happy birthday to the happiest little dude

cole is one! that is a strange thing to think, i'm realizing - that he's growing up is, of course, undeniable but somehow to be one full year old is such a different thought.

can you believe the difference one year makes?

we celebrated on sunday in stanley park, at ceperley playground at second beach. i hadn't ever really been to that park (other than biking past it) and it was a terrific place. lots to do, lots to see - very vancouvery too. we had our immediate local family, good friends, balloons and cupcakes, running and playing and only a few raindrops. grandma bonnie helped cole take his first solo slide (very exciting!) and cole tried to eat his very first clam on the beach (denied!).

he seemed a little concerned about the flaming candle - maybe because we play a lot of 'fire chief' here at home with his red fireman's hat? he much prefered eating the cupcake...

thank you so much to all who came to celebrate with us - which was no small feat considering it was all the way downtown, we moved parks at the last minute, and the sun run made traffic & transit generally confounding.

yesterday was his actual birthday. we went to the aquarium and had a grand time, running everywhere. i'm amazed that in the course of a few weeks he's gone from gripping the couch to venturing out on his own to running away in public places. :-) he squealed and ran and chortled from one thing to another. made friends with everyone, loved the otters, thoroughly enjoyed playing up to his elbows in the tidal pool and got his first touch of a sea cucumber (me too!). we played on the grass in the park too, and he chased birds and found sticks and tried to eat pinecones...

after supper we went to the park across the street to release his balloons. i know that's not a really great thing to do, what with the birds and all, but i couldn't bear to let them become all sad and deflated in the house, or to go and pop them myself... somehow seeing them float up and away as cole and jamie let go of them really seemed right. the first year is under our belts, all of us. we've leared so much, come so far and are ready to see what's next.

happy birthday little guy. we love you!

happy easter!

cole thoroughly enjoyed collecting eggs after his first visit from the easter bunny! he notices anything new in the house so the moment we brought him out of his room he spotted the basket and a shiny foiled chocolate bunny. and he scampered about collecting the various plastic eggs the easter bunny had scattered around his play area. i love wondering what he was thinking... "hey - new stuff all over the place. what on earth? why are they taking photos again?"

he had a blast shaking the plastic eggs (lucky for cole they were taped shut and lucky for us, they're filled with chocolates for mama and daddy!), gnawing at the bunny, who developed a hole in the foil rather quickly and was shelved, and then toting his basket around the house. fun!

playground fun

just a few more photos of cole from his favourite place - the playground! we've been every day this last week, including twice one lovely day. he now knows the word 'playground' and he grins and says 'puh' if you say it first. yesterday he practically lept out of the carriage when we got there.

it seems he loves walking and crawling all over the play surface and concrete almost as much as he loves the slides. i think he could make it all the way to starbucks! ;-) i loved seeing him all dusty after his adventures - what a little boy. as long as he's not eating things he finds along the way, i'm all for adventure!

i'm a little concerned about buggy theft so i try to find places to park ours that make it awkward to get to for would-be thieves. our lovely neighbours recently had their bugaboo frog stolen from a different playground across the street from our building, on the science world property, in the middle of the day! apparently some bad-karma-loving folks just walked off with it. and not even hoboes or anything - parents with their own stroller already. honestly people - that is really low. think i should buy a bike lock for our stroller? is that weird? i kind of think i should but am aware that i would look weird, but will probably do it anyway.

make your own peeps!

i generally love things made of sugar and marshmallow - or even just sugar or just marshmallow...

each year i buy one box of peeps around easter and enjoy the first few, only to feel quite ill watching as the rest of the birds harden and become unappetizing (more so!). usually i do this at the office so that i don't feel obligated to eat all the lonely peeps, but since no one but me likes them they sit on the counter getting the side-eye from foraging co-workers... this year i'm not at the office and haven't yet bought my box.

and in the hopes that there's a better peep out there, i couldn't resist sharing this: make your own peeps!

good luck! i haven't got the time to try this out, but i'm curious. maybe next year?

cole recycles...

cole's favourite new toys? items destined for the recycling bin!

when we recently emptied a juice bottle and then a milk jug he seemed curious, so i washed them out and handed them over. he's been playing with them for five days now, and they keep him occupied forever while we play together in the kitchen while i'm preparing food or tidying up. we've added to his stash - there's the clear tub we keep the stuff in, a cute blue scoop from the laundry detergent and a plastic cup as well. oh, and an old magazine. and we've added cute faces to everything, you know, because i like to.

i'm just amazed at how long this stuff holds his interest! and a little dismayed at how durable these items are. although in the long run they'll go into the blue bin downstairs, it's quite obvious that they would last as long as anything that's manufactured with durability in mind.

ahh, it feels like spring!

