Sealy's big adventure

Onkel Ian and Doreen gave Graydon a picture book documenting Sealy's (Ian's seal puppet) trip to London. Graydon enjoyed Ian and Sealy reading the book to him before bed time.

Hockey Lesson

Graydon received a toddler sized hockey stick for Christmas and Granddad was more than willing to show him how to use it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3WyI6ion30

Mami and Graydon in the snow

Christmas at the park

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> We went back to the park again today after opening presents. Graydon hates getting dressed to go outside, but once there he seems to love the snow.
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Greased Lightening

Frozen plastic slides with a dusting of snow/ice are pretty fast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtli8Dpd9XE

Christmas Eve

After the Christmas Eve service Graydon wanted to go look at the big big tree at the front of the church.

Graydon at -17 C

It was a bit colder today, but we went to the park again anyway.

Out for a walk

We bundled up Graydon and went for a walk this afternoon. At the park we saw someone with a hose flooding the skating rink, so we can hope for ice skating soon.

Snow!

There was (surprisingly) no snow when we arrived, but it started snowing last night. This morning Graydon put on his new snow suit and went outside to explore the snow. He particularly liked throwing snowballs.

Costco with Granddad

Early flight

The airport shuttle picked us up at 4:00 this morning. Luckily we scored an extra seat and we all got to nap for about an hour and a half. Several of the other travelers seemed jealous that Graydon got to fly in his PJs.

Diaper wiggles

Graydon has recently learned how to take his PJs off by himself. This is the result.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTEdbuF6Bfk

Spaghetti!

Graydon's daycare hosted a Christmas spaghetti dinner last night. It was clearly a big hit.

This is Graydon's friend Angel.

Sunrise? Sunset?

I took this photo out of the window of the plane from London to Calgary. The interesting bit is that I was looking south at around 2:00 PM local time. I think this was the first time I had knowingly watched the mid-day glow over the horizon from above the arctic circle. The best part was that because we were flying west this view lasted for several hours.

The camera on my phone has this goofy option that they call "High Dynamic Range" (HDR,wikipedia article) where it takes three different exposures and then combines them into the "best" image. These are the same photos, but the top is one of the original raw exposures and the bottom is the composite HDR image. In this case, I think it's pretty clear that Apple's latest digital trickery didn't work very well.

A, B, C, D, Dinosaur

Graydon has been singing this all morning. He gets very upset if you continue on to E, F, and G.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3n9KgZVcE

Big red busses!

This post is for Graydon. Daddy loves you lots and lots and will be home soon.

You have got to be joking!

A better picture of Canada Bear/Hat

Making connections

Graydon found Canada Bear behind the recliner this evening and insisted upon getting Canada Hat out of the closet for him to wear.

Ready for Canada

In preparation for our trip to Montreal for Christmas, we got out Graydon's super-cool warm hat. He seemed to approve.

Anything with wheels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgKWGeXPtvo

More jackets!

Usually I have a hard time getting Graydon to put on a jacket in the morning. However, this morning he wanted to wear his batman pajama jacket, his fleece vest, and his orange windbreaker. It worked out well because it was very cold this morning.

Secondary containment

I had a pile of frisbees sitting on the table this morning to remind me to take them in to work. When Graydon saw them he insisted on putting his cheerios in one. This is the compromise that we reached.

Indiana Graydon

Our next door neighbors came home from a screening of Indiana Jones at Google the other day with two freebie hats.  They thought the hat went so well with Graydon's cowboy boots and they gave it to him.  You can see here that he clearly enjoys wearing it.

Scissors

Graydon was having an absolute blast shredding paper this evening while on skype with Tante Denise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4BaUmIFy_k

What is this stuff?!?

I went to the farmer's market this morning with Graydon in search of scones. Unfortunately, our favourite Irish lady and her husband were still on vacation. Instead, we came across a new vegetable we just had to try. It's romanesco cauliflower, and we're told it's a hybrid between broccoli and cauliflower. To us, it just looks like some crazy mathematician took the fractal concept to a green vegetable!

To read more about these amazing vegetables (and see some much better photos), here's a web site I came across when I was looking for recipes telling me how to cook it:  http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/

Going for a walk

Note the warm flannel from Nana, the cool rubber boots from Tante Denise, and the stroller from our neighbor's trash can.

Color Sorting

After dinner this evening Graydon was working on building monochromatic towers with his legos.

Big big jackets

We test-fit Graydon's big big jacket in preparation for our trip to Montreal over Christmas. He insisted that daddy put on his big big jacket as well.

Comment Issues - Part II

It has come to our attention that some people are still having difficulty posting comments on our blog.  If you are one of these people, please email us to let us know that it's not working, so we can figure out what the problem is.  We enjoy reading your comments and don't want to miss out on them because of  a technical glitch.  Thanks!

