Playdate

Since before Simon was born, I have chatted online with some other Moms who have babies the same age. Most of them are dispersed across the US, but there are a few Canadians. Of course, with Canada being the size that it is, it was unlikely that any of us would ever meet. Well as luck would have it, one of the other Moms Melynda, has family in Ottawa so we got a chance to meet up and do a playdate with Simon and Ally (Alexandra). Alexandra is Simon's opposite - blue eyes, blond hair and so petite and she is a chatterbox (well Simon is too but she uses real English words!). We went to the Children's Museum and Simon got to show off all his favourite things from the last time that we were there. Melynda and I got a bit of a chance to talk but two 18-month olds are fast and they always went in opposite directions. We did get to chat later though when we went out for lunch and Simon and Ally both enjoyed the Tex Mex fare at the Lone Star. Melynda is set to give birth pretty darn soon so it will probably be awhile before she braves the trip with two children but we can't wait to meet up again.

We were expecting.....

We were expecting a whole lot more balloon related activities at the Gatineau Balloon festival. Turns out that the hot air balloons are only on display during a few short periods during the day. We just so happened to get there after one such session had already passed. So we spent a lot of time wondering around, listening to really loud shows where the performers all see to have been performing the same song, and eating. We thought that the food was going to be the only worthwhile part of the outing - we had the most incredible homemade chips and of course, cotton candy. Luckily the chips kept Simon distracted so we were able to stay for the balloon send off. It was spectacular seeing them so close. They were taking off right in front of us in droves and dotting the skyline with colour. Simon loved watching and pointing at each and every one of them. Towards the end, it started to get old for him so we packed up and headed home. Next time, we'll have to time our outing a little better and definitely remember to bring a stroller!

Guitar Hero

Sleepy Baby??

We figured Simon was just tired after his first week back at daycare. He had been out every evening this week, had four days of only one nap, and an extra daycare day playing with his friends so we didn't think anything of his fatigue come Thursday evening. We should have been tipped off when he just held a pickle for half an hour versus devouring it (Simon is a pickle monster) but we figured a nap in the car on the way to my soccer game would rejuvenate him. Wrong! When we got to the field, Simon just slouched in his chair only standing up to turn around and throw up all over said chair. Poor kid looked pretty miserable. Luckily Matt and my friend Sonja jumped into action (I am so not good with vomit). Matt stripped Simon down while Sonja rinsed off the chair as best she could and then loaded it into our truck. Simon slept the whole way home, woke for a bottle, and then returned to la-la-land again. We kept him home Friday just incase there were any more sickies but aside from a little sleepiness, he seemed in good spirits. Let's hope there's not more of this in the near future!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated a milestone birthday today, turning 30 years of age! Matt went all out planning a surprise birthday for me at one of my favourite restaurants. I ruined the surprise by discovering the plans - although I had already figured he would be up to something. Surprise or not, it was a fantastic evening. A nice leisurely dinner with 22 of our closest friends - good food, great conversation and generous friends spoiling me with gifts. Matt's gift to me, sleeping in until 9:00am and then napping away the afternoon, this in addition to the Pilates reformer that he bought for me earlier this year. It was a perfect day.

Bedtime just got a whole lot more interesting

Simon has been all about going vertical lately - climbing the stairs, standing on his toys, jumping on the bed....and his latest adventure, climbing out of the crib. We put him down for a nap and about half an hour later, we heard some chatting and some thumping. Now thumping is not uncommon for Simon. Kicking the wall repeatedly apparently helps him to sleep. But sometimes, chatting and thumping indicates that nap time is a bust and Matt felt this was one of those occasions. Imagine his surprise when he opened the door and saw Simon sitting on his lamb chair, reading a book. Matt confirmed that I hadn't let him out of the crib and then we quickly changed our plans for the morning and went about lowering Simon's crib to the lowest level. Hopefully that keeps him in until we get a chance to childproof his room and the top of the stairs.

Day at the Zoo, oh I mean museum

living in the Nation's capital we have a huge number of museums within our reach. However, between naps and meals, there never seems to be enough time in the day to take advantage of these local treasures but today we decided to eat in the car so that we could take in the Bob the Builder exhibit at the Museum of Civilization. The kids portion of this museum is pure kid heaven. Simon couldn't get past the British phone booth at the entrance so we spent about a half hour there going in and out, in and out, in and out, repeat, repeat, repeat. We finally managed to convince him to move on (i.e. we carried him into the next exhibit). He became equally obsessed with each progressive exhibit, the best one being the Bob the Builder room. It was toddler heaven with cars, a ball machine, lots of tractors to climb on, walls to build, wheelbarrows to push and fun dress up gear (well fun for us - and great for photo ops.). We also ran into Simon's friend Trevor while we were there. We spent a good three hours running around and Simon was enthralled the whole time. We will definitely be looking into a family membership to keep Simon entertained throughout the winter.

Arranged Marriages

An arranged marriage, we're thinking this may be the way to go. We had some friends over to dinner and they have the most adorable daughter, an older woman, and Simon was totally smitten with her. Their son, Benjamin, showed the same love for spicy food as Simon and scarfed down a large quantity of Tandoori chicken. We hope to get together again soon.

Child Labour

Our yard has been sorely neglected this summer. Matt and I have been unable to keep up with the never ending weed creep from the construction near our house. In order to make it a bit easier to pull them, we decided to pull out the grass at the back of the property and put in a cedar hedge. Matt was in charge of digging the trench, and I was in charge of entertaining Simon. Well it turns out that Simon was more entertaining by his Daddy digging and wanted to help out/interfere.

Exotic Versus Domestic??

Matt and I tend to lean towards the more exotic things - our cars have always been imports, we love food from a variety of regions around the world and when we go to the zoo, we like to look at the lions, tigers and monkeys. It appears that our son's taste may lean more towards domestic things judging by his reaction to the common animals at the Papanack Zoo today. We first checked out the cougars and Simon could not have been more bored but when we got to the raccoons, he went ballistic screaming, jumping, shaking the fence and pointing. The turkeys garnered a similar reaction. However, we had to drag him away kicking and screaming from the ducks - yes I said the ducks! They were the highlight of the day and we spent a good 20 minutes there. Thankfully for Matt and I, the ducks were in the same exhibit as the monkeys so we fed them and watched their antics while Simon giggled at the ducks. We were surprisingly impressed with the zoo since neither of us had either been. They had quite a lot of animals and aside from the scariness of some of the enclosures, it was a pretty nice place. There was lots of open space for Simon to run around and with the weather being on the cool side, most of the animals were awake (including the nocturnal raccoons) and jumping around to the delight of Simon.