Winter and Holiday Fun

First off, let me start by wishing everyone who reads this site a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. We hope that the holidays were filled with fun, family and lots of good times and that the New Year brings you much happiness.

It continues to be a busy place in our household. I haven’t been able to update this site for almost two months (yet again), so I’ll try to summarize all of the important stuff going on with Alex and our family.

I’ve put a ton of new pictures into the “Winter Fun” family photo album, including pictures from November right through the holidays – hope you like them.

Probably the two biggest things going on with Alex over the past two months is that we moved him out of his crib and into a ‘big boy’ bed and he also moved out of the toddler room at daycare into the Rainbow Room (for kids 2.5-3.5 years of age). Both changes went through without any big issues from Alex, thank goodness, but the bed issue was a bit of a shock for us. We’d talked about moving him, but he was always so content in his crib that we never felt pressured to do so. One day when Chris was away on a business trip, Alex woke up around 4:00 a.m. and so I brought him into bed with me (in the hopes of getting a few more hours sleep) and for the first time ever, he actually fell asleep in our bed (instead of bouncing around and wiggling like crazy). I mentioned to him that he could soon be in his own bed instead of a crib, so when Chris got home from his trip, we put the new mattress down beside the crib to get Alex used to the idea, but he wanted to sleep on it that day, so we tried it and he did it without any fuss!

Within a couple of days, we took down the crib permanently (that was really a bittersweet moment) and set up his new bed, which he seemed to love. The only funny thing was that he quickly realized he could get himself out of bed and roam around his room, taking toys off his shelves, clothes out of the drawers/cupboard, etc. The funny thing was that he’d often just nod off where he’d been playing, so we kept going to check on him to find him asleep on the floor, in the doorway to his room, on his rocking chair, etc. He now stays in his bed and has hopefully stopped completely destroying his room before he falls asleep.

The other big change was the move to the next level in daycare, with a new teacher and new kids/routines. The centre arranged for him to visit the new group over the course of a few weeks, and so the transition went really smoothly and he seems to love the new room and teacher.

One other exciting bit of news was that a picture of Alex was chosen for a fundraising campaign for the Kingston General Hospital. The picture is one from when Alex was 8 months old, and they felt it really tied in with their “Light up my Life” slogan, so Alex’s picture ended up being on posters all over Kingston, on flyers and on banners at the hospital and in the Kingston Santa Claus Parade (on one of the floats). It was so cool to see our son’s picture all over the place and I’m sure Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed being able to point out their cute grandson to their friends.

We’ve had lots of fun preparing for the holidays and taking Alex shopping, decorating cookies and making a gingerbread train and taking him to visit Santa at the mall. I don’t think he completely understands the concept of Christmas and Santa and everything that goes along with it, but he did grasp the need to tell Santa that he wanted “Mighty Mac” and “Chinese Dragon” trains (part of the Thomas the Train set of trains that he is obsessed with).

For the holidays, we went with my side of the family to Chateau Montebello in Quebec for the holidays. We all had a wonderful time and got a bit of time to relax and hang out with the family. Our niece, Jennifer, got sick on Christmas Eve and was still feeling rotten on Christmas morning, so she missed a lot of the stuff, but she was so mature and grown up about it all and we were just so impressed with how well she handled missing out on so many things.

One of the most exciting parts of the visit to Montebello was that Santa made a special trip to visit the kids at the hotel on Christmas Day. He arrived on a horse (there was no snow for the reindeer or a sleigh) and waved to the crowd and then went out of sight before appearing magically on top of the hotel’s roof and then came down the chimney to hand out presents to all of the kids in the hotel. It was a lot of fun and the hotel did such a great job of organizing it.

We got home from Quebec on the 27th (we stayed overnight in Kingston as the drive is too long for Alex), and then hosted Chris’ family at our place for a brunch today. Our two nieces, Amanda and Sarah, are growing up so quick and are becoming such wonderful young ladies. They’re so good with Alex and it was great to see them and Chris’ sister, her boyfriend and Chris’ cousin and his wife and son.

