The Bookmobile

It was a regular Friday evening in August.  Nothing too eventful had happened and I was a bit worn out from a week of unpacking.  I decided to join the boys in checking out what the awnings were all about at the park across the street.  Well, I didn’t quite make it there as I was sidetracked by the people gathered around a big motor home in the parking lot.  Yes, we have a Bookmobile.  It is a converted Winnebago that is a fully-loaded library, complete with books for all ages, magazines, CDs, DVDs... and it comes to the parking lot beside our apartment every Friday.  That is how the Friday night tradition of the bookmobile began for Josh and I.

Every Friday night, we walk next door to the Bookmobile.  It’s not only a place to stock up on our books but it’s also a place where we meet new people, catch up with our neighbours and plan play dates.  Every Friday morning, Josh asks me ‘is it bookmobile day today?’ and we wait in anticipation for the evening to come. 

There is seriously no better way (in my opinion!) to cure a long day and to have some wonderful mother son bonding then to step out your door and into the Bookmobile.  With the Bookmobile and having our milk in a bag, I feel like I am living in a different era, long gone, and I'm loving it. 

A fun age!

It's hard to believe that Owen is already a year and a half and Josh will be 4 next month.  They are both at such a fun age, where the things they do and say are constantly making me smile or laugh. 
Owen absolutely loves (obsessed with may be a better word) dogs.  He runs down our hallway, goes to the doors where he knows the dogs live and he says 'daw door, daw door'.  Although Josh is usually busy protecting Owen, he knows his weakness when it comes to dogs.   One day we were in the elevator with the most adorable little fluffy white dog.  Josh had himself plastered against the wall (as he is petrified of dogs) and Owen was standing in front of him, busy petting the dog and talking to it.  Josh took him squarely by the shoulders and said 'Owen, can you please stand in front of me and protect me from the dog?'.  Being the sweet loving brother he is, Owen gladly protected Josh from the dog.
Owen has also started to enjoy reading books.  He enjoys reading books by himself but he often joins Josh and I on the couch as we read our stack of books.  He doesn't have very much patience for the longer books, like Curious George, yet.  If he thinks the word to picture ratio is too high (i.e. more than 1 sentence per picture), he starts yelling and trying to take the book away and replace it with another one. 

Josh is a planner and always likes to look forward to things.  The two big events he is counting down to right now are turning 4 in May (he has been talking about his firetruck birthday cake for months already) and starting afternoon kindergarten in September. 

His favourite game right now is the guessing game.  I love guessing games and 20 questions (and Mike is never too excited to play along with me) so I am very happy to play the game with Josh.  He gives me a clue about something and I have to guess what it is.  He actually gives really good clues and if I can't guess the answers from the clue, he will mouth me the answer so that I can guess the right answer but still feel like a winner (he's always so thoughtful).

Josh continues to be a patient, loving big brother.  When Owen obliviously throws a hard toy at him, Josh takes it in stride and forgives him.  We tell Owen to say sorry and give Josh a hug and he goes over and gives Josh the nicest hug - it would be hard not to forgive him.
These two boys are always cracking us up and making our hearts swell with pride, and we're so thankful for them.

Spring is here and summer's just around the corner?!?

Last week, spring felt like it was just around the corner.  We went outside without mittens and toques and one day I even went for a run in capris!  With the time change, it was light later so we could take advantage of going to the park after dinner.  The snow had melted so we could actually see the grass again and there was that smell of spring in the air. 

I was getting excited about packing up the winter gear... and then this Wednesday, we had a big snow storm (yes, a week before April!) and now it's  -10.  Atleast, the sky is blue and the sunshine is glorious, but we are back to bundling up and playing in the snow.
I've been trying to be proactive to avoid a bad attitude that winter is still here (especially when our Vancouver friends are bragging about the +17 temperatures).   I've been trying to convince Mike to let me go away on a beach vacation (I'm even willing to be very selfless and go alone).  He's not convinced so instead I'm trying to be a bit more realistic and start to plan our summer vacation.
I think it would be fun to rent a cottage and explore some more cottage country that Ontario is famous for.  I was asking Josh what we should do for our summer holidays.  I told him that maybe we should go to the beach.  His response was 'I know, we should go to the beach with the yellow umbrellas'.  The beach he is referring to is the 'fake beach' that is a five minute walk from our place.  I told him that I was thinking of going somewhere a bit further away and his next suggestion was going to the Science Centre.  It's nice that it doesn't take too much to make him happy.

For now, while I wait for the day to come when I can finally put away the toques and mittens for good, I will try to stay positive.  It's nice to always have to wear sunglasses when driving and when the sun is streaming in through the windows, I just tell myself that it's really warm out.  And in June when all of our Vancouver friends are complaining about the rain, I will be down at the 'fake beach' soaking up the rays and the warmth!

Good times with Grandma

This past week we had the great pleasure of Grandma (my mom) visiting us.  Much preparation was done for her visit (mostly on Josh's part).  Each morning, he would announce how many days it was until Grandma was here and on the Friday when his countdown was at zero, he could barely contain himself.
Josh had a long list of activities he was going to do with Grandma.  We were able to fit a lot of the activities into the 4 days she was here.  Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind that we didn't get to all of the activities he wanted to do; I think he had atleast a week's worth of things planned.

