Friends!

We had a fun little playdate this week and finally made some friends!  YAY!

Barrett had a great time playing with tons of toys and kids!

My Funny Baby

I happen to think my kid is the funniest human on the planet!  He gives me hours of entertainment every day of my life!

I had this apple on the counter so I wouldn't forget to give it to Bear with his lunch.  As soon as he saw it, he grabbed it and started eating it whole.  I thought it was hilarious!

He woke up the other morning, went in his closet and got out his doggy slippers and tried to put them on his feet.  When he couldn't do it, he brought them to me so I would put them on over his footie pajamas.

He thought the suitcase was a really fun walker (until they both tipped over). 

We got this hotel thing to help move our things to the other apartment and Bear loved hanging on to this bar.  He could actually hold on by himself for a couple seconds!

I love when he does this little "I don't know" gesture!

One of his favorite things to do is look at pictures and movies of himself.  He loves it so much he drools everywhere when he's watching.  

Lately when he looks in the mirror or the phone, he'll flick his tongue in and out and he thinks it's so funny (it actually is so funny!).

So even when we're prisoners in our own house, at least we have each other!!

Weekend Activities

On Friday, Barrett and I walked to the Eaton Centre to meet Neil for lunch.  The Eaton Centre is a huge, really nice mall and Neil's building is super close to it, so even though it's way crowded all the time, it's a good place to meet for lunch.  Bear was totally loving this fountain.

Our apartment building just got a golf simulator put in and we had planned to use it on Saturday but the brand new system wasn't working!  Barrett had fun crawling around for a bit while we tried to make it work though.

We also discovered that we have a nice little theater room. If we only had friends or dvds...

Sunday we went to church (did you just fall off your chair!?).  This is our building.  We actually met 2 people from Utah too.

The Best

Barrett was exhausted after we kept him up from his nap for too long on Sunday.  It felt so good snuggling him though.

always

I saw this necklace on Pinterest or Etsy and I totally loved it. I don't ever wear jewelry, but if I did, I'd want to get this!  If you've never read the Harry Potter books (shame on you), the necklace probably doesn't mean anything to you, but if you are a fellow Potter Head, you know how sweet this is!   

This was on Pinterest too and although I doubt Alan Rickman actually said it, I like to think he did.

You'll just have to read the series to get the full meaning behind the necklace and quote!

We're Moving Out

One of the very first days that I was here, we heard a rattling in the washing machine and had the maintenance guy come up to fix it.  When he fixed it (there was a penny in it somewhere) he unknowingly broke the water hose and the next day when we used the washer again, it flooded everywhere!

So now that we've gotten things put away where we want them, we have to temporarily move out so they can replace all our flooring.  

We have to take ALL our things and move to the apartment down the hall for hopefully just 1 week.  It's the same floor plan as our place now, it's just mirrored and has some different decorations.  

New Place

It is not exactly fun to move in, move out again, and then move in again all in 3 weeks time!

Virtual Tour

I'm still trying to get all settled and unpacked here in Toronto, so it's taken me a while to get some good (aka clean) pictures of our new place.

This is our building.  50 John Street, Toronto, Ontario

When you walk in the front door, you come right into the dining room/kitchen area. If you turn right as soon as you walk in, you can get to the laundry closet, the coat closet, and Barrett's bathroom (I didn't take any pictures of those things.)

Dining room/kitchen

If you turn right by the kitchen island, you'll go down the hallway to our bedroom and bathroom.

This is the living room, I guess.  It's on the other side of the kitchen.

It already looks different from these pictures because we've had to block Barrett from getting to the TV/DVD stuff and all the cords.

This is looking back toward the front door from the living room.

Here's the little computer area- the doors to the right is Barrett's room.

This is Bear's room/the guest room.  It used to have a queen sized bed in there but then there was no room for his pack n play, so we had to downsize to a twin so Bear could sleep in his own room.

Here's some of our views from our balcony.  We're on the 20th floor which is the highest one.  We have a great view of downtown Toronto and it's nice not having any upstairs neighbors.  I actually haven't even heard any of our neighbors yet! (fingers crossed it stays that way!)

We can see the CN Tower from our balcony.  I don't know much about the tower, but I know there's a revolving restaurant at the top, it has glass elevators, and you can walk around the outside edge of the top part and lean back with just a little cord keeping you up (and alive!).

