A wee bit of the happy Arlan we saw tonight...

Yup, Arlan actually played a bit tonight! So I do believe he's on the mend, finally. This afternoon he wanted to walk at the mall (vs ride in the cart), so he did. [GORE ALERT -- You should be a mom before you keep reading, unless you like stories about snot!] But whenever he 'plays' or runs or jumps these days, he ends up in a coughing fit that causes him to puke. Yup - coughing his poor lungs out in the mall ... I felt so bad for him. He doesn't like, vomit ... just has to cough up the gobs of mucous sliding down his throat. When he can get it out, then he goes back to good.
But tonight he played for a bit after supper and didn't have such a bad coughing fit. I think it helped that I was able to suction his nose right away. You know it's bad when he actually wants his nose suctioned (we never did get to that point with Landon!) ... he just lays there quietly for me. Which is good, because it's effective.
Anyway, so Arlan actually played. He even ate a bit, but not much. Just no appetite with your stomach full of snot I guess. But it was nice to get out for a bit, if even to the mall. There's a play area there which Landon loves of course. It's the first time I had Arlan there - all he wanted to do was slide, but he's too small yet to climb to the top of it. So he was frustrated with that, poor kid. Life sucks for him these days. I was so proud of Landon though - when I said it was time to go, he came out, found his shoes, and away we went. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't thrilled and likely would've stayed there until he was 14, but there was not a melt-down, and for that I am happy!

I'm off to bed - hoping to sleep all night long. If it's not Arlan being sick, it's Landon needing us to take the monsters out from under his bed (that's easy enough to do, just put your hand out and they crawl into your lap; then you put them in the bathroom) or just wanting snuggles (which I don't mind usually, but I am tired these days! But I still do take the opportunity to snuggle!).
Until next time...

And heeeere's our fashion plate :-)

Can you believe this kid!! I went to buy groceries, leaving John at home with the kids. This is what I see when I pull into the driveway!! LOL His pj top (still), a diaper, and rubber boots (on the wrong feet no less!). It was very difficult not to laugh at him!!

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But he had a blast splashing through the puddles. There's no shortage of them on our street, that's for sure. And when he was done splashing he took off his boots and walked barefoot through the mud (our flower-bed), then smeared mud all over the front door and steps!! Gotta love it - I remember loving mud as a kid too!! And luckily I was at Wendy's for a few minutes to dad got to clean it all up (and even luckier Landon couldn't get the front door open to get in the house himself like he was trying to do!).

Yup - the snowy-slushy mess is our street - YUCK! We have to blast out of our driveway and back up about 2 houses to where they've snow-blowered the street a bit, then take a big run forward to get past the mess in front of our house!! Both John and I have been stuck once out there :-/ But it's supposed to be up in the mid-teens again tomorrow, so maybe some of it will finally disappear?

Yes, it was about +15 or something when Landon was out like this...gotta love chinooks in January!! Even Arlan was hanging out outside - without a coat (but still a blanket!).

Why were we all outside? John was painting the trim and doors for the basement -- he sprayed them in the garage, and was cleaning up.

and yes, that's my FILTHY car ... will have to get it washed one of these days obviously :-) Mucky, yucky mess!!

We did actually have the neighbours daughter to babysit for about an hour this afternoon. John went to wash his car, I went to buy groceries. Arlan had a snooze while she was here, so she just had to play with Landon. And John was back from his errands quickly, so he was basically just in the garage. But we did want to have Briana watch the boys as a bit of a 'practise run' ... hoping this works out and we can employ her much more frequently. It's nice as she's right next door, so if there's questions or problems, her mom is close too. And with John's band practises starting up again in Feb we'll be needing a sitter on Monday nights ... so she'll get about 7 weeks out of Feb / Mar -- some good income for her :-) So hopefully it all works out well -- it's a win-win situation (well, win-win-win as Landon already was asking to play with Briana this evening!! LOL)

Landon didn't want to nap today with all this fun outside. So we didn't make him. By about 4:30 he was so sleepy. I put on CARS (surprise surprise) and he laid on the couch. I said "Landon are you sleepy?" He said "Mom, I'm SO sleepy!" LOL Then he went to sleep on the couch and was konked out for about 45 minutes until we had to get him up to go drop John's car off. He wasn't impressed when we got him up - but he snapped out of it once we got him in the car. Then he was all talk "Mom, look at that BIG WHITE TRUCK! Do you think we'll see a semi truck pulling a TRAILER!???"

