przed: (snowflake)
I don't know if I've ever mentioned in here, but this year Ros badgered me into signing her up for figure skating lessons. (At this stage, it's really more just foundational skill skating lessons, with a bit of fancy stuff thrown in for fun.) She's really thrown herself into it, and has got me to take her skating once or twice beyond her lessons every week.

This week was the end of season competition, and Ros decided to sign up for the three categories in her age and skill level: one foot gliding, the obstacle course race, and figure skating elements. She ended up doing really well!

She came in fourth in the race out of a field of seven, which is really great. She frequently overthinks stuff like this, and takes things really slow, so it was a fantastic result for her.

She did even better in the other two events. In the one foot glide she came in second out of ten, and right behind a friend of hers who's turned out to be a bit of a prodigy. (She and the friend she goes skating with on Saturday night are always having mini-competitions for how long they can glide on one foot, so I suspect that helped.) And she also came in second in the elements, out of a field of three. (In my entirely biased opinion, her forward and backward turns completely rocked.)

Ros on the podium this way )
przed: (chinese snake character)
I've been MIA due to tiredness, busy-ness and three days this week lost to a freaking migraine (that still is hanging around in echo form, goshdarnit) but thought I'd post a few pics from a Chinese New Year banquet we went to tonight with a couple of other families we know.

Here's Ros in a cheungsam we got her in China last year, looking frightfully grown up.
cny2014-01

Two more pics this way... )
przed: (Life on Mars Gene Hah by  lozenger8)
Last night whilst playing Game of Life, I discovered a sure fire way to annoy my daughter. Every time I got a Pay Raise card, I called it a Pay Rise card, completely without thinking. Ros objected to this. Strenuously.

Ros: It's not Pay Rise! It's Pay Raise!
Me: It's Pay Rise in England.
Ros: We're not in England!

Clearly, I need to expose her to more British culture. *g*

Hallowe'en

Oct. 31st, 2013 11:01 pm
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
In spite of some rain, it was a good Hallowe'en. Ros went as Violet from The Incredibles. (Not that she's a fan of the movie, but one of her best friends at Taekwando was going as Violet to their Hallowe'en party a couple of weeks ago and they wanted to go in matching costumes.

Here's my little superhero tonight:
DSC_0140_2

Ros and I carved our pumpkin this year.

This way to a pumpkin pic )
przed: (lawrence huzzah by crymeariver)
Took Ros to the Canadian National Exhibition, a.k.a. The Ex, today. It's the humongous end of summer fair in Toronto. Growing up, the summer vacation thing I most looked forward to was our annual trip to Toronto and a visit to the Ex, so it's a big nostalgia thing for me. And Ros loves it too. (It was just the two of us. The Sweetie isn't really an Ex kind of guy.)

We were there from 10 when it opened until 10 tonight, and Ros managed to do the kids circus workshop they run 5 of the 7 times it was offered. By the last one, at 7:30, the staff all knew her name, and stuff like this happened:
circus2013

There were also rides, cotton candy (for Ros), midway games (Ros), a waffle ice cream sandwich (for me), churros (also for me), the Flying Wallendas (which I had to talk Ros into missing the 4:30 workshop for, but which she loved), and a ride on the biggest ferris wheel at night to top it all off.

So very tired.
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
Today, Ros turned seven! I can't quite believe I'm the mom of a seven-year-old, but there you have it.

With not very many weeks to spare, Ros finally decided she wanted a rock climbing birthday party, so we spent the afternoon at our local climbing gym with Ros and 11 of her friends.

I got to belay Ros (her friends had to be belayed by the professional instructors), so here we are in our climbing gear. I'm as astounded as anyone that I now own climbing gear. (So far I only belay Ros, but I'm toying with calling a climbing friend or two at some point and giving it a real go myself. On the really easy routes.)
rockclimbing01

A couple of climbing Ros pics )
przed: (tt markie film camera)
I'm still working to get a post ready about my Frankfurt trip and Mark's concert, but in the meantime, I've been debating the fashion merits of the jacket Mark's been wearing to a lot of the gigs with [livejournal.com profile] cenea. (Among the many reasons I love Mark is his striking but sometimes wacky fashion sense. Which means sometimes I love his outfits, and sometimes, not so much.) We got a more classic white jacket in Frankfurt.

