Ian is 2! Happy Birthday!

Hi All,

So even though I can barely believe it - my little man is two years old!

He has had a great last two months - and since Mommy has been on light rotations and has had almost no call over the last two months (thanks to the impending arrival of his little brother - 3.5 weeks to go!) I've been lucky enough to spend more time with him, and really get to know the little man he is becoming.

Although it wasn't a great winter for outdoor play - and Ian felt a little restricted once we bundled him up in all his outdoor wear - we still managed to get outside a few times.  We made the little snowman below on a good packing snow day - perfect height for Ian.  He even surprised me by going to pick out his nose (half a peanut shell) all by himself.  I told him I was looking for a good nose - and then he goes off and when he comes back he hands me the peanut shell and says "nose" - it worked perfectly!

Ian's Snowman!

Ian has become a very inquisitive and energetic toddler - causing Mommy and Daddy to stretch their creative sides to keep up with him.  Mommy got a new glider chair for Ian's soon-to-be baby brother which came in this beautiful large box - and kept Ian's interest for several days. 

Ian is his box fort.

Ian using his box as a drum set.

Ian has developed quite a love for dinosaurs and snakes - so when I heard about a reptile show on over March Break - I had to take Ian to see it.  Poppy accompanied us - and got to witness firsthand Ian's enthusiasm for snakes.  Ian would literally shake with excitement with each snake he saw.  He would point and yell "snake! snake!" and if we still didn't seem to appreciate what we were looking at - he would demonstrate by hissing and even attempting to slither on the ground like a snake to show us exactly what he was talking about.  They also had a few animals out for petting - including a snake, a tortoise and a crocodile!  Ian got right in there to pet all three.

Ian petting a real live snake.

Ian looking at the boa constrictor

Ian petting the tortoise.

One of the highlights of Ian's week is when Grandma and Zayde come to visit.  He pretty much hijacks Grandma and won't let her go the entire time she's there!  Grandma is a great sport and really gets her exercise those nights!  He continues to love spending time with his Cousin Matthew - and Matthew is starting to get used to Ian's 'enthusiasm' so they've really had a lot of fun together the last few times they've played.  It will be great to have him and Uncle Gary and Aunt Tif back in London in a few months.

Grandma and the boys!

On Easter weekend - Ian met Matthew at Springbank park for an outing.  Ian chased the ducks - pretending to be a dinosaur - and ran around like crazy.  Matthew was a little more responsible with his playing - even managed to convince Ian to settle down and let him get pushed in his stroller.

Ian - the duck-stalking dinosaur

Matthew - King of the Stump!

Matthew says - 'Finally! You're still!"

Exploring under the tree

Ian meets some donkeys

Ian finding an egg

Matthew eating an egg

Ian leaping across the river.

Matthew -airborne!

Daddy set up an Easter egg hunt for Ian on Easter morning - Ian had tons of fun roaming around the house finding the eggs and presents - but I think his favorite item was the large chick that dances and plays the Chicken Dance song - he went absolutely nuts when he found that one!  Unfortunately we didn't have the video camera going and all the pictures of the chicken dance are blurry because Ian was just moving way to fast to capture - but the reaction was priceless!

Ian starting his hunt.

Here's another one!

Finding the dancing chick.

Daddy has a party for his birthday on March 16 - which also doubled as a St. Patty's day celebration - so Ian wore green for the occasion - so did Uncle John - they ended up matching pretty good!

Ian and Uncle John - dressed for St. Patty's Day!

Ian has consistently shown an interest in helping whenever anyone gets out some tools to do some work.  So I decided to foster this interest by getting Ian his own practice electric drill set - he got the hang of it pretty quickly.  I'm sure it won't be too long before he's trailing after Poppy and Zayde when they are working on their projects!

Ian - the apprentice-in-training

The theme for Ian's birthday party this year was super easy to pick - as there is one thing that he loves right now above all others - dinosaurs!  Plus there are so many things you can do with a dinosaur theme.  I may have gone slightly overboard with the party - but - hey - you only get one 2nd birthday!  We had dinosaur footprints leading to the house and downstairs, a sandbox with buried dinosaurs for the kids to dig up, dinosaur decorations everywhere, dinosaur cake, dinosaur egg hunt, and dinosaur colouring - it was awesome!!  Ian loved his party - and all the dinosaurs everywhere - and made me feel really bad for cleaning everything up while he had his afternoon nap because the first thing he wanted to do when he got up was to run downstairs and see all the dinosaurs again - and they had all gone!  So I put some of them up again on his actual birthday - and left them up for a couple of days to make up for it.

Dinosaur Cake

Dinosaur excavating pit

Dinosaur footprints

Dinosaur banner

Dinosaur banner #2

Matthew arriving - the first guest!

Matthew expertly colouring a dinosaur

Ian - playing with his new birthday balloon

Matthew getting in on the balloon action

Digging for dinosaurs!

Still digging!

Ian opening his presents

Matthew trying out Ian new wagon

Ian's birthday cake!

Trail of dinosaur footprints leading to the house

A week later Ian had his actual birthday.  Mommy took the day off work and we had a pretty fun day.  We went to the pet store and picked out one of Ian's birthday presents - his first pet - a blue beta fish named Fishey.  We had already set up Fishey's tank at home with a little plant and a turtle decoration so he was pretty excited to be able to add Fishey to his new home.  In the week since he had gotten Fishey, Ian has taken excellent care of him - feeding him twice every day and loves watching him eat and swim around in his bowl.  I've been very impressed with his pet-minding skills so far - although we'll see how he does tomorrow - during bowl cleaning day.  We went out to a diner for grilled cheese and ice cream for lunch and then came home for nap.  We had a small family get together to celebrate his birthday in the evening and Ian opened the rest of his presents - the highlight being his new training tricycle - which he loves going for rides in!

Ian on his new tricycle

Ian's not quite sure what training pants are for yet...

Ian's bubble maker - so much fun!

So Daddy is off to Ireland this week for Auntie Hayley's wedding - and I'm off this week because *sniff sniff* I was supposed to be going to Auntie Hayley's wedding - so Ian and I have been enjoying ourselves at home having lots of fun and enjoying the beautiful spring weather we've been having.  We want to wish Auntie Hayley a huge congratulations on her wedding day - and we want to welcome our new Uncle John to the family - we are so sad to miss your big day - but we will be thinking of you!   I'm sure everything will be beautiful and I hope you both take the time to enjoy it (and take lots of pictures so we can see what we missed later!)  We are so excited to see you in May! 

Well, I'm counting down the days now (until my mat leave starts... (17 days) until my due date...(24 days)), and by the time I get around to my next posting - I will most likely be a mother of two boys!  Stay tuned for some newborn pics...

Love Amanda