scheme to reunite my parents

i'm concerned of late that mom and dad are sleeping in separate rooms. dad has taken to sleeping in a sleeping bag on the sofa. he says it's so he doesn't get woken up by oliver feeding every 2 or 3 hours, and so that he can come and read me stories at 6.30am without waking mom and olly. i'm a bit concerned there's more to it, so i came up with a great plan to make dad sleep in his own bed with mom.

this morning i threw up all over dad's sleeping bag, really properly, all over it. he managed to get me over to the kitchen to finish up, so i was kind and helped him mop up that bit.

unfortunately, the scheme didn't really work, because dad took the sleeping bag to the laundry saying it was good to get it washed anyhow. i unfortunately have now thrown up several times, and am not holding down crackers, milk or water, i have turned a nasty shade of green, and cry a lot thanks to a painful tummy. Oliver's been crying a lot too, and mom has not eaten much for days. it looks like we are the home of the sick for a while .. dad's doing OK so far, but he's not very happy.

what is christmas?

mom told me that christmas is jesus' birthday, and at christmas everyone gets presents. so what i want to know is, where is jesus' bob the builder cake ( i asked mom and she didn't have an answer) and who's got all mom and dad's presents? i opened all mine, and i opened all Ollie's for him, but mom and dad only had a couple each. that can't be right!

currently...

currently reading: Curious George rides a bike/goes camping
currently watching on dvd: Mighty Construction Machines or Toy Trains
currently watching on tv: curious george CBC 8am Mon-Fri
currently dancing to: Delirious - now is the time (it would be listening to, but how can a boy listen without dancing?)
currently eating: apple crumble, pate and crackers, 'snacks'
would like to currently be eating: chocolate
currently drinking: Lactiad (lactose-free milk)
currently playing with: car transporter and using diggy bob to move heaps of coins out of my money box
currently best friends with:Katrina Karsch

currently wish i was at: Science World
currently happiest when: outside with a snack!

being 2

it's great being two. i know my mind absolutely, and i now have the lung capacity and the vocabulary to express it forcefully if necessary. for example, i no longer want to eat meals, only snacks. mom took this news better than i expected. yesterday for my late afternoon snack she gave me chicken and rice with peas and carrots and then some apple crumble. great snack, eh?

Nice to hang out with Granty Jen

Jen's my Great Aunt. as a great aunt she's great, but she's not actually my great great aunt. she actually taught me to use the word great, which adds a certain passion to my affirmatives - mom "do you want to go out and kick a ball?" me - "yeah, great!"

Jen hung out with me for 3 whole weeks while Oliver was really little. we had SO much fun. thanks for being here granty Jen.

Dec 6, Worthing, England: Dear Joel, I did love coming into your bedroom every morning when I was staying & going for walks with you too. It was fun to bop rocks & look for Diggy Bobs. It was great in the snow too. Has it gone now? I expect it has but maybe you'll have some more one day. Lots of love Granty Jen

water, water everywhere

....and not a drop to drink. not for the big people anyway. mom is eeking out a limited supply of bottled water for me to be able to have my milk in the morning and evening, but landslides into the reservoir caused by severe rainstorms means the water coming out of the tap is distinctly yukky. my bath was rather brown, and not even the bubbles could hide it. on the plus side there are some extremely good puddles just outside our back gate. i think i'll be spending some considerable time out there in the next few days

enthusiasm

it's good to be enthusiastic about the finer things in life. i've recently moved on from "oh yes!" as my standard response to a good idea, to "yeah, great". while mom understands this when she offers me an outing to the park, or perhaps a cookie, she always looks a little surprised when she gets the same response to a cup of water or a piece of bread or perhaps the suggestion of doing some colouring. personally i think its good to be grateful for even these things.

doel dit

contrary to the received wisdom of child psychologists, rather than regress in my development with the arrival of oliver, in some areas at least i'm coming on in leaps and bounds. i guess that makes sense considering the amount of leaping and bounding i do. my vocabulary is increasing daily. not only can i now correctly identify and pronounce a number of colours: red, black, blue, pink, yellow, green, i'm also getting more specific about 'bob'. as of yesterday for example, the picture in my last post is a 'digging bob'.
my best friend Hobbes finally has a name other than 'this', as indeed do i myself : doel. one phrase that's becoming increasingly useful is 'doel dit' (joel do it). this might apply to making toast, spreading honey, taking a photo with the digital camera, putting on a dvd.......i'm quite technologically minded - or is it that i just like pushing buttons?

bob!

"bob!!!" I exclaim loudly. this is one of my favourite things. in fact all things bob are my favourite, sometimes we see them in the neighbourhood. i'm such a boy

olly's here

mom kept asking me why she had such a big tummy. I always said "baby", and stroked it gently. I know what babies are, I see them around on the street. now we have a baby of our very own. he's called oliver, and I love him.

daddy showed me this photo on his camera and said who's this. I pointed and said "baby", then pointed at me and said "dole". it's kind of fun having another little guy around. although I have to say he can be a little noisy when I'm trying to watch my favourite documentary about tractors. Julia the midwife came in yesterday to take some blood out of olly's heel – bluuurgh. olly wasn’t really excited and cried quite a bit. I went in and looked all compassionate for a few seconds, but eventually enough was enough. "bye guys" I said, shut the door and got back to watching farm trucks and tractors.

here's the oliver blog

normal service required

when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is rattle the bars on my cage (well, actually the gate across my bedroom door). if it's before 5.45am, this rapidly summons a parent who sends me straight back to bed to do more sleeping, if it's 7.00am a somewhat amazed looking parent emerges with a bottle of milk remarkably quickly. this might have something to do with the whole night's sleep they just had. more normally there is not much response at all. at this point I shout a little to remind them I'm here, Greg and Andrea love that, as their bedroom is just above me.

this morning I was somewhat surprised to discover it was Donna who answered my early morning call. I think I led her through the routine pretty well. my bottle leaked a bit, but tasted good, and she was happy to respond to my call for 'book'. we unloaded the dishwasher, and I told her whose mug was whose, and where stuff went. I got the milk for her for her cup of tea, we played trains and she did pretty good for a girl.

it was kind of weird mom and dad weren't around. Roxanne soon appeared to take me out for the day. being a fully qualified mom, she remembered to take all the things I really need for a good day out. a change of clothes so I could go puddle jumping (I taught Katrina a thing or two), my sleeping bag and Hobbes so I could nap, and my bouncy castle was already installed at her house. we had loads of fun – I was far too busy to talk to dad when he called, and even went to Science World in the afternoon where there were loads of buttons to press and things to play with.

when we finally got home, mom and dad were back with baby oliver. they all looked almost as tired as me, so they must have had a busy day too. oliver had got me a couple of presents – he must have known it was my birthday.

thanks for looking after me Donna and Roxanne, you're my friends.

yuk.......gone

the latest challenge at bathtime is to see just how much water i can bail out of the bath, using the very unpromising implements i'm currently allowed in there with me. despite the moratorium on pots, buckets, scoops etc mom and dad generally take their socks off before entering the bathroom. actually mom doesn't usually have to bother since she can't reach her feet to put them on in the first place, but dad was really kind today and put her socks on for her before we went out into the frosty park this morning.

so there's mom, balancing on one foot, trying to reach the water in the bath to check if it's the right temperature, and i'm patiently waiting beside her - stark naked and getting chilly, i might add - when all of a sudden mom notices her foot is getting remarkably warm and wet considering i'm not even in the bath yet. she looks around to see me grinning at her happily, saying 'yuk'. was it my fault, oh yes!!!!

later, mom comes to check on me before she gets into bed. she opens my bedroom door, and leans over the gate. the gentle sound of snoring emanates from.....well, i'm not in my bed, nor am i on the cushions carefully placed beside my bed in case i fall off the mattress, nor am i on the floor by the door. somewhat confused, mom turns the kitchen light on in order to shed some light on the situation. am i in the corner by my drum kit? no. behind the door? no. ahhh......there appears to be a body in the sleeping bag sprawled out across Bob the Builder in the middle of the big double bed. is this the first episode of sleep walking, or just a small boy looking for his daddy in the middle of the night?

Hallowe'en

maybe it's because they don't like pumpkin (roasted, in pie or otherwise). maybe it's because no one dishes out free english chocolate, it's all nasty canadian stuff that i can't eat, and they won't. perhaps they just don't like getting dressed up in fancy dress, although mom's doing a good impression of a very fed up, fat person who's clothes won't do up any more. either way, like the truly serving parents they really are, they dressed me up in my fireman's outfit and we hit the streets. actually we went out in the car, since mom can barely walk, but we visited church where i impressed the crowds with my ability to throw rubber chickens, not to mention my skills on the putting green. from there we went to Dunbar Heights church where i got to throw vegetables, something i've had plenty of practise at, although these were plastic. they tried to make me stand very close to the target until they saw just how lethal my throwing arm was. at this point it was time to come home to bed, where i emptied out my bag of goodies and spent some time wandering around the house, trying to decide where to put them. i've never had my own stash of candy before. i know all the places mom hides her's, but it's no good using one of those places is it!

2 at last

for those of you to whom these things matter, at my birthday weigh-in i was 32lbs and 91cm tall. That's after eating birthday cake, if you consider that relevant. 'cake' is my new word of the day. highly appropriate, don't you think? my standard response on hearing the word birthday is 'Bob cake'. It's been a long time since my party, but my Bob cake obviously left a huge impression on me - another way of saying i'm scarred for life?

I got to open a whole load more presents today: some Bob slippers with flashing lights, a Bob truck, a Bob tool belt, a red Bob fleece, two Bob birthday cards with badges on, a transporter lorry with cars a.k.a. Bob.............

mom and dad got me a train set which is really cool. it's got a mountain and bridges and everything. unfortunately mom didn't produce a younger sibling for me, so she's not much help at the moment when it comes to trying to put the train track together. we went shopping on saturday and dad chose (me) some remote control cars, and a new coffee machine for him. i'm not sure which he's had more fun playing with.

boundaries

rarely will i let dad type a blog entry, but you need to hear this one from his perspective - over to you daddy. joel

Liz read this intriguing article about toddlers not straying more than a certain distance from their parents, even if they are given freedom to do so. You see this, of course, with young children clinging to their mum's legs, or trying to get dad's attention, normally by doing something that they know annoys him. Also if you observe in the playground, the child will always be within good sight of a parent and tends not to wander off unless permission is granted.
So, we thought Thanksgiving morning yesterday provided the ideal opportunity to test the theory.

