Fall photos with the family

Today we took some fall photos because the rain was nowhere to be seen!

Not sure why I'm hunched over....

This one is my favourite

A better day

Today we had a car so we went shopping and I actually let him run around the mall. Obviously he was most interested in garbage cans. Then we went swimming this afternoon. It took him about 15 minutes to get used to it but then he was splashing his arms around and having a good time. I think getting out of the house (besides walking to Extra Foods) def. makes the day a little better!

Loving the box of cheerios that he found in the cupboard. At least he's offering one to me.

He's learned to point to eyes, nose and mouth. When he points to your eyes, beware! He pokes them VERY hard and says `Eye-t'. Not sure why he ends with `t'.

He was so huggy today! I love it!

14 months old!

His flirtatious head tilt (this is at daycare)

Getting ready to give the leaves to daddy

He now runs down the sidewalk and of course, in the opposite direction that I would like to go!

Opening the gate to Opi's house all by himself

Throwing the ball around in the leaves. I think we'll have to get some good photos this weekend in these leaves, they are beautiful!

This month seems to have flown by. I just read where he was at a month ago and it doesn't seem like much has changed but I'm seeing more and more of his character/silliness every month. He is currently 26.7lbs and I'm not sure if he's any taller but his shoes are finally fitting a little better so at least his feet have grown! Maybe I'll just go through some of his favourites:

Favourite book: Hop on Pop and Opposites (doggies on every page)

Favourite drink: MILK

Favourite food: bananas (he now can eat it without cutting it up, I just give him a huge chunk)

Favourite item in the world: blankie

Favourite time of day: bedtime!

Favourite toy: tough one...empty ketchup bottle or the potato masher

Favourite drawer in the house: tupperware!!!

Favourite thing to do that he's not allowed: unroll all the toilet paper and run around the house with it

Favourite thing to do at the park: put leaves in the pylon (or eat bark mulch still!!!)

Favourite word: daddy!

I guess I can think of a few changes for this month. He is now in daycare part time and doing wonderfully. I honestly don't worry about him the entire day because I know he's well cared for and having fun. Another change is that he now climbs the stairs. Fast. He's also a lot more cuddly! It's awesome, he'll actually want to lay on me and rest his head (sometimes)! The best way to get him to be cuddly is by making him jealous:) If Gary or I hug or kiss, he def. wants in on it!!! He is quite the delight and we are loving his little personality and spunk. He got 2 molars this month and seems to do okay with all the teething now. Oh ya, he got his first cold this month which really hasn't affected him except for a runny/stuffed nose. He keeps saying `ba-boo' and I don't know what it is but if I say it back to him, he thinks its the funniest thing ever. He never really caught on to the signing thing but its pretty easy to know what he wants so its okay so far.

I know this is Kai's 14 month old post but I did just want to add that I'm exhausted. Just with life. I feel like I need some rejuvination and I don't think I'm the only one. I think the craziness of September and the change in weather has been a transition for many. So, I'm hoping with a long weekend (filled with stuff) that there will be some time to relax and unwind and laugh. I just don't want to be a go, go, go person anymore (and I'm not even really anymore). I have a gift certificate from the spa that I got last Christmas, I should prob. use it soon:) I want to enjoy each day and look forward to it rather than going to sleep thinking `Oh good, got through another day...now just have to get through tomorrow', isn't that terrible?! I'm not depressed, I'm just transitioning into mother/teacher, hormonal, the weather is gloomy, and I don't want to spend 4 hours making nutrient agar plates with a 50 year old autoclave. I'm thinking this long weekend, with football and food, will be good. Tomorrow, a friend and I are taking our little guys swimming, should be fun! Take care all!

Run for the Cure

We're ready for the run! (please notice our new rug)

Kai with 3 of his favourite things; blankie, daddy, and his plastic banana...

This was the 6th year in a row that my family has participated in this run. Wow, it was 7 years ago now that my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. The run was very different this year because it was dark and very rainy. It is usually a very positive atmosphere but today, it was not. I also felt really sucky because I didn't run it. I strained my hip flexor (sp) in football yesterday so thought it would be best to take it easy. Gary had a great run with Kai in the jogging stroller. I'll attach a team photo once I get it from my sister. After the run we went out for lunch with the whole family (wow, 12 of us!) celebrate Trisha's 21st birthday. We did have to wait about an hour all together for our food but the two little ones behaved nicely, phew.

(jackie and nut, we missed you!)
What else this weekend? Saturday was busy as I had a football game in the morning (which we won by a crazy score of 2-1!). It was a good game in that we had to work really, really hard. I've got a lot of strange bruises to prove it too. In the afternoon I went with my sister to buy her wedding dress, I love it and it suits her so well! After that, Gary and I went to pick up our `new' great room rug. Our house requires us to be minimalists and it really kind of stresses me out the way our living room area looks, so, I thought the new rug might improve things. The real problem is my recliner. I love it, but, it takes up half our house. I paid some good money for it, so, I don't want to get rid of it. I know I sound so weird complaining when I have so much stuff to be thankful for and it seems so trivial, but, its something that has bothered me for over a year now and when you spend most of your time in that room, you want it to be functional and look nice too. I just wish that I could magically come home from work one day and there would be a $2000 makeover to our great room. Aren't I so selfish and vain? That money could sure go to a lot better things....I'm just frustrated. Finally, last night I saw my cousin singing/playing at a coffee shop which was a nice, relaxing way to end a busy day.
Well, I hope to relax and read my book this afternoon...it's a strange one and the way the dialogue is written is very frustrating but I'm liking it. It's called `Blindness'. Have a great Sunday everyone.
PS This is written about 4 hours later...Gary and I carpet cleaned tonight, it was kind of fun! (we don't have much carpet so it only took an hour).

