what a fun spring break!

As much as I complained that James "wasted" his vacation time by taking spring break off, I'm so thankful he did! We had quite a busy week and so happy that we got to spend every waking moment as a family together. The first Saturday we went to the Commercial Street Park followed by Greek dinner with the whole Chan family. Matthew cut the dinner a little short, but luckily we were planning on leaving anyway. He's in a screaming phase now so...we had to leave! (The picture of Clayton covering his ears with Matthew is where Clayton is saying Matthew's too loud with his screams!) Sunday we bought an apartment, yep an apartment at the Telus Gardens in downtown. It's supposed to be an investment property between my brother and I but it's turning out to be a "let's keep it just in case we get too drunk after a hockey game, a weekend get-a-way, a place to change diapers, a place to take a nap if needed"...we'll see what really happens when the bills start rolling in! Then after the big purchase we met up with our friends for dinner to use up our American Grille Groupons. The kiddies were all so good! Then on Monday, the three of us headed south to the border to do a little shopping. On Tuesday, we squeezed in a quick workout then went to meet the Wangs for dimsum lunch at Golden Harvest. After nap, we met up with both sets of parents at Sushi Garden. Wednesday rolled around and since I had a meeting at the lawyers in downtown, James and I decided to make it a day of it. Matthew's been really good napping in the stroller so it was an easy decision. We then had family dinner at the Chinese restaurant at the Grand Villa Casino. Thursday, we took it easy and just went for dim sum with my parents as they were on babysitting duty with Clayton and then went to the Brentwood Mall indoor playground for 30 minutes of fun. Sunny Friday came along and we went to yaletown and found parking right away! Amazing! We took the skytrain to waterfront and then the seabus to go claim 3lbs of clams for me! Yum Yum in my tum tum! Then after lunch, Matthew took a nice nap as we headed back to Yaletown to meet Anthony for happy hour at Rodney's. 30 oysters each later, we went to Red Robin's to meet up with my family for dinner. We then went to Jas' grand opening of her branch on Saturday, ate with the guys who went and then strolled Main Street as Matthew napped in the stroller again. Then I took Matthew to Central Park while James went to play hockey. Today, my parents, Matthew and I went downtown to Kirin for lunch, then again strolled Robson while Matthew napped in his stroller. We came home shortly after he awoke from his nap to meet up with daddy (his first day back to work) to go to the playground at the elementary school next door. Then we had family dinner at home. Phew, what a week of doing nothing really but having tons of fun doing it! Until the next week off which is in May. We just bought tickets to LA so planning on meeting Mickey and the gang for the first time for little Matthew! Woo-hoo!
Here's a video of Clayton and Matthew playing.

my fave videos!

I love these two videos!

the eve of the big 18 month mark

I still can't believe we've been parents for almost 18 months! It's been a really great ride and having Matthew has really solidified our plans of having another. Here are some photos of him eating lunch with his buddies and nap time which followed that messy meal.

Matthew's been eating up a storm and everything in site lately. His belly is quite huge and cute! At times, his teachers would need to cut him off because he's eating too much! I'm so happy and relieved that he's really enjoying school, his friends and especially his teachers. Ms. Ly, Ms. Lam, and Ms. Xennie are really great role models for him and I definitely credit them three for all that Matthew can do! Thanks, teachers! We're so grateful that Matthew has the pleasure of having you three as his first teachers!

So I have been searching for activities or places to spend time at during the weekend with Matthew. It's been a difficult journey as he seems too young for most activity centres in town. There are some great places but they are situated in Coquitlam and beyond. There is one that I am willing to go to which is the Kinder Cafe out in Port Coquitlam. I've heard great things so hopefully it'll be worth the drive. Near the end of February, I took Matthew to a Gymboree class. Although the colourful and many options of climbing structures were enticing, the drive definitely wasn't. We arrived at school just as usual and Matthew had his second breakfast before we departed to our Gymboree class. It was only really a mere 20 minute drive to and back (we went back to school after this class) and of course Matt Matt fell asleep on the way there and on the way back! That's a huge reason why I don't want to go for drives too long because it disrupts his scheduled afternoon naps.
Then Lisa and I had a great idea about going to McDonald's to play in the free play centres but the night before our big outing, we sadly learned that they have converted all their play centres into McCafes! Boo big time! So on Sunday we went to Ikea for a cheapy breaky (thanks, Auntie Lisa for footing the bill!) Then off to Go Bananas in Richmond we went. I was really excited to see how Matthew would take to the place. He was super eager to get in. But once we were in, he basically went to every corner that he wasn't supposed to! He went into the storage area, then he wanted to climb some stairs where the party rooms are located. But he seemed to have spent most of his 45 minutes at the ride 'em toy machine! The cost of entry was just under $7 but I really did not think it was worth it. Maybe we'll try again when he's older.

