Whew, what a busy weekend

This last weekend was a fairly active one according to my social calendar. On Friday morning we met up with some of my buddies at the park to say goodbye to Samuel who is moving to an island. I wonder if he knows how to swim???

Later that afternoon daddy skipped out of work early and we headed up to Cultus Lake waterpark. I took turns going down the slides with both mummy and daddy and then all by myself (which was a little more difficult cause I didn't slide very far- mummy says I take after daddy cause he can't slide well either!)

I had a blast (literally) playing in the spray park and i really enjoyed the little slides and climbing area.

Then on Saturday, mummy, daddy and grandma and me all went to a store that is every little kids dream - IKEA! Mummy & daddy wanted to buy a kitchen (not sure why cause we have one and where would the new one fit??) so Grandma let me run around and test out all this neat furniture. Did you know they have a lot of places where you can run around there and climb on things and not get in trouble doing it!!! Then because we spent a long time there, mummy let me have a cinnamon bun as a good boy treat.

That evening after a power nap, we went to visit my godparents Kevin & Sherry and their kids Aidan and Ben. This was lots of fun cause Sherry kept chasing me around and the boys lent me some toys to amuse myself with. They also have this really neat door that is a little smaller than me that was fun to stick my head through and try to call the dog back in.

By Sunday the fun was just starting to get going cause we had a baby shower for my friend Olivia's baby brother. So most of my buddys came over to play while the mummies sat around playing funny games and oohing over Damien (okay he is cute for a baby that doesn't do much yet). I thought that i should check out his carseat for him before they left though so I decided to do a seat test for it and certified it all safe for him to travel home in.

I believe that after this much activity that i need to borrow daddy's blackberry to help me keep track of all my important dates!

Going on a safari

Going on a Safari

Where or where is that wascilly wabbit? I think i saw her over here------->

Maybe she went down here? Nope not here:(


Maybe I can sneak up on her by crawling through the grass

Maybe if i sit still and pretend I'm not here she will pop out

Ha, I found her, she's over there>>>>>>>>

HANDY-MAN 101

Well it has been a long week of tough work but we are finally done insulating. Of course it wouldn't be possible without my expert guidance and vast knowledge in

how to use a hammer,

how to measure things once & then cut,

how to wield a screwdriver &

how to climb up & down the ladder

The most important thing that the folks have learned from me is that you need to take your nap whenever you can get it!

What's a holiday?

Happy BC day! It might be a holiday weekend for everyone else but it seems that holidays involve work at our home. Daddy spent the whole weekend up at the house working and so mummy brought me up to visit him and gave him my cousin Craig to help insulate. I wanted to explore so when I was upstairs I tried to poke my head out one of the openings and freaked my mummy out so bad that she had daddy running up the stairs to see what the matter was. Apparentaly I shouldn't have gotten so close to the edge cause I could have fallen to the hard ground below.

That evening while daddy was still working, I decided to test some new things out. I had my first poop on the toilet (mummy helped by making the poop faces so that I knew that's what I should do). Then because that was an important milestone we had to phone daddy to tell him and I did my other first which is say "love you" to daddy.

Now today would normally be a day spent with mummy but instead I spent the afternoon with my cousin Kristen so that mummy could go and get itchy. I tried to tell Kristen that her name is Tessa but she kept insisting that I call her Kristen. Tessa is so much easier to say and if all the cats can be Sassy's then why can't all my cousins be called Tessa. Sometimes people can just complicate things too much.

Tomorrow mummy is going to spend the day helping daddy again instead of going to work and I get to spend the day with Grandma. Maybe she'll take me up to visit them so i can help work too.

Busy, busy weekend

This was a pretty busy weekend with lots of running around to do. On Friday i went up to visit daddy at the property in the morning and i got to see a really big trac-tor dig a hole. There were lots of people up there working and making lots of noise. Later that afternoon I went to visit some of my buddy's and had a shy moment where i sat on mummy's knee and gathered my inner self and my over abundant energy. Then it was full steam!

