I like it best...

Since today was Canada Day, hubby was home all day with us, which is great. Not only does the boy get to spend more time with his Dad, but it also means that I get to go to the bathroom in peace! What more could I ask for?

While we we coming home from playing soccer in the park, the boy decided to hold both of our hands, mainly so he could swing, which is one of his favourite things to do, and he looked up at hubby and said, "I like it best when it's the three of us, you and me and Mummy." 

With that, how could hubby not want to quit work and stay at home with us all the time? Sadly, less than an hour later, the boy reminded hubby why he was happy to go to work occasionally, when the boy wouldn't stop singing a made up song with nonsense words. Guess the boy will have to settle for second best next week and just stay home with me!

Independence at Ikea?

Today, the boy, myself, my SIL and her two little ones headed off to Ikea for a shopping trip. Since my SIL is on mat. leave (her newest addition is not yet 2 months old), we decided to make an outing of it during the week when the store would be less busy.

Ikea has this great supervised play area with a ball pit (babies love the ball pit), colouring tables, and more, that you can leave your little one for an hour while you get some shopping done without constant interruptions, or small nosey people checking out everything you're putting in your cart.  The boy & I talked about leaving him there, and he seemed game to go for it, and so, slightly nervous, I went over, signed in him, got my pager in case they needed me urgently, and watched him go. It's not the first time he's been left anywhere, he goes on his own to the nursery class at our church, and he attends a little play group once a week by himself, but this was the first time he'd been left with people and kids he didn't know, and he didn't bat an eyelash.

He took off straight to the ball pit, and immediately started playing with another little boy that was there. It was incredible for me to watch. My little boy all grown up and content to go off on his own and make friends and play. I managed to get all the things I needed at Ikea, and apparently, the boy found some independence there too. Now if only they carried something to stop me worrying about him!

Summer Fun with his Best Friends

In a brief moment of sunshine today the boy wanted to go outside and have an 'ice pop'. We make home-made smoothies and then freeze them as our healthy summer treat. Our current batch is strawberry/banana/mango with vanilla yoghurt - very tasty if I do say so myself!

When the boy eats the ice pops (blame this name on something that happened with his favourite characters - Charlie & Lola) he can be quite messy, so the rule is that they have to be eaten outside and he has to wear a bib. He's fine with these rules, and would eat an ice pop outside even in the pouring rain or the freezing cold if he could! I chalk this up more to his love of being outside than how good the ice pops are.

While he was eating his treat today, he insisted on sitting on our deck's step which put him at the perfect hight for our two dogs to insinuate themselves for some ice pop. The boy loves our dogs, and they love him back (especially at meal time when his seat is the perfect place to sit under), so he was more than happy to share with them by pouring the melted part of his pop onto the ground for them to lick up! They were happy to oblige by cleaning up after him, and that meant that there was less for him to accidentally drip on himself (which is what normally happens) and the dogs got a treat too, win-win!

BFF's!

Feeding Bunny

The boy has a stuffed rabbit that he got when he was born, that he still loves. It's from the fabulous line of French toys called Kaloo (The amazing Mastermind Toys carries them - you can check out what they've got here) Being very inventive, this rabbit is called 'Bunny'.

Bunny comes with us around the house, and occasionally has to join us for meals. Normally it's just lunch or a snack that Bunny gets to eat with us, but tonight, Bunny joined us for dinner.  Hubby had to go out to a meeting, so it was just the boy and I for dinner. I decided that we would have a special treat and have grilled cheese sandwiches and veggies for our dinner. As I was serving it up, the boy announced that we needed to get Bunny, since "he really loves grilled cheese" 

So Bunny dutifully came and joined us, and of course he had to have a bib on too so that he wouldn't get dirty! Bunny apparently really does love grilled cheese, cucumbers and peppers, but he's not so fond of pickles. It's interesting because this means that Bunny has his own personality, because the boy loves all of these things. The boy even wanted to get Bunny his own dessert, since apparently Bunny didn't want to share with the boy - what a scam artist! Besides, everyone knows that Mummies get the extra dessert for all the hard work of putting small boys to bed!

Ever wonder what sound a Yak makes?

I have to say I have never really given much thought to Yaks. In my mind they were always just furry cows - we don't see a lot of Yaks in the wild around here.Today, thanks to the boy, I doubled my knowledge of them.

Recently the boy has gotten into playing Go Fish - he really loves it, and is pretty good at it,  he actually beats me quite often. We have an animal Go Fish game, and to tweak it a bit, we added our own rule that when you make a match, you need to make the sound of the animal. Today the boy matched his Yaks, but didn't know what noise they made, so thanks to the trusty internet, we searched and found out - they grunt. The boy loved it so much that he continued to pretend to be a Yak for the rest of the morning, going around grunting all the time.

So if you're intrigued, here's the link to the clip we watched to help learn about the noise of a Yak. It's never a dull (or quiet) moment around here!