Happy Birthday Desiree

Seventeen today! Happy Birthday Desiree.

More Spidey Gear

Calum is a very lucky boy, both sets of grandparents gave him Spiderman gifts this week. He loves everything and is running around the house dressed from top to bottom as Spidey shooting webs and spraying us with water. We found the old cartoons on Youtube too so he now thinks only Dad's laptop plays Spiderman cartoons. I'm just happy because there are a few we haven't seen yet so it's something different to watch.

Thanks to the grandparents and to Larry and Tabitha for delivering the gifts from Merritt. Calum is working on his on thank you notes and we will get them to you as soon as he finishes.

Star Wars

Calum is mesmerized by Star Wars. We watched Empire Strikes Back last night to see if he would take to it. He did. I'm beginning to think that we should have named him Don Jr (Jr.)

A Flair for the Dramatic

Calum has a dramatic flair not seen since Desiree and Dakota were little (I'm guessing here but I really think this comes from their Dad). Last night I said something , can't remember what it was but it must have been "No", which upset him. He cried his big tears, his lips trembled, and when that didn't work he walked over to the tissue box and grabbed one to dab the tears from his eyes and to wipe his nose. He really made a point of making sure we saw him do it too. I think there may have even been a sniffle or two involved.

This kid never forgets anything either. I told him his spidey pjs were dirty and needed to be washed in an effort to get him out of them and changed for daycare yesterday. He seemed to agree and I got him changed into his non-spidey clothes and off to daycare. As soon as we got home yesterday afternoon, he was asking to go downstairs. I thought he wanted to play on my computer or with the toys in our office but he went to the dryer and tried to open it looking for his spideys. Now, bad mommy that I am, I had only started a load just before going out to get him so they were still in the wash. Luckily, thanks to Nanny and Papa, he has a second set and we rushed upstairs to get him changed. I tried to put this off, asking him if he wanted to go to the video store. He said "Yep" but insisted on wearing his pjs again, all the way to the video store. At the video store he remembered exactly where the Spiderman cartoon was in the kids section and insisted on renting it (again).

Toddlers sure are a lot of fun - they can drive you crazy and make you laugh at the same time.
Look for some new pictures later in the week.

Now it's Elmo and "The Guys"

Calum's latest thing is he has to be wearing an "Elmo" pamper. They all have pictures on them - Elmo, Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Ernie and Bert, etc. but apparently only Elmo will do for our boy. I'm running out of ways to trick him because only about 1/6 of each bag has an Elmo picture on it. Tonight he saw through me and immediately went looking for the right pamper and asked for me to change him again.

His other love at the moment is "The Guys". "The Guys" are those Little People and animals that come with toys like his barnyard, etc. They are also any small plastic figure like Dora and Boots (the most special of all the guys). They have a bin full of them at daycare and all the kids love them. Calum will take my hand and put one of the guys in it to get me to play with him. He likes to pretend he is an astronaut or to have them jump or shoot Spidey webs. Today, after I picked him up from daycare, he was very anxious to get home to play with the guys. Desiree had cleaned up all of his toys and he was looking all over for them. Sometimes they get carried around in a little Dora back pack that Nanny gave him. Sometimes they all ride in a truck after lining up in a row waiting for him to pick them up.

Sometimes he reminds me so much of my brother when he was younger. I'm waiting for him to hit the sand box stage or the water gun stage. He already likes to chase us around with the plant spray bottle. I guess he won't have a Finigan or a Dukes of Hazzard car but he does sometimes want to cuddle with his teddy bears and play with his match box cars. Maybe it's a boy thing.

He is starting to ask a lot more for Dad. This morning he wanted Don to come with us to the daycare. I apparently am not as much fun at bath time because he wants Dad to do that too. Tonight Dad kept him entertained by playing with the guys, playing cars and shooting spidey webs at each other. He still wanted me to read him books though.

It will be a busy day tomorrow so I'm off to bed. Hope you are all having a good week.

He's got it...almost

Yesterday, as I was filling in the daily intake form at the daycare, Calum did something both cute and mean. Julia, a little girl on the toddler side, got a little too close for his liking. He told her "No!". He told her "Stop!". She didn't move so he shot webs at her "Peww, peww". Unfortunately Julia doesn't speak Spidey and she didn't move so Calum gave her a big push and made her cry. That got her to move but it also got Calum in trouble. Our Spidey has got to learn not to be a bully.

