The True North Strong and Free

You've probably been scratching your heads since my last post, wondering whether or not I made it back from the Great White North. Well, you can sleep tonight: I did. My parents made such a fuss of me (probably helped that I brought along their only grandchild) and treated me wonderfully - do you think they want me to come back? There was a lot going on while I was there and I'm here to tell you all about it...

One of the most exciting events - my little sister got engaged! You may recognize her fiance, Pablo, from such posts as Similarities We Can Believe In, comparing him to Mr. President himself.  Well, he popped the question and there were fireworks...literally, fireworks. Nicely done, eh? So excited for them and will be heading back to Canada for the nuptials in September.

Whilst I was there, Mini-Me turned 16! That's right, all you single men out there. You may have missed your chance with this blonde bombshell (sense the sarcasm) but Michelle Version 2.0 is available, and much thinner, not to mention more talented, popular, cool...

 

Canada celebrated Family Day (a lovely sentiment) and we celebrated by dividing into teams and engaging in mockery and verbal humiliation during the first annual Haw-Wii Tournament (not to be confused with Hawaii). Just kidding. Most of the trash talking was friendly, but as you can see, some of us took it more seriously than others.

 

I spent some quality time with my little brother and coerced him to participate in a cheesy photoshoot with his adoring sisters. You see, this will be the last time I see my brother for more than two years! Daniel is getting ready to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Jacksonville, Florida.  I wanted to give him some photos that he could take along to remind him how much he's loved.  Pretty sure he'll "forget" to pack them.

 

Here we are "supporting" him on his mission.

 It was really fun to see Daniel playing with Teagan and thinking that she'll be walking and talking the next time he sees her (provided she develops normally!)

She makes a nice little addition, eh?

To say that Teagan wasn't starved for attention is the understatement of the century. Exhibit A:

It was so much fun to have Teagan spend solid quality time with the Haw side of things.

It warmed my heart for Teagan to get to spend time with my Grandma, who is in the throws of battling breast cancer. Apparently Teagan wanted to see if she had more hair than her Great Grandma!

 It was so wonderful to snap a four generation picture while we were there, and even better that Teagan managed to smile for the occasion! I cherish the few pictures I have with my Mum, Grandma and Great Grandma and I was thrilled to be able to get one while I'm in the middle.

While these pictures may not be of much interest to you, it was really special to see my grandparents, who I remember vividly from my childhood years, holding and playing with my daughter. Insert "Aww!" here.

Teagan developed a special relationship with her Grandad, who lovingly and affectionately called her Scoopy. Apparently in the 16 years since he had a baby at home, my Dad had forgotten how much babies poop. After taking out a garbage bag or two of stinky diapers, Dad called her Pooper Scooper, shortened to Scoopy for the remainder of the trip. That'll be fun to explain when she's older. But all Dad had to do was look at her and she grinned from ear to ear. Was it the mustache or was she smiling at the fact that she made him a Grandad long before he was ready? We'll never know.

"That Al Bundy is such a character, Grandad!"

Is it silly to think that Teagan remembered my Mum from the first two weeks of her life? They seemed to have an instant bond, and it warmed my heart. Mum has retained her supernatural gift for calming a crying baby and getting them to sleep in her arms, for which I was very grateful. Thanks to her I got to enjoy some much-needed beauty sleep which hasn't quite taken effect yet.

I'm pretty sure Teagan would recommend being the first grandchild if you can help it. (Although, she gets treated wonderfully as Lucky #13 on the Richards side too!)

Auntie Kristina was kind enough to teach my daughter about the finer things in life, namely Ryan Reynolds. Fine, indeed. I'd be interested to know what kinds of visions were dancing in her head at this point.

 

She cozied up with everyone at some point, but quite literally cozied up to Uncle Daniel. As most of us are after a long nap, Teagan was slightly disoriented and appears a bit surprised to be waking up to a relatively new face. She isn't usually the type to sleep around.

She also helped Uncle Daniel with his Call of Duty efforts and seemed to handle the carnage quite well. Please don't judge me. It was cute.

Auntie Nicola had watched The Lion King a bit too recently. Simba Teagan was a good sport.

You may see a similarity or two between my little sister and I. We decided to find out if our commonalities ran deeper than our long blonde hair and blue eyes. If you're wondering whether or not we had a Dance-Off to Justin Bieber's smash hit "Baby" I'd have to answer: Bet your bottom we did! We each performed a routine at a moment's notice for my Mum and other sister who served as the judges, and later informed us that our performances were practically identical. - yes, The Sprinkler featured prominently in both. The praise I received went along these lines: "You were awesome...for your age" and "Nicola had a clear advantage knowing the lyrics." I guess 27 year-olds aren't exactly the Bieb's demographic.

We were there for 3 1/2 weeks, which was wonderful and plenty of time for Teagan to get comfortable with everyone. Buddy was so good to be willing to part with his baby for almost a month. He missed me too, but I wasn't the one learning new things and looking different every day (for better or worse). We kept in touch pretty regularly via Skype. Here's Buddy up close and personal, making sure his daughter doesn't forget his glistening smile.

 

I took lots of pictures on our trip, wanting to keep Buddy in the loop and let him see how much she was growing. As with any first-time parent, I end up taking about 10 pictures of the same thing just trying to get the best one possible and finding it nigh impossible to delete any of them. Buddy says I've set the picture-taking bar pretty high for our next ones. Hopefully they'll look a lot like Teagan and we can pass off pictures of her (not that I'm speaking from personal experience with Nicola or anything!)

She's never happier than when she's half naked.

Living with me is like living with paparazzi. You're bound to get a less-than-flattering shot every once in a while. She's going to kill me down the road.

Remind you of anyone? Like Bat Boy from the National Enquirer.

If it still isn't clear, I had a wonderful time in Canada. I love my family and miss them so much! I'm excited to have another visit to look forward to in August/September!

For those of you keeping track of us (it's tricky, I know!) we're still really enjoying living in Moscow with Mom & Dad Richards who are treating us like royalty. Buddy's internship in Pullman, WA is coming to an end soon and he'll be heading back to Las Vegas (and mooching off amazing friends) to prepare for graduation, job hunting and all that entails. The countdown is on...