Santa's Biggest Fan

We did the mall thing the other day - Evan is so excited about Santa that I can't help but go.

Evan loved "Santa's playland" and was totally attached to "Norman the Adorable Snowman" - he followed Norman everywhere. Luckily, Norman seemed to like Evan too. Evan told Norman that he wanted to go with him to the North Pole to help feed Santa's reindeer. Hmmm... I don't think I'm ready for him to go on such a big adventure quite yet.
Evan had no qualms about sitting on Santa's knee, in fact I think he was disappointed that he didn't get more time with the jolly fellow so that he could complete a thorough interrogation, Evan-style. (See the post on questions if you haven't yet experienced and Evan interrogation!)
Oliver loved seeing the kids at the playland. He is really delighted when he sees other kids playing these days.
All in all, not a bad trip though I'm glad it's only once a year. The best part was Santa's Storytime, during which Santa, Mrs. Claus and some of their friends (like Norman, the Sugarplum Fairy and the head Elf) told "the Night Before Christmas".
As for Evan's excitement, I think that this Christmas will be the best one in a long time. There's nothing like a totally excited almost-three-year-old to make Christmas morning an event to remember. We'll definitely have the camera out this year. In the meantime, his play involves loading up toys on his sled (a cardboard box) and distributing them to the children (usually Oliver and I, even Ali the cat gets a gift sometimes). Who is his helper you ask? Joel, of course. Thanks, Joel!
By the way - Evan doesn't think Christmas is only about Santa. When he was looking at his grandmother's Nativity scene the other day, he learned about all of the figures: Mary with her arms out to hold the baby, Baby Jesus, and Joseph with his hands together in prayer.
He looked at them briefly and then asked, "Why doesn't Joseph want to hold his baby too?"
Good question.

What a Funny Guy.

Oliver has his first laugh last week and it was inspired by none other than... his energetic brother Evan.
Evan had just completed building a baseball diamond (pretend) and he really wanted Oliver and I to come and see it. He was so excited: smiling and pleading with us to hurry up and come to see his invention. Oliver just stared at him for a minute and then he started laughing in a very cute, baby laugh. It was so fun to see and hear.
Ever since the first week of his life, Oliver has turned his head to hear when Evan is talking. Now that he can see and react well, he just can't keep his eyes off of his funny, energetic big brother. As for Evan - he gets upset when Oliver isn't looking at him. He's becoming very protective, caring and sweet to his "yiddle broder".

Hallowe'en

This year's Halloween was a lot of fun for Evan.We thought that he'd be into it, but we didn't realize to what extent!We took him out trick-or-treating to a few houses on our street and then to a few friends' houses. He didn't want us to come up to any of the the doors with him. He would command us, "Mom and Dad, you stay back there!" indicating the sidewalk. Then he'd tromp right up to the door and yell in his loudest voice, "Trick or Treat!" When the door opened he'd let the person know that he wanted "Candy please" in case there was any chance they had misinterpreted him. It was neat to see how independent he can be. He was also very enthusiastic about the candy!
Adam and I enjoyed the experience but we were commenting that Halloween seems to have changed a lot from our day. We remember gangs of kids on the streets, competing to see how much candy they could get.One of our friends, Bruce, told us that Evan was the only trick-or-treater to come by all night. Sad! (At least for us old folks).

Family Vacations

We discovered recently that a family "vacation" is indeed a departure from real life, but not necessarily a relaxing one.
We spent that last week of October visiting my uncle and his son in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico. They have a gorgeous condo on the beach with three beautiful pools.
When we first arrived we spent a lot of time at the pool which was nice, but Adam and I couldn't help thinking that we were missing out on something. Shouldn't we be seeing the sights? Practicing our Spanish? Getting local with the locals? Hmmm... shouldn't we be seeing some Mexican people on our trip?
So we ventured forth on two different occasions. First we explored the streets of San Jose del Cabo with our two kids and our 4 year old cousin, Dawson. One local remarked: "Hmm...three kids and you're still on your honeymoon!" A couple of hours of that and we were all tired so we caught a taxi home.
The next outing we took was to Cabo San Lucas which is about a 1/2 hour bus ride. We just had Evan and Oliver that time. The ride there was great, but it seems we picked the hottest day of our trip to tour the streets of Cabo. We decided after a couple of hours of dodging the sun and keeping Evan away from the breakables (everything, that is) in the stores, that we would take the bus back to the condo. In the meantime, Evan and Adam did get local haircuts which gave us a break in the air conditioning and much needed trims for those two.
After that outing, we looked at each other and said, "What are we thinking, trying to get local with two small children in tow?" We quite enjoyed spending most of the rest of our trip by the pool and on the beach!
Thanks to my uncle Adam also had the chance to golf what he says is the most beautiful golf course he's ever been at. The picture is taken from the tee box and the green is the space in the distance. The cacti in between are out of bounds!
The moral of the story is that we plan to keep our "vacations" pretty simple until both kids are quite independant. Then we'll get back into the adventure travel we love so much.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Last night Evan told us what he wants to be when he grows up: a farmer.
He informed us that on his farm he'll have a tractor and he'll grow vegetables and he'll have hay. He'll also have two horses, one for him and one for his friend, Joel. We asked him if we were going to live at his farm and he said, "No, just me and Joel. Mom and Dad have to live at their own house with Oliver. I'm going to live with Joel!"
Hmmm... I'm not sure if Joel (Adam's friend) is totally prepared for these future plans.

