A really cool girl indeed

A few months back, I was talking to Max about who was coming over that night and trying to get him to guess who our mystery guest was going to be. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Max, guess who is coming over tonight?
Max: Ummm, Nana?
Me: No, Max, not Nana. It is a really cool girl.
Max: (no hesitation) KERRY!

I love, love, LOVE that Max's immediate and heartfelt answer was Kerry. For the record, I was referring to Laramie but I would use these same words in a heartbeat to describe Kerry. We celebrated Kerry's birthday with her today at a lovely dinner hosted by her parents (shout out to CoCo and Allen!) and it got me thinking that it was high time that Kerry got her very own post on this blog. Hopefully, she will take a bit of sappy prose in lieu of a pile of gifts.

For those of you that don't know Kerry that well, here is a quick primer. Kerry is one of the smartest and funniest people I know. John and I met her way WAY back when we were all studying together at Trent. Kerry is passionate about (in no particular order): bacon, reading, chocolate, carbonated diet beverages, puzzles, John Cusack, her friends, shopping, Matt Damon, crafting, dance movies, pulpy novels, lemon desserts, smart people, music, supporting other people to achieve their dreams, politics, quilting, lifelong learning, writing, cribbage, Justin Timberlake, good television, steak, her family, and traveling.

Kerry, you are one of our very favourite people and an AMAZING friend and I don't know what we would do without you. Although I love that you are a traveler extraordinaire, I miss you terribly when you gallivant around the world. I love going to movies, brainstorming craft ideas and talking pop culture with you. John loves playing cribbage and talking smack/music/sports/more smack with you. Max loves reading books with you. Leo likes drooling with you (don't worry, he'll have his own special thing with you in good time).

Thank you for everything you do. Thanks for taking Max on his first overnight without us so I could surprise my mum in San Francisco. Thanks for buying Max super cool underwear; he'll make you proud and wear them soon. Thanks for so many nights of babysitting and advice-giving. Thanks for being there for all of us.


Kerry with tiny, 11-day old Max.


Kerry and Max engaged in their favourite activity.


Super Bowl 2010 - Kerry teaches Max all about healthy eating.


Kerry with Leo on his birth day.
Happy birthday, my friend, and I hope that this year brings you everything you wish for. I look forward to many, many more years of adventures with you. It has been one heck of a ride thus far.

Funny what makes your kid polite

Just a tidbit today.

Yesterday was a nice day. Warm weather. Happy kids. After I got picked up from work, we decided to treat Max to a little ice cream (and take advantage of DQ's "buy a Blizzard, get the second for 25 cents" deal). So we went out for dinner. Max kind of understood that he'd be getting some ice cream (it actually came with his kid's meal), but he didn't get any at first while he was eating. He got through most of his dinner when, for reasons of getting Holly to her volleyball game on time, we had to get the dessert. Max actually got to choose between an ice cream sandwich, a soft serve cone or a Dilly Bar (kind of like a massive, hard chocolate-dipped vanilla treat). He went with the Dilly Bar - unexpectedly, it was so big that I'm pretty sure he'd never seen that much ice cream at once before.

All of a sudden, Holly and I were hit with a barrage of "thank you", "please", "no thank you" and "I love you" utterances. Who was this child? Sitting quietly, plowing back mouthful after mouthful of ice cream and being super-polite. In fact, when it was time to go and I suggested that Max stop with the ice cream and save the uneaten portion for later, he agreed fully and he left with us right away to go to the van. If they weren't so darn unhealthy, we'd certainly be ordering up a lifetime supply of Dilly Bars tomorrow.

Hey birders!

So over the past couple of weeks, we've spotted a pair of hawks hanging around our yard. Our neighbours believe that they've set up a nest in one of three yards by ours, but are not sure where. They haven't attacked the kids or anything (yet...), but Kerry found a chewed-up mouse in our backyard a couple of weekends ago. So the question is, what kind of bird is this? We think it's either a Cooper's hawk, or maybe a sharp-shinned hawk or a boring old red-tailed hawk. Does anyone out there know? Hopefully you'll be able to zoom a bit on the pictures if necessary.

Max says the darnedest things

Holly has been jotting down some really cute things that Max has been saying lately and we've been meaning to get a compilation post together for a while. Better late than never!

Case 1: About a month ago, Max and I were chilling on my bed and I was sending my fellow March Madness poolies an email with a standings update. Max asked what I was doing and I said "sending somebody a letter". I kept typing and about five seconds later, Max said "How about A?". Hilarious.

Case 2: Holly was chatting with Max, telling him about all of the wonderful things that he was going to do this summer with Leo: play in the park, ride his trike, read some books . . . Max then interjected, saying "Actually, there are no books at the park". Touché.

