Labour Day Weekend

Just thought I'd put up a few pictures of our lovely labour day long weekend. We did a bit of everything: a day out in Stratford, visits to our local parks, a little yard work, a couple restaurant meals, and plenty of relaxation. We enjoyed some very hot summer weather on Saturday and the first of the cool days on Monday. We had lots of fun playing with Henry - he seemed to be in an especially good mood this weekend maybe because he is over a nasty bout of teething pains.

Breithaupt Park Revisited

Henry and I did the Breithaupt Park hike again on Friday. We both still liked it, Henry liked it slightly less than last time. I think the excitement of hiking is wearing off for him.

I thought it was beautiful last time but this time I thought it was crazy beautiful. So I took a bunch of pictures and then I didn't know what to do with the pictures, they're too pretty to do nothing with so I am putting them here. Surely someone agrees with me that this plain old forest is exceptionally pretty.

Hiking

Since discovering that Henry loves hiking on our trip to Algonquin I've been trying to recreate the experience back at home for him. I had to come up with some local trails that were not gravel because I know Henry loves to just sit and play with rocks when they are available.

First we went to Breithaupt Park which was great: dirt paths with some tree roots to step over and lots of up and down. We both had a great time.

And then we tried walking through the little path that goes through the forest in Moses Springer Park, right in our neighbourhood. Henry was having a great time but I turned us around after about 5 minutes because there were just too many mosquitoes, will have to try that one again in another month.

Being away at Algonquin has given me a new appreciation for the natural beauty around home. Henry and I will have to do some more local hiking this month.

The Garden

Food keeps coming out of the garden. We are getting a steady stream of tomatoes now that even includes some biggish ones. I didn't plant as many cherry tomatoes this year though so I don't think I'll have to even get the dehydrator out which I'm a bit sad about - no unlimited supply of sundried tomatoes. And the first squash fell off the vine. I'm not sure what kind this is, I don't think I ever planted any like this, it must be a hybrid of different kinds I've planted. Apparently those hybrids never taste good.

The weather has been beautiful the past few days so even though my allergies are terrible Henry and I have been spending lots of time outside including in the back garden. Henry had a lot of fun using his little watering can. He kept bringing it back empty and saying "more". And then he just had fun playing with the water. Dropping the watering can in a bucket and he liked it when I splashed him a few times.




Last night for dinner I made a vegan pizza with lots of tomatoes and basil from the garden. In place of the cheese I used regular tofu mixed with nutritional yeast and garlic. It didn't taste like cheese but gave the pizza some more substance. It was the first time I'd tried this and we both liked it.

Algonquin

We were in Algonquin Provincial Park for 3 nights this past weekend. We camped in a yurt there with my mother. It was great. We had absolutely perfect weather: no rain, not too hot to hike, warm enough for Henry to enjoy some beach time.

The yurt was great, with less stuff to bring we could fit the 4 of us in the matrix. And we didn't have to spend time setting up a tent. And we slept on thick mattresses and turned the heater on at night.

The hiking was great. Algonquin is a huge park with loads of it completely unaccessible by car - it's for the serious backpackers and canoeists. So I was surprised there was so much to do for us car campers. There were loads of hikes along the big road that runs through the park. And the hikes were great.

Luckily Henry liked being carried on Kevin's back so we were able to do lots of hiking. But a couple of the shorter ones he actually did himself. There was a 1.5 km easy boardwalk that he walked the whole length of himself and not too slowly either. And there was a 2.1 km tricky one with lots of ups and downs and loads of tree roots to scramble over that he did too. I held his hand at the tricky parts and he let me carry him up the steepest upward climb parts. But he loved hiking, he freaked out if we wanted to stop for just a minute, he just had t okeep plowing ahead.

And of course Henry LOVED the beach.

We all had a great time.

18 Month Old Henry

I have been doing a lot of Henry posts lately but I still feel like I want to have something in this space specifically about my first son when he is 18 months old (today). He can do so much now.

