The potty dance

The little guy has had more than his share of accidents lately. Usually because he's just so tied up with playing a game that he waits too long. Any time we see him doing the "pee pee dance" we say, "What is your body telling right now? Make sure to listen to your body." Often he denies that he has to go and keeps on playing. Then about 5 minutes later he yells, "I have to pee!!!!"

Today I asked him if he had to go. It was pretty obvious that he had to but he said he didn't have to, as usual. Not two minutes later he went flying down the hall to the bathroom, yelling. "Look mom! I'm listening to my body!" :-)

So proud!

Today the little guy hiked more than 6 km and mostly without grumbling! We met lots of jumping frogs along the trail today. His only disappointment was that he didn't catch one. The ice-cream after the long hike helped to make up for that :-)

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So we are officially on vacation now. I'm off for two weeks, and hubby is off for all of August (jealous!). We are just going to take it easy and not over-schedule ourselves. A couple of days at the cottage here, some day trips there, and a whole lotta relaxation in between.

I'll keep you updated on our adventures. I wish I could post photos but the post photo button seems to have disappeared from blogger. Has anyone else run into this problem????

Strawberry "shark" cake

Amma is visiting right now and has presented us with all kinds of treats, including strawberry short cake. The little guy thought it was called a strawberry "shark" cake and we didn't have the heart to correct him. So, instead, hubby carved his piece of cake into the shape of a shark's head and made eyes and teeth out of strawberries.

He also thinks that Whinnie The Pooh lives in the Hundred "Naked" Woods. :-)

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He can read! Although some of it may be memorized, we're pretty sure that he's able to read simple stories. He read me a story the other day, word for word!

We are being eaten alive by toys

Toys, toys and more toys. When does a 4-year old finally have enough of them? Apparently never. His wish list is longer than my arm. And while we try not to spoil him too badly, we do make the odd toy purchase here and there. After a while, it really starts to add up! Especially when you combine those toys with ones that friends and family give him, and items that he purchases with his own money at garage sales etc... The toy bins are completely overflowing and our small townhouse feels like it is shrinking in size.

I managed to weed out some of the baby toys recently, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. My new rule is for every new toy coming in, two have to go out. It's going to be tough to convince the little guy to go along with this plan, but I think he'll go along with it knowing that the toys will all be donated to less fortunate children.

Here are my top 10 toy pet peeves:

1. Little pieces of playmobile. I find them everywhere!! In the washing machine, in the kitchen, under the couch. Arggghhh!!!!
2. 90% of them are made in China, which makes we worry about lead paint and other harmful chemicals....
3. Ones that make noise. Why do people think that noisy toys make good gifts? They are horrible! Once the battery runs out, I let them work on imagination. And you know what? He plays with them more when they don't do all the work for him.
4. The clamshell packaging some of them come in. So much waste, and so hard to open!
5. "Trendy" toys like transformers and Lightening McQueen cars etc... He desperately wants them and then only plays with them a handful of times. Frankly, he's had more fun playing with the discarded cardboard boxes they came in.
6. They are so expensive! It makes so much more sense to buy them second hand.
7. The quality is crap! My parents still have the toys I played with when I was a kid and all of the grandkids are enjoying them all over again. I seriously doubt that any of the little guy's toys (with a couple of exceptions) will pass the test of time.
8. Too much plastic! Not only is their too much plastic in our lives these days, it's so unnatural.
9. Stuffed animals. As far as I'm concerned they are big germ and dust collectors.
10. They multiply like rabbits, which is what motivated me to write this post in the first place.