Her Turn

... and His Again Too

Although I took the camera over to get some new pics of him the other day, I did get some of her while he was sleeping and after he was up too: sorry, can't resist.

She was actually engaging with the camera a bit. Here ↓↓ she tries to make a sad face: which turned out to be funny.



And lookee here ↓↓ two pictures looking right at the camera and me not having to rush too very much before the millisecond became history.




Even outside, she condescended to glance my way. Maybe it's because she loves looking at herself in pictures, and she's beginning to connect cause and effect better. ↓↓




Two more of the blond, curly guy. ↓↓

Faces of Our Boy

I hauled my camera over to the kids' place yesterday with the specific purpose of getting some up-to-date close-ups of Zach. At his age, we have fewer photo ops with him than his sister. She comes for sleepovers and outings while he stays home. But it was time to make an effort.

So here he are the many faces of Zachary. Actually, they're all pretty well versions of the same happy face. The first two were after his nap around the lunch/computer table, and the other three were taken outdoors a little later. It was a warm day for October, but he had his little coat on anyway as Buppa wasn't quite sure how best to dress him .

By the way, had Amma been present, her likely would have had his hair and wardrobe attended to, but Buppas don't think of things like that. And even they do, they're pretty helpless to do anything about it.

Absorption

The kids seem to prefer watching videos on Buppa's old laptop more than the tv. Mind you, the upstairs tv isn't too much bigger than the laptop. They can get closer to the computer and seem to enjoy the experience. My laptop is old but it's a big screen (for a laptop), and it has decent speakers.

As Zach enjoyed his lengthy, midday slumber the girl enjoyed some video time. ↓↓



Really enjoyed it. ↓↓



Once they were both up and few, both kids watched clips of themselves for awhile. I had wandered into the other room to check email etc on Thesha's computer and was a little concerned to see them both sprawled on the table in an effort to get at or close to my laptop. Officially, "We were not amused," but unofficially, in our heart of hearts, we were. ↓↓



This is a representative clip of what they were viewing at the time. Nikki Dee was requesting singing videos. It took old Buppa awhile to figure out that she wanted to see a series of Thanksgiving videos like the one below. She was being a little manic at the time: really enjoying the attention, and she loves to watch herself, which I guess is typical of us all. ↓↓

They Can Drive You Crazy

As I've posted before, taking pictures of my grandchildren can be frustrating. I can't get her to acknowledge the camera, and I can't take a candid of him because he has to react to it each and every time.

Yesterday, I just wanted a simple picture of him intently watching a dvd on my computer as he munched his lunch. You see, he is so disinterested in eating these days, that I find it easiest to distract him with a video or Sesame Street on tv.

I wanted to show how he put cheerios (in this case — you can see them on the tray in the second picture) into his mouth, hardly realizing what he was doing because he was so intent he was on the program. Needless to say, the pictures prove that he chose to play to the camera rather than staying glued to the video.

Kids! They get you every time.

An Anecdote

I have to admit it. I love my own sense of humour. I suppose that's true of everybody up to a point. I mean it stands to reason that what we think is funny we think is funny. Yesterday, I gave myself a good chuckle as a result of a line that I came up with out of the surprising blue.

Previously, I have describe Zach's propensity to appear behind me when I least expect it. Actually, I am growing to expect his appearances more often, be they behind, sideways or any other way, but he still surprises me by times. To wit: I was helping sister wash her hands in the handwashingroom, when he suddenly manifested himself, right by my elbow, quite eager to wash his hands too. In a certain amount of exasperation I opined (I want to say ejaculated, but we can't use that word in any other way but one anymore): "Zachary, you're like the Holy Ghost. You're everywhere."

I know it doesn't sound like a rib-splitter when I describe it like that, but it did have the quality of surprise and was a bit of a tension breaker in what had become a vexing morning. Cuppa also caught the humour and joined me in my giggles — which I appreciated very much because I often giggle alone while folk look on his befuddled amusement , lifting their knowing eyebrows and endeavouring to nod surreptitiously but sagely to one another.

Upon reflection, other analogies would also fit. A stealth aircraft that evades radar detection comes to mind. Or what about a Klingon Bird of Prey that can suddenly decloak and blast you a good one.

Getting back to the religious motif, however, I am reminded of the Lord's words: "Lo, I am with you always." For Zach, it's more like: "Beware, for LOW I am with you always."

Starkers

As most of you know, Cuppa and I do daycare duty for Nikki Dee and Zach. However, on the two days a week that Nikki Dee goes to real daycare, Cuppa goes home to tend to the multitude of chores over there, and I stay with the boy.

