Shawn making a catch in the Sunday game against US team O.L.D. S.A.G. link

Shawn and I are in Prague for the World Ultimate Club Championships. He's playing with the masters team GLUM and I'm along for the ride.

Today was an eventful day for GLUM. They had a must-win match against the French team, OUF, and were down a few points when the game was called at noon for thunderstorms. We waited out the rain at the stadium, and then at 2 pm they resumed the game on the turf field (all remaining games were cancelled to save the grass fields).

OUF picked up two points off the bat (one from a dropped pull, ouch!) and the score was 15-11. Then the Canadian boys started battling back, holding OUF to only one point and picking up five for themselves on some tight defense and chilly handling. It seems the pressure served them well. Tied at 16-16 with the game on the line at universe point, GLUM turned it over and scored! The Canadian cheering gallery was especially happy because these guys would not have been in a good mood this afternoon if they'd lost :-)

They still face stiff competition tomorrow from Helsinki Ultimate and the pool leaders, US team Troubled Past -- the goal is to make it to top eight so they can fight for the championship.

You can see how Shawn's team is doing in the pool results or check out the Flickr stream or Twitter feed for updates.

Today was my first day watching the team play. I've also been working on my novel and exploring the city. Tonight we have plans to watch the Netherlands/Uruguay semifinal World Cup match on the big screen in Old Town Square. Hup Holland!

(You may notice no children are mentioned. Ours are at home with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Jacquie, Oma, Opa and cousins, having a fine time. And we're enjoying a kid-free breather. This was a great idea.)

Tonight we celebrated our anniversary with a special dinner topped off with a chocolate fondue. Here's how it ended.

Thanks to everyone who's stopping by from Almost Fearless where Christine published my guest post, 5 Tips for Working in the Midst of Chaos.

The posts about our fall Beijing travels start here: Arrivals. We've also written about our two previous China trips to adopt our children in February 2007 and February 2009.

Please say hi here or drop us a line on Twitter at @manylives. Thanks!

P.S. You can also check out my writing / coaching blog at gresik.ca.

Our girly had a swell birthday today, starting with breakfast from The Scone Witch. Shawn took Lia to Canadian Tire last night to buy her first bike (and a bonus trike for Nico) so the next item on the agenda was a trek to the park.

And of course we had to watch several versions of Feist's counting song!

This evening's dinner with friends included cake and candles:

Tomorrow we have a very busy party planned -- I rented a room at the community centre so we wouldn't have to clean the house!

We've definitely seen Lia cross the developmental boundary from Three to Four over the last few months. Tantrums are going down, declarations of love are going up. Chances that she will do what we ask when we ask it have increased dramatically.

On a personal note, I have been waiting for Four and its sweet companion Four and a half ever since I read finslippy's post No one told me it would be like this. three years ago. I plan to savour every delicious minute.

After three cancellations in the last two months, Nico finally had his lip revision/fistula repair surgery last Thursday.

Everything went great -- he was cheery and calm presurgery, even when they put the anesthetic mask on him in the OR; he had a few hours of pain and distress after waking up post-surgery but they had some good drugs for that; by evening he was drinking juice and eating applesauce and ice cream, content to watch videos on Mommy's computer.

He slept well in the hospital; I didn't get up with him once -- the night nurse said he was the easiest cleft patient she'd ever had. The surgeon came by first thing in the morning and discharged us without trouble.

From what we can see, the appearance of Nico's lip has improved a lot. The red lip is now lined up and symmetrical, even though it's swollen from surgery. The surgeon also closed up a fistula (hole) on the roof of his mouth so he'll have less leakage through his nose. Now we just keep him on a soft diet and in arm restraints when necessary until things heal up.

Lia enjoyed her time with Dad and Grandma while Mom and Nico were in the hospital.

Nico is nearly back to his old self and isn't even on pain medication anymore. Yesterday he was tearing it up on the boardwalk at Mer Bleue, and today he danced the closing hymn at church. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.