OMG!

A quick post from work: Brett asked for his water shoes this morning! And they tell me he actually wore his sandals for a little while yesterday. Gasp!

Update on the shoe issue

At the risk of jinxing things, I feel almost safe in saying that Brett has gotten used to the idea of his new running shoes. He lets me put them on; he sometimes even tries to help. But I knew he had reached a new high in his shoe experience when he let me — no, was eager for me — to put his water shoes on at the splash park today.

These are the same water shoes that Daddy tried to put on Brett earlier this summer, when we were plotting a day out in the canoe. That day there was screaming, crying and kicking, but there was also a life jacket. Hard to know which was main offender.

If I get really brave, one of these days I'll try the sandals.

Next time: bugs

Just a quick pic from breakfast: Daddy and Brett reading a book and enjoying some cheerios.

Willie or the Girls?

Two hot, hot shows in Vancouver last night: Willie Nelson and the Indigo Girls. Guess which one I went to?

The shoes, my god the shoes

Brett has been wearing the same running shoes since he started walking on his own at 17 months. We tried putting sandals on him a coupla times, but it was no go (the crying fit at Tim Horton's was not fun).

Well, the running shoes are now too small and hurt his feet. Does that mean he knows new shoes are in order? Not our boy. He cried and kicked when we tried the two other pairs we have at home; he cried and fought when we tried new shoes on him at Zellers and Sears (yes, that was us in the corner of the shoe department on Sunday). On Monday I took him to daycare in his sock feet and asked them to try.

He was wearing his shoes when I picked him up, but when I congratulated him on how cool they looked (they're black and purple, fer gawdsake), he started to cry again.

Ever since then he'll let me put them on him, but then he cries and wants to be carried. I had to leave him crying at daycare again today. I hope it's partly because he still getting over his cold and ear infection, but I fear it's simply a symptom of nearly-two-year-old trying to exert some sort of control over his life. Sigh. Another year of this, I hear?

We're Alberta bound

Most of the people close to us know we're planning to move to Calgary by now — if we missed telling you in person: sorry.

Since visiting Bill and Suzanne, and Richard and Bushra in May, we've decided that the Calgary area, Cochrane in particular, is the place for us. The economy is booming, houses are still relatively inexpensive, it's near a big a city but it's not a suburb, and best of all, we already have friends living there.

We plan to leave New West on Sept 15. That gives us 61 days to sell our place and find a new one, pack our stuff (after going through it and throwing out, giving away or selling a bunch of it), spend quality time with all the people we'll miss, and try to squeeze in a few local attractions we've never been to.

What the "ba" does that mean?

Brett uses "ba" or "ba-ba" to mean a whole bunch of things:
Baba (my mom), grandma (Randy's mom), Barney, puzzle, pasta, pillow, biscuit, bar (granola bar — he's too little to drink in bars). The variations in pronunciation are subtle, but if you listen carefully, they're there. The boy's going to be a language genius.

Diagnosis: ear infection

Poor Brett! Another trip to the doctor and another ear infection diagnosis. He's napping now, after the first dose of banana medicine (you know which one I mean). I'm working from home for a while, but might squeeze in a short nap too.

Oh no! A fever (pic)

Poor baby Brett has a cold and a fever.

It started yesterday after a great play and lunch date with Heather and Tracey and their boys. He had a nap when we got home and woke up feeling just rotten. He was so hot all night but by morning seemed better. Then after a long morning nap today he's all hot again.

The only thing he wants is his Dora the Explorer DVD, his taggie blankie and his pillow. If we remind him to drink water he does. I may get some pedialyte tomorrow.

We're starting to get pretty sick of Dora.

Walking up the stairs

So, after school today Brett was playing in his room and dad and mom were in the kitchen making dinner. We heard the occasional "Mama!" "Dada!" but he was fine; we figured he'd come up when he was ready.

A few minutes later we hear the calls coming closer so we go to watch him come up the stairs. Much to our surprise, Baby Boy is walking up the stairs, holding on to the wall! Get it? He's not crawling! I've been watching him hang on to the railing to walk up the stairs at daycare, but there's no easy railing at home. What a smart boy!

We have sentences!

Brett said his first sentence on June 27: "I need wa-wa."

Since then, he's added many other "I need...," "I see...," and "I want..." sentences to his repertoire. he's also saying "I see...," and I'm pretty sure he said "I know mama" on the weekend.

Or course, this increase in his verbal skills means we can longer longer ignore his requests for yet one more episode of Dora the Explorer by pretending we don't know what he wants. Sigh.