We thought that since Grandma's birthday was the week before she came, we would make her a cake.  Josh phoned her to ask what kind of cake she wanted.  This is what I heard from his side of the conversation 'what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?  Owen had a football cake and I am going to have a firetruck cake.  Maybe we can make you a hockey cake?'  I suggested that maybe Grandma would appreciate something a bit more girly so Josh decided she would like a flower cake.  It's funny how a child's perspective on a birthday cake is quite different than an adult's.  As adults, we dream of things such as luscious chocolate cakes or yummy cheesecakes but for children, it's all about what the cake looks like.  So, suffice to say, Josh and I made a trip to the Bulk Barn (to rent a cake pan) and Grandma got a lovely flower birthday cake!  Although we didn't get to celebrate her birthday with all the family, we still enjoyed having a special little birthday celebration with her here.

My mom and I were excited to make it down to New York for a day of shopping.

 Yes, it was only to Niagara Falls, NY and we only went to the outlets and Target, but for us, it still counted as a true New York shopping trip (although, maybe we should have bought handbags at the Coach outlet?).

We also went to the Royal Ontario Museum (thank you library for the free pass!) where Josh loved seeing the dinosaurs. 

We got to enjoy the nice weather with a walk and a great time playing at the park. 

Grandma and Josh had a good game of tag.

Of all the things we did, I think the boys enjoyed their snugglefests with Grandma each morning the most.

Josh thought it would be nice for us to have a mother-daughter picture so he offered to take one of us.  He was very confident that he knew how to take a picture (although he's never taken one before) and we must say, we were quite impressed with his photography skills!

Thanks for brightening up our March with your visit, Grandma!

Family Day fun

Instead of having Remembrance day as a stat. we get a lovely break from winter in February with Family Day.  This was our first time celebrating Family Day and it was extra special because we got to spend it with family.  Mike's sister, Carrie made the trek out from Kelowna for the long weekend and we had a wonderful time with her.  The entire week before she came, Josh was counting down the days until her arrival and the night before she arrived, Josh stayed up until 10pm because he was so excited to see Auntie Carrie.  He even wanted to make a list of all the things he was going to do with her (yes, I am very proud that my 3 year old already understands the beauty of lists). 
It was great to show her this little (or big, I guess) corner of the world that we are currently calling home.  Mike and her went up the CN tower and Josh proudly showed her Niagara Falls. 

On Family Day, we got to enjoy all the fun free family events that were happening at the waterfront.
 It was a nice treat for me to almost not be outnumbered by boys and to spend some girl time with her getting a mani/pedi.  Mike and I enjoyed a lovely evening out with free babysitting as well.

(helping Auntie Carrie make yummy meatballs)

She was a wonderful houseguest as she was very gracious about being woken up every morning at 7am by two nephews eager to play with her.  On Tuesday, the boys were looking for her and were so sad that she was gone. 

(there were some intense games of Hungry Hippo)

It was a bittersweet visit; we had such a fabulous time with her but after seeing her, it makes us miss her and everyone else back home even more.  Now we're counting down the days until Grandma C. arrives.

Life's a zoo

With two young ones and working full time, sometimes life feels like a zoo.  Add to that a teething toddler and a week of -16 temperatures leaving us housebound and by Saturday, Mike and I felt like we were the monkeys climbing the walls of the cages in the zoo.

By Sunday when the weather had warmed up to a balmy -2, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity to compare our zoo like lives to animals at the Toronto Zoo (thanks to the library, we had free passes!).  We had a great time meeting lots of the animals.  There were many animals that Mike and I hadn't even seen (or heard of) before.

(ever heard of a malayan tapir?)

Josh's favourite part by far was watching the orangutans play.  There were two young ones and they were so cute as they chased each other around.  We finally dragged Josh away after watching them for about 45 minutes.

Although we spent a few hours there, we probably only covered a quarter of the ground.

(they look like the ones in the Coca-Cola commercials)

There were lots of animals to see outside but they also had some great indoor exhibits. 

I will definitely be lining up for another free pass so that we can check it out again.  It will be a great summer activity, too - perhaps we'll have some visitors to join us?!

Brotherly love

When I was pregnant with Owen and found out he was a boy, lots of people felt bad for me because they thought I would want a girl.  To be honest though, I was super excited to be having another boy.  Not only did I have a ton of cute boy clothes that I could use again, but I thought it would be wonderful for Josh to have a brother.  And I was right.  It was love at first sight for Josh.  Right from the beginning, he was so in love with his baby brother.

 

It is neat to see how even though their personalities are so different, they still get along so well.  Josh is the cautious thinker while Owen is the daredevil doer.

They both love to sing, dance, play sports, laugh and just have fun together.  Joshua is getting to be so old now.  It made me sad the other day when I noticed him turn on the light switch without having to stand on the stool and next week I register him for junior kindergarten for September! 

Owen is growing everyday.  He is starting to talk and his favourite word to say is more, usually pertaining to food.  He also loves going out and he likes to bring his boots to us and say 'out'.
Josh is very proud of his 'baby brother' and loves to lead him around, holding his hand.  He is very protective of him already.  Owen looks up to Josh and unfortunately, he has already learned how to push his buttons by stealing toys that Josh is playing with.
I am thankful that these brothers love each other so much and have such fun together.