I'd rather be at work...

Just because he's being super monkey-ish today. He runs into the bathroom (its a sliding door, we cant' lock it) and grabs the toilet paper and runs around the house stuffing bits in his mouth. I can't remove it, I tried and he bit my finger. Fine, he can eat it. He is purposely doing stuff he knows he's not allowed (shaking the lamp, pulling on the modem thingy)...grrrr....Oh well. He is now telling me when he has to go the bathroom but it doesn't help much as he doesn't want to sit on a potty. He just tells me, `Mama? poo'. Kinda funny that he says `mama' as a question now. Actually, a little annoying when he just says, `mama? mama? mama?' over and over and over.
Here are some pictures from half an hour ago when he was a little more behaved.....
Following the monkey for 5 minutes.

Ap-ball (he's loving his plastic cooking stuff so that's fun)

Flying up the stairs which is actually a nice relief for my back! He usually waits on the bottom step until someone is there to go with him. Usually.

Torn between wanting to run and wanting to snuggle with his blankie. (We found out at daycare this week that he will eventually fall asleep without it as we forgot it one day! It took a while and apparently he was quite sad)

Playing upstairs

Upstairs, he goes from one room to the next opening and shutting doors and throwing down everything in his path. Last night at 11:30pm, Gary realized his alarm clock was missing so we were both looking everywhere for it and found it hidden IN our bed.
Okay, sister is here now...gotta go!

Congratulations Janny Bear!

My little sis is engaged. Jan is the 3rd girl out of the 5 of us and def. the wackiest (and tallest and greatest lover of kareoke). They plan on getting married next summer and I'm looking forward to it! Welcome to the family, Doug!

PS A happy bday today to my littlest sis who's turning 21!

Like father, like son

Kai with his `new' kitchen ($5!). It came with 10 million pieces (okay, maybe just 30) which will be really great for cleaning up but its kept him independently busy for a long time! Woohoo! He loves opening and closing cupboards and playing with cutlery and food so we thought this would work well.

Here's Mr. Whiny pants wanting to be picked up...he's been asking this a lot lately which is kind of strange. It's def. not to cuddle, he just wants to be able to reach stuff that is normally out of his reach:)

(Oh ya, the title refers to being busy in the kitchen, not the whining part!)

Our comedian

Kai came running out of the bathroom surrounded in toilet paper. Gary got the camera and caught him running away from him giggling like crazy. Every time he tried to get a picture of his face, he'd turn and run the opposite way. His new word is `Hot' but it sounds more like `hoth'. He doesn't even know what it means but he knows it because I sometimes have him wait for his food because its too hot.

Today I had football again, and, I'd just like to say that we have won 3 games in a row. Today felt particularly good with a 34-6 win as they kept double rushing but that did not deter us. Their defense played short so most passes were long ones. Somehow I am able to throw a lot further this year and I honestly attribute it to having a big one year old to take care of. My upper body and core strength seems to be back, woohoo!

Gary and I just watched the Lions game. Pretty good game, especially the last couple minutes:) We also went out for dinner tonight, with Kai, so it was a gobble and go type deal. I don't think we even had a conversation as Kai does not like being strapped in to anything right now, he just likes to go, go, go!

Let's see, what did Gary do today while I was at football? He cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed:) What a man! I love it!

Kai this morning...

I realized I hadn't taken pictures in almost 2 weeks so here are some from this morning...(especially for auntie Jackie in Namibia, we miss you!)

Kissing the lion from his new `Noah's Ark' toys. I think I might be teaching him weird things because now he kisses them all and today, he was making Noah and a giraffe kiss. I guess I should be teaching him animal sounds or something:)

Walking around with the potato masher, his second fav. toy. Number one is an empty, plastic ketchup bottle.

Talking to his animals, this is a new thing...no idea what he's saying.

In his fav. place with his fav. blankie.
His fav. book is `Hop on Pop' by Dr. Seuss. He calls it `Up! Up!' because the first page says Up! Pup! Pup is Up! (or something like that). I guess that's where he learned to say it.

Belly tickles

Now when I get Kai out of his crib, he stands up giggling, lifts up my shirt to see my belly, and tickles me. So cute. Sometimes when I'm on the computer he runs up to me to tickle my side too. It makes me giggle because his hands are so cold and I think he's kind of silly. Tonight, he didn't' fall asleep right away and just chattered away for an HOUR in his crib repeating mama over and over and having some happy giggles.

Teaching has gone well. Its been a bit busier than I thought (while at work) because we usually leave by 4pm. Gary and I used to always stay til 5pm or so, it just means now I have to work during my breaks and half my lunch too (we leave by 4pm so that we can get Kai and have some quality time with him before bed). It's fine, just busier. Today I marked 4 classes of tests and 20 Virus posters. Wow. Go me. I've enjoyed being back at work and I don't think about Kai all day because I know he's okay, what a great feeling! He did fall today and got a bruisy bump on his forehead, he has to learn that stairs are dangerous! He would run straight down them (which means he would fall straight down) without a second thought...I think that's how we all learned as kids:)


I have realized that I haven't taken a picture of Kai in 9 DAYS. Wow. I must be back at work. I'll have to get some tomorrow. Below is a picture of him from exactly one year ago. If he was anywhere near a laundry basket today, it would be emptied in seconds and our belongings would be scattered throughout the entire house!