I'm afraid I won't know what floor to get off on

Charlie was worried about our trip tomorrow as he doesn't remember which floor nana is on

All I want for Christmas is …

Charlie got to meet Santa with Aidan at the shopping center (Dec 15, 2010 now). Charlie was pretty excited to meet up with him and was thrilled to let him know that all he wanted for Christmas was an electric blanket and an Xbox kinect.

Those are two funny requests because the other day Eileen mentioned an electric blanket and he asked me what that was. We didn’t think of it after that.

Also, Charlie has played with the kinect in 2 places, once at the Microsoft store then once at the Bose store. It did make an impression on him, obviously.

As for Aidan, well, Santa is just too big and scary right now. This was the same thing with Charlie at this age as well.

Santa at 1 years old is a bit scary

Joffrey Ballet–Nutcracker–Christmas 2010

Eileen and Charlie went to the ballet tonight and both enjoyed it.

Eileen mentioned that the seats were awesome and to keep track of them for the future. They were up in Sec: Dresl Row DD and Seats 510-511 for $75/each.

Charlie was not interested in going to the ballet by time 2 o’clock came around after playing in the snow so much in the morning. Then I explained to him that all his cousins have seen this and Memere goes every year to see this. He must see this since even Kevin Allan has seen this. That was enough to get him to get his boots and jacket on and head out with Mom.

Aidan was still in bed but woke up just a few minutes after they left. We had a showing right at 2 p.m. so I dressed him and fought the galling snow white winds to the corner store where we hung out and had snacks for 45 minutes.

Here are a few pics that Eileen took with her phone while at the theatre which was at the Auditorium Theatre at 50 E Congress Pkwy.

Charlie's first ballet turned out to be fun and he enjoyed it better than the symphony the other day. Eileen mentioned the skittles at intermission helped him along the second half as well. When he arrived home he was most excited about the real tall man in the show.

Ticketmaster sidebar:
I’m not sure why but this is typical of Ticketmaster. First they charge a $10 convenience charge (their website sucks and I told them in a follow up survey) then there’s a 50 cent tax on top of that convenience charge and then they round it off with a $3.30 order processing fee. The tickets were printed on old ticket stubs because the back of them said we had a 20% off at the local hotel that expired Aug 31, 2010. Nope I double checked that date, 4 months ago. Now that, in a “nutshell” is Ticketmaster. Thieves.

Tintin update…objective lune

Charlie is starting to pick up reading in English. It’s odd but in kindergarden they don’t start to learn to read French quite yet but the English teacher who they see daily except for Wednesdays is moving along. He' actually read an entire 30 page level 1 book with Eileen (ok. helped a lot by Eileen) 2 nights ago.

Even now as I read Tintin he’s trying to figure it all out like why the “in” in French is like an “ain” instead of “inn”. But he’s pretty darn excited about reading and its really neat to see.

What drives it home was I saw a piece on the news where the Afghan military are mostly illiterate and kinda thinking of that while he’s sounding out words and then we’re realizing even in English there’s plenty of rules around words.

Anyways, we’re now at “objective lune” in the Tintin collection and out of the grand total of 24 books in the collection we have 7 left. It’s been a long journey but an absolute delight for both him and I. The stories are awesome and actually riveting at times. Eileen’s favorite thing to do is when its 7 p.m. and time for bed she lets us finish the page then rips the book out of my hands, not knowing what is about to happen. The layout of the books are really well done. I think every book is 62 pages and crafted for page turning suspense. Who would have known. Charlie loves it, and without a doubt his favorite is Mr. “mille sabord” Haddock.

Our first book we read was “on a marche sur la lune” then “L’or noir”, then “L’affaire Tournesol” before starting from the top and working sequentially; highly recommended because the stories do often intertwine.

