More quotes; Leo develops

Another quick one before getting all of the pics up. Yesterday, I was lying on the ground on my back and Max was on top of me, lying on his belly.

Max: you got hair! On your nose!
Daddy: yes I do. Do you have hair in your nose?
Max: no.
Daddy: that's right, but you will.
Max: I got booger.
Daddy: no, I can't see any.
Max: You got hair! Weird!

Seriously. There's nothing I can add to that to make it funnier.

Here's another:

Max (while holding a broom and looking for something to sweep): I got no garbage. That make me sad.

Leo has gotten crazy with the mobility over the past little while. I am amazed that roughly three weeks ago, he was able to indicate that he was vaguely interested in people and things, but then he started reaching for things and now he is grabbing everything and cramming it in his mouth. Toys, fingers, hair (Holly is making references to chopping her mane right off), and even food (Holly's BLT took one for the team last week). Also, the rolling around has gotten pretty intense. Leo managed to figure out how to roll over and free his arm much quicker than Max did, which means he was able to sort out how to roll over onto his back again fairly quickly. He's done pretty well on the double roll as well. The 900 has been done once or twice, but it's about at that point that he gets worn out and needs a hand. Needless to say, we are now very careful about where we put/leave him. Leo's change table is quite interesting now - we have to strap him in AND keep him in a position where he can't reach the spinning animals.

I'm hoping to get a rolling video together ASAP...

OMG

Yes, the blog contributions kind of died off in the last couple of days..sorry about that. You all know how it is in the last few days leading up to Christmas. I had just gotten back into town, lots of wrapping still needed doing, throw in a few errands and sprinkle with dinner parties and you get a bit of a fizzle to the end of our bloggy advent calendar. As it turns out, it mirrors the state of Max's actual advent calendar. I'm pretty sure I popped a chocolate out for him on Christmas Eve and that was #13 or #14...I can't remember. There were too many distractions, nights he didn't eat enough dinner, and nights he didn't deserve a chocolate treat...In any case, as The Count would say "TWO unfinished advent calendars..ah.ah.ah..."

This Christmas has been one for the ages. Pictures are still on the camera, so we'll try to get a few on the blog this weekend...or week. The main events involved: Christmas Eve brunch at work with my colleagues...everybody brought their families so it was a great chance for people to meet Leo and see how he's grown since July, or see Max and see how he's grown since the last brunch he attended when he was 3 months old; Christmas Eve dinner - fine dining featuring a KFC bucket paired with a fine bottle of bubbly provided by our close friends R&J and butter tarts provided by our friend R; Christmas morning, when Max got to finally tear into some presents (meltdown #1: when he realized that Christmas didn't mean that Santa just brought toys for him and that some gifts were actually for Leo...ouch); Christmas brunch at Leo and Max's Nana's place, featuring yummy eggs Benedict; Christmas festivities, including stocking stuffer exchange among the adults, followed by everyone watching Max tear into a large pile of presents (favourite gifts included a ukulele, a remote-control Zamboni, his first suitcase and a magnetic drawing tablet); Christmas dinner with both of Holly's grandfathers, and finally, Boxing Day - a great day to lounge around inside while the freezing rain pelted down outside ALL DAY LONG (meltdown #2: Max was very sad to see the 30-hour parade of presents come to an end. Just wait until his aunt and uncle get here with more!).

So Holly and I are currently in recovery. Thank you everybody for your generosities this year. If Max could spell, he'd take some space here to tell you how over the moon he is with the (commercial) concept of Christmas. Leo, well, he's kind of where Max was a couple of years ago - he generally handled Christmas very well, aside from occasionally seeming a bit overwhelmed by everything. He and I had a bit of a breakthrough this past couple of days, in that I've never been particularly successful before in entertaining him when he was upset BUT this weekend, I think I got more smiles out of Leo than ever before. We had a lot of fun singing songs and rolling around. He's a great kid when he's not upset (aren't we all?).

Tonight is the first night Leo has been put to sleep on his front - not knowing how this will affect the quality of his sleep, I'd better leave it at this and get off to bed. Already, he's maintained his sleep abut 25 minutes longer than expected!

