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!

Do you want to play toes?

It's our latest game. We dip our feet in the kiddie pool and then play "toes" by walking around the deck leaving toe tracks. He could play toes for hours :-)

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Like all children his age, the little guy goes through a lot of "phases." Here are a few of the latest:

- Reading phase (he's alway liked books, but he could literally sit and read 50 books in a row these days. I am truly sick of Curious George and Elmo and Big Bird playing the alphabet game!)

- The "hot breakfast" phase. Every morning he says, "Mommy, I want hot breakfast." By that he means instant raising and cinnamon oatmeal.

- The "new" tee tee phase. Instead of dragging just his yellow tee tee (aka blankie) around, he also carries around a yellow receiving blanket. At the same time. Wherever he goes.

- The "sock" phase. Heaven forbid I forget to put his socks on before bed (even if it's the hottest night of the year). If I ask him why he wants socks he says, "But I need them!"

Olympic fever continues

If baby boy could get a face to face meeting with the International Olympic Committee he'd probably make the following suggestions to rename events:

1. Boxing would be called "peefing."

The other day he asked me if I wanted to "peef" with him (translation: box with him). He put his rubber boots on his hands and said, "Look, I have peefs!" Later he brought me a pair of runners and said, "Here you go mommy. You put on your peefs on your arms."

With peefs on, we had a little boxing urrrr...peefing match. Truth be told it was actually more like playing pat-a-cake.

and....

2. Diving would no longer be called diving. It would be called "the jumping in the water" event. And diving boards would be called the "blue blocks that the girls jump on."

We're in!

We've been on the waiting list for our neighbourhood nursery school for a couple of months. Parents in my neighbourhood talk about it as though it's the best nursery school on the face of the earth. Many of them waited months and months to get their children in so I thought his chances of getting a spot for this fall we slim to none. But today they called me to say they have a opening for him starting in September. It will be every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 - 11:30. His caregiver will pick him up and take him back to her place in the afternoons. Sweet!

It's a cooperative nursery school so the price is really reasonable. The reason being, of course, is that all of the parents are required to do volunteer work. There is snack duty, laundry duty, and volunteer in person duty too. I'm kind of looking forward to it. My only concern is that three days a week may be a bit overwhelming for him. I guess we'll wait and see. We can always withdraw him and try again next year if it isn't working out.

Our little nest

In the summer our comforter usually ends up balled up on the floor at the foot of our bed. And apparently that is just where baby boy likes it to be. He's converted it into his "nest." One morning I asked him what he was doing in his nest and he told me very matter of factly, "I'm sitting on my eggs." He also likes to use his nest for collecting "eggcorns" and for sleepovers with "Buddy bear" (aka Whinnie the Pooh) and various other stuffed friends.

But perhaps his favourite nest activity is to curl up and get all cozy and then pretend he's a kitten. Every once in a while he pops his head up and asks, "what you doing mommy kitty cat? What you doing daddy kitty cat?" Usually our response is, "We're sleeping baby kitty."

Olympic fever

The little guy has Olympic fever. While watching the gymnastics on tv the other day, he turned to daddy in wide eyed excitement and exclaimed, "I want to do that!"

While he may not have mastered some of the more difficult tumbles and flips, he is pretty good at somersaulting (forwards and backwards). And, he even did a diving somersault! But like all good gymnasts he knows that points are lost on the landing so we've coached him on the "stick the landing" pose. We just yell, "Stick the landing!" and he puffs out his chest, stretches his arms up in the air and gives a gigantic grin.
He then says, "I'm doing the Olympics!"

The vacation is over

Back to work tomorrow....sigh....

Our second week of vacation was pretty awesome. We went on fun outings everyday after a leisurely sleep in (if you call 7:30 sleeping in....). Our week included a BBQ picnic with LD, RD and SD, a trip to the farm with ML, AL and CL, exploring the outdoor portion of the children's museum, a trip to the equestrian park to watch a horse jumping competition, a full-day biking adventure, walks through the market, lunches out, a BBQ pizza party etc... All in all it was a very fun and relaxing week.

Back from the beach!

Week one of our vacation is now over. We just spent a week at a beautiful cottage on a quiet lake near Algonquin Park (photos to follow once we buy more memory for the computer and I can actually download the pics). I think that it was the laziest week we've spent since before baby boy came along.

Here are a few cottage highlights:

- Every day we went for a nice long canoe ride. Last year baby boy was terrified of the canoe so we were delighted that he turned over a new leaf. He even helped with the paddling! On our first canoe ride he was overwhelmed with excitement. With heartfelt emotion, he kept saying "Thank you for the cottage!" and "Are we on vacation????"

- When we told baby boy that we would be going to the cottage, it came with the promise of seeing lots of frogs. At first he was disappointed -- where could they all be? But we soon discovered their secret hideout - in the grass and rocks near the front of the cottage. On one of our frog encounters, he said "He's real hungry mom. He needs a peanut butter sandwich."

