A bit of a rough week

Poor Daniel is still sick. He got over his stomach bug by Thursday and was able to go to daycare alright. He still looked awfully pale and had huge circles under his eyes. Adam, amazingly, has managed to avoid it. Thank goodness! We went to my parents' for dinner on Thursday night and Daniel seemed to be on the mend. When I came home, though, there was a phone message from Ashley, our Friday daycare. She had stomach flu as well and couldn't watch the boys. So I stayed home on Friday, which was a nice extra day with the boys. Poor Daniel, though, woke up with a runny nose. But we got out to Brentwood Mall, which has a really fun playground, and the boys had a great time. Adam learned to go on the slide and he went on it about 15 times in a row, nonstop!

We did manage a walk outside, because it was beautiful. We walked through our park, played on the playground for a bit, but didn't stay out too long. Adam was having a great time but Daniel was pretty upset about his runny nose. So we headed home early.

And here's what the poor little sickie looked like after dinner:

Daniel is feeling better today, but his poor face looks pretty rough since he insists on wiping his nose on anything except Kleenex (his shirt, pants, my shirt, the couch, the carpet...). Adam has been great through all of this and is learning to keep his distance from his sick big brother, who has been quite grouchy and likes to take it out on his little brother!

It's Hammer Time!

Even though they both weren't feeling well (Daniel was up from 2:30-6:30 this morning throwing up and Adam is warm but hasn't gotten sick), the boys were still able to do some dancing to MC Hammer! (It happened to come on the radio...I didn't choose to put it on!) I'm not sure about their taste in music, but they do have rhythm!

Our visit to the Olympic Oval

This past weekend was the Richmond Winterfest, which was held at the new Olympic Speedskating Oval. It was very impressive. The roof of the building was built from the wood of trees that had been ruined from the pinebeetle, so it's a very environmentally-friendly building.

We met up with Gramma and Grampa after the boys' naps and started to wander around the skating oval. There were booths and displays around the outside of the oval. Daniel got to try some t-ball at the Richmond Softball booth. He's definitely a lefty.

(We don't actually know that woman. She was from the softball organization.)

There was a big craft area for kids where Daniel made a little maraca and Adam made a paper bag puppet. We also saw some very impressive ice sculptures.

We stopped by the Scouts Canada booth where Daniel got to try his hand at hockey and show off the skills he's been learning on Saturday mornings.

Then we stopped by the booth where we got to hold past Olympic torches. The boys got to hold them! The blue one that Adam has is from the 2006 Torino Olympics (it was very heavy!) and the orange one that Daniel has is from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Isn't it nice how they coordinated with the boys' jackets? :)

The next stop was the BC Lottery Corporations booth where we got to try out the rifles from the biathalon. Grampa and Daniel did very well, hitting 4 out of 5 targets. If kids hit three, they were supposed to win a prize but they didn't give it to us - I guess it didn't count because Grampa was helping. Next it was Gramma's turn. Who ever thought they'd see her shooting a rifle?!? Daddy and Adam went last.

By this time, it was after 7:00 and we were all very hungry for dinner. So we had a very "romantic" Valentine's dinner at Wendy's. Who says you can't celebrate Valentine's Day with kids and grandparents?

Hide and Seek

Hide and Seek is the boys' new favourite game. They're a lot better at hiding than seeking, though! And the hiding doesn't last too long. They usually hide in the same spot and all you can hear is giggling and shh-ing. (Well, with Adam, it sounds more like hsss.) But they love it!

Adam is 18 months old!

Our little guy is a toddler! I know he's been a toddler for a while now, but he's really more of a big kid than a baby now. He is such a funny little guy. He's going to have quite the sense of humour. He loves to play hide and seek and really understands the concept. He'll sit there saying, "hssss." It's so cute. He loves to follow Daniel around and do whatever his big brother is doing. It doesn't seem to bother Daniel too much...yet.

Adam doesn't talk much yet. He babbles nonstop but he doesn't really say any words. He'll say mama, dada and something that means Daniel (sometimes da-DAH, sometimes da-doh, sometimes nana). He'll sometimes repeat hi after I say it. But, like his older brother, talking doesn't seem to be a priority.

The other day, James took Daniel grocery shopping and Adam just didn't know what to do with himself without his brother. He just wandered around the house, looking around, with his arms in the air saying, "Huh?" And then, when Daniel finally got home, Adam squealed with delight. They really are best buddies.

Science World

Two weekends ago, we (the four of us, along with Gramma and Grampa Terry, Aunty Laura and her new boyfriend Jason) went to Science World. The boys (not just the little ones) loved it! We had so much fun there. The first thing we did was see the Lego exhibit. It was very impressive. You could have spent hours in there but, when you're there with a 3 year old and a 1 year old, you don't have hours! But the things people built were amazing.

There was even a child-sized racecar that the boys could "drive."

Even though it's very fun to look at Lego creations, it's even better to make your own. There were Lego tables set up around the room where kids could play. There was also a racetrack where kids (big and small) could race the cars they had built.

After lunch, we went back up to the Eureka room, which is definitely the boys' favourite. Everything in there is hands-on and is related to physics, motion, sound, all that kind of fun stuff. We found a toddler play area that we hadn't found the last time we were there. The boys did not want to leave. We decided that, if we were ever to decide to get a season's pass to Science World, it would be worth it just to come to this one area. The best part was the water table. Kids could play in the water or set up walls and barriers to make rivers and things. Daniel really got into that, and Adam thought it was pretty cool, too.

Adam's face showed it all. Everyone had a great time and it was a fun way to spend a cold and rainy Saturday. (We had planned to go to the Chinese New Year parade that day but staying indoors was a much better plan!)