Trimble Park, a beautiful, well-maintained playground, next to a school playing field with great views of the city. There's a good fence around the whole area with only a few exit points. We sat, enjoying some autumnal sun in the paddling pool - sometimes filled with water - currently filling with leaves. Joel has the ball, as you can see from the picture (1). Joel kicks the ball out of the pool and starts ambling off away from us in the picture.

I wonder how far he will go?

Joel dribbled the ball offf towards the goal (2) looked back just the once to raise his arms, shout "goooaaal" and check we saw his score, he then made a beeline directly for the nearest exit (3) a good few hundred yards away, and didn't look back once to see if we were following or watching him.

I guess there always has to be one exception to break the rule!? I sprinted for the exit to meet him just before kicking the ball into oncoming traffic. Bless him.

salad

daddy wasn't feeling so good, he fell asleep on the sofa. i found something very very exciting in mommy and daddy's bedroom. 48 "big ones" - mars bars. i didn't think it was right to keep them hidden away, so i began to transfer them one by one to somewhere much better - the "salad drawer" in the fridge. after i got to 40, i realised it would be much more efficient to bring the salad drawer to the bedroom for the last few. daddy didn't wake up :) rosie will be really upset cos she loves salad, and the mars bars are covered in canadian chocolate

archeology

so i was in one of my favourite parks today - next to kits community centre. it's got climbing walls and all the usual swings and slides and wobbling things, and lots of friends to play with. mom particularly likes it bedcause of a big fence all the way around the outside. she's not quite so quick on her feet these days thanks to a big tummy .. so it's good when i can't run away so far.

anyhow, there i was sitting in the sandbox with other little people, and i did my first archeological find .. i think they call it a sleeve. it's a piece of cardboard in a ring with that familiar green circle thing on it .. the one that you see on storefronts on every street in the city. i recognised it immediately and said "daddy!". mommy and the other moms thought that was very funny.

multi-coloured dreams

after a week or so where i've climbed into my crib to retrieve things and then yelled for mom to lift me back down, it was inevitable the day was rapidly approaching.......

i'm on my way to a big boy bed, via the mattress on the floor stage. mom's a bit concerned about the drum kit in the corner of my bedroom which i'll now have access to at 3am should i feel the urge to get a bit of practice in. she's also slightly worried that i won't be content to bounce on my own bed, but will climb up onto the big bed in the room, start bouncing on that, and then go crashing to the floor. i think mom worries too much, what do you reckon?

dad thought he could persuade me to sleep longer at lunch time by lying next to me. i gave him hobbes and my bob pillow on his head .. he went to sleep .. i went to the drum kit. what dad, no stamina today??

too late

unfortunately it arrived a day too late for my party, but now my bouncy castle is here. this is a serious piece of kit, complete with basketball hoop for small boys obsessed with throwing things. take a look:

now all we need is a house big enough to set it up in. actually mom's plan is that i'll go to work with dad once the new baby arrives and he'll watch me from his office at church while i bounce away to my hearts content.

"happy birthday party day"

i had a party yesterday, even though i'm not quite 2 .. i'm so lucky. there was lots and lots and lots of bob the builder. dancing, friends, amazing food, and an incredible bob cake made by mom and rosie. thanks everyone for coming. and wow, i got presents. none of us even thought about that .. aren't we funny!

54 and counting......

not that i can count to 54 you understand. i can count to 3 though, "one, two, freeeeeee" or if there's more than 3 "two, free, ten!". 54 is the number of meaningful words i currently use - or at least the number mom and dad could think of last night when they were trying to go to sleep. somewhat surprisingly 'no' didn't feature on the list until number 36. what kind of toddler am i? must try harder.

some of my best sentences need to be used with discretion: 'wow - that's a big one' can offend apparently

photo albums updated

go to www.sopwithworld.com and use the links on the right hand side. password available by request email to joelATsopwithworld.com

there really is no better way ..

there really is no better way .. to make people smile, than running and jumping in puddles along the busy shopping street of broadway. the only good reason for the first rain last night :)

growing pains

mom's moaning and complaining at the moment that her clothes don't fit, her shoes don't fit and she can't reach her feet anymore. i don't get what the problem is. my shoes don't fit any more, but that means i can now where my cool new sandals with Elmo on, and thanks to our recent visitors from england, i've got some great new pjs. the tractors have gone - now i've got cars and diggers. Hoorah

How NOT to shop

we're off on holiday in a couple of days so mom had a few last minute groceries and things to pick up. as it was raining this morning, we set off in the car together to shop number 1:
mom put three things in her basket, i put two things we didn't need in the basket. mom made me take them back out so i put them on the floor, along with the rest of the contents of that particular shelf......we go to the cashier, who not knowing the trouble i've caused already offers me a balloon. i ask for a red one. there isn't a red one. i'm not a happy chap. we go back to the car. did i mention that it's raining? everything's wet. i know because i checked. i tried to dry one or two things before mom physically placed me in my car seat. on to shop number 2.