Case 3: Dinnertime about a month ago - rainbow trout, peas and egg noodles with parmesan are on the menu with juice on the side. Max is in heaven. Out of nowhere, in the middle of eating, Max looks at Holly and says "Thank you for this yummy dinner, Mama." Holly may have shed a tear.

Case 4: Later that same night, Max was hanging out with Holly on the couch when he erupted with an "I love you" to her. Then he came over to the table, where I was wrapping up dinner with Leo. Max gushed "I love you too. I love you Leo. I LOVE EVERYBODY!" Awesome.

Case 5: Holly was getting some strawberries for Max to put the cap on this same wonderful evening. Max said "Go Team Go! Go Mama Go!" He had been saying "Go Team Go!" for a while in a hockey sense but that was definitely the first "Go Mama Go!" Quite the trifecta of memorable musings all on the same night.

Case 6: Max comes up to Holly and begs "I need help with playing". Um, OK.

The dinner table has been quite the showcase for Max of late. A few weeks ago, he was counting the carrots on his plate and just suddenly counted from 1 to 10 for the first time that either of us had heard. It was SO cool. We've been working on his numbers for a long time and it was just this eureka moment for us to hear him put it all together. He is also trying to conjugate verbs in the past tense by adding -ed to rather hilarious effect - "I go-ed" and "I bring-ed" are two of our favourites. Just tonight, he said that an Ottawa Senator had "spitt-ed" when he was watching the hockey game.

We're also mourning the end of a few very cute Maxisms around here. He used to tack an S on every word that ended with f - "all by myselfs" and "take it offs" - but recently just dropped the S suddenly. Bowahwah (bulldozer), Coomuhmuh (cucumber) and Gogoday (motorcycle) have also kicked the bucket. At least he is still saying "Ggiraffe" (pronounced guijeraffe). Yes, he puts a hard g at the beginning of giraffe.

Finally, I've always wondered what Max has thought of Leo's crying/screaming. I mean, Max obviously loves his little brother, but Leo's not all rainbows and sunshine. Until a week ago, Max had never really said anything. Finally, FINALLY, Leo broke his older brother. On the way home from Nana's Sunday dinner, Leo was crying and Max said, after 9 long months, "he hurting my ears!" I can't believe that in all this time, with all that crying, that Max has always kept mum. But he has finally let us know that sometimes, he is affected.

Max still loves his bro.

Leo's growing up!

We were joking last week that on the event of Leo's 9-month birthday, it wasn't really "symmetry day" as he'd already been out longer than he was in because he arrived three weeks early. Regardless, 9 months definitely felt like a milestone day to sit back and take stock of what a wonderful, developing child we have on our hands. I remember 9 months feeling the same with Max; that by then, we had some teeth, some mobility, some good eating habits and the sleep was starting to come together.

Now, with Leo, we seem to be in a similar place: the last cold has finally cleared out and two teeth are through, meaning that his sleep is also finally getting back on track after a long two months (three great nights and counting . . . ). We are also starting to figure out Leo's food intake and digestive routine, which also generally helps things run smoother every day. While Leo's not standing up or dragging himself all over the floor like Max was at 9 months, he's threatening to crawl in the near future. He's a solid sitter and is able to pivot himself using his bottom, legs and arms to get to anything within a couple of feet of him. If he wants something badly enough, he can lean forward over his own leg to reach for something maybe three feet away. He can hold that position and obviously wants to get that leg out from under him and into an all-fours position, but can't quite figure out how to do it yet. This next month should be interesting!

We're also noticing a bunch of little things about Leo. If I hold a teething toy of his in my mouth, he'll be really interested in it and grab it. If he takes it out, he'll hold it briefly, and then try to reinsert it in my mouth. If I hold on extra tight, then he actually knows that in order to get it out, he needs to add his second hand to the pulling effort. I always reward the two-hand pull :) Leo is generally really interested in my mouth these days - he likes grabbing my teeth and my tongue. Yesterday, I stuck out my tongue and Leo stuck his out in response. Pretty cool.

An old trick with Max has also turned into a hit with Leo: draping fabric over his face/head or my face/head and letting him figure out how to pull it away to give him a clear sight line again. Man that makes him giggle. Just like playing parachute with bedsheets. And almost as must as chest massages. Although his thighs seem to be less ticklish than they used to be.

Holly reports that Leo LOVES the pool. Yes, the pool. Before this last nasty cold, Holly had a dip with Leo one afternoon and he spent a half hour splashing like crazy and playing in the water. This is a very welcome change from Max's initial pool attitude. Perhaps when we are all 100% again, we'll head out for a family swim so I can see for myself.

