Noooooooobody!

Yesterday was the grand opening of a Bad Boy Store not too far away from our home. The ads said there was free breakfast and fun stuff, so I thought I would bring Matt to see a store opening.
What I expected was a short line up and a quick wander around the store. What we got - an hour long line up and a packed store. Having said that, we had a really good time. Chloe slept through the whole thing, and Matt loved that they had professional pillow fighters, a mascot (we think it is a squirrel) and lots of cool furniture. He loved being allowed to shout the word "NOOOOOBODY" as loud as he possibly could.
He also really loved Mel Lastman who asked him his name and then shouted "who's better than Matthew? Noooooooooobody." It was cute.
The local newspaper photographers went a little crazy over the moment (it was like Papparazzi!) and I pulled out my camera too.

The other crazy part of the event is that they had these giant bad boy dolls all over the store. They were pretty cool because they are super sized beanie babies that say "nooooobody". Thanks to Matt's newfound popularity the store manager gave him one of these dolls. It was a very kind gesture. But the doll is bigger than Matt. And Matt loves this doll. It's his favourite toy and goes everywhere. Including the doctor. Oy. And, since it's a collector's item ... no garage sales for us.

The only bad part of the day was when Matt was dancing to the music, tripped and fell and got a giant goose egg on his head. I felt pretty bad, but he's a trooper and it didn't ruin his day at all.

Pickles, Anyone?

Matthew is obsessed with pickles. I have no idea why. He loves to eat them and talk about them. His idea of a great gift is a pickle. And, the other day when we went to see a balloon-making clown and she asked what he would like he said "A pickle" (and he was delighted when she made it).
But this pickle obsession has been going on for weeks. Today at the grocery store we spent a good 5 minutes choosing which jar of pickles he wanted to get. It's a little insane.
And I made the mistake of telling him you can make pickles!
We have a good friend who is an organic gardner and sometimes makes pickles out of his cucumbers. So, I told Matt that our friend makes pickles. You would think I'd told him I'm friends with SuperMan. And, Matt has now decided that he would like to make pickles. In fact, he now wants to make pickles for presents.
How weird will it be when everyone we know gets pickles for Christmas. From a 4 year old.
Actually, I'm pretty sure our friend has given us pickles for Christmas and I never thought it was weird. But he's not 4. And he makes lots of gifts from his garden.
Now that I think about it, I think I may call him up and plan out some pickle making adventures.
And here I thought we may try making Jam.

Dance Recital

Yesterday was my niece's Irish Dance Recital.
I realized this is the 3rd year we have gone to a year-end show. It's amazing how times change. The first dance recital we were taking turns keeping baby Paige happy and content during the show. This year Paige was an almost-3 year old dancing along in her seat while we were passing baby Chloe back and forth to keep her happy. (Paige got a flower too!)

As usual, as soon as Kyla hit the stage I had to hold back tears. I'm such a proud aunt.
The show was really fun. We all got into it (though I have had a more than enough Irish jig music to last me awhile).
All the excitement tires a little princess out!