Nathan & Naomi: August 2014

Saturday, August 30, 2014

哥哥的情意結

Nathan is one of those people that can wear his shoes until they break. But somehow he is so fixated on wearing that same pair of shoes to all occasions, even when he has other pairs to choose from.

So went to Sport Chek planning on buying a new helmet for mommy (yep, don't laugh, I now have no more excuses to not ride the bike). And of course they have back to school sales, buy one get the 2nd half price.

Found a pair of firefly for 34.99, kinna pricy but thought its ok. Nathan tried it on, not too enthusiastic but his easy going nature kicked in and he was gonna buy whatever. Then he saw the exact same shoes as the pair that he was wearing. He eyes lit up and he asked for the right size. Then he tried and kept walking around and try to see if he can run fast in them. It's funny how sentimental Nathan is even towards his shoes.

Well, mommy bought the first pair of shoes original price.

Then since we needed a second pair to get our half price, Naomi also tried on a pair. Unfortunately all the light up sketchers that Naomi wanted all didn't have size 12. Good that we also found something for Naomi.

Young duckling

...following you very slowly, while reading.

Friday, August 29, 2014

Markham Museum summer camp 2014

Well, Markham museum is a nice facility. I used to really like the museum munchkin camp. (Half day camps at the old brown building in the basement.

Now that they are older, we are now attending camp at the new grey buildings.

If you know how to read in between the lines, yes, I didn't like the camp this year.

First of all, I felt that most of the councilors that I was dealing with were not very friendly (the most that I can say is they were polite...) I also found that they were not really good with dealing with the children. As you also can see, Nathan and Naomi both got hurt pretty badly. (Nathan was ran over by the councilor, while Naomi fell off the train and hurt her knee).

Maybe I am biased, but through out their lives, NN can adapt and more importantly, can enjoy camps that they got sign up for. (NN were involved in the decision when we were picking the camps, not just mommy picked.). But this week when I picked them up, especially Nathan, their responses were very minimal. "It's ok" were their comments.

Finally, the camps were suppose to be science related. (Nathan's camp was called science magic and Naomi's was little engineers). Paper mache globe, hair gel art in ziplock bags, capture the flag, taping straws on a cardboard...... were hardly what I was expecting. I know you also might think that I am asking for too much. I really felt that it was a glorify babysitting service, which I felt that it was a little pricey. (Markham museum as well as Markham library usually charge more for their day camps in comparison to other community programs). I still remember Naomi went to another little engineering camp last year at the Thornhill Community Centre, which they had concept of the day (i.e. Pulley, levers, smoke engine, etc) and they were actually playing and spending time learning mechanical advantages. She built cars, airplanes, engines, played with levers (She was able to tell me the classes of different levers). Maybe next year we should really considered signing up programs at Thornhill CC again, even thou it's really far and Nathan get car sick from the ride....

Videos from Hockey camp

As you can see from the video, the drills are pretty intense. Also, you might be able to see Naomi's way of dealing with hard core drill: take it easy. (In the top 2 videos, Naomi was wearing a black jersey). Her circles are smaller, and if the coach can't see her, instead of skating backwards, she would secretly go forward. Sneaky little girl.