Love at First Sight

Well, I said I'd get to some of the out-of-town Christmas spoilage so here goes. Max was treated to a few packages from his Winnipeg family, including some cool clothes from his second cousins (thanks Wendy and Joey!), some beautiful books from his great-grandma and grandma, and two Christmas outfits from his aunt and uncle on display in today's pictures. Max says they felt super fuzzy! However, the Christmas gift that Max has fallen in love with like no other is his new playmat from my mom.

The apparatus comes with a mat for the ground, two flexible rods that arch and criss-cross over the mat (and are great for dangling toys from), a big mirror to strap to the rods and some plush toys that rattle. After I unpacked the mat, I plunked Max down in the middle of the mat while I tried to figure the whole thing out. Max then started crying so I hurriedly chucked him the stuffed rattly-legged lion that comes with the kit and moved on to the rods. It was a minute or so before I realized that he was, um, making out with the lion. Holding it in both hands, he was snuggling it close to his face. We had read on websites that kids tended to love the lion, but this was still surprising.

I got the rods set up, dangled the duck, giraffe, mirror and other stuff from them and sat back. Max freaked out. In a good way. 30 minutes straight of giggling, primarily from kicking the border of the mat and ogling himself in the mirror. I tried to get involved in the fun, but then Max gave me the "what? you're still here?" look. Ice cold.

Before going off to sulk, I snapped these pictures. Priceless.


Since Max and the playmat first met, he has spent quite a bit of time staring at the mirror (smiling and blowing bubbles at himself), smacking the duck chime or acting out what might happen should a giraffe and octopus ever meet face to face.

In any case, I don't want to slight Max's other gifts - they are all appreciated and wonderful - I've just never seen Max make himself smile so frequently and steadily. Usually, it takes a diaper on the chest :)

P.S. Despite the initial brush-off, Mommy and Daddy eventually injected themselves into Max's fun. Here is the evidence.

Max's First Christmas

First of all, you all know that I'm a Scrabble nerd, so before I get started, I have to note that Max's anagrams to Xmas. Weird.

OK, back to reality. Another Christmas has come and gone, but as you all know, this one was special for us as it was our little boy's first. The romantic in me thinks that Max got treated to a wonderful day with loving family and friends. The scientist in my wonders if he truly got the sense anywhere in his tiny developing brain that Tuesday was different from any other day. He almost certainly will be a little more geared up for next Christmas, when his present-opening muscles will be a little more defined and he will actually be able to have more than one thing for dinner. However, regardless of how Max saw Christmas Day, Holly and I and everyone else in the extended Ottawa family enjoyed personally introducing him to the annual tradition. And, as it turns out, many people not in town enjoyed spoiling him rotten from a distance!!

The week started with a visit to the office on Christmas Eve, where a brunch was set out for employees and their families. It was nice to be able to meet the families of the people with whom I work. Max was introduced to Santa Claus
who was kind enough to pause for a picture before scampering off to deliver his gifts around the world. I had heard that when children meet the big guy, they tend to cry a lot...perhaps overwhelmed with the daunting task of whittling those long lists down to a few items that they truly want. However, Max is a real pro with strangers and cuddled right next to the bowl full o' jelly. Unfortunately, I think he telepathically asked Santa for more snow, which SC decided to ho-ho-hold off on until today. I. can't. wait. to. shovel. it. Thanks, O bearded one.

After a brief visit with Holly's mom and Auntie K-squared, we all went home to put the finishing touches on our Christmas preparations at home. As if to prepare us for early Christmas wake-ups to come ("Mommy! Daddy! Can we open presents yet?? [5 am]), Max decided to interrupt our sleep a couple of times early Christmas morning with gas. As it turns out, though, he was just getting rid of the bad so that he had nothing but good left to give for the rest of the day. When we finally did get up, Max and I shared some fun wake-up time in his chair in the kitchen while I did some dishes. Clearly, he was ready for whatever the day would throw at him!

We went over to Grandma H's for stockings just after 10 am. Max got a bunch of fun treats, including a crazy teething toy that, technically, he got for the first time the
day before and fell in love with then. Well, as it turns out, Max still liked the toy a lot (see picture) and, upon being reacquainted, got right back to chewing on it. Toward the bottom of his stocking, Max also found a bear that, when wound, played music out of a music box inside itself while moving its head in lazy circles. Max also fell in love with the bear's tunes and decided to make the bear his best friend. Well, until he got hungry again at which point Mom (the default best friend) won out again.



After a quick wardrobe change, Max took a stand (assisted, of course) and demanded food. So Holly fed Max and the family got stuffed on some yummy eggs benny. Present time ensued, with everybody spoiling everybody. Highlights included two gifts for Grandma H from Max that were bought by...Grandma H herself. This included an inspirational candle letting Grandma know how special Max felt she was and that she was "the one he loves more and more each day", that it was her "vitality and wisdom" that kept him going. Awesome. Max also scored a sled, some wonderful books, and some nice outfits while Holly and I were offered multiple date nights with babysitting included - what a great idea!

After prezzies, I took Max for a stroll in the beautiful zeroish weather. By the time I got back, his great-grandpa D had arrived at the party and so Max got a great chance to hang out with him for a while. For some reason, Max's great-grandpa has an amazing calming effect on him - we were able to plop Max on his lap for about half an hour and let the two of them catch up on old times. Then, the T-Man and his family arrived for a wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings. I even ate brussel sprouts. Holly was mighty jealous as brussel spouts are one of her favourite foods and she can't eat them these days due to the potential gaseous effect on Max.

In the end, Max had a great time with everybody. Here are some other pictures of Max with members of his Ontario family. Thanks to everyone here for treating Max to such a wonderful first Christmas! Stay tuned for the next post, where I'll cover some of the out-of-town spoilage that happened this Christmas.

The friend who saved Christmas

Everyone who knows me knows that I love, love, LOVE Christmas. I love finding the perfect gift, baking lots of treats, seeing the lights, getting my decorations out, going to parties and everything else that the season brings. I always try to get my shopping done by early fall at the latest so I have lots of time to enjoy this time with friends and family. I've even been known to go to the mall on Christmas Eve just because I enjoy the hustle and bustle even though I normally hate crowds.

