Garden Harvest - Part I

For Tavish, the seed of knowledge began 'growing' this spring in our backyard. First he observed our grass growing (from seed) and the maple leaves blooming as every day passed. Our little gardener later planted a few seeds of his own. The fruits of his labour have been a tasty treat of learning lately.

MOMENT: Bean Bliss



Tavish planted bean and carrot seeds on our deck this spring. He's been watching them grow, watering them carefully and sampling them as he goes. There is excitement resulting from his tasty labour of love (and learning). Yum, beans!

Might as well Jump!

He's up, up and away! Both feet officially take flight when jumping now. Tavish jumped about 5 times in a row across the room before I got the camera ... but one jump is all that's needed for proof, right?

MOMENT: Catching Air

He was onto me eventually, so the appeal of the camera haulted further efforts for a repeating jump show. There's always a silver lining - we caught the neat "gegadigadiga" sound he sometimes makes as a result.

That's a Wrap

Tavish loves food. He also loves salsa, avocado and milk. His verbal manners are pretty good too. The chewing etiquette will come ...

MOMENT: Mouthful of Meal

Happiness lies in eating a wrap. Sometimes I feel like he's the modern 'Mikey' - give it to Tavish, he'll eat it! (and ask for more)

Storyteller

This is a Tavish-told tale of two books. These are his current favourites. The best part, he likes reading these stories to us - complete with sound effects and enthusiasm. Neither story is terribly short, clearly videoed, nor are they perfectly audible if you're coming in cold - but this storyteller is worth giving a listen just the same.

MOMENT: Cranky Bear



The general gist: a lion, zebra, moose and sheep find a cave with a cranky bear. They decide to cheer him up by giving him antlers, a mane and stripes. There is roaring then a thoughtful sheep who makes the bear a pillow from it's wool so it can sleep. Aw.

* distracted videographer at the start, the quality improves...






MOMENT: No Sleep for the Sheep



The general gist: a sheep goes to sleep in a 'big red barn on the farm', but is waken by a series of animal visitors. 'Go to sleep says the sheep' politely every time 'please don't (oink, quack, neigh etc) anymore'. In the end, the rooster wakes them all, except for the sleepy sheep. Yawn.

* poor lighting, but the story is told so well!

The Bedford Band

This is a glimpse at our rough beginning as a family band. Please pardon the absence of rhythm, pitch and tone. Maybe this will be worth millions some day? To stay focused, we remember that we'll never be worse than we are right now (practice makes perfect).

MOMENT: Playing our Instruments all Together

There have been some recent additions to Tavish's musical collection of the harmonica, shakers and our bear bells from canoe tripping. My childhood ukulele from Hawaii was delivered in person by my Mom on her recent visit. Tavish loves this 'gee-tar'. A quick trip to the Dollar store expanded his instruments to include a recorder and a tamborine. The rest is Bedford Band history...

Fiddle-dee-dee

We biked to a free kids concert during the annual Tulip Festival. Chris McKhool's "FiddleFire" was phenomenal! They played a wide range of music with the violin/fiddle, piano, bass and drums. Tavish was enthusiastically 'playing' all of the instruments and joined in by clapping along and dancing too.

MOMENT: "A Violin Sings, A Fiddle Dances" - unknown

Tavish air 'played' most of the instruments he saw, but seemed most drawn to 'playing' the violin/fiddle. We learned these two instruments are the same, but are named based on the type of music they are playing. Huh. Either way, he's a natural!

Rock Around the Clock

The cuteness of this video speaks for itself ...

MOMENT: Dance Like No One's Watching



FLASHBACK: Early Moves and Moans

When Grandpa Mike provided us with the above video clip he took, he also included some old footage. This is Tavish circa November 15, 2009 at the whopping age of 7.5 months - a year and a half ago. It was a time when he was on the cusp of crawling, teeth were appearing and sounds were forming. Oh, and he was chubby and had substantially less hair. Aw.