Just two pics for no reason

Although we're not quite ready for potty training yet,
Bunky does imitate just about everything we do, and
doing the "business" is no exception. Here I caught
him with his pants down (yuk yuk!).
He is quite proud to go through the motions, but he
has yet to go racing there of his own accord.
I hear the trick is to use real underwear. Yuck!
There is no rush. We'll wait 'til he's ready.

I know this sounds like a cliched proud mamma statement,
but Bunky knows most of his letters and reads books
front to back (mostly), and memorizes the stories on a
page-by-page basis. Sure, it's not really reading yet, but
it's a good sign he totally gets it - he's probably going to read
before he uses the potty properly!

Bunky's First SKATE!

Today we went for our first skate. What inspired us was threefold: Feistabillo sent a pic of Little Joey skating with her in Alaska, and Bunky's desire to wear his helmet on the couch, and Daddy's experiment with Bunky's $10 "bobskates" (two blades - it's cheating but we're more interested in a happy experience than actual skating right now). He seemed to like the bobskates, so we decided to go to public session at our rink.

It didn't take long after walking around off the ice for him to get comfortable ... and before long he was ready to let go of my hands. (I, however, kept holding him for obvious reasons, namely that it's slippery out there!)

What kind of adventure would it be if we didn't stop for a food break where we push all the buttons until Mom gets the hint and pulls out a dollar for some cheese crackers?

Oh yes, Daddy got some skate time in, too.

We decided to leave while he was still happy and having fun.

Afterward we went home, had lunch, and watched the Leafs beat Boston in OT!!! With Mama's favorite player, Darcy Tucker, getting a goal, a point, and then the overtime winner... w00t!

The Big TWO was Jan. 21

So Fin turned two on Jan. 21. But the day before was Sunday, so we enjoyed a little excursion to the L.A. Live Steamers museum. I was very disappointed. There's only one train ride and you can't go into the park itself (granted it's tiny!) and the wait to ride was an hour. It was not at all like they made it look on TV, where you go in and ride lots of different trains and rails. Hmph.

Anyway, we got to ride, and it was a lot of fun. Fin got the front seat!

Here we all look good and Bunky missed his shot.

The best part of his birthday (this is from the night before the train ride) was hanging out with Bapa. He seemed to have a Bapa fetish which is soooooo cute. I think Omi was jealous. :P

Waiting in line was all right as long as Bapa was around.

We opened a birthday present from our friend Lyra (and Melinda at work) and we liked it so much that we took it to MyGym that night, even though we hadn't even gotten it out of the box yet! When we got home Mamma opened it and now it's one of my favorites.

Great birthday. Next year, party!

Snow Day was Jan 13

Somewhere back in January we went up to the snow for the afternoon. While we were looking for a hill, the road was blocked. So we used the road. It was dandy.

I think Daddy might have enjoyed it more than Fin did, though.

Somehow, I don't know how... Fin let us put on his tuk and he actually wore it the whole time. Too bad he wouldn't leave his mittens on. He just didn't "get it" when his knuckles scraped the snow or when his fingers were so cold they burned. *sigh*

Photography is fun in the snow, too... who's that fat pink polar bear behind Bunky?!?!

All in all we had some fun sledding along the mild grade of the road.

Disneyland AGAIN!? For FREE even!

Today I kind of spontaneously decided we should go to Disneyland and take advantage of the potentially small crowd due to Superbowl Sunday combined with the threat of rain. The Superbowl happened but the rain was only a threat. The park? Empty! (Well, you know what I mean.)

Unfortunately both Mark and I forgot our cameras. Fortunately, however, the line to get a photo with Mickey Mouse - something we usually pass on because the line is over an hour long - was literally nonexistent. I mean literally. We walked through the entire Minnie house and then Mickey's house, lallygagging as Fin stopped to push every fake button and try to dial every fake phone along the way. What, us hurry? This was a day for him - a kind of make-up for his lame birthday. We finally got all the way to the end and like I said, NO LINE, NO WAIT... we were cheerily ushered in to the "film barn" or whatever it's called and Mickey was there ready to have our photo taken.

Now, let me give you a little catch-up story. As of about 3 weeks ago, Fin became interested in television. My favorite channel for his "tv time" is the Disney Channel, if only because there are no ads and it's all fairly decent toddler educational stuff. Mickey Mouse clubhouse has become a regular (not that he's watching all the time, but when he does, that's what's on) so he now recognizes Mickey Mouse and friends.

So I think when he saw a full sized, live, animated (well, moving, I mean) Mickey Mouse there beckoning to him he was a little stunned... then as I coaxed him along with "Oh, wow, is that the real Mickey Mouse?" he got a little friendlier. They took a photo of the pair, then another, and THEN Fintan realized - hey, photos! - and started to pose... so they got two really good ones of him smiling from ear to ear. And here's the better of the two...

Look it's me and Mickey!

And if you want to see all four, and/or order a copy for yourself, here's the link.

CLICK HERE

Now, that was just one small part of our afternoon. We were there on my Silver Pass so entry was free, and I figured we'd just hang out for a couple hours and ride the big train that goes around the park. We rode it to Toon Town and the first thing we went on was this roller coaster in the back - I just simply called it "the fast train" so he'd understand what it was. He was just tall enough - you have to be 35" and with his boots on he was indeed - well, more like 36" tall. Wow. And two weeks ago he barely made the 34" for the live steamer train. Anyway, he LOVED it. It's a real coaster - REALLY fast, but really short. He liked it so much that after the Mickey photo he wanted to go on it again!

We also went on the ride with the spinning Toon Town taxis and then we went on the Carosel which he hated, and then we went on Pirates and went to dinner in Downtown Disney and then went home. All in about 4 hours in the park plus dinner & driving. It was really fun and I think Bunky had a fantastic time, and it was good family time for me and Mark too.

As for the past month which has been a blank... I will update shortly.