Weekend Over Too Quickly

We had some wildlife in the back yard this weekend:





Chance has now mastered a critical life skill: eating ice cream from a spoon!




Chance and I had a great day. I went to a cycle class this AM and my butt still hurts. I still biked him to the park tonight, what a good Mom I am. I deserve ice cream. I'm off to watch Harry Potter - Cam recorded it for me. :)

Days going by so quickly...

Well it seems like Chance hasn't eaten a solid meal in about a week, and tonight he packed away an adult sized slice of pizza, 2" of cucumber, a few green pepper pieces and some radish, 6 oz of milk and about a half cup of rice pudding with ice cream. Wow!

On the weekend we attended the Supertrain model train show in Calgary. It is the largest model train show in Canada. And possibly the largest gathering of little boys in the world. It was a full hour before I saw a little girl! Chance really enjoyed the trains and so did Cameron. They had demo tables of Thomas the Train play sets and Chance really seemed to enjoy it (along with the 10 - yes TEN - other toddlers playing with it simultaneously). Think about those videos you've seen with 10 puppies trying to eat out of the same bowl -- that is what it was like, 11 toddlers circling this table with a train set on top of it, hilarious. We left at noon, as it was getting so packed it was hard to move. Amazing, because it snowed a LOT and would have thought that fewer people would go, but maybe it just drove them to the show instead of doing something outdoors, who knows.

Cam took a brochure to check out prices at home. The set alone was quite expensive, never mind the table stand, table top, etc. that would be required. We knew that there is a $200 version available at Toys R Us, and another one at IKEA for a similar price, so thought that Thomas was out of our price range. Cam got to surfing the net anyways, and encountered a website that was down for maintenance -- a code was provided to use on next visit for 50% off. Fifty. Wow!

So. We have a train set. The difficult part will be keeping Cam out of the box until Chance's birthday in October!!!

Here is Chance enjoying his favorite show, Four Square.

Ugh. Snow. SNOW SNOW SNOW.

Discipline

Last night I punished Chance for the first time. I gave him a time out for hitting the kitty.

I saw him punching Scarlet and so I stopped his hand and told him not to hit, that it wasn't nice. Don't hit.

He looked me right in the eye and punched her again.

I scooped him up, grabbed his fuzzy chair from Gramma Jo and put it in the kitchen, plunked him down and told him to stay. I stalked off to clean up a few coats hanging out in the living room. Chancey sat in his chair and cried, I let him go for a minute before walking back into the kitchen, crouching down and asking if he wanted to calm down now. He got a bit huffy but then went in for a hug.

:( I felt bad for making him cry. But he can't hit Scarlet.

Elbow Falls

This was Chance's 2nd trip (3rd if you count while I was pregnant) to Elbow Falls.

We arrived around 11 AM and spent about 30 mins farting around. Chance really took to climbing on the rocks -- a little scrambler in the making! Maybe Daddy will have a partner to climb mountains in a few years!

We met a couple of bikers (the motorcycle type, not the spandex kind). They were standing next to the railing where we were looking at the waterfall and Chance really liked the biker boots with the shiny Harley Davidson insignia on them. We chatted with them for a little while and it turned out that this pair of bikers was a father and son duo -- kind of neat to observe their father-son relationship and made me think about Cam and Chance later on in life (maybe Chance and Cam will take up Harleys??).

Lunch was eaten at a picnic table and then we headed home before Chance's usual nap time. A fun trip!

New Videos Loaded

I've uploaded quite a few videos of Chance at our Youtube account lately, and looking back at some of the old videos lately has made me realize how much Chance has grown from that wonky monkey rocking back and forth on all fours. Some of the videos have been watched a lot -- eating a cookie (275 times), taking a poop (240 times) and spaced out watching the coffee pot (220 times).

Weekend Fun

So far have had a very busy weekend!