Editor's note: Leo pulled off a 4-hour sleep on his front and over the past few days there's been more evidence that he's ready for sleep in different positions than on his back. In fact, most times, if he's not unconscious, once placed on his back, he'll roll around until you pick him up and put him on his front, at which point he'll settle down considerably.

Out the mouths of babes

A few Max musings of late . . .

From dinner tonight:

John: "Is this dressed?" (referring to the salad in his hand)
Me: "Yes."
Max: "I dressed too."

From dinner a few weeks ago:

Me: Burp.
Pause
Max: (looking right at me with a stern look on his face) "WHAT say, Mama!"
Me: "Excuse me."

In the van tonight:

Me: "What are you going to put out for Santa?"
Max: "Grapes. I like grapes. Santa like grapes?"
Me: "Yes, Max. What else?"
Max: "Peppers. Peppers and dip."
Me: "Anything else?"
Max: "Toast. Nice plate Santa."

By dip, Max means hummous. I guess Santa gets filled up on cookies and milk elsewhere and is looking for some variety at our place.

In other news, Leo is rolling over! For real this time. I know that I reported that earlier on this blog but it didn't happen again after that one instance until the last few days. He is now rolling over consistently when he is on a flat surface. When I went in to his room to get him this morning, he had rolled over in his crib. Crazy. I can't believe that he will be six months old in a few weeks and starting on solid food. Really crazy.

Update on my hickey: It is still there. It looks like a faint bruise today. I showed it to a friend and she asked if someone had hit me! Not quite.

Good day

This will be a short little post. Both the boys are in bed and I am completely zonked. It was a really good but tiring day. Max, Leo and I had some good play time, Auntie Laramie and James visited in the early afternoon, I had both boys sleeping at the same time for 45 whole minutes and we spent the late afternoon and early evening at an awesome holiday party at Kerry's house - photos of the party to follow!

One rather odd thing happened with Leo tonight - he gave me an honest to goodness hickey! I was putting him on my shoulder to walk around and he managed to latch on to my chin. I thought it was pretty funny so I let him hang out there for a few seconds. I guess he was really sucking because I found a hickey on my chin when I was brushing my teeth! Very strange.

I'm a bit sad right this second because I was supposed to be joining most of my family to see Stuart Mclean's Vinyl Cafe at the NAC tonight but it was not to be this year. Auntie Melody has made this a family tradition the last few years and we really have a wonderful time. I can't wait to hear all about it!

I've said it before but I'll say it again - I am so very, very blessed that John is such an involved and loving parent and shares the child care role so equally with me.

OK, my pillow is calling my name.

What a cutie!

Olympic Torch Relay

This past weekend, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch came to Ottawa and I was surprised to hear that the relay route was coming fairly close to our place. To within 3 blocks, in fact! For those of you familiar with Ottawa geography, the runners went westbound on Carling, hooked a right on Woodroffe and then eastbound back up Richmond, essentially forming a U around our house.

Our friend Jenn B. was up visiting from Toronto so we made it a group outing. We camped out on the curb on Richmond and Redwood and waited for the motorcade. I think I was expecting the torchbearer, some security and maybe a rest van to accompany the runner. What I didn't expect was a pair of massive floats (Coke and RBC), about 10 police cars, a mini bus carrying all of the runners doing the ensuing legs and only then, the runner, some security and a couple of support vehicles. Here's what we saw:







After the visual onslaught passed us by, the torch was headed up to Parliament Hill, where a giant stage was set up for a big show featuring Tom Cochrane (is he still around? We weren't sure whether he'd trot out Life is a Highway or Big League first...) I didn't hear anything about the festivities, but I'm sure a lot of people went. Can't go wrong with free Beavertails!

The next day, at gymnastics, one of the instructors (who had participated in the relay the night before) came in wearing her relay gear (given to the runners for free) and carrying her torch (could be purchased by the runners for $400 a pop). Max thought it was pretty cool and I even got to hold the torch. I didn't have a camera on me though, so no pics - sorry.