Soccer!

Graydon and Mami have been attending "Mommy/Daddy and Me" soccer classes on Saturday afternoons this fall.  A few weeks ago, Daddy came along to take some photos of the action.

We always start out lined up around the "orange circle" in "soccer stance" (one foot on top of the ball), so we can be quiet and listen to Coach Pam explain the upcoming game.  During the very first class, Coach Pam explained that it was very important that the Mommies and Daddies were quiet and listened too!

This is one of Graydon's favourite games.  BIG KICK! (Look at that wind-up!).  The goal is to knock over the cones with your kick.

After a whole half hour of structured soccer practice, sometimes the best part is just running pell-mell across the park!

Texas Vacation

We visited the Alamo while we were in Texas with all of the grandparents.  Graydon didn't seem too impressed with the Alamo itself, be he had a blast with the cannons on display in the courtyard.

The lake was WAY low due to the epic drought that Texas has been in for the last couple of years.  However, there was just enough water left that we were able to get the boat launched (it doesn't matter that the boat ramp doesn't actually reach the water, does it?) and get in a few very nice ski runs.  Notice the trees in the background.

These photos were taken on Halloween morning.  With all of the boat ramps high and dry we had the entire lake to ourselves.  Could you ask for any better conditions?

Heading Home

Heading home after a great visit to see all of the grandparents in Texas.

Double Fisting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cALKNWTVFaI

Stuffed Animals

Graydon decided to unload the basket full of stuffed animals and pile most o them on Daddy.

See Saw

This video is from a few weeks ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrkkjYoHMo0

Fleet week #2

Back on the train after a very nice (but very tiring) day in San Francisco. Graydon loved the airshow, although he astonishingly slept through an F-15 flying directly overhead. I took 680 pictures, so if any of them turned out nicely, I will make sure to post a few. We've got about an hour on the train and the smart money says Graydon will be passed out before we get home.

Fleet week #1

We are headed up to San Francisco to watch the fleet week air show (including the Blue Angels). Graydon is very excited about riding the train and watching airplanes.

It was lonely at the park today...

... but Mami and Graydon still had fun!

Daddy eventually joined the party too.

Off To School

We finally got the boots paired up with some proper pants this morning.

Going to school

What was that anonymous comment the other day about daddy insisting on going to school in boots and shorts?

Post-shower do

When Graydon makes his own choices...

...he ends up in a shirt with milk and orange juice stains, shorts, cowboy boots (no socks), and riding his tricycle in the kitchen.

Dizzy Bucket

Daddy and Graydon went for a long walk this morning, exploring the neighborhood. Then, lo and behold, they ended up at the park! Mami joined them just in time to shoot this video of the boys in the dizzy bucket. (Mami can't ride it at all without risking loss-of-lunch, and even Daddy has complained of motion sickness after a ride in it. But Graydon evidently has no such problems...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmJjetIG0cE

A message from Graydon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Cad4YR8JY

Stringing three words together is still just about his limit.

The great pyramid of California

Either Graydon has a great future as a civil engineer or his mother has appropriated his toys for her own nefarious purposes.

Do you think he'll be an engineer?

When I put Graydon in the car this morning, he desperately wanted something on the floorboards. I couldn't tell what it was he wanted, so I offered him a tennis ball, a book, a toy airplane, and a pair of sunglasses (yes, my car is a mess) all to no avail. When I finally grabbed the OBD2 scanner (barely visible under the front seat) he squealed with glee and played happily with it all the way to school.

Graydon's new tricycle

After a brief shipping delay (surprising since amazon in normally so great) Graydon got to take his new tricycle for a spin this evening. He has been very excited/jealous about other kids' tricycles recently, so we decided it was time to get him one. It doesn't quite have a Mercedes hood ornament, but since Mami picked it out it is of course made in Germany.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fJBxa2H5tY

Hop on pop

This has always been one of Graydon's favorite games. Unfortunately, he is learning how to jump for real now (not particularly well demonstrated in this clip) so at 30 lbs the actual hopping on pop part is getting harder and harder.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKyxLrO62_k

Secret passage way

There is a really nice park that backs up to the townhouse we just moved into, but because there was a fence in the way we had to walk around the block to get to it. The solution to this problem seemed pretty obvious to me...

... a gate! Now we can step directly from our back yard into the back corner of the park and walk right out of the bushes like we're in Field of Dreams. We showed the new "gate" to our landlady yesterday and she thought is was fantastic.

In other news, we've been working with Graydon on the concept of 1 versus 2. He surprised us this morning by suddenly counting from 1 to 7 (then skipping 8 and 9 to go directly to his favorite number, 10) without prompting.