Having a Great Visit with Julie and Tess!

It's been a perfect weekend! My flight arrived 45 mins early (who's ever heard of that?) but Julie and Tess were waiting for me when I reached the baggage claim. Julie is wonderful and Tess is even cuter in real life than she is in pics if that's even possible?!! She hasn't made strange and even reached out to me at the airport and I held her for a moment but I've chosen to be a 'friend across the room' for the majority of the weekend. Julie is an amazing mom and doing so well with Tess! I haven't wanted to do anything that could change the great attachment that is happening between them. When Julie leaves the room occasionally, she always calls out to Tess and Tess crawls to see where mommy is then normally comes back into the room and sets to doing one of her favourite activities...playing! She has a really cute Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Table which she loves to play with.

Can I just say that Tess is the most amazing little girl? She's fun, happy and just loves to be out and about doing whatever Julie is doing. It's c-c-c-c-COLD this weekend (-30oF!!) yet everytime we go out she laughs and smiles when the cold air hits here cheeks. Julie laughingly reminds her that she's a southern Guongdong gal but the cold doesn't faze her one bit. Now I'm from the Great White North and I must admit it's been pretty chilly! We've had a fairly mild winter at home so this weekend has reminded me of how thankful I should be for our warmer temperatures. Oh well, at least it's a dry cold here rather than a damp cold which makes a ton of difference.

When I first arrived yesterday we settled my stuff into the house and then headed to PF Changs for a yummy Chinese food lunch and then did a bit of shopping. Once again I'm stocking up on Bath and Body Works hand soap for myself and friends. At least I've only packed enough in my suitcase for a weekend this time so the weight of the suitcase shouldn't be a problem going home. That's a good thing as I have 9 soaps to carry home with me! Gotta stock up on a good thing while we can. Sure hope they start bringing these stores to Canada soon.

Another afternoon stop was at Joann Fabrics for you guessed it - more ribbon! This time it was for grograin ribbon as I've recently learned how to make those adorable korker bows so want to make some for Hannah and Rebecca has also said she'd like some. Will try my hand at making those sometime this spring.

Our last stop was at Babies 'R Us (yes...again) to try and find some Gerber 'Snap 'n Store Toddler plates' my friend and I were looking for but sadly Gerber has discontinued them. I received 1 set from my Secret Pal and really like them so hopefully they'll make them available again before Hannah arrives. I can find them on ebay but the shipping makes them too pricy for what they are. Oh well, we each have 1 new set so that will do us.

Upon arriving back at Julie's we settled in for an afternoon and evening of visiting. Tess is amazing! She's as happy as can be and you hardly know she's around except when she lets loose with a contagious giggle on babbles about something very important! And, those cheeks of hers! Oh man....those were made for kissing! She loves to play, walk around the furniture and get tons of cuddles and snuggles from mom!

I guess that it's time I head for bed so that we can make the most of our last day tomorrow before I have to head back to the airport. Sadly our weekend is all too quickly coming to an end.

We've had a wonderful time together and I've learned SO MUCH from Julie! I thought I might drive her crazy with all my questions but she's been great at sharing as much with me as she could. It's neat that she's been home such a short time as her China trip memories are still fresh. We've talked about a ton of great stuff and we really are quite similar in many, many ways. We share many of the same values which makes it special too.

I'm going to miss both of them for sure! Looking forward to the day when they head north of the border and come for a visit. Hopefully the summer of 2008 when I'm home with Hannah, Julie and Tess will come for a visit. Oh what fun that will be!

So much more to share with you....tomorrow. (And pics too! Need to get home to my adapter before I'm able to download them)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend too. I look forward to catching up on your blogs and see what's been happening with my bloggy friends.