Ironman and Wolverine- the 2013 edition

I'm so glad I get to work home on Thursdays and Fridays when I'm not in production at work. Luckily Halloween fell on a Thursday this year so I was able to take you trick or treating. Originally Auntie Jessica and Emma were supposed to join us, but the weather was terrible so they cancelled. I called up my friend, Jen, and her son Nate to join us as they just live around the block. Daddy and Kendall stayed home because the weather was so bad and daddy was giving out the treats. Even though we bought 1,000 treats, we ran out in the blink of an eye. That's how crazy it is in our neighbourhood…

Mom sal (translated from Korean, meaning body ache)

What a day I had! I experienced the little monsters to the extreme today :-S

I took a day off today because Kendall had her 15-month checkup today at 9:45am. I decided to just take a day off and spend time with Kendall (since I hardly see her during the work week). 

I dropped you off at daycare in the morning with Kendall and it was all fine. Kendall was surprisingly pretty good when I first got to the doctor's office. It's always very stressful when it's the checkup appointment because the doctor measures everything and the appointment usually involves getting shots. As soon as I took off Kendall's shoes, she started crying uncontrollably. I couldn't even get her to calm down even when I gave her veggie chips. Every single thing that the doctor told me to do- take of Kendall's clothes (to weigh her), hold her down (to measure her length), open her mouth (to check the back of her mouth), hold her head (to see inside her ears), etc. involved a fight. At one point, Kendall was kicking the doctors upper body while the doctor was trying to see inside her mouth. Kendall was crying to much that it took a good 15 minutes for the doctor to see her pupils- her eyes were closed shut crying. By the time it was all over I was in a ball of sweat and Kendall got the hiccups from crying so much. 

Here's where she is at right now:

Weight: 8.32kg or 18.34lbs (down from 8.37kg last time)

Head circumference: 44 cm (same as last time)

Height: 74cm (up from 70cm last time) 

And the bad news? Kendall lost weight and because she was experiencing diarrhea, the doctor couldn't administer the vaccination shots. The doctor told me I would have to come back in 2 weeks to give Kendall her shots. AND, she will most likely be weighing her again since the doctor was concerned about Kendall's weight. ACK! I'm definitely not looking forward to the follow-up appointment. 

When I got out of the appointment, daddy had texted me saying that he was leaving work early and meeting us at the doctor's office. We ended up having a nice lunch and doing errands- grocery shopping and picking up prescription medication (Kendall had an ear infection). I can't wait for the day when I can just do… nothing. No running errands, not making dinner, not picking up kids, not grocery shopping, the list goes on and on. I didn't realize being a parent was SO HARD.

Here's Kendall walking with daddy after the doctor's appointment. You wouldn't know it from this video that just a few minutes before she was a crying mess.

I guess all the crying made Kendall pass out in the car. She almost never sleeps in the car. She actually fell asleep holding onto her veggie chips. Aigoo, aigoo.

We stopped by a ramen place to have a quick bite to eat. Look how cute you are!

Drinking water, all by herself.

Such a good eater… That's why it puzzles me that you lost weight. I was sure you gained weight.

Waiting for more food.

Pretty Kendall.

So by the time everything was done and we got home, it was close to 3pm and time to pick up the original monster- monster 1. Tonight was your daycare's Halloween party so I wanted to make sure you got a bath, ate dinner and had time to change into your costume before heading out. You were looking forward to this party for a whole week now so I thought you would be loving it. Or so I thought…

The Halloween party was at a high school and the teachers converted the whole main floor into a
Halloween-themed room. It was AMAZING!

They had stations set up for activities. 

I present you Iron Man!
I don't know if the new environment made you anxious, but you were quiet, clingy and just not
looking like you were enjoying yourself. When teachers walked by and said hi to you, you just
turned away and said nothing. I hate that!

More of the Halloween decor.

There were close to 500 people at the party. 

All the teachers dressed up in costumes. It was pretty cool.

And the best part of this party? Why, it was the entertainment, of course! They had hired Bounce Entertainment and they were soooooo good! All the kids were on the dance floor dancing like crazy. I was so impressed and I thought you would be all over it seeing that they were playing all the songs that you knew on the radio and I know how much you love to dance. However, you just stood there sulking and you didn't do anything. I think you were the only kid that didn't dance. I kept encouraging you to have a good time, but you were so clingy to me. Eventually you loosened up a bit and actually danced a little bit, but not much. You decided in the end that you wanted to go back to the activity tables and we did some of that, but when the party drew to a close you started throwing a huge tantrum because you didn't want to leave. You actually ran away and when I didn't follow you, you came back and hit me! I was so angry! I tried putting on your jacket and your tantrums got even bigger. I couldn't even get it on and by that time you were screaming and crying. All the parents were looking at me and I was so embarrassed. By the time we got to the car I was about to explode. I screamed at you all the way home. I'm so upset that you aren't like the other kids and it frustrates me that maybe it's something I'm doing wrong. Why is it that you don't say hi to people? Why are you such a snob?? Why do you go crazy when things aren't going your way? Every single thing has to be a challenge for me. I constantly have to think of ways to get you to move onto another thing because once you get into something, it's like you are in a trance. 

When we got home, I was so mad that I didn't even want to see you. I told daddy what had happened and he got so mad. He tried to put you in time out, but that obviously doesn't work with you. Daddy gave you so much memme. I took a quick video of when you are in your tantrum stage. 

