Family Values

Today Cole wrote notes on little pieces of paper and sent them flying to me on his slingshot airplane. They said things like “Mama I want chocolate” and “Mama I want this show”.

We had an great weekend! The weather was finally warm and we could go out and play. Cole had fun touring the neighborhood on his bike. As long as he keeps his walkie talkie on and stays off the main roads he can have some freedom. He gets to tour as far as his school and friends houses on one side of our “square” all the way to another friends house one block over from ours. This allows us to do what our parents did, tell him to ‘go outside and play’ and then not worry too much about it.

Saturday Uncle Shea and Cousin Meighan came over to watch the Canucks win 3 – 2 against the Bruins with Cole and Daddy. Mom took off to watch a movie with Aunt Sharon. A good time was had by all.

Sunday was another sunny warm day so we had a picnic lunch with Aunt Sharon and Cousin Meighan while the men took Grandma out to lunch for her birthday. Mama and Cole were very active, they played soccer, catch, and even walked along the big broken concrete chunks beside the path. Some of them even wiggled when we stepped on them, much more fun then walking on the path! After the picnic Cole and Meighan jumped into the complex pool to cool off. I think they cooled off too much, I had to throw Cole into a hot bath to thaw him out, the wind wasn’t kind to wet skin!

We are looking forward to more warm weekends now that Spring seems to have finally arrived.

Cole and his teacher show Team Spirit the day for Game 4 of Round 2, Canucks vs Predators. All that fan excitement paid off, Canucks won 4 – 2!!!

Cole did his belt test in class last week and we were so excited to find out today that he has moved on to his “Full Purple” belt in Karate! He worked really hard for that belt, he has been working hard for a long time to earn that belt.

Way to go Cole!

Wow, Santa got a letter about Cole and sent a video message just for him! I’m not sure if Cole will get everything on his list but I know that Santa will do his best.

http://magicsanta.ca/gateway. html?code=OE2CWQ

Cole is having his school picture and our family portrait taken tomorrow so Daddy took him in for a trim. The rock star look is cool but we might go for a more tame look for the pictures.

We had a great weekend at Aunty Elizabeth’s house. Cole got to sleep in the basement playroom with Alex and Jamie on Friday and Saturday nights. Friday night it was a novelty and they were still up talking until after 10:30pm.

We kept them busy on Saturday, first with just general play, and then with Alex’s 9th Birthday Party. There were over 10 extra kids bringing the total to about 15 kids and a few parents. It’s a good thing the weather was good, we sent all the kids outside to play, they could jump on the trampoline or the bouncy castle, or just run around in the yard or climb the big/huge rock nearby. We sent them out after lunch and didn’t let them back in till almost dinner time! Alex had a friend stay over so the 4 boys had a great time hanging out after the other party guests went home. It’s always nice when there are 4 boys so that no one feels left out. We got everyone in jammies by 8:30pm and sent them down to ‘rest’ and hopefully to sleep. Funny enough we noticed at 9:30pm that we hadn’t heard any noise from downstairs for a while. They had crashed after such a full day.

Sunday morning came soooo early. Alex and Jamie had a swim meet that started at 8am so we all woke up at 6:30am so that coffee (for the adults) and breakfast could be consumed before the meet. It was very cool seeing how well these kids could swim. Some of the older groups were really amazing. Alex and Jamie both did really well for their individual times, competing just against themselves. Cole was pretty bored by the proceedings and was happy that we had brought along his Nintendo DS for him to play with. We got back home in time to relax for a bit before Ryan and his Mom came over for Trick or Treating. After a pizza dinner we got the boys dressed up and made up, Cole was a Vampire and Ryan was “Harry Potter”. They were very excited by the idea of all the candy they would get. They did a tour of the neighbourhood and brought in a good haul of candy and chips and their costumes were suitably admired. Ryan went home and we started the process of convincing Cole that he couldn’t eat all his candy at once and that it would really be best to go to bed because he had school in the morning. By 9pm he was finally at least resting with lights out. The Daddy and Mama collapsed on the couch relieved that the weekend was finally over.

Cole is happy to be in his friend Max’s class again. He was a bit nervous about all the other kids in the class that he didn’t know yet. It didn’t affect his performance though, his instructor said he had good focus and did well in class.

I’m sooo glad that his upper and lower central incisors came in before he started loosing the lateral incisors or the poor kid would really have had trouble biting!

Good thing we told the Tooth Fairy that we would be at Grandma’s for Thanksgiving!

The day before his birthday we let him pick anything he wanted for a dessert. He chose this huge chocolate & sprinkle covered marshmallow concoction. He only made it 1/2 way through before deciding that it was too sweet and his tummy didn’t like it.

Cole did his belt test in class last week and we were so excited to find out today that he has moved on to his “Half Purple” belt (Purple with a White center stripe) in Karate! He worked really hard for that belt, he showed excellent focus and remembered all the moved that he had to do to move on to the next belt.

Way to go Cole!

We had a very busy day today. In the morning Cole and I went to the Naturopath for Allergy treatment, this was time consuming but not painful, Cole did say that it tickled.

We had a bit of downtime, then met Daddy at Karate to watch Cole test for his next belt. He already had 3 strips on his White belt so if he can show good focus and do the moves well he will move to the next level! We were pleased to see that he paid attention during the whole testing class, even when it wasn’t his turn. When it was his turn he did well, following instructions quickly and accurately. We are sooo proud of him!

