Getting Ready for Halloween

Costume... check!
Pumpkin carving... (we'll be doing that tomorrow)!

This coming week at preschool, the kids are asked to dress up in Halloween costumes (if they want to).  We finally made our way to the Gourmet Warehouse to pick up the key component of Isaac's Halloween costume.  A kid-sized chef toque!!!  I saw it there the last time we visited, so I just hoped they would have some in stock today.  We were not disappointed.  There was only one choice for a plain white chef toque ($5.00) - all the rest had colours or other patterns on them.   Isaac also picked out a wooden spoon ($2.50) for himself.  He saw some cupcakes displayed in the baking ware section and kept asking for the cupcakes!!!

When we got home, Isaac put on the toque right away (and has agreed to wear it to his next cooking class as well).  There's velcro on the back so that it can be adjusted by a tiny bit.

We picked up some sushi for lunch.  I took an afternoon nap and Isaac stayed in bed and napped with me.  I'm glad he's sleeping.  If not, I would likely have had to take him out for a walk in his stroller.

Tomorrow we'll be picking up a pumpkin for a jack-o'lantern.  That should be fun.  I wonder if Isaac remembers helping to scoop out the seeds last year?

Here's a picture of the mini quiches Isaac made in cooking class last week:

I was surprised that he was willing to eat the green and red peppers in the quiche since he generally doesn't eat peppers (not even off a pizza).  I think he liked the peppers because they were in a tart, the texture was soft and they were covered in cheese.  Or maybe it's simply because *he* made it so he wanted to eat his creation.

Update from the past week:
Tuesday, I took Isaac to the library and playground.  An older girl (3.5yrs old) took his sand bucket and he chased her around trying to get it back.  I only put a stop to it when he was up on the big kids playground equipment and started going down the ladder facing out while holding onto his sand shovels.  I was afraid he would fall down because he was focussed on catching S.  He didn't want to leave the playground, so I had to physically remove him and put him into his stroller.  He was fine once he got back his bucket.  On Friday we had a play date at Auntie S's house.  Isaac had a lot of fun.  All was well until after lunch, the kids went crazy.  They started off sitting on the stairs together screaming and kicking the steps.  Then they went upstairs (I told Isaac he wasn't allowed upstairs and took him down).  From downstairs, we were hear periodic loud "Boom"s from the kids jumping off a bed.  I was really surprised that he listened to me, by staying on the first flight of the staircase!  I could see that he wanted to go up and join the other kids, but he was good.  I let him play for awhile longer until he started getting destructive.  He helped with clean up time but put up a fight when we had to go home.

Weekend outing

We're definitely in the process of cutting naps.  There are some days where he will nap in the afternoon and some days he refuses to sleep (but will be cranky in the evening and go to bed early).

Today Isaac fell asleep in the car on the way to the planetarium.  We arrived a bit before 11:30am.  Isaac wandered around pressing buttons and touching stuff.  At 11:30am, we watched a live demonstration talk about rockets launching.  In advance, we warned Isaac that he had to stay sitting and be quiet or we would leave... I also bribed him with some gummies.  He was good and enjoyed the session.  After, we proceeded up to the planetarium theatre.  We watched "The night sky".  Isaac was amazingly good.  Not a peep out of his mouth.  I thought he would find it boring because it was just a darkened room with stars projected up and a long talk about all the stars/constellations that we would see in the sky around this time of year over Vancouver.  After we left the theatre, as we were waiting for the elevator there was a moment where I thought he might get upset that we were leaving.  But he seemed to accept a quick comment from us that "the show's all done".

In the process of TTC.  Won't say too much about that.  It's kind of personal.  We have had some disappointments but I remain hopeful.  We're a bit older now and I'm still not ready to give up breastfeeding so it may be harder this time around.  One difference I feel now (compared to about 4 or 5 years ago) is that I'm not insanely jealous and envious of other people getting/being pregnant.  I guess the big reason is because we already have Isaac and if things are not to be, then I'm ok with it.

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I went to a swap meet this morning while Daddy took Isaac to the playground.  Didn't find any lego.  We went out for dim sum afterwards.  I took a nap in the afternoon while Isaac and Daddy went to another playground.  They came home and had a snack.  Isaac didn't want to nap, but he fell asleep on the floor while watching Wall-E.  I transferred him to bed.

