Getting better...

Here's a better one of Connor crawling. He's getting the hang of it, still pretty slow but I don't think speed is going to be to far behind!

To set the scene... Alex had a couple of friends over to play yesterday and Connor could hear the noise from the living room, so he made his way around the corner into the hallway following the sound. Emily is helping him a bit by "luring" him with Alex's toy cd player.

Well, I thought I'd give this video thing a whirl...

Connor crawled on Thursday --- 4 steps (if that's what they're called when you crawl). Of course, it happened when I was out with Alex. Cory didn't have the camera handy, so I just had to take his word for it. Yesterday we tormented the poor little guy by placing toys just far enough out of reach to compell him to crawl again. Nothing spectacular, but if this isn't exactly crawling, then I'm sure the real thing is just days away!

They (who is they, anyway?) say that the second child hits major milestones faster than the first because they're so busy trying to keep up with older siblings. This is definitely the case here. Alex crawled at 10.5 months. We thought he'd never get the hang of it, and yet... two weeks later he abandoned crawling for walking. Connor is 8.5 months and ready to motor. Although, I'm not sure why we're encouraging him... I remember seeing my house as far more hazardous once Alex wouldn't stay contained in one room! :)

Anyway, go Connor! Time to dig out the baby gates...

Growing up...

With Alex's 3rd birthday comes a whole new set of opportunities. In our small town, there's really nothing you can do with your "under 3" children except for storytime at the library --- which runs twice a year in two 6 weeks sessions. So... filling Alex's days with meaningful, stimulating activities has not been easy... and I confess he watches way more Treehouse TV than he should.

So... maybe I've gone overboard a bit, but my three-year old is now starting to have a social life that does not include me. I have signed him up for preschool Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I signed him up for parent and tot skating lessons for 6 weeks this fall (not with me, thank you very much... don't want to traumatize the boy... his Dad will be skating with him) and I have signed both boys up for their separate storytimes at the library starting in October, although Alex's will be Thursday mornings so if Preschool's too much, we'll be dropping the Thursday morning story time.

Yesterday was Alex's first day of preschool. He was sooooo excited when I told him he was starting preschool in September. We had to do a countdown (5 more sleeps, 4 more sleeps... etc) and I had to show him, every day, on the calendar which day was his first day of school. Last week we went to Field's (yup... our major department store in this town) and picked him up a new backpack and indoor shoes. For the first two days he had it he wore it around the house constantly with his shoes safely inside.


His classroom is really cute, just like a Kindergarten, with many different stations and things for the children to do. I was really impressed.

And each child has their own coat/bag hook and cubby for their shoes. The children who attend in the mornings have the bumblebee nametags, the afternoon has the star name tags. I had to snap a photo of this when I saw who shares the hook with Alex... that's just too cool!

Gym time... Alex's first time in an organized setting having to hold hands with other kids... didn't phase him a bit! (He's the cute one in the middle... lol)

In Vanderhoof you either sign your child up for preschool at the Catholic Church, or at the Christian church. That's it. I know there is a lot more variety in Prince George, but it's almost nice to have such limited choices... makes the decision a snap. Alex is officially a student at a private Catholic School. There was no spot on the application asking whether or not we were a Catholic family, so I'm assuming we're okay!
Alex did really well. After meeting his teacher (who's a sweetheart) he set about to playing right away. He didn't notice me at all, until I told him I was going home, then he was ready to go too. No tears, just stated matter of factly "I'm done too". I ended up staying in the mudroom as a compromise and that was fine with him. He made it to the end of class and had a really good time. We'll see how it goes Thursday, but I don't anticipate that he'll need me around for too much longer.

So... there you go! My baby's growing up. I can't even call him a toddler anymore. We're into the next phase of his life... Alex is a preschooler.

Labour Day Weekend...

We went to Lac La Hache to attend the Sarver Family Reunion. It was the "other" Sarvers, in that it was my Mom's Aunt and Uncle and all of her cousins.

Alex loved digging in the dirt. Turns out, he also loves the lake. He kept going in (in his clothing) and it got to the point where I actually had no more clean clothes for him because we couldn't keep him dry. Hmm... who would have thought he was a water baby! We've had such a lousy, wet summer that I haven't actually taken him to the lake at all, so this was a first for him this year.
Connor is sooo close to crawling. He gets frustrated because he can't move forward on his knees, so he ends up rolling to his destination.

Aargh, I only packed him two pairs of shoes! :)
What???
Alex has been timid with his tricycle, but seeing the other boy, Xander, riding his bike seemed to motivate him and he actually started to peddle. He also found it quite funny to continue to fall off it regularly.
Going for a ride in Uncle Lyle's golf cart.
Reading a story with Grandpa.

A nice weekend, all in all!