite hobby with Memere and Pepere; playing cards. She played hours of Crazy 8's, Go Fish and Memory Match. And it's actually a bit freaky how lucky she is, almost always beating everyone (and we were even trying to win!). I'm thinking of taking her to Vegas.

Only two of my childhood friends, Ramona and Kim, were in town that day, but between the three of us we've produced these seven sweet girls.

The icing on the cake, though, was seeing the girls' reunion with Mehdi after nearly a week apart. The way their faces lit up when they saw him melted my heart, and the way they fought over his attention was hilarious. They are lucky to have such a devoted and loving Papa, and they seem to know it.

Lately I've been especially frustrated with how quickly an afternoon at home with the girls can go by without being able to accomplish much of anything. Sure, there's always some playing and reading of books, but much less of that than I'd like and more of the tedious house-keeping stuff like cooking, cleaning up and laundry. But why is it, with all the effort I feel I'm putting into the house, it still looks like a tornado whipped through it and I still have trouble finding matching socks? I've decided to do an experiment to find out. To pinpoint where all my time is going, I thought I'd sit down and jot down all the things I've done in a period of time.

This afternoon I picked Anissa up at 11:15 from school, and Elianne, Anissa and I were home for lunch by 11:30. It's now almost 3:30. What have I been doing in those 4hours? Here's what I remember off the top of my head:

- Lunch preparation. Washing strawberries, making sandwiches, cutting up cheese, cooking and chopping carrots for Elianne, eating, loading the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.
- 2 loads of laundry. Fighting Elianne off as she tries to unfold what I fold.
- Followed Elianne up the stairs 2 times as Anissa had forgotten to close the gate.
- Called and left message at Mama Jo's.
- Emailed a friend to ask if I had left ELianne's sippy cup - the only one she likes - at her house last night.
- Got a suitcase out of the basement to put some of the clean laundry into (packing for our Easter escape to my Mom and Dad's).
- Pretended to be sleeping 3 times so the Easter Bunny - aka Anissa dressed in a furry white suit - could deliver eggs to me. This made me realize how sleepy I was, so I made and consumed a cup of chai tea.
- Set up a pad of paper and crayons for the girls, then later consoled a screaming Elianne when I discovered crayon scribbles on our footstool and had to take the crayons away.
- Chased Elianne - who was eating toilet paper - out of the bathroom.
- Helped Anissa find Easter egg painting set from last year in the basement.
- Answered the door and signed for a letter. I got my passport!
- Chased Elianne out from under the high chair, where she was picking up some snacks, to pick up gobs of carrot and strawberry from the floor. Swept up all the other crumbs.
- Put on a CD and twirled around in the living room with the girls for a few songs.
- Hung sweaters to dry.
- Rocked a strawberry-smelling little girl for a few minutes before putting her down for a nap.
- Checked emails. Sippy cup found! Called Mehdi to ask him to pick it up after work.
- Took out glue for Anissa, nearly broke my wrist trying to open it and poured some into a paper plate.

Hmmmm.

Nothing here that's going to change the world, and the house is more of a mess than it was 4 hours ago. But just writing this helped me to see that, in between all the tedious stuff, there have been some beautiful moments. They may seem small, but overall I think they add up to something very, very big.

Happy belated birthday, Eli Belly!

On February 16th, our sweet little Elianne turned one. Memere and Pepere came down to celebrate, and we threw a Bunny birthday bash. She had icecream for the first time and kept asking for "mo!" (more). This first year with her has flown by much too fast for my taste, but I look forward to all the years to come with her as part of our family.

We love you sooooo much, Elianne.