Techno Toddler!

Well, technically he is a preschooler not a toddler, but it sounded better that way. He loves to use the drawing program on Andrew's tablet (supervised of course). He also enjoys "typing"on the key board of Mummy's computer. His favorite key is "B".

Pancake Tuesday

Only in Canada....

The weirdest thing happened at playgroup yesterday....

We sing "Hello and how are you?" in circle.

And it goes;
"Hello and how are you?
Hello and how are you?

Hello and how are you, how are you today?"

Then we go to the first child and sing it; singing hello in their language.

So "Nee-how and how are you? Nee-how and......"
(sorry I have no idea how to spell Nee-how properly so I spelled it phonetically)

And we go around the circle. The children know the drill and shout out "hello" in their language when it is their turn.

Yesterday there is a woman with her kids and she's not really with it, (first time) and the facilitator says "How do you say "hello" in your language?" because her children are silent at their turn.

and she's like "Uh, hello?"

and the facilitator says "Your other language."

And she says "Uh, .........We only speak English...."

And it was so very silent.

And everyone is either looking at her like she's a freak, or looking at her kids with real pity.....
There is a short pause (that feels very long) and then the facilitator says "Oooookay, um, well, how about Bon Jour?"
And the woman is like "Uh, okay?"
And we sing......
This is the first time this has EVER happened at my play group. Like ever. And believe me, I go pretty much everyday. And if for some reason I can't go, it usually means I'm sick in bed or something and Andrew is looking after Ben, in which case he goes.....So I would know if this had happened before. Granted the group is pretty new, we started in November so it's still early days. Also to be fair, we don't always sing "Hello and how are you?" We sometimes sing "Higgelty Piggelty Bumble Bee" or "The Good morning train is coming" Which are say your names type songs. Also It's possible that someone who only speaks English was hip to the game and said "Ola" or something even though they don't speak Spanish because they didn't want to say "I only speak English".
I suppose she could have just sung "Hello". It's not really a big deal.
(But you wouldn't know that from the reaction of the rest of the group.)
I hope she comes back........

Tea Party

Okay, this was just too cute. So we're at playgroup and Ben is playing in the sensory tub (don't ask) and another little boy comes over and starts pulling on Ben's sleeve and says "I'm having a party, come to the party." Ben ignores him and continues playing. After sometime the boy comes back and tugs on Ben's sleeve again and says "Come to the party" So I say something to the effect of "Ben someone is talking to you." and he actually listens and then goes with the other boy over to the kitchen area and sits down. The party didn't last long and the pictures are very fuzzy but it was extremely cute! They each received a tea cup and a plate, they sipped their "tea" and passed the toy food around, Ben cut a piece of the "ice cream" for each of the boys. It was very sweet, and proves beyond a doubt that boys also enjoy a good tea party!
Here is Ben cutting the "ice cream". You can see the scattered cups, and "pizza". There was also "cake" and the blue and silver thing is a kettle. The party ended in a skirmish between two boys (not Ben) over who got to pour the tea.....

Quote of the Day February 16th 2009

"What about gravity that pulls you out the door?"
"Gravity doesn't do that sweetie."
"I'm not talking about down gravity, I'm talking about side to side gravity!"

<3 HAPPY VALENTINES DAY <3

(left to right) Wallace, Marcella, Curly, Isabelle, Barney, Red Bear

In honor of Valentines Day, I present to you The Bear Family. It's a little complicated so bear with me a moment (haw-haw-haw).
Red bear (m) is married to Isabelle (f), Barney(m) is their child. Curly (f) is somehow related to Isabelle (they are sometimes siblings, sometimes cousins, sometimes lifelong friends, but whatever their actual relationship they love each other very much.) Curly is married to Wallace (m) and Marcella (f) is their child. Red Bear and Wallace are both very good bears but they don't always get along well. They sometimes argue when the Mums are not present. They often try to convince each other to "go away" and leave their child. ( ei Wallace:"You can go away Red Bear, and I can take Marcella and Barney out to get some ice cream", Red Bear: "No Wallace, you can go away, and I can take Barney and Marcella out for Pizza" to which one of the children replies "No, we will all go out for Pizza and ice cream together." )
This year for Valentines Day Wallace gave Curly a blue car. Red Bear gave Isabelle an axe. Both Curly and Isabelle were very, very happy with their gifts. When I inquired as to what Red Bear and Wallace received as gifts I was told that they were going to share the gifts they gave........
I'm sure this reveals all kinds of crazy information about my son pyscological development. He's obviously got no problems in the imagienation department.


HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYBODY!!

Cell Special

Here's Ben standing beside a Cherry picker truck with a Chipper trailer (no you can't see the Chipper in this photo)
Here's Ben picking the sprinkles off a doughnut he insisted I buy for him. He had no interest in actually eating the doughnut.
Here's Ben in a park near my house. I made him stop playing to pose for this picture and he's yelling "OKAY! GO! TAKE A PICTURE!" It was really, really funny.


So I broke down and emailed some pictures from my cell phone to myself. This is a pretty expensive way to get photos off my phone so I'm doing as much with them as I possibly can to get as much mileage out of them as possible. Don't be surprised if you come across these same photos elsewhere.......

Oh Cripes!

So the other day Ben tells me he wants to go back into his crib. (Highly unusual) So I pick him up plop him back in and go about making breakfast, telling him to call me when he wants to get out. I hear some somewhat ominous thumping and when I finally go in to check on him, he has all this stuff in his crib with him. I ask him how this happened and he very matter-of-factly tells me he climbed out and got it. So of course I say show me. And he does. And I run and get the camera and say show me again. Then having taken photos to documnet I tell he must never ever do it again.
Without a doubt time to get rid of the crib.
I know he likes it.
I know he keeps saying he doesn't want a big boy bed, but I think I'm gonna put my foot down on this one and just go a head and get a big boy bed.

Sweetest boy ever? Could be.....

The other day during dinner Ben started singing to Andrew:
"Your face is like sunshine,
it brings me good cheer,
Good morning, Good morning,
I'm glad you are here!"
(And no, I wasn't at all jealous even though the boy has never sung this song to me, even at the play group that I take him to all the time where he learned it.)

And just now, while I was checking my email

Ben: "Mummy, I want your attention."
Me: "In a minute, I'm almost finished."
Ben: "What do I have to do to get your attention? Start squeezing you a little bit?"

And he then of course starts squeezing my arm, a tactic that actually back fired, because it was so cute I just had to post it right away!!!