The happiest place on the planet…

…and no, it's not Disney World. It's Ikea!

Ikea just knows how to do things right. They are so accommodating to families- they have affordable house goods, affordable food, their washrooms are built with little ones in mind (did you see the kid sinks??), and their kid's showroom section is every kid's fantasy playroom. 

I didn't really have anything to buy there, but today was a day where I was just bored and wanted to get out of the house. Auntie Jess and I have been really bonding over this Summer because you and Emma are at an age now where you play really well with each another. We've been meeting pretty frequently during the weekends and today was a day where we decided Ikea would be a great place to meet. You and Emma had a blast playing the kid's showroom. I think you were there for almost 2 hours!

Pretending to sleep. 

Usually we have you in the shopping cart when we come to Ikea, but today, we let you roam free with
Emma and you were going everywhere, touching everything and you guys really enjoyed your time there.

This ceiling lamp caught my eye. I think it will be really cute in your bedroom. I really don't like the ceiling
lamps on our 2nd floor so I'm always on the lookout for nice lamps.

And the price is good too! I'll have to keep a mental log of this.

What I did end up buying were these fake flowers. Yes, fake flowers don't have the best rep, but these
looked pretty darn real. 

I cut the stems a bit shorter and put them in these soda bottles that I have been collecting. I think flowers
look so good in cool soda bottles. What do you think?

I put these bottle vases on the ledge going down to the basement. I think it makes this area a bit prettier because
of the hit of colour.

I actually took this photo of you while we were at Burger's Priest. They opened one not too far from
where we live so I took you there for lunch. You absolutely loved their french fries. You were playing
with your iPad while I was waiting for our food. Look at those lashes! Women would kill for those lashes.

Sunday at the grandparent's

Since Auntie Jessica and her family are living at Toronto halbi and halmi's house, we've sort of made it a thing to visit every Sunday afternoon. That way, you can play with Emma (who you love) and I can see halbi and halmi. 

Today, halbi took you and Emma upstairs to his bedroom. You and Emma love going upstairs to lounge on his bed while watching cartoons. When I went up to check on you, I saw the three of you side-by-side lying on his bed. It was so cute!

Smallest to biggest.

All wearing funky panama bottoms.

Tktktktktktkt

Mommy and Aidan day

I had a carryover day from 2013 so I decided to take today off since you already had your annual physical exam today. I decided that we would make today Mommy and Aidan day. I was super busy at work for the past 2 weeks so I was so glad that I could spend a whole day with you. My co-worker had gone to an indoor trampoline place for a Forever21 event and I thought that was such a good place to take you. You can be a bit of a scared-y cat (actually, you're a BIG scared-y cat!) so I wasn't sure how open you would be to it, but I prepared you by telling you in advance where we were going so you wouldn't be overwhelmed.

We started the day by going to your doctor's appointment at 10am. Usually you are so good at the doctors, but for some weird reason you were in a silly mood. Whenever the doctor told you to do something you would fool around and not listen. For example, when the doctor was checking your tonsils, she lightly touched your chin. You screamed aloud, "She's tickling me!" and started giggling like crazy. Then when she was checking your eyes with a doctors light and told you to open your eyes really wide, you raised your arms, opened your eyes really wide and then stuck out your tongue and shook your head like a crazy person. Yes, I was annoyed, but more than anything I wanted to crack up laughing. You were so hilarious! The funniest was when she was checking your private parts. She got you down to your underwear and told you to lie on your back. She put on rubber gloves and pulled down your underwear to check down there. As soon as she lowered your underwear, you yelled out, "Mommy, she's touching my gotchu!!! (gotchu means penis in Korean)" I started laughing, but had to stop because I knew that would get you to act more silly.

Here's where you at right now:

Weight: 39.5 lbs

Height: 33.5"

The start of a hilarious checkup.

Your appointment ended sooner than I thought. Your trampoline time slot started at 1pm so we had a bit of time to kill. I thought that it would be a great idea to visit your Toronto grandparent's store since we hadn't seen them for a long time and since halbi is sick. You were so excited to go. When I saw halbi he lost so much weight… His eyes were also a bit yellow. I'm just praying that he is ok. He has his specialist doctors appointment on Monday at 3:30pm. I'm going to pray hard.

Halbi trying to get you to eat a ham and cheese sandwich. You loved it. You told me that halmi
was a great cook.

You said you wanted to be a "cooker" like halmi and halbi. Apparently you thought they were
cookers because they had on aprons. You kept yelling out your orders to them.

Just being silly all day long.

We had to leave pretty quickly because halmi and halbi's sandwich store was getting so busy because it was lunch time. And plus, we wanted to get to our trampoline place on time :-)

Mommy bought these Sky Socks for jumping. It has these special grips at the bottom that make
it really easy for you to jump.

You were pretty excited, but nervous at the same time.

I thought that I could jump beside you, but there was a bit of a separation between an adult jump pad and a kid jump pad. You were being pretty shy at first by trying to get me to come close to you, but it didn't take you long to really get into it.

All in all, it was an amazing day. You sweated a lot, I sweated a lot and we just had a blast
spending time together. Next Friday I have Kendall for mommy and Kendall day. I'm not sure
what I'll do with her, but I'm so looking forward to it.

Gotta make the best of the snow storm

Yesterday we had the biggest snow storm for 2013. We got about 15-20cm of snow. Daddy decided to take you sledding at a nearby school this morning. Gotta make the best of a bad situation, right? 

You were pretty excited to play in the snow.

Daddy pulling the sled to the school.

Long day

I am pooped! Today was a very long day, but a good day.

