Ok, so updates on our wonderful little CJ! He’s not so little anymore. He will be 6 in 1 week! I’m still kind of in denial about that one. I want him to stay little forever!! He’s my little cuddle muffin. (I know - gag me). But he does love to cuddle and get hugs and stuff and I’m afraid that won’t last much longer.

He’s an extremely bright little boy who loves anything Disney, plays DS better way better than I do and is a natural at the computer. He’s in Senior Kindergarten this year, so still only goes 2 days, sometimes 3 days a week. He starts full time school in September and will be in French Immersion. For those of you not in Canada, that is a program offered here so that kids can learn the official second language of Canada. Since Pierre and his entire family are French Canadian and speak the language, we thought it only fitting and beneficial for CJ to get in on that action (and maybe he can share what he learns with his stubborn mommy who still hasn’t learned French).

We are hoping we can get in a trip to Disneyworld sometime this year. CJ is really the perfect age for it and since he’s a Disney afficionado, he’s asking to go all the time. Our little collector has not changed in that regard. It used to be Baby Einstein movies, then it moved on to all the cars from Disney Pixar Cars. And now it’s every Disney movie ever made (except some of the princess ones of course). LOL! And if anyone has Disney Movie Rewards codes laying around, oh my goodness, CJ will grab them up faster than you can say Ka-Chow!

We have been in our house for a year and a half now and still love it. Last year, Pierre’s dad did a beautiful job of painting the downstairs for us and it’s show home quality! Now if we could just get around to doing the upstairs and changing a few window coverings etc, wouldn’t that be nice? And the office is a disaster. Why is it the place you use the most is always the last to get attention?

Last year Pierre changed jobs and now works as a bilingual technical instructor for Sony of Canada. He enjoys it much more than he did his job at Nestle, so that’s a plus. I also finally had enough of commuting 3 hours per day to downtown Toronto and found a job closer to home, 10 minutes to be exact. That has made quite the difference for me as far as stress levels and being able to accomplish more. I’m back in the real estate field which I really enjoy, so hopefully this year will just see things continue to improve in the career area. I still have my business which keeps me busy in my “non-working” hours.

CJ and I did manage to get away last year, to beautiful Hawaii!!! CJ visited his Aunty Erin for the first time and fell in love! He still talks about her all the time. Erin is doing wonderfully and it was great to catch up and see her again. We hope to get back out there as soon as we can, but it might have to wait until after Disneyworld. LOL! Other than that, we did the usual Montreal weekend trips and did one longer trip to Quebec City with my BFF and honorary sister, Lisa, which was awesome. What a beautiful place! We also got away for a long weekend to the Muskoka area (where a lot of people in Toronto have their cottages) and stayed at a wonderful place that was right out of the movie Dirty Dancing. Communal dinners that you dress for and all sorts of activities for us and CJ. It was a great experience!

So, will I write more in 2009 than in 2008? Well I already have, but won’t make promises about doing it more. Will just do what I can when I can. Now I must get back onto that fast spinning thing called the world and continue on about my day. And so life goes on…and CJ grows and grows and grows…

“I have 10 teeth on the top and 10 teeth on the bottom!” He opens his mouth in a shocked expression and waits for my equally stunned response to news this shattering. So I acquiesce and exclaim, “Wow! That’s amazing!” He nods in complete agreement and runs back out.

However, just as he gets to the door, he turns back around and exclaims very knowledgeably, “That means that my teeth are 10 years old!!” And so goes the logic of CJ. Logic that we don’t follow most days but that never ceases to amaze and humor us in countless ways.

Updates have been absent for well over a year now and for those of you who are interested in CJ updates I offer my most sincere apologies. Time just has this way of passing much too quickly and before you know it, your child is graduating high school or college. Ok, well maybe just Junior Kindergarten.

We just happen to be at that time of year when you reflect back on the past year and look forward to all the things you’ll do differently in the coming one. So for me, that meant getting an update posted on CJ and vowing to do better with updates beginning in 2008.