Arlan Pictures

Arlan LOVES to play on his tummy. He can now get himself maneuvred around to get the more interesting toys, and is quite good at rolling to his back and to his tummy as he wants. Unless he's tired, then he wants help!! I noticed yesterday he's also starting to pull his knees up under him a bit, especially when trying to reach a toy that's out of reach in front of him (he used to just stick his legs straight out the back!), so I'm thinking crawling will be on order soon....

Here's Arlan asleep in the sled again. It was much colder this day, and snowing slightly. He didn't care - he still nodded off!! LOL So sweet :-D

And here's our little smiler. The sun shines in to the computer room (bonus room) so nicely in the morning, and he loves to play in here (which works for mom to check her email too!!). He is just too cute. And his hair -- like, what do you do with that!! It looks like the wind's blowing it off to one side!! LOL And those curls are always off like that! In some pictures he reminds me of a mad scientist or something with this wild hair all over the place! heh

From the farm

Wow - I didn't take too many pictures on our trip to Sask!! I know of Sunday I was just too tired, but Saturday I sure could've!! Ah well...
Here's a pic of Johnny and I as we were leaving for the wedding dance. It's been a LONG time since we were both dressed up at the same time, so we had to take a pic :-)
And a pic of Landon and grandpa in the big truck. Landon said the auger was noisy, but he had so much fun going with Grandpa in the truck. There's always so many exciting things to do at the farm ... no wonder he loves going to 'grandpa grandpa's' house.

Home Again, home Again

We had a fabulous trip back to Sask on the weekend. We managed to get up and leave on Fri morn at a decent time (just after 9). We stopped in the Hat for lunch, and then made it all the way to the farm without stopping again. Arlan was on the verge of a meltdown, but Landon entertained him in the back and all was good.
Both boys had so much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. Landon got to go for a ride in the grain truck, all the way to the elevator! Plus he checked out the kitties in the barn, watched the birdies eating out the window (from Grandma's bird feeder), and inspected bins with Grandpa (he got to feel durum and peas, but didn't like the chaff on his mittens). Arlan was his usual smiling, talking self ... revelling in the attention from everyone.
We came home yesterday, again managing to leave at a relatively decent time. Both boys were SO good in the car both on the way down and back again. We stopped in Med Hat for lunch again, and made one more stop in Bassano to feed Arlan briefly and to stretch our legs. No meltdowns this time (that extra stop was a good thing).
Plus, John & I enjoyed a night out together, going to Natasha and Shane's wedding while the boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. SO nice ... we even spent the night in Swift at Carla and Dave's (thanks again guys). Both boys were so good for Grandma. Landon wasn't even upset when we left - he gave me a big kiss and gave me a quick wave good-by before returning his attention to much more important things (like playing). Arlan took awhile to fall asleep for Grandma, but she was able to just lay with him on the bed, and he eventually fell asleep stroking her face (he's so cute!!). He only woke once to eat too, which is just wonderful. Landon enjoyed some time with Grandpa in bed before heading back to his Thomas bed for the night. So both kids were well behaved, went to sleep and slept well, and were VERY happy to see John and I in the morning too.
I was very relieved that Arlan napped with me on Sunday for about 3 hours!! I can't remember the last time he and I hung out in bed for that long!!! He'd wake up, I'd nurse him a bit, we'd both go back to sleep. It was so nice :-) And Grandma managed to keep Landon entertained so both John and I got some recuperative sleep on Sunday (as we didn't get much sleep Sat night ... heh heh).

