Discovering

Maybe it's a two year old thing, but recently my boy has been soaking up the world around him like it's the coolest thing he's seen since his first episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.

His appetite for discovery seems to have grown exponentially. Everything is interesting, and all the little things he never took notice of before are suddenly fascinating and mind blowing.

 
Last weekend it was crabs.  He spent the afternoon with his dad, grandpa and Nana turning over rocks and watching with wide eyes as tiny little crabs scurried for cover. He peered into other childrens buckets that were filled with salty ocean water and dozens of crabs they collected (and later let go), pointing and repeating over and over "teeny tiny crabs".

How many can you see?

This weekend Jake discovered ants.  My husband was out doing a bit of cleaning in our "garden", where he showed our boy the whole new world of ants, worms and wood bugs. For the rest of the weekend, wherever we walked Jake would keep his eyes to the ground looking for ants. When he spotted one he'd crouch down and follow it. "Ants!" he'd call out, "Ants, going home now" (this is where we told him they were going when we wanted him to move along - "alright Jake, let the ant go home and have lunch now.")

During one such occasion he stood up, took a step and his little foot landed dangerously close to the ant we'd been stalking.  The ant froze with the fear of the gigantic kids size 7 runner landing within millimeters of its little head, but for a second we were all scared that Jake had accidentally stood on it. A dread ran through me in that moment, knowing I was going to have to find a creative way to explain why the ant who was moments ago scurrying around was now so motionless, and by the look on my boy's face I knew there would be a lot of explaining to do. His eyes were huge and terrified "Oh no mami! fix it! fix it!" he cried.  He crouched down to look at the little ant, and just then the ant gathered its wits and relieved us all by picking up its legs and getting the heck out of dodge. Needless to say we were all relieve.  The ant was okay.

But the incident showed me a very special side of my boy. The caring and sensitive side of him that isn't always visible against his active, high energy, two year old side. He almost stepped on an ant, and that mattered to him. A lot. He cared that it might have been broken, and wanted it to be fixed. His instinct wasn't to keep walking but to crouch down and make sure that that little ant was going to be okay.

It made my heart glad.

And it taught me that in this big world, where my boy is still discovering so much, that I am discovering too, the many unique sides of my son. 

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Speaking of discovery, this weekend we Boyds discovered this little gem near Confederation Park in Burnaby.  

If you ever find yourself lacking for something interesting to do on a weekend a visit here will surely remedy the boredom.   If you're a train lover, or happen to know one you can bring a long, even better! It's affordable and fun, but it was the engineers that added the special touch to the experience.

We'll certainly be going back next weekend.  And probably every weekend after that through Thanksgiving if Jake has any say.

Big Boy

Last Friday I woke up with my baby, took one look at his rat's nest hair and decided it was time. We were going for a hair cut.

Jake has never had a hair cut before, his slow growing super fine hair just never seemed to need it. It took a full year before he even looked like he had hair, and it was never out of control. Until recently.
Recently, the tufts at the back of his head have been lengthening and growing thicker. Making him look like he was wearing a toupee that had accidentally slipped to the back of his head and got stuck there.  And at the very least, those bangs of his needed a trim.

So I brought him to a local hair dresser for kids because the best I could offer up was a bowl cut and there was no way I was going to subject him to that at such a tender age.

He had his selection of a motorcycle, a Barbie convertible, a Cars car, and an airplane. My boy walked bravely to the airplane, climbed in, and let a perfect stranger have at his head with some scissors. He never cried. He never smiled either, but he really never seemed unhappy. A little confused maybe.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I took a few snaps on my phone, and my phone is soooo 2008 so this is the best I got.

I can't even enlarge it without making it all blurry.

 And within my 15 minutes my little baby transformed into my little boy.

Pardon his look. He's not been the greatest picture poser lately.

Easter Joy

A few weeks ago I called me up my best friend.  She moved to Toronto a few years ago and I have missed her something fierce ever since.