After Karate we went to the optometrist for Cole’s eye exam. They had suggested that it would be a good idea to have his eyes checked before getting new glasses just in case the prescription had changed. I am full of respect for the optometrist, she spent a lot of time with Cole making sure she got the ‘real’ answer of what he could or couldn’t see with and without his glasses. Even though he was tired and just wanted to rest or play games with her, she kept him on track and determined his new prescription. I was pleased to see that one of his eyes had actually improved since his last exam.

After dinner at the mall we went to LensCrafters to order his new glasses. We had scoped them out earlier so they just had to pass the Daddy test before we ordered them. The glasses were approved and we ordered them and had them ‘pre-fitted’ so that I could come back later and pick them up while Cole was sleeping. We wanted him to be able to put them on as soon as he woke up in the morning. If they don’t fit quite right we can always go back in for a final adjustment.

Cole has pretty good timing I guess. He waited until the last day of camping to try his biggest stunt on his bike, he decided to change gears. This is a HUGE stunt for him as his bike does not have gears. He had been watching the grownups ride around the campground and saw the chain moving up and down as we changed gears. He thought that if he put his foot into the chain that he would change gears and go faster. What actually happened is that he came to a sudden and complete stop, flew to the ground, snapped the arm off his glasses, suffered a serious gash to just below his eyebrow as his glasses dug into his face. We were grateful to have Polysporin and a good supply of bandaids on hand. Never go camping without a First Aid kit, accidents do happen! Luckily the cut wasn’t quite deep enough or long enough to need stitches so Daddy was able to patch him up and we could continue home as planned instead of packing up and heading to the nearest hospital.

Plans for tomorrow include a trip to the Optometrist to get his prescription and then off to get new glasses. Cole is thinking that glasses like Daddy’s might be nice this time instead of another pair of thick round black “Harry Potter” glasses.

Cole worked so hard on this book report. He read the book and then carefully planned the pictures and what words he was going to write for each section. Mama did have to help a bit with drawing the house, but Cole did all the printing and colouring himself. He was a great supervisor.

We knew something was wrong last night when Cole put Daddy’s PSP down on the stove and then ran very quickly out of the kitchen clutching at his hand. I lunged for Cole and Daddy lunged for the PSP. It turns out that the burner was still hot and Cole had burned his finger. Thankfully the finger will heal, the PSP case is a write off.

We quickly ran his finger under cold water for much longer than he wanted, then put Poly on it while I sent Reiki to the burn. He had a pretty rough night but can play without thinking of it today, unless he looks down and sees the burn. He’ll think twice about touching the stove right after dinner is cooked now I”m sure!

Cole was riding his bike at the playground today and I noticed that the seat was too low and the handlebars were too low. Daddy and I decided that we would take Cole and the bike to Cap’s Bicycle Shop and get it properly fitted. We knew he was starting to outgrow his first bike and had tried him out on a few 20″ bikes already. However, they all seemed too big, or had gears which he isn’t ready for. So we figured we’d just get his existing bike fitted properly and wait till next year for a new bike.

Well, that’s not exactly what happened. The sales guy at Cap’s was happy to adjust Cole’s bike for him and then he and I went into the little room with all the kids bikes to look at ‘the next size up.’ All I wanted was to get an idea of when Cole might be ready for the 20″ bike. They happened to have a very nice looking red 20″ bike just waiting for a test drive. Cole took it out and after a bit of adjusting we, the sales guy and I, noticed that it fit him better than his old bike. After a quick call to Daddy it was decided that Cole would be going home with not 1 but 2 bikes that day. Can we say HAPPY?!?!

Here he is back on the playground showing off his fancy new bike, gotta love his grin.

Coles’s day started at 6:30am by giving Oma a cuddle in the guest room. Oma had spent the night and told him that he could come into her room anytime after 6am. As soon as his clock radio started playing at 6:40am he was raring to go. I told them that Cole needed to at least rest for a while longer so he spent an hour ‘meditating’ or at least sitting quietly while she meditated.

He had a healthy breakfast of 2 boiled eggs and then did some sword fighting practice with Oma. He rounded out the morning with a long bike ride while Oma ran along beside him. He had a lot of energy stored apparently, so Oma got a good workout!

At about 11:30am he got to go to the mall with Mama and Oma with the intent of getting a pair of glasses. Cole wanted a pair that looked like Harry Potter’s, dark and round. After going through about 10 pairs of glasses he decided on the 2nd pair he had seen, a pair of dark plastic round glasses that look so cute on him. My very own Harry Potter! The best news was that Lenscrafters said that they could have the glasses ready in about an hour. Just enough time to get some coffee and lunch.

Of course that lead to another first, his very first cup of coffee! Yes, my Mother, his Oma, bought him a ‘short, decaf latte.’ With just a little sugar was added he declared it “delicious, better than hot chocolate.” Since he only drank about 1/4 of it I’m not too worried about it being a permanent drink choice for him. At least as a decaf it had less caffeine than the Coke Cola that he drank at Karate Camp earlier in the year.

After lunch we picked up his new glasses and got them fitted. Once they were on there was no chance of getting them off again. So much for wearing them just for reading! He was thrilled with all the new details he could see with his glasses. He kept looking over the lenses saying “smooth” then looking through the lenses “not smooth” just goes to show how much he has been missing all this time. I’m glad that I made a fuss about his distance reading yesterday during the exam.

Cole happened to notice that West Coast Amusements had set up lots of rides and games in the mall parking lot. As a special treat we took him on the Tilt-A-Whirl ride and got him some cotton candy. It was a great way to end out trip to the mall. Of course the glasses stayed on the entire time.