Fun at the playground

The boys and I have been fending for ourselves the past two weeks because James has been on a crazy project at work. We've missed him but we've had a lot of fun together. James didn't even come home last night because he stayed at work so, when he finally got home at noon, he was obviously tired. While he napped, I took the boys up to the playground and had fun on the swings - the swings are definitely their favourite right now.

Daniel always insists on pushing Adam to the park:

A sneaky look from Adam:

Daniel LOVES underducks:

Lots of fun on the swings:

Second tooth and a few pictures

Adam's second tooth finally came through today! The poor little guy has such a hard time with teeth. He's been suffering with this second tooth since his first one came in, a month ago. Last night was the worst. It'll be nice to have our smiley, happy Adam back again - at least until the top teeth come in!

The boys and I went to the mall today to play on the playground. The weather just wasn't warm enough for me to want to sit outside! Daniel had a great time playing and sliding.

It's really funny to see him interacting with other kids. Two boys were taking turns yelling in Daniel's face. Instead of getting upset, I just saw him doing this:

I guess he's getting to be a bit of a "policeman" like his dad was at that age!

Hyack Festival

We had a busy weekend with Hyack Festival and Victoria Day events. I forgot to blog about our Friday, so I'll include that here, too.

The boys and I went to the gym in New West on Friday. They have Motoring Munchkins on Fridays - the entire gym is filled with toddlers running, jumping, playing hockey, swinging, throwing balls, driving little cars...It's so chaotic and Daniel loves it. For the first time, Adam was able to participate, too. Now that he can crawl, he can take advantage of the toys there. He certainly loved it and was really proud of himself.

Daniel tried the trampoline for the first time. It took him a while to get the hang of it but, once he did, he didn't want to get off!

On Saturday, James and I took the boys to the Hyack Parade. James enjoyed reminiscing about his days as drum major in the parade and may have found a new band to play with. Daniel was in awe of the entire parade. He loved it all - the floats, the bands, the clowns. Well, everything except the pirate ship float at the end. It had a big cannon and made a huge bang every few minutes. Both boys started crying when it passed us - Daniel actually cried more than Adam!

(Samuraidude.com - he's a balloon artist, his whole outfit was made out of balloons!)

After the parade, we went to city hall to take advantage of the free hot dogs, juice and chips. (Well, it was by donation and we seemed to be the only ones actually giving donations!) Then we took two tired boys home.

The boys had a nice evening with Daddy as I went to play at a wedding out at UBC on Saturday evening. They wandered around the neighbourhood and played with all the other kids since the weather was gorgeous. Because they all (James included) napped until 5:30, no one went to bed too early!

Sunday was Queensborough Day. Our community centre was hosting a fair with entertainment, rides and lots of food. Daniel really enjoyed the entertainment. He insisted on going up on stage when one guy was singing - he went up all by himself! The singer asked Daniel his name and he even said "Danny!" But, when he was asked to dance, he scowled the entire time!


The boys also really enjoyed the Sikh martial artists and the Japanese Taiko drummers. James decided to skip the turban booth this year, although he got himself a turban last year.

We went over to Lauren's house for dinner on Sunday and visited with her, Duncan and Lindsay. It was a nice way to end our very busy weekend!

May Day long weekend - Sunday and Monday

On Sunday, we went to Great-Grandma and Grandpa C's house in Penticton. It was right at naptime, so Daniel slept through most of the visit. But Adam sure enjoyed all the attention to himself. When Daniel woke up, the boys were spoiled with ice cream and cookies.

That evening, we all went out to Uncle Kelvin and Auntie Bonnie's to celebrate Kelvin's birthday. Daniel LOVED their fweehouse, and spent most of the visit on the slide, swing and trolley.

On Monday, we went to the May Day celebration in Naramata and saw the local children perform the maypole dance. The boys will do the same dance when they get to grade 4, so they were learning the steps early!

After the May Day festivities, we hung out at the beach for a while, skipping stones and playing with the boys.

I had to include the final picture because I can't remember the last time James and I got a picture taken of just the two of us!

