Monday, March 14, 2011

A trip to SNMOP

We went to the Museum of Play today and it turns out it's spring break in Canada, and apparently this is close enough to be a major draw. It was packed! Overheard in mini-Wegmans: "just 5 items, eh?". "OK, time to check oot.". Hahahaha! Gotta love it. Brian did some baking:



Eli got some Edam:



Then we went to the Tinkertoy exhibit:



This thing is really cool, maybe this pic does it more justice:



Then back to the far back to try to escape the crowds. Eli is big enough that he loves the little slide:



(He was a little distracted by the girl behind him who was trying to pick off his sticker.). Then only minor kicking and screaming, and back home we went.
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Monday, February 28, 2011

Words…and attitude

Everyone gets so excited for those first words.  Well, Eli is talking and it is adorable.  Adorable!  He started with the usual, Uh-oh (just like Brian), then Mama and Dada, then Cookie, and now all kinds of stuff.  I thought he was saying no to everything but good thing he knows some signs, it was really “more”. 

No! from Monica Woodward on Vimeo.

(And do you hear my delightful firstborn threatening to kick me?)

And he can say Sasha, who he likes better than anyone else anyway. 

Eli talking from Monica Woodward on Vimeo.

He talks on and on and on… Some identifiable words right now (the videos are almost a month old): Car, cup, go (which he shouts when the PBS Kids channel comes on, so funny (they shout Go! for those of you who don’t watch PBS Kids)), nose, ear, eye, mouth, cheese, cheers (those 2 sound the same), bowl, dinner, and something that sounds like “What’s that?”  Oh, it’s just too cute. 

Then there’s Brian.  Oh, what a talker. 

“Mom, I want dinner.”

“OK, what would you like?”

“Nothing.  I don’t want dinner.”

Or:

“Mom, I have to go poo on the potty.”

“OK, let’s go!”

“No!  I won’t sit on the potty!”  (Sobs.)

All.  Day.  Long. 

I am really enjoying the single-word phase of Eli’s life right now!

Winter Fun

Yes, winter is too long, and yes, winter is too cold, but here is an idea of what we do to pass the time.  Our new favorite place is Kango, a big indoor playplace that the boys are finally big enough to enjoy.  They have toys for little guys:

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And bigger guys:

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Calvin sees the pictures and asks if it’s like a really big, fun, family room…not really!  They have a big inflatable obstacle course with slides (of course all pics of that are blurry as the boys bounce up and down), and a tricycle rink!

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Plus a huge climbing structure!  We’ve been there a lot lately. And of course, it’s fun to play in the snow too, just not for any long stretches of time.  Here’s Papa, Calvin, and both boys:

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Grandma and Eli:

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And we spend a lot of time inside playing too.  Playing tag, playing hide and seek, doing puzzles, cooking things, and reading books.  Spring is just around the corner though (the garage is flooding regularly as the snow falls and melts, falls and melts) and we are all looking forward to warmer weather and the chance to be outside!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

How the housework gets done

I have two very enthusiastic helpers!  They sweep!

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They cook!

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(Although sometimes they give me attitude.)

They do the dishes:

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They even do windows!

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With all this help, it’s a mystery why the house isn’t always sparkly clean!

Monday, February 7, 2011

What Eli is up to

Here are a few recent videos of Eli:


This video shows big progress... I used to give Eli a dog biscuit, he would squeal in delight and shove it in his mouth. Really that was funnier but I never got a video of it. Now he understands that the bone shaped cookies are for Sasha, so he takes it to her. Usually he comes back asking for more but not this time... what can I say, he is definitely a little under the weather.



Eli hates to be spoon fed, but loves applesauce... really the only way to get him to eat it is just to let him have at it himself. As you can see, sometimes the spoon gets flipped over on the way to the mouth, so we don't have our technique quite figured out yet.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

We did some crafts today to celebrate the Chinese New Year. It's the year of the rabbit, so we did some rabbit paintings:


Um, sort of. I did an example and the next three are Brian's sequential attempts to make a rabbit. They look decidedly rabbit-esque by the end!

This is a thumbprint kumquat painting...not too bad.


I let Eli do an ink painting when he woke up too and he loved it. We each stamped our own paintings, too.



For dinner we had steamed buns, dumplings, broccoli and yu choy. The kids ate...nothing. We are not at our healthiest, can you tell? This is Brian smiling for the camera. Really. Well, here's to better health in the new year!
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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Different day, different adventure center

Today we went to the Y as usual but the parking lot was so full, they had a guy out lining up cars to wait for people to leave. I said forget it, and we went to the Westside Y instead. It's a lot farther away but they have a huge parking lot so you know at least if you make the effort to go, you will actually be able to get in. They have a really nice adventure center; last time we went Brian was too small to climb up, but this time he was all over it. It's an amazing climbing structure with a HUGE slide.



"Cheese!"


Up, up, up!


And down!


Eli was too little for that, but he did manage to cross the rope bridge. He's quite a little monkey!









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