"The line" - January 30

This is our "line" drawn on the floor.  If he passes it, the tv goes off. 
I remember my Dad having a line on our floor as kids too. 

Haircut - Jan 28

This child was in desperate need of a trim. 
I did NOT cut his hair, I am nowhere near that brave. 
Beaners did it. They put the gel and colour in too. 
He looks so handsome and so grown up!

I love it!!

My turn - Jan 15

"Take a picture of me too"

I do take pictures of Jude too, I do.  Maybe it's more accurate to say I try to take pictures of Jude too. Elise is quick but Jude is fast! Too fast for my old camera, easier with my new camera, but still a challenge. 

When I can, I get him to pose for me. 

This one was his idea :) 

My little helper - Jan 12

I had Jude write my grocery list for me. 

I'm so proud of his writing. 

My sporty 3 year old -Oct 14

My first born is three and he is such a delight right now. 

We took a break from gymnastics an have been taking him to Sportball class this session. It sounds fun and he is loving it! It is a Dad and Me class so  I haven't been able to take him, and there isn't a lot of room for E and I to go watch. 

C noticed he was lacking in "natural sport talent" so we've been working on it. 

We have a soccer ball but with the busy summer, we isn't play much. 

We decided for his birthday we would get him a basketball hoop. 

Just like our little play house in the basement, we figured we could leave it in the house for the winter and still get some exercise. 

He seems to love it. He and Daddy played for hours. Great energy burn before bed! 

Also, in keeping with the sports theme this year, he got a kids sized baseball gloves with soft balls from his uncle K and also a self pitching and t-ball machine from his great aunt W. 

He seems to be loving all these sports, thanks to Sportball I think. 

First movie - July 10

J has been obsessed with the movie Cars lately. He had no idea there was a Cars 2 coming out, but we've been watching Cars once or sometimes twice a day now for probably 3 weeks. 
I don't understand the fascination but it still works as a nice downtime for J as he is long done naps. 
Auntie C, Uncle K and cousin E were going to Cars 2 as E's first movie too and were were invited to join in. Our little E wasn't feeling well and so Daddy stayed home to look after her and I took J to the movies alone - not alone, with my sister and brother in law and nephew! 
We had't intended to see it in 3D but it was only available in 3D here in the Park, so thats what we saw. 
I explained to J what we were going to do and he said "no thanks, I'll just watch Cars at home on my tv." Oops. I was hoping J would understand as I explained we were "going to see a Cars movie on a tv as big as our house." That got his attention. 
I was a bit worried about the 3D glasses and rightly so. He kept them on long enough for me to take his picture and that was it :) 
We arrived nice and early and got great seats but unfortunately for me, I think I used a lot of my "still child" time waiting for it to start. J filled up on popcorn and sat so nice and still but was a bit bored by the time the commercials, previews (there were way more than normal!) and short Toy Story cartoon were done. 
He sat on my lap most of the movie, fidgeted almost the whole time and I completely lost him for about 30 minutes in the middle where I was literally holding him onto my lap to stop him from walking away. 
He's still only 2. I think, looking back, he did great for a 2 year old. Because really, as often as we watch Cars at home, he maybe actually watches about 30%, the rest of the time he is usually colouring, or spelling, or playing with E. 
We had a great time. I hope he remembers this... it'll probably be another full year before I try again. 

Cheese! 

Kites - May 12

Today was J’s first time flying a kite! 

He was a natural!!  I couldn’t believe it. 

He had been to fly kites with his cousin W when my sister was watching J (when I first went back to work). W would have been about 2.5 years old, right about J’s age now. 

He would have been only 12 months at the time, not big enough to actually fly them, just watch. 

This spring he’s been talking about kites, kites, kites! 

He has seen my kite hanging in the garage and has been asking to fly it for months now but until today it was either still snowing, too cold, not enough wind or too much wind. 

Today was gusty but almost perfect. 

He loved it!!

He did so well. Great for me taking pictures. 

 I didn't have to help him, just throw it in the air when it crashed. 

Word of the day: Crayons

Bubbles - May 10

I wish this was the only post I could have written Tuesday. 

J loves bubbles!

It started last year at Easter. It was an obsession immediately. 

Since then, we have spent many many days and evening blowing bubbles in our backyard. 

Then I found a bubble machine at Toys R Us. It was the best $12 I ever spent. We could spend hours outside playing in the bubbles and no one would hyperventilate. 

By the end of last summer, our poor bubble machine had bit the dust. I 

I found a new bubble machine at Costco towards the end of the winter and I picked it up right away. 