This holiday season has been radically different for me. The day to day of taking care of Max and generally not being "plugged in" to what day it is most of the time have meant that I didn't really do Christmas this year. We didn't get a tree, unpack any decorations, do any baking, send out cards, etc. I hadn't even wrapped anything until a marathon wrapping session yesterday.

I was telling our friends Is and Chris about my general lack of holiday spirit and how I just didn't feel like myself this year at brunch two Sundays ago during the blizzard.

This past Friday night, Is and her partner G-Man dropped in for a quick visit before they left for the holidays. They brought a tin of amazing baked goodies, homemade flavoured olive oil in a beautiful bottle, and a jar of homemade dulce de leche (G-Man is a gourmet chef par excellence and this stuff is pure heaven. I was pouring it on just about everything the last time he made it.).

But Is and G-Man brought one very special gift for me - my very own Christmas tree.

A tiny, perfect tree with coloured mini lights and beautiful little ornaments. Max's first tree. I'm tearing up as I write this post with the tree twinkling in the background. It smells wonderful too. I put the new ornament that my mum gave us (super cute with little snowmen named John, Holly and Max on it) at the top. The base is covered in presents from John's family in Winnipeg that we will open tomorrow morning before we head over to my mum and Auntie Karen's place for the day.

With apologies to Santa and everyone else who has ever given me a wonderful present, this is probably the most thoughtful and amazing Christmas gift anyone has ever given me. It sounds cheesy but everything feels OK again with this little tree in the house. I have a spring in my step that I didn't have a few days ago. I've had a wonderful few days and I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow with family and friends.

Here is a photo of Is, Max and our tree:



Is, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for saving Christmas for me. You are a gem.

Hugs,
Holly

A few tidbits about my other holiday heroes:

- BIG PROPS to our friend Kerry who babysat Max on Saturday night so John and I could enjoy an evening out with my family at Stuart McLean and the Vinyl Cafe Christmas show. Kerry was a pro. Thanks to Auntie Melody too for starting a wonderful family tradition!

- Thanks to Renee for a great new ginger cookie recipe. I don't have a lot of time to bake so this easy and fabulous recipe was awesome to make this past week. I cranked the Christmas mix on the IPod (hugs to John who put all of my Christmas CDs on the Ipod) and really enjoyed baking. We finished off the whole batch of cookies in less than 48 hours!

Hi-ho, hi-ho...

On Wednesday of this past week, I got to take Max (and Holly, I guess) in to work with me for the afternoon to meet some of my colleagues. As excited as I was to show the little guy off, Holly was on logistics: determining exactly what feeding schedule to use in order to have him in the happiest mood possible for my coworkers. Meanwhile, I was hoping that the chosen schedule would have Holly in a relatively good mood herself :)

So we settled on delaying his late-morning feeding until Holly and Max arrived at work at about 12:15. This way, he'd be full of yummy goodness at 1:00, when we would be holding court with the people who work in my section (they had booked a boardroom for an hour to ogle and pass the baby). The plan worked. Well, mostly. We knew that the one risk in feeding him right before showing him off was the imminent spit-up. So we fed Max, decked him out in his awesome blue/brown combo with blue and brown shoes our friends I&G bought for him and before we could say "who's the sexiest baby in all the land?", Max ralphed all over his shirt. In fact, had he been competing in some future Olympic event where competitors all had the word COOL written on their chest and had to cover it up with vomit as spectacularly as possible, he'd be a gold medal baby right now. Cool, indeed. Regardless, the outfit was a big hit, but not as big a hit as the matching Robeez shoes. It's remarkable that the shoes were purchased separately from the rest of the outfit because they coordinate so well. Everyone loves the shoes.

In any case, it was really nice to get to introduce Holly to the people I work with every day; I often mention people at work (only good stuff) and now Holly can attach faces to the names. It was also interesting to note who couldn't wait to get their hands on the baby (almost only women seem to have this gene) and who was just fine laying low. Before leaving, we got some WONDERFUL gifts from my section, including a rolling toy that propels itself (it says on the package that this promotes crawling, but I think it promotes application of first aid skills) and a jingly, crinkly, stuffed banana (it hangs from carrier handles or play gyms and has all sorts of special features, including mirrors on the soles of its shoes - Paul Simon inspired? - and four plush peel sections with velcro that can be stuck to the banana's head so that he can actually be peeled...so awesome).

After our sit-down with my section, we went for a tour of my old building, where there were scads of people I thought should meet Max. The trouble was, it was mid-afternoon, just before Christmas so many people were either out of the office or at Christmas events/parties. However, given that it was the federal public service, many, MANY people were still diligently working at their desks. In the end, Holly and Max got to meet a lot more of my colleagues. As for the ones we missed, well, we're headed back in on Monday for a Christmas Eve brunch. Everyone shows up with their spouses and kids (and, from a security message sent to all staff the other day, it appears that people have tried to bring pets in the past) for some chow. Then, although we are given the option of calling it a day very early on, everyone will probably get back to work, setting their families to work wherever their skills can be used. This is the federal public service after all.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures on Wednesday, but I will be sure to take some on Monday. After all, Santa will be there.

In the meantime, to tide you over, here is a random video Holly took this past week. Yes, that is a garbage bag filled with bubble wrap. Enjoy!

Snow Day

Wow, are we ever in the middle of a doozy. Max has been asleep most of the day and Holly and I have been relaxing when not shoveling. If he were older, he would certainly be over the moon. We're about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the expected 30-50 cm of snow since last night and the plows are working overtime. Given that we're not in Toronto, it's not like the army has been called in for support or anything. I'm not sure if my office will open tomorrow and the prospect of a snow day with my little guy has me giddy. Here are some pictures:


The necessary "before" picture, taken last night just past midnight. That's Grandma H's car in the driveway (PS THANK YOU!!! for lending us the use of your car so often - Max loves his Maxmobile Sport.




Our front yard at about 3pm...no the storm didn't change the car into an SUV - that's the original Maxmobile that the little guy used to come home from the hospital. THANK YOU Auntie M for the frequent use of the MM!




The side of our house - the TMan's car has been stranded in our driveway for the winter. For a carless family, we sure do have a lot of cars this weekend!





Our backyard. That pile on the right is the top of our barbecue - high enough that the clothesline is eaten up by the drift.





Max, oblivious to all the storminess, having a nap.








