At the lake, dinner with Bapcha, back to work, and Folklorama

I've been back to work for two weeks now, and things seem to be going alright. Robin goes to daycare on Mondays and Wednesdays, and my Mom (known to her Grandchildren as "Ba'cha") looks after her on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thanks Mom! It's great to be able to have you watching her. As for me going back to work, well, since this blog is all about Robin, suffice it to say fine, except when Daddy misses his little girl. Sniff... But I'm a big boy.

The other day, My mom (Ba'cha) set up a dinner with my Grandma (Bapcha, polish for Grandma) at her nursing home, Bethania. Miyuki's parents came, and we had a nice BBQ with Robin's only Great Grandparent. In the picture is myself with Robin, Kirk with Lisa, and my Grandma with little Nina.

(Robin: Psssh. I was walking by the time I was Nina's age! Suck it up sister. Wait, gimme back my toy phone! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!)

We've been going to the lake a lot this summer, ignoring the bad weather. It's always a great getaway, and Robin has a great time out there. Miyuki's parents are in town and were able to join us out at Janet and Greg's cabin on Saturday (check out their blog, there's a good pic of Robin splashing about on the beach). It was sure interesting to have all of the kids' Grandparents together in one pace! It was a great meal and fine day, despite the weather. We even went blueberry picking and Janet made some blueberry scones from the results. However, we only ended up with half of the blueberries we picked. Ask Jen about the horrors of the bog monster. I think it has a crush on Jen.

Robin is blowing me away at how fast she's advancing. Let's see if I can list the latest abilities of our little girl:
- Maximum 26 steps!!! I call that walking!
- Chatting away, with a "Hi dada" there, a "Hi muma" there and an "uh-oh" there.
- She combs her hair
- She helps to give her doll a bottle
- She gives kisses (big, open mouth ones)
- She gives gentle pats (when she starts swatting, we say "gentle pats" {mostly for Griffin} and she softly brushes with her hand
- She turns the pages when we read her a book
- With the right blanket, she plays the "pretend to be asleep" game
- She plays peek-a-boo by covering her eyes (or ears or head) when we say "Where's Robin?" and moves them away to recieve our screams of "PEAK-A-BOO!"
- She shakes her head defiantly when she doesn't want something, mostly food (in fact, I think she's starting to do it when her mouth is full to make us wait until she swallows for the next bite)
- When something is all done/gone, she puts her palms in the air and shrugs
- She can crawl up (and down) the stairs... with a careful watchful eye
- And boy oh boy is she ever eating! We're pretty much done with formula now, as she'll gobble up most anything on the menu

On a whim, we went to Folklorama tonight to the African/Carribean pavilion. A good show as always, and the food was fantastic, even according to Robin! She chowed down on everything from the roti to the Jamaican beef patty, no matter how spicy! Jen has the day off and will be staying home with her. Likely I will be gone before she wakes up. Mama, this poop's for you.