Leo - nice to meet you

Hey everyone,

So for a while now, we've realized that we've been pretty Maxcentric on this blog. It has come to the point that even one of our loyal readers has pointed this out to us (as a possible "you didn't love me as much" moment down the road, no less!). Leo, when you're reading this in the future, we apologize. The things you do are completely fascinating and we love you to bits; it's just that your brother is going through such an interesting time right now that we can't believe the things he's doing. The learning curve is so steep that I'm blown away by what he's picked up in just the last two weeks! But enough about him. We want to spend a bit of time talking about you.

To recap right from the start, Leo had a very snoozy first couple of weeks outside the womb. Such a calm boy that at one point I may have even mentioned the B word that rhymes with fjord. Idiot. The next month was more normal: lots of feeding, a bit of crying, still a bit of sleeping and occasionally, Leo would open his eyes and take a look around.

While my mom was up visiting from Winnipeg, partially through his second month, Leo got upset. Not colicky upset (I certainly wondered, given that his most upset times seemed to be precisely when I was home from work), but enough that it was getting hard for me to bond and connect with him. It seemed like if he wasn't feeding or sleeping, he was crying. Leo was consolable for brief periods, but then it was back to the breast and hope for sleep.

Despite the fact that this period was pretty hard for me to deal with - I used to think I was more patient than I seem to be, but on at least two occasions (Max, Leo) it has turned out that I have a pretty short fuse - it was great to see that Leo was perfectly healthy. In fact, at his most recent visit to the pediatrician, he ranked in the 50th percentile for both height and weight. Right down the middle might seem ho-hum to some, but after Max's weight issues, we were ecstatic to have a baby who was developing right on schedule.

Another thing that came along about halfway through Leo's rough month was that he learned to sleep very well. I'm not going to get into numbers, lest some cosmic forces smite me, but let's just say that on multiple occasions over the past month or so, people have commented on how rested we look. No matter how rough the crying jags got, we could always at least rest assured that a good sleep was around the corner. Thank you so much Leo. Trust me, the extra energy you allowed us over the past while will come back to you in spades.

Then, just over two weeks ago, Leo turned the corner. Just as I remember it happening with Max, one day it was like we had a different baby on our hands. The first difference I noticed was that Leo was starting to track things with his eyes. Toys attracted his attention. So did light and darkness. Sounds interested our baby and, most importantly, he started to smile. Seeing the first glimmer of a smirk was definitely one of the biggest highlights for me. He's still just as serious as Max started out, but instead of asking ourselves how serious our baby might grow up to be, we have a goofy benchmark in the next bedroom over reminding us not to worry about it.

Over the past couple of weeks, Holly has started to take Leo to the same Hush-a-Bye singing class that Max attended. Apparently Holly's a star because she knows all the songs already. Gradually, Leo has even worked up to today, when he spent 30 minutes awake and quiet listening, smiling and reacting to the songs. Amazing. Holly has also enrolled in a Salsa Babies class with Jessa and Grace and our former neighbour, V and her baby A - apparently it's a real hoot (Holly adds - It's a dance/workout that you do while wearing your baby in a carrier. Last week, we did some salsa, merengue, and pachanga steps - I was a booty-shaking, hip-swiveling, sweaty mess! I know that most of you would pay good money to get a shot of Jessa and I latin dancing but I've searched the place and ripped out the secret cameras that John and Kerry had installed).

Also over the last week or two, Leo seems to have really started enjoying being awake and interacting with the world. This was one of the things we were really waiting for. We got Max's Gymini play gym out for Leo to hang out in and he enjoys it just as much as Max did (thanks again, Grandma Eleanor!). We think the mirror is his fave, although he does like swatting the hanging toys, especially the duck chime. He didn't go ballistic when we put him down in it, like Max did, but then again, Max was a whole month older and therefore capable of going ballistic. We've even managed to get Leo into Max's old blue chair (the recliner, not the Bumbo) for 15 minutes or so. I think this will help free up our arms, allowing us to get some stuff done while Leo is awake - a HUGE bonus, especially during the dinner hour.

On the recommendation of our friend Rob (Grace's dad), we bought Leo a mobile as well. Those of you that know Holly well know that she scours garage sales, thrift stores and the local kids consignment stores for baby stuff and rarely buys anything new so it was a big deal to go to Babies R Us and actually buy a new baby accessory. I put it together, installed the batteries (it plays classical music and the toys spin around) and set it up on Leo's change table and lo and behold, Leo LOVES it. Really, really loves it. I think this will allow Holly a few extra minutes a day with two hands to put away laundry in Leo's room, brush her teeth, etc.

