Stop one was our friend's birthday for some karaoke on Friday night. We booked our neighbour to babysit (three times now without having ever seen Max, easy money I guess, but a great insurance policy!) and had a good night out at a new place right under our favourite sushi restaurant. The play list was a little challenging and outside our comfort zones, but we still laid out some pretty fine Sinead O'Connor and Bee Gees.
Saturday morning, we packed the family up and headed out to Max's great-auntie's cottage. The weather was a little gloomy, but before the rain started to fall, Great Auntie K took Max out for a nice outdoor stroll. They collected all sorts of rocks and sticks in his new plastic wagon, went down to check out the lake (Max apparently wanted in), and then played in the sand with a dump truck and a pail and shovel. Thanks to great Auntie M for the oodles of toys straight from Guelph! The two of them had a great time while the rest of us had a Settlers marathon inside. In fact, they had such a great time that, for the rest of the weekend, Max wasn't really interested in spending any time with the rest of us. Well, Holly and I still got a bit of time in, but Max really wasn't interested in Grandma at all. He kept telling her to "GO!" and occasionally pushed her in the legs to make her move away. This is definitely one of Max's stranger (and more unfortunate) developments - it all started the night when Grandma came over while we went to the movies. Max apparently REALLY didn't appreciate that whole sequence of events and gave Grandma the GO for the first time that night. He used it on each of Holly and I a couple of times since then, though not nearly as badly as with Grandma this past Saturday (maybe residual from Wednesday night?). It's really hard to see Max develop these negative feelings towards somebody, particularly his own family. Hopefully, we can break him of that habit soon.
One other thing, Max had a bit of an accident at the cottage. He was sitting in one of those highchairs that you strap onto actual chairs, kind of like a big booster seat, and he was done with his meal. We took the tray off the chair and Max leaned forward quickly. Unfortunately, the chair to which we had strapped the booster high chair was not long enough, front to back, so Max's movement threw the center of gravity too far forward and he flew face first into the table. As it turns out, he didn't really sustain an injury at that point. But then the front legs of the chair slid back and Max slammed head first into the ground. It was one of those moments where you would think that you'd jump up and catch the falling child in time or react quickly, but we all just kind of sat there. Once we snapped out of the "did that just happen? is this happening?" funk, we peeled Max off the floor. It took him about 3 minutes to stop crying and want to go back to playing with his truck. It didn't look like anything was wrong, but the next day a really nice bruise showed up in his right ear. It obviously hurts, but other than that, Max is totally fine. In any case, here are some pictures from the cottage trip:
We got back from the cottage mid-afternoon on Sunday and Max took an hour or so to top up his car nap before we had company over for the evening. Friends of ours from back when we lived in Vancouver came by with their 10- and 40-month-old daughters. Despite having a grumpy wake-up from his nap (and throwing around the word MINE like candy these days), Max was relatively willing to share his toys and home with the visitors. Well, most of his toys. His favourite rolling truck and two favourite books (My First Truck Book and Bob the Builder: Let's Find Shapes) were off-limits. Except when he wasn't looking, heh-heh. I find that whenever I spend time around parents of older children, I end up playing "O guru..." with them and asking all sorts of questions about what the future might have in store for me. I see a three-year old and I can't believe how well she can communicate when Max is still a pile of duhs, dahs, and gos. Hopefully I wasn't too irritating. It is most awesome to talk shop with people who are so well-grounded and whose children are obviously doing just fine. I can't wait to have more visits with them in the future. Here are some pictures:
Finally, after a lazy early morning today, Holly suggested bouncing out to the By Ward Market to get some fresh air. So Max got to ride on a bus and flirt with another young girl on the way downtown. We treated him to some Booster Juice, although I broke tradition and got the Mango Hurricane instead of the Breezy Banana . . . Max gave up only about 25% of the way into the drink when he normally destroys the whole thing. After a quick Old Navy stop, we walked the streets of the Market, spotting buses, trolleys, horses and balloon animals. Then we headed to Chapters to play with their Thomas the Tank Engine play table and zip around on Plasma Cars. Our last stop was Major's Hill Park, where there was a fair set up with some rides, buskers and circus performers. Max watched the Scrambler go around for a bit while Mom had a Sno-cone and Dad (shamelessly) had a Pogo. Max fell asleep before we left the park, so we ushered him home on the bus and then popped him into bed for an extendo-nap. I snoozed too while Holly watched the season finale of some girly show. Here are today's pics:
It's been a wonderful weekend and I think we all feel refreshed going into our last 10 days before owning a new house!!!
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