Cookies and Crayons

We are back from our first vacation as a little family. It’s amazing how different it was from our vacation last year. Fortunately, we picked a beach vacation this time so we could better accommodate naps. It worked out really well. We did take one trip out to Chichen Itza and Dougie was able to nap on the bus and in his stroller so even that worked well.

Unfortunately, our camera got stolen so we don’t have all our pictures but we have some.

Mummy and Dougie with Flamingos

Daddy and Dougie at Chichen Itza

Family at the Sink Hole

Dougie’s First Trip to the Beach

All in all, we had a great time. We certainly didn’t want to come back.

Today is Womb Day! I’m not sure where the term came from but a friend of mine online celebrated it and it seemed so great, we thought we would too. Womb Day is the day Dougie has been out in the world for as long as I carried him. 39 weeks.

In celebration, Dougie slept 8.5 straight hours last night.

We set up a playroom a while ago. It’s worked really well to give Dougie a safe place to play. We even installed a baby gate though he was well away from being mobile enough to need it. He’s finally shown that it was worth installing. One of his favorite activities is to come to the gate and stand up. Poor little guy looks like he’s in jail.

One extra picture of Dougie and dad. They match!

Grandma and Grandpa McCall have gone back to Canada. We had a great visit with them.

Since they left, Dougie has been working on all sorts of milestones. He can now officially crawl. It sort of sneaked up on us. He was doing something that looked a bit like crawling but it wasn’t quite close enough. Then all of a sudden, he started. He doesn’t seem to like doing it that much but it gets him where he wants to go. He still loves standing. He basically crawls over to something so he can pull up on it and stand.

He’ll use anything to stand

It’s amazing the mischief you can get into once you can move around

We’ve officially started a new swimming class (our last class was last week). Initially, we had the class on Tuesday mornings at 9:15. We thought it would be a good time since it was before Dougie’s first nap and he wouldn’t be too tired yet. We were wrong. He was way over tired and miserable the entire class. So, we moved it to Saturdays at 11:15. We had our first class at that time today and it was so much better.

The best part is that Daddy can come watch the classes and take pictures. Our new teacher is quite nice as well. We only had 2 kids in class today so we got a lot of attention.

This was Mom and Dad’s first trip to Texas since Uncle Rudy and Auntie Carol got their new place. So, we packed up the car and took a trip up to Denton to see it. This time, we remembered our camera so we actually got some pictures of everyone.

Dougie with Uncle Rudy, Auntie Carol and “cousin” Hannah

Auntie Carol even managed to pull together a wonderful meal that met all of my strange diet restrictions. We had a fabulous time and Mom and Dad really liked the community they are living in.

Tuesday, Uncle Rudy and Auntie Carol made the trek down to see us. We had a great time just sitting around, chatting and watching Dougie. Dad had already gone back to Toronto but we had a great time anyway. Of course, we took more pictures.

Dougie with Grandma and Great Auntie Carol

Dougie with Great Uncle Rudy and Grandma

Auntie Carol is so funny!

And another teeth shot

It was so nice to have them visit. Dougie sure enjoyed hanging out with them and can’t wait to see them again (us too)!

Grandma and Grandpa McCall are back for a visit. Dougie sure appreciates them braving the temperatures of a Texas August but with tropical storms hitting and a hurricane coming up the coast, it must be love.

They arrived mid-day today so we had the afternoon to do a bit of shopping and then spend the afternoon playing with Dougie. He just learned to sit himself from a crawling position so it was fun for them to see some new tricks.

Of course, we have some pictures from today.

Grandpa and Dougie playing on the floor

Grandma and Grandpa playing with Dougie

Grandpa is as fun to stand with as the diaper box

Dougie LOVES to stand. Given an option, he will almost always opt to stand. He can pull himself up and once he’s up, he can remain there for quite a while. He also cruising now. He’ll pull up and then walk around whatever he is using for support. Sometimes, he’ll even let go to see how long he can stand — not long BTW. I wanted to share some more pictures of him standing today.

(notice the two little teeth on the bottom)

He’s turning into such a little man.

Last weekend, the three of us travelled up to Sault Ste Marie to introduce Dougie around to some of his relatives. It was a bit of a trek to get up there — Kim and Dougie met me in in Lansing, MI (she flew into Detroit, and I drove across from Chicago) and then we made the big car trip up through Michigan, across the Mackinac Bridge, and to the Soo. Dougie did OK in the car — slept for a long while, needed to take a break every now and then at a rest stop. We played some Canadian folk tunes for him on the way up, just to get him in the mood.

Although we weren’t able to stay very long (only for the weekend), we had a fantastic time up there. The highlight of the trip was introducing Dougie to his great-grandmother Baba. Her verdict — Dougie is “very strong”!

Uncle Dan and Auntie Judy had us over to their house for dinner, and we got a chance to say hello to my cousin Cathie (check out the family resemblance in the eyes!) …

… and her daughter Danica (Dougie’s second cousin):

We also took a trek out to camp — last time I was there, Dan and Judy had just started a big set of renovations — now it’s all done, and it looks great! (Way bigger and more modern than I remember back when I was young — especially the kitchen) Baba made it out to camp for the first time this year, and we also got to see John, Vicki, Stephanie and Danica. Some assorted pictures from the day:

Uncle John and Dougie:

Uncle John, Baba and Dougie:

My cousin Stephanie and Dougie:

Uncle Dan, Aunt Judy, Dougie and me:

Uncle John and Dougie in the hammock at camp:

Me, Kim and Dougie, with a nice view of the St. Mary’s River:

Baba, Aunt Vicki, and Dougie:

Full set of photos is available at Soo Trip August 2007.
Thanks to everyone for a fun time, especially to Uncle Dan and Aunt Judy for playing host!

We are up to 2! Dougie isn’t loving this process but he’s doing surprisingly well.

My passport expired this month. When I called the consulate to see how long getting a new passport would take, they said 3-5 months. I certainly didn’t have that sort of time. They indicated that if I went up to Canada, I could get it renewed more quickly. So, that’s what we did. We had a trip planned to visit the Sault clan but I added a day on so I could get my passport. We were in and out the same day with a new passport in hand.

As an added bonus, my mother drove up to spend the day with Dougie and me. It was great to have her there to help pass the time while we waited for the passport. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Grandma trying to wake Dougie up for our day

Play time at a park by the river

Mum giving Dougie some pushes

Dougie loves swinging

Cooling off at the mall with Grandma