So we're home again ... I'm wondering what to do first, laundry, cleaning, blah! ah well ... it's now December and the countdown to Christmas is on! So I'll be doing lots of cleaning in upcoming weeks :-) Thankfully I'm almost completely done Xmas shopping... AND all my Xmas cards are mailed out already -- PHEW! Much better than last year, when I didn't even get my cards until 3 days before Xmas or some thing like that LOL

Anyways, that's the quick post for today - will get some pics uploaded hopefully soon ... until next time....

and the toy battles have begun!

Landon is finally feeling better, although he is still not the energetic little firebomb we're used to. He's pretty quiet most of the day, he'll play for awhile, then hit the couch for awhile. But he hasn't thrown up since Sunday, so my hopes are up that he's beat this bug and is now just getting his energy back. He ate well yesterday, but hasn't eaten well today. His tummy is still a bit sore I'm thinking....But we made a trip out of the house this morning - to the grocery store - with no major calamities (i.e. no puking, no peeing pants, and only a minor melt-down at the check-out when I wouldn't let him have smarties).

And the toy battles have already begun! I thought I'd have a few more months of peace!! LOL Landon has been loving all the toys I've gotten out for Arlan - playing IN the exersaucer, and stacking rings, and loving that ever-lovable giraffe. Well today Arlan was getting him back, by snatching a piece of train track!! LOL He was happily slobbering all over it and Landon was near tears because his poor train track was 'broken'! Thankfully mom was able to come to the rescue, giving Arlan a different piece of track to drool over and fixing Landon's bridge. Poor Landon -- he's going to have some lessons in patience and sharing over the upcoming months (actually, mommy is going to have the lessons in patience, I'm sure!!).

Well Arlan is just as adorable as ever - gotta' love that little stinker!! He was busy oohing and gooing in the grocery store today - I love it! (And with Landon decreased energy levels, grocery shopping wasn't all that bad). I'm just hoping for a dual nap this afternoon as I'm still super-tired (I can understand what Landon's dealing with in recovering from this flu bug). Yesterday I got a nice sleep in ... let's hope it repeats!

Trip to Moose Jaw - Oct 11

On the Saturday of our trip back to Sask, we checked out Grandma and Grandpa's new house in Moose Jaw (seen in the background here ... it was just about to get some siding, and is framed on the inside). Landon had the most fun climbing on the sandpile for the driveway. He had so much fun that when we got to the restaurant and took off his shoes, we left quite a pile of sand on the floor there too!!
We went to the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw after lunch. I hadn't been there in YEARS (like, 20 ??). We almost didn't see any of the museum, as Landon found the Thomas train table in the lobby. What a set-up!! But we broke him away from there, despite his protests, and he got to explore the museum with it's trains, boats, and planes. I think the planes were his favourite, and he even got to sit in the cock-pit of a Snow-bird -- which he thought was "pretty neat"
On the way out we checked out the gift shop (while Landon again played at the train tables). Thank goodness he didn't go in there - it's a Thomas SUPERSTORE!! LOL Both Grandma and I bought some Christmas stuff for Landon. Even my eyes were shining, I wanted to buy it all!

The trip back to the farm was pretty good. Landon slept most of the way, and Arlan made some fusses but I fed him and we were good to go.

Starting to roll.....

Well, no more leaving Arlan anywhere elevated, that's for sure. He's starting to roll around that little stinker. This bum shot shows how far over he gets. It's from tonight. By the time he was done rolling he had turned himself 180'!! And was quite pleased with himself too :-)

He's such a little cutie-pie, I just love it. Can't believe how FAST time is going with him though!! I weighed him today and he's 14 pounds, 14 ounces! WOW! I just stopped in at my community health clinic (where I take the boys for shots, etc) and I can weigh him anytime, which is really nice.