Isaac has cooking class and I have choir tomorrow.  Hopefully the transit ride to his cooking class won't be too packed.  I think I have worked out a good timing (if we can get out of the house on time - too early and we're sardines, too late and we'll miss the start of class).

Cutting naps

It seems that Isaac is starting to cut naps on some days.  He went napless on Saturday and again today.  I was able to put him to bed extra early today (asleep by 6:30pm instead of the usual 9pm).  I don't really know why he's cutting his nap... maybe I just missed the timing since he was looking quite sleepy a bit earlier but I wanted him to eat lunch before his nap.

I know that there are a number of kids his age that have already cut their naps, but I think he generally needs his nap still.  He's much less agreeable in the evening when he doesn't get a nap.

Today, I took Isaac to a Strong Start class.  First we had some gym time, then free play, circle time, snacks, he wasn't interested in reading time, but listened in on the story time at the end.  For snack time, they served crackers, cheese, oranges and apples.  Isaac really loved eating the cheddar cheese.  He kept asking for more but didn't touch any of the other stuff.  I was hoping that taking him to school would help to burn off his energy so that he'd nap... but I couldn't get him down after trying for an hour.  I left him at home with Daddy and went to do a blood test.

It looks like one of Isaac's 2-year molars has finally broken through and is coming in at the back.  3 more to go.  I haven't noticed any teething symptoms this time.  Then again, the teeth seem to be coming up quite slowly.

Tomorrow we have Twos Time.  I've volunteered to help in tomorrow's class.  Hope it'll be fun.

Little Chefs Cooking Class - Pasta

Last week, Isaac made pasta in his cooking class.  The kids were split into two groups.  Each group made their own dough.  First they took turns measuring out 3 cups of flour and pouring it into a mixing bowl.   I'm not sure if any salt was added in, but the kids helped to add in 3 eggs.  Isaac was disappointed he didn't get to help with the eggs since there were 4 kids in each group, and he was sitting at the end of the table.  All the kids got to mix the dough together in the mixing bowl as Miss Jennifer added in bits of sage.

A big pot of water was boiled while the kids each got a cutting board to knead their dough.  Then they all took turns turning the crank on a pasta maker to flatten and cut their dough.  The pasta was cooked for about 2-3 minutes, then served with a bit of olive oil.  Isaac gobbled down his pasta.  I found the sage flavour to be a bit strong.  We brought some extras home for Daddy to try and I mixed in some cream of mushroom soup with broccoli and mushrooms.

Cooking Class and Weekend Update

This morning, we got up a bit after 6am.  It's a bit earlier than normal since we have been getting up at 7am lately.  I decided to take the stroller and walk to the station instead of catching a bus to the station.  It was packed on the bus!  Next time I think I will wait for a later bus so that we can avoid the throng of students heading to UBC for their 9am classes.

Isaac fell asleep on the bus ride to the community centre.  I woke up him 10 minutes before class started.  Overall the class went pretty well (with the exception of incident involving Isaac pulling two of his classmates down).  Isaac washed his hands and stayed sitting waiting for the class to start (I was impressed that he didn't try to get up and run all around).

Today the kids made bread pudding.  Everyone was given a cutting board, a butter knife and 2 pieces of rosemary olive oil bread.  They tried cutting and ripping the bread into little pieces and put the pieces into a baking dish.  After, they got to crack and egg into a bowl and mix it with some milk.  They poured the egg-milk mixture onto the bread.  Next they cut up some cheese and sprinkled it on top of the bread.  The teacher put the baking dishes into the oven.  Everyone helped to scrub the table, then had to go wash their hands before snack time.

After snack time, they got to try the bread pudding.  It was a little soggy, but tasted ok.  Isaac ate some of it in class and we brought home the left-overs so that Daddy could try some too.  The trip back home was much more relaxing on an empty bus.

This evening, I was at a choir auction/rehearsal and Daddy put Isaac to bed.  Isaac was a very good boy for Daddy and went to bed without a fuss.

Yesterday, we took Isaac to the planetarium (H.R. MacMillan Space Centre).  Isaac had fun pressing some buttons on some of the displays (especially triggering a propeller to spin).  We watched a live demonstration/talk about "A Day In Space" then we watched part of Galileo in the planetarium.  He was was chatting a lot at the start of the show (and we tried to ask him to be quiet...) but once room darkened, he quieted down.  We watched about half the show when Isaac declared "All Done" and got up from my lap.  I didn't want to disturb the other viewers so we took him out... but as we left, he kept wanted to go back (and had a major meltdown with lots of screaming and crying).  We ended up upgrading our admission ticket to a year membership.  Any mention about why we left triggered another round of crying.


