Fantastic weather here in Ottawa today!
The whole neighbourhood was outside gearing up their backyards and patios for summer! Max played outside almost all day.
He played so much, he was hungry. Therefore he helped himself to a light snack:
What did you do today?
Was the weather great where you live?
What is your patio drink of choice?
Today we had an appointment at MelonHeads to have a haircut for Max. His hair was unruly – sticking up everywhere no matter what I did to it. So, it was time for a haircut! I’ve given his bangs and mullet a little trim from time to time, but not a whole haircut. Melonheads is a hair salon specially designed for children. They have a range of services from a regular trim, to french braids, and all the way to ‘party hair’ (sparkles and wash out hair colour). Rather than squirm on a parents lap for a haircut, the children get to sit in special chairs, including an airplane, horse, spaceship and Thomas the Engine. Max chose Thomas for this haircut, yay! Melonheads also has its own range of hair-styling products just for kids, small toys/loot bag items for sale, and a bin full of toys to keep the kids busy if they have to wait for a moment or so. A haircut costs $20 – a little expensive maybe for some (honestly I’m not sure as I’ve had the same hairstylist for 4 years myself), but I think it was worth it. They took extra special care of Max, give him a little certificate with some of his hair at the end, and gave him a ride on the moving pony.
Max did very well, no tears! He did give the hairstylist a few weird looks though. “Heyyyyy, what are you taking from me?!?!”
Max’s favorite toy was the broom toy – yes, that is right, a broom! He ignored all the other toys and just started sweeping up. The hairstylist said that they got them downstairs at the Dollar Store, so after the haircut, we purchased one just for Max. You want to get weird looks from other people – give your son a broom! Of course I heard one kid yell to his Mom “awww, Mommy, I want to mop too!!”, LOL. Max would not let the broom go, so he walked through the mall with it, through the parking lot and screamed bloody murder when we tried to take it away in the car. When we got home, he promptly took it for a spin, cleaning up the house. What a nice thing to do!
The broom is just some kind of duster – but it is perfect for toddlers! Teach them young, right???
Alrighty – as soon as Max is up, it is time for Home Depot!!! Woo?!?!
Yesterday was a bit chaotic has this was happening:
Yes, paper writing! I had a small essay to write on a piece of technology being used in education. We had to choose from Twitter, Google Drive, Prezi and a few others. Naturally, I chose blogging. I had to read some research about blogging in the classroom, and surprisingly there is a bit! Luckily Max had a good couple of naps yesterday and said paper is finished!
So today we got to do something fun!
This week’s thing of 52 new things is: Making Art with Max, and I chose finger painting! Max is still in the “hey everything in my mouth now!” stage of life, so something like colouring wouldn’t really work. I chose finger painting because Max likes to dump a couple of drips of milk on his tray and swoosh it around to “make art”. I picked up some Crayola finger paints at the local store and some paper. We practiced finger painting first using a ziplock bag (Thanks Fitnessista for the tips) a couple of weeks ago, but Max was more interested in smashing the bag on his face and making monster noises.
Anyways so, I set Max up in his tray and placed a blank sheet of paper on his tray. Rather than letting him go wild with an assortment of colours, I squirt out only one colour at a time. I showed him how to swirl it around and then he tried. Max seemed to get the hang of it, but of course some ended up in his mouth, opps (yay non-toxic!!).
He decided that his tray needed some colour too
He made two pictures before he got a bit bored. (hey do you like his shiner? Mr. “I think I can run” has been running and tripping into things like crazy *sigh*)
Overall, it was fun. I think Max sees the girls at daycare “make art” quite a bit, so I think it helped him get the hang of it. The Crayola finger paints were non-toxic and easy to clean up. Max didn’t get as dirty as I thought and the paint washed off his hands with just a quick rinse in the sink.