We had a pretty busy day. Firstly I asked Landon when he got up if we should get dressed and go to the zoo. His response: "ooooooh, there's gonna be lotsa hippos and rhinocinuses!!!!!" (Him trying to say rhinocerus is priceless...I'm going to try to get it on video because it cracks me up). So we got dressed, did some running around (picked up a small aquarium/heater/rocks/plant via freecycle) and went to the zoo. Landon was so pumped to see the hippos and the giraffes (pronounced girafeeeeees), plus the zebras and lions. I bought an annual pass because I think we'll be going more often now that Arlan doesn't eat 62 times a day. I know it's getting to be winter, but the pass is good until next fall so we'll go all next summer :-)

Landon loved the zoo. The first thing he asked for was a treat ... which is an Itzakadoozie (an expensive popsicle!) ... he remembered from when Allison and I took him to the zoo in August. Then we looked at animals, he climbed rocks and ran around (and around and around). We had lunch, he fed fries to the seagulls and chased the peacocks. Then I sat on the elephant bleachers while he climbed up and down (and up and down and up and down) ... I watched the baby elephant playing in the water and nursed Arlan. Then we left. It was a wonderful zoo trip - so relaxed and makes me want to go again tomorrow!! LOL

Tonight Landon and I went to the pet store to pick up a few more things for the fish now named Thomas (of course!). We just needed a net, and some water conditioner, and I bought a fake plant and let Landon pick out a little ornament thing -- it's plankton from SpongeBob Square Pants. Then we washed out the aquarium and got it all decorated up and put Thomas the fish in there. Looks pretty good - it's the first aquarium I've ever had (just some goldfish in fishbowls as a kids) so I was excited too :-D Now Thomas has a nice new home with more room to swim, some plants to rest on, and some ornaments to hide behind, sitting on Landon's dresser.

Arlan hasn't cried the last couple of nights when going to bed, which has been a treat. Tonight he woke at 10:30 hungry though - which is unusual. I think the earliest he's woken before was maybe 11:30 or so? But he did go to sleep at 7:30, so *shrug* At least he just eats and goes right back to sleep --> PHEW! Maybe he'll sleep through to 5 am or something ... heh heh I know, I'm dreaming, but I can dream right?

Anyways, I should get to bed myself ... having these nursing naps with Arlan in the afternoon has me falling asleep later at night - then getting up to feed Arlan overnight I'm tired the next day so I look forward to and treasure that nursing nap again :-) Vicious circle, but I think I'll just take advantage of those naps while I can!! Until next time...

I got to meet the twins today!

Today I was able to go over to meet Trevor and Wendy's twins ... Evan and Dara. Such sweet little buttons! They are adorable, mom and dad are TIRED! But they are doing well, and hopefully will settle into this parenthood thing quickly. I remember how overwhelmed I was with Landon, so I empathise with them ... but cannot know exactly how overwhelming it is with two!! The little ones were 3 weeks early, so they sleep lots still (have to be woken up to eat). I told them to enjoy it ... in a few weeks they'll wish the babies would sleep so long as to have to be woken up!! LOL Isn't that the way with kids?

We went to a birthday party this morning -- Landon had a blast with all the other kids and toys. He didn't like the clown though - he was scared of them, so he hung out upstairs with the adults and the other little girl that was scared. Arlan was an angel, as usual -- he looked around, had a nap on mom, woke up and ate, then looked around some more.
The best part though -- Landon got a fish as a take-home gift!! He is PUMPED about that fish!! It's one of those pretty long-finny things in a rose bowl (I don't know what it's actually called, I'll have to go to the pet store and learn what we need to do). So we'll put it up on his dresser for him (that's about the only surface in the house that is fully out of his reach!). Of course, now I'm wondering what we'll do with the fish when we go back to Sk for a week in a couple of weeks :-/ Ah, the joys of having 'pets' heh heh

Well, gotta give Arlan his bath and hopefully get him to bed. G'nite!

We survived our first road trip!