We were thinking that, given that the Olympics only come to Canada every 15 years or so, it was pretty neat to see the relay. Who knows if there will be a next time, if it will come close to us, etc. Maybe next time, we'll actually get lucky and one of us will be selected to participate! It's only 300 metres, right? I still can't believe that I didn't know anybody who ran, after 12,000 people were chosen to carry the torch...

Good things come in threes

Boom Boom Pow

You read that right. This is a blog post about the first non-children's music song for which Max has expressed a preference. Yes, ye olde Boom Boom Pow by BEP. For those of you who aren't familiar with the song, here's the video clip:

So one night in November, the song came on our stereo and Max was getting down. It's hard to describe just how intense the dancing got without a proper visual. I am pleased to present said visual to you here:


I love that fierce, catwalk-glare as he gets into his floor work. After looping the song a few times over, Max got a little punchy. He then discovered that, at night, he could see his reflection in our picture window and started giving it kisses. Kisses turned into headbutts, which led to falling on his keister, which he found hilarious. Check it.

My heart just melted

Today was a crazy busy day with lots of activity (my mum and Auntie Karen moved into their new home) and not very much time to reflect but Max just melted my heart to a big puddle. John had put Max to bed and come downstairs to join Leo and I but then we heard from the basement that Max was out of his bed (a very rare occurrence). I went up to check on him and he asked for some juice. I got him some juice then crawled into bed with him for a few bedtime songs. He crawled on top of me, gave me a big hug and said "I love you". It is the very first time he has ever said it to me. It took me a few moments to recover! He can certainly drive us crazy these days with his energy and stubbornness but moments like this make it all worth it. Off to bed to fuel up for another day . . .

More sad news

Sorry to get away from all of the cute stories about the young 'uns again, but I wanted to take a post and dedicate it to Max and Leo's only great-grandmother, who passed away this morning. She was a staggering 97 years and 11 months old and lived a very full life. In fact, it was only a few years ago that she moved out of her house and into a care facility, impressively living on her own well into her nineties.

Unfortunately, great-grandma and Leo never met. However, Max did get to eastern Manitoba to visit her on a few occasions and we have some good pictures of the two of them together. I'm not sure he'll remember those visits, but I'll be sure to tell him a lot about his great-grandmother as he grows older. How generous she was. How she saved all the salvageable pieces of wrapping paper at Christmas. How she taught me the ins and outs of cribbage. How she loved her curling and her Bombers. How sharp she was, even in her later years.

A part of me is sad too that my upcoming trip to Pinawa, MB will likely be the last time I get out to that corner of the province. I made countless trips out to Pinawa to visit my grandparents, sometimes of the 1-day variety and sometimes longer. I spent lots of time swimming at the lake and then, eventually, at the pool. I bought snacks at the convenience store. I watched the town parade numerous times from the front lawn and played Crown and Anchor (made a killing, usually) at the post-parade festivities. It's probably the only taste of small-town living I'll ever have.

So this one's for you, great-grandma. You'll be missed. Here are my two favourite pictures of you and Max.


I love this picture from the first time great-grandma met Max. I find it interesting that in a few weeks, Leo will be as old as Max was in this picture.


This was taken in the summer of 2008, as Max was learning to walk. He always thought wheelchairs were pretty cool.

Baby vs. Wild

For those of you who are not currently parents, you may not know about Sophie. Sophie is French. France French. Sophie is made of all natural rubber. Sophie squeaks. Sophie is a giraffe. Sophie is one of the must-have baby accoutrements for hip families. She's eco and she's expensive: A+B=must-have. Particularly in our old neighbourhood of Nestboro.

When Holly first went with Max to Hush-a-Bye, she sat down with the little tyke and almost every other mother sat down with their little ones...and a Sophie. Ever the contrarian (and certainly not one to come off as chi-chi), Holly said "there's no way I'm ever getting one of those giraffes". We also couldn't believe that Max would ever give two shakes about some girafe en caoutchouc (dang, that's totally one of my favourite French words) so we passed.

Recently, a new mommy friend (old friend, new mommy) of Holly's wound up being given multiple Sophies and thought Leo might like one. When I got home from work and saw it, I think I spat out something sassy like "Oh, whose is that?". But I had no idea what that plucky li'l giraffe would do for us.

