What to wear

I love this hat so much that I'm thinking about making one for Adam to match his new coat. It's just a fleece-lined knitted square pocket with pompoms on each corner. I got this one for Naomi at Joe Fresh.

And what not to wear:

If she's looking grumpy it may have something to do with 8 new teeth breaking through all at once.

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What a ham!

And then he insisted that I take a picture of the mirror:

Talking

UPDATE: I saved this as a draft many moons ago but forgot to publish. That 18-month verbal explosion I mentioned seems to be in effect now, at 20 months. She's putting two words together regularly and said three new words just at dinner the other night: empty, track (as in train track), and mine (ugh). And last night she told Adam: "Naomi turn" when he was hogging a toy.

Alrighty, let's get this down before the 18-month verbal explosion happens and the expressive vocabulary list becomes uncountably long. It's just for the record, i.e., boring. Words with an asterisk may not be intelligible to strangers but they are clear and consistent. Does not include words where she is merely repeating sounds from a poem or song.

food/kitchen: eat/food (uhmmm), bib, bowl, milk, open*, more, maht-maht (7)

animals: dog*, cat*, ladybug*, bird, duck*, bear, moo, baa, bow wow, meow, quack* (11)

people: Adam, baby, Daddy, Mummy, Poh-Poh*, David*, boy* (7)

bodies/bath: eye, belly button*, diaper*, bath, bubbles (5)

toys/entertainment: baby (doll/only counts once), book, ball, keys*, beep-beep, music*, computer* (6)

other nouns: boots, button, moon (3)

numerals: 9 (1)

exclamations: yep, hi, bye bye, 'night-'night, more (only counts once) (4)

particles: up, down, back, this*, that* (5)


Total: 45 English, 2 Cantonese.

Preschool Room "Graduation"

This is from back in September when Adam was moved out of the preschool room and into the "kinder" room. Only some of the kids in the kinder room actually attend JK (half time in the afternoon, as Adam will next year, too.)

Hallowe'en Story

I guess this is as good a time as any to record this story for posterity. It is not a good story by any objective measure but it is useful. Sometimes when Adam has completely lost it but he's receptive to a little help for collecting himself, I tell him this story to soothe, comfort, or pacify him. It has worked for months now. Only occasionally do I need to repeat it or pull out "The Montreal Story" for the effect to be complete.

"When I was a girl, my favourite holiday was .. Hallowe'en. There were three things that I reeeeeally liked about Hallowe'en. The first thing I really liked about Hallowe'en was making a costume. One year, I had a Queen costume. The same year I had a Queen constume, Uncle Ian had a Mummy costume - the type of Mummy with bandages from head to toe. Another thing that I really liked about Hallowe'en was trick-or-treating. I would always trick-or-treat with Uncle Ian. We'd go from door to door and knock on the door. And when someone answered the door, we'd say, "Trick or Treat!" Then usually, the person who answered the door would give us CANDY. We'd always say thank you for the candy. The third thing that I reeeeally liked about Hallowe'en was ... Eating All The Candy! The End."

Sometimes, if you ask Adam to tell you a story, he'll make a variation on this one, which is pretty darn cute, I think. That or he'll tell a story based loosely on Dion's story of visiting Chihung Szeto.

Another result of this story was that Adam got it in his head that (or rather just like saying that) he and Clare were going to go trick-or-treating by themselves and the Rob, Becky, Dion, and I were going to stay home to hand out candy. And what was Naomi going to do? Uhmm. Sleep. Naomi was going to be sleeping. He wasn't serious about this plan - he doesn't even like to go down the hall from our apartment to greet people at the elevator by himself - but he did enjoy sharing his plan.

If you're starting with this post, keep scrolling down, I've posted several more times tonight.

Enjoying the Spoils, Day 2 - Adam

I think Rockets and Smarties are Adam's favourites, so far,

because they're great for making such things as ...

uhmmmm ...

diamonds

and uhmmmm ...

hexagons!

Or y'know. just EATING!

Enjoying the Spoils, Day 2 - Naomi

Yummy!
Cutie-Pie!

But harder work than I bargained for.

Washing it down with milk from the Hallowe'en themed cup.
Nice Mullet, kid.

LOL

Halloween Pics Part I

L - R: Giraffe (thx, Hos), Norwegian Olympic Curler (thx, D), Winnie the Pooh (thx, Pohpoh & Gungung). Photo credit Dion.

I took lots of photos today and yesterday. But I'm getting tired, so this might be it for the night.

Best Halloween Costume On Riverdale Avenue

Shoes!

Naomi loves shoes. Since before she turned one she's been capable of throwing a fit over my choice of shoes for her or myself! She's got a thing for shoes and she can walk in just about anything. Never mind the lack of pants. That happens now and then.

Ugh.

With a little help from a sticker that came with the potty:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

WTG, Buddy!

One day, I looked over and saw THIS:

which blew me away. It had been my habit after bath time to write out the next steps before lights-out and draw a clock indicating the time we were going to his room. And one day, I forgot. So, Adam took it upon himself to do it. He even got the time right. It was on the late side that night - 7:15 is what we're usually aiming for, so that Dion and I can watch The Office together at 7:30. I think it was his first attempt at a clock and this was one of his best 5's I've seen.

The Thinker

Naomi is rather pensive for a toddler. I like how that shows up here. I also like the crazy outfit. Naomi has a ladybug obsession and she found this summer top with ladybugs embroidered on it among Clare's hand-me-downs and demanded that it be put on her.

Happy Birthday, Dion!

I don't know much about fashion but ...

Aren't some looks supposed to (at least attempt to) appear effortless or accidental? Y'know, like "oops, you can see my bra strap/boxers" or like the feathery hairstyles from the 70s were supposed to look "wind-swept." But then when you lose sight of the wind-swept part, you end up with the teased-out, hairsprayed, rock-hard monstrosities of the eighties?

So, I really got the giggles when I thought about the outfit on the guy at McDonald's. I'm sure that I've seen this before but I had just not thought about it. His boxers were showing. (to each their own.) They were showing a lot. (again, to each their own.) But his pants were not saggy. closer to skin-tight. And he was wearing a BELT.

Dude, you're trying way too hard. Find another way to accessorize. Actually, the belt was kinda nice. It was a good accessory. Too bad it was upstaged by the display of actually-kinda-ho-hum-boxers.

Adam Behind The Camera

Adam was kinda bored during some of the games at the TUC Playoffs a couple of weeks ago, so we let him use my camera. with a little help so that at least it didn't get dropped.

So here's how an ultimate tournament looks through the eyes of a 3-year old. It involves a lot of knees, feet, grass, and sky. A lot of the grass and sky shots were left on the cutting room floor. You get the idea anyway.

Old Stuff - Naomi Walking

Naomi had been walking for almost two months when we finally got around to getting some video of her. It's taken another five months to post the video. Thanks to MarkMark for the footage from May 5, 2010 at Kevin and Susanna's place. Those are Junko and MarkMarks' boys, Leif and Conan, in the foreground.

TUC Tuesday Playoffs

Oops! I started this as a draft and never got around to publishing. Ah well. Here are some pics from a couple of weeks ago.

Today, when I came home ...

from dropping Adam off at daycare, I found that Naomi had passed out asleep on the floor ...

right next to her father, who was home sick with a cold, ...

and that Adam had earlier vandalised our bedsheets ...

and that my anniversary present had arrived in the mail.

Sorry about the photo quality but I've lent out my camera and used Adam's.