Library

Costume day at the library ... So I brought Max and his peacock!

It Has Started

In a short two months, Chippy has started to become a Bostonian! He knows the words to Take Me Out To The Ball Game and will sing it for the Red Sox. Although, he says he does still like the Blue Jays.

More importantly, we were singing our ABCs in the car and mummy sang it in French. Chippy asked for it in English and mummy obliged. At the end of the song ... No mummy ... It's 'zee'. Ugh ... So starts the Canada vs US talks!

Bubba/Gampy Are Here!

Which means presents!!  Wee M had to try on all her new clothes!!  

Chippy loves his new (old) dinky cars!!

Blocks with Wee M

Wee M loves to build with her blocks and she's 18 blocks high!

Scarecrow

At school on Thursday Chippy learned about Scarecrows. He taught Wee M and mummy how to make one in the afternoon!

5 Little Monkeys

Elm Bank Horticultural Center

Went to 'class' this morning to listen to stories about pumpkins and then carve one up! Another wonderful play day outside!

As soon as I wrote that Wee M doesn't string many words together, she starts to do it all the time!  With her love of books and her ability to communicate so well through her speech, she's starting to outgrow the toddler phase and is starting to feel more like a little girl!!

Last night she was sitting in Chippy's seat and so mummy and daddy started talking to her in a deep voice saying 'how are you Isaac' and 'how's your dinner Isaac?'.  She responded in an equally deep voice with 'Good' each time!  So funny!

Chippy is also developing his speech.  He has these little sayings that are so funny! He loves to say 'certainly' ... i.e. 'you can certainly do that mommy!'. And then he says stuff like 'every night before I go to sleep I get to have a tiny little drink' or after being asked if he likes something, 'Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't - it happens sometimes!'

Boston Birthdays

It was cake overload in Boston today as Chippy went to two birthday parties at a gymnastics centre in Newton. He had a blast at both parties and loved the trampoline and swinging into the foam pit the most. Fantastic take away bags, too!

Arnold Aboretum

Found the best place to take fall pictures ... next year we'll wear something more appropriate and clean lunch off their faces first! :)

Fall Colour

We went to find a good park in Wellesley on Friday and found it full of pretty yellow trees!

The Problem with Books

The problem with books is that the poor Chippy boy is addicted!  At the tender age of 3.5 ... Chippy is now reading under the covers after he is supposed to be in bed!  Tonight we tried giving him 15 minutes to read on his own after we read to him, but it took until 9:45 before he FINALLY stopped reading and fell asleep.  Mostly because mummy stayed in the room with him until he was asleep!

Wee M Update

So, there is hope for the wee girl yet!  This past month she has astounded us all by trying lots of new foods.  Usually daddy has to say very sternly - Maze - don't eat that meatball!  She eats it every time! However, there are still lots of things she won't try, like risotto or pancake batter offered up on a finger! We have spaghetti Wednesdays when dad is at school and Wee M eats as much as Chippy and Mummy combined!!

She is also starting to understand that reading books at night prolongs bedtime!  She has even started to request books being read to her during the day.  There are only a few books that she will sit through, which include current favourites:  Playtime, Each Peach Pear Plum, Goodnight Gorilla ('monkey' book), Wacky Wednesday, Andy Warhol's Colors and Maisy's Bedtime.  In the above picture she was quite content to sit in the big bed and read for over 20 minutes with mummy!

On the topic of colours, I can't get Wee M to recite back to me any colours.  The best I can do is:

Mommy:  Wee M - this is Pink!  Can you say Pink?
Wee M:  Maisie?
Mommy:  Wee M - this is Blue!  Can you say Blue?
Wee M:  Isaac?

So, she is recognizing the colours and associating them with people - I guess that's a first step!

There's no question who her favourite person is.  When asked, it's always her big brother!  They play really well together and we can leave them relatively unsupervised for quite a while at night when we're cleaning up.  Usually ends with Wee M dumping Chippy's lego or some other catastrophe, but they work it out!  She will imitate most of what he does.  When he wants her to follow him, Chippy will twist his head sideways and get right up into her face and say in a high voice - Maze ... do you want to ...!  We are suspicious that most of their 'fights' are the result of Maze pushing Chippy's buttons.

Wee M is still full of drama.  Today I caught her with a crayon in her hand, just about to start colouring the wall in the dining room.  I ordered her to 'put the crayon down' in my best cop voice, and she slowly put it on the table and gave me the biggest pouty lip before breaking into a huge cry! Oh, poor girl!  However, ask her if she wants a snack and the waterworks turn off in an instant!  Funny to note that it was Oct 20th when Chippy was almost 2 and I caught him doing the same thing!!

She is a master at her ABC's and her numbers and will sing along with any song.  Along with Twinkle Twinkle she loves to play along with Head and Shoulders!  She likes to dress up in the police/fireman outfit and likes pushing around her tea trolly or her dolly trolly.

In the kitchen she loves rooting through the kid dish cupboard which is at her height.  She had her bowl all ready for the spaghetti tonight and we often find cups and plates scattered around the house.

I think she genuinely enjoys animals - even if she is still a bit scared of Dunning (much better than she was).  She loves seeing animals in books and wants to see all the animals at the zoo.

Pumpkin Seeds

Chippy wanted to cut open his mini pumpkin today to see what was in it.  He hypothisized it would be tiny, tiny, tiny seeds.  True enough - there were! 

It was a good day for taking pictures outside, so Mummy explained to Chippy that it would be great to finally have a nice picture of the two of them that we could frame for the wall.  Well, the best results are below:

Wee M refused to look in the camera and then mummy realized she
still had milk in her hair from this mornings second breakfast disaster!

Boston Zoo

Must say, not quite as awesome as the Port Colborne zoo, but not too shabby. Kids had a good time! Wee M got to see her owls!

Boston Ben's Birthday Party!

Chippy was a perfect gentleman! He listened to all instructions and participated in all the games! He was a little shy at the beginning, but once Boston Oliver showed up you couldn't hold him back!

Morning Duet

Singing Maisie's favourite song!  She doesn't string two words together very often - but she can serenade us with a full version of Twinkle Twinkle!

First Fall Day

Today was the first day that really felt like fall, so off to a new park we went! We found this one right across from the town dump and it's a keeper!













Subsequent to our park adventures we made our baby wagers:

McMoose:

Isaac says a girl at 6 lbs 16 oz that will be born in 10 months. He later picked the date of Apr 30th at 9 o'thirty. Her name will be Maisie.

Maisie is positive it's a girl to be born on May 2 and will weigh 2013 (the result of using the calendar to pick numbers for weight - sorry Sian!)


Westie:

Isaac says it will be a brother born in 21 months (or April 24 using a calendar) and will weight 5 lbs 16 and 17 and 18 and 19 oz. The name will be Brodie.

Maisie indicated a girl to be born on April 19 that will weigh 5.

Gettin' Pretty Big!

Here's the lady sitting in her big chair at dinner for the first time!  No more high chair for her!

A Walkin' In The Rain

Stir crazy in the house - so we went for a walk in the rain!

Happy Birthday Daddy!