Snow Day

I thought that a guaranteed perk of moving out east would be the snow!  I was very disappointed when January arrived and aside from a few flakes here and there, we hadn't yet had our first snowfall.  I was so excited when last Saturday morning, I looked out the window and it was snowing, lots!

I have always loved the snow.  When the snow falls, everything is so quiet and peaceful and it is just so much fun.  When I was a kid, I would be get so excited when my mom or dad would come into my room to announce that it was snowing.  I would jump out of bed, pull up the blinds and gaze out in delight at the snow falling under the streetlamp.  My brothers and I would turn on the radio with the futile hope that school would be cancelled.  It was the one time we wished we went to a private school as we listened to the cancellations for all of the private schools. Nevertheless, it was still fun to walk to school in the snow and enjoy our extended recess playing in the snow.  Afterschool, we would play in the snow as long as we could - knowing that it would probably be all melted by the morning.  We only played in the backyard because we didn't want to ruin the perfectly untouched snow in the front yard.  It was so annoying when the paperboy cut across the yard and ruined the display of natural beauty.
As an adult, I still love playing in the snow.  As a parent, it is so much fun to get to watch my boys play in the snow.  On our first official snow day of what I hope will be many more this winter, we had a blast. 
We put the stroller in 4 wheel drive and found a lovely area to play in all by ourselves.

It was Owen's first experience in the snow and he thought it was very fun.

One of Josh's favourite activities is to eat the snow (we made sure to find an area that was untouched).  Apparently, it's good to eat the snow because 'it's healthy for your body'.

We actually went iceskating!

I had kind of given up on the idea that Josh would come iceskating with me.  Then last weekend I was taking some stuff out of Josh's closet and he noticed his iceskates.  He was admiring them and said to me that we should go iceskating together (what a great idea, I should have thought of that!).  We booked a skating date for Sunday and I tried to contain my excitement as the day approached.  I knew that there was a good chance that he wouldn't follow through. 
The big day came and we geared up and packed our skates.  When we got there, initially Josh just wanted to watch and then surprisingly, after a few minutes, he wanted to lace up his skates and join me on the ice.  As a sidenote, do you know how hard it is to lace up hockey style skates (with massive laces) with your gloves off and it's -5?  I was about to give up on the idea of skating.

Once we eventually got him laced up, we headed out on to the rink.  Josh lasted for about 10 minutes which I thought was pretty impressive and even stood without me supporting him for about 10 seconds.  After we finished, he declared that next he is going to learn to play ice hockey.  I told him that he would first need to learn to skate.  He informed me that he now knew how to iceskate (apparently he's a fast learner).

Mike and Owen sat on the sidelines watching us longingly.  I think Mike is already on the hunt for a pair of cheap skates and we just need to find a small enough pair for Owen and skating at the outdoor rink will be a family affair!

Home for the holidays

We were initially not planning on going home for the holidays but after much pondering (and a seat sale!), we decided to go home for Christmas and we're sure glad we did.  We visited with friends like we had just seen them last week, hung out with family as if we always did and the cousins played together like there had never been any miles between them.  It was good to be home to the familiarity of everyone and everything, the comfort of the known (never having to consult a roadmap!) and the vast beauty of the BC landscape.

Ironically, our first snow fall of the year was back in Vancouver.  It left the mountains beautifully snowcapped and as we drove in the sunshine out to visit our dear friends in Mission, we were awestruck by the beauty and were dying to be on those mountains skiing.  It made us laugh though to think of what typical Vancouverites we sounded like.  It was dark, grey and wet for the first week that we were there but as soon as the sun came out, that's all that we could remember!

We had great fun bowling.  Josh wins the award for most sportsmanlike player.  Bowling is the best family event and he is always encouraging everyone, telling them that they are winning.

(never too young to learn to bowl)

I felt like a kid again on Christmas morning, waking up at 5:30am (thanks to Josh) and running downstairs to see that 'Santa' had come and left lots of presents for us under the tree.  The boys had so much fun opening their presents and playing with them afterwards.



Hours of fun were had by the kids, and kids at heart building cool Lego houses, playing street hockey and just chilling out.  Oh, to be young again.