That's when weird things occur. At least twice, and I think it's really three times, he has come down sick on a Friday when he has been in my charge. He tends to not sleep as long for some strange reason, and he sometimes picks those days to be extra whiny. Truthfully, we're doing much better lately, but he had a special treat for me on Monday.

I had the monitor on, and when I thought I heard him stir, I began to listen more carefully. All was quiet for the next round or two, but then he began to wail. That's odd behavior because he usually awakes in a quiet and happy mood.

So, when I hurried in, much to my dismay, he was starkers. He had somehow managed to peel off his domed sleepers, and of course the underlying diapers were no problem after that. He has never done this before but was happy to surprise Buppa with his nude bod.

But wait ... there's more ...

You see, there was a poopy in the diaper, or at least it had been in the diaper before he was shed of it. It was a messy poopy. The messiest of messy poopies and smelliest of smelly poopies. And it was all over the place. And I, the hapless Buppa, was all alone with a crying, poopy baby and a total poopy mess in the crib.

It would only happen when I was alone with the boy, not ever when Amma was around. Apparently, he saves the special treats for his Buppa. But he shouldn't bother. Really, I'd be okay without these extra gifts.

Holy Hotness Eh

Here's another Canadian myth gonzo, eh? I say Canadian in the sense of what others may think about this country 'cause we know better, eh? To wit: the snow does melt, and when it does, it can get pretty blinkin hot, eh? If you don't believe me, take a look at the thermometer, eh? (The little numbers are the ones our southern neighbours will want to check out.)



Yikes! It was hot enough to melt the hinges on hell's doors. So, I thought I should take the boy to the water park. This is not a water park in the sense of slides and wave pools, just a town park where they spray some water around.

Zach was pretty tentative: did a lot of standing and staring trying to figure out to what foreign scape his Buppa had taken him.




Okay then ... I'll touch the water. Yikes! It's wet.




Huh? You want me to wade in here? Right in the river? Is it safe?



Actually, it wasn't safe. A stumble later, and he was experiencing life as the fishies see it. After swallowing a mouthful, he decided to head back to he fountains and play in the much safer runoff by the drain.



Eventually, his Buppa took pity on the kid and nudged him away from the water and over to the swings. Bliss.


Even as I write this post it's 32°C/90°F — at 9:30pm. Hard to believe. EH?

Finally: A Decision

After much dithering over cameras, I finally made the decision to buy a new super zoom lens for my old DSLR and put my order into Henrys. This will add little more lifespan to my old Digital Rebel but also, in effect, commits me to upgrading the camera at some future point. I thought of upgrading the camera first but figured that while lens technology doesn't change much, cameras just keep getting better and cheaper. So, when I do save enough pesos to buy a new camera, I should be able to purchase more with less than I could today.

I have pretty well come full circle as I had decided to do this many months ago. However, I got to looking around and considering other alternatives before getting back to my first thoughts.

Cameras seem to have become like computers: you just have to bite the bullet and resign you yourself to upgrading every five years or so.

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Just because I can, here are a few pics to get us through the weekend.

His cuteness helps him to get away with his impyness

Sometimes you have to toot your own horn

Receiving the Message

Zach is one strange child. Well, maybe he isn't; maybe it's just that other toddlers I have known have been strange and he is normal. I speak of naps. He likes them. He is beginning to let us know when he is ready.

More than once this week, he has crawled into my lap. I received the message but figured I should at least give him a fresh diaper before putting him to bed. On both occasions, when I walked past the sleeping room to the changing station, he became quite anxious and commenced to whimper piteously.

On another occasion he took Cuppa by the hand and required that she fetch his soother which had ended up underneath his crib. Since he only uses a soother to sleep, once again the message was received loud and clear.

And when he comes to my lap with puppy and blanket, even thick-headed Buppa understands that he's saying, "It's time for my nap, Buppa." ↓↓



In my experience, this is not normal behaviour. Sister, however, is quite normal — at least in this regard. ↓↓

Photos Before Photo Day

Nothing's easy in this world. For example: we (as in she as in Cuppa) put a cutesy dress on Nikki Dee for picture day at Daycare. Of course, we wanted to take our own picture because we didn't know if they'd actually get to her class that day.

But Zach wanted to be in the frame too. And they both wanted to see the picture before we had snapped it. They kept coming after us, and nothing could stem the tide until my lateral thinking, problem solving kinda gal came up with the solution: plant them on chairs.



