My photos don't match up with the blurbs in the last post. Sorry. It worked out properly when I wrote it, but I'm not sure I know how to fix it. So I trust that whoever reads this will be able to match the pictures with the words correctly.

Easter

I have taken alot of photos the last little while, so here is a quick update from our Easter weekend. We have been loving the spring weather and trying our hardest to spend time outside. WW got this sidewalk chalk from the Easter Bunny and he is loving drawing pictures out front.



BJ's side of the family lives outside Edmonton on farms. It is one of our favorite things to spend holidays with them. Catching up with BJ's cousins, eating the BEST food and bowling! This year WW was old enough to really figure it out, and it was soo cute to watch him go get a ball, push it down the little frame, watch it hit the pins, and then go get another ball. He played for hours... and had so much fun. He even was taking turns with the other cousins. It is exciting for us to see him learn new things, but it's great to see him figure out cooperation and being able to interact with other kids.

BJ and I put on a little Easter egg hunt for WW on Sunday morning. It was so great to get everything together the night before with BJ, and then to watch WW hunt down the eggs and show us what he got. He opened each egg, took the wrapper off , and then put it in his bucket before moving on. It feels so great as a parent to be able to do those silly little things for your kids that they just love. I felt like a good mom that morning.




SH saves me regularly. Not only is she a dear friend, but she is the one that helps me be crafty, and more importantly keeps me festive on holidays. This year she let me know about the Fort Edmonton Park Easter celebration and so we went as a family and met her and her little girl AH there, as well as my sister in law (her sister) and nephews there as well. It was the most beautiful day and they had all these wonderful things for kids of all ages to do.

Face painting, Egg hunting, treasure hunts, petting zoo, egg dying. We had a great time, and loved being out in the warm spring weather.

I missed out on the Easter basket this year, so we bought WW this little bucket at Michaels on the way to Fort Edmonton. It worked perfectly.

Finger painting. I had this picture on a different camera, so it is from a different post, but it's so fun to watch WW play around with his paints.

Bedtime routines

Anyone that knows WW knows that he has never been a great sleeper. He seems to have developed other qualities that make me willing to keep him around for a while.(just joking) but we have started in the last couple days to develop a little bedtime routine that I can't help writing about.

BJ works shift work, so when I am left to put WW to bed by myself I tend to be a little less strict than when BJ is home and I'd like to spend some time with him. So last night and tonight have been two nights where BJ is at work. So WW and I take our time before bed, he plays in the tub for a while, we read stories, sing songs, brush his teeth... and then when it's time for him to get to bed he lays down and I try to sneak off to fill his humidifier hoping he will fall asleep without noticing I haven't come back... Not today... he was calling for me so I go back into his room to find him standing up in his crib. The rest of the conversation went like this...

"WW lay down please, it's bedtime."

W- "three blankets?"

"ok, three blankets, but you might get hot"

W- "poops?"

"no Wyatt you were just on the potty."

W- "food? Salad... soo good"

"Wyatt you just had a snack, and you don't like salad"

W- "see daddy?"

"Daddy's at work"

W- "see daddy's white truck"

"daddy's truck is at work too"

W- "kisses?"

"ok, kisses"

W- "sleep mommy's bed?"

"No WW, you have to sleep in WW's bed tonight"

W- "out?"

"Nope"

W-" in?"

"yes"

W-" Play?"

"you can play in the morning it's time for bed"

It's crazy that I just see him sit and think about the next possible request that he thinks I might fall for. And all of his requests seem to make sense to the both of us... What better way to get out of going to sleep than having to use the bathroom, or have a bedtime snack. That little guy is a thinker.

Anyway, after countless requests... he won! I cuddled with him in our bed until he fell asleep, and then moved him into his own room. This little boy is getting way too smart. And he's got quite a sense of humor too, he is always looking to make us laugh, and even when I'm trying to be serious so that he'll eat his dinner instead of be silly, I have a hard time not laughing along. What fun it must be to be a toddler, because I am having so much fun as the mother of a toddler.

Encouraging Creativity

WW and I have been discovering some more of his many talents in the last little while. He is so creative, and I am finding it hard to control my own desire to find new things to introduce him to.

This all started when we went over to my sister in law JF's house for a quick stop in, and she was painting ceramic piggy banks with her kids. WW got to paint his very own mug, and we had a hard time pulling him away to leave. So I went to Michael's to see what I could find for him, and have had a hard time restraining myself since then. Michael's has so many different activities we are just getting started. (Plus with their 40% coupons, you really don't need to restrain too much) We have tried ceramics painting- (a mug for Papa Mabey, and we decorated his dad's splint bowl) we also bought regular crayola washable paint and some watercolors. WW will sit and paint for hours.

WW has also developed a LOVE of play dough. It occupies him in his highchair while I get all my housework

done around him. I took him to Toys-R-Us today and they had buy one play set get one free, so we are set with play dough for quite sometime now. Here are some pictures of him playing today. It has been difficult for me to ignore the mess, the little bits of color all over my floor,

but it's good for me to relax a little and let him enjoy himself. We even did a little finger and feet painting the other day which made for an interesting afternoon.

p.s I survived my ski holiday. I'll post about that with some pictures soon.

Blog block

Not much exciting to report, but WW and I had a little adventure today. He has has these white spots on his tongue and on the inside of his lip for the last few months off and on. I have taken him to his family doctor who didn't know what it was, and I was fairly confident that it wasn't anything serious... but for my own sake we went in to the dentist for a quick check. We see Dr. Scott Bennett downtown, and since I don't enjoy the stress of looking for parking downtown and then rushing through busy streets to get to our appointment... we took the train. What a fun adventure for WW and I. He was such a good boy on the train, looking out the window and doing some people watching. I wish I had taken a picture.

He also did such a good job in the chair. He sat there and let the dentist check his spots (which seem to be from him chewing his lip) No tears!!! He is becoming such a big boy. I think it helped that his aunt HF was the dental assistant and gave him some great treasures before we got started. I was so proud of him though.

BJ and I have a romantic get away planned for tomorrow. We are driving to Banff to stay overnight and then for a day of snowboarding at Sunshine Village. I am really excited because it has been a few years since I've been snowboarding, and it will be good to get away for a quick trip with BJ. I just can't help but have aprehensions of leaving WW, and being so far away if there was any trouble. He will be in wonderfully capable hands (his grandmothers- my mom thursday and overnight, and then BJ's mom friday all day.) I am just an overprotective mother, with a few control issues. This will be really good for me. I are leaving in June for 6 days away to New York. WW will be with his dad, but if I can't leave WW for just over a day, then I'll be in big trouble for New York. It will be a good experience for the both of us.

Wish me luck! I'll post again later when I know how it turns out.