Grouse Mountain with the cousins

Joanne, Philip, Frances and Pippa are back in town for the holidays and today we took the kids to the Peak of Christmas at the top of Grouse Mountain. It's great time to go with the kids at this age, because both Maddy and Ethan were free!

I won't write much, but it was great to see the kids playing together in the snow. Highlights were watching them slide down the hill on their butts, seeing Vixen and Dancer the reindeer, the smile on Ethan face as he rolled around in the snow and the gorgeous view we had of Vancouver when the clouds cleared.

Hard to tell whether that was Vixen or Dancer, but it was still cool to see a real reindeer.

Waiting for the sleigh ride.

Frances and Pippa hamming it up at the bottom of the hill.

A group shot after lunch. Wow! Everyone is looking.

Can't beat that view.

A very happy boy. (Even in a purple snowsuit!)

Pippa skating on the outdoor rink with Philip in the background.

Ethan, 15 months

Wow, fifteen months already and I haven't even had time to post the pictures for his 14 months update. We've been super busy around here lately and now with Josh having to work overtime (milestone coming) I doubt that the pictures will come anytime soon. I will get them up one of these days as I see this blog as a way to keep the moments for Maddy and Ethan to see later on.

The month has made a huge difference with walking. Much more walking than falling these days and he's beginning to add a little speed. I know that I was eager to get to this walking stage, but now that the speed stage is upon us, I'm quite happy to hold that off as long as I can. I get the real feeling that I won't be able to keep up with him once he's off and running. He doesn't like to hold your hand when he's walking so for now he still has to stay in the stroller for as long as possible when we're at the mall.

Ethan definitely knows what he wants and it's pretty hard to distract him once he's got his mind set on something. For the most part, Maddy is pretty good about sharing with him and we try really hard to make sure that they each get 'five minutes' to play with a coveted toy before having to hand it over. (Eh-hem, some 'five minutes' go by quite quickly around here). At times he's beginning to throw a little tantrum when he wants something that we cannot give him. We've been trying hard not to send him the message that if he cries he can get what he wants, but man is it ever tempting when you have a screaming, wailing toddler on your hands.

He's so desperate when he cries for something. Poor little guy.

He's even got Mama's bottom pouty lip. So cute!

Before we set up the Christmas tree, I wondered if we should even bother because I thought Ethan would be all over it. Turns out that he loves the tree and really understands that he cannot touch it. He's pretty good about listening when he's not allowed to touch something as long as we are firm about it right from the start. It's so cute to see him walk over to the tree, lean in and give it a kiss. He loves to see it when we turn on the lights and when we first put it up, he'd point to it and laugh.

We're potty training!! Lucy at daycare has been taking him to the potty about every hour and had quite a bit of success, so I figured I might as well try when we are at home. Ethan's been doing really well and in the last couple of days, he's pointed in the general direction of the potty and once we put him on, he's peed. We mostly spend the time after his nap until bedtime in dai fu (underwear in Chinese) and he's doing really well. I even tried pull ups while at Strong Start a couple of times. He's peed once, but most of the time he loves to shove toilet paper in between his legs. The yuck factor of playing that game in a public washroom is giving me second thoughts about pottying in public until he can do his business standing up.

Finally, in the last month Ethan has really learned to communicate his wants to us. He doesn't really have many words, but he does do a lot of gesturing and pointing and is able to get his point across. He's also learned to shake his head to say no and that helps.

***Be sure to scroll down, I've added some new posts and pictures to older posts.***

21 questions

I came across this list on some message boards and I thought I'd give it a try. I think the idea is that you ask these questions and see how the answers change over time? Well I'm not sure, but that's how I'm going to use them.

So here's our first try with Maddy:

1. What is something mommy always says to you? "Germs are yucky"

2. What makes you happy? "Mama"

3. What makes you sad? "Umm...Ethan!" (Big smile on her face)

4. What makes you laugh? "Papa"

5. How old are you? "Free!"

6. How old is Mommy? "Four!"

7. How old is Daddy? "Five!"

8. What is your favorite thing to do? "Ummm go to preschool"

9. Who is your best friend? "Rachel"

10. What do you want to be when you grow up? "Mama and Papas" "Fat cat in the hat"

11. What are you really good at? "Jumping up and down"

12. What are you not very good at? "Not jumping up and down"

13. What did you do today? "Go on the carousel ride"

14. What is your favorite food? "Sushi"

15. What is your favorite song? "Twinkle Twinkle little star"

16. What do you want for (holiday or birthday) this year? "Presents"

17. What is your favorite animal? "Tigers...ducks"

18. What is love? "Mama is"

19. What does mommy/daddy do for work? "Make a picture" (Mommy) "Make pictures!" (Daddy)

20. Where do you live? "At home!...in Canada"

21. Where is your favorite place to go? "Canada!"

Some Christmas Festivities

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately. Lots of different Christmas activities, great memories but too many to write about. Sorry for my laziness, I blame the hectic holiday season.

One sure fire way to get them to stay is to give food.

Amazing that we could all the kids in one shot. A play date at our house.

Maddy's preschool concert.
She looked on the verge of tears at times, but held it together. Later so quietly told me "I was a little scared mama".
You were wonderful, Maddy and we were so proud.

We had fun at the Winter Wonderland program put on by Parks and Rec. Here is Ethan making a craft.


Here we are at the Bright Nights display in Stanley Park. Notice I didn't say the Christmas Train Ride.
The next train available was 9pm and we got there at 4:45pm!

We still had fun seeing the displays and the weather wasn't as cold as last year. Maybe that's why everyone else was out there too.

Snow day

Very late, I know. The snow is long gone, the shovel, salt and sled are back in the garage, but I couldn't resist posting these pictures. I guess in Vancouver snow doesn't happen very often, so when it does, we can't resist the photo opt.

Ethan didn't care too much for it. That may have been due to the fact that his snow pants were a wee bit on the tight side and so he could barely move. He had also just learned to walk and learning to walk all over again in snow pants was too much for him. He's just fall down and hang out there until we rescued him.

Please stop taking pictures and get me up!

Maddy on the other hand LOVED the snow. I ran out in the afternoon to pick up a sled and she and I went sledding on the hill at the park. By the afternoon, the snow was pretty sparse but she didn't mind at all. She was a great trooper and climbed back up the hill each time. I also showed her how to make a snow angel. It was quite funny when she went to try one herself. She stood there, just closed her eyes and leaned backwards straight as a board until she hit the ground. I was worried that she was going to her hurt herself, but she seemed fine. Her scrunched up face, waiting for impact, makes me laugh every time I think about it.

I just love this one of Ethan trying out the new shovel.

Happy belated snow day everyone!