On Saturday, there was more errands to do and some housework. My cousin Craig came over to help daddy and then stayed for dinner and chased me around till I had to go to bed.

On Sunday, mummy and auntie Leasa and Kim and i went shopping in Vancouver to the big stores. I decided to show mummy that i was a big boy and not have any naps (that and auntie Leasa was too entertaining in the car so I couldn't go to sleep and leave her to talk to herself in the back seat!) We went to a store called IKEA and wow there is lots of things there to see. Mummy let me out and auntie Kim chased me all through the light department and then mummy chased me through the rugs. Mummy kept telling me to slow down cause people don't watch out when you run into them at full steam. After we spent some of daddy's money there we went to everyone's favourite store "The Disney Store" where mummy let me loose again and i touched all the fun toys. Then i ran out of the store right into some clear glass near the top and looked down at all the people on the ground.

Afterwards we went and waited in the car while my aunties finished shopping (for iced caps) and mummy let me drive the car and test out all the switchy things and lights. When we got home mummy showed me all the neat toys she bought me. i am now the proud owner of my very own cookware so that i can help mummy cook meals. I also got a neat soft soccer ball and three new books and a spify red chair.

Mummy thought I would fall asleep when i got home but I was being a big boy and stuck it out to 8:30 before i gave in the towel and fell asleep. Then to make it even better i didn't sleep in today and I only had a 1.5 hr nap. i think I might be tired tomorrow!

Corn cobs & hairdo's

Mummy loves the summer cause you can get all sorts of fun food and she has been doing her best to introduce all of them to me. The other day I got my first taste of corn on the cob. This is really fun food to eat cause it's one where you are actually encouraged to use your hands (it also makes a great noise when you throw it on the floor and watch it roll)

So far i have expanded my dietary consumption to include - blueberries, raspberries, fresh peas, cherries, peaches, nectarines and plums. I must say that most of them leave a pretty colour on your clothes and face and that they are super fun to squish in your fingers.

Yesterday i also got another haircut so that I can have a cool head for the summer (personally I think it leaves more flesh for the squitos to bite). Mummy says that I look adorable and something about how she wishes that my temper would match my cuteness!

I'm not sure what she means by that!!!!!

Hot times = cool relief

Well it sure has been hot the last few days and you can't beat the refreshing feel of hitting the pool and cooling off.

Mummy put my wading pool on the patio and has been filling it up every morning so that I can splash around and entertain my grandmas. I have been very busy adding as many toys to the water plus a few towels (pretty shocking huh that I would do someting like that!). I also like to take all the water out and try to bring it back into the house (unfortunately mummy was sitting in the doorway and got in the way of my tossing the water back onto the floor- sorry I soaked you mummy!)

When the evening rolls around and it's time to sit back and relax, I like to sit in the cool basement with daddy and toss back a couple bottles of the good stuff.

Just like the big boys do!

We got a new "ac-tor"!

Daddy went and bought me a real live "ac-tor" and boy is it bigger than the ones I push around. I love my new ac-tor and now everytime i go up to the property i want to drive it rather than play in the dirt. But I have to let my daddy use it right now cause he needs to dig some holes so I have been very nice and patient while he drives my toy around. Apparentaly I also need to let mummy learn to drive it too! I guess I better learn to share or mummy and daddy might throw a hissy fit!

Party on Canada!!!

Daddy & I and my cousins Tessa & Meagen went to Abbotsford yesterday to celebrate Canada Day with mummy and tons of people. Mummy had to work and she told daddy that there was lots of fun things for me to see and do. She was right! I had a great afternoon and I got my first big sugar rush cause daddy let me eat the whole candy necklace that mummy got for me (yup and the end result was some very, very stinky smells!)

Afterwards we went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner (I didn't feel like eating though cause i was having too much fun running around - "sugar rush still in effect"). But alas i came down from that rush with a bang and so i didn't get to stay up and watch the fireworks (I did wake up again at 3:30 though just to make some noise).