We went to the mall in the morning to get some more clothes for the both of you as the weather is getting colder. We quickly had lunch at the mall before we rushed to go to your eye doctor appointment. You've been complaining about your eye hurting for a few weeks now. I took you to a walk-in a couple of weeks ago, but the doctor said nothing was wrong and that I should just put a warm cloth over the eye that was bothering you. However, I knew something was wrong when you kept complaining every day and rubbing your eyes constantly. I was worried that your vision was bothering you and you would have to get glasses. Luckily your eye sight is fine, but the bad news is that you have allergies. Not sure of what, but there is something in the environment that is making your eye itch. The eye doctor prescribed an allergy medication for your eyes, but I think I will have to get another allergy test done soon. Sigh.

After your eye appointment, we went to the library to return your books. We then went to Home Depot to buy cabinet hardware for the kitchen knob that I broke this morning. Usually you have nap time in the afternoon, but I think your body is used to being awake the whole day. You didn't seem as cranky and tired as when you were younger. When we came home, we did laundry and sorted you and Kendall's clothes for donation and to give to Auntie Jess' new baby. After dinner, I texted my friend Jenn to see if her son, Nate, wanted to go to the park with you. I told her I would take the both of the them to the park so that she could have a bit of a breather. You guys played in the park til it got dark and then we went back to Nate's house where you played there until 9:00pm. What a day!

Here's a cute video of Kendall eating Korean rice pops. 

You and Nate at the park. You guys were so wild and crazy. It's like you guys were never let out or something.

BFF's? You and Nate.

At one point, you and Nate were pretending to be magicians and being totally hilarious. There was a woman there with her daughter and she kept laughing at you guys playing.

Doing much better

I went back today to your new daycare to get you accustomed to your new surroundings. You didn't eat much yesterday so I was hoping you would eat today. I also brought a cup from home hoping you would drink from the straw. You still have a hard time drinking from a cup. The good news is that you are finally drinking milk from a bottle now. Yay! You actually had a whole bottle of milk before I went to the daycare centre. I think after today I'm going to stop breastfeeding you altogether.

Getting ready to leave the house for daycare. I got you all prettified. 

Eating so well! Good! Today you actually ate 2 servings of meat all by yourself. Yesterday
you were spitting food back out and playing with it. 

You even drank from your cup! I was so happy. Now I feel confident you'll be fine when mommy
goes back to work on Monday.

During dinner, Aidan was telling me about his day- he had a ceramic program yesterday so he was telling me what he did. I love when he talks because he is so interesting. I can listen to him all day…

How can I leave you??

Even though this is mommy's second time putting my child in daycare, does it make it any easier? No… In fact, I think I'm more depressed this time. Maybe it's because you're a girl; or maybe it's the fact that both you and Aidan start full-time daycare next Monday; or maybe it's because you might be mommy and daddy's last child and it really puts things in reality that my kids are growing up… Whatever it is, I'm sad. I think I will be the next couple of months. Today, I took you to your daycare that you are starting next Monday for a test run. I was there with you since it's the daycare's policy for the parent to be there until their official start. I was there from 11am-12:30pm during the lunch time slot so that I could make sure you eat the food that they serve you. All in all, I think it was a pleasant experience and you won't have any trouble transitioning. You are much different from your brother, I think. I remember how sad he was and how much he cried. You seemed to enjoy playing with all the toys there. Who knows, maybe you'll be more clingy once you realize that we are dropping you off alone…

Your daycare teachers will be Aidan's old daycare teachers when he was in this infant class.
So I feel a little better knowing that they were such awesome teachers.
Today, they served you macaroni and cheese and steamed vegetables. You also had a side plate
of bananas. Normally you would eat everything, but maybe you were uncomfortable
in your new setting because you just spit out all the food. Fail.

You had a great time playing with all the new toys and exploring the class.

Look how happy you are.

You were putting everything that you could grab into your mouth.

You loved being in this little area.

Again, everything in your mouth.

The girl beside you is only 10 months old. I can't believe how young some of these babies are.
Apparently there was also a 3-month old.

You were putting your finger in this little girl's mouth. You were doing it for fun, but I'm just afraid
that next time the girl will bite you. I mean, you are asking for it!

I'm planning on going back tomorrow again to make sure you're comfortable with your new surroundings. I explained to them how you still have a hard time drinking milk off a bottle and a sippy cup. They said it was okay. 

Hamburger and coffee…

…The perfect meal combo, don't you think? Well, that's what it is for you.

You are so active now. You crawl, stand, climb, walk (while holding onto things) and slide everywhere!

Peekaboo!

There's so many differences between you and Aidan. Aidan was never as playful as you when he was around your age. You always laugh (sounds like a loud sucking-in air sound. Daddy calls it the 'bird call') and you're very playful. During dinner, while we were doing Skype with your Vancouver grandparents, you kept putting your shirt over your face and then lowering it. I assumed you wanted to play peekaboo so I kept saying, "Peekaboo!" as soon as you lowered your shirt. You were laughing so much every time I did that. Aidan then wanted to get in on the action so he started doing peekaboo on you.

Aidan doing peekaboo on you.

Luckily I was able to capture a video of you during dinner.

I got another video of you playing peekaboo with me while Aidan doing bath time with daddy.

Can I bottle your energy?

Phew!

It is no joke looking after you. You are constantly moving and touching everything. It drrrrrrains the life force out of me. That being said, you are still a good baby. You make me want to kiss you and bite you all the time because of your sweetness. I honestly didn't think I could love another human being as much as Aidan, but I was wrong!