Good days

Between a couple of vacation days for James, a visit from family, and James' birthday the past two weeks have been a nice change from the ordinary. James' brother Daniel and his wife Sarah spent a long weekend with us in Edmonton recently. It was nice to catch up with them and be able to show them a bit of our city, although there's little question Edmonton paled in comparison to Vancouver, which they visited first. But one thing Edmonton had that Vancouver did not was Charlotte! She loved the visit from her uncle and aunt - her second time meeting them - and they seemed to enjoy her too. For the past couple of months Charlotte has been playing strange with people other than us, at least when it comes to being held, but there was none of that with Daniel and Sarah. She was happily held by both of them and signalled her enjoyment of their presence with lots of smiles. James and I were happy to see her socializing well and getting to know her extended family better. We celebrated James' birthday the same way we have for the previous two years - with dinner out at Von's, where they serve the best prime rib around (and in Alberta that really means something). But this year we were joined by Daniel and Sarah as well as by some friends. I had hoped to surprise James with the friends, but James' punctuality combined with the fact that a couple of friends were running late meant that the surprise was revealed in the restaurant parking lot. It was a fun night all the same!

The other high point of late has been taking Charlotte swimming. We'd been wanting to take her for awhile, but between fighting colds and general busy-ness we just hadn't gotten around to it - until last week. We were prepared for Charlotte to last 10 minutes in the water, but she was so comfortable that we stayed in for about 30. And we've already been back twice. The two of us both love swimming, so we're excited that Charlotte's into it too.