Your wish is my command

You've been asking daddy and I to buy you a superhero costume for Halloween this year. We were actually really close to buying you an Iron Man costume at the Disney Store last week, until I saw the price tag… it was like $75! You can imagine how upset you were when we left the store empty-handed. Luckily, daddy found a much cheaper Iron Man costume at Costco today. I think he paid just under $30. Score! Even better, you absolutely loved it.

I've got a dragon at my front door!

You were looking forward to wearing your dragon costume that I got you a while ago so when today finally arrived you were beyond excited. You usually cry when I drop you off at daycare, but this time you went in without a hitch. This was because you were wearing your dragon costume. After I dropped you off I took your Vancouver grandparents to Galleria at York Mills and Don Mills. Your Vancouver grandma loved it the first time I took her last week so she wanted grandpa to see it. 

You grandma bought a pack of dried bananas the last time she was here and she loved it
so she wanted to buy a few packs for her friends in Vancouver. 

She also bought a 10lb bag of Ontario garlic. They are in season right now. However, they
are soooooo expensive! The 10lb bag was $50!

They were going around looking at everything and saying how well organized everything was.
I'm quite surprised because your Vancouver grandpa always used to complain that Toronto
wasn't as great as Vancouver whenever he was here, but this time around I think he was
quite impressed. He actually loved Galleria. Also on the way there I drove them around the
Bridle Path and they were quite amazed how grand the houses were there. He even commented
how he was beginning to like Toronto more and more ;-)

One of the features of Galleria that your Vancouver grandma loved was the food court.
There is a salad bar that prices food by weight and then there is an open area in the middle
of the food court where you can see the cooks making all the foods. She loved the freshly-made
steamed buns. I did too.

Baby Kendall is always sleeping when I put her in the Bjorn. What a good girl she is.

After Galleria I picked you up from daycare and they gave you a big bag of candies to take home with you.

You recently started doing this jjing jjing face (grumpy face) whenever you aren't happy.
I really don't like it when you do that so I told you, "Aidan, no jjing jjing face. Do happy face"
and I showed you to open your eyes really wide and smile. That's what I'm getting you to do
when I took this picture.

I took a video of you making mad face vs. a happy face. Either way you look so cute.

Happy to finally go home.

When we got home you opened your big bag of goodies. You are not a big candy person. Actually I think you only had 1 piece of chocolate (only last week) in your life. So when you saw all these colourful candies in your bag you were so curious. I took a video of you having your first bite of Smarties. Watch your reaction:

After eating a few Smarties you were on a sugar high! What have I done?!

When you got home you held onto your Halloween treat bag from daycare so tightly while
watching your show.

Just before you went out to go trick or treating I took a few photos of you. So did your grandparents.

Around 6:30pm we got you all dressed and I took you trick or treating with your grandpa.
The weather has been terrible lately because of Hurricane Sandy. It's been raining all week,
but that didn't stop us from going trick or treating.

Here you are just after getting some candy. I kept asking you if you wanted to go home because the weather was so bad, but you kept saying you wanted to go to more houses.

You were quite the trick or treater. You kept chanting, "Trick or treat" the whole time we were
walking. I think from getting you to remember the lines when you got to the front door of
someone's house.

You were so proud of your treasures.

Pumpkin carving

Auntie Jane decided to get a pumpkin on her last day here to do pumpkin carving with you. We went out earlier in the day do check out McEwan Supermarket and to have lunch at Linda. On our way home we stopped by Longo's to pick out some pumpkins. You picked out a big one for yourself and a baby one for Kendall.

You at Linda Restaurant. You are wearing a Canucks hat that Auntie Jane bought for you.
You have matching gloves (not shown).

Auntie Jane drew some sketches of potential pumpkin faces. She let you choose which
on you wanted.

You were so thoughtful on what you wanted…

But in the end you chose the face on the right.

Time to kiss your pumpkin!

Auntie Jane did all the carving and you watched. She was surprised how neat you were.
Every time a little seed or pumpkin inside got on your hands you pointed at it in disgust.
You get that from your dad!

Oh no… Kendall is eating her hands again…

She is not happy that mommy took away her hands from her mouth.

You played so well with Auntie Jane and was literally attached to her hip the whole time she
was here. I was so worried that you would be devastated once you knew she was going to
leave. This is a special bonding time you had with Auntie Jane before you went to bed.
We couldn't decide whether to tell you that she was leaving or just have her leave without
saying goodbye. In the end we thought the latter was better.

Here's a video I took of Kendall talking while looking at her mobile in her crib today. You never looked up at your mobile when you were younger, but she loves her mobile. 

6th skating lesson

Miss Canada? Don't worry, I'm not one of those moms that think their kid is the cutest. That's just what your Vancouver grandma calls you now. She keeps saying you are going to be a future Miss Canada. I'm sure she does that to get a smile out of you and it works! I think they all thought that you were much bigger than you really are so they were really surprised how cute and compact you were in person. Aidan is so photogenic and you, on the other hand, don't photograph so well. Your grandparents and Auntie Jane are so obsessed with you now and think you are the cutest little thing.

Anyways, the whole family woke up early to watch your brother at his 6th skating lesson in the morning. Aidan was super excited to show his grandparents him skating. I think the pressure got to him though. He fell on the ice many times and he cried in frustration. It didn't help that we were all pressed up against the glass taking photos of him. 

Aidan's teacher was dressed up as Spiderman! It's because Halloween is just around the
corner.

Auntie Jane held you while watching Aidan.

Oh no! You took a nasty fall and hit the ice face forward. It must've been painful because
you cried for quite a bit and actually kicked the red stand afterwards.

Your mood got better once the teacher gave all the students hockey sticks. You scored a
few balls into the net. Good for you!