I sometimes forget that I live on a border. I was watching TV last night and the commercials kept talking about the long holiday weekend. I was thinking that Columbus Day must be a much bigger deal in other areas, because I certainly do not have a three day weekend. And today on the radio they were talking about three day weekends and holidays. Then someone said �Happy Thanksgiving� and I realized that I was listening to Canadian radio. Those Canadians sure are sneaky with their media.

We went to see Wendy, Mantas, Christopher and Olivia on Saturday. Olivia�s new thing is giving people high fives. I�m really hoping that I�ll get a high five after the wedding. I tried to get her to call me Christine, but she wasn�t biting on that. Wendy said that everyone is �daddy� including Wendy. Wendy was afraid that Olivia might call Christopher daddy at the reception, it would be even worse if she called Leo daddy. Olivia is also good at posing for pictures. She says �cheese� unprompted.

On Saturday, Leo wanted to get his hair cut and he found some place online that said the Livonia Mall had a barber that�s open on Saturdays. So we went. It was the scariest mall I�ve ever seen. There wasn�t a single national chain in the whole mall (and it was kind of big), just a million nameless stores. There were grandma types who were selling their knitting in the hallways. It was very weird, like some sort of suburban souk.

I found a toy store; I really wanted to bring Olivia something. I realized that I have no clue what kid�s toys are good nowadays. When I was a kid, I used to snicker at the unhip and age-inappropriate toys that my childless relatives would give me. Now I am that childless relative. And I was forced to choose between the red booted monkey and the slack jawed blue dog. I had picked up a purple back pack with a smiley face on it but I decided on a Care Bear. At least I know what a Care Bear is!

Olivia was less than enthralled with the Care Bear. Turns out the red booted monkey or the smiley faced back pack (both are Dora related) were the correct choice. At least now I know. And, as we learned from G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle. BTW, G.I.. Joe was not available in that store (not that I would have bought a two year old girl a G.I. Joe). But Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears were. Rainbow Brite was not. I am so unhip to the toy scene.