In any case, the upshot is that I'm finally finding myself really connecting with Leo. He clearly looks at me, responds to my voice, smiles at me and is less of a hassle in the evening. All that, combined with the reasonably good sleeps I've been getting, means that I'm feeling like a pretty lucky guy these days. So Leo, despite your not having been mentioned much over the past few posts, this one's for you. Here are some of our favourite recent pictures of you that we'd like to share:


I don't think he realizes that this is a staring contest that he will never win.


This is the face I make right before I poop all over Auntie Laramie in a nice restaurant.


Check out my nice face scratch - I did that one to myself!


My daddy loves me.


And then I lick the salt???

Happy belated birthday!

For those of you who weren't keeping track, Max turned the big 0-2 on the 9th, right in the middle of a whole week of parties. Max's great-grandpa came to town on the 6th for his own birthday and we also threw a Max birthday/housewarming/Welcome Leo!/belated John birthday/Holly birthday combo party on the 16th that I'm sure we'll blog about at some point (I'd say soon, but given our recent track record...)

On his birthday evening (09/09/09 - super cool!), we had some of Max's favourite people over for some pizza and salad. Well, Holly went to the trouble of making a salad, but everyone was so stuffed full of yummy Colonnade pizza that the salad suddenly morphed into 3 days' worth of lunches. Oh well. Here is everyone:


Max was fascinated with the balloons and streamers and, hot on the heels of his hot air balloon extravaganza, he took to calling all of the balloons "Ba hah lulus".

We were delighted to have Max's beloved caregiver V and her son K join us for dinner. Max's face totally lit up to see V at HIS house and he was super excited to show her lots of things. He kept asking where she was after everyone had left!

Max was spoiled rotten with all of the love and some wonderful gifts. He loves the new books from his Nana (Baby Brains and his ghee-tar!), Auntie Melody and Auntie Karen. Auntie Laramie brought Max his very own remote control skid steer that plays rock music. He can't quite master the controls yet but he loves it just the same. Laramie's friend J brought Max his very own Sens jersey! It will share space in the closet with his Canucks jersey and he can choose his allegiance for himself when the time comes.

Leo gave Max a fabulous birthday present and slept through the entire dinner in his bassinet so Max could have both of his parents and his guests all to himself for a whole evening. Leo has never slept through the evening like that (and hasn't since) and is usually up and not super happy during that time so it was a real treat for everyone. Well, except for Nana and his aunties who kept poking him and trying to get him to wake up so they could visit with him. He woke up just after everyone had left. We're convinced that he knew that something was up and wanted his big brother to have his own special day.

A few more photos from the night:



Max turning two also meant that we could introduce him to peanut butter (one of the allergy recommendations these days is to wait until two to introduce peanuts). We are both big fans of the stuff so we were hoping that Max would like it too. See for yourself (those of you that haven't been to our new place yet can get a view of our kitchen in the background):


More adventures (Sundae Sunday, apple picking, a visit from Grandma Eleanor) to follow . . .

Some catch-up of summer happenings . . .

Sigh. So the weather has turned significantly cooler over the past couple of days, likely signaling the end of summer. What else does it signal? Sickness season. Personally, I'm super grateful that after Max's early July episode, everyone in the house managed to get their health in order for 9 whole weeks. Things with Max were always slightly worse when either he or one of us was under the weather. The present roll call goes as follows: Max - healthy; Daddy - healthy; Mom - cold-ridden as of yesterday; Leo - runny nose and an apparent post-nasal drip as of tonight. I suppose that's his first sign of sickness. Not too shabby. I seem to think Max's first crazy cold hit on Boxing Day, so about 14 weeks in. I'll have to take a look at the blog to relive those halcyon days. I remember a lot of steam showers, nasal suction and screaming. Yay.

There are a few things that needed covering on the blog before they drift too far into our memories. First up is our first ever family road trip as a foursome. The Saturday before Labour Day, we all piled into the van and set off in the pouring rain to Kingston to visit an old friend of mine and her wife - they were in town visiting from England for the first time in 3 years. When we heard that they'd really have to go out of their way to make it up to Ottawa, it was a no-brainer that we'd make the trip to K-Town.

