Ten days ago, Ryan took the training wheels off Austin's bike. They struggled for about hour and Austin got the idea of what he was supposed to do -- well for a few seconds anyway.
Then, after not riding his bike for a week, he hoped back on on Saturday afternoon and practically took off.
Check this out!
Our baby turned 3 today, can you believe it?!
Being a Sunday, we had her party this morning. As in past years, she shared her birthday party with her friend Isla -- who is only a few days younger than her. The party was at a playplace in the Beaches -- and for 2 hours, the kids ran around, played with everything, ate a little bit of food, and polished off cake.
In all a really good time. And Alex had a blast. This is her before we left for the party. I had just put her 'pretty dress' on (as she called it) and she decided she needed to be 'prettier'. So she got out her necklace, a ring and her Minnie ears hairband. We wouldn't let her wear the Minnie ears to the playplace, so a picture before we left was our compromise.
The playplace we were at this year did face painting, so Alex spent the party -- and the rest of the day -- with her face painted as a bunny.
We had a very busy March Break - making full use of all our time together.
This week was a big week for Austin....he turned a whole hand old!
He had a blast - all the kids did. We had initially told all the parents that they were welcome to drop their kids off and return a few hours later, but many opted to stay...an we're sure glad they did! Otherwise, it may have been a little too crazy.
Ok, maybe it's not quite a monthly update, as it's been awhile since I last posted. But here's the lowdown on what we've been up to lately.
Alexandra
Alex's big news is that she started preschool in January. Two days a week, for two hours a day. It's the same preschool that Austin went to last year and for months, she has been super excited to go. Unfortunately, it hasn't gone all that smoothly. The first day was fine, and she seemed to have a great time; but after that, for the next three or four weeks, she cried and cried. Some days she'd start crying when we got there, other days she'd start crying and telling me she didn't to go as soon as she woke up. Once she even cried so much that the teacher had to call me. It's getting better now -- she has good days and bad days. The thing is, is that she always has a fantastic time when she's there (and is always telling me how much she likes preschool on the non-preschool days), it's just the separation anxiety that makes it difficult for her.
She does have a little boyfriend there though, which is cute. His name is Ryan and apparently everytime she starts crying during class, he drops everything and runs over to comfort her.
Other than preschool for Alex, nothing much is new. On the non-preschool days, her and I continue to hang out while Austin is at school -- we go to playgroup once a week and sometimes we get together with some of the moms I've met at Austin's schools. It turns out, a lot of women in the neighbourhood have 4/5 year old kids and 2/3 year old ones still at home.
Austin
Austin is doing very well at school and is still very much enjoying going. He loves it so much, that on the snow day last week, he was actually upset (at first) that there was no school. In school, he's starting to learn to read -- bringing home 'homework' reader books every day -- and I'm amazed at well he's doing and how quickly he's picking it up.
He's also taking swimming lessons again this winter and for the first time, really has confidence in the water. So he's really having fun. It also probably helps that one of his friends from school is in his swim class with him.
And on a side note, I honestly cannot believe that in less than 2 weeks he's going to FIVE YEARS OLD! (We've planned a bowling party for his birthday, by the way. Us, him, Alex and 8 friends. I think we're crazy, but it'll be fun. Five is a big number afterall, he's going to be a whole hand old!)
Mom and dad
You'd think that now that I have two mornings a week with both kids in school that I'd be enjoying a little time to myself. But in fact, I have been working like crazy these last few weeks and have been grateful for every spare minute I get. So when both kids are in school, I come home for a little peace and quiet work time (along with all the work I've been doing on evenings and weekends too). I've even managed to pull off dropping both kids at school, driving all the way downtown for a meeting with a client, and booting it back uptown in time for school pick up. Even though it's tight, it's nice to have a little bit of time in my week to do things like that.
Ryan has also been working a lot (as always). He's still working at Bridgepoint Health and he's also taking a green building certification course.
We've had a few low key weekends these past few weeks (which is nice). Twice this winter, we've taken the kids skating at a nearby rink -- both of their first time on skates. Alex has bob skates, so she doesn't have much trouble, but Austin has real skates. After two times on the ice, he's getting the hang of it and is having fun.
I don't have time to write a long post right now. The good news is we're all more or less healthy again. More or less, in that no one is as sick as they were over Christmas but now I have a cold again. Such is life.
