A Christmas visit

Christmas is funny for kids. This year, Max was on such high alert that the very first time he caught wind of the holiday season approaching (I think it was via a "Santa is coming to Carlingwood Shopping Center" poster in the mall mid-late November), he was all-in on Christmas right from the very start. "When are we getting our calendars?" "Will there be presents?" "I want to make a list for Santa." "Was I a good boy?" etc. As with Halloween, this was going to be Leo's first "absorb it all" Christmas and with Max stoking the fire whenever possible, Leo got pretty amped up. Henry? Well, he was kind of oblivious.

There were some cool firsts that made this Christmas special. First, Max had his first Christmas concert at school. For those of you who don't know about Max's body of work when it comes to performing in public, Max tend to go all shrinking violet and, sure enough, we've got some video evidence to share. Afterward, I asked him about how much singing he did and he was convinced that he was belting out the hits right along with everyone else. On a related note, this was the first year that Max was interested in Christmas carols. Leo really latched on to this and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" became the boys' good night song for weeks.

Most importantly, though, Max, Leo and Henry's Grandma from Winnipeg came to visit! This was possibly the one thing that the two older boys were looking forward to most throughout the month of December. Grandma came late on the 23rd and stayed right through the excitement, until the day after Boxing Day. Now, on the night of the 21st, Leo came down with croup and so we were in the throes of managing his wake-ups the night that Grandma came. Thankfully, Nana covered for us on the airport run and took Grandma back to her place for the night.

The next day, there wasn't much on the slate except for hanging out with Grandma. Lots of playing, reading and snacking. Our annual KFC feast sadly got rescheduled for the week following Christmas as a result of the croup, but we still tucked into some good ol' shepherd's pie.

Grandma helping assemble things from the pirate advent calendar.

Grandma gets some up-close time with Henry.
Christmas morning, the kids were understandably excited. Gifts under the tree. Santa had come and eaten the snack that had been left on the plate. (even the reindeer had chomped the carrots Max had left out). Snow was on the ground outside (it actually only arrived on the 22nd). Everything was in place...FOR PRESENT-OPENING MAYHEM!!!!! Somehow, the kids managed to open their two biggest gifts first this year: a Playmobil pirate ship from Santa and a Playmobil rescue vehicle set from Grandma. Both toys have been playtime staples ever since. What I didn't know about giant Playmobil toys is that they take a while to assemble; the bulk of the following couple of hours were spent putting the 300 or so pieces involved in the two toys together. A big thanks to Steven for pitching in so that the kids could play with the toys before sundown.

Playmobil madness. Not sure what's up with Leo's tongue.

The assembly party.

A Playmobil dude using the rescue set ultrasound machine to check on West.

Nana with the three goofballs.

Bon appetit.
We hosted a nice family breakfast and then, after a breather to collect ourselves, we headed over to Nana's to open the rest of our stockings and tuck into a wonderful Christmas dinner. It was nice to see Leo be a little more respectful of tree ornaments this year - as opposed to last year, when Leo dumped a couple of ornaments in the toilet in Winnipeg; this year, I think I was the only one to break an ornament.

(Sigh) So when is present time again? Waiting is boring.

SHOWTIME!!!! BLLARRARGAHGAHGAHGAA!

Seriously! I can stand still for a second. IMSOEXCITEDIHAVEPRESENTSMUSTOPENMOREMOREMOREMORE!!! OK fine so I can't stand still and this picture will be blurry...where are the presents??!?!

She said that if I put this hat on, I'd get a second helping of breast milk. So where's my Mom anyway?

[imitating Cliff Huxtable imitating Julia Child] First, you slice ever so gently along the grain, following the contour of the bird...

I love this Henry guy. Such a classy...what? Lasers? IN HIS EYES? Stay calm...
Boxing Day and the 27th featured more hanging out and visiting, although we did have one fun jaunt out to T&T Supermarket for dim-sum and treat shopping. The kids always have such a blast there and it was great to poke around with Grandma.
All in all, it was a wonderful visit. Leo fell asleep in the van on the way to the airport so he didn't actually see us drop Grandma off. As a result, he spent the next couple of days wandering around the house looking for her. It was very cute/sad. We're definitely all looking forward to our next visit. Thanks Grandma!

West Robert Frank Walker

He's here! Our very first nephew! Max and Leo's very first cousin on my side! West Robert Frank Walker arrived at 1:04 AM on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012, weighing 7 lbs., 3 oz. to proud parents Laramie and James (a.k.a. Auntie Laramie and Love of Leo's Life). It is entirely possible that this little one is going to be quite the handful if his first journey is any indication - he put my little sister through the ringer with 47 hours of labour! By all accounts, she was an absolute rock star though.

We are all in love. Here are a few photos from West's first day:


Leaving the hospital




The new family of three snuggling at home



My first snuggle with my nephew

Some shots from West's first night at home:






West with his mum, Nana and some of his crazy aunties.
Welcome, West! You were well worth the wait.

Daddy goes it alone

Before we get to our regularly-scheduled blog post, I thought I would mention that last night we went to bed at 10:30. By 12:40 each of our children either woke up crying for attention or (if physically capable) woke up and inserted themselves into our bed. All three! That was a record. Not quite like Bill Mosienko of the Blackhawks scoring three goals in 21 seconds, but getting there.

Anyway, today, Holly signed up for a volleyball tournament that would have her out of the house from noon to 5:30, my first extended block of time with all three boys without Holly around. Everything went really well and I have some thank-yous to hand out:

1) To Henry, for drinking half of a bottle and then almost all of another bottle. Also for having a nice long nap, followed by a couple of other shorter snoozes. Henry, this could have been really dicey, but your co-operation was key. So thanks.

2) To Kerry, who came over to help keep extra bodies distracted and occupied. I was able to get lunch together because she read to the older boys. Max was able to go to his skating lesson because she could drive him there. Max had a great time at home because Kerry did a craft with him. Kerry, you're a great friend.

3) To Max and Leo, who could have misbehaved a lot today, but never really chose to. I'd like to think that at least Max understood when I asked him to be good today, but who knows? In any case, you guys helped make things go smoothly. Thanks.

Hopefully, this will be the start of many more outings for Holly. She deserves it. Although, honey, maybe next time choose an activity that doesn't have you coming home battered and bruised :)

Gingerbread House

Not much to say for this one - just wanted to share some photos. Last year, we started a bit of a tradition by decorating a pre-fab gingerbread house in Winnipeg. And, keeping with the theme of a complete lack of desire to actually eat any of the Halloween candy that they collect, the kids weren't really interested in eating any of the candies aside from the gummy Santa, wreath and snowman.

This year, we got another gingerbread house (with, it must be said, fresher candies so the kids were MUCH more interested in eating everything) and brought it over to Nana's, where Auntie Karen, Auntie Laramie, Nana and Uncle James helped us put it all together. We had a great time and Nana cooked us a lovely meal afterward.

Here are a few pictures (and yes, Leo is always either eating or about to eat some candies):

First Museum Adventure of 2012

It is no secret that the boys LOVE the amazing museums in this city and we are lucky enough to have family memberships to five of the six big national museums in town. John had Monday, January 2nd, off and it was our last day of holidays all together so we decided to go the Canadian Science and Technology Museum. It is one of the boys' favourites (Trains to climb on! The Crazy Kitchen! Awesome play areas! But not the big bonging clock for Max...) and no matter how busy the parking lot seems, it never seems that busy inside. Genius.

They have a great computer exhibit called Connexions where you can email a photo postcard from the Museum to family and friends. The boys wanted to send these all over the country to various folks so I sent them to our home address to be posted here for everyone. You can actually see parts of all of us in these postcards (John is wearing Henry):



There is also a snowmobile ride that mimics the motion and noise of a fast snowmobile ride pretty darn well, minus the icy wind in your face. The last crazy snowmobile ride I had was on the back of John's much-loved and missed cousin Joey's snowmobile going way too fast through the flatlands of rural Manitoba. I loved every minute! This indoor version was a bit tame by comparison but it was great to share the experience with Max and Leo.


The boys were so tired from running around that we got a rare and wonderful triple nap for part of the afternoon. Awesome!!!

100 days of Henry

Yes, it's true. My littlest boy is 100 days old today. He has been such a great kid (not better than the rest of you sons if you're reading this when you're older, just different) and has really helped keep things on track despite the population explosion underfoot. Over the last two weeks or so, he has added another couple of weapons to his arsenal of cute: eye contact (a brutal heart-melter) and cooing/squealing (actually, he does this in a very chatty way and will do a bit of call and answer sometimes).