The early morning departure was timed to coincide with Leo's nap and it worked out beautifully as he managed to stay asleep the whole way down. Just as important, Max managed to stay awake the whole way down without much fuss - have books, juice boxes, food and toy cars, will travel. There were plenty of big vehicles on the 401 to hold his attention too. We pulled into our friend's parents' place (thanks D&H!) in Amherstview just after noon, right on time to enjoy some food and good company (another former dorm neighbour of mine stopped by for a few hours in the early afternoon). Max had a good nap on one of their beds while Leo was very reasonable throughout the day. We capped the day with some vino and delicious pesto pizzas before setting off for home. Leo had a rough trip to Brockville-ish at which point we pulled off at a service station so that Holly could feed him. Aside from a brief blip, he (and all other non-drivers in the car) slept the rest of the way back.

Here are a couple of pictures from the day:



The week before this adventure, we were invited down for 30Fest, the latest in a long series of ____Fests thrown by friends of ours who live south of Ottawa. Despite what we'd heard about some sort of mosquito invasion, we trekked down to check it out. We're quickly learning that the best parties are those with other kids for Max to play with. As of right now, he's got a small clique of favourite playpals (the girls of the STC crew and the mostly male brood from Holly's moms group) and it's always awesome to see him interact with other kids. Fascinating, even. 30Fest featured a pool for the little 'uns, some volleyball for the big 'uns and plenty of corn for everybody. There was also the option to camp out overnight, but I don't think we're quite ready for that yet. Maybe next time. We left with smiles on our faces, food in our bellies and bug bites all over. Holly was attacked through the back of a lawn chair while she was nursing Leo:


We thought that Max had escaped relatively unscathed from the mosquito invasion but alas, we were sadly mistaken. This was taken the morning after:


More party photos:



Max was a BIG fan of the multi-layer bean dip. He really ate a lot of that dip. He seems to like spicy food just like his dad.



Going back in time (think the shimmery scene transitions in Wayne's World), we were at a BBQ with most of the families from Holly's old play group that she used to attend every week with Max. It came at the end of a rough string of days with Leo and, sure enough, if you tell enough people that he's been a little crotchety, he'll go and snooze right through your social event so that you can chat and eat in peace. Thanks mucho, little dude! We hadn't seen many of these friends in quite some time, so it was great to have that opportunity to see how they were doing. It was pretty amazing to see how all of the other little ones have grown up as much as Max. The spread was amazing and the weather cooperated too. In fact, we were having such a good time that we completely forgot to snap pictures, so we only have one to share:


A note about Max's very dirty right foot in this photo - he actually stepped into a wading pool with his shoe on! He then proceeded to march right over to the sandbox and start playing. Luckily those shoes are washable!

A lot of things happened this past week too, but I'll save that for the next post. A teaser: Max has started up at gymnastics and swimming again and both (yes, BOTH) have been a big hit. Evidence that Max is growing: he is now able to stand on the bottom of the small warm pool the parents and kids hit at the end of classes at Dovercourt Rec Centre. Crazy. Next, he'll be in the pool without my supervision or some such nonsense.

Our fantastic long weekend

I don't know what you all got up to this weekend, but we had ourselves a good one.

Friday night, we had a spontaneous dinner date with a couple of close friends. Sausages and potato wedges - yum! Max, who doesn't typically like potatoes (I know Murray, SHAME!) discovered the manna that is ketchup and might have taken down 3/4 of a potato. Awesome. Our new mantra to care less about the state of our house (and lives, I suppose) and just host people more often has probably already resulted in more dinners chez nous then we hosted over the last 5 years at our Kirkwood abode.

Saturday, Max and I hit the road early and picked up our friend K for a little TV shopping. We'd been meaning to upgrade for a long time and we finally bit the bullet. Just like when we bought our sectional couch, this is one addition to our home that has made us instantly happy. We can see expressions on faces again!! This sports season is going to be something else. Bring on the Olympics, March Madness and the Stanley Cup play-offs!

After Max's nap, we went over to return the favour for the TV advice and put together some IKEA shelves with K. Unfortunately, they ended up being the wrong shelves, but we still had ourselves a wonderful visit.