So happy birthday Canada, can't wait till next year's party!

Muddle Puddle Fun

I love it when i get to go up to our property and play in the dirt. I especially like it after it rains and there are lots and lots of muddy puddles to play in. Puddles are my FAVOURITE cause they don't just make you messy but they make anyone who comes near you messy too!

Mummy has bought me all sorts of digging tools so that i can help daddy when we go up there. The other day, she bought me my very own wheelbarrow and I got to show daddy how it works by taking his chips for a stroll. Daddy has been working very hard up at our new home and we can't wait till we get to move up there (then i can play in the dirt whenever I want!)

Lots and lots of fishies

This last Monday, mummy, daddy and I went into Vancouver to a place where there are tons of fishies. Some were in bigger tanks than the ones my Auntie Leasa has and some had there very own pools. There were even fish bigger than my bed! It was very cool, except everytime i thought I could touch one I kept smacking my hand on the tanks. They would swim really close and then turn really fast and swim away.

One of my favourites were the beluga whales cause they make some really high pitched noises (mummy says I sound like them when i shriek!)

and cause they can spit really far!

I also saw some otters doing a back float with their eyes closed, an enormous sealion who looked like he sould go on a diet, dolphins jumping high into the air, some lovely pink birds, a big old turtle and then i saw Nemo and Dory.

Then to top off the day, daddy changed my car seat so that i can now sit forward and watch my mummy's driving (gotta keep an eye on her cause she tends to go fast sometimes). It was a really good day and I even managed to squeeze that stubborn poo out!

N.O. means "No!"

Here I am demonstrating a few of my undesirable traits (or so the parents like to tell me). No matter how many times mummy and daddy tell me not to do something, I must experiment on my own. Of course now that I have learned how to communicate my opinion on such matters, I'm sure that the rules in this household will change. POWER TO THE BABIES!!!!!

Fun times at the Steinebach household

Well I have been showing mummy and daddy and my grandmas a few new tricks that i have acquired lately and mummy managed to catch this one on film.

I call this "Where's Jacob?"

I have been busy showing the adults that baby locks are so passe. Heck I can get into the liquor glasses now and also climb onto the bar by climbing up the big stools (there's also a phone there that I have my eye on!). I can open and shut all the doors cause they have that fun knob that turns when you pull on it. My new tasks to work on are figuring out how to open the kitchen door locks, turn the bath on (already know how to turn the shower on), get into the food cupboard (I can sorta get into the one with the cereal in it) and climb out of my bed safely. I figure once I have accomplished these last tasks I will be ready for school!

Today we went to Sardis park and met up with some buddies. I had a great time on the toys and chasing the ducks and geese. I'm not sure why the geese hissed and the ducks ran away though? I even tried to share my bananna with them but they liked my sandwich better. Mummy wouldn't let me run away too far though cause she was afraid that I would try to pick up some more poopies (I thought they were rocks!)

Pose, snap and voila!

Mummy got a new camera this last weekend and she has been busy snapping photos or me and everyone and everything. I helped her pick out her camera (okay actually I sat in my stroller and played with her cell phone cause there were lots of fun things there that i wanted to touch and her phone was at least paid for!)

On Sunday we went and celebrated Mother's day with my Grandmas and mummy had been wanting to get a picture of me and my cousins for Grandma P so with her fancy new camera she was able to snap this picture of the 5 of us for her.

My cousins are really tall so Craig had to hang on to me (and so i wouldn't run away). I'm sure that mummy will have tons more pictures of me for the rest of my life.