We have no big plans for New Year’s, but we’re hoping to get Alex fully potty trained sometime soon and also get a bunch of stuff organized around here. We have a lot of resolutions that hopefully we’ll stick to, so I’m sure 2007 will be a great year.

Once again, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from us to you.

Catching Up Time

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve updated this website. It’s been a pretty tiring, busy and stressful few months, so I’ll try to summarize it all into a relatively short entry.

August is a bit of a blur for me. For some reason, my back went out without any warning or any injury, and within a couple of days, I was almost totally laid up. It was a tiring month, and frustrating as we didn’t know what was going on, but things started to ease up towards the end of the month and then Alex came down with a bit of a cold, and then Chris caught it and then I had it... and unfortunately, I’m prone to bronchial infections, so both Chris and Alex ended up feeling better after a few days, and I ended up in emergency. Oh well, such is life.

Onto more interesting things. Since I haven’t updated the site since early August, I’ve put a bunch of pictures into a new folder so you can see what we’ve been up to in August, September and October.

Alex continues to grow up too quickly for our liking. He’s doing very well in daycare two days a week, and is talking up a storm. He’s getting more chatty with other people as well and loves flirting with people and saying hi whenever he knows someone’s paying attention to him.

We had him signed up for swim lessons, but decided after the first one that it wasn’t for us. He loves the water, and loves swimming with us and is fearless, but the swimming lessons made us nervous as the teacher had a lot to deal with and it was hard to keep track of where the kids were, and with two-year-olds, we just didn’t think it was safe enough for us to go back a second time.

We were able to go see my parent’s in Kingston for Thanksgiving. It was a quiet weekend as Kathy wasn’t able to make it with the girls, and Jenny was busy working, so it was just the five of us. Alex had such a wonderful time with his grandparents and we took advantage of the lovely weather and went to the Farmer’s Market and did some other walking around. It was also Bob’s birthday, so we celebrated that with a cake that Alex was all excited about.

Alex and I also went to Mississauga to see a friend of ours and have Alex’s first real playdate. We visit with a lot of friends who have kids, but this was the first time another Mom and I had planned a specific date for the boys to get together. It was so fun watching them interact – if one did something, the other often tried to do the same thing. Both boys are just now getting to the age where they like playing together and interacting, so hopefully we’ll be able to have more playdates.

Alex continues to be totally enamoured with trains, especially the ones from the Thomas the Tank Engine series. He’s now got quite a few of them, and he’ll spend tons of time playing with them, organizing them, making long trains out of them, etc. He knows all their names, tells us all the stuff from the stories we read and the videos we watch, etc.

A couple of weeks ago we had Chris’ sister, her boyfriend, Lew and our nieces Sarah and Amanda over for dinner and a visit. We loved having them come by and treated Karen to a belated birthday present and cake.

Halloween was lots of fun, with going out to pick out a suitable pumpkin, carving it and then getting Alex all excited about the whole trick-or-treating idea. He was dressed as a lion and we went into Toronto so we could also see our nieces who we hadn’t seen since a wedding in September. Everyone had tons of fun, and Alex caught on pretty quickly. At the first house, he got a chocolate bar, which he wanted to stop and eat right away. We convinced him to go to the next house as he’d get something else, and by the third house he just walked up, knocked on the door and loudly proclaimed, “MORE CHOCOLATE, PLEASE” much to the delight of the woman handing out candy. He had tons of fun, and thankfully we were able to get rid of most of the candy so he just had a few small things to enjoy for a few days of treats.

The only other big news with Alex is that we’ve started the potty training, and he’s now also sleeping in his ‘big boy’ bed. For now, it’s still just a mattress on the floor, but we’ll hopefully get him moved into the full bed once he’s comfortable with being out of his crib.

Well, that’s probably enough for now... I’m sure I’m missing lots of stuff but it’s hard to condense three months of info into a relatively short entry.

Hope you like the new pics.

Celebrating Canada Day

I've been really tardy in updating this site. I uploaded a bunch of pics a few weeks ago, but never got around to updating the journal so I'm finally finding time to do that.