The book we just finished yesterday night called “Coke en stock” was really well done but would have more fun had we read it in the Quebec French version called “Colocs en stock”

 

Swimming

Wow. There’s no way Charlie would swim like he did today with me. I can’t believe it, there was pretty much nothing he wouldn’t do in the water with his teacher, Dino. Actually Eileen mentioned there was one thing he wouldn’t do and that was to go and pick up rings from the bottom of the pool but really it was incredible to se him do what he did.

He started with the front crawl and then back crawl and even being let go to swim to the wall. No great form, but wow, he’s starting to do it. Most important of all there is that the fear factor isn’t there.

Heck, with me he wouldn’t even go on his back. I’m not sure what it is, I know he trusts me, but no way could I get him to do 1/4 of what he’s doing. Pretty wild. It might be part doing what the teacher says to do, and a lot about peer pressure as all the other kids are doing stuff and its not like he’s doing something no one else is doing.

Wow, I certainly felt like a failure though since I really did try to encourage Charlie to try different things in the pool on our recent trip to Quebec. It’s really amazing and he’s doing a great job. I think its cool.

Library Card

We went for a walk around the neighborhood this afternoon. As always is the case we end up getting new ideas when we’re out there and this time we thought, hey, Aidan love’s the train so lets jump on the train and go for a ride. Eileen mentioned that this wasn’t really walking and exercise so I improvised and said we’ll get off the train in town and walk around there. Then we thought, heck the library is there, its open and its been a while since we visited the French book section.

As usual it was a great time as they had big paper to color on, lots of big colorful books to flip through and the kids section is just very well setup for the kids (I guess that’s by definition). Anyways, the neat part was that we got a library card for Charlie. Seems innocent enough but the moment where Charlie had to sign the form was just a big deal for me. Wow, I thought, really? can’t I just sign it and we’re done here? Nope, he had to come over and fill in a form. That was a first for me.

The line to write your name on is plenty big for me, but for a 5 year old no way. He managed to fit Charles on 75% of the line and though he thought he was finished I let him know that he had to do the b o y l e too. He promptly put down the b o y e and I had to point out the missing l. No problem we squashed it in all together and it looked awesome. I high 5’ved him (we say Clac cinq in French but I don’t remember what we said as kids for that) and then he received his own library card. Fun. And, wow, someone is getting bigger.

Names for Aidan

Charlie has a few very cutie names for Aidan. He started with Mr. Aidan and has moved to "the little one" and "the little guy". Charlie will say things like, "Mum where is the little one?" Or "Oh, I got the little guy" as we race to get Aidan who is climbing the stairs! He is very serious when he says it and seems like such a grown-up. He loves his little bro. No question about it. And Aidan love him.

Daddy, you have to listen to mommy

Just as we go to bed I tell Charlie that I love him, he replies with I love you only if you listen to mommy. If she says one thing you have to do it you have to do it and not make her repeat herself 75 times. Or something like that, I really don't remember b/c I wasn't listening.

His name is Turkey

Tonight a pizza delivery guy came to the door and rang the door bell twice before he realized he was at the wrong address. I opened the door as he was walking away and he apologized.

As Charlie was going to sleep he told me that the delivery man was called “turkey”. Since we only speak in French with each other I corrected him and said, oh you mean “dinde”. He said no, his name was turkey because Mom knew his name and called him turkey.

When I asked Eileen she mentioned that he didn’t close the gate behind him and so she called him turkey. Charlie picked that up litteraly and thought, cool, that’s a neat name.

Did you and Dad fall in love?

Charlie: Did you guys meet and fall in love before me?

Mom: Well, Dad fell in love with me long before I fell in love with him.

Am I a robot?

Charlie: Did you take me or steal me?

Mom: Dad and I created you

Charlie: Am I a robot?

first night spent in a tent

the rain was unbelievable. It poured all night hard.

it took Charlie a few hours to finally sleep since he was super excited about the experience. on top of that his twin cousins where in the tent with us as well.