First off, here is a picture of Arlan's curly curly hair. This is right after his bath! It's only because we comb his hair (when still wet) that it looks somewhat straight in all of his pictures. But it's CURLY!! Of course, I absolutely love it (coming from mommy with the straightest hair on earth). It also cracks us up because if John's hair gets messy it looks exactly like this :-D

We're back from Medicine Hat and our first road trip with Arlan (aside from the trip to Banff, which was just a day trip). It was successful! YAY
We left Sat morning by 10 am (I know, hard to believe hey). When we arrived in Med Hat we met Dave and the boys at the Med Hat Lodge. John took Landon on the waterslides, which he absolutely LOVED! I left my camera in the room unfortunately, so I didn't get any pictures (nor any video of Landon screaming like a teenage girl) going on the slide. So John and Landon swam and swam, while I visited with Dave (who is lucky enough that he gets to sit by the pool and supervise as his boys slide and swim .... we'll be there too someday ...) and Arlan slept.
It got a bit hairy as we were trying to get everyone over to Judy's for the evening and I was trying to get ready and feed Arlan /pump, etc. But we got everyone there, Arlan didn't starve, and I got to go out with friends!! YAYAY!
I had lots of fun all night (yes, all night ... not much sleep at all for me!!), laughing and just enjoying not listening for baby cries!! John had a pretty good night too -- Landon and Ryder played well, and Arlan wasn't too loud. I guess he showed off his lungs for Dave for awhile, but was asleep shortly after 8 pm. John got up and fed him at 1 and he slept until 5:30 am when I got to feed him. I'm so glad that Arlan slept just fine in his play pen :-D Bodes well for our Sask trip coming up next month!
Landon was super great too ... fell asleep so nicely on his Thomas bed behind the couch in the living room :-) Gotta love that Thomas bed!!!!!!

The next day, the drive home was pretty sweet. Arlan slept the entire way (!!!), and Landon was so tired he just stared out the window for most of it. I just wish I could've slept! lol

But I got some sleep last as Arlan slept pretty well, so I'm starting to feel a bit more recovered. Tonight I play volleyball for the first time in ~ 1 year, so I'll be putting my recovery back a bit though. But that'll be fun too. I hope the boys behave well for John tonight as he'll have to put Arlan to bed again.

That's the little bit of news from here. Oh yeah, Landon peed on the toilet again last night before his bath. So he will do it, he just doesn't take the initiative to do it on his own :-/ Ah well ... it'll come I'm sure. Until next time...



So yes, there has to be 'something' to commemorate the weekend ... in this case it was the 'silly putty incident'. Pretty self explanatory. So Landon got a bit more of a haircut, courtesy dad!! LOL

And we just won't tell Judy what Ryder and Landon were doing in her room ... or even that they were in her room, right?

That Arlan!

Arlan's been giving us trouble in falling asleep at night. He was going to bed SO nicely, but not the past several days. Crying and fussing and several hours later he'll get to sleep. He's soooo sleepy, but just won't let himself go. Stinking kid!! We'll keep plugging away, but it sure is frustrating, especially since he was doing so well before :-/

Not much news today. Landon is still soo cute, gotta' love him. He LOVES the swingset, he's swinging all the time!! LOL I'll be glad when he learns to pump his legs and swing himself ... with John on the case it shouldn't take long. John has a knack for teaching Landon how to do things.

That's really about it. We went shopping this morning. I bought Arlan a little outfit for Xmas (used gift card from Curt and Anne ... thanks again!). Arlan was really good while shopping, having a nice snooze, not causing any trouble. Landon was a stinker, crawling through the clothing racks and dumping clothes everywhere. Can't blame him, he is only 2 and clothes shopping can be boring. He was being very helpful for about 10 minutes of the shopping though, bringing me clothes one at a time to show me (never mind that it was 5 of the same shirt), then he'd repeat whatever adjective I'd used on the previous one (i.e. sharp looking, neat, cute, etc). But that got boring and it was more exciting to take those clothes off the rack and make a pile on the floor!! LOL He was very well behaved overall in the store (we were there for quite awhile to find something I liked), cleaning up clothing piles is really not that big a deal in the end.