Leo loves Cheerios and REALLY loves Baby Mum Mums. He does this super cute all-over body shake in anticipation when we get a package of Mums out and he sees it or hears the crinkly sound. He has also been demolishing an entire pear in one sitting. We've been a little slower out of the gate in terms of making different baby foods for Leo and introducing him to more tastes and textures but we'll get there. He did eat some rainbow trout off our plates the other night and he seemed to like it.

He also really has some of his sounds down. I was in the basement the other morning and I could hear Holly and Leo on the monitor from Leo's room. Holly was getting ready to feed Leo and he said "Ma-Ma" clear as day before he starting eating. It was super cute but we know that he is just practicing all of his sounds and not calling us by name just yet.

Today, we went out to the park and for the first time, Leo was a willing mitt-wearer. I was dreading putting them on, but it was so cold today. Apparently he did it without complaint, so that's a plus. He certainly loves riding around in a stroller, and I'm sure it will only get better as the weather improves. I remember Max really took to spring walks after his first winter and I expect it will be the same for Leo.

Finally, just a blurb about the past couple of evenings, which have been really fun(ny). I hurt my back on Wednesday pretty badly and haven't really been able to carry Leo at all. The problem is that it seems that Leo has developed a bit of a dependency on me when it comes to getting to sleep at night. So Thursday and Friday nights, after his last feed with Holly and after yawning and eye-rubbing forever, once Leo got on Holly's shoulder he would spring to life and essentially looked ready for a party. Both nights, he got to bed around 10-10:30 instead of the usual 8-8:30 after extended play sessions on the floor with me. I think those were the 2nd and 3rd nights to date that Leo has decided on partying late and while it's a little frustrating when we're in need of sleep, it's also such a treat to see Leo so playful.

Here are a few photos from the last month or so:


Leo's first time in an outdoor swing. I think he liked it.


Leo's fascination with tongues is not limited to the human variety.


Leo sitting on his beautiful new space-themed quilt, courtesy of the amazingly talented Mrs. Dorothy Stewart.


Leo enjoys a mango pit.


Leo is so disgusted with our lack of blogging that he decides to take matters into his own hands.

What a weekend

Yes, it's 3:30 a.m. on Sunday. Scratch that, it's Monday. What year is it? Leo has just passed out again - the poor tyke has another rotten cold and the congestion is keeping him from sleeping well. Either that or it's his three teeth that are threatening to show up sometime soon. He's been such a good boy during the daytimes lately; it's unfortunate that we're a few weeks deep into nights like this. Max has turned himself around after picking up another ear infection last weekend. Cutest thing ever - he wandered into the kitchen Saturday morning looking sad and rubbing his ear. I asked if it hurt and he said "yes". I asked "Inside or outside" and he said "inside". Then he said "my tiny ear hurts on the inside". Heart. Breaking. Then he cried for about 45 minutes. Out of nowhere. Of course, some of that 45 minutes was in a clinic waiting room. That's the first time I've had to buy and administer pain reliever before leaving a drug store. Like I said, though, Max is much better (despite the fact that he seems to be among the 25% of kids his age to have generally grown out of napping).

So that's the Stardom context surrounding this past weekend, which was nothing short of amazing. As far back as Tuesday, when news first broke of our potential long weekend forecast, all of Ottawa got pretty excited. Things got started with 16 and sun on March 31st (I got a beauty of a sunburn on half of my face from sitting on a patio at lunch - oops). This was followed up by 19 on Thursday, and then 28-29-20 for the weekend. The previous records for Friday and Saturday were 16.7 and 21.4 so that pretty much took care of that. With the weather being so awesome, we were very excited about making some great outdoor plans for the kids for Easter. Or whatever the Jehovah's Witnesses call it:)

Friday morning, Leo woke up with his cold, but we still figured that some time outside would be good for him. We decided to join some of Holly's family members out at her aunt's cottage in Quebec. It marked the first time that Max stayed awake for the whole trip up. It was really cute to listen to him telling himself stories and singing songs under his breath in the back seat. Road trips with him are going to be great! Leo managed to sleep the whole way up, which helped him catch up a bit. Road trips with him are also going to be great! We arrived at noon and Holly was a little disappointed to find the lake still frozen over. Awesome pizza, a few games of Settlers of Catan, and more food followed for the adults, while Max spent time walking in the woods with Holly and Auntie K and playing outside with his new John Deere tractor set (thanks K&S!). Leo also got a John Deere shape sorter (apparently, they make John Deere everything, you just have to shop at the TSC). In the end, Holly found some time while Max and I were napping to get out to a boat launch where the ice had melted a little for a quick dip. Eventually, mid-afternoon, the lake ice split and started melting. It was pretty cool to watch that happen. On a 28-degree day. On April 2. Crazy.