So I'm looking forward to seeing how things develop tomorrow, but not to the next pass of the *%#$ plough.

Photos of the week, part deux

Once again, it's time to bring three great photos out of the vault and have you decide which is simply the best. Just like in the game Apples to Apples, this word "best" is completely subject to interpretation, so please explain your decision.


Exhibit A: So we went to this friend's tea party and while Holly and I helped ourselves to slice and sandwiches, it seems that Max got into something he shouldn't have.





Exhibit B: One day, we woke up and Max was eating breakfast in bed and doing the crossword. We made him clear all that away so that we could take this picture.





Exhibit C: As you've likely already figured out, I never tire (pun intended) of pictures of Max sleeping. When he conks out in this sling, his neck ends up in some pretty awesome positions. This is just the best one of which we have photo evidence.


So the ball is in your court. Vote early and vote often...I mean once. Don't want to have any of you using bots to stuff the ballot box.

Get a grip

Hello all,
Almost another week has gone by...but not an entire week, so my conscience will allow me to sleep tonight. Speaking of which, Max continues to sleep very well, putting in an 8 hour night last night (sweeeet). Everyone woke up well rested this morning. Yesterday, Max was a little sad as he went to his last reading circle event of the year (I am reminding Holly to blog about this right now - as someone who has never been, I just wouldn't be able to do it justice). So we're just going to have to make do with our current repertoire of songs and body awareness games.

So Max's new trick this week - holding on to things. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to jam something into his hand and if we were lucky, he'd squeeze it for a bit and that was about it. Now he actually plays with things sometimes. He has a little rattle that he likes to hold while getting changed. Yes, the rattle + diaper combo leaves him in a state of euphoria last seen at the Burning Man festival...soothers and all. He likes playing with these plastic chain links things, dangled from something overhead. With his new-found aptitude with chain links, maybe he's taking after his grandfather Richard and learning to be a master fencer. The kind with the pickets, not the epees. Here he is on stir-fry night, first with a bean and then with a chopstick. So cute!













I'm personally getting excited to bring him in to work next Wednesday so that he can meet my colleagues. Some have already met him at wedding receptions and pumpkin-carving parties and the like, but many haven't. I can't wait!

Yikes - it's been too long

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a week since the last post. See, we used to have this hour at 2:30 am where we could take some time to jot things down, but now that Max is putting in the long hours of sleep, we get up at 5 or so, and then when he goes back to sleep just after 6, I get ready to go to work and then that's it for the day. Despite the fact that the opportunity for good sleep is better than before, we kind of miss that time for catching up with each other and posting little things to the blog.

A lot has happened this past week. It all started with my first night without Max. I'll let Holly fill you in on the details of what happened while I was away (everything went smoothly, no worries), but I went down to Oshawa for the weekend with a couple of friends for my first Scrabble tournament in half a year. It was a little weird being away from Max for the first time, but I enjoyed catching up with old friends and spreading the word that I have a new baby boy! It had been a while since I've been able to tell someone the news - I had forgotten how good it felt to let people know about Max.

Before getting home from Oshawa, most of Ontario (for those of you not in the province) got leveled with a blustery storm. By the end of Monday the 3rd, at least a foot had fallen in a day and a bit. This pile of snow made driving conditions tough between Oshawa and Ottawa, but without it, I never would have seen that team of sled dogs (with a sled, no less) tied up outside a Tim Horton's in Scarborough. Since Monday, there has been mucho shoveling and Max has been introduced to snowsuits. Holly picked up a wonderful new babywearing thing that allows him to sit on her front with a snowsuit on (the other ones are a bit tight when Max is bundled up!). I also had to make some adjustments to the car seat to allow the seatbelt to get over Max's tonne of downy softness. Kind of like putting on snow tires - eventually, we will have to undo everything when things warm up.

One crazy thing that happened this past week is that I got Max whipped into a full-on giggle for the first time, just by rocking/swinging back and forth. I couldn't believe it! I tried again, and he cried. Oops. So maybe emotions are still a little random at the moment. Hopefully it will happen again soon, to confirm that Max really does love me.

Oh, he just filled his diaper.


I'm back. So this weekend has been really laid-back and wonderful, so far. Holly's aunt took her and Max to a craft sale all yesterday afternoon and then Holly got to partake in a bake exchange last night with some girlfriends while I hung out with Max and our friend K at home. Max was a little grumpy, but took a bottle from K with no problem (kind of chugged it, actually) and fell asleep like a little angel just before K left, prepping him for yet another night of great sleep! This morning, Holly said she had the best sleep in a long time so we celebrated with some brekkie before her mom...

oh no, another full diaper...

and sister whisked her off to go shopping. We laid low, watching some TV, puttering and doing some laundry in the afternoon before Holly left again for a Christmas gospel concert with her mom. So I get to have more father-son time tonight!! So until the next time, hopefully within a few days as opposed to a week, here are some more pictures to tide you over.

Video #1

So it seems Blogger has added an easy-to-use feature by which we can start putting our videos on the blog. Most excellent. So, as a treat for having waited so long for a new post, here is the first video we ever took of Max, when he was 2 days old.

Enjoy!

Max news

So it looks like Kraft Dinner Daddy wins the photo of the week. Thanks all for piling on.

It's somehow been a week since our last post. Yikes. Lots of things have happened though. Let's start with sleep. Max had his first super-long sleep this past week! An eight-hour marathon that of course had me freaking out at the 6.5 hour mark thinking that something was wrong. And then (Murphy's Law), while checking him out, I woke Holly up and then neither of us could really get back to sleep while Max continued to zonk for another 90 minutes. Since then, he's put in another couple of seven hour nights, all before his 12-week anniversary! We really won the lottery with this guy. Tonight, I have a feeling that we're not going to do so well as we went out for a dinner date (while he slept at the table). We'll see...

On a related note, Max has opened his eyes a few times recently on the way from the rocking chair to the bed and has not ended up completely waking up. It seems that he has learned that opening his eyes does not have to be synonymous with waking up and that it is possible to get himself back to sleep - perhaps this has contributed to his being able to sleep longer hours.

