July arrives with sun and rain

Katrine and I have been enjoying our summer vacation thus far. We have been busy. Katrine finished her Preschool A swimming lessons the second week of July. She passed which surprised us because she was quite dependent on Glenn when they took the Parent-Tot class this past winter. Anyways, she was delighted with her badge and loves to show it off to everyone who comes into our house. We have enrolled her in one more swim class in August. We have also signed her up for Sportball soccer with a friend of hers. She LOVES it!! It is hilarious watching her chase after the ball like a mad-woman only to freeze when a beautiful(usually a dandelion) catches her eye.
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I have also been using my vacation to take her to a variety of playdates and outings. We have been to the ROM to see the dinosaurs, the farm to pick strawberries, the zoo and Science Center. Katrine’s favourite outings have been the playdates, she really is a sociable child, and our visits to the park. Her favourite park is the one with the spider web of rope to climb on, but then again she is a monkey.
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This coming week Glenn is off because we are laying laminate floor upstairs in the last three bedrooms. We are planning to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens next weekend as well as the Shriner’s circus. In honour of our 9th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, Katrine is going up to my parents in Victoria Harbour for two days. She is pretty excited about it.
Well now you are up-to-date with the family in Canada so here is some news on Elspeth in China. Our dossier is now in the review room. That means someone is looking at all of our paperwork to ensure that we meet China’s guidelines. Once they are done we move to the next phase….waiting…again. The backlog of dossiers is still quite extensive which means we still have a long time to wait until we will receive our referral. We are helping to make ourselves feel better by painting Elspeth’s room while we wait. Glenn has chosen a lovely pale, sage green paint. I think that once the floor is down in her room and the walls painted we will feel another step closer to her. Maybe I will even begin to unpack the baby stuff and set some of it up. Our wait? We are not expecting a referral until 2009 at the earliest but this is China and things change all the time.