All systems operational

Well we can finally say that Jacob has survived this stomach virus and is now back to his normal self. He was back to full appetite yesterday plus I think he borrowed someone else's cause he was eating everything plus our food. He also finally got back to some normal poops thank god! I was beginning to think i would have to buy shares in Pampers.
So now that he is back to normal he is making up for lost time. He has already tested the cat and luckily (or maybe not) she didn't bite or scratch him. I think that it might take a bite for him to stop pestering her. He has tested our will against his by throwing some fits when he can't have the phone or something else he thinks he should have. Then when he did get my cell phone he called my friend and left some kind of message twice. He is back to running around and opening the doors and shutting them very loudly and quickly (I'm sure his fingers will get caught), climbing onto tables, chairs and whatever else looks climbable (he is eyeing the cats bed in the window sill) and generally making his presence known in every room. Yup the kid is definitely back!!!!!!

A visit to Hell

This was an unusual weekend for me. It all started with my cousin Tessa coming for a sleep-over on Friday. We got to eat some Chinese food, go up to the property and look at the new house being built (not quite ready yet), she got to help with my bath and she even got to share a room with me (I don't think she wanted to wake up at 5am though!)

Then on Saturday, mummy and i had to get our hairs cut so Tessa got to play with me while mummy took forever to get hers coloured (she's very, very blond now). I am now sporting a very slick doo that people have told me brings out my wild side.

On Sunday we went and picked up my cousins Meagen and Kristen and they drove with mummy and I to a place called Hell's Gate. Mummy was having lots of fun on the drive up and was even singing quite loudly and dancing around (Kristen kept saying they weren't related but I know she's my cousin....).

When we got to Hell we took this really nifty car down a big rope and visited some shops, heard some singing (I think they were better than mummy), saw some dancers with feathers,

and crossed a bridge that you can see through (Auntie Leasa wouldn't look down but i did) Then I got to sit in this really big chair that even my cousins couldn't climb onto. Daddy's gonna be sad that he missed all the fun.

Wild times at my house

Here we all are sitting ever so nicely!

Jacob, Presley, Hayden, Samuel, Carson, Keira & Olivia

Today I had a bunch of my friends over to play and we subjected the mummies to some wild times. At first when they all arrived I was all quiet but then I decided to let loose and demonstrate my vocal abilities by shouting loudly. Then my friend Hayden sampled the strawberries all down his new shirt. Presley showed us her new earrings and sat quietly while the wild ones ran around. My buddy Samuel showed us his toddling around the coffee table until he fell. Keira ran around trying to sample everyones cups and then she decided to join me in my box of toys (I think I stepped on her too). Olivia stayed close to her mummy but she did try to stick the bucket on her head (ya I like to do that too!). My friend Carson who is the youngest tried to stand up on the wood floor but his mummy didn't put gripper socks on him (don't worry Carson, I'll teach you how to stand on furniture!). We had a great time and I think we even managed to swap some tricks with each other. I tried to show how to stand up on my table toy but mummy foiled my attempt. Some of the others tired to help my mummy by cleaning up with my vacuum and broom and the dishtowels (mummies really like the help). Toys were a flying everywhere especially the ones in my hands (sorry to anyone I poked with my sword). It was a fun afternoon and it definitely tired me out, so I had to nap to restore my energy for tomorrow when my cousins come and babysit me. Hmm, I wonder what devious things I can plot!!!!

Vancouver Sun Run - Completed!

This morning started off different from any other that I have had so far. Mummy and daddy whisked me out of my cozy slumber at 5:45am and bundled me into the car for a short car trip to Mission where we took an even more exciting trip. My first TRAIN RIDE! We met up with some of daddy's friends and took the train past water, towns, other trains, boats and wood piles and finally stopped at our destination- Waterfront Station on route to the Vancouver Sun Run. When we got off the train there was a trillion people (okay there was actually only 54,000). Mummy and daddy told me that we were going to go for a very long walk with all these people and see all sorts of different sites and hear alot of music. That sounded fun but then we got stuck in a big jam of people and had to wait like forever. Mummy was worried that someone was going to walk over my stroller where I was sitting so she lifted me up to her shoulder and wow there were balloons everywhere (oh ya and tons and tons of people). When we finally got to move we had to wait in with another bunch of people for our turn to start walking (I'm not really sure why you have to wait to walk cause it's not like we couldn't use our legs).