- Lucky for me, Daddy was the only one who saw any snakes at the cottage. He just about stepped on one while crossing the deck one day. I asked him what it looked like and he said he'd never seen one like that before and that it was "plaid." The next day he encountered another plaid snake. I kept teasing him that it must be some distant relative of the plaid lochness monster from that crazy pinochio/wizard of oz show we used to watch when we were kids. Does any one else remember the plaid, tea drinking lochness monster????

- The little guy's imagination knows no boundaries. While outside with daddy he said, "I saw a snapping frog (kind of like a snapping turtle, only a frog) and a hammerhead tee tee (tee tee is the name of his favourite blankie)." When asked for some additional details about what the snapping frog was up to he replied, "He was pumping and scrunching." So, to all of you who are reading this, beware of the elusive pumping and scrunching snapping frog -- it's very dangerous!

On the morning we were set to head back to the city the little guy was very disappointed. I assured him that we would go on a little adventure on the way home. That idea seemed to appeal to him, so he gave it some thought. When we got loaded into the car he proposed his own idea for an adventure.

"We're going to Constanchayo," he said.

"Where's Constanchayo," daddy asked.

"It's in Canada."

"What do they have there?"

"Things."

"What kinds of things?"

"Ummmm....horses. Grey horses, black horses, and orange horses."

"Are there people in Constanchayo?"

"No, just horses."

Unfortunately we weren't able to find Constanchayo on the map...


- I may have mentioned in an earlier post that the little guy is terrified of moss. We have no idea why, but he stops dead in his tracks whenever he sees it. The cottage grounds were full of moss, which turned out to be a good thing. The continuous exposure made him relax a bit.

"Moss is a plant," he kept telling us. "Moss can't hurt you."

To prove he was right, I made a point of patting the moss and telling him it was soft and fuzzy like a cat.

"You pat the moss, Mommy?" he asked every time we came across a moss patch. I must have patted moss a thousand times a day. When I invited him to try, he refused (he's still not completely cured). But, he did stomp his foot on some moss once, and touched some lichen on a stump near some moss. That's progress, isn't it?

- Hubby and I decided that we were going to put toilet training into full action while on vacation. So far we've failed miserably.

Daddy taught him how to pee in the woods, figuring it was a skill that all young lads should acquire. Unfortunately, baby boy thinks that the peeing is not limited to the side of a tree. He figured the middle of the deck and on the floor of the cottage were also good pee spots. And every time he would do a little sprinkle, he'd come up to us with a wide grin and demand a candle and a treat. One step forward, two steps back (again!!!). At this rate, he's going to be in diapers until he's a teenager!

Oooo lollipop

I can't believe I forgot to post this story! When we were in Toronto visiting family a couple of weekends ago, the little guy watched his 3 year old cousin eating a purple lollipop. Having never had a lollipop before, he wasn't sure what to make of it. He had no idea what it was. All he knew was that if his cousin was eating one, he wanted to eat one too. He turned to me and said, "Mom, I want a grape on a straw." :-)

What a cutie

The little guy sat here and watched a donkey in the field for a good 45 minutes straight. Every time I tried to convince him to leave to look at other farm animals he said, "No! I want to stay with the donkey!"


Just doing a little driving....


and a little more driving.....


and some more driving....Did I mention I like to drive?

My smarty pants

Last week my caregiver took the kids to the park to see the ducks, geese and turtles. While there baby boy noticed some pigeons hanging around. He asked CC if pigeons ever go swimming in the water, which she thought was a very good question. Just as she was explaining that pigeons were more of a land bird, a pigeon swooped down into the river and started splashing around as if to prove her wrong.

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Baby boy asked me one day if his friend M had a daddy, to which I replied, "No, he has two mommies. Most kids have a mommy and a daddy, but some kids have two mommies and some kids have two daddies." After I explained this two him he ran off and played. I wasn't sure if he had actually paid attention to what I said or not until the other day when he blurted out, "M has two mommies. One brown one and one white one."

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Baby boy knows how to tease me. If he wants to get me going he says, "Mom's a boy" so that I'll correct him. And then he keeps repeating it because he thinks he's so funny. The other day he came up to me and said, "Hi Daddy." I replied, "I'm mommy silly." He looked at me with a sly little smile and said, "No you're not -- you're daddy!"

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The little guy watched intently as daddy marinated some lamb chops the other night. Hubby explained all of the ingredients he was mixing in. When he got to the wine vinegar, baby boy said, "No daddy, I want you to pour the wine in a glass for me."

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Today, hubby took the little guy to the toy store and got him some new animal figurines. He's going through a real marine animal stage right now, so they added a hammerhead shark to his collection. And, they bought a horse and a cow. As they were browsing through the cow section, hubby picked up one that he thought would be a sure winner. "Look at this nice cow," he said. Baby boy shook his head and said, "No daddy. That's a bull, not a cow. I want a cow." And guess what? He was right!