 (helping Grandpa pack everything up to bring home)

Allergic

A few months ago, we sat down to dinner and Josh announced that he couldn't eat his carrots because he was allergic.  He explained to us that if he ate them, they would make him sick.  I am guessing that he learned about allergies at school. I proceeded to tell him that no, he was not allergic to carrots and that he didn't have any allergies and that carrots were actually very good for him.  He apparently knows his body better than I do and in the coming weeks, became allergic to a variety of foods.  He often conveniently develops new food allergies at dinner when it is a food he doesn't want to eat.  His allergies don't always last either; he was allergic to peanut butter one day but somehow was able to eat it on crackers the next day.  Sometimes he is allergic to foods once he is full like the other day when he finished eating his pancakes, he said he needed to stop because he was allergic and he would get a stomachache. 
Yesterday afernoon, he was over at our neighbour's playing.  She offered him some grapes and he said no, he couldn't have any because he was allergic.  When Mike went to pick him up, she was a bit concerned and confused that he was allergic to grapes. Concerned I am sure, that we were very irresponsible parents sending him over there without warning her that he had food allergies and confused because she's probably never heard of anyone being allergic to grapes.
Interestingly enough, he has not yet developed any allergies towards candy or chocolate.

The Nutcracker

We did our first family Christmas activity of the season last Friday night.  We watched the National Ballet perform The Nutcracker at the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre.  Everyone in Josh's class got free tickets because one of the moms works at the National ballet.  We thought that we would attempt to go and see how long the boys lasted.  Since the tickets were free, it wouldn't be too much of a lose if we had to leave early. We were awestruck and amazed by the talent and aside from a 20 minute break that Mike took with Owen, we were all able to stay the entire time!

(before the show started, the boys were entranced by the orchestra rehearsing)

The best part was when during one confusing scene (I have always found The Nutcracker a bit confusing!), the mom behind me said 'I don't get it' and her 5 year old daughter replied 'oh, I can explain it to you'.  Yes, please enlighten us!
Josh was totally into it and as soon as it ended, he immediately said 'can we watch it again?'.
It was definitely a memorable way to start the Christmas season!

(Josh helping Owen find his seat)

(it was the perfect opportunity for the boys to wear their beautiful new sweaters handknit by Grandma C)

Trying to start a tradition

The great thing about it being so cold here is that there are outdoor skating rinks everywhere and we are lucky enough to have one just a few blocks from us.  I thought it would be so wonderful to start a mother-son tradition with Josh of going iceskating together.  Last Saturday, I suggested the idea to Josh and explained how it was such a great idea since we both have our own iceskates.  I even tried to sell it up by suggesting that we take the streetcar there and go to Starbucks for some hot chocolate afterwards!  Come on, who could resist that offer?  Well, apparently Josh could.  He politely told me 'no, thank you' and suggested that I take Owen instead.  A few hours later, when Josh was heading out the door with Mike (to play basketball), he casually said 'have fun with Owen iceskating, make sure to hold his hand'.
I decided to leave it for the day and maybe work on convincing him during the week.  On Tuesday, I brought up my wonderful idea again of going iceskating together.  Josh said he couldn't go because he was going to be busy on Saturday.  I asked him what he had to do and he said he had homework.  When I asked him what he had for homework, he realized that I wasn't buying it so he quickly changed his story to a more believable one that he had a project, a big colouring project that he had to work on.  Okay, fine I get the hint.
Josh did try to appease me somewhat by offering to walk to the skating rink with me and watch the other skaters.  I guess I will take what I can get.  And maybe I will start the mother-son iceskating tradition with Owen because I am sure he would be all over it!

The next Steve Nash(es)

If you ask Josh what his favourite thing about Toronto is, he’ll probably tell you it’s the basketball courts across the streets.  He’s obsessed with basketball in every way.  He loves to go over and ‘shoot hoops’ with daddy – he’s even gone at 7am in his pyjamas.  If he had the chance, he would play every single day.  He and I also have fun going together to shoot hoops (according to him, I am really good at basketball and daddy’s not very good so maybe I can teach daddy how to play!).

Even Owen is becoming obsessed with the game.  He hasn’t realized that there is actually a hoop at the top of the pole so he excitedly runs over to the hoop and throws the ball at the pole and thinks he has scored! He also likes to randomly play dead on the basketball court.

We wondered what we would do once the daylight hours shortened and the weather got colder and wetter.  We decided to take the game inside!  We have our own little indoor basketball court and the boys can play basketball rain or shine, day or night.  Owen now realizes there is a net but he knows that there’s no hope that he is going to sink the basket so he often will stand at the hoop and just line up his shot for 5 minutes.  It’s the cutest thing.

Next time these two boys challenge you to a game of 2 on 2, you better bring you’re A game – they’ve already got some pretty wicked skill!