Saturday, March 31, 2012

The Scream Is Back

When Eliot was about a year old he started using a high pitched squeal to vocalize his dissatisfaction.  Soon it became a way to communicate, not just frustration, but anything from "I would like some toast please" to "how are you this fine morning."  Peter has followed in his brother's footsteps and in the Can-Am Young home these days every one's ears are perpetually ringing.  Peter makes a face to go with the scream (which, I kid you not, is ear-splitting) which I was able to capture during a recent photo shoot of the boys.  It's fun to watch Peter experimenting with sounds and babbling, all the little sounds I'm going to miss someday.  I don't think I'll ever miss The Scream. :)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Happy Birffday Mama!



This year to celebrate my birthday Eliot, Peter and I picked up Spencer at work on Friday and went to the beach for a picnic supper and play in the waning sunlight.



After supper, the boys hit the playground with tons of energy.






It was the perfect time of day to be down by the ocean, and everything was lovely.

 


 

 








 
 
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Friday, March 23, 2012

Baby curls



In my parents home there hangs a photograph of my father and his older bother when they were children.  My dad couldn't have been much older than Peter is now.  He's smiling brightly and his head is aglow with blonde curls.  A favourite story in Lundberg Family Lore is that when my sister, Rissie, was little she pointed at the picture and said, "That's Daddy when he was a little girl."

Our Little Peter is in that same stage now.  Everywhere we go people compliment me on my beautiful little girl. Between the demure blue eyes and the curls, people seem to think he's just too pretty to be a boy.  He doesn't seem bothered by this, and neither am I.



I love his silky curls, and I want to hold on to them for as long as I can.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Let me begin by saying that I've never been a fan of soap operas.

Daytime television in general has always struck me as somewhat depressing.  The low-budget commercials, the gimmicky game shows, and of course, the soaps.  But when we first moved here and were staying in a holiday bungalow way out in the sticks (what came to be known as the Rented House) I came to see it differently.

Spencer started work almost immediately after our arrival and I was at the Rented House with the boys.  No friends, no Internet, no phone, no car, no books (except the magazine I'd brought with me on the plane and read through several times).  The house had a television that got one channel.  I was surprised how isolated I felt.  I would take the boys across the street to the grocery store every day I could just to say hi to the check-out lady.  During the boys' afternoon nap I'd turn on the television to hear the sound of another adult voice and get a sense of this new country I'd landed in.  You can learn a lot about a place from the commercials that are shown.  For example, it seemed to me that there were an awful lot of ads for insurance and pest control.  While I washed dishes or prep'd supper, I'd watch Ellen, then the View, and then this American soap opera would come on, I can't even remember its name.  I began to see the appeal of these shows.  I could see that, silly though I found them, they filled a need.

I'm still not a fan of soap operas, but every now and then I'll turn on our television when the boys are having their nap and I'm folding laundry or making yogurt (like I did today).  They're hilarious.  My two favourite lines from today:

"I can't tell the truth yet, it would hurt my grandmother...because she was the one who switched the paternity test."

and,

"I'm not a perfect man but I look out for those I love.  That's why I had to shut Vivian up in that sarcophagus."

And you know, there's something there that you have to admire.  Whether it's the writers, boldly challenging the maxim that truth is stranger than fiction, or the actors, delivering the lines without so much as a twitch of the lip.  It's pretty entertaining in its way, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to see if EJ will let Sammie see her children again before she dies.  At the end of the day, I'm soooooo glad the boat with my books eventually arrived.

Anyway, here are a couple cute pictures of the boys:
Eliot loves Yellow Bear.

Peter loves watermelon.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy Birthday Little Peter Man!

Just one year ago Spencer and I sat in Tim Hortons eating Tim Bits and biding our time until we could head back to the hospital where, later that evening, Peter Royer joined our family.  Since then our Little Peter has travelled the world and brought a smile to everyone he meets.  His birthday fell on a Friday this year so the celebration became a two-day affair.  On Friday morning I took the boys to play group where Peter found a carpeted flight of stairs on which to practice his climbing skills.  On the way home we bought him a birthday balloon and then went home for a nap and an afternoon full of play.
Saturday was the day for cake and presents with Daddy at home.  During Peter's morning nap Eliot helped me make cupcakes and supervised their decoration.  Peter was thrilled with the candles and the singing, not as much with the cake.  Lemon cake with vanilla frosting is an acquired taste--who knew?
In the afternoon we took the boys to the beach where Spencer took Peter down to dabble his feet in the ocean.  Peter loved it, and cried when the waves didn't wash up quickly enough.

Our Little Peter Man has brought us so much joy.  We love him so much!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A chip off the old block


Yesterday I took the boys to the park and Eliot had a piece of raisin bread that he was munching on and took with him onto the playground.  Somewhere in all the running around the bread ended up on the ground, covered in sand.  Some other boy found it and put it beneath a slide as part of a game he was playing.  Eliot noticed this, recognized his slice of bread, and retrieved it.  The other boy, who was clearly a couple years older than Eliot, demanded that Eliot return his 'toast', saying that it was baking in the oven.  Sitting off to the side with Peter in the shade, I held back to see how Eliot would handle the situation.  Eliot regarded him for a moment and then said, "No, toast was not in the oven, toast was in the toaster, it's my toast."  This astonished the older boy, who I think wasn't expecting a response.  He made some kind of roaring sound that was meant to intimidate, to which Eliot responded, "This is 'redicoolus', stop right now".  At this point I took the grin off my face and intervened, as the situation seemed to be escalating.  I asked the boy's name and introduced him to Eliot (I find that Eliot cooperates more when the other child isn't such a stranger to him).  The nasty, sand encrusted bread was forgotten and they both went on with their play.  It just made me smile.  From my own experiences with Eliot I know he's no push-over.  It was just kind of funny to watch him in action.  He still has a lot to learn about diplomacy and sharing but I'm glad that he's not afraid to stand up for himself and that his first instinct was to use words rather than fists :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Washing machine machine

 When we first moved here we purchased a used, top loading washing machine--or as Eliot calls it, washing machine machine--that saved us from the inconvenience and cost ($5 a load, not including drying) of going to the laundromat.  It pretty much paid for itself before breaking down a few weeks ago.  We decided it wasn't worth fixing and purchased a new machine that would last us the rest of our time here.

The new machine is a front loader, and it is better than television for entertaining children.  We're talking hours..
 and hours...
 and hours...
 and hours...

and hours of fun.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Happy Birthday Eliot!


Today we celebrated Eliot's 3rd birthday.  He was a lot more aware of his birthday this year.  We've been talking about it a lot and he has known for a while now that he was two, soon to be three, and that Peter is soon to be one.  So this morning when we wished him a happy birthday he totally got it.  We had some errands to run in the morning which included putting books down the chute at the library (a favourite) and the purchase of a birthday balloon.  In the afternoon I took the boys swimming and then it was home for supper, cake, and presents with Daddy.

I don't know what was cuter; Eliot's response to having us sing 'Happy Birthday' (see next two pictures) or hearing him say "what's inside?" as he opened his gifts.  He was very grateful for all of the birthday wishes and very happy with his presents.  He is getting to be such an articulate, imaginative little fellow it's easy for me to forget that he's still my very little boy.  We love him so much!




He requested the piece with the bear which was enormous.  He pretty much just ate the cookie and the frosting.  But that's just part of the fun of being the Birthday Boy.

Showing off his birthday balloon, which he picked out.




Congratulations Eliot!  Here's to being 'free'!