Get In

From the first days home, Denis has had a thing about getting into baskets or bags and asking us to pick him up.

Almost daily my laundry hamper gets dump and Denis will climb into the bag. Then he calls out for my brother or I to come and pick him up. I'm sure the manufacturers of the laundry bag didn't design it to hold 30 + pounds of child.


Here is Denis getting a ride in the laundry hamper. My brother is so accommodating. I mentioned that I didn't think the bag was strong enough to carry Denis around, so my brother has changed the activity to bouncing Denis in the bag on the bed. Yeah, Denis LOVES that game.

The laundry basket is another of Denis' favourite 'toys'. I have had to carry Denis and the laundry upstairs from the laundry room as he 'helps' me put the laundry from the dryer into the basket then climbs in.


Once I've folded the laundry, Denis then climbs into the empty basket saying 'baby'. He'll curl up in the basket and then tell me that I need to sing Rock-a-Bye-Baby while either dragging the basket and forth on the carpet, or tipping the basket on it's end and spinning Denis around in the basket. I marvel at the games he has invented.

Now I thought that my collapsible shopping basket was way to small to climb into. Denis had to try anyway and as you can see he managed to get into the basket.


He needed assistance getting both into and out of the basket. As I helped him (I know, I know, but he says "Please Mommy, just try." how can I resist?) as I was saying, as I helped him I thought back to first days I carried the basket friends said it looked like a Moses basket and that I was carrying a baby in it. LOL

He also loves the black box I purchased to hold some of his toys. He dumps out all the teddy bears and soft toys that are kept in the basket and climb in.


Sometimes he hides in the basket.


Then of course he asks us to pick him up.


My brother as always is so accommodating and will pick Denis up. As soon as I saw the two of them that day I ran to get the camera. It is too cute to miss.

One day Denis won't believe me when I tell him about climbing into all these baskets and bags. He should grow to be over 6 feet tall, he'll look at the bags and baskets and think, "I was never that small." I'm so enjoying this time with Denis, but is it no wonder both my brother and I have pain in our backs and shoulders, it's from picking up Denis in baskets and bags.

Singing His Heart Out

Last week Denis and I went to Black Creek Pioneer Village a couple of times. I've had a family membership to the village for years, and love going to the village any chance I get.


Denis loves to go into the Town Hall. He will stand at the front and sing a song in his own nonsensical language. I have to sit on one of the benches and be his audience. When he is finished, it is my turn to go up and sing a song and he would be my audience.


Denis is a real showman.

Hey, Look At Mommy

As I bought my camera, the man in the store asked how old was my child. When I said he was 2 the man responded with, "Ah, yes, the back of the head years." I remember that statement every time I TRY to get a photo of my boy.

Here are some recent photos taken in the past month.

Trying out his new garden chair.

At the zoo on a school trip with Uncle John and all the grade 7's.

At the zoo with Mommy and Uncle John.

At the water park with Alex and Loretta.

At Canada's Wonderland riding on the Carousal.

Hopefully in the future I can get him to look at the camera when I take the picture and get his beautiful face into the photo.

No Cry

Tonight as I was putting Denis to bed he said, "No cry, mommy, no cry."

For the past month or so I read a couple of books with Denis and then put him into bed, give him a kiss and leave.

Denis cries. Oh how he cries. He bawls and bawls and bawls. Heart wrenching cries. The 'you are such a mean mommy for leaving me all alone in this bedroom' type of cry. Yesterday, when I checked on him he said as he stopped crying, "Look mama, my eyes drip." Too cute.

So tonight when he said, "No cry, mommy, no cry." he was saying he wouldn't cry, and he didn't.

It twas a Happy Canada Day

We had great fun on Canada Day.

It was a quiet day for the most part as Denis and I have had a really busy week. My sister Kathryn was home and my brother was celebrating the start of his summer holidays. It was nice to sit around and just spend time together.

I tried to watch the celebrations from Ottawa and the Royal couple, but Kathryn wasn't pleased to not be watching Lawrence Welk and left the living room in protest. When I finally convinced her to return we found Denis had taken over her couch with a totally innocent look on his face daring us to protest (good thing he is still small as I just hauled him off the couch and got her settled). Denis is still very jealous of his Aunt and it didn't help that he was exhausted after our week, so he had little time for her and let her know he wasn't pleased to have her around, poor Kathryn.

Here's what Denis and I had been up to this week.

Monday we attended two parties. It was my work end of year party where we saw a 9 day old baby (Denis LOVES babies) and I said an official goodbye as I won't be a consultant next year. Then we drove right across the city to Julia's 11th birthday party at a trampoline place, Denis was too young to jump, but the guy in charge took Denis out onto a trampoline and jumped with him in his arms 3 times.

Tuesday we joined Uncle John's grade 7's on a trip to the zoo. It was Denis' first trip to the zoo, but it won't be his last. He loved it. Good thing I bought a membership. School trips for my brother with 7th graders are so different than my experience with K to 3rd graders. The students go off on their own to meet up at the end of the afternoon. Denis and I spent the day with the other grade 7 teachers wandering around the zoo running into students at every corner and restaurant.

Wednesday we had to get up early to drive Uncle John to school. We then went to IKEA for breakfast, shopping and nap before we returned to school to pick up Uncle John. We then all went to his end of year party.

Finally on Thursday we visited my new school for next year (I'll be teaching grade 1 come Halloween, great day to return to school eh ?). I wanted to meet the teachers I'll be working with and get a look at my new classroom, Denis just wanted to roam around the school, drink from water fountains and climb stairs. When we finished at the school we met Diane, Ciera and Tienna at Canada's Wonderland for a few hours that ended up to be 5 hours.

After a week like that, having a quiet Friday was a treat. Denis and I did make shortcake to go with our fresh Ontario strawberries for our Canada day dinner dessert.

After dinner Denis and I went out to see the fireworks at the city center. The plan had been that all 4 of us go out for fireworks, but Kathryn said no, so she and my brother stayed home and watched Lawrence Welk. Isn't my brother the luckiest person around? Denis loved the fireworks and didn't seem at all bothered by the huge crowd. Now he has another new word in his vocabulary, fireworks!

Hope you had a great Canada Day my Canadian friends, and Happy 4th of July to my American friends.