not so free day @ the pne

admission = $0
parking = $25
30 ride coupons = $42.75
whales tail, root beer, garlic fries, ribs, those little donuts, deep fried mars bar = $40?
stress level = grrrrr!


well, we got 4 hours of entertainment out of our free admission to the pne. it was actually a great morning, and gabe was able to wander around the fair before it got uber-crowded. he could push as many buttons on the games as he wanted, he saw so many things he liked, including rides.


i'm a terrible numbers person, and i couldn't figure out if the jr. ride pass or a pack of 30 coupons was the better deal. turns out we made the right choice for today, since we only managed to get him on the kids train. at least we can use our 27 remaining coupons next week! gabe's not old enough (well, tall enough) to ride solo, so chris and i can take turns going on rides for free with him.





after the train ride, we checked out the superdogs show and the farm animals. by then it was time to eat lunch, and the fair was CHAOTIC. our last trip to the PNE was when i was 8 months pregnant, and all i had to do was watch my belly. this time i was really aware of the crowds and trying to keep an eye on wandering gabe and maneuvering a stroller is not fun. by the time we made it back to playland, gabe was barely keeping his eyes open so we had to call it a day.


i'm really looking forward to next week, and we'll be sure to allot more time for rides!

22 months old!

it's been a really fun summer...with playdates, outdoor activities - we're LOVING waterparks!, bbq's, and everything else that comes our way.

progress with words! gabe's added words to his vocabulary...last week chris' dad came out to dinner with us, and gabe started calling him "yeh-yeh"! once he decided he could say it, he wouldn't stop :P and a new word gabe's created is "da-ma". my mom was hopeful that he was trying to say "grandma", whereas i thought gabe was getting confused when i was teaching him to say "ta (thank-you) mama" but "da-ma" definitely refers to me and/or chris somehow. and the dreaded "no" has returned to his vocabulary :P

his first boo-boo! a few weeks ago, gabe was running along the sidewalk, tripped over his toe, took a flying leap through the air, and scraped his knee. ugly :( a few days later, a similar incident occured and he scraped his OTHER knee. this one was less ugly because his round little tummy broke his fall :) and since gabe hates having dirty hands, he lay there, perfectly balanced on his belly, legs and arms spread eagle so nothing else touched the yucky ground...just waiting for mom or dad to rescue him! hahaha :)

his first suntan! with our weekend outdoors, gabe was in his crocs a lot, and he has a really funny tan from his holey shoes...my mom's calling them foot freckles :) i also took gabe to the beach for the first time in his life...a far cry from the little sandbox at our neighbourhood playground!

outings with the grandparents! my parents have been taking gabe out and about a lot this summer - burnaby heritage museum, the airport (to watch planes land), burkeville, steveston, playdates with other grandbabies, etc. etc. when they head out, my mom tries to pack a picnic lunch and they make an entire morning of it, and i'm the jealous mama who gets to see the fun pictures afterwards :(

diaper-free...one day! one small observation i've noted is gabe quite often has a dry diaper in the morning. we even have days my parents will bring gabe home and he's still wearing his cloth diaper from the morning - 100% success rate with the potty! that's not to say that gabe's potty-trained...far from it. i've given myself the xmas holidays while i'm off work to fully potty-train him, assuming he's talking by then so he can actually verbalize his pee'ing needs. i refuse to teach him any more signs...the last thing i need is to delay his speech further. at the very least, he'll be trained by next summer before he starts preschool!

i LOVE this age! gabe understands what we're saying to him and will respond to our questions with his own quirky "yes" or "no" responses. he's becoming a good little helper, a great sharer, and overall just a cute little man :-) i'm trying to enjoy the non-verbal side of him, but i can't wait to hear what he has to say. it'll be a nice change from the grunting and pointing that he's so fond of :P

doggy days of summer

at the beginning of july, we had newton (yellow lab) in our home for a week, and gabe LOVED it! he would "walk" the dog, lie on the dog, pull his tail, screech and shout at him, and in general, just had a riot with newton. when i got home from returning newton at PADS, gabe was looking all over the house for him. and he'd look back at me, say "ma?" and hold his arms as if to question me "where's the dog?". i felt so bad for my buddy...he tried so hard to find the dog.

