Monday, February 6, 2012

Samuel Feeds the Chickadees

February 4

Kirk & Karine had a lot of shopping to do for their downstairs bathroom reno.  Naturally, we were delighted to babysit Samuel, and we planned to take him to the Jack Pine Trail to feed the chickadees and look for the resident deer.

The first thing was to help Grandpa get some sunflower seed from the basement.  Barbara brought some apple pieces for the deer, but they must have been on vacation, as we did not see them, although Bill had seen five a couple of days previously.

We drove to the trail and got started.  Progress was slow, as Samuel wanted to look at everything.  We decided to put him in the sled and pull him to the feeder area.


Samuel enjoyed watching and studying us feed the birds.  He repeated over and over "oiseaux mangent".












He liked holding the seeds, but could not hold his arm out far enough.  Finally, with Grant's help, SUCCESS!   There were also other birds, squirrels and families to keep him entertained.




As morning was nearly over, we hurried back for lunch before Samuel nodded off.  He enjoyed a bath, and went down for a long nap.  He now wore his Saskatoon Roughriders football shirt as his plaid shirt had some lunch on it. We noted the Saskatoon shirt was small and well worn – good news from K&K later that he got a new bigger one from Aunt Pamela and Uncle Craig for his birthday.


After nap time, we went for a walk over to the apartment hill and play structure for some sliding and to give the dogs a run.




Kirk and Karine returned from a successful shopping day - they even braved IKEA!  We had raclette  for supper.  As Samuel started to fade, Barbara gave him some margarine containers to play with.  He quickly figured out how to get those lids off and back on again.



Boots rested by the fire while Samuel got ready to head for home.  It was a very stimulating day for the little guy.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Samuel's Second 2nd Birthday

For his actual birthday, Samuel had a full day.  He had a doctor's appointment in the morning. He weighed in at 32 lbs and is tall for his age. He had lunch and a nap at Aurel and Diane's, then came back home.

Grant and Bill picked up Chinese food and headed for 47 de la Rivière, arriving shortly after 5:30.  Barbara met Kirk at the NAC and they arrived minutes later. 

As the food was still hot, we sat right down to eat.  Samuel selected a regular chair, but Kirk persuaded him to go in the highchair.  Samuel is a good eater, and especially likes broccoli, so Chinese food is fine with him.  The garlic ribs each contained a "baton", which were fun for him.


Barbara had prepared blueberry lemon muffins before going to work, so one served as an impromptu birthday "gateau" with "feu".  Samuel seemed to enjoy it, but decided to share the second half of his muffin with Boots.



After a clean-up, Barbara got out a favourite toy - bubble wrap.  Kirk helped him break some bubbles in the chair, but it was even more fun to stomp on it on the floor.  Then it was time to test out one of Grandpa's Christmas cookies.


We watched a Becky Mason canoeing DVD which Barbara got for Christmas - he loves "eau" and "bateau". Grant read him a story from the book that Wanda gave him.  Then it was off to bed to try out his new PJs and listen to another story with Karine.  A tired happy boy...