Cherub choir on Christmas Eve

Learning winter sports.

This past week Manitoba has enjoyed some beautiful weather. We took advantage of this "heat wave" to introduce William to some wonderful winter sports. First we took him skating on the duck pond in St Vital park. He loved the experience and cried when we finally took the skates off. Our experience wasn't quite as enjoyable because we had to support most of his weight while bending down, skating behind him (very hard on the back). Today we tried cross country skiing. Once again William was very enthusiastic about this new experience. "I'm skiing!!!," he cried as he "walked" across our yard. He proceeded to ski to the nearby hockey rink and back. It took us a total of an hour, through which mommy had to be very patient as he frequently stopped to contemplate the life of an ant (do they have furniture, do they cut down christmas tress, do they have chimneys for santa to come down?) Fun times with a three year old.

Merry Christmas!

Surfin USA- William remix

 This week Chris brought home a child-sized guitar for William. We spent a good half hour watching William whip himself into a performing frenzy. Each song got louder and sillier. I have chosen his rendition of a popular beach boys classic for you to enjoy (notice his Elvis-inspired guitar strumming near the end).

New Best Friend

We spent the last week at Star lake attending the August family camp. The weather wasn't that good but we managed to have a great time anyway. William's highlight was spending the week with a 9 year old named Katie. She could get him to do anything from eating his supper (no small feat) to singing in the talent show (a stirring rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star). All the way home William asked "Where does Katie live? Maybe we could go to her house tomorrow?" I guess he'll be in "katie- withdrawl" for awhile.

New inflatable toy.

Eating Tuck on the beach.

At the talent show.

Ode to Dad.

Canada Day

This year we spent Canada day at Assiniboine park with my mom. There was lots of fun free stuff to do including huge blow up slides/bouncy rides, face painting and live entertainment. William's highlight was a ride on a real stem train (very much like Thomas he thought). We also walked through the zoo (which was a in a sad state of disrepair unfortunately). The weather was beautiful and it was a great day to celebrate our great country!

Nursery Rhymes

 My mom gave William a book of nursery rhymes for Easter and we have frequently read them as bed time stories. He seems to love the rhythm and simple patterns of this kind of verse. One day I found William holding the book and to my surprise he was "reading" each poem on his own! Here is a small sampling of two nursery rhymes. Unfortunately I only thought to take out my camera part way through the performance. Notice how he even does some ad-libing (sp?) on the last one.

Mom's birthday.

 

New Sandbox!

On Saturday Chris's dad built a small sandbox in our front yard. William was thrilled!

Mom's 65th birthday party

Today we celebrated Mom's birthday with the Vic Isaak Family. Mom and I spent the afternoon making pizzas. When the people at work found out that I was making pizza from scratch they couldn't believe it! They asked me why I didn't just buy them. I said, "You don't know my family!" Anyway the work payed off and the supper was very tasty. We had chocolate cupcakes for dessert, as you can see Nate and Will were very happy to help with the blowing of the candles. After supper we went for a walk around the campus. The boys enjoyed playing on the local "hill." It's amazing how running up and down a slope can be so entertaining to a toddler. We ended off the evening by taking a spin in Mom's new RAV4. Fun times.

Farm part 2

A Day on the Farm

Today William and I spent the day on a farm with the local mom's group. William was very brave and went on a horsey ride. As you can see from his expression he is not overly thrilled. Although it was fun to see the animals I think that William's highlight was playing in the huge sandbox with the Tonka tractors.

Nate and Erik's Birthday!

Today we celebrated Nate's 3rd birthday and Erik's 1st birthday. The theme for the party was Thomas the train (Nate and William's favorite toy). For lunch we enjoyed pigs in a blanket and for dessert Ari made wonderful chocolate cupcakes decorated with icing train tracks. Each cupcake had a picture of Thomas character driving across the top. William had great fun recognizing all of his favorite trains. It was a fun time but we all wished that Alana and Ethan could have been there to celebrate with us.  Happy Birthday buddies!

William talking to Ethan

This is a video of William watching a video of Ethan eating apples. I knew that he wouldn't talk directly to the camera so I caught him interacting with the computer. We miss you Ethan, can't believe what a big boy you are! (In the background William pipes up: "No he's not a big boy, I'M a big boy).

Babbling in the Backyard.

This post is for Chris who has been out of the country for 3 weeks and is sorely missing his son. It's a little hard to understand the dialogue so I'll translate a bit. William talks about his dad hooking something on and then turning on the switch? I try to ask him where his dad is and the usual answer is "with big ben" but today he wouldn't cooperate (sorry Chris).