In other news, we have seen the first sign of motor skills in our little one. Max has started batting the toys hanging from his little chair. Well, it still looks kind of random, but it's obvious that Max knows that randomly flailing his right arm will sometimes yield a nice rattling sound and this plush thingamabobber will swing back and forth. I doubt he really knows what's going on, but it seems like it's within reach.

Max has also started doing some interesting physical things. When our friend J was up from Toronto, he blew his first spit bubbles. Since then, he has gotten so good (bad) at it that we have started to wash his bibs in preparation. Max has also discovered his tongue and occasionally licks his lips. Finally, and most hilariously, he has taken to stroking/patting Holly's chest while nursing. Like he's saying "good boy!" during a feed. It's quite hilarious as it can go on for over 10 minutes.

All of these new and wonderful things have come at a cost though. It seems like he has finally let go of the Moro reflex. No matter what I do (within reason), he just won't throw his arms out on either side of him as if to say "Booga!". Next on the trash-heap is likely to be bathing in the sink...dude is getting big and splashing around a lot more than he used to. This is all giving me a big lesson in how transitory Max's skill set is - the cool things he can do today are sure to be replaced by other things he'll be able to do tomorrow. Some of the new things will also be pretty cool, but some of the old things will be sorely missed.

Here are some visuals to ogle:

Photo of the week

Tough call. But I'd say the three candidates are the following:

Exhibit A:

John, in an attempt to outghetto Holly in her famous story about going to the grocery store in pajamas and dress shoes, uses Max as a table while consuming, yes, Kraft Dinner with hot dogs. Take that Martha Stewart!




Exhibit B:
Holly, finding Max at one of his googlier moments, took a while series of photos to try to get Max at his ultra-happiest (and without a diaper in hand!) Daddy says this one wins out.




Exhibit C:
Oh man. So I'm minding my own business, trying to capture a mother loving her son in the kitchen when I hear the start of a ralphing sound. Do I put the camera down and come to the aid of my wife? Nope, I take a picture.

By using the comments link, you can decide which one wins:)

Cankles

So a lot of these posts have been about Max and how things are coming along. We're trying to keep up with these new posts as much as Max will allow...but we've kind of let go of the original intention of the blog a bit. We wanted to fill you all in on some of the things that went on before Max so now, I'm going to sneak in a little entry about Holly in her pregnant days.

When we went to our Bringing Baby Home class before summer got under way, one of the other women had these HUGE ankles. I had read in books that women's ankles tended to swell during pregnancy, but we'd never really seen it in action before. In fact, the one thing that freaked Holly out more than anything else (foot-related, that is) was that some women pack a lot of size onto their feet and then don't actually shrink back down to their original foot size post-partum. No that she has umpteen shoes or anything, it was just the idea of losing something for good.

So anyway, we see this women's ankles and are thinking, "Oh man, those are nasty! There's no way it will get that bad for us!". I mean, Holly was known the world over for her svelte feet. And then it happened. Mid-July, in about her 33rd week, Holly got the calf-ankles, or cankles. Her little ankle bone disappeared and not even in a cloud of smoke or something. Gone. In fact, we have photo evidence. I'll let you guess which feet belong to whom (a-Holly Stardom, b-Angelina Jolie and c-Eva Longoria - my summers at the cottage are the best). And by the way, the dimples at the base of Holly's toes were her personal favourite.

For about a month and a half, Holly endured not being able to wear anything other than her (stretched-out, thanks to a Philadelphia sidewalk adventure) red Croc flip-flops. They became better friends to her than just about anything else. The skin on her ankles actually got sore from being stretched around so much fluid for so long.

And then, as some of you may be aware, Max was born. I think somewhere in the recesses of our minds, we were thinking that the ankles would just rematerialize...but they didn't. Holly's blood pressure (which is related to swelling in the ankles) didn't come down out of the "watch" zone until about a week post-Max, and then (miracle of miracles), the ankles returned. Holly was so ecstatic about seeing those two little foot bones that she immortalized them in a picture. The first day she was able to wear real shoes again, she may have cried. Everything fits again and now there's nothing to do but wait and see if it might happen again. Wink wink. In the distant future, I mean.

Happy as a clam. Or a baby under a diaper.

So I guess that a lot of things with babies are pretty random. Sleep times. Gurgly sounds. Ability to keep food down. And, in particular, moods. We're starting to see some trends with Max, but they mostly have to do with when he's happy. I suppose we kind of tune out the times he's unhappy. We know he's happy in the morning. He's sometimes happy after erupting from the bath. And, get this, he's happy under a diaper.

I kind of discovered this one by accident. We change Max on the floor of the nursery, usually, and sometimes, we have to bounce from the nursery to the bathroom to wet a facecloth for wiping his delicate unmentionables. Well, one day, I got the fresh diaper out and before racing off to wet the cloth, I kind of chucked it in his general direction. I say racing because when naked (and cold, I assume), Max can get a bit, well, chippy. When I got back, he was still quiet and seemed to be rubbing the vinyl-y side of the diaper. He seemed pleasantly distracted, but I get "pleasant" was a bit of a stretch because, at that time, he couldn't really show hapiness.

Well, now he can. It turns out that we can actually get him from bawling to smiling in less than 30 seconds with the diaper trick. Not always, but often enough that we're pretty sure he really likes the feel of fleece on his chest, the feel of the diaper in his hands and the scritchy sound of the diaper crinkling. The other day, I finally got some pictures - usually, I only post one at a time, but they're all so fun I can't really hold back!

New mommy syndrome

So, this isn't the official name of the chronic thumb and wrist pain that I have been feeling since late September but my new chiropractor has nicknamed it "new mommy syndrome" because she has seen so many new mums with it. She even had it herself, which is pretty wild considering that she uses her hands all day every day in her work and never had a problem! The official diagnosis is de Quervain's tendonitis. Here's an official blurb:

"First dorsal compartment tendonitis, more commonly known as de Quervain’s tendonitis or tenosynovitis after the Swiss surgeon Fritz de Quervain, is a condition brought on by irritation or inflammation of the wrist tendons at the base of the thumb. The inflammation causes the compartment (a tunnel or a sheath) around the tendon to swell and enlarge, making thumb and wrist movement painful. Making a fist, grasping or holding objects—often infants—are common painful movements with de Quervain’s tendonitis. The cause of de Quervain’s tendonitis is an irritation of the tendons at the base of the thumb, usually caused by taking up a new, repetitive activity. New mothers are especially prone to this type of tendonitis: caring for an infant often creates awkward hand positioning, and hormonal fluctuations associated with pregnancy and nursing further contribute to its occurrence."

