Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Visitor From The South!

Southern Ontario, that is--this weekend, the boys were treated to a major surprise when cousin Kayla paid a long-overdue visit to our humble abode to see how our boys were growing. The last time she saw the dynamic duo was last summer--amazingly--when Carter was just starting to expand his vocabulary beyond the word "banana" and "dee-dee da", and Nathaniel was still walking with two hands held. They were super-excited to see her and brought out their greatest hits and entire repertoire as they broke beyond the gate and into the living room, compressing more than six months of skyrocketing development into a single weekend. Of course, Carter made a b-line for her technology, which afforded his brother a little iPod time...




Saturday, January 29, 2011

"It Takes Two To Talk" Wraps Up

This weekend held our final video-session with Rachel Grey of The Hanen Centre, where Pops has been taking the "It Takes Two To Talk" class on Monday evenings since the fall. Nathaniel must have realized it was his Last Hurrah and gave it his all during this last Saturday morning session--Rachel was very impressed with his attention to books and attempts at various words. Pops finished up class the following Monday (and even got a snazzy certificate to frame) and will now defer to the expertise of speech therapists Kathy and Chris, who will continue to visit regularly...



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Scary Day

We live in such an intimate, friendly neighbourhood amongst the streetcar tracks and skyscrapers that sometimes we forget that we're housed within one of North America's largest cities, which offers up the best, and worst, mankind can offer. Today, our otherwise cozy and low-key neighbourhood got an adult-sized dose of urban reality when our boys' daily haunt--Shelly's Drop-In at the nearby school--was put into "lockdown" mode after a police chase ended at the nearby Richmond/Adelaide Street intersection and shots were fired at police who were pursuing suspects following an early-morning Etobicoke gas station robbery. The boys didn't hear the shots and had no idea what was going on while they enjoyed the daily routines of Shelly's Drop-In, but the relatively-short emergency status seemed like hours while I was desperate to get home. In less than an hour, it was all over--but my perception of my boys' homestead would be changed...



Monday, January 24, 2011

First Checkup Of 2011








Ugh--this morning, we rose early and braved the subzero temps and relentless snowdrifts for a surprisingly quick 8 AM appointment with Dr. P.--the first of 2011.

No needles or anything particularly eventful, but a long overdue weigh-in, which found Carter at 27 pounds and
Nathaniel a bit shy of 28 pounds.

Nathaniel was bit restless to get going, but Carter amazed Dr. P with his iPod skills. Soon, we were back on the road, taking it slow through the bad weather just in time for Karen to arrive..

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Sunday Shut-Ins





The Fab Four Of Us...


It was inevitable that Carter would eventually pick up on a Beatles song--his mom and dad are sorta fans and everything they've ever recorded is on his father's iPod--but who could predict that his first tune from the Fab Four would be their cover of "Kansas City (Hey Hey Hey)" from The Beatles' fourth album (and one of their least popular) "Beatles For Sale"? It's being played around the house lately almost as often as Imagination Movers favorites like "Nina", "First Day Of School", and "Jump Up!" (and he recognized the Fab Four on one of my coffee mugs, too).

Unfortunately, he's doesn't like the instrumental break that ushers in the "hey, hey, hey" chorus, so he usually shuts it off once McCartney's vocals stop. Nonetheless, I will continue with my own renditions of "Octopus's Garden" and "I've Just Seen A Face" in the hopes that Nathaniel might join in...

Sunday Shopping




Friday, January 21, 2011

On The Way Home From Shelly's

I snuck up on the boys and Karen on their way back home from Shelly's today (I went in as they went out), and Carter was so excited to see me, his pants fell down!





Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

First Art Of 2011!



Back To Shelly's!










Whatever Works

Before having children, I used to groan whenever I'd be out shopping and see various food items in the shape of SpongeBob, Dora, etc.--I had hard time believing that's what it took to get kids to eat. Well guess what?--it works! Carter has never loved his "beef-a-NONI" so much since it took on the shape of Spider-Man, Doc Ock, and other assorted shapes in tribute to Stan Lee. If only someone could figure out a way to transform "The Imagination Movers" into noodles...