31 October 2011

Halloween

We had some fun with halloween activities this year.

Henry loved running around at the pumpkin patch.

He picked out his own little pumpkin. He liked showing us the "big pumpkin" and the "small pumpkin", he's been learning several opposites recently. He's mastered up and down and is working on in and out.

Henry wanted no part of the pumpkin carving because he's not into getting his hands dirty at the moment and often asks us to "wipe". But he did enjoy painting his little pumpkin.

And I had planned a cowboy costume for him, I even made the hat and vest but since I knew he wouldn't wear the hat and he's really into animals right now I pulled out this elephant costume that I'd picked up at a thrift store a couple months ago that I thought would fit him next year. And he really liked being an elephant as long as he didn't have to have the hood up.

28 October 2011

My week with a 20 month old

Nothing too exciting to report this week. Have been having lots of fun with my 20 month old Henry. He's got his colours mostly down now and he's been working on memorizing the names of the Sesame Street characters. His talking and understanding is improving significantly each day. He knows loads of words and his pronunciation is finally starting to improve; he can now say bat and bunny perfectly!

He fell in love with Elmo and Big Bird from a couple of books we have and just this week we watched some Sesame Street on Youtube which he loved. Here he is watching it on the computer and also pulling off the 3 key.

His other favourite thing to watch right now is a baby einstein video we have featuring animals - he goes and finds the DVD and brings it to us saying "ammo".

We've been going out a bit as it has finally mostly stopped raining but Henry often doesn't want to go out and it is a huge chore to get him dressed in warm clothes. He is very into picking out all of his own clothes these days too. And as much as I have loved picking outfits for him I also love seeing him in his own creations. He of course loves anything with an animal or car or dinosaur on it.

He's still playing with his train table. It's in the basement now so when he wants to play he'll say some combination of "down", "trains", and "choo choo". We went out last night to buy a few more pieces which allows us to make more of the track elevated. Henry doesn't care of course but it's more fun for Kevin and I now.

Here he is playing with a doll. I am trying to encourage him to play with things other than cars - broaden his interests. We call the dolls babies and he likes to give them kisses. I gave him a blanket to put on them to help put them to sleep but he prefers ripping it off of them and he still doesn't like them riding in his doll stroller. His grandparents have gotten him into playdough this week and he has been requesting that several times a day.

And I pulled another non-car toy out of the closet the other day. The wooden dinosaurs that Kevin and I made about 2 years ago. Kevin drew them, I cut them out on the scroll saw, and then we painted them together. We also made a whole set of barnyard animals but my plan is to save those for Christmas. He loves the dinosaurs and it is awesome to see him playing with them. So far he mostly stands them up, then accidentally knocks them over, and then stands them up again. He also likes to kiss them as you can see in the last picture.

22 October 2011

Bean Bin


I saw this idea somewhere months and months ago so of course I don't remember where it was now. But I was reminded of it when Henry was helping me make the granola that other day and he really liked putting the oats in the measuring cup and playing with them a bit.

The idea is simple - just dry beans in a big container to play in like an indoor sandbox. I'm sure it was recommended for slightly older kids but I know my Henry and feel confident that he's not going to choke on one or even put them in his mouth.

He has been having a ball playing in there the past few days. He asks to go in several times a day and sometimes he also just wants us to put a few beans on the floor for him to put them back in the bin. And so far he is very good at keeping them in the bin. What a great toy!

18 October 2011

Ottawa


We got back from a weekend away in Ottawa last night. It was a great mini-holiday. There were lots of beautiful big old buildings (Henry called them 'big houses') to see and loads of lovely walks along the river with lots of views of those beautiful old buildings. And we stayed in a nice hotel that even had a pool that Henry got to enjoy. Here's Henry exploring the hotel room.

We had lousy weather - lots of wind with occasional rain showers. But mostly we still got to spend lots of time out and about all day and we had some blue skies.

