The Peg

I just noticed that we went 0-fer in November. That's a little embarrassing. Oh well, hopefully a few of you are still reading.

The main reason that we didn't blog in November was because we were having too much fun visiting family in Winnipeg for the bulk of the month. Given the number of times Max made it to Winnipeg before he hit two years of age, I seriously had to keep reminding myself that Leo had not yet seen my old stomping grounds. Leo's Winnipeg grandma, aunt and uncle had all made it out here to see him since his birth, but I still had other family members who had yet to lay eyes on the little smurf. Although he's not so little anymore...

We went down on the 11th in order to attend a family wedding on the 13th. The kids were great on the plane and gave me hope that my trip back (solo) was going to be OK. The wedding was really nice and kind of brought Holly back full circle to her first trip to Winnipeg in 1997, when she saw my cousins married at the same place. The boys' BC grandparents were in town for the wedding, giving the kids a bonus visit with them too. I imagine it was weird for Max to see them somewhere other than on their farm.

It was also a great opportunity to see Auntie Kathy's burgeoning baby bump. Max and Leo will have their first cousin in March! The baby has been named Cousin Fred, who is the cousin in the Berenstain Bears books.

The first week, Grandma took some time off work and the five of us spent the week seeing the sights in town. We checked out the science gallery at the Manitoba Museum (free, thanks to our ottawa museum membership!), Fort Whyte Nature Center, the local shopping center, and the Assiniboine Park Zoo, where Max was enrolled in "B is for Bird", a workshop for preschoolers to learn all about birds. We also got to eat at Dingo's Wild 'n Crazy Dogs, kind of like a hot dog version of Ottawa's The Works. This was a big deal as the boys' Uncle Murray had recently designed their September Dog of the Month (Chili + Mac 'n Cheese) and, while we weren't able to sample it, we got an idea of how crazy it was, based on the normal menu offerings.

After a whirlwind week, we settled into holiday mode and celebrated an early Christmas on the Saturday. The tree was put up and decorated...I should mention that it was redecorated over the following week by Leo, who proceeded to rip all of the ornaments he could reach from the tree in order to play with them, hide them, or place them in the toilet. Needless to say, these shenanigans had us rethinking the tree options for our own house this year - the tree is now up and decorated but it looks a little strange with no ornaments on the bottom two feet of the tree! Max and Leo were both spoiled rotten and are still busy playing with/reading all of their new things.

Sunday, Holly bid the boys adieu and returned to Ottawa to work. The boys got to spend lots of quality time with Grandma in the mornings of the second week, including visits to the main gallery of the Museum and KidCity, a recently-opened Winnipeg version of Cosmic Adventures. The kids also took part in an open swim in the pool where their dad learned to tread water - that was a really neat moment for me. That and being able to show them my old house and schools. Leo probably didn't care, but Max obviously thought it was interesting.

Then, finally, it was time to come back home. Everybody saw us off at the airport and then the three of us got on the flight. I had been dreading the flight for a while, but once you're seated, what are you going to do? As it turns out, the kids were amazing. Both were kept happy watching cartoons, reading books, playing with toys and nibbling on snacks. Leo even fell asleep on me as we were landing. Lots of post-flight kudos from the families around us - some didn't even know that Max was there. SO AWESOME. That's two A+ report cards for Max and Leo; thanks a lot guys!

It was a wonderful couple of weeks, reconnecting with the rest of my family and getting some face time between the boys and their Winnipeg folks. We all enjoyed the family dinner hosted by Uncle Murray and Auntie Kathy, the farm tour at my cousin Wendy's, the great pre-Christmas Christmas, a visit from Grandma's cousin Joyce, an aquarium-viewing visit with my aunt and uncle, a great opportunity to see our Grand Forks family, and so much quality time with my Mom. It was a great trip overall and now that the kids travel so well, I suppose it's time to think about where the next one might be :) :)

Here are some pictures:


A preview of things to come: Leo was a crazy clambering monkey throughout our entire visit. Holly also adds that Uncle Murray was closely supervising nearby.

These next pictures are from the wedding we attended. A couple of highlights: Max may have found a future wife (Robin) and I apparently looked like a bureaucrat.




Here are three pictures from Fort Whyte: two of the amazing indoor Kiwanis-sponsored touch-some-taxidermy display (initially, I thought it was a bit creepy, but then again, where/how else are you supposed to find out what polar bears, skunks and wolverines feel like?) and one of an old sod house outside.



And now for some family pics: a Jeannie's cake (if you were from the Peg, you'd know), my Dad's side of my Winnipeg family and a picture of Max helping Grandpa, who was struggling with a 24-piece Cars puzzle. I swear that's contempt on Max's face.




Now, to confuse everybody, I'll switch to below-photo captions. This is Max and cousin Wendy after some hard work in the tractor.

Leo and lemurs. I don't really need to explain more, do I?

Uncle Murray, famous Dog inventor.

Dingo Dog's "Baba" dog. Like a hot dog and pierogi all wrapped up in one.

The size and the quality of the drippings take these dogs over the top.

Grandma and the boys digging trenches on a massive water table at the Manitoba Museum's Science Gallery.

There's a joke in here about Holly answering a science question of Leo's, but I won't go there.

The kids, playing with a vintage Fisher Price Little People village set that Grandma kept around from when I was a youngster.

This is such a weird picture to me now. Not because there are diapers all over the Christmas tree, but because Max doesn't really wear diapers anymore except at night. It seems so long ago...

Leo, in the midst of his weeklong ornament-stealing rampage.

Mom and the fans decorate their first gingerbread house.

Leo learns to rip wrapping paper.

Max loves Christmas crackers!

One of the malls in Winnipeg had a play area set up for kids 0-5 right in the middle of the mall. Max and Leo both loved the slide.

Grandma did a lot of reading while we were in town, especially from this Richard Scarry compendium.

Uh-oh. It's official. The kids are officially attracted to swimming pool lockers, just like every other kid. Seriously, what is it about those lockers?

Just before the flight home, the boys took some time to scope out all of the vehicles zipping around the airport.

Max killing himself laughing at some YTV show on the airplane. Kid vs Kat I think.