Yuck. On the plus side, it is nice to finally know what it is and some options to treat it. The chiropractor is doing muscle therapy and I'm icing the area as many times a day as I can. The main thing I have to do is be careful when feeding and picking up the little man. It is certainly a challenge.

Wish me luck in kicking this pesky thing to the curb!!! I need healthy wrists and thumbs to keep up with this growing boy.

p.s. I need to do a little shout out to our friend Is. My new chiropractor and her partner work with Ray Zahab! There are signed photos and articles all over the office!

p.p.s. And a shout out to my sister who passed her driving test this morning after only 12 minutes in the car. Go Lar go!!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

My mom asked me the other night what was new with Max and I honestly couldn't think of anything. It reminded me that we see Max all day, every day and often don't notice the subtle changes in his physical appearance or demeanour. We usually have to look at pictures to remind ourselves of how the little guy has changed. However, after a bit of reflection, two things did come to me.

One, the time change at the start of November threw his sleep schedule off so for a few days, he slept soundly through the early evenings. So whereas before, we would feed him during dinner and then play pass the baby for a few hours before putting him to bed, we ran into a few situations where we half-fed him during dinner and then he'd fall asleep. For three hours. This may have affected his quality of sleep in the late hours (read: after 5 a.m.) but Holly would know much more about that :)

Two, it's just fantastic that the little guy has learned to smile. Despite the fact that most of the time it's a warning sign for something else, it's mesmerizing and brightens our day. However, just recently, Max's tear ducts have also discovered how to flow. So now he smiles and he cries. The latter is pretty tough to take. Before, when he was upset, we could just go about our business, trying to soothe him. But it's funny how a few drops of salty water add so much of a sense of urgency. Now, we have to fix things RIGHT AWAY because those tears are killers. We wanted to show you a picture of him crying, but had to cover up his eyes in order to protect all of you from losing it yourselves.



So there you go.

Two new things about Max.

Great visits, great weekends

So one thing that has changed since going back to work has been how much I look forward to weekends. Yes, I always used to look forward to Friday afternoon (who doesn't?), but now that my weekdays consist of little more than waking up, puttering around the house for 30-60 minutes, working for the man, coming home, getting about an hour of face time with Max before he feeds while we're eating and watching an episode of something on TV, and then maybe going for a walk or soothing him to sleep some other way and then one last feed before the whole sleep/feed cycle. Repeat. Weekends give me more time to get to know my boy while he's awake, more time to see how he's coming along. Better yet, weekends are usually when people from out of town take time out of their schedules to come and visit with the new addition.

On the third weekend of October (just as Holly and I were starting to get sick...our one excuse for not getting these pictures on the computer sooner), Max's great-grandfather and his partner came up from Peterborough for a great visit. Both were smitten with the little guy and enjoyed getting to hold him and say "hi!". Holly's Ottawa family came together for a wonderful dinner that night at Auntie M's place and Max had a great evening. Eventually, Max needed a little evening walk to calm down, but he still enjoyed meeting some more family members. The next day, Max, Holly and I had a wonderful family stroll on a brilliant fall day (and actually saw the Peterborough visitors again on the road, on their way to lunch!) to cap off a great weekend.

This past weekend (a long one for us federal public servants), our friend J from Toronto came up for a visit. Oddly enough, she was the last person to meet Max...while he was on the inside! J saw us just two days before Holly's water broke, a time when we weren't entirely sure if he'd already be out yet or not. Well, he held on and J had to wait another two months to come see him in the flesh. The weekend was super low-key with lots of hanging out, eating sushi, playing games and catching up. Max must have been chilled out by J's magic touch as he had himself a 5.5 hour sleep on Sunday night. AWESOME!

This weekend, I've been thinking a lot about just how in love I am with this little guy. Every moment spent at home these days feels so fulfilling and invigorates me for the week ahead. I'm looking forward to the next out-of-town visit from a family member or good friend!

An anatomy lesson . . .

Today's post was originally going to be about Max's first immunizations and what a brave little boy he was for all three of his needles. Or maybe the first snowflakes that were falling when we walked back from the doctor's office. But something much more blog-worthy happened during his first diaper change after we got back.

I don't know it was the shock of the needles or the gargantuan 3 a.m. feed last night but Mr. Max had a VERY soiled diaper. While I was lifting him by the ankles to clean his bum, I noticed him start sputtering. There was liquid on his face. Yes, our dear readers, Max had indeed peed in his own face. He looked more stunned than anything and I think most of the pee went on his outfit and the change pad. I have to admit that I had a laughing fit. I'm sure that he doesn't actually have the brain capacity to understand the cause and effect of peeing when your bits are precariously close to your face but I will count on all of you to tell him this story when he is old enough to understand.

We hope your day is going well and you haven't managed to pee in your own face.

Just a Perfect Day...

Unlike Lou Reed's, we didn't drink sangria in the park, but we still had a good one. When the three of us got home from World Trivia Night on Friday, Max was pretty cranky as it was past his bedtime by about an hour. We were worried that this might have an impact on his sleep, but we fed him and got him in to bed by 11:30 with our fingers crossed. Holly was feeling the wear and tear of nursing Max while nursing me through my sickness so we made a deal that in the morning, once he was up, I would take him for a good long walk to give her another hour or so of sleep.

We wake up to feed Max at 4:00 - already this is a little longer than usual for a first sleep so we were pretty happy during that feed. Holly said that she would likely take him into bed with her and feed him there the next time around so I was allowed to sleep through the second feeding. I kind of came to around 6:30 or so and heard Max crying, so he was right on par with the second sleep of about an hour and a half. When I came to again, it was 10:00 and I thought to myself "uh-oh - Max fed/slept poorly in the morning and Holly had to take him downstairs. I can't believe Holly let me sleep." So I got my robe on and went to go downstairs when I noticed Holly was still in bed. With Max. Weird. So I got back into bed and checked my email, etc. until 10:15 when Holly woke up, pretty groggy. Apparently, when Max went to bed again at 7:00 and a bit, he slept right through until 10:00. So out of ten and a half hours through the night, we were actually able to sleep for almost nine, which is unheard of.