As it's been more than a month since my last update, I'll try to remember what we've been up to.

One of the most exciting things we did since my last post was to celebrate Canada Day with Alex. We stayed in Cambridge and took Alex out to Riverside Park to check out the midway and other things. Alex got a couple of maple leaf tattoos, and he went on his first 'ride' by himself - and he loved it. Alex also got to try cotton candy and a snow cone for the first time ever, and he liked both although he was more keen on the snow cone.

After that, we had a great dinner at home and then set off some fireworks in our backyard in honour of Alex's first Canada Day as a Canadian citizen.

We also hosted a BBQ for Chris' family, with his sister and her family coming in from London, and Chris' cousin and family coming from Oakville, as well as another of Chris' cousins who were visiting from England. We had a wonderful and relaxing afternoon and it was great to meet some more of Chris' side of the family.

Another big event in July was a huge picnic/BBQ we attended near Stratford. A family we know who also adopted a baby from Korea has an annual picnic at their home, and this was our second year attending it. They had over 120 people there, with tons of kids and babies from Korea, as well as a few families-in-waiting and some people from the Korean community who told the kids stories, did face painting and also gave a quick demo on how to make kimchee.

I've also been taking Alex to African Lion Safari lately - mostly for the waterpark as it's a pretty good one. We have season's passes, so it's an easy thing to do to go there for an hour or two and take Alex for a boat or train ride or play in the water.

We also took Alex to a "Day Out with Thomas" (as in Thomas the Tank Engine). The day was fun, but it was sooooooooo hot and Alex was a bit fussy because he was hungry, but overall he had a great time. We picked up a few mementos for Alex at the Thomas store and then made our way home with Alex falling asleep about 3 minutes after we put him into the car.

I've been busy with a bit of work and doing some scrapbooking stuff, and Chris continues to be busy with his job.

I hope you like the pics in the new folder.

Gardening, Parties and Teething

Summer is finally upon us and with it came Alex’s second birthday. It seems like just yesterday that we were waiting anxiously at the airport to see him for the first time, and now he’s officially a little “boy” instead of a baby. It is fun to see him learning, trying and experiencing so many new things, but I also miss so much of the stages that have flown by us so quickly.

I know it’s been more than a month since my last post, so I’ll try to update things for everyone.

It’s been a fun month for our family, with Alex settling in quite easily to daycare two days a week. Chris has been busy with a new product launch and some work on a new computer program his company is initiating, and I’ve been really busy with work from a few clients plus trying to get my scrapbooking business off the ground. At times it felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall, but then I had two small things happen that turned things around so I’m more hopeful that I’ll be able to do what I hope to be able to do with this new business. If nothing else, I’m meeting some amazing new people, learning a bunch of new things, getting some scrapbooking and cardmaking done and also spending way, way, way more than I’ve earned to date. *grins*

Alex’s birthday was on June 11th, and although we promised ourselves we’d keep it small and simple this year, we ended up deciding to have a backyard BBQ and had about 30 family members and friends join us for lunch, cake and a slightly chilly afternoon in the backyard. Alex had a supremely good time, and the rest of the kids there seemed to have fun as well. The adults mostly relaxed and chatted while the kids played, and it was wonderful to get so many people we love and care about together for a fun afternoon.

We’ve also seen Chris’ cousin, Steven, and Steve’s wife, Elaine quite a few times – for breakfasts, or dinner/movie nights, etc. As we live about halfway between Chris’ sister and Steve, we’re the ideal place for Chris’ family to get together, and we’re actually looking forward to another visit from that gang when one of Chris’ other cousins visits from England this month.

There’s not a lot of other news going on other than Alex is cutting four teeth all at one time, which meant he woke up on Father’s Day with a fever that stayed with him for about 48 hours. Overall he was pretty good but you could tell he wasn’t feeling too well, and he’d often point to his mouth and tell us his “teeth hurt” but Tylenol seemed to help out, as did ice cream and popsicles. We kept him home from daycare yesterday as he still had the fever in the morning and he really wasn’t a happy camper, but he’s back to himself today.