I am...not fond of this jacket. But Ros had the best reaction to it when she saw this pic of it on Tumblr.

Mark in Berlin

Me: Whaddaya think, Ros? Do you like Mark's jacket?
Ros: I like it. ::pause:: But I want to colour it in.

Hee.
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
I keep meaning to post, about MediaWest and other things, but life has kept me constantly on the hop. So this is my attempt to catch up with the state of things.

MediaWest )

The talent show and school festival )

The Book of Mormon )

A work visit )

Jackie Chan )

Tomorrow there will be a play that's part of Toronto's Luminato arts festival, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic. It's directed by Robert Wilson, who is generally amazing, but the chief attraction for me is that it co-stars Willem Dafoe, who I adore past reason. (This will be our third babysitting night in two weeks. After which it will no doubt be months before we manage it again.)
przed: (tt footie mark's feet)
After two miserably rainy soccer nights, today we got glorious perfect weather for the game: blue skies and just slightly cool. The kids were up for the game and they did really well against a strong team. We lead for the first half, but then they caught up to us. The final score was a 5 - 5 draw, which we were all very happy with.

Ros took a turn in goal, and did really well. Though there's actually a goaltender jersey now and it's ridiculously huge on her. I had to roll up the sleeves five times.

In TT news, 17 sleeps until Frankfurt! 18 sleeps until I see Markie! (And also meet [livejournal.com profile] soundofthesurf and [livejournal.com profile] rangerke!)
przed: (tt footie mark's feet)
For the second week in a row, we got rain on game night. But this time it was bucketing down, and it was cold. Still, I got on with the warm up and practice, and the kids were holding up okay. But then as game time was drawing near the thunder started up and the ref blessedly called the game.

Not before all of us and all our stuff was drenched, though. And one little girl had a meltdown because her mum was waiting the rain out in her car, and we had to convince her we wouldn't leave her until her mum came and got her. And then we had to take down the nets and return them to the club office.

I'm hoping that this isn't going to be the pattern for the season. Though if it must rain on game night, if it could manage not to be freaking cold I'd appreciate it.

In continuing non-soccer news, Ros didn't get to sing Wooden Boat for the school talent show, but she is going to do a song and dance number with her best friend. Rehearsal is tomorrow, and the show is Thursday, during the school festival. Should be adorable.
przed: (tulip)
Six years ago today, Ros became a member of our family. Today we had a family dinner at Ros' favourite local bistro. And on the weekend we got together with another family from our travel group and their daughter. The other dad is a fantastic photographer, and sent us a few pics of Ros from the day.

This way to Ros pics )

I was going to put up some Ros through the years pics, but I already put up some of the best ones last year. So I'll just say we're lucky to have her in our family, and I cherish every day with her.
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
The Sweetie's dad is currently visiting, and though he can be a somewhat, ahem, challenging house guest, his visit has given me some amusement this time.

I came home Friday to find Ros playing Take That songs on her iPod for her poppa. Since they were having a fine time, I went upstairs to where the Sweetie was. A few minutes later, this happened.

Sweetie: Is that my dad singing?
Me: ::listening:: Yep.
Sweetie: Ros has him singing Wooden Boat! This is all your fault.
Me: Hee!

This morning, Ros grabbed her iPod and speaker and headed upstairs because "Poppa wants to hear Patience."

She's going to turn the Sweetie's dad into a Thatter. *g*
przed: (snowflake)
We've spent the last two weekends getting ready for the holidays. All of which has brought home to me how much Ros is growing up.

Last week we put up the tree, and Ros helped decorate it. The last two years, Ros "helping" has meant I did damage control and made sure she didn't break anything, she put a bunch of decorations all in the same place, and then I did the whole tree after she got bored and wandered off to do something more interesting.

Not this year. This year she paid attention to what I told her about how we needed to decorate (unbreakable stuff the cat can't hurt at the bottom, heavy or delicate stuff at the top), then did most of it herself. She sorted all the decorations, hung them at the appropriate height, and got a chair when she couldn't reach a branch. It was awesome!