Sunday morning, we got up and packed up the brood for an awesome picnic with some of our friends at Britannia Park. Crudites, sandwiches, juice, chips, cheese, pasta salad and assorted other yumminess ensued. Max sat around and spilled everyone's drinks...er...ate for a while before moving on to the park's huge play structure. He pretended to want to slide for a while and then we watched some volleyball beefcake and sailboats on the beach before grabbing some ice cream at the food counter and getting back to the womenfolk. We left the park at about 3:00 and Max still hadn't slept. At roughly 3:03:45, Max was unconscious.



Our next stop was Auntie Med's for a joint birthday celebration for Great Grandpa Frank (87 amazing years) and Max (his upcoming 2nd birthday on the 9th). Rather than going home for the nap, we poured Max into Auntie's spare bed and visited for a bit before the festivities began. We had a great time eating, catching up and playing beanbag toss (Max was an excellent cheerleader and not a bad arm from very very close range). The appetizers and dinner were succulent (as per usual at an Auntie Med-catered event!)- Max grazed on a variety of treats throughout the evening, even taking in some ribs later on, during dinner. Max was spoiled rotten with some wonderful books and a real John Deere tractor but he was most enamoured with a singing birthday card. Play that funky music, indeed! (Editor's note: He has played that card at least a dozen times a day since Sunday). The cap on the whole shebang was the cake at the end of the night. Likely the most sugar Max has ever ingested after his bedtime. Go figure, he really likes butter cream icing. Max ended up running around in some serious circles before passing out at home. Max also made a great new friend in Auntie Med's dear friend Rose. He was following her around like a little puppy! It was a pretty special experience to share Great Grampa's actual birthday with him and have Max enjoy so much time with his beloved GG. What a great night!






Saturday night, I figured it was time to start getting the kids sleeping on the same floor and it worked great. Leo slept until after 4 and Holly was able to get him downstairs before getting Max up. Leo took his time getting back to sleep, but eventually slept in with Mom. Sunday night, however, things didn't go so well. At 1:30, only 3 hours after going to bed, it was Max who woke up screaming, waking the rest of us up. It had been a few days since I'd heard this happen and he really went for it. After a short time, it was obvious he needed some help getting back to sleep so I went in to dole out a little TLC. The rest of us headed downstairs a little while later to coax Leo back to sleep...it took him a while, but it was worth it because the intermittent time featured a few smiles.

Monday was spent mostly at home, but the combination of Max wanting to play in the basement and Leo supplying us with some serious nap time allowed Holly some time to get a bunch of stuff done in the house, including catching up on the phone with some people we had last spoken to too long ago. I had slept pretty poorly so went for a nap with Max when he checked out while Hol took Leo to the library for a drop-off.

When Max got up, we made a snap decision to race off in the van to see the last lift-off of the Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival. It took us a while to find parking but we eventually dumped the van in some Gatineau dude's back yard for $5. It was $16 per person to gain admission to the site itself, and we didn't really want to do that, so we were ecstatic to find that Gatineau dude's back yard essentially backed onto the grounds themselves. So we walked from the car to the site parking lot (1 minute?) and put out a blanket to watch the balloons lift off overhead. For $5. Awesome. Here are some pictures:





All in all, this was an amazing weekend. Max is really turning into an interesting kid and, despite the fact that we're having to discipline him more and more, conversing with him is often priceless. Example: tonight he was singing "bluu bluu bluu" to himself (his word for balloon) and I was shocked...SHOCKED to figure out that he was singing it to the tune of Twinle Twinkle Little Star. He has also started to call me Daddy and, occasionally, Holly Mommy. He's even started getting playful with us, like hiding a toy and then asking us where it is and saying he doesn't know when he clearly knows full well where it is. I can't imagine what it will be like having two guys this fascinating around the house!!!

Finally, I wanted to mention that one boon to the late nights with Leo has been the discovery of Amazing Race reruns on OLN. They ran up to season 7 and then, just recently, started back at season 1. They've inexplicably dropped a lot of elements that have made season 1 stand out as one of the best. Someone should drop Phil and Browsie a line...

A quickie

There's a lot to blog about, but as it's 4:30 in the morning, I'm just going to make this one quick before tucking in for the ... er... night.

My boy smiled at me today. Leo and I have had some differences of opinions lately when it comes to bedtime, but it's great to see that in the end, we're still buds. I forgot how uplifting it is to see that first smirk and hear the little coo that goes along with it. Fuel for the next little while for sure! I'll try to catch it on celludigitaloid ASAP.



Note: it looks like someone's head is unsupported in this picture. Believe me - it was.