Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Hockey Night in Canada

Flushed with the Canucks overtime victory last night, I stopped by Canadian Tire today and picked up the little man's first hockey stick. While not much, the small piece of plastic with a red blade was a big hit this evening.

Unfortunately the Habs couldn't keep the magic alive in their game seven tonight. It was risky business, not least of which was it taking mummum more than 90 minutes to get him down, so if I woke him with a well timed expletive hurled at the tv, I was going to have to deal with the consequences. I figured that if it came to it, he would just have to sit down and watch the game. Now imagine if the Oilers were actually in the playoffs. I don't think I'd even be letting him go to bed.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Date Night - Berber Styles

On Saturday night, Mommy and Daddy did the unthinkable and escaped the bedtime de-routine for a night on the town. We love you lil guy but sometimes we need to have a little adult fun. Cocktails and eats at the Berber lounge brought back great memories from our honeymoon in Morocco. Maybe one day when everyone sleeps well in their own beds, we'll pack up the whole fam and take a trip through Africa - visiting the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara along the way.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Burling down, down the white water

Following last week's crib ejection and the subsequent transfer to a big boy bed, we've had the recent pleasure of being awoken in the morning by the gentle pad of little footsteps in the hall.  It's quite sweet, the initial rustle, the quiet hesitation, followed by the rush of quickening steps. The idyllic and innocence of the scene is suddenly broken by a demand for milk, no sleep any more and a quick glance at the clock which is regretted more often than not.

This morning, it was my turn to greet the owner of these little feet and greet the day with the little man. Let's be honest, this morning I was going to just phone it in. You want to watch videos kid? Be my guest. Isn't that why we have all of this technology? But then I remembered similar mornings (and similar times of day) from my childhood. And even though I can't remember what that zany Screech was up to, or if Optimus really did defeat Megatron and the Decepticons, I still have a piece of Canadiana firmly imprinted on my consciousness.

A quick search of YouTube revealed that this generation will not be robbed of this National Film Board masterpiece. So if you are in need of something wholesome to entertain as that coffee percolates, fancy a crash course in Canadian heritage, or you just need to go back in time, enjoy the Log Driver's Waltz:






Puddle Stomping

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Of birthdays, polar bears and head injuries

It's Tuesday, and I'm not sure we're totally recovered from last week.

It all started off fairly well. The weather was improving and we were looking forward to the little man's birthday on the weekend.

Then on Tuesday evening, things started to go south, and not towards the sun, sand and surf. I threw out my neck. I blame cleaning the house, although I suspect the struggling, wriggling 32+ pounds of toddler that I hoist daily may have had something to do with it. He had also upped his resistance to bedtime.

On Wednesday evening, his bedtime rebellion escalated, or rather it elevated. At least he elevated. In fact he elevated far enough to launch himself out of the crib. Sitting under his room, the house shook as the inevitable attraction of gravity brought him back to earth. Head first.

A quick ride in an ambulance later, we found ourselves enjoying the hospitality of the Toronto East General Hospital emergency room, for five hours. The wee man actually enjoyed his hospital stay (particularly the stool races with the other toddler boy inmates), and while it wasn't the way we planned on spending the evening, both mum-mum and dada were relieved when we were discharged with a diagnosis of no more than a bump on the head. Said bump had shrunk dramatically from it's initial tennis-ball proportions to a more manageable goose-egg.

With family arriving on Thursday and Friday, we managed to get the preparations for his party sorted and on Saturday morning we trundled off to the zoo. Mum-mum's party idea was a big hit and tons of his little friends came out to enjoy sandwiches, cupcakes and the polar bear feeding.

Congratulations on turning two, wee man. Let's not hurry to three.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A HUGE Thank you!

Thanks to all your support, we made! We were voted one of the Top 25 Daddy Blogs on Circle of Moms.

There will be a profile of us in the near future and we'll be sure to share all the details, but for right now, thank you again for your tremendous support and extra special thanks to all those who went the extra mile!

Yay!

Nick, Cris, and Ollie!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Any More Ebola?

I have to admit that I'm blown away by the little guy and the recent explosion in his communication skills. Words and phrases are pouring out of his little mouth like a ruptured Toronto watermain.. He still repeats a lot, as this week's "Come on, man!", "I can't see!" and "You can't catch me, copper!" demonstrate, but often there is purpose behind his utterances.

It's a lot easier to let him wail  appropriately manage his expectations, when you know the reason behind the meltdown. Where things have gotten stickier are with his ultimatums. When he takes a stand on an issue, his opposition tends to spread like contagion to any and all following pronouncements. So a relatively manageable and benign protest to going out the back door (preferring of course the front) quickly grows to encompass a refusal to sit while eating, the rejection of the food on offer and a repudiation of his home (wanting instead to reside at his Aunty Leela's).

Each of these snowballing denials is then underscored by his version of "never again". With each mounting objection he adds the tag line "any more". There is no reasoning with "any more". It has been ordained and it simply must be.

I'll be happy when we never see any more of "any more".