Bedtime snuggling in the big bed

We often read books in "the big bed" these days.

"Time to get naked and play in the toy kitchen!"

Thus spoke Gabrielle one day. I don't know why naked cooking interests her. Really, I don't. Really.

I think her favourite part of the kitchen might be the little phone. We could have saved ourselves a bundle by just getting her a little play phone. Oh well, it was a small price to pay to get rid of the pacifiers once and for good.

Luckily, Isaac also enjoys the kitchen, so we may get a year or two out of it yet. He doesn't cook naked. At least, not yet.

Some Videos

Here are a couple of recent videos of the kids.

This first one is from one of Isaac's introductory days at daycare. Here he is getting to know the playground:

This second one is from an afternoon jam session:

It's amazing how fast technology moves isn't it? Just barely a year ago my iPhone 4 was cutting edge, and now the videos are so old-fashioned looking already. Time for an upgrade?

Nana's fall visit

Very fun visit with Nana awhile back, including an excellent fall visit to Dovercourt park.

Below, Nana teaches Isaac how to use an old-time abacus.

Smiles, everyone, smiles!

Gabrielle using her new "ouchless" brush on Nana.

"Nana, you're such a cut-up!!"

Finally two!

I say "finally" because it seems like it's been a long two years. In some ways, it's hard to believe Isaac's already two, but at the same time, it's hard to remember a time before he was born. I could always consult the blog, of course, to remind myself, but you know what I mean.

Anyways, we decided, somewhat last minute-ish, to have a birthday party with some of Isaac's friends. I don't know why we do it - it always stresses me out and then afterwards I need a huge dose of alcohol to chill out. But these are the things memories are built from so...

Mark and Isaac hanging out in the basement with some of the guests. Mark is notably clean-shaven, although you can just make out the shadow of his Movember Mo.

Once his guests arrived, we played some old-fashioned party games, including this old classic with a new twist: pin the chick on the barnyard scene! Note how Gabrielle tries to help Naya (who is blindfolded) by pointing at the place she should aim for.

And the results! Not bad, kidlets. This game took all of 10 minutes to complete. It's a 2-hour party! Gulp - what's next?

Get the kids dressed and send them outside for a little hunt - we hid some matchbox cars in our side yard, one per kid. You kids have fun trying to find them!

Yeah... real fun, rummaging through Mark and Belinda's trash...

Baby Alix just wouldn't cooperate so Chaughan had to pick her up and literally shove her nose at a hidden car.

Fun game - total elapsed time: 7.5 minutes.

Now some portraits of some old friends. Hold still kids!

No, I mean it, look at me.

OK, I got the shot. Sorta.

OK, let's eat.

Time for cake.

I might have overdone it on the blue dye in the frosting.

Yeah, I think I might have.

Yup. But blue frosting makes me feel soooooo happy....

As does opening presents.

A fun party. Happy birthday Mr. Mister!

You boys have fun now

Gabrielle and I had some work to do on preparations for Isaac's birthday party so the boys went out for a bike ride and the girls stayed home and frosted cupcakes. We run such a 1950s household.

They had fun. Isaac kept commanding Mark to go faster. He's a bit of a control freak, our little one.

Halloween happiness

Always the drama, leading up to Halloween. First of all, and most importantly, costume choice. What is Gabrielle going to be? And what about Isaac this year? He probably can't tell me what he wants to dress up as, but he sure can tell me what he doesn't want to wear. How many costumes will I have to return to the store?

Given the potential for disaster, it all ended up going very smoothly this year. Gabrielle had been talking about being grapes for many months. Easy peasy, I thought, just blow up a bunch of purple balloons and attach them (somehow?) to her shirt. So leading up to Halloween, I kept asking her every couple of days and she kept saying grapes. Grapes, grapes, grapes. And then one day she said fairy. Well OK then.

I went to a secondhand store and found a tiger costume for Isaac. He loved it. Oh and did I mention he especially loved it when he realized that dressing up in the thing meant people would give him stuff. He really loved that part and has been wanting to go trick or treating every night since.

This is funny. At this house, the person just held out a big bowl of chocolate bars. The kids actually combed through them, looking for ones they wanted. Seriously, do you guys know the difference between a Caramilk and a Mars bar?

My little fairy: one of only a hundred or so we saw that night. Well, some of the fairies we saw were actually princesses, or princess fairies, not just regular fairies, so maybe there weren't that many fairies out. I'm just saying there was alot of tulle and wings out on the street.

Our little man, walking the streets and checking out his loot. He was pretty great at trick or treating - really exceeding our expectations. People would open the door and he would yell "trick or treat"! Then if they said "oh, a tiger" he'd say "tiger, yeah, roar!" and then open his bag up wide and smile.

There were some good haunted houses. I took Gabrielle and Isaac past this house every day after school leading up to Halloween. We would examine the decorations and touch the various ghouls and goblins and determine they weren't real. It seemed to work - I don't think they were quite as terrified as they might have been otherwise.