As for the past year in CJ’s life, much has happened. We finally bought our own house and moved in July to a wonderful little community east of Toronto. We found a lovely daycare provider just down the road who has a daughter CJ’s age. CJ also started Junior Kindergarten. This has been quite the challenge for CJ who is used to a world where pretty much everyone caters to his whim and he is free to do as he pleases (within reason of course). He has discovered there is a whole world of other children out there with whom he must share and play and try to get along. CJ had a bit of a rough time of it at the beginning. He has issues with wanting to be FIRST at everything, first to finish, first in line, etc etc. Our little overachiever…LOL! I kept getting notes at home about CJ throwing tantrums or not cooperating and it didn’t sound like him at all. So I sat him down one day and we had a long talk about what was going on. At first he didn’t want to talk about it but then I finally got it out of him. I asked why he sat down when it was time for gym and refused to participate. He said in a small very quite little voice, “Because I couldn’t be first.” So that was quite the eye opener. We’ve been working with him on it and are proud to report he’s doing much better at sharing and working with others and it’s now getting to be “ok” to not have to be first every time and also it’s “ok” to be wrong sometimes. He’s still working on this one. Because in CJ’s world he’s always right and if he knows he’s not right, then he just responds that that’s the way HE does it or says it. Gee I wonder where he gets this from. LOL! Poor kid didn’t stand a chance with me and Pierre as his parents.

So anyway, CJ is now thriving in school and loving it. He hated it at first but is now coming around. He confided in me the other day that he loves Mrs. Van de Walker (his teacher) and he also loves me. He reads extremely well for his age. He knew how to read going into JK and the teacher was quite impressed with him. She asked if she could put him in her Senior Kindergarten (SK) reading program and of course we said yes (he’s the only JK student in the reading program - we’re so proud). So he now brings home a book to read each school day (he only goes Tuesdays and Thursdays and some Fridays). And he gets points and stars when he takes them back. He amazes us with his ability to pick up things.

CJ loves the computer and has his own (of course - LOL!). He likes to search Google for his favorite things, such as Baby Einstein (the first thing he learned to spell) and Baby Einstein puppets and Toy Story characters such as Zurg. He knows to click on images to only search pictures and then he emails those pictures to mommy and daddy (subtle little hints?) LOL! He also loves getting email and as long as you keep the words fairly easy can read them quite well. He’ll answer back too with little help from us. He’s just growing up so darn fast!! He’ll be 5 in February and it’s hard to believe.

CJ writes and draws all the time when he isn’t reading or surfing the net. He spells quite well and if he doesn’t know how to spell something sounds it out and spells it phonetically. He currently has 3 imaginary friends (I guess he wasn’t satisfied with just one). They are Mr. Nobody (who has been around the longest) and who does all the bad things that CJ would never do. There is also Mr. Coo-coo Head who is responsible for his craziness. And there is Jefferson (don’t ask us how he picked the names). Jefferson is CJ’s shadow. So we’ve got quite the full house now with all these imaginary people living here as well. It truly makes life interesting.

So anyway, enough bragging about our little man. Just wanted you to know where he was at and what he was into. The best thing about CJ though is his ability to make us laugh and smile which never ends and I definitely want to try and be better about writing them down because we forget so quickly and I want to hang on to these moments. When I was cleaning out the basement yesterday, I ran across a memory book I started when he was first born and it had his ultrasound pictures, he first foot print and hospital bracelet and the tiniest little denim baseball cap that he used to wear and it just made me realize again how fast time goes and how precious these moments are. I’m glad I can share them with those interested in CJ’s life and hope you are as entertained by them as we are.

Hoping for a great 2008 with many more memories and good times to come. (Here is CJ with one of his best buds, Siobhan, pronounced Sha-von)

In this post, I wanted to record all the things that make CJ his funny unique little self that we’ve all come to know and love and who only has to smile to brighten up an entire room and laugh to bring joy to those around him…..(too corny? LOL!)

CJ’s Current Favourite Movie:
“Cheapers by the Doesn’t!”
(Cheaper by the Dozen - he loves the chaos of it I think and we love the way he says it!!)

