Unfortunately, not here. I can’t upload on this gallery. But I did post a bunch on facebook. Click the links and you are good to go.
Category Archives: Alex
Busy Busy Week
Okay, wow. This past week has been BUSY. It kicked off last Thursday with Nikki, Alex, Ryan, and Nikki’s Mom heading to Storybook Gardens to celebrate its 50th birthday. Everything was 50 cents – admission, rides, some food, etc. Of course, since everything was so dirt cheap everyone was there. I would imagine Nikki may report more but there were long lines to get in and for the food. From what I could gather Alex’s favourite two parts were the whale, which, sadly, is no longer a slide, and the splash pad. I was more than a little sad that I didn’t get to go because I had to work.
Next up on the busy-ness was the weekend. Sunday would see a trip a to the zoo but first we had to get through Saturday. We packed up the kids, grabbed Jen’s brother, dropped Ryan off at Nikki’s folks for the weekend then headed up to Waterloo. Actually, Saturday wasn’t terribly busy by itself – just part of a busy weekend. At Jen & Mike’s, we mostly sat around while the kids played. Chantalle caught the bus up from London after she finished work for the day and joined us for supper. After the kids went to bed we broke out Settlers of Catan and the Seafarer’s expansion and played that. It’s a sad game when the most drunk guy there pulls out a miracle six-point turn for the win – exactly one turn ahead of when Nikki would have won had it made it to her. We were all tired though and were in bed by 11.
Sunday. The Zoo. After getting a fairly decent night’s sleep we were up pretty early on Sunday. Got everyone ready and packed up into the vans. Dropped Jen’s brother off at the bus station – he had to work and unfortunately couldn’t go to the zoo with with us. And off we go. The drive to the zoo was rainy. Really rainy. The Weather Network was claiming 1mm of rain for the day. They lied. Fortunately, once we got to the zoo the rain wasn’t heavy and was actually just a really light sprinkle. The nine of us (Jen, Mike, Bri, Serena, Katie, Chantalle, Nikki, Alex, and I) met up with a close friend of Jen’s who is also named Jenn (with two ‘n’s), her fiance Chris and their kids Nicholas, Kaitlyn, and Scotty (hope I got all the spellings right! Sorry if I didn’t) making us a gang 14 strong. The zoo was what you would expect of the zoo. Lots of different animals. We’ve gone to the zoo every year starting in 2005 and not much has changed. I was really looking forward to it this year as I was hoping Alex would be super-fascinated with the different animals. While he showed more interest in the animals than in previous years, it was still a little disappointing to me but we still had a great time. He seemed to really love the big animals like elephants and such. By far the coolest part was the Poke The Stingray exhibit. Okay, you don’t actually “poke” them, although i suppose you could. You hold your hand in the water flat and they swim over or under your hand. They’re really soft and squishy. Most definitely worth the $3 each to get in! By the end of the day a lot of kids, Alex included, we’re definitely tired and definitely a little whiny. It was a busy day for them. While not 100% positive, I’m sure Alex was sound asleep before we even got to the highway. We stopped in Milton for some Wendy’s then made it home around 10 after dropping off Chantalle and picking up Ryan.
This week Alex started swimming lessons. He goes every morning for two weeks from 10:45-11:15. Like most things, he hates to go at first then doesn’t want to stop. Yesterday of course was day two of swimming. Obviously it was also Canada Day. So the morning starts off with us dropping Ryan off at Nikki’s folks. Then we head over to the pool. Outside the pool they had a sign saying “splash pads open”. Silly me – I took that to mean that they actually had a splash pad there so I told Alex we’d go there after swimming. Oops. The sign actually refers to the splash pads across the city. So after swimming we stop back off at Nikki’s parents and ask them to keep an eye on Ryan a bit longer so we can take Alex to a splash pad. We head downtown to the Forks of the Thames and let him play there for a while. Again – like everything else – he ran away from the water at first whenever it would come on but soon enough he was playing and splashing in it. He was actually really good when it was time to go – no tantrum, no whining. So then we head back down to the south end to scoop up Ryan and then head home where Ryan and Nikki have a little nap in the afternoon while Alex & I chill out in the backyard. Around 3:00 I fire up the BBQ and throw on the half dozen rib eye steaks I picked up on Monday. By 4:00 my mom has joined us and all of us head back over to Nikki’s folks for a nice BBQ dinner. After dinner, around 7:30 we (Nikki, Alex, my mom, and I – Phyllis & Gord stayed home with Ryan) head over to the park to settle in and watch the fireworks. Again, Alex was super good and did as he was told while waiting the 2 hours or so for the show to start. Once the fireworks started Alex sat mesmorized by the display of lights and sound. He had a small bag of chips to snack on and my mom said that he didn’t even look at the bag; his hand just moved down to the bag, grabbed a chip, and back to his mouth. Of course by the time the show ended it was about 10:30 and Alex was one tired little munchkin. Once again we scooped up Ryan and headed home. Alex was asleep by the time we got to the mall (about two blocks). It was a really long day but most definitely one of the best Canada Days in my life! This is going to be a great summer!
