Balmy Toronto Summer

The kids and I spent the entire summer in Toronto and vicinity (including Montreal/Ottawa/Burlington/London) and coming home to an evening of 37C this first week of September was a bit of a shock.  However, after a midnight drive with jet-lagged Magnus, taking in the sights of hustle and bustle by the beach, listening to Magnus shout out the names of all the passing cars and taxis while I worked the ATM, and carrying him back home through our sweltering garage while he slept, everything seems rather normal again.

Before too many memories of our summer in Toronto melt away, I just wanted to put down some of moments that stood out.  Goodness knows when I will get the chance to blog again, what with the start of school, rebooting the job, managing the move, and friends with new babies!

So back to the non-exhaustive list of delightful moments this past summer, in no particular order:
- Magnus' interest in nothing but the zoomobile on his many trips to the zoo.  His ideal zoo visit: get in, ride the zoomobile, leave the zoo and get a snack with gong gong, preferably costco.
- Magnus making sand ice cream cones and cakes, Maya destroying them
- Maya's vocabulary explosion, in particular: fruits, animals and animal sounds, and bugs
- Maya asking her aunts for "breet" as a midnight snack
- Maya gleefully copying Uncle Jenning's moves (no, not the running man) and telling us it's "Nenning"
- Maya falling in love with Thomas the train when we were focused on getting Magnus enthused about about the ride
- The family "roughing it" in Montreal
- Maya's bug obsession: butterflies, ants, ladybugs, spiders, and dragonflies - spotting a spider in the sandbox all by herself and then reporting it to us
- Magnus teaching Jessica/Amanda/Brianna how to sing 100 bottles of pop on the wall his way
- Magnus playing with Michael's trains in ottawa
- Magnus playing with Aunt Lisa's neighbour's trains in ottawa
- Magnus going to French Summer Camp
- Magnus driving Maya around in the trunk of his truck
- Magnus and Lucas horsing around in a tent
- Maya stealing Lucas' scooter and scaring Jada away
- Lucas picking up Magnus and carrying him a couple of steps (at my request) before they both came tumbling down
- Maya going bananas at the splash pad with her Aunts
- Maya vomiting on Auntie "Ninini"
- Magnus falling asleep on the way to ice cream, thereby denying his uncle Alex the pleasure of partaking
- Maya demanding sticky rice at dimsum
- Riding the double decker bus with Naomi
- Magnus and Maya playing hide and seek
- Magnus and Maya sharing the armchair to watch Treehouse
- Maya learning all the letters of the alphabet from the mats

Here are some things that were said and overheard:

Magnus: I have to go potty!

Gong gong: Can you hold it until we get home?

Magnus: No, It's coming out!
Magnus: Mommy look my truck is a garbage AND recycle truck!  Come look!!  <points to a recycling sign on the wheel>
Maya: Bee!  bee!
Gina: A bee?  Where?Maya: aaaaare you?
Magnus: Yes sir, mommy!  Shur!
Magnus: I am so not buying you dinner.
Magnus: But no buts!  butts on chair!  That's uncle Reginald's trick!

Gina: One, two, three..Maya: Eight nine ten!
Magnus: If you leave mangos outside in the rain, they will be wet mangos.  If you leave mangoes outside in the sun, they will be dried mangos.  
Magnus: This is a stair handle!

Gina: Actually it's called a bannister.

Magnus: Yeah, but I call it a stair handle.

Clem: Did you know that Auntie Clemmie has been on a search and rescue helicoptor?  In a very very cold place.

Magnus: Was it neptune?

Magnus: Auntie Goldie is that as high as you can push me?

Magnus: Mommy why can't I have a window seat?

Gina: Because we came too late to the airport.

Magnus: I wonder what caused that.

Magnus: My tummy hurts, I think I ate too much food. 

Yee Ma: Are you too full for cheesecake then?

Magnus: If I poo, then I will have more room for cheesecake!

Gina: Are you sure? 

Maya: Sure!

Maya: <whenever mad at Magnus> MANUS!!!!