Poor Henry had to spend a lot of time in his stroller. We let him out a bunch of times but he was not in the mood to walk along nicely with us and with the nasty weather we were not in the mood to hang around waiting for him to be ready to move after stopping every few feet. But he was mostly pretty happy or at least well behaved most of the time anyway. Here he is ecstatic that he finally got to walk around a bunch at the Gardens at Rideau Hall.
Here are some views from the riverside walk. We would have liked to have done lots more walking by the water but the weather stopped us and we left early on our last day.

We drove into Quebec so Kevin could stock up on fancy Quebec beers that he can't get in Ontario.


We enjoyed some nice restaurant meals. Here Henry decided to copy Mommy and dip his fries into ketchup. Not all of our meals involved fries, we had a fancy-ish mexican meal the night before.

It was great to have a simple weekend city break. Took not too much more planning than booking the hotel and then we just got to walk around this amazing city. But we've been quite busy at the weekends for the past little while so we'll be staying in town for awhile I think.

14 October 2011

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

I decided to go for Elsie Marley's Kids' Clothes Week Challenge this time. The goal is to sew kids' clothes for an hour each day for a week and it started on Monday. I won't quite be managing that. Monday was Thanksgiving and we are going for a mini break away this weekend so this might be it for KCWC. But I got several hours in from Tuesday to Thursday and got quite a bit done I think, not that everything turned out great. Henry's not in a super mood this morning and it's raining out so these are the best pictures I could get.

These pictures show some simples felted wool pants I made from the sleeves of a wool sweater. Super simple to make and they turned out really well I think. I even remembered to put a little tag in the inside so you can tell which is the back.

They also show a wool sweater that I made him from a felted wool sweater. I used the raglan T-shirt pattern from Sewing for Boys. At the last minute I decided not to put the seams on the outside which was fine, it was still easy to use the pattern. And I went up to size 2/3 (partly because there is a mistake in the book and size 18 months is not included) and it is perfect for a fitted sweater. I love this sweater which means I am super disappointed that the neck came out all huge. And I knew it was happening at the time but I kept going, using more neck binding than it called for because I just couldn't manage it with the correct amount. I guess that's something I need a lot of practice on.

And another pair of pants. These also didn't turn out so well :( I used the pants pattern from Handmade Beginnings and went up to size 18-24 months even for this skinny guy because I was using thick material. But it was a knit so I really shouldn't have. So they are much too big, maybe they'll look better next winter. I also think they're just not as cute as I imagined. Oh well.

I also got a bit of a start on a jacket for Henry, also from Sewing for Boys and I think that will turn out well.

13 October 2011

Big Boy Toys

All of a sudden last week it became obvious to me that Henry was ready for some big boy toys. He has been playing with my mum's set of old Fisher Price Little People for months but all of a sudden he's doing more than pushing the cars down the ramp, he's putting people in the cars and he's interested in the elevator. And he loves the wooden trains at Chapters. Here he is playing with other people's toys.


And here he is playing with his very own versions that his Mommy and Daddy who love to spoil him rushed out to buy this week. I got him some Fisher Price Little people which are just perfect for him right now. He is a little young for the train set but still enjoying it (when it's not frustrating him) and Kevin and I just love it too. Eventually the train set will be moved to the basement but we thought while it's still new and very exciting we will have it up here, taking over the entire living room.



10 October 2011

Thanksgiving Weekend 2011

Just a quick record of our Thanksgiving weekend. My older sister was visiting us from England for the week so Henry and I have been having a great time with her for the past week, she left today.

On Friday we checked out some Oktoberfest Celebrations. The best part was seeing Henry in his lederhosen, he still fit in the ones I made him last year. I just had to move a button to make the suspenders longer.


We had a delicious Thanksgiving meal of loads of veg, the roast potatoes are always the highlight.



We went on some walks in the super hot weather.

And then we got to have another Thanksgiving dinner and family with Kevin's extended family. Here's Henry having fun there.