Let me preface the following videos by saying that generally, Leo drools. Quite a bit. But never like when he's got Sophie's entire head crammed in his craw. He will slurp any and every part of that giraffe: legs, butt, neck and particularly face. One of the first toys he exercised his new-found ability to reach out and hold on was Sophie. Here is exhibit A. This video is graphic in nature and should not be shown to members of PETA.



I will never slight Sophie again. She is Leo's very favourite (other than my arm hair, I guess). Thanks mommy friend/rock star/Sadie's mum!!!

My beautiful baby boy

Ugh. It has been a couple of rough nights with Leo - a real fight to get him to sleep then waking up multiple times and sleeping in short bursts. He's been backing up those nights with crappy naps during the day. I was pretty frustrated earlier today and very briefly considered checking the return policy on babies but I realized how very, very lucky I am to have such a beautiful, healthy and happy baby boy. He was shooting me so many smiles and laughing his little head off when I was tickling him and singing him some of his favourite songs.

Unlike his older brother at this age, Leo has got this smiling thing down pat:




With a face like this, I can live with a few sleepless nights!

A Scrabbly interlude

As most of you know, I'm a bit of a Scrabble fiend and play the game with some serious aplomb. (Holly adds: John is being quite modest here and is actually a competitive Scrabble player of some repute. He has played in the Canadian National Championships and various other international tournaments and done very, very well.) This past Saturday, the Ottawa Scrabble Club held a fun one-day tournament for local players. Not a lot of prize money or anything, but the real prize was getting to play a few games against Ottawa's best.

I ended up finishing second and essentially getting my money back for the day, but the highlight came in game 1. It was my turn to play and the board looked like this:



I was up 242-190 and just breathed a huge sigh of relief. Why? I spotted what will probably stand as the best play I will ever make in a game of Scrabble and my opponent played FRET without taking the space that I needed.

Or spaces, I guess. The word I slapped down was ZEITGEIST through the T of RANT and the E of EXED, tripling the Z and using all my tiles. 95 huge points for me. Check it:


9-letter plays are rare to begin with. 9-letter plays through disconnected letters on the board that don't have -ING, -ERS or other prefixes and suffixes are very rare. Plus it had a Z in it. Plus the Z was in the perfect spot. Ah, serendipity.

A friend of mine at the club here once had a computer play itself enough times that 1 billion "optimal plays" were spat out...he made a gigantic database out of these to help him study. ZEITGEIST turned up 49 times in a billion plays, so now the challenge is to make a 9-letter play that was played 48 or fewer times. MICROBREW, LAZZARONE, SAXITOXIN, BROADBEAN and KATABATIC are some of those rare words and now I have my sights set on them.

I know this has nothing to do with either of our kids...until I brainwash them into playing a mean game of Scrabble themselves:):)

Tripod

Amongst all the funny stories and holiday season joy, we have some sad news to share. We had to have our cat Lily put down a few weeks ago. She had been not 100% for a while but had really gone downhill since we moved to this house. It was a difficult decision.

I'll miss lots of things about Lily - her funny little meows when she saw a bird or bug through the window, the way she flopped over to have her belly rubbed, how she always stuck her butt in your face when you were petting her, how surprisingly amenable she was to having her nails clipped and how she would jump on anyone's lap to get love. She could really purr too.

It is also sad because I think Max was starting to interact more with Lily. We'll definitely get more pets down the road but I think we wait until the kids are a bit older so we have a bit more time to spend with any animals we bring into the house.

Lily, I hope you are enjoying kitty heaven and getting lots of rubs and catnip.

I'll fix you

So tonight was a good night. Swimming. A good dinner. A visit with a friend from Trent. Kids in good moods. Until I put Max to bed. I put him on the ground to get him out of his clothes and he hugged me tight...and then chomped me on the collarbone. We've had words with Max before about biting - he tends to only do it when he's really, really excited - so I let him know that he was in big trouble. I put him into bed and he started crying. I looked him in the eye and made it quite clear that biting was bad and that he shouldn't do it again. The rest of the conversation went like this:

"Now what are you going to do to fix this?"