There have been some sleep blips lately, but Henry has at least taken to allowing himself to be fed back to sleep rather quickly instead of the old practice of hanging out with one of us, quite awake, for a couple of hours in the middle of the night before passing out again. This new schedule keeps us from needing emergency sleep in the mornings, so we're very VERY thankful for that.

I also feel like I'm getting a better sense of his rhythm, knowing when he's hungry-cranky and when he's tired-cranky. His stamina during the daytime is a little less impressive than before - he at least grabs 20-30 minutes every three hours - and he's even let me take care of him and his brothers on my own a couple of times to get Mom a smidgeon of time to herself out of the house, including a whole movie!

I feel like the best part right now is how smiley Henry gets just by putting him down on a surface and making silly faces at him. Yesterday, he started the Stardom tradition of going to Hush-a-Bye classes so over the next little while, he'll probably start giggling when we start sharing songs and dance with him. "Charlie Chaplin went to France" is already a big hit, as is "Zoom Zoom Zoom". Henry and his smiles definitely make every day better.

It feels like Henry's first three months have whipped by. I'm really looking forward to the things coming over the next few month: rolling over, more productive tummy time, more smiles, more dances, more song recognition, time in the Exersaucer, Tebowing and solving differential equations.

Here are a few recent snaps of our little dude:

Side by side with a photo of child actor Erik Per Sullivan, whom Henry sometimes bears a resemblance to, depending on the photo.

Happy half-birthday, Leo!

Leo is officially 2.5 today! We celebrated with a pizza dinner, a mini-cake (a Jos. Louis - a classic Vachon cake for those not in the know) with two and a half candles, and lots of singing:


Leo is a really interesting boy these days. He is super cuddly and gives great squeezes around your neck when you hug him. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds and he is saying some pretty funny stuff ("I very like it" was one of my favourites from this past weekend). He still runs everywhere rather than walking. He's developing one heck of a stubborn streak but he is still incredibly good-natured, sensitive and sweet. If Max is crying about a toy that Leo has, Leo will most often give the toy to Max to make him feel better even though the vast majority of the time, it is Leo's turn to have the toy. It is quite fascinating to see empathy in a toddler. Hopefully, he keeps that trait later in life because it is awesome. He is still super tough - he rolls with most spills and tumbles (two big head bumps tonight, in fact. Total crying time: 3.2 seconds).

Here are a few awesome Leo photos from the past few months:







Happy half-birthday, my beautiful boy. We love you oceans.

A visit from Uncle Rick

Yep, we're trying to clean out the fridge now. Alllllll those posts we wanted to put up over the past couple of months, along with a couple of new ones, should pop up over the coming weeks. Call it a New Year's resolution of sorts.

Anyway, right after Halloween, the boys' Grandpa Wayne and Uncle Rick (Holly's dad and brother) came to visit - Grampa Wayne from Kugluktuk, NU, where he is working now, and Uncle Rick from Yellowknife, NT. From what I can tell from photo albums, I think this was Uncle Rick's first visit with his sisters in something like 10 or 11 years. Max and Leo were very excited to meet him and Auntie Melody put on a big spread at her place for the occasion. Here are a couple of picture of Uncle Rick with the boys, Max and Leo at their first kids table together and Grandpa Wayne with an upset Henry.

And because that first dinner just wasn't enough food, we went out again the following night to what used to be Ottawa's very own Gourmet Burger Bistro, The Works (they've franchised out across the province). As per usual, everyone ordered way too much food, ate like pigs and had a great time. The boys also got some surprise presents at the dinner: a lunchbox and some books from GG and Linda (thanks!!!) and their first true Lego set from Auntie Laramie and Uncle James (thanks!!!). It was a really nice evening.

Grampa Wayne having a bit more luck than the night before.

Laramie having even better luck!

Legoheads putting things together.

I have the feeling Leo is going to live life in fast-forward, as compared to Max. There were so many things we could control when Max was younger, in terms of the shows he watched, the toys he played with or the things he knew. Leo? Well, we can't really put a filter on Max and it's hard to keep toys separate so he gets exposed to everything about 2 years before Max did. We'll see if that's a good thing.