From the start of the weekend through last night I’ve taken over 1200 pictures. I’ve got to sort through them all and resize them and get them uploaded. It’ll take me a few days but they should be up by the end of the weekend.
New pics are up
I know you guys miss my scathing editorials and humourous anecdotes; but rest assured – I’ve got something brewing in the ol’ cranium. I’ve missed writing them too.
In the mean time, there are some new pics up of Alex at Storybook this week. Enjoy!
Some new pics
Hey kids, just added a couple new galleries to the photo gallery. Shots I took at the park the other day and also shots from the Open Gym today.
More pics!
Just a quick update – uploaded more pics to the Easter 2008 gallery from the afternoon yesterday.
New pictures!
Added a new Gallery today – from Easter morning (as in THIS MORNING!!!!). You may notice the scrapes on Alex’s face. Apparently he still doesn’t do stairs very well…sigh.
We REALLY suck
Okay, I know. there’s a shit load of stuff to get done. Our updates suck. I *WILL* have pictures up by Sunday night at 11:59pm. There’ll be some of Alex, some of the new kid – which, by the way, is a boy in case you missed the news on facebook. I’m thinking of moving the pics over to a different platform that’s easier to upload to/access but I haven’t made up my mind yet.
Thanksgiving Weekend
Well, it’s that time of year again. The time of year where families all across this Great Nation gather around the table and give thanks for all the things that made their lives great. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year; but, before I get into that, let’s talk weather.
How about this weather? 2:00am, nearing the middle of October and it’s freaking 19 degrees outside!!! All you environmentalists can bitch and moan about “global warming”. All I have to say is if such a thing exists – THANK YOU!
Okay, back to Turkey Day. We had our dinner today as I have to work tomorrow (NOT looking forward to that. Monday’s are ALWAYS busy and we’re going to be short staffed. Ah well.). The original plan was to eat at Nikki’s folks however plans got changed and they ended up taking us out for dinner at the Harmony Buffet. Good eats. Alex was a *little* fussy and there was a quasi-accidental dumping of a bowl of ice cream on the floor but all-in-all pretty good. I was most proud of the fact that I didn’t gorge myself to overstuffed. I ate enough to be full but still quite comfortable.
The rest of the night was spent chillin’ in front of the “tube” (hmm…looks like that phrase will soon be an anachronism). After Alex went to bed we fired up the movie “Vacancy” and then decided to watch another movie after that. The choice was: go for the hotel/motel double feature and peep “1408” or geek out back to the 80’s with “Transformers”. Optimus won and we watched it. Although my initial reactions, prior to viewing, were negative, it was a pretty decent movie. What’s that you say? It isn’t out yet. Oops. Sorry, my bad. What I meant to say was we PRETENDED to watch the movie. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket. All hail aXXo.
So tomorr..err this morning we’re off to get a couple long overdue haircuts. Alex’s hair is quite shaggy and mine is simply too long now.
Oh, I’ve got a bunch of pics that I need to get up. I’ll try to find the time this week to do them up.
Happy Birthday Alex!
Wow! He’s two today. We have a few close relatives coming over. There’s going to food and cake and presents. I’m quite excited, but wow, he’s two today.
Let’s do an update then. By the end of this month, Alex SHOULD be able to:
*take off an article of clothing – yup, he likes taking off his pants and then his diaper.
*“feed” a doll – yup, he loves his cow, and he feeds it his food all the time.
*build a tower of four cubes – yup.
*identify two items in a picture by pointing – we can ask him to point and he will and he can point and say the words on his own as well for quite a few different pictures.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*build a tower of 6 cubes – yup.
*throw a ball overhand – yup and other things, but the other things get him in trouble.