We had a long chat, as we usually do when we manage to connect by phone. It was like the high school days, when we would spend all day together at school then go home only to get on the phone and chat the rest of the night, doing homework together, watching our favorite shows together, breaking only briefly to eat dinner because both our mamas number one dinner rule was no phones at the table.

It felt so good to talk to her, to debrief everything that's been going on in our lives over the last weeks, to gossip a little bit, vent and advise. It's what best friends are for, and despite our distance everytime I hear her voice on that phone I feel like we're right back where we started - inseparable.

This last time, we were talking about various things and at one point she interrupted one of my monologues to say: "Don't ever let anyone steal your joy." It seemed so simple hearing her say it, and I have been thinking about this every day since. No one has the right to make you feel bad about how happy you are feeling, no one has the power to take that happiness, the fulfillment you have in your life, the satisfaction you feel, away from you. Right then an there I decided that nobody was gonna stomp on my joy.

And this Easter weekend nobody even came close.

We dyed eggs, which is an interesting project with a two year old.  Suffice it to say most of the blue bowl ended up on Nana's kitchen chairs. Did I feel bad?

Yep.  Did it steal my egg dying joy?

Nope.

 

We made Easter nests.  They were good.

The Easter Bunny tracked my boy down at his Nana and Grandpa's house, and it goes without saying that Jake was very happy about that.  

 

This was really the first year he could soak up the joys of Easter. The anticipation, the treats, the thrill of the hunt. 

And for a boy who never knew what an Easter Egg hunt was before this weekend I'd say he took to it like a fish to water.  

 

 

Last week I took five days off to be with my family, and I enjoyed each one. I soaked up every ray out out of life, lapped up every last ounce of goodness because don't I know it's fleeting. 

Even the one dark cloud of the weekend that hovered over us briefly during our visit to a local beach couldn't steal my joy.

Not even a little bit.

Spring Fling

I don't want to jinx it by saying this, but I think Spring may finally be in the air.  We've had more patches of really nice, sunny weather than we've had in a long time, and to celebrate we Boyd's have been spending as much time as possible outside.

Our new neighborhood has an abundance of play grounds, green space, forest grove, and soccer pit space so being outside is easy, all we needed was sunshine.

Oh sun, you are so good for my soul.

Spring has also brought me flowers in my surprise garden.  When we moved in here, during the dead of winter, without the faintest hint of green on my thumb, the last thing I thought of was flowers and gardening, I didn't even think we had a garden!  And then one day I walked out onto our patio and saw little bits of purple and yellow and white and green poking out of the soil fringing our property. Over the weeks these little bits have grown into these pretty unexpected flowers that have brought a new brightness to our home.

I suppose someone planted them last year, and they bloomed again this year without us even knowing they were there in the soil just waiting for Spring to arrive.



Who knew something so simple could make you so happy.

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For his birthday a few weeks ago, Jake got an adorable wooden town set from his oldest friend (they met when they were 4 and 5 weeks old). Whenever we play trains - which is often - Jake always pulls out this box and starts placing the little houses, and cars along his train tracks. He sets up a house or two before he becomes entirely wrapped up in chugging his trains along the track, but I usually remain engrossed. I spend several minutes designing the town layout (making sure to set up the fire hall close to the hospital, and the grocery store within walking distance to the pet shop),  and taking care to place the matching roof shingles on the appropriate buildings. Often I am still playing with the town when Jake's moved on to another game.

I love how it brings my imagination alive. I think of moms hurrying to finish grocery shopping before they pick up the kids from school. Post men parking their trucks along the street as they pile mail boxes high with letters and parcels. Trees popping up between Town Hall and Pet Shop bringing bright spurts of green to our made up village. I had forgotten how much fun these make believe games from my youth could be. It feels good to be young with my boy.

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On another Spring note, Easter is just around the corner, and the anticipation of chocolate eggies and the Easter Bunny is causing a lot of excitement around here. 

Jake recently started going to "school" once a week, and we came home today with a couple of foil wrapped eggs and some sparkly arts and crafts that have helped welcome Easter into our home.

With that much sparkle the Easter Bunny is sure to find our new home!

Happy Easter, from the Boyd's.