Isabelle and Kevin were doing stuff on their iPods for a few hours so it was hard to get Charlie not to look at the shiny screens while they played games. eventually though the rhythm of the rain got him to sleep.

i woke up every hour or so checking on everyone. Charlie stayed mostly under his sleeping bag he was away from the walls and so remained dry but not his pillow and outer part of his sleeping back which was touching the walls.

his cousins weren't so lucky. Isabelle was at the door which was mostly open because it was so hot in there with 4 people. her pillow was drenched. and as for Kevin somehow he got flipped over and ended up head first at the bottom of the tent slant so he was real wet. at 6 a.m. he was freezing so we ended up all getting up, wrestling a while before bringing everything in the house and bolting off to Tim Horton for a nice hot chocolate.

growing up fast

charlie asked for a pair of shoes with laces so that he could learn how to tie his shoes. that was funny because he's only ever owned velcro.
we think it was a result of his Latin summer camp where other kids must be doing it and he felt left out.

he's also really gone far with swimming.i'm not sure how they do it, probably peer pressure, but he's now got his head under the water all the time. he's fearless all of a sudden. what a big change.

now, just to top it off, last week he washed his hair alone (he typically hates washing his hair period) and then washed his body with soap too. i did nothing except watch...of course, i didn't like this a bit. i've been bathing him straight for about 4 years now (the first year eileen wouldn't let me near him) and it was now time where he's really grown up. darn. i want him to keep neeading me ;-)

oh well, he's a blast. great imagination, really thoughtful and sharp....loves his brother beyond the beyond too.

Burger Meal

Charlie found out today that there's a McDonalds called Burger Meal. The same but with a different name. Of course, the only thing he knows about both places is that they have toys in a box. Funny.

3rd Hockey class

The past few Saturday open skates are doing well for Charlie. He's starting to spread his wings. He wasn't sure how to stop last Saturday so I showed him a quick and easy trick to drag one skate behind and will slow him down. He was trying that one on his own today and it helped a few times.

But the main way to stop is to hit the boards and fall down.

He had some time on the ice before the class started and its really the first time with the hockey stick and lots of pucks on the ice. He was funny since he would just touch the pucks but skate around real hard. He's getting real comfortable with the ice and skates. When he did shoot the puck he realized that his skates move so he'd fall..for now let's just hit the pucks easier so we can stay up ;-)

he's doing well and really enjoying himself.

wii

charlie loves playing the wii with neighbour nicholas. he's been going over there after school a fair amount and they both stand in front of the tv and wonder around the game endlessly.
they both are working on the blockbuster plan this month and the store is a mini heaven for charlie. he loves all the games and if nothing else has learnt the difference between owning and renting...i.e. louer et acheter.
i think he's a bit young for those games and they are just too way addictive and require prying away from the games.

Grandparents day

Eileen went to Charlie's class today for grandparents day.
Also, in the evening she went to the social. It was at Microsoft's office at the aon building. Awesome.

Charles aime c'elle la

Trois p'tits minous
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient perdu leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons perdu nos mitaines
Perdu vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient r'trouvé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons r'trouvé nos mitaines
Retrouvé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient sali leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons sali nos mitaines
Sali vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient lavé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons lavé nos mitaines
Lavé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient troué leurs mitaines
S'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons troué nos mitaines
Troué vos mitaines ?
Vilains p'tits minous
Vous n'aurez pas de crème !
Trois p'tits minous, p'tits minous, p'tits minous
avaient r'prisé leurs mitaines
s'en vont trouver leur mère
Maman nous avons r'prisé nos mitaines
R'prisé vos mitaines ?
Gentils p'tits minous
Vous aurez plein de crème

Mercredi 31 Mars

I was absolutely bowled over the other day when Charlie grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and sat down to draw. Well, so I thought. Right out of the blue he jotted down perfect Mercredi 31 Mars. I wasn't even sure he knew what it said but it just flowed from his pen like nothing.