Oliver continues to grow and smile and coo. I wonder what he wants to be when he grows up. Probably it'll have something to do with being bigger than his brother so he can hold his ground!

Half Marathon and training

Do you really need to training for a half marathon? I guess the answer depends on how much pain you enjoy. If you like mild tightness, then maybe you should run a bit before jumping into 21 km. However if you enjoy not really moving for the next 30 hours then you don't really need to train. Just buy some beers, chips get some movies and sit.

All jokes aside, it was a lot of fun. I, Adam ran the Harvest Half Marathon in 1:44 and really enjoyed myself. It was a beautiful run in Fish Creek on the warmest fall morning this year. Check out the web site.

http://www.harvesthalfmarathon.com/

Questions, Questions!

Responding to the never-ending questions of a 2 1/2 year old can be a daunting and tiring task.

Evan seems to have no shortage of questions, especially when we're in the car. A typical "interrogation" might go something like the following.
Evan: "How come we're going this way, Mom, and not that way?"
Mom: "Because this is the way to the store, Evan. That way would take us somewhere else."
Evan: "Where, Mom?"
Mom: "The other way, Evan. Then we wouldn't be able to get to the store."
Evan: "How come?"
Mom: "Because the store is this way and not that way."
Evan: "Why?"
Mom: "Because this is where someone decided to build the store."
Evan: "Why did they decide to build the store here, Mom?"
Mom: "I don't know, Evan. I guess they thought that this would be a good place to have a store."
Brief silence.
Evan: "And why are we slowing down now, Mom?"
Mom: "Because there's a red light, Evan. Do you remember what red means?"
Evan: "Red says 'stop!'. And what does green say, Mom?"
Mom: "You know what green says, Evan. What does it say?"
Evan: "Green says 'go!' and yellow says 'be careful!'"
Mom: "That's right, Evan. You remembered."
Evan: "But why does yellow say 'be careful', Mom?"
...
Ahhh...It's fun, challenging, frustrating and sometimes dumbfounding to try and answer all of those questions. I'll admit that after a while I sometimes tune out and then Evan has to ask several times. Sometimes I just say, honestly, "I really don't know."
Adam has a different strategy to deal with the questions. It's kind of a stream-of-conciousness monologue in which he anticipates and answers every possible question.
It goes something like this:
Evan: "Why are there workers there, Dad?"
Dad: "There are workers there because they're fixing the road. They're fixing the road because the City of Calgary Master Plan calls for better traffic circulation. That's because urban population continues to climb because people move to Calgary for the jobs. There are lots of jobs because we have a booming economy. The economy is good because it's based on natural resources which Alberta has lots of. Natural resources are things like gas and wheat. Gas is what makes our car go..."
The main advantage of Adam's approach is that Evan can't get a word in edgewise, but Adam eventually runs out of breath.
Sometimes, ususally in the early evening, I just tell Evan that I don't have any more answers today: I'm all out!

A Morning Laugh

It seems that TV programming is getting worse and worse these days. New sitcoms just aren't funny and otherwise it's reality (bites) TV or a show about someone murdering someone else.
I have found a great way to start the day though: Good Morning World. It's just the enough of a blend of ridiculous and humourous to actually make me laugh out loud.
I read about it in Macleans, and recognized one of the actors, Peter Oldring, from highschool days. I used to be into the drama scene in highschool and Peter Oldring was the king of the Calgary highschool theatre games competitions. He's even funnier now.
The added bonus is that you can watch Good Morning World anytime of the day you like! www.goodmorningworld.com

Two Year Old Fun!

I have to admit that I feel some pressure with this whole blogging thing. Everytime I open the internet, our blog is there to remind us that I haven't updated it for a while. Maybe as I get more used to being the mother of two I'll have more time for updates.

Anyhow - I wanted to share a fun photo from a really fun birthday. Our friend, Kate Lawes, is an amazing mom with the most creative ideas. For her son, Ari (the cute redhead in the center), she had the coolest birthday"cake" I've ever seen. As you can see by the pictures, the kids loved it.

Oliver's Filling Out

Oliver had his two week visit today. He weighed in at 7lb4oz: he has definitely mastered the eating thing! In the past few days he has had his first bath and his first shower.
He is eating up a storm and generally giving us lots of joy. Evan is enjoying his role as big brother and is ready to teach Oli all about life in the big world.
Tomorrow will mark two weeks in Oliver's life.
Time really does fly.

Evan eats corn

Taber corn is in and Evan loves it ! Not only does he eat the whole cob, he laughs as he eats it.

Evan also loves cutting the grass. Nana and Poppa got him this great lawnmower.

The proud parents

This was us 2 hours after Oliver's birth. Boy, we look happy !

The First Post

Well, We have decided to start the craze. We are so hip! Oliver and Evan are the main focus of this blog. Plus any rant we may have. Here is a picture of the latest Topp. Oliver !