fashon styles

coco recently rediscovered the babylegs leg warmers he was given as a wee baby (thanks kim!). they are proving much more long-lived than i expected, now that they're popping up as fashion attire. small folks dressing themselves is one of my favourite things to see - the wacky combinations and small touches, like rain boots and leg warmers on what was the hottest day (so far!) of the year.

the other day we went for a walk to the far park - confederation, as opposed to the near park at alpha secondary. the near park apparently doesn't count for coco, despite the football field sized space of green grass and the delightful short barely one block walk to get there. the lack of bucket swings is monumental - it will not do. don't tell him you're going to the park and take him there with a bike and a ball and a picnic and expect to go home afterwards. oh no - you are still expected to locate bucket swings to fulfill the park promise. some stamping may ensue, which will be frustrating and funny at the same time and, he may be beginning to realize,.ultimately ineffectual. top tips! but the far park is just a short sixish block wagon ride away. he will lay in the wagon pretending to nap (why, why children, do you find pretending to nap so awesome?) and then ride the bucket swing for half an hour or so. next up: locating the miniature train that runs there on weekends for a mere $2.50, or so i hear!

chalk outlines

we took our giant bucket of sidewalk chalk over to the close park across the street yesterday with friends and went back again today to add to our masterpiece.

cole loves doodling on random things (his face, the fridge door, etc) and although i'm sure letting him doodle all over the playground is not going to curb this, it certainly is fun. from a graffiti standpoint, i figure it's ok if the boot camp people can do it all over the place... i couldn't resist doodling along with him, and i must say that i think the playground is far more exciting now. we drew comments coming from the car passenger doors, covered the car in flames (no, other playground mom - it's not on fire - it's just really fast!), wrote sound effects noises around everything, put a welcome mat outside the playhouse and my favourite - we drew a pool full of pirahnas at the bottom of the slide. fun!

there were some pretty young ladies today at the park doing a photo shoot and cole was such a ham - he kept wandering into their shots. the photographer was happy to let cole sit with the girls and cole was certainly glad to participate - seriously, that kid loves the camera. he was all chatty and saying "s-mmmaya" (smile) the whole time. i think he got a number...

junior versions of big people

just a few photos of cole and his friend aiden. it's so lovely to have friends with babies of the same age. we hadn't seen aiden and his mama mi ae in ages and ages but it was lovely to just pick up where we left off - laughing and playing and having a good time. the funny thing is, i see mi ae in aiden right off the bat both in his features and his expressions, and i personally think cole looks exactly like me, but put them together and they just looked like their dads, hanging out.

cole tends to hang back a little and quietly observe when we meet "new" kids. he flirts and makes grown-up pals all day long, but with kids he's a little shy and takes a gentle approach... aiden's reaction to seriously everything is "ahhhh! amazing!" with jaw-dropping excitement. so adorable. i think cole was a little skeptical at first - maybe he was just being blasé, after all we were at his usual delicious playground (woodchips - yum!). as kids do when you want to just sit and talk, they played separately for a while, seemingly oblivious to each other, running in different directions (ah - goose poop over here - awesome! check it out - tripping hazards this way!) and crossing paths just long enough for us mamas to get a few tidbits in and sip coffee on occasion. but slowly they came together and started to do their own thing.

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.