CJ’s Favourite Reason to Now Poop in the Potty:
“So I can use the sprinkler!”
(The “sprinkler” would be the can of air freshener that is used after one has made a particularly unpleasing odour in the bathroom…CJ adores using this after every bathroom visit…he calls it the sprinkler)

CJ-isms:
“Feet are for walking, NOT for tickling!”
(This in response to me tickling his very cute little bare feet as we were sitting on the couch one evening. After he was finished bursting out in laughter, he got quite serious and announced to me that feet were for walking, not for tickling!)

Our Amazing Boy:
Not long after the boys arrived we were eating dinner and CJ was sitting across the table from us with Christopher and Patrick. We were doing the usual stuff, trying to get him to say his ABC’s etc, when suddenly out of the blue, he announces, “Now I will say my ABC’s in French!” Pierre & I looked at each other and thought, ummm ok …. he had heard Daddy do it a few times and we have some of it on video where he was asking and paying attention but other than that, we’d never really worked with him on this. However, he shocked the heck out of us by reciting his ABC’s in French and not messing up one of the letters. We were quite impressed with our little guy, to say the least. And quite proud. He is very much aware of the differences in the languages and often asks us what something is in French. And he’ll repeat it quite well, he has a good ear for that type of stuff.

Then a few weeks ago, we were in a restaurant with Pierre’s boys and the subject of math came up and we asked CJ what 1+1 was and he answered, much to all of our shock, “TWO!” We figured this was just a guess but a good one at that. So then we continued with 1+2, 1+3 etc and he got every single one of them right until the number 10! We were pretty much awestruck. I mean he just figured out we were adding 1 to a number and it was the next number but still….we had never taught him this or worked with him on it, so for him to just come out with this was quite amazing.

So we decided to test our little guy again this morning and see if he remembered that or if it was a fluke. This is how the conversation went:

Daddy: CJ, What is 1+1?

CJ: 2

Daddy: What is 1+2?

CJ: 3 (or as he says it  - FREE)

Daddy: What is 1+3?

CJ: 4

Daddy: What is 1+4?

CJ: 6 … no 8 …. no umm, Daddy I don’t think I need to learn this anymore …

Daddy: You don’t nedd to learn math?

CJ: No, I already know how and I know how to read and write too!!
(For CJ, reading means holding a book and making up his own story and writing means making scribbles on paper, though he can write his name, CJ, quite legibly, and a few other letters as well)

His latest good habit:

When the clock says Nine Zero Zero it is time for bed and he is extremely good about going to bed when he sees that it’s 9:00.

His latest bad habit:

Calling me “Wendi” instead of “Mommy”! I think this is a leftover from having Pierre’s kids here, but it’s quite disconcerting to come downstairs and have him look at me and say WENDI!!!! LOL! We are trying to teach him it is a matter of respect to call me Mommy. He is beginning to understand but sometimes still forgets.

Overall:

CJ is an extremely polite little boy, often saying please and thank you without even being told or reminded. He has really impressed his daycare provider (Sohala) with his politeness and manners. He is also a very sensitive little boy whose feelings get hurt easily, but he bounces back quickly and he is sensitive to others’ moods as well. He knows when he’s done wrong and he is quick to say sorry.

We just love our little CJ and wouldn’t know what to do without him. He is already turning into quite the incredible little kid. Enough gushing yet?

First of all, we no longer have a nanny. This was an unfortunate set of circumstances which I guess were unavoidable. She became too sick and never fully recovered from her surgery earlier in the year, so she just wasn’t able to keep the job. We miss her very much.

CJ has now started to go to a home daycare that is not too far from our house and he absolutely loves it. He has lots of friends there that he interacts with, so it’s really good for him. He does lots of art (which he adores) and singing and dancing. I think he definitely is more on the creative side (he takes after mommy there). The home daycare is definitely more affordable than the full time nanny was and he is really enjoying it, so that’s a plus.

If you can believe this, he is supposed to start what is called “pre-kindergarten” here next fall. OMG!!!! He’s growing up so fast. I’m posting a couple of pictures of him as I know it’s been awhile and he’s grown up so much in the past few months.

He still misses things about the “old Toronto” as he puts it, our old house in Markham and still doesn’t understand where some of his favorite toys went to and asks about them occasionally. But overall, he has adjusted quite well. He has a good friend, Noah (a very pretty little 5 year old girl) and here baby sister Naomi (2), who live behind us and they play together quite frequently. He still asks about Jenn (his old babysitter) all the time. It seems this kid never forgets anything or anybody. I guess that’s a good thing. 

