May

Road Trip! - May 30, 2010
We hit the road this morning to visit Amy, Craig and Keira, in London. They just bought a new home themselves are are updating it much as we are. They have a beautiful backyard and the weather allowed us to spend much of our day outside. Our boys played with the wagon and the water. Kaden borrowed some snowman socks from Amy for his nap, which he apparently bonded with and asked to bring home. A perfect way to spend a Sunday. Once we got home we needed to let the boys stretch their legs before hitting the hay so we let them loose on our newly grown "baby grass" while we ran the sprinkler. Of course you can't keep a kid out of a sprinkler for long...

I guess it's time to get a pool up in our newly grassed back yard!

Hooray for sprinklers!
Milo's not sure what to think yet, but he's curious.

Our little rock star - May 29, 2010
We didn't teach him this...but look at that expression as he rocks out on his new guitar. The microphone stand does come down, but he like to play up on the stool with the microphone high in the air. Fortunately for us, the guitar is really not that great and neither the guitar nor the microphone put out much sound (other than the usual volume of our tot's vocals)!

How could I resist?! - May 27, 2010
We made a trip to Zellers today to get a few essentials. Of course this store happened to have an elevator, which Kaden asked if we could ride. I knew it would take us up to the toy department, but I thought at least we might be able to pick up some summer toys for the yard. As we walked around the aisles of toys I was startled as both boys literally jumped in their seats and almost right out of the cart! Side-by-side on the shelf was the object of each of their desires! Milo had his eyes on the big black wheels of a large digger and Kaden's eyes popped for a guitar with strings!!! They both wanted to hold onto their treasures for the ride home - Milo's clearly too big for his lap and Kaden's still strumable in the box! Spoiled - yes. Happy - absolutely. Worth it - most definitely.

I'm not sure why Kaden has resorted to jiberish as a way to entertain, but sometimes the words just come out that way!

Milo loves his hippo :]

Water Table Fun - May 26, 2010
Summer may still be a month away, but the weather calls for water.

Splish, splash!

What a riot. Dinner finished with a little peek-around-the-highchair - a fun game to play or watch!

They are so funny. Nobody can make Milo laugh like Kaden!

Rattray March - May 25, 2010
The boys and I head down to explore Rattray Marsh - just a few short minutes from our house. The marsh was pretty dry this time of year so we didn't see any birds or turtles, but there were plenty of rocks to throw and trees and logs to explore.

Peek-a-boo, Milo!

Happy Long Weekend - May 24, 2010
It was a perfect way to spend the holiday Monday. We joined our best buds, the Roberts, for a trip to the park in the morning. The kids always have fun playing together and clearly tired Milo out! That night we had Grandpa over for dinner (unfortunately Grandma was not feeling well).

Milo actually took a few steps yesterday, but we were able to catch a couple on video today!
Way to go Milo!!!

Kaden LOVES guitar. He's figured out how to stand, walk, strum and sing with Daddy's big guitar.
Check out our rockstar (and narcissist - he watches his reflection in the glass of the door and wants to see himself in the videos)!
           

Park Play - May 20, 2010
On a trip to visit our friends in Toronto we went down to another park by the lake for some more fun in the sun (if this weather is any indication of what our summer is going to be like we're going to get HOT)!

The dirty days of summer - May 19, 2010
Well, it might not be summer yet, but we're getting in the spirit with the weather. Milo sunk his teeth into a full slice of watermelon at lunch today, which he quite enjoyed. Later that afternoon we went outside to paint. Kaden likes his easel, but it turns out the temporary plywood at the edge of our deck makes for a good canvass as well. Milo enjoyed getting himself and the wood covered in paint.

From atop the sandbox Milo scouts out planes.

Boys in the Backyard - May 18, 2010
They know what they like - here each one enjoys some playtime doing some of their favourite things - it's balls for Milo and strumming for Kaden. Both happily retreat to the sandbox for some digging and sifting.

Milo's obviously listening and learning. While Kaden rocks out the Wheels on the Bus
on his rake, Milo performs the actions (albeit with his back to the crowd)!

Trapped in the 'hood - May 16, 2010
Today was the Mississauga Marathon. We tried to get to our swimming lessons in the morning, but soon realized that the marathon's route encircles our neighbourhood. No troubles. It was a beautiful day so we decided to check out another park near to our house - Jack Darling Park. There is a fun playground and of course a good rock throwing beach. We cheered on the runners as we walked about and on the way home Kaden even got to bang on a cowbell from a band that was playing along the course.

Our little van-Kaden will strum anything - his rake doubles as a perfectly good guitar. We've dubbed the rock at the base of the birch tree "popsicle rock"...as you can see it's a good place to sit in the shade an enjoy a cool treat.