This to me was a big deal as typically I spell words out for him but in this case he did it all on his own. Clearly this comes from School since they do write the date out in full each day after they write out their names. Man, he's come a long way.

Dinner time with Charlie is still pretty tough work since he typically has ants in his pants or is so tired he's just completely not interested in eating. Pretty much each meal (unless its pizza or mac and cheese) is a bit of a battle for us. Of course, desert not so much.

Welcome to the world Taj

Dan and Catherine had a baby boy and we went to the hospital at lunch time to say hi.

Charlie was pretty excited to see a baby. He even remembered the place from 6 months ago when Aidan was a little boy like Taj. Taj came in just slightly bigger than Aidan at 8 lbs 14 onces and 21" long. Big german guy that Kleinschmidt.

Charlie always enjoys the cafeteria food there too so its actually kinda fun hanging out at the hospital. Sounds weird but true.

Anyways, congrats Dan and Catherine and welcome to the world baby Taj Alvira Kleinschmidt. March 15th, 2010 8:50 p.m.

Busy weekend

Charlie was pretty tired from the weekend so took the day off. He slept in, and so did Aidan, so everyone just took it easy. I popped in for lunch too.

Sondra picked up Libby last night around 9:30 p.m. so Charlie mentioned to Eileen today that he was wondering what Libby was up too. It was fun having her around.

911

we got back home from 2 weeks up in Canada for Christmas and the house was reading 39 degrees F, yup, that's almost frozen. Our best guess is that the cleaning lady shut it off by mistake since Sondra let her in on Wednesday and she said the house was warm both before and after setting the house alarm.

Man, we could see our breath it was so cold. Water worked though and no frozen pipes!

Once we got in Eileen fired up the gas fireplace to high. After a few hours we got up another 20 degrees but still needed jackets in the house. The CO monitor started going off as well about every 15 minutes but I dismissed it thinking it was the shock to the house. We shut off the fireplace because we figured that must be the problem.

We went out for dinner to the Green Door so that the house could warm up. We were out about an hour and when we returned things were around 60 degrees and once again the alarm kept going off. I took it down and checked the cell (battery and chemicals combined) which I installed in Sept 07 and the marking showed - do not install after march 09 - so i think it might still be fine.

After that Eilen decided to play it safe and call 311 about the alarm going off and of course, they transfered the call directly to 911. The fire truck was here a few minutes later with sirens on and a large ladder. 3 firemen came off the truck and one with a CO meter (Ed) and he went everywhere in the house and didn't read any CO readings so they gave the house a clean bill of health.

They also said they would call the gas company to come and take more readings.

An hour later the gas company showed up. Once I explained the situation about the fireplace being on high he knew right away that was the problem and was ready to leave. They pulled out a meter of course and hit the stove, furnace and fireplace and of course the fireplace had a reading since it is not vented outside.

He said that those fireplaces are 20% heat and 80% ambiance and aren't meant for heat but just a little low fire to cap the chill only as they are not vented outside.

Before they left Eileen asked to have them check my work on installing the stove top underneath since I knew that there was a small leak it was no surprise when they said they were getting a reading. He said he'd close the valve and block it then write me a notice. When I asked for someone to fix it he said they could and it would be $60. Twenty minutes later it was done with a new pipe. Case closed.

The gas guy also mentioned that once the CO meters go off they tend to continue to alarm until you leave them outside for a while to clear. I put it in a box in the garage because it kept going off and was loud. I guess I'll plug it in later today.

Now, back to finishing the windows 7 x86 enterprise install on eileen's laptop (meduse) and off to skating with Charlie and the neighbour.

Uncle Mark

Yes, Midnight Monster is still a popular game. The kids of course are older now and so it hurts when they hit more but the highlight was in all the excitement with all the Allan kids screaming for mercy with my name "Uncle Mark" Charlie at one point, free from my grip was taunting me with something I don't think I'll hear again..."Uncle Mark...you can't catch me". Man, that was pricelesss.

Now, back to recuperating from the bruises and sore back.