Prequ'ile Provincial Park, Take 2

Like last August, we went camping with our friends Peter, Christa & Holly.  The girls were mobile this year, which made it so much more fun!

 

Helena & Holly loved seeing all the animals.  In the above they're watching a caterpillar walk on the tent.  Overall, Helena accidentally crunched two caterpillars with her loving touches, kissed one right on its back without killing it, and got one to hold on so tight to her finger that I had a hard time getting it off!

The other major animal sighting was a frog.  It immediately hopped under a car, but the girls continued to observe it for a very long time. 

 

The beach is the big draw at Presqu'ile.  The guys played frisbee for so long that John got a blister!

The beaches have a beautiful white sand but our campsite was near a rocky beach, so we also spent time throwing rocks into Lake Ontario.  

One evening John cooked hobos and corn on the cob over the fire.  Best meal of the trip! 

Thanks for the hobo addition, Erinn - the sweet potatoes were excellent!

 
 

Helena had her first hot dog and first marshmallow in the park.  She loved both.

 One morning we went on the Marsh Boardwalk, which completely surpassed all our expectations.  It was beautiful and 100% not buggy.

 

One afternoon Helena danced and ran around with her shadow.  It was so much fun to watch.

Helena & Holly seemed to decide the front door to our tent was a makeshift couch for the camping trip.  They'd be running around playing and then both decide to go plop themselves down at the door, sit and play for awhile, and then get back up to run around some more.  This happened over and over and over again.

 

Every morning Helena would wake up with a huge smile on her face.   John & I loved being outside of the city where we could hear the leaves rustling, the waves hitting the shore, the birds singing, but even more we loved seeing Helena enjoy the outdoors so much.

First Haircut

For some reason, I had this notion that Helena's first haircut was going to a great opportunity for fun pictures. Well, it wasn't.  She was thrilled to walk into the salon and find all these fun things to sit on, but from the moment the hairdresser walked towards her until the moment we left - with a quick horsey ride in between (during which I had to be at her side) - she was hysterical.

My arms were wrapped around her body with her head on my shoulder for almost the entire haircut, but on my fourth or fifth time of trying to sneak away to take a shot, I made it in time to take the above photo.  Two seconds later Helena was practically falling out of the fire engine trying to get to me.

I apologized to the lady for giving her such a rough time right when the salon opened.  She replied that Helena actually did much better than most kids on their first haircut!  So, for all of you mothers whose kids haven't had their first haircuts yet, you now know to not expect too much.

The Parents Rap

I can't figure out how to put this on the blog, but all you parents out there, you should watch this 3 minute video.  It'll provide you with a good laugh.

http://www.dump.com/parentsrap/

Super Ducky!

Helena loves her towel.  After drying off from her bath, she runs through the hallway with her "cape" trailing behind her, all to the sound of "Super Ducky!"  She then wears the towel until it's time to read books and go to sleep.

Notice anything odd?

This is how John walked home from the library last week.  

Earbuds in his ears but not plugged into anything (on purpose).  He got a lot of weird looks, so he came up with a variety of thoughts people must have been having when they saw him.  My favorite one was that "That guy is so used to having his earbuds in that he doesn't even notice that he isn't listening to anything."

Pipe Cleaner Activity

Lately I've been looking for different learning activities for an 18 month old.  

Here's one that we've tried:

Pipe Cleaners and A Colander!  

Helena loves pulling them out and is starting to have more determination to get them back in the holes.  It's a great little activity, and one that doesn't require very many materials.

If any of you have activities like this to pass on, please do comment!

Rogers Cup

John & I rather enjoy tennis.  It's fun to play but we really like to watch, especially when Roger Federer is playing.  So, with the Rogers Cup being held in Toronto and 3 of the 4 best players in the world had signed up to play, the decision to go to the tournament for our 6th anniversary was easily made.

 

Then HFMD hit.  John couldn't go, so my friend Steph went with me.  We had a lot of fun, eating burgers and then sitting under our umbrellas, all while being the only people in the nosebleed seats for the entire 2 hours we were there.

No real tennis ended up being played due to the rain, but we did end up seeing Novac Djokovic joking around with an umbrella on the tennis court!

The good news is since the tennis match couldn't be played, we get to send in our tickets and get new ones for next year's tournament.  Hopefully then John & I will both be able to attend!

"Quarantine" is over!

One of our family traditions is to go out for pizza after a person in our family has been sick for 3 or more days.

With two family members out of commission for a week each, we figured we should get pizza and frozen yogurt!

I'm so glad these two are feeling better & are getting out of the apartment!

