June 11: Toronto Zoo with mommy

Last entry... wow... finally... from the Toronto trip.

Short and sweet, likely your favorite day of the trip was when daddy went business-golfing with the NHL, and mommy took you to the zoo. It was super-hot, but you mom still walked around with you (and your little brother or sister inside of her) for five hours.

New words that you and I had been practicing with your "Where's Spot?" book but that mommy really got to teach you today (and your translation of):
- feesh = fish
- tootool = turtle
- everyone's favourite: whywen = lion. But the funniest is when we ask "what does a lion say?" and you respond "ROOOOAAAARRR". you are too funny.
- hippo = hippo (you're great with this one).

brand new mommy words from the zoo:
- irraff = giraffe. Apparently you thought they were awesome
- 'mingo = flamingo
- you didn't figure out anything for "peacock"

This was also the first official day that you started doing that "walking beside your stroller" bit. And, your mom recorded a video (see separate entry) of you seeing turtles. Now when you re-watch that video, you really freak out with exuberance ... it's hilarious...

You and your mom share a love for animals. I'll tell you this everyday for the rest of your life, but you are lucky to have a mom that loves you so much, and that also just loves being a mom in general. She's wonderful, and a big part of what makes you so special.

P.S. She's sleeping now because she's back to needing a lot of sleep. Otherwise, she'd be writing the entry.

June 14th: Chillin with Austin/ Cindy and Aiden

Two (and now three) of our best friends in the world. It was interesting when we were at dinner and I released something with Cindy. If it wasn't for Cindy, I think that my friendship with Austin would have gone the way of many other friendships in the past. When you have "best-friends" in your lives, so much of that "status" is shaped by who are you at that point in your life and the shared interests/ dreams/ circle of friends/ life values that you share at the time.

Austin has always been one of my great friends. In junior high, we were close but not extremely close. He had his 7B to 9B buddies from elementary, and Ben-Nikhil and I were three peas in a pod. But in high school, Austin and I became really close friends and "hair bros" (though now I'm the balding one and he's the graying one). From productions to pick up girl strategies to phone calls to girl problems and way too much drama that was 90210-esque to ski trips (good and bad but always bonding experiences) it felt like Austin-Ben-Thomas-and me were always up to something. Though we had separate personal interests, we were a core four that hung out a lot and shared that same over-analyzing fear of the future outlook on life that defines high school. In university, we were still close whether it was Austin and Geneva battling to be the first to Cameron study hall (good grief, you guys were geeks), Austin torching teams in flag football (3TD reception game with a girl going man-to-man defense on him... what the hell were they thinking?), or hanging out at gateway lanes, he was a big cornerstone as a friend we could both rely on.

When I moved to Toronto and we were both there, it was hard to meet up. He was studying for dent, and I was trying to get my career on track. Our schedules never synced up, but we'd find time to attend a raptors game or two.

I remember our first discussion about Cindy. He said that he had met this incredible girl, and that he had (as always) a full proof plan to meet her as her last name was Cho and as every class the room was organized alphabetically, he was guarenteed face time with her. :)

I'm so glad that he found Cindy. She's so much like another sister that Geneva and I never had. It's funny, but in a way we're as close to Cindy as we are to Austin. I know that personally Cindy and I share that same faith and loyalty to our families first and foremost, and that we both really try to go out of our way to keep in touch with important people to us. Without Cindy, who knows how close Austin may or may not be now. Living time zones away, it's tough to keep in touch with people.

I'm glad that we're all at a similar point in our lives now where we all have a lot in common. I really hope that the kids can grow up to be great friends as well. You guys need to come out here at some point again to visit (we'll pass on Brandy's this time).

Love you guys.

Syd, enjoy the pics of:
- You shopping Vaughan Mills with mommy (where you HAD to walk beside the stroller) and daddy (when you had to carry your own shopping bags)
- An afternoon at the park with Austin, Cindy and Aiden.
- You love the circular slide... and so did Austin :)
- Aiden still hasn't warmed up to me and mommy, we'll need to visit more often. He really loves his mom and dad though.
- You borrowing Aiden's sunglasses and you and Uncle Austin hammed it up for the camera (posers).

:)

June 13: Hanging out

Syd, while daddy was off doing presentations, you and mommy spend the day with Cindy, Aiden, and Austin.

You definitely started to enjoy your hashbrowns and ketchup as your breakfast treat (after you ate the healthy stuff first of course) and hanging out at the Grand with mommy. You also went to Yorkdale mall to shop (and as you can see from the photos, you brought Spotty dog too... he got SO dirty on this trip).

Dinner was with the Chens and Ming, Kelly and Charles. Kelly looks fabulous and is working with Cadbury (hopefully she'll stay there for a while and we can get you and mommy the factory tour next time) and Ming is racing up the corporate charts at Roger's. You loved hanging out with Kelly as she is always carrying stickers (I forgot how much she loves them). You grabbed a few stickers from Auntie Kelly and would sticker them on your upper lip like a moustache. Goodness... it has been TOO long seen I had seen those guys. I've so glad that you could meet them. They are wonderful and special people to me.

