Snowshoeing with small kids on Mount Seymour

We finally got to use our Groupon for snowshoeing on Mount Seymour! I'm so glad we got to use it two weeks before it expired. Considering they sold something like 5000 Groupons I was scared everyone would be rushing to use it at the last minute. We were smart to arrive early in the morning too because the line up was out the door in the afternoon.

We have never been on Mount Seymour before. It's smaller than Cypress but larger than Grouse. We took Tristan and tagged along with my sister and her family. Tristan got to play around with his two older cousins as well. If the objective was to go walk and be in snow, we certainly achieved that. There was lots of fresh snow and it pretty much snowed the entire time we were there too. We spent 5 or 6 hours up there. We went on an easy hike all the way around D by the lake and then back again through F. It was plenty of exercise for the kids!

Tristan showing off his snowshoe

Near the end, Tristan got a bit tired of walking so we borrowed his cousin's sleigh and we tried to pull him along. It was a bad idea because the area we were walking in was narrow and had ditches off the trail. I saw us approaching one too but I thought we would try carefully anyway. I wasn't going very fast but Tristan wasn't holding on very tight since he had his gloves on so he fell off the sleigh and right through the branches of the trees below and into the ditch. We were horrified. Jean-Louis quickly jumped in with his snowshoes. I shouted to Jean-Louis that Tristan's head was right there and told him to be careful with his shoes. He almost stepped on Tristan's face with his snowshoes too! Tristan was sort of buried in snow and freaking out. Jean-Louis lifted him and I tried to pull him up. We had a few attempts before I could grab a hold of Tristan's hand. If the ditch was any deeper, we probably would have had to call for help. After that scare, we just walked.

Your typical scene with Tristan snowshoeing

The ditch incident sort of reminded me of when Tristan fell down the stairs when he was only 14 months old. We will thank our lucky stars for this one too because once again, Tristan escaped with no injuries. I know things could have been so much worst. If you ever bring a kids sleigh with you snowshoeing, BE CAREFUL and stay very close together! So with the exception of this unfortunate event, we all seemed to have enjoyed the snow outing. It's definitely nice to be able to drive 45 minutes in Vancouver in March and be in winter wonderland. It didn't snow much down here this winter so the kids were very excited to go up the mountain. The snow was pretty and all but I was a bit "snowed out" by the end of the day. It was somewhat of a relief to go down the mountain and be back on dry land :)

Tristan goes to his 1st birthday party

Tristan all ready to go!

This is only the second time Tristan has received a birthday invite from a friend of his. The first time was two years ago but I had to cancel at the last minute because he fell sick:( He has been to little kiddie parties before but they were kids who were either related to him or on a couple of rare occasions, who had parents who were friends with either Jean-Louis or I.

Today was exciting because it was the first time he was going to a birthday party from a friend he made himself through daycare. Weeee! I was probably a bit more excited than he was :) When I was a kid, I never went to any kiddie parties outside of the family. After throwing a few birthday parties for Tristan now I can see why kids LOVE parties. Being invited and attending a birthday party as a kid is somewhat like being invited and attending a wedding as an adult. It's just so nice to be thought of and be invited!

The party was held at Michaels, a craft store I frequently visit for baking supplies. Ahem. It's funny because when Jean-Louis heard about where the party was he was like "oh nooooo!" I go to Michaels way too often I guess :) It's such a cool idea actually. I think a craft party there would lots of fun but maybe when Tristan is much older.

There were probably 12-15 kids and Tristan was one of only two boys there. It was a Tinkerbell party but it was great! Tristan knew pretty much every kid there as well since they all came from his daycare room. I was finally able to attach faces to names I heard about from him. I now sort of know who the "good" kids are. It so happens that some of the kids he talks about and likes are also the well behaved kids in the room:) His best buds from daycare were not there though.

When we arrived, some of the kids were already there. Tristan said happy birthday to the birthday girl and gave her her gifts. Tristan and I made her a personalized card the day before :) Then the kids sat down and drew on the table. The table was lined with craft paper so the kids could draw all over it. After we waited a bit longer, we started the crafts. The kids all got aprons to wear and got to work on decorating their own t-shirts. Tristan enjoyed squeezing the bottles of color on it. It was really just like applying royal icing on a cookie and he had done that many times already. Simply squeezing color on the shirt was boring though so we copied some of the other kids and really got down and dirty using our hands and fingers. It started to get messy fast! Moments after we did that though, Tristan whined and wanted to wash his hands right away. You see Tristan does not like to be so dirty. Lol. After we washed his hands we came back and finished off the t-shirt decoration. This time I brought some paper towels and rolled it into a pen and used that to smear and write on the t-shirt. Much better :) By the way, the staff member who supervised during the craft party stayed in the room during the entire party.