That's the news here. A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunty Yvonne tomorrow :-D

Oh yeah - no potty learning news, we didn't do anything today. But Landon did say tonight at bedtime that he wanted to use the potty tomorrow again, so we'll see. And both boys are relatively healthy again -- Landon still has a slightly runny nose but he isn't at all slowed down by this cold anymore. Arlan's still a bit stuffy, but nothing major at all ... nothing that should disturb his sleep (or make him fussy for HOURS before going to sleep for the night!!).

And one more thing ... Arlan had his first bath in the big tub tonight. He didn't mind it at all. No screaming, thank goodness!! :-D He was WAY too long for the baby tub, his poor legs were all bent and he'd end up kicking the edge of it when he got excited. So from now on he can kick kick kick to his heart's content in the big tub :-D

Landon Shenanigans...

Landon has been having such a busy summer, but now our trail of company has come to an end and we are getting back to 'normal' - whatever that is!! LOL
So here are some pics of the munchkin just doing 'stuff'.
Lately, he's been having such fun playing with soap in the bathroom. We have the CLEANEST SINK (and toilet seat, and faucet...). He has just learned how to wash his hands by himself, but when he's been in there for awhile, with no water running, we know what we'll find. He even has soap smeared on his face here ... :-/
Landon loves Thomas, and has the bedding to prove it. Can you find Landon in this picture??? This is what I walked into his room to find one morning ... just an arm and two feet!!


Landon loves to help me as much as possible too -- although his definition of help may be slightly different than mine :-/ He had loads of fun mopping the other day for me ... he didn't do too badly, as long as he remembered to have me help him wring the mop out before slopping half the water onto the floor!!

We went to a birthday party in Olds for the lead singer of John's band on Saturday. While there, Landon got to go on a horse-drawn wagon ride, which he enjoyed. He also learned how to jump on a trampoline -- he jumped on that thing for probably 45 minutes, non-stop!!! I finally had to drag him off of there to go and watch John play (which was the entire reason for us going out there to begin with)!! He had tons of fun running around with the kids. Thankfully Aunty Yvonne and Uncle Greg were there too, to help me out so much by following Landon around as he was having fun!! Arlan was a good baby while we were there, snoozing, eating, showing off his lungs when mommy was watching Landon jump on the trampoline and he woke up hungry :-/

And the last picture is Landon with his favourite friend of the summer, Murphy. Our neighbours were dog-sitting for the first 2 weeks of August, and Landon fell in love with Murphy. What a beautiful dog! Every time Wendy or Trevor took Murphy for a walk, Landon would somehow hear that gate open and would go running outside "Murphy! Murphy! Wanna see Murphy!".

Tuesday at Heritage Park

Yesterday was Allison's last day here in Calgary, but her flight left late in the day so we took in Heritage Park in the morning. Landon was being SUCH a 2-year-old that it wasn't all that much fun. He was scared of the train, the boat, and pretty much grumpy about everything in life :-/ He did enjoy the sheep though, and when we were describing our day for John that was the one thing he really remembered (the black eyes, black legs and black ears specifically). He also tried to feed the sheep his pine cone :-/ Goofy!

And here are a couple of pictures of Arlan that Allison took - she was able to catch his smile and his talking. He is SO smiley -- I LOVE it!! Especially when he first sees me (if I've been in the other room, or when he first wakes up). He smiles such big smiles, then starts telling stories. Adorable!! These pics are from Prince's Island Park on Saturday.

Banff trip Sunday

What a beautiful day to take a trip to Banff. The weather was hot but not too sunny, although we were boiling by the end of our time there. We didn't do the entire Hoodoo Trail because at 32' before the humidity, neither of us was up to it (needless to say Landon was exhausted by then and Arlan was fussy too!). But we spent time downtown, strolling along the Bow River (by far the most beautiful setting I've ever had the pleasure of nursing a baby in!! lol), and letting Landon chase birds in Central Park (tired himself right out doing that). We did some sight-seeing, checking out Bow Falls (Landon wasn't too scared of that big drop down to the water ... although his mommy was certainly concerned!), the HooDoos, Banff Springs (a quick drive-by) and just driving through the town. We provided Allison with the 4-hour whirlwind tour of Banff ... we didn't see all that we'd have liked to, partly due to the hot weather, partly due to Landon's general pokiness when walking anywhere, and partly due to Allison's fear of heights (the Gondola was definitely OUT).

