The rest of June

I'm tired from all of that typing and I am sure that you are probably more interested in recent happenings, so I'm going to cover the back end of June in a single photo- and video-heavy post. But before I get started, let me say how awesome it is to spend an extended period of time all together as a family. It means either one person has the complete freedom to go out and do whatever or it means the load is shared - both are pretty awesome. Now that I've been both the person going off to work and the one staying at home, I can truly say that the best days are those when we're all home at the same time. The last time I was at home with Max, we had 6 weeks to share; this time it was only 4. But I think we made the most of it.

Enjoy.

The end of June presented me with the opportunity to introduce myself to Max's various playgroups and see what was available out there. There was of course the classic Children's Village Playgroup, where Max spent many days during his time in daycare. Here is a picture of Max and Leo with a couple of Max's old daycare mates at the CV:


I also got to squeeze in a couple of visits to the Parent and Family Literacy Centre at Hilson Avenue Elementary School in our old neighbourhood, where I ran into our friend James and his twins both times. Max really liked the dressup clothes (Holly has since been scouring thrift stores around town to stock Max's very own dress-up bin):



One of the highlights of the month was our trip to the brand new Calypso water park with the Screids. We thought it would be smart to squeeze in a trip just before school let out, thinking that summertime would be much busier with kids on the loose. We never factored in that every school sends their kids on field trips in the last couple days of class...oops. It was a gorgeous day, despite the line-ups for the adult slides. Oh well, the kids had fun in the toddler area and the grown-ups took turns floating in the lazy river. An awesome day.







In case you're looking for a better angle on Leo's face after he passed out in the snack tray of his stroller, here it is.


Another big highlight for June was our first family outing to go strawberry picking. It was a hot one out there and I had to leave Leo on the periphery (given that he was strapped in his stroller), but Max got right in there. He was very good at identifying the ripe berries and in removing them from the bushes without smooshing them. In the barn where you pay for your berries, Max entered a colouring contest...although we never heard back from them so I guess he didn't win :(






After picking berries, we went out for lunch at a diner in Almonte. Max ordered spaghetti and sauce. He asked for a kid's portion, but what he got was certainly bigger than expected:


In the meantime, Leo launched into this silliness:


Seriously, we have no idea what brought this on. It cropped up a couple of times in the weeks after this but then he never did it again.

June was the month when Leo really started getting the most out of sippy cups. Plus: we could always be sure he was well hydrated, despite his general dislike of bottles. Minus: well, look at these pictures.



In the "miscellaneous" category, we have the following pictures:


Leo's first participatory visit to a sushi restaurant. I think that's an avocado roll.


Leo started to show a lot of interest in books. His favourite part is turning the pages VERY AGGRESSIVELY.


Before the blazing heat of July, there were a couple of crazy storms at the end of June. Here are Max and Mommy splashing around in the gutter.


So, June pretty much rocked.