After crafts, the kids kind of monkey-ed around with the helium balloons. Then the food arrived and the kids ate. We were served your typical party food of pizza, fruit platter, veggie platter, tortilla chips, juice, water and then cake. Then it was time to leave:( It was a two hour party. Tristan said happy birthday again and gave the birthday girl a hug. Awe:) He went home with his t-shirt, his loot bag, and a helium balloon. Wow. It's almost like it was his birthday too.

From crib to junior bed

We finally did it. We converted Tristan's standard crib into a junior bed for him a week ago. There is definitely more room for him to grow but to him, there seems to be no change. It's still the same crib but much longer :) We kept the height the same for now since he is still a bit short and he could fall out. Even with the previous crib, I found him sleeping on the floor once. Oops. The junior bed will support him until he is around 10 years old. Or until he is sick of it? I guess we'll just see.

He is very happy in it! No adjustment was needed and he just feels like such a big boy now :) Every time he tells us "look, see how big I am?" he lies on the floor and shows us how long he is. Yes, it is true. He is a VERY big boy and growing fast. I kind of miss my baby in him:(

Tristan in his crib about a week ago. Tight much?

"Look, see how big I am?"

Tristan is turning into a little "us"

He started copying us awhile ago.

Besides the obvious which is that Tristan resembles both Jean-Louis and I, he is really starting to behave just like us. Here are a few examples why you would totally be able to tell that he is our son:

• We were at Toys R Us recently and there was a boy nearby holding a Lego toy. Tristan watched and then turned to him and told him "that Lego is not on sale." The boy ignored Tristan but then Tristan followed him around the store and kept telling him "but that Lego is NOT on sale." And we die of laughter.
• These days, a lot of the things I cook is new stuff. Every time I present cooked food or a drink to Jean-Louis, his first response is "is it vegan?" Now Tristan does the same thing when I present him food, "is it vegan?" Even when it clearly isn't like eggs. Ha!
• When Tristan saw me peeling off some fat off of my meat and putting it on the side of my plate for garbage, he told me I had to eat all of it or else I don't get any fruit after my meal. Yeah, but...oops.
• Tristan says he is working all the time. When we ask him who he works for, he says "Pete." I work for a guy named Pete. Tristan is like my office receptionist here. He'll pick up the phone and tell me "it's Pete." Yeah, so I guess he does work for Pete too :)
• Funny faces and noises! Tristan makes them all the time out of the blue. I'm pretty sure he either imitates me or gets it from my genes. I can be quite the goof that way - sorry. *blush*
• Tristan has playmobil toys and Lego toys. Some may be the same size and mixed together but he knows which is which. Now, Jean-Louis is quite anal about storing playmobil and Lego in their dedicated containers. One day, I was picking up some random toys and putting them in the closest container just to get them out of the way. Tristan quickly corrected me that I was packing toys in the wrong box! Oh. My bad.

Proof we were at the bike show

Swoon For Food

That's the name of my new food blog! Swoon for food. Do you like it? Sorry if you don't because I already bought the domain name :)

Over the past year especially, I have talked way too much about food. That is not what I intended to do with this blog. Every time I talked about food, I kind of felt guilty. It just didn't seem right. To me, a mommy blog should focus mainly on parenting and although eating and meals are an important part of our lives as parents, it shouldn't be the focus on this blog.

This blog was created so that I would have a space to document our lives as parents and talk about Tristan's development. Most of the information is meant for us personally. Some of the information is shared to help others who are looking for more information. This site has been kept from promotion and has been kept fairly private, if there is such a thing anymore. I did make it searchable though for those who are looking for help and information. Most of the page views I receive here come directly from the search engines. My most popular page is the one I talked about Patient care at Burnaby Hospital's Maternity Unit. That's exactly how I would like to continue to keep this site!

The people who arrive at this blog because they want to read more about the food can now visit my dedicated food blog: Swoon For Food. Now with two separate spaces, the organized maniac in me feels so much better! :)

Leap Day celebration cupcakes

Vegan chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. Yes, vegan!!

And just like that, it's no longer vegan. Oh well :)