Happy Easter

OK, so I'm a week and a bit late, but better late than never. Right?

We headed down the 401 to the Big Smoke for the long weekend. The weather was really nippy (the wind froze you to the bone!) but we had a great time with the Detto clan. Marty and I even managed to get away by ourselves on Saturday afternoon to the AGO (Thank you Nana!). It was spectacular. I can not say enough about it. The new building is gorgeous. The contemporary galleries are inspiring. The Thompson Collection is mind boggling.

But I digress. Easter.

Easter morning I hid some eggs for Max in the living room. He was so excited. He thought looking for them was all the fun and didn't seem to care that if he opened them up there were surprises in them. And he didn't even know that the little "baby eggs" were chocolate. He just liked carrying them in his hand as they melted, completely oblivious.


We also had some outdoor hunting.


There was t-ball on the lawn with the cousins.


And helping Nana with the stuffing.


And an early birthday cake, which he graciously shared with Uncle Mike. He was blowing the candles as soon as Nana brought the cake in from the kitchen.


The weekend unfortunately ended with a nearly 5 hour drive back from Oshawa (which should have taken 3) after getting stuck behind an accident. Max was a real trouper. It was Marty and I that were whining and complaining. But all in all a very nice Easter weekend.

A potty

I bought a potty for Max last night. No, I don't have any lofty ideas about starting training soon. I know I'll be lucky if he gets out of diapers before heading to junior K. But he's starting to talk about having stinky diapers (even when they aren't) and attempting to pull down his pants (which he hasn't been able to do yet) so I thought that maybe we should at least have one in the house so that he can familiarize himself with it. I bought the most simple one I could find, no bells, no whistles, no clapping when something hits the bottom of the bowl.

I left it in the middle of the living room floor last night. When he came down this morning he ran into the living room, saw it, said "My poop!" sat down on it and went "Ahhh..." Where does he get this stuff? He kills me!

Boy Genius

OK, so maybe he isn't a genius, but I think he's pretty darn smart. And, too cute for words.

Dancing Max

We go from moments of pure joy to utter devastation within a nano second in these here parts. It always amazes me how quick a 23 month old's mood can change. From screaming and yelling to giggles and snorts. I love the happy, barely tolerate the whining and get down right testy with the screaming and yelling. Throw in kicking and slapping and I am plain old bitchy.

The weekend was great, with lots of the good stuff, along with with a great time with friends and their kids. But this blog is really just a gratuitous post so that I can post this video. When I came down stairs from my Saturday morning sleep in (I love my husband) this is what I was greeted with.

Remembering Meme

My grandmother died yesterday. She was 99. She outlived two of her children.

Meme was a woman of great wit. She had the sharpest tongue and made everyone laugh. She was smart and while she still could she loved doing crosswords, mots cacher and watched any sort of news program she could find. She raised 10 children, 5 girls and 5 boys. And was the matriarch of an enormous French Canadian brood. We had 5 generations of women in our family. I can't even tell you how many cousins I have. Seriously, I can't. Most of them I wouldn't even know if I passed them at the mall. My Meme was an incredibly strong woman. I'd like to believe that some of my tenacity came from her.

Meme loved to play cards. My dad's family are card nuts. I'm serious. They used to get together, put the kids in the basement, throw down some food every once and a while and play for entire weekends, sleeping in short 45 minutes stints. OK, that might be a bit of a twisted memory, but playing cards is a huge part of my family culture. I imagine at the family gathering this summer in her honour, there might be a deck or two unwrapped.

I have been very blessed to have known all four of my grandparents quite well. I'm glad that Max has that chance as well. He didn't get to meet Meme, which I am feeling very guilty about at the moment, but neither of them would have remembered or understood.

How did I honor her today? I went out and had some "Steamies." Steamed hotdogs. And a poutine. Meme loved her steamies. It was Marty's idea. I love him for that.

Merci pour ton esprit, Meme. Je t'aime.

Momentous moment

As Max stands on a chair and "helps" me make cake (dinner actually, but he always says "Make cake").

Max: I love you Mommy.

Me: (crying) oh I love you sooooooo much Jellybean.

I continue to cry as I try and make dinner. Oh my god I love this child! I can't even tell you.

Supposedly Marty has been coaching Max for this one. I love him for that.

A Lovely Winter Day

Today was just one of those lovely days. I wasn't sure how it was going to be after having a terrible night sleep (that's another post of its own). But it ended up being quite nice.

We usually do family swim at the Wave Pool on Sunday mornings. The waves aren't on and it's packed with little ones. The warm pool (hot really) is really nice on a cold winter's morning. But today we decided to go to the Aviation Museum instead. We hadn't been yet, and Marty has a membership, so why the heck not. Max LOVED it. It's great to run around in and he went bonkers for the "appies," which took us a little while to figure out were airplanes. We just figured he was really really happy! This is a museum that we will go to often. It's 5 minutes away and great for Max to run around in. And there seems to be a lot of places for animation. There was story time today, which Max lasted all of 2 minutes, and a craft which we didn't get to. Living 5 minutes away means you can go for 45 minutes and it's not that big a deal.



