Bodhi is 2!!!!

I am the mother of a 2 year old. I can't believe it. 2 year olds walk and talk and sing and dance and tell jokes and act silly and go to preschool and so on and so on. Lying here, coming down from a robot cake-induced sugar high, and looking back at the year that has just ended, I am completely overwhelmed with many emotions. I feel so happy to have such a wonderful, healthy, happy little man, I feel incredibly lucky, and I feel a little sad that Bodhi is really no longer a baby. We have had an extremely eventful year full of ups and downs and adventures. We've lost jobs, gotten jobs, gone back to jobs, moved to a new city, taken on MANY new challenges, and been so busy that many weeks I have no idea where the time has disappeared to. What I now realize is that regardless of what has gone on this year, good, bad and ugly, we've all come out on the other end with enormous smiles on our faces for one simple reason. Bodhi.

Thank you Bodhi. We love you more than we will ever be able to properly express to you. You are the absolute centre of our universe and will forever be. No matter what this year brings us and no matter what is beyond that, that is one thing that will always be true. Happy Birthday my little boy.

Bodhi's Favourite Things

With only a few weeks to go until Bodhi's 2nd birthday (CRAZY!), I thought I would jot down some of his favourite things so we never forget this time of his life....

Favourite toys: Anything Thomas, toy horse and cat, spoons (yes, still), Duplo, car and truck puzzle, and cars and trucks in general

Favourite things to do: Play in the sandbox, go to the park, watch for garbage trucks (or any kind of truck, really), eat snacks, watch the "wildlife" in our backyard

Favourite food: Breakfast - oatmeal with "minkles" (sprinkles), Lunch - hummus and cucumbers and crackers, Dinner - sushi, Snacks - muffins, bananas and Kashi cereal bars, oh, and chokit ikeem (chocolate ice cream)

Favourite books: Fireman Sam, 100 animals, Franklin Plays Hockey, any Karen Katz books, Send It, Polar Express (yes, still)

Favourite things in general: spiders, snakes, animals, all trucks, trains and cars, slides, jumping, dancing, singing, rubber boots, apple juice, climbing, shovels, being outside, watching "teebee", hugs and kisses, Spiderman pajamas, hiding (and being found)

In just a few short weeks Bodhi will turn 2 and some or all of these favourites may go out the window. Hard to keep up!

Happy Easter!

Egg hunts, sunshine, and roast beef... oh my! What a perfect weekend! With a 4 day weekend ahead of us, Dan, Bodhi and I decided to extend that into a 10 day 'stay'cation of sorts, beginning with a packed full Easter weekend! Friday morning, with the sun shining, we headed over to Sophie and Clara's for some backyard playtime, including pine cone hunts (practice for the real thing), tractor rides and chases down the street. On Saturday morning we headed back to their neck of the woods where 40(!) kids and their parents met at the park for a neighbourhood egg hunt and t-shirt tie-dying - Bodhi loved it! Soon afterwards we headed home to meet up with Grandma and Dan and I took off for a little much needed date time. We hit a patio for lunch and then went to the movies - about half way through we both realized that not only was the movie lame but the sun was shining outside and we kind of were missing getting to talk to each other so we snuck out! It wasn't long before we started to miss our little man and headed out to the country to Grandma's house where we found them down by the water sticking their toes in the lake - a mighty fine picture. We spent the night at Grandma's and woke up to another beautiful day on Sunday. Grandma and Bodhi took a walk to the waterfall while Dan and I had a ridiculous game of tetherball on the lawn. Brett, Karen, Sophie and Clara arrived around lunch time and after naps we had another egg hunt and some thoughtful presents from Grandma. A big roast beef (and roasted tofu) dinner and an Easter bunny cake later, it was time to head back to the city.

We're just winding down day four of our staycation with a day trip to Ottawa and another to Prince Edward County ahead of us. After a stressful couple of months, this is just what the doctor ordered. I don't think the three of us have stopped smiling for a minute.

Sentences and Conversations

Slowly, without me really realizing it, Bodhi has started to talk in sentences. Mostly only 3 or 4 words long, but definitely enough to get his point across. I will admit that most of these sentences are actually orders - "Mommy read it", "Mommy eat it", "Mommy drink it" etc.. etc.. but they are music to my ears nonetheless! I even know what his first sentence was - "I hitting Clara!" - much to Clara's chagrin, but I'm sure we'll all laugh about it someday (fingers crossed). Here are some of my favourite and our most common sentences:

- Bodhi go fast? (when he wants to run)

- Bodhi bite it? (when he has finished his own breakfast and my breakfast and now wants to start on Daddy's breakfast)

- Mommy sit on floor, Bodhi on table? (when he wants to sit on his little table and play with me sitting on the floor next to him)

- A big garbage truck out window? (when he is asking desperately for the garbage truck to come back so he can see it out the window)

We also seem to be on a running loop of conversations...

Bodhi: Mommy, what doing? (translation: Mommy, what are you doing?)

Mommy: I'm washing the dishes.

Bodhi: Oh! Dishes!

Bodhi: Mommy, what doing?

Mommy: I'm playing with your cars.

Bodhi: Oh! Cars!

Bodhi: Mommy, what doing?

Mommy: I'm talking to Grandma.

Bodhi: Oh! Grandma!

(And so on and so on)

Bodhi (after hiding his big truck): Where big truck go?

Mommy: I don't know!

Bodhi (after revealing the truck): There it is!

Or the variation, when Mommy isn't as interesting a conversation partner, is to just say all three lines himself.

But my absolute favourite is when you say his name and he drops everything he's doing and in the clearest voice says "Yeah?". I haven't yet been able to capture much conversation on video, but here is a little taste....

March Break Madness

Bodhi and my little vacation is coming to an end. This past week was March Break so with Sophie out of school and Karen at home, Bodhi and I had the week alone together. What an absolutely wonderful week it was! We haven't spent this much time just the two of us all in a row since fall and it was glorious. We hit up the library, fed the ducks at Confederation Park, played in MULTIPLE playgrounds, took a trip to the country to Grandma's house, ran a lot ("Bodhi go fast?"), built many towers, played in the backyard and with A LOT of cars and trucks. I thought I would get bored, that I would be counting the minutes until Dan would get home (well I kind of always do that anyway), but I savoured every single second of stay-at-home mom-ness that I could get. Bodhi is so different now then he was in September when we would be home alone together each day. Then it was quiet, he was happy to play quietly with his stacking cups and sit still on my lap while we read books, I actually got quite a lot done. How times have changed! Stacking cups are no longer for stacking, they are for throwing, kicking and horsing around, and playing quietly? I don't think so. He's really a little boy now who wants to run and jump and climb and our days fly by with all the busy-ness. He amazes me every day with all of the new things he can say and do. Ahhh, I am basking in the wonder of little boy bliss.

Garbage Day

The most exciting day in our world is garbage day. Actually, it's our two garbage days - every Tuesday morning is garbage day in our neighbourhood and Wednesday mornings in Sophie and Clara's neighbourhood. Bodhi cannot get enough of the garbage truck. He loves all trucks - yelling "BIG TRUCK" every time he sees one and then as soon as its gone he quietly asks "another truck?". Although he loves all trucks, there is no truck like the garbage truck in Bodhi's opinion. He has also mastered the art of listening for the garbage truck. We will be playing in the kitchen and suddenly his ears will perk up and he'll say "big truck!" and go running for the front window where he gets a front row seat for the garbage man (I also get to watch and glare as the garbage man rejects half of our recycling and tosses it on our front lawn). This love for garbage day has quickly passed on to Clara - 'BIG TRUCK' has also become quite a common saying in her vocabulary and she gets just as excited as her cousin to see that big orange truck pull up. Clara spends Tuesday mornings at our house and then we're back at theirs on Wednesdays so they get a double dose of the garbage man each week. On Wednesdays we always see the garbage truck as we walk Sophie to and from school as it winds its way up and down the streets of the neighbourhood. Everyone waits quietly until it peeks out at another corner - BIG TRUCK! - and then its gone again.

Aaaaah the joys of being a toddler.

Country Style

We just got home from a wonderful weekend in the country. Mom and Liz were away for the weekend so we moved on in and house/dog sat for a couple of days. It was so refreshing to be away from home with NOTHING to do but watch Mighty Machines (a lot), read books, play in Grandma's toy box and eat...and eat....and eat! Our hosts were very generous and left us a fridge full of food and even a couple of home cooked meals for us to reheat and enjoy. Bodhi slept like a champ after spending his day jumping in puddles in his rubber boots, playing with as many trucks as he could find, and doing general boy-ish type things. It was truly a wonderful weekend. We all came home feeling relaxed, refreshed and ready for the week ahead - something that I think we all needed. I don't know how Bodhi will handle being home now and not being able to watch the otters playing outside the window as he eats his breakfast, but he'll just have to learn! Or he'll just have to have some more sleepovers at Grandma's...hmmm...not a bad idea!

In other exciting news, Bodhi said his first string of 5 words...kind of a sentence, kind of not...you be the judge - "no touching doggie bum bum hurting". (Translated to: don't touch the doggie's bum bum because it is sore).