This was just the start of a great day. I made Holly some blueberry pancakes (by the way PC Buttermilk > Aunt Jemima any day!) and we watched a bit of TV before setting out on a nice walk through the hood. Max snoozed on me in the sling until we got home. Holly got together with some girlfriends after feeding him and had a super time catching up, playing pass-the-baby and yakking about things in the world other than Max. It should be said that he was a superstar throughout, aside from a smelly diaper episode. Meanwhile, for the first time in months, I decided to treat myself to a movie, so I went and saw Michael Clayton (A+), a movie Holly and Max already caught a couple of weeks ago. Popcorn and the whole bit. Ahhh.

When we all got home, we (aside from Max, who was cashed out from being so awesome all day) agreed that this was one of the best days in recent memory for sleep and for mixing baby time with personal time. Now we'll see what today holds - hopefully gaining the extra hour won't mess things up:)

I guess it depends on your perspective . . .

I reached a new sartorial low today. Even if we went with my loose definition of "shabby mommy chic", this was bad. Really, really bad. I went to the Superstore in the following: blue and green horizontal striped pajama pants (John affectionately calls these my Dr. Seuss pajamas), a white Ontario Students Against Drunk Driving t-shirt that I got in Grade 11 (I'll let you imagine what a white 50-50 t-shirt with a skull on it looks like after 14 years of constant wear), an old hoodie, and my turquoise MEC fleece from second-year university that I just can't let go of. Did I mention that I went commando? Or that I was wearing John's size 10 black dress shoes because I could slip them on over my giant fuzzy socks? Or that my last shower was too many days ago to repeat in polite company?

Or maybe it was a new high because I really didn't care. Mr. Max wanted to go outside immediately and I didn't want him to cry for the five minutes it would have taken me to take him out of the sling and change. The priority was to get him outside and on the move. It was a great little trip! I was smiling at strangers like I wasn't dressed like a homeless clown wandering through Nestboro. We were on the prowl for great deals on Halloween candy and we totally scored.

So the next time you go out shopping and see some total freak with a sleeping baby in tow, please PLEASE keep me in mind, smile and keep walking.

Sickness, colon open brackets

It was bound to happen at some point. Lack of sleep. Seasons changing. You know the drill - time to break out the Kleenex. Well, two Wednesdays ago, we both got a little sick. Well, I got a little sick while Holly's little sickness morphed into yet another bout of croup by early Thursday. After consultations with Telehealth, the local 24-hour drugstore and the nurse at the hospital (quote:"honey, it's not croup" - man someone needs to familiarize those nurses with Holly's chart!), we finally gave ourselves the OK to use a Ventolin inhaler. Good thing, as it seemed to do the trick. Holly was a real trooper, continuing with all of the feedings etc. while seeing her croup gradually transform into a head cold and then disappear after about a week. My "uh-oh, any day now this is going to get bad" sickness finally got bad yesterday and now here I sit at a 2:30 feeding with some coughs and a bit of sniffles. The only cool thing about this feeding is that the wind is somehow blowing at 54 km/h gusting to 69 km/h. Where are we, Florida? No, too cold.

Anyway, Max has been almost completely unaffected by all of this. About three days ago, he got a little congested. It doesn't seem to have affected him much except to make his breathing noisier. He's been introduced to our friend, Mr. Nasal Bulb (kind of like a mini turkey baster for slurping goodies out of his nose), but he hasn't met Mrs. Saline Spray yet. It's amazing to me that when a breastfeeding mother is sick, she passes all of her antibodies through to the baby, making it less likely that the baby gets sick from whatever she has. No guarantees on protection from what Dad gets, but I don't think I can wash my hands more often (I swear they're pruny even while dry!) and, although it's killing me, I'm trying to be face-to-face a little less often with the little angel.

Eventually, this will all pass and we'll all be 100% again. Well, at least for a day or two:)

Random Daddy Thoughts, part 1

Ok, random thought number 1 is: given how randomly I've been thinking lately, I wonder how many parts this will eventually get to. Today I'm just going to jot down a little list of the things I'm going to miss about Max as he develops.

*I'll lament his slimness getting lost in folds and rolls. Already, it's disappearing; his feeding prowess have granted him chubbier cheeks and thicker thighs (but still hasn't totally disposed of his rower legs). I'll throw little feet and litle hands on the list too.

*The day he no longer does his little Moro reflex, I'll be pretty sad. When he first threw his arms in the air in surprise on day 1, I thought my little boy was already a krumping mastermind (google it/Youtube it if you don't know...), but he doesn't seem to have expanded his repertoire and Lil' C isn't calling me up.

*Despite the fact that they always come attached to his crying jags, his open-eyed, jut-out-my-recessed-chin pouty faces are second-to-none.

*In complete denial, I don't believe his hiccuping will ever change.

*I'll really miss my evening routine of taking him for a good walk just before his sleep time. I'll always be able to take him for a walk, but his size will change how I have to wear him and the weather will make going out more of a production. The hour-long walks after coming home from work have been quality bonding time (or at least I think so).

*I don't know for sure yet, but I have a feeling that I'll miss his not being able to scoot around at all.

*Finally, I do know that I'll miss bathtimes in the sink - the way he screams when he gets naked, screams louder when his toe touches the water, and then completely calms down as he starts to soak. Man, he loves that warm water. A little curious about shampoo, but the cup-of-warm-water head rinse? Like Yello once said: Oooooooh yeeeeeeaaaaah.

Despite the fact that I'll miss all of these things, I look forward to all of Max's little (and big) developments over the next while. Just recently, he started smiling a bit. Swoon. This little guy's just going to have my heart in his hands the whole way, isn't he?

Are you smarter than a 6-week-old?

So one thing that all this breastfeeding creates is a lot of time sitting down with nothing particular happening except the feeding itself. Some of our mother friends had told us that TV on DVD will be our friend - that if we're TV watchers in the first place, breastfeeding ends up being a bit of an enabler. Well, until we get creative enough to do other things with our feeding time, we have, sadly, gotten addicted to some pretty trashy TV. This Digital Video Recorder thing doesn't really help matters - now we can give piles of shows test runs without juggling VHS tapes.