It was a beautiful day - but by the end I was tuckered right out. The drive and the heat were too much for this mamma. That was okay though - we just stuck close to home on Monday anyways, which was good for all of us as the temperature was over 33' and then there was humidity :-/

Sat at Prince's Island Park

On saturday, Allison and I took Arlan down to Prince's Island park to just hang out. It was nice to get out without Landon (how horrible does that sound!!??) just because we could set our own pace and not have to be watching for Landon to disappear off into a crowd. Arlan was wonderful, sleeping the entire time, except for a brief time to eat (and hang out on the grass a bit). It was a beautiful walk, we waded in the Bow, watched Bow rafters, learned some stuff along the 'walk of learning', and just generally enjoyed the scenery. I would love to take the boys down there again (with John) just to hang out, it was so beautiful. Hard to believe it's right downtown Calgary ... some planners had their heads screwed on straight in 1970 when they designated that island a park (see ... we did learn some stuff down there!! LOL)

Monday...Monday

It's bloody HOT here...aiaiai. We are hiding out in the house after a busy weekend sight-seeing around Calgary and Banff. The computer is acting up (actually blogger is acting up) so I am unable to upload more pics at this time, hopefully soon.

Aunty Allison has been visiting since Thursday afternoon. She came at the right time if she likes HOT weather. We've been close to or over 30 all weekend. Friday we went to the zoo with the boys -- see previous post. Saturday Allison and I took Arlan down to Prince's Island Park and just walked around and enjoyed the weather. Yesterday we took the boys on a road trip to Banff. Allison hadn't been to the mountains before, so we took the chance to head out. It was a long day, hot with lots of driving, but it was beautiful out there and I'm so glad we went. I'll go into more details when I'm able to post the photos.

Today we are hiding in the house - even though it's hot in here too!! Outside is 33 or 34, plus humidity! Blech! Tonight we'll sit in the backyard under the sprinkler I think!! And maybe tomorrow we'll head to a spray pool or something as it's supposed to be a bit cooler (high of 26 with humidex of 29 is sounding cool these days!!)

This morning I took Arlan to the doctor ... poor little stinker has a cyst on his anus :-( So he gets topical antibiotic for a few days, and we're back to the doc on Thursday. If it hasn't cleared up we may have to go into the pediatrician to check it out. Luckily it doesn't seem to be causing him any discomfort, but I am concerned about it nonetheless.

Anyways, I have a wiggly kid on my knee wanting to look at pick-up trucks, so I will post again when I can get the photos to upload. Until then....

Aug 15 Trip to the Zoo

On Friday, Landon, Arlan, Aunty Allison and I went to the zoo. It was the one thing Allison wanted to see on her trip to Calgary, and I'm glad we were able to go on a nice day that wasn't a weekend!!

Landon has finally been impacted by the zoo -- it's what he's been talking about since we went on Friday!! Even while driving around Banff he was asking to go see rhinos and hippos and giraffes (pronounced giraffeeeees). He was showing off his rock-climbing skills here, amazing considering how hot it was that day and this is on the way out. You can't really see, but his cheeks were flaming RED. He was a bit of a slow-poke going through the zoo, we were there for several hours and only saw about half of it. Firstly he wanted to see the tigers, so we continually coaxed him towards the tigers, then it was the giraffes we bribed him with. :-/ All along the way he was constantly eating eating eating, which is likely why it took him so long to walk anywhere!! But we got the see the baby elephant and the baby gorilla and the baby giraffe, plus the red pandas were out playing, so we did get to see the cutest things at the zoo (in my opinion).

And of course, here's a picture of Arlan taking it all in :-/ Man that kid can sleep!! LOVE IT!