Random summer thoughts

The summer has been busy and I have just had enough time to document some summer happenings. I still haven't had a chance to filter through all our photos (going to back to March I think, eek). Plan to start that soon.

Some random thoughts...

Callum sleeps with teddy stuffed up the front of his pajama top sometimes.

Lucas's words: cracker, all done, no, car, ball, nana, mama, dada, bath, spoon,

Lucas's sounds: quack, woof, oink, dinosaur roar

Lucas copies Callum all the time. This morning, Callum wanted to wear his fall raincoat even though it was warm and sunny. Lucas then insisted on getting his coat on! He has been watching Callum use the toilet and sometimes he will go into the bathroom, lift the lid of the toilet, pull down his pants and diaper a little bit, pull up his shirt and stand there, then when he thinks he's done he puts back down the lid and walks out. So cute to watch.

Lucas turned a corner with swimming half way through our visit home. He now loves the water and will even lie on his back in the bath tub and float.

Lucas get such a kick out of trying to throw a foam frisbee.

Callum is getting pretty creative with play and his props. The other day he came to me with 2 wrist sweat bands and 2 pieces of short rope and asked me to help him make 'hand cups" (handcuffs).

We had a new babysitter come last night and the plan was for the boys to meet Olga and then put them to bed with her there and leave. Well, it turned out that Callum was content to have us leave before he went down. He was getting Olga to read stories to him. Everything went well. It's funny how I get set in my way about what he is capable of handling and then when you push what you thought was a limit, he surprises me!

Callum had a field trip to Science World to see the "Extreme Dinosaurs" exhibit. He loved it. Lucas also had a field trip to Science World and to the Stanley Park train this summer.

Summer is almost here

Lucas has been walking on his tippy toes. Not sure what that's about. He loves unrolling toilet paper rolls and doing whatever Callum is doing. He will sit for ages taking things out of a container and then putting them back into the container.

Callum has been saying some pretty impressive words like universe and humongous.

We are hopefully flying back East on the 30th but just heard about the possible Air Canada strike.

We have been busy watching the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Possibly 2 more games if Vancouver doesn't win game 6 in Boston on Monday. Fingers crossed that they play better on Monday in Boston.

Have been outside more with the boys now that it has finally dried up a bit.

Easter weekend

We had an egg hunt this morning b/c tomorrow we will be a Auntie Bev and Uncle Ian's overnight tonight. The Easter bunny brought Callum a junior sleeping bag and for Lucas, a Nerf soccer ball. Callum was very excited. Lucas was still asleep for most of it. They were both on little chocolate highs this morning.

It's been sunny for the past couple of days and my Alder allergy has hit a peak that I have never experienced before. Even one extra strength Claritin isn't working.

Lucas is now walking full time and trying to run. He sticks his chest out and still has his arms outstretched. He is a the peak of his separation anxiety from just me. He is happy until he sees me and then it's all over.

He is using his spoon mostly with his left hand. He is blowing kisses and says "ball", "up", and "bye-bye". He uses "mama" and "dada" but think the "mama" is for milk, food or mine. "Dada" is for Colin mostly but dogs as well. He has cut both 1st molars on the bottom and has his hand rammed in his mouth once again so think the tops are on their way. He can also open door handles now and the bathroom doors are the most interesting as the toilet and paper rolls are in there. Have started using the child proof latches again. Unfortunately, we can't set them everywhere as Callum has to get in to use the toilet.

Callum is learning his letters and knows quite a lot of them now. He can write the letters C, J and O. His is still into dinosaurs and loves to colour them. I printed out a bunch of colouring pages for him and he loves that. I got him a dry erase book that teaches to draw letters. He calls it his 'homework' and will work on it for ever. The first time he was using it, I went over to ask him how he was doing and he looks up, rubs neck and says "ooh my neck is sore". He was concentrating so hard on tracing letters that he strained his neck!

Callum has been going through a phase of 'I don't like anything'. He has been going to bed hardly having eaten his dinner. Hope this passes soon.

Happy Easter everyone!

Callum's words

Callum isn't quite pronouncing all words correctly. He's almost 3 1/2 years old now. Here's a list of some of the latest words:

• SCUBA diver is a 'scooper diver'
• Tarantula is a 'trangulla spider'
• Glee from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer song is 'gleems' and he gets mad if I say 'glee'
  
• He has started makin up dinosaurs like 'shapesauros'
  

Lucas is 1

Lucas turned 1 on the 7th of March. My parents were in town on their way home from a holiday in Hawaii. We had a quiet birthday party with the six of us. I made chocolate banana cupcakes and Callum helped to blow out the candles. Lucas got new shoes, a xylophone, a couple of books, a puzzle, clothes, and a toy helicopter from Grandma and Granda, Mummy and Daddy, Mimi and Papa, Great Auntie Eileen and Great Uncle Ian and the McLeod's.

Lucas measured in at 31.25" and 24 pounds at this 1 year doctor's appointment. I gave him peanut on crackers the other day and he had no reaction. He is eating pretty much everything he is offered with the exception of cottage cheese. He is doing really well in daycare and has caught 2 colds since starting February 1. He started walking on his birthday and is now spending about 50% of his moving time on his feet. Last week he waved good bye and said 'bye bye'. His first words. He wasn't too happy about us taking his bottle away when he started milk but has got used to it now. We have taken away the soother too. This didn't affect him at all as he wasn't that into it anyway.

Callum is doing well. He understands what pretending is and calls it 'tending'. He is now very interested in dinosaurs and insists on watching a show called "Dinosaur Train". Two of his favourite interests! Ingenious! He is also quite interested in super heros like Spider Man, Super Man and Bat Man. I have just ordered him some new 'jammas' that have Spider Man and Bat Man on them. He was already given Super Man 'jammas' from his Aunt Lindsay. For the most part he is toilet trained during the day (3 yrs and 4 mths old) with the exception of the occasional incidents at daycare while he is playing outside.

I have been back to work full time for 5 weeks now. It has been hard. Hopefully will get better as I get used to it and I will be able to manage some time for just myself.

We are starting to plan our trip home in the summer. I just got my vacation time approved so we have to book our flights to Ottawa. It's really expensive right now so will keep looking.

My sister, Vari, got engaged to Kris a couple of weeks ago! The wedding is going to be in Chicago but we don't know when yet.

I am trying to plan a weekend away with my childhood friends Jody, Treena and Kate at some point this year. We all turn 40 and it's been a long time since we were all together. I think it was in 1999.

Our February so far...

Callum newest thing to say is "What the heck?!". Can only imagine that he got that from some child at daycare. I asked him who says that and he replies "I do!". Just going to ignore it and hopefully it will stop!

Lucas's 8th tooth made an appearance this week. He is getting closer to walking. He is 11 months next week and Callum was exactly 11 months when he started making his first steps.

Fourth day of Lucas in gradual entry daycare. Yesterday didn't go so well. He was pretty upset after he woke up from his short half hour nap. Poor little guy. I came to get him at about 1 pm. He did eat well though. His mood changed immediately to being a happy baby again once I came in and sat down on the floor with him. All the other children are lovely and 2 of them in particular come up to me and give me hugs and bring me books to read to them. Lucas is the youngest of the 12 children. The next oldest, Davis, is 3 months older so I can imagine they will be friends for the next 4 years if they stay in the centre.

Just got back from dropping him off. All the children were sitting around the table having smoothies and Melba toasts. He was crying. Breaks my heart. Trying not to shed a tear but it's a tough.

We went to Seattle (Issaquah actually, suburb east of Seattle) this past weekend to visit Jody, Mike, Ben and Seth. Callum had a great time. He was in heaven with all the cars they had for him to play with. Their new house is beautiful. It looks onto a very private and green children's park. A really nice place to grow up in.