Ryan and Alex were sick for many days -- both of their fevers breaking on Tuesday, December 28. But even still, they both still tire out easily. It'll be awhile I guess until they're both back to normal. Damn flu.
Austin's back at school this week and everything is getting back to normal. I'll write a longer update soon, but until then, here are some pictures from December.
It was a ...er.... different Christmas this year.
It all started on the 23rd, when at 4 p.m., Austin spiked a fever. Thankfully it was gone by morning and he was left with just a really rotten cold. The kind of cold that just kind of knocks you on your ass.
By Christmas Eve, I was feeling pretty rotten -- and by the evening I had fa ever, as did Ryan. So much for a nice quiet Christmas Eve, drinking wine and watching holiday movies.
By morning I felt better -- just left with the same rotten cold that Austin had. But Ryan was not.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday and a joyous New Year!
Two weeks ago, we went to Ryan's company Kids Christmas Party. And of course the big highlight is seeing Santa.
We've been going every year, and Austin has only ever had an issue with sitting on Santa's knee once -- when he was 18 months old. Ever since then, he's super excited to sit with Santa and chat.
Alex on the other hand is not.
Last year she wouldn't go anywhere near him. This year, she was very excited to see Santa. She kept talking about seeing him and even when we were standing in line, she was excited. Until it was her turn.
And so, this is how our Santa picture turned out this year:
It was Santa's idea to have mom sit down too. Alex may not have wanted to sit with Santa, but I was pretty excited to!
Well, after a flurry of new updates in late October/early November -- I seemed to have gone silent. Sorry about that. Life has just been busy and yet, there hasn't been much to write about. But here's a quick update of what we've been up to.
The weekend of November 13, Ryan's sisters Krista and Jamie and Jamie's boyfriend came for the weekend. We went to the Royal Winter Fair on Saturday (where the kids had a blast) and then went bowling on Sunday morning (where the kids really had a blast). Apparently, bowling is fun regardless of your age.
From March to November every year in Austin, thousands and thousands of bats live under a specific bridge. Every evening around dusk, they all fly out to hunt bugs. It's pretty wild to see a million bats stream out from under a bridge and fly down a river.
Wednesday took us back to Zilker Park, but this time to go swimming in Barton Springs Pool. It's a natural spring water-fed pool that is 125ft wide by 1000 ft long. It is always 68F -- which feels cool when it's 90F outside! It was fun, although because the bottom is all rock and algae, the kids had a little trouble with it and mostly wanted to be carried around in it.
After the pool, it was back to the hotel for nap and then out for some yummy yummy Texas BBQ for dinner.
On Friday, we headed back downtown to visit the State Capitol building. It's the largerst Capitol building in the country and it's really nice. We tried to do the free guided tour, but the kids bored of it after about 15 minutes, so we just wandered around on our own after that.
One (among many) fun things at this wedding was what they did for the kids. About 20 kids attended, so Eric and Monica rented a bouncy castle for them to play in during the reception! Austin and Alex are never going to be able to go to another wedding, because they'll want to know where the bouncy castle is! (In other words, they had a blast!)
Austin and Alex did really well at the wedding, and were really well behaved. It was 10 p.m. when Ryan took them back to the hotel (and considering the reception ended at 10:30, they didn't miss much!)I'm a little behind on posting new photos, so here's a new slideshow of September and October photos. All that's missing is our Austin, Texas photos, those will come soon. Enjoy!
Happy Halloween from Tigger, a pirate captain and Fred and Wilma Flintstone!
The kids had a great time trick or treating! Austin made out with a pretty good haul and had no desire to come home after an hour and a half of trick or treating. Alex was tired of going door-to-door after about only 8 houses, but she didn't want to go home until Austin and mommy did. So she I pushed her in the stroller while Austin continued trick or treating with our neighbours. On October 1, the kids joined us at a Holoud -- part one of our friends' weekend-long wedding. We got dressed at my parents house (since the party was in Brampton) and my dad snapped this picture before we left. It's such a great picture, that I wanted to share..jpg)
More about our October and our trip to Austin, Texas shortly.
