The Case of the Missing Sophie or The Steel Trap Strikes Again

This is a story from way back. There was Halloween stuff in the stores, to give you some perspective. We were walking into Walmart. Orin was in the child seat of the cart and Isabel was in the cart itself. She knows she is supposed to sit, so when she stood up and started flailing her hands and talking a mile a minute, I stopped the cart. I told her to sit down, doing that terrible parent thing that so many of us do where we tune out the kids in order to make our message heard.
She didn't sit, despite my repeated directions to do so, so I asked her what had her so wound up. She pointed at a shelf to our left and started talking about a giraffe and "some kid". I couldn't see what she was talking about at first, but after a second a small white hoof caught my eye from under the shelf. It turned out to be Sophie the Giraffe. "Some kid" had dropped Sophie and lost her and "was sad without their Sophie." She knows that Orin likes his Sophie and was SO upset about this child being without their beloved Sophie.
I calmed her down enough to suggest that she take Sophie to the customer service desk where they had a lost and found and where the child and his or her parents could find her. This seemed to appease her, so that is what we did. She was very serious as she told the customer service associate that "some kid lost their Sophie and they should be sad without her." The associate wasn't entirely sure what to make of this, so I explained that Sophie was the giraffe's name and how much her brother liked his.
Why am I telling you this story? Well, in spite of her not having mentioned it since about a week after the incident, she started talking about it as though it were yesterday as she picked up our Sophie to put her away this morning.

Slippin' through my fingers all the time..

I can't believe that it has been over a month since I blogged. It has just been a matter of hanging on for dear life. I am so desperately trying to hold onto time as it slips away - my maternity leave, in particular, is slipping away. I am going back on January 31st and, given the whirlwind that always accompanies the holidays, I know that date is approaching like a fast-moving train. For the record, I am really hoping for a lottery win to make leaving my babies with someone else a moot point.

In the meantime, we have had so much fun that I don't even know where to begin. My family came up for Thanksgiving for a visit and some good food. We've been to The Country Pumpkin a few times to indulge in the local produce, feed the animals and take pictures with pumpkins:



We went bowling - Isabel's first time. She had a GREAT time!


Dave and I went to David Usher in concert:



Then there was Halloween!




Most recently, Orin and I went with my friend Amanda on a shopping trip to the US for a weekend. Nice trip, great deals - we had a wonderful time and made a real dent in my Christmas shopping.

Kijiji-tastic!

I decided it was time to downsize dramatically. I had a bunch of baby stuff (mostly Isabel's old clothes and shoes) that I wanted to sell. We found some household stuff while we unpacked the last few boxes that ha been left in the basement when we moved in and I have realised just sitting here on the couch, looking around, that there are a few more things we could get rid of.
Last night, in kid stuff alone, I listed more than $300 worth of stuff (selling price, not cost...eeks!) I have another $100+ in kid clothes to list, some books, adult clothes (my maternity clothes should bring a pretty penny) and a few householdy type things. I am hoping to pay off my Cricut and have a little left over for more crafty tools and materials.
Kijiji has honestly saved my life and pocketbook as a parent. Between buying stuff for cheap and being able to sell stuff for about 50% of retail, I can't tell you just how much I have saved.