Visit to Uncle Greg's new condo

Uncle Greg's condo is right in the Distillery District in Toronto, so we went to have a look at his new place and check out the Christmas Market.  A nice sunny day of fun. 

Christmas Town!

Back in September I entered a lottery to be able to buy tickets to Christmas Town. I won and we were able to go.  It is a sleigh ride to Santa's vacation cabin in the woods.  Everyone gets one on one time with Santa without standing in a huge line.  We went once when Paige was 3 and Rose was a baby; at that time we went in the afternoon, but this time I tried to get night time tickets, which we ended up getting.  It was really cold outside, but so fun to take the horse drawn carriage through the woods in the dark.  

Before the carriage ride we had some free time in the building at Mountsberg. 

Then we waited to see Santa in a building where we did crafts and decorated cookies.

Santa and Mrs. Claus were both there and spent a lot of time with the kids.  They had a warm fire and lots of lights.  So magical, and so much better than waiting for Santa in the mall with hundreds of people.

Henry at 18 months

I have noticed a huge mental growth spurt now that Henry is 18 months. As you can see in a couple of the pictures below, he has actually started to take interest in toys.  He really likes the playmobil figures, and likes to line up the horses.  Sometimes he decides to throw them a couple of minutes later, but he is really beginning to be able to focus.  Along with that, he can focus on television for a bit.  Sometimes the girls will watch a tv show before dinner.  I'll turn it on for them (well, basically paige will turn it on) and go into the kitchen to make dinner.  Henry sometimes follows me, but other times stays in the family room to play.  I'll go to check on him a few minutes later, and often he has climbed up on the couch to watch Barbie, or whatever they are watching.

He has also started to say a lot more words.  His "mommy" and "Daddy" are very clear now, although he also says "mama" and "dada".  If he hears the front door open he says "Dada!!"

He likes to say "Mine!", and also says foot, bunny, and go. His "go" doesn't mean anything, just that he is singing the song "Let it go".

He is really interested in the fireplace, and luckily we have the one in the kitchen which is nice and high up which we can turn on.  Every time he goes in his highchair he points to the switch and asks me to turn it on.  As soon as the flames start shoots his hand out and blows out.  That means it's hot.  If I say that it's hot he then points to our candles on the table to indicate that they are also hot.  When we read "goodnight moon" and see the fireplace photos he also does the same hand motion so I know that its hot.  When I say that it's a fireplace he points to his door and says some baby talk, meaning that we also have a fireplace at home.

The cuteness factor of an 18 month old is through the roof.  I love that he's really interacting and aware of things around him. At lunch today while I was tidying up, he suddenly pointed outside and made a sound like "there it is!" When I said, "what was it?", he said "bunny!"

As the weather gets colder and we're in the house more, it's nice that he is so interested in playing with new things and doing new things to keep ourselves busy.

He is back to being fine with baths again, and not terrified:

Mad about his snow suit.

In the new jammie pants I made him:

First time walking around in the snow:

Here is Henry focused and playing.  So cute I can hardly stand it when he does this:

Royal winter fair

We wanted to go to the fair this year for the dog show, and of course the horses.  We still haven't seen a horse show as the times haven't worked, but we took a look at the stables and saw some gigantic Belgians.  Of course we watched the dog show though. 

Paige rode a mechanical bull:

Halloween 2014 edition

Fun Halloween times! Cold outside, but not cold enough to compromise the look of the costumes.  i.e. no snow suits required!

First of all in the morning, the girls went to school in their costumes. Both had a parade at school, and I went to watch Rose's.  Henry was unhappy for the 20 minutes that we had to wait, and then settled down once the music started and the kids walked by in the costumes.  Some pretty amazing homemade costumes.  I was surprised.  

Henry's first time trick-or-treating and he had a blast! After doing half the crescent they came home to drop off some candy, as Henry was spilling it out of his bucket.  Right away he walked out the door and headed out for more.  He walked the entire way and carried his little pumpkin bucket.  He was really mad when they came home.  The girls had so much fun and would have been able to do many more houses than just our street, but really it was a matter of keeping the treats to a minimum! 

I find it bizarre that kids knock on the door when we have turned off all of the lights and blown the pumpkin out.  Weird.  Probably because we mostly get old kids at our house. Actually I can count the number of little kids that came to the door: 3.  I wonder if that means we'll get fewer trick or treaters in the next few years as the old ones get too old.

New helmet!

Henry was using the girls' old Dora helmet, which was essentially fine, but the fact that it had a crack in it let us get him a new more boyish dinosaur one.  He loves to get pushed around on the trike.  Not much time until it gets freezing again!

RBG Great Pumpkin Trail

We got tickets to a super cool event at the RBG.  It was the Great Pumpkin Trail, on an evening the week before Halloween.  Essentially it was a walk through the woods, lit only by hundreds of pumpkins. When we got there it was getting dark, but by the time we got in the trail it was pitch black.  What a great Halloween activity. The trail wasn't entirely stroller friendly, and at one point we had to collapse the stroller and carry it through a narrow opening in a fence (and not to mention the tree roots and everything that we couldn't see in the dark).  It said to bring flashlights or glow sticks, and I just brought glow sticks since I thought that was just for the kids.  We had to use the flashlight on my phone at times to make sure we were going the right way.  After the trail there was a stop for hot chocolate and chocolate fondue, a campfire with a children's band, and then a fire show.  

Totally going to go back next year.  I have to write it in the calendar and remember to get tickets.  

Carving time...