This weekend it was the baking weekend, and she proved herself able with the baking end of things too. She helped chop up dates and maraschino cherries for the fruit cookies, proved better than the Sweetie at mixing up icing, and helped with the rolling out of gingerbread.

I couldn't resist taking pictures of the gingerbread making today.

DSCF4510

More pics this way )

Oh. My.

Nov. 29th, 2012 09:53 pm
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
Somehow, in the last 24 hours, I've booked us a trip to China.

We're using a tour company two families we know have travelled with, and they already had a March break tour set up, which is when we were planning on going, so it was remarkably easy. But I'm still sort of stunned that this has taken substantially less time than booking our Disney trip this year did.

I'm also amused that Ros is far more excited about this trip than she was about the Disney trip. I really hope she does enjoy it in the end. (Positive side: there will be pictures with pandas! Baby pandas! Negative side: we have no idea if we'll be able to meet with her foster family, which she's really, really counting on in spite of the fact that we've been preparing her for the possibility of it not happening.)

Also, I'm now keeping my fingers very crossed that Mark Owen doesn't announce a tour for the two weeks in March that we'll be in China, because that is literally the only thing that will keep me from seeing him live.
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
It's been another successful Hallowe'en in the Zed household. We had 150 kids come to the door. The very first one was an adorable toddler in a Star Trek uniform. There were also, according to the Sweetie who did candy duty, lots and lots of zombies. I think Ros' babysitter gets the biggest sacrifice for a costume award for going as the Paper Bag Princess, wearing a giant leaf bag with bare arms and legs. Let's just say it wasn't that warm a night.

Ros decided at the last minute that she wanted to be a woman from China, and fortunately she and the Sweetie managed to score a very nice cheung sam at Value Village in her size. For seven bucks. I jazzed it up with chopsticks in her hair.
halloween2012-01

More Ros and our Halloween decorations this way... )

And lastly, thanks to [livejournal.com profile] sc_fossil and [livejournal.com profile] draycevixen for my pumpkin cookies. Yum!
przed: (Default)
In the quest to find usable footage for vidding, I stumbled across a really nice copy of one of Take That's '90s concerts. Ros asking what I was doing on my computer resulted in the following conversation at dinner last night.

Ros: Why were you on your computer?
Me: I was downloading one of Take That's concerts from when they were younger.
Ros: ::eyes lighting up:: Oh! Do they sing in the rain and take off their pants?
Sweetie: What?!
Me: Well, I have to admit, that they have both sung in the rain and taken off their trousers. More than once.

I'm just amused that those are the two things that first come to mind when Ros thinks about a Take That concert.

Video evidence of singing in the rain and taking off of trousers )
przed: (tt ot4 group hug)
It's been a bit crazy in the Zed household the last little while. There's been work, and the usual stuff that goes into raising a 6-year-old, the finishing off my Pros BB story, and moderating the Take That BB. But we booked this weekend ages ago for a family overnight trip to Stratford (Ontario, not England) with friends of ours who also have a daughter from China, and it's turned out to be lovely and relaxing and just what I needed.

Today we had no plans, apart from a 5:30 dinner reservation at a swank-but-relaxed pizzeria, so we took our time getting on the road, then had lunch at a new location of our favourite Stratford area tea room, Harry Ten Shilling. The Sweetie and I had a traditional English tea (finger sandwiches, scones and goodies), while La Ros had a bagel and cream cheese, chamomile tea, and nicked goodies from our tray. The food was lovely, the atmosphere was calm and it was totally brilliant.

Then we pottered around downtown Stratford, hit the local awesome toy store for some birthday and Christmas present buying, and partook of the free horse-drawn carriage historical tours the town has laid on. (There were two different carriages going on slightly different routes. We did the first one, then Ros dragged the Sweetie onto the second one for another go 'round whilst I went off to my favourite accessories/shoe store in town. (That would be The Green Room, if you're ever in Stratford and wondering were to get awesome tights, hats, sunglasses and shoes.)

I've been wanting a pair of Frye boots forever--okay, that would be since [livejournal.com profile] justacat pointed out that Doyle's got a pair--and I bought a pair of these ones. They're beautiful, more comfortable than I was hoping, and I love them! Ros and the Sweetie got to the store, and shoe-obsessed Ros immediately found the kids shoes in the basement. She talked us into getting her a pair of glittery Tom's shoes, like these ones, but pink.

