construction up close

T has had some very exciting moments recently. One day last week we came home to find a road grader (rogator) in front of our house. T was so excited. He couldn't get out of his seat fast enough to go and have a closer look. "Wook, mummy - a rogator! At our house!" (The reason that the road grader was parked in front of our house is that they have been replacing a major water pipe on the street above ours and for weeks we have been driving past the backhoe parked at the end of that street. Paving happened yesterday.) He had to take D out to look at the rogator as well, and they went up and looked up close at the backhoe. The grader was gone the following day. Oh dear!

Last Friday, D took T for a visit where his Uncle M works - they build and service trucks and buses so T had a wonderful few hours climbing all over trucks and getting completely filthy!

Sunday, after visiting the market, having brunch with a friend, heading out to the park for T to dig and swing and doing a quick swing through the grocery store, we came home to find an asphalt paver parked on our street. So we had to go investigate the paver up close, to discover that there were two police cars also parked on the street. We never did find out why as they left shortly afterward. T then had to take D out to look at the paver when he got home from work. They also discovered two big steam rollers being unloaded and parked around the corner.

Yesterday morning we watched the paver move up the street and head off to do paving on the next street up. While the paver was moving away, a truck moved in front of our house and unloaded a small roller. T got to watch before heading off for preschool. As we headed home from daycare, we saw a big truck down the hill. On investigation, this proved to be a big low loader being loaded with a big orange Hamm steam roller and the road grader. So we and another mum and her two boys, watched the equipment being chained up on the loader and the ramp going up before the driver waved to the boys and headed up the hill in the big, yellow, Peterbilt cab and low loader. So T has more truck and construction equipment stories to tell today at preschool!

movie saturday

Yesterday D and I went to a matinee, to see Julie and Julia. I loved it. I've read Julie Powell's book but I like the movie a lot better and the Meryl Streep/Julia Child bits were fantastic. We can't remember the last time we saw a movie in the theatre so it was awesome to get out. We could have done without the 20 minutes of trailers beforehand tho'! Thanks to Auntie K who played with T and took him to ride the train - twice. He rode the steam train but after his two rides thought he wanted a ride on the diesel train - next time. We all had dinner together (thanks K!) while T watched Cars on DVD - I had been saving that DVD for just this type of occasion.

T started back at preschool on Thursday. He didn't understand why the preschool day was so short - Thursday 1 hour, Friday 1 1/2 hours, on Tuesday it will be up to 2 hours 40 minutes as per usual. Mrs G tried to explain that the new children needed to ease into preschool and get used to it so that was why it was less time than normal and T kept saying "I don't understand". He was very happy on Thursday morning because he got to watch a backhoe on the way into preschool - pure 3 1/2 year old joy!

Busy morning this morning. We did art (painting),

and played Bob with the trucks, T sang the Bob the Builder theme song the whole time he painted and played trucks.

Now we are off shopping, going to the market, going to the art store for more paper, and then to the park to feed the ducks and to play. Hopefully it won't be raining at the park - T won't mind but I would rather not stand around in the rain.

summer holidays

Dog days of summer. It seems unusual for our neck of the woods but back in time (ie my childhood) these are the days of summer I remember. T and I went on the road for a couple of days - visiting Grampie. Along the way we stopped at Butterfly World and saw butterflies, fish and tortoises.

It was too hot for the goats to be on the roof of the store in Coombs as we passed by. Ah. But Cathedral Grove was lovely and relatively cool and once past the trail heads, not too crowded. The forest is changing, fewer and fewer of the old, huge trees remain but the big Douglas Fir is still there, as is the tree you can sit inside.

Monday evening we all went down to Kye Bay and T and I went swimming. T didn't like the taste of the water. I had to explain it was the ocean so salty. He sat and played trucks for a while and collected shells before we made our way back to Dad's. Tuesday I took T up to Miracle Beach - he found a little friend and they played trucks together and waded together and then made a big sand and seaweed crocodile with the friend's Dad - made for lots of trips in and out of the water picking up the seaweed strand by strand.

Wednesday morning back to the beach - first playing in the playground and then playing on the beach, a bit of swimming and then T found some more boys to play trucks with.

We took the afternoon ferry back and had dinner at Auntie K's. Thursday was beach with Uncle Mike - swimming, digging on the beach, covering up people's feet with sand, watching a backhoe take out and then put in a new bench. Fun.

Today we stayed home and played with the water hose and the water snake and all the new trucks in the sandbox (thanks Grampie for the stash of new/old trucks!)

a story

The Story of a Shell

The truck was collecting shells and putting them on the flatbed. It was a big load. The truck was going to the beach. It's going to dump them at the beach then go get more shells. Its at the beach over here, over here. Look at this putting shells on the truck then taking them off. The truck is going through the shells on the table. Puts the shells inside each other. So he loads up the truck. It then dumps the shells at the beach. Then dumps the shells puts more on then takes them home. Then the dinosaurs are at the beach looking for food. This truck dumped all the shells out.

Story by T - aged 3 1/2

The truck in the story is Isabella - T's new truck. A reward for being a good big boy and wearing big boy underpants for a whole week and trying really hard. A few accidents but he's doing so well - we're so proud of our big boy.

milestones, etc

Tuesday was a banner day at our house. It started innocently enough, a request by T to wear underpants instead of a pullup. When I picked him up at daycare, Sherri reported that he had stayed dry all day! (Thanks Sherri!!) So I made up a reward chart for Isabella (the truck). One week in underpants and T wins Isabella. Only a couple of accidents so far and T is trying so hard. Our little trooper is determined to get Isabella (finally!). Gummy hippos helped out over the past couple of days as well - when the lure of Isabella weakens, gummy hippos can help motivate a trip to the bathroom. Ok - so maybe I'm a bit obsessed with this.

The garden is growing. Tomatoes have appeared on all of our plants and so far T has only picked one. It's killing him to wait for them to be the colour on the labels. But he's a keen helper, loves to help with the watering, especially now that he has his elephant watering can (thanks L!) and worries about the plants overgrowing the path in the main garden as he doesn't want to step on any of the plants. I have one demise so far - a basil plant looks beyond redemption. Most of the others are doing well, time to make pesto this weekend.

Elephants are a theme this week. Yesterday I dug out our picnic basket to fancy up a backyard picnic, and discovered an elephant ornament swing that T is now fascinated with.

I have it out on the kitchen counter and he sits and pushes the pendulum so the elephant swings wildly back and forth. The timing is funny - one half of the couple who gave it to us as a wedding gift recently passed away. Rest in peace Doug K.

It's a wierd week, with the holiday in the middle of the week (Happy Canada Day!) - T had fun with his uncle yesterday. It involved lots of water, an inflatable caterpillar and a wheelbarrow as well and as usual with Uncle M and T - lots of trucks. T was a very tired boy last night.