Morning routine

I have a very thoughtful toddler.

Most mornings, when he wakes up, he gathers up his two Bellos, his lamb and his baby lamb, and wanders over to my bedroom.

First, he drops his toys on daddy's side of the bed, then wanders over to my side.

He then places imposter Bello (aka mommy's Bello) on me and whispers "here you go mommy".

He then tiptoes back over to the other side of the bed, climbs in, and snuggles for a bit.

Depending on how early it is (anytime after 6 am is not considered early by him), after several sessions of tossing, turning, twitching, sucking on soother, and other acrobatic activities, he gets up again, and wanders into the kitchen.

He then returns with an empty bottle which he tosses at me. He stares at me until I stir or open my eyes, and proclaims: "I want milk".

If I don't get up right away he says "Time to get up now mommy, time to wake up."

That is my cue to get up and get him his milk ready, which he likes lukewarm.

When I return to where he wants his milk (could be in my bed, in his bed, or on the couch in the livingroom) he removes his soother, Bello and whatever other toy(s) he's gathered in the process and starts giggling out loud. I hand him his milk and he smacks his lips JUST SO, then commences drinking.

Some days I try to snuggle back with him on the bed, with a coffee in hand, and I get one of two responses:

1. no mommy, go away
2. giggle, smile, smack smack smack the lips

Immediately after the bottle is finished, one of three things can happen. Either he hands me the bottle and says "put it on shelf". This happens if I'm with him at the time.

If I'm not with him, he either whines loudly "I'm aaaaaaalllllll finished mommy!" and the repeats this refrain until either I, or daddy, get fed up and tell him to put the bottle down or get up and take it into the kitchen but to STOP WHINING ALREADY WE HEARD YOU THE FIRST SIX TIMES!

Or, he gets up, wanders back into the kitchen, and drops the bottle into the sink which he can just barely reach if he stands on his tippytoes.

Then we have to play.

"Mommy, do you want cars?"

Depending on what day of the week it is, (he's in daycare three mornings a week), he may bring me a specific car, and then proceeds to direct my play. Although he pronounces the car to be "this is mommy's car", I can NOT play with MY car the way I want. No no no.

"You park it here, no mommy, put your car here now."
"Move your car now mommy."
"I'm going to work, your car is going to vacation".

Sometimes he decides that my car has more fun, and he switches, without my permission, the cars. I try to argue: "this is mommy's car, you play with your car, didn't you say this was mommy's car?" but it's in vain. Eventually he manages to take the car he wants, and continues with his instructions to me.

He's very particular.

He's also very gentle. He does not smack the cars together violently, or throw things around, although sometimes he jumps up and down or has limbs flying around resulting in kicks in my belly or what not.

But for the most part, this morning routine is actually quite relaxing.

The difference between boys and girls

My toddler boy accompanies his toddler girl friend up to her bedroom to look at her toys.

The boy starts rummaging in her toy box, and the girl starts rummaging in her dresser drawers.

All is quiet.

At one point, the toddler girl's daddy goes up there to check on them, and notices that his daughter is standing in the middle of her room, stark naked. She is in the middle of changing her outfit (for the upteenth time that day).

Both kids look up to him.

The girl says "I'm changing my outfit".

The boy says "look, I found tractor".

School picnic

This is what my little two-year old looks like now! He is exactly 27 months old here.

We went to the end of year school picnic on a hot but breeze day, and had pizza and salads, fruit and cupcakes. There were older kids who sang songs in a choir, a puppet show, and the playground was open for business. It was fun!

Dumping liquids

This is becoming a favorite habit.

So I'm running his bathwater, and step out quickly to get a towel. I come back into the bathroom and there is the little dumper, pouring a 900 ml bottle of bath bubbles into two inches of bathwater.

The entire bathtub was pink, slimy, and smelled like bubblegum or something of the sort.

Good thing I buy the cheap stuff at No Frills.

* * *

Yesterday I buy him a new bottle of bubbles. I tighten the lid, and place it on the patio table. I leave to go get something, and when I come back....yes. Half the bottle of bubbles is on the deck.

I managed to salvage the other half.

* * *

What is this fascination with pouring? I'm in the habit now of saving every interesting-looking container for him so he can pour to his heart's content. In the bath, outside when the weather is warm enough, eventually at the pool.

Hockey

We watched the Spengler Cup on TV today. The Swiss team was playing the Canadian team, and Pat Quinn (ex Maple Leaf head coach) was there. This was significant because I am Swiss (and Canadian) and much of my maternal side of the family still resides in Switzerland. My uncle happens to love playing and watching hockey.

The Swiss won.

The Canadians lost.

My uncle was probably very ecstatic.

My hubby less so.

My hubby loves hockey. He played till University when he hurt his back. Now that we have a (gasp) son, there have been some subtle attempts at getting him introduced to the world of skating aka hockey.

Benjamin is only 21 months old. But he's go this ITEC helmet and his double-bladed bob skates, and a nice Team Canada jersey as is evident in yesterday's Bleeding Lip post.

There are several rinks, including outdoor ones, within walking and driving distance to our house. We went to an outdoor rink right next to the very moody lake Ontario.

The skating itself was a non-event. There was a very distracting huge big orange tractor-like machine sitting next to the rink. This captured Ben's attention beyond anything that was happening on the ice.

We'll try again next time, maybe inside an arena.