As I’ve just mentioned on the main blog, we were pretty mean to Oliver on our trip to NYC 2 weeks ago. We sort of didn’t let him nap properly (too much to do to be laying in a hotel room for 2 or 3 hours), and we didn’t exactly feed him when he was hungry.

We did, however, expose him to airplanes, taxis, diggers (his current favourite word after uh-oh), trains (subway) and boats – all of which he can either say or attempts to say. And he sort of kept freaking out about them He’s a transportation addict. I suppose his parentage is not in question.

New York is also full of dogs, which is helpful (woof woof every 5 minutes). And he did absolutely love the petting zoo at Central Park.

With 5 month old Eleni (he still can’t say baby, he says daaaae instead and I have no idea why)

With other Mark (not Daddy) on the ferry:

At the zoo looking scared!

I think he called them ‘moos’, but he was loving the goats at Central Park Children’s Zoo:

After he recovered from his weekend of topsy turvey schedule, we had our party a week later, and he had a great time with everyone – but mostly with Jaden. It was fantastic to watch them interacting, even hugging and kissing! I don’t really get to see what he does at daycare so it was nice to see that he didn’t attempt to beat or bite other children. Jen has some great photos on Jaden’s blog here.

And since then, it’s just back to normal. Except for his grandad arriving tonight and a few adventures he doesn’t know about yet (downtown Toronto and Ottawa). All he cares about is diggers and uh-ohs and choo choos anyway.

Oh, and apparently trying on my rain boot(s):

We’ve been exceptionally busy lately so I am having a hard time catching up with everything. Actually, I lie. It’s not that we’ve been exceptionally busy lately. It seems we’ve been extremely busy constantly for months and months. There’s never a free weekend and certainly no time to relax. Except that I can barely make it off the couch in the evenings. But at least I have an excuse.

So 2 weeks ago was our adventure to New York City. It seemed like a whirlwind trip, but we didn’t actually really do that much as it seemed to take us forever to get organized (well, when you’ve got 2 adults staying in another hotel 10 minutes away, then 2 other couples with a 5 month old and an 18 month old each, there’s a lot of lag time there). It was absolutely brilliant to see Maria and Joel and get to meet smiley baby Eleni, and equally brilliant to catch up with Emma and Mark, and to all be in the same place at the same time. Great hotel room, some fantastic food (pizza, Indian, fresh fish and chips all made for wonderful dinners), interesting city to explore (loads more to see whenever we get there again).

Not so great – not realizing how full ensconced Oliver is in his routine and dealing with little nap time and eating at funny hours. Wow travelling with a toddler sucks so much more than travelling with a baby. I ended up giving him his dummy most of the weekend, something that hasn’t happened in like 8 months or so. He was all smug about it, as he knows he shouldn’t have it except at bed time. Oh well. It was a survival technique, and I was stressed enough about him already. He returned to normal after giving us one restless night as payback. Oh, and it was also HOT and STICKY and air conditioning saved us from death.

Photos (will put more on Oliver’s page):

Financial District near where we stayed:

Central Park:

Skyline from the Staten Island Ferry:

The whole motley crew in Battery Park:

Statue of Liberty from the ferry:

Then we came back to the realization we had 4 days to prepare the house for mass public consumption – our housewarming/my birthday party. We worked hard every night that week, and I tried to make a lot of stuff from scratch that morning. By the time the party came at 2pm on Saturday afternoon, I was half asleep. I seriously couldn’t get my act together on putting food out. Completely forgot about my birthday cake. Anyway, it was generally successful even though quite a few people that had rsvp’d didn’t actually turn up.

This week has been insane at work. I was juggling a commitment to write a manual for one of the programs we manage off site for 5 days alongside normal activities that included several time sensitive items. I therefore managed to make some silly mistakes on the normal work that I rushed through on short visits to my computer and felt like an ass. In the middle of the week, our Director was unceremoniously let go from the organization. Sort of a big deal and sort of a big mystery. Throws our whole unit into turmoil and change and rumours of more change coming soon. Lovely – job insecurity, just what I need right now.