I’ve added a bunch of new photos into a new summer album, so feel free to take a look if you like.

Spring Has Sprung! (with lawnmowers)

Yet another month has flown by, and what a fun month it has been. Alex started going to day care twice a week and he’s loving it. He’s having such a good time, trying lots of new things and learning to play with other kids his own age. It feels weird to be in the house and not have him here, but we know it was the right thing to do both for my ability to get some work done, and also for Alex to get some structured time with someone other than us.

It’s been a pretty busy month overall. We had a great time with our Seoul-Mates playgroup at an indoor playground in Mississauga. There were quite a few families there and the kids had such a great time as there were different rooms with different things to do. Alex loved looking at the different animals in one area, and he also loved playing with the balls and cars. His favourite thing, by far, was discovered just as we were leaving. We were one of the last families to head out and as we were leaving, we went through one room that has some slides and climbers. Alex went up and down a smaller slide a few times, and then he saw the big one in the corner. It was one of those big plastic slides that curves around and you have to walk up a walkway to get up high enough to climb in. I wasn’t sure how Alex would like it as he’d have to go down on his own, and he’d never been in such a big slide before... but he LOVED it! He must have gone up that ramp and down that slide about 20 times, and because it was some type of plastic, it obviously had some type of build up of static electricity as Alex’s hair would stand up on end as he came down the slide, and the second he climbed off the slide to run up the ramp again, his hair would settle down, only to stick right up again on the next slide down. Chris and I had such fun watching him, and we got a few cute pics of him while he was having such a great time.

We also went to a birthday party for the daughter of friends of ours. Alex had a wonderful time there playing with some of the kids, and we loved seeing our friends’ daughter turn one.

Easter was also quite fun, even though our plans were changed at the last minute. We had Chris’ sister, Karen and her family over for lunch on Good Friday and we had such an amazing visit. Our nieces, Amanda and Sarah, were so good with Alex and he just loved following them around and playing with them. They stayed for a few hours and it was so nice to get a chance to visit with them and get caught up.

The next day was pretty quiet, but at the last minute we ended up deciding to go into Toronto overnight to see Kathy and her family. We stayed overnight and got to do an Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday morning. Our nieces, Jennifer and Sarah, helped Alex look for treats and toys left by the Easter Bunny and all three of them had a great time. Alex caught on surprisingly quickly and he enjoyed the few small treats we let him have.

Later in the day we went to the Easter Parade in the Beaches with some friends, and the family also came to enjoy the parade. I’m not sure Alex understood what was going on, but he certainly loved the horses the mounted police were riding, as well as all of the ambulances, fire trucks and police cars that were in the parade. I guess having the Chief of Police as one of the parade dignitaries really pays off in getting some fancy (and loud) vehicles into the parade.

I think Chris’ highlight of the past month was getting a chance to use our new lawnmower on our lawn. Our old one (bought second hand for next to nothing when we moved to Cambridge) had died last September, and so our lawn was a mess this Spring because we hadn’t been able to mow it for the last bit of growth before the cold weather hit. I bought one at a garage sale that looked like a good deal, and Chris was so thrilled with it. He said he hadn’t realized how bad our old one was until he used one that was newer and more powerful. While this was exciting for Chris, I cannot even begin to express how utterly thrilling the lawnmower is for Alex. Not only does it have wheels (anything with wheels is good in Alex’s opinion), but it makes noise! He would tell us over and over (and over and over) that he wanted to go outside for the lawnmower. I think Chris mowed the grass three times the first week, partly because he was having fun, but also because Alex was just spellbound by this new bit of machinery.

We ended up buying Alex his own little lawnmower, which he now pushes around the lawn while Chris mows the grass. He was even so excited about it that Chris heard Alex rouse up from a dead sleep one night, call out “push lawnmower” and then he went right back to snoring!

For us parents, it’s also been a busy time. I’ve been busy with work for different clients, and Chris has been busy promoting a new product introduced earlier this year by his employer. He was also out in Banff all this past week for a sales meeting, so I was flying solo with Alex for five full, long, tiring (but fun) days. In addition to my normal work for clients, I’ve also signed up to be a consultant for a scrapbooking and stamping company, and I’m so excited to be doing a bit of work in an industry that I enjoy personally, and also working for a company that has products that I simply love.

