Where have all the flowers gone

Well with all of the basement renovations that we have been doing and weekends filled with rain, we didn't quite make it down to the festival portion of the Tulip festival. Needless to say, upon arriving today, we learned that tulips have an incredibly short life. We did manage to find a few beds with colour left on them and from a distance could pass as flowers but for the most part, we just enjoyed the stems, fresh air and a walk with Simon down by the water.

Tractor Obsessed

Well it figures now that construction is wrapping up in our neighbourhood that Simon would suddenly develop a love bordering on obsession for tractors (a.k.a "Dan"). Simon first encountered a tractor (named Dan) in one of his first books and was drawn in by its' flashing lights and loud noise. It wasn't until he started visiting the tractor exhibit at the farm that his obsession took root. Now we can't drive anywhere without being on the lookout for tractors. Walking to daycare has becoming an ordeal and it can take up to 1/2 an hour to walk down three houses because we are too busy watching all of the construction activity. In the past few weeks, they finished the landscaping on the houses in our neighbourhood (yeah, we no longer live next to an abandoned building lot but actually have real live neighbours), watched neighbours dig for a pool and watched while they ripped up the street in preparation for final paving. Needless to say, we have spent a lot of afternoons on the front lawn watching the tractors at work. I must say, this has been perfect for me in my pregnant state. Sitting and watching tractors with a totally engrossed 2 year old is a lot easier than chasing my crazy toddler.

I bought Simon a tractor picture book earlier this week and in three days he can already distinguish about a dozen different tractors. It's so fun listening to his tractor speak - his favourites are "backhoe", "mini excavator", "front-loader", "forklift", "bulldozer". We may just have a future farmer or construction worker on our hands or maybe just a wannabe like every other man who wishes they could dig their flower beds with machinery!



"Me ride it please"



Simon, enjoying a snack and watching the tractor laying the neighbours new grass

More Updates on Pregnancy Number 2

I had my latest appointment and ultrasound this week. Aside from the long wait at the doctor's office, things were pretty uneventful. Baby was measuring fine, blood pressure was okay, heart beat was normal. Apparently, I have a "history" of big babies so I need to go for a fourth ultrasound a few weeks before my due date to get a size estimate but other than that, nothing new.

The ultrasound was scheduled to check the location of the placenta. My earlier ultrasound had shown that the placenta was close to the cervix which would have caused issues for delivery. Well it was all good news. The ultrasound confirmed that this was no longer an issue and she gave us an approximation on the weight - looks like another big baby as he was already measuring in at 4 lbs.

Other than the obvious aches and pains associated with pregnancy, things are going well. This pregnancy is totally different than last though as it seems all of our preparations are centred around Simon versus the new baby. We have decorated his room, settled him in a new bed and come up with a new routine to get him used to his new room. Aside from moving Simon out of the nursery and washing a few clothes, we haven't done anything specific to prepare for the new arrival. Although we do have a list a mile long......

Day Two Score: Big Boy Bed 1, Simon 0

Well the second night in the big bed didn't go quite as smoothly as the first. Around 5am this morning, I heard a poor little boy sobbing and woke up Matt to go to him since carrying Simon down the stairs is just not possible for me these days. Matt found Simon on the floor crying and figured that he had woken up and climbed down. After a bottle and some cure all Fraggle Rock, Matt tucked Simon back into bed. Fast-forward to 7:45am when I had to go in to wake him up so that I could get working and Simon had his shoulder jammed up against the headboard and his head hanging over the side of the bed - I'm guessing that if he was sleeping like this last night too, that he likely fell off the bed versus climbed down. We're going to have to adjust the bedrail closer to the headboard tonight and hope that he doesn't take another header off the bed. Poor little guy - what a rude awakening.

First Night in His Big Bed

Matt was home yesterday to catch up on some of the man tasks around the house (which is pretty much everything these days in my pregnant state). He installed a gate at the top of the stairs and fixed the door to Simon's new room so we were good to go for a full night in the big boy bed. After a few books, no less than four of his favourite blankets and he was good to go for the night. He was out within minutes and there wasn't a peep until this morning when he shouted, "Mommy, nice nap". It looks like it was a success! Now if only we could get around to finishing the room...

Thomas the Tank Engine

It started off as a casual interest when he received the beginnings of his Thomas the Tank Engine train set for Christmas however, over the months as his set and collection of engines has grown and as he watches the tales of Thomas on television, Simon's casual interest has turned into a full-blown obsession. He even foregos trips outside to play trains these days. He can name all of his engines and doesn't play favourites - each one gets their own opportunity to crash and lead all of the other engines through the quarry mine tunnel and around the track. The funniest thing is when watching the show, the play a sing-a-long song at the end and Simon is quite particular about who gets to sing along - namely, only him.

More Experimental Farm and a Picnic with Jack and Kate

Now that Matt is finished with the craziness of year-end, his focus has shifted to our massive basement renovation. Needless to say, Simon and I are on our own most weekend mornings. Today we were lucky to have some company in our adventures as Kate was also a work widow for the day. We met her and Jack at the Agricultural Museum to check out some animals and all of the new babies. Simon and Jack both have a very similar disposition so it's great to get them together. We spent the first little while in the barn with all of the sheep, goats, horses, cows, pigs, bunnies and a token donkey. Simon and Jack were both thrilled to get to pet one of the resident bunnies who was out of his cage being introduced to the youngsters. Simon was a bit hesitant about touching the bunny but he kept talking about the soft bunny for the rest of the day so I gather it was a highlight. Once we checked out the animals outside, we hit the play structure. We timed things perfectly because things were still relatively calm and uncrowed at this early morning hour. After a few hundred trips up the stairs and down the slide, we moved onto the cow barn where we could get up close and personal with the baby calves. Jack loved it and him and Simon both were imploring (i.e. shouting at) the sleeping calves to, "stand up". We stayed in there for about as long as I could take the smell and then headed back outside for a snack. Next we headed up to check out the tractor exhibit. I had never made it up there before but Simon obviously knew the way (he spends quite a bit of time here with his grandparents). Simon is obsessed with tractors (a.k.a "Dan") and points out anyting even closely resembling one in all of our travels. A few more trips down the slide and a quick trip through the now crowed barn concluded our visit. We capped off the rest of the morning with a picnic and then headed home for a much needed nap. It was a great activity for such a beautiful day.

Napping in His Big Boy Bed

This weekend marked the start of the transition for Simon into his new room and big boy bed. We've been reading a lot of books in there so he feels comfortable and we've cleared out most of the mess so we figured we would start with naps and she how that went. Today after reading a few stories, we left Simon with a few blankets and crossed our fingers for a successful nap. Matt and I sat in silence downstairs both afraid to comment on the quiet from upstairs. Two hours later Simon woke and summoned us upstairs. He was quite proud of himself that he napped in his "new bed" and made sure to let everyone know. Here's to hoping nighttime goes as well, we just have to fix the door first and put a gate at the top of the stairs before we're comfortable trying for a full night.

Toddler Conversations

Nanna B: "I think a little boy pooped"

Me: "Simon did you poop?"

Simon: "Nope"

Me: (checks diaper and confirms Simon isn't lying). "No he just farted"

Fast-forward 5 minutes after I put on his shoes to go home and noticed a funny smell.

Me: "Simon did you poop?"

Simon: "Nope Mommy, farted"

Note: This time he was totally lying.

Swinging

I caught this great sequence of Simon swinging at the park the other day. Simon loves the swings - particularly now that he thinks he is flying like the geese he has been admiring flying overhead in the past weeks. He always asks for a, "big push" and loves to go as high as we can get him.