Tonight, Mark’s dad and step-mum arrive from England = more cleaning and organizing. I’m taking Monday off so we can take them in Toronto and maybe go to the Island or something. I’ll have to check in at work though – it doesn’t really feel like a good time to have a day off. Next weekend, August long weekend, we’re taking them up to Ottawa. And after we get back they’re off to Vancouver for the rest of their 2 weeks away.

I was given several birthday gifts this morning.

The first was from Oliver, who decided to wake up crying around 3 or 4 and proceeded to implement a fall asleep and wake up crying cycle with some regularity for the next 2 hours. And we didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him. He ended up sleeping in our bed, after I resorted to drugging him with ibuprofen for his unknown ailment (yes, I gave him pain killers even though I didn’t know if he was actually in pain – that’s some great parenting for you!!). And we all didn’t get up until after 7. Which means I didn’t get to work until 9:30. Oops.

Anyway, the other gifts I got made up for the first kick in the pants. An iPod and a spa package?! Feeling very spoiled! And everyone making a fuss at work.

We are consumed by preparing for the party this weekend (or at least we should be), so I will post about our NYC adventures later on, probably after Saturday…

I have this reputation at work for not being excited or positive about anything. But I am ecstatic about this weekend!

Take a combination of…

1. The first time we’ve gone on holiday together since we moved to Canada.
2. The first time I’ve been allowed to take time off work (had to do 6 months’ time first).
3. The first time we’re visiting one of the big important cities of the world (New York).
4. A reunion with great friends Emma and Mark (from near Cardiff, Wales) and Maria and Joel. The first time we’re seeing Maria and Joel since our wedding almost 2 years ago. Thankfully, we did go and stay with Emma and Mark before we moved from the UK.
5. The first time we get to meet little Eleni, Maria and Joel’s daughter.

And yep, that’s a damn good trip to look forward to. I don’t have many sightseeing goals for the weekend, as the important thing is to catch up with great old friends (Emma, Maria and I worked together in dreary Dagenham when I first moved to London – getting on for 5 years ago now) and entertain the small children, but I would like to get Oliver to Central Park Zoo as he just so obsessed with animals lately.

We’re staying at what looks like a very nice hotel, the Marriott Financial District. Slightly creepy in that it’s next door to the World Trade Centre, but I hope for view of the river instead. Or even other buildings. The reviews on tripadvisor are pretty good, and we got a fairly good deal with a combination American Airlines flight and hotel stay. Still a very expensive trip for only 4 days, but I didn’t expect any less going to New York City.

And next week, after we get back – a hell of a lot of work to do to make our house vaguely acceptable for a whole lot of people to come over for a housewarming party combined with a birthday party for me. Oh yeah, I am turning 30 in like 5 days.

It doesn’t bother me, I’m already an old woman. But I did get a little drastic with my hair this week, thinking that I didn’t want to look completely frumpy with bad roots for the trip, for the party – just generally degenerating into non person with too many children and not enough time. This unfortunately has resulted in red hair (it was just meant to be brown to deal with the roots) and a new cut I need to get used to. The hairdresser did a good job, and it was a good price considering I went to a place at Yonge and Bloor, but I am really not used to having bangs. The rest of the layers are a big improvements.

Better go and pretend to do some work for the rest of the day (while actually visiting more touristy-websites)…

Every time Oliver hits another month or significant age, now 18 months, I think to myself – this is my favourite time so far. The older he gets, the more I enjoy it. I’m really not a newborn person. Which is a slight problem considering there’s going to be one around in the fall. But at least they will grow up fast, and that personality will come out, and all will be fine again.