He talks. He now combines 2 or 3 words. He says "uh oh ball" and "uh oh car" to tell us that he's dropped something whether on purpose or not. He says "yellow car" and "big car" and "big sky" (sky means airplane). Usually yellow car refers to an actual yellow car but, while I think he used to know what big meant, now he uses it for everything. He has said "no" a few times but usually he just shakes his head and grunts or if you are offering him something he will push it away or sometimes even grab it and then throw it. He has no word for yes, it is just an absence of the "no" body language. So we are trying to teach him yes please. Sometimes he thinks saying please is so fun but usually he refuses to say it.

Sometimes he just chants "yellow car yellow car yellow car".

He is learning colours. His favourite is yellow and he recognizes it in lots of places. I can say point to the yellow one and he usually gets it. He can now also get red most of the time and sometimes blue.

He likes going in the car. He is usually happy to get in and he sits back there quietly even when we drive long distances.

He likes to brush his teeth and his hair.

He likes to walk but he also likes the stroller and the bike trailer and will drop whatever fun thing he's doing when he sees us take them out of the garage.

His favourite place to play is the front yard in the tree and on the driveway. He now loves lifting up his feet and riding his toy down the driveway. And while it is scary to see him speeding toward the road he always always stops himself at the sidewalk.

He knows to hold hands when we cross the road.

He likes the playground but often not for long and he'll just start walking away from it so we continue on our walk.

He knows what he wants to do. He says "door" and knocks on the door when he wants to go outside. He holds onto the freezer door handle and says caco when he wants a popsicle.

He is working on walking up and down stairs as opposed to crawling and climbing ladders.

The instructions he usually follows are "go knock on Daddy's door", "bring me your shoes so we can go outside", and "go get a book for us to read".

He has good eating days and bad eating days. On a good eating day he likes sprouts, broccoli, chick peas, peas, and all sorts of fruit. On a bad eating day he eats nothing but bread, crackers, smoothies, and popsicles. Luckily I have figured out how to put lots of good stuff in smoothies and popsicles and I just made a batch of crackers that are mostly ground nuts and seeds with even some kale and he likes those.

He nurses just 2 or 3 times a day now. I'm glad I am still nursing now even though there were times in the last few months when he was demanding it all the time and when I was sick of it. Now it is a nice way to relax together. And it is great to have that simple tool to calm him down from some of the biggest freak outs.

He is the sweetest little kid and I love him and love hanging out with him all day.

A knitted hat

I have just completed the first knitted hat of the season. I thought I'd do one for Henry a bit early so that I could take it on our camping trip that starts on Thursday. The nights are already cool here and we are going a bit further North too.

I just did this simple pattern for a toddler toque and just added some I-cord straps to tie it on with. He hated having it on, these were the best pictures I could get.

Peaches!

We got peaches from our tree! We planted this little thing in 2008 shortly after we moved in. In 2009 we got 5 peaches already!! In 2010 we got zero. And in 2011 we got 8. And I saw a squirrel running around with one too. I love our peach tree, I think it is called reliance but not sure.



8 juicy little peaches. They really tasted absolutely perfect this year. Equally as good as the best peach I've ever tasted. We've been eating them along with our store bought peaches all week. It's lovely having our own homegrown peaches but 8 is not nearly enough of course.



Look how the tiny peaches fit so perfectly into that tiny toddler hand. I really wanted a picture of little Henry eating a little peach but he would not co-operate and has been refusing to eat any peaches at all!


This is as close as I got: a picture of him eating a full sized peach last week which was before he decided he does not like peaches.


And here are some other recent pictures of my favourite kid:

Working on climbing the ladders at the playground now, look at that determination!


And more beach time!

Shorts for Henry

This summer has been very hot, Henry hasn't even gotten to wear his summer pants much. It's been shorts weather everyday. So I finally got around to making him a pair to add to his wardrobe. Of course the completion of the shorts was accompanied by a cold spell, thus the sweater.



I kept them super simple and I think they turned out perfectly. Just copied some well-fitting shorts (like in the pants pattern tutorial) and used a simple elastic waist.