A Visitor

This morning, we noticed we had an unexpected house guest.



He's living out by the front door in the carport. He's pretty cute and by all accounts, he's full size. I expect he (who is actually likely a she) is building a nest there. At this point, he/she can stay because he isn't bothered by us but if he/she starts "protecting" the nest, we may need to get someone out to help relocate it.

In other news, we're all well though Dougie and I have been sick for the last week or so. We're both feeling better though and looking forward to our planned house guests later this week.

Soccer with Grandma

Unfortunately, Dougie was sick for most of Grandma's visit and wasn't able to go to swimming or soccer. So, we decided to take him to the park yesterday for a little bit of family soccer.



We had to work to keep the ball (and Dougie) out of the pond




A little game of Dougie in the middle

Daddy's Shoes

Dougie is obsessed with shoes. His shoes. My shoes. Daddy's shoes. So, it's no wonder that he grabbed daddy's shoes when he found them on the floor.



That isn't unusual but when Dougie decided to walk across the room in them, that was new.









Walk perhaps isn't the correct word, it was more of a shuffle. All the same, it was adorable.

Yankee Doodle Kimberley

As mentioned yesterday -- as of 9:15am, Kim is now a United States citizen.

The ceremony was quite nice though nothing particularly glamorous -- I was wondering if Kim would get a VIP in town to administer the oath -- no such luck, just a run-of-the-mill immigration official. There were about 100 people taking the oath from 35 countries (including 2 from Canada!) with lots of family and friends watching on. Kim had a small army in tow -- me, her Mum, her aunt Carol -- and of course Dougie who was cheering along with a big "YAAAAYYYY!" We even managed to get him waving the Stars and Stripes for a while, although he eventually got a bit bored and went back to his Clifford book.

Big congratulations to Kim on this momentous occasion. It's been a long road since she trucked across the border in 1999 to become the Install Analyst at Intactix. Hard to believe that we've been living down in Texas for nearly 10 years!

The Newest Citizen


Dougie Taking a Break From Cheering For Mum


The Tired, The Poor, The Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free


That Statue Sure Looks Bigger On TV

Grandma's In Town

Tomorrow is my US swearing in ceremony. It seems like we've been waiting forever. But after a few errors and two long years, the day has finally come!

My mother/grandma flew into town today so she could come to the ceremony. Dougie was excited to see her again and they got to hang out most of the day. We're planning more pictures for tomorrow but I wanted to share one of the ones from today.

Squirrel Feeder

Today, we tried to make a squirrel feeder. The bigger goal was to let Dougie work on his fine motor skills. We got the idea from, Chasing Cheerios, a blog I read that has a lot of great ideas for home activities with the kids. Unfortunately for us, it worked out a lot better for her.

I showed Dougie what we were doing a few times and then let him have a chance. He understood right away and started to thread on the Cheerios.



Then things went wrong - very wrong.

The main issue was that we did this activity right before lunch. That was a mistake.





We'll have to try again another time when Dougie isn't as hungry. Hopefully, the squirrels can get some then.

Annunciation

Dougie was playing at his train table.

I asked him if he was playing with a car. He stopped, held up the car and said “car.”

I said yes, but are you “playing with it – playing,” hoping I could get him to say “playing.”

He stopped spun around and ran towards the coffee table. I was confused.

Suddenly, he holds up a little airplane and says “plane!”

Clearly, I need to work a little on my annunciation.

Interestingly, the plane was right beside his airport book.



Unfortunately, Dougie has learned that the camera shows pictures on the back and runs to see it every time I start taking pictures which makes getting a picture of him difficult. So, you'll have to settle for a picture of him right after all this.

New Books!

With many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Sharabura, Dougie has a whole slew of new books!

He is completely enamored with the airport book - so much so that he hasn't been interested in looking at the other books yet.





He gets so serious when he reads. He'll even bring the book to dinner to give him something to do while he waits for his food.



Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!!

New Puzzle

We got Dougie a new puzzle set. I thought it would teach him to make patterns but it turned out to be a bit different than I thought. So, now we're using it to teach shapes.

Dougie LOVES puzzles so it was no shock that he took to this right away. It's a very different type of puzzle than the other ones he has but he was so excited to try it. We spent a good while playing with it.

To start off, I gave Dougie the correct pieces to complete each puzzle and then he had to work out where they went.






There were lots of puzzle options and he was so thrilled to finish each one.




I tricked him a bit on the last one and gave him too many pieces. He was a bit confused by the extra circle but he managed to get it put together anyway.

(Note the extra circle location)


Two pieces left - only one spot


He was so excited when he finished.


(Please excuse the mess on his shirt - we did this right after dinner and there is yogurt all over him.)

Dougie and Oliver

As Scott alluded to in his last post, we decided over the weekend to let Dougie play with Oliver in the backyard. We decided to limit it to one dog at a time so we didn't have any issues. Dougie and Oliver both had a great time! They played together for a while and then Oliver got tired and decided to lay down.

Waiting for Dougie to finish on the slide


Going for a walk together


Coming back from the walk


Oliver gave him a big kiss (or perhaps he tasted him - we should count fingers)


Searching for Oliver (please ignore the fact that he's using that backwards)

Les Habitants

As a budding Montreal Canadiens fan deep in the heart of Texas, Dougie needs to take advantage of every opportunity he can to watch his favourite team. Usually that means waiting until they play the Dallas Stars, which only happens once or twice a year. That day was Sunday, and Dougie absolutely insisted that we watch. I couldn't say no.

The boys before the game:


Watching the action


Dougie's still learning how to sit through a whole hockey game -- so we took a little break


Later, Dougie learned the concept of a "goon"


For the record, Montreal won the game 3-1, and then fired their coach. Some guys can't deal with success!

Perhaps a Different Art Form?

Though we received nothing but encouraging comments about Dougie's musical debut. We thought perhaps he should have a fall back art option. So, Dougie has been working more on fine art.





He's even tried working as a team.





That was less successful.



We're calling this his primary color period.

Yorgurt Shoudn't Be Eaten with Chopsticks

The subject really says it all. Scott and I had Chinese food for diner and Dougie wanted to try to eat with a pair of chop sticks. As you can imagine, it wasn't his most successful meal.