Hopefully he won’t be as cheeky as his older brother. As great as 18 months is, every night is like total cheek-fest. I think he saves it for home. They say how good he is at daycare, and we know he follows all their instructions and everything. But at home? Learning how to throw a ball has turned into forcefully lobbing cups and drinks off the high chair (“uh oh” – “you little bugger, on-purpose throws are not ‘uh oh’ worthy!”). Bathtime and bedtime has turned into a chase, as he doesn’t want to go. He knows crayons only go on the paper and not on the books or table, but he tests all the time just to make sure. It’s fairly exhausting, actually.

He’s finally interesting in learning new words all the time. And spends most of his time looking at books. I think there are so many thoughts go on in his head these days that his words can’t catch up with them. So as dog used to be ‘dog’, now it’s often ‘woof’. And cow is ‘mmmf’ which is a version of ‘mooo’ but so is every other animal he doesn’t know the name for yet. And tree is ‘tee’ but so is bird. I mean, he sees both out the window or in the yard. And I know the difference when he says them, but he’s not managed to say something resembling bird yet.

Current obsession is ‘choo choos’. Thomas the Tank Engine, in particular. Which is rather handy when his father is quite happy to play with a train set (we just got him a little wooden one from Ikea) or read him stories about trains.

I am really glad that we get BBC Kids, which shows some great toddler television during weekday mornings. So I set the PVR box to record it and we watch great stuff on the weekend – British-accented Thomas, Teletubbies (loves the baby in the sun), Balamory, and sometimes I’ll subject myself to the Tweenies.

He finally learned the true meaning of ‘no’ a few weeks ago. As in, he shakes his head no, he says ‘no’ or ‘naw’, and he usually repeats it when we say it to him. Like full on ‘NO’. And he’s got the devil in him (you can see it in his eyes!) when he really uses it, but it’s so funny.

He’s overall just very busy, running, hiding, throwing balls, climbing, but it’s mostly hilarious. The tantrums crack me up. I mean, throwing yourself on the floor because I took away your crayon when you tried to eat it? Come on.

As far as development goes, he’s always been on top of developmental charts as far as physical things (I’m just looking at babycentre.com’s milestone charts, and he can stack 4 blocks, and he can throw a ball overhand, and he can kick a ball (has done for a while), and I’m pretty sure he can take toys apart and put them back together – maybe not really intricate ones) but the words have come slowly. We had a report back from daycare like 2 weeks ago, an unexpected developmental assessment that they do on the all kids, that said they wanted him to use 10 words and we needed to encourage his language development. Since then we’ve been able to count 20 words that we know of. I’m not worried. He understands so much, and I almost always understand his grunts and screams and points. He’s communicating.

How many years do I have before the sippy cup is replaced with a beer and the cheese crackers with chips? Or worse? He gets all proud when he sits back in his Muskoka chair with the cup in the drinks holder.

Canada Day festivities, last weekend – it was an overwhelming day of limited napping (very unlike him and resulted in uber crankiness), too many kids everywhere and not enough activities that he was really old enough for, despite his best efforts. I actually tried to get him one of those leash backpacky things so he could get out more in the crowd – they ran out at the store. But I think I might trial it on our visit to New York City next weekend…

He’s loving playground equipment these days.

I’m not only neglecting writing about Oliver – apparently I have nothing to say about pregnancy either? Well, 23 weeks, feeling mostly okay. Just a lot bigger than last time. And haven’t lost as much weight as last time, so much for my fail proof diet. Got to treat myself to some new maternity clothes because of it though. Have pretty much stopped vomiting altogether, took myself off the medication for it. Tired in the evening but so what, I was before. My sales pitch? Second pregnancy – not nearly as exciting as the first time around!!

It sucks when work gets in the way of blogging, eh? I’ve been too busy. But still catching up. Here’s the little bit of work we have done to our house – painting a spare bedroom/eventually bedroom for child number 2.

Before:

Gotta love that garish yellow. Ugh.

After:

Bland bland bland! Woo hoo!

Too bad I can’t afford to change the curtains yet. Or if I had the time to leard how to sew…