Maya's Laugh

Maya recently turned 4.5 months.  Since arriving in Toronto almost 2 weeks ago, she's become more and more alert to her surroundings, and is especially good at recognizing her Mommy's face.  During the times when she is content to be in Gong gong or Po po's arms, I try to avoid eye contact with  her so that I can have a longer break.  Otherwise, she quickly realizes that she's looking at her Mommy and her next move (usually) is to cry for Mommy.

When we first arrived Maya expressed a distinct dislike for my parent's home.  Little by little, she's getting used to her surroundings.  Here is a great video and some nice pictures of Maya enjoying herself in my parents' basement.  (Bonus: Magnus is being cute too!)

Here she is with a new table toy which I bought during a Toys R Us sale.  It's rated for 6-36 months so I didn't really expect Maya to like it until September or so, but she surprised us all!

Toronto Heat Wave (Ha!)

Heat wave, shmeat wave.  To think I used to be a wimpy Torontonian too!  Now that Magnus and Maya have more waking hours during the day, we've all been enjoying the cooler weather on this side of the planet.

Magnus has yet to be convinced to put a foot up on his new scooter. He loves pushing it around though!

Ack. I'm only putting up this picture of me with bedhead because Magnus and Maya look cute.

 

And this was cute too:

 

BFF!

Serious sand fun in the backyard:

Visitors From Burlington

Magnus and Maya had 3 visitors from Burlington on Sunday!  It conveniently coincided with a visit from my brother and Maggie so we did the long promised birthday celebration that Magnus was so looking forward to.  Thanks to Reg and Elena for the birthday cake, and to my parents for feeding us all day!

The delight of anticipation:

Party! (Maya your undies are showing!!):

Magnus has a sugar high even before the first bite:

 

Working off the sugar high:

 

Maya prefers to spend time with her toys in the back room:

 

Official introvert:

 

Can you give me a smile?

Yes!

What Magnus Said...

Quotes from Dubai:

Hears what he wants to hear:

Kendrick: <cheerful voice> Magnus, if you don't listen to mommy, you will get a punishment, do you know what a punishment is? ...

Magnus: <begins to mouth the word chocolate and ignores his Daddy's explanation of punishment>

Gina: <tries to feed Magnus spinach>

Magnus: <dodges spinach>

Kendrick: <still cheerful voice> Uh oh, time for a punishment!

Magnus: <excited> YEAH!!!!

Violence on TV:

Grandma: <to Maya> If you keep kicking, you're going to backwards some more, and you might hit your head, and then you are gonna cry...

Magnus: and a lot of BLOOD!!!

(he learned this from a Pingu episode)

Showing off new vocabulary:

Magnus: <to the security guard> No Uncle, Daddy's GPS says…. "Arriving at destination on the right"

Cantonese:

Gina: How does gong-gong say fart?

Magnus: Aw Pay!!!

It's lonely without eggs:

Magnus: No Grandma, Daddy ate aaall the eggs, and then Magnus and Mommy were all alone!

Gina: <correcting> and then Mommy and Magnus had none.

Likes to assess his output:

Magnus: Wow, that a lot of pee, and there are bubbles too!

Quotes from Toronto:

 

After snubbing a relative at the mall:

Magnus: No, Po po, he don't want to say hi to auntie, he want to go home!

Popo: Next time, Magnus, you have to say HI.  It's important!

Magnus: It not important!!

Washing hands for the first time in Toronto:

Magnus: Wow! It... super... cold!!!

(tap water never gets cold in Dubai)

2 Kids in Toronto

Thank goodness for Grandma, otherwise the 14 hour flight from Dubai to Toronto would have been a nightmare.  It did get quite stressful at baggage claims, however, as Emirates managed to leave one of my suitcases behind and did not even seem to have a record of said lugguage.  After much searching, they found the darn thing, and it is currently on the next plane to Toronto from Dubai.  Magnus stuck to me like glue throughout the whole ordeal, so 2 days later, he is still telling people about the uncle who "yost" Mommy's suitcase.

Jet lag recovery has been challenging but manageable thus far.  Magnus has had 2 potty accidents, but all of them happened in front of the potty.  The first one was with me, as he was refusing the strange potty.  The second one happened while I was sleeping, but the story I heard was that Gong gong at first couldn't understand his request for a potty, and then carried him up 2 flights, and then tried to make him "pee like Daddy" when he wanted to "pee like Mommy", and by that time, it was too late.  It wasn't too hard to clean up, although when Po po went to get him a pair of clean briefs from the suitcase, he rejected them, declaring, "that Maya's!!". 

Maya has suddenly developed separation anxiety (isn't it a little early??) but when she is in a good mood she consents to being held by Gong gong and Po po. 

Yesterday we had dimsum with my grandmother, who was delighted to meet her 9th great grandchild.  Right now, Magnus is out in the backyard playing with a sand and water table.  He's been rediscovering all the old toys here, enjoying some of the new ones, and spending lots of time hanging out with Gong gong.  Maya is sleeping, and I should be too.  Looking forward to seeing more Canadian friends and family as we get over the jet lag!

I haven't picked up a camera in days, so I'll leave you with the three studio pictures Kendrick and I additionally ordered. 

Packing up

After a full day of packing I'm ready to drop face first into bed, but I felt I couldn't leave Dubai without posting the last few images in my camera.  

This is from last week, when Maya suddenly became very proficient at the backward-skooch.  Magnus as usual was clamouring for my attention:

The rest of the pics are from today.  Here is Maya sporting some snazzy sunnies:

No no no, the lighting is all wrong, start over!

Now she's more interested in peek-a-boo:

Meanwhile in the living room, Magnus was working hard on his sticker creation: 

This took him the better part of an hour:

On a roll, Magnus was not content to confine his art to the inanimate:

And that's all folks!  We leave tomorrow morning, leaving Kendrick alone in Dubai to suffer the heat, experience Ramadan, slog through a strict diet, and to go on crazy trips to exotic parts with his friends.   Magnus and Maya will miss their Daddy as much as I will!!!

Glam with Grandma

Magnus' school photographer gave out photo-session vouchers (1 free portrait) for all parents who purchased a school portrait package.  Now who, I asked myself, would enjoy this the most?

Answer:

And here are a few more we bought just because they were too cute to throw away:

(3 more pictures pending!!)