I’ll close this with our biggest bit of news in the past month. We’d applied for Alex’s citizenship in March and we’d been told it could take 6-8 months to be completed (or longer if you believed what the citizenship website tells you), but we were thrilled to learn that Alex officially became a Canadian citizen on April 20th! We’re now waiting for his citizenship certificate, but it goes without saying that Canada Day will be a big deal in our household this year.

I’ve put up a new photo album with some pictures from the last month, including some from Easter and our Seoul-Mates gathering earlier in the month.

Our Baby's Growing Up...

It’s hard to believe how quickly time seems to pass with Alex. He’s growing up so fast, and each new stage is so exciting, but also a little heartbreaking as it means he’s no longer our little baby, but is quickly turning into a little boy.

We’ve had a great few weeks and have been busy, healthy and happy. We went to Kingston to visit with my parents and Alex had an incredible time. We made it to Kingston a bit later than planned, but that didn’t stop us for heading out for a traditional Irish dinner at Fort Henry in Kingston. My mom thought it was quite cute when I joked about needing to connect Alex to his “Irish Roots” but it was fun to take Alex out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with his grandparents at such a special place, and for such a fun (and interesting) meal.

Alex ate tons of stuff, including the lamb stew and he then proceeded to drag either Grandma or Grandpa up and down the length of the dining hall over and over again.

We stayed in Kingston for a few days, and Alex had so much fun with both of his grandparents. They went out for walks together, holding hands as they explored Cartwright Point, and we also got to enjoy some great times. Chris and I even got to go out to a lunch on our own – a nice treat, especially as we were also able to do some shopping sans toddler.

The following weekend was another busy one as we hosted a small brunch for Chris’ sister, Karen, her boyfriend and our two nieces, Amanda and Sarah. We really enjoyed the visit and Alex flirted shamelessly with everyone, and had so much fun with his cousins.

The following week was when Alex first went to daycare for the first of three “visits” to get him used to the daycare, the caregiver and the other kids. Each visit was for about 90 minutes, and exposed him to different aspects of the centre’s programs, including outdoor playtime, snacks, arts and crafts, lunchtime and free time. We’re really pleased with our choice of daycare for Alex, and we have him booked to attend on Mondays and Thursdays, from about 9:00 till 2:45 p.m. My work is getting busier at times, so I really need the time to focus on projects and clients, plus we both think that Alex will benefit from such a program. The centre we chose is small, and there are only 5 kids in Alex’s group, so it’s a pretty quiet setting for him, but will give him lots of chances to try new things and learn to play with other kids his age, etc.

The last trial visit was last week, and then I was away for the weekend with a bunch of women from the playgroup where I take Alex. We’d rented a big cottage and nine of us went up for a “girls’ weekend” in Blue Mountain/Collingwood. It was a great time, and a few of us are avid scrapbookers, so I was able to get quite a few page layouts completed.

While I was away, Chris was able to take Alex swimming, and also went to visit his cousin, Steve and Steve’s wife, Elaine, in Oakville. Alex adores them, and from what I hear, they all had a fun time.

Alex’s first “real” day of daycare was yesterday (Monday, April 3) and things went very well. He didn’t really fuss when I left, and he seemed very comfortable with everything. We went to pick him up at lunchtime (a shorter day until we know he’s okay with this new routine), and he was sitting quietly at the table with the other kids eating his lunch. He didn’t even get up when he saw us, but kept eating and only ran over to hug us once he’d finished his yummy lunch.

We have another busy weekend coming up, with our Korean playgroup gathering on the Saturday and a first birthday party for our friends’ daughter on the Sunday.

I’ve posted a bunch of pics, including a few of Alex’s visits to the daycare, as well as some shots of him as he went off to daycare for the first “real” day without one of us there to keep him company.

Is It Spring Yet?

It seems like it’s been such a very long time since I last posted some pictures and did a journal entry. We’ve had a lot of fun with Alex, but we’ve also been struck by quite a few bugs and viruses.

