Eye Operation

I'm going to the hospital today to have my eyes fixed. Sometimes they go a little crazy and both don't point where they are supposed to. The doctor is going to fix that.

I can't eat any breakfast or lunch until my operation so I hope my tummy isn't too hungry when I wake up in the morning. Mommy and Daddy let me stay up really late last night watching movies and eating snacks. They said this way, I'll wake up later and won't have to keep my tummy hungry for so long. I always like to stay up late so I really liked that. We had a family movie night and I chose "Bee Movie."

Boo Boo Fixed

Yippee!  My cast came off today.  My arm was SOOOO itchy when the cast came off but feels much, much better.  The doctor says I'm still fragile and need to be careful for another four to six weeks so Mommy decided that I can't go back to my yoga or gymnastics classes for a little while longer.  My teachers want me to wear a bandage on my arm when I go to school to remind the other kids to be gentle with me.  Mommy thinks that's a good idea for my Hustle Bustle class too.  I don't mind.  I'm just happy to have my arm out of the cast!

Happy Birthday Polar Express

Mommy and I had another fun day.  We went to the Roundhouse in Yaletown for a birthday party.  The train that lives there, Polar Express, turned 121 years old!  Mommy says thats older than me, Daddy and her all put together.

Normally when I visit the train, it's parked inside the glass building but today it was outside.  I rang the bell and tooted the steam whistle and a real engineer showed me all the dials and how to run the train (we didn't go anywhere though).  There was a brass band, a ukelele and a bagpipe player.  Best of all, there were two kinds of cake and I got a big piece of the chocolate one.  It was a lot of fun and a great birthday party!

It's Great To Be A Kid

Today was so much fun. Mommy took me to the Vancouver International Children's Festival. All of Vanier Park was full tents and there was a ton of different things for kids to do.


I love getting my face painted so that's the first tent that we went to. On one cheek a got a happy face to go with the Mr. Happy t-shirt I was wearing. The next tent was a self-serve face painting tent so I got Mommy to put a school bus on my other cheek.



After that, there was so much to choose from. I made and flew a kite, played with some giant bubble makers, flew a wooden airplane, learned about crafts and games from Taiwan and rode a bike so fast that I lit up five light bulbs!


Mommy thought we should stop for lunch (I think SHE was hungry) but I was too excited. We found a wooden train to ride, then a real ambulance and fire truck with paramedics and firemen! I spent a long time in the fire truck and got a real surprise when my friend Hayden, from preschool, showed up right beside me. When it was Hayden's turn to be the driver, I played with the computer on the fire truck and navigated for him. We're a great team.



Next we visited the bike rodeo. Here I learned how to ride a bicycle and tricycle safely. There was a pretend bike route and I had to put on a helmet and ride around following the traffic rules. I stopped at the yellow and red traffic lights, stopped again at the stop sign, watched out for other traffic when I went through the intersection and had to walk my bike through the cross walk. They even taught me how to use hand signals to tell the cars which way I'm going. I really liked the bike rodeo and it wasn't too busy so I went around it six times. I was an expert by the time I finished and all the police men knew my name.



After the bike rodeo, we found a tent called the Sonic Playground. It was full of interesting things that make noise - sort of like instruments. They were funny instruments though. I've never seen anything like them before. Some had phones attached to them, others used popcorn to make noise, one had a computer attached to it, another made different noises depending upon where you turned its arrow. All of it was kinda weird. Outside the Sonic Playground tent, I had lots of fun banging on the xylophone. The shiny thing in the middle was really fun to bang too. It's fun to be noisy!


From here, I asked Mommy if we could go to the Sandbox tent that I saw. It was full of trucks, pails, shovels, rakes, tubes, sand (of course) and kids. I love playing with trucks in the sand and I found a steam roller that I've never played with before. I found it really interesting to see how it flattened the sand. I think Mommy enjoyed the shade and a chance to sit down for a little while. She even ran into her friend Ching Yi whom she hadn't seen for a long, long time.



Now I was hungry. Mommy brought a lot of food in her back pack so we found a shady place to sit. I ate everything! A peanut butter "smartie-pants" sandwich, a big apple muffin, a fruit leather, a whole cup of juice, a cheese stick and some of Mommy's nut bar. That's WAY more than I ever eat. I was still hungry but Mommy said our concert was going to start soon. We agreed to have some ice cream after the show.

Family Place gave us tickets to see Connie Kaldor. I hadn't heard her before and Mommy didn't know she played music for kids. We both enjoyed the show. Connie Kaldor was funny and even though I was getting really tired, I couldn't help but get up and dance. My favourite was a fiddling song. The song kept getting faster and faster and faster and I had to dance faster and faster and faster to try and keep up.

After the concert and ice cream, I sat in a real teepee. Just as I was about to leave the teepee, my friend Taylor popped in. She was hiding from her mom. I know Taylor from Family Place and we always have fun playing together. We ran around together for a while while our Mommies talked.

Next it was time to try to circus tricks. I was too small for most of them. Juggling looks fun but it's too hard to hold three balls at the same time. I didn't even try to throw them up into the air at the same time. They just kept popping out of my hands. Hoola hooping was hard to do too. The hoop just wouldn't stick on my hips no matter how much I span around. Stilt walking was much easier and fun. I can't do it all by myself yet but I think I know what to do in case Daddy wants to build me some stilts for home.



