Milestones...

In exactly one week and one day Malcolm will be 30 months old, (that's two and a half for the people who don't use months to count). We have sure come a long way since first bringing him home from the hospital. Tracey and Roger both agree that Malcolm has been such a good boy when it has come to transition issues. As first time parents they've come to worry or expect the worst when it came to many things, but have been pleasantly surprised every time (I think it was their experience in Hawaii that contaminated their outlook). Here are some of the worries that ended up working out quite smoothly:

• Dropping the dream feed (the 11pm bottle feed). The biggest worry was that Malcolm would then stop sleeping through the night.
  
• Weaning Malcolm off the bottle (piece of cake Malcolm says, "Who needed that bottle anyway, I love my sippy cup... bottles are for babies").
• Sleeping without being swaddled, first one arm out then the other.
• Transitioning from two naps to one (we're now at the stage where some days he doesn't even nap at all anyway, but plays quietly in his crib for up to two hours). We're very lucky.
  
• Sleeping in a new place (our current house). We were worried that the new environment would affect his sleep, but again such a great transition. In fact, the first night he slept at the new house he slept in until almost 9am, unheard of.
• Sleeping with a blanket. In retrospect, Tracey and Roger feel silly they worried about that one at all. He loves his blankie.
• The latest break-through has been finally weaning Malcolm off his soother. He hasn't been one of those kids that has needed his soother everywhere he went. For well over a year now he has only wanted his soother in his crib for naps and night-time sleep, now no more. He's becoming a big boy.
  

Now some of the ones that are coming up:

• Potty training, we'll take more of an active role this summer.
  
• Transition to the big boy bed, again something we'll tackle in the summer.
  
• Preschool

Some other pictures from this past week (with the new camera I might add).

Malcolm enjoying a mouth full of fruit bar, crumbs still on his face.
Malcolm has showed a very keen interest in flowers, here he is checking out the Daffodils and Dandelions.
Hamming it up in front of the camera.

Taking pictures.

Over the last two years Roger has really come to enjoy taking pictures. He says that it's because the family subject matter is so compelling, sweet guy huh. Anyway, after almost two years with the Nikon D40, he's upgraded to the next level and decided on the Nikon D90. The new camera has a lot more features and is a significant upgrade in performance. Although the D40 has been a workhorse with exceptional results Roger has outgrown its capabilities. Over the past two years can you believe that Roger has taken over 13,000 photos (mostly of Malcolm, Tracey and me). As you can expect with that many photos snapped Malcolm has shown an interest in how the camera works. Roger decided to let Malcolm use the old point and shoot to get his feet wet. Here are a few of the better shots he's taken over the last several days.

I like this one of my side and Malcolm's shoes.
Here's a partial of Tracey's smiling face during the Canuck playoffs.
Little bit blurry, but pretty good for a two year old to keep the subject in frame.
This one wasn't shaky at all. Here's me looking out the window as always.
Malcolm's first train set.

Go Canucks Go.

With the onset of spring comes the Stanley Cup Playoffs and this year it really does look like the Canucks have a veritable chance to go deep. A 3-0 lead in the series, who would have thought it. We can finish off the St. Louis Blues when we win one more game.

Tracey, Roger and Malcolm were able to go over to Chris and Jennine's house to watch game 3 last night, appropriately dubbed Hockey Night in Burnaby. Malcolm had such a good time playing with the other kids and expressing his artistic talents by grabbing the mic and belting out some toddler tunes. Hopefully we'll be able to watch some more of the games together with the gang.

Bo Obama.

The White House has its First Dog, Bo Obama. Just wanted to welcome another non-shedding relative. Here's a picture of the president with the new pup. You can click the link to the Portugese Water Dog Club of Canada. Wow, the dog can dive under-water! Here's more information about the breed from the site:

As the name denotes, the Portuguese Water Dog developed in Portugal and is known there as Cao de Aqua (pronounced Kownd’ ahgwa), “dog of the water”.

The breed developed many centuries ago as a seafaring working dog and predates the Poodle. The Portuguese fishermen kept these dogs as a working part of their crew and paid them wages just as their human crew mates were paid. The Water Dogs would act as couriers, carrying messages between ships and from ship to shore, and would dive into the sea to retrieve broken fishing nets and equipment that had fallen overboard. Often they would have to dive under water to retrieve submerged articles.

Trains and Spring.

Yes, Spring has finally sprung in Vancouver. After a long and snowy winter there are signs that warmer weather is just around the corner. Easter weekend has also meant the reopening of the Burnaby Central Railway, Malcolm's favorite place. We managed to get there before it closed just in time to squeeze in two rides. He was definitely excited to hop aboard the trains again. I'm not sure what it is with his train fascination, but Roger and Tracey embrace it all. In fact, they are taking Malcolm to visit Thomas the Tank Engine in the summer. I'm sure that will be quite the experience for the whole family.

Happy Easter!

Whoo hoo, a four day weekend. Easter is usually filled with chocolate eggs and bunnies, but to date the only chocolate item Malcolm has consumed is chocolate milk. ( I once ate a whole box of Pocky, but that's another story, boy was Roger upset at me). Roger and Tracey have been limiting how much sugar he consumes, afterall he is only two years old. For the most part Malcolm is very compliant, but we all know that the flood gates are going to open soon.

I'm happy to report that Malcolm has gone back to napping in the afternoons (although we have had some days where he just plays in his crib for the two hour duration). His schedule has changed a bit, but not too much since he was a small baby.

• Bed time around 7:30pm-8:00pm
  
• Wakes up at 8:00am, has breakfast
• Morning activity (gym, playschool, grocery shopping)
  
• Lunch at 12:00pm
• Nap at 1:00pm/1:30pm - 3:30pm/4:00pm, we're all glad the long nap is back!
  
• Dinner at 5:00/5:30
• Evening activity, playing, walk with me
• Bath, brush teeth, read stories and to bed all over again

The day sure goes by fast, considering more that half of it is spent sleeping.