So all this waiting around really tired me out so apparentally by the time that we actually started the walking part I had fallen asleep and missed the excitement of walking past the starting line. Mummy and daddy were enjoying the walk and when i woke up around 4km into the walk I got to enjoy all the noise and people around me. I saw people wearing tires on their backs, other mummys and daddys pushing two babies in one stroller and lots of colourful shirts.

I also got to eat on the stroll. Mummy had this technique where she would plop food onto my tray without stopping. She even managed to clean my sticky hands and face. Then when we wanted to go faster, mummy would walk in front of the other people to slow them down so daddy could zip me and him past all the slowpokes. It was very fun.

After an hour and 35minutes we made it to the finish line and daddy ran ahead to catch this picture of mummy and me

So there you have it, I have officially competed in my first ever marathon (and so did mummy and daddy). I think I might be able to take on a biathalon next!

It has started!!

Well this has been a very busy week for our little monkey. For Easter we bought him a potty seat for the toilet and this last Thursday, Steve sat him on it and he pee-peed in the toilet. He was very excited but then when we put him in the bath he tried to pee again and couldn't figure out where his stream was. This evening I put him on the potty again but no go until I put him in the bath and then he immediately peed and tried to catch the stream coming out.

So I'm not sure if it will be an easy thing to train him or not cause he appears to like peeing in the tub and making splashes on the water. Yup he's definitely a man in the making!!!

Then if Thursday wasn't exciting enough for him he decided to test the theory of gravity. The theory is if you put your legs over the sides of the crib and you have no fear, will you fall out painfully or tumble lightly. Well Grandma got to experience Jacob's first tumble from his jail bars. She put him down for his nap and shortly after listening to him play nicely, she heard him crying quite loudly. He wasn't in his crib but was crying beside the rocking chair not really sure what to do. Now you might think this would stop his climbing attempts but nope he's determined to master the technique and get out of bed lightly. This weekend, Daddy is putting the gate across the top stairs in case he makes an escape attempt while half asleep.

Jacob has also discovered that when mummy says "No" she really likes to repeat herself a thousand times and when that doesn't work she tries some other methods like dumping water over his head (now before everyone gets in an uproar it's because i had raw chicken on my hands and couldn't wash them quick enough so I grabbed the water glass beside me in the hopes that he would stop what he was doing). Well I soon discovered that water doesn't faze him and that he enjoys playing in it (Like duh mum cause he plays in the cats water dish all the time!) So I must now use my high panic "No" to get him to stop (and even then it's only for a few seconds). My son is unfortuately going through his rebellion stage now. When I say "No", he hears "Well sure go ahead" and so he climbs onto the tables, tries to pull things over, sits in my plant (cause he saw the cat do it) and touches things that he shouldn't. When I try and stop him he figures that if he throws himself backwards or cries real hard or stomp his feet that I'll give in. Most of the time i win but sometimes he wins in that I will let him do something as long as it's safe (I mean cat food won't hurt him and if he coughs up hair balls then I can clean it up)

Mountain biking

Good Friday was definitely a good day. Mummy bought me a nifty new seat and then she had daddy attach it to her bicycle. Then we loaded her bike and daddys onto the roof of daddys car and set out to Rotary trail for a little exercise. What a fun time, I got to sit in front of mummy and see everywhere that we were riding (of course I also got to expericence bugs in my teeth and eyes). We went for miles and miles and we rode over every bump there was.

Then daddy thought i should experience how mountain biking really feels so we jumped this knarly log and flew through the air and landed safely in the dirt. Okay so we really just posed for this picture but daddy says when mummy's not with us he'll take us for a ride down peach trail and we can be real mountain bikers!

When we got home, both mummy and daddy were whining a bit about how sore their butts were. I'm not sure why cause mine felt fine. I guess the folks just aren't made for this kind of riding!