and then i got the call to bring home another dog, tango (black lab). of course, i jumped at the chance to dogsit for 2 weeks, and brought him home last sunday afternoon. by sunday night the dog's fate was sealed and he was on a return trip to PADS on monday. where newton was an uber-tolerant dog, the same was thought of tango. unfortunately he didn't take so kindly to having a toddler leaning/lying on him. so after a brief warning growl, and not enough quick action on my part, tango snapped and tried to bite gabe. fortunately gabe was moving away from the dog anyways, and only got a cheekful of dog slobber, but had he been a second slower, there definitely would've been more serious repercussions.

our dogless days didn't last long though! we brought acadia (black lab) into our home a few days later. i jumped at the chance to have her...she was actually raised by the family that adopted nugget and raised his sister (diamond). they have 3 kids in their household, so i knew she`d be fine with gabe. unfortunately at some point over the weekend she got into one of our garbage bins and threw up last night at her new sitters' house :( it was the first time a dog (of any age) has gone through my bins. mental note...close the bathroom doors and cover the bins!

and today i got another call from PADS, and we'll have paige (chocolate lab) with us in mid-August for a few days. i LOVE my volunteer work :-)

farewell

my uncle tosh loved the hot weather, so it seemed fitting for him that we said farewell on the hottest day of the summer (so far). i don't know if many churches are air conditioned, but the one we were at definitely wasn't. it must've gotten close to 40 degrees in the chapel...and unfortunately mid-service the heat claimed a victim. one of the elders in attendance passed out and had to be taken to the hospital. by the time she left in the ambulance, she was conscious and seemed to be ok. phew!

it was a really long day today...the morning service, reception lunch, cremation service, and then dinner at the riverrock casino. there's a story behind the casino, and it's cute :-) july 12 would have been my uncle's 3 year anniversary since he received stem cells from one of his sisters. he really had hoped to be released from the hospital by this date, and wanted his friends and family to join him at the casino for some gambling. sadly, since he passed before this could happen, my aunt decided what better way to honour his memory than dinner at the buffet and some gambling after dinner. the "joke" would be to see who would win big tonight...i was hoping it would be my auntie joyce. the latest update from my parents was that my uncle terry was up $90.

since we knew it was going to be a long and emotional day, chris and i were armed with all of gabe's favourites: goldfish crackers, puffed wheat, mangoes, animal crackers, juice, raisin buns, and most importantly, the ipods :-) the service itself was an hour-long, and gabe was a real trooper. since we had to get there early, we let gabe run loose and burn off his energy and explore, until we absolutely had to be seated. once the service started, so did the ipods :-) for the most part, gabe sat quietly in the pew and watched his cartoons. occasionally he would look around the church, decide it was too quiet, and yell out "ma!".

while it was never my intention to turn gabe into a tv junkie, on days like this it's come in extremely handy :-) as long as he has kai-lan to watch, he's a happy child. even if there's no sound accompanying it, he'll be ok. it's gotten us through this funeral, flights to/from vegas and toronto, car-rides when we need to keep him awake as we run late for his naptime at home, and long (social) meals!

everything else we've tried hasn't been met with as much success...stacking cups, leapfrog junior (even with a kai-lan book!), crayons...he just loses interest rapidly...they have about a 3 minute lifespan :P and now my mom's caving in...she might be buying an ipod for her outings with gabe. this, in addition to the weekly "gabriel" shopping of 3 books and 2 hats she just bought for him :-)


how did our parents raise us without modern technology?!

21 months old!

i've finally decided that it's time to put away some of gabe's "baby" toys and upgrade to new and better toys. so we hit toys r us today and came out with $100 worth of goodies. sadly, we only got 3 items...a shopping cart (he LOVES pushing things around), wooden alphabet / number / word blocks, and a thomas the train mega bloks set. up next...the get out and grill bbq! but first we need to rearrange some furniture in the condo to make some room. and lastly, i found a great activity table today, but again...we need more space :P my mom's also been shopping up a storm for gabe...new shape sorters, stacking cups, swimming pool (which we can FINALLY use this week!), books, and a few more "little" things for him.

