starting early

having discovered just how many years mom spent at university, i've realised i need to get started now if i'm ever going to be as smart as her. last week i went to UBC (University of British Columbia) and got my first honorary degree: Infant Scientist. i undertook research into the developing perception of non-native nasal consonant contrasts in the department of psychology. i was, apparently, a perfect model of habituation.

like i said, mom's real smart. i understood the bit about being perfect and thoroughly enjoyed watching the TV screen (bigger picture here)

the race is on

who'll be first to walk? granny recovering from a broken hip or joel who doesn't really know how to do it? granny's well ahead in terms of motivation since crying when you want to be carried generally doesn't work after a certain age. while granny struggles to reach her toothbrush, joel is still waiting for more teeth to make an appearance.
however, after early indications of an easy victory, disaster struck. granny fell again and is now back in hospital having had her hip replaced :(
get well soon granny

another hero

having met the delirious boys at historymaker back in may, it was time to meet another of dad's heroes. Kevin Prosch - the only man who can make the introduction to a song last for 45 minutes. had he forgotten the words? he should have asked mom - she'd have known what the first line was.

expressions of freedom

i'd just like to point out that i have a right as a canadian to wake up at 5:30 and shout at the top of my voice if i want. i see daylight creeping around the window edges and it would be a shame to waste valuable singing time.
[dad says: joel, my son, "everything is permissable ... but not everything is beneficial 1Cor 6:12]

don't you just hate it when pastors take little bits of scripture and throw them into conversation to make a point? they so often miss the context of how the words are written.
[dad also says: honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you Ex20:12]

and it then says "do not murder" Ex 20:13, dad, and didn't Jesus develop the do not murder thing and say something about "anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment" Matt 5:21-22
[dad says: but you went to sleep at 11:00pm, woke us 3 times during the night, and then did the 5:30 thing, and you've done it for a few nights now, and you're waking uncle greg and auntie andrea whose room is right above your shouting spot]

i like singing, you and mom taught me to do it.
[i like your singing too, if you could delay it till after coffee number one, then the world is a happy place]

with which there was great reconciliation and true depth of forgiveness, repentance and a commitment to turning away from our bad habits. sharing over a coffee/milk, joel was heard to say, "i'm sorry dad" "i'm sorry too son". "i forgive you for your murderous thoughts". "and i forgive you for your shouting".

i'm feeling a little tired, i think i may have a nap.
[and that's a cruel luxury afforded an 8 month old, that his parents can only daydream of]

lighthouse adventure

it's amazing being a true vancouverite: born and bred. there are so many cool places to go and sleep, adventure and eat. today we had a big family outing to lighthouse park on the north shore. sun shone, water was deep blue .. not like the mediteranean, more icy. arbutus trees are fab, and provide nice shade under which to sleep. mom and dad enjoyed it too, even though dad is still suffering with a hurting ankle after playing ultimate frisbee with the youth - silly dad.




currently listening to: passion worship events - chris tomlin and the crew
currently eating: melon and apple and rice cereal

grass stains

a milestone in a boy's development. i got grass stains on my white socks today. admittedly it was cos dad was throwing me around in the back yard (garden in english!), i've not yet got as far as running around, or even crawling yet.

fathers day today .. couldn't wait for it to start, so woke up dad (and uncle greg upstairs) at 5:50am. they didn't share my excitement at the time.

i've got a routine

no, not a dance routine, a life routine. mom seems to think that's quite impressive, so i thought i'd tell you about it.
6.30am i wake up. sometimes a little earlier (or today at 5.15am a lot earlier), not often later. i lie in bed and read my book on my own for a while (the antics of cheeky monkey) and then after about 20 minutes or so i really fancy a nice cup of tea. i call mom in from her bedroom, but so far she's only given me milk.
after i've had my milk, and had my diaper changed, it's time to play for a while. despite my covetous glances neither parent has yet deigned to share their tea or toast with me. at around about 8-8.30am it's time for a nap.
9am and time for my real breakfast. some pureed fruit and rice cereal. apple and cinnamon is nice, and i seem to have pears quite often. after breakfast i have my diaper changed again, and i roll around naked on the bathroom floor while mom's in the shower.
11am is snack time. more milk for me.
by 12 or 12.30pm i'm ready for a snooze. this may well be in the stroller if mom's taken me out shopping. we seem to go out to the greengrocers a lot.
1pm and it's time for lunch. i REALLY like lunch. how does lamb and apricot, with sweet potato, peas and carrots sound to you? this might be followed by some apple and apricot, or avocado and banana ( or both) and a couple of rice rusks. if i really yell mom will keep feeding me fruit until i stop leaning forward and opening my mouth wide. it's pretty cool the way this unlimited supply of food goes from the freezer into the microwave. we get to do this countdown thing while we wait for the microwave pings. i'm getting good at counting as well as getting fed: three....two....one....
3pm milk time again. i know. it's probably only an hour since i finished lunch, but if i don't eat now it'll be nap time again, and i wouldn't want to miss out on a meal.
4pm - after my afternoon snooze, and it's probably time for a bounce in my Jolly Jumper. if dad's home he might play aeroplanes with me.
5pm is time for tea. more fruit and rice cereal. pear and blueberry stains very well, and tastes good too. after tea i sit in my chair and practice drinking out of my sippy cup. sometimes i get a mouthful of water which makes me choke. but not very often.
after tea mom might read me a story if dad's had to go to work. Baby Boo is my favourite. mom and i got to read it 12 times in a row yesterday. as soon as we got to the last page i turned back to the beginning again. i'm getting well practised at turning over one page at a time, and i usually hold the book the right way up too. if i'm really tired and not done too well at napping during the day, mom might put on my Baby Bach video.
6.15pm is bathtime. this is an ever-evolving festival of fun. dad's latest trick is torpedo ducks. after i've pulled the plug out dad carefully positions a rubber duck over the plughole. one gentle tap on the side of the duck and whoosh it torpedos to the surface. it's very very very very funny. so funny i sometimes forget to breathe. that's not so funny.
6.45pm and i'm in my PJs and sleeping bag ready for my final milk of the day. actually that's a joke. you don't think i'd go 12 hours without eating do you? by 7 or 7.15pm i'll have finished my bottle and be in bed with Hey Hey the monkey and Gerhard the tiger. sometimes i sing myself to sleep. sometimes i cry. sometimes i refuse to sleep at all. very occasionally i just lie down and go to sleep. i only do this to confuse the parents who are waiting for me to start snoring before they cook their dinner.
actually calvin paints a good picture of bedtime .. and he goes to bed with a tiger too. interesting.
10.30pm and time for my midnight feast. just milk and a few mouthfuls of tiger fur to keep me going until morning. grrrrr zzzzzzzz