My office moved once again and there was an open house party last week. I brought the boys and Colin joined us after work. Attached some pics here that were taken.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

After my last post, Callum got sick with a stomach virus that lasted about 6 days. He had a cough as well so in the night his coughing would trigger him to throw up. We missed one birthday party and a Christmas party at daycare be/c of it. So sad b/c at daycare it would have given me a chance to meet other parents and to see Callum singing in a group. It was a restless couple of days. I need to get a second duvet cover for times like this. Then Lucas got it 3 days after Callum. Lucas developed a fever one day and thinking he was better we joined friends at a very nice sailing club in Vancouver for a Christmas dinner. This turned out to be a disaster as one of us missed the ferry home, one family forgot and Lucas ended up throwing up just before we got our dinner. Another restless and stressful couple of days. Then it all was over by Christmas Day!

We had a very nice Christmas time. Callum was aware of Santa Claus and he ran upstairs in the morning to and said "Come see Mummy and Daddy". He noticed the empty milk glass and cookie crumbs and was convinced that Santa had been here. We spent almost all day opening presents as once Callum opened one thing he wanted to play with it immediately. He got Spencer the train engine from the Thomas the Tank Engine series and an airport and airplane from Santa. Lucas got a Fisher Price chatter phone and infant musical instruments from Santa. We went over to Auntie Bev and Uncle Ian's for Christmas dinner and stayed the night. It was a really nice visit. Callum fell out of his bed for the first time ever but bounced back and fell immediately back to sleep! Carlye and Tom were there with their dogs, Cody and Zoe. Callum enjoyed their company!

On the 30th we spent the night at the River Rock Casino in Richmond for our friend Jill's birthday. They got a baby sitter and we planned it so that our rooms were next door to each other so the the babysitter could have our baby monitor. The boys didn't make a peep while we were down at dinner.

We celebrated EST New Year's Eve at the Bennett's house with all the kids. We were home by 10 pm and realized that Callum's teddy was left in the hotel room. Colin called the hotel at 10:30 pm on new years eve and left a message while I read stories to Callum. When Callum realized that Teddy was missing once he got into bed he got very very upset. He wanted Teddy and was worried that someone else was playing with him. It was impossible to console him. Brought him back into the living room and theorized that if we let him watch Thomas he will just fall asleep watching. Just after turning Thomas on, the phone rang and this was housekeeping saying that they had teddy. I decided to go get him right away. So off I went at 11 pm on New Years Eve to a casino/hotel to get Teddy. It was crazy when I got there and took me a while to get up to Valet parking. I told them my story and they said no problem that they would keep my car here. I was home at 11:50 pm and Callum and Colin were fast asleep in Callum's bed. If Callum woke up in the night then his teddy would be there.

My company has their annual 'kickoff' in Jan. so my parents came out to look after Lucas while I was in Denver for 4 days. They had a great visit with the boys. They will be back for Lucas's 1st birthday upon their return from Hawaii.

Callum is the the youngest full time boy in at this daycare. All the other boys are much older than him some by almost 2 years. Needless to say the older boys aren't all that happy about Callum wanting to 'hang' with them. They have been calling him names, most are silly names that children use but one that hits hard is that they have called him 'a loser'. Breaks my heart. They care workers told me about this and the day it happened I tried to get Callum to talk about it but he wasn't interested. Then about a week later he told us one night at the dinner table so clearly that the older boys called him a loser. Brought tears to our eyes. How do you talk about this in a way that a 3 year old would understand. In the end, we suggested that he tell them that words like that hurt his feelings and make him sad and to walk away and find nice kids to play with. I find it interesting how Callum processes situations and that it takes time for him to come to terms with them. Then, he talks about it.

Lucas is 10 months now. He proficiently climbs and descends (turning and going down backwards) the stairs, he has started pointing and it able to walk holding onto his truck or cart. We had taken a video of Callum walking with his truck at about this age and they look so much alike! He is chatting a lot. About to move Lucas into a rear facing toddler car seat as the infant car seat is getting too small for him and it weighs a tonne when he is in it! Oh and finally, he has stopped drooling almost completely so 'good bye' to bibs! Yeah!

One more week before he starts daycare. I am sad about this but know that I probably couldn't be a full time Mum. I go back to work on Feb. 14th. The office has changed drastically since I left a year ago. I left with 6 in our office and now we have over 20 and have moved again!