toronto 2010

we survived our trip to toronto!

unfortunately it didn't start out great...i was suffering from a cold and gabe had just started to get sick. once we arrived in toronto, we discovered that trevor had also caught a cold a couple days earlier. by the end of our trip, everyone was sick, but nothing was stopping us from going out and having a good time!

the flight - we lucked out with both flights...they weren't sold out, so we managed to get a seat for gabe. thankfully westjet has seatback tvs and treehouse is one of the featured channels, so he was occupied for awhile :) en route to toronto, he only slept for 15 minutes as we were landing followed by a short snooze in the car-ride to geoff & sunny's. thankfully though on the flight to vancouver he actually slept for 2 hours, much to my shock!

the lack of sleep - with the new environment, different time zone, and being sick, gabe had 2 stellar nights of 1 hour sleep each. surprisingly though it didn't negatively affect him...he was still in good spirits, albeit a little tired and would fall asleep in the car or stroller...and for once in his short little life, he fell asleep at the dinner table (BEFORE HE EVEN ATE!) :) however, this particular meal was preceded with a torential tantrum :P

the activities - the 3 of us went to visit my toronto office. we didn't do it on our last trip to toronto, as it wasn't really close-by to geoff & sunny's previous home and we did more touristy things. so i was very excited to visit our office this time and put faces with names of ppl i've been working with. we also took gabe to the toronto zoo. we could've spent all day there, but alas the rain started just as gabe fell asleep in his stroller. and thanks to geoff, we went to a blue jays game! it was a nice (albeit slightly windy) night so the skydome was open and we got to see the cn tower all lit up.

the family - the main purpose of our trip was to visit my extended family in toronto, who may not get out to vancouver again and meet gabriel. so we had a nice dinner w/our long-time family friends and sort of got caught up with everyone. it was gabe's 1st time seeing my parents & brother after 2 weeks, so he was acting strange with them, combined with the lack of sleep, and he was in fine form :P we also had lunch the next day with my great-aunt and her husband. it was a little sadder that day...my aunt is hard-of-hearing and is undergoing treatment for it (currently everything she hears sounds computerized, almost robot-like), and you have to be right beside her for her to hear you. and her husband is legally blind...all he can see are shapes moving around. but i'm definitely glad that everyone got to meet gabriel :)

visit w/the lowe's - our arrival was pretty funny...geoff and trevor came outside to greet us, and trevor instantly started crying when he saw gabe. i guess he forgot how much fun they had in vegas :) it was definitely a busy house with the boys on 2 different routines and schedules. gabe definitely took advantage and played with all of trevor's toys while he was at daycare, but in the evening he respected trevor's tent and would stay on the outside and watch. gabe did pick up one little manner of trevor's...he will still sign thank you when prompted, but he now bows his head to say "shie shie" (thank you in mandarin) :)

life is normal again, gabe's back to his regular routine, and now my parents are both sick :(

sweet earth

last fall, we decided to take family pictures at home and outdoors. unfortunately the 2 days that we chose were both wet & rainy, so we made do with the photos we had (created 2010 calendars and "Gabe's 1st year" book for the grandparents). the photographer we chose, shona dion of sweet earth photographic, knew i wasn't going to be satisfied with our sessions, so she suggested a 3rd photo session on a nice day. it's taken us from last fall until mother's day to find a sunny sunday we were all available! in the long-run, it turned out for the best...we have great photos indoors and outdoors, and of gabe at 2 different ages.

19 months old!

summer is just around the corner, and i can't wait! longer days, nicer days, more time to spend outside and keep my son entertained! i find that as he's getting older, he requires more attention and definitely needs activities to keep him occupied. i still rely on treehouse to keep gabe entertained while i'm cooking dinner or just need 30 minutes to myself :)

now that i've spent a full week with him, i've really noticed how much gabe has grown...

• he still gets upset when introduced to new clothes, but after 2 attempts he accepted both his spring jacket AND his hard sole shoes in the same day! unfortunately he still won't sit on the new travelling toilet seat i bought...we may have to travel w/our baby bjorn toilet seat :P


• he's starting to make his own verbal version of "dada", which is more like "nya-nya". he's still good with "mama" but "no" has disappeared from his vocabulary.


• at the playground, gabe can now climb the stairs and will go down the slide with limited assistance. he has a tendancy to lean too far forward so i have to be close-by.


• it's fun to have little conversations with him...if you phrase a question or statement the right way, seeing gabe's response is priceless. he laughs and claps for "yes", shakes his head and grunts for "no", and then when he's not sure how to respond he just looks at you like you're crazy.


• gabe's getting much better at walking when we're out in public. usually he gets so clingy that chris or i have to carry him because once he's tasted freedom, he won't go back in the stroller. today i was uber-brave and took gabe to the aquarium WITHOUT the stroller! he was a superstar, and i only had to hold him so he could see the animals being fed.


• he's still a great eater and can now use a spoon to shovel his food. the only catch is that he`ll shovel food in his mouth until he gags, so we have to remind him smaller bites and to chew and swallow :)
  

and now we`re just a few days away from our trip to toronto! yahoo :)

my boy is making a difference!

i received an awesome email today from nugget's family! we see them every so often at PADS events, but Nugget doesn't have public access anymore, so he's always at home :( anyways, it turns out that Nugget's "mom" works with kids who have disabilities, and so he helps her with the kids. he's very patient with them, letting up to 3 kids rest their heads on him, brush him, read stories to him, and he'll be getting his teeth brushed next week by one of the teens :)

i'm so glad to hear how well nugget's been doing. his family has continued raising PADS dogs, after diamond (nugget's sister), they had jazz, acadia, and now raider! nugget's had a revolving door of constant companions...not to mention the 3 kids in the family :) we're going to make a trip out to maple ridge in the summer and spend some time with our "firstborn"...gabe's gonna go nuts when he meets nugget!