Both Chris and I celebrated our 40th birthdays since my last entry, and Kathy and Jenny organized a party for both of us and our cousin, Patti (who was also celebrating her birthday). The party was tons of fun and it was great to see lots of family there. Chris’ cousin, Steve and his wife, Elaine, were able to come to the party and almost everyone from my mom’s side was able to make it as well. Alex had tons of fun and he was very social and outgoing.

Within a day or two of the party, Alex got hit with a bad cold/cough bug, and Chris ended up coming down with it soon after. Taking care of one sick male is hard enough – taking care of two was an adventure, but they both started to feel better within a few days... just in time for me to start feeling under the weather. Unfortunately, my cough hit really hard and I ended up at an emerg clinic being hooked up to yucky things to help me breath, and after a few hours (and threats of getting me admitted to the hospital if things didn’t improve *yikes*), I was sent home with a bagful of meds. It took me longer to feel better, but within a week I was back on my feet and was able to breathe again.

It seems like it was only a few days later that Alex woke up in the middle of the night with the stomach flu. He was up most of that night, and almost exactly 48 hours later, both Chris and I woke up within 15 minutes of one another with the same bad stomach flu. Unfortunately, young kids seem to bounce back quicker than adults do, so both Chris and I felt utterly wrecked for a day or so.

We got past that fun little bout of the flu only to have Alex cut two teeth the next week, so he wasn’t always sleeping well, and he had a runny nose and a fever on and off. Once the teeth were in, he seemed much more settled, but he then came down with yet another cold and very mild cough, so once again he and I weren’t able to get out to our normal playgroup activities.

In the midst of all of these bugs and germs, I did manage to get away with a girlfriend of mine for a scrapbooking weekend. Chris had bought me the weekend as a gift for our anniversary (should I worry that Chris’ anniversary gift was to send me away for three days???), and my friend and I had a great time with about 45 other women at the resort. We had lots of fun, did lots of scrapbooking and enjoyed some great food.

Another fun thing we were able to do was to host our Korean playgroup, Seoul-Mates, earlier in March. Each family takes turns arranging a place to go and organizing all of the details, and we’d volunteered to organize the one for March. We booked a playroom at our local Early Years Centre, and the staff and manager of the centre were simply wonderful! We had about 12 families join us and the kids all had a great time.

My biggest stressor this past month was an issue with my leased car. To make a long story short... the dealership knew I wasn’t keen on leasing from them again as I was miffed with some of the things that they’d done (or not done) over the course of my lease. I brought my car in for the lease-end inspection and was told they’d charge me $200 for a couple of scratches they considered “excessive” but if I didn’t buy/lease another car from them, they’d charge me over $500! After countless phone calls, letters, faxes, etc. to Mazda Canada and Mazda Credit in an effort to get permission to return my car to an alternate dealership, the net result was that I still had to return the car to this problematic dealership, plus they’d been told about my complaints. So... when we took the car in to return it, the charges they wanted us to pay were now over $2000! We had to go back to Mazda Canada and Mazda Credit, and the end result was that they sent out an independent inspector who assessed our car as having no excessive damage, so we were able to return the car without having to pay anything.

Needless to say, we didn’t buy another Mazda! I ended up getting a great deal on a new Ford Fusion and I’ve had it for a few weeks now and I love it.

Our other big news for this month is that we’ve decided to enroll Alex in daycare on a part-time basis. My work is getting busy enough that it’s hard for me to do the work while Alex is napping, or in the evenings, so we’ve found a place that will take him for two partial days a week. It’s a heart wrenching decision to make, and I’m sure it’ll be hard when we take him for his first day in April, but we are confident the place will provide amazing care and we both think he’ll actually love it there as they do so many different activities. I’ll be taking Alex for a few short visits to the centre to get him used to the caregiver and other kids, but it’ll still be a tear-filled day (for me at least) when we actually drop him off to be on his own.

We’re off to Kingston this weekend to visit with Alex’s grandparents, so I will be sure to take tons of pictures and post them when I can.