"Uhh...screwdriver?"

(Dad, stunned, goes and retrieves the Bob the Builder plastic screwdriver)

"Fix you?" (Max touches screwdriver to my collarbone) "There".

Seriously, what do you do after that?

Auntie Karen shakes her booty!

Tonight's post has nothing to do with either of my offspring but is still family-related so I'm going for it. This post is long overdue; I meant to post this video in June after I got back from San Francisco but the move to the new house and Leo's early arrival meant that I never did post very much from San Fran.

On our second day in town, we spent a lovely morning wandering around Chinatown (the largest outside of Asia). We found this wonderful fortune cookie factory and watched women hand fold warm cookies around fortunes and snacked on the still flat reject cookies that they gave away for free. You could buy fortune cookies with naughty fortunes but the man in charge refused to sell any to me for some reason. He loved Auntie Karen and kept pressing flat cookies to her cheeks and kissing her. Very interesting. They also made chocolate fortune cookies which I had never seen before. Auntie Jan and I discovered this little tea shop and enjoyed a wonderful tea tasting. We also saw a beautiful funeral procession for a long-time resident and well-known businessman wind its way through the streets. Then we rounded a corner to see a shop open to the street with all sorts of fancy chairs and other gadgets. The star attraction at the front of the store was something called the Hula Chair. We were all curious and I went to give it a whirl but the staff ran over and let me know with various signs and body language that I was not to try the chair due to my pregnancy. I really wanted to see how it worked and I begged everyone to try it. I thought that no one was going to do it but then Auntie Karen stepped up to the plate! Here is the result:


I love how you can here us all giggling in the background. Three cheers to Auntie Karen for making me smile that day and being such a good sport! It was one of the highlights of my trip.

Hockey GOAL!

To preface things a little bit, "Hockey GOAL!" is what Max says pretty much every time he shoots anything across the floor with his hockey stick.

A couple of weeks ago, we had just gotten home from picking me up at work when I got a call from the kids' Nana. Turns out Holly's sister's friend J had some spare tickets to the hockey game against Columbus and she was wondering if I might be able to use them. It was already just about 7 and, regardless of whether puck drop was at 7 or 7:30, I was going to miss part of the game. But...the tickets were free so we thought, why not bring Max? It was only a couple of days after we went for Max's follow-up H1N1 shot so he was all amped up on Zambonis again. Seemed like a good idea, aside from perhaps the whole blown bedtime thing.

When Auntie L stopped by with the goods and Max found out what was going on, he got really excited. He's only now starting to show serious anticipation for a select few events - now that his memory is working fairly well, if it's something he has a concept of and enjoyed it the first time around, he'll get really revved up. Super funny. We both got our jerseys on (Max got his Sens jersey from super fan J for his birthday) and hit the road.


The game had already started by the time we reached the freeway so there was no traffic. Awesome! We listened to the game on the way there and I carefully explained to Max that sometimes people at hockey games make a lot of noise and that it was only because they were really happy and that we'd probably want to make some noise too.

When we got there, we had to park way off in the distance because everyone else was already inside. By the time we hiked to the arena, the 1st period was drawing to a close and people were filing out onto the concourse. We made it to "our seats" just in time for the Zambonis so Max had a blast. Then we got kicked out of those seats by a very displeased couple who looked at us like we were poaching seats...thanks a lot to the people around us who knew darn well that a) they weren't our seats and b) the owners were coming back and neglected to clue me in. It turned out we were at the wrong end of the row so no big deal.


We took our real seats as the Senators hit the ice. When I explained to Max that he was wearing the same shirt as the players, he was really confused. It was about then that I noticed that the score was 1-1...great, we missed a couple of goals on the way from the car. Oh well, at least there should be some scoring.

I figured he'd be good for 10-15 minutes or so, but the barrage of noise, people, home-packed snacks and things to look at kept him stunned for well over half an hour and it was only at the 17 minute mark of the period when he started to squirm. We chilled until the horn and then we got up to leave.