After a nice lunch out with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Lauren, we all got back into the car for our ride home. It was much cooler, the boys slept better and we made it home in under 6 hours!

May Day long weekend - Friday and Saturday

We had a very fun and busy weekend visiting everyone in the Okanagan this weekend. The drive up didn't go quite as planned. Traffic wasn't great so, although the boys fell asleep soon into the ride, they were awake by Hope because it took us so long to get there! Adam fussed most of the way there. It was way too hot in the car. And it took us seven hours instead of four (like it takes people who don't have a baby and toddler!). But we made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house and were surprised to see Auntie Lauren came up as well.

On Saturday, we all headed out to Okanagan Falls to visit with Great-Grandma and Grandpa R. Adam enjoyed hanging out on the deck with his great-grandparents while Daniel had the time of his life exploring outside. Great-Grandpa took him around the yard on his tractor. Grandpa took him in the rowboat out in the lake. Daniel was in heaven!

Saturday evening was exciting because Adam finally learned to crawl! He looks so cute because he's so small and you wouldn't expect him to be able to crawl. He's so proud of his new skill and has the biggest grin whenever he starts moving. After waking up in the morning, he tends to forget that he can now move around. But, after a few minutes, you can't keep him still. He loves to go straight for whatever Daniel is playing with. We hear a lot of "No baby! Mine!"

My Mother's Day present

As I mentioned before, James got me a Palm Pilot for Mother's Day. It arrived yesterday! I was pretty excited to start playing with it...and getting myself organized! Unfortunately, we weren't home when it was delivered, so we had to drive out to the airport to the Purolator depot to pick it up. Well, here's what my present looked like:

Needless to say, my gift is going be returned! James is calling today to figure something out. Hopefully, we can get another one soon!

Daniel's hearing test

Daniel went to get a hearing test done yesterday. A few weeks ago, we asked the doctor why he might be a little behind on his speaking. Since then, he's had a huge outburst of words. But we figured we'd keep the appointment anyway. Daniel did so well during the test. First, he was given a big card with lots of pictures on it. The audiologist told him to point to certain pictures, which he did with no problems. Then she gave him some earphones and left the room. He heard her voice through the earphones and had to point to the pictures again. Then he had to do another test. They played bird sounds through his earphones. Every time he heard a bird call, he had to put a peg into a board. He didn't really understand the concept of this game at first. He'd hear the bird call and give a big smile but wouldn't do anything with the peg. Finally, he figured it out and put the peg in the board. But he was so cute. She'd hand him the peg, he'd say "tant you," put the peg up to his ear and then put it in the board. He thought the sound was coming from the peg!

The outcome is that his hearing is perfectly normal, which we knew. He's just taking his time in the talking department.

Mother's Day

I had a really nice Mother's Day with my boys on Sunday. First of all, I got to sleep in! That is a great present just on its own! The boys then woke me up with breakfast in bed. Daniel looked so proud of himself since he had helped make the French toast.

Breakfast in bed didn't last too long, though, since Adam kept trying to eat my toast and Daniel wanted to eat my oranges.

So we all moved downstairs and had breakfast together.

Besides breakfast, my Mother's Day presents included the new Barenaked Ladies kids CD and a new Palm Pilot - I'm determined to get myself organized!


Later in the afternoon we packed up to go down to Gramma and Grampa's trailer in White Rock to spend the day with the Terry clan. Unfortunately, it rained most of the morning so we all huddled under the tarp around the campfire. It was kind of cozy, actually. After lunch the sun started peeking out and we walked down to the beach in White Rock. Daniel had a great time as usual...and Adam slept through the whole trip!







Overall, it was a wonderful Mother's Day. I'm pretty lucky that I get to be the mother of the two greatest kids around!

Gotta work on that potty training!