Back in July, we went to look for big girl furniture for Alex’s big girl room. Unlike when Austin was old enough for a bed and all we needed was a mattress to put on top of my childhood bed frame, this time we had nothing. We shopped and found a store in Vaughan that specializes in kids furniture with some really nice stuff.
I realize it's been over a month since I last posted anything, so here's a bit of catch-up as to what we've all be up to.
Austin
Austin is having a great time at school every day. He goes every morning -- from 8:40 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. -- and comes home every day full of stories from what they did in class that morning. (And my fridge is quickly filling up with school artwork.)
On Sept. 30, he participated in the Terry Fox Run at school. The kindergarten kids didn't do the run with the rest of the school, instead they simply ran laps around the playground. Alex and I hung around to cheer him on and he pretty much kept running for the entire 15 minutes or so that the class did the run.
Alexandra
Alex and I now hang out every morning while Austin is in school. It took her a little while to get used to the routine -- some days wanting to go pick him up almost as soon as we finished walking him there -- but now she's into it. Some mornings, we do shopping or errands and other morning we go to programming or the drop-in centre. One morning a week, we go to a kinger-gymnastics program which she absolutely loves!
I guess that's why I haven't written in awhile -- there's not much to write about! The routine of school keeps us busy. And even though Austin loves school, most mornings I have to pry him out of bed to get ready to go. I guess it's a little too early for him.
October is a busy month for us. The first weekend of October we went to a weekend-long wedding here in Toronto. The kids came with us to the Friday night part of the event but we left them with a sitter for the Saturday night ceremony and reception. This past weekend -- Thanksgiving Weekend -- we spent in London. And on the Sunday of the weekend, Ryan and I left the kids with Ryan's dad and drove to Niagara-on-the-Lake for another wedding.
This coming Saturday (Oct. 16), I'm brave enough to run the 10K Zoo Run again and on Sunday morning the four of us leave for Austin, Texas. My cousin is getting married on Oct. 23 (yes, three weddings in one month for us!) and we decided to take the kids and spend a week there. We're all pretty excited and the kids are particularly excited about getting to go on an airplane! So I guess there'll be more to write about when we get back.
He had a great day, and has been talking about all the things they did pretty much since he got home.
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For our third and final trip this month (it's been a busy month!) Ryan and I went to Chicago from Aug. 19 to Aug. 23 while the kids went to my parents house.
The purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of a good friend of mine who now lives in Chicago. As neither Ryan nor I had ever been there before, we figured we'd turn a one-day wedding into a long weekend so that we'd get a chance to do some sightseeing.
Unfortunately, for reasons I don't know, six days before the wedding, my friend and her fiancée called it off. (I've since talked to my friend by e-mail and she's doing 'ok', I guess.) So, Ryan and I were left with the decision -- three days before we're scheduled to leave -- whether to go or not. In the end, we decided to go -- after all, we had non-refundable flights, the time booked off and the sitter's booked up. So we went.
And we had a great time.
We got there on Thursday afternoon and just wandered around downtown near our hotel. For those who know Chicago, our hotel was right on Wabash in The Loop, meaning it was right next to the El and we could walk to just about anything downtown. And over the next four days, we did a lot of walking.
That afternoon, we wandered around Millennium Park and Grant Park before finding dinner and drinks.
The next morning, we wandered over to the Chicago Tribune building. It was built in 1925 and it quite beautiful. And, in its wall are stones from famous landmarks all over the world -- Berlin Wall, Great Wall of China, the White House, Edinburgh Castle, etc. And one such stone we found was from Miraflores Locks in Panama. This gave us quite a laugh, because six years ago, when we were in Panama, we drove around for a long while in search of this lock. We gave up, having never found it. So now, we've touched a piece of it! 
Later that morning, we went on an architecture boat cruise up the Chicago river. Chicago has a really fascinating architecture -- something that interests us both. The tour guide explained the story of all the buildings along our route. It was really interesting. It was also incredibly hot as we baked in the 95F sun on that boat. 
On Saturday, we walked out to the Shedd Aquarium but got there to discover it was an almost two hour wait just to get in to buy tickets. So we nixed that idea, and instead rented bikes and rode along the waterfront for a couple of hours. Chicago has really beautiful waterfront trails (about 18 miles worth).
As we were childless for the weekend, Sunday night (as did the other nights) involved a drink (or four). © Blogger templates Sunset by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
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