I figured that, while we were out there, that Max could check out the concourse. When he saw one of the vendors selling popcorn, he went bonkers and I had to figure out what to do. It was already an hour past his bedtime so I checked with him - Max said he wanted to see more hockey players and, not knowing when we'd be at a Sens game again, I got the popcorn and made it back to our seats in time to see the Zambonis again (they swept the ice 2 at a time and Max's favourite was the orange Pizza Pizza one).


After about 10 more minutes of the 3rd, I pulled the ripcord, wanting to beat the traffic with Sleepy Sleeperson in tow. He want to walk up the aisle stairs so I let him. All of the fans watching gave him a round of applause when he got to the top and he did a dance. That's my boy. We visited the pro shop on the way out to offer Max the chance to chill with a cardboard cutout of Spartacat, the Sens' mascot (Max caught a glimpse of him during the game). Check the video below to see how that went.


I got back on the road with no problem (although the third and final goal, scored by the home team, came while we were trekking back to the van) and Max passed out in minutes. His special treat for the night was getting to sleep in his clothes - he was not interested in jammies and when we double-checked at home, he said "no thank you". While we're not necessarily sold on the idea of Max playing hockey, we're fascinated by his obsession with it. We'll keep you posted when he heads to his first 67s game!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Auntie Laramie and J! You made Max's day!



P.S. A big happy birthday today to our Leaf-loving aunt out on Vancouver Island. Doesn't look like this will be the Leafs' year...but I still hope it is a good one for Auntie J!

Terrible twos?

This has been an interesting week for Max. Lots of boundary-pushing, lots of meltdowns when he doesn't get his way, lots of not listening to us and lots of destructive behaviour. I get it. He's a boy. He's 2. But he's our little superstar! Where's our mild-mannered cutie-pie?!?! Well, we got reacquainted tonight.

After the fifth consecutive day of making Holly's job of picking him up at daycare difficult (typically, it's lack of willingness to get his boots on - today it was a chomp on the thigh), it looked like it was going to be an interesting evening. And I'd be going it alone, given that Hol and Leo were out at a book club event. After they left, Max and I only had an hour-ish to ourselves, but it was wonderful. He ate better and more quietly than he has in a while, he submitted to his diaper change, pajama-donning and tooth brushing without complaint and he hopped into bed for a couple of books before accepting a lights out without protest. I was blown away.

I'm not concerned that Max is going off the rails or anything, it's just another stage. He can recognize that he wants certain things at certain times, but he still hasn't quite hooked up enough neurons to understand why sometimes his needs can't be met (or why we choose not to meet them). It must be a pretty frustrating time for him and I'm trying to be understanding. Hopefully by trying to take the time to communicate with the little guy as much as possible we can try to keep the craziness in check. If this is what the toddler/preschooler cusp looks like, I can only imagine what the teenager cusp is like...zoiks.

My favourite part of our evening together was just before dinner. We were listening to some Nick Drake (credit to Uncle M for hooking me up back in the day) and I remembered the time that Max passed out on the hotel bed in Freddy Beach while listening to the same music. I sat Max down in front of the computer, showed him the picture I had taken and told him the story. He thought it was pretty funny. I clicked on another folder to show him a younger picture of himself. Then I went further back and he thought it was a picture of Leo. I thought "I wonder where he draws the line between knowing the picture is of him and thinking that it's a picture of Leo". I present to you first the pictures where he was able to identify himself:



Meanwhile, he believed the following pictures were all of Leo:



The cut point seemed to be May 2008, so when Max was 8 months old. Seems about right, given the differences in size of the two kids. Definitely a fun exercise. Max is such a big fan of looking at pictures and being able to identify people he knows. I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time down the road looking through albums. I wonder how long it will take for Max to think this was a picture of Leo?

I'm subbing in under the wire

11:08 pm - better get writing!

Today's post is going to be about 4-5 hours ago and how sometimes an unplanned adventure can be a delight. Holly, Max and Leo came to pick me up at work as per usual, at around 5:30. On the way home, Max mentioned that he wanted to go to the library. Apparently he'd been saying this ever since leaving daycare. Leo started crying and Max proceeded to kick his shoes off and we were THAT close to turning the wheel and heading for home. But, Holly figured she could feed Leo once we got there...at least long enough for Max to get a couple of books in.

