Let it snow

Before the Xtreme cold wave hit, we enjoyed some good playtime in the snow. It is hilarious watching a toddler play in the snow! I let Tim loose in the backyard, and the snow itself was the toy/activity/play structure. He just stomped around in the six fresh inches of white stuff: stumbling, falling, making angels, throwing handfuls in the air... Whatever, it was the most fun ever!

After awhile though, it inevitably came time for sledding. Wherein Mommy pulls kid on a sled around the snowy block. Again. And again. It was good exercise for me, as most sidewalks weren't shovelled at all. And on our jaunt, Tim made an astute scientific observation (perhaps his first). Looking up, he exclaimed:  "Mommy! The 'no is coming out of the clouds!"

Gift of the Magi

We are a non-religious family, but thanks to Baba, Tim has ready access to a wide selection of Christmas books featuring the story of Jesus' birth. (I'm glad of this; religious or not, the story of Jesus IS the reason we have Christmas to celebrate. Might as well be honest!) His current fave is Margaret Laurence's version, which is really quite lovely.

Baba also brought Tim a Little Peoples crêche (aka Manger Scene) and gave it to him while we were away in Montreal. Because Tim knows the Christmas story quite well from the books, I suggested tonight that we act out the Christmas story using the Little People. When the Wise Men arrived, I asked Tim what they brought for Baby Jesus.

"Peasants."

When pressed for specifics, Tim informed me that the three wise men brought peasants consisting of myrrh, gold, and ice cream.

An overnight sensation

Tim is all about surprises. We wait and wait, worry, find ourselves on the cusp of giving up hope, then Voila! Mr. Expert shows up.

So it was with talking.

Now it's happened again with peeing on the toilet. Yesterday, I could not have coaxed Tim onto the toilet or potty even with M&M's. (And if he submitted to sitting on it, there was no expulsion of liquid whatsoever.) Today, I could barely pry him away from the toilet, and every time he sat on it (or stood over it), he managed to squeeze out enough droplets to justify squealing "I peed! I peed on the big white toilet/little green potty!"

It started with a morning with Dad, naked and post-shower. Somehow, he managed to announce before he actually peed, that he had to go. (Unprecedented.) Dad brought him to the toilet, and he just stood before it, aimed, and shot. Perfect, and was rewarded with M&M's.

FFWD to Mom suggesting trying it again. He tried to replicate his experience with dad by running upstairs... but nothing would come out. He was so frustrated! What is going on? I suggested that there may not be enough water in his tummy, and we should try again after lunch. Dude was chomping a the bit and when I finally suggested it might be a good time, he opted for sitting on the Diego seat on the downstairs toilet. When the water poured forth, he simply beamed with pride. High five's and M&M's all around!

The rest of the day was a bit of a snowball. He was keen to try his skills on the virgin Little Green Potty in the living room, and nailed it on the first try. During supper, he got up, ran to the living room on his own, and when I peeked in, there he was, standing over the potty aiming right into the hole. Bulls-eye! M&M's be damned, success was intoxicating and being allowed to empty the potty into the big toilet reward enough. Tim spent the rest of supper with his pants around his ankles, running back and forth between the potty and the toilet. Tim, wanna watch TV? NO! I WANT TO PEE IN THE TOILET!

I made the mistake of telling him that first thing in the morning he could try to POO in the toilet. The prospect was apparently as exciting as that of a visit from Santa Claus because he was so excited it took a good 45 minutes to fall asleep.

Can't wait 'til morning! Bring on that shit!

A very quiet afternoon

The big kids are at school. Tim's napping. I'm all finished my work, lunch, and surfing. The house is relatively tidy (after having company for dinner last night), and I can't think of anything good to blog about.

I have nothing to do.

Which means, I'd better come up with a to-do list for rare moments like this! When I'm busy, it feels like there's a mile-long backlog... It can't have just disappeared.

I guess I have something to do now...

He grows up, and he grows up

This morning, Tim and I were in the kitchen. He was eating a yo-yo-baby [yogurt], and I was making coffee. Apropos of nothing, he tells me: "Mommy ha' a bum and Mommy ha' a wawa [vulva]. And Tim ha' a bum and Tim ha' a penis."

I agreed with his observation, and he added for good measure "Tim ha' a bellybutton, and Mommy ha' a bellybutton."

It's all coming together for our little man.

It's been a month of growth for him, that's for sure. First, he discovered Halloween. Although for months he had talked about dressing up as a pirate, he refused to don the costume when the day came. It took seeing other kids his age arriving at the door in disguise and GETTING CANDY for their efforts that finally convinced him. Ben came with us for the first couple houses then split, but by then Tim had caught the bug. He was running ahead of me up to doors, trick-r-treating, gank-you'ing, and Aaarrr'ing like nobody's business. And the haul was worth it.