Now for the big announcement … CJ  has FINALLY decided it is time to start using the potty on a regular basis. This past weekend it was like he just made the ultimate decision that he would now go poop and pee on the potty. It is a bit of trade off as he now insists on doing it about every 10 minutes, so it seems like we are constantly traipsing off to the bathroom to witness him pushing out another little pellet (LOL! Sorry for the graphics). But we are so happy that he finally made the decision that it’s better to do this in the toilet where it belongs as opposed to his diaper. Another milestone!! Woohoo!

CJ’s brothers, Christopher and Patrick, visited for the whole summer. That was quite the challenge. At times, CJ loved having his brothers there and at other times he was quite frustrated with them (as were Mommy & Daddy). It was a challenging summer and one I’m glad is now past us. We did a lot of things, like Marineland and Niagara Falls and Canada’s Wonderland and the Zoo and African Country Safari. It was all a blur. We’re hoping for a much quieter Autumn.

I think that brings us mostly up-to-date. I will post some of CJ’s funnier moments of late in another post. Thanks for reading this far….. (I have posted a few photos of CJ from this summer in the Photo Gallery).

In the meantime here are a couple of recent shots of CJ….the first is an outfit he just decided to surprise me with one morning in my office, talk about surprise…lol. The second is CJ “coming out of the closet”. (HAHAHAHA!) For some reason he insists on being mommy and wearing my shoes. It’s a phase, right? And the third is CJ perusing a few of his Baby Einstein movies. He announced to us this morning that his name is CJ Einstein and I do believe he could be right! LOL!

This morning CJ was in his room, organizing his Baby Einstein collection, when the tractors started up outside. They are leveling off our yard to get ready to lay the sod down. So anyway, I hear CJ “talking” to someone in his room in this little voice. He was saying, “Hey, come here, come over here. I have to show you sumping. Come here, no come closer.” He was looking out his window at the guy driving the tractor and trying to show him one of the DVDs from his Baby Einstein collection through the window. Needless to say, the guy wasn’t paying any attention nor could he even know there was a little 3 year old trying to get his attention from an upstairs window.

Well I guess that just didn’t suffice for CJ, because later in the afternoon I got a message from Nanny Lisa. She told me that CJ insisted on going outside and showing “his man” his Baby Einstein DVD. So out they went and CJ’s “man” came over, a big burly biker kinda guy and sat on the front porch step next to CJ as CJ showed him his Baby Einstein DVD and quite animatedly told him all about the story and which one it was. The guy was a good sport I guess, because he sat patiently and listened, pretending a keen interest that I’m sure he did not really feel.

After that I guess CJ was feeling pretty good about showing “his man” his movies, so he then proceeded to announce that he needed to go over and meet “all the guys”. So off he went to the rest of the group of construction workers and had to ask everyone their names. LOL! Finally they all had to get back to work though and so they said to CJ that he had to go back in the house with his mommy. CJ told them, “That’s not my mommy, that’s Nanny Lisa, but she’s a mommy too!” Can you say too smart for his own good???

I don’t know if it made their day or not, but I’m sure it must’ve brightened it just a bit. CJ does tend to have that effect on people.

One of the “rides” they have is in a car with Chuck E Cheese himself and while you’re riding in the car, you get your photo snapped as well. So CJ decided he REALLY liked this ride. Forgive the quality of photos as this is what is spewed forth from the machine after the ride had finished. LOL! At any rate, I think you’ll get the idea.

This is CJ having a lot of fun. We knew he was having a lot of fun because when we asked him if he was having fun, he said “Yes.”

This is CJ after he ate and going on more of the rides. He decided he wanted to try the Chuck E Cheese one again. So this time he’s having a BLAST! So much fun that he can hardly contain himself….

As if that wasn’t enough fun, then he decided he wanted to ride it again immediately after and this time he was really going to smile for the camera to show just how much of a great time he was really having….

So I just had to share the many moods of CJ. Can you tell the difference? I can’t. LOL!

I hope it gave you as much of a chuckle as it gave us. 

