separated by two years

watching cole as he grows, i often find myself suddenly surprised at just how big he's getting. i think it's simply that seeing someone every day (and for so much of it!) you become used to them as they are this particular minute, and larger changes tend to sneak up on you. kind of like that poor frog in the pot of boiling water!

sometimes he just suddenly seems to be heavier one day than he was the day before (even if my poor noodle arms have grown some muscle over the years!).  often it's when i see his head clearing rather than bonking troublesome corners, or when i see a small, dimpled hand stretch up to grab something that was once safe and out-of-reach. he seems to just be an actual small child, rather than a large baby, all of a sudden sometimes in ways that he wasn't a day before. it can be an expression or an exclamation, a movement he's mastered or a skill he's tackling.  it can come out of the blue, in the realization that i'm deluding myself thinking that favourite shirt still fits, or conversely discovering that last summer's way-too-big shorts are perfect and might not make it until september.

other times i look at him and still see so perfectly how he was as a baby. we were playing in the morning light the other day and i took this photo of him.  at the time it gave me a sense of deja vu and it made me think of this other photo from way back when when cole was not even a month old.  

counterclockwise, please

cole and i were stumped for something to do today. we'd been hoping for some sunshine but were dealt looming clouds and possible (eventual) rain instead. i wanted to give jamie a bit of quiet time to do some work (returning the favour from yesterday when i got quiet time to roam around town and catch up on my sleep), so we took off this morning in search for adventures.

we turned up one town over at the vintage 1912 carousel in deer lake park. i've been meaning to take cole on the carousel for a long time. it's located next to the burnaby village museum, a 1920's era mock working village made up of historic and replica homes and shops, with costumed townspeople and a lot of space for walking. and unlimited carousel rides are included in the annual membership fee! we rode three times before i figured that i was dizzy enough. cole could have rode all day, from the looks of things!

the shady, moist areas of the park had scads of slugs, much to cole's delight. we parked in the wrong parking lot at first, walked to the carousel, decided to buy a membership, walked back to the main museum gate where you have to go to buy one, walked back to the carousel to ride and back to the car at the end. and there were slugs every few feet - that is a lot of bending and looking. he likes to say things like "there are you friends" and he bends over them saying "hi" relentlessly and optimistically. it's really very cute.

the last time we rode a carousel was in bournemouth, uk, about this time last year. looking back, he was so little! just over a year old then, and so babyish in comparison to now - turning into quite the kid, all charging and choosing his horse and racing around the place.

factoid: carousels in the uk, like race tracks there, go the opposite direction. who knew?