It’s made by a company that makes really really intense bubbles. Gazillion Bubbles.

It is working great. 

I’m hoping it lasts this whole summer! 

Kim

Like Father, like Son.

 J has a big noggin'. It's no secret. I like to think it is to hold his extra large brain!

I knew his head was a bit large (97%) when he was a baby, but as my only child and nearly everyone else I knew had candy apple headed children too, he looked perfect to me. 

The summer he was 6-9 months, he needed a 2-3 yr size hat - sure okay, no big deal. 

8 months

Last summer, when he was 18-24 months, his hat was a 6-8 yr size. Yep. A little hard to find a hat in 6-8 yr size that still ties on like little kids require. But I found one and a few other cute "little -man" hats, so no big deal again. 

Last summer, 20 months old. 

This year, I was able to buy J and Daddy matching hats. Not just close... matching ... the same hat! 

Banana Republic. One size S-M and one M-L. 

Crazy.

Banana Republic, size S/M

I admit it. I like to dress "my boys" alike. 

Before having J, I would have never expected to be one of "those" kind of mom's. I even made fun of my sister for it -before I had my own little boy (sorry L!)

Now it's my favourite thing to shop for. "Mini me" little man clothes for J. I had no idea they'd be wearing clothes form the same store so soon :) 

E got her new hat for Easter. She fits a perfect 6-12 month size hat now!! 

Enjoy the sunshine and the need for a hat!! 

Kim

Helper - April 15

J has been asking to help around the house a lot lately but I find it hard to think of things he can actually help with. 

Before Christmas, he started asking to help with sweeping but he'd use my broom to knock things down off the kitchen counters, so Santa brought him a mini sized broom and a dustpan. Unfortunately now he just uses that to knock things off the counter too, so it has been hidden. 

He helps move clothes from the washer into the dryer. 

He's been trying to help in the kitchen but that usually involves him standing on a chair watching while I worry he'll get cut or burnt. 

I need ideas on what he can SAFELY help with! 

I found a task for him yesterday. Watering plants!

Yes, he made a mess but the water on the floor helped wash off the mess he made during lunch. He had a great time so it was worth it. 

Any suggestions on tasks I can give a 2.5 yr old to help with around the house?? 

Kim

Spring time fun. - April 11

J has been loving this weather. He just wants to jump in puddles. He is in heaven!! 

P.S. J's word of today

J's letter obsession - March 7

If you've spent any length of time with J, you may have noticed he has an obsession. 
Letters! 
While most two year old boys love bugs, trains, dinosaurs, etc. J LOVES LETTERS.

Where did it begin? It likely started with his "reading movies" teaching him to read at such a young age but we're not entirely sure, but I'll try to explain it's far reaching extent. 


- His absolute prized possession is his wooden letter blocks, he takes them out and puts them back in order, all day long. We bought a second set to keep at my mom's. 
- He knows the alphabet (easy peasy for him), he's known them all (in any random order) since about 14 months. We had alphabet flip cards I just kept in my diaper bag. He loved to be quizzed on them.
- After that, his favourite game was to tell you what words started with or ended with each letter in the alphabet. 
- He sees numbers and letters in everything! He is constantly showing us words he's spelled with his dinner. 
- He knows the sounds all the letters make. 
- He knows the sounds of compound letters i.e. The sounds of OW, TH, SH, ING ... you get the picture. 
- He can pretty much sound out any word you could ask him to read. 
- He's virtually taught himself the concept of rhyming but moving blocks into and out of words he makes with his letter blocks to make new words.
- He knows which letters and/or numbers can be flipped or turned backwards to make another letter. i.e. capital P can also make lower case b or lower case d or q, depending on how it is turned. A 3 can also look like a W, M or E if a word calls for it. 
- He usually picks a word (or set of rhyming words) of the day and spell it all over the house, with every set of letters he has. The other day is was "castles," the day before it was "robots."


If he needs to have an obsession, I'm glad it's such a productive one. I'm not sure what he's going to do in grade one, I suppose that's yet to be decided. 


Here are some photos. 

Spelling names 

me: "What are you doing in here?"  J: "I'm just reading"

Spelling "balls"

Of course, we have bath tub letters too. 

Spelling "brush" 

Another word of the day was "brush" 

It's great to see how much joy he gets out of learning a new word or finding a new rhyming word. For almost  2 1/2, he really is such a smarty pants and it's so rewarding to see him pick this up so whole heartedly. It's amazing to think of where he was at this point last year!! 

I'll save that for another day. 

Cheers, 

Kim