Calum welcomes 2008!

Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas!

An interesting start

So we've had an interesting start to the Christmas break. Calum got sick just after Don finished taking his couple of days off. He's never had the flu before so it was tough on him. It was a quick one though and in a couple of days he was better. It went through the daycare though so they closed it a day early. Then, as fortune would have it, I got it. Mine wasn't bad, it lasted less than a day and I feel better now. Don also had a touch. We are staying in for a day or so longer though. We don't want to spread it to our family and friends. I already did a thorough wipe down of the house but will have to do another just to be sure.

Not much new for us. Calum has taken to wrapping presents for himself, putting them under the tree, then unwrapping them when he can no longer resist the temptation. It's pretty cute but we already have bits of wrapping paper all over the house. Just wait till Santa comes.

Calum and I will be finishing his Christmas projects soon. He's making treats for the stockings this year and has been a busy boy planning it all out. We were hoping to make a trip to Merritt before Christmas but the roads are terrible this weekend and the girls are both working. We'll be up soon though, Nanny and Papa. Calum is already getting his sled ready.

Getting ready for Christmas

Santa's a good guy

Calum is already having fun and Christmas isn't here yet. He was very sad to see me wrapping presents and kept asking where his present was. I had to give him one of his stocking stuffers. We wrapped it together and he unwrapped it. We kept doing this till we ran out of his favorite wrapping paper. He left it wrapped and now proudly will show us all his present.

Today Don said Santa left Calum an early gift and had him choose a hand. In one hand was a diaper, in the other the new Simpson movie. Calum picked the diaper and was so happy that Santa brought him one. He proceed to pull down his pants to show me as soon as I got home from work.

When I asked if he liked Santa now he said "Santa's a good guy".

Funny boy.

It's Spiderman and Superman!

Calum had his Christmas party at the Old DC. They had face painting so this is how he looked when he greated us as we came home. Apparently he also has a lightsaber balloon too. Why not have the best of everything - Starwars, Superman, Spidey. What a funny boy.

Not much to report. We've just started to get ready for Christmas. We will be doing some shopping this weekend, putting up the tree and getting ready for the last week of work/school/daycare before Christmas.

Look for some more pictures in a couple of weeks.

Happy Birthday Rob

Happy Birthday Uncle Rob. Hope you have a good weekend.

We've got plans to go out and do a little shopping tomorrow. Calum is growing out of his size 2's (and even his 3's) so it's time to clear our his closet again. Yesh. He has requested a Luke shirt but I told him it will likely be a transformer shirt. Looks like we may have a fun day of negotiating with a 2 year old tomorrow.

We all still have a touch of a cold. Sniffles, coughs and looking like we just woke up. We are on our last box of kleenex so we move it from place to place. Guess we better pick up some more tomorrow too.

Not much new to report. Work's great, kids are doing fine (though driving us crazy), nothing exciting really. Calum has been getting little treats from Carole at work. I bring them home for him at night He now thinks he gets mail at our office and Don makes a big deal about how he wants him to get it sent to our house instead. He loves playing on my computer so don't be surprised to see a blog post from him. He'll figure it out soon. He's learned to page on my cell and I can't even do that.

Well he likely be up in about 4 hours so it's off to bed. Stay warm and have a germ-free weekend.

Happy Birthday to Nanny

Happy birthday Nanny. We love you and hope you are having a good day.

A kiss?

Desiree told me that when she picked up Calum he offered a kiss (though separated by the window) to a little girl as he was leaving. No, no, no. Those are my kisses. Enough said.

Calum has learned to say "Hey Baby" and has been saying it to the daycare staff. We can thank the girls for that one I think. He also likes "Hi girlfriend" but luckily he has save that one for home.

The girls are in Kamloops this weekend, Calum wanted to go too but we had to convince him that he was needed at home. I expect it will be a pretty quiet weekend for us. It was a pretty busy week so it will be nice to relax. Now all I need is a good book, something other than X-Men, Backyardigans, etc.

Have a good weekend all.

Cognitive Development

Calum is growing and changing so much these days. He's very aware of everything we say. I was telling Don about a guy I saw lying on the street in front of the office and Calum was listening. He was very concerned - and asked if he was OK, if he needed a doctor, if he went to the hospital. We saw a homeless person outside of the library with a shopping cart and he asked me why he had a cart and why he was outside.

I miss knowing more about what goes on at the Old DC. Calum tells me stories - "X was bad today. We had a fight." but I rarely see some of the kids now. Calum really enjoys himself though. Dakota and Desiree have been picking him up before we get home from work and he seems to have a lot of fun with them. Every day he asks "Dakota picking me up today?"

We haven't made plans yet for the weekend. We may watch our new DVDs or take a drive. Calum and Dakota want to get out and about so we'll see where we end up. Last weekend they went to the aquarium and had a lot of fun. Calum still pretends he's a Beluga.

Well Saturday morning cartoons are on and Calum wants me to watch with him. Have a good weekend!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to Grandma Bain!

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend. Calum and I have plans to return some library books and to go out and feed the birds. With all the wind and the rain, it promises to be a very quick trip!

November already?

I can't believe how fast October went by. Things are going entirely too quick this year. I missed posting a wish for Dad's birthday (Oct 19th) and wishing everyone a happy Halloween. We had fun. Calum went as Spidey, of course, and looked very cute. He got lots of candy and enjoyed meeting the other trick-or-treaters and people in the neighborhood. I came back from Victoria for the night and had fun. Unfortunately, he was getting a cold so we had a restless night and I was up by 4am to make the 7am ferry.