OK - the next fully little tail is the one about CJ adding words to Nanny Lisa’s - already made up - song - in order to fit his own agenda.  CJ and I were on our way to our park picnic - and well seeing as he loves the Little Eiensteins show so much - I decided to make up a little song - using the tune of the Eiensteins show - and it went something like this….”CJ and Nanny Lisa are going on a picnic - and we are going to play on the slides - and we’re gonna have fun”…..then CJ pipes up and says ” Oh - you forgot about this part……CJ and Nanny Lisa are going to the mall and we’re gonna buy Baby Bach”.  Well - thru all the laughing I managed to say “Nice try, buddy - I’ll give you an extra star, on the chores chart, for effort”  LOL    For those of you who don’t know what the ‘chore chart’ is - it’s a daily list - located on the fridge - with all different kinds of ‘chores’ …you know - brush your teeth - put away your toys - no crying at nap time - poop and pee on the potty (guess which stars he is missing lots of..lol) - and CJ gets a star for completing all his chores - that way Mommy and Daddy get a little idea of what CJ has done/not done during our day.

Hmmmm - what else did we do this week.  Oh - we had a couple of trips to the mall - and we did a little damage at Baby Gap - and Toys R Us.  CJ got a new ‘toy’ - it’s a CD Player and a Kerioki machine all-in-one - and the funniest thing was that CJ and I were waiting for Techno Wizzard Daddy to come home - so that he could hook it up for us.  So, Daddy arrives home and he asks Nanny Lisa where I think we should hook up this machine - Nanny Lisa suggests up in CJ’s room - but Daddy thinks it should go in the family room - where the other electronic equipment is hooked up.  Sooo…..Daddy hooks it up in the family room - and Nanny Lisa thinks to herself…hmmm how long is this going to last.  Well - CJ fell in love with the microphone - but he finds he gets better results if he YELLS AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS INTO IT - and even better - if HE YELLS REALLY LOUD HE CAN DROWN OUT DADDY’S TV SHOW.   Sooooo - CJ’s new toy is now located (yep you guessed it) in his room - where HE CAN YELL ANY TIME AND ALL THE TIME IF HE LIKES…..all he has to do is close his door.   LOL

So, it’s Sunday night and it’s pouring rain outside - it has been all weekend pretty much - and I’m just thinking about the wonderful - summer like- weather we had last week.  It made CJ and my days so much ‘brighter’ and he is so easy to please….with the park only a few ‘walking’ min. away we spend most of our mornings there.

Nanny Lisa will be talking some ‘Colours Park’ pictures - this coming week.  CJ and I were going to take pictures the day our our picnic - but we were unexpectedly joined by two little girls - who just climbed up on the table (didn’t speak a word of english) and dug right in to our picnic lunch.  I was rather horrified - but CJ calmed me right down and just reminded me that “These are my friends - and they want to have a picnic with us”.  Ahhhh - to be able to see things thru un-tainted eyes - and just make the most of any situation, good or bad, that’s what CJ helps us all with - gotta love YOU, CJ.

 /s/ Nanny Lisa

As you may have seen from Nanny Lisa’s post earlier that we are trying to bribe him into pooping in the potty. He is quite content to not have to worry about this, much to our chagrin. So we are trying anything we can think of. Since he is soooo obsessed with Baby Einsteins right now, we figured we’d use that as incentive. He also likes Aladdin and wanted to have Aladdin 2 & 3. So of course we said only if he poops in the potty. Well then Daddy broke down and bought them anyway, but he is not allowed to OPEN them until he goes. LOL! Yeah, ok. He’s content to just carry them around. It’s the fact that he has them now that counts.

Granted, he did go a few times in the potty with these techniques, but we haven’t quite figured out what will make him keep it up just yet. We hope to have that solution soon. I have no idea where he gets his stubbornness from. Has to be his father!!

So enjoy these few photos of him showing off his Baby Neptune and his Aladdin movies and lounging in his recliner. Click on the photos for the larger views and to go to his photo album.

We have some really funny stories to share as well of things CJ did this week. I will let Nanny Lisa share those. This kid is going to be a stand up comic or something. He certainly knows how to bring laughter to our lives.