This afternoon noon I got to take a little nap after doing a few quick groceries. And then my adventure started. Meredith, Julie and I went for a ski. Not just any ski. We packed a dinner, and skied up to a little cabin in the Gatineaus. It was awesome. The ski in was a nice gradual up hill. Took about 45 minutes. The cabin has a bunch of picnic tables and a couple of wood stoves. People had been in and out all day, so the stoves were nicely stoked and the cabin was cozy. One thing we need to remember the next time (because there definitely will be a next time) is to bring candles. Thank goodness Mere had a head lamp or we would have eaten in complete darkness. Cabin in the woods = no electricity. We should have thought of that. And the ski back in the dark was interesting. It was so much fun. I brought wine, bread and cheese. Julie brought veggies, dip and sausage. Mere brought stew, in a skinny thermos. It went in, but we couldn't get it out. Next time we bring soup! The ski was just long enough to keep us warm, and not too long that we felt exhausted and dreaded the ski back. I am really looking forward to the next time. Hopefully it will be soon.

Miscellaneously Max

Here's a bunch of miscellaneous things that Max has been up to lately.

• Sitting watching some football on Sunday, Max was yelling at me "Cookie!" I chose to ignore him. Then he wanted to sit on my lap, facing me. I was watching the game, and basically ignore his yelling at me. Max then took my face in his hands, turned it towards his face, looked right in my eyes and said: "Mama, yook (look), cookie." It was the funniest thing. Every time I turned my face he did the same thing. Marty and I were in absolute hysterics. It deserved at least a cracker.
• Marty covers his mouth, burps and says "Pardon me." Max covers his mouth, blows out and says "I bewrp." Sometimes he says the same when he farts.
  
• Max likes to empty one of his baskets in his room, sit in it then say "Mommy, row row boat." Which decoded means, Mommy, lets sing Row row row your boat.
• Max is starting to pretend things. Tonight in the bath he pretended to eat ice cream.
• If the phone rings, Max points to it and says "Hewwow?"
  

Christmas pictures

Here are a couple of pictures from the holidays. They went too fast and I wish I had a few days off work to get the house cleaned, sleep and get organized. Oh well.

At Olga and Jonathan's on Christmas Eve.

Max and Duncan at Meredith and Ron's for Christmas Eve dinner.

Max's first look at his new tool bench on Christmas morning.

Max "fixing" Makka Pakka.

All strapped in and ready to go to Nana and Opa's.

New trucks!

Mr. Potato Head is awesome!

Max sitting at the kids table at Dave and Andra's.

Max playing with his new doctor set with Mary-Francis.

Max playing Play-Doh with his best buddy Mitchell.

Christmas baking

OK, I'm going to be straight up here. I don't bake. The only thing I do are chocolate chip cookies on occasion and brownies (which I can easily say kick ass); occasion doesn't mean "special." It just means when the mood swings me and that ain't too often.

So what did I do for Christmas baking? I bought an order from Karen. And I am not even playing up the fact that I could pass them off as my own. I am full fledge admitting, I didn't do it. People who know me would know anyway.

But what about all the fun that my friends have with their kids, decorating Christmas cookies? Most of my friends (if not all) have their kids help out in the kitchen with various cooking tasks. I knew that I wanted to have fun with Max in this way too, but always thoughts he wasn't old enough yet. Until I saw Erin's pictures of her cooking with Matthew, who is only a few weeks younger than Max. I got inspired.

Again, since I am not the big baker, I decided that we would decorate some rice crispy squares. Stockings actually (I got suckered into buying the real Rice Krispies that came with a little Christmas stocking mold). Max seemed to really enjoy himself and didn't think eating them was a priority.

I enjoyed this so much that I thought I would take it another step further on Sunday. I bought one of those ginger bread house kits (can't even fathom how make this from scratch!). I figured if he liked putting sprinkles on rice crispy stockings, he would love putting candy on the ginger bread house. It didn't quite go as well as I hoped. It would seem that the devil infiltrated Max's body during his afternoon nap, and he was down right miserable. We did manage to have a few pleasant moments though.

That was before Christmas. Now it's after Christmas. We just got home from the Detto family Christmas, Max is down and I am going to cuddle with the cats. Hopefully I can get a full Christmas synopsis up before the New Year. Oh, wait, that's Thursday isn't it? Well I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you then.

'Tis the Season

Wishing you and yours the best of the holidays season from me and mine.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Sad Santa

I don't know who looks more sad, Maxim or Santa. I think we need to do a redo.

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!