*speak and be understood half the time – pretty much everything he says now, Rob and I understand, other people, probably not so much.
*identify 4 items in a picture by pointing – see above.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*jump up – sorta. His feet don’t really leave the ground but he bounces up and down as if trying.
*put on an article of clothing – not on his own. He can’t put the shirt over his head, but he can get his arms in on his own once that’s done. Same with pants, once their over his feet he can pull them up.
…may even be able to:
*draw a vertical line in imitation – yup.
*build a tower of 8 cubes – yup.
*carry on a conversation of 2 or 3 sentences – yeah, not so much.
In a blogging mood…
Just made a post on my poker site, so I decided to make a post here too. They are completely unrelated topics though.
Rob and I decided to sign up Alex for one of the programs that London offers. For 2 year olds there wasn’t much choice. There’s swimming, but yeah, I’m not too big on that, seeing as we have a pool here and well, I don’t want to be in a bathing suit in front of strangers. So we were left with a choice between Arts and Crafts or Music and Dance.
Both sound fun, especially for Alex. He loves music and he loves getting messy. If Rob and I had similar schedules and/or didn’t both work, we would probably do both, but we had to pick one. So we figured he’d like to be messy over dance and put him in Arts and Crafts.
It starts Sept 29 @ 9 AM and is weekly for 6 weeks. I’m quite excited and looking forward to it. He hasn’t had much interaction with other children yet and this will definitely be a great experience for him. If anything interesting happens in the class, I’m sure I’ll update it here. Maybe we can get some pictures of it too.
The (quasi-)long awaited post on African Lion Safari
So, as pretty much ANYONE who knows me already knows, we took Alex to African Lion Safari this past weekend. As those same people can already tell you – it was a MOST awesome trip. Nikki, my Mom, and I packed Alex and enough food to feed us (as well as a good portion of the wildlife housed at Lion Safari) into Mom’s van and away we went. We got there just after ten and parked. We headed over to buy our tickets for the guided bus tour through the Safari grounds. We didn’t really want to take the van through plus the bus tour has the added benefit of someone telling us exactly what it is we’re looking at. So off we go to buy our tickets. The first available bus wasn’t until 11:30 (which sold out while we were in line, leave 11:45 the first available). We huddled and decided that we would get tix for the 1:45pm trip as we wanted to see the 12:30 Elephant Swim. Tickets in hand, we strike off across the parking lot for the “park” section. In there they offered some animal displays, a boat ride, a train ride, restaurants, shows, a play area and a waterpark splash area. Nothing really starts happening until 11am so we looked at some of the birds in the cages. (see the photo gallery for some test shots of an entirely new method of wildlife photography that I was playing around with) After looking at a few birds we headed back to the boat and climbed aboard. It was a short little boat ride, about 15 mins or so and we got to see some monkeys and such. After that we went to the toddler play area and tossed the kid in the ball play area they had. He wasn’t really too sure what the hell he was supposed to do with those so after he winged a couple balls at another kid we pulled him out and let him play on the play equipment.
The elephant swim was pretty cool. After the swim we decided that we would eat lunch. After eating some of the far too much food we packed the van back up and headed over to the bus pick-up area for the trip through the safari. It was quite a hot day so a lot of the bigger animals (lions, rhinos, etc.) we’re being pretty lazy and just basking about. Alex was sorta like a T-Rex – if they weren’t moving he didn’t really see them. But the Baboons…he absolutely LOVED the Baboons. He was pointing and laughing at their antics. He was pretty good through the whole bus ride but did act up a little as we were getting near the end. Fortunately, there was another little kid on the bus that made Alex look like a complete angel. After the tour we went back into the park to check out the elephant round-up. Alex had a good time at that and the show was a good combination of trained elephant tricks and humour. We then headed for the splash pad. For those of you with good memories (if not, scroll down) you’ll recall how much he loved the splash pad at the Forks of the Thames. Yeah, take that times ten – easily. He LOVED this water area. And, like the other weekend, screamed bloody murder when we decided it was time to go. After that we pretty much decided that we would head for home. Needless to say, Alex was quite tired out and didn’t make it home without falling asleep but woke up before we got home.
The pictures are up in the Gallery. Enjoy!
Watch this space…
Hey everyone, just got back from African Lion Safari about an hour ago. Watch this space for a big write-up about it and even MORE pictures! Check back later tomorrow… But here’s a little teaser: it was a MOST awesome day!