*Saturday 7 AM wake up, care of Chance. Showers (Mom and Chance, then Daddy). Breakfast - Honeycomb for Daddy, Chance was supposed to have Honeycomb too but was much more interested in Mommy's Mini-Wheats.



* Piled into the car, but after 5 minutes stopped at a Tim Hortons as we looked back to see that Chance had somehow (?!?) removed his diaper while managing to keep his pants on!! We got the diaper secured and then continued on our way to the Calgary Farmer's Market. Bought some veggies, sausages, cheese and bread, and free range brown eggs (somehow I inheirited my Nana's preference for brown eggs from a farm).



* Back into the car, stopped at Southcentre Mall to buy jeans and a new hat for Daddy, pick up Mommy's stylish new glasses. Chance met a 2 year old named Anthony, who could talk up a storm! We ate an orange while sitting in the centre court of the mall - prime people watching!



* Stopped on the way home to pick up a spare part for Mommy's bike.



* Lunch - goodies from the farmer's market plus leftover spaghetti. While Mommy and Chance readied lunch, Daddy swept and hosed out the garage.



* Vacuumed out the truck and the car, plus wiped the house windows down with a squeegee, just to get the winter dust off of them.



* Lazed out in the back yard enjoying the sun. Took out the hammock and hung out a bit, but Chance was too interested in exploring. Cam showed him how to throw a snow ball at the fence using the residual snow left over from last week's episode. Chance really liked this, but would grab a fist full of snow from the north end of the yard, run to the opposite side where the fence was and throw -- except by the time he got there, the snow had all melted! He did it like 3 or 4 times, by the end Mommy was just about peeing she was laughing so hard.



* Naptime! Whew! Everyone took a nap for an hour and a half. Mommy slept a little longer, as Daddy quietly left to go take care of Chance when he woke up, nice!



* A quick snack while watching Starwars. Our friend Stef called to say that he and his little boys were too tired to take a walk with us as planned. Instead we rigged up the bike and headed out on our first family bike ride. We rode about 1 km to a gas station to get our tires inflated a bit, then went about 3 km to a grocery store, bought groceries for next week, and then biked home. It took about 1 hour, as far as I can figure it didn't take much longer than it would have if we drove!



* Supper was BBQ'd sausages for Mommy and Daddy and for Chance his very first hot dog. He ate a whole hot dog and bun, about 1/4 of a big tomato and a lot of cucumber pieces. Beans and a full glass of milk. He belched 3 times before I took him out of the high chair!



Well, I should go join Cam, he's finishing up the last of Starwars. I have some letters to write, etc. Looking forward to tomorrow because we are going to go to Elbow Falls for a picnic, I can't wait to see Chance's impression of such a big waterfall.



These are Chance's favorite stuffed toys, many of whom "live" in his crib full time. We couldn't find Buckethead for the photo.



Chance sometimes likes to "eat" the bubbles in his bath.



We got baseboard heaters installed in the basement last week! Yay, it is finally warm in our basement!

Random Stuff

Roar!

Chance decided to become a dino farmer over the weekend.

For some reason this popped into my mind when I saw Chance's dino farm.

His hair is getting even more red, if that is possible! The sun really makes it catch fire!

We tagged Chance with a pedometer over the weekend. 91 steps and counting! Assuming Chance GOES for 8 hours per day (usually up for about 12 hours, but taking time out for sitting & playing, meals, naps, etc.), it works out to 3.4 km per day!

Can't Sleep

Last night: Went to bed and woke up 8 hour later, only because Chance was hollering. It was 5:58 (we get up at 6).

Tonight: Wasn't really tired but still went to bed at 10:(30?) When Cam did. Tossed, turned, tossed some more. Slept? Currently 12:15.

Tomorrow AM: I am going to the core lab in the afternoon. More theraputic work, feels good to be getting back to basics and making some tracks on my projects.