what do you mean you want me to leave my (orange) balloon in the car? not a chance. up we go in the elevator to safeway, where horror of horrors no fire engine trolley is available. i'm a big boy now and like to drive around the store. i'm not going to sit quietly in the front of a regular trolley like a baby. five minutes later we find an available fire truck abandoned in one of the aisles, so i insist mom transfers our shopping, and me, and my balloon into it. now it's all good. we're brrummming our way around the shop with my helium balloon tied to the steering wheel. i think actually i'd rather hold my balloon so i untie the knot and give myself a little round of applause as i manage to get it undone. ooooops.......now the balloon is about 10 feet in the air, just resting on a light fitting. i need to get it back, and let mom know. she very patiently climbs into the back of the fire engine and tries to reach it. just too short, and at six months pregnant not wanting to leap about in the back of a moveable trolley. she accosts a young safeway employee ( i did mention this is a 'choices' supermarket balloon we're trying to retrieve here) and asks him to hold the trolley still while she climbs up onto the fire engine roof. unsurprisingly, he thinks this is a bad idea, and promptly scales the 8 foot high freezer cabinet. after a few deep breaths he launches himself off, grabbing the balloon string as he falls. it's safe. hoorah. mom now takes control of the balloon, which is a little bit upsetting, but we're nearly done shopping.
we get to the checkout. i'm not allowed to drive the fire truck into the car park, and what usual happens is some nice man transfers our shopping into a regular trolley which mom pushes while i take charge of the elevator. today however, the not so nice man wants a quarter in order for us to have a trolley for the shopping. this wouldn't have presented a problem except mom's only quarter is in the trolley she abandoned halfway around the store when we found the fire engine....
finally the shopping is in a trolley, and we go to the elevator. i take us down to the parking level, mom backs the trolley out, i press a few buttons.....mom calls me to come out and find the car...i press a few more buttons, and a few more, and ...uh oh the doors are shutting...fortunately mom has the trolley still in the doorway but it's now jammed and can't be moved in or out, the doors won't open, the alarm is going off..hmmm i think i might be in trouble so i move as far away from mom and the door as possible so there's not a chance she can lift me out over the wedged trolley although how she thought she was going to manage that with a tummy the size of hers i don't know.
eventually the doors begin to move again, mom grabs me and drags me back to the car. i'm pleased to say being a good mommy she didn't let go of balloon in all the drama - i wouldn't have wanted to lose it

dad blogged our granville island breakfast adventure

he's a bit jealous that my blog's better than his, so he won the deal to report on our Granville Island breakfast last week. we had loads of fun that day. full photos will eventually be published to my photo gallery, but it's in big need of some updating. don't you hate it when people put that on their blogs?

winning dad's heart

there are plenty of things that make dad mad.......emptying bath water onto the floor, throwing food from my highchair and throwing things at/hitting him on the head are just a few examples. he wasn't very amused this morning either when i pushed the top into my bottle of milk and proceeded to empty the contents onto my sleeping bag, sheet and Hobbes

there's one sure way of winning dad over though, and that's to point at a photo of him on the wall, his driving licence or even the laptop and saying in my cutest voice "daddeeeee"

and mom? she still answers to "Bob"

helpful moments with a sponge

can't beat a bit of carwashing with friends ..

MORE new shoes

whenever mom has the urge to spend some serious cash she takes me down to Kerrisdale to get my feet measured. we went on Thursday afternoon and sure enough my feet have grown again. i'm now size 8 1/2, out of the toddler range and into real kids shoes. my new ones are great. i've got Bob trainers. OK, so Bob isn't actually on them himself - mom said he had to go back to the yard for building supplies - but Scoop's definitely there

"our cart"

just as i'd got to the point of being able to spot our car from 100 yards away (whilst yelling excitedly "our cart", "our cart") we've changed it for a different one.

mom and dad swapped our little blue car for a big red van. although it means i can no longer kick mom in the back whilst strapped into my car seat, it does mean that mom is now officially a minivan-driving 'soccer mom'. i'm hoping that means i get to play more soccer.

i now have my own personal captain's chair and i can control the rear air-con and change channels on the radio/cd - or at least i WILL be able to when my arms are a bit longer. i've also got my own cupholder for my sippy cup and a storage container between the seats for my toys. the only real downer is that we didn't get the newer model which has a dvd player - no Bob in the car.......yet.

in need of a name

don't you think my new sibling has great toes?











anyway, we have a bit of a possible dilemma here. If it turns out i'm getting a baby sister there's no problem. mom and dad had a girl's name all ready for me, but since i won't ever need it, i'm quite prepared to let my little sister use it instead. but...since i'm already using the best boy's name, what are we supposed to do if it's a boy?
we're definitely open to suggestions here, with just a few criteria:
1) it has to sound the same in Canadian and English. For example 'craig' is no good - in Canadian that's pronounced'creg' and in English 'crayg'
2) it can't be too long: tom, liz, joel and theophilus would be ridiculous
3) it can't begin with J - there's only going to be one J.Sopwith in this family
4) it can't be too Ssssy - Sebastian Sopwith is a bit much for a small boy who might have a lisp. (too much thumb sucking at an early age)

linguistics

OK, so i've been putting in more practise at my ball skills than this language thing, but i'm definitely making progress.
'More' is a great word, especially when applied to yoghurt and raspberries.
'Bwoke' is generally used in a sad tone of voice when i throw something and it doesn't look quite the same afterwards.
My favourite word has to be 'Bob', as in Bob the builder. I can recognise the phrase 'Bob the Builder' even when there's no picture attached, and Bob also applies to any kind of digger or forklift. Mom won't let me watch Bob on the video first thing in the morning because Bob's still asleep then.
'No' is the generic answer to a question. This had mom and dad confused for a while until they realised that sometimes 'no' means no, as in "shall we change you diaper now?" "no"; but sometimes it means yes, as in "would you like some yoghurt?" "no".
'Uh oh' is still in liberable use, as is 'gone' and 'bye bye'. 'bye bye Bob'is a sad time of day.
I had a great chat with mom on the phone the other day. i tried to give her my socks but i couldn't get them into the receiver. one day i might even talk to granny on the phone rather than just push buttons until i cut her off

patience, patience

so it's 7pm and i've been called in from the garden where i was happily shooting hoops because mom's run me a bath. i load the bath with my toys while mom and dad stand in the bathroom door talking about new cars. i think they really want a blue one, but the cheapest one is red.....i guess the conversation is kind of interesting, but c'mon my bath's getting cold guys. they go on, and on, and on.....so i climb into the bath on my own. mom looks around, wondering where i've got to, and i can tell she's trying not to laugh when she sees me in the bath fully dressed. maybe next time they'll pay more attention to me, or let me stay out in the garden a bit longer.

who moved the sea?

so we've been down to Spanish Banks a couple of times in the last few days - it's much cooler down by the water - and we set up base camp in the same place each time. once i've got my sunsuit, suntan cream and hat on, i go and throw rocks in the sea while mom and dad recover from the effort of getting us all there.

we went down today and i picked up my rocks (probably the very same ones as on saturday afternoon) and throw them........and the sea's not there. i looked round to see mom and dad laughing at me :(

the sea was so far away that eventually dad gave up and carried me. then we ran around in the surf singing the top gun theme (he keeps singing that one) and chariots of fire of course. we then built a tide castle, but dad was rubbish. to be fair the tide comes in about 500m per 10 mins!

IKEA

When the temperature reaches over 30 degrees, little people (like me) and pregnant people (like mom) are not at their best. In order to avoid sitting at home and suffering, mom had a great idea on saturday morning. Where could we go that was air-conditioned, was big enough for me to run around in, had stuff for me to play on, serves breakfast for just a dollar, AND had a sale on? IKEA

We had such a good time! I got to try out lots of big boy beds, choose armfuls of plastic cups and bowls for our big yellow bag, and definitely ate my share of the free ketchup. They even had straws for my glass of water. Dad enjoyed my croissant and the scrambled egg wasn't up to much, but hey, when can we come back again?

Owww!

thankfully this is the last lot of vaccinations for some time

Life in the world of joel, June 2006

Woah, you must be wondering what life in joel's world is like right now. full on!

• I run, climb, skip, jump, catch, kick, hit, throw and play most sports to a reasonable level
• I speak many languages with a few interestingly consistent phrases like "dat's a wrunne". unfortunately no one has worked out what I mean by that, but I'll keep saying it until they understand
• I am very good at saying "no" and shaking my head vigorously, but I pretend I don’t understand the word "no", particularly when dad shouts it loudly
• I like cookies (who doesn't?) .. and prefer them to most other foodstuffs .. vocally
• I play the piano distinctly and the drums well- I sing bob the builder a lot, and so do mom and dad
• I weigh over 30 lbs
• playgrounds are fabulous, and must have been invented by a 20mth old
• I'm still a very good eater. and when I've had enough, I throw food for fun. the trick is to wait until mom is pouring boiling water into her cup, and then throw as much food on the floor as I can followed by my cup and plate. smiling very important at this point- climbing is what I was born to do
• I like to drive the car, it's much more fun than being a passenger. dad's not let me take it on my own yet

current obsessions:

shooting hoops

playing drums - can you believe I have my own drum kit!! this isn't it, but it looks very similar
garbage collection

i am really really good at all these things, and list them in order of earnings potential for later life. so far the city have tried to recruit me for the last one, but no solid auditions for U2 or trials for the Nicks .. yet

family visits

dad has to sort out the hundreds of photos which are mounting up, i keep asking him so i can update the blog. we had wonderful visits from granny and grandpa, autie anna and uncle alan and cousin ruaridh (i have no idea how to pronounce that, but he showed my how to spell it - dad calls him roors which is funny). we went on a 3 day trip to the sunshine coast with granny and grandpa. we went to trout lake and bon’s (erin’s neighbourhood). we went to lynn canyon forest, lots of beaches, Granville island. generally i’ve been out and about and it’s been lots of fun.

mom and dad are exhausted, because of this and lots of youth pastor stuff, and mom keep’s saying it’s tiring being pregnant. she should try being the baby! oh she did try once.

i hope dad will get some time to add to the photo albums, cos there’s some great ones.

around town with great-grandma

she wasn't here for all that long, but great grandma certainly got around! as well as a coach tour of vancouver, she went over to the island and visited victoria and the buchart gardens. not to be outdone, we provided a full chamber orchestra of buskers for her entertainment outside the market at Granville Island, ensured she ate her quota of pancakes and maple syrup at a diner, and played plenty of basketball.

the great-relatives

today is great-granny's 90th birthday, so we sent her some flowers and ate fish and chips for dinner in her honour ( a british birthday tradition, allegedly).

great-grandma, after numerous letters, emails and phone calls, giving us several different arrival dates, and the named of a couple of different hotels actually arrived in town today, and we even managed to find her. she brought me so many nice toys and presents that her suitcase was almost empty by the time she'd handed them all over. i took her to the playground at Kits beach as a reward. i don't think she was quite as interested in the beach volley ball as i was, but maybe she was a bit tired after her long journey.

we'll play again tomorrow

chris martins

3 people have independently said that i look like a mini Chris Martin. in order to check this out, i joined him on the latest coldplay photo shoot. i'll let you be the judge of who's the best looking dude.

food glorious food

mom's been busy all week shopping and planning for this weekend's food extravaganza.

on friday night the youth group cooked chicken provencale ready to serve sunday lunchtime. first though we served brunch to the 9am congregation. pancakes for a hundred or so people. having located a couple of griddles to cook them on, and tried to persuade the locals that lemon and sugar is good on pancakes, not to mention training half a dozen teenagers in the art of pancake cooking, mom had had enough already. unfortunately she had almost 200 pieces of chicken to reheat ready for lunch.........

by the time it was all over we'd sold 900 krispy kreme donuts ( actually 899 - dad ate the last one), served and cleared up both brunch and lunch, not poisoned anyone AND raised over 2000 dollars towards the historymaker trip. hoorah

Finally..

after all that waiting, Monday finally came - and i got my hair cut by the Canadian men's hair stylist of the year. Really!!! Let's hear it for Alexandera Brown :) She came over and cut my hair in our kitchen, and dad's, and even mom's - although she's not a man. Mine looks pretty funky, although i say so myself. I'll have to get dad to take a photo for you.

What else - it was so windy when we went down to the beach i almost got blown over. There were lots of crashing waves and it was pretty exciting. Almost as exciting as going out for breakfast. Mom let me try maple syrup on my bacon. Now that's really good. I mopped up several servings with my bread too. I got kind of sticky, but dad came to the rescue.

That was at 8am, and before that? Oh yes, we went to the hospital where i got to see my new sibling turning somersaults. An active little thing, but just the one. No twins then. Phew!!!

Waiting for Monday

why is it that when you're not ready for an event it sneaks up on you really quickly and there aren't enough hours in the day, but when you REALLY want a day to come soon, it takes forever?

Take next Monday for instance, we've been waiting for next Monday since last Tuesday....and after all this time, it's STILL only Saturday. How is that possible? I've played my drums a hundred times, eaten everything in the fridge, played more soccer than you'd have thought possible, watched Pingu right through at least four times (I've been a bit sick and miserable - that's the parents' excuse for letting me watch DVDs all day, anyway)

Today i'm 18 months old, and mom and dad have been in canada for three years. that makes them eligible for a nice blue passport like me. but anyway, i digress....

What's so special about Monday? Hah! Now you've got to wait until Monday to find out, too. Hoorah. Now we're ALL waiting for Monday. I feel better already. Thanks for sharing in my suffering.

phrases dad never thought he'd use

"now we don't throw toast-racks, do we?"

i surprised dad with my python-style surrealism. we were playing in the lovely sun-drenched (ish) family room, and i tipped my tortilla chip crumbly bits all over the floor. it was a good thing, cos the floor REALLY needed a sweep. so dad asks me ever so politely, "please joel could you go and get your dustpan and brush" i toddled off, leaving mom and dad looking at each other going .. "wow, did he really understand that?" (i understand WAY more than they know! and just because they don't understand my 3 fluent languages, doesn't mean i don't understand their two: english and canadian)

anyhow, i toddled off to the kitchen where i store my dustpan and brush for playing and occasional sweeping. they would be really impressed if i brought it back and helped. but just for laughs i found the chrome toastrack and brought it back ceremonially with a large grin on my face, to much giggling from the 'rents. the throwing incident happened later - i like throwing things, especially noisy, bouncy things.

and into April

April Fool's day and mom finally gives up on her fantasy of buying a quarter share in a Whistler apartment. In fact, she gives up on moving house at all for another two years, so that gives us a bit of time to finally finish the renovations - ready for the next owners to enjoy.

We grabbed a moment when mom was feeling a bit better to go out on a family shopping trip. dad wasn't brave enough to take me on his own to buy my first brand new pair of shoes. i suspect he was worried he would have got into trouble from mom about the price of them.

More of a bargain was my first set of drumsticks. they were free :) they comprise a set, not because they match, but because there are three of them. it's always good to have a spare around the place. i can now set up my drumkit on my own: my colander cymbal (made by dad), my empty icecream tub stool, and my various empty pots and pans that comprise my drums. after setting my guitar or keyboard playing a tune, i bash along quite happily, and generally in time.

My sporting talents are being refined daily. As well as being a mean football player, i can throw a frisbee, make an attempt at getting the ball through the basketball hoop, and my climbing skills are unequalled. i do look a little bit bashed up though, particularly this week where i ran into the side of the house. Brown woodstain rubbed into the huge graze on my forehead. sorry dad, no photos this week thanks

and March?

We rather limped through March as a family. We had to cancel our weekend away at Manning Park with Jules and Gerhard, as mom wasn't well enough to look after me in the cabin , and i'm STILL not big enough to ski with the others. Maybe next year?

We did manage to make it to Gerhard's surprise birthday dinner party though, and to Lissa Horman's birthday party. Lissa's party was outrageous! I had a nap in the earlier part of the evening, but surprised the grown ups by getting back up at 8pm to play party games. There were about 25 adults all unravelling toilet rolls as fast as they could. I could have done a far better job, having had lots of practise, but i wasn't allowed to play. How unjust is that? Maybe they thought i had an unfair advantage? However, at least mom and dad won't have the nerve to try and stop me next time i do this at home. will they?

mom's birthday coincided with mother's day back in england, so we should have had two reasons to celebrate, but mom really wasn't feeling too good. She managed to blow out the candle on her breakfast birthday cake, but didn't eat it until much later.

i had a somewhat difficult month, not knowing what was going on from day to day. Becca and Hailey came over to play one day, then Rox and Katrina. Shawna came over a couple of times, and i went to Darlene's house most wednesdays. playing with Judah and Tracey was kind of fun, but he's a bit bigger than me, as were the kids in Dee's house. All in all i found it a bit distressing, and let mom and dad know at the time i knew i'd have their undivided attention - the middle of the night.

We found a solution for April though - Lori lives just around the corner, with a couple of kids of her own, and she can look after me three mornings a week to give dad a break. He's looking forward to it

so what happened in february?

Seems there's been a serious lack of activity around here recently. This isn't because i've got nothing to tell you, nor (despite first appearances) is it that mom doesn't love me any more and has banished me from the house and won't let me use the computer. Actually she doesn't let me use the computer any more, and insists on doing all the typing herself, but i'm starting to appreciate that sending me to a childminder three mornings a week wasn't supposed to be a punishment. I'm actually starting to enjoy playing with the other kids now ( and stealing their banana) - so much so that sometimes i don't want to come home.

Anyway.....back to February. That seems a long time ago now. We went on our first real family holiday, down to San Diego for ten days. We spent three days staying in a little cottage on Mission Beach, and then a week staying with Mark Oestreicher . It wasn't perhaps as hot as it might have been, but i got to hang out on the beach, build a few sandcastles, kick a ball and watch mom and dad eat icecream. We visited just about every kids playground on the coast of southern california too. You can look at some pictures on our family website www.sopwithworld.com .

Following our sucessful visit to Sophie's Cosmic Cafe back in January, we risked eating out as a family several times while we were away. I had my first pub lunch, fish and chips down on the docks, fish tacos in Newport Beach and my personal favourite: the San Diego chicken pie shop. They brought me a little pot of jelly for dessert. Now that is seriously weird stuff. Chilly, gloopy, sweet, difficult to spread around the place....

Flying is a whole different experience when you're not going Transatlantic. No movie to watch. No dinner. But hey, after the first leg of our journey from Vancouver to San Francisco where we had very poor economy class seats, we did quite nicely, thank you. Two upgrades to Economy Plus and one into First Class completed our round trip. Mom and i were able to share our first class seat sitting side by side. Poor dad, nobody wanted to share with him.

What did i learn this trip? What makes mom happy is seeing a dolphin in the sea, sunshine, big beaches, crashing waves (particularly with the addition of icecream and / or sunset). And dad? A new camera makes him very very very happy. I didn't think it possible anything could beat seeing Top Gun fighters over Miramar, but i was wrong. Neither of them got into the whole getting up at 5.30am routine to make the most of our holiday though, even though i tried it every single day

happy easter from Joel

next step in my induction into the life of a PK (pastor's kid), dad woke me up early this morning .. how rude!! we headed down to the beach at 7am to baptise some wonderful people. then had a laugh in sunday school. thanks to christina who looked after me a bit better than dad - she fed me hot cross buns and water through a straw - dad had forgotten my breakfast. hot cross buns are lovely, i had 2 and a half. i danced like a crazy boy at the front of church - it was fun. i did some dotty colouring with some of my friends and basically spent all day eating food. happy easter to me.

why is church different today?

i don't get it. we went to a church FULL of people - great fun for a friday morning which is normally spent helping dad unload the dishwasher. but everyone was kind of quiet. shawna was playing some sweet music on a real grand piano, and we all sang along, shawna's lovely - we play great football together. so today i was in the mood for a party, but people kind of stared at me as i tried again to escape from the incredibly strong clutch of dad and bombed down the aisle at top speed with a hooge grin on my face. i giggled loudly as dad caught me and he looked apologetic. some real nice lady was up the front reading about pilots and barbers and jesus and then said loudly "juicey fry him". now i have a pet moose called juicey, and i do not want to see him fried even if it is a "good fry day".

i just don't understand, why is church different today?

dad's blogging again

i finally pursuaded him to get going again. a dad without a blog is like a racing car without a kitchen floor - looks great, but doesn't do much. i think my dad's really cool. unfortunately so does he, but the Lord is steadily working on his humility.
if you haven't read my last post, you really should, and tell the rest of the world about it too.

we're expecting

Mom's not been all that much fun recently. She just lies on the sofa groaning, and occasionally sticking her head in a bucket, which looks kind of funny. The explanation for this odd behaviour is that she's expecting on my birthday. I'm expecting my birthday too - I'm expecting jelly and icecream, and mashed banana sandwiches and chocolate cake and lots of other yummy stuff - but to be frank October is a long way away so i'm not sure why mom is making such a fuss right now. It's not like she has to make me all that stuff today. Perhaps i'll go and try and drag her off the sofa again. Failing that, using her as a climbing frame seems to be quite an effective way of getting her attention at the moment.

slip sliding away

i have recently discovered the unquenchable joy of playground slides. i take after dad (who's very proud as you can see). i have discovered there is a right and wrong way to slide - here you see me practicing in vancouver with a view of the mountains.

but then on holiday in san diego, CA, i nailed it, look at the speed (the sunshine helped!)

this was my favourite slide obviously!

muppet personality test

thanks to uncle timmy for insightful blogging material .. the result of my muppet personality test is totally appropriate, although at my age, it may just be a stage i'm going through

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

the contingency day off

so mom and dad did everything they could to prepare for a day in the mountains whizzing around on the sacred white stuff (snow ... not clouds you ninny) there's over 3m snow base on mt seymour, that's 9 joel heights of snow.. wow. they checked the forecast religiously, got all our snow gear ready, prepared for the best. so this is the night that i decide to wake up and scream my head off 4 times, the final one at 5.49am.

thanks ... they said ... graciously

so mom lets dad sleep for a while, then dad takes me out walking for a while, mom sleeps, then i pass out in the stroller at 10.50, so dad picks up mom from home, and we all walk together down to the beach. the sun and blue sky with lovely fluffy clouds is quite a picture. the mountains covered in snow look fabulous. but we're all way too tired to be up there. Kits beach decides not to sell fish and chips until march, so climbed the slope to the famous sophie's cosmic cafe - a kits icon and thoroughly fine place to eat breakfast and burgers and things.

we got the finest seats in the window, sun streaming in. it was our first ever successful family meal out, and i behaved impeccably, having a load of fun with a bus and a police car (ickle ones on the table that is) mmmm great food, great company, and mom and dad finished off with a chocolate and coconut milkshake.

so it worked out ok in the end. let's go with the rest of the week.

Joel Sopwith PhD

I went back to UBC this morning to complete my PhD, and to collect another free T shirt. I'd outgrown my last one after all. I spent a few minutes watching pictures on the TV screen for them, but really it wasn't a patch on Pingu. Now that's seriously funny. It makes me laugh out loud, especially when he spits out his vegetables.

anyway.....mom was quite surprised yesterday when i went into the bathroom and picked up her hairbrush to brush my hair. isn't that what it's for? i know my toothbrush is for chewing, and the broom is for sweeping the floor, surely the hairbrush is for hair. it didn't seem to make much difference to mine though. maybe i'll try dad's styling stuff next time.

mystery solved

Hmmm...curious....definite evidence of silver foil in diaper. where can it have come from?

ahh..mystery solved...small tooth marks on mom's Toblerone carefully placed out of reach on top of bookcase - unless small person climbs onto low sofa, crosses the gap onto higher sofa, negotiates cushions and arm rest onto coffee table and then climbs bookcase.

hey - after all that surely a guy deserves some toblerone? next time i'll leave the wrapper though - it didn't feel so good on my teeth (i've got a new one by the way, at the back somewhere)

who'd have thought it

if you take a rusk, carefully put it on a yoghurt pot lid, shake some water onto it out of your sippy cup, stir the resulting mush with your fingers and then carefully spread it on to any available surface - did you know that when it's dried you'll need sandpaper or a chisel to remove it? no, mom didn't either.

mom's little helper

i'm getting quite handy in the kitchen. i know how to empty the cutlery from the dishwasher (although mom has to do the knives and forks first), and i'm excellent at stirring tea. i recognise the importance of stirring between every sip, just in case the milk is starting to separate out. it means i can get quite busy if mom and dad are having a cup of tea at the same time, but that's OK - it's about time i earned my keep around here.
if the lock is off the cupboard under the kitchen sink i draw attention to it straight away, even if i've only just got out of bed, and if the fridge is open - well, you can rely on me to be there in seconds.
give me a cloth and i'll dust the coffee table and TV stand, but i'm still not at all keen on the vacuum cleaner :(
and when i've had enough of all this domestic stuff i bring mom her shoes - it's time to go and splash in some puddles.

water, water everywhere

It's now rained for 28 days in a row, and mom has finally seen sense and bought me a proper rainsuit. i know she likes doing laundry, but really - washing my entire outfit including coat every day just didn't make sense. anyway, now i can sit down or fall flat on my face in puddles and it's OK. i did both today actually. and yesterday, come to think of it. dad's been playing with a new camera, but i'm not sure whether he managed to capture the moment for posterity.

what's the difference between a puddle and the duckpond? no - it's not a joke, it's a serious question. mom laughs when i splash in puddles but she grabs me and screams when i try and splash in the duckpond. she does the same kind of thing in the bathroom too. it's funny when i throw my little yellow duck in the bath, but i got yelled at when i threw it in the toilet. what's that all about?

my official first walk

walking outside is simple pure fun .. it was a grey day, but we made the most of it around the kits beach area. look at my smiles. watch a small (but perfectly formed) movie here, to see me strut my stuff.