we're really trying to emphasize gabe's speech development. i was an average child and starting talking at 12 months old. my brother didn't talk until he was 3, and ended up in a specialized program to help with his development. hopefully we'll avoid this path :P there's a limit to how far we can push gabe to "talk" without frustrating any of us. we thought "please", or a version of it, would be the next word in his vocabulary, but all we've managed to get is serious arm-flapping...sometimes he looks like he might take flight from the flapping. it's pretty funny :)


my parents and i are definitely seeing the 2 sides of gabriel. my parents don't let him get away with murder (as grandparents might do), in fact, my mom is very strict and gabe knows the rules at her house. at our home, we're definitely more "rule-free" and anything goes. gabe also realizes i'm the one leaving him to go to work, so when i get home, he just wants to spend time with me. as much as i would love to sit and play or entertain gabe, my next priority is to get dinner on the table for us. and some days that's the worst time of day...i end up with a tantrumy toddler standing on my feet, pushing me aside, screaming at me while i'm cooking. the other day at my parents house, they were flabbergasted by the tantrum he threw with me since they almost never get this behaviour from him. which is a good thing...i don't have to worry about poor behaviour with the "babysitters", and they get to spoil him rotten. i love it!

it's not only the tantrums that are different, but the eating routine. there have been a few skipped meals at home because gabe won't eat what i've prepared. he's never missed a meal with my parents and eats all of the food presented to him, including vegetables that he's passed on w/me. it's incredibly frustrating to see this deviousness from a toddler, but i'm trying to let it go...at least i know 4 days a week he's getting well-balanced meals from the 4 food groups.

when gabe was a baby, i had the best intentions in the world. i never imagined he'd be a tv-junkie at this age, but with the summer finally arriving, i've gotten a few more headaches than normal so i've got a rotation of ni-hao kai-lan, backyardigans, and go diego go. we've also noticed it's harder for gabe to behave in public, so we've been playing our ipods to keep him entertained and quiet (more on this in my next post).

for now, i think we're seeing a preview of what the (terrible) 2's are going to bring us. parenthood...what a journey :P

when you gotta go!

i had a glimpse into my future today. there were 2 boys at the playground with their dad...around 4 and 7 years old. the older boy was getting jumpy and finally announced to his dad that he HAD TO GO! so off they scurried to the nearest tree so the boy could pee. the younger boy had been playing until that moment and then ran over to see what was happening, and he decided he needed to go as well. so both boys did their business and then carried on :-) mental note...always have the hand sanitizer closeby!

it amused me greatly because about a week ago a similar incident happened. except this boy went on the open grassy area, and much to the mom's chagrin, ended up peeing into the wind :P we'll look at the positive side...at least i won't have to worry about finding a toilet in a jiffy!

little moments (& 20 months old!)

gabe and i went to the hats off day parade, and we had a great time. it was gabe's first parade, and after seeing everyone waving at the parade participants, he started waving "hi" to them as well. it was that little moment that got me choked up for a second...it's always surprising what catches me off guard and i get all sentimental.




on friday night, i left my boys at home and as i was saying goodbye to gabe, he gave me a big hug and kiss, and then waved bye. he's getting better at saying goodbye to me when i leave him behind, and i got a little choked up that he wasn't upset that i was going out. sigh, there's no satisfying me ;-)


before the rain started pouring down, we made it out to confed park and went on the miniature train ride. we had no idea what it would be like (and i forgot my camera so i don't have any pictures either), but i was worried for gabe when i saw it was a narrow bench that you had to straddle, and no railings or anything to hold onto. we ended up in the front of the 3rd "car" and gabe was able to hold onto the frame, and i had my arms wrapped tight around him. he really enjoyed the ride, clapping his hands along the way, and having a little giggle now and then. my little man is really growing up. another tear :(


as gabe reached his 20th month, we got to meet baby lily and baby alexandra. i forgot how little newborns are, the sweet little cooing noises they make and how peaceful they are when asleep (especially when they lie on your chest...love it!). having said that, we are happy to live vicariously through our friends and their newbies!

this month we had a minor setback with food...gabe refused to eat a few of his meals, and has started to pick out his vegetables. but if there was rice, he'd be as happy as a clam! so we laid down the law, and told him his options...eat what you're given or be excused from the table and wait until bedtime snack. the past few days have been better, and i haven't resorted to hiding his veggies...yet.

we're expanding gabe's vocabulary. he can now say "thank you" 3 different ways - sign language, nodding his head "shie-shie", and now says "ta!" (after weeks of practicing with grandma). he still yells "ma!" a lot, but it could mean anything (not just referring to me), and he's starting to enunciate "dada!" better.

i was so proud of gabe yesterday...he let me put on his crocs for the first time and he only fussed for 2 seconds...literally! i was pleasantly surprised to see him keep them on while riding in his new wagon en route to the playground, AND he walked around the sandbox with them on. it was also his first time in the sandbox, and he loved it! i hope the "new things" freak-out from prior months was just a phase and that he's getting better. new things really are fun!

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 :)