Saturday, there was an Easter egg hunt organized at a local park in the neighbourhood in advance of the real Easter Bunny's arrival on Sunday. Parents were to arrive at the park at 9:30 to hide 10 eggs for every kid they brought to the hunt. The woman who organized it hid an additional 150 eggs. Then, everyone brought their kids at 10 and mayhem ensued. I stayed home with Leo while Holly and Max went to collect some Easter booty. Max came home with chocolates, marshmallows, jelly beans, full-size Creme Eggs and even an egg decorating kit. He sampled a ware or two and then we had to stash the rest.

Just before lunch, we decided to try to meet some friends at the Experimental Farm's Agricultural Museum. We got annual passes the last time we were at the Science and Tech Museum (the passes cover the Experimental Farm, the Science and Tech Museum and the Aviation Museum) so we couldn't really say no to the special Easter programming. In the end, we couldn't track our friends down in the sea of hundreds of kids and their parents (our cell phone died), but we still got to take in some farmy sights. Newborn lambs, calves and chicks were the highlights. There were also some eggs to collect and trade in for treats with a woman dressed up as the Easter Bunny. I believe this is the first time Max had seen an Easter Bunny of any variety in person so ever since the farm visit, he has been referring to the Easter Bunny as "she" - kind of like the Easter version of Dogma. He has also taken to randomly mentioning "Cows pee a lot".

In the final act at the farm, Max tripped and skinned his knee nicely so we ended up with a couple of tired, crying boys on the way home. Thankfully, both passed out for much-needed naps. I had no idea how much Max needed his, but he knocked himself out to the tune of 3:30 worth of sleep. Wow. That didn't really leave room for much of anything that night, but Max got himself into trouble a couple of times - once while promising to trade candies with Holly and then eating everything being traded by both sides. Yeah, that only works once.

Sunday, we received an Easter delivery from Winnipeg (thanks!!) and another local one and spent some time in the morning raking in more booty. Then we packed up for the day and headed to Nana's for some Easter fun. We started with some playground time where Leo chilled in a swing for about 15 minutes without moving a muscle...yet staying awake. Then Holly went back to the farm with her cousin and her boyfriend while Max played with Nana and Leo and I slept. I awoke and then oversaw the hiding of piles of goodies in the backyard while Max was distracted. Just missed that Bunny again! Leo was the one needing a nap this time as he dialed up 2:30 in the super-comfy guest bed. Then Max P.I. hit the yard with a vengeance, finding treats for the whole family, both high and low. The treats were high and low, not the family members. The spoils were divvied up and Max tore into his presents. Eventually, a wonderful dinner was served and Max, a little overwhelmed, just about passed out into his plate at the table. For a kid who never naps anymore, we sure put him through his paces this weekend! The evening was capped by a rousing game of Cranium won by Nana and yours truly, who both displayed an amazing array of skills (you try acting out "tanning bed" and "strip poker" with an infant strapped to your tummy:):) By the way, "defenestration" means the act of hurling someone through a window.

Here's some of the photo evidence from the weekend.


Leo trying on a summer look while playing with his new John Deere shape sorter.


Max loving his new tractor set. Apparently, this is the place to get anything you've ever wanted. But makeup.


OK, so Leo tried to drink from a cup/bottle for the first time this weekend - one with a straw. We weren't sure how it would go, but it was obvious he was getting something out of the straw. How did we know? This is the before picture.


This is the after picture. Even after not seeming to like the apple juice/water mélange, Leo kept going back for more, over and over again. Like Nelly and Tim McGraw. Max was cracking up so hard across the table that he had to get out of his chair and stand right next to Leo to laugh in his face.


Leo, hanging out with his womenfolk. Yes, this was the morning that he woke up with the horrible cold.


Holly actually doing a pseudo polar bear dip. There are better pictures of her escapade, but they expose a little more skin :)


Max and Dad, pensively looking out over the frozen lake. Wondering what Mommy was thinking with that swimming adventure.


Auntie Krysta, Steven and Max at the little guy's first campfire. Max (of course) loved toasting marshmallows.


Max finds an egg at the park Saturday morning. It's too bad some people didn't stuff actual eggs in the eggs.


The boys at the Ag Museum. What an awesome weekend!


Max does the live-action version of Pat the Bunny.


Holly relaxes in a giant John Deere tractor wheel. This weekend really had a John Deere theme, didn't it?


It's slide season! Max used to be tentative atop slides, but this year, he isn't holding back.




A triptych of Max and the Easter Egg Hunt. Yes, that's a bag of Cheetos Puffs.


The Stardoms. Any idea what the over/under is on the year/month/day when all members of our family are smiling and looking at the camera in one of these?