99cm

Rubens is 99cm today!

i can..

Ruby is 2 and a 1/4 and can

* talks in almost complete sentences of 3-5 words.
* loves reading books, can read his favourite books without us
* love repeating simple rhymes, playing with sound combos as found in Dr Suess
* pharaphrases simple stories from pictures or books
* loves singing and can carry a simple tune: B-I-N-G-O, rolly polly, Old Mac Donald, Mary had a Little Lamb, Twinkle Twinkle, Three Blind Mice, Sleeping Bunnies
* picks up on sentimential emotion of songs like 'some where over the rainbow' and mimics it as he sings
* understands "now, soon, and later"
* stacks blocks and toys
* can put together his tricky wood puzzles of 6-12 pieces puzzle
* matches shape silhouette to object, such as silhouette of a animal to the animal
* knows basic shapes: square, heart, circle, triangle, diamond
* loves drawing and painting draws a circle, but likes detailed text likes drawing with fine pens rather than crayons
* matches an object to a picture of that object
* identifies colors such as red, blue, yellow, green, pink, purple, white, black and can often tell you what colour something is
* can count to 12 in english and 7 in spanish
* is very interested animals, he likes picking out their tail, feet, ears, etc. etc. likes showing you what makes them different form another one, like a Moose and a Reindeer or a gorilla and a chimp.

He is amazing

Twinkle Twinkle Old MacDonald

I can sing a gaggle of crazy songs now, twinkle twinkle the was first, but zoom zoom zoom we are going to the moon, see the sleeping bunnies, old Macdonald has a farm and A B C D are now part of my repertoire. I also like making up my own songs.

I can make 3 - 5 word sentences which is pretty cool. And can recognize basic colour (red green blue yellow) with out Mum and Dad's help and can count about three to five objects which I spot them).

I love swimming, Mum and I just found the Park Road pool, which is SO much fun. I quite happily throw myself into the water and Mum's arms.

T-Rex, Ahhhhhhhhhh!

I met a T-Rex today, ahhhhhhhhhh! I am very glad my dad was holding me tight and telling me everything was alright. I don't know what animatronic means, but I can tell you that it roared, snarled and looked like it could eat me without chewing. I was amazing that dinosaurs come from eggs, an dmore curious about the eggs that I help mum crack open for my breakfast

We also stopped at a Christmas Fair and ice skating rink. I got to ride the carousel all by myself, which may not have been a great idea, as it didn't have anything to keep me in the car that I was whirling around on and I did it all by myself. Phew I made it, which seemed to make ma and pa relax a bit.

London

London is amazing. Our second weekend in London included wandering through the woods bumping into a huge Remembrance day parade (with tanks, marching bands and lots of bag pipes), seeing a huge crack in the floor of the Tate Modern (Shibboleth by mum's art hero Doris Salcedo) , popping into St Pauls, see an amazing Christmas fair complete with olde fair ground rides.

Good bye Canada! We will miss you all

We have thoroughly enjoyed living in Canada for the last year and a half. We will sadly miss many things, but most of all:

• Ashely - our amazing girl Thursday, a ECE trained child care worker extraordinare who came to us once a week for a year with out fail and gave Ruby the same love and attention that I would! A truely extraordinary person


• Karen and Fool (read Phil - Rubens is working on the pronunciation) Amongst the gems: Saturday morning adventures with Karen and Phil that always start with eggs and fire trucks ans usually end with a walk down Queen Street West. Exceptional friends who I hope will always be with us some how.