The weather forecast looks nice for the weekend. Hopefully we get that nice weather, because I'd like to take our bike carriage out for a spin with Chance. Grampa Phil and Gramma Jo got him a little bike helmet during their March visit, hopefully he will wear it. Have tried it on a few times in the house. Sometimes I wonder if this is the way to go as he is so clumsy sometimes (not that I'm pointing fingers, my parents used to call me Ping Ping for all the bouncing off walls and furniture I used to do). So far he seems into wearing the bike helmet as long as I'm wearing my helmet.

We are planning on having our friends Sander and Liesbeth over for dinner on Saturday, starting a batch of red wine (I think it was a Pinot blend this time), maybe getting together for a walk with a friend and their 12-month old little girl who will be starting at Chance's day home soon, swimming again probably and maybe even a little picnic/AM walk down at Elbow Falls. A lot of this is weather dependent, of course.

12:21. I should probably just try to go back to sleep, otherwise tomorrow AM will be painful.

What's New?

Wow, I can't believe a whole week has gone by since I posted here last!

Chance came down with a little cold mid-last week, and that is mostly cleared up now except we still have the humidifier on at night for him. A little extra moisture is probably good anyways, as the average winter time humidity in Calgary is around 20-30% or so. My eczema always gets worse in the winter because of that reason.

Other than the cold, Chance has been doing very well. No sign of ear infection yet. I'm still waiting.

The printer has been running for about 15 minutes now at least, I'm finally printing out my tax forms, yes it's that time of year again. I just hope I can manage to find all my papers, as things have been a bit scattered this year. I know I am missing at least a couple of childcare receipts, not a big deal, more irritating than a real tax issue.

There were a few more words picked up over the weekend in this house:

Shovel
Yellow (lellow)
Yes. Yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes-yes!
Moo
Broom

Also, Chance displayed an understanding of what we are saying that just floored me. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and Chance came ripping in with a wild and crazy look on his face. I laughed at him and then noticed his socks were missing, so I asked, "Where's your socks, silly boy??". Chance did a 180° turn and ran out of the bathroom, only to return a few seconds later holding out both socks. My jaw just about hit the floor!

We watched a movie called Atonement over the weekend, it was a great movie. Perfect, actually for Cam and I -- romance for my movie tastes and history/war for Cam's. Thoroughly enjoyed it, until the very end, with the hero/heroine dancing in the surf and all of a sudden the music cut out and there was Cam, FAST-FORWARDING through the mushy stuff. I was not impressed!

Spent Sunday AM at the pool with Chance, he played catch with another little boy about his age for a few minutes. Also he finally decided to take the plunge (literally) and used the pool slide. I did 16 laps, but my knee started to give me grief so stopped, just went in and took a long warm shower with Chance in the locker room instead of our usual dip in the hot tub due to repairs. Sunday afternoon made 3 kinds of cookies: peanut butter (Cam's request), oatmeal-chocolate chip (my choice), and monkey cookies (guess who??). The monkey cookies are very soft, Chance loves them as a nice way of finishing his supper.

I can't take credit for the recipe, I remember reading about monkey cookies when I was researching how to make homemade baby food. Googled for it and found this version at http://www.goodegg.com/recipe/monkeycookie.html

Banana "Monkey" Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purplose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter (softened)
2 eggs, beaten
2 bananas, mashed (ripe)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well. Add butter. Mix well again. Add remaining ingredients, mix again. Place a teaspoon sized balls of the dough on a cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 12 minutes. Makes approx. 3 doz cookies.

I'm looking forward to our annual May visit to Regina, only 4 weeks away now. We head down every year to attend the Ken Goff Memorial put on by Cam's old boxing club. This year my sister & brother in law will be joining us, so it will be a fun evening. Also we are working out a camping weekend in the summer, looking forward to that as well.



Well, Cam has just informed me that my bubble bath is ready. OK, he's not the best guy to watch mushy romance movies with...but he spoils me rotten, I guess I'll keep him for now.

In closing, here is a photo from a week ago or so...we had to wake Chance up from one of his naps otherwise he would have slept through supper time. I always love how he looks when he sleeps.