Road Trip to London

My parents, Magnus and I piled into the car today to visit Mina's brood out in London, Ontario.

Jada being held by Great Aunt Evelyn:

Lina and Lucas hamming it up for the camera:

The Smartie bribe in action:

Sisters:

Magnus "kisses" Jada:

Monkeys:

Snack time:

Squirrel watching, or the alternate title "two noisy boys shushing each other":

Too bad the squirrel never makes an appearance.

I also took a couple of videos of Lucas and Magnus doing sprints up and down the hallway after dinner, but it just doesn't capture the spirit of running with abandon.   I'll leave it to your imagination!

 

Uncle Nephew Bonding

Yesterday Magnus and I went to visit Uncle Reg and his spiffy new jeans.  We decided to walk to the Ontario Early Years centre nearby to see what the program was like, but accidentally stumbled on a very festive and kid-friendly event: Santa in the Junction.

Though unversed in Santa lore, Magnus had a really good time pushing his stroller around and taking in the spectacle.  He was not really impressed with Santa himself, who actually specially walked over to talk to him and tell him how cute he looked.  Poor Santa doesn't normally see kids play hard-to-get.

Here are some pictures Reg took with his phone (also posted on facebook):

After a very nice lunch with his uncle, we dropped in his apartment for a bio break and some "Chee Vee!".

[Nov 30]
Forgot to add some pictures of Magnus brandishing his stroller to keep Uncle Reg from catching him:

On the way home, Magnus power napped in the car, and was not at all in the mood to nap at home.  It might have been the fact that Uncle Jenning was watching Family Guy in the computer room next door. Fortunately, Uncle Jenning was up for a quick trip to the park, and proved to be a very fun swing pusher after all.

Rounding up the Uncle-ness of the day, we had a quick visit from Great Uncle Lam, who in my opinion was about 10 time jollier with his Cantonese singing than Santa was that morning.  Magnus still played hard-to-get but I squeezed out a "Hi" from him.   He's unfortunately much more comfortable saying "Bubye-ee" and will say it nicely to just about anyone!

Naomi and John Visit

Naomi and John came by for a little morning visit and lunch.  Magnus had some good lessons in sharing his toys, as well as his mommy.  He wanted me to put John down, but I told him if I did, John would cry - would Magnus like to hold John instead?  "No, Mommy!" (translation: no Mommy, you go ahead and hold him).

Here he is showing Naomi how to play with his airplane (or more likely, how to turn off the engine noise he dislikes):

 Shots of the adorable John:

Naomi checking out some toys:

Magnus and Naomi running amuck:

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye.

• Gina: Magnus, we have to say bye-bye to Naomi, she's going home soon.
• Magnus: No, me!
• Gina: You want to go home with Naomi?
• Magnus: Yeah!  Ti-ta's (gong-gong's) car!
• Naomi: Let's go home, Magnus!

A Hint of Winter

What colour are the houses, Magnus?  "White!"

There was a layer of frost on all the rooftops this morning.  It did not, however, stop us from going out and getting some fresh air.  For the first time ever, I was able to get Magnus to wear gloves at the playground.

First, a (fruitless) visit to Pacific Mall at 9am, when all stores are closed and older asian ladies do chinese dancing in the aisles.  Magnus pushed his stroller the entire length of the Pacific Mall hangar.  He stopped at each and every one of these benches to loiter.

Then, we were off to the park, on the condition that Magnus wear his gloves.  It took three attempts before I could finally extract a promise from my stubborn 2 year old.  Once Magnus makes a promise though, he makes an attempt to keep it:

Visiting Naomi and John

This is the second time we've gone downtown to visit friends in the core, but the first time around I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures.  This time I did remember, but I only had my cell phone, and I missed a whole bunch of very nice moments (my favourite is sitting on the bus all together).

Here are Magnus and Naomi patiently waiting to go outside:

Wrestling a hat at the TTC station:

At Riverdale farm (a city gem!)

John wakes up:

Sorry, no pictures of the animals!  In total we saw 1 horse, 1 donkey, 1 cow, 5 pigs, waterfowl, and a bunch of squirrels.  Magnus was both fascinated and nervous about the horse.  He didn't seem too impressed with the grunting/squealing brown pigs, and he rather liked the "white duck" - which was actually a goose… Karen and I think.

Magnus enjoyed the whole trip, including the ride up and down the Don Valley where he kept pointing out the big big trees.  He liked seeing Naomi again and freely offered her a precious gummi bear - and he grinned at John once.  He pushed his own stroller from Wellesley and Parliament down to the farm and throughout the farm visit.  During lunch, he spilled apple juice on himself and had a poop.  The Tim Hortons staff was nice enough to give us one of their red balloons and he enticed at least one customer to bat it around with him.  Although he begged Naomi to give the red balloon back to him he did not snatch.  And I think his absolutely favourite part, which he still talks about, is when he was allowed to show Naomi his gong-gong's car.

Happy 2nd Birthday Magnus

Happy birthday Magnus!  I'm posting some pictures and videos of our fairly normal day.  We treated him at the very end of the day to the remainder of his birthday cake from last week, which is why he is blowing out his candle in his pyjamas...

Here are snapshots of him saying "car", "bu-" and "-byee!"

Birthday cake shots:

On the Mend

Poor Magnus landed in the emergency ward, for the second time, on Wednesday for wheezing.  Poor everybody else, not just because of the sleeplessness and work, but for the heartbreak of watching him suffer and learning in hindsight what could have been done differently to spare him even a minute of pain.

But I really don't want to talk about asthma here, I just wanted to post some images from today now that Magnus is feeling much more like himself.

Here he is enjoying a new toy from Grandma: