Again!

Henry just loves feeding those ducks. And they seem to be getting hungrier and bolder as the weather gets colder.

After a cold and windy weekend, Henry and I have been enjoying the milder weather these past two days. Yesterday we discovered a big ice patch and he thought it was so fun to be slipping and sliding and falling all over it. And it was so much fun for me to see him discover this completely brand new thing and to hear his giggles. All those clichés about reliving your childhood through your kids spring to mind.

Today we walked to downtown Waterloo (a walk that used to seem much shorter before I had a toddler). We had a nice time stopping in at a few shops and seeing the train and the animals that are in the park there. Henry was happy because we stopped at the health food store to stock up on raisins and I gave him the bag for the walk home. These days he loves raisins maybe even more than bread.

But he is happiest today playing around the big tree in our front yard. Here he is playing peekaboo.

Winter Wonderland

Finally the rain switched to snow and we woke up to a beautiful winter wonderland this morning.

I understand all the nasty bits about winter. I drive just enough to realize it is often unpleasant and less safe in the winter. I have a toddler who often puts up a fuss about getting dressed in his winter gear (and even when he isn't complaining it can still be a big production). But there are nice bits too like this beautiful scenery. As well as the cozy feeling of staying inside with tea and blankets.

It was a nice temperature with no wind this morning so Henry and I spent some time outside. We walked around in the park a bit but Henry didn't like walking through the snow too much because ... he didn't like getting snow on his boots. Seriously, he kept saying "wipe boots". He is a real priss these days. Last night he seemed to want to eat pasta but was struggling with his fork and didn't want to get his hands dirty by eating with his hands. Luckily he is now pretty good at painting with brushes because finger painting is out these days, he often prefers to use markers for this reason too! However, I should also mention that it is nice when he asks for his hands to be wiped before touching everything in the house with sticky hands. And he even tells you right away when he spills something and is almost always up for helping clean it up.

And here are some more duck feeding pictures. He's just so sweet when he feeds them I have to keep taking out the camera. And it seems to be his current favourite activity. This morning he said "no playground, no hike, duckies eat" and wanted to get into the stroller so we could go find the ducks. He is very clingy and exhausting at the moment but thank goodness he is also loads of fun.

Henry wears the Bear Hood

Suddenly Henry will wear any hat. And today this included the bear hood. Lucky for us this new willingness to wear various hats coincided with us leaving his yellow hat at my mum's a couple of weeks ago.

And he's so cute as a little bear!

First this morning Henry helped Daddy put on the winter tires. Apparently he was actually helpful, passing the nuts one by one.

We spent the rest of the day in uptown. Walked around and had lunch at a deli, visited a craft fair (that was much too crowded for me to concentrate on doing any actual buying), and visited the animals and the train track at Waterloo Park. His favourite animal is still the turkey.

It was a fun day out.

A Warm November Day

Holy moly we had some nice weather today. Henry and I took advantage of it and spent all afternoon outside. We played in the yard a bit then headed to the park and played at the playground and in the forest. And I got the sweetest pictures of my sweet little boy.

Highlights from the Weekend

We had a lovely family weekend. We spent some time out and about and some time at home, some time being productive and some time relaxing, some time just the three of us and some time with friends. And we had some nice meals too.

Got to try our latest homebrewed beer that we've called "hoptometrist". It is definitely our best yet with all the bitterness that we wanted.

Drove out to Fergus, one of our favourite small towns in the area and did some playing and some walking.


Finally stopped at this overlook that we see on our country drives and found out that it is quite beautiful. And Henry got to do some walking up and downhill, his favourite kind.

Saw this snapping turtle on the golf course when we were doing Waterloo's RIM Park walk with some friends.

Had homemade chocolate beer waffles with homemade ice cream and chocolate sauce for our Sunday dinner - delicious! Recipes from Vegan Brunch and Vegan Scoop.

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.

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.

A Lovely Evening

The three of us had a lovely evening together yesterday. It started with a nice restaurant meal at an indian place but Henry was not too co-operative about staying and being a good boy in the restaurant so it wasn't the nicest dinner. He just has to be outside recently and he does this thing where he comes up to you, grabs your hand and tries to pull you outside all the while saying "door door door". It's very cute but is always annoying when he does it during a meal.

So after the meal we made sure to do something that was fun for Henry too - we went over to Waterloo Park. And we all had so much fun. All of a sudden Henry was the perfect age for everything there. He loved walking along the train tracks.And he was really into the animals. Here he is with the turkey, he is pretty good at saying "turkey" too.We didn't even take the stroller out of the car, Henry did a great job at walking along with us. And when we told him there were "more animals" over this way he was happy to follow along. Here he is putting his fingers a little too close to the pig's mouth.He led us over to the playground. Suddenly he was very into going down the slide himself, positioning himself and sliding down backwards. He used to do this months ago but then stopped after bopping his chin too many times.
And Kevin and I were amazed when we looked up and saw that he had climbed into this car rocking toy all on his own. And then he even started rocking himself. What a big boy! He LOVED it.
When we got home we relaxed on the front porch with a fancy trappist beer while Henry played outside. It was perfect.