Once we arrived at the library, things went as expected until one of our children (nameless: let's protect the guilty, shall we?) forced me to hop back in the van and bust it home for a diaper. Luckily the library is a mere two minutes away from home. I got back, the switcheroo was done and then the children's librarian announced something about a storytime. Hmm. Max seemed game and Leo was fairly relaxed so we thought we'd check it out. Apparently, the library has storytime for youngsters during the day and an all ages affair on Thursday and Saturday nights. The librarian read two books, sang some songs, put the little ones through some stretches and tickles...oh, and the night ended with a movie. A movie!! Something about not letting a pigeon drive a bus. Then kids could choose from a bunch of themed books (would you believe it was trucks and buses tonight?) on their way out.

The one big highlight came when the librarian was reading a book where there was a vehicle on one page and four animals on the other, each one dressed a different way. From the clothing, the reader was supposed to be able to guess which animal should be driving the vehicle. When the librarian got to the tractor, she asked which animal drove the tractor. All of the kids (3-5 ish in age?) shouted "the pig!" except Max who went with "Grandpa! Grandpa!". Awesome.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend some family time together, particularly on Leo's 5th-month-birthday. I can't believe 5 months have gone by so quickly!! It seemed for so long that he was just a lump and then all of a sudden (BANG) he's smiling, then (THWACK) he's cooing, then (BOFF) he's rolling over and (SCHLACK) now he's grabbing things and moving them to his mouth. Before we know it, he's going to be eating pablum and bananas. It seemed like it took so long for Max to reach that point, but for Leo it's gone by so quickly. It looks like we're going to have to be extra observant over the coming months to not let any special moments slip by 'cause they're going fast! Leo, we love you with all our hearts (yes, your big brother too) and we're very excited to share this next month with you - it's going to be a doozy!

Leo and his posse

One of the best things about being on parental leave with Leo is that a number of my friends are also off with their babies so we have been hanging out with some super cool moms and babies. We have a weekly playgroup and we've also been going to the movies, salsa babies, the Hushabye Babies song and rhyme class, and other outings. I thought you might enjoy a few photos of Leo and his baby friends. I haven't caught him canoodling with his friend Sadie yet on camera so she will have to make an appearance at a later date.


Leo and Cool Hand Lucas


The Bib Boys


I love the look on Grace's face as Leo attempts to get fresh with her.


Just chilling in the play gym with baby Aiden.

A bloggy Advent calendar

I picked up an Advent calendar for Max this year and for some reason, it got me thinking about this blog. I thought it would be a cool idea to do a blog Advent calendar of sorts and actually do a post for every day in December. This won't be marathon posts; more like little treats of conversations, tidbits, videos and photos. There are also a few things this year that we always wanted to post (bring on the hula chair!) but never got around to so there will be a few new gems from earlier in the year. Since we started this blog with Max's arrival, we've loved posting stories about the boys and hearing from our small but loyal group of readers. Thanks to everyone for their kind words and positive vibes! We hope you will enjoy opening a virtual window every day this month and getting a little waxy piece of chocolaty, bloggy goodness. Max certainly enjoyed his first real piece tonight. Although it was pretty tough to explain to him that he could only open one window at a time. Those darned lift-the-flap Bob the Builder books!!!

And now for today's tidbit:


In case you can't tell from this photo, Max is feeding his baby. Yes, on a nursing pillow and everything. He gets the pillow set up on his lap and the baby in position (with a rather unconventional palming head-holding technique but I digress), and then pulls up his shirt and attaches baby to his belly button. The whole thing is super, super cute. You should see the look of frustration on his face when he is wearing a onesie and can't pull his shirt up! He also likes to burp his baby up on his shoulder. It is so amazing to think that he is absorbing so much of the world around him like a little sponge and that he would understand the whole breastfeeding process through observation. I think we'll wait a while before we explain that food doesn't come out of his belly button. I think he is doing a pretty great job of understanding the whole process for a little guy.

À demain!