The shows that Holly first latched on to were reruns of Without a Trace on Bravo and What Not to Wear on TLC. If you thought this was the trash to which I referred, oh just you wait. With the new TV season upon us, we've stuck by ER and Prison Break, Survivor and Friday Night Lights. Holly continues to watch Brothers and Sisters, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty on her own and has picked up Big Shots and Dirty Sexy Money. But the real guilty pleasure of all has been Beauty and the Geek (reruns daily on BBCK). Despite the fact that all seasons (including the UK offshoot) heavily recycle challenges and trivia questions, there are some awesome moments. The best of which may have been in a season 1 rerun when one of the Beauties was asked which star was closest to the Earth. In any other episode, such a question would have been aired only because the Beauty would blow it and make herself look stupid. Well, in this case, she said "the sun" and was right. It was the beauty next to me on the couch who said "The sun's a star?".

Oh man. It's almost as bad as an English grad not knowing their parts of speech. Max, you will learn a LOT from your mother. Just remember, when it comes to the science questions, come and ask me, OK?

"Of cabbages and kings"

I’ve had a dozen or so posts half-written in my head the last few weeks (it is amazing how much time you can actually spend breastfeeding and rocking a baby to sleep) but just no time to actually type them and get them posted. So I thought I would do a quick bulleted post of random thoughts. Big points to anyone who gets the reference I’m making in the title.

- “Nestboro”. John has taken to calling our ‘hood “Nestboro” due to the crazy baby boom – both actual babies and baby-related businesses. We like to think that we’re not all that Westboro-ey or at least the more snooty aspects that we sometimes associate with this neighbourhood but I have to admit that on Sunday, we really looked the part. Picture this: John with Max in the cuddly wrap (sensitive father: check). Both of us with extra large Bridgehead cups (organic and fair trade beverage: check). New MEC purchases in tow. The only thing missing was the Lululemon pants. Seriously though, we joke a lot about our neighbourhood but it is pretty amazing to have so much cool stuff within walking distance. We love this place.

- Max’s first trip to “Stars and Strollers”. Max and I went to the movies this afternoon – Michael Clayton for anyone that wants to know. Max was the most perfect baby and stayed asleep the entire movie! I really enjoyed getting out and seeing a movie too. It was a bit weird to go to a movie with dozens of babies making little noises but I’ll take it! The thing that struck me most (other than yummy George Clooney in a suit for two hours) about the whole experience was that I’m officially part of this totally awesome informal mommy club. The theatre was full of moms and babies and it felt so great to be there. There was one point when the baby beside me spat out his soother and his mum couldn’t find it so she asked me to hold her baby while she found it. She just handed me her baby and trusted me to hold him! We had an instant bond just being in the theatre together. It was so cool. I also scored some cool mommy points with the mini flashlight I brought to the theatre with me. I helped locate an errant soother and a missing sock in the aisle! Thanks to Auntie Med for the use of the Max mobile the last few days. It really made the whole movie trip possible.

- Generosity. John and I have been completely overwhelmed by the avalanche of good wishes, wonderful gifts, food, calls, support, etc. that we have received in the last five weeks. It sounds cheesy but sometimes it takes a life-changing event to make you realize how lucky you are to be surrounded by such a loving community of people. So many people have reached out to us from both here and away. Max is one loved little dude. Everyone will be getting “official” thank-yous soon but I wanted everyone to know how thankful we are for everything.

- Telemarketers suck. You would be absolutely SHOCKED by how many calls we get during the day. I am sure we have always gotten this many calls but I was never around to hear them. I’ve pretty much given up on answering any long distance rings during the day.

- I think the slow cooker may be my new best friend. One recipe in that thing feeds us for days.

- Update on the cats: Bella appears to be coming around. Yay!!!

That's all for now. I'm even going to surprise John and post this puppy all by myself - my first wholly solo post. Ha! I have been paying attention.

Growth spurts: pure evil

Well, OK. I suppose they're good for something (e.g., the development of little Max). However, in terms of entertainment value for the parents, they are probably on par with an all-night cram session for a test. Except no junk food. And in Holly's case, no 6-pack of Red Bull.
Babies apparently go through growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. The growth spurt itself is fine; it's the preparation for it that's really something else. In preparation for the spurt, babies overfeed like mad for a couple of days to get mom to up her milk supply so that the following feeds will be of particularly high volume.
Max's first prep session happened when he was about 17 days old. We weren't entirely sure if it was a sign of a growth spurt or not, as we had just altered his feeding routine in order to get past some weight gain difficulties. All we knew is that the books all said that the average for a baby his age was to feed between 8 and 12 times a day and all of a sudden, he was clocking in at 16 or so. It seems that emotions run a bit higher when people are deprived of quality sleep...someone should do a study on that.
Fortunately, like pretty much every other blip on the baby radar, it passed after 2-3 days. I say "2-3" because it was all a blur and I can't quite remember when it started, all I know is that it ended. One day we put him to bed in the early am and he stayed asleep for longer than an hour. I swear a chorus of angels could be heard.
I'm writing this post because Max is 5 weeks and 2 days old today and all signs point to a second spurt on the horizon. Over the last week, he has been sleeping through the night in nice blocks of 3 hours or so. Tonight, we seem to have regressed to hourly naps. However, now that we already have one of these sessions under our belt, we know that all we have to do is ride it out for a couple of days and we'll have a bigger, healthier boy to show for it. I'm thinking that's a good tradeoff:)

Thanksgiving with the family

Apologies for the delay in logging a new post - it turns out that with one parent at home and the other at work, there's less room for fun things like blogs :( But that's for another post...this one is about last weekend, when Max got to meet his only uncle (and wife) and yet another grandparent.

On Saturday of the long weekend, my mother, brother and sister-in-law made the pilgrimage (how appropriate) from Winnipeg to get some face time with the new leaf on the family tree. We grabbed lunch at the same dim-sum place that I had taken my dad for his birthday when he visited three weeks earlier...the only difference being that this time, no abandoned house across the street went up in flames. After a quick bite and a tour around the places Holly grew up, we went hom to digest before Thanksgiving dinner. We all went over to Holly's mom and aunt's for a big dinner for 12 featuring a massive spread (turkey, potatoes, gravy, beans, roasted root veggies, salads, etc.) and we all got pretty stuffed. Thanks to Heather, Karen, Krysta, Laramie and Melody for the grub! Everyone got to play Pass-the-Crying-Boy while I got to sip a few glasses of vino too (yay).