Fort York

On one of the last days of Helena being contagious, we had to get out of the house, so we chose a place where there's lots of room and not too many people - Fort York.  This is where the British first settled in the area, and where the major battle of 1812 took place in Canada.  With regards to the buildings on site, there wasn't anything we hadn't seen before.

However, as you can tell from these pictures, the location is smack dab in the middle of the city.  When the fort was first built, it was located in a bog, about 50 feet away from Lake Ontario.  Now it's no longer boggish, as they filled the land in with sand to raise it by 4 feet. The fort is now a kilometer away from the lake, as they've created more land, and it's surrounded by city.  A huge overpass is immediately outside of the fort.  I found it incredibly interesting to really see how the land has been changed in the last 200 years.

HFMD

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  It's been ruling our lives for the last couple weeks.  We're not sure where Helena picked it up but she sure got it.  And then John.

It starts with a sudden high fever, then the fever disappears but a rash appears on your feet, your hands, your bum, your elbows, and your knees. Anytime there is pressure put on the rash, it's quite painful. Lesions form in your mouth so it's extremely painful to eat.  You're contagious through all of this, and continue to be so 3-4 days after the rash stops continuing to appear in new places. How it's spread is not entirely known, so you do everything in your power to not spread it.

So you stay at home, away from other people.  That's a long time for you and for an 18 month old to be away from people.  Once your husband starts displaying the signs, you stop all touch between the two of you.  No more sharing a bed, no more hugs, no more having your legs touch while you watch the Olympics.  It surprisingly makes you feel less like a team.

But we only have 36 more hours of our quarantine.  We've almost made it.  I am so glad we're reaching the end.

Stroller

We gave Helena a doll stroller a few weeks ago, and wow, has it ever been a hit.  

She was so excited.

So excited that it warranted an impromptu hug just to say thank you.

The construction of the stroller, however, took a little longer than Helena had hoped for.  As you can see, eventually she just wouldn't let go!

The finished product and one very happy girl!

Barbara Reid

We recently came across Barbara Reid's children's books.  Her illustrations are all made with plasticine clay, so they really stand out.  Here's my favorite page from her book "Two by Two".  Take a close look at it and you'll see Noah's wife collecting the chicken's eggs while standing on a turtle's shell and then handing them to a kangaroo.  There's just so much going on in the pages!

While reading her book "Zoe's Year", the illustrations just seemed a bit too familiar.  Turns out the author is from Toronto and so are her scenes! 

I was showing John the above picture and he named the location - High Park!  The nut seller, the trail, the trees, the black squirrels.  Here's the real spot:

Helena is 1 1/2!

When I think of the last 18 months with Helena, I can't believe how much a child changes in such a short time!  She's gone from being absolutely dependent on us to now wanting to be independent absolutely as much as possible!

Here are some details of her life:

1) She's talking!  Her current words are mommy, daddy, no, baby, me, taxi, uh-oh, please, hi, bye, home, Nani and Papa.  Plus a bunch of random animal noises like baa(sheep), tee taw (donkey), ah ah ah (monkey), ssss (snake), arf (dog), oooo (owl), moo (cow), and a sound that reminds us of constipation (elephant).
2) She loves reading.  She loves reading.  She loves reading.  I can't repeat that enough.
3) Bikes are her favorite thing in the world.  We went for an afternoon in the park yesterday, and much of the afternoon was spent pointing at bikes, waving at bikes, watching people get on or off their bikes, or walking with her tricycle.  
4) She loves playing with rocks.  She'll get off her trike to pick up a rock, hold it while steering, bring it inside and then play with it once inside.
5) She is quite the little mommy.  She pushes her baby in her stroller, she sleeps with her baby, she kisses her baby, she reads books to her baby, she reminds me to change her baby's diaper.
6) Helena is just about recovered from hand, foot & mouth disease.  What a horrible virus to catch!
7) With regards to art, she's much more interested in playing with the materials than making art.  So when using watercolors, she likes to play with the water.  If you put the brush in the paint, she gets frustrated :)  Or with markers, it's much more fun to take caps on & off than it is to put color on the paper.  At the library, however, she colors.

Play Me, I'm Yours

The Pan Am Games are being held in Toronto in 2015, and to get people thinking about the games, 41 pianos have been placed throughout the city.  Each piano has been painted by a different artist from a different Pan Am country.  Then the pianos were placed in strategic places to get neighbors out to talk and to play.

We came across one on the University of Toronto campus.  John sat down and played a beautiful Chopin piece.  I love it when my husband plays!