"the latest adventures of dr. mommy and the great cookie-puss," or "cookie takes a dip"

it was a beautiful day today - warm, sunny and, even better, my day off. i'm working tomorrow and friday, so i wanted to take full advantage of my free time with cookie. i really try to take her out to various places downtown on my days off in order to get her exposed to city culture so she can occasionally step outside the bubble of suburbia. being a city girl myself, i don't want cookie or any future cookie monsters to grow up sheltered from the city environment, as that is always a risk when growing up in the 'burbs. downtown toronto is pretty damn cool and very foot-traffic friendly, so we head on over there every free minute we get. she loves taking the subways and street cars, and that's all it takes to keep her entertained so she's a nice, cheap date! last week we went to the st. lawrence market on front street and picked up homemade pierogies and fresh bacon-wrapped scallops for canuck's birthday this past monday, and the week before that we met him at work on college street for a quick picnic lunch. today we headed down kipling avenue to the lakeshore, where there's a terriffic park to walk around and hang out and dip your feet into lake ontario.

after a walk in the park, a quick snack and a pee break for mommy, we went to the lake, took our shoes off and dipped our feet in. the water was freezing, but refreshing! there happened to be a group of dogs playing in the water - their owners would throw tennis balls into the middle of the lake and the poochies would swim all the way out there to fetch 'em! cookie went nuts, she absolutely adores any kind of dog and they were all quite friendly. just as we were about to leave and i bring her to the edge of the lake to rinse our feet off, she literally takes off and jumps into the lake, fully clothed and everything! she was almost completely submerged, and i had to run in there myself to snatch her before she went under! we both wound up sopping wet and muddy, and of course i, not anticipating a day of full swimming, did not pack accordingly. so i stripped her down, put on a dry diaper and put her in the carseat (mud and all) for the short drive home. then it was straight into the bathtub for both of us! and during the whole ordeal, our digital camera happened to get wet and is now destroyed, but i did manage to get a few good shots in beforehand!

beautiful shot of the downtown skyline. can you see the CN tower???

cookie throwing stones into the lake, trying to make them skip.

this is the only head-on shot i could get of her, since she's constantly in motion and it's impossible to get a good still shot!