We'll Take a Cup of Kindness Yet for Auld Lang Syne

Happy 2010! Hope you partied safe and were sober enough to watch the ball drop with Ryan Seacrest on the tube (in person if you were so lucky!) or count down the last seconds of 2009 with a gaggle of fellow partiers. My best wishes to you and yours for an awesome year ahead.

Being the uneventful folks that we are nowadays, our NYE was decidedly low-key. We had an impromptu dinner out at our local Japanese restaurant and were in bed snoozing away shortly following the Eastern time-zone countdown. It was an early night for us since we needed to save our energy to indulge in our favorite pre-baby past-time today: cross-border shopping! Not that we don't enjoy shopping with a toddler in tow (who wouldn't? :)) but it was really nice to leave her under the care of others at home while we got some serious shopping done. Our day-trip highlights: (1) no line-ups at the border both ways; (2) our car was not checked inside and out as we so unluckily get to experience often; (3) Ivar's clam chowder!; and (4) not having to pay a dime in taxes or duty even though we declared everything we bought. Speaking of which...

Yes, this is the load of laundry we did for the new clothes that we bought. As usual, the centre of our universe scored big, with enough clothes to last her through to spring-time at least. Despite my earlier wishes for a baby boy, I absolutely love having a girl to shop for and play dress-up with :) Daddy even picked out the cutest Paul Frank tankini for her and I can't wait to get that on her when summer rolls around! Thanks to Target and Chelsea Premium Outlets (Carter's!) for allowing us poor saps to use our hard-earned money on Sarah yet again.

I actually did some pretty good damage myself also, picking up a pair of Banana Republic pants for work, Gap sweater-vest, screen protector for my new toy, a Le Sportsac make-up bag and a Puma fleece track pants & hoodie. The same sadly could not be said for Daddy however, unless you count Pepperidge Farm cookies, pretzel sticks, cooking utensils, and other miscellaneous accessories as "his" purchases. I guess it comes with the reality of living with two women!

I felt ever so slightly guilty for being away from Sarah for pretty much the whole day, so I made it up to the kid by letting her 'water' a new plant that I bought for her. The feeling of holding a watering can must be incredible for a toddler , for she had the widest eyes and biggest smile ever and would not give up her new infatuation without a fight.

So much for those days when the kid did/could not express her thoughts vocally. Welcome terrible twos!