We're also really close to Lake Ontario, but you can't quite see that from our balcony.
Our apartment is a little over 1100 square feet and if we were paying for it, our bill would be about $5,300 each month!  Luckily, Fidelity foots the bill :)

Homesick for the US

When I told people we were moving to Toronto, I never heard a bad thing about it!  Everyone loves it here and thinks it's the greatest place ever! It is a really neat city but I've had some culture shock that I was not prepared for.  I think it's more the fact that this is such a big city than about the differences between the USA and Canada.
Here's a list of some of the things that have made me crazy in the first week of living here.  Actually they all stem off of 1 main point:

EVERYONE WALKS EVERYWHERE HERE.

• Since we’re in Canada, they obviously don’t have the Americans with Disabilities Act here.  They don’t have anything that even resembles it!  Stores, malls, restaurants, sidewalks, etc. don’t HAVE to be handicap accessible.  I think that’s horrible anyways, but it makes it very difficult for me and my stroller to get places too!  There are literally places I cannot go if I have Bear in his stroller.  It makes me want to scream.  
•  Plus I’ve actually seen a lot of handicap people struggling with this too around town and it makes me really sad.
• Going to a tiny market with a tiny selection is annoying.  Trying to carry anything you bought at the store all the way home is a huge pain!  Trying to stock a new house with enough food will take about 20-30 trips to and from the tiny market.  I just want to drive to the store, find what I need and fill up my cart, then put it in my car and drive home!
• That’s another thing, we’ve had a really hard time finding certain things for different recipes.  For instance, we can’t find enchilada sauce ANYWHERE!!
• There's no where to park!  So I guess I could drive somewhere but then I don't have anywhere to park the car, so that doesn't actually help...
• Everyone smokes here so as you’re walking everywhere, you are constantly breathing smoke and taxi exhaust.
• It’s super diverse here (supposedly Toronto is the most diverse city in the world).  So if I ever get lost or have a question, I can’t ask anyone because I can’t understand anything they say!  Most people do speak English here but it’s their 2^nd or 3^rd language and it’s really hard to understand!

• It’s really cold!  It wasn't bad at all the first few days we were here, but it definitely is now! Even with my cute new coat and Canada mittens, it’s still cold!  Bear is always bundled up enough that he seems to stay warm, but then if we go inside he sweats to death!  We just can’t win.
• I’m a huge scaredy cat so I don’t like walking around alone.  I’m always paranoid that people are following us and stuff like that!

Today's the first day that I've been home without my mom or Neil being here with us, so we'll see how it goes!!  Actually, things are starting to get a little better now and I am settling in more.  The best part was we found 2 BIG grocery stores (including Costco!) that I can drive to and park in a real parking lot, so I've been pretty happy about that!  Hopefully I'll make a few friends and we can get out and do some things to get me and Barrett out of the house!

Adventures with LaLa

We got to have my mom in town with us for 8 whole days!  I kept telling her that she should come later on when we're actually settled and know cool things to do, but she wanted to come and help us get settled in (I'm so glad she did).  She's seriously the best, we loved having her and I wouldn't have made it through my first week in Toronto without her!  Thanks Mom!!

This is us reorganizing everything in the kitchen the first night I got there.

We were out walking and Bear fell asleep in his stroller.  I always feel really bad when he falls asleep in the stroller or car seat because it means he was SOOO tired and I didn't get him back to bed in time.

Barrett loves watching movies of himself.

He's still enjoying eating other people's cereal.

Neil and I got to have a date night to go see This is 40.

Believe it or not, they still have Hostess Twinkies and Cupcakes here!!  We bought a box of each and we were disappointed.  They're smaller and not nearly as good as they used to be.  I don't know if a new company bought them or what, but it's not the same old stuff I grew up eating.

LaLa let Bear comb her hair.

He wasn't always super gentle.

He loves getting out the pots and pans.

And getting in the cupboard.

Mom bought Bear and I some cute Canadian souvenirs!

We saw a flock of Canadian geese.

We'll be back in Utah in 4 weeks!  I am definitely counting the days!

New Toys

I shipped some of Barrett's bigger toys up to Toronto because they were heavy and the suitcases were full of everything else.  Bear was so excited when we opened up the package on Monday and he had a bunch of new things to play with!

He's loving his little train walker that we got him for Christmas!

007

We went and saw the 007 exhibit last weekend.  It was not run very well (we waited in 2 lines that took way longer than going through the actual exhibit), but it had some cool things in it.  The costume room was definitely my favorite but I didn't get any pictures of it because it was more heavily "patrolled" by the workers and we weren't supposed to take pictures at all.  It had a lot of the bond suits and bond girls' dresses from the movies and it had a whole scene set up with the clothes and accessories from Casino Royale.

We had to take Bear's sweater off because he got so hot in the sweater and being put in the Baby Bjorn.

We finished off our Bond Day by going home and watching Casino Royale.