Favorite toy

Max's favorite toy at the moment? Potatoes. No, not Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head, just plain potatoes. The video says it all.

My favorite photo of Max at the moment? Baby got butt crack.

Santa Claus Parade

Yesterday was the annual Help Santa Toy Parade. The firefighters collect new toys (or money) which are donated throughout the city to needy kids via different organizations. What a great way to start the season. I know Max is a little young, but we are going to try very hard to teach him that Christmas is not about the getting but about the giving. We plan on making this parade an annual event. Yesterday was the start of that tradition.

Even though Ottawa is the 4th largest city in Canada, the parade has a real small town feel, with local legions, dance troupes and different shops marching or driving a decorated truck. And since it's the firefighters, there is a great assortment of old time firetrucks. The kids love it.

This is Max waiting for the parade to start. Actually, he is a sleep. We had to wake him up when it started. He didn't say much. Just took it all in. We tried to get him to wave at people but I think he might have been a little over whelmed by it all.


Some highlights? Well, here is what I mean by small town feel. This is the local comic shops entry. Nothing says Christmas like Boba Fett.


And here is another favorite. I think it was one of the local catholic high schools. I like the modern touch of pushing baby Jesus in the stroller.


The local bus company had the best float.


And Santa himself was pretty good. He was fully bilingual which was great. And Max had the perfect view of him.



What I don't have a picture of is the funniest moment of the parade. It came when a a group of people were walking by (I didn't catch what organization they were from), but it was kids and adults alike all waving to the crowd. One man was pull a wagon with his kid in it. The man was ringing a bell. The kid had fallen asleep and was flopped over, nearly falling off. Marty started saying "Bring out your dead!" I nearly peed myself. And so did the guy next to us.

It was a great way to kick off the season for us. I think even Marty the Grinch might be warming up a bit.

Sleep, sleep and more sleep

What happened between 8pm last night and 6:15am this morning? Max slept. He slept without waking up, without getting his leg caught in bars, without shmooshing his head in a corner. I actually woke up at 5am and didn't really go back to sleep, expecting to hear the usual early morning wake up cry. I love the big boy bed!!

And you know what? Now that he is sleeping more comfortably, we have realized that he talks in his sleep. I just heard him murmur something. It's such a sweat sound. And he wants to sleep with books. Oh how I love my boy!

Monumetal Moment

This is Max sleeping in a sea of blue on the double bed. Yep, Max has moved on from his crib.

It's not like he has never slept in this bed before. He used to take his naps on it when he was a baby, before he could roll over. And when he wakes up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep, Marty or I crawl into this bed with him to sleep. What's different this time? Last night, he slept in it all by himself.

Yep, last night we decided we would give it a shot. For the past week Max has wanted to go into this bed for story time before bed and it's been a bit of a fight to get him into the crib. So I figured, hey! why not?

We read some stories together in it, I gave him bidi (his blanket), said good night, closed the door and that was that. Well, he did holler at me for a few seconds, but I think it was more because he wanted milk. The picture is when I went up to bed. No, I didn't turn the light on, it's just the flash.

Now he is taking his nap. I thought it might be a little more of a challenge to get him to stay in bed for that, but he just talked to himself for a while, cranked a little bit and then went quiet. Once again, Max is my little sleeping trouper. We have been very fortunate with the sleeping thing. I know I'll end up paying my dues when he's a teenager.

But for the time being, we now have a little boy in the house. No more baby. I figure we'll leave the crib in the room for about a week before taking it out. How's Mommy doing? Pretty good actually. I was really excited for him yesterday. It was fun lying in bed together reading stories. And being a double bed, Marty could join us too. And both of us can't wait for the day that Max comes into our room on a Saturday morning and crawls into bed with us. Or maybe I can wait for a that a little while longer. I don't need him growing up too fast now.

Ick

Coming home last night after having dinner at St. Hubert's (food's OK, but they cater to kids, even though Max at NOTHING!) I was accosted at the door by a giant spider.

How giant was it you ask? Once I stopped freaking out and managed to open the front door and run and hide, Marty showed it to Max.

Marty: Look Max. A spider.

Max: Apple?

Yes, that's how big it was. Max called it an apple!

No, I didn't take any pictures. I was still cowering inside trying to get it's crawling body out of my mind.

Happy Halloween

Here are our Halloween pictures.


Yep, there is only one. We had everything ready. Max in his costume. A little trick-or-treat bag. Had Max saying "Trick-or-treat" ready for a little video. And then... the flashing red light of death. The batteries on the camera died. Ack! So no pictures of Max going crazy over all of the lit up "pumpies" (pumpkins). No pictures of him trying to climb our neighbors' stairs. No pictures of Pooh Bear melting down when he had to leave our friend Allison and Daryl's.

But I did take pictures of him in his costumes. No typo, costumes in the plural is correct. I bought this Dumbo the elephant costume a month ago at the consignment store because it was just too cute. It was a bit small though, but he did wear it to a the playground last week for a neighborhood party.


Max's care giver brings the kids to a playgroup and they had a little Halloween party on Thursday. Max dressed as Pooh Bear. These are the pictures of when we tried the costume on.




He didn't want to take the hat off.

So use your imagination for the trick-or-treating part. Now we have a bowl full of mini chocolate bars, which we don't need in this house. I think maybe Marty will use them as incentive for his kids. I just want them gone. I've already had five tonight!