We got a message from our friend that they had their baby (and they invited us to visit them at the hospital).  Since we were already almost downtown, we headed to the hospital to make a quick visit before heading home for lunch.  Isaac conked out in the car ride to pick up lunch.


Saturday, we went to a fair so that I could get a chance to hear a choir perform.  We also had a potluck dinner at Auntie E & Uncle S's house.  Isaac had fun (and asked to go again the next day).


Friday, we met up with our playgroup friends and went to a gym time at a community centre.  Afterwards, we played at the park for a bit.  I took Isaac to Ikea for a hot dog after that.  I also picked up additional little bins and a Trofast wall storage to sort and store our lego.  I still don't have enough bins for each colour, but it seems to be a good size for the lego.  I store the mini figures, base plates and miscellaneous pieces in one of the bigger bins.  I still have some lego technic and bionicle lego pieces stashed away.


I hope tomorrow will be a semi-relaxing day to visit VV, the library, then meet up with Auntie C. and baby B at the mall.

First Day of Preschool

Isaac was awake before 7am, but I told him he couldn't get up until after the alarm went off (set for 7am).  When the alarm started beeping, he started yelling "Wake up!".  He dumped all the lego out and got upset when we made him clean up the mess.

We had breakfast, got him changed but it was still a little too early to leave the house.  The class today is just 1/2 day, and we were slotted in for the 2nd half.  Turns out I didn't need to pack him a snack today.  We got a chance to chat with the teachers, I signed up for a couple of parent volunteer days, and I updated our emergency contact info.

When we first walked into the room, Isaac took off and wanted to play right away.  I had to corral him to his cubby to put his coat and backpack away, and to put his name tag on.  Isaac went around to a few stations to play with the house, trains, and slide.  He didn't want to join in at the circle time, but eventually sat on the rug when he saw the teacher playing with a duck puppet saying "hi" to each of the kids sitting on the rug.  Everyone stayed in their seats except Isaac when the teacher pulled out the "Wheels on the bus" book.  He moved right up front to have a better look at the book.  As they were singing, he looked around to observe (other kids singing, and doing song motions).  When the teachers sang a good-bye song, Isaac took off and ran to the door.  Isaac got a stamp on his hand before he left the class.

We went out for dim sum at Jade Chinese Seafood restaurant.  We didn't make it there in time for the discounted price.  The service was slow - the waiters seemed to be busy chatting up their regular customers.  The food was decent, though the portions were a little small for some of the dishes.  We will probably go back another time, but it doesn't look like it'll be a place we'd go too often.

We went home and I put Isaac down for his afternoon nap.  He fell asleep just before 2pm and woke up at around 4pm.  I went out to VV while he napped and picked up some books.  Time to prepare dinner.  I'm making soup noodles with vegetables, tofu, chicken balls, and leftovers.

Dental Checkup and Preparing for Preschool

This morning I took Isaac to the clinic to get his teeth screened by a dental hygienist.  It was a good visit, Isaac was very co-operative.  There was no biting, no crying, no screaming, no bad behaviour.  I was happy the visit went smoothly.  She had some areas where she was a bit concerned but gave the ok to see us again in 6 months.

I was given a task to find a family dentist for all of us.  I asked her for some recommendations.  I'll try to followup and inquire at a couple of places to see if we can find a dentist/clinic that is a good fit.

We've been reading stories to prepare Isaac for preschool for the past month.  He seems to be looking forward to going to Twos Time.

This evening after we put Isaac to bed, I started labelling his things for preschool tomorrow.  I found Mabel's Labels easy to use.  I'll have to see how they hold up.  I labelled his water bottle, a thermos food jar, a snack container, a set of utensils, two tops, two pairs of pants, a couple of jackets, cap, and sun glasses.  His shoes are starting to fall apart, so I didn't want to waste a label on it.  Instead, I wrote his name on masking tape and stuck it in his shoe.  Hope I didn't forget anything.

I packed him a set of spare clothes, socks, underwear and diapers, his water bottle, and a snack.  Daddy took the day off tomorrow so that we can attend the parent orientation together.