Even tigers need to be carried by the end of the night...

Shhhh.....

I've always been scared of sleeping children but these ones aren't so bad.

Hopefully, this will be the last ever photo of Gabrielle with a susu in her mouth. We made a deal with her (a.k.a. a fat bribe) that we would buy her a toy kitchen if she will voluntarily stop using a pacifier. Otherwise, we are confiscating it on her 4th birthday. Today, she asked for the toy kitchen and I told her she knew what she had to do. Unfortunately, it wasn't clear whether she made it through nap time without it. It was lying next to her in bed but she swears up and down she didn't put it in her mouth. Also unfortunately, she doesn't always know the difference between "joking" and "lying," so I told her she had to make it through the night before I'd go get the toy kitchen. She is uncharacteristically focussed on that toy kitchen and insisted on going to bed without her pacifier. If she makes it through the night, we order the kitchen tomorrow. Stay tuned.

*UPDATE* Mark just checked in on her and she is snoring away. This is the first time in years she has slept without a silicone nipple in her mouth. I'm very proud of her for doing this on her own. I mean, she's doing it for the kitchen, but you know what I mean...

They said it would get easier...

...but I didn't expect it to happen so soon!

Ladies and Gentlemen and Boys and Girls: Toopy and Binoo!!!

Toopy and Binoo has been Gabrielle's favourite cartoon since she could say the words Toopy and Binoo. When I heard they were coming to the National Arts Centre, it was clear we would have to go.

The sign below speaks the truth - apparently these TV show live tours are really about pushing expensive merchandise on captive parents and children. Luckily, I managed to convince Gabrielle that I would buy her a better Toopy and Binoo when I was in Montreal (which I did - it wasn't better, but it was cheaper).

Here we are in the balcony, waiting for the big event to start. Gabrielle was so excited before it started, she seemed to emit a type of humming sound.

Here's the view from the cheap seats:

And here's what we saw. A terrible, terrible show. Even she thought so. Four thumbs down. But we're not holding it against the TV show - it's still a squeal-worthy event when it comes on.

Whatchoo lookin' at?

Isaac comes home from daycare with some pretty skillfully-created crafts. I'm not even allowed to convince myself he made them because as soon as I pick him up from daycare clutching his new craft, he yells "Anna do it!" Anna is, of course, one of his daycare providers.

Happy Thanksgiving, nonetheless.

Dancing [and waving like the] queen

At Gabrielle's insistence, we signed her up for dance classes this fall. It was going to be Sportball (a class where they teach the kids the basic elements of 7 different sports) but when she heard this, she looked so dejected and wailed "but I wanted to dance!!" Well what parent can say no to that? Incidentally, Isaac is in Sportball and loving it. Tennis day was apparently very successful (are you listening, Grampa Shalom?)

Here she is warming up, horizontally, before class.

She just can't stop waving at me during class, and it's that perfect big smile and wave from the wrist up that makes it all so very cheesy and hilarious.

Yes Gabrielle, I see you...

Started waving at me right after this jump...

Day One

With some trepidation and a certain amount of excitement, the kids went off to their first day at Churchill-Carling Daycare. Mark spent a couple of hours there with Isaac, while Gabrielle happily ran off to join her new classmates. This was the beginning of a couple of very tough weeks but we've come through it, almost unscathed. Isaac now goes off to "school" pretty happily and Gabrielle gets dropped at the same time, but almost immediately gets on a school bus that takes her to Broadview public school for junior kindergarten. After 2 and a half hours of book learnin', she gets back on the bus and returns to daycare, where she stays until one of us picks them both up.

It's been quite a transition going from a full-time nanny to care outside the home, and we're now one of those families I see on instant breakfast commercials on TV - you know the dad running around looking for his tie which his wife locates in the coffee tin while she's brushing her teeth and looking for her nylons while trying to feed the kids breakfast while the kids are torturing each other and sticking their fingers into electrical outlets just for fun? Yah, that's us.

But aren't they adorable?

Bounty!

Gardening this summer has been alot of fun, mostly for me, as I would go outside and check on my "babies" first thing in the morning and at the end of the day. Sometimes I would just go over to the veggie patch and stare, looking for any discernible differences from day to day. My neighbour caught me staring one day. We had an awkward moment where he said something like "uh, you're really into your garden, I guess?"

By the end of summer, we had picked a half dozen cucumbers, a couple dozen peas (one or two a day), three multi-coloured baby carrots, and a few dozen tomatoes. Lessons learned: more carrots, fewer tomatoes.

Bye bye Woyen

And so the time has come... Lauren spent an amazing year with us - she made our lives tolerable - enjoyable even. The kids loved her and even just today Gabrielle said to me: "Lauren is my babysitter but she belongs with our family, right?" Now what do you say to that? Thank you Lauren!

Breakfast portraits