Goats and pirates

OK, so we didn't have goats and pirates in our garden, but mom did manage to carve the cat i asked for:
not bad for a first attempt, mom.

I wasn't too convinced about the nasty green faced witch we saw on our preschool trip to the pumpkin patch in Southlands. she was a bit horrid. poor ollie got very wet in the backpack as it was pouring with rain, so he wasn't very happy either. in fact the whole trip - not a great success.

singing

we sing a LOT at preschool. like EVERY day. i particularly like slippery fish, and three little speckled frogs. mom took a video of me performing twinkle, twinkle little star on the stage at the aquarium the other day. my audience of two (mom and ollie) looked suitably impressed by my rendition of the first and last lines.

even more impressive was my adaptation of five little monkeys which i sang whilst sitting on my bed today. equipped with my thomas magnet book: five little trains went down the track, one fell off (dropped through the slats of my bed base) and bumped his head and there were four little trains going down the track......

hobbes is a very willing audience when i sing slippery fish to him at bedtime. it helps him go to sleep, i think.

90 days later

the strike is over.......
no more sneaking dirty nappies into dumpsters after dark
no more parked bobcats to climb on
no more 'curious george' to listen to at bed time
no more excuses for not raking the leaves or mowing the lawn
i guess all the people on strike realised it was going to start getting pretty cold and wet soon - not much fun sitting on the picket line in the rain, eh?

and even after three months, mom and dad never did get around to watching the two Sharpe dvds they got out of the library for a week back in july.

Conkers? bonkers!

when mom suggested a trip out on my bike to look for conkers i imagined something like a treasure hunt: looking up trees, under leaves, behind plants........

i don't think either of us thought there'd be so many conkers i couldn't even ride my bike!

Science World

After months (years?) of hearing about the fun i have at science world with Rox and Trina, finally mom and dad took ollie and i for a visit. There was a special free day for the Thanksgiving weekend, so it was pretty busy, but we went early and battled our way through the crowds at mcdonalds afterwards too.



The quality of catering greatly improved the following day when we went for Thanksgiving lunch at the Harringtons. i quite liked the turkey and sweet potatoes, (especially the marshmallows on top) but the best bit of lunch by far was the chocolate cake. dad got to have some worky conversation with andy and mark, and mom had so much adult conversation in one day that she couldn't sleep that night. even ollie had a good time being doted on and played with, although it was a bit too exciting for him to have a nap, too.
it was a bit disappointing that it was too wet to jump on the trampoline in the back garden, but i'm sure we'll go back. i told dad on the way home that i liked that house and i liked those people. i asked if they could all come to joel's house upstairs and play soccer and football and basketball.

new windows

after some debate about what sizes and types of window to get: whether they crank open, or push, or slide, or even don't open at all - our new windows arrived today. it all happened remarkably quickly really. a few hefty blows of the hammer and the old windows came out, and not long afterwards the new ones were installed. fortunately it was a nice day so all our stuff didn't get rained on.


i helped the guys by getting them iced water from the fridge at regular intervals, and offering them my tools to use, but they had quite a few decent ones of their own.

On strike

summer's arrived and when the sun's shining there's nothing better than splashing in the waterpark, reading a book on the beach, watching the diggers doing road construction or going for a swim in Kits pool. obviously the city workers think so too, since they've all gone on strike. except they've obviously not thought it through too well - they may not be emptying our bins or digging the roads but while the libraries, pools and parks are shut they won't be able to have much fun either.

so now instead of going to the library we go looking for an unlocked commercial dumpster to throw away our smelly diapers. not exactly the summer entertainment we've been looking forward to since christmas :(

Andrew's fixing his motorbike ...... again

a friend of dad's is returning home to south africa soon, but rather than flying, he's going to ride his motorbike there instead. given how many pieces his motorbike is currently in, this is rather worrying.

andrew's staying in our basement at the moment fixing his bike on a daily basis, whilst waiting for his travelling partner to be ready to leave. or maybe he's waiting until his bike is fixed. who knows? i've decided my tricycle needs fixing too, so now i keep a wrench and a pair of pliers in the seat compartment ready for a daily tune up.

in the meantime we had our first ever yard sale. andrew needed to sell the last of his stuff- not much space on a motorbike for a clothes dryer, kitchen equipment or office stuff. we dragged out some of our stuff from the store room to bolster his offerings. despite the fact we had a load more stuff, he made a lot more money. seems no one else liked the light fixtures we took down either.


we had some fun though, we met some more of the neighbours and i got my bubble machine out to attract more passers by. we even got to wash the front steps while trade was slow.

you can follow andrew's travels online at http://www.homeinafrica.net

Bribery doesn't work

Mom and dad took me to toysrus to chose a special little seat that fits on the big grown up toilet. i chose a great Thomas the Tank engine one. I'm sure Katrina's going to love using it when she comes over.


Me? Why would i want to use it? i like wearing diapers. very convenient. no need to interrupt my playtime. it's all good.

new friends

mom's settled on some new friends for us in the basement suite. ollie and i met laura last week and she seems pretty cool. laura and her sister steph both play soccer when they're not studying at university, although laura seemed pretty interested in my toys so i'm not sure how much work she'll be doing.

they're working in tofino for the summer so they won't be moving in until the end of august, which is probably just as well since mom still has quite few boxes of stuff to move, not to mention painting to do and carpets to clean and the piano to get moved and........

janice

janice is a friend of mom's who spends all day looking at people's teeth. isn't that weird? i wasn't wildly enthused about her taking a look at mine, but once she'd let me play in the moving chair for a while i deigned to opened my mouth briefly. apparently i have to keep going back again and again. sigh.....

do you want to live with us?

mom and dad have been asking around amongst our friends recently to see if anyone wanted to move into our basement suite. despite promising that ollie now sleeps through the night, we haven't had any takers. i can't imagine why not - who wouldn't want to live with me?

finally mom resorted to posting an ad on craigslist and suddenly EVERYONE wants to live here. she posted the ad at 11pm and had four replies before 6am. by dinnertime there were more than i could count......considering i can only count up to 11 that's not overly surprising, i guess.

mom picked out a few of the replies and emailed them a few more details about us. if any of them still want to live with us after they've heard how early i get up in the morning then we'll meet them next week.

new room, new bed

we've finally moved enough things upstairs so that we can sleep up here. somehow downstairs still looks pretty full though. i get the feeling this is going to be a long job.

i've got bunk beds in my new room although i can't climb up onto the top bed as there doesn't seem to be a ladder. perhaps that's why they were cheap? there's enough space under my bed for me to keep my marble tracks and my train set, which means ollie won't be able to get at them. i've got a great new border with trucks and boats and planes on, and all my books and bears have come upstairs too, as well as my rainbow tent. i'm a bit disturbed by the noises the fridge makes through the wall, and it is kind of hot. after a few moments thought, mom and dad realised installing a ceiling fan in my room wasn't the greatest of ideas (it would have made a fantastic moving target though) so i've got a fan on a table just by the door.

one of the best things about being upstairs is that i can watch the squirrels out the window while i'm eating my breakfast, and we've finally got somewhere for me to have my sandbox. it's out on the front porch so that it's under cover when it's raining, and in the shade when it's sunny. isn't that brilliant! mom and dad have discovered that they can just see the mountains from the front porch too, so they're happy to sit out there for a while with me.

the pink has to go

it's not that i have anything against pink exactly, but blue is far more appropriate for ollie's new room and matches his funky new curtains far better. ol's new curtains have a rock star and a footballer on them, whilst mine have a digger. mom and dad don't have any curtains just yet, but i expect they'll get some eventually - it's not like they sleep long enough for the dawn to wake them.


having practised in ollie's room yesterday, today i got to help mom and dad paint our new playroom. after some debate about what colour to use, we've settled on 'sandy lane' - the same colour we used in our playroom downstairs.

the youth group came round this evening to lend us a hand. Kris did a great job of putting our new BBQ together. at least it looks great. we won't know if it actually works until we try it!

our first two house guests: Yoshi and his mom (also called Yoshi) are enjoying our hospitality. they're here until the weekend. Yoshi (mom) is sleeping in my new room and she keeps bringing me little presents when she comes in from her day's adventures. she doesn't speak much english, but i can tell she thinks ollie and i are pretty cute.

Canada Day

we had a strange kind of canada day this year. it was on a sunday so we had church outside in jericho park. people brought lunch with them, and the weather was great, so we hung out for a while waiting for ollie to wake up from his nap. i was pretty tired and in need of a nap myself by the time we finally left for home. by the time i was awake again it was a bit late to be thinking about going out somewhere.

mostly we spent the holiday weekend putting a few things into boxes ready to go upstairs, and waiting for the guys upstairs to move out. a big storage container arrived on the back of a truck for all their stuff, with a mini crane to lift it off. i got to watch from mom and dad's bedroom windowsill, but i think dad was hiding in case he had to move some furniture or something.

talking of windowsills, arun came back on canada day to discuss the designs for our new windows and then someone came in to measure today. it'll be a little while to make them, but by the end of the month we should have double glazing upstairs and down.

my first report

having successfully completed every class in my swimming course, i got my end of term report at my last lesson. I've now graduated from the 'duck' class and next time i will be a 'sea turtle'. as these classes will be an hour long, i really hope mom finds somewhere with warmer water - but since mom won't actually have to get into the water next time, her motivation to find a new teacher isn't all that high.

anyway......christine said i was very brave in the water, and to keep practising blowing bubbles. mom made me a little short straw to practise with in the bath and after a few days i've really got the hang of it.

adventures with liz

despite less than perfect weather, we managed to get out and about a bit showing liz some of the sights of vancouver.

we braved the suspension bridge across lynn canyon:

spotted a raccoon:

took in the waterpark at granville island:
































planned a hike up mt seymour (but hadn't banked on there still being snow!):

took in cates park in north van instead:

ate nachos on the beach:
hiked in lighthouse park:

drove up to shannon falls in squamish via the construction on the sea to sky highway:














and made the obligatory visit to the aquarium of course.

liz also ended up doing for more babysitting than is good for a girl on vacation, both planned (so mom, dad and ollie could go to a wedding) and unplanned (lots of tense, stressful adult conversations about the house - the less said about that the better). for all those times, and so much more, we THANK YOU.

nanaimo for lunch

i suppose it could be considered a little extreme catching the ferry to Nanaimo for the sole purpose of having lunch - and we didn't even have a particular restaurant in mind - but our day trip was more about the journey than the destination.

unfortunately the weather forecast wasn't entirely accurate. we did see some sun while we were on the ferry, but it was raining both in horseshoe bay and nanaimo, so we went into the shopping mall rather than the park as we'd planned.

mom, dad and liz found a great little mexican restaurant on the water, and thoroughly enjoyed their meal despite the fact they were eating outside in the rain. i woke up in time to have a little taste, too.

we didn't see a spectacular sunset from the ferry, or any orca, but the mountains and islands were as impressive as ever and i DID get to drive a racing car

picnic in the park

we got a special invitation to the Wesbrook preschool end of year picnic this evening. i think the idea was for mom and dad to meet some of the other parents, and for me to play with the other kids. frankly i found the whole thing a bit overwhelming, even just playing soccer with a few of the boys and girls. the snacks were pretty good though, and they gave me a great T-shirt which i intend to wear day and night - at least for a few days.

another visitor

there's nothing better than getting up in the morning and rather than having mom and/or dad telling you 'it's too early, go back to bed and do some more sleeping' finding another person ready to start the day.
liz is visiting from england for a couple of weeks. 'the other guy' is going to be coming with us on our adventures, and generally hanging out. good, eh? we'll post some more photos later

swimming lessons

i've just been swimming (in a pool) for the third time ever, and felt the time had come to 'do it myself'. mom and the instructor gave me a couple of turtle-shape floats to hold and if i pushed them out to the side and made them swim away from each other, while i kicked my legs, i found that i could swim. it was a bit tiring after a while so i went back to climbing out and leaping in from the side. the rest of the class were singing songs in a circle, but i've never really been into that kind of thing.

Katrina comes swimming too, but she's usually late and i don't think she likes the cold water much. after we've been in the water for about 45 minutes we're both blue with cold and it's time to go and warm our toes in the jacuzzi.

i think tuesday mornings can be a bit stressful for mom as she has to organise swimming things and snacks for me, as well as pack a diaper bag for ollie with his breakfast and a change of clothes and some toys to play with at fumi's house - all whilst trying to keep ollie happy when really he just wants to have a nap - but we can't leave the house until fumi is back from dropping her boys at school, and ollie can't nap at home or i'd miss my swimming lesson. suffice to say there's a lot of shouting and crying going on ...... i think mom might have to take some stuff of her own too, but i'm a boy so i don't really notice that kind of thing.

at the aquarium

if we lived in bristol we'd join all the other mum's in town and have a season ticket to the zoo ....but here in vancouver we don't have a zoo to visit so on a rainy day when mom and/or dad can't think of anything else to do, we go to see the fish at the aquarium.

i usually manage to make mom giggle by announcing very loudly as soon as we get inside "i see a fish". it's not quite as daft as it sounds as we also get to see sharks and turtles, sea otters, belugas, dolphins, birds, jellyfish, starfish and "the big one" - a huge sea lion

ollie likes lying on the floor and watching the belugas, i like clambering over the 'rocks' that surround the various tanks and displays. mom likes watching the dolphins jumping and the sea otters holding hands. i think dad would rather be in starbucks having a coffee, although he has been known to admire the jellyfish.

here's some photos for you:

historymaker

despite the fact that historymaker was in Chilliwack this year, rather than Kamloops (about four hours less travel time) mom still didn't fancy taking me and ollie for the whole weekend. this may have had something to do with the fact that dad was camping with the youth group and the rain was torrential. we did go and visit for the day though.

the music was great and i did some good dancing, ollie was very cute bouncing along in his jolly jumper, dad seemed at least reasonably pleased to see us and mom even got to go to a yard sale. ollie and i were in the double stroller walking along the street in the pouring rain (it was nap time!!) and mom was telling the lady she was with how the one thing we were looking for right now was an affordable bike trailer. right across the street from the arena where historymaker was taking place there was a yard sale happening - kind of strange given the weather - and there sitting in the rain was 'our' bike trailer. dad did express some concern about how on earth we were going to get it home, but after mom had pointed out the youth group had eaten an awful lot of the snacks that were taking up space in the car on the way dad thought it would be okay. all we need now is for the weather to improve enough for us all to go on a bike ride, and ollie's head to grow enough to fit my first cycle helmet.

on the plus side we got to hear the desperation band and starfield, and meet lots of nice people. the youth group had a great time too, despite the rain. on the down side dad ended up sleeping in the car our tent leaked so much, and then the car died on the last day.

the whole picture

just in case you were wondering what i was looking quite so happy about - here's the whole picture!




i've just baked my first ever muffins. they're banana and chocolate chip. mom took the photo while we were waiting for them to cool down enough to eat. YUMMMMMMM

time for a new blog profile photo

since dad's not around to do this the clever way, i'm following the blogger instructions - it might work!

mom needed to find a workaround as the blogger method didn't work, but we got there.

kiss and cuddle?

i know it looks like i'm flattening him, but i'll do almost anything for a kiss and cuddle these days - even getting into bed and lying down with my eyes shut!
sometimes mom puts ollie on my lap for a cuddle, but usually i just go and help myself to one. mom wasn't very happy this morning when i took a stool into his bedroom so i could reach into his cot and have a cuddle just after he'd gone to sleep.
sorry mommy - my fault

Apples everywhere

the whole family had an 'apple moment' the other evening. i was sitting on the sofa enjoying one of the Okanagan's finest organic delights, while Ollie sitting beside me was doing his best to digest his first taste of apple puree. mom was in the kitchen peeling apples to make a crumble, and dad? dad was drooling over the packaging of his new Apple Macbook. i'm not sure that he actually got the chance to open it before Ollie started crying though

overheard

i've had my suspicions for a while, but now i know for sure who really loves me the most. we were all going out in the car one morning, mom driving in order for dad to drink his coffee. their conversation went something like this:

mom turns right down blenheim st
dad says "i wouldn't go this way"
mom "no?"
dad "there's roadworks all the way down to 41st ave"
mom "uh huh"
dad "you could try 33rd"
mom "mmmm"
dad " 16th and king ed are both bad too"
we stop at traffic light and i look out the window
joel " i see a digger, i see a digger"
dad "ohhhhhhhh...."

perhaps his coffee wasn't working yet?

Ocean cement open day

my favourite viewing of the moment is "mighty machines - at the cement yard" so you can imagine my excitement when i heard we were going to visit a real cement yard on granville island. sometimes you just have to let the pictures speak for themselves:






and yes, Ollie came too:

underwhelmed again......

every so often we all go on trip to someplace that's been recommended to us, and generally it's a bit of a let down. for example, despite visiting "kidzone" and "go bananas" we haven't yet found a soft play place that's a patch on what even midsomer norton has to offer.
however very occasionally we find something amazing - and that happened today. we all went to the aberdeen mall in richmond: to shop at daiso where literally everything is $2 ( about a pound), and for mom and dad to get lunch from the food court (vietnamese for mom and japanese for dad). the unexpected and totally wonderful bonus was the dancing mountains! (erm...they're FOUNTAINS, Joel) a sound and light spectacular. choreographed lights and dancing water all set to music
it was so good i was too distracted to eat my lunch - and demanded a return visit three days later.

hungry in the morning!

a couple of weeks ago i greeted mom before daybreak with the words "hi mom, hobbes is watching me have krispies". mom was up at 5.45am having just fed ollie and i think she was a bit surprised to find me sitting on my stool at the breakfast bar in the dark, complete with bowl of cereal. she was possibly relieved to see i hadn't tried to pour the milk on.

this morning i crept into mom and dad's room and told them it was time for breakfast. while mom staggered towards the kettle i opened the cupboard and pointed out the honey was gone. mom stared for a while in a confused fashion while i told her the knife was gone too. "gone where?" says mom. "i don't know" i say, leading the way into my bedroom - the last place i saw it. mom continues to follow, mumbling about how long it takes for the kettle to boil in canada. she retrieved the honey pot from my bed, and when she went to pick the duvet up off the floor we found the knife, too. hoorah.

mom made me some toast, but i didn't really feel like eating anything this morning.......

preschools revisited

so for now, mom and dad have decided where i'm going to go to school in september. on monday, tuesday and wednesday mornings i'll be going to wesbrook preschool

it's parent participation, so every once in a while mom or dad gets to come too, to check i'm not having too much fun. it's right across the street from a great park, so ollie will get to play too at going home time.

dad might have to rearrange his day off though. when are we going to play golf if i have to go to school on mondays?

something in the air?

there's something about making ridiculously long flights to england and being frantically busy on arrival. when we come home again its like my brain's been rewired in some way. the first time i went i started to eat solid food while we were there, and then to sleep through the night on our return. not to mention growing some hair, too.
the second time i pretty much learned to walk.
and this trip? i've finally got words and sentences sorted out. whereas mom used to point out buses and the like when we were out in the car, now i give her a running commentary: " i see a cherry picker. Ooh, another cherry picker. i see a yellow backhoe, there's an orange excavator. it's a dump truck. there's another dump truck. look mom, a crane, two cranes....."
i'm not quite sure why mom looks around at me as if she's going to strangle me any minute. isn't this what you're supposed to do when you're out in the car? it's what mom and dad have been doing for months!

BOTH!!!

all this time i've been cheated.....mom says "yoghurt or ice-cream", "banana or apple", "Bob the Builder or Thomas the Tank Engine" and i've been making agonizing decisions......until now. i've finally discovered the concept of "BOTH". it' a word i've been using quite a lot recently. sometimes mom looks at me a bit curiously, for example when i wanted marmite and marmalade together, but mostly this is working out unbelievably well. do i want mommy or daddy to read a bedtime story? Both. that way i get at least two stories. do i want to take a ball or a bulldozer to the park? Both, of course, especially if mom has to carry them from the end of the road.

talking of new discoveries, i had my first ice cream in a cone this week. it was SO good i've been asking for one every day, even when it's raining. in case you're wondering why that's relevant, mom makes me eat it outside. it tastes better that way apparently.

weddings

a little music and a long nap, followed by tea and cake in a HUGE garden - complete with secret paths to follow, a swing and even a ball or two hiding in the shrubbery. i think i like weddings.



and yes, Hobbes came too :)