We went to Metrotown today to do a bit of shopping and pick up some new diapers for Daniel. He was wearing the last disposable diaper we had in the house. After having some dinner (and a lot of apple juice), I was pushing him in the stroller when he says, "No me vy!" Neither James nor I could figure out what vy meant, but Daniel kept repeating it. Finally, he pointed to his behind and said, again, "No me vy!" Ooooohhhh...he meant "I'm not dry!" I looked at his jeans and, lo and behold, he was absolutely soaked! Poor kid drank way too much juice. So I took him to the washroom to change him and James ran into the closest store (Old Navy) to buy him some pants. Poor Daniel had to walk through the mall in his diaper to meet Daddy. I told him Daddy was buying him new pants and Daniel said, "Me happy pants! No plippy pants!" :) I love how the opposite of plippy (dirty/yucky) is happy!

How polite!

Daniel usually has pretty good manners. Most of the time, he remembers to say please (teese) and thank you (lala). Just recently, thank you has become tant you - it just sounds so cute when he says it. Now he likes to say it all the time. Often, when I ask him if he wants me to do something for him, it's "No tant you Mommy." How cute is that?

Hmmm...some other cute things Daniel has been saying...He was in the car this morning and started to doze off. I tried to wake him up and he said, "No Mommy, me teepy." He has a really tough time saying the s sound at the beginning of words, which makes for some funny translations. Especially when he tells you to tit!

He's also started saying words like happy and funny and it's so fun to see how he describes certain things. I think happy has become the opposite of any negative emotion - mad, sad, tired - "Are you tired, Daniel?" "No, me happy!"

There's still hope that Adam will be crawling by the time we go up to the Okanagan next week. Who knows? He now rocks on all fours for a long time and sometimes even gets his right foot up so he on one foot and one knee. But he hasn't moved anywhere but backwards!

Busy weekend

As usual, it was another busy weekend. There's rarely a boring moment around here! On Saturday we all went to Killarney pool for the birthday party of Daniel's daycare friend, Sarah. Daniel had been looking forward to it all week - he wanted to wim! Daniel is such a water baby. He has no fear when it comes to the water. He loved the water sprayers and would spray anyone nearby. Adam is starting to enjoy the water, too. He loved floating on his back with a life jacket on. But his poor little lip started turning purple - he's more of a hot tub guy.

Sunday was a day of hard labour for the boys. James and my dad dug out our front lawn and installed new sod. What a big job that was! It looks a hundred times better, though. They did a great job. Daniel tried to help again, which meant digging up dirt with a hoe and dumping it in the wheelbarrow. To get him out of their hair, my mom and I took the boys to the mall and found great deals on clothes and shoes for the boys. There's nothing better than going out and spending money while the men are hard at work at home!

Potty success!

Knock on wood...Daniel has been doing so well in the potty training area. He is now successful about 3-4 times a day. He still has wet diapers while we're out but he's probably dry at home about 75% of the time. He seems to be "getting" it, too. He was wearing underwear today and started to go a little bit. So he took off his underwear and ran to the bathroom to finish up. What a smart little guy! Let's hope this new skill continues!

A few updates and some fun pictures

The last few days have been full of big accomplishments for the boys. Adam is getting closer and closer to crawling. He can get himself into position and can move himself backwards. He just hasn't got the forward-motion thing going yet. But the big grin on his face says it all - he's so proud of his newfound skill!

Daniel has gone on the potty eight times in the last few days! He's also pretty proud of himself. He likes to tell everyone, "Me pee!" He's started wearing underwear around the house but isn't ready to get rid of the diaper yet. But we're one step closer to only having one boy in diapers!

James went out tonight for a reunion with all his first year university classmates, so the boys and I had a nice date night together. After dinner, I got adventurous and let them fingerpaint! So fun but so messy! I think they had a pretty good time, though.

(Adam's pictures all look a little crooked because I was trying to take pictures and keep his hands out of his mouth at the same time. I guess I wasn't too successful at either!) The bathroom didn't look too bad by the end. But then I put them both in the bathtub and, before I was able to add water, Daniel decided it would be a good idea to paint Adam!

They had a fun few moments and then it was time to clean up. I think we'll be able to do it again one day...but only just before bathtime!