So that is this week’s challenge! Unfortunately I did not think things through when planning this upcoming week as I am supposed to go try a karate class. P is leaving on a school trip on Wednesday, so I will not be able to do that this week. So a switch will happen! Stay tuned for next week’s challenge!
Every year for the past three years, P and I have gone on a mini-vacation to the Mont Tremblant area. Normally we take a day off on Friday to make it a long weekend, but due to Max being sick a few times and other family commitments, P and I have taken one too many sick days and do not have many more left. So, I cancelled the Thursday night and we just did a typical weekend. This was a good thing as Max ended up getting a nasty cough cold and kept us up all weekend. Splendid!
We go to the Cote Nord Cottage and Chalet rental resort about 15-20 minutes away from the Tremblant Village (but only 10 minutes away from the North Side). We stayed with friends in the chalet a couple of years ago, but have since gone up by ourselves and just rented a condo. We just rented a one bedroom, but decided for next year, we are going to have to get a two bedroom. Mr. Funny pants thought it was just too funny to yell at us from his pack and play at 3am! The condo has everything you need and is brand new. The building we stayed at this year was build last summer, so it was nice and freshly updated. Of course, Mont Tremblant has a great village where there are numerous places to stay – but we have elected to stay a bit farther away where it is a tad bit cheaper and definitely quieter. There were a couple of quirky things about the condo including a malfunctioning gas fireplace, a see-through shower (see picture below), a huge soaker tub and a window door that met Max’s approval for window watching.
Max loved to wander around around and check everything out. He likes to investigate, so he does tend to get himself into trouble. For example, he decided that he could fit nicely into the stove storage bin…..
On Saturday we went skiing, while Max stayed at the Kids Club Daycare. The Daycare is available for ages 1+ and is a great option for parents who want a little ski-time sans tater tot (who cannot ski). It was very pricey, but worth it. Since I finally have my own set of skis, I spent pretty much the usual amount of money skiing that I would have in years that I have had to rent. I wouldn’t be able to do the daycare thing every weekend, but it was nice for a treat.
I did post some iPhone pictures the other day – but basically I did all the green circle (easy) runs and a couple of blue square ones (intermediate). I do have to say that next time I come up to Tremblant, I need to do more blue squares as some of the green circle runs were too boring. The ski hills were busy – but not too bad. I felt that the crowds came in waves. On one run, I literally just finished and skied straight into another lift. Sometimes I had to wait 10 minutes. When P and I go skiing, we ski together for the first few runs mostly so P can give me pointers and make sure I don’t fall down and have a yard sale. After I figure out how to ski again, P goes to the more advanced black diamond runs and I do my own thing.
So that is another Tremblant weekend come and gone – hoping that you all had a great weekend!
Have you been to Mont Tremblant?
Skiing or Snowboarding?
What do you do with your little one(s) when you want to do something they can’t?
Today was a fairly typical work day: no real stories to tell other than it was Pizza Pizza day, so naturally I had a slice of pizza with my lunch today. I ordered a piece of veggie and it was great. Although the plan was to go to the gym today (bag was packed and everything), I really needed to pick up shampoo and lotion from the drug store, so off to Shopper’s Drug Mart I went. Before I knew it, it was 5pm and it was time to start dinner.
When we got home from school, Max proceeded to run-walk to the pantry and open it up to get at all the food. He found his cereal bars (Organic Presidents Choice Kids brand) and started chewing it, wrapper and all. Because little boy’s cannot digest wrappers (?!?), I took it away and a whole rolling on the floor kicking and screaming tantrum happened for a few moments. After he calmed down, I said “if you want a snack, you go into your chair”. I put Max in his chair, including putting his safety straps on. I turned around to cut up the cereal bar. I turned around to place a few bite size pieces on his tray and I see that Mister Max has already helped himself to the fruit bowl to get a snack:
Yeah – so that fruit bowl was not at that exact spot, but I thought it was far enough that he wouldn’t reach it. Well, he did! Even this morning he was pointing at it signaling that he wanted a banana. He polished off most of the pear. When Max felt like he had enough, he reach out his arm with the rest of the pear with the look of “here Mama, the rest is yours!”. How nice!