Tim seemed empowered by his embrace of Halloween. A few days later, Baba and Doe [Joe] arrived. They last time they saw Tim, he only spoke about ten words. After showing of his sentences to them, he took his vocab to the next level, and began speaking in paragraphs, making detailed observations about the world around him using as many ideas and adjectives as possible.

After a couple of days of visiting, it was time for The Vacation. In which Mommy and Daddy go away for four nights and Tim has his vacation at home with Baba. This is a big step - the first time we've been away for more than 24 hours.

Mr. Big Boy Tim stepped up and enjoyed himself immensely. Other than a few sad moments from which Baba was able to readily distract him, he was completely happy spending time with Baba, away from mom and dad. Since we've returned we've noticed that he's even more independent and mature than when we left. And, he likes presents.

Inseparable from his new liday owinj tadalome [little orange telephone], that we brought him back from our vacation in Montreal.

Toddler accounting

Yesterday, Tim could count to two. When playing hide-and-seek, "one, two, one, two, one, two...". When counting down for a jump or a slide, "one, two... [jump!]" Etc.

Today, out of the blue, he counted to ten. He was counting the stars on his ceiling: "one, two, dee, doe, die, di, den, ay, nine, ten!" Ironically, there are actually only two glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling.

I said "Wow Tim! That's amazing! I'm so proud of you!"

He said "Dat amading!"

Then he sang the Three Blind Mice: "Two blind mice, two blind mice, dee how dey run..."

Which, in the context of his previously displayed numerical brilliance caused me to laugh hysterically, which cause him to laugh hysterically, thereby setting back sleep time by a good 10-15 minutes. Well worth it.

Bad day gone good

By all rights, today should've sucked. We woke up this morning to discover that the refrigerator wasn't working; the fact that both the milk and cream were already sour told us that it had likely been failing for days. (Which would explain the previously inexplicably too-soft ice cream the past few nights. Retrospective lesson: kids take way more ice cream per serving when it's really easy to scoop.)

So, drinking black coffee (espresso at least; it was still pretty tasty, though we drank so much more of it), we spent the morning unloading the contents of the fridge to the freezer downstairs (it's new, another benefit of buying a side of pork!) and a cooler. And wondering if we'd be able to get it fixed (how soon?!), or need to go shopping for a new appliance (an even lengthier process).

Then, it's the first beautiful day out in ages, but we have to stick around the house for the repairman to come.

And later, Tim went down for his nap as usual. And slept for exactly four minutes. Cheating Mommy out of her two-hour "break". (The time during which I normally eat my lunch, make supper, fold laundry, get ahead of the burgeoning clutter-disaster. Etc.)

Sounds like a disaster, right?

But jeez, if all the kids weren't great moods first thing in the morning. Tim had slept ALL NIGHT (a rarity these days.) There was happy happy, frolic frolic; they were practically daring us to be cranky. Tim with his "villain" face and voice, motioning with his fingers saying "Coooommme to me, git-a-car".

And hey! A repairman is coming! Within hours of the breakdown! Sweetie McPie had found some back door to an immediate appointment, and dude even spoke English. Sort of. He was from Abitibi and had a crazy eye, but was a 60 year old rocker and appreciated Tim's Cute.

Then, stuck indoors with no nap in sight, Tim and I got up to shenanigans. Or rather, Tim shenaniganed, and I took pictures.

Left alone with the kleenex box: "Mommy, I got lots!"

Playing doh. Kid can hold this squat for hours.

Trying on Mom's glasses. Very studious, no?

A little bit of core workout on the "liday backet bah".

And my very favourite, his own invention: Elevator in a Can*!

Beyond the ridiculousness of him being able to actually fit in this can, I love the fact that he's got no pants on. (Seriously, he was pretending he was in a hotel elevator. Later on, he went for a bucket of ice.)

The day went on to include a stroller run to the grocery store to replace the bad milk (Tim had a mini nap on the way); a delicious** and hitch-free supper; and all kids being chatty at supper time and cooperative about lunch-making (actually, this is not a surprise).

And I painted my nails. Constance picked out a funky lime green colour from her massive collection. I tried to take a picture to complete this narrative, but all the pictures made my hands look old and gnarly. And this is supposed to be a happy story.

So I'll end it here: not too late to go to bed and do some reading.

* Constance's laundry basket. This very same can -- from Ikea c. 1991-- also served as my laundry basket when I was a teenager. An heirloom!

** Rice pasta. I'm still off the wheat.

P.S. The fridge is fixed. It was a small flukey thing that didn't cost a lot of money. AND I CLEANED THE DAMNED THING. Fridge, freezer, inside and out. That, perhaps, is the point of this story.