On Golden Pond

We've been taking advantage of the ice skating pond in our neighborhood almost every weekend since Christmas.  The nice thing about Calgary weather is that it is just cold enough to maintain the ice pond, but is not too cold where it is unbearable to go out.  Last Sunday it was great weather, about 8C.  Christian went skating with Daddy and Daddy put Liam on the sled and pushed him along on the ice and snow.  Ever since Liam's first time on the sled in November, he has loved it.  When you stop or go slower, he starts to complain.  He loves being outdoors and often points to the front door at home as to ask to go outside.  He kept pointing to the swings near the pond, so we took him over there to swing for a while.  After skating, Daddy took Christian on the sled around the ice for a spin, which he liked and wanted to do again!

Name that Tune

Christian loves to sing and is now starting to keep his own tune for quite some time.  The other day he was singing "Frosty the snow man was a jolly happy soul, with a corn cob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of coal".  He sang this first verse on each stair as he was going up the stairs to his bedroom.  By the fifth stair, Mark and I were cracking up!  

We also like playing name that tune, where I  hum a familiar song and Christian has to guess the song.  He got all of the songs right.  Two weeks ago we were in the car and a singer that sounded like Natasha Bettingfield was on the radio and Christian was excited and said, "mommy, your song".  He thought the song was Unwritten, by Natasha Bettingfield ; sounded like it, but was another song.

I dropped Christian off at his Kodaly singing class yesterday.  The kids are dropped off by themselves for the first 45 minutes and parents come and join the class for the last 10 minutes.  As I sat in the hallway, I could hear him singing.  The door was open a bit and I walked past (Christian could not see me) and I could see Christian with a great big smile, enthusiastically doing the actions to head and shoulders knees and toes with Ms. Susan, his instructor.  It was very cute to see him in the moment.

Standing Up

Liam began standing up in bed last week.  He is really coming into his own and like all Waldrons, loves to talk.  He has also been trying to pull up on anything to stand and takes great pleasure in his efforts.  He loves people and is OK so long as people are around.   Some of his recent words are "door", "stop", "Ki" (for Kiki-his brother Christian), "ball" for playing roll-catch, "dog", "bath" for his favorite activity.  He also loves to give kisses and hugs.  He is becoming easier to put down at night; as long as you put on his CD player with his music, he is OK; otherwise it takes him about 5-10 minutes to settle down.  I think Liam resembles more the Mars family (his cousin Emily Yue), but has his own defining features as well.  Right now, his favorite toys are the little people that come with the classic Fisher Price sets (i.e. the School House) and a wood block stacking puzzle set.  He also likes knocking down any structure Christian has built.

Pepperoni Sausage

Christian had his second piano lesson last Saturday (Jan. 12).  Mark took Christian to his first lesson, so I was not sure what to expect.  We try and practice daily with Christian, but sometimes, it is very quick (2 minutes) before he wants to bow and end his lesson.  He created a new bow where he puts his head all the way down on the floor like a praying monk.  He also wanted to change the words of his song from pepperoni pizza to pepperoni sausage.  At the lesson, Christian listened very well to Ms. Marissa and played pepperoni sausage a few times.  I was really proud of him as I was not sure if he could sit through his whole lesson, but he did.  We also stayed another half hour to watch a 4 year old student play.  Suzuki method believes in observing other children play and after staying to watch the 4 year old, I understood where he was coming from.  I think the observation time will be just as valuable as the playing time for Christian.  We will go get a notebook to jot down notes from our lesson.  Christian is excited about being able to decorate it with stickers- - cars of course.