More catchup

This stinks. It's 3 am, everyone else is asleep and I'm wide awake. As Max tells it, he fell out of bed about 45 minutes ago and demanded that I lie down with him so that he could get back to sleep. The last couple of times that happened, I passed out in his bed and Holly and I didn't want that to become a habit so I kept myself awake until he was out this time. Problem is, he's down and I'm up now. Oh well, at least I can try to put a blog post together - one of those things we never seem to have time for anymore during our waking hours...

Before getting started with early October happenings, I want to publicly thank Holly for taking both kids for four nights last weekend in order for me to go down to Lake George for my first Scrabble tournament in 9 months. This is one event that I've been to every year except 2007, when Max was only 6 weeks old. I seem to remember him having a growth spurt that weekend too, so I was glad that I stuck around. In any case, the tournament itself didn't go that well, but I had a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones so thank you, thank you, thank you! I am sure that Holly will fill you in on the weekend happenings - Nana and her guitar! Saunders Farm! Gymnastics with Kerry! A birthday party!

Also before getting to the early October stuff, I have a couple of late September things to get to. First, Max and Leo's Grandma stopped by for a layover on her way from Winnipeg out to the Maritimes. The four of us piled into the van to go and meet her for brunch and a bit of storytime at Chapters before seeing her off again. Max did quite well despite missing his nap and we all had a good little visit. Here's a picture of Max and Grandma reading an oversized version of Goodnight Moon.


Two days later, we decided that it was time to assemble Max's big boy bed and move "his" crib to Leo's room. Max was fascinated with the whole bed-building business and actually helped tighten a couple of screws. That night, he slept right through until 5:45, at which point he fell out of bed and woke up crying. We could put rails on it, but it's a real twin bed that is probably a foot off the ground, at best, so it doesn't seem necessary. Over the past three weeks, he has fallen for sure twice and maybe one other time, never causing any more damage than a broken sleep for a couple of us. For a while, though, it seemed to have taken care of his night terrors, although those have popped up again this past week. Max loves his new bed. Proof: I was reading Charles Schulz's Happiness is a Warm Puppy to Max last night and on one page it says "Happiness is sleeping in your own bed", to which Max squealed "ME!". I guess he likes it. Here's the project as it was being built:


Speaking of the "Happiness is..." book, it was interesting to hear Max pipe up on a couple of pages "Vieda's!". I take it that Max has been jumping into piles of leaves at daycare lately. I know he hasn't been over here because he'd be jumping into piles of pine needles. It was really interesting to me to hear news about events that I knew nothing about get reported through Max. He's starting to be able to articulate things about his day or recall events for me. It's wild to see him become more and more reliable as a source of information. He's come a long way from "Did you go swimming today?" "Yeah!" "Did you eat the moon today?" "Yeah!".

Anyway, back to October. The first weekend in the month, we were invited to a friend's wedding right in our own neighbourhood. We dragged both kids along to the ceremony, crossing our fingers that they wouldn't lose it. When we got to the church (Max's 3rd time? Leo's 1st?), Max was entranced with the acoustic guitarist and violinist who supplied the music. In fact, that was the first time he had ever seen or heard a violin (now one of his favourite words). It was a nice ceremony and (with the help of many little packs of fruit chews) Max kept a lid on it. Mysteriously, so did Leo. I was two rows up from Holly and Leo so I couldn't see what was happening. I had assumed he had been fed to sleep. However, he had stayed awake and simply decided to be quiet. Wow. It was nice to have the opportunity to get all dolled up too. That evening, Max and Leo's Nana and Kerry came over to tag team the kids while we headed off to the reception. We nipped back after the dinner to put them both to sleep, bounced back out for some dancing and then got home for some sleep. Many thanks to the babysitting team!!!




The next night, we assembled a swing that we'd been meaning to try Leo in and it was not the biggest hit. Although, he sat in it for a few minutes before losing it. Better than expected. Since then, however, Leo has managed on three occasions, I believe, to knock himself out in the swing for whole meals, leaving the rest of us to eat in civilized peace. Three times. Given that Holly found the swing at a consignment sale, it's been worth the investment, just for that. Here is a video of Leo's first swing:


That week, Holly's aunt from Vancouver Island came out for a long visit, staying a few nights with us. It was great to have her over again (and not pass on some sort of illness!). She enjoyed meeting Leo (as can be seen in the picture) and (as all good visits tend to do) caused a lot of big dinners to happen. Red Lobster - yum! OK, fine, Thanksgiving dinner was already arranged, but you know... We also got to take in a hockey game that the Sens won, so that was cool. Big thanks to Great Auntie Jan for the wonderful hand-painted bathroom step stool for Max! He is at a stage where getting up on a stool for a better vantage point is super cool to him. Also, thanks for the wonderful swag on our door.


So back to Thanksgiving dinner. Given that Holly's mum and aunt are in the process of moving house, we agreed to host dinner over here and supply the food (other than Mr. Turkey which Auntie Melody lovingly bought for us even though she couldn't join us for dinner), but that others would do the cooking. In all, I think we had about 10 people over (including Krysta all the way from Guelph - yay!), which necessitated a card table to be put up at the end of our table. Two friends sat at the little table and entertained Max throughout the meal - super cute. Thanks to everybody who prepared food and supplied the turkey and wine. Everything was delicious and the company was awesome. It was also really nice to host a big dinner here considering that Holly's mum and aunt are always hosting the big holiday meals at their place. It was nice to finally contribute!


Max, learning the art of stuffing prep from Nana

Leo getting a hug from his older bro

A blurry shot of dinner - everyone's eating so quickly!!
Thanksgiving was also the first time in a long while that Holly's family on her mum's side was all in the same place so we had a little photo shoot in the backyard. Here are a few shots:




On the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend (yes, this post is as linear as Memento), we took in the neighbourhood fall festival, Cornucopia. Unlike Westfest, the streets were still open to traffic, but there were still some interesting things to see and do. Like what, you say? Well, a petting zoo for starters. Also, a horrendous Asian drag queen who twisted Holly's rubber arm into singing kid's karaoke on the street. Stilted street walkers. No, that doesn't sound right. People on stilts walking down the street. Puppet shows. Juggling. A birthday card-making table. Here's the evidence.





The weather cleared up so nicely for the day that we all really enjoyed ourselves. I think Leo's going to be like his brother in that he seems to like being outdoors. Although Max has recently learned to say "too cold" and has started to use it. It must be weird to have a sensation at times in your life and all of a sudden find out that there's a word for it.

So I'm going to leave the updates at here for now and try to get some sleep. A few final words though - we were going to write a post about Max's vocabulary (which we still might do) that was going to feature all the words he knows. However, his vocabulary is exploding right now and it's really hard to keep up. What has me more amazed than anything is the stuff he says that is beyond naming objects. As in when we finally got home after a cold walk the other night and he said "Made it!". Or when he wants us to do something and says "Your turn". His favourite these days seems to be "Silly" when something strikes him as being funny and he usually uses it correctly. With regards to Leo, Holly seems to be having a lot of fun with him at Hush-a-Bye classes. In particular, the Raisin Bread "song" she does with him actually makes him giggle. What a sound! We have decided that Leo is a more interactive baby than Max was, that he seems to smile more than Max did (and cry more, but as the Facts of Life theme went...) Leo also enjoys the Charlie Chaplin diaper changing song that was a big hit with Max as recently as a couple of months ago. Now Max is singing some of these songs to his baby doll, which is awesome to see.

Anyhoo, sleepytime.