personal status update

i am now 7 months old, i have some hair and a couple of teeth, my lunch can sometimes be lamb and apricot, sweet potato, corn, carrot followed by apple and rice, and a bonus chunk of banana. i like to eat. bathtimes are extrememly fun, playtimes are everlasting, napping in the day makes me look cute and feel good. mom's my hero and my bestest friend, dad's fun and my second bestest. i can do things with my hands and feet that look really impressive, i make the most awesome array of noises including chuckles, squeaks, duck noises, farty sounds, bubs, foghorns. i do cry on occasion, but only when i have a good reason. i don't crawl or walk, but boy do i want to! i throw things and reach for things and roll over and get incredibly excited when you dangle things above my head. i sit up without any assistance, i read books, play the piano (both the big one, and my new little one), i love percussion - official and non-official, i have some rhythm, but little melody so far. i can do more than one thing at a time (actually that's a lie), my dimples are even cuter than they used to be, and i look fabulous when seated in a field of daisies ...

i also look good with my friends, noah, maddy and mia - taken today Jun 12th

do you really want me to fill in the gap?

OK, so 3 months in one post. 3 days after the March 9 post we went snowboarding (thank you God!) we found snow in Big White. this was a bonus after bad local skiing. uncle gerhard made sure a few of us had some time out which was IMMENSELY cool of him. while mom skied and dad snowboarded i got to hang out in the condo. having learned how to roll over and bounced in the jolly jumper on the balcony looking at the snow, i decided to sprout a couple of teeth for my final trick. the next few weeks were really busy, i still decided it was good and proper to wake up every 3 hours for food at night .. i was hungry .. mom had a birthday (they look fun!), dad did lots of yoofy stuff and suddenly we found ourselves on a plane to england in april. i did ok on the plane trip despite a terrible air canada experience, and then proceeded to be difficult for at least 4 days (they thought it was jetlag, but it was actually culture shock). england's different, but i liked some of it. mom's face in tescos was a picture, so was dad's when eating the result. i met loads of my family and had lots of fun with them. wow did i see a load of people, so many i can't remember all their names. granny fell down and went to hospital which was real sad, and the car broke down which was difficult, but my other granny spent lots of time with me which is really great.

we came home to perfect sunny weather. dad did yoof group on the first day back, not knowing which way was up and when night starts. during the next week i tried really hard to start sleeping through the night, and i'm now pretty good at it. i also started eating food .. and seem to be incredibly good at that :) we went to kelowna and stayed in a real nice house with church pastors. i hung out with maddie and her mom which was fun.

then we came back and dad did lots and lots and lots of yoof stuff, and mom and i hung out a lot at home and in the hood, inviting all my friends around every thursday. sleeping good, feeding good, i feel like garfield then we went to kamloops for history maker - wow that was quite something too, then we thought it would be less busy when we came back, but it wasn't. dad seems to be working a bit hard right now, and has taken one day off between may 9 and June 6. this is not good for anyone, especially me (i can be selfish like that).

phew .. hoping summer will be a little less crazy and more filled with BBQ and hammock time.

wow ... am i back?

after much encouragement to scribble and much life that has happened, it is finally finally time for a post. a gap of 3 months is unacceptable without a really good excuse, so let me invent one for you ... hmm ... errr ... yep, yep ... here it comes ... oooh ... ah ... oops ... there it went again. oh come on, you'd have thought with a brain the size of mine (and yes it really is immense), i could at least invent a good excuse for lethargy.

well anyway, every good blog has a hole in it somewhere, right? it shows that there is life beyond the virtuality of cyberspace, and sometimes it's important for people to neglect the mouse and screen in favour of living it up in the great outdoor reality.

so here i am. actually i'm keeping dad company, cos he drank too much coffee this evening. it was good coffee - beans sourced by starbucks from columbia, ground in a starbucks grinder and "espressed" in a very nice little italian stove top espresso maker (sort of like this) bought for dad by uncle will in tuscany. timbo and lissa were round for really pleasant evening of chat, good food, mutual appreciation of the new series of west wing. so dad couldn't resist a second cup .. silly boy.