Another trip on the train - May 15, 2010
The Go Train was such a hit last weekend that we went downtown again today - just for fun - no real destination. We rode the train to Union, walked into downtown to have a snack at a coffee shop, rode the subway back one stop to Union and hopped the train back home. A big treat today was a busker at Union Station. There was a man playing guitar - Kaden was in heaven. I think he stole the show though as passers-by couldn't take their eyes off our little toddler rocking out on his air guitar along with the man. We gave him some money and were on our way. However the train was still a ways out so we went back to watch/dance/jam again. This time (after putting a little more money in the case) the man gave Kaden one of his CDs. He was over the moon. The music itself is alright, but it's all guitar, which Kaden had fun emulating once we were home.

Waiting for Daddy - May 14, 2010
Milo looks up at a plane overhead. We're still waiting for grass to grow in the backyard so our sidewalk fun continues with the cars.

This is obviously not the best game; however it can be hard to keep Milo entertained while I'm cooking dinner.
He seems happy...and no fingers were harmed in the making of this movie!

No walking solo, but he's got to be close!

Kaden's love of reading - May 12, 2010
Daddy was home today feeling under the weather. It's hard to stay out of sight when the boys know he's in the house so he did his best to be around where we were playing at some points during the day. Kaden wanted to make Daddy feel better by reading to him. It's remarkable to hear Kaden "read". His memory is outstanding. Today he was reading a Little Critter's treasury, which includes 7 stories and is over 150 pages long. I know that every page only has a few sentences, but Kaden "read" each one to Craig word for word!

Milo and shoes - May 11, 2010
Milo loves playing with the shoes in the front hall. He plays with the ones out in the open (mostly those that have velcro) and even rummages around in the closet for a few other faves (like Kaden's rain boots - whose insoles pull out nicely). He can make the sign for shoes and even says "sues".

Mother's Day - May 9, 2010
Not too many pics today, but a cute one of me and my boys before we head out to dinner with the Ross Clan. I'm not sure how Milo was the only one to have is picture taken, but he's pretty cute eating his dinner of bread and watermelon!

Tourists in our own town - May 7, 2010
The kids love watching the train crossing near our house. We have been talking for some time to Kaden about how we would ride the Go Train "someday". Today seemed like the perfect opportunity to do. What a fun morning. We took the Go Train from Port Credit down to Union Station. From there we walked to the CN Tower where we went up in the elevator and checked out the city from up high. Of course, even the CN Tower is no match for the power of the train. Not five minutes after arriving Kaden said, "let's go back to the Go Train"! We managed to linger in the tower for a little while and even had some fun in the arcade before it was back to Union to wait (for a while) for our train to take us home. Both kids ha had a blast. In hindsight, the CN Tower obviously made an impression as Kaden continues to talk about it and asks to go back "someday".

Bedroom Bedlam - May 5 & 6, 2010
It seems that one of the best play areas in the house is our bed! It's not up at its full height yet as we aren't putting the frame together until we paint. In the meantime, our bedroom becomes a prominent stop in our rounds about the house! Kaden's favourite game continues to be "squash Milo", but it's hard to put a stop to it while Milo is laughing hysterically (until he isn't!). Both boys roll and tumble and collide. Sometimes the fun ends in tears. Milo is getting more brave, but still not aware, as he stands at full height and falls flat on his face laughing. However he doesn't look where he's going and has landed on my hip, Kaden's head, and straight over the edge onto the floor. Despite the bruises they both seem to get neither show any sign of not wanting to go back for more. It will be a sad day when the bed is no longer just a mattress on the floor! But until then...here's just a taste of what goes on on any given day...

What is it they say about monkeys jumping on beds?!?

Mother's Day at Playschool - May 6, 2010
I spent the morning with Kaden at playschool being treated to a toddler concert and some treats.

The song is a little slow getting going, but once they start,
 you can hear out little maestro above them all (in both official languages)!

High Park - May 5, 2010
We joined our good friends for our first foray into High Park. There's lots to see and do there, but today we went to their zoo. The kids had fun running around with each other and watching the animals along the way.

Reading by the fire? - May 4, 2010
Milo can move, motor, crawl and climb. Apparently he finds the hard brick surface a good place to read. No skin has been shred by the bricks yet, nor any teeth chipped, but this is not a place we encourage the kids to sit...we're still working on Milo!

Beautiful start to the month - May 3, 2010
The boys and I could have been in shorts today! We took a trip down to the park and lake to play in the sand and sun.

It's more fun together...sliding and falling off!

Yardmageddon! - May 2010
I am still working on getting a "before and after" page set up on the site to show you the transformation of our house. While the yard will be included in this page, I had to include a few picks of our hard work this month. We hit both our front and back yards with "lawnpacalypse" this summer to take down the jungle and restore a sense of peace...and lawn...

FRONT
Kaden helps dig out one of the remaining shrubs. I spent a couple hours each day for two days to remove the roots from the small front garden. Craig cleared out a heap of vines and other jungle matter from beside the house (which filled those 20+ bags the he and Jim had to take to the dump). Jhan gave us the benefit of her gardening wisdom to help pick flowers and arrange rocks (the only good thing left in the yard by the previous owner) to plant at least one little garden out front this year.

BACK
A quick trip through the before-during-after process!