Calum (and dad) made it through his first night away from me ever. I think it was harder on me. I was staying at the Empress Hotel in Victoria, had a nice comfy bed, was dead tired, but woke every hour reaching for him. Don told me he slept through the night. I was going to take him back with me on Nov. 1st but he had a bad cough and no sleep so Don stayed home with him.

This weekend we are all resting trying to get over the cold. It looks to be a busy week ahead so hopefully we are all healthy again tomorrow.

Happy belated birthday

Happy belated birthday to Coy. He turned one yesterday.

Don and I had our anniversary on Friday. We have been married for 5 years! We had plans to go out for dinner but were both feeling pretty awful by the end of the day so we just came straight home. By Friday night, we both had fevers, scratchy throats, headaches and sinus issues. Flu season, welcome back. We had Buddy for the night but Rob had to pick him up on Saturday because as Don put it, Buddy is like a drug to Calum. We couldn't get him to settle down, he was a constant blur of excitement chasing the poor dog around the house (and forget about sleep). I guess we can't get another pet anytime soon.

As you can see from the pictures, we had a quiet weekend. The girls went up to Merritt for a funeral and won't be back till late today. We did go to the pumpkin patch before they left though. Yesterday we had a nice visit with the newest addition to the family, Dexter Guichon-Shuter! He's a cute puppy.

Last night Calum wouldn't settle for some reason - he didn't have a fever, no sinus issues, ears looked fine, no cough.... He probably slept from 10:00-11:00, 12:30-2:00 and went back down again for a nap at 5:30 this morning. I'm going to let him sleep for another hour but unfortunately he'll have to head off to the Old DC. Don had to leave early to get to the office then make it to the ferry terminal this morning for the 7am sailing. Look for him on the news. He may be the guy that's buzzing around in the background as I think he'll be drinking many, many cups of coffee today. Calum and I tried not to disturb him last night but I really don't think he got much sleep either. Maybe he'll nap on the ride over.

I think I may have gotten about 2 hours sleep. It sure doesn't feel like it. Look out Monday, here I come. To anyone that crosses our paths today, we apologize in advance for being grumpy. Some things you can't help, or stop (like a 2 year old that wants to play all night).

Spiderman strikes a pose (thanks Nan, for the sweater)

Calum meets Dexter

Pumpkin Patch

Where did you go?

Calum did not like the fact that I started my new job today. I dropped him off this morning and Dakota picked him up after school. The first thing he asked me was "Where did you go?" and then he told me not to forget him and that he was sad. It will be a bit of an adjustment for us all I guess. I am happy though - the work is interesting and I can actually talk about it with Don. We had a nice lunch today and the day just flew by (perhaps not for Calum though). I wonder how he's going to handle my upcoming night away. Tomorrow we are going to start decorating for Halloween. Calum is excited this year but has already got into the candy. That will teach me to buy it early this year. Look for more pics later in the week. I'm too tired to download them tonight. BTW, welcome back to my sister, Bonnie. She's back from a 2 week stay in New Zealand.

Check out my Slide Show!

Larry's Graduation

Girlfriend?

Calum and another boy both say that one little girl is their girlfriend. Calum also told me that she is cute. He's only 2! No girls till he's 20, at least. Kids grow up too fast.

First Haircut - Don't worry, he still has some curls

Ramble

We're all settling back into our routines again. The girls are back at school, and keeping busy. Desiree is in grade 12 and has a pretty good schedule this year. She's taking photography and dance and her school day ends at around 2pm everyday. Dakota is not in band this year. She's been trying to convince us to sell her sax and buy her a guitar. She's running for grade 10 student representative and has been busy on her campaign. Calum's settling back into the Old DC but we are getting anxious because he's only there till March. One parent told me today that her son has been on some wait lists for over two years! They are are two top choices too.

Not much new for Don and I. Don's looking forward to the start of the regular season (hockey), even if he says he doesn't care. He's been trying to convince me that we need digital cable this year but I'm resisting. As far as I can tell, you really only get the channels you already have in digital format. I've been slowly doing some fall cleaning - getting together that yard sale stuff for the sale that we have not yet had. We've got a lot so I'm going to have to do something. I've also started knitting a scarf. I got about 12 rows done, was just getting into the pattern when Calum decided my knitting needles were light sabers and pulled the scarf off. It has since unraveled to about 2 rows but I won't start over till he tires of this light saber kick. This morning he was desperately looking for something to take over to the Old DC so he and his friend could be jedi. I had to say no to the plastic swords, Christmas decorations, knitting needles and pieces from the grandfather clock(???). Yesterday he was using a small piece of construction paper so I knew he'd find something there and he did (a piece of plastic asparagus and a banana).

We've been working on potty training though both Don and I are reluctant to jump into it. Calum likes his big boy underwear though so he wears it in the evenings while we keep trying to get him to use his potty. He'll pretend but we not had any success yet. This weekend we are going to try to take him in for a haircut. His friend at the Old DC has a new cut (he had long curly hair) so I think he'll finally be ready. Look for some pictures next week.

Something for Bonnie

My sister is off to New Zealand on Friday so here are a few pictures to get her ready. If I don't see you, have a great trip! When the conference is over be sure to take lots of photos, go shopping (don't forget the chocolate fish & a bottle of L&P or Lemon & Paero), try the meat pies and go on an adventure or two. Remember that Kiwi drivers are crazy so be careful crossing the street.