23 Months
Only a month to go until my BIRTHDAY!! Anyway, here’s my update.
By the end of this month, …I SHOULD be able to:
*kick a small ball forward – Daddy started teaching me outside, later when inside, I would try to kick her, she wasn’t too impressed, I guess I have to stick with balls.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*combine words – a couple are “put back” and “in a minute”
*identify 6 parts by naming – pretty much, sometimes I mix them up.
*use 50+ single words – I’m sure I am, and sometimes when Mommy and Daddy say I new word, I repeat it right away.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*put on an article of clothing – Nope…sigh.
…may even be able to:
*identify 4 items in a picture by naming – I can pick out my family and I can recognize “kitties” too.
*use prepositions – Nope.
22 Months
By the end of this month, I SHOULD be able to:
*use 6 words – oh yeah, I’m a talking machine.
*walk up steps – I’m a master of this too
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*build a tower of 4 cubes – I don’t really play with blocks much.
*follow a 2 step command without gestures – I do this well, when I actually listen.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*build a tower of 6 cubes – see above.
*identify 4 pictures by pointing – yup.
*wash and dry hands – I love doing this, every time Mommy and Daddy head to the bathroom, I come just so I can wash my hands.
…may even be able to:
*jump up – I haven’t tried yet.
21 Months
Alex was busy playing outside today, so I’m updating the website for him.
By the end of this month, Alex SHOULD be able to:
*build a tower of 2 cubes – yup.
*point to 1 body part when asked – yup.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
*kick a ball forward – he doesn’t kick yet, he seems to like throwing better.
*identify 2 pictures by pointing – yup.
*remove an article of clothing – he’s been doing this for what a month, two months?
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*brush teeth, with help – yup.
…may even be able to:
*put on an article of clothing – not yet, but I think he kinda knows how, he just needs the co-oridination.
New Toy
Well, I had to break down and buy a new laptop. Alex has learned how to open my laptop and anytime I leave the room he has at it. I’ve actually started to put an elastic around the old laptop to keep him out. Unfortunately, I didn’t start doing that before he broke my #7 key and the space bar. As you can see they still work but the buttons themselves are missing. Prior to Alex’s fun, my computer had been having issues anway. There are previous posts about it here. So, Rob did some shopping for me two days ago and we found a decent one for just under $700 before taxes and such. It came today and he’s working on setting it up right now. I hated spending the money, but I spend so much time on the computer and since it’s crap now, I had to do it. Although Rob wanted a 17” screen, I opted for the 15”, mostly because I wanted to prevent Rob from stealing the new computer. It was my compter that broke, so it should me my new toy!
Time Flies
Wow, I’m 20 months old now. Well, here is an update on my progress.
By the end of this month, I should be able to:
*dump an object in imitation – yup
*use a spoon/fork – mostly, things I poke actually end up on the fork, but I still pick it off then put it in my mouth.
*run – yup and then trip over my feet.
…may possibly be able to:
*combine words – yup, the main one is “put back”, mommy and daddy tell me to do this alot.
* identify 1 picture by naming – yup, I can recognize mommy, daddy, and myself in pictures, I can also tell kitties.
*name 6 body parts – yup.
*throw a ball overhand – yup.
*speak and be understood half the time – well my parents understand me most of the time, but I don’t know about anyone else.
*use 50+ single words – I’ve never counted my vocabulary, but I’m sure I’m at least close.
…may even be able to:
*identify 4 pictures by naming – see above.
*build a tower of 6 cubes – I think I can, but I’ve never shown mommy or daddy that I can. I do stack block alot though.
19 Months
I’m going to be quick and to the point this month.
By the end of this month,
…I SHOULD be able to:
Stupid book, it just says “perform all preivious should be able to’s”, I’m not going to go through them all, but I’m sure I’m doing fine.
…will PROBABLY be able to:
* “feed” a doll – no feeding, but I make them kiss each other and I hug them, that’s similar right?
*use 6 words – I’m a pro!
*walk up steps – up and down, I no longer need help, although I won’t turn it down.
…may POSSIBLY be able to:
*build a tower of 4 cubes – yup.
*identify 2 pictures by pointing – yup.
…may even be able to:
*name 6 body parts – almost, I know eyes, nose and belly button.
*wash and dry hands – I like soap, although sometimes I try and put it in my mouth.