What a week...

WOW.

I can't believe I made it through that week. It was hectic for sure, but man was it a blast.

I spent the whole week, every night until at least 2am, working on my essays, assignments, cases, quizzes, etc, and the marks were tremendous. Nothing lower that an 85. Actually scored 100% on a few of them. Nice.

My semester actually ended Friday at 3pm, which was the time I wanted to be at home to take Happy Boy to the park as the nanny was off all week and the amply-pregnant UrbanMummy was exhausted, hot and suffering from an achy back so she could not take him for the whole day. I submitted my final essay - all 19 pages of it, knowing it was not my best work, but received a note the next day from my Professor indicating that while not my best work, he found it worthy of a 91. Whew. Imagine if I started it earlier. LOL. I could have earned a 92... Or 85.

The week ended with us racing off to lovely Cambridge Ontario on the first leg of our Day out with Thomas, in St. Thomas for the Happy Boy. Needless to say it was HOT out there and when we travel it means no sleep or food for the Happy Boy, but man does he love running up and down the hallway of hotels. He even managed to open the hotel room door and run down the hall before either of us could believe he was able to do it. As I ran behind him, I could hear him giggling. I love that kid!!!

We raced to St. Thomas to get on the train before it left, and thanks to UrbanMummy for sitting in the backseat with Happy Boy so I could get us there on time (90KMs in less than an hour meant average speed of 150kms, sometimes 160, and oddly being passed every now and then. Whew did we fly.

The phenomon that is Thomas was quite fun, and I owe tons of thanks to UrbanMummy for planning the trip for all of us. She's really good at that. Like she could do it for a living. So we got on the train, scorching hot, and only one cabin had windows, and sit down at the end near the open door. Happy Boy is pouting and hot, UrbanMummy is hot, I'm hoping this ride is going to be fun and then the music starts and in between Happy Boy's cries of "No dadoo" (train) I see him making fists and dancing to the music, then as we get moving I see him waving to the people outside. I think he's liking it.

After the 1/2 hour ride, we walked through Thomas-ville taking pictures with some guy named Sir Topham Hat, drinking jumbo lemonade, walking through the all-Thomas-all-the-time gift tent, and stopping to watch the Lionel trains exhibit - which caught Happy Boy's fascination. We got the Happy boy a llama balloon animal and took pictures wherever we could. Then it was time to move on. Grabbed dinner and we to the park. Once at the park, Happy Boy wasted no time in taking off to the water play area. I steered him towards the jungle gym and he found his way at the top of the tallest, steepest slide I have ever seen for a child, and sure enough, he flew done it with screeching delight. "More", he said as he made his way again for Mummy to see. He loved it.

After sliding and playing he made his way to the water area and we ran around there and got him wet. From there, the car, and from the park to home in 1 hour and 10 minutes (instead of the expected 2 hours plus). :)

Some highlights from the weekend:

Happy Boy running from bed to bed at 2am to see Mummy and Daddy.
The exceptional service at Kelsey's in Cambridge. VERY child friendly and super-helpful.
The cries of "Thomassssss"
The cries of "Donkey" and "Llama" from the nursery that had some animals and butterflies. Hapy Boy actually touched a butterfly and loved how pretty they were.
The look on UrbanMummy's face at the end of the trip as she gave us the "I survived" face in the extreme heat. She's a trooper. Like when she was pregnant with the Happy Boy and led a group of us through a cave in Monaco, I believe. Whew. If it were me... I'd be home complaining.

But the weekend was a success! Fun had by all.

Monday began with an 8:30am appointment for a CT Scan, at the hospital, for my achy back. Cool machine. Quick test. Now it's on to the Chiropractor.

Thoughts full of 1st birthday wishes going out to neighbour and fellow-blogger The Cheaty Monkey www.cheatymonkey.com on Monkey's special day. With so many kiddies in attendance, I hope Haley-O made it out alive. Looking for a future ost from her marking this event. (adjusted)

Just under 11 weeks until the arrival of Baby 2. Getting nervous??? Yup.

And the backyard landscaping project is coming to an end. Got all the monster tree stumps out and removed most of the brances. Gardener coming to remove the stumps and slap up a fence. Yay! Putting more sod down, and making more room for the Happy Boy to play, and hopefully keeping the racoons out. All this wear and tear on the back and bruises and mosquito bites had better be worth it. I feel like we've gained an extra 6 feet on the side and back of the yard.

For a full rundown of the Day out with Thomas, may I recommend the blog of a fellow blogger, and number one spouse, the talented, good-looking UrbanMummy, www.urbanmummy.com/journal - who also seems to be on a free-stuff winning streak.