Then it was off to the hotel to rendesvous with our friends. We had a quick swim in the hotel pool, then went off to a lovely dinner. Then it was back to the hotel for bedtime for Ros, and then relaxing time for us.

I haven't felt this calm since I'm not sure when.

Tomorrow there will be more swimming, and lunch, and then we're all off to see The Pirates of Penzance in what's supposed to be a very good production. (I'm hoping it'll go some ways towards convincing La Ros that theatre is awesome. She remains unconvinced. She also insists she doesn't like movies. Unless they're documentaries. She is one interesting kid.)
przed: (tt ot5 puppy pile)
It's been two days now since we flew back from Chicago, so I figured I should put up some sort of post. The trip was, I have to say, absolutely amazing. There was fun family stuff like taking Ros to the Children's Museum and a Chinese Circus, and great panels, like the brilliant Kaffeklatsch I managed to get into with Ken Liu ahead of his winning the Hugo for Best Short Story. And it was also nice to catch up with my cousins, and some LJ friends. (Hi [livejournal.com profile] pxr5 and [livejournal.com profile] sooguy.)

Going to the con and attending panels has even re-invigorated my desire to write a bit of pro fic, as did Ros when I was explaining the Hugos to her:

Me: I'm going to the Hugos tonight.
Ros: What's that?
Me: It's a ceremony where they give awards to people for writing the best stories.
Ros: Are you getting one?

That just made me well up a bit.

Okay, before I crash, have a few pictures...

First, Ros in front of the Bean. (Okay, the sculpture is actually called the Cloud Gate, but no one calls it that.)


This way to more pics )
przed: (tt footie mark's feet)
Another win tonight! 4 - 5 for us! This one was hard fought and against a team with some really strong players, but we're definitely coming together. Everyone was playing hard, and there were three goals that weren't our best player scoring. One of those goals was from one of our smallest but most tenacious players. He usually plays defence, and quite well, but he happened to be in front of the net when the ball came to him and really kicked it in. And one was the result of an actual bit of coaching I did. We were taking a corner kick, and I got one of our kids who can be good but is a total loose cannon in front of the goal. Two seconds later, he'd scored!

Ros was really being tenacious on the field, in spite of the other team being entirely willing to mow down anyone in front of them, and she also debuted her brand new goalkeeper gloves. She stopped a bunch of really hard shots and only let in the one that sailed over her head.

In the weird coincidence area, both our team and the opposing team had Keiras and Judes on them. Which made it interesting for us coaches. Especially when Keira and Keira kept going up against each other.

In other news, I've been offline a lot the last few days due to extreme busyness.

The stuff wot I've been doing )
przed: (tt footie mark's feet)
It was an interesting game tonight. First the ref didn't show up, leaving me and the other coach to share reffing duties. Then three quarters of the way through, the skies opened up. Since there was no ref to keep us playing in the downpour, and since we only had about ten minutes to go anyway, the other coach and I mutually decided to call the game and we all legged it.

The game itself went much better than last week. The kids did pretty well at the passing drills I ran for the practice, and were all mostly trying hard. Final result of the incomplete game: 1 - 2 for the other team. But hey, it was close! Also, Ros played in goal and really dug in. She let one goal in, but it was a beautiful kick that would have been hard to defeat. And otherwise she kept everything out, including some really tough shots. She's asked for goalie gloves, so I'll be off to the soccer store this week.

I spent a lovely weekend up at my mom's with Ros--the weather was gorgeous, so most of it was spent on the beach, building sandcastles and swimming--so I didn't get too much writing done, but I'm fast closing in on finishing my TT Big Bang story. Here's the official word count:


I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow, but as I'm off to see a documentary about The Who's Quadrophenia with a mate tomorrow night, I may not get that last thousand words done. Fingers crossed.

Once that one's done and dusted, it's back to Pros and zombies, which is coming along nicely:


That's a lot of words already down, but a lot still to go. I'm optimistically hoping to be done by the end of August. We'll see.

Profile

przed: (Default)
przed

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
1112131415 1617
18192021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 8th, 2025 11:15 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios