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.