I still can't wait till we hit the aquarium or science world. Hopefully they won't be a let down!

Happy one and a half!

Time is passing so quickly! Every parent comments on the fact that time passes by so quickly. I didn't think this when Matthew was a baby, but I guess it's because I didn't enjoy it as much as now. I love how he can now interact, somewhat communicate what he wants and just how his little personality is forming. Also I think it's because my knowledge with this age group is better than when he was a baby. It didn't matter how much I read up on his baby milestones, my experience was not with newborns but with one year and up.

So now Matt Matt is turning a year and a half in a few days. He's able to do so much more. He's definitely a lot friendly with strangers. He will go to some and not look back for mom or dad. He has also been building his vocab with simple words and seems to understand what we ask of him like "go get your bib", "please get mommy some water", "what would you like to eat now?" and his response would be "apple". He can also feed himself (but quite messy at times) and drink from an open cup. We have now realized that Matthew is way more fun and easy to be with when he's not sick. He still whines at times but definitely way more when he's starting to get sick or when he is full on sick. I've done tours a ton of times at school and I always let parents know that their child will get sick lots when they first enter a school setting but man, doing it first hand is way more difficult than just preaching it!

February was a busy month for us. My parents went traveling to South America (their ABC tour) for just over three weeks and James and I had our first opportunity to be "real" parents! We communicated WAY more this month than any other time during our almost 15 years together. We constantly planned what and how we were going to prepare our dinners and other chores. I have to admit, at first I was kind of petrified on how we were going to time manage work, every day house hold chores, and our little busy toddler - what every normal parent does on a daily basis! We surprisingly did a wonderful job and very much enjoyed our time together as a family! And we think Matthew ate tons more and is heavier than when my parents left. I think James did really appreciate the quiet private time with just us three than always having to combine our time with my parents. I do agree with him on this as it was a very nice time together. Well, this makes great practice for the second month long trip my parents have planned for April!

Luckily for us, Matthew was only a little sick the first couple of days my parents left. After that, he didn't get sick until just last week and that only lasted a few days of a coughing fit. I really believe (and hope) that his exposure to school has strengthened his immune system. Matthew is definitely a much easier and more pleasant toddler to be around when his health is good. Since he wasn't sick much this month, he was a super angel!

Matthew's really enjoying his time at school now. There are times when I go to pick him up from his class and he runs and hides from me so he can play longer. It's frustrating when we are in a rush but I much prefer this attitude than when he didn't appreciate school. He still has a great time participating in circle time at school. Here's a clip of what he's been learning. Again, I'm such a proud mommy!



Another big highlight in the month of February is when he climbed/fell out of his crib! We put him down for his usual afternoon nap at home. His routine is: cry a bit and then find his "bo-bos" (cloths) and then curls up with his bum up to sleep. So to maximize chores during nap time, James left right after we put him down (to run and do errands) and I went to go take a shower. The next thing I knew, I hear Matthew crying quite loudly which is weird cause he was supposed to be in his room. I opened the door and there he was! I wondered how he got out so I decided to put him back in and watch him on the monitor to see how he did it the first time. He hangs onto the front of the crib and puts one leg over while holding onto the front frame. Then he throws his weight over to his leg that's already over the crib and waits for gravity to take over to pull him all the way down to the floor! What a monkey! Of course we immediately lowered his crib that night!

We also went to Gymboree this month and I wasn't too impressed so I'm going to look for other activities for him.

Here are some random photos of Matthew this month.