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...