After stilt walking I was getting pretty hot and tired. Mommy said she's buy me something from the toy tent - I chose a tiny train and a pin wheel - then I convinced her to take me back to the bike rodeo for three more loops. After that I was ready to go home. I'm sure glad that I'm a kid. The Children's Festival was so much fun!

Here Birdie Birdie

Mommy, Grandpa and I went out to Ladner this afternoon to visit the bird sanctuary. It was my first time there - ever.


The weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm but not too hot. The trails were shady in some spots and sunny in others. Grandpa was in charge of the map to make sure we didn't get lost.


We saw so many birds. Some I had seen before, like ducks and geese and there were others that Mommy and I had never seen before like this heron.


We did so many things in the two hours that we were there. I discovered what a bird blind is, I climbed a great big blue tower to see the view from the top, I looked for a beaver dam and I saw a little birdie building a nest. My favourite part was feeding the birds.


Here I am feeding some ducks. All the birds were pretty friendly. Not afraid of me at all. As soon as they saw my paper bag of bird seeds they'd come right over.



After almost two hours of walking I was pretty tired and I had to get Mommy to carry me back to the car. She put me up on her shoulders and I had a great view. I should have asked her to carry me sooner.


It was a really fun afternoon and I look forward to next time we go to the bird sanctuary.

Chopsticks

Mommy made chinese food with noodles for dinner tonight so I thought it would be a good time to try out the chopsticks that Aunty Wendy gave me.



Some of the food ended up on my shirt (and glasses...face...floor...chair...) but most of it made it into my mouth.

BIG Boo Boo

I had an accident at the playground on Thursday.  I fell off the ladder while racing my friend to the slide.  It was a pretty big fall - Mommy says my feet were as high as her eyes.  Good thing there are wood chips all around the playground or I wouldn't have bounced off the ground, I would have just gone "thud."

I've been the Children's Hospital two times now, once on Friday and again today.  This afternoon, they put a cast on my arm.  I don't like it.  It's heavy and makes running around really difficult.  Also, I feel lopsided and sometimes I fall down because of it.

Mommy says I can't go to gymnastics or yoga class until my elbow gets better.  I'm not supposed to go the playground with my friends until the cast comes off either.  The good part though is that I don't have to have a bath ALL WEEK!  Yeah!

Happy Birthday Avi

Today is my birthday and Mommy had TWO parties planned for me. The first party was with my friends and the second party was with my family.

My first party was a Birthday Bus party.  Marrisa, Aiden, Matthew, Thomas, Luke and Zachary all came to that party. Matthew, Thomas, Luke and Zachary are my favourite friends from school and Marissa and Aiden I've just always known -- I usually have a play date with them every week while Mommy and Aunty Melodie drink coffee and talk.

We started by doing a craft and playing with my toys while we waited for everyone to show up.  Mommy cut up some yellow, black and red paper so we could build buses.  I added some special decorations to my bus - pompoms and colourful stickers.  After all, this is a party bus!

After everyone made a bus, we went outside to collect bus tokens.  Daddy got up early in the morning and hid them all over the garden so even I didn't know where they all where.  Some where easy to find, some where hard to find and some the squirrels and crows took away.  Here we are looking for the last token.  Daddy was giving us lots of hints but we just couldn't find it.  Finally, Zachary spotted it.  It was in the corner of the stair rail.  If you look closely, you can see it in this photo that Mommy took (us kids are all looking in the wrong place). 

After the bus token hunt, we played a game just like Musical Chairs but instead I called it Musical Bus Stop. It was fun because nobody was out and we had fun racing each other.

The next game was like Pin The Tail On The Donkey but I didn't want a donkey so Mommy made a big London bus for me. We collected pictures of all my friends and they had the pin their faces in the bus windows. We all did a pretty good job and had a good laugh after the game was done at where we all landed.


A few more games after the London Bus game - Pass The Present and Truck-Truck-Bus (my version of Duck-Duck-Goose) - then it was time for lunch.


Matthew's mom brought a real treat for the party - Jello Jigglers. I'd never had them before and they were delicious! We also ate cheese quesadillas and chips. Most of my friends ate the veggies and dip that Mommy put out but not me. Even though I'm four years old now, I still don't like vegetables. My friends' mommies got to eat chili, veggies and corn bread.


Then came the best part...my London bus birthday cake. I asked Mommy to make another one just like last year and she did a great job. Better than last year's. The best part is that it was CHOCOLATE CAKE! Mmmmm! My favourite. Here I am with my friend Matthew waiting for the sparkler to finish.


After lunch we played a little more in my playroom, created our own musical parade, then it was time for everyone to go home. I gave Mommy a big hug after the party and told her that it was the best birthday party I ever had.

While Daddy and I played with some of my new toys, Mommy got ready for the next party. We were having Grandpa, Aunty Wendy, Uncle Kelly, Jacob and Uncle Wasson over for dinner and ANOTHER chocolate cake!

This time I told Mommy it would be OK if we have a different kind of cake and she suggested a car racing cake. I liked that idea.


It took a long time to make but the cake was worth it. It looked great and it tasted delicious. Also, Jacob and I got to keep the toy cars that were on the cake.


So far, I love being four years old.

Little Bean

Last week I planted a bean seed at school. I water it each time I go to class. This is a photo of my friend Zachary and me checking-out our seeds.


Can you find the stick that has my name on it? If you look really carefully, you can see my bean sprouting!


(My name stick it right in front of the "NS" on the BEANS sign)