Now that I have my crafty blog started, I can get back to the business of posting the stuff that everyone (especially the Grandmas!) want to see. Photos of Cole!

Today we celebrated what felt like the first real day of spring. The sun was out and the weather was glorious. The birds were chirping, the skaters were skateboarding, the basketballers were basketballing. We took a short walk to Gastown to visit Button Button, a vintage button (shocking!) store that recently reopened in a new location but was unfortunately closed today. I only found this out after lugging the carriage up about 10 steep stairs, to be greeted by the owner of the store who told me they weren't open. Um, you're standing there and the door is open. I just lugged a baby carriage up the stairs and I'm definitely going to buy something (browsers wouldn't have bothered) so just let me in, ok? We'll try again sometime this week because I do need some more vintage buttons for my projects.

Anyway, on our way to the closed button shop we stopped in one of the various nondescript parks in our neck of the woods. There are lots of them and none have swings, unless you walk over to the parks along the seawall, which are plentiful and do and are great too. But of course the advantage of the parks without swings is that they usually have much better slides. Cole is a bit wee for slides, but I stand to the side, hold him halfway up and then slide him down (over and over!), which he loves. Sometimes when there are no judgey moms around to give me the side-eye we climb up and slide down together. Today we had the place to ourselves and did lots of both!

Cole had a blast trying to climb up the slide - there was no way to discourage him. He was getting all sorts of static zaps from the plastic slide but he just laughed and laughed.

And he had a great time meeting his first real-life ladybug! I had to really try to keep him from touching her - it looked like a disaster (for the ladybug) just waiting to happen. Or maybe protein for Cole, who of course does put mostly everything into his mouth...

We went on a strange ambling stroll through Gastown after the button semi-fiasco, stopping to try on clothes and shoes, for an iced mocha (to celebrate spring, of course) and we stopped at our favourite place to pilfer daffodils on the way home.

And you must check out his walking! I haven't ever been able to get a video or photo even of his walking until now - he has prefered to hold a finger and run around the room or go between the two of us, but all of a sudden today he can really walk on his own! I don't know what changed, but he can just walk across the whole kitchen, or across his room or clear through the middle of the living room. He still reaches for a hand if there's one nearby or the edges of things when he gets wobbly, but it was so strange and amazing.

Baby fest!

The Yaletown baby & toddler fair today was a good success... Cole stopped by for a visit (thanks Grammie + Gramps!) and had a field day reaching for all the bunnies. It is so hard not to give him nearly every toy i make. ;-)

For a real round-up of the event please check out my shiny new blog, hudsonny. Lots of new blog smell, whatever that is! I felt the need to start this new blog because so many of my posts here have been crafty lately and thought it might be time to separate the family stuff from the crafty stuff... Don't get me wrong, you can still expect far too much rambling on crafty matters here, but I feel good about a new space to put the bulk of it! ;-)

Babies + bunnies

Just a heads-up (although I loathe that expression) about the babyfest/craft sale tomorrow: the Yaletown baby + toddler fair

Saturday, April 4
10 am - 4 pm
Roundhouse Community Centre
Davie @ Pacific, Vancouver
$6 entrance

I'll be bringing my favourites for baby - bibs, bibbler drooling kerchiefs and toddler scarves - as well as felt + vintage button barrettes and weirdo smiling felt pins, beanbags, a fresh group of gnomes and a tonne of bunnies.

I made a lot of bunnies - considering the event is for babies and a week before Easter it seemed like a good idea. One of my favourite things is finding unique fabric combinations for these little dudes. They're so squashy and cheerful!

If you're in the neighbourhood and happen to stop in definitely pop by and say 'hello!'.