Daddy

June 12: NHL Awards

Sydney. I think that your mom and I have only been a three dates since we've had you. One was to a production of "The Producers", the second was movie night to see Iron Man with Rob and Tanya. Both times, Oi Mo babysat. In general, I can honestly say that the two of us generally love spending our time with you. Thanks to many a job with numerous benefits, we've seen enough movies, concerts, productions etc to last a while, and we take you to dinner everywhere anyways so as foodies we're good. Plus, you clearly have traveled a lot.

However, one of the new perks of this job is the chance to do some really cool stuff with the NHL. The first one was the chance to take your mom to the NHL AWARDS this year. We've never had the chance to get decked out for a black-tie affair that wasn't a wedding or a grad :).

Some of the highlights:
- Walking the red carpet with Vinny LeCavalier in front of us and Jarome Iginla behind us. Your mom thought that LeCavalier was hot. hahaha. Too bad she's stuck with me.
- The picture below of your mom's favourite Kate Spade shoes walking the red carpet despite being three and a half months pregnant.
- Bumping into Patrick Kane and brushing shoulders with Martin Brodeur.
- Hanging out at the after party chocolate-fondue-fountain with Dominic Hasek
- Your mom saying, after she saw him present on stage, that she would find Craig Simpson at the after party and get a picture with him (which she unbelievably did just for Auntie Katherine... thanks to Auntie Lesley for taking the picture... btw, I have no idea how Auntie Lesley gets to do so many cool things).
- Bidding on a Mark Messier item (but losing... I will not make that mistake next year).

We had so much fun, I can't wait to take you guys one year. Special thanks to Uncle Austin and Auntie Cindy and cousin Aiden for babysitting!

June: Toronto Videos

Tepanyaki time.. it was too hot in Toronto for Tepanyaki... and this chef almost burned himself trying to do the onion flame trick


Killing time at tepanyaki



TURTLES! TURTLES!



Roar

Publish Post
Monkey

June 9 to 15: Toronto trip

Hey Syd,

Next few entries are about your first trip to Toronto. Daddy and mommy have some great memories of Toronto and a lot of incredible friends that live there too.
- Daddy actually lived in Toronto for about three years. He started there on a co-op internship with Campbell's Soup, and rented a basement suite at 62 Redcar avenue in Etobicoke. For seven months my life was centered around the less than glamourous Etobicoke area, until mommy and Uncle Ian moved down for a month and we moved downtown (which was a totally new adventure). We have many great friends from that co-op time (including Ed Wu, Kelli Tomlinson, Colin, Rob Hird, J.P. to name a few) but our two best friends were and are still Kelly O'Flaherty and Ming Lee (who you got to meet along with Charles).
- After graduating university and staying home for four months in Edmonton to coach the Eggos (to a provincial championship and just to hang around with Auntie Christina who I love too much and our band of little sisters who are still some of my favourite people in the world like Spring, Ashley, Killer, SarahJ, Turd, Alex, Nat, Jess, Mouse, Claire, Tash, Emma, and more) I moved back to Toronto to work for Campbell's full-time. It last less than two years as I was incredibly home sick, I missed your mom, I was becoming a fat-lazy slob, and I really didn't enjoy the work. If it wasn't for people like Kelly, Ming especially (re: Niagara), Carrie Muldoon and Beau Hatcher, I would have left after only a few weeks
- Fast forward through a few years and through Nintendo I had the chance to fly back and forth to Toronto three or four times a year. I also developed a lot of great friendship with our Pr agency folks (Jen-Lisa-Lena-Dave) and our sales staff (Craig-Nancy-Jason-Scottie-Max-Lisa- and even that guy Toim), but the one guy that became one of my best friends in the world in Randy Careilli. We had all the same interests, career aspirations, and drive to be one of the best in the business (in fact, we both were awards "Top Marketers in Canada under 30" a few years back by Marketing Magazine). The Pat Lee signed Megatron and Optimus Prime Transformer artwork in our house is from a direct promotion that Randy and I did together with Dreamworks.
- Recently, one of your mom's best friends (Uncle Kurt) moved to Toronto. He was and still is a wonderful friend to your mom. He and Bruce had us over for frequent dinners or gatherings at their incredible places in false creek. I know your mom misses them.

Some pictures attached of our first two days includes:
- Dinner with Uncle Randy at Masa, our favouite tepanyaki joint in Toronto where Randy introduced me to Dragon rolls, rainbow rolls, and sushi pizza. You had teriyaki beef and enoki mushooms for dinner... plus randy's serving of green tea ice cream.
- Dinner at Messini on the Danforth with Kurt and Bruce. the best greek fries and gyros ever... my mouth waters just typing that.

We miss you guys a lot. Can't wait to see you again, hopefully we can make this an annual trip!