I am very, very pleased because Calum now loves the Harry Potter movies. He likes the owls, the house elf, the magic car and even laughs at Harry and Ron. I think he even likes the quidditch games. Now that is a true sign he is my son! He just saw it on tv one day and went over to the DVD shelf and pulled all the Harry Potter movies and asked me to put one on. He's smart and observant.

Everyone is mostly over our colds, finally. I realize just how bad Calum felt when I see how different he is. Last night was the first night he danced for weeks. When the boy doesn't dance you know he's not feeling well.

No other news, I'm busy as I have taken on extra work till the end of March. Don's busy as always. Desiree is starting to think about course selection for next year, grade 12, and thinking about college or university. Dakota volunteered at the school science fair and is planning on joining basketball next year. She attends most of her friends games.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Lookout, here comes Spiderman

We've been trying to teach Calum how to pretend to shoot webs from his hands like Spiderman because the shape of the hand is almost like the ASL sign for "I love you". He's really taken to it and goes around saying "Peww....peww" as he slings his web. Yesterday, one of the day care workers from the infant side spent some time around him and the first question she asked me when I went to pick him up was "What is he doing?" Calum helped explain by pointing to his Spiderman socks and saying "Spidey". What a funny boy.

I swear he also wrote the letter "e" last night too. Unfortunately, he's inherited our inability to spell as the "e" was for "Dakota". He has one of those little magnetic sketch boards and he wants you to tell him what to draw. You say, "draw dad" and he replies "yep" and makes a little scribble for dad. He will fill the board up and can point out each one to you if you ask things like "where's dad" or "show me Bazooka" (an excellent memory). He also has sounds he uses for letters "e i o" and draws those too.

One of his favorite things right now is his sticker book that he got for Christmas from Aunty Bonnie. He loves to put the stickers in the right place and is pretty good at recognizing where things ought to go. They play with small stickers at day care so his dexterity is pretty good and he can line the stickers up very well. By the time he hits kindergarten he may be ready to help teach it.

We've been working on expanding his vocabulary. Instead of him saying "Banana" we encourage him to say "Banana please" or "I want a banana". Last night he even signed the ASL sign for "please" while asking "Banana please". It's amazing how much they learn at this age.

Happy birthday Bonnie (Feb 14th). Better post while we remember.

Calum is

- the sort of boy who will turn the house upside down in 5 minutes but wipe away a spot on the floor while saying "Mess!"

- a boy who loves to chase us all around the house with a water spray bottle but is equally as happy turning the water on himself

- a boy who likes to say "hello" and "goodbye" to almost everyone, except for his mom. He and I should never be more than a few feet apart

- a boy who likes to chase those "nasty birds" away from the yard, then asks where they've all gone

- the sort of boy who eats his grapes one at a time - one for Calum, one for mom, one for Calum, one for mom.......because he doesn't mind sharing a good thing (except with his sisters)

- a boy who begins asking for his sister as soon as he leaves daycare and isn't happy till he gets home and finds them there

- a boy who can be convinced to do almost nothing unless he wants to do it (including getting changed out of his Spiderman pjs)

but all things considered, he keeps things interesting. He's back at daycare this morning, let's hope he lasts the day. I've got a lot of work to catch up on so I'm off to open the dreaded email inbox.

a quick update

Calum came home early today.....very early. He was at daycare for almost 2 hours but just wasn't feeling up to it. He was in good spirits in the morning but the nasty cough, sniffles and runny nose won't leave him alone. Dakota, who was on the mend, also came home for a block to get some more rest. The rest of us are still coughing and sniffling. My fever comes and goes and the constant coughing just makes things worse. It gives me some appreciation for what asthma suffers put up with - only they can't breath on top of not being able to stop coughing or the itchy throat.

We went to a retirement party for Grandpa Bain on the weekend. Well, Don and the girls went, Calum and I made several small appearances between walks around the parking lot, trips to the dollar store for bubble supplies, a quick stop at McDonald's for a snack and milkies in the car. This was all done while Calum was wearing his Spiderman PJs under his coat. He wore them all weekend till we could convince him they were yucky and in need of a bath (PS Mom and Dad, thanks for the new spidey gear. It will all get much use!)

Des and Dakota went to the Monster Truck event with Larry, Tabitha and Jen. Calum and I were sleeping when they got home so I'm not sure how it all went this year. We got to say a quick hello to Jen before they left but will have to have a proper visit the next time we go up to Merritt.