We landed late afternoon last Thursday and Max's Winnipeg grandma was there to pick everybody up. Once the car seat was wrestled into the car, we drove home to chill out for the evening. Max got to reacquaint himself with his grandma, uncle and aunt before getting the bedtime crankies and needing to go to sleep. He got to sleep in a playpen just like the one his great-auntie J had set up for him in Victoria, so we were hoping for a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, Max had other plans and (maybe due to the travel or new surroundings) had a worse night than usual. Which is saying something.
The next morning, Good Friday, we got ready for our big road trip. Crossing our
fingers and bracing ourselves for the worst, we got in the car and hit the road. Surprisingly, Max quietly played with a toy for 20 minutes and then passed out for the duration, giving the rest of us in the car a chance to catch up. Once we got to Whitemouth, where Max's
only great-grandmother lives in a personal care home, Max put on a good baby clinic. After waking up, he allowed himself to be passed around between family members and even the friendly staff at the home without much protest. He was fascinated by great-grandma and her necklace (which kind of looked like candy). Max even got to visit with the resident cat, Smoky. Then, it was time for goodbye, so we bundled ourselves into the car again and, wonder of wonders, Max conked out again after about 20 minutes. Could he be turning the car corner?? Here is the evidence:Sometime on Friday night, while Max was playing by himself on the floor, he decided that he was going to start babbling. Now those of you who know me know that I'm a big Scrabble guy. I was over the moon to hear that he had been studying over my shoulder. Over his first 6 months, he'd clearly mastered AA, EAU, MM, and OE...but you're not going to win any games with that kind of vocabulary. But now, he's taken care of his first words with consonant sounds, such as ABA, BAA, BA, BABA, ABBA, AGA, AYAH, GAGA, DAH, WAB and, most importantly, DADA. Music to my ears. Of course, he didn't connect the word with the concept of me or anything, but still... Here's a video to give you an idea of what he can do now! Do enjoy the unwashed hair of Max's Daddy.
Saturday, we got up and went to a hotel bar near downtown Winnipeg, where Max's grandma has a weekly get-together with some friends. Unfortunately, the server at the bar was nowhere near as lenient as Ontario pub servers and pretty much kicked Max out. Much as we were tempted to just leave him on the curb and have a pint, Holly volunteered to drive him home while I stayed and visited. Max got a little rangy in the car, just to make up for the trip to Whitemouth. Finally, we had an Easter dinner at Max's grandma's that night and completely stuffed our faces. Let's just say that the mashed potatoes had butter, sour cream AND cream cheese in them. Pure heaven.
We started our last full day in town with opening our gifts and treats from the Easter Bunny then had a lovely visit with my mother's cousin's at her place. Thanks to cousin J for the awesome cloth book of nursery rhymes. We headed over to my aunt and uncle's place in the early afternoon for another face-stuffing Easter lunch with my aunt, uncle, and many cousins on my dad's side of the family. Wasn't there a popular Spanish movie called Jamon Jamon? I digress.... Max got to meet his cousin Leah for the first time in the daytime (the last visit was at about 4 a.m. on Grey Cup Sunday) and all of the rest of the crew for the first time. As per usual, I think he was super well behaved (I secretly fear that one day, he will understand that there is a thing called "misbehaved" and that this thing is fun). I kind of like it when visits and introductions go like photos in an album - you see a lot of the happy and positive and the crying and badness gets shoved under the rug. He was spoiled rotten with Easter gifts from all of his Winnipeg family, including adorable rabbit ears, outfits, an awesome new Pooh blanket, books and multiple stuffed bunnies.
Packing mayhem ensued and then we headed home on a morning flight Monday. We arrived back in O-town relaxed, relatively well-rested and sans luggage. Yes, ALL of our bags got ditched somewhere along the way. We blame Air Canada Toronto. All this even though the bags were priority tagged because they didn't notice that Holly's Elite status had lapsed. So no toiletries, no changes of clothes for Max, no breast pump, no Bumbo, no camera to download pictures to the blog and, worst of all, no perishable goat cheese and kielbasa. Air Canada will be hearing from me. In any case, Max's great-auntie Melody treated us all to a yummy Easter dinner sans pork products and the bags arrived the next day around noon, so it wasn't really a crisis.
Here are some pictures from our trip and another video of babbling, giggling Max:
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