I know I'm supposed to be doing a picture per day, or something to that effect, but I do find it difficult to stop at one. So, forgive me for these next two if you will, for I am a fairly proud grampa. I've been hiding it well, but I thought it was time to announce that fact. Ha ha.

Our Supposed Day Off

Warning: another family-first post mostly about the grands. Read at your own risk.

We had not got around to attending Nikki Dee's Saturday morning Music Together class all year, and since the semester is rapidly winding down, we decided to surprise her this past weekend.

Using a very old email to find the starting time, we found ourselves in the parking lot 45 minutes early, so we headed over to Baker Bobs for coffee, biscuits and a paper. ↓↓



Some of the best pictures, at least by us amateurs, are mistakes as is this one out of Baker Bobs window. That's ghostly me in the reflection which Cuppa didn't even realize was there when she snapped the photo. ↓↓



When we did get to class, Nikki Dee was quite excited, so much so that, according to Daddy, she didn't quite get into the music part of it as much as she usually does. She hugged me. ↓↓



And slouched all over me in a quite weird and distracted sort of way. ↓↓



We all did get into the rhythm eventually, however. ↓↓



When it was over, she wasn't done with us and preferred to go home in Buppa Car. First, however, we all walked walked along the river walkway where the silk lilac trees were in fragrant bloom. ↓↓



Apparently, she thought the old Bupster couldn't make it back to the car and required a little push. ↓↓



No sooner had we got in the car than she started babbling about going to the restaurant. We found her request very difficult to ignore, and she was quite delighted to be at A&W with the old folk. ↓↓



The next request was to go to Buppa House, which we also did before taking her home for a few hours of relief before we babysat for the night. Yes, indeed, after babysitting all week, we ended up doing a lot of the same on the weekend. Saturday night was a special treat for Mom and Dad who went out to celebrate their anniversary. Although it was extra duty for us, we all seemed to have a good time. ↓↓

His Royal Darishness

Cute, isn't he? The problem with Zach, however, is that he has DAR — as in radar.



For example: he possesses DoorDAR. Leave his parents' bedroom door slightly ajar, and he senses it and is there, usually trying to jump on the bed. The same holds true for the side door; we keep it latched, but should we forget, he's instantly through it on his way to whatever paradise lies beyond in his imagination. Ditto for the bathroom door.

He knows when the dishwasher door is open, and he will make it there in record time from the farthest room in the house. Of course, the cupboard door under the sink where we keep the garbage is also a much favoured target. (Note: I am interspersing random pictures of His Royal Darishness that have nothing to do with his DAR but everything to do with his cuteness.)



Speaking of the bathroom, he also has Buppa's-in-the-Bathroom-DAR that somehow alerts him almost before it even crossed Buppa's mind. I try to sneak to the commode while he's totally absorbed with something like his Elmo program, but his DAR alerts him in some mystical sort of fashion, and he's soon there, wailing his heart out at the gate before I can ... well ... blush.
I even leave the door open with the gate up so he can still see me and not feel abandoned, poor boy, but I guess his wailing informs me that he does feel exactly that — abandoned.




Oh, and he has GateDAR too although I suppose it's really a subset of DoorDAR if you're going to insist on being precise. We have a gate at the top of the stairs that descend to the basement. Should we, however, fail to latch it properly, he's there in a flash. The same holds true for the gate leading from the deck to the backyard. Sigh.



He has Back-is-Turned-DAR. Such a body position represents a chance to climb onto the nearest forbidden object such as the coffee table. Alternatively, he will seize the opportunity to sneak up behind the unsuspecting adult. Just yesterday, I had my back turned, just for a few seconds mind you, and lo and behold, when I turned around again to move myself, there he was, right there, directly in my path. In my attempt to not crush the life out of the lad, I had to launch my body sideways, only preventing a potentially damaging fall by lunging headlong to the back of the couch for support. I think he does this on purpose. I think he's trying to take me out. That's what I think.



His DARishness never stops. He has ThingDAR. Leave something where he can get it, and he will: the remote control, your can of coke, your cup of hot coffee, your book, your newspaper, your ... everything.

That's almost as bad as his ChairDAR: push your chair away from the table and forget to push it back, and he'll be climbing it forthwith in an attempt to dance on the tabletop.

As you can tell form these photos, he attempts to take you in with his cuteness, but his Darishness will likely be the end of me, so don't let the pictures fool you. And if I can no longer blog because I have a massively herniated body, or worse, you'll have a good idea how it happened.