Sunday was possibly the last gorgeous day of fall, with clear skies, warmish
weather and most leaves still on the trees. The plan was to hit the Newport for lunch (where I was the recipient of some playful attitude from a server) and then trot off to Gatineau Park to check out the Mackenzie King Estate. Lunch went according to plan, but it was upon arrival at the park that we realized that everyone else in the National Capital Region had the same afternoon plan:( Traffic was pretty backed up and signs were telling us that essentially every parking lot in the entire park was full, but the leaves were pretty and we thought we'd enjoy the drive anyway. By the time we got to the Estate, the parking lot just up the road had one spot left for us so we grabbed it! We bundled up Max in his cuddly wrap and set off for a walk. After a quick snack and a stop to pick up some leaves, we did the hike to the end of the
Waterfall path (which doesn't have a waterfall at the end of it anymore...a little anticlamactic). We turned around and were on our way back to the lake when Max had a little incident that required an emergency change. Like a paid pit crew, out came the changing stuff and down he went on a bed of pine needles. Unfortunately, we couldn't save all his socks so we had to hustle back to the van.

One thing that my sister-in-law pointed out while walking was that there was a good mix of oohs and aahs from passers-by, some of which were cooing over the smallness of Max and how adorable it was that I had him strapped up for a walk, while some others seemed to be tsktsking the fact that I had a baby tied to me in something that looked so precarious. Dear all doubters - the Cuddly Wrap is not precarious. It's like a baby spider web, except that nobody gets eaten.

After getting home, we ordered some Indian grub from a place on the east end of Hintonburg. Great samosas and pakoras, OK curries, subpar butter chicken (I counted 4-5 "knuckles" in it - aren't you supposed to actually be able to eat the meat provided in butter chicken? I mean, it's the California Roll of curries - you don't want to make it difficult for folks!). While the curry tasted good going down, Holly was aware to try to avoid anything that was too spicy, for Max's sake. However, it seemed that any care taken wasn't enough as I woke up to his tummy gurgling louder than mine had in a while, followed by some gasplosions. No more Indian for Holly.

Finally, on Sunday, we got together with Holly's sister and our mutual friend J for Murray's birthday lunch at The Works. For the third straight day, Max got to show everybody how babies are supposed to behave in restaurants...he was wonderful! The burgs were exquisite, especially the Beckta burger that my bro
and sister-in-law shared. The burger was made with organic beef and foie gras, topped with double-smoked bacon, truffled baby swiss chard, a tomato and a locally grown and made peach-corn chutney. All this with a side of foie gras poutine. We'd previously eaten at Beckta for Holly's 30th, so we knew that they had a thing for foie gras, but never new that they'd do this kind of initiative with a burger joint (some proceeds from each burger went to the Ottawa Food Bank). Apparently it was awesome. Afterwards, everyone just kind of lounged at home until I drove them to the airport.

And then the fun began. For those of you in Ottawa, you may have seen a story on the second page of the City section in Tuesday"s Citizen about a plane hitting some geese shortly after takeoff and having to conduct an emergency landing. Well, that would be the plane my family was on. Scary!! Apparently, the geese ran through the engines, creating goose fireballs (happy Thanksgiving?) out the back of the jet engines. A couple of geese hit the front of the cockpit too, apparently sounding like shotgun blasts. Goosplosion. Anyway, everyone got back down on the ground, likely more than a little shaken, and my folks got to extend their stay here by one night. Initially, they were unable to find any flights leaving back for Winnipeg until Wednesday, but somehow managed to sweet-talk their way onto an early-morning executive class flight the next day to avoid mising too much time at work. What a crazy way to end the weekend.

In any case, it's been wonderful to have all of my immediate family come to see Max in his first month. I've heard many times over that these are special days, that he will never be this small again, that he will always be more developed than he is now. I suppose the next big step is to take him for visits outside of Ottawa. Going from dim-sum to a plane is a pretty big step though :)

Max's Big Adventure

This past Saturday was a big day of firsts for baby Max - first meeting with one of his great-grandparents, first road trip, first time at Auntie Karen's cottage, first time in Quebec, first Oktoberfest, first attempt at euchre and first wedding reception. I'm getting tired just writing about it!

His big day started when my mum brought my Grampa Don over to the house to meet Max for the first time. Who knew that G-Don would be so into babies? Mum and Grampa were heading up to Auntie Karen's cottage in Otter Lake, Quebec (1.5 hours from Ottawa) for the day to see the leaves and stay for dinner. Max and I decided to go along for the ride while John decided to stay home to attend a friend's wedding (more on that later). While the leaves on the way up to the cottage had not quite completely changed, we still saw some nice colours along the way. Auntie Karen and Auntie Melody were quite thrilled to have two suprise guests. Although they were probably MUCH more excited about baby Max than their niece, they were nice enough to not say anything to my face.

Once we arrived at the cottage, we decided to head to Ladysmith for their annual Oktoberfest (quite the event for the region). In case you are wondering why a little cottage town in Quebec has a big Oktoberfest, wonder no more! The story is that Ladysmith was the site of a POW camp during World War II and the German people held there were treated so well that they returned after the war and settled in the community. At least that is the story that we heard. We checked out some crafts, the tractor pull and some music and dancing. We also had some German sausages and beer (none for Max and I yet!). My mum even tried to explain the differences between left and right bowers to the little guy. Max was quite the star - he stayed asleep in the car seat the whole time! I hear there comes a time when Max might excel at something other than sleeping, but for now, that's his thing.

We had a nice dinner then headed back to Ottawa. When we arrived home, John was just thinking about heading out to a wedding reception. Max was still cashed out in the car seat from the long drive and the reception was only a few blocks away so we all decided to go. I threw on some more appropriate clothes and we headed out. Max was quite the hit with John's work friends. Again, he was quite the star as he stayed asleep the whole time with really loud music playing for over an hour. He only woke up when we were putting him back in the car to head home. I enjoyed some wedding cake and cutting a rug on the dance floor for a few songs. Eventually, we got home just after 11 pm.

All in all, it was a pretty crazy day full of new adventures and time with family and friends. We look forward to many more!