He melts my heart sometimes!

Today, he was telling me about how much he liked one of his nursery school teachers.

"She's the best kind. Just like Mommy." :-)

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When baby boy was an infant we taught him a number of hand signs so he could tell us if he was hungry, needed to be changed etc...It really worked!

As soon as he learned how to speak, we stopped communicating with signs. I'd sort of forgotten about them until yesterday. Baby boy started showing me the bathroom sign.

"You do this," he said, and proceeded to show me the sign for bathroom. "You do this when you need to go pee pee or pooh-pooh." And then he leaned over with straight legs and put his head on the ground. "And this is how you do a pee," he said. Not sure what exactly he was trying to demonstrate but it sure was cute!

He's diggin' this weather!

Today was such a beautiful day! To celebrate the last really warm day of the season, the gang from the park had a pizza party. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera. But here is a picture that kind of captures the mood of the park on a beautiful summer day.

How was your day?

Getting information out of the little guy is like pulling teeth. Our conversations usually go something like this:

"Tell me about your day. What did you do?"

(Distracted) "ummmmm....good."

"What did you have for lunch?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? I bet you do. What did you have?"

"Ummmm.....pasta." (he always says pasta even though it's rarely on the menu and he doesn't even particularly like pasta!)

"What toys did you play with?"

"I don't know."

"Did you go outside and play?"

He runs away to play before answering me.

Luckily his caregiver is very good at filling in the blanks for me so I get a pretty good picture of his day.

With nursery school it's a different story. Because we don't pick him up from school we don't get any instant feedback on what he's been up to. And no matter how many questions we ask, the details are always pretty sketchy.

We were, however, encouraged by one tidbit he offered up today -- he said that he used a potty at nursery school! If he's telling the truth, that's great news!

I can't wait to volunteer in his classroom to find out what he really does all morning.

Dirty Dancing here I come!

It's official -- I'm going to see Dirty Dancing live on stage on November 1! I'm meeting my friend ES in Toronto for a girl's weekend (sans hubby and baby boy). All I can say is I'm going to be watching the calendar with "hungry eyes," and I'm going to have the "time of my life." I'm feeling kind of emotional right now. Oh I forgot, "big girls don't cry." I can feel all of you rolling your eyes at me right now, so I'll stop now :-)

The bedtime dodge

I didn't realize it could start so young. Baby boy has started testing out various ways to do the bedtime dodge. Here are a few of my favourites:

- "I'm so hungry. I need to eat my dinner." He tried this line on me tonight after eating several snacks plus a big dinner.

- "I need to go pee pee on the toilet." This is a good stalling ploy and it works every time. He knows that we'll be beside ourselves with excitement if he shows any interest in the toilet at all. The problem is that once he's seated he actually has no intention of peeing. Rather, he sits for long periods of time, making us read him books.

- "You read this to me?" he'll ask as he hands us the longest, most repetitive and most annoying book in his collection.

- "I want daddy to come upstairs." or "I want mommy to come upstairs" depending on who is on bedtime duty. Often, his need to see one of us leads to quick escapes from the bedroom, and naked streaking down the stairs.

- "I'm going to sleep in the bath." This is among his favourite stalling tactics. Virtually every night we have to peel him off the bottom of the bathtub, where he lies pretending to be asleep.

- "Heeeheeheeehhheeeee." Who needs to go to the gym when you have to chase and wrestle down a squealing, laughing toddler to put him in his pajamas? It's like trying to put pajamas on a cat! No joke.

- "I want another song." Our brushing teeth routine involves singing a selection of children's song. Sometimes baby boy won't open his mouth until the right song is sung. Or, he'll insist that the song be repeated again and again (although that doesn't usually work!).

- "I want socks!" or "I want my other yellow teetee." or "I want water." This is what we hear mosts nights after we've finally sat down on the couch after an exhausting bedtime routine. And he's persistent. He'll repeat his demands loudly and repeatedly until someone comes back upstairs.

It's amazing that most nights we are able to get him into bed by 7:30!

This really makes me sick!

Lead paint in toys and now this. What's next? Headlines like this really make you think about how scary this world can be sometimes.

Report card: week 2

The nursery school drop-off went pretty smoothly this morning. On Friday, daddy heard the little guy knocking at the door as he was leaving. It just about broke his heart! Today, he was too drawn in by the tantalizing toys that he didn't get very upset when dad left.

When I picked him up from daycare I asked how things went at nursery school. He said, "Daddy didn't cry at the door this time." :-0

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I love the month of September, just before the leaves start to turn colour. I love the crispness of the mornings and how, as I walk along the street, I'm reminded of walking to school on the first day of school.

The afternoons are warm, but not hot. The night air perfect for sleeping.

But now I have even more reason to love September -- the fall fairs that take place every weekend. Last Saturday we had such a great time at one such fair. We watched the tractor pull, the cow round up and the greasy pig contest. We ate garden fresh corn on the cob with butter. We wandered through barn after barn admiring all of "best in show" livestock and drooled over the winning pie contest entries.

I think the best part about country fairs is just getting out of the city for a day and enjoying the warm country hospitality.

Summer vacation photos

We finally have our little photo storage problem under control, so you'll be seeing a lot more photos on this blog from now on. I'll start with some pictures from our week at the cottage.

Some of the little guy's favourite things to do included:



hanging out by the water,


watering the plants with his teapot,



splashing....eerrrr....swimming,


hanging out with his new friend Kermit,


stuffing his face full of burgers,


helping dad make dinner on the BBQ,


and picking flowers for his mummy!

Day 1: A big success

Well I don't know what I was so worried about. Day 1 at nursery school went incredibly smoothly. After about half an hour of hanging out with him in the classroom, and getting to know the teachers I said, "Mommy is going to go now. I'll come pick you up later." He replied, "Bye Mom," without even looking up from the game he was playing.

When I picked him up, the kids were all outside on the playground. Baby boy was so busy digging in the the sand with one of his new friends that he didn't even notice me. I took to be a very good sign.

One of his teachers reported that he got upset a few times after I left and went looking for me at the door. They were able to cheer him up and distract him easily with fun activities. Once his initial nervousness subsided, he had a really good time.

When I asked him how his morning went he said "Good." He went on and on about all of the toys he played with and the crafts that he did. Later on he confessed, "I cried at school." We talked about how lots of kids feel a bit nervous and upset on the first day of school. I also told him that I was very proud of him for being so brave.

His next day of nursery school is on Wednesday. Hopefully now that he knows the routine he'll start to feel right at home.

Big days!

A couple of big day updates. First, it's hubby's birthday today. Happy birthday sweetheart! Hope you are having a giant seafood feast on the east coast tonight. We'll have a big surprise waiting for you when you get home. Unless of course you know who spills the beans to you over the phone tomorrow, which is entirely possible.

Tomorrow is another big day: the little guy's first day at nursery school. We've been trying to get him pumped about it all week. I've booked the day off so that I can drop him off and pick him off on his first day. It's an important milestone that I just don't want to miss. Plus, I want to be close by in case things go badly...I think I'm more nervous than he is!

After I pick him up we are going to go out for lunch and do a little birthday shopping. And then, after his nap, we are going to bake daddy a birthday cake. Shhhh...don't tell!

Tune in tomorrow to find out how the first day of nursery school went!