This made dinner super easy as I just gave him some other things I had around the kitchen: cottage cheese, crackers, cereal bar, cucumber. He was a happy camper! For my dinner, I ate the remainder of my crispy beef from Friday’s dinner – I swear it gets better every day!
Currently I have a bread pudding in the oven! Recipe and results of this baking adventure will be up tomorrow!
Do you like pears?
What did you do today?
Brought to you via Apple iMovie Maker
This is the face of someone who likes jam! I ran out of baby cereal, so Max had toast this morning. We put a little bit of jam on it and he seemed to like it. First however, he had to “inspect it” by poking at it and sniffing the bread. Weirdo! He did do a good job of eating a big piece of toast by himself.
Today was a regular Saturday. We played, went grocery shopping and had a nap (well Max did). The Robots team was working late tonight and I brought them dinner around 4:30pm. The best part about driving to P’s school is there is a drive-thru Starbucks! I had a grande Vanilla Spice latte for the ride home. Since it was still a bit early for dinner, Max and I drove to Old Navy to check out the 40% kids sale. I grabbed a few good deals. Take a look at the khaki and shirt/tie combo: what an outfit! Max has outgrown his Batman shirts, so he needed some more. I also could not resist the striped long sleeved shirt in my school’s colours (blue and orange).
I took a looksie over at the Active line that was advertised via a million bloggers a few weeks ago. But the advertising worked and I liked what a few bloggers had picked out. I checked the online store numerous times for a few pieces that I liked. First off, it took the Canadian store forever to get the newer stuff out. Second, when it did come out all the nice pieces were sold out in no time and the stock has never been replenished. The store had very few items available (unlike all the bloggers who posted great pictures of all this active wear). Most of what they had in stock was the same stuff they have remaining in the online store. The only pieces I bought were two running long-sleeved shirts for $15 each. Not sure about the quality. Let’s see how many washes it takes before the material starts to show wear and tear (even with a gentle cycle and line dry). There is quite a bit of potential with this line – so far I am disappointed that the Canadian Stores do not have the same selection as the US and that overall the popular items are not in stock (I just checked the US store – same deal as the CDN one).
Tonight’s dinner was leftover Chinese Food. Since I am on my own today, the only work-out I did was scrubbing the kitchen floor. That still counts!!
What did you do today?
Good Saturday evening!
Today was a low-key kind of day as Max is still sick. Max went to the doctors yesterday with P and the Doctor was concerned about his ears, as they were red and yucky. She wanted us to come back today to check the ears again before prescribing antibiotics. Quick check of the ears this morning showed his ears were still red and antibiotics were prescribed. We hustled over to the grocery store which has a pharmacy and filled the prescription while grocery shopping. Max has been on and off all day. He is sleeping soundly right now, which is good and bad. Good for obvious reasons, but bad because unfortunately I have to give him his medicine at 11pm. Poor guy!
Banana flavour!
After our busy morning, we went home for lunch and then sorted through Max’s baby stuff. Before I just dumped all of his clothes in the empty diaper boxes with no organization. Today I emptied everything out and sorted into months, as well as a box of receiving blankets/hats/socks. I also have a bag of maternity clothes. Max tried to help! It was cute to hold up his newborn clothes to him – he has grown so much!
This was mine?!?!
For dinner, I made chicken fajitas. Max was not interested in eating, so he just had a bottle and half a cracker. I sauteed some chicken breast, pepper, onion and mushrooms with olive oil, cilantro and a dash of lime juice. I then placed my fajita mix on a flour tortilla and topped with avocado, sour cream and salsa. It was super yummy!
What is everyone doing tonight?
What did you have for dinner?
What do you like on your fajitas?
Today has been one of those days that I’ve barely been on the computer nor been on my phone.
I think I tweeted “hello twitter?” at around 2:30pm as I don’t believe that I had a chance to tweet anything prior to that moment. Today was my last exam – which included some marking afterwards. By the time I looked up again it was 2pm. Good news is that all the exams are marked, and grades are done for one class. The rest will be for tomorrow since I just have office/marking time tomorrow.
After work, I remembered that it was Tuesday and the nurse at our medical office works late. I scooted to Max’s daycare and picked him up so he could get his immunization that he still needed. He was a trooper and only cried for all of 30 seconds. Since we were so close – this happened:
I ordered the Spartacat Special with onion rings. Delish! Max was a ham as usual, singing and dancing. He also made a few new friends! He hate most of his burger, and all of his cucumber. He had a small sundae for dessert! Tonight I turned on “The Agenda” to watch some guest teachers discuss the current teacher/government situation. After writing this post and trying to read some blogs, I will read my magazine that came today! Runner’s World!
By the way – I am now blogging at Ottawa Mommy Club! I will be contributing new posts over there at least two times a month! The posts found there will be different than the ones here – and (obviously) a bit more parenting focused. Check it out! There are some familiar bloggers on there too!
Knowing Max’s schedule – I know on weekends I have a bit of a choice (if he is even offering a choice): sleep in and skip a morning nap OR wake up around 6:30 like normal and have a morning nap. Seems like an easy choice and most weekends it is. However, since it is build season, P works on Saturdays which means that something as simple as a shower can be difficult if I do not get Max down for a morning nap.
Yesterday I went with the “sleeping in choice“. Max slept in til 7:30ish (don’t hate me) and jabbered away in his bed until I really felt the need to get up for the day. P left for work shortly after. Since we were planning to go to Ikea on Sunday, I needed to get some grocery shopping done. Looking at the clock, I figured that it was the perfect time to go at 9am. But, I really wanted to shower. I am not one to really like to leave the house without showering, especially with my shorter bangs, as they usually resemble a rooster in the AM. Throwing Max in the crib = scream fest, so I had to do one many parents before me had to do – take a shower with a toddler in the room.
I put him in the bathroom, closed the door and secured the one cabinet that has lots “no baby” things in it. I placed his bath toys on the floor so he could have some fun. I started the shower and Max became all excited because he thinks it is bath time. Sorry, kiddo, but it is Mama’s bath time! I hopped into the shower and within three seconds Max tore open the curtain to see what Mama was up to. He thought “hey this is fun!” and decided to play peekaboo for the first couple of minutes. Max then thought that it would be nice for Mama to have some bath toys – so one by one, bath toys started to make their appearance in the tub. Poor rubber duck, he was sad that the bath wasn’t filled to his liking. After all this – Max decided that he wanted his hair washed so he started to try to get in the shower and in the process his head did in fact hit the stream of water. As soon as this happened – giggles erupted and now this was great fun. Luckily I only took a quick shower, so the madness quickly stopped.
I got out of the shower and saw a giant puddle of water on the ground, great! I started to towel off and I guess Max thought naked Mama was freakin hilarious and decided to grab my leg. Of course his cold, little hand made me giggle and immediately his eyes widened in realization that he could get Mama back after all the times she tickled him. SO.MUCH.FUN.
After toweling off, I changed and headed back into the bathroom to do my hair. Now that the shower was off, Max set forth to see what other things he could get into. He had to inspect the toilet, the trash can, the toilet paper and the towel rack. While inspecting the toilet he found the plunger, picked it up and proceed to “plunge” his toys. Ok, who taught him how to plunge?!?!
Sadly, Mama was all done getting ready and we had to leave the bathroom. Insert Sad Max face here. All of this action took place in about 30 minutes. This is probably why I resort